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President Obama’s announcement Friday that his administration will stop deporting eligible undocumented people under the age of 30 is certain to provide fodder for more election-season debates over immigration. Politics aside, however, the new policy will certainly make waves in early learning centers, schools and social services agencies, where children and young parents affected by the new policy are likely to interact with schools and government programs in new ways. Under the new policy, undocumented residents under 30 will be allowed to reside in the United States if they meet a set of criteria, such as having arrived in the United States before the age of 16 or having either a high school diploma, GED or serving in the military. The policy does not provide a path to citizenship, like many Democrat versions of the DREAM Act have in the past. Below, three of our biggest questions on what’s to come: 1) Will parents with children in states with strict immigration laws actually feel more protected? Will those states bend to meet the spirit of the federal policy? The administration is emphasizing that it wants to focus resources on deporting people that pose a “national security or public safety risk,” and less on deporting as many illegal immigrants as possible, regardless of their contributions to society. But the new policy, which the Associated Press estimates will affect up to 800,000 young people, doesn’t necessarily change the mood in states such as Alabama, where a law passed last year (and currently being challenged by the Obama administration in the 11th circuit U.S. Court of Appeals) requires children to document their immigration status when they enroll in school. Many believe that the law is intimidating families with more than one undocumented member, and even preventing them from sending their children to school — despite the fact that undocumented children have the right to a public education in the U.S. 2) Will the new policy have any effect on families’ enrollment in home visiting programs or on children’s enrollment in child care and pre-K programs? Parents who reside in the United States illegally have been known anecdotally to shy away from enrolling in home visiting programs and/or state-funded pre-K for fear that government officials could find out the immigration status of the family. It’s possible, then, that young immigrant parents in good standing with the government will be more inclined to enroll in such programs in the future. 3) How many parents with young children, illegal or legal, will be affected? Many parents under 30 are now eligible to stay in the United States, but there is a limit to how helpful this will be: For example, under the new policy, an undocumented 8-year old with parents over 30 still risks losing his or her parents due to deportation. Ensuring that immigrant children grow up without their parents being deported isn’t the explicit goal of the new policy. It’s something to keep in mind, however, as these policies evolve and change in the future. If providing immigrant children with solid education and life opportunities and focusing immigration enforcement on those who pose security and public safety risks is the ultimate goal, then policies that help keep families together while kids are growing up is a logical next step, though it’s unlikely we’ll see much further action on this front until Congress takes up the long-overdue issue of comprehensive immigration reform. UPDATE 6/19: The Foundation for Child Development (full disclosure: one of our funders) released a report this morning that reiterates why this issue should carry more weight: Children in Immigrant Families provides a detailed assessment of trends in the well-being of the one in four children who are the sons and daughters of immigrants.

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Do you ever feel like no matter what you do to get healthier or fit that you don’t seem to succeed? Have you tried every diet out there, only to find the restrictions too difficult to manage? Have you attempted in earnest to maintain a fitness program only to find that, despite your best efforts, doing a consistent routine is too difficult to manage? With all these starts and stops over years and decades, you may think: What’s the point of trying? Or maybe you’ve given up and resolved to just accept poor health as part of your life. Well, the inability to “stick with it” has many facets, some of which you may not be able to control. In fact, research shows that the self-control needed to succeed in many of these cases may be a limited resource. In 2006, Michael Inzlicht and colleagues at the University of Toronto Scarborough studied what happens in the brain when humans try to abstain from something they want. That is, when we try to use willpower to refrain from acting on our urges to do something specific. Failure to control one’s behavior is found in all aspects of life. It includes acting out, saying mean things, stealing and drug abuse. It also encompasses not doing things that are good for you like walking, eating healthy and getting plenty of rest. Inzlicht set up a study, published in the journal Psychological Science, which tested participants’ self-control over time. Participants were first asked to do something to deplete their “store” of willpower or behavioral control and then see how much they had left for another, unrelated task. First, participants watched an emotionally upsetting movie and were asked to suppress their emotions and try not to cry during especially difficult scenes. Following this, participants completed what is called a Stroop task. Stroop is a psychological test that measures the reaction time needed to name colors that are printed in a color not associated with the color word. In other words, saying “green” when the word “green” was printed in the color red. This task may seem simple. While this seems simple, if you try it you will see how much self-control it takes not to blurt out the printed color and to have to suppress that urge and replace it with a correct response. During both the watching of the film and the Stroop task, participants’ brain activity was measured by an EEG (electroencephalography) device. This records the electrical activity on the scalp to measure voltage changes within the brain’s neurons. What the researchers discovered was intriguing. When participants had to restrain themselves and exert quite a bit of self-control (when not expressing emotions or when trying to say the names of colors), there was an increase of brain activity in the part of the brain’s frontal lobe known as the anterior cingulate cortex. This is the region of the brain involved in autonomic functions, like regulating blood pressure and heart rate, as well as rational cognitive functions, such as reward anticipation, decision-making and emotion. The interesting finding in this study is that there was less frontal lobe activity with the Stroop task after watching the gut-wrenching film. In other words, when a fair amount of self-control was previously used on one task, the next time it was needed there was less available for use. These findings suggest that people may not have as much willpower or control over their behavior as time progresses and demands are placed on them to exert such control. It is pretty discouraging to think that the human brain is capable only of providing a strong degree of self-control during a given time period. That might seem to leave most of us with little hope for change. Think about it: If we use self-control to not eat a sticky bun with breakfast and force ourselves to take that morning jog, then we will have less available control over our behavior when it comes to making lunch and dinner choices, or passing on the second round of drinks, or going to the gym or to yoga class. Is it any wonder why so many fail at diets and exercise routines time and time again? Well, this needn’t be the case and more information has recently been published on this issue. A study again headed by Inzlicht, this time with colleague Brandon Schmeichel of Texas A&M University, appeared in the September issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. In this further research, Inzlicht now finds that the “limited resource” model of self-control is too narrow and does not explain the exceptions, the times when self-control is in place and one is able to maintain the level necessary to effect positive change by making repeated good choices. It is not a “use it or lose it” situation as previously thought, but more closely tied to motivation, this study shows. While previous research apparently pointed to a decrease in the amount of willpower available with each passing task requiring some form of self-control, this conclusion may be flawed because of the generic activity used in the studies. In other words, researchers had set up lab situations wherein subjects had no strong motivation influencing their behavior. The more recent study indicates that mood, personal beliefs, positive reinforcement and motivation play a big role in exerting willpower. Inzlicht and Schmeichel propose that “engaging in self-control by definition, is hard work; it involved deliberation, attention, and vigilance.” It’s not the case that resisting an extra piece of bacon at breakfast uses up our daily store of willpower, making self-control more difficult later in the day when needed. Rather, it seems that the motivation to exert our willpower later in the day seems less motivating. At that later time, we tend to want to reward ourselves for hard work done. In the end, as with everything else affecting health and well-being, you can divide your circumstances into things you can do to help reach your goals and things beyond your control. In the case of self-control, you need long-term behavior modification for success. My experience has shown that trying to restrict too many things is what leads to failure. For example, trying to set new exercise goals, diet routines and sleep patterns all at the same time creates an overwhelming struggle. Instead, making one change for a few weeks before adding another seems to allow the brain and behaviors to reshape and recondition to the new activity. Repetition over time turns a self-controlled behavior into a habit that then keeps taking place on autopilot. Once the first piece of the healthy behavior is under new control, add the second piece, and so on. In this way, you don’t run out of your willpower stores, you don’t deplete your motivation and you learn new healthier behaviors along the way. Without behavior modification, all programs for change will fail. Think about times you have tried to make positive changes in your life and have fallen short or failed. Then think about how many things you were trying to control for at that time. Also consider the moments when you were on the path to success but allowed yourself an indulgence for work well done, and that indulgence set you back in your efforts. If you analyze in light of the research on self-control, you can find the way forward. It reminds me of the old maxim: “Inch by inch, life is a cinch; yard by yard, it’s very hard.” Which leads to another appropriate maxim: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Slow down your efforts to be healthier into manageable steps, and over time new behaviors will arise that make self-control easier overall and wellness restoration an achievable goal.

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You wouldn’t guess that a bit of green slime could do so much. But from from food to fuel, PetroAlgae, Inc. seems to have thought of everything. This Florida-based renewable energy company has developed a technology in which algae and other microorganisms produce fuel to feed cars, animals, and even humans...and say they can do it cheaper than anyone else. With the addition of a few basic nutrients, algae gather most of their energy from the sun. The result is a protein and carbohydrate-rich slime that can be converted to a variety of products. First, the protein is extracted and processed into animal feed or blended into human food products. PetroAlgae actually lists one of its products as “meal replacer”, conjuring images of our new utopian future in which chewing is obsolete. After the protein extraction, what remains is a “lipid-carbohydrate mash”. PetroAlgae claims that this material can be sent directly to a petroleum refinery and processed into diesel, gas, or jet fuel without the need to retro-fit any of the refinery’s conventional equipment. Algae cultivation requires very little square-footage relative to conventional crops, can be grown on non-arable land, and consumes up to twice its weight in carbon dioxide as it grows. In addition to algae, PetroAlgae draws from a large pool of microorganisms including diatoms, cyanobacteria, and micro-angiosperms (tiny flowering plants). While exact species remain unnamed, the company conscientiously notes that they use only species indigenous to the region in which a production facility will be installed. They have already begun licensing their technology to commercial facilities in Asia, and are poised to complete contracts with the U.S. and several European countries this year. Each licensee is promised the potential to produce 1.5 million barrels of transportation fuel per year, or the equivalent of 1.4 billion miles for a single truck. If PetroAlgae’s assertions hold true, the cost of fuel production is essentially paid for by the revenue from food and feed products, meaning that their microbe-derived fuels will remain competitive with fossil fuels, at any price. PetroAlgae is in the business of licensing its technology rather than building the algae plants itself. It already has deals with algae farms in India and China and is currently working on deals in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Via BioFuels Digest written by Fred, July 14, 2009 written by OakleighVermont solargroupies, July 14, 2009 written by Andrew, July 15, 2009 written by Sri Sadika, July 16, 2009 written by Fred, July 31, 2009 |< Prev||Next >|

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.NET Type Design Guidelines |Visual C# Tutorials| |.NET Framework Tutorials| .NET Type Design Guidelines |© 2006 Microsoft Corp.| |This tutorial—.NET Type Design Guidelines—is from Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries, by Krzysztof Cwalina, Brad Abrams. Copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corp.. All rights reserved. This article is reproduced by permission. This tutorial has been edited especially for C# Online.NET. Read the book review!| (This article was written and annotated by members of the Microsoft Common Language Runtime (CLR) and .NET teams and other experts.) Type Design Guidelines in .NET From the CLR perspective, there are only two categories of types—reference types and value types—but for the purpose of framework design discussion we divide types into more logical groups, each with its own specific design rules. Figure 4-1 shows these logical groups. Classes are the general case of reference types. They make up the bulk of types in the majority of frameworks. Classes owe their popularity to the rich set of object-oriented features they support and to their general applicability. Base classes and abstract classes are special logical groups related to extensibility. Extensibility and base classes are covered in Chapter 6. Interfaces are types that can be implemented both by reference types and value types. This allows them to serve as roots of polymorphic hierarchies of reference types and value types. In addition, interfaces can be used to simulate multiple inheritance, which is not natively supported by the CLR. Structs are the general case of value types and should be reserved for small, simple types, similar to language primitives. Enums are a special case of value types used to define short sets of values, such as days of the week, console colors, and so on. Static classes are types intended as containers for static members. They are commonly used to provide shortcuts to other operations. Delegates, exceptions, attributes, arrays, and collections are all special cases of reference types intended for specific uses, and guidelines for their design and usage are discussed elsewhere in this book. - DO ensure that each type is a well-defined set of related members, not just a random collection of unrelated functionality. - It is important that a type can be described in one simple sentence. A good definition should also rule out functionality that is only tangentially related. |If you have ever managed a team of people you know that they don't do well without a crisp set of responsibilities. Well, types work the same way. I have noticed that types without a firm and focused scope tend to be magnets for more random functionality, which, over time, make a small problem a lot worse. It becomes more difficult to justify why the next member with even more random functionality does not belong in the type. As the focus of the members in a type blurs, the developer's ability to predict where to find a given functionality is impaired, and therefore so is productivity.| |Good types are like good diagrams: What has been omitted is as important to clarity and usability as what has been included. Every additional member you add to a type starts at a net negative value and only by proven usefulness does it go from there to positive. If you add too much in an attempt to make the type more useful to some, you are just as likely to make the type useless to everyone.| | When I was learning OOP back in the early 1980s, I was taught a mantra that I still honor today: If things get too complicated, make more types. Sometimes, I find that I am thinking really hard trying to define a good set of methods for a type. When I start to feel that I'm spending too much time on this or when things just don't seem to fit together well, I remember my mantra and I define more, smaller types where each type has well-defined functionality. This has worked extremely well for me over the years. On the flip side, sometimes types do end up being dumping grounds for various loosely related functions. The .NET Framework offers several types like this, such as |

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Principles of Finance/Section 1/Chapter 6/Corp/WACC When valuing a new venture by a company, it is necessary to use an appropriate discount rate. However, since corporations can be structured very differently, it is important to reflect that in the respective costs of capital. Let's say there are two similar companies in the same industry. Company A is financed 90% by equity (that is, stock) and 10% by debt (long term corporate bonds). Company B is financed by 25% equity, and 75% debt. These two companies would have to be valued according to their respective risk levels and required returns. One common way to determine the cost of capital is to use the Weighted Average Cost of Capital, or WACC. In this formula, V is equal to the value of the firm, or Debt (D) plus Equity (E) Example: AKL corporation is currently financed with $1,000,000 of 7% bonds, and $2,000,000 of common stock. The stock has a beta of 1.5, and the risk free rate is 4%, and the market risk premium is 3.5%. The marginal tax rate for a corporation of AKL's size is 35%. What is AKL's WACC? The first thing we must do in this problem is determine the required rate on equity (Re) for AKL. We can plug the Beta given and the risk free rate into the CAPM as follows: Now, we have all of the necessary information to solve for WACC: Last modified on 18 July 2009, at 09:23

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Benefits of XQuery The principal benefits of XQuery are: - Expressiveness - XQuery can query many different data structures and its recursive nature makes it ideal for querying tree and graph structures - Brevity - XQuery statements are shorter than similar SQL or XSLT programs - Flexibility - XQuery can query both hierarchical and tabular data - Consistency - XQuery has a consistent syntax and can be used with other XML standards such as XML Schema datatypes XQuery is frequently compared with two other languages, SQL and XSLT, but has a number of advantages over these. Advantages over SQL Unlike SQL, XQuery returns not just tables but arbitrary tree structures. This allows XQuery to directly create XHTML structures that can be used in web pages. XQuery is for XML-based object databases, and object databases are much more flexible and powerful than databases which store in purely tabular format. Unlike XSLT, XQuery can be learned by anyone familiar with SQL. Many of the constructs are very similar such as: - Ordering Results: Both XQuery and SQL add an order byclause to the query. - Selecting Distinct Values: Both XQuery and SQL have easy ways to select distinct values from a result set - Restricting Rows: Both XQuery and SQL have a WHERE X=Y clause that can be added to an XQuery Another big advantage is that XQuery is essentially the native query language of the World Wide Web. One can query actual web pages with XQuery, but not SQL. Even if one uses SQL-based databases to store HTML/XHTML pages or fragments of such pages, one will miss many of the advantages of XQuery's simple tag/attribute search (which is akin to searching for column names within column names). Advantages over XSLT Unlike XSLT, XQuery can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with SQL. XSLT has many patterns that are unfamiliar to many procedural software developers. Also, whereas XSLT is good for using as a static means to convert one type of document to another, for example RSS to HTML, XQuery is a much more dynamic querying tool, useful for pulling out sections of data from large documents and/or large number of documents. The Debate about XQuery vs. XSLT for Document Transformation There has been a debate of sorts about the merits of the two languages for transforming XML: XSLT and XQuery. A common misconception is that "XQuery is best for querying or selecting XML, and XSLT is best for transforming it." In reality, both methods are capable of transforming XML. Despite XSLT's longer history and larger install base, the "XQuery typeswitch" method of transforming XML provides numerous advantages. Most people who need to transform XML hear that they need to learn a language called XSLT. XSLT, whose first version was published by the W3C in 1999, was a huge innovation for its time and, indeed, remains dominant. It was one of the very first languages dedicated to transforming XML documents, and it was the first domain-specific language (DSL) to use advanced theories from the world of functional programming to create very reliable, side-effect free transformations. Many XML developers still feel strong indebted to this groundbreaking language, since it helped them see a new model of software development: one focused around the transformation of models and empowering them to fuse both the requirements and documentation of a transformation routing into a single, modular program. On the other hand, learning XSLT requires overcoming a very substantial learning curve. XSLT's difficulty is due, in part, to one of the key design decisions by its architects: to express the transformation rules using XML itself, rather than creating a brand new syntax and grammar for storing the transformation rules. XSLT's unique approach to transformation rules also contributes to the steepness of the learning curve. The learning curve can be overcome, but it is fair to say that this learning curve has created a opening for an alternative approach. XQuery has filled this demand for an alternative among a growing community of users: they find XQuery has a lower learning curve, it meets their needs for transforming XML, and, together with XQuery's other advantages, it has become a compelling "all-in-one" language. Like XSLT, XQuery was created by the W3C to handle XML. But instead of expressing the language in XML syntax, the architects of XQuery chose a new syntax that would be more familiar to users of server-side scripting languages such as PHP, Perl, or Python. XQuery was designed to be similar to users of relational database query languages such as SQL, while still remaining true to functional programming practices. Despite its relative youth (XQuery 1.0 was only released in 2007 when XSLT had already reached its version 2.0), XQuery was born remarkably mature. XML servers like eXist-db and MarkLogic were already using XQuery as their language for querying XML and performing web server operations (obviating the need for learning PHP, Perl, or Python). So, in the face of the XSLT community's contention that "XSLT is best for transforming documents and XQuery is best for querying databases", this community of users was surprised to find that XQuery has entirely replaced their need for XSLT. They have come to argue unabashedly that they prefer XQuery for this purpose. How does XQuery accomplish the task of transforming XML? The primary technique in XQuery for transforming XML is a little-known expression added by the authors of XQuery, called "typeswitch." Although it is quite simple, typeswitch enables XQuery to perform nearly the full set of transformations that XSLT does. A typeswitch expression quickly looks at a node's type, and depending on the node's type, performs the operation you specify for that type of node. What this means is that each distinct element of a document can have its own rule, and these rules can be stored in modular XQuery functions. This humble addition to the XQuery language allows developers to transform documents with complex content and unpredictable order - something commonly believed to be best reserved for the domain of XSLT. Despite the differences in syntax and approach to transformation, a growing community has actually come to see the XQuery typeswitch expression as a valid, even superior, way to store their document transformation logic. By structuring a set of XQuery functions around the typeswitch expression, you can achieve the same result as XSLT-style transforms while retaining the benefits of XQuery: ease of learning and integration with native XML databases. Even more important for those users of native XML databases, the availability of typeswitch means that they only need to learn a single language for their database queries, web server operations, and document transformations. These XQuery typeswitch routines have proved easy to build, test, and maintain - some believe easier than XSLT. XQuery typeswitch has given these users a high degree of agility, allowing them to master XQuery fully rather than splitting their time and attention between XQuery and XSLT. That said, there is still a large body of legacy XSLT transforms that work well, and there are XSLT developers who see little benefit from transitioning to a typeswitch-style XQuery. Both are valid approaches to document transformation. A natural tension has arisen between the proponents of XQuery typeswitch and XSLT, each promoting what they are most comfortable with and believe to be superior. In practice you might be best served by trying both techniques and determining what style is right for you and your organization. Without presuming a background or interest in XSLT, this article and its companion article help you to understand the key patterns for using XQuery typeswitch for your XML transformation needs.

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|Ban Chao's names:| |Given name||Style name| |Pinyin||Bān Chāo||Zhòng Shēng| |Wade-Giles||Pan Ch'ao||Chung Sheng| Ban Chao (Chinese: 班超; Wade-Giles: Pan Ch'ao, 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng (仲 升), was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi, and the younger brother of the famous historian, Ban Gu (Chinese: 班固; Wade–Giles: Pan Ku, (32–92 CE) who, with his father Ban Biao, and sister, Ban Zhao, wrote the famous Hanshu, or 'History of the Former Han Dynasty'. Ban Chao was a general and cavalry commander in charge of the administration of the "Western Regions" (Central Asia) during the Eastern Han dynasty. He repelled the Xiongnu and secured Chinese control over the Tarim Basin region, and was awarded the title of 'Protector General of the Western Regions'. He fought for 31 years. Control of the Tarim Basin Ban Chao, like his predecessors Huo Qubing and Wei Qing from the Former Han Dynasty before him, was effective at expelling the Xiongnu from the Tarim Basin, and brought the various people of the Western Regions under Chinese rule during the second half of the 1st century CE, helping to open and secure the trade routes to the west. He was generally outnumbered, but skillfully played on the divisions among his opponents. The kingdoms of Loulan, Khotan and Kashgar came under Chinese rule. Ban Chao was recalled to Luoyang, but then sent again to the Western Region area four years later, during the reign of the new emperor Han Zhangdi. He obtained the military help of the Kushan Empire in 84 in repelling the Kangju who were trying to support the rebellion of the king of Kashgar, and the next year in his attack on Turpan, in the eastern Tarim Basin. Ban Chao ultimately brought the whole of the Tarim Basin under Chinese control. In recognition for their support to the Chinese, the Kushans (referred to as Da Yuezhi in Chinese sources) requested, but were denied, a Han princess, even though they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 90 CE with a force of 70,000, but, exhausted by the expedition, were finally turned back by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire. (Later, during the Yuanchu period, 114-120 CE, the Kushans sent a military force to install Chenpan, who had been a hostage among them, as king of Kashgar). In 91 CE, Ban Chao finally succeeded in pacifying the Western Regions and was awarded the title of Protector General and stationed at Qiuci (Kucha). A Wuji Colonel was re-established and, commanding five hundred soldiers, stationed in the Kingdom of Nearer Jushi, within the walls of Gaochang, 29 kilometres southeast of Turfan. In 94 CE, Chao proceeded to again attack and defeat Yanqi [Karashahr]. Subsequently, more than fifty kingdoms presented hostages, and submitted to the Interior. In 97 CE Ban Chao sent an envoy, Gan Ying, who reached the Persian Gulf and left the first recorded Chinese account of Europe. Some modern authors have even claimed that Ban Chao advanced to the Caspian Sea, however, this interpretation has been criticized as a misreading. In 102 CE Ban Chao was retired as Protector General of the Western Regions due to age and ill health, and returned to the capital Luoyang at the age of 70, but the following month died there in the 9th month of the 14th Yongyuan year (30th Sept. to 28th Oct., 102). See: Hou Hanshu, chap 77 (sometimes given as chap. 107). Following his death, the power of the Xiongnu in the Western Territories increased again, and subsequent Chinese emperors were never to reach so far to the west. A family of historians Ban Chao also belonged to a family of historians. His father was Ban Biao (3-54 CE) who started the History of the Western Han Dynasty (Hanshu; The Book of Han) in 36, which was completed by his son Ban Gu (32-92) and his daughter Ban Zhao (Ban Chao's brother and sister). Ban Chao was probably the key source for the cultural and socio-economic data on the Western Regions contained in the Hanshu. Ban Chao's youngest son Ban Yong (班勇 Bān Yŏng) participated in military campaigns with his father and continued to have a central military role in the Tarim Basin into the 120s. Ban Chao's family - Ban Biao (班彪; 3-54; father) Famous quotes - "If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger's cub?" (不入虎穴，不得虎子) - "Clear water can not harbor big fish, clean politics (or strict enforcement of regulations) can not foster harmony among the general public" (水清無大魚，察政不得下和) Ban Chao in idioms - See four-character idiom: - "Throw away your writing brush and join the military!" (投筆從戎) based on his words "A brave man has no other plan but to follow Fu and Zhang Qian's footsteps and do something and become somebody in a foreign land. How can I waste my life on writing? (大丈夫無他志略，猶當效傅介子、張騫立功異域，以取封侯，安能久事筆硯間乎？) in Hou Hanshu. - "Clear water harbors no fish." (水清無魚) Ban Chao of today See also - Hill (2009), p. 43. - Hill (2009), p. 5. - Hill (2009), p. 5. - Hill (2009), p. 5. - Hill. (2009), p. 55. - J. Oliver Thomson, A History of Ancient Geography, Cambridge 1948, p.311. Thomson cites Richthofen, China, 1877, I, 469 and some other authors in support of the claim that Ban Chao marched to the Caspian, and Yule/Cordier, Cathay and the way thither, 1916 p.40 (p.40f in vol.I of the 2005 edition by Asian Educational Services), Chavannes, Seidenstrassen, p.8, and Teggart, Rome and China as references for such claims being erroneous. - Chavannes (1906), p. 243. - Hill (2009), p. xv. - Chavannes, Édouard (1906). "Trois Généraux Chinois de la dynastie des Han Orientaux. Pan Tch’ao (32-102 p.C.); – son fils Pan Yong; – Leang K’in (112 p.C.). Chapitre LXXVII du Heou Han chou." T’oung pao 7, pp. 210-269. - Hill, John E. (2009). Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, First to Second Centuries CE. BookSurge. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1. - The Tarim Mummies. J.P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair (2000). Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05101-1

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In statistics, a confidence region is a multi-dimensional generalization of a confidence interval. It is a set of points in an n-dimensional space, often represented as an ellipsoid around a point which is an estimated solution to a problem, although other shapes can occur. The confidence region is calculated in such a way that if a set of measurements were repeated many times and a confidence region calculated in the same way on each set of measurements, then a certain percentage of the time, on average, (e.g. 95%) the confidence region would include the point representing the "true" values of the set of variables being estimated. However, unless certain assumptions about prior probabilities are made, it does not mean, when one confidence region has been calculated, that there is a 95% probability that the "true" values lie inside the region, since we do not assume any particular probability distribution of the "true" values and we may or may not have other information about where they are likely to lie. The case of independent, identically normally-distributed errors Suppose we have found a solution to the following overdetermined problem: where Y is an n-dimensional column vector containing observed values, X is an n-by-p matrix which can represent a physical model and which is assumed to be known exactly, is a column vector containing the p parameters which are to be estimated, and is an n-dimensional column vector of errors which are assumed to be independently distributed with normal distributions with zero mean and each having the same unknown variance . A joint 100(1 - ) % confidence region for the elements of is represented by the set of values of the vector b which satisfy the following inequality: where the variable b represents any point in the confidence region, p is the number of parameters, i.e. number of elements of the vector and s2 is an unbiased estimate of equal to The above inequality defines an ellipsoidal region in the p-dimensional Cartesian parameter space Rp. The centre of the ellipsoid is at the solution . According to Press et al., it's easier to plot the ellipsoid after doing singular value decomposition. The lengths of the axes of the ellipsoid are proportional to the reciprocals of the values on the diagonals of the diagonal matrix, and the directions of these axes are given by the rows of the 3rd matrix of the decomposition. Weighted and generalised least squares Now let us consider the more general case where some distinct elements of have known nonzero covariance (in other words, the errors in the observations are not independently distributed), and/or the standard deviations of the errors are not all equal. Suppose the covariance matrix of is , where V is an n-by-n nonsingular matrix which was equal to in the more specific case handled in the previous section, (where I is the identity matrix,) but here is allowed to have nonzero off-diagonal elements representing the covariance of pairs of individual observations, as well as not necessarily having all the diagonal elements equal. It is possible to find a nonsingular symmetric matrix P such that In effect, P is a square root of the covariance matrix V. The least-squares problem can then be transformed by left-multiplying each term by the inverse of P, forming the new problem formulation A joint confidence region for the parameters, i.e. for the elements of , is then bounded by the ellipsoid given by: Nonlinear problems Confidence regions can be defined for any probability distribution. The experimenter can choose the significance level and the shape of the region, and then the size of the region is determined by the probability distribution. A natural choice is to use as a boundary a set of points with constant (chi-squared) values. One approach is to use a linear approximation to the nonlinear model, which may be a close approximation in the vicinity of the solution, and then apply the analysis for a linear problem to find an approximate confidence region. This may be a reasonable approach if the confidence region is not very large and the second derivatives of the model are also not very large. See Uncertainty Quantification#Methodologies for forward uncertainty propagation for related concepts. See also - Draper and Smith (1981, p. 94) - Draper and Smith (1981, p. 108) - Draper and Smith (1981, p. 109) ||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (September 2011)| - Draper, N.R.; H. Smith (1981) . Applied Regression Analysis (2nd ed.). USA: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-02995-5. - Press, W.H.; S.A. Teukolsky, W.T. Vetterling, B.P. Flannery (1992) . Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing (2nd ed.). Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

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|Time period||c. 400–?| [a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols. The Gupta script (sometimes referred to as Gupta Brahmi Script or Late Brahmi Script ) was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material prosperity and great religious and scientific developments. The Gupta script was descended from Brahmi and gave rise to the Nagari, Sharada and Siddham scripts. These scripts in turn gave rise to many of the most important scripts of India, including Devanagari (the most common script used for writing Sanskrit since the 19th century), the Gurmukhi script for Punjabi Language and the Tibetan script. Origins and Classification The Gupta Script was descended from the Ashokan Brahmi script, and is a crucial link between Brahmi and most other scripts in the Brahmic family of Scripts, a family of alphasyllabaries or abugidas. This means that while only consonantal phonemes have distinct symbols, vowels are marked by diacritics, with /a/ being the implied pronunciation when the diacritic is not present. In fact, the Gupta script works in exactly the same manner as its predecessor and successors, and only the shapes and forms of the graphemes and diacritics are different. Through the 4th century, letters began to take more cursive and symmetric forms, as a result of the desire to write more quickly and aesthetically. This also meant that the script became more differentiated throughout the Empire, with regional variations which have been broadly classified into three, four or five categories; however, a definitive classification is not clear, because even on a single inscription, there may be variation in how a particular symbol is written. In this sense, the term Gupta script should be taken to mean any form of writing derived from the Gupta period, even though there may be a lack of uniformity in the scripts. The surviving inscriptions of the Gupta script are mostly found on iron or stone pillars, and on gold coins from the Gupta Dynasty. One of the most important was the Allahabad Prasasti. Composed by Harishena, the court poet and minister of Samudragupta, it describes Samudragupta’s reign, beginning from his ascension to the throne as the second king of the Gupta Dynasty and including his conquest of other kings. Gupta Numismatics The study of Gupta coins began with the discovery of a hoard of gold coins in 1783. Many other such hoards have since been discovered, the most important being the Bayana hoard, discovered in 1946, which contained more than 2000 gold coins issued by the Gupta Kings. Many of the Gupta Empire’s coins bear inscriptions of legends or mark historic events. In fact, it was one of the first Indian Empires to do so, probably as a result of its unprecedented prosperity. Almost every Gupta king issued coins, beginning with its first king, Chandragupta I. The scripts on the coin are also of a different nature compared to scripts on pillars, due to conservatism regarding the coins that were to be accepted as currency, which would have prevented regional variations in the script from manifesting on the coinage. Moreover, space was more limited especially on their silver coins, and thus many of the symbols are truncated or stunted. An example is the symbol for /ta/ and /na/, which were often simplified to vertical strokes. - (Spanish) The Gupta Alphabet - AncientScripts.com entry on the Gupta Script - The Shivlee Collection of Coins from the Gupta Dynasty In particular, note the limited space on the silver coins - An eastern variety of the post-Gupta script: Akṣara List of theManuscripts of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and Buddhapālita's Commentary, c. the 550-650, Collection of Sanskrit Mss. Formerly Preserved in the China Ethnic Library - Sharma, Ram. 'Brahmi Script' . Delhi: BR Publishing Corp, 2002 - Srivastava, Anupama. 'The Development of Imperial Gupta Brahmi Script' . New Delhi: Ramanand, 1998 - Fischer, Steven Roger. 'A History of Writing' . UK: Reaktion, 2004 - Bajpai, KD. 'Indian Numismatic Studies. ' New Delhi: Abhinav Publications 2004 - Carl Faulmann (1835–1894), Das Buch der Schrift, Druck und Verlag der Kaiserlichen Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1880

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Hundred Years' War (1369–89) ||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (May 2012)| |Hundred Years' War (1369-1389)| |Part of Hundred Years' War| The Battle of Najera | Kingdom of France Crown of Castile |Kingdom of England| |Commanders and leaders| | Charles V of France Charles VI of France | Edward III of England Richard II of England |Casualties and losses| The Caroline War was the second phase of the Hundred Years' War between France and England, following the Edwardian War. It was so-named after Charles V of France, who resumed the war after the Treaty of Brétigny (signed 1360). In May 1369, the Black Prince, son of Edward III of England, refused an illegal summons from the French king demanding he come to Paris and Charles responded by declaring war. He immediately set out to reverse the territorial losses imposed at Brétigny and he was largely successful in his lifetime. His successor, Charles VI, made peace with the son of the Black Prince, Richard II, in 1389. This truce was extended many times until the war was resumed in 1415. The reign of Charles V saw the English steadily pushed back. Although the English-backed claimant to the Duchy of Brittany, John of Montfort, defeated and killed the French claimant, Charles of Blois, at the Battle of Auray in 1364, John and his heirs eventually reconciled with the French kings. The War of the Breton Succession ended in favour of the English, but gave them no great advantage. In fact, the French received the benefit of improved generalship in the person of the Breton commander Bertrand du Guesclin, who, leaving Brittany, entered the service of Charles and became one of his most successful generals. At about the same time, a war in Spain occupied the Black Prince's efforts from 1366. The Castilian Civil War pitted Pedro the Cruel, whose daughters Constance and Isabella were married to the Black Prince's brothers John of Gaunt and Edmund of Langley, against Henry of Trastámara. In 1369, with the support of Du Guesclin, Henry deposed Pedro to become Henry II of Castile. He then went to war with England, which was allied with Portugal. Twenty years of war Just before New Year's Day 1370, the English seneschal of Poitou, John Chandos, was killed at the bridge at Lussac-les-Châteaux. The loss of this commander was a significant blow to the English. Jean III de Grailly, the captal de Buch, was also captured and locked up by Charles, who did not feel bound by "outdated" chivalry. Du Guesclin continued a series of careful campaigns, avoiding major English field forces, but capturing town after town, including Poitiers in 1372 and Bergerac in 1377. Du Guesclin, who according to chronicler Jean Froissart, had advised the French king not to engage the English in the field, was successful in these Fabian tactics, though in the only two major battles in which he fought, Auray (1364) and Nájera (1367), he was on the losing side and was captured but released for ransom. The English response to Du Guesclin was to launch a series of destructive military expeditions, called chevauchées, in an effort at total war to destroy the countryside and the productivity of the land. But Du Guesclin refused to be drawn into open battle. He continued his successful command of the French armies until his death in 1380. In 1372, English dominance at sea, which had been upheld since the Battle of Sluys, was reversed, at least in the Bay of Biscay, by the disastrous defeat by a joint Franco-Castilian fleet at the Battle of La Rochelle. This defeat undermined English seaborne trade and supplies and threatened their Gascon possessions. In 1376, the Black Prince died, and in April 1377, Edward III of England sent his Chancellor, Adam Houghton, to negotiate for peace with Charles, but when in June Edward himself died, Houghton was called home. The underaged Richard of Bordeaux succeeded to the throne of England. It was not until Richard had been deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke that the English, under the House of Lancaster, could forcefully revive their claim to the French throne. The war nonetheless continued until the first of a series of truces was signed in 1389. Charles V died in September 1380 and was succeeded by his underage son, Charles VI, who was placed under the joint regency of his three uncles. On his deathbed Charles V repealed the royal taxation necessary to fund the war effort. As the regents attempted to reimpose the taxation a popular revolt known as the Harelle broke out in Rouen. As tax collectors arrived at other French cities the revolt spread and violence broke out in Paris and most of France's other northern cities. The regency was forced to repeal the taxes to calm the situation. See also - Ormrod, W., (2002). Edward III. History Today. Vol. 52(6), 20 pgs. - Ayton, A., (1992). War and the English Gentry under Edward III. History Today. Vol. 42(3), 17 pgs. - Harari, Y., (2000). Stategy and Supply in Fourteenth Century Western European Invasion *Campaigns. Journal of Military History. Vol. 64(2), 37 pgs. - Saul, N., (1999). Richard II. History Today. Vol. 49(9), 5 pgs. - Jones, W.R., (1979). The English Church and Royal Propaganda during the Hundred Years' War. The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 19(1), 12 pages. - Perroy, E., (1951). The Hundred Years' War. New York, New York: Oxford University Press.

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Real form (Lie theory) In mathematics, the notion of a real form relates objects defined over the field of real and complex numbers. A real Lie algebra g0 is called a real form of a complex Lie algebra g if g is the complexification of g0: Real forms for Lie groups and algebraic groups Using the Lie correspondence between Lie groups and Lie algebras, the notion of a real form can be defined for Lie groups. In the case of linear algebraic groups, the notions of complexification and real form have a natural description in the language of algebraic geometry. Just as complex semisimple Lie algebras are classified by Dynkin diagrams, the real forms of a semisimple Lie algebra are classified by Satake diagrams, which are obtained from the Dynkin diagram of the complex form by labeling some vertices black (filled), and connecting some other vertices in pairs by arrows, according to certain rules. It is a basic fact in the structure theory of complex semisimple Lie algebras that every such algebra has two special real forms: one is the compact real form and corresponds to a compact Lie group under the Lie correspondence (its Satake diagram has all vertices blackened), and the other is the split real form and corresponds to a Lie group that is as far as possible from being compact (its Satake diagram has no vertices blackened and no arrows). In the case of the complex special linear group SL(n,C), the compact real form is the special unitary group SU(n) and the split real form is the real special linear group SL(n,R). The classification of real forms of semisimple Lie algebras was accomplished by Élie Cartan in the context of Riemannian symmetric spaces. In general, there may be more than two real forms. Suppose that g0 is a semisimple Lie algebra over the field of real numbers. By Cartan's criterion, the Killing form is nondegenerate, and can be diagonalized in a suitable basis with the diagonal entries +1 or -1. By Sylvester's law of inertia, the number of positive entries, or the positive index of intertia, is an invariant of the bilinear form, i.e. it does not depend on the choice of the diagonalizing basis. This is a number between 0 and the dimension of g which is an important invariant of the real Lie algebra, called its index. Split real form A real form g0 of a complex semisimple Lie algebra g is said to be split, or normal, if in each Cartan decomposition g0 = k0 ⊕ p0, the space p0 contains a maximal Abelian subalgebra of g0, i.e. its Cartan subalgebra. Élie Cartan proved that every complex semisimple Lie algebra g has a split real form, which is unique up to isomorphism. It has maximal index among all real forms. The split form corresponds to the Satake diagram with no vertices blackened and no arrows. Compact real form A real Lie algebra g0 is called compact if the Killing form is negative definite, i.e. the index of g0 is zero. In this case g0 = k0 is a compact Lie algebra. It is known that under the Lie correspondence, compact Lie algebras correspond to compact Lie groups. The compact form corresponds to the Satake diagram with all vertices blackened. Construction of the compact real form In general, the construction of the compact real form uses structure theory of semisimple Lie algebras. For classical Lie algebras there is a more explicit construction. Let g0 be a real Lie algebra of matrices over R that is closed under the transpose map, The complexification g of g0 decomposes into the direct sum of g0 and ig0. The real vector space of matrices is a subspace of the complex Lie algebra g that is closed under the commutators and consists of skew-hermitian matrices. It follows that u0 is a real Lie subalgebra of g, that its Killing form is negative definite (making it a compact Lie algebra), and that the complexification of u0 is g. Therefore, u0 is a compact form of g. See also - Helgason 1978, p. 426

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|— Neighborhood of Boston —| |Nickname(s): Southie, Sobo| |Annexed by Boston||1804| |Time zone||Eastern (UTC-5)| |Area code(s)||617 / 857| South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. One of America's oldest and most historic neighborhoods, South Boston is most popularly known as Southie and is today often called Sobo by the young urban professionals who now own the neighborhood. Although formerly known as a working class Irish-American neighborhood, it is also home to the Boston area's small but vibrant Polish and Lithuanian communities and its demographics are rapidly changing. South Boston contains Dorchester Heights, where George Washington forced British troops to evacuate during the American Revolutionary War. In addition to being home to some of the oldest housing projects in the United States, South Boston has also more recently seen property values join the highest in the city. Geographically, Dorchester Neck was an isthmus, a narrow strip of land that connected the mainland of the colonial settlement of Dorchester with Dorchester Heights. Landfill has since greatly increased the amount of land on the eastern side of the historical neck, and widened the connection to the mainland to the point that South Boston is no longer considered separate from it. South Boston gained an identity separate from Dorchester, but the two were annexed by Boston in pieces, from 1804 to 1870. It was here on Dorchester Heights, during the American Revolutionary War that George Washington placed his cannon and forced the evacuation of the British troops from Boston on March 17, 1776. The British evacuated Boston and Fort William and Mary for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fort William and Mary was replaced with a brick fortification known as Fort Independence. That fort was replaced by a granite fortification (bearing the same name) prior to the American Civil War, and still stands on Castle Island as a National Historic Landmark. Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Castle Island for five months in 1827 and was inspired to write The Cask of Amontillado based on an early Castle Island legend. In the 1990s, South Boston became the focus for a Supreme Court case on the right of gay and lesbian groups to participate in the Saint Patrick's Day (Evacuation Day) parade. The case was decided in favor of the parade's sponsors when the United States Supreme Court supported the South Boston Allied War Veterans' right to determine who can participate in their annual St. Patrick's Day parade. In 1996, local Dorchester author Paul Walkowski and Attorney William Connolly detailed the case in their book "From Trial Court to the United States Supreme Court". "Southie" is home to what is thought to be the first Vietnam veterans memorial in the United States. It predated the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., by 13 months. It was dedicated on September 13, 1981 and is located at Independence Square, which is more commonly called M Street Park. In recent years, the reality of South Boston has changed drastically as property values, especially in the City Point neighborhood near Castle Island, have risen to the level of some of the highest in the city. The City Point area of South Boston, labeled "East Side" by realtors, has seen a major increase in property values due to its close proximity to downtown Boston and gentrification. The "West Side" of South Boston, also known as the "lower end" by lifelong residents, though slower to begin the gentrification process also benefits from the proximity to not only downtown but also the popular South End. Additionally, the West Side is home to the first green residence (Gold LEED certified) in Boston — the Macallen Building which was featured in the movie The Greening of Southie. The City of Boston is investing in the West Side through developments like the ~150,000-square-foot (14,000 m2) mixed use (residential and commercial) building being developed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority on West Broadway. Waterfront redevelopment The section of South Boston north of First Street is targeted for massive redevelopment by the administration of Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). As of September 2010, the Seaport Square project was expected to cost $3 billion and replace parking lots between the federal courthouse and convention center with a 6,300,000-square-foot (590,000 m2) mixed-use development. Construction was expected to begin in 2011. Initially referred to as the "Seaport District" by the BRA, this area was officially restyled the "South Boston Waterfront" after virulent protest from natives and local politicians, including City Council President James M. Kelly. The Central Artery/Tunnel (CA/T) Project, also known as the Big Dig, has created a completely new transportation network for this area and quite a few new hotel and office projects have come online in the past few years. The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center straddles D Street, the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center is located on Commonwealth Pier, and a new home for the Institute of Contemporary Art hangs over Boston Harbor just north of Northern Avenue. According to the Boston Waterfront Guide the South Boston Waterfront now has 55 restaurants, 4 hotels, 9 major attractions and continues to grow. The latest restaurant to open in nearby is Ming Tsai's Blue Dragon Restaurant in the old A Street Deli Building. MassChallenge has its headquarters at One Marina Park. Fish and Richardson is also presently at One Marina Park Public schools are operated by Boston Public Schools. - South Boston High School, which is now divided into two different high schools all within the same building, 1st floor is Excel High School which focuses on public safety studies, 2nd floor is also Excel High School, which focuses on computer technology, 3rd floor is Boston Green Academy, which focuses on science studies (9-12). - James Condon Elementary School (K-5) - Joseph P. Tynan School (K-5) - Michael J. Perkins School (K-5) - Oliver Hazard Perry School (K-8) - UP Academy Charter School of Boston (6-8) - St. Peter Academy (K-8) - South Boston Catholic Academy (K-8) (formerly St. Brigid's School and Gate of Heaven which were combined) - Julie's Family Learning Center (P,K,Montessori) Cultural and language schools - Szkola Jezyka Polskiego w Bostonie (John Paul II Polish School for Children and Teens) - Wood's School of Irish Dance Places of worship Catholic Churches - Our Lady of Czestochowa (Polish) - Saint Monica - Saint Augustine (currently closed) - Saint Peter (Lithuanian) - Saint Vincent de Paul - Our Lady of Good Voyage - Saint Brigid Albanian Orthodox Churches - St George Cathedral: Located near the intersection of East and West Broadway, St George is the largest Orthodox Christian house of worship in Massachusetts. As the mother church of the Albanian diocese, the Cathedral serves as episcopal seat of His Grace, Bishop Nikon, Bishop of Boston, New England and the Albanian Archdiocese. - Albanian Holy Trinity Church, Kisha Shqiptare e Shen Trinise: Located at 245 D Street Boston, Massachusetts 02127. - St John the Baptist - St Matthew and the Redeemer (former) Community resources - South Boston Neighborhood House - Boys and Girls Club of Boston - Labouré Center - South Boston Branch Library - South Boston Community Health Center - South Boston Action Center - The Paraclete Center - Tynan Community Center Castle Island, Pleasure Bay, M Street Beach and Carson Beach Fort Independence, a pentagonal five-bastioned, granite fort built between 1834 and 1851, is the dominating feature of Castle Island. This 22-acre urban park is connected to the mainland by both pedestrian and vehicular causeways. Pleasure Bay, the M Street Beach and Carson Beach form a three-mile segment of parkland and beach along the South Boston shoreline of Dorchester Bay. Carson Beach offers some beautiful views and great public amenities: a rehabilitated Mothers' Rest, public restrooms, exhibit space, first aid and lifeguard functions, while the outdoor courtyards allow space for passive recreation. Carson Beach also features a walkway which allows one to walk, bike, or run along the water's edge from Castle Island to the Kennedy Library. Fort Independence and Castle Island are on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and the fort is a National Historic Landmark. Fort Independence is open from Memorial Day to Columbus Day, hours vary. Fort tours are conducted by the Castle Island Association in the summer months and there is interpretive signage for self-guided tours. The principal program theme, the History of Castle Island, stresses the role of the fort in harbor defense." Dorchester Heights (Thomas Park) Atop the Dorchester Heights hill sits a tall monument commemorating the Patriot battery that drove the British out of Boston. A popular site to view the Fourth of July fireworks, the Thomas Park (the oval drive around Dorchester Heights) area is one of the most attractive areas in South Boston. Medal Of Honor Park (M Street Park) Between M and N streets and north of Broadway, the M Street Park was one of the most desirable addresses in Boston in the late 19th century, and the brownstone buildings overlooking the park on the south side of the park remain some of the best examples of this style of architecture in New England. M Street Park is also home to the 1st standing Vietnam memorial in the nation included in this memorial are all the names of the South Boston residents who gave their lives fighting for the freedom of the United States. Also a popular spot for, families, dog lovers, and for watching the St Patrick's Day Parade. In addition also, two softball fields, little league field, basketball court, and play ground all attribute to the beautiful neighborhood which is South Boston The M Street Softball League. Public housing South Boston is home to some of the oldest public housing projects in the United States.[dead link] In the last 30 years they have changed from having a mostly Irish American population to a more ethnically mixed population. The housing facilities are under the control of the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and include West Broadway which was built in 1949 and occupies 20 acres (81,000 m2), West Ninth Street (these three facilities are next to each other and commonly called D street), Old Colony which was built in 1941, and Mary Ellen McCormack, which is the BHA's oldest development, being constructed in the 1930s. It was originally called Old Harbor Village. 'The West Broadway Ninth Street Projects were knocked down in 2005 and are now a retirement housing building. MBTA bus service connects these stations with the residential areas of South Boston, downtown Boston and the Back Bay. The MBTA Silver Line, a Bus rapid transit service running partly in a tunnel from South Station, also serves the north side of South Boston. South Boston is also served by five bus routes including the numbers 5, 7, 9, 10, 11. Notable residents South Boston has been the birthplace and home to a number of notable people, including: References in popular culture - The 2010 crime thriller The Town starring and directed by Ben Affleck, was partly filmed in South Boston. Scenes taking place at the fictional Town Flowers were filmed at Thornton Flower Shop on Dorchester Street. - Gone Baby Gone (2007), the directorial debut of Ben Affleck, was shot in South Boston. - Black Irish (2007) - The Departed (2006), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg was shot in South Boston and was loosely based on the life of famed Irish mob leader James "Whitey" Bulger and the events leading up to his hiatus and being an informant for the FBI. - In Good Will Hunting, a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, South Boston is the home of the fictional Irish American character Will Hunting, a troubled young prodigy played by Damon, who works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. - Mystic River directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, and Sean Penn was partially filmed in South Boston. A local corner store, Miller's Market of 366 K Street, was used as one of the character's businesses. - The movie The Boondock Saints, about fraternal twins, Connor and Murphy MacManus, who become vigilantes after killing two members of the Russian Mafia in self-defense, also takes place in South Boston. - The 1999 movie Southie centers around Danny Quinn, played by Donnie Wahlberg, who returns home to South Boston from New York City and gets stuck between his friends, who are supported by one Irish gang, and his family, who are members of another. Wahlberg is a native of nearby Dorchester. - The Verdict, a 1982 feature film which tells the story of a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer who pushes a medical malpractice case in order to improve his own situation, but discovers along the way that he is doing the right thing, takes place in, and was filmed in, South Boston. It starred Paul Newman. - In the 1987 romantic comedy film, Broadcast News, about a virtuoso television news producer (Holly Hunter), who has daily emotional breakdowns, a brilliant yet prickly reporter (Albert Brooks) and his charismatic but far less seasoned rival (William Hurt), a young Aaron Altman (played by Dwayne Markee) states, "You're never gonna leave South Boston and I'm gonna see the whole damn world." - In the film The Friends of Eddie Coyle, about a low level Boston gangster who was looking at a long prison sentence for repeat offenses, and so decided to snitch on his friends to avoid jail time. - In the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer the character of Faith Lehane (Eliza Dushku) is a Slayer who originally hails from South Boston. Dushku grew up in nearby Watertown. - Eliza Dushku's character refers to being a Southie native in the "Stage Fright" episode of the TV series Dollhouse. - The Leverage character of Nathan Ford is possibly from South Boston, as the episode "The Beantown Bailout Job" indicated he had grown up with a ranking member of the Irish Mob. - Julianne Moore's character in a series of 2009 episodes of 30 Rock mentioned that she was from South Boston. - In an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Soleil Moon Frye's character mentions that "it's better than living in a shack in Southie." - In the Showtime drama Dexter, the character Joseph Quinn (played by Desmond Harrington) is from South Boston. There have been a number of books written about South Boston. Video games The Scout from online game Team Fortress 2 hails from South Boston. Voodoo, in Medal of Honor (2010), is from South Boston. He has a very distinct accent. - "U.S. Supreme Court HURLEY v. IRISH-AMERICAN GAY GROUP OF BOSTON, ___ U.S. ___ (1995)". FindLaw. 18 June 1995. Retrieved 2009-02-02. - Walkowski, Paul; Connolly, William (April 1996). From Trial Court to the United States Supreme Court Anatomy of a Free Speech Case: The Incredible Inside Story Behind the Theft of the St. Patrick's Parade. Branden Books. ISBN 0-8283-2012-8. - "History of the Memorial". South Boston Vietnam Memorial. Retrieved 2009-02-02. - The Greening of Southie (2008) - "South Boston Waterfront Public Realm Plan". Boston Redevelopment Authority. October 21, 2003. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "Seaport makeover to begin next year". Boston Metro, 23 September 2010, p 3. - James M. Kelly, long-time city councilor and South Boston icon, dies. Boston Globe, January 9, 2007. - Cf. Sammarco (2006), p.25 - History of the South Baptist Church, Boston, Boston : Alfred Mudge & Son, 1865. - Boston Connects. South Boston - "Welcome to the Boston Housing Authority". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "West Broadway". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "West Ninth Street". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "Old Colony". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "Mary Ellen McCormack". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "Foley". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - "Monsignor Powers". Boston Housing Authority. Retrieved 2009-02-01. - Marquard, Bryan (2010-06-22). "John Ferruggio, at 84; hero of 1970 Pan Am hijacking". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-06-27. - Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell; Rosenberg, Charlie, South Boston: Then & Now, Arcadia Publishing Company, 2006 Further reading - Charles Bancroft Gillespie (1900), Illustrated history of South Boston, South Boston, Mass: Inquirer Pub. Co. - Malloy, Ione (1 October 1986). Southie Won't Go: A Teacher's Diary of the Desegregation of South Boston High School. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01276-3. - O'Connor, Thomas (24 February 1994). South Boston, My Home Town: The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood. Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-188-1. - Alcorn, Frank (7 October 2005). Southie Boy. Cork Hill Press. ISBN 1-59408-054-2. - Weeks, Kevin; Karas, Phyllis (10 March 2006). Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob. William Morrow. ISBN 0-06-112269-6. - MacDonald, Michael Patrick (4 October 2007). All Souls: A Family Story from Southie. Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-7213-3. - Born before plastic: stories from Boston's most enduring neighborhoods; North End, Roxbury, and South Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: City of Boston and Grub Street, Inc., 2007 |Wikimedia Commons has media related to: South Boston| - South Boston Online - South Boston Tribune - South Boston Neighborhood at City of Boston.gov - Topographic Map of South Boston - Southies St Patrick's Day Parade - South Boston Little League - South Boston on Boston.com - Boston Public Library. Boston Pictorial Archive. Images of South Boston - South Boston Waterfront Photo Gallery

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A token to the future : a digital ‘archive’ of early Australian children’s literature Mallan, Kerry M., Cross, Amy, & Allan, Cherie (2012) A token to the future : a digital ‘archive’ of early Australian children’s literature. Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature, 22(1), pp. 94-108. This essay considers a specific digital ‘archive’ of early Australian children’s literature, known as the Children’s Literature Digital Resources (CLDR), which is located in AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource ( http://www.austlit.edu.au ). We examine what the CLDR collection can tell us about Australia’s history. To narrow the scope, we focus on how Australia was constructing itself as a nation with its own character, or national identity, in texts written for children from the latter part of the nineteenth century up until the end of World War II. Our approach is to consider how early Australian children’s literature included in the CLDR collection rhetorically constructs nation and place, and in so doing constructs an Australian identity for its implied readers. Citation countsare sourced monthly fromand citation databases. These databases contain citations from different subsets of available publications and different time periods and thus the citation count from each is usually different. Some works are not in either database and no count is displayed. Scopus includes citations from articles published in 1996 onwards, and Web of Science generally from 1980 onwards. Citations counts from theindexing service can be viewed at the linked Google Scholar™ search. Full-text downloadsdisplays the total number of times this work’s files (e.g., a PDF) have been downloaded from QUT ePrints as well as the number of downloads in the previous 365 days. The count includes downloads for all files if a work has more than one. |Item Type:||Journal Article| |Keywords:||Australian children's literature, digital archive, AustLit, Children's literature digital resources , national identity| |Subjects:||Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > LANGUAGES COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE (200000) > LITERARY STUDIES (200500) > Australian Literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Literature) (200502)| |Divisions:||Current > Research Centres > Children & Youth Research Centre| |Copyright Owner:||Copyright 2012 The Authors| |Deposited On:||03 Sep 2012 08:46| |Last Modified:||27 Sep 2012 14:35| Repository Staff Only: item control page

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Snow leopard population discovered in Afghanistan The Wildlife Conservation Society has discovered a surprisingly healthy population of rare snow leopards living in the mountainous reaches of northeastern Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, according to a new study. The discovery gives hope to the world's most elusive big cat, which calls home to some of the world's tallest mountains. Between 4,500 and 7,500 snow leopards remain in the wild scattered across a dozen countries in Central Asia. The study, which appears in the June 29th issue of the Journal of Environmental Studies, is by WCS conservationists Anthony Simms, Zalmai Moheb, Salahudin, Hussain Ali, Inayat Ali and Timothy Wood. WCS-trained community rangers used camera traps to document the presence of snow leopards at 16 different locations across a wide landscape. The images represent the first camera trap records of snow leopards in Afghanistan. WCS has been conserving wildlife and improving local livelihoods in the region since 2006 with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "This is a wonderful discovery – it shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan," said Peter Zahler, WCS Deputy Director for Asia Programs. "Now our goal is to ensure that these magnificent animals have a secure future as a key part of Afghanistan's natural heritage." According to the study, snow leopards remain threatened in the region. Poaching for their pelts, persecution by shepherds, and the capture of live animals for the illegal pet trade have all been documented in the Wakhan Corridor. In response, WCS has developed a set of conservation initiatives to protect snow leopards. These include partnering with local communities, training of rangers, and education and outreach efforts. Anthony Simms, lead author and the project's Technical Advisor, said, "By developing a community-led management approach, we believe snow leopards will be conserved in Afghanistan over the long term." WCS-led initiatives are already paying off. Conservation education is now occurring in every school in the Wakhan region. Fifty-nine rangers have been trained to date. They monitor not only snow leopards but other species including Marco Polo sheep and ibex while also enforcing laws against poaching. WCS has also initiated the construction of predator-proof livestock corrals and a livestock insurance program that compensates shepherds, though initial WCS research shows that surprisingly few livestock fall to predators in the region. In Afghanistan, USAID has provided support to WCS to work in more than 55 communities across the country and is training local people to monitor and sustainably manage their wildlife and other resources. One of the many outputs of this project was the creation of Afghanistan's first national park – Band-e-Amir – which is now co-managed by the government and a committee consisting of all 14 communities living around the park. Snow leopards have declined by as much as 20 percent over the past 16 years and are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). WCS is a world leader in the care and conservation of snow leopards. WCS's Bronx Zoo became the first zoo in the Western Hemisphere to exhibit these rare spotted cats in 1903. In the past three decades, nearly 80 cubs have been born in the Bronx and have been sent to live at 30 zoos in the U.S. and eight countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. Source: Wildlife Conservation Society - Wildlife Conservation Society finds 'world's least known bird' breeding in AfghanistanWed, 13 Jan 2010, 14:10:53 EST - WCS confirms the return of the Persian leopard In Afghanistan's central highlandsMon, 5 Dec 2011, 22:39:32 EST - First ever videos of snow leopard mother and cubs in dens recorded in MongoliaThu, 12 Jul 2012, 18:05:03 EDT - Wildlife Conservation Society documents pneumonia outbreak in endangered markhor Sun, 8 Jan 2012, 21:31:30 EST - Rare Andean cat no longer exclusive to the AndesWed, 16 Mar 2011, 14:36:29 EDT - Threatened snow leopards found in Afghanistanfrom AP ScienceFri, 15 Jul 2011, 0:00:36 EDT - Elusive snow leopards thrive in Afghan regionfrom MSNBC: ScienceThu, 14 Jul 2011, 16:00:21 EDT - Photos: Elusive Snow Leopards Thrive in Surprising Spotfrom Live ScienceThu, 14 Jul 2011, 11:30:44 EDT - Cameras catch snow leopards in Afghanistanfrom UPIThu, 14 Jul 2011, 5:30:29 EDT - Cameras catch snow leopards in Afghanistanfrom UPIWed, 13 Jul 2011, 18:00:26 EDT - Snow leopard population discovered in Afghanistanfrom Science BlogWed, 13 Jul 2011, 14:00:23 EDT - Snow leopard population discovered in Afghanistanfrom Science DailyWed, 13 Jul 2011, 13:30:31 EDT - Snow leopard population discovered in Afghanistanfrom PhysorgWed, 13 Jul 2011, 12:32:13 EDT - Healthy Snow Leopard Population Discovered in Afghanistanfrom Newswise - ScinewsWed, 13 Jul 2011, 12:32:02 EDT Latest Science NewsletterGet the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free! Check out our next project, Biology.Net From other science news sites Popular science news articles - UC Davis engineers create on-wetting fabric drains sweat - Not just blowing in the wind: Compressing air for renewable energy storage - Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rain forest - 1 in 10 teens using 'study drugs,' but parents aren't paying attention - Slow earthquakes: It's all in the rock mechanics No popular news yet No popular news yet - Stem cell transplant restores memory, learning in mice - 2 landmark studies report on success of using image-guided brachytherapy to treat cervical cancer - Researchers discover mushrooms can provide as much vitamin D as supplements - Cutting back on sleep harms blood vessel function and breathing control - Study: Low-dose aspirin stymies proliferation of 2 breast cancer lines

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Estonia Has Least Polluted Urban Air in the World27 September 2011 Levels of fine airborne particles in Estonia's urban areas are the lowest in the world, a comparative table published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 26 September reveals. The Indian Ocean island nation Mauritius ranked second while Canada landed in third place, according to the WHO data. The report looked at two different particle sizes: those with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and those smaller than 10 micrometers (PM10). In Estonia, PM2.5 was registered at 5.4 micrograms per cubic meter of air, while PM10 was at 11 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The highest concentration of particles was registered in Mongolia, where PM2.5 peaked at 63 and PM10 at 279 micrograms per cubic meter of air. According to WHO, each year over two million people around the world die due to the inhalation of fine particulate matter. The WHO ranking list contained results of urban outdoor air pollution monitoring from almost 1 100 cities with a population of at least 100 000. Air pollution in Estonia was measured only in Tallinn and the data dates back to 2008. Estonian Public Broadcasting

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Brussels, 21 December 2005 The European Commission today proposed a new strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste. This long-term strategy aims to help Europe become a recycling society that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste as a resource. It will draw on the knowledge that the thematic strategy on resources, also adopted today, will generate. As a first step, the Commission proposes revising the 1975 Waste Framework Directive to set recycling standards and to include an obligation for Member States to develop national waste prevention programmes. This revision will also merge, streamline and clarify legislation, contributing to better regulation. The waste and resources strategies are two of the seven 'thematic' strategies required under the 6th Environment Action Programme (2002-2012). Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: “Waste volume has been disproportionately increasing outpacing even economic growth. Waste generation, disposal and recycling are of concern to all of us: individuals, companies and public authorities. Now is the time to modernise our approach and to promote more and better recycling. Our strategy does precisely that. More waste than ever EU environment legislation has helped improve the way we dispose waste and recycle specific waste streams, such as municipal waste, packaging, cars and electric and electronic equipment. Waste management has moved a long way from being a dirty, polluting business. High standards exist for landfills and incinerators. Industry now seeks to make a profit from waste instead of dumping it. However, waste generation in the EU is estimated at more than 1.3 billion tonnes per year and is increasing at rates comparable to economic growth. For example, both GDP and municipal waste grew by 19% between 1995 and 2003. One consequence of this growth is that despite large increases in recycling, landfill - the environmentally most problematic way to get rid of waste - is only reducing slowly. Waste policy must contribute to improving the way we use resources What is needed now is to modernise and widen EU waste policy in the light of new knowledge. Companies and public authorities need to take a life-cycle approach that does not only look at pollution caused by waste. It must also take account of how waste policies can most efficiently reduce the negative environmental impacts associated with the use of resources through preventing, recycling and recovering wastes. To move towards this objective EU waste law must create the right regulatory environment for recycling activities to develop. Measures proposed by the strategy The strategy comes as a package. It includes a legislative proposal to modernise the 1975 Waste Framework Directive. The main elements of the proposed revision of the Waste Framework Directive are: Further measures are programmed for the next five years to promote recycling and create a better regulatory environment for recycling activities. An Impact Assessment accompanies the strategy. The other five thematic strategies the Commission is developing under the EU’s 6th Environment Action Programme cover air pollution (presented on 21 Sept. 2005) and marine environment (20 Oct. 2005) as well as soils, pesticides and the urban environment, which are upcoming. Thematic strategies represent a modern way of decision-making. They are based on extensive research and consultation with stakeholders, address the issues in a holistic way that takes into account links with other problems and policy areas, and promote Better Regulation. See MEMO/05/496 for more details on this Strategy. The full strategy is available at A video news release on the strategies on resources and waste is available to television stations and networks free of charge at:

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Old name for the Middle East ern area which is now Israel , supposedly derived from "Philistine ," a biblical-era name for a part of the region. In 1948 a United Nations mandate divided the area between Arabs and Jews -- the Palestinian leaders and leaders of surrounding countries (who were all Arabs) did not accept this and have several times since then invaded or attacked Israeli territory. In the process of fighting back, Israel actually gained about 80% of the territory originally divided about equally between the two groups. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are some of these areas; they are now partially ruled by the Palestinians native to the areas but are still overall under Israeli control. Many Palestinians, both those who've left the area and those who've stayed, are part of resistance movements with the goal of regaining some or all of the territory once called Palestine back from Israel.

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Woodrow Wilson, as described in the introductory section of the text, was the leader of the immediate post-war period and was the architect of an internationalist vision for a new world order. Yet, as discussed in the paragraphs below, he was not able to persuade the other Allied leaders at the peace settlement negotiations in Paris to embrace his vision. But it was not just the opposition of Clemenceau and Lloyd George to some of his ideas that moved the conference away from Wilson's vision. Wilson became so blindingly caught up in his vision, thinking that everything he advocated was what democracy and justice wanted, that he completely alienated the other negotiators in Paris, and they stopped listening to him. Another historian points to a different problem, that Wilson himself stopped listening to his earlier vision, having become convinced that a harsh peace was justified and desirable. Even if that historical view is accurate, Wilson was probably still more moderate in his conception of a harsh peace than were Clemenceau and Lloyd George. But as the conference dragged on and the departure from Wilsonianism became more and more pronounced, Wilson clung to his proposal for the League of Nations. In fact, he seemed to place all his faith in his pet project, believing it would solve all the evils the negotiators were unable to solve during the conference. Unfortunately, Wilson made it clear that the League was his primary objective, and it came to be his only bargaining chip. He then compromised on numerous issues that had no corollary in his vision in order to maintain the support for the creation of the League. Thus, though full of good intentions and a vision for a just and peaceful future, Wilson's arrogance and ineffective negotiating skills largely contibuted to the downfall of his vision. Finally, it must be mentioned that Wilson's inability to negotiate with the Senate in its discussion of the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles caused the Senate to reject the Treaty, leaving the United States noticeably absent from the newly created League of Nations, which greatly undermined the effectiveness and importance of Wilson's principal goal. Nonetheless, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure a lasting peace and the success in the creation of the League of Nations. David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, entered the negotiations in Paris with the clear support of the British people, as evidenced by his convincing win in the so-called khaki election of December 1918. During the weeks leading up to the election, though, he had publicly committed himself to work for a harsh peace against Germany, including obtaining payments for war damages committed against the British. These campaign promises went against Lloyd George's personal convictions. Knowing that Germany had been Britain's best pre-war trading partner, he thought that Britain's best chance to return to its former prosperity was to restore Germany to a financially stable situation, which would have required a fairly generous peace with respect to the vanquished enemy. Nonetheless, his campaign statements showed Lloyd George's understanding that the public did not hold the same convictions as he did, and that, on the contrary, the public wanted to extract as much as possible out of the Germans to compensate them for their losses during the war. So Lloyd George and Clemenceau were in agreement on many points, each one seeming to support the other in their nationalist objectives, and thereby scratching each other's back as the "game of grab" of Germany's power played itself out. But most historians do not attribute to Lloyd George a significant role in the Treaty negotiations. In their defense, Clemenceau and Lloyd George were only following popular sentiment back home when they fought for harsh terms against Germany. It is clear from historical accounts of the time that after seeing so many young men not return from the trenches on the Western front, the French and British wanted to exact revenge against the Germans through the peace settlement, to ensure that their families would never again be destroyed by German aggression. In that respect, democracy was clearly functioning as it is intended in a representative democracy. In fact, Lloyd George is the quintessential example of an elected leader serving the interests of his people, putting his personal convictions second to British public opinion. Yet it was that same public opinion (in France and Britain) that Wilson had believed would support his internationalist agenda, placing Germany in the context of a new and more peaceful world order which would prevent future aggression. Wilson's miscalculation was one of the single greatest factors leading to the compromise of his principles and the resulting harsh and, in the eyes of many, unjust treatment of Germany within the Treaty of Versailles. [See also the biographies of the Big Three listed on the Links 1. James L. Stokesbury, A Short History of World War I, 1981, p. 309. 2. Manfred F. Boemeke, "Woodrow Wilson's Image of Germany, the War-Guilt Question, and the Treaty of Versailles,"inThe Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment After 75 Years, Ch. 25, Boemeke, Feldman & Glaser, eds., 1998, pp. 603-614. 3. Robert H. Ferrell, Woodrow Wilson and World War I: 1917-1921, 1985, p. 146. 4. Lawrence E. Gelfand, "The American Mission to Negotiate Peace: An Historian Looks Back," in The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment After 75 Years, Ch. 8, Boemeke, Feldman & Glaser, eds., 1998, p. 191. 5. See Ferrell, supra note 3, Ch. 10, "The Senate and the Treaty." 6. Information from this paragraph is taken from Ferrell, supra note 3, at 142, 144, 151. 7. Id. at 151. 8. Stokesbury, supra note 1, at 311-312.

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Children are willing to ask one parent and then the next to get the desired answer. Parental communication is key to combating this divisive strategy. Children determine from an early age which parent they should ask for permission in which circumstance. I can illustrate this with the example of my own family. If the request involved some degree of daring, risk, or danger, they always approached Dad, the one more likely to allow a bareback ride on the horse or a run down a black diamond ski slope. When it came to social events, they made the intelligent choice to come to Mom. I am — and always have been — more of a social butterfly than dear old Dad. This division of labor in regard to granting permission is logical and harmless. The problems begin when a child asks one parent, is denied permission, and then asks the other parent, looking for an override of the first ruling — Divide and Conquer. If this is allowed in your family, it will definitely be disruptive. When Divide and Conquer is successful, Mom and Dad find themselves distracted and in conflict with each other. That leaves the child free to disregard the first parent’s decision. To combat the Divide and Conquer strategy, you need to communicate. Find out if there has been an initial answer given to your child’s request. If the other parent has already responded, it is best to let the first answer hold. If you find that the two of you are continually disagreeing, it would be best to simply address your child’s request by saying, “Your Dad and I will have to talk about it.” It is always good to have a united front or, as I like to say, to be singing off the same songsheet. For Your Reflection: Have you ever been the victim of a Divide and Conquer strategy?

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Reports of a serious amount of corn planted in central and southern Illinois, and at least a sprinkling of acres planted in Indiana before the first official day of Spring has some people scratching their heads. Try to explain that to your grandfather or great-grandfather! Emerson Nafziger at the University of Illinois says it may mean this is an educational season because he can't remember this much corn planted so early. He also says that in all test results he can find, corn planted the last week of April typically slightly out yields corn planted in late March of early April. Other universities have shown similar data. However, Nafziger acknowledges it depends upon the weather conditions that come after planting and the year itself. Here's what we think is often left out of the equation, especially for farmers with large acreages to plant. While the data is what it is for late-April being an ideal planting time in the central Midwest, few people add this caveat. What if soil conditions are right now, and temperatures are right now, but it's too wet or too cool to plant the last week of April? What if the last week of April becomes the first week of May? During the past two seasons in much of Indiana, for example, the last week of April became the last week of May or the first two weeks of June. One could argue that the proper comparison ought to be not the first of April planting vs. the last of April, but the first of April planting vs. planting the last week of May? Which corn is likely to yield more? Most university data and data form several seed companies, including Beck's Hybrids through their Practical Farm Research Demonstration plots, would say that anything planted in April has a higher percentage of yielding more than corn planted the last week of May. Given that logic, who can blame someone who has watched their planter sit for four weeks straight in May for the past two years if they want to get some crop in the ground now? Of course if fair weather continues or if the last week of April is ideal, and you could guarantee that, it would make a difference. Farming doesn't come with guarantees. Ken Scheeringa, an assistant climatologist at Purdue University, says warmer than normal weather is likely through April, although it may not be as extreme on the warm side as in March, as compared to normal. Rainfall is more of a fuzzy call. The real issue is that May and June aren't on the radar screen yet. Some who have ventured out into May still call for a cool, wet spring. So is it wise or foolish to have corn planted now? It's your decision, and your money. For our money, it's a gamble either way. Perhaps experts should talk in terms of calculated risks and explain what-if scenarios when they lay out planting date options.

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Sheep & Wolf to join forces? BirdLife International and FACE (the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation of the EU) have signed a historic agreement recognising that the conservation of bird species and their habitats is a common objective. Both organisations agree that the Birds Directive is the appropriate instrument for bird conservation in the European Union, and undertake not to attempt to change it. Both recognise the importance of the Natura 2000 network, which includes all the Special Protection Areas for birds required under the Birds Directive. They also agree to cooperate in promoting strategic conservation priorities, such as halting biodiversity decline by 2010, protecting sites, and reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. The Agreement, signed on 12 October by Mike Rands, Director and Chief Executive of BirdLife International and Gilbert de Turckheim, President of FACE, was welcomed and countersigned by Mrs Margot Wallstr?m, Commissioner for the Environment. Progress towards this agreement began in 2001, when the European Commission launched the Sustainable Hunting Initiative (SHI) to create a constructive dialogue between conservationists and hunters, represented by BirdLife International and FACE. The SHI was started at a time when the two organisations could be considered arch-enemies, and constant confrontations on hunting issues seemed to be leading nowhere, said Dr Clairie Papazoglou, BirdLife`s Head of EU Policy. This Agreement proves that reasonable hunters and reasonable conservationists can work together for the benefit of birds and people. It represents an important step forward in the relations of the two organisations, which on the basis of this text can chart a list of common actions, to be carried out in the years to come. It can also be the basis on which BirdLife`s Partners can promote similar initiatives at the national level. Created: 5th Nov 2004

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COGNITIVE MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOEVINGER'S CONCEPT OF EGO DEVELOPMENT (KOHLBERG) This study explored the nature of the relationship between cognitive moral development as defined by Lawrence Kohlberg and ego development as defined by Jane Loevinger. The effects of general cognitive development were controlled by the selection of subjects who were capable of formal operational thinking. Subjects were 120 Jewish volunteers comprised of equal numbers of junior high-school, senior high-school, and college students of both sexes. All subjects received three tests: A Screening Measure for Formal Operations, The Sentence Completion Test (SCT) which measures ego development, and The Moral Judgment Interview (MJI). Results indicated the existence of significant positive correlations between the SCT and MJI in the overall sample, in the total male and female samples, in the entire college group, and in the female college group. No significant correlations were found in the junior high-school and senior high-school groups, possibly due to restricted ranges of scores. In addition, most subjects at moral development stages 3/4 and above had attained at least the conscientious-conformist level. Results also indicated the presence of differences between male and female scores. The correlations for females were consistently higher than for males, females scored significantly higher on the SCT, males scored significantly higher on the MJI, and the relationship between specific moral and ego development stages seemed to be stronger for females than for males. The differences found in this study between the sexes in performance on the MJI are consistent with Gilligan's theory about the distinctions between male and female approaches to moral dilemmas. However, that theory was found to be inadequate in explaining the stronger relationship between MJI and SCT scores manifested by the females in this study. The SCT was criticized for not specifying clearly the ego development features that it measured. It was suggested that the exact nature of the interplay between moral and ego development could be illuminated more fully by research that focused on specific well-defined features of ego development. ^ "COGNITIVE MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOEVINGER'S CONCEPT OF EGO DEVELOPMENT (KOHLBERG)" (January 1, 1984). ETD Collection for Fordham University.

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DWC is prone to Root Rot, always due to low DO*Altitude play an important role in how much DO a solution can carry. If you reduce your nute loads, your solution can carry more DO. If you live in Denver, you may have a problem indoor growing with any temps above 65ºf If you check out Roseypanties experiment, you will see he had much better result using a reduced nute load. There were two positive effects on the plants, that were grown using the reduced nute load. The first good thing that happened was, his DO increased, due to the reduced salinity, of his nutrient solution. Second, osmotic pressure was reduced in the rhyzome, allowing the plant to take in more H2o and thus grow faster. What does this second statement really mean? Take your hand, and leave it in salt water for an hour. Your skin wrinkles,... why? Because the salt has caused the osmotic pressure on the outdside of your skin to be higher than the pressure inside your skin, and as the water in your hand is sucked out through your skin, your hand actually shrinks from the loss of fluid and the skin becomes loose It is harder for your plant to uptake water and nutrients when you use high nute loads, because the salt creates negative osmotic pressure (hypertonicity) against the semipermeable membrane of the root cell walls. Here is the Wiki "scientific answer". Osmotic pressure is the hydrostatic pressure produced by a solution in a space divided by a semipermeable membrane (your roots) due to a differential in the concentrations of solute. Osmoregulation is the homeostasis mechanism of an organism to reach balance in osmotic pressure. Osmotic potential is the opposite of water potential with the former meaning the degree to which a solvent (usually water) would want to stay in a liquid and not pass through the membrane.Hypertonicity is a solution that causes cells to shrink. It may or may not have a higher osmotic pressure than the cell interior since the rate of water entry will depend upon the permeability of the cell membrane.Hypotonicity is a solution that causes cells to swell It may or may not have a lower osmotic pressure than the cell interior, since the rate of water entry will depend upon the permeability of the cell membrane.Isotonic is a solution that produces no change in cell volume. (this is what you want your nute solution to be) When a biological cell is in a hypotonic the cell interior accumulates water, water flows across the cell membrane into the cell, causing it to expand. In plant cells, the cell wall restricts the expansion, resulting in pressure on the cell wall from within called turgor like swollen ankles or hands, are not as productive.) If you are good at math, and want to get your nute solution perfect, the osmotic pressure of a dilute solution can be calculated using this formula i = the Van t Hoff factor M = the molarity R = the gas constant, where R = 0.08206 L · atm · mol-1 · K-1 T = the thermodynamic temperature (formerly called absolute temperature) Note: the similarity of the above formula to the ideal gas law and also that osmotic pressure is not dependent on particle charge. This equation was derived by van 't Hoff. Now doing this calculation would be nice if there are any college math majors out there, but I use this chart, and it has worked well for me. _____________________% of Nute Load As you can see, 50-75% is very adequate, and it has been my personal experience, that I have improved yields and better taste, when I use the lower end of "Sufficient", on that chart.

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Hi Andy, welcome to Linux Mint Programming with Python is fun, at least I think so. Many programs developed by Linux Mint are actually written in Python, like the Software Manager and Update Manager for example. So I hope you do pick it up, but most important is you have a good time and enjoy using Linux Mint Google has a very basic Python class to get you started: https://developers.google.com/edu/python/ . The Hitchhiker's Guide To Python may be a nice resource along the way also: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/index.html . Another good resource is Learn Python The Hard Way, which throws you in the deep end but gets you going fast with the basics: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ . You don't need much to get started, Gedit or Kate both already have syntax highlighting for Python source code, though you may want to look into a lightweight programmer's editor like Geany to get a little more productive as your programming skills grow (you can install it from the Software Manager; I recommend you also install geany-plugins for some extra tools). But there are plenty of other programmer's editors and IDEs suitable for use with Python.

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Walking under the metal gate that reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Brings Freedom”) is a seminal moment for visitors to Auschwitz — a chill-inducing passage into a place of death. It comes as some surprise, then, to learn that it was actually upon passing the ticket-takers’ booth in the parking lot that visitors entered what was the main complex of the concentration camp. The communist government that took control of Auschwitz after the war altered the physical complex in innumerable unmarked ways, changes that were largely made to serve the story of the Holocaust told behind the Iron Curtain. In communist eastern Europe, the central narrative of the Holocaust was not the death of Jews; it was the story of communist resistance and fascist atrocity. As a result, the focus of the Auschwitz museum is the complex known as Auschwitz 1, where the bulk of Polish political prisoners were killed early in the war. In the communist incarnation of the museum, only two of the barracks in Auschwitz 1 were given over to a discussion of the Jews. That has broadened in the post-communist years, but there continues to be a very European focus on nationalism. The Dutch government was given a barrack where they tell a story of brave Dutch resistance; they do not mention that, aside from Poland, no country allowed a higher proportion of its Jews to be killed than the Netherlands. The museological focus on Auschwitz 1, however, has the unintended effect of leaving the much more massive Birkenau complex — the center of mass extermination — in a relatively unadulterated state. Few spaces convey the physical enormity of Jewish death during the Holocaust like the fields of Birkenau, with the outlines of destroyed barracks stretching out over a vast desolate field. At the back of the Birkenau complex, the Soviets erected an abstract granite memorial that towers over the surroundings. It represents the Soviet story, which was always one of triumph, skipping as quickly as possible over the mourning stage. This effort to create a narrative, though, is overwhelmed by the remains of the two brick buildings nearby that held the gas chambers, now collapsing in on themselves.

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there are several other differences including different meaning for the symbols ( [ different rules for which symbols need escaping (they can't be the same as both standard posix and extended posix) you should read the full documentation for PCRE before chaging any posix regex to use pcre. Differences from POSIX regex As of PHP 5.3.0, the POSIX Regex extension is deprecated. There are a number of differences between POSIX regex and PCRE regex. This page lists the most notable ones that are necessary to know when converting to PCRE. - The PCRE functions require that the pattern is enclosed by delimiters. - Unlike POSIX, the PCRE extension does not have dedicated functions for case-insensitive matching. Instead, this is supported using the i (PCRE_CASELESS) pattern modifier. Other pattern modifiers are also available for changing the matching strategy. - The POSIX functions find the longest of the leftmost match, but PCRE stops on the first valid match. If the string doesn't match at all it makes no difference, but if it matches it may have dramatic effects on both the resulting match and the matching speed. To illustrate this difference, consider the following example from "Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffrey Friedl. Using the pattern one(self)?(selfsufficient)? on the string oneselfsufficient with PCRE will result in matching oneself, but using POSIX the result will be the full string oneselfsufficient. Both (sub)strings match the original string, but POSIX requires that the longest be the result. add a note User Contributed Notes Differences from POSIX regex - [1 notes] jasen at treshna dot com ¶ 1 year ago

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“Utopian” has almost become a put-down or a suggestion that one is being unrealistic, if not naive. But I would argue that socialists must be utopian, not in the sense of expecting fundamental change instantaneously, but in the sense of holding in their very being the deep desire for the realization of a world completely unlike our own. It is that for which generations have fought and it is that ideal that has kept many a freedom fighter going despite tremendous adversities. What is especially interesting about the history of capitalism is that with its rise there also emerged the impulse towards alternatives. These alternatives were not necessarily elaborated as eloquently as were the theories behind capitalism and, specifically, democratic capitalism, but they were nevertheless important. The oppressive and often criminal nature of rising capitalism brought with it revolutionary movements that challenged either the system itself or components of the system. These revolts took various forms, such as the slave revolts that spanned the entire period of the African slave trade. Peter Linebaugh’s The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic offers a glimpse into the world of the North Atlantic and the development of capitalism. It was a world of significant resistance carried out by men and women; slaves and the free; mutinies and worker conspiracies. And in most cases there was a deep desire, sometimes elaborated, toward a not-always-defined freedom from the exploitation and oppression that accompanies capitalism. With this as a backdrop, one can see that the desire for a utopia has always been a component of progressive and revolutionary anti-capitalism. Utopia was not simply a dream, but it represented the ideological and spiritual outlines of the ideal alternative. It became something for which movements fought. For many, that utopia took the name “socialism.” In the 19th century, there were two diametrically opposed approaches to the question of socialism. On the one hand, there were the formations of local communities based on ideal socialist principles, such as equality and shared work. These were generally referenced as examples of “utopian socialism.” These communities attempted to live side-by-side with capitalism, hoping to demonstrate a viable alternative. Yet in their failure to tackle the system itself, these communities were strangled by the ever-growing amoral beast of capitalism. In contrast, there were revolutionary movements, initially based in Europe, that sought to gain power for workers through struggle. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were only two of those associated with this approach. These movements also co-existed (and usually not very well) with revolutionary anarchists who envisioned the immediate end of not only capitalism, but any governmental/state system. It was also during the 19th century that the first great experiment in the creation of a worker’s state took place during the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871. This urban uprising of the dispossessed shook the world and suggested that worker power was more than a slogan. The 20th century was the moment for the great socialist experiments, beginning with the Russian/Soviet Revolution in October 1917, and continuing on with China, Vietnam, Cuba and numerous other locales. Time and space do not permit anything approaching an exhaustive look at the twists and turns of the socialist experiments of the last century and the many conclusions that we could draw. For the purposes of this essay, let us say that revolutionary transformation proved to be far more difficult than the overthrow of a particular state structure. Among other things, capitalism is not simply about a ruling class of capitalists, but about toxic practices, many of them day-to-day, which people have learned over generations and, as the great Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci would say, have come to be accepted as “common sense.” These practices and expectations operate like the ghostly hands of demons in a graveyard reaching out and placing often unexpected constraints on the ability to break free of such haunted spaces. We also discovered that socialism was about far more than economics. It must be about the expansion of democracy and the actual control over the lives of working people by the workers themselves. This means that there will be mistakes, setbacks, and detours. But the people themselves need to take these on, since there is no omnipotent individual or organization that can ensure success in a process that knows no guarantees. Socialism, then, is not a utopia but a step in a process that takes us in the direction of an idea- that is, a society free of all exploitation and oppression, and with the elimination of all oppressing and oppressed classes. For me, it is summarized not in the text of a great socialist treatise, but, ironically perhaps, in the words of a fictional character, Captain Jean Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise, in the film Star Trek: First Contact. In explaining to someone from the 21st century the economics of the 24th century, he says, “The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves…and the rest of humanity.” Such an era, however, is a very long way off, and humanity will have to earn admission to that new historical epoch through the trials and tribulations associated with transforming the way that we live our lives and the way that we treat the planet. Each day we must struggle to get one step closer. This post is also available in: Spanish

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Correlation and Application of Statistics to Problems of Heredity 63 Oxford, and the three last were two men who committed suicide under circumstances of great disgrace and Palmer, the Rugeley murderer, who was hanged. There is possibly little knowledge to be obtained from the result for a single medical school, but comparative statistics for several would be of considerable value. Chapter V deals with Normal Variability, and Galton shows how the distribution depends only on the two constants, the median and the quartile, and further that if two individuals whose grades are known be actually measured, then the median and quartile, and so the whole distribution of variation, can be discovered (p. 62, footnote, and cf. our Vol. II, p. 385). The origin of the normal distribution is illustrated mechanically by aid of the " quincunx " (see our pp. 9 and 10). Nor is Galton able to avoid becoming poetically enthusiastic in a paragraph headed The Charms of Statistics, for he writes "It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to averages and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence. "Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of Man." (pp. 62-63.) Galton at the end of his Chapter V gives the two fundamental propositions on which his normal surface for the distribution of characters in two relatives depends. He envisages it in the following manner. "(1) Bullets are fired by a man who aims at the centre of a target, which we will call its 11f, and we will suppose the marks that the bullets make to be painted red, for the sake of distinction. The system of lateral deviations of these red marks from the centre M will be approximately Normal, whose Q [Probable Error] we will call c. [This is the distribution of the first relative.] Then another man takes aim, not at the centre of the target, but at one or other of the red marks, selecting these at random. We will suppose his shots to be painted green. The lateral distance of any green shot from the red mark at which it was aimed will have a Probable Error, that we will call b. Now if the lateral distance of a particular green mark from M is given [a], what is the most probable distance from M of the red mark at which it was aimed? It is + b2 a*. "(2) What is the Probable Error of this determination? In other words, if estimates have been made for a great many distances founded upon the formula in (1), they would be correct on the average, though erroneous in particular cases. The errors thus made would form a normal system whose Q [Probable Error] it is desired to determine. Its value is ,/b2 L2 1." * Unfortunately Galton has the value V O + b21 which is very liable to confuse the reader. t In more modern notation, this may be looked upon as the variability of the array of the second relative = c2 (1 -?-'I); therefore r = ./c2/(c2 +b 2). Hence the regression of first relative on second relative = rc/ Jc2 + b2 x a = ~ + b2 x a. Again the variance of the difference in character between the two relatives = c2 + (c2 + b2) - 2c1/c2 + b2 r = b2, or b has for physical meaning the probable error of the distribution of the difference in character between the two relatives.

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|Page (1) of 1 - 03/02/13||email article||print page| The Power is in the Pixels: Power Generation Game Added to Thinking Skills Club(March 02, 2013) Toronto, ON (PRWEB) March 02, 2013 A steam kettle whistles. The steam activates an electric current causing a beaker of water to heat up and drip onto a turbine, which activates a new current and completes the circuit. Not the usual way to get energy from Point A to Point B, but a creative and compelling way to get to the next level in an online game called Electric Box. The game, hosted by Candystand.com, was recently added to the Thinking Skills Club, an after school club where in grades 3 through 8 play computer games that help kids develop a variety of cognitive skills. Thinking Skills Club founder Mitch Moldofsky says the game was chosen because it employs logic, the concept of cause and effect, planning and making mistakes in order to win. "Making mistakes is very important in learning," says Moldofsky, an educator and Cognitive Science graduate from the University of Toronto, "I do it all the time." Moldofsky believes the game encourages the development of executive function skills in the frontal lobes of the brain, based on another executive function training method, Tools of the Mind. "What they've found with Tools of the Mind is that simply modifying activities during the school day to include things like self-reflection, evaluation, planning and trial and error can radically shape a student's approach to activities outside the classroom as well, such as behavior," says Moldofsky. "Games like these encompass all of these skills." Unlike other brain training games on the web, which Moldofsky claims are often repetitive and boring, the games on the Thinking Skills Club are "fun-tested," since they are culled from gaming sites. "These games are already being played by the kids in this age group, without the coercion of parents or teachers. They're intrinsically rewarding," he says. There are five other types of games on the Thinking Skills Club aside from executive function, including attention and memory, even social skills. "There's some good new research out there about the effects of prosocial games," says Moldofsky, "and they're not too hard to find if you know where to look." Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/3/prweb10486757.htm. Related Keywords:education, adult education, further education, religious education, computing and information technology, satellite technology, wireless technology, science and technology, technology (general), identification technology, agricultural research and technology, plastic art, internet, entertainment award, entertainment (general), arts (general), arts, culture and entertainment, arts, culture and entertainment, entertainment (general), entertainment award, computer crime, Commonwealth Games, Winter Goodwill Games, Summer Asian Games, Winter Asian Games, Panamerican Games, African Games, Mediterranean Games, SouthEast Asiatic Games, PanPacific Games, SouthPacific Games, PanArabic Games, Summer Goodwill Games, World games, paralympic games, government aid, government debt, government contract, education, adult education, further education, religious education, government health care, government, national government, government departments, non government organizations (NGO), family, family planning, market research, research and development, medical research, science and technology, applied science, material science, human science, natural science, philosophical science, research, science (general), animal science, micro science, , weather science, agricultural research and technology

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It’s a fact. Men are better than women … at sweating. Yep, we do it more frequently and more effectively. Congrats guys. Researchers at Osaka International University in Japan measured the perspiration rates of men and women while they biked for an hour under controlled conditions. The researchers had 37 subjects cycle for an hour at increasing intensities—active subjects had participated in endurance sports for more than six years, while inactive subjects had, for the most part, not performed regular physical activity in the previous three years. The scientists measured the subjects’ temperature, sweat rate and activated sweat glands for a number of sites on the body, including the forehead and thigh. The information was used to calculate sweat gland output and measure performance. The study revealed that physically fit men sweat more than anyone else. In general, men sweat more than women, and that has its advantages. Sweating is how our body cools off. So, by sweating more than women, men are able to exercise for a longer time. ‘”It appears that women are at a disadvantage when they need to sweat a lot during exercise,” said Yoshimitsu Inoue, the study’s coordinator. “Especially in hot conditions.” Previous physical training increased sweating in both men and women, but the increase was greater with men. As the workouts got more intense, the difference in sweating between the sexes increased. Interestingly enough, fit women sweat more than unfit men, but by an insignificant margin. The researchers believe that testosterone could explain why men sweat better than women. Prior research has shown a link between the male sex-hormone testosterone, physical training and an increase in sweat rate. Although they did not measure the hormone among their subjects, the researchers suggest the hormone may play a role in their results. So guys, the next time you enter into a women’s marathon, just make sure it’s really hot out. You’ll sweat more, and you’ll be a lock to win.

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A.J. NesteBatteries at a station on a Philadelphia commuter line capture excess current when trains brake and store the power for use when a train accelerates. A giant battery bank installed by the side of the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority’s subway tracks a little over a month ago is saving about nine megawatt-hours of power a week, its manufacturer says, which is more electricity than the typical apartment-dweller uses in a year. The battery system, which I wrote about last year, is allowing the trains to run a bit like Prius hybrids. When they slow down at a station, their motors turn into generators, converting torque into current. Before the battery bank was installed, some of that current was returned to the third rail; but if the voltage got too high, it was shunted instead into a giant electric heater under the train, which simply dissipated the energy as heat. Now the battery captures excess current, about 3.5 to 4 kilowatt-hours per train that stops, and puts it back on the line when a train is accelerating. Sometimes it does this for several trains at once. The battery bank is also receiving signals every four seconds from the regional grid operator and either absorbing energy or giving it back to the grid to help balance supply and demand. Until very recently, the solar industry was mainly concerned with getting a toehold in the production of electricity at a utility-level scale. Now a New Jersey company is looking for its niche in a different field — how to handle a system that is saturated with solar energy, sometimes enough to destabilize the electric grid. The company, Petra Solar, has a highly visible product: it is under contract to supply 200,000 panels that Public Service Electric & Gas will attached to utility poles around New Jersey. Around 75,000 are already up. About six feet wide and four feet high, the panels make 200 watts when in full sun, and newer models will make 225 watts, the company says. On a mild day, one could almost meet the needs of an entire house in the daytime; on a hot day, four or five would run a window air conditioner. On the top side of the panel, the side angled toward the sun, is the obvious attention-getter, the polycrystalline solar cell. What is different is the electronics bolted to the bottom, which are meant to prevent a solar power overdose. They could turn out to be crucial, according to company executives.

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Vedic Art: Indian Miniature Painting, Part 14 BY: SUN STAFF Ahmadnagar, c. 1595 Dec 26, 2011 CANADA (SUN) A serial presentation of India's artistic legacy in paintings, sculpture and temple architecture. THE DECCANI SCHOOLS 16th to 18th Centuries Like the group of Bikaner paintings featured in yesterday's segment, of Govinda fluting with His cows, there are many beautiful Vaisnava themes to be found among the Deccan Miniatures. Today we take a brief look at paintings from the Ahmednagar School, a sub-category of the Deccan School. In the Ahmednagar Miniatures, Vaisnava themes are overshadowed by the Persian influence, no doubt because the earliest examples of this school are no longer in existence. Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, situated about 250 km. due east of Mumbai, was an Islamic kingdom during the Sixteenth Century. During the late Iron Age it was part of the territory of the Sattavahanas and during the 1st Millennium A.D. it was ruled by the Yadavas, until it fell to the Muslim intruders. Ragamala, Ahmednagar, 17th c. Nearly all the early examples of Ahmednagar painting are in the Persian style, an influence seen not only in themes, but also in the richly brilliant colors, high horizons, golden skies and landscapes, and gilt scripts framing the wide borders of manuscript illustrations. This style is equally evident in Ahmednagar School Ragamala illustrations of the period. In the Ragamala illustration of Vasanta Raga above, the painting is bordered along with top with the Raga verse in Devanagari script vas (anta). Not shown is an additional caption above that, in Arabic characters, which mislabels the painting as Hindola Raga and Vasant Ragini. The raga depicted is actually the Vasanta, and it was no doubt the introduction of the swing (hindola) that led to the confusion of titles. The Sanskrit verses for this Raga describe how Vasanta (the male personification of Spring, or Kamadeva) is sprayed with holi colors by young maids in a mango grove, on a Kashmiri mountain. Praised by strings of bees, he disports himself on a swing. Like a blue lotus (dark complexioned) and dressed in a tawny garment, he holds in his fingers the shoots of the fresh mango. In the painting, the young male Spring wears a four-pointed coat, a fashionable style worn during the reign of Akbar. This aspect of the figure may have been adopted by the artist from a Malwa influence. The distinctive feature of the women's costumes are the projecting transparent veils, a style also found in the Nimat Namah (cookbook) of Malwa. This may tie it to the Chaurapanchasika Group of Miniatures, perhaps developed in its classical form in Malwa or south Rajasthan during the second half of the 16th Century. This detail of costume does point to the northern Deccan origin of this Vasanta Raga illustration. Ministry of Culture, Government of India Submit an Article Copyright 2005, 2011, HareKrsna.com. All rights reserved.

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- Current Issue SIGN IN to access the Harper’s archive ALERT: Usernames and passwords from the old Harpers.org will no longer work. To create a new password and add or verify your email address, please sign in to customer care and select Email/Password Information. (To learn about the change, please read our FAQ.) From “What Democracy? The case for abolishing the United States Senate,” by Richard N. Rosenfeld in the May 2004 Harper’s. Americans believe in the idea of democracy. We fight wars in its name and daily pledge allegiance to its principles. Curiously, the fervor with which we profess our faith in democracy is matched only by the contempt with which we regard our politics and politicians. How interesting that we should so dislike the process that we claim to revere. Perhaps, however, our unhappiness with politics points to something significant; perhaps Americans dislike the daily reality of their political system precisely because it falls short of being a proper democracy. Indeed, in the last presidential election, we saw a man take office who did not win the popular vote. Money above all else shapes our political debate and determines its outcome, and in the realm of public policy, even when an overwhelming democratic majority expresses its preference (as for national health insurance), deadlocks, vetoes, filibusters, and “special interests” stand in the way. No wonder so few people vote in national elections; we have become a nation of spectators, not citizens. The United States of America is not, strictly speaking, a democracy; indeed, the U.S. Constitution was deliberately designed to prevent the unfettered expression of the people’s will. Yet the Founders were not, as some imagine, of one mind concerning the proper shape of the new American union, and their disputes are instructive. The political dysfunction that some imagine to be a product of recent cultural decadence has been with us from the beginning. In fact, the document that was meant to prevent democracy in America has bequeathed the American people a politics of minority rule in which our leaders must necessarily pursue their unpopular aims by means of increasingly desperate stratagems of deceit and persuasion. Yet hope remains, for if Americans have little real experience of democracy, they remain a nation convinced that the best form of government is by and for the people. Growing numbers of Americans suspect that all is not right with the American Way. Citizens, faced with the prospect of sacrificing the well-being of their children and grandchildren on the altar of supply-side economics, the prospect of giving up new schools and hospitals so that the colony in Iraq might have zip codes and modern garbage trucks, have begun to ask hard questions. Politics, properly understood as the deliberate exercise of citizenship by a free people, appears to be enjoying a renaissance, but the hard point must be made nonetheless that tinkering with campaign-finance reform is unlikely to be sufficient to the task. True reform becomes possible only if Americans are willing to return to the root of our political experiment and try again. And if democracy is our aim, the first object of our constitutional revision must be the United States Senate. “We now have probably the most powerful upper house of any legislature,” Ritchie said. “Combine that with the inequality, and it creates some peculiar situations.” Not all small states are G.O.P. strongholds. (Hello, Vermont, Delaware and Rhode Island.) And it’s true that Obama won the 2008 nomination thanks in part to racking up caucus victories in states such as Idaho and Wyoming. But since Obama took office, senators from the wide-open spaces have asserted themselves against him over and over. Conrad opposed his plan to cut subsidies for wealthy farmers. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) pushed to focus transportation funding in the stimulus bill on rural areas and last week blocked the lifting of sugar tariffs to protect the ethanol industry. –“The Gangs of D.C.: In the Senate, small states wield outsize power. Is this what the Founders had in mind?” by Alec Macgillis, The Washington Post Ezra Klein with Harper’s editor Luke Mitchell on the Leonard Lopate show today; insurance and citizenship; the leading cause of catastrophic injury in young women: cheerleading; a review of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by “New Books” author Benjamin Moser According to plant pathologists, this killer round of blight began with a widespread infiltration of the disease in tomato starter plants. Large retailers like Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart bought starter plants from industrial breeding operations in the South and distributed them throughout the Northeast. (Fungal spores, which can travel up to 40 miles, may also have been dispersed in transit.) Once those infected starter plants arrived at the stores, they were purchased and planted, transferring their pathogens like tiny Trojan horses into backyard and community gardens. Perhaps this is why the Northeast was hit so viciously: instead of being spread through large farms, the blight sneaked through lots of little gardens, enabling it to escape the attention of the people who track plant diseases. It’s important to note, too, that this year there have been many more hosts than in the past as more and more Americans have taken to gardening… the explosion of home gardeners— the very people most conscious of buying local food and opting out of the conventional food chain— has paradoxically set the stage for the worst local tomato harvest in memory. –“You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster,” Dan Barber, The New York Times Suggestions for flavours range from Gooey Decimal System to Sh-sh-sh-sherbet. Woodworth writes on Facebook that the logic behind the scheme is that “libraries are awesome, Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream is tasty, therefore a library-themed Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream would be tasty awesome.” Gooey Decimal System could combine dark fudge alphabet letters with caramel swirls in hazelnut ice-cream, he suggests, while Dusty Stacks could be a layered ice-cream with speckles of cocoa in every layer. Li-Berry pie could mix lime sherbet with raspberry sauce and pie-crust pieces, and Overdue Fine as Fudge Chunk could drop fudge brownies and white chocolate coins into milk chocolate ice-cream swirled with caramel. The fine details of Sh-sh-sh-sherbet aren’t pinned down quite yet– it could be key lime, or possibly a vanilla/chocolate combination –“Book Fans Develop a Taste for Library-themed Ice-cream,” Alison Flood, The Guardian Lucas Mann on hope and change in a minor-league-baseball city Minimum number of baboons forced to smoke crack in a 1989 study testing the efficacy of cigarettes as a drug delivery device: A reduction in distrust toward atheists was documented among pious Canadians who are reminded of the Vancouver police. A Missouri cinema apologized for hiring an actor dressed in body armor and carrying a fake rifle to appear at a screening of Iron Man 3. Subscribe to the Weekly Review newsletter. Don’t worry, we won’t sell your email address! “This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”

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- Born ca. 1721 - Revolutionary leader - Cousin of Thomas Jefferson - Attorney General of Virginia Colony - Chaired first and second Continental Congress - Died 1775 First to be called “Father of country” Peyton Randolph was on the black list of patriots the British proposed to arrest and hang after he presided over the Continental Congress in 1775. Upon his return to Williamsburg, the volunteer company of militia of the city offered him its protection in an address that concluded: "May heaven grant you long to live the father of your country – and the friend to freedom and humanity!" If his friend George Washington succeeded him as America’s patriarch, Randolph nevertheless did as much as any Virginian to bring the new nation into the world. He presided over every important Virginia assembly in the years leading to the Revolution, was among the first of the colony's great men to oppose the Stamp Act, chaired the first meeting of the delegates of 13 colonies at Philadelphia in 1774, and chaired the second in 1775. Randolph was born 54 years before the Second Continental Congress – probably in Williamsburg in 1721 – the second son of Sir John and Lady Susannah Randolph. His first name was his maternal grandmother's maiden name, just as his older brother Beverley's was their mother's. The surname Randolph identified him as a scion of 18th-century Virginia's most powerful clan. When Peyton Randolph was three or four years old, the family moved into the imposing wooden home on Market Square now known as the Peyton Randolph House. His father, among Virginia's most distinguished attorneys, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and a wealthy man, died when Peyton was 16, leaving the house and other property for him in trust with his mother. The will also gave Peyton his father's extensive library in the hope he would "betake himself to the study of law." By then, he had a brother John and a sister Mary. Study of law Attentive to his father's wishes, Peyton Randolph attended the College of William & Mary, then learned the law in London's Inns of Court. He entered the Middle Temple on October 13, 1739, and took a place at the bar February 10, 1743. Returning to Williamsburg, he was appointed the colony's attorney general by Governor William Gooch on May 7, 1744. His father had filled the office before him, and his brother would assume the role after. At the age of 24, Randolph was eligible for his inheritance. On March 8, 1746, he married Betty Harrison, and on July 21 (more than two years after his return from London), he qualified himself for the private practice of law in York County. His cousin Thomas Jefferson may have shed some light on the delay in a character sketch he wrote of Randolph years later. "He was indeed a most excellent man," Jefferson said, but "heavy and inert in body, he was rather too indolent and careless for business." He was, as well, occupied with myriad public duties. In 1747, he became a vestryman of Bruton Parish Church, and in 1748, he became Williamsburg's representative in the House of Burgesses, and in 1749, a justice of the peace. Randolph returned to the house in 1752 as the burgess for the college of William & Mary and on December 15, 1753, the house hired him as its special agent for some “ticklish business” in London. Soon after he arrived in Virginia in 1751, Governor Robert Dinwiddie had begun to exercise a right no governor before him had tried: the imposition of a fee for certifying land patents. For his signature, Dinwiddie demanded a pistole, a Spanish coin worth about 20 shillings. Regarding the fee as an unauthorized tax, Virginians objected, though to no avail. Peyton Randolph was dispatched to England as the house's agent, with directions to go over the governor's head. But as attorney general, it was his duty to represent the interests of the Crown, of which Dinwiddie was the principal representative in Virginia. Randolph was attacking the right of the governor he was appointed to defend! The governor refused to give Peyton Randolph permission to leave the colony, but he left anyway. In London, he had to answer for his action, and he was ousted from the attorney general's office. Dinwiddie had already named George Wythe as acting attorney general in Randolph's place. Nevertheless, the London officials pointedly suggested that Dinwiddie reconsider his fee and said that they would have no objection to Peyton Randolph's reinstatement if he apologized. So he did, and subsequently resumed office soon after his return to Williamsburg. French and Indian War Reelected burgess for the College of William & Mary in 1755, he involved himself the next year in a somewhat ludicrous, though harmless, attempt to promote morale during the French and Indian War. With other prominent men, he formed the Associators, a group to raise and pay bounties for private troops to join the regular force at Winchester. George Washington, in charge of the fort there, wasn't sure what he would do with the untrained men if they arrived. Not enough came, however, to cause any inconvenience. In 1757, Randolph joined the college's board, and he served as a rector for one year. He was reelected burgess for Williamsburg in 1761, and thus entered the phase of his life that thrust him into a leadership role in the Revolution. Word of Parliament's intended Stamp Act brought Virginians and their burgesses into conflict with the Crown itself in 1764. Peyton Randolph was appointed chairman of a committee to draft protests to the king, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons maintaining the colony's exclusive right of self-taxation. Disagreement with Patrick Henry This responsibility put Peyton Randolph at odds with Patrick Henry, the Virginian most noted for opposition to the tax. At the end of the legislative session in 1765, Henry, a freshman, introduced seven resolutions against the act. Peyton Randolph, George Wythe, and others thought that Henry's resolutions added nothing to the colony's case and that their consideration was improper until the colony had a reply to its earlier protests. In the final days of the session, after many opponents had left the city, Patrick Henry introduced his measures and made the famous speech in which he said “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First had his Cromwell, and George the Third . . .” prompting cries of treason from the remaining burgesses present. Peyton Randolph, though not yet Speaker, was presiding. When Speaker John Robinson resumed the chair the following day (May 30), Henry carried five of his resolves by a single ballot. A tie would have allowed Robinson to cast the deciding "nay." Jefferson, standing at the chamber door, said Peyton Randolph emerged saying, "By God, I would have given one hundred guineas for a single vote." Patrick Henry left town, and the next day his fifth (and most radical) resolution was expunged by the burgesses who remained. Nevertheless, it was reprinted with the others in newspapers across the colonies as if it stood. Speaker of the House of Burgesses Peyton Randolph was elected Speaker on November 6, 1766, succeeding the deceased Robinson and defeating Richard Henry Lee. Peyton's brother John succeeded him as attorney general the following June. By now the brothers had begun to disagree politically; John's conservatism would take him to England in 1775 while Peyton joined the rebellion. Leads rebel meeting at Raleigh Tavern Another set of Patrick Henry's resolves, against the Townshend Duties, came before the House in May 1769. This time Peyton Randolph approved their passage, but Governor Botetourt did not. He dissolved the assembly. The "former representatives of the people," as they called themselves, met the next day at the Raleigh Tavern with Speaker Peyton Randolph in the chair. They adopted a compact drafted by George Mason and introduced by George Washington against the importation of British goods. Speaker Randolph was the first to sign. When the new legislature met in the winter, the governor was pleased to announce the repeal of all of the Townshend Duties, except the small one on tea. Legislative attention turned to other, calmer affairs. The next summer Peyton Randolph became chairman of the building committee for the Public Hospital. Closing of Boston Harbor troubles Virginia burgesses Tempers flared again in 1773, when Great Britain proposed to transport a band of Rhode Island smugglers to England for trial. The implications for Virginia were troublesome, and the burgesses appointed a standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry with Speaker Peyton Randolph as chairman. The following May brought word of the closing of the port of Boston in retaliation for its Tea Party. On May 24, 1774, Robert Carter Nicholas introduced a resolution drafted by Thomas Jefferson that read: "This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension of the great dangers, to be derived to British America, from the hostile Invasion of the City of Boston, in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts bay, whose commerce and harbour are, on the first Day of June next, to be stopped by an Armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the Members of this House, as a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the divine interposition for averting the heavy Calamity which threatens destruction to our Civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one heart and one Mind to firmly oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American Rights; and that the Minds of his Majesty and his parliament, may be inspired from above with Wisdom, Moderation, and Justice, to remove from the loyal People of America, all cause of danger, from a continued pursuit of Measure, pregnant with their ruin." The resolution was adopted. House of Burgesses dissolved Governor Dunmore summoned the house on May 26, 1774 and told Peyton Randolph: "Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon His Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it necessary for me to dissolve you; and you are accordingly dissolved." Continental Congress proposed On May 27, 1774, a group of 89 burgesses gathered again at the Raleigh Tavern to form another “non-importation association,” and the following day the Committee of Correspondence proposed a Continental Congress. Twenty-five burgesses met at Peyton Randolph's house on May 30 and scheduled a state convention to be held on August 1 to consider a proposal from Boston for a ban on exports to England. Peyton Randolph led the community to Bruton Parish Church on June 1 to pray for Boston, and soon he was organizing a Williamsburg drive to send provisions and cash for its relief. The First Virginia Convention approved the export ban and elected as delegates to the Congress Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. Signs will before departure for the First Continental Congress Before he left Williamsburg on August 18, 1774, Peyton Randolph wrote his will, leaving his property to the use of his wife for life. They had no children. The property was to be auctioned after her death and the proceeds divided among Randolph's heirs. Unanimously elected chairman of Continental Congress When Congress convened in Philadelphia on September 5, Thomas Lynch of South Carolina nominated Peyton Randolph to be chairman. He was elected by unanimous vote. Delegate Silas Deane wrote his wife, "Designed by nature for the business, of an affable, open and majestic deportment, large in size, though not out of proportion, he commands respect and esteem by his very aspect, independent of the high character he sustains." 500 merchants sign trade ban against England In October 1774, Peyton Randolph returned to Williamsburg to preside at an impending meeting of the house. Repeatedly postponed, it did not meet until the following June. Nonetheless, on November 9 Peyton Randolph accepted a copy of the Continental Association banning trade with England signed by nearly 500 merchants gathered in Williamsburg. Disperses angry crowd gathered at courthouse in Williamsburg Peyton Randolph was in the chair again at the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond on March 23 when Patrick Henry rose and made his "Liberty or Death" speech in favor of the formation of a statewide militia. In reaction, Governor Dunmore removed the gunpowder from Williamsburg's Magazine on April 21. Alerted to the theft, a mob gathered at the courthouse. Peyton Randolph was one of the leaders who persuaded the crowd to disperse and averted violence. British put Randolph on rebel execution list Peyton Randolph led the Virginia delegation to the Second Continental Congress in May 1775, and he again took the chair. General Thomas Gage, commander of British forces in America, had been issued blank warrants for the execution of rebel leaders and a list of names with which to fill them. Peyton Randolph's name was on the list. He returned to Williamsburg under guard, and the town bells pealed to announce his safe arrival. The militia escorted him to his house and pledged to guarantee his safety. The Third Virginia Convention reelected its speaker to Congress in July 1775, and Randolph left for Philadelphia in late August or early September. By this time, John Hancock had succeeded him to its chair. Died before Independence About 8 p.m. on Sunday, October 23, Peyton Randolph began to choke, a side of his face contorted, and he died of an "apoplectic stroke." He was buried that Tuesday at Christ's Church in Philadelphia. His nephew, Edmund Randolph, brought his remains to Williamsburg in 1776, and he was interred in the family crypt in the Chapel at the College of William and Mary on November 26. Peyton Randolph's estate was auctioned on February 19, 1783, following the death of his widow Betty Randolph. Thomas Jefferson bought his books. Among them were bound records dating to Virginia's earliest days that still are consulted by historians. Added to the collection at Monticello that Jefferson sold to the federal government years later, they became part of the core of the Library of Congress. For further reading:

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What does the term "Flawed Democracy" actually mean? Why are some of the world's successful democracies like France, Israel and India rated "Flawed Democracies" by the Economist Intelligence Unit? First off the wikipedia page that you cite to is based on the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index ("EIUDI") which is not an academic source. The methodology used to assemble the report is not known, but that doesn't mean that it is not useful. With that in mind from the EIUDI 2011 Report: The EIUDI report uses five criteria to measure a country's democracy: The countries that you are interested in scored as follows for these five categories: France: France scores relatively low on "Functioning of government," "Political participation," and "Political culture." Israel: Israel scores pretty bad on "Civil liberties," and sort of mediocre on everything else. India: India scores bad on both "Political participation," and "Political culture." So these countries have good governments, but there are certain issues typically related to the political culture that bring their overall score down and make them flawed democracies according to the index. |show 2 more comments| Democracy, in this index in particular, mostly refers to participation in the governments system of elections. Not electioneering, laws or even policies that could inherently discriminate. It is a weak index and is only useful for investors looking for a predictable government to trade with, or to entrench a western cultural world view. Its virtually guaranteed that foreign exchange controls and this index are highly correlated. Besides the methodology of collecting information being scientifically unsound, this is not an indicator of human rights, discrimination in the public space, respect for international law or even outright racist laws and policies. These can all be violated "democratically". But then again, this is the Economist, which has proven repeatedly to present a highly neo-liberal bias in it's political commentary (white-male-westerners will likely disagree). Not a good index, not representative of the reality of the world. Civil rights: The most important thing in a democracy is human and civil rights, as well as the rule of the law (ie not arbitrary decisions). With the Indefinite Detention Act voted in the USA, plus Guantanamo, non respect for international laws, drones strikes, the enforced role of the military in the civilian sector, police brutality... and so much more, the USA is way down in the rank of democracies. Political culture: This is set upside down, a ridiculous way of evaluation. France gives exposure to all presidential as well as house representatives candidates: equal time to speak on TV, equal exposure in all aspects during the weeks before the elections. And that's how you can promote knowledge and awareness, which is culture. It is not at all this way in America. On the contrary, the US people are stuck with their two political parties system that represents the rich and powerful elite only, those capable of paying to be heard and known by the public. "Culture" in the US is only available on given topics, the point of views of the rich and interests of big business only. This only promotes ignorance. Actually, the USA is not democracy, it's plutocracy. It does not deserve a high rank. It has one of the lowest and most backwards political culture and system in the Western world, belonging to the beginning of the 20th century, no longer to the 21rst. Corruption should be a major criterion to include in the index. There, France ranks very low. So does the USA. Freedom of press is an aspect, but the actual representation of a greater diversity of points of views from all sides should be the criterion to include in the index. That's the means and obstructions to freedom of expression. It is huge in the USA with over 85% of all news coming out of 5 corporations linked to the CIA, defense conglomerate and corporate interests in general. And much more.

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A reading for Cultural Anthropology by Walter Trobisch (adapted from Readings in Missionary Anthropology II, edited by William Smalley. Used under the educational "fair use" provision of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Acts.) "Jesus took the man aside, away from the crowd ... and said to him 'Be opened.' With that his ears were opened, and at the same time the impediment was removed." (Mark 7:33-35) What we need is a message tailored for each individual. In a concrete situation, general principles alone are not enough. Let us therefore take three people aside -- away from the crowd. Let us try to help them and take responsibility for them as a congregation. All three of them are real persons. They come from three different African countries, thousands of miles apart, but I shall not tell you from which countries and I have changed their names. They have given me permission to use their cases as an example, so I am not breaking their confidence. Joseph is a 26-year-old teacher at a mission school. I never met him, but we corresponded for almost three years. He wrote me after he had read my book I Loved a Girl:Three years ago I married a 15 year-old person. I have ten years of schooling, my wife only six. God blessed us one year ago with a baby. I purposely did not choose a. girl with a higher level of education, for I intended to educate my wife in order that she become exactly as I wanted her to be in her work and cleanliness, in her whole life. But she does not satisfy me any more with her obedience. She does not do what I command her to do. If I insist, we quarrel. I ask you for a solution to save this young marriage. In order to help Joseph we have to understand his way of thinking. For him, marriage is an alliance with an inferior being. For him, a woman is primarily a garden. Man is then primarily the bearer of the seed of life. Such is their mutual destiny. Their destiny decides their function. Their function defines their relationship. According to this conception the woman can never be as important as the man, any more than the soil can be as important as the seed. By her very nature, she is secondary, auxiliary. This is the root of all discrimination between man and woman that has shaped the history of mankind, not only in Africa, but also in Asia and -- until recently -- in Europe and America. This conception of marriage is not only based on a wrong and inaccurate biology. It is also not in accordance with the New Testament which conceives of husband and wife as equal partners before God. My task was to change Joseph's image of marriage. Here is my answer:Joseph, you have not married a wife. You have married a daughter. You were looking for a maid, obedient to your commandments. She was 15 when you married her. Now she is 18. In these three years she has developed from a girl to a young woman. In addition she has become a mother. This has changed her personality completely. She wants to be treated as a person. She wants to become your partner . . . It strikes me that your quarreling started after God gave you a baby. How long is the period of lactation in your tribe? Could it be that your quarreling has a deeper reason? It is not God's will for a married couple to abstain from physical union for such a long time.Joseph's answer came quickly:You are exactly right . . . It is true that we abstain from sex relations for two years after the birth of a child ... This habit is incorporated in us. Otherwise we are afraid of losing the baby, especially if the mother breast-feeds it and if it is a boy .. . My father - in - law pointed this out to me when our child was born. The practice of abstaining from sex relations during the period of lactation presupposes a polygamous society. According to the biological conception of marriage, a man can have several gardens to be planted one after the other. A garden can have one proprietor only, Joseph wants to be a Christian. He has been taught by his church that polygamy is sin. But he has been left with this negative message. He has not received any positive advice on how to live with one wife as a partner, nor has he been told how to space his children. It is interesting that Joseph did not confide his problem to his pastor. Evidently he did not expect any help from the pastor. Still, Joseph looks for a counselor. He may find that counselor in a questionable friend, maybe one that is not even a Christian, and he may be advised to do things which are poison for his marriage. The method our couple uses for spacing their children -- complete abstention -- will lead to an estrangement and husband and wife will slowly drift apart. Let us imagine that Joseph would have tried to solve his problem by taking a second wife. It is evident that refusing him communion as punishment for this action would have been the most inadequate answer to his problem on how to space his children. What is needed in Africa are not church disciplinarians, but marriage counselors. In this case had Joseph not gone ahead and simply taken a second wife, but confided his intention to his pastor, explaining his motive, would his pastor have been able to help? Would the pastor have received enough training in this respect at the seminary? When a Christian takes a second wife, it is mostly due to the fact that his congregation has not carried responsibility for him. It is unkind and merciless if missionaries condemn polygamy as sin, but keep silent to Africans about methods of conception control which they themselves use. It is even more so because a missionary usually has powdered milk at his disposal while an African villager does not. Let us imagine another possibility. Maybe Joseph did not take a second wife, but secretly had sexual relations with an unknown girl, or even the wife of another man. In other words, he had committed adultery. Now, since he wants to be a Christian, his conscience hurts him. What could he have done? Would he have found someone in your congregation to whom he could have gone, confessed his sin and received the absolution? If he had come to you, whether you are a pastor or not, would you have known what to do? What is needed in Africa are not ex-communicators but confessors who are keep the secret of confession absolute. What kind of training do our pastors receive in this respect? Here is the heart of the congregational responsibility for the individual. The offer of private confession is probably the most helpful contribution the Lutheran Church could make to the African churches as a whole. Martin Luther said: "No one knows what private confession can do for him, except he who has struggled much with the devil. Yes the devil would have slain me long ago, if the confession would not have sustained me." It is also possible that Joseph would not have dared to confess, but maybe you would have heard anyway about his sin. Then it would have been your duty to go to him. Responsibility for the individual means to take the initiative. Just as God has taken the initiative in Jesus Christ and has spoken to us without our inviting Him, so we have to take the initiative and talk to our brother, even if he does not ask us. This is "church discipline" according to the New Testament. "Go ye therefore ..." not to put him out of the church but to win him back to Jesus Christ (Matthew 18:15; 2 Thessalonians 3:15; 2 Timothy 2:25). Church discipline means to go and to win, not to wait and to judge. There is not time to report the case of Joseph in full. The relationship between him and his wife improved after I informed him about other methods of conception control. Later on a new problem arrived. The family moved from the village to town. While living in the village Joseph's wife had fed her family from that which she had grown in her own garden. But in town she did not have a garden. She had to go shopping. Joseph had to give her money, which had rarely happened before. Here is Joseph's letter:Tell me how to make up a family budget and how to convince a woman -- however idiotic she may be -- to keep it. Most of the time my wife buys things which we don't need and then they spoil.I made up a detailed monthly budget according to Joseph's income and included as one item, "pocket money for each one of you." Joseph wrote:My wife was very happy about it. After we had divided up the money, she was frank enough to tell me also the criticisms which she had in her heart about my spending habits. She was overwhelmed by joy to see the item, "pocket money for each one of you." This was, after almost three years of correspondence, the first time that Joseph had reported to me a reaction of his wife. The fact that he had shared my letter with her, that he even listened to her reproaches, but above all the fact that he gave her spending money, shows that his marriage had grown from a patriarchal pattern where the husband-father dominates his wife, into a marriage of partnership. A garden cannot rejoice and talk. One cannot listen to a garden. Joseph's wife had changed from a garden to a person. She had become a wife. Formerly, the course of life was channeled. The individual made very few decisions on his own. The road was marked by customs and traditions. This had changed now. The individual has to make up his mind about many things which formerly were decided by the family and the group. But -- as the case of Joseph and his wife shows -- the individual is not trained to make these decisions. Counseling therefore becomes indispensable. It belongs to the responsibility of the congregation. It is the service which the Christian church must give in a situation of social change. The work of the counselor can be compared best of all with "swimming." The time is past when a counselor could stand on a solid hilltop and give prefabricated rules and commandments to the counselee. The counselor has to descend from the hilltop and go into the water. Counselor and counselee have to swim together. With this picture of "swimming" in mind, the fact of uncertainty is expressed. At the outset the counselor may be more in need of advice than his counselee. But he swims together with him, trying to make. out beforehand the whirlpools and the rapids, the islands and the riverbanks. For a limited time, while exploring the situation for clarification and solutions, the counselor becomes the partner of his counselee. God is in this situation and the counselor has to find his will together with the counselee. Only what the latter is able and willing to accept and put into practice will help him. The development of Joseph's marriage during the time of our correspondence proves that marriage guidance by letter can be fruitful. It may even be easier to confide the most intimate problems to a complete stranger. Because of the long distances and the lack of trained counselors, marriage guidance by mail has great promise in Africa, all the more because a personal letter there is highly treasured. It gives the receiver the experience of "being taken aside, away from the crowd," to have his impediment removed. Marriage guidance is not only a counseling task. It is also a missionary opportunity. Since marriage is part of practical Christian living, the Christian marriage counselor has the possibility of proclaiming the Gospel to non-Christians along with the advice he gives. Marriage has become the problem of life today. People of all confessions, religions, classes and races are interested in it. Every heathen, Muslim or Communist will listen to those who have something useful to say about marriage. As Christians, I believe we do have something useful to say. But, do we say it? Or is the church in possession of a treasure of knowledge and wisdom and is keeping it locked up instead of handing it out? Elsie is a high school student and the daughter of a "minister of religion" as she calls it. I know her too only by letter. She wrote to me and asked: "How can I meet a Christian boy?" I advised her to attend church. There she could meet boys. Here is her answer:The old people in our churches don't want boys to meet girls, not even to talk to them in their presence. Always the Sunday service begins by speaking against boys and girls. This has turned away most of the boys and girls from attending church. The other day the pastor said: "If any boy has written to you a letter, return it to him and tell him never to write to you any letter."I answered, but for a long time did not hear from Elsie. Later I learned that her school principal had confiscated my letter. I was not on the list of men with whom she was allowed to correspond. So my letter went to her parents, who lived in a small village hundreds of miles away from her school. It took three months before the permission came and my letter was handed over to Elsie. Finally she wrote again:I have met a boy who is not of my tribe. He is a keen Christian and a student in a secondary school. It appears to me as if he would make a good husband according to the direction in your book I Loved a Girl. I went home and talked to my parents about him. They said they would not allow me to marry from any other tribe apart from mine. They claim that men from my boyfriend's tribe are going about with other women, even if they are married. I have tried to tell them that not all men from that tribe are bad, but they insist on my marrying someone from my own tribe. Since we are told that we should honor our parents, I cannot do something which is against their will. To make it worse: I do not live at home. I know very few boys from my own tribe. Seeing that this boy is interested in me, should I disregard my parents' advice? In my answer I advised Elsie to take her boyfriend home once and present him to her parents so that they could meet him as a person. If she is certain about God's will for her marriage, she should obey God more than men. Elsie's answer:My parents have become impossible. They cannot approve the choice I have made. They say they have heard rumors that the man I have chosen was misbehaving at college. But ever since I met him, he has never showed me any nonsense. I have decided to remain single for the whole of my life, unless I can marry him.Marriage between two Christians must be based on mutual trust and confidence. Confidence demands free choice. Free choice demands opportunities where young people can meet in a healthy atmosphere without suspicion. It belongs to the responsibility of the congregation to provide such opportunities. Many marriage problems in Africa have their root in the fact that the couple never had time and opportunity to really meet and get acquainted before marriage. Many African boys and girls have a list with names of a limited number of persons with whom they correspond. In a society where the meeting of the sexes is still difficult, also for outward reasons, we have to recognize that letter-writing as a means to establish contacts, can be a good one. Instead of intercepting mail, schools should rather teach criteria of how to evaluate a letter and give helpful instructions for answering. Elsie's case reflects two areas of conflict. There is the conflict between the younger and older generation. Dealing with parents, uncles and grandparents is probably the thorniest problem of a marriage counselor in Africa. It has been overlooked that, in a fast-changing society, the education of the older generation is also a responsibility of the congregation. The church may have to speak out on the rules of exogamy (the tradition forcing a young man to find a bride outside a defined group of relatives) or endogamy (reversely, the rule that a bride can only be found within a close core of relatives.) Once a young African wrote me that he had 11,000 girls ("sisters") in his tribe which he could not marry. Unfortunately, he had fallen in love with one of them. There is also the conflict between individual freedom and the obligation to tradition and family. Elsie has new possibilities of choice, unknown to her parents. She is caught between (1) making use of this freedom and (2) submission to rules originating from customs no longer relevant to her situation. Like Joseph, she is in need of personal counseling in her new freedom. Her decision to renounce this freedom and the wish of her heart, even against the advice of her counselors, poses lots of questions: - If you had been her counselor, what would you have advised her to do? - Assuming that God called Elsie to stay single, would it be possible for her to put this' decision into practice? - Does our church have a message for single girls? - What would be the responsibility of her congregation for her? - Is the decision against individual freedom and for submission to tradition always God's will? - Where are the limitations of the fourth commandment? - What is behind the attitude of her parents? (Her father is a pastor !) - How far here is also the "biological" conception of marriage at work? - Will they be pleased by her "obedience" or rather be shocked that their "garden" shall never be planted? - What could be done to help her parents to better understand their daughter? Elsie's case is an encouraging one. She has character. She proves that one of the oncoming generation of African girls is able to make up her mind by herself instead of being pushed around and dominated. She is on her way to mature womanhood. Africa's future will depend upon this growth. There will be no free nations, unless there are free couples. There will be no free couples unless the wife grows into true partnership with her husband. It is the responsibility of the congregation to help toward such growth. It is the solution for Joseph's case as much as for Elsie's and even for our next case. On one trip, I worshipped in an African church where nobody knew me. After the service I talked to two boys. "How many brothers and sisters do you have?" I asked the first one. "Are they all from the same stomach?" "Yes, my father is a Christian." "How about you?" I addressed the other boy. He hesitated. In his mind he was adding up. I know immediately that he came from a polygamous family. "We are nine," he finally said. "Is your father a Christian?" No," was the typical answer, "he is a polygamist." "Are you baptized?" "Yes, and my brothers and sister too," he added proudly. "And their mothers?" "They are all three baptized, but only the first wife takes communion." "Take me to your father." The boy led me to a compound with many individual houses. It breathed cleanliness, order and wealth. Each wife had her own house and her own kitchen. The father -- a middle-aged, good-looking man, tall, fat and impressive -- received me without embarrassment and with apparent joy. Omodo, as we shall call him, was well-educated, wide awake and intelligent, with a sharp wit and a rare sense of humor. From the outset, he made no apologies for being a polygamist. He was proud of it. Here's the essential content of our conversation which lasted for several hours. "Welcome to the hut of a poor sinner!" The words were accompanied by good-hearted laughter. "It looks like a rich sinner," I retorted. "The saints come very seldom to this place," he said, "they don't want to be contaminated with sin." "But they are not afraid to receive your wives and children. I just met them in church." "I know. I give everyone a coin for the collection plate. I guess I finance half of the church's budget. They are glad to take my money, but they don't want me." I sat in thoughtful silence. After a while he continued, " I feel sorry for the pastor. By refusing to accept the polygamous men in town as church members, he has made his flock poor. They shall always be dependent upon subsidies from America. He has created a church of women whom he tells every Sunday that polygamy is wrong." "Wasn't your first wife heart-broken when you took a second one?" Omodo looked at me almost with pity. "It was her happiest day," he said finally. "Tell me how it happened." "Well, one day after she had come home from the garden and had fetched wood and water, she was preparing the evening meal, while I sat in front of my house and watched her. Suddenly she turned to me and mocked me. She called me a `poor man,' because I had only one wife. She pointed to our neighbor's wife who could care for her children while the other wife prepared the food." "Poor man," Omodo repeated. "I can take much, but not that. I had to admit that she was right. She needed help. She had already picked out a second wife for me and they get along fine." I glanced around the courtyard and saw a beautiful young woman, about 19 or 20, come out of one of the huts. "It was a sacrifice for me," Omodo commented. "Her father demanded a very high bride price." "Do you mean that the wife, who caused you to become a polygamist is the only one of your family who receives communion?" "Yes, she told the missionary how hard it was for her to share her love for me with another woman. According to the church, my wives are considered sinless because each of them has only one husband. I, the father, am the only sinner in our family. Since the Lord's supper is not given to sinners, I am excluded from it. Do you understand that, pastor?" I was entirely confused. "And you see," Omodo continued, "they are all praying for me that I might be saved from sin, but they don't agree from which sin I must be saved." "What do you mean?" "Well, the pastor prays that I may not continue to commit the sin of polygamy. My wives pray that I may not commit the sin of divorce. I wonder whose prayers are heard first." "So your wives are afraid that you become a Christian?" "They are afraid that I become a church member. Let's put it that way. For me there is a difference. You see, they can only have intimate relations with me as long as I do not belong to the church. In the moment I would become a church member, their marriage relations with me would become sinful." "Wouldn't you like to become a church member?" "Pastor, don't lead me into temptation ! How can I become a church member if it means disobeying Christ? Christ forbade divorce, but not polygamy. The church forbids polygamy but demands divorce. How can I become a church member if I want to be a Christian? For me there is only one way: be a Christian without the church." "Have you ever talked to your pastor about that?" "He does not dare to talk to me, because he knows as well as I do that some of his elders have a second wife secretly. The only difference between them and me is that I am honest and they are hypocrites." "Did a missionary ever talk to you?" "Yes, once. I told him that with the high divorce rate in Europe, they have only a successive form of polygamy while we have a simultaneous polygamy. That did it. He never came back." I was speechless. Omodo accompanied me back to the village. He evidently enjoyed being seen with a pastor. "But tell me, why did you take a third wife?" I asked him. "I did not take her. I inherited her from my later brother, including her children. Actually my older brother would have been next in line. But he is an elder. He is not allowed to sin by giving security to a widow." I looked in his eyes. "Do you want to become a Christian?" "I am a Christian." Omodo said without smiling. What does it mean to take responsibility as a congregation for Omodo? I am sorry that I was not able to see Omodo again. Our conversation contains in a nutshell the main attitudes of polygamists toward the church. It is always healthy to see ourselves with the eyes of an outsider. I asked myself: What would I have done if I were the pastor in Omodo's town? Let me share with you my thoughts and then ask for your criticism. They are based on many experiences in dealing with other polygamist families. Maybe you have better ideas than I have. Please, help me to help Omodo. The trouble with Omodo is that, unlike Joseph or Elsie, he did not ask for help. But that does not mean that he is not in need of help. The fact that he did almost all the talking and hardly gave me a chance, proves his inner insecurity. His sarcasm showed me that deep down in his heart he was afraid of me. In order to take this fear away, I accepted defeat. You will have noticed that I was a defeated person when I left him. If you want to win someone over, nothing better can happen to you than defeat. In the eyes of the world the cross of Jesus Christ was a defeat. Yet, God saved the world by this defeat. In talking with people we must remember this truth. We can easily win an argument, but lose a person. Our task is not to defend, but to witness. Humble acceptance of defeat is often the most convincing testimony we can give for our humble Lord. It is the one thing which the other one does not expect. Counseling is not preaching at a short distance. It is ninety percent listening. When I have a conversation like this I ask myself first of all, where is the other one right? I think Omodo is right in his criticism of contradictory church policies, which sometimes deny our own doctrines. We have made the church the laughing-stock of a potentially polygamous society. We have often acted according to the statement, "There are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of them all is church order and discipline." Some churches demand that a polygamous man separate himself from all his wives, some from all but one. Others demand that he keep the first one; others allow him to choose. Some allow that his wives stay with him under the condition that he has no intercourse with them. Some do not even allow polygamists to enter the catechumen class. Others allow them, but do not baptize them. Again others baptize them, but do not give them communion. A few allow them full church membership, but forbid them to hold office. The most generous solution was to baptize a polygamist only on his death bed. It happened to a Swedish missionary once that such a polygamist did not die but recovered after baptism. The church council decided, "Such things must not happen." They did not specify whether they referred to the recovery of the polygamist or to his baptism. We have made ourselves fools before the world with our policies. Let us admit honestly our helplessness first of all. We are facing a problem where we just do not know what to do. Maybe our mistake is that we want to establish a general law for all cases. We want to be like God, knowing what is good and evil and have decided that monogamy is "good" and polygamy "evil" while the Word of God clearly does not say so. The Old Testament has no outspoken commandment against polygamy and the New Testament is conspicuously silent about it. Instead of dealing with polygamy, the Bible has a message for polygamists. Therefore let us not deal with an abstract problem. Instead let us meet a concrete person. Let us meet Omodo. Is he a special case? Well, every one of us is a "special case" in one way or another. There are no two persons exactly alike. Still, if we can help in one case like that of Omodo's, we might find the key to deal with many others. So, what would I have done? First of all, I would have gone back to visit him again. Church discipline, as the New Testament understands it, starts with me, not with the other one. If possible, I would have taken my wife along. I would have asked her to tell Omodo what she would think of me if I let her work all day in the garden, get wood and water, care for the children and prepare the food while I sit idly in the shade all day under the eaves of my hut and watch her work. I think she would have told him that he does not have three wives, but actually he has no wife at all. He is married to three female slaves. Consequently, he is not a real husband; he's just a married male. Only a real husband makes a wife a real wife. In the meantime I would have talked to Omodo's first wife and told her precisely the same, that only a real wife makes a husband a real husband. I would have challenged her because she had not demanded enough from her husband. She had behaved like an overburdened slave trying to solve her problem by getting a second slave. Instead, she should have asked her husband to help her. She should have behaved like a partner and expected partnership. She probably would have thought I was joking and not have understood at all. So I would have explained and we would have talked, visit after visit, week after week. Then finally I would have asked her why she ridiculed her husband. I am sure there was something deeper behind it, a concrete humiliation for which she took revenge, a hidden hatred. At the same time, I would have continued to talk to Omodo -- not telling him anything which I had learned from his wife, but listening to his side of the story. I am sure I would have heard precisely the opposite of what his wife had said. I would have tried to make him understand his wife and to make his wife understand her husband. Then, maybe after months, I would have started to see them both together at the same time, possibly again accompanied by my wife. The best way to teach marriage of partnership is by example. One day we were discussing this in our "marriage class," a one-year course I taught at Cameroon Christian College. The students were telling me that African women are just not yet mature enough to be treated as equal partners. While we were discussing this, rain was pouring down. We watched through the window of the classroom the wife of the headmaster of our primary schools, who jumped from her bicycle and sought refuge under the roof of the school building. After a little while a car drove up. Out stepped her husband. He handed her the car keys, and off she drove with the car, while he followed her on the bicycle getting soaked in the rain. This settled the argument. It is up to the husband to make his wife a partner. Then, one day I would have attacked the case of the second wife. I can imagine her story. She probably was given into marriage with Omodo for a high bride price at a very young age. I would have tried to find out how she felt about her situation. Young and attractive as she was, I cannot imagine that she was so terribly excited by old fat Omodo. It is very likely that she had a young lover alongside. I have found that women in polygamous marriages often live in adultery, because their husbands, staying usually with one wife for a week at a time, are not able to satisfy them. Solving the problem of the second wife would involve talks with her father and "fathers" and also with the young man she really loves. It would have been a hard battle, but I do not think a hopeless one. It is a question of faith. I would trust Jesus that He can do a miracle. I would ask some Christians in the congregation who understand the power of prayer to pray when I talk to the father. Every father wants to have a happy daughter. I would try to convince him to pay the bride price back to Omodo (or at least a part of it). The first time I would have suggested to Omodo to let his second wife go, he probably would have thrown me out the front door. So I would have entered again through the back door. I would have tried to tire him out by an unceasing barrage of love. It is very important that by now a very deep personal contact and friendship is established between Omodo and me, a "partnership in swimming." In this partnership Jesus Christ becomes a reality between us even when His name is not mentioned in every conversation. One day, I think, Omodo would have admitted that he did not take his second wife just out of unselfish love for his first one, but that he considered his first wife as dark bread when he had appetite for a piece of candy. Now, we could start to talk meaningfully about sin. Not about the sinfulness of polygamy, but about concrete sins in his polygamous state. To talk to a polygamist about the sinfulness of polygamy is of as little help as talking to a soldier about the sinfulness of war or to a slave about the sinfulness of slavery. Paul sent the slave Onesimus back to his slave master, while at the same time he proclaimed a message incompatible with slavery which finally caused its downfall. Paul broke the institution of slavery from inside, not from outside. This is a law in God's kingdom which can be called the "law of gradual infiltration." It took centuries until slavery was outlawed. God is very patient. Why are we so impatient? So I would have talked to Omodo about his selfishness. I would have talked to his first wife about her hatred, lies and hypocrisy and to the second one about her adultery. In the minute they began to see how these things separate them from God, it would not have been difficult to make them aware of their need of forgiveness. Then we could have talked about reconciliation with God. This reconciliation would have happened through the absolution. "He has enlisted us in this service of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18) After the experience of the absolution, we would have tried together to find the will of God for each person involved. Would the separation of Omodo from his second wife be a divorce? It depends upon whether we consider polygamy also as a form of marriage. Parenthetically, I believe we may have to. Let us be fair. Polygamy is not "permanent adultery" as a missionary once tried to tell me. Adultery is never permanent. It is a momentary relationship in secrecy with no responsibility involved. Polygamy, on the other hand, is a public state, often based on a legally valid contract. It involves life-long responsibility and obligations. If polygamy is marriage, separation is divorce. If we compare marriage with a living organism, husband and wife can be compared with the two essential organs, the head and the heart. In all higher-developed organisms one head corresponds to one heart. Only primitive organisms are just a plurality of cells, as for example the Alga volvox globator. Parts of that organism are relatively independent from the whole. A tapeworm can be cut apart and the parts are still able to live. One could compare polygamy with a primitive organism, which has not yet reached the state in which one head corresponds to one heart. Still, a tapeworm is one organism as much as polygamy is marriage. Our dilemma is that we want monogamy and we do not want divorce. Yet, in a polygamous situation we cannot have one without the other. There are situations in life where we have the choice between two sins and where the next step can only be taken in counting on the forgiveness of our crucified Savior. It is in such situations where Luther gave the advice in all evangelical freedom, "Sin bravely!" being guided by the love for your neighbor and by what is most helpful to that neighbor. For me, there is no doubt that in Omodo's case the most helpful solution for his second wife would be to marry the man she loves. The case of Omodo's third wife, whom he had inherited from his late brother, is probably the most difficult one. In 0modo's case it was especially difficult, because she was blind. I would have gathered the elders of the church and explored possibilities with them on how to support her through congregational help in case she wanted to live independently. The way a congregation treats their widows is the best test of their willingness and ability to carry responsibility for the individual. One question is still open: When would I have baptized Omodo? I do not know. One cannot answer this question theoretically. I hope you understand that what I have just described is not the work of an afternoon, but of months, maybe years. Under the condition that this work is done, the moment chosen for baptism is not of decisive importance. There are no chronological laws in the process of salvation. I would not have baptized Omodo before he had an experience of private confession and absolution. But then, someplace along the way, I would have done it, asking God for guidance together with the congregation for the right moment. We should get away from considering church discipline as a matter of sin and righteousness, but rather put it on the basis of faith and unbelief. Faith is not a nothing and the use of the sacraments is not a nothing. In case it would have taken years to find a solution for Omodo's wives, I would have expected such a solution as fruit of his baptism and not as a condition for it. In the meantime, while working and praying for a solution, Omodo would have to "sin bravely," sensing his polygamous state more and more as a burden. As his brother in Christ, together with the congregation, I could only act then according to Galatians 6:2 which says: "Bear one another's burden and fulfill the law of Christ." If we followed that course of action, would then the walls break and the church be flooded by polygamy? I do not believe so. For economic reasons, polygamy is on the retreat anyway in Africa. The current generation of Africans longs for a monogamous marriage of partnership. We overestimate ourselves if we always think we have to keep shoring up the walls so they won't break. The statement "God is a God of order" is not in the Bible. First Corinthians 14:33 reads, " God is not a God of disorder, but of peace." Counseling the individual is putting congregational responsibility into practice. In the process of counseling, the unacceptable person is taken aside, away from the crowd, and unconditionally accepted. To help the individual in the name of the God of peace, we need both the rules and the exceptions. The counselor has to give himself into life with its many different situations and happenings and "swim" with his counselee. God is with them in the water. Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658 Copyright © 2002 - Last Updated: October 10, 2011 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/trobisch.htm You have permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in your ezine, at your web site or in your newsletter. Please include the following footer: Article by Howard Culbertson. For more original content like this, visit: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert

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If you are in reasonably good health, preferably over age 18, and have the necessary time and energy, you can run a marathon. Things You’ll Need: - Establish a solid fitness base. From a recommended 15 to 20 miles a week, gradually build to a peak mileage range of 30 to 40 miles. - Minimize the stress on your body by doing other sports, such as swimming or biking, especially after a long or hard run. - Practice the hard/easy principle. Intersperse stress and rest by taking days off to recover and adapt to marathon training. - Increase gradually. Up your training mileage by no more than 10 percent a week. - Run at least three long runs, from 18 to 20 miles. - Stick with 20 miles. Most experts say there is no reason to go beyond this amount in training, and the risk of injury increases with longer runs. - Consider speed work. Faster running isn’t necessary for first-timers, but it can be useful. Make sure to consult an expert, such as a coach. - Practice racing. Use shorter events to practice pacing and drinking, and to test running gear. Tips & Warnings - Find a friend or training group. Consider a training partner and/or a group to help get you through the long runs. - Practice mentally as well as physically. The marathon can take enormous concentration. Visualize yourself successfully running it in training. - Remember to stretch. This is important to maintain flexibility and prevent injuries. Stretching before training is a bonus, but it’s especially important after running. - Study the distance. Read books and articles, and talk to experienced marathoners. - If you have any condition that would impair or limit your ability to engage in physical activity, please consult a physician before attempting this activity. This information is not intended as a substitue for professional medical advice or treatment. How to Train for Your First Marathon,

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THE USE OF BRAINSTORMING IN INCREASING STUDENT’S MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING ABILITY IN AL-MUHIBBIN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL GRADE VIII by: Iin Nurkhasanah - I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study English is one of the most important subjects learned in almost all school in every country including Indonesia. The reason why it is important is that because English become an international language. People use English around the world. It is studied seriously because the language is becoming second language in almost all countries. People consciously take many courses and education of English because of an important of the language. Many sectors in our daily life need English as the prerequisites. All job application will not be fulfilled without capability of English. People certainly realize and concern about the importance of English since mostly the widespread of the issue had English to become important object to be searched and mastered. English is widely used in mass media and oral communication as means of exchanging information, including science and technology reasons. Harmer (2000:1) stated that English has become a lingua franca. It means that English is a means for people who have different language to communicate orally or written form. They use English to enable them to communicate and transfer information. This paper highlights (1) The Use of brainstorming, (2) students’ motivation and (3) Speaking ability 1.2 Problem of the study - What technique use in improving student’s speaking skill? - How the use of brainstorming in correct procedure so that students are interesting to engaged with. 1.3 Objective of the study - To know what technique use to improve students’ speaking skill. - To know how to apply brainstorming in the class correctly. 1.4 Significance of the Study This research is intended to offer an alternative technique in enhancing students’ speaking comprehension achievement since a good teacher of English is required to train the students by applying good strategies. The use of brainstorming can make the student feel convenient and confident to speak because the topic is already discussed or they have known before. Based on the background of the study above, the hypotheses will be formulated the null hypothesis (Ho) and alternative hypothesis (Ha) as follows. H0: There is no significant difference in average score in speaking between students who are taught using brainstorming technique and conventional technique. H1: There is no significant difference in average score in speaking between students who are taught using brainstorming technique and conventional technique. H0: There is no significant improvement in average score in speaking between students who are taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H2 : There is a significant improvement in average score in speaking between students who are taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H0 : There is no significant improvement in average score in speaking between students’ who are already taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H3 : There is a significant improvement in average score in speaking between students’ who are already taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H0 : There is no significant difference in average score in speaking between students’ after taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H4 : There is no significant difference in average score in speaking between students’ after being taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H0 : There is no significant difference in average score in speaking between students’ after being taught speaking using brainstorming technique. H5 : There is a significant difference in average score in speaking between students’ after being taught speaking using brainstorming technique and conventional technique. H0 : There is no significant difference in average score in speaking between students who are being taught speaking using brainstorming and conventional technique. H6 : There is a significant difference in average score in speaking between students who are being taught speaking using brainstorming and conventional technique. H0 : There is no interaction effect of using brainstorming technique and conventional technique towards students’ speaking achievements. H7 : There is no interaction effect of using brainstorming technique and conventional technique towards students’ speaking achievements. 1.6 The Criteria for Testing Hypothesis In this study, the hypothesis that has been formulated before, the writer used the critical value of t-table at the significance 0.05 is with n=30. If the value of t-obtained is higher than value of t-table, the alternative hypothesis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be accepted and the null hypothesis will be rejected. And if the value of t-table is higher than value of t-obtained, they null hypothesis will be accepted and the alternative hypothesis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be rejected. In variance analysis, at the significance 0.05 is with n=30. - II. LITERATURE REVIEW The Use of Brainstorming Brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem. In 1953 the method was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming. Oxford defined that brainstorming is a way of making a group of people all think about something at the same time, often in order to solve a problem or to create good ideas. Brainstorming is the name given to a situation when a group of people meet to generate new ideas around a specific area of interest. Using rules which remove inhibitions, people are able to think more freely and move into new areas of thought and so create numerous new ideas and solutions. The participants shout out ideas as they occur to them and then build on the ideas raised by others. All the ideas are noted down and are not criticized. Only when the brainstorming session is over are the ideas evaluated. The other meaning of brainstorming is To brainstorm is to use a set of specific rules and techniques which encourage and spark off new ideas which would never have happened under normal circumstances. So there you have it: brainstorming will help you come up with new ideas. And not only will you come up with new ideas but you will do so with surprisingly little effort. Brainstorming makes the generation of new ideas easy and is a tried-and-tested process. Exactly what you apply brainstorming techniques to depends on what you want to achieve. You can apply them to develop new products, services and processes in your job, or you can apply them to develop your personal life. There are two models of brainstorming - Traditional Brainstorming The normal view of brainstorming is where a group of people sit in a room and shout out ideas as they occur to them. They are told to lose their inhibitions and that no ideas will be judged so that people are free to shout out any ideas at all without feeling uncomfortable. People should build on the ideas called out by other participants. The purpose of this is to gain as many ideas as possible for later analysis. Out of the many ideas suggested there will be some of great value. Because of the free-thinking environment, the session will help promote radical new ideas which break free from normal ways of thinking. - Advanced Brainstorming The model we propose is an extension of the traditional brainstorming scenario and makes the whole process easier and more effective. Advanced brainstorming builds on the current methods of brainstorming to produce more original ideas in a more efficient way. Specialized techniques, better processes and better awareness, combined with new technologies make traditional brainstorming a less frustrating process. Most of the problems associated with traditional brainstorming disappear as a more effective process is used. Keep on reading for more details of how you can do advanced brainstorming for great profit to you and your organization. Advanced brainstorming uses: - new processes and new training to reduce inhibitions - creative and lateral thinking techniques - new materials for stimulation and recording ideas Motivation in learning English Motivation is the driving force which help causes us to achieve goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in a basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality. There are many things instructors can do to prevent glazed-over eyes or nodding heads in a classroom. Faculty can help maintain and increase student motivation by - Establishing challenging, but not impossible goals for students. Offering intellectual tasks that are a “reach” can spur learners to higher levels of success. - Helping students set their own goals for learning that are ambitious, but realistic and achievable. Research shows that, if given a choice, people will choose a challenging, though not daunting task over one that is too hard – or too easy. While it’s often helpful to offer an easy question first in a discussion or on an exam, it’s counterproductive to make everything too easy. - Being clear, specific, and concrete in explaining course material and in giving examples. - Organizing student learning; for example, consciously building new material on facts or concepts that students already know. - Offering positive, consistent, and timely feedback – which doesn’t have to mean grades. A brief comment – if sincere – may suffice. Engaging students in a variety of teaching activities, such as role-playing, problem-solving, or any kind of student interaction, especially if these activities can relate the course to students’ interests and skills. The key here is activity, as passivity can be an impediment to feeling motivated. Speaking means to be able to use language (Oxford, 1986:6). According to Finnociaro and Brumfit (1983:1440) in Nurkhasanah speaking is one of the important language skills that have to be mastered by language learners. They consider that speaking skill is a complex skill, which involves the knowledge of sound, vocabulary and cultural sub-system of English language. It means that the knowledge from pronunciation, structure, vocabulary and cultural system of English system are important and much needed for communicating to society. According to Yorkey, speaking skill is a skill and like other skill, it must be practiced continuously. The teacher role is becoming important for students later. There are many keys to support speaking skill by listening cassette, watching tv, watching film, practicing with foreigners, practicing with partners. Dobson is quoted by Fita Krisnawati in her thesis. Speaking is an ability when students can judge how accurate their selling and how they use the sentences they have learned and it merely different when it is conveyed to writing skill, they usually produce rather mistakes but in free speaking, they have tendency to make mistakes that they wouldn’t make in writing 2. Speaking is easy, but conveys the speaking in to meaning is not easy. By having some experts’ statement and some guidance, the writer believes that speaking will easier when someone else opens a certain topic or do the brainstorming. Brainstorming can motivate student to speak because the way of brainstorming work is interesting. It can be compared to students who have no any topic to be talked, they will keep silent because they don’t know what should be talked, the feel afraid to speak, the afraid of making mistakes etc. The use of brainstorming is a good idea to convey students in speaking English everyday. Nurkhasanah, iin.the effectiveness of teaching speaking through debate activity of eFAC course in Intermediate level.2007 Richard C Yorkey,”Study skill for students of English as a second language: New York :MC.Grow Hill, Inc,1990), M Dobson, Teaching for skill,Teaching English Forum,XXIV January 1, 1989 p.30.quoted by Krisnawati in unpublished thesis Jeffrey Baumgartner, the step by step guided by brainstorming.1997, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 bwiti BVBA Erps-Kwerps, Belgium www.brainstorming.co.uk ©1997-2008 Infinite Innovations Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Biological species emerge and disappear in the natural course of evolution. There have been times in the Earth’s past when mass extinctions have occurred, causing a large number of species to disappear in a short time. This is generally believed to have happened due to external pressures on ecosystems, or sudden shocks and catastrophic events. We are currently going through such a period due primarily to the impact humans have had on the environment, and on plant and animal habitats. Some scientists believe that 50% of existing species may become extinct in the next 100 years. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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November 9, 2012 A couple of cups of coffee may help our brains process some words faster, a small experiment suggests. But we only get the message faster if the words are emotionally positive. The study included 66 healthy young men. They were told to consume no caffeine, nicotine or alcohol in the 12 hours before the experiment. The men were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group took a tablet containing 200 milligrams of coffee, about the amount in 2 to 3 cups of coffee. Each person in the other group received a placebo (fake) pill. Half an hour later, the men were given tests that involved being shown a series of real and invented words. They had to press buttons to indicate whether a word was real or not. Men who took the caffeine pills did this faster and more accurately for words with a positive emotional connotation. They did not perform better than men who got the placebo pills for recognizing neutral or negative words. The journal PLoS One published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 8. By Howard LeWine, M.D. Harvard Medical School What Is the Doctor's Reaction? You often hear people say things like "Don't talk to me. I haven't had my coffee yet." Researchers from Germany offer us new insight into why we might feel that way. The study comes from the Department of Psychology at Ruhr University. In general, people recognize and process the meaning of words faster if the words have a positive emotional slant. What these researchers found is that caffeine speeds up that link even more. But caffeine did not speed up how quickly people recognize and process emotionally neutral or negative words. Low doses of caffeine tend to put you in a more positive mood. Caffeine also generally helps you do mental tasks faster and with fewer errors. Now we can add the faster processing of positively charged emotional content. These are good explanations for why you want that first cup of coffee before talking to anyone. How caffeine affects the brain is not completely understood. But here is how most experts explain it. Caffeine gets absorbed in the stomach and small intestine. It enters the blood stream and is distributed throughout the body, including the brain. Once it reaches the brain, caffeine probably has multiple targets. But the main one seems to be adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a chemical that dampens brain activity. This counters the action of another brain chemical, dopamine. Dopamine acts as a brain stimulant and mood enhancer. By hogging the adenosine receptor sites, caffeine doesn't allow adenosine to dampen brain activity. This puts the balance in favor of dopamine. It leads to feeling more awake and alert, with a more positive mood. What Changes Can I Make Now? Overall, coffee is generally safe when used in moderation. But the key word is moderation. In some people, too much caffeinated coffee can raise blood pressure. Teenagers seem to be more susceptible to an increase in blood pressure from caffeine. Coffee also can interfere with how well your body absorbs iron and calcium. But you need to drink a lot of coffee for it to greatly lower the amount of iron and calcium in your bloodstream. And it's not the caffeine that interferes with the absorption. It's related to another ingredient in coffee called phenolic acid. So decaf coffee also will decrease absorption of these minerals. Depending on how you make your coffee, it can raise cholesterol levels a little. Again, it's not the caffeine that influences cholesterol levels. It's the coffee oil from the bean. If you boil or press your coffee, then the coffee oil gets into the brew. However, today most coffee in the United States is filtered through paper. And filtered coffee does not increase cholesterol levels. So what's the bottom line? If you are already a coffee drinker, enjoy it. If you don't drink coffee, processing of words that convey positive emotions is not a good enough reason to start. There's probably some amount of coffee (and other drinks containing caffeine) that carries a risk of real health hazards. I am still unclear as to what that level is for an otherwise healthy adult. My advice: If even one cup of coffee makes you jittery or anxious, or interferes with sleep, that is one cup too many. I am honest with patients. I don't know if 10 cups of coffee per day is too much. I would not drink that much; 3 cups per day is my own limit. What Can I Expect Looking to the Future? The great majority of medical studies looking at coffee drinkers have shown better health outcomes for people who drink coffee. Almost none have suggested that coffee is bad for you. In fact, my personal limit of three cups per day may be too cautious. Maybe I'd be better off drinking more!

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The Enola Gay in History and Memory by Christine Girardin With the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings fast approaching, commemorative events and symposia are being planned across the globe in places as diverse, yet symbolically significant, as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tinian, London, Tokyo, Washington, and Los Alamos. While forthcoming books by historians Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Gerard DeGroot, and Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird will advance the scholarly criticism of the bombings and show that viable alternatives for quickly ending the war without a U.S. invasion of the Japanese homeland existed, the bombs' defenders, including Gen. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, will also be out in force. Tibbets, echoing a refrain made popular by President Harry Truman, insists that he never lost sleep over that decision. Interestingly, the 1952 Hollywood film, Above and Beyond, on which Tibbets consulted, shows him unable to sleep on the night before the bombing of Hiroshima as he grappled with the profound consequences of what he was about to do. As historian Peter Kuznick explains, those consequences included not only the wanton slaughter of over 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the condemning of additional scores of thousands to a life of torment, but the inauguration of the nuclear era in a fashion that Truman and others understood could ultimately end life on the planet. The major mobilization this May around strengthening the Non- Proliferation Treaty during the review meetings at the United Nations is designed to reverse the spread of nuclear weapons and the further increase in nuclear weapons states to make sure that that dire prospect is never realized. Japan Focus introduction. TITUSVILLE -- There were 12 men onboard the B-29 that dropped the world's first atomic bomb in war, annihilating 70,000 people that day in Hiroshima, Japan, and killing about 130,000 more in the aftermath. Historians still disagree about whether the bombing was necessary to prevent the loss of more lives in battle, but the man who flew the aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945, remains proud of his role in the closing days of World War II. Col. Paul Tibbets with the Enola Gay on Tinian prior to takeoff for Hiroshima "I regretted it was necessary, but to me it was necessary to do it. I tell everybody I never lost a night's sleep over it," said retired Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, who is telling tales of those heady days and meeting fans this weekend at the 28th annual Tico Airshow in Titusville. Col. Paul W. Tibbets stands next to the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" which he piloted over Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6 1945, to drop the world's first atomic bomb in combat. Tibbets, 90, makes about a dozen appearances a year, promoting his book and talking about his place in military history. But the Enola Gay, and it's payload, Little Boy, weren't always something he talked about. For the first 10 or 12 years after the war, nobody wanted to revisit the Manhattan Project and the two atomic bombs it produced -- at least not publicly. Everyone was just so tired of killing that talking about it was shunned, Tibbets said. It was when the tide of public and scholarly opinion began to turn against the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that Tibbets went on the offensive. Ever since, he's talked about the special B-29 developed under his supervision to carry Little Boy, and details about the bombing run into Japanese skies. That bombing has been ranked as the most important news event of the 20th century, and one that changed humankind forever, said Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington, D.C. As a scholar who believes it probably wasn't necessary to drop the atomic bomb to end WWII, Kuznick said the ultimate lesson about the event is that once such terribly effective weapons are developed, they are extremely likely to be used. Moral debates and a scientific awareness of potential long-term problems won't be enough to prevent their use, just as they weren't enough to stop President Harry S. Truman from giving the order to drop the bomb. "He knew it wasn't just another bomb. He knew it wasn't just a bigger, more terrible bomb. He knew that he was beginning a process that could ultimately mean the annihilation of the human species," Kuznick said. Proof of the bomb's destructive power is displayed in old photographs on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum's Web site. Survivors closest to the blast, a little more than half a mile from the explosion's center, suffered severe burns. One woman is shown with the pattern of her kimono burned into her back. A Japanese child later wrote that the bomb turned people instantly into ghosts. Despite the atomic bomb's aftermath, Tibbets said humankind may again witness nuclear destruction. But this time, it's difficult to know who's the enemy. "There's gonna be some people who play with it. They're doing it now," he said. Christine Girardin wrote this story for the News Journal, Daytona Beach, Florida, March 10, 2005.

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|Title||Genetic heterogeneity in human disease.| |Publication Type||Journal Article| |Year of Publication||2010| |Authors||McClellan, J, King, M-C| |Date Published||2010 Apr 16| |Keywords||CDCV, fitness effects, heritability, missing heritability, mutation, schizophrenia| Strong evidence suggests that rare mutations of severe effect are responsible for a substantial portion of complex human disease. Evolutionary forces generate vast genetic heterogeneity in human illness by introducing many new variants in each generation. Current sequencing technologies offer the possibility of finding rare disease-causing mutations and the genes that harbor them. Genetic heterogeneity in human disease. For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people. From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome. The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

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Introduction / History Jews represent the oldest monotheistic religion of modern times. Because of the uniqueness of their history and culture, all Jews have a strong sense of identity. Persecution of and discrimination against the Jews have been the historical reasons for their migrations and settlements around the world. The Jews of Europe arrived on the continent at least 2,000 years ago during the early days of the Roman empire. Since then, they have been a significant influence in the history and culture of Europe. Much of what is considered "Jewish" today finds its roots among the European Jews. One of the unique features among European Jews is the distinction between the Ashkenazic Jews and the Sephardic Jews. The word Ashkenaz is derived from a Biblical word for the larger Germanic region of Europe. Therefore, Ashkenazim Jews are those whose ancestry is linked to that area. This group traditionally speaks the Yiddish language, which is a German dialect that has Hebrew and Slavic elements. The word Sephard was the name used by Jews in medieval times for the Iberian peninsula. Sephardim Jews, then, are the descendants of the Jews who lived in Spain or Portugal prior to expulsion in 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Sephardim also have a distinctive language called Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish. This is a dialect of Castilian Spanish with Hebrew and Turkish elements. What are their lives like? During the last few centuries, Eastern Europe had the largest Jewish population in the world. National attitudes toward the Jews were ambivalent, depending on the usefulness of the Jewish inhabitants to the nations' rulers. Anti-Semitism was prevalent and frequently led to either persecution or expulsion. The Holocaust of World War II was the climax of Jewish persecution in Europe, leading to the extermination of six million Jews. Many Eastern European countries lost the majority of their Jewish population in this tragedy. As a result of the Holocaust, thousands of Jewish survivors and their descendants have emigrated from Eastern Europe to Israel, the United States, or Western Europe. The recent memories of the Holocaust as well as the centuries of discrimination and persecution play a strong part in modern Jewish identity. European Jews are strong supporters of "Zionism," a revival of Jewish culture and support of Israel as a national, secure, Jewish homeland. Since the dissolution of the Soviet empire, former Soviet Jews no longer live under oppressive government rule. Anti-Semitism is still a concern, but Jewish life has been revitalized in recreated countries like the Ukraine. Synagogues are functioning and kosher (traditional, acceptable) food is once again available. The Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe is cause for concern among the remaining aged Jewish population. As the older Jews die, the Jewish community dwindles. Many of the younger Jews are unlearned in their Jewish identity. They are either non-observant or have assimilated into the prevailing culture. However, strong efforts are being made to maintain a Jewish presence and clarify their identity. Jewish schools are being opened and Judaic studies are being promoted in universities. Jewish hospitals and retirement homes are being built. Community centers also promote cultural events such as the Israeli dance, theater, Yiddish and Hebrew lessons, and sports. Western Europe now has the largest concentration of European Jewish residents. The Netherlands received a large influx of Sephardic Jews from Portugal in the late 1500's, and another contingent of Ashkenazic Jews after World War II. They have been very influential in the development of Dutch commerce. England's Jews are concentrated in the Greater London area and have been politically active for over 100 years. They have been avid supporters of Zionism and solidly committed to the settlement of Diaspora Jews in Israel. A large percentage of England's Jews are affiliated with the traditional Orthodox synagogues. Italy's Jewish population is primarily Sephardic due to its absorption of Spanish Jews in the 1500's. France's Ashkenazic community received 300,000 Sephardic Jews from North Africa in recent decades. What are their beliefs? For religious Jews, God is the Supreme Being, the Creator of the universe, and the ultimate Judge of human affairs. Beyond this, the religious beliefs of the Jewish communities vary greatly. European Jews are extremely diverse in religious practice. The Ashkenazic Jews are the most prevalent, representing the Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements. The unusual and adamantly traditional Hasidic movement was born in Poland and has gained a strong following in the United States and Israel. The Sephardic denomination is similar to the Orthodox Ashkenazic, but is more permissive on dietary rules and some religious practices. Each Jewish denomination maintains synagogues and celebrates the traditional Jewish holiday calendar. While most European Jews are religiously affiliated, there is a significant minority which is not religious. What are their needs? The Jews have a wonderful understanding of their connection with the Abrahamic covenant. However, they also have a history of rejecting Jesus Christ as Messiah, the one who has fulfilled that covenant. Pray that as the Gospel is shared, it will not be viewed as anti-Semitic, but rather as the fulfillment of what God promised through Abraham centuries ago. Prayer PointsView Jew, Eastern Yiddish-Speaking in all countries. * Ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth loving Christians to work among the Jewish communities. * Ask the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom and favor to the missions agencies that are focusing on the European Jews. * Pray that the Jewish people will understand that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. * Ask the Lord to soften the hearts of the Jews towards Christians so that they might hear and receive the message of salvation. * Pray that the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to the Jews through dreams and visions. * Pray that God will grant Jewish believers favor as they share their faith in Christ with their own people. * Pray that strong local churches will be raised up in each Jewish community. * Pray for the availability of the Jesus Film in the primary language of this people.

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INDO-CHINA: The New Frontier TIME. Monday, May. 29, 1950 The U.S. now has a new frontier and a new ally in the cold war. The place is Indo-China, a Southeast Asian jungle, mountain and delta land that includes the Republic of Viet Nam and the smaller neighboring Kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia, all parts of the French Union. For more than three years this land, in prewar times the rich French colony of Indo-China, has been suffering, on a lesser scale, the ruinous kind of civil war which won China for Communism. The Mao Tse-tung of the Indo-Chinese is a frail, but enduring comrade, who looks like a shriveled wizard; his nom de guerre is Ho Chi Minh (or One Who Shines). Chiang Kai-shek has no counterpart in Indo-China. The initial brunt of the Red attack has been borne by French soldiers. Meanwhile, the job of rallying native anti-Communist forces falls mainly on the meaty shoulders of the Emperor Bao Dai (or Guardian of Greatness), who now bears the official title of Chief of State of Viet Nam. While the dust of the Chinese civil war was settling before the bemused eyes of the State Department, the U.S. paid scant attention to the Indo-Chinese struggle. It seemed largely a local affair between the French and their subjects. Since the dust has settled in China, Asia’s Communism is thrusting southward. Indo-China stands first on the path to Singapore, Manila and the Indies (see map). Last January, led by Peking and Moscow, the world’s Communist bloc recognized Ho Chi Minh’s “Democratic Republic.” It was more than the Kremlin had ever done for the Communist rebels of Greece. Over the past several weeks, arms and other supplies were reported passing from Russia and China to the comrades in Indo-China. The stakes in Southeast Asia were big—as big as the global struggle between Communism and freedom. A fortnight ago in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson drew a line in the dust that has so long beclouded U.S. diplomacy. He implicitly recognized that the war in Indo-China is no local shooting match. He pledged U.S. military and economic aid to the French and Vietnamese. The U.S. thus picked up the Russian gauntlet. What kind of frontier and what kind of ally had history chosen for the U.S.? A Golden Asset. Unlike China, where U.S. traders and missionaries began a fruitful acquaintance more than a century ago, Indo-China has had little contact with Americans, either commercial, cultural or diplomatic.* The last comprehensive U.S. book on the country was published in 1937. Among other things, its author observed: “IndoChina lies too far off the main scene of action to play any but a secondary role in the Pacific drama.” In the pre-French past, most of Indo-China had been conquered by the Chinese, who had left their culture indelibly behind.† Through the last half of the 19th. Century, the French converted Indo-China into a tight, profitable colonial monopoly. They explored its fever-laden jungles, lofty ranges, great river valleys. They discovered its antiquities, including the majestic loth Century towers of Angkor Wat in northern Cambodia. They wrote about its mandarins, its Buddhist temples and Confucian family life. The French invested $2 billion, built up Indo-China’s rice and rubber production; before World War II, the colony, along with Siam and Burma, was one of the world’s three leading rice exporters. Its surplus went to rice-short China, a fact of great significance these days in Communist China’s support of Communist Ho Chi Minh. All the raw rubber France needed came from Indo-China. There were other lucrative items: coal, wolfram, pepper, opium (which, to French shame, was sold to the natives through a state monopoly) and many jobs for a white bureaucracy. French politicians called the colony “our marvelous balcony on the Pacific.” A Dangerous Liability. Indo-China is no longer a golden asset for France. As everywhere in the East, the old colonialism has died beneath the impact of Western nationalist, egalitarian ideas, a process greatly hastened by the Japanese march in World War II under the slogan “Asia for the Asiatics.” The French have bowed grudgingly to the times. In an agreement signed March 8, 1949 with Bao Dai, they promised limited freedom for Viet Nam within the French Union. Under its terms, a Viet Nam cabinet has charge of internal affairs, the right to a national army. Paris keeps direct control of foreign policy, maintains military bases and special courts for Frenchmen, retains a special place for French advisers and the French language. By that time the French were up to their necks in a costly campaign to crush Ho Chi Minh and his Communist bid for power. The civil war has cut rice production in half and disrupted the rest of Indo-China’s economy. It has tied down 130,000 French troops, about half of the Fourth Republic’s army, and thereby weakened the contribution France might make to Western Europe’s defense. In lives, the Indo-China war has cost the French 50,000 casualties. In money, it has cost $2 billion—just about the sum of ECAid to France. Indo-China, in brief, has become a dangerous liability for France— nor does any realistic Frenchman think it can ever again be an asset. Why, therefore, spend more blood and treasure in thankless jungle strife? Why not pull out? The answer is: more than French war weariness and prestige are at stake. If Indo-China falls to Communism, so, in all probability”, will all of Southeast Asia. For U.S. citizens, the first fact about their new frontier is that it will cost money to hold—much more than the French can pay alone, much more than the $15 million in arms and $23 million in economic aid thus far promised by Washington. The second fact is more compelling : the new frontier, if it is not to crumble, may need U.S. troops as well as French. Otherwise, the U.S. might surfer another catastrophic defeat in the Far East. A Question of Sympathy. The French have made more than the usual colonial mistakes. All too often, especially since they put the Foreign Legion and its German mercenaries to the work of restoring order after World War II, they have been arrogant and brutal toward the Indo-Chinese. They are paying for it now, for the bulk of Communist Ho Chi Minh’s support comes from anti- French, or anti-colonial Indo-Chinese. A sign over an Indo-Chinese village street tells the story; it reads “Communism, No. Colonialism, Never.” But the issue of native sympathy is complex. The vast majority of the people are simple rice farmers, who want peace and order so they may tend their paddy-fields. Ho Chi Minh himself does not now preach Communism openly: his explanation is that his people have no understanding of the word. Besides a crude, hate-the-French appeal (including atrocity propaganda—see cut), he has another effective persuasion: terror. His guerrillas and underground operators stalk the countryside; his assassins and bomb-throwers terrorize the cities. Indefatigably he spreads the word that he is winning, as his comrades have won in China. The result is that many are cowed into helping him, or at least staying out of the anti-Communist effort. Others, especially among the intelligentsia, sit on the fence, waiting to jump on the winning side. This is where Bao Dai comes in. A Display of Strength. It is Bao Dai’s mission, and the U.S.-French hope, to rally his countrymen to the anti-Communist camp of the West. In this undertaking he needs time. “Nothing can be done overnight,” he says. He needs time to organize an effective native government, train an army and militia that can restore order in the villages, win over the doubting fence-sitters among the intelligentsia. Besides a military shield, he also needs a display of winning strength and patient understanding by his Western allies. As a national leader, Bao Dai has his weaknesses, and largely because of them he does not enjoy the kind of popularity achieved by India’s Jawaharlal Nehru. But, as the lineal heir of the old monarchs of Annam, he is his nation’s traditional “father & mother,” its first priest (Buddhist) and judge. The French say that Bao Dai should act more decisively; whenever he does, there is impressive popular response. Nehru’s government of India, trailed by Burma’s Thakin Nu, Indonesia’s Soekarno and even by the Philippines’ Elpidio Quirino, has so far refused to follow the major Western democracies in recognizing Bao Dai’s Viet Nam Republic. They look on him as a French puppet. But Bao Dai has shown a judgment on the crucial ideological conflict of his time that compares strikingly and favorably with the petulant, third-force position of Pandit Nehru. Recently, for example, Bao Dai told a TIME correspondent about his impressions of Ho Chi Minh in 1946, when both leaders were cooperating with the French to establish a new Viet Nam regime. “At first,” recalled Bao Dai, “we all believed the Ho government was really a nationalistic regime . . . I called Ho ‘Elder Brother’ and he called me ‘Younger Brother.’ . . . “Then, I saw he was fighting a battle within himself. He realized that Communism was not best for our country. But it was too late. He could not overcome his own allegiance to Communism.” A Royal Notion. Bao Dai is essentially a product of the old French colonialism—the best of it thwarted by some of the worst. Born in 1913, the only son of the ailing Emperor Khai Dinh, he studied under Chinese tutors until nine. Then his father’s French advisers decided he should go to France for a Western education. The emperor put on a parasol-shaped red velvet hat and a golden-dragon robe, accompanied his son on the first trip abroad for any of their dynasty. In Paris he put the prince under the tutelage of former Annam Governor Eugene Charles. “I bring you a schoolboy,” said Khai Dinh. “Make of him what you will.” Three years later, Khai Dinh died. He was buried in a splendid mausoleum, at Hué; at the foot of his tomb lay his prized French decorations, toothbrush, Thermos bottles and “Big Ben” alarm clock. Bao Dai, who had come ‘home for the funeral, was crowned the 13th sovereign of the Nguyen (pronounced New Inn) dynasty. He turned the throne over to a regent, and hurried back to Paris. The young Emperor continued his Chinese lessons, studied Annamite chronicles, browsed through French history, literature and economics. He was especially fond of books on Henry IV, the dynast from Navarre who began the Bourbon rule in France with the cynical remark, “Paris is worth a Mass,” and the demagogic slogan, “Every family should have a fowl in the pot on Sunday.” Bao Dai put his money in Swiss banks (and thereby saved it from World War II’s reverses), collected stamps, practiced tennis with Champion Henri Cochet, learned ping-pong, dressed in tweeds and flannels, vacationed in the Pyrenees, scented himself heavily with Coty and Chanel perfumes. Up to this point the Emperor had absorbed a good deal of the education of an intelligent, progressive French adolescent. He had high notions of applying what he had learned back home. In 1932, at 19, Bao Dai formally took over the Dragon Throne at Hué; two years later he married beautiful Mariette-Jeanne Nguyen Huu Thi Lan, the daughter of a wealthy Cochin-Chinese merchant. The Empress Nam Phuong was a Roman Catholic, educated at Paris’ Convent “Aux Oiseaux.” Bao Dai reigned but he did not rule. The French (Third Republic and Vichy) shrugged off his earnest pleas for social and economic reforms and more native political autonomy. Cleverly, as they thought, they encouraged the Emperor to devote himself to sport and pleasure. Bao Dai was hunting tigers near his summer villa at Dalat when the Japanese, early in 1945, made their 1940 control of the colony official and complete. They surprised his party, took him prisoner, installed him as a puppet emperor—until their own capitulation to the Allies a few months later. Agitator Ho. At this point, the lines of Bao Dai’s destiny first crossed those of his fellow Annamite Ho Chi Minh. The two men made a dramatic contrast. The Emperor was young (then 32), plump, clean-shaven, bland-faced, fond of snappy Western sport clothes. Ho was aging (55), slight (hardly 5 ft. tall), goat-bearded, steelyeyed, usually seen in a frayed khaki tunic and cloth slippers. Ho Chi Minh, too, had gone to France for education. As a young man, he had been sent into exile by the French police of Indo-China because of his family’s nationalist agitation. His father and a brother went to political prison for life. A sister received nine years of hard labor. In Paris, Ho (then known as Nguyen Ai Quoc) became a photographer’s assistant, wrote anti-imperialist articles. He also joined the French Communist Party. He was sent to Moscow for training, became a Comintern functionary, re-emerged in 1925 at Canton, where he helped Russian Agent Borodin in Communism’s first attempt to seize China. From Hong Kong in 1931 Ho Chi Minh organized the first Indo-Chinese Communist Party. The British clapped him into jail for a year. When he came out, he continued organizing Red cells in his country. Japan and World War II gave him his big chance. Using popular front-tactics, Ho established the Viet Minh—League for the Independence of Viet Nam. It directed guerrilla war against both Vichy French and Japanese, enlisted the support of many Indo-Chinese nationalists. American OSS agents and arms were parachuted to Ho’s side. “Uncle Ho.” By the time the French were ready to pick up the postwar strings again in Indo-China, Communist Ho was very much a popular hero, better known as “Uncle Ho.” He spoke a “soft” Communist line, talked more about freedom, democracy and reform. Bao Dai was in a different position. He had suffered in reputation because he had “gotten along” with Vichy French and Japanese. The returning French began negotiations with the Viet Minh leader. There were polite hints that Bao Dai must go—he was too “unpopular.” Bao abdicated, and Ho was in the saddle. Bao Dai stayed on in Indo-China for a while, as plain citizen Nguyen Vinh Thuy and Honorary Councilor to the Republic. Nobody had much use for him. He went abroad and flung himself into a reckless round of pleasure and sport. Playboy. Most of his time he spent at Cannes, on the French Riviera, where he had bought the palatial Château de Thorenc (reported purchase price: $250,000). In his garage were a pale blue Lincoln convertible, a black Citroen limousine, a blue Simca “Gordoni” one-seat racer, a sleek Italian two-seater, a Simca-8 sports model. He also kept several motorcycles. He insisted that every engine run “as accurately as a watch.” He dallied in the bars and casinos, chain-smoked cheap Gauloise cigarettes, treated hangers-on to champagne and caviar, played roulette for 10,000-franc chips (“His Majesty’s losses,” remarked a croupier, “befitted his rank”), sometimes conducted jazz bands, sent his secretary to open negotiations with the many women who caught his eye. (“My grandfather had 125 wives and 300 children,” Bao Dai once remarked to a journalist. “I have a few mistresses. What then?”) He played golf capably and bridge like a master. A crack shot with rifle or revolver, he often arranged target competitions with the château’s servants. Meanwhile the French, back in Indo-China, had broken with Ho Chi Minh, were floundering in a Communist-led nationalist uprising. They appealed to Bao Dai to come home again and help rally his people against the Red menace. They promised to grant Viet Nam gradual independence within the new French Union. Bao was persuaded. On March 8, 1949, he signed the document creating the new Indo-Chinese Republic which he would head as chief of state. As he left the gaudy safety of the Riviera for the hazards of a country torn by civil war, he grinned and said: “I risk my skin.” French Communists snarled: “Cet empereur des boites de nuit [this nightclub emperor].” Behind him, at the Château de Thorenc, he left Empress Nam Phuong and their family of two boys and three girls. Statesman. Bao Dai has been back in Indo-China about a year. He has made some progress, but it is slow and the difficulties are enormous. The French have promised his government more authority, but they are vague in making good and sometimes stupidly petty. One point of friction between Bao Dai and French High Commissioner Léon Pignon concerns the high commissioner’s residence in Saigon. It is the old imperial palace, and the symbol, in native eyes, of paramount place. Bao Dai wants it for his own use, and he stays away from the city lest he lose face by residing elsewhere. The French, with bureaucratic pigheadedness, have refused to part with it, though there are reports that they will soon do so. Another disappointment has been Bao Dai’s effort to enlist capable ministers and lower-echelon administrators. Partly this is because so many Vietnamese are fence-sitters or fear the terror of Viet Minh agents. Partly it is a consequence of French failure, in the past and at present, to train enough natives to take over the government. Bao Dai seems to be counting on U.S. pressure to loosen up the French in this respect. Most serious failure is the sluggish pace in recruiting a Viet Nam army. Bao Dai’s government has thus far assembled only four battalions, about 4,000 men. Field of Decision. Though Ho Chi Minh’s forces (70,000 regulars with equipment as good as the French, plus 70,000 well-trained guerrillas and an unknown number of poorly equipped village militia) have been pushed back from such centers as Hanoi in northern Viet Nam, French officers report that “the situation steadily grows no better.” French Commander in Chief Marcel Carpentier aims to sweep Ho Chi Minh’s men from the lower, heavily populated Mekong and Red River valleys. These are the best rice-producing areas and consequently the best source of rebel supply. By airlift and truck convoy, the French maintain a line of forts at the Chinese border, where aid could flow in for Ho. It is rugged hit & run fighting in forest and swamp terrain well suited for guerrilla tactics. By day the French control about half the countryside; and if they want to, they can penetrate where they will, though ambush takes its toll. At night, however, the French draw into their forts and garrisoned centers. Then Ho Chi Minh’s men steal forth, terrorize peasants, collect taxes (two-fifths of a farmer’s rice harvest), and run the countryside almost everywhere The French insist that the military problem is the No.. i problem, and that Western men and arms must lick it. Given sufficient U.S. equipment, up to $150 million a year or more, they think they can crush Ho Chi Minh within three years. Lacking such support, they may be facing a debacle within one year; and, of course, down in the wreckage would go Bao Dai. The Piecemeal Approach. All in all, the new U.S. ally in Southeast Asia is a weak reed. And the alliance is as ironic as anything in history. For the same U.S. Government which abandoned the Chinese Nationalists because they were not good enough was committed by last fortnight’s decision to defend a playboy emperor and the worst and almost the last example of white man’s armed imperialism in Asia. Nevertheless, Indo-China had to be defended—if it could be defended. So had Formosa, last stand of China’s Nationalists, which has advantages not to be found in Indo-China—a strong government, a well-trained defending fighting force, and easily defensible tactical position. The U.S. decision to go into such a doubtful project as the defense of Indo-China was the result of an idea that it ought to do something, somehow, to stop the Communists in Southeast Asia. But the U.S. policy in Indo-China was a piecemeal operation. Not until it saw the Southeast Asia problem whole, until it went to the help of all threatened governments, would the U.S. be making soldier’s or statesman’s sense. * There was one abortive attempt to get acquainted in the 18305, when President Andrew Jackson sent Envoy Edmund Roberts of New Hampshire to draw up a treaty with Emperor Ming Mang. Reported Roberts: “The insulting formalities required as preliminaries to the treaty . . . left me no alternative save that of terminating a protracted correspondence marked . . . by duplicity and prevarication in the official servant of the Emperor.” Roberts was told to 1) make five kowtows, 2) beg for “deep condescension,” 3) change a sentence in President Jackson’s letter to the Emperor from “I pray to God” to “I pray to the gods of heaven.” He refused. † The Chinese invasions took place between 213 B.C. and 186 A.D. From the latter date until the loth Century the Chinese governed the country. Then the Annamites threw off the Chinese yoke; it was clapped on again for a brief span in the 15th Century. French missionaries and traders (preceded by the Portuguese and Dutch) came to Indo-China in the 17th Century. In 1802, a French East India Company expedition helped establish Nguye INDO-CHINA: The New Frontier

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A testosterone test measures the blood level of the male sex hormone testosterone. Testosterone, which plays an important role in sexual development, is produced mainly by the testes in boys and in much smaller amounts by the ovaries in girls. Testosterone is also produced by the adrenal glands in both girls and boys. In young boys, testosterone levels are normally low. As puberty approaches — usually between the ages of 10 and 14 — the pituitary gland (a pea-sized gland near the base of the brain) secretes two hormones (luteinizing hormone, or LH; and follicle-stimulating hormone, or FSH) that work together to stimulate the testes to make testosterone. Increased testosterone production is what causes boys to develop deeper voices, bigger muscles, and body and facial hair. It also helps the testes produce sperm, and it plays a role in speeding a boy's growth in height during puberty. Two separate assessments may be performed as part of a testosterone test: total testosterone, which measures the entire amount of testosterone in the body, including both the amount bound to proteins that help transport the hormone through the bloodstream and free testosterone free testosterone, which measures only the testosterone that's not attached to proteins The doctor may order one or both tests. However, because sexual development involves many other hormones, a more complete picture can often be obtained by performing other tests at the same time, including an LH or FSH test. For example, low levels of testosterone can be due to a problem with the testes' production of testosterone or to the pituitary gland not making enough of the hormones that stimulate the testes to produce testosterone. Why It's Done Doctors may order a testosterone blood test if a boy appears to be entering puberty earlier or later than expected. High levels are associated with precocious (early) puberty, while low levels may indicate a delay in sexual development. In girls, high levels can be associated with the appearance of masculine characteristics, such as facial hair. The test may also be used in either boys or girls to check for damage or disease of the testes, ovaries, adrenal glands, or pituitary gland, or to check for steroid use. In teens and adults, testosterone levels can help doctors evaluate fertility or menstrual problems and sexual function. No special preparations are needed for this test. The doctor may want to perform the test in the morning, when testosterone levels usually are highest. On the day of the test, it may help to have your child wear a short-sleeve shirt to allow easier access for the technician who will be drawing the blood. A health professional will clean the skin surface with antiseptic, and place an elastic band (tourniquet) around the upper arm to apply pressure and cause the veins to swell with blood. Then a needle is inserted into a vein (usually in the arm inside of the elbow or on the back of the hand) and blood is withdrawn and collected in a vial or syringe. After the procedure, the elastic band is removed. Once the blood has been collected, the needle is removed and the area is covered with cotton or a bandage to stop the bleeding. Collecting blood for this test will only take a few minutes. What to Expect Collecting a sample of blood is only temporarily uncomfortable and can feel like a quick pinprick. Afterward, there may be some mild bruising, which should go away in a few days. The blood sample will be processed by a machine and the results are commonly available after a few days. The testosterone test is considered a safe procedure. However, as with many medical tests, some problems can occur with having blood drawn: fainting or feeling lightheaded hematoma (blood accumulating under the skin causing a lump or bruise) pain associated with multiple punctures to locate a vein Helping Your Child Having a blood test is relatively painless. Still, many children are afraid of needles. Explaining the test in terms your child can understand might help ease some of the fear. Allow your child to ask the technician any questions he or she might have. Tell your child to try to relax and stay still during the procedure, as tensing muscles and moving can make it harder and more painful to draw blood. It also may help if your child looks away when the needle is being inserted into the skin. If You Have Questions If you have questions about the testosterone test, speak with your doctor.

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12. June 2012 10:55 Retinal hemorrhage occurs when the blood vessels in the retina get damaged or ruptured, leading to abnormal bleeding. The retina, which is composed of rods and cones is the region of the eye responsible for sensitivity to light, and vision. The retinal vein and artery, along with a dense network of capillaries, are responsible for transmitting the blood supply to the retina. When these blood vessels are damaged, due to any reason, this affects the blood supply to the retina, which in turn leads to a decrease in visual acuity. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in people aged between 20 and 65. The dense network of cells in the retina is extremely sensitive, and can be damaged with even a slight trauma. The causes due to which this damage might occur include: - High blood pressure - Forceful blows in the head region - Child abuse in infants - Improper development of blood vessels in infants born prematurely - Blurred vision - Spotted vision - Lines in the field of vision - Blind spots - Distorted vision - Progressive vision loss - The disease is diagnosed by an ophthalmologist, who uses an opthalmoscope to examine the internal structure of the eye. - Another method that is commonly used to detect the abnormalities in the blood vessels is a fluorescein angiography test, in which a fluorescent dye is injected into the patient’s bloodstream, after which photographs are clicked to view the blood vessels. - In some cases, the physician might also order for a blood test to be performed. - The disorder is self-limiting in most patients, with more than 85% cases healing on their own. - The most common treatment for retinal hemorrhages is laser treatment, in which a laser beam is used to remove the affected blood vessels. - If the disease is caused by some underlying medical condition like diabetes or hypertension, the treatment focuses on eliminating that disorder. - Injection of anti-VEGF drugs like Avestin has been found to be effective in the treatment of hemorrhages associated with the growth of new vessels. - The administration of various nutritional and herbal supplements like antioxidants, omega-3-rich foods, antioxidant vitamins, zinc, lutein, pine bark extract, grape seed extract, etc. has also been found to be effective in improving the symptoms of the disease. We at Killeen Eyecare center are renowned throughout Killeen for providing the highest quality eye care to all our patients. We help them maintain healthy eyes and treat various eye diseases using most sophisticated instruments. For more details, you can visit us at 416 North Gray Street, Killeen, TX 76541, Downtown Killeen or call at 254-634-7805. Eye Doctor Killeen - Eye Doctor Fort Hood

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By Chris Wickham LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Switzerland have come up with a material mimicking the way tendons connect to bones, which could speed the development of stretchy, wearable electronic devices. The stretchable electronics industry is in its infancy but devices that are able to flex without breaking could revolutionize devices from smartphones and solar cells to medical implants. Futurists have long predicted clothes with sensors that monitor the vital signs of the wearer, or smartphones and screens woven into the fabric of shirts or jackets. But while circuits and wiring are quite happy on rigid surfaces like those in a tablet computer, they break easily when combined with materials that stretch. "You have two materials with very different mechanical properties," Andre Studart, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told Reuters. "The challenge is to bridge these different properties." Studart and his team have overcome the problem with a stretchy material made from polyurethane that contains "islands" stiff enough to house and protect delicate circuits. While the soft part can stretch by 350 percent, the stiff regions created by impregnating the material with tiny platelets of aluminum oxide and a synthetic clay called laponite, hardly deform and can protect the electronics. The material, presented in research published in the journal Nature Communications, is made from bonded layers and because the concentration of the platelets is gradually increased, the junction between the stretchy and stiff parts is also durable. "There are many biological materials that have these properties as well, like the way tendons link muscle to bone," said Studart. "But there are not so many examples in synthetic materials." One of the companies trying to commercialize stretchable electronics is MC10 Inc, a Massachusetts-based start-up born out of research by John Rogers and his team at the University of Illinois. The firm recently announced plans to start selling a sensor-laden, flexible skullcap that monitors impacts to the head during sports. It was developed with Reebok and goes on sale next year. Amar Kendale, the company's strategist, said the skullcap gives a level of contact with the head that previous attempts to put sensors in helmets or gum shields have not been able to achieve. MC10 is using a different approach from the Zurich team. The company uses extremely thin silicon chips sandwiched in a stretchable polymer and connected by tiny wires in a concertina configuration that can stretch about 60 percent, about the same as the body's soft tissues. MC10 has also developed a balloon catheter with built-in electronic sensors for heart patients, which researchers plan to start testing on people in the next year or so. "Decorating the surface of the balloon with sensors or a mechanism that delivers energy gives a good way of delivering therapy to soft tissue, like the heart, to correct arrhythmia," Kendale said. Market potential is difficult to estimate but Kendale said the technology could be applied to the monitoring and management of chronic diseases from diabetes to hypertension. The Swiss researchers say their technique could also be used to build synthetic cartilage or false teeth with better matches to their natural counterparts. Currently the ceramics used for dental fillings are so hard they can damage natural teeth if a patient bites too hard. And one treatment for women with crumbling vertebrae from osteoporosis involves injecting a stiff polymer that over time can damage the surrounding healthy vertebrae. "The problem is that it is equally stiff everywhere," said Studart. "The vision is that you will be able to make materials that are as heterogeneous as the biological ones." (Editing by David Holmes)

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Fertilizer Facts: April 1997, Number 15 Response of Oat to Water and Nitrogen Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Dept. Montana State University Nitrogen (N) is the most common nutrient that limits oat production in Montana. Deficiency symptoms are frequently characterized by general chlorosis (yellowing) of leaves and a reduction in overall plant vigor and growth. Oat N deficiency symptoms, as with other cereal grains, will most often appear in the early to late spring depending on severity. Once present, symptoms become more severe through vegetative growth stages. At flowering, N deficient plants are stunted and have fewer tillers and smaller heads than healthy plants. Grain yield is reduced primarily through a reduction in kernels per head and head density. Nitrogen typically represents a grower's largest fertilizer input cost. Current fertilizer N recommendations in Montana are based on an average relationship between N requirement (NR) and estimated yield potential [Yield potential (bu/a) x 1.1 = NR (lbs/a)] (Table 1). The recommendation assumes 1.1 lbs N/a are needed to produce each bushel of grain. However, this relation may vary with growing season and the yield potential at an individual site. Since yield potential is most closely associated with available water (stored soil water + growing season precipitation), we were interested in determining the effects of available water supply on the N requirement and oat yield potential. Field experiments were conducted on a Lohmiller silty clay loam (Ustic Torrifluvents) at the Southern Agricultural Research Center near Huntley during 1993 and 1994. Initial soil N levels (0-36 in. depth) were 15 and 22 lbs/a in 1993 and 1994. Field experiments were previously seeded to barley. A line-source sprinkler irrigation system was used to establish a water gradient in the field. Monida oats were planted in early April at 18 seeds per square foot. Stripped at right angles to the water gradient were six fertilizer N levels (0, 20, 40, 80, 120, 160 lbs N/a). The combined treatments produced a field site with a wide range of available water and N conditions. Table 1. Predicted N requirements for oats with growing season water. |Growing season water||Yield potential||Available N requirement||N:yield ratio| As expected, available water increased oat yield potential and the response to N. Under high water stress, the response to N was small and yield potential was low, producing a comparatively flat curve. As water conditions improved, the response to N increased, producing a steeper curve that reached a higher plateau (Figure 1). Yield potential at the plateau levels, or where N was no longer limiting yields, were similar for the two growing seasons. However, oat yields without N fertilizer were higher in 1994 than 1993. This difference may have been a result of greater N mineralization from organic matter in 1994, resulting in less N deficiency where no fertilizer N was applied. Maximum economic yield (MEY) was defined as the point along the yield-N curves (Figure 1) where increases in N no longer paid for themselves through higher yield (< 1 bushel increase in yield resulted from 4 lbs additional N), or where dollars returned from N was maximized. Maximum economic yields were generally within 2% of the theoretical maximum, hence they provide a good estimate of yield potential. The MEY-available water relationships (Figure 2) indicate that yield potential increased linearly with water in both 1993 and 1994. The relationships indicate that it takes approximately 4 to 5 in. of water to produce the first bushel of oat, and thereafter yield increases 12 to 14 bu/a with each inch of additional water. Available N requirements (soil N + fertilizer N) for MEY increased linearly with water for both growing seasons. The slopes of the lines for the two seasons were similar and indicate that N requirements increased approximately 8 lbs N with each inch of additional water. However, the intercepts for the lines differ for the two seasons. As a result, it took approximately 35 to 40 lbs/a less N in 1994 to achieve MEY than in 1993 at similar water levels. Background soil N analysis levels for the two seasons were similar. However, barley residue from the preceding crop was burned prior to seeding the 1994 oat crop. This likely enhanced organic N mineralization and resulted in the lower calculated N requirement. Typically, most cereal growers do not burn their residue, hence under most situations the upper line in Figure 3 is probably the better predictor of fertilizer N needs. Using this approach, sufficient fertilizer N should be applied to achieve 60 lbs available N/a where 8 inches of available water (soil water + rainfall) is expected during the growing season. If water conditions improve, N application is increased approximately 8 lbs/a per inch increase in available water. Edited by Jeff Jacobsen, Extension Soil Scientist

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When I work on a theme unit like this I usually spent two weeks on the subject. I like for the children to have numerous opportunities to practice the skills in different ways. I feel that this give each child a strong foundation to build on. Pocket Chart Story Bulletin Board with Cows and Sheep The children created the clouds and green hills by finger painting and roller painting. Creative Art Sheep The children first made marble paintings and then used those painting to create their sheep with. Barn Yard Addition Thursday and Friday Daily Plan Write Up Don’t forget that all of these ideas can be found in the Down on the Farm Theme Packet on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.

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Types of literature PRIMARY SOURCES are publications that report the results of original research. They may be in the form of conference papers, monographic series, technical reports, theses and dissertations, or journal articles. Because they present information in its original form (that is, it has not been interpreted or condensed or otherwise “repackaged” by other writers), these are considered primary sources. The works present new thinking/discoveries/results and unite them with the existing knowledge base. Journal articles that report original research are one of the more common and important steps in the information sharing cycle. They often go through a process in which they are “peer reviewed” by other experts who evaluate the work and findings before publication. SECONDARY SOURCES are those which are published about the primary literature, that generalize, analyze, interpret, evaluate or otherwise “add value” to the original information, OR which simplify the process of finding and evaluating the primary literature. Some examples of secondary sources are “review” articles and indexes or bibliographies, such as PubMed or the ScienceDirect. TERTIARY SOURCES compile or digest information from primary or secondary sources that has become widely accepted. They aim to provide a broad overview of a topic, or data, already proven facts, and definitions, often presented in a convenient form. They provide no new information. These include “reference” types of works such as textbooks, encyclopedias, fact books, guides and handbooks, and computer databases such as The Handbook of the Microbiological Media and SciFinder. GRAY LITERATURE are source materials not available through the usual systems of publication (e.g., books or periodicals) and distribution. Gray literature includes conference proceedings, dissertations, technical reports, and working papers. Locating this type of literature is a little more difficult, but there are finding tools such as Dissertations Abstracts and PapersFirst. What is a literature review? A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant. But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper? While the main focus of an academic research paper is to support your own argument, the focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others. The academic research paper also covers a range of sources, but it is usually a select number of sources, because the emphasis is on the argument. Likewise, a literature review can also have an "argument," but it is not as important as covering a number of sources. In short, an academic research paper and a literature review contain some of the same elements. In fact, many academic research papers will contain a literature review section. But it is the aspect of the study (the argument or the sources) that is emphasized that determines what type of document it is. Why do we write literature reviews? Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper's investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers. Who writes these things, anyway? Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself. Excerpt from “Literature Reviews” from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/specific-writing-assignments/literature-reviews), 2007. Collection Development Librarian 1014 Boswell Ave. Crete NE 68333

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EducationALA's Great Web Sites for Kids The American Library Association’s search engine of recommended sites for children. Includes grade level appropriateness and summaries of each website. California Preschools and Daycare Centers Looking for a preschool or daycare for your child? This site lets you search preschools by city and includes address, phone number, tuition, hours of operation, and links to the school's Webpage.California Reading List (CRL) This site provides reading lists that corresponds with the child’s reading level from grades K-12, based on their scores reflected in the California English-Language Arts Standards Test.Education.com Advice, reference articles, and an online community for parents of preschool to high school students.Great Schools Discusses California school-related issues and provides ratings and tips on how to evaluate a school.Helping Your Child with Homework The U.S. Department of Education’s publication explaining the "hows" and "whys" of homework which includes helpful tips. Home Schooling Resources from the Librarian's Index to the Internet Links to home schooling websites including California organizations. STAR Program Resources Additional resources including the STAR scoring guide, sample subject and writing test questions and informative guides for parents and teachers. STAR Program Results School, district, county and statewide summary results for Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program for the current year. Includes prior year CST, SAT/9, and CAT/6 results. STAR Test Questions Gives a list of CST Released test questions and answers from 2003-2008, by subject and grade. Created by moms, this site contains books reviews from a parent's perspective. Find "fiction that fits" your criteria for a good book. Recommended by the 2010 Association for Library Service to Children's Great Websites for Kids Committee.

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Your Toddler 18 - 36 Months - Your 18-24 month old: Your toddler learns new things every day! He or she may carry books around and pretend to read, recognize favorite books, and develop a routine with a caregiver that involves reading. - By the age of 2, children have a constantly growing vocabulary of between 1,000 and 2,000 words. He or she may use words in simple combinations such as "all done" or "pick up." - Your 24-36 month old: Your toddler will be speaking in sentences, and will ask and answer simple questions. He or she will imitate sounds, actions, and words in books, as well as label parts of illustrations. Your toddler will enjoy hearing his or her favorite stories read aloud repeatedly and will enjoy reading being a part of daily routines. - By age 3, children often demonstrate obvious enjoyment of reading, and will label items in illustrations. Toddlers at this age may also begin creating scribbles that resemble printing. Tips for reading with your toddler: - Discuss the books that you read with your child. Ask who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. - Your child will enjoy the chance to answer questions like "what is this animal?" or "what do you think will happen next?" Be sure to give your child enough time to answer questions before telling them the answer or moving on. Counting to ten silently in your head will help you to wait long enough for a response. This will show your child that you have respect for their developing thinking and speaking skills. - Choose books that show characters doing things that your toddler does too (eating, playing, going to bed). - Keep books on low shelves so that your toddler has easy access to them. - Choose non-fiction books about colors, shapes, animals, families, etc. - Teach your toddler how to handle books correctly and carefully. - Share stories with repetitive text and encourage your child to repeat familiar parts along with you. - Recite rhymes and sing songs during daily routines. Books for Toddlers: - Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault - Freight Train by Donald Crews - From Head to Toe by Eric Carle - Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett - My Car by Byron Barton - Planes by Byron Barton - The Little Red Hen by Bryon Barton - The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle - We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

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World Water Day is on Monday, March 22nd, and it's a crucial moment in the fight against the global sanitation and water crisis that’s killing thousands of people every single day. No matter where you are in the world you can celebrate World Water Day! Check out some of the ways below: The World’s Longest Toilet Queue is a mass mobilization event and Guinness World Record attempt bringing together thousands of campaigners from across the world to demand real change. Ever seen water flow uphill? Without help of petrol or electricity? Meet the hydraulic ram, a robust and simple water-powered water pump. The ram pumps uses the power of water with a height difference flowing in the spring, stream or river to lift a fraction of the water up to 200 meters vertically, and sometimes pump it over a kilometre or two to where it is needed. No fuel or electricity required. The ram pump holds great potential for rural drinking water and irrigation water supply in hilly and mountainous areas, such as Afghanistan, Colombia, Nepal, and the Philippines. Photo above: Children surrounding a hydraulic ram produced by AIDFI on the island Negros, the Philippines. If you are in the Los Angeles area, come celebrate World Water Day with a Night of Generosity at SKYBAR on March 22nd at 8pm. Water is big business. Just five beverage companies consume enough water over the course of a year to satisfy the daily water needs of every person on the planet. Of course, we may not be able to control how much water is put in a can of soda or a beer (less water, more alcohol, please) or the amount it takes to make paper, but we can control our own use at the workplace and even influence those who manage supplies. It may not be our nickel that gets spent on the utility bill at work, but the gains are certainly ours when we reduce the corporate water footprint on the planet. Water prices are poised to rise due to increased water stress, and corporate growth is expected to be impeded as resources dwindle. Make no mistake, all of this comes out of our paychecks in one way or another. At this very moment, millions of women are carrying 40 pounds of water on the return leg of their average 3.5-mile daily trek. So today, on International Women's Day, I want to pay tribute to the resiliency of these women, and highlight the collective possibility they embody -- if freed from the back-breaking and time-consuming burden of collecting water. Providing women with access to a nearby source of clean water frees up their days to earn an income or engage in other more productive activities – which can help significantly elevate their status in the community. photo by Beth Harper via Creative Commons. Outdoors is where we as residents tend to use huge amounts of water. In some parts of the country, mostly out in the arid West, 70 percent or more of residential water is used for lawn irrigation. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Pink flamingos and fountains aside, decorative lawns that need lots of care and lots of water are scourges. It may be that suburbia is making the wells run dry. Indeed, homeowners use an average of 120 gallons of water each day for things outside. Think about that for a second: "things outside" -- where rain should be able to do the job nicely -- if we stick with the vegetation that grows naturally in our locale, that is. Irrigation, my dear water-freak neighbor, was invented to keep our fields of food alive, not your imported turf. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton unveiled a new United Nations program to raise money to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and more. Through the program, called MASSIVEGOOD, travelers can donate a minimum of $2 on top of their airfare to support an international UN Health financing initiative by clicking on MASSIVEGOOD. Five clicks, the equivalent of $10, bought an insecticide-treated bed net, while 25 clicks was enough to pay for a year’s worth of HIV medication for one child. Around the world, most boreholes are drilled with big, heavy equipment which arrives by truck, makes a lot of noise, and gets the job done in a short time, at a cost of about $5,000 to $20,000 per borehole. But there is a growing interest in doing it in a different way -- drilling by hand. It takes longer, it is heavy work, but it also gets the job done. Why are people getting interested? A hand-drilled borehole costs about $500 or less. Läkarmissionen is one of our NGO partners in Sweden and is helping us to fight the global water crisis. Their operation began in 1958 to support a Swedish church related mission hospital in South Africa. That is what gave them the name Läkarmissionen - the Swedish Medical Mission Foundation. Läkarmissionen’s intention is to make it possible for marginalized people to gain improved quality of life. Our experiences indicate that circumstances can be changed, and that sustainable results can be achieved, as we include the people in need in the process of change.

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knowledge is from the heart as well as the mind. It is not a mere mental perception of the forms of things or a knowledge of their material nature; it must include the soul of things, the divine ideas that they enshrine. Everything is dependent on the small things: relaxation - you always relax more; acceptance, oneself and others - can always try; house-cleaning - will always be just as difficult, but at least you have done it before. It is important to do all these little things Question: - How can we discern whether it is the divine conscience animating us and directing us in a certain direction, or the animal soul seeking release from seemingly unfavorable environments: Answer: - The divine conscience acts in all struggles for betterment, but clouded more or less in each by reason of education and habit of thought; hence it varies in brightness. It is not possible to make a hard-and-fast fixed rule for finding out what is the animating motive. If we are trying to get into a better state, it is for us to decide if that be simply and wholly selfish. All actions are surrounded by desire as the rust is round the polished metal or the smoke round the fire, but we must try. So if we fix for ourselves the rule that we will try to do the best we can for others, we will generally be led right. If we rely on the higher self and aspire to be guided by it, we will be led to the right even if the road goes through pain, for sorrow and pain are necessary for purification of the soul. But if we wish to run away from an environment because we do not like it and without trying to live in it while not of it, we are not altering ourselves but simply altering the circumstances, and may not always gain anything. Questioner: What is your attitude to the early teachings of Theosophy, the Blavatsky type? Do you consider we have deteriorated or advanced? KRISHNAMURTI: I am afraid I do not know, because I do not know what Madame Blavatsky's teachings are. Why should I? Why should you know of someone else's teachings? You know, there is only one truth, and therefore there is only one way, which is not distant from the truth; there is only one method to that truth, because the means are not distinct from the end. Now you who have studied Madame Blavatsky's and the latest Theosophy, or whatever it is, why do you want to be students of books instead of students of life? Why do you set up leaders and ask whose teachings are better? Don't you see? Please, I am not being harsh, or anything of that kind. Don't you see? You are Christians; find out what is true and false in Christianity—and you will then find out what is true. Find out what is true and false in your environment with all its oppressions and cruelties, and then you will find out what is true. Why do you want philosophies? Because life is an ugly thing, and you hope to run away from it through philosophy. Life is so empty, dull, stupid, ignominious, and you want something to bring romanticism into your world, some hope, some lingering, haunting feeling; whereas, if you really faced the world as it is, and tackled it, you would find it something much more, infinitely greater than any philosophy, greater than any book in the world, greater than any teaching or greater than any teacher. We have really lost all sense of feeling, feeling for the oppressed, and feeling for the oppressor. You only feel when you are oppressed. So gradually we have intellectually explained away all our feelings, our sensitiveness, our delicate perceptions, until we are absolutely shallow; and to fill that shallowness, to enrich ourselves, we study books. The Theosophical Society has had three objects for more than a century. They are: Of these three objects the first has been considered the most important, at least since the time H.P. Blavatsky and H.S. Olcott arrived in India in 1879. Strangely enough the 'mission-statement' of the Theosophical Society in Wheaton (Adyar) rephrases the above, but leaves brotherhood out. It is as follows: To encourage open-minded enquiry into world religions, philosophy, science, and the arts in order to understand the wisdom of the ages, respect the unity of all life, and help people explore spiritual self-transformation. A mission statement is merely another word for aim or object. So one would expect the three objects of the Theosophical Society to agree precisely with the mission-statement. One would also expect the wording of the mission-statement to be more modern. In that vein it would have been a nice challenge if the board of directors of the US-section of the TS had found a new sex-neutral way of saying that people should treat each other well. What else does a 'nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity (etc)' mean? But to leave it all out is really going too far for me, and for several of the people I met in Wheaton this summer. This mission-statement sounds selfish to me. Great: I find an organisation where people will help me with my self-transformation en where my open enquiry into religions, spirituality and science will be supported. Wonderful. And there is no suggestion that I personally need to do anything at all. I don't need to practice loving kindness. I don't need to find tolerance in my heart for those I've learned to despise or ignore. I will perhaps learn to respect the unity of all life in abstract, but there is no need for me to do anything practical at all... I'm obviously being cynical. In actual fact the attempt to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color is work. It means a constant attempt to overcome my conditioning. It means reaching out to people. It means practicing kindness. It means learning to deal with people I may not like. I find it very disappointing that the TS in America has edited this very important attempt out of its 'mission statement' and hope they will change things soon. Each summer the American Section of the Theosophical Society (TS) has a gathering that is both business meeting and summer school. Non-members of the TS are not explicitly invited, but in practice nothing is done to discourage them from coming either. The atmosphere of the gathering was both very familiar to me, as strange and new. Familiar, as it was as comfortable talking to these overseas theosophists, as it has always been talking to theosophists here in the Netherlands. Strange as well, as inevitably things are done differently, when there is a different host-country. The opening was a lot former than I'm used to seeing it. 'evening dress optional' says it all, I think. For those who have not been to Olcott for this: evening dress means suits and ties and dresses and in the case of theosophists: saris and Indian dresses in general. First Betty Bland, the national president of the TS in the USA, welcomed us. Then there were prayers from 'all the world's religions', though this is obviously practically impossible there were a lot. The atmosphere of that ceremony was more informal than I saw it in India. It looked like people could just come up and give whatever prayer they wanted. Among the many prayers more than one Christian denomination was represented, as well as Islam, the gayatri mantra and a humanist prayer. The opening ended with greetings from all over the world. I gave greetings from the Netherlands and the International Theosophical Centre at Naarden also in the Netherlands. The business meeting consisted of reports from the various departments. I was surprised to see the work that went into making it literally entertaining. The Quest Bookshop even got a (fake) sťance on the way in which Annie Besant appeared. This is certainly different from how I'm used to seeing it, but I enjoyed myself anyhow. The theme of the school was 'Theosophy in action'. Radha Burnier, international president, gave most of the lectures. Room had been made for Diana Chapotin's coverage of the Order of Service, John Algeo and Joy Mills. After the main lecture, each morning, there were group discussion that were - as usual - very interesting. In the afternoon there were usually lectures, workshops and meditation classes. To be honest I wasn't impressed with what I saw of the meditation classes. Theosophists don't have a reputation of being very good at meditation and this didn't help any in my book. The morning meditation even reminded me of group hypnosis. A bad sign that confirmed this impression was that several people told me that they had a tendency to fall asleep during the morning-meditation. The lectures were very good. Radha Burnier's opening lecture was about finding balance. She meant finding a balance between the development of buddhi (roughly intuition), thought, emotion and action. If there is insight, don't act on it immediately. Let it germinate, it will express itself naturally in action or words at some point. Spiritual aspiration as well needs to be in harmony. Too much of it leads to ambition, too much tension or waste of energy. Mental balance includes overcoming the duality of thought. This means that likes and dislikes will disappear and we will neither accept nor reject what IS. Diana Chapotin, in her lecture about the Theosophical Order of Service (TOS), stressed that theosophists are active in social service in various ways. One of the main ways is individual action. She meant that theosophists all over the world are active in social work through organisations that have nothing to do with theosophy. The second way in which theosophists are active practically in the world is through the activities of local theosophical lodges and sections. The TOS complements all that with very specific projects in area's like education, animal welfare, vegetarianism and help in case of natural disasters like recently Katrina. On an organisational level TOS-groups are led by theosophists, but the volunteers don't have to be members. Though any kind of social work can be taken on, it is necessary that central theosophical values behind the work are communicated regularly to keep the work theosophical. Diana explained that the work of the TOS has grown dramatically recently under her leadership. She can't cope on her own anymore and a reorganisation is necessary. Joy Mills gave a public lecture on the vitality of living truth. She stressed the difference between living wisdom and book wisdom. Theosophists always risk not going beyond book wisdom. If we really see the truth, our heart and our whole being will change. That's the power of living truth. In order for that to happen, we need to actually practice truth as we know it (not as we want it to be) in our daily lives. Every experience that broadens our sensitivity, mirrors living truth for us. In modern thought the interconnectedness of everything is becoming quite clear. H.P. Blavatsky actually went one step further: she saw everything as one living being, One Life. The theory of Gaia shows this on the level of the earth, but for Blavatsky it's true of the whole universe. Breath is used as an image of that Oneness. Radha's second lecture dealt with a very central theme: growing in wisdom. In this lecture she repeated a theme that threads through her Watchtower pieces in The Theosophist as well: Humanity grows in knowledge, but not in wisdom. The knowledge that has been developed over the past two centuries leads to destruction because there is no knowledge on what is right in the long run. It is relatively easy to develop knowledge. It is very hard to find out what right action is. We don't realise enough that in hurting someone else, we hurt ourselves. Wisdom leads to a peaceful, sensitive world. Knowledge leads to pride and this can only be challenged by becoming aware of the limitations of knowledge. Otherwise knowledge leads to a feeling of separateness. On the other hand it is necessary to learn to think independently and become aware to what extent we are all influenced by others. An example she gave is that the simple life is no longer seen as ideal. Everybody wants to live as is portrayed on television. In all her lectures this week Radha reminded us that our personal problems need to come second. Growth in wisdom means growth in altruism and that means forgetting self. Our personal problems and our joys are both temporary. We make them bigger than they are. Why is suffering such a large problem? The TS was founded to fight prejudice. Prejudice hinders an insight into real problems and can only be dissolved by a feeling of connectedness with all human beings. Our altruism needs to become universal. The Buddha said: it's better to give a little lovingly, than to give a lot without love. It was very impressive to hear the report of theosophists living near the area where Katrina hit. There were slides as accompanying there very personal report. The most important insight I got from that was that storms are normal for the people in this region. Normally people do not leave in case of a storm. Despite that fact, and this has not been stressed enough, this was the most successful evacuation in history. Around 90-95% of the people in the New Orleans region were evacuated. We were told that criminals always stay behind so they can loot. This is part of the pattern. Because this storm did so much more damage than most other storms, everything got bigger than usual. John Algeo spoke about the most holy mission of theosophy. He started by saying that Blavatsky in her final five years on earth, had left a legacy of five: These three letters were the backbone to Johns two lectures. They give direction to Theosophical work in the world. Blavatsky's last years were tough, but John stressed that out of disaster, blessings often come. Disasters mix things up. Tibetan Buddhism would never have spread to the West as it has, if China hadn't invaded Tibet. In her 1891 letter, Blavatsky mainly spoke of living theosophy, not the teachings. In her first letter she stressed the aim of the Theosophical Society to unite people of all nations and altruism. Organisations are important, but they can't created holiness, health or wholeness. We have to become fully human, that is what the word master signifies: to master ourselves. There can only be harmony in organisations, if opposites are balanced, not through wiping out differences. In his second lecture he returned to the theme of unifying people of all nations. He also pointed out that every wise administration knows that things can't be forced. No rule can open the heart-mind of people. No group is safe from fundamentalism. Theosophists too run this risk, though in real theosophy there can be no dogmas, because it is based on real insight and rational thinking. Real theosophy reflects divine reason, the reason of Buddhi. John closed with Blavatsky's words in the last letter to the American Conventions: to be theosophists, live theosophy. In her next lecture Radha talked about growing in Love. Love is our true being, that aspect of ourselves which is one with every other. Love is beyond words, it's part of Universal Life. It is necessary to feel affection for kids and animals. Continually looking for security, that wish masks a desire for Love. Our world is dark, there is little friendship, little Love. How do we remove the barriers that separate us from our essential nature: Love? To this practical question, Radha's answer is to be more sensitive. We have to feel as others feel, without identifying with their pain. You can't help others by going along with their pain, but you have to know what it is. Right action requires going beyond social custom and convention and being really sensitive. This sensitivity doesn't hinder our happiness. Our real nature isn't just Love, it's also Bliss. But we need to become conscious of other people. Unkind thoughts hurt others, and ultimately ourselves. They are like a hungry wolf that eats up our best tendencies. Annie Besant said that if we can't see God in others, we must be the worst possible atheists. The problem with gossip is that it is superficial. We have to learn to look under the surface, without judgment of any kind. The habit to criticize strengthens the ego. Be a missionary of Love and generosity. Be prepared to give of yourself. Don't just do what is necessary, but actively contribute to the welfare of people in conversation. Every tendency of personality has to disappear. That way of looking teaches us to overcome pettiness. The first step is the last step, because the direction in which we move is of primary importance. Radha's final lecture was called 'purification through action'. Real wisdom is in seeing action in non-action and non-action in action. The central question she asked: what is right action? Each of us has to decide that for ourselves. Keep in mind that our energy impacts the world, not just our actions. Everything is interconnected. That's why abstaining from action isn't the same thing as freedom from action. When actions create problems, it's not right action. Right action is necessary, but we have to avoid identifying with it. In everything you do, ask yourself if there is egoism involved. The tricky part is that even that thought is in a way selfish. We need an inner balance that is independent of success or failure. Success and failure are part of the ups and downs of life, but we don't have to inwardly get involved in that. The risk of accomplishment is that one starts thinking: I can do this. That feeling can get in the way of right action. The problem with selfish action is that even if the short-term result seems good, it's never permanent. Radha closed with one of Krishnamurti's insights: actions that are a product of the past, don't work. Action only works if it's the consequence of right insight. This lecture was very insightful, but I missed one aspect that the title does suggest: that sometimes insight follows unselfish action. Right action can help clean the personality. One has to start somewhere. The final session was a question and answer round with Radha Burnier, Joy Mills and John Algeo. The questions had come in through the internet and from the discussion groups. What follows is a selection. Can Muslims become members of the Theosophical Society? Yes, we have Muslim members in Indonesia, India and Pakistan. Radha stressed that Muslim women aren't forced to stay at home in all countries. In many countries they are free. Why do people ignore the Middle Path? The middle path is hard, said Radha, people prefer it easy. It's hard to overcome the tendency to overdo things. A question was asked about loving yourself. Joy Mills answered that it is important to look at yourself objectively. Observe yourself, it is unnecessary to become emotional or judgmental about yourself. Loving yourself means accepting what is, and resolving to change. Radha asks what it means to love yourself. Can you love your shadow? Reality IS, it doesn't need to be loved. As this summary shows, the lectures were very interesting and deep. I really enjoyed myself and met some very good people.

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Under a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Maryland State Department of Education receives funding to build the capacity of local school systems to deliver HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Programs. Funded program activities include strengthening coordinated school health programs at the local school system level to deliver training in HIV/AIDS prevention and developing policy and procedures. The CDC has identified promising and research based practices in HIV/AIDS prevention education. For more information and a list of the identified programs to be delivered within a coordinated school health model visit the CDC website. For a summary of Maryland laws and regulations relating to Health Education, HIV/AIDS and Teen Pregnancy Prevention education visit nasbe survey.pdf The 2004 School Health Education Profile (SHEP) assesses the status of HIV prevention efforts within high schools health education curriculum in Maryland schools. Maryland results are linked below: Principal Results in pdf format mdPrincipal04a.pdf Principal Results in PowerPoint MDPrincipal04a.ppt Teacher Results in pdf format mdTeacher04a.pdf Teacher Results in

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Math is all about problem solving. One of the best ways to help children learn math is to present them with a problem in which they have to devise their own strategies to find the solution(s). There is usually more than 1 way to solve math problems and children need the opportunity to discover shortcuts and their own algorithms to determine the appropriate solution, they should also justify their solution(s). The following math word problems are specific for children in the sixth grade and are divided into the main math cagegories: Number Concepts, Patterns and Algebra, Geometry and Measurement, Data Management and Probability. Children should be involved in problem solving activities every day. Problems for second grade students should be read to them. Students should also be able to describe why their solutions work or how they know it's the right solution. My favorite question to children is 'how do you know'. When they have to explain how they arrived at their answer, you immediately know the learning that has taken place. Patterns and Algebra Kelly's classroom organized an e-Pal club. 11 people joined the club. Each of of them sent an email to each of the members of the club. How many emails were actually sent? How do you know? Ticket sales for the bake sale were underway. Four people bought tickets on the first day of sales, twice as many people bought tickets on the second day and each day afterwards twice as many people bought tickets. How many tickets were sold after 16 days? Data Management and Probability Pet Parade: Mr. James has 14 cats, dogs and guinea pigs. What are all the combinations he could have? How many different types of pizza can you make with the following toppings: pepperoni, tomatoes, bacon, onions and green peppers? Show your answer. Sam bought 8 ball caps, one for each of her eight friends, for $8.95 each. The cashier charged her an additional $12.07 in sales tax. She left the store with a measely $6.28. How much money did Sam start with? Geometry and Measurement. Watch your favorite television show from beginning to end. Time each of the commercials and determine the percentage of commercial time for the entire show. Now determine the percentage of time the actual show is. What is the fraction of commercials? Two squares are beside each other. One square has 6 times the lenght of the other square, how many times greater is the area of the larger square? How do you know?

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Playing with Equations to Solve Problems Date: 09/16/2003 at 10:48:13 From: Mara Subject: To state the geometric property of an equation I need to give the geometric property common to all lines in the family x - ky = 1 I know that the answer is that all lines in this family have an x-intercept at x=1 but I am totally clueless about showing why this is the case. At first I thought that using the double-intercept equation (x/a) + (y/b) = 1 would work but I couldn't get it in the correct form. Then I tried to solve for x and y and got x = 1 + ky and y = (-1/k) + (-x/k) but now I do not know what to do with this. So I was wondering if you knew how to go about solving this? Date: 09/16/2003 at 12:28:52 From: Doctor Peterson Subject: Re: To state the geometric property of an equation Hi, Mara. I don't think there is any method you can use to solve this sort of problem without a lot of thinking and testing. Let's see how I personally would approach it (as well as I can construct it, considering that I know the answer already!). Then I'll look at some alternative approaches you might take. We have x - ky = 1 and we want to know what property all these lines have in common. Probably, since this is an open-ended question and I don't expect it to be straightforward, I would start by just "playing" with the equation, getting a feel for how it works by trying a few special cases. I might take k = 0, 1, and -1 and graph those three lines, x = 1 x - y = 1 x + y = 1 I would find that they all intersect at (1,0), and my answer would be that all the lines seem to contain that point. (In a sense this is a more purely "geometric" property than the x-intercept, since it does not refer to the coordinates.) Then I would want to prove that this is true for ALL k, to make sure I hadn't fooled myself by choosing three cases that happened to intersect. Thinking of this as a point shared by all lines in the family, I would prove it by simply substituting x=1, y=0 in the general equation: x - ky = 1 1 - k*0 = 1 is true for all k so (1,0) is indeed on all the lines, not just the three I tried. Or, I might think of it as a common x-intercept, as you said; then I would do what you suggested and put the equation into two-intercept form x/a + y/b = 1 That's easy; all it takes is to interpret -ky as y divided by -1/k: x/1 + y/(-1/k) = 1 So the x-intercept is 1 for all these lines, and the y-intercept is -1/k. So my approach is to experiment (the more adult word for "play"!) and make a conjecture (the more adult word for "guess"), and then prove that conjecture. Now, is there any other way you might approach this? If you were really smart (and I might possibly have done this if I were faced with the equation afresh), you could just see that the equation looks like the two-intercept form, and gone directly to the proof. If you could do that, fine; but you can't depend on such insight! You might instead just go through each form of the equation, starting probably with slope-intercept, and see whether any important feature (such as the slope or y-intercept) is constant. When that failed, it would be hard to move on to the point-slope or two-point form, because you would have to choose the point(s), and there is no obvious basis for that choice. So you would probably next try the two- intercept form (which many studuents never see, so you're lucky). Your approach came close. When you solved for x, you just had to look and see that the x-intercept (the constant in that form) is always 1. But since that form, the slope-x-intercept form, is little-known, it's not surprising that you did not know what to do with it. But I really think that my approach is the most reasonable hope to find the answer quickly. If you have any further questions, feel free to write back. - Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ Search the Dr. Math Library: Ask Dr. MathTM © 1994-2013 The Math Forum

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Problem: An oil drilling rig located 14 miles off of a straight coastline is to be connected by a pipeline to a renery 10 miles down the coast from the point directly opposite the drilling rig. Laying pipe under water costs 500,000 dollars per mile. Laying pipe on land costs 300,000 dollars per mile. What combination of underwater and land-based pipe will minimize the total cost of the pipeline? For now I'd just like help drawing the picture because in my eyes this is very poorly written. So can someone help me out with a picture for this?

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The Physics Help Forum not working today, at least not from my ISP, so this goes here. It's basically a math deal anyway: The formula to calculate the force of a point of mass, let's call them planets, that results from its being gravitationally attracted by another point of mass is Newton's: Where is the force of the planet that results from the gravitational attraction exerted upon it by the other planet, is Newton's gravity constant, and are the respecive masses of the planets, and d is the distance between them. For simplicity's sake let's say all the planets considered are of the same mass, so we can write instead of . Now, if I'm not mistaken, the formula for calculating the force of a planet resulting from the gravitational attraction of more than two planets is: Where is the force on the jth planet resulting from the gravitational attraction of the other planets, and is the distance between the jth planet and the kth planet. My question is "where is the vector addition?" That is, when considering the force on one planet that results from the gravitational attraction of many other planets, we have to take into account not only the distance of the other planets from planet j but also their position with respect to it (right?). Take for example the simple case of three planets in the same plane. Planet j is at the origin. Planet k is one unit to the right of j on the x axis, while planet l is one unit up the y axis. If the masses all equal 1, then, by the formula above, the force on planet j would be: But is a function of both the distance and the position, right? So we must consider not only the Gravitational Forces individually exerted upon j by k and l, but also the angle at which these forces are exerted. That is, we must add the vectors. To add vectors you just plug in the x value and y value sums of the added vectors into pythagoras' formula. The force on planet j should therefore be: (Where is the angle subtended by a line drawn from planet j to planet x. I.e. and ) So, what am I missing here? I am fully aware that I, and not Newton, am missing something here. Someone please help point this out for me.

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The doping-drug Epo has an impact in the brain Sportsmen and women dope with the blood hormone Epo to enhance their performance. Researchers from the University of Zurich now discovered by animal testing that Epo has a performance-enhancing effect in the brain shortly after injection and not only after days by improving oxygen transport in blood. As Epo also increases motivation, it could be useful in treating depression. The well-known blood hormone Epo is not only used for medicinal purposes; some athletes misuse it for doping. It boosts the number of red blood cells, thereby increasing the transport of oxygen to the muscles. This leads to improvements in performance, which can especially give endurance athletes such as cyclists or marathon runners the edge. Epo has immediate impact on exercise performance In a recently published study, Max Gassmann, a veterinary physiologist from the University of Zurich, proved that Epo also drastically increases motivation in the brain as soon as it has been injected, without the number of red blood cells increasing. Gassmann's team tested exercise performance of differently treated mice, studying genetically modified mice that produce human Epo solely in the brain and mice that the researchers had injected with Epo and the hormone reached the brain thus by blood. Both mouse groups exhibited an increased performance on the treadmill compared to the untreated control animals. "We assume that Epo in the brain triggers a motivation boost to increase physical performance," explains Professor Gassmann. He and his team are now testing the performance-enhancing effect of Epo on volunteers. Epo probably has an impact on people's moods, too. It might thus be used in patients who suffer from depression. The latest experiments conducted by a German-Danish research group reveal that Epo can also alleviate the condition of patients suffering from schizophrenia by improving their mental performance. Provided by University of Zurich - Biker's warning! 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Cancer debate: Are tumors fueled by stem cells? How can a cancer come back after it's apparently been eradicated? Three new studies from American, Belgian, British and Dutch researchers are bolstering a long-debated idea: that tumors contain their own pool of stem cells that can multiply and keep fueling the cancer, seeding regrowth. If that's true, scientists will need to find a way to kill those cells, apart from how they attack the rest of the tumor. Stem cells in healthy tissues are known for their ability to produce any kind of cell. The new research deals with a different kind, cancer stem cells. Some researchers, but not all, believe they lurk as a persisting feature in tumors. Over the past decade, studies have found evidence for them in tumors like breast and colon cancers. But this research has largely depended on transplanting human cancer cells into mice that don't have immune systems, an artificial environment that raises questions about the relevance of the results. Now, three studies reported online Wednesday in the journals Nature and Science present evidence for cancer stem cells within the original tumors. Again, the research relies on mice. That and other factors mean the new findings still won't convince everyone that cancer stem cells are key to finding more powerful treatments. But researcher Luis Parada, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, believes his team is onto something. He says that for the type of brain tumor his team studied, "we've identified the true enemy." If his finding applies to other cancers, he said, then even if chemotherapy drastically shrinks a tumor but doesn't affect its supply of cancer stem cells, "very little progress has actually been made." The three studies used labeling techniques to trace the ancestry of cells within mouse tumors. Collectively, they give "very strong support" to the cancer stem cell theory, said Jeffrey M. Rosen, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He did not participate in the work but supports the theory, which he said is widely accepted. Parada's team worked with mice genetically primed to develop a certain type of brain tumor. The scientists genetically labeled particular cells in the tumor and then attacked the cancer with the same drug given to human patients. It kills growing tumor cells and temporarily stops the cancer's growth. After treatment, when the tumor started growing again in the mice, the researchers showed that the vast majority, if not all, of its new cells had descended from the labeled cells. Apparently these were the tumor's cancer stem cells, they concluded. Parada said his team is now trying to isolate cancer stem cells from mouse brain cancers to study them and perhaps get some leads for developing therapies to eradicate them. He also said that preliminary study of human brain tumors is producing results consistent with what his team found in the mice. Parada's study appears in Nature. In a second Nature report, British and Belgian researchers found evidence for cancer stem cells in early stage skin tumors in mice. And in the journal Science, a Dutch group found such evidence in mouse intestinal polyps, which are precursors to colon cancer. Scott Kern of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is skeptical about whether tumors contain cancer stem cells. He said that since the new studies didn't involve human tumors, it's not clear how relevant they are to people. The two European studies focused largely on lesions that can lead to tumors, he said. And as for Parada's brain cancer study, he said he believed the results could be explained without relying on the cancer stem cell theory. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. - Study suggests new treatment target for glioblastoma multiforme Aug 01, 2012 | not rated yet | 0 - Cancer stem cell vaccine in development shows antitumor effect Apr 02, 2012 | not rated yet | 0 - Herceptin targets breast cancer stem cells Jul 09, 2008 | not rated yet | 0 - New role for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in regulating skin cancer stem cells Oct 19, 2011 | not rated yet | 0 - Stem cells, potential source of cancer-fighting T cells Sep 20, 2011 | not rated yet | 0 - Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions Apr 23, 2013 | 3 / 5 (2) | 2 - Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update) Apr 02, 2013 | 4.5 / 5 (11) | 5 - The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation Mar 30, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 9 - Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled Mar 27, 2013 | 4.9 / 5 (8) | 0 - Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance Feb 28, 2013 | 4.8 / 5 (10) | 14 Pressure-volume curve: Elastic Recoil Pressure don't make sense May 18, 2013 From pressure-volume curve of the lung and chest wall (attached photo), I don't understand why would the elastic recoil pressure of the lung is... 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Research finds novel airborne germ-killing oral spray effective in fighting colds and flu University Hospitals Case Medical Center clinical researchers will present findings about a one-two punch to prevent colds and flu in San Francisco at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) on September 9, 2012. The research team is presenting data in two poster presentations that a new oral antiseptic spray is effective in killing 99.9 percent of infectious airborne germs. Findings from these two presentations led to the development of Halo Oral Antiseptic, a first-of-its kind germ-fighting spray which is currently on store shelves. "Respiratory tract disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world," says Frank Esper, MD, infectious disease expert at UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and lead author of one of the studies. "Yet there has been limited progress in the prevention of respiratory virus infections. Halo is unique in that it offers protection from airborne germs such as influenza and rhinovirus." Dr. Esper and a team of researchers used glycerine and xanthan gum as a microbial barrier combined with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as a broad-spectrum anti-infective agent to fight respiratory illnesses. To test this, clinical strains of 2009 pandemic H1N1 were used as a prototype virus to demonstrate Halo's anti-infective activity in cell culture assays. "The glycerine and xanthan gum prevent the germs from entering a person's system and the CPC kills the germs once they're trapped there," explains Dr. Esper, who is also Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Dr. Esper will present his findings that Halo will have clear benefit to aid against infection and reduce disease from epidemic, sporadic or pandemic respiratory viral infections, particularly helping people at risk for severe respiratory illness including immune-compromised individuals with chronic lung disease, and military personnel. Another study on Halo will be presented by Mahmoud Ghannoum, PhD, of UH Case Medical Center, showing Halo's effectiveness against disease-causing pathogenic germs. The presentation asserts that respiratory and/or systemic infections through airborne and manually transmitted pathogenic microbes often enter the system through the mouth, making Halo, an oral spray that targets these pathogens, an effective way to prevent infections. Additionally, preliminary data from the researchers found that Halo completely kills all 11 clinical strains of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) against which the spray was tested. The results showed that when a person used three sprays of Halo, it destroyed airborne germs breathed in for up to six hours, even when people were eating and drinking. The concept of coating the back of the oral cavity to prevent germs from entering and then providing sustained antiseptic action to kill airborne germs was developed by a Cleveland company, Oasis Consumer Healthcare. "Exposure to airborne germs is inevitable – especially in crowded environments and when traveling," said Dr. Ghannoum, who is also the Director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "Unlike other products that support the immune system or protect from germs on surfaces or hands, Halo is the first and only product of its kind to offer protection from airborne germs." 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News tagged with renewable energy Related topics: energy , wind turbines , electricity , solar panels , fossil fuels Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which are renewable (naturally replenished). In 2006, about 18% of global final energy consumption came from renewables, with 13% coming from traditional biomass, such as wood-burning. Hydroelectricity was the next largest renewable source, providing 3% of global energy consumption and 15% of global electricity generation. Wind power is growing at the rate of 30 percent annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 121,000 megawatts (MW) in 2008, and is widely used in European countries and the United States. The annual manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached 6,900 MW in 2008, and photovoltaic (PV) power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA. While most renewable energy projects and production is large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the world's highest household solar ownership rate with roughly 30,000 small (20–100 watt) solar power systems sold per year. Some renewable energy technologies are criticised for being intermittent or unsightly, yet the renewable energy market continues to grow. Climate change concerns coupled with high oil prices, peak oil and increasing government support are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation, and policies should help the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors. This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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Breast cancer represents one of the most common cancers among women in the United States. Data indicates that more than 180,000 American women received a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2009. The various risk factors include: the female gender, heredity, genetic factors, aging and idiopathic causes. What You Should Know About Breast Cancer The short answer to what you should know about breast cancer is that it’s a malignant tumor in the breast tissue. With non-invasive breast cancer, the tumor stays localized and does not spread (metastasize) from its origin of growth. Experts refer to this as “Carcinoma in Situ”. The tumor occurs in and remains confined to the ducts (ductal carcinoma in situ) or confined to the lobules (lobular carcinoma in situ). “Duct” and “Lobules” refer to the milk duct and the milk producing glands, respectively, in the mammary glands. Most breast cancers start in the ducts and spread to other tissues. Lobular carcinoma doesn’t meet the criteria of a true cancer by itself, but is a marker for many other types of cancer – both invasive and non-invasive. An invasive tumor spreads beyond its area of origin and can have three different stages of invasiveness – localized, regional and distant stages. As the names suggest localized types include those which remain localized to the breast tissues, the regional stage refers to the spread of the tumor to the tissues surrounding the breast (e.g. – lymph nodes) and the distant tumors are those that spread away from the breast to other tissues and organs. Needless to mention, patients with distant tumors are not easily managed. About Breast Cancer Stages Doctors base breast cancer stages on the tumor size, nodal status (involvement of lymph nodes) and degree of spread (metastasis) tumors are grouped into 5 stages – 0 to IV. Stage zero means the carcinoma cells confined to the duct or lobule and has not spread elsewhere. This is the foremost stage of breast cancer. In stage I the tumor is very small – less than or equal to 2 cm in diameter and is confined to an area in the breast, not spread to the lymph nodes or surrounding tissues. In stage II, the tumor grows to 1-2 inches in diameter and cancer cells appear at the lymph nodes. Sometimes the tumor is even bigger than 5cms, but the lymph nodes remain unaffected. In stage III, the tumor grows more than 5 cm and spreads to the lymph nodes and sometimes even to multiple lymph nodes, skin and chest wall. Stage IV is the last one and in this case the cancer spreads to somewhere else in the body. Diagnostic Tests for Breast Cancer A biopsy of the tumor determines the type of cancer. This enables the doctors to freeze on the treatment methods and also to figure out how quickly the cancer might grow. The hormone receptor status and HER2 status of the patient is also of prime importance to the doctors, because female hormones estrogen and progesterone play a vital role in the development of some cancer types. “ER+” and “PR+” are, respectively, estrogen receptor positive and progesterone receptor positive tumors. Hormonal therapy has been found to be beneficial in patients with such tumors. HER2 status also influences the mode of treatment. Therapy and Treatment of Breast Cancer The most widely used breast cancer treatment methods include mastectomy and lumpectomy procedures. The former refers to the removal of the entire affected breast through surgery and the latter refers to the removal of only the tumor and some surrounding tissues believed to contain the roots of the tumor. As is the case with most cancer types, the cancer cells in breast cancer are too tiny for detection and doctors cannot rule out the chances that some cells will remain in the body, even after a successful surgery. The leftover cells can cause recurrence. To rule out recurrence adjuvant therapies are advised. Such therapies include: - Hormonal therapy - Targeted biological therapy In chemotherapy, the oncology health care team will administer a chemical to the patient (usually intravenously, but sometimes orally) to disrupt communication and growth of the cancerous cells. Hormonal therapy involves dosing the patient with a drug that works to bring down the estrogen levels or reduce its action. Experts believe estrogen promotes growth in some tumors. In targeted biological therapy, doctors inject the body with monoclonal antibodies trained to recognize and destroy certain proteins and cells (the cancerous cells) through phagocytosis (mechanism of destruction through immune system). How to Cope with Breast Cancer It’s important that breast cancer patients get rid of the fear and traumas associated with the diagnosis and actually try to understand the disease. This will help them manage it more effectively: - Share your feelings with the near and dear ones. - Joining a support group helps get rid of the so called “blues”. - Indulge in activities of interest like books, music, movies etc. - Eat healthy, think healthy. - Take rest. Talk to your doctor about changes in symptoms etc. and discuss ways to manage them in the best possible manner. About the Author: Jessica Palin works as a health writer and blogger for Robertgrantmd, (New York plastic surgery). She researches and writes about a variety of women’s health topics from breast cancer and weight loss to pregnancy tips. Her special interest involves exploring the new trends in beauty and plastic surgery treatments for both men and women. Images: embracinghealthblog dot com

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The Oregon Trail opened the way west for intrepid settlers and enterprising miners. Once it was well established and the roads were cleared and expanded, once towns had grown up along the route and locations in the Rockies and further west were settled, it was only natural that a new method of transportation would take over: stagecoaches. The technology behind stagecoaches wasn’t new. Carriages were the primary form of mass transportation in the pre-locomotive age. What made stagecoaches different from regular carriages were their size and the way they were supported on the wheel frame. Rather than relying on springs, which jostled a rider up and down, stagecoaches made use of thoroughbraces, leather straps that supported the body of the stagecoach and gave it more of a rocking motion.Stagecoaches could generally fit nine passengers inside and six outside. Inside, as you can probably guess, meant that passengers traveled inside the body of the coach. They would ride on three benches, two facing forward and the foremost one facing backwards, three riders to a bench. As you can imagine, it was a tight squeeze. Passengers in the first two benches would often have to wedge their knees between one another to make room. They would carry their baggage and often have mail under their feet. But if that wasn’t bad enough, the six passengers riding outside of the carriage would be just as cramped and exposed to the elements. But what passengers lost in comfort, they made up for in speed. The most common type of stagecoach was the Concord stagecoach, manufactured in Concord, New Hampshire. These stagecoaches rarely broke down. They were drawn by a team of six horses and could cut through the new roadways of the west much faster than any wagon train ever could. This is part of the reason that almost all stagecoaches carried mail as well as passengers. More than just mail, in fact. It was common for stagecoaches to carry gold and cash being transported on behalf of one bank or another. This, of course, meant that there was a real danger of robberies along the road. The first major stagecoach robbery in California took place in 1852 when Reelfoot Williams and his gang robbed a Nevada City coach. The gang had set up a network of informants to monitor when stages were coming and what money and passengers they were carrying. They carried off the heist, setting a precedent that many would follow. For that reason, and because of the very real threat of attacks by Native Americans, passengers were advised to carry guns and knives with them and drivers were well armed. So, you might ask yourself. Who was in charge of all these stagecoaches? You probably already know the answer without knowing it. There were several stagecoach companies in the east that had been in operation even before the 19th century. But one of the biggest and most successful companies developed in the 1830s as a service to deliver packages between Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Adams & Company gradually moved west as steamships replaced overland routes for fast transportation between the major eastern cities. Adams & Company did well in California after the gold rush, until mismanagement and the emergence of a serious competitor changed everything. That competitor was a little company started by two men, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. The company that Wells and Fargo started offered more than just stagecoach service. It offered banking and mail services as well. In fact, by the time the 1850s rolled around, Wells Fargo was widely known to be faster and more reliable about delivering the mail than the U.S. Postal service. Then came the Panic of 1855. The California banking system, puffed up on speculation of continued profits from the Gold Rush, collapsed. Many businesses, including Adams & Company, folded. But Wells Fargo managed to hold on. Not only did it hold on, it emerged as one of the only viable options in stagecoach transportation. Since Wells Fargo pretty much had a monopoly on stagecoach transportation in the west after 1855, they could make the rules. And some of those rules were: Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly. If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the gentler sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit with the wind, not against it. Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children. Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort in cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver. Don’t snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger’s shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result. Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses. In the event of runaway horses remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry coyotes. Forbidden topics of conversation are: stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings. Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It’s a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.* So there you have it. Stagecoach transportation in the Old West. Traveling by stagecoach was the only way to go in those days … until the railroad came along and changed everything….

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A machine for turning, that is, for shaping articles of wood, metal, or other material, by causing them to revolve while acted upon by a cutting tool. Basically, a machine that fashions work by making the work turn on an axis. The cutting is done by a tool that is not rotating. On wood lathes the wood usually turns between the headstock and the tailstock. The turner holds the tool by hand and moves it to cut various shapes on the wood. On metal lathes the work (whatever material is being fashioned) turns and the tool is held rigid whilst the operator moves the tool using hand wheels. Lathes are very versatile, come in a myriad of styles, and many contradict the above definitions. Wood can be cut in any metal lathe and soft metals can usually be cut on wood lathes. A machine that is used for working metals and plastics by rotating about the horizontal axis against a tool that shapes it. A machine that spins timber, This makes it unique as all other power tools move whilst the timber remains static. A lathes is a machine which holds a piece of wood or metal between two centers and turns it so the work can be shaped by hand-held "turning chisels." Foot operated or hand cranked. A machine designed to center a piece of wood on an axis: as it turns, the woodturner can cut into the wood to create symmetrical objects. a machine that hold a piece of metal or wood and turns it rapidly against a cutting tool for shaping Finally, he used a lathe to shape the wooden bowl. A machine on which logs are peeled to yield veneer for plywood. machine tool for shaping metal or wood; the workpiece turns about a horizontal axis against a fixed tool a common tool used in machining a machine for changing the shape of a piece of wood, metal, etc a machine for use in working metal or wood which holds the material and rotates it against a tool that shapes it a machine in which a piece of wood is rotated around a fixed axis while being shaped by a fixed tool a machine that cuts away small amounts of the comm to restore it to a trued state a machine that holds the wood on a rapidly spinning axis a machine that rotates a piece of wood to create a uniform circular design when the wood is cut with a chisel a machine that turns metal , wood, etc a machine tool for shaping metal or other material a machine tool, specifically designed to help in the a machine tool that generates circular sections by rotating the job around an axis and cutting it with a tool a machine tool that removes unwanted material from a cylindrical work piece by rotating it against a cutting tool a machine tool used to produce mechanical parts with cylindrical features a machine used for shaping parts a machine used for turning wood, metal and other materials by rotating the article against tools which cut it to shape a machine used to turn rounded objects a marvelous tool an ancient tool that was used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient and medieval peoples an object created by revolving a spline curve, which determines the contour of the shape, around an axis a power tool that spins the wheel around and slowly shapes it until all the sides are the same a tool for making round things a tool used to create objects with cylindrical symmetry such as table legs a VERY easy to make primitive tool a machine for shaping a piece of wood, metal, etc. by holding and turning it rapidly against the edge of the cutting tool. A tool, usually free standing, for turning a piece while tools are held against it. Typically several feet long and about a foot wide. Different lathes are used for wood or metal (or glass) pieces. A lathe commonly has a headstock that grips the piece and has gears and a motor drive for turning the piece and a tailstock that guides the other end of long pieces. Most lathes allow working a piece held only at the headstock, as for making bowl shaped pieces. The tailstock is normally mounted on rails (the bed) so it can be moved accurately to different distances while remaining centered on the headstock. A wood lathe will have a tool rest to help guide the handheld tools along the piece while a metal lathe will have a solid tool holder with screw adjustments to withstand the increased force. Glass lathes are used to join medium and large diameter tubing for scientific glass work, keeping two tubes aligned as heat is applied all around the joint. rev.2003-02-27 A lathe is used for turning materials like wood and bone when they are being worked. A machine tool by which work is rotated on a horizontal axis and shaped or cut by a fixed tool. A machine which derives its usefulness by rotating stock against which tooling may be brought to bear. Springs are often wound on a lathe. Power tool, which is used to turn wood or metal objects so that cutting tools may shape it while it, rotates. Machine for shaping turned parts by the application of cutting edges against the revolving wood. A lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation. In 3 D computer graphics, a lathed object is a 3D model whose vertex geometry is produced by rotating the points of a spline or other point set around a fixed axis. The lathing may be partial; the amount of rotation is not necessarily a full 360 degrees. The point set providing the initial source data can be thought of as a cross section through the object. A metal lathe is generic description for a rigid machine tool designed to remove material from a workpiece, through the action of a cutting tool. They were originally designed to machine metals however with the advent of plastics and other materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of applications, and a broad range of materials.

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Venerated from the early centuries of Christianity, Saint Christopher—whose name means "Christ-bearer"—was honored as the protector of travelers. According to "The Golden Legend," Christopher ferried a small child across a river. As he did so, the child's weight grew increasingly heavy. When Christopher complained that it seemed as if he had carried the weight of the world, the child replied, "Wonder not, Christopher, for not only has thou borne the whole world upon thy shoulders, but Him who created the world. For I am Christ thy King." In this imposing statuette-reliquary, Christopher strides through the water, twisting as he turns to look at the Christ Child, who holds an orb in reference to his dominion. The small leaves sprouting from the top of Christopher's staff are a harbinger of the miracle promised by Christ—that if the saint, upon his return home, planted the staff in the ground, it would bear leaves and fruit in the morning.The hallmarks stamped on the hem of the saint's cloak and on the statue's base indicate that this piece was made by a goldsmith in Toulouse. The reliquary, excellently preserved, reveals a masterful treatment of the material. The soft, rich folds of the saint's cloak belie their metal substance. The ungilded surfaces of the faces are framed by the crisp design of the hair. The engraving of the short curls of the Christ Child, the hair and flowing beard of the saint, and the fish in the turbulent water are accented by the juxtaposition of large areas of silver with bright flashes of gilding. A now-lost relic of the saint was placed in the small box covered with crystal on the statue's base, through which the relic could be seen.

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Halloween blackout of '57 spurs creation of portable pacemakerby Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio Fifty years ago a massive Halloween blackout disrupted power across a highly populated section of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. People from St. Cloud to Faribault, the Twin Cities and Eau Claire had no electricity for up to three hours. For most, the outage was simply inconvenient. But for a few young heart patients connected to pacemakers it was life-threatening. The blackout did spur the creation the first portable, battery-powered pacemaker. Minneapolis, Minn. — At the University of Minnesota hospital 50 years ago, surgeons had recently started using pacemakers to help children recover from heart surgery. The devices plugged into a wall socket, so when the power went out in patients' rooms, their pacemakers stopped working too. It's hard to piece together exactly what it was like at the hospital during the blackout. But what can be gleaned from old newspaper accounts paints a frenzied picture, according to historian Jack Norton. "They had police officers pull up to the side of the surgery suites and simply turn on their headlights to provide light for the surgeons," says Norton. "They scrambled to try and keep blood cold by grabbing ice from various coolers to stick in the blood refrigerator." Norton dug up dozens of newspaper stories about the blackout while doing research for Medtronic. He says the articles show that the university hospital had no reason to suspect it was vulnerable to a power failure because it was connected to two different power plants. "They thought if one of them went down, the other would provide them with electricity," says Norton. But this was a rolling blackout that took down plants all across the power grid. No one anticipated that happening, Norton says. "It's a nightmare scenario and there's a certain amount of irony that it happens on Halloween, that this nightmare in critical care happens on the day when we all know it's famed for scary happenings." Probably the scariest place to be that morning was the children's cardiac recovery unit. A number of young kids were connected to pacemakers after undergoing heart surgery. When the power went off, doctors scrambled to find drugs to keep their patients hearts pumping. Still, one child didn't survive the three hour ordeal. The trauma of that event rattled pioneering University of Minnesota heart surgeon C. Walter Lillehei. The next day in the hospital hallway Lillehei flagged down Earl Bakken, an electrical engineer who spent a lot of his time collaborating with university surgeons on new medical devices. Bakken had just started Medtronic a few years earlier and was still running the company out of his garage. Bakken says Lillehei was clearly troubled about the blackout. "We got together and talked about it and said we have to have some way to back these pacemakers up when there's a power failure," Bakken said in a recent interview. Lillehei asked Bakken if he could create a portable pacemaker that ran on a battery. "So we talked about well how do we do that? How do we get the battery backup?," says Bakken. "And I said, 'Well, we'll take a six volt automobile battery and then use an inverter to convert the six volts to 115 volts to run the pacemaker.'" Bakken and a his employees built the device. Bakken says it would have worked fine, but the car battery produced more power than he needed for his pacemaker. So he started looking for alternatives. Then he remembered an article he had read in his Popular Electronics magazine. It was about a new circuit for a metronome. "A metronome has the same rates as heart rates," says Bakken. The metronome circuit also had the advantage of being much smaller. Bakken's invention fit in a box about the size of a small paperback book, which meant the pacemaker could be placed in the bed with the patient, rather than on a medical cart next to the bed. Bakken took his new invention to the University of Minnesota and tested it out on a laboratory dog that had been given an artificial heart block. "And I said, 'Okay now. This seems to work, so I'll go back to my garage and make a pacemaker we can use on humans,'" says Bakken. But he never got the chance. When Bakken returned to the hospital the next day, he saw his invention being used in the recovery room. "There was a child in there with this pacemaker connected to him...What a great feeling that is to see here's something we made with our own hands keeping this child alive." Still Bakken wasn't convinced his portable pacemaker was really ready for human use. He sought out Lillehei and asked him why he didn't wait for the human version of the machine. "And he said well as long as this battery operated pacemaker was available he wasn't going to risk losing another child to a power failure." Bakken says it was probably inevitable that a portable pacemaker would have been invented in the 1950's even if he hadn't created the device. Surgeons at the time were making remarkable advances in treating heart conditions. He says the Halloween blackout simply highlighted the urgency in developing new medical technologies as fast as possible. It's a trend that continues today. Modern pacemakers have advanced considerably in the past 50 years. They're still battery operated. But they're much smaller. They fit in the palm of your hand. And they're no longer a piece of excess body baggage. They are implanted directly into a patient's chest, making it much easier for patients to lead normal lives. - Morning Edition, 10/31/2007, 7:20 a.m.

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DUE: MONDAY MAY 13, 2013 As we have discussed in class, Elijah is surrounded by an aura of mystery: we know nothing of his parentage; his tribe of origin and birthplace are unknown (though he is identified as a “resident of Gilead”); we are ignorant about his early life and call to prophecy; he travels widely, performs miracles, and of greatest importance, defies a conventional death, ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot instead. Approximately four centuries after Elijah’s strange prophetic career came to a close, the prophet Malachi believed he would return to earth to fulfill another divine mission: “Behold, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children, and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction” (Malachi 3:23-24). Later on in rabbinic literature and folk legends, Elijah would take on a mythical role as the prophet who wanders the world generation after generation, protecting the weak and disadvantaged, humbling the arrogant who persecute the powerless. Capable of any disguise, he travels unrecognized through crowds of people, mysteriously appearing when needed and then just as mysteriously disappearing, revealing his identity on rare occasions only. It is fair to say that Elijah has captured the religious imagination of Jews as few other figures have. The final project for 8th grade TaNaKh will focus on Elijah’s larger-than-life role in Jewish literature and liturgy. Choose ONE of the following. Please note the final project is in lieu of a final exam, and will count significantly toward your grade — along with other factors like participation, conduct, effort and attendance. Here are your choices: 1. Draw 3-4 pictures about Elijah, each telling a different story. You may wish to draw upon the biblical texts or folk stories we have studied (listed below) in creating your images. At least one of your pictures should place the prophet in a modern context. If Elijah came back today where would he go and whom would he visit? What would he look like? Each of your pictures should be accompanied by a paragraph or two explaining the setting and the reasons for depicting the prophet as you have. 2. Create a folktale about Elijah. While drawing upon the biblical texts and folk stories we studied in class for inspiration, your literary effort should be creative, and not a simple retelling of a traditional story. I would encourage you to read Elie Wiesel’s powerful short story, An Evening Guest (copies will be available from Cassie Vichozsky as of 4/22, and will also be distributed at our next class), which places Elijah in a small Hungarian town in 1944 as a messenger sent to warn Jews about the Nazi death camps — it’s a great example of taking the traditional picture of Elijah . . . and then turning it inside out in a very compelling way. Your folktale should be no shorter than 3 pages (typed, double-spaced, 12-font type). 3. Research references to Elijah in the siddur and on religious occasions. At what ceremonies and celebrations do we invoke his name? Where in our liturgy does he appear? When and how did Elijah become connected with these particular rituals/prayers? Why do we mention his name at these specific times/places? Your research paper should be 4 pages at a minimum (typed, double-spaced, 12-font type). 4. Elijah has also captured the religious imagination of Christians and Muslims. Research how Elijah is depicted in Christian and Muslim Scripture and compare/contrast this with the ways in which Judaism describes his role. What are the similarities and differences in the Jewish understanding of the prophet Elijah and the way the other Abrahamic faiths view him? Your research paper should be 4 pages at a minimum (typed, double-spaced, 12-font type). We have studied the following sources about Elijah: First Kings, chapters 17, 18 & 19; Second Kings, chapter 2; Folk stories about Elijah (handout distributed in class from Peninah Schram’s Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another). First Kings, chapter 21; Malachi, chapter 3; Elie Wiesel’s short story, An Evening Guest (available from Cassie as of 4/22).

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This sturdy, tannic, plumy red wine grape, a staple of Bordeaux for over a century, was in decline until it was discovered by Argentina. This was in fact a rediscovery, because Malbec's root origins in Argentina date to the days before phylloxera in the earlier 20th century. Its character is more plum-like than Merlot and slightly more tannic that Cabernet Sauvignon. It is still used in the French southwest in the dark, tannic wine of Cahors, where the grape is known as Cot. Though Chile and Australia also have adopted Malbec, it's Argentina that has made its reputation. There, it becomes a rich, lush red that can develop complexity as it ages.

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The Predator. The Reaper. The Gorgon Stare. The Dennymite. Today’s high tech UAVs have the lure of Hollywood to thank for their existence. One of the first drones was built by an English WWI pilot who hopped the pond to pursue his acting dream. In between small roles alongside Greta Garbo and Frank Sinatra, Reginald Denny turned his remote control airplane hobby into a military contract. His first RP-1, designed for military target practice, would become the US military’s first mass-produced unmanned aerial vehicle. “He pitched basically a radio controlled airplane to fly as a target,” says Tony Chong, the in-house historian at Northrop Grumman, which purchased Denny’s company in 1952. “A lot of people knew how to fly radio controlled planes back then. It wasn’t a big leap to teach military personnel how to use them.” Reginald Denny, OQ-3 launch, 1940. Denny (not to be confused with the L.A. riot’s Reginald Denny) named his company Radioplane and modified the design of his target drone, selling 53 RP-4s to the US Army in 1940. During World War II, the company manufactured 15,000 drones for the US Army from its factory at the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. The Navy also got in on the action, calling their drones the TDD-1: “Target Drone Denny 1”. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that Radioplane started developing the technology to pre-program plane routes. The next step was fully autonomous systems, which were around as early as the mid-70s. But before drones would become a strange sign of our robot future, Denny’s acting career would take off – he became a character actor, and appeared in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. And he and his enterprise might also take credit for helping to launch the career of the most famous actress ever. Denny, believing there was real ‘morale’ potential on his factory floor, urged the captain of the Army’s PR Hollywood division (Ronald Reagan, natch) to send over a photographer. And that’s where he found a young woman named Norma Jeane working the assembly line. Marilyn Monroe had been discovered. How’s that for morale?

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After the British Pyrrhic (costly) victory at Bunker Hill in 1775, British General William Howe decided a lethal blow needed to be delivered to the Patriot cause. Howe proposed to launch an attack on New York City using tens thousands of troops. He began mobilizing the massive fleet in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, American Commander-in-Chief George Washington had ordered General Charles Lee to prepare for the defense of the city. That June, Howe and 9,000 troops set sail for New York. Howe’s army was to be met in the city by additional regiments of German and British troops. Reinforcements from Halifax led by Howe’s brother would follow them. Howe’s initial fleet arrived in New York Harbor and began landing troops on Staten Island. On April 27, 1776, British forces engaged the Americans at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights (also called the Battle of Long Island). Howe’s army successfully outflanked Washington’s, eventually causing the Patriots, after some resistance, to withdraw to Manhattan under the cover of darkness, thereby avoiding a potentially costly siege at the hands of the British. After failed peace negotiations, the British Army next struck at Lower Manhattan, where 12,000 British troops quickly overtook the city. Most of the Continental Army had retreated to defensible positions at Harlem Heights and then to White Plains, well north of the city, but some soldiers remained at Fort Washington in Manhattan. Howe’s army chased Washington and the Continental Army into positions north of White Plains before returning to Manhattan. In Manhattan, Howe set his sights on Fort Washington, the last Patriot stronghold in Manhattan. In the furious, three-pronged attacked, British forces easily took the fort, capturing nearly 3,000 American prisoners and at least 34 cannons in the process. Most of the prisoners were taken to squalid British prison ships where all but 800 or so died of disease or starvation. General Washington, now at Fort Lee, directly across the Hudson River from Fort Washington, witnessed the events that happened. Following the fall of Fort Washington, British forces ferried up the Hudson River in barges toward Fort Lee. Washington ordered the evacuation of the fort’s 2,000 soldiers across the Hackensack River at New Bridge Landing. Washington would lead his army clear across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Following the events in and around New York City, the outlook was bleak for the Continental Army. Morale in the army was extremely low, enlistments were ending, and desertions were commonplace. Even General Washington admitted his army’s chances of success were slim. Meanwhile, General Howe ordered his army into their winter quarters that December and established several outposts from New York City south to New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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- Position your mouse pointer over the image. - Click the right mouse button. - Select the "Save Picture As" or the "Save Image As" menu item. - Enter the directory and name of the file to create. Need a World file? Click the "World File" link located above the image on the right to obtain the geographic reference coordinates of the above image. Use your browser's File.SaveAs menu option to save the World File to the same directory where you saved the image. Make sure World File extension is It takes a few moments to construct a single image from the image tiles you were viewing. The repeating "Your image is being constructed..." message will be replaced with your image. Please be patient. Once the image is displayed, use your web browser's save picture or save image function to copy your image to a location on your computer system. On Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can save the image by clicking on the image with the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will be displayed. Click the "Save Picture As" menu item. On FireFox, right-click on the image and select the "Save Image As" menu item. The web browser will display a "Save Picture As" window. There will be "File name:" field on the bottom of the Save As window. Change the name of the file to your liking and click the Save button. Windows users, you should make sure you end your filename with the .jpg . All images downloaded from Microsoft MSR Maps are in the Jpeg image

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New study challenges previous findings that humans are an altruistic anomaly, and positions chimpanzees as cooperative, especially when their partners are patient. Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, have shown chimpanzees have a significant bias for prosocial behavior. This, the study authors report, is in contrast to previous studies that positioned chimpanzees as reluctant altruists and led to the widely held belief that human altruism evolved in the last six million years only after humans split from apes. The current study findings are available in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to Yerkes researchers Victoria Horner, PhD, Frans de Waal, PhD, and their colleagues, chimpanzees may not have shown prosocial behaviors in other studies because of design issues, such as the complexity of the apparatus used to deliver rewards and the distance between the animals. “I have always been skeptical of the previous negative findings and their over-interpretation, says Dr. de Waal. “This study confirms the prosocial nature of chimpanzees with a different test, better adapted to the species,” he continues.

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Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced on Twitter (@onetoughnerd) that he has signed Michigan's right to work laws. This makes Michigan the 24th state to protect workers from being forced to join a union. Earlier this year, Indiana became the 23rd state to do so. "I have signed the freedom to work bills into law." - Gov Rick Snyder— Rick Snyder (@onetoughnerd) December 11, 2012 Often misunderstood, "right to work" is actually a simple and very limited policy. It prevents union contracts from making payment of union dues a condition of employment. That's all. Unions can exist, but can't force people to give them money. That is, unions must convince workers that the union does something or provides something worth paying for. What anti-trust laws do to business, right-to-work laws do to unions: these laws prevent monopolies in order to protect consumers and workers. One reason monopolies are disfavored was on display today on the Michigan Capitol lawn. As Lord Acton said, power corrupts, but it is absolute power that tends to corrupt absolutely. When a union is granted a monopoly, that power is eventually reinterpreted as a "right," and then as an entitlement. Defense of union power becomes an ends that justifies almost any means. And so in Michigan today, supporters of right to work were brutally assaulted and their property vandalized and destroyed.

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The Jersey breed originated over 600 years ago on the Island of Jersey, located in the English Channel between France and England. Today, outstanding herds of Jerseys can be found from Denmark to New Zealand, from Canada to South America, and from South Africa to Japan. The first Jerseys to be registered by the American Jersey Cattle Association were imported to the United States in 1850, but cattle from Jersey Island had been imported to this country much earlier. Today, there are almost 400,000 Jersey cows in the United States and they are an important part of the dairy industry in all 50 states. California has the most Jersey cows, followed by Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Jersey calves weigh about 55 pounds at birth. Mature Jersey females usually weigh about 950 pounds and males about 1,500 pounds. Jerseys reach maturity the earliest of all dairy breeds and are efficient reproducers. They also have the longest productive life, or longevity in the milking herd, of any dairy breed. Jerseys are more tolerant of heat than the larger breeds, and are adapted to a wide range of climatic and geographical conditions. Jersey milk has a rich, smooth flavor because it naturally contains higher percentages of protein, calcium, and other important nutrients than milk from other dairy breeds (for the latest milk test results, click here). The extra protein is the reason Jersey milk yields the greatest amount of cheddar cheese: 12.35 pounds of cheese from 100 pounds of milk. This compares to the yield of average milk produced in the United States of 10.04 pounds of cheese. The Jersey is the most efficient dairy producer in the world, producing more pounds of milk per pound of body weight than any other breed. An average Jersey in the United States produces 16 times her bodyweight in milk each year, or about twice her body weight in Cheddar cheese. The Jersey production champion produced over 40 times her body weight in one year: 49,250 lbs. of milk containing 1,645 lbs. of protein. That is equal to 70,752 half-pint servings of milk, enough milk for an entire year's lunches in a school of 400 students. The American Jersey Cattle Association was organized in 1868 to improve and promote the breed of Jersey cattle in the United States. It is located at 6486 East Main Street in Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068. For more information, subscribe to the Jersey Journal or log onto the AJCA's website at www.USJersey.com. Jersey breeders in your area may be found by visiting the Jersey Directory Online and All-Jersey® distributors are listed on the Distributors page.

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Iowa State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) at Ames closely monitors the incidence of animal diseases, including those caused by swine influenza viruses (SIV). The VDL uses state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic technology to diagnose SIV, track seasonal trends for prevalence and monitor which SIV strains or subtypes are most prevalent. This helps veterinarians and producers understand herd health status and appropriate vaccine or control measures. The emergence of the H1N1 influenza A virus that sickened people has led ISU swine veterinarian and virologist K.J. Yoon and his team of molecular diagnosticians to analyze a bank of SIV viruses from case submissions from October 2008 to April 2009. The goal is to determine if the H1N1 flu virus is in the Iowa swine population. So far, screening of samples has not detected the Novel H1N1 virus in the domestic hog population. “Each day we are learning more about this novel influenza virus,” Yoon says. “We are particularly learning about its genetic makeup. This virus was originally coined the name ‘swine flu’ as it contains viral components that have been previously identified in influenza viruses causing disease in pigs. However, this novel H1N1 virus has been reportedly spreading primarily from direct human-to-human contact, which is more similar to how emerging strains of ‘seasonal influenza’ are commonly transmitted. It is also important to understand that influenza virus is transmitted by direct exposure to respiratory secretions, and is not a foodborne illness or food safety concern.” Diagnostic testing for the hybrid flu virus at the VDL is done by gene sequence analysis which takes up to seven days. ISU researchers are currently developing a high throughput polymerase chain reaction diagnostic test that will differentiate human, swine and avian viruses usually within 24 hours. “We have an excellent team of applied veterinary diagnosticians and researchers working diligently to serve the emerging needs of our stakeholders helping safeguard both animal and human health,” says Rodger Main, DVM, director of ISU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Operations.

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About 1 in 2,500 babies born in the UK has cystic fibrosis (CF). This inherited condition can affect the digestion and lungs. Babies with CF may not gain weight well, and have frequent chest infections. Screening means that babies with CF can be treated early with a high energy diet, medicines and physiotherapy. Although a child with CF may still become very ill, early treatment is thought to help them live longer, healthier lives. If babies are not screened for CF and they do have the condition, they can be tested later but parents may have an anxious time before CF is recognised.

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A mask carved from a human skull, the nose and tongue skewered by ceremonial daggers. This artifact, on display at the Field’s exclusive and expansive new exhibit, “The Aztec World,” exemplifies the most shocking aspects of the Mesoamerican tribe that, in just 200 years, shaped the foundations of modern-day Mexico. Caricaturized in the popular media as brutal and blood-thirsty, the Aztecs were in actuality a deeply complex, sophisticated society fascinated with dyads: male and female, light and darkness, life and death. This assemblage of nearly 300 artifacts has been collected in collaboration with ten Mexican museums. The exhibit explores the stark and shocking duality of the Aztecs: an empire that embraced life through technical and artistic achievements, and death through ritual human sacrifice. Museum guests can view wares from the Great Aztec Market, which dwarfed its European counterparts, as well as large stone statues excavated from the “House of Eagles” and the Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Another artifact—a large, rabbit-shaped drinking vessel for the alcoholic pulque—exemplifies a little-known aspect of Aztec culture: a charming and whimsical sense of humor. The Aztecs saw a rabbit’s silhouette in the face of the moon, thereby associating rabbits with a popular nighttime activity: drunkenness. (Laura Hawbaker) “The Aztec World” runs at the Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore, through April 19, 2009. Leave a Reply You must be logged in to post a comment.

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By Vaudine England BBC News, Hong Kong A study by doctors in Hong Kong has concluded that epilepsy can be induced by the Chinese tile game of mahjong. The study said the syndrome affects more men than women The findings, published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, were based on 23 cases of people who suffered mahjong-induced seizures. The report's four authors, from Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital, said the best prevention - and cure - was to avoid playing mahjong. The study led the doctors to define mahjong epilepsy as a unique syndrome. Epileptic seizures can be provoked by a wide variety of triggers, but one cause increasingly evident to researchers is the playing - or even watching - of mahjong. This Chinese tile game, played by four people round a table, can involve gambling and quickly becomes compulsive. The game, which is intensely social and sometimes played in crowded mahjong parlours, involves the rapid movement of tiles in marathon sessions. The doctors conclude that the syndrome affects far more men than women; that their average age is 54; and that it can hit sufferers anywhere between one to 11 hours into a mahjong game. They say the attacks were not just caused by sleep deprivation or gambling stress. Mahjong is cognitively demanding, drawing on memory, fast calculations, concentration, reasoning and sequencing. The distinctive design of mahjong tiles, and the sound of the tiles crashing onto the table, may contribute to the syndrome. The propensity of Chinese people to play mahjong also deserves further study, the doctors say. What is certain though, is that the only sure way to avoid mahjong epilepsy, is to avoid mahjong, which for many people is easier said than done.

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Assessing the effectiveness of a model program they developed, Dartmouth Medical School researchers Dr. W. Carl Cooley, adjunct associate professor in pediatrics, and Jeanne McAllister, research associate in pediatrics, review the experience of four practices in Vermont and New Hampshire who used their program to identify and implement changes to improve the care they deliver to children with special health care needs. The concept of community-based "medical homes" places where care is managed through coordination of clinicians, educators, therapists, healthcare professionals, and caregivers has been advocated by national health policy makers and the American Academy of Pediatrics as the best model for providing systematic yet individualized care to children with complex conditions and multiple needs. Still, the changes required for a practice to become an effective medical home can be difficult to make. "Introducing change into a busy pediatric practice is like trying to repair a bicycle while riding it," the authors write. "Even the most motivated practice finds change difficult to implement. Many primary care providers believe that implementing the medical home concept is the right thing to do but question how they can do so and remain solvent." To make the process easier, the authors developed a medical home improvement tool kit that allows practices to look at key functions of the medical home, assess their own operation, and identify the steps and strategies they will follow to become a medical ho Contact: Andy Nordhoff Dartmouth Medical School

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- It is not possible to clone Lonesome George now, but other endangered animals have been successfully cloned. - In the future, cloning and further studying Lonesome George might be possible, so scientists are focusing on preserving his tissues now. - Biobanks known as "frozen zoos" hold tissues and other remains of certain endangered animals. The recent death of Lonesome George, the famed Galapagos tortoise believed to be the last representative of his subspecies, has many experts wondering how we should try to save other endangered and at-risk animals. Cloning is one option. While cloning methods for reptiles are not as advanced as those for mammals, scientists also say they face other incredible obstacles. "At the most, I could envision one male turtle of this subspecies cloned in future or maybe two males, but where are you going to get a female?" asked Martha Gomez, a senior scientist with the Audubon Nature Institute, which has one of the world's few "frozen zoos." Frozen Zoos stockpile biological materials from a wide variety of rare and critically endangered species. The biological material is usually composed of gametes (sperm and egg cells), embryos, tissue samples, serum and other items. Together, they represent a bank vault of irreplaceable genetic information that can be preserved for possibly hundreds of years or more. In most cases, the materials are stored in holding tanks filled with liquid nitrogen. Oliver Ryder, director of genetics at the San Diego Zoo, spoke to Discovery News as his team was racing to the Galapagos Islands to help preserve the tissues of Lonesome George. The San Diego Zoo operates one of the other few frozen zoos. "This is an extremely urgent matter," Ryder said. "We had planned to meet in the Galapagos in two weeks to discuss preservation of the tortoises there. It is a bitter irony that Lonesome George died before we could even finish setting up the plans. It underscores the importance of preserving such animals." "We are facing some logistical problems now, but we don't want to look back with 'what if's,'" he added. "This may be the only chance we'll have to preserve, document and study this tortoise subspecies." Ryder believes discussions of cloning Lonesome George are premature at this point. Before that takes place, he thinks more must be learned about this particular tortoise's physiology and reproduction. Studying Lonesome George's remains may also help to reveal how tortoises often live to advanced ages, information that could one day lead to breakthroughs in extending human lifespans. For cloning, researchers are focusing more on "species where we have detailed knowledge of their reproductive biology," Ryder said. That is one reason why cats, dogs and mice were among the first animals to be cloned. Scientists are now working to clone endangered relatives of such animals, in hopes of releasing those individuals into the wild to strengthen natural populations. Earlier this year, Gomez and her colleagues successfully cloned endangered black-footed cats. An endangered wild ox, called a gaur, and a banteng (wild cattle) have also been successfully cloned. Work is underway to clone and otherwise increase the population of Sumatran rhinos, which presently number only about 200-300 in the wild. While one healthy clone is an interesting novelty, clones must also be able to reproduce in order to be fully successful. Gomez said that kittens of cloned wild cat parents have died "due to problems with nuclear programing," but some normal kittens have resulted and continue to thrive. Both she and Ryder say that there is no international policy calling for cloning and preservation of highly endangered species. Instead, isolated facilities and the work of dedicated individuals are responsible for the successes. "The effort needs to be more widespread and organized," Gomez said. Through published papers and talks, Ryder and his colleagues have repeatedly called for an organized global effort. It would need an "overarching international body" on par with UNESCO, he believes. "The first step is saving tissue samples, as we're in the process of doing for Lonesome George," he said. "But we who are among the forefront would like to train others to establish frozen zoo biobanks in other countries." "I am confident that one day such an international structure will come together, bringing in other conservation work, such as preserving habitat," Ryder concluded. "It's poignant to lose a subspecies like that of Lonesome George. People in the future will be looking back at us, wondering why we didn't act sooner."

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for National Geographic News Explosive population growth is driving human evolution to speed up around the world, according to a new study. The pace of change accelerated about 40,000 years ago and then picked up even more with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, the study says. And while humans are evolving quickly around the world, local cultural and environmental factors are shaping evolution differently on different continents. "We're evolving away from each other. We're getting more and more different," said Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who co-authored the study. For example, in Europe natural selection has favored genes for pigmentation like light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. Asians also have genes selected for light skin, but they are different from the European ones. "Europeans and Asians are both bleached Africans, but the way they got bleached is different in the two areas," Harpending said. He and colleagues report the finding this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Snips of DNA The researchers analyzed the DNA from 270 people in the International HapMap Project, an effort to identify variation in human genes that cause disease and serve as targets for new medicines. The study specifically looked for genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced "snips"), which are mutations at a single point on a chromosome. (See an interactive overview of human genetics.) "We look for parts of chromosomes that are common in the population but are new, and if they are common but recent, they must have gotten to high frequency by selection," Harpending explained. SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES

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Washington, Aug 9 (IANS) The formation in the air of sulphuric acid, which smells like rotten eggs, is significantly impacting our climate and health, says a study. The study led by Roy Lee Mauldin III, research associate at the University of Colorado-Boulder's atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, charts a previously unknown chemical pathway for the formation of sulphuric acid, which can trigger both increased acid rain and cloud formation as well as harmful respiratory effects on humans. Sulphuric acid plays an essential role in the Earth's atmosphere, from the ecological impacts of acid precipitation to the formation of new aerosol particles, which have significant climatic and health effects. Our findings demonstrate a newly observed connection between the biosphere and atmospheric chemistry, Mauldin was quoted as saying in the journal Nature. More than 90 percent of sulphur dioxide emissions are from fossil fuel combustion at power plants and other industrial facilities, says the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to a university statement. Other sulphur sources include volcanoes and even ocean phytoplankton. Sulphur dioxide reacts with hydroxide to produce sulphuric acid that can form acid rain, harmful to terrestrial and aquatic life on Earth. Airborne sulphuric acid particles, which form in a wide variety of sizes, play the main role in the formation of clouds, which can have a cooling effect on the atmosphere, Mauldin said. Most of the lab experiments for the study were conducted at the Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig, Germany.

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Glasses-free 3D is something available on just a handful of TVs, which manage it only through complicated hardware, and at no small cost. Still, the effect is pretty smooth and no more tiresome for the eyes than glasses-assisted technology, from what we've been able to gather. There is one more accomplishment that tech experts are looking for: holographic television, which offers a different perspective at the action, depending on the angle from which one beholds the TV. Researchers from the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) claim to have created something of the sort. Called Tensor Display, it uses several layers of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with a refresh rate of 360 Hz per second. The technique is different from the one used in Nintendo's 3DS , which has two layers of LCD screens (the bottom for light and dark bands and the top for the two slightly offset images). The problem with this old method (a century old really) is that the only way so far known for creating multiple perspectives would rely on complicated hardware and algorithms. Hundreds of perspectives would have to be produced in order to suit a moving viewer, and that means that too much info has to be displayed at once. Every frame of the stereo-3D video would need the screen to flicker 10 times, each with a different pattern. Thus, a convincing stereo-3D illusion would need a 1,000 Hz refresh rate. MIT's Tensor Display lowers that requirement by using a higher number of LCDs, although it does bring another problem: the pattern calculation becomes more complex. Fortunately, the researcher had a convenient factor to exploit: not all aspects of a scene change with the viewing angle. This reduced the amount of information that needed to be sent to the LCD screens. The end result was a panel that produces stereo-3D images based on calculations similar to those behind CT, X-ray and computed tomography, of all things (they produce 3D images of internal organs). The Media Lab researchers will demo a Tensor Display prototype at Siggraph 2012 (5-9 August), made of three LCD panels. A second model will have two LCDs with a sheet of lenses between them (refract light left and right), primarily for wider viewing angles (50 degrees rather than 20). Practical and commercial applications should appear soon, or at least sooner than any alternatives. “Holography works, it’s beautiful, nothing can touch its quality. The problem, of course, is that holograms don’t move,” said Douglas Lanman, a postdoc at the Media Lab. “To make them move, you need to create a hologram in real time, and to do that, you need little tiny pixels, smaller than anything we can build at large volume at low cost. So the question is, what do we have now? We have LCDs. They are incredibly mature, and they are cheap.”

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DUBAI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- With new oil and gas nations coming up and renewable energy usage gaining global momentum, the fossil fuels-rich Gulf states might run into rough waters in the upcoming decades. The Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are today synonyms for oil, but that could change soon. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Gulf monopoly of oil supply is contested by the United States which is on the way to become the largest oil exporter throughout the world by 2030. Meantime, Lebanon and Israel, two old arch-foes in the Middle East technically still at war, started digging deeply off the Mediterranean coast in search for oil and gas. In addition, the global rise of solar power, wind energy and bio-thermal heat rivals the fossil fuels' monopoly as the only safe and reliable source of energy. At the 6th World Future Energy Summit (WFES) that was held on Jan. 15-17 in Abu Dhabi, the participants were able to see how the world would function without the use of oil and gas or at least with less fossil fuels. The Catecar, a Switzerland-based company, presented the Dragonfly, a solar-powered hybrid which does not need to be plugged because the solar panel is fixed on the roof. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi's environmental city Masdar launched a pilot project aiming at running sea-water desalination plants with solar or wind power by 2020 "in order to reduce the very expensive use of oil and gas to run such plants," said Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar. At present, half of the world's desalinated water is produced in the Gulf Arab region. During the summit, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council presented how we live next in the Estidama-house, a building equipped only with environmentally-friendly installations that secure an efficient use of water and electricity. Washington's independence on Arab oil till 2030 would have deep implications for U.S. military bases in the region, where two thirds of the world's known oil reserves are located, the German daily Die Welt reported in a secret study which the German intelligence service BND released. The report estimated that most of Middle Eastern oil would flow to East Asia. Moreover, the United States is sitting on large shale gas reserves as a source of natural gas. Due to shale gas discoveries, the world's largest economy might also become autonomous in producing its own natural gas. However, the method to access shale gas through "fracking" is strongly slammed by environmentalists who see huge danger for nature if shale gas is extracted from mountainous regions. Meanwhile, Lebanon, known so far as the only Arab country without a desert and without oil, held the country's first International Oil and Gas Summit in Beirut. The summit was held after an exploration company from Norway found huge gas reserves beneath the Eastern Mediterranean Sea offshore of Lebanon, which would have the potential of becoming a second Kuwait once it starts exporting gas. Lebanon's southern neighbor Israel claims parts of that field known as Leviathan, comprising 17 trillion cubic foot of natural gas. A Dubai-based economist, who requested anonymity, said that the disputed gas field might lay the foundation for the next Middle East war. Morten Mauritzen, the president for the Gulf region at U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil, said at the energy summit in Abu Dhabi, which harbors some 7 percent of the world's known oil reserves, that the demand for oil and gas would rise 35 percent until 2040, dampening hopes that renewable energy like wind power, solar energy or thermal earth-heat would play a significant role in the future. "Oil and gas are reliable, safe and accessible for all, while solar energy is not scalable to satisfy the huge demand," said Mauritzen. According to ExxonMobil's forecast, world population will grow to 8.7 billion in the next 30 years, up from the current 7 billion. ExxonMoil currently upgrades together with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company drilling technologies in the Upper Zakum, the world's largest offshore oilfield. "We are reclaiming land to build four artificial islands in the Upper Zakum in order to build stations for machines and staff," said Mauritzen. He noted that this was a unique example how oil exploration can be done in a cost-efficient way.

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Warmer temperatures, variable monsoons, and other signs of climate change are a hot topic of conversation among many Himalayan villagers, according to scientific sampling of climate change perception among local peoples. “This area is cold and it’s often raining. Even during the non-monsoon times there is mist and fog so inevitably conversations here turn to weather,” said Kamal Bawa, biologist at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB), and president of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore, India. “When you stop and have a cup of tea in someone’s kitchen, the conversation invariably turns to the weather. But then they soon start talking about how the weather has been changing.” Bawa is also a member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration. Bawa didn’t set out to study Himalayan perceptions of climate change. But after hearing the same themes repeated again and again during household conversations he decided to investigate. With UMB graduate student Pahupati Chaudhary, he surveyed some 500 homes spread across 18 villages in Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal, India and Nepal’s Ilam district. The pair found some surprisingly consistent observations. Three-fourths of the people surveyed believe that their weather is getting warmer and two-thirds believe that summer and monsoon season have begun earlier over the past ten years. Seventy percent believe that water sources are drying up while forty-six percent said that they think there is less snow on the high mountains. Many villagers also told Chaudhary they’d noticed shifts in some species ranges and earlier flowering and budding of plants. New pests have also arrived, villagers routinely reported, to plague crops and people—including mosquitoes where none had been before. Most of these changes were reported by much higher percentages of people living at higher altitudes than by those at lower altitudes. “We’ve shown in earlier research that people at high altitudes seem to be more sensitive to climate change, and of course it’s known that climate change is more severe at higher altitudes, so that’s not a surprise,” Bawa said. Many Himalayan peoples live in areas where predicted and observed impacts of climate change, like species migration, are more acute. Many of them also live “close to the land,” where agricultural-based livelihoods make them especially attuned to weather patterns. Listening to Locals Can Help Climate Science Scientific data on climate change have been hard to come by in the region, Bawa reported. Few weather stations dot remote and high-altitude locales and where they do exist their data are often incomplete. But where data can be found they seem to corroborate local observations, Bawa said, citing his own research on temperature and rainfall records as well as the work of other scientists listed in recent Biology Letters and Current Science reports of Bawa and Chaudhary’s research. “Governments in the region are now gearing up towards more research,” Bawa said. “But it will take time to gather this climate data.” That’s why local knowledge can be such valuable human intelligence, he added. It can be gathered quickly and widely and used to “jump start” scientific efforts. “There seems to be quite a bit of knowledge residing with local communities, in the Himalaya and elsewhere, and we can really use that knowledge to formulate scientific questions for further research and make more rapid assessments of the impacts of climate change.” Bawa said it’s hard to determine to what extent local peoples are familiar with the global dialogue on climate change, or how much that might have influenced their perceptions. But most of those he spoke with didn’t identify a clear cause for the changes they’d observed. “We’re saying that people seem to be aware that the climate is changing, but they may not necessarily be aware of why it’s changing. I think when you come to that question people don’t have any ideas—or they may have some very different ideas.” Bawa pointed to a recent study of this topic in Tibet, where many respondents believed that humans are causing climate change—but not by producing greenhouse gasses as most climate scientists believe. “They seem to think that the climate is changing because the Gods are not happy and perhaps the people in the younger generations are not praying enough.” This research was supported in part by a Committee for Research and Exploration grant of the National Geographical Society.

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Use the back button to select a different record. Librarians' Conference of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Start Year : 1935 End Year : 1956 The Librarians' Conference was established April 11, 1935, during the 59th Annual Session of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association (KNEA) in Louisville, KY. It was the first formal organization for African American librarians and teacher librarians in Kentucky. The group continued to meet annually during the KNEA Conference until desegregation in 1956, when it was subsumed into the Kentucky Education Association. For more see Librarians' Conference reports in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association publications from 1935-1956 at Kentucky State University and also available online in the Kentucky Digital Library - Journals. Subjects: Librarians, Library Collections, Libraries Geographic Region: Kentucky

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Violence Against Women Act March 24, 2008 The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Renewal passes the House and Senate and signed into law New law will safely and effectively meet the needs of more victims The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is the cornerstone of our nation's response to domestic and sexual violence. A strong bipartisan bill to reauthorize VAWA (S. 47) passed in the Senate on February 12, 2013 (78-22) and in the House of Representatives on February 28, 2013 (286-138). President Obama signed the bill into law on March 7, 2013. YOUR calls made a difference! This is our collective victory for survivors. Want to make one more call? Visit our Legislative Action Center to find out how you can thank your Senators and Representatives for voting for VAWA. What will this renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) change? The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has improved our nation's response to violence. However, not all victims have been protected or reached. VAWA 2013 will close critical gaps in services and justice. VAWA 2013 reauthorized and improved upon lifesaving services for all victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking - including Native women, immigrants, LGBT victims, college students and youth, and public housing residents. VAWA 2013 also authorized appropriate funding to provide for VAWA's vitally important programs and protections, without imposing limitations that undermine effectiveness or victim safety. Justice and safety for Native American Women: Native American victims of domestic violence often cannot seek justice because their courts are not allowed to prosecute non-Native offenders -- even for crimes committed on Tribal land. This major gap in justice, safety, and violence prevention must be addressed. VAWA 2013 includes a solution that would give Tribal courts the authority they need to hold offenders in their communities accountable. Justice and safety for LGBT survivors: Lesbian, gay, bisexul and transgender survivors of violence experience the same rates of violence as straight individuals. However, LGBT survivors sometimes face discrimination when seeking help and protection. VAWA 2013 prohibits such discrimination to ensure that all victims of violence have access to the same services and protection to overcome trauma and find safety. Safe housing for survivors: Landmark VAWA housing protections that were passed in 2005 have helped prevent discrimination against and unjust evictions of survivors of domestic violence in public and assisted housing. The law, however, did not cover all federally subsidized housing programs. VAWA 2013 expands these protections to individuals in all federally subsidized housing programs, explicitly protects victims of sexual assault and creates emergency housing transfer options. Protections for immigrant survivors: VAWA 2013 maintains important protections for immigrant survivors of abuse, while also making key improvements to existing provisions including by strengthening the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act and the provisions around self-petitions and U visas. Justice on campuses: College students are mong thos emost vulnerable to dating violence. Provisions in VAWA 2013 add additional protections for students by requiring schools to implement a recording process for incidences of dating violence, as well as report the findings. In addition, schools would be required to create plans to prevent this violence and educate victims on their rights and resources. Maintaining VAWA grant programs: VAWA grants are effectively meeting the needs of millions of victims across the country. VAWA 2013 includes many important improvements to these grant programs, including allowing state domestic violence coalitions to be the lead applicant on the Grants to Encourage Arrest program; ensuring that specific stakeholders, including domestic violence coalitions, play a meaningful role in developing state STOP plans; and providing a formal process for the Office on Violence Against Women to receive coalition and other key domestic violence and sexual assault community input. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is effective and important: VAWA creates and supports comprehensive, cost-effective responses to the pervasive and insidious crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. Since its enactment in 1994, VAWA programs, administered by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS), have dramatically improved federal, tribal, state, and local responses to these crimes. - There has been as much as a 51% increase in reporting by women and a 37% increase in reporting by men. - The number of individuals killed by an intimate partner has decreased by 34% for women and 57% for men, and the rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence against women has decreased by 67%. - VAWA not only saves lives, it saves money. In its first six years alone, VAWA saved taxpayers at least $12.6 billion in net averted social costs. A recent study found that civil protection orders saved one state (Kentucky) on average $85 million in a single year. - Find more information here. Initially passed in 1994, VAWA created the first U.S. federal legislation acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assault as crimes, and provided federal resources to encourage community-coordinated responses to combating violence. Its reauthorization in 2000 improved the foundation established by VAWA 1994 by creating a much-needed legal assistance program for victims and by expanding the definition of crime to include dating violence and stalking. Its subsequent reauthorization in 2005 took a more holistic approach to addressing these crimes and created new programs to meet the emerging needs of communities working to prevent violence. Included in the 2005 reauthorization were new focus areas such as prevention, landmark housing protections for survivors, funding for rape crisis centers, and culturally- and linguistically-specific services. VAWA 2013 will ensure the continuation and improvement of these vital, lifesaving programs and laws. NNEDV continues to be a leading force in efforts to reauthorize VAWA. NNEDV and its member state domestic violence coalitions also played a crucial role in the passage of VAWA in 1994 and its reauthorizations in 2000 and 2005. NNEDV is currently working with state coalitions, national organizations, and Congress to ensure VAWA’s swift reauthorization and targeted investments in VAWA grant programs through the appropriations process. NNEDV's Role in VAWA Reauthorization NNEDV played an integral role in efforts to reauthorize VAWA. NNEDV and its member state domestic violence coalitions also played a crucial role inthe passage of VAWA in 1994 and its reauthorization in 2000 and 2005. - NNEDV's press statements on VAWA - NNEDV's President Kim Gandy on MSNBC - NNEDV's Vice President of Development & Innovation Cindy Southworth on PBS Learn More and Take Action: - VAWA 2013 Reauthorization Factsheet - S. 47 - The full text of the bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 - Legislative Action Center Learn More About VAWA: - VAWA 2005 Fact Sheet - Section By Section Summary of VAWA 2005 - The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 The full text of the "Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005" as signed into law on Jan. 5, 2006. VAWA 2005 Technical Corrections These corrections amended VAWA 2005, fixing minor errors.

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A group of teachers were keen to embed rich tasks from the NRICH website http://nrich.maths.org into their curriculum for all KS3 and KS4 students. In this article, the teachers share the issues they needed to consider and what they are doing to address them. The catalysts for change were our desire to: These changes took some of us, and our colleagues, out of our comfort zone as we adapted the way in which we worked in our classrooms and tried out different roles for ourselves and our We needed to take into account the different needs of individual teachers in our schools and their students as they began to use In order to improve BOTH teachers' and students' abilities to work on the rich tasks, it was necessary to take account of, and find ways of supporting: The challenges involved in learning mathematics through rich The use of a range of lesson structures The use of effective questioning to promote thinking In what follows, we have identified some problems from the NRICH website, closely linked to the curriculum, which are ideal for use by schools wishing to introduce rich tasks. The aim is to be able to predict the area of any tilted What areas are possible? What areas are impossible? Is there a connection between the "tilt" and the area of a What observations, thoughts and conclusions can you offer? The NRICH website offers Teachers' Notes to many problems. These include suggestions for how the problems might be used in the Briefly, introduce the environment with an interactive whiteboard (IWB), or drawing diagrams on the board. Ask students to work in pairs to find one or more ways to calculate the exact area of the square displayed on the board. Obtain suggestions, with students coming to the board to demonstrate their methods, until the group seem confident with both techniques i.e. 'boxing in' and dissection. Then pose the questions Give them five minutes to work on their own/in pairs to think about, and make some brief notes on how they will start working on the problem and why they think such an approach would be Share ideas about strategies as a whole group. They will need to find ways of breaking the problem down working systematically and keeping track of their data. It may be useful to stop the group and share "good ideas" as work progresses. The aim is to mediate the problem by encouraging systematic approaches. As conjectures emerge ask learners to write them on a poster/the board and ensure they have convincing arguments or proofs to hand that can justify them. Encourage students to find clear concise vocabulary to express their rules, and to express how certain they are about them (e.g. probable pattern/result from Choose four consecutive whole numbers, for example, 4 , 5 , 6 Multiply the first and last numbers together. Multiply the middle pair together. Choose different sets of four consecutive whole numbers and do What do you notice? Choose five consecutive whole numbers, for example, 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 and 7. Multiply the second and fourth numbers together. Choose different sets of five consecutive whole numbers and do What do you notice now? What happens when you take 6, 7, 8,'?¦ n consecutive whole numbers and compare the product of the first and last numbers with the product of the second and penultimate numbers? Explain your findings. Establish that the group knows the meaning of 'consecutive' - consecutive days, consecutive letters in the alphabet... Choose four consecutive numbers and tell your students that you will multiply the outer ones and the inner ones. Ask students to pick their own sets of four consecutive numbers and do the same. Record all the results on the board. What do they notice? Will this always happen? Even with consecutive negative How could we explain it? Encourage algebraic and geometric Much of what will follow will depend on the arithmetical and algebraic confidence of the group. Use the extension and support remarks below to indicate the best way to use this resource beyond the questions in the problem. This problem only operated on the end numbers and the 'end but one' numbers. Could you make a more general statement and justify If you have an odd number of consecutive numbers, what's the difference between the product of the end numbers and the square of the middle number? This problem could also be approached purely numerically, as an exercise in developing fluency with multiplication tables while looking for pattern and structure. A multiplication grid could be used for recording results, with the pair products highlighted according to how many consecutive numbers were being used. Visualisation through blocks of dots or rectangle areas may help students explain why their pattern must work in every case. Imagine you have a large supply of 3kg and 8kg weights. Four 3kg weights and one 8kg weight have an average weight of How many of each weight would you need for the average (mean) of the weights to be 6kg? If you had other combinations of the 3kg and 8kg weights, what other whole number averages could you make? What's the smallest? What's the largest? Can you make all the whole number values in between? What if you have a different pair of weights (for example 2kg What averages can you now make? Try other different pairs of weights. Do you notice anything about your results? Do they have anything in common? Can you use what you notice to find, for example, the combination of 17kg and 57kg weights that have an average of 44kg......of 52kg.......of 21kg.....? Explain an efficient way of doing this. Can you explain why your method works? Given the original 3kg and 8kg weights, can you find combinations that produce averages of 4.5kg ... of 7.5kg ... of 4.2kg ...of 6.9kg ...? Convince yourself that all averages between 3kg and 8kg are possible. What averages are possible if you are allowed a negative number of 3kg and 8kg weights? You may initially wish to restrict the weights used to those which have a difference of 2kg, then 3kg, then 4kg, etc. in order to model working systematically, and to make the pattern of results Some students may find multilink cubes useful to support their Here are two examples of students work on Searching for This is a game for two players. You will need a 100 square which you can download or you can use The first player chooses a positive even number that is less than 50, and crosses it out on the grid. The second player chooses a number to cross out. The number must be a factor or multiple of the first number. Players continue to take it in turns to cross out numbers, at each stage choosing a number that is a factor or multiple of the number just crossed out by the other player. The first person who is unable to cross out a number loses. Switch the challenge from winning the game to covering as many numbers as possible. Pupils can again work in pairs trying to find the longest sequence of numbers that can be crossed out. Can more than half the numbers be crossed out? This challenge could run for an extended period: the longest sequence can be displayed on a noticeboard and pupils can be challenged to improve on it; any improved sequences can be added to Ask pupils to explain why their choice of numbers is good. A semi-regular tessellation has two properties: Can you find all the semi-regular tessellations? Can you show that you have found them all? To help you when you are working away from the computer, multiple copies of the different polygons are available to print and cut out. Ask students to suggest shapes that could fit round a point. Test out their suggestions. Record what works and what doesn't. e.g. 1 pentagon, 2 squares and 1 triangle don't fit round a Why do some fit and some don't? Could you tell in advance, without using the interactivity? Elicit from students the idea that the interior angles of regular polygons are a crucial factor in determining whether the regular polygons will fit together or not. Before moving on to the computers ask students to work on paper finding combinations of regular polygons that will fit round a point. This may encourage students to work systematically when using the interactivity provided. Resources are provided at the end of the problem to support students working away from the Challenge students to find all the possible semi-regular tessellations and to provide convincing evidence that they have got the complete set. Each school worked in different ways. Here are examples of what some of the schools did: This is what the schools said about how their practice has This article is the result of the collaborative work of: Susanne Mallett, Steve Wren, Mark Dawes and colleagues from Comberton Village College Amy Blinco, Brett Haines and colleagues from Gable Hall School Jenny Everton, Ellen Morgan and colleagues from Longsands Community Craig Barton, Debbie Breen, Geraldine Ellison and colleagues from The Range School Danny Burgess, Jim Stavrou and colleagues from Sawston Village Catherine Carre and Fran Watson and colleagues from Sharnbrook David Cherry, Chris Hawkins and Maria Stapenhill-Hunt and colleagues from The Thomas Deacon Academy. Charlie Gilderdale, Alison Kiddle and Jennifer Piggott from the NRICH Project, Cambridge

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Throat cancer is a disease in which cancer cells grow in an abnormal way in the throat. Cancer occurs when cells in the body—in this case throat cells—divide without control or order. Normally, cells divide in a regulated manner. If cells keep dividing uncontrollably when new cells are not needed, a mass of tissue forms, called a growth or tumor. The term cancer refers to malignant tumors, which can invade nearby tissues and spread to other parts of the body. A benign tumor usually does not invade or spread. Factors that can increase your chance of developing throat cancer include: - Age: 40 or older - Sex: male - Smoking or use of any tobacco products - Excessive alcohol consumption - Family history - Vitamin A deficiency - Diet low in fruits and vegetables - Suppressed immune system Infections caused by certain viruses such as: - Epstein-Barr virus - Human papillomavirus - Radiation exposure - Excess consumption of cured meats or fish - Marijuana use Exposure to certain materials such as in: - Nickel refining - Working with textile fibers If you have any of these symptoms, do not assume it is due to throat cancer. These symptoms may be caused by other conditions. Tell your doctor if you have any of these: - Sore throat - Feeling that something is caught in the throat - Difficulty chewing or swallowing - Difficulty moving the jaw or tongue - Voice changes or hoarseness - Change in voice quality - Pain in the head, throat, or neck - Lump in the neck - Unexplained weight loss - Coughing blood The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. The doctor may feel for any lumps in your neck. You may be referred to an otolaryngologist, a doctor who specializes in head and neck surgery. Your bodily fluids and tissue may be tested. This can be done with: Your internal structures may need to be viewed and examined. This can be done with: When throat cancer is found, staging tests are done to find out if the cancer has spread. Treatment depends on the stage of the cancer. Surgery removes the cancerous tumor and nearby tissue, and possibly nearby lymph nodes. In very rare cases, surgery to remove large tumors of the throat may also require removal of tissue for swallowing. As a result, food may enter the windpipe and reach the lungs, which might cause pneumonia. In cases when this is a risk, your surgeon may remove the larynx or voice box. The windpipe will be attached to the skin through a hole in the neck, which is used for breathing. This is the use of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation may be: - External radiation therapy—radiation directed at the tumor from a source outside the body - Internal radiation therapy—radioactive materials placed into the throat in or near the cancer cells This is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be given in many forms including pill, injection, and/or via a catheter. The drugs enter the bloodstream and travel through the body killing mostly cancer cells, but also some healthy cells. Combined Modality Therapy Often times, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are used together to kill cancer of the throat. This combined approach may be better than surgery or radiation alone. To reduce your chance of getting throat cancer, take the following steps: - Don't smoke or use tobacco products. If you do smoke or use tobacco products, get help to quit. - Drink alcohol only in moderation. Moderate alcohol intake is two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. - Eat a healthful diet, one that is low in saturated fat and rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. - See your doctor and dentist regularly for check-ups and cancer screening.

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KIKUYU CULTURE & TRADITIONS |Kenya is famous for its 42 cultures, but other than the nomadic Maasai and Samburu, not many of these are widely known to the outside world. A new cultural centre devoted to the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest offers a unique experience of this tradition rich culture existing in a modern world.| Riuki Cultural Centre is located not far outside of Nairobi, in the Kikuyu Heartland of Kiambu. The centre is run by Dr. Kinuthia Njoroge, who wanted to build a traditional Kikuyu village homestead to show local children the history and customs of their community. The Kikuyu are the largest community in Kenya, and have always played a central role in the development of the independent Nation. For this reason, many may believe that modern influence has eroded the traditional way of life for this community, who mainly live around the capital city and the highlands. But as Riuki demonstrates, this is not the case. While the traditional huts and ceremonies may be displays of a proud history, many of the same beliefs and customs persist in modern life. In cuisine, music, marriage and everyday family life, most Kenyan Kikuyus still hold true to their identity. It is this pride that Riuki strives to encourage and strengthen, with its own blend of the modern and traditional. Now visitors to Kenya can come to Riuki and spend a day learning more about this little known culture. Welcomed to the centre by a group of elders, all of whom live in the local area, guests are welcomed in true Kikuyu style, with an invitation to drink from a horn filled with Muratina, a locally brewed drink. There is a tour of a traditionally built hut with an explanation of how the traditional society operated. Communities always remained bound by strict and strong ties of clan loyalty and an even stronger sense of tribal unity - There was an age set system among young men, known as Mariika, but all clans and villages (itura) always paid deference to the wisdom and law of the tribe. At Riuki, traditional songs, proverbs and dances bring the myths and legends of the Kikuyu to life. According to Kikuyu mythology, all of creation began at the summit of Mount Kenya. The icy peak was the realm of Ngai, the Supreme Creator, who descended from the heavens to his mountainous throne to survey his newly created lands. The mountain became Kirinyaga, his resting place, and it was from here that he called forth Gikuyu, the father of the Kikuyu people. Ngai told him that all of the lands around Kirinyaga would be the home of Gikuyu and his children forever. He sent Gikuyu to grove of Fig trees, where he found a woman called Mumbi. This grove would become known as Mukuru wa Nyagathanga, the birthplace of all Kikuyu, still revered as a sacred place. Among the fig trees, Gikuyu and Mumbi produced nine daughters- Wanjiku, Wanjiru, Wanjeri, Wambui, Wangari, Wacera, Waithera, Wairimu, and Nyambura. (Traditionally all Kikuyu girls should be given one of these names) The girls grew into beautiful young women, who each full moon wandered the lands around Kirinyaga in search of men so that they could bear children. They begged their father to appeal to Ngai for help. Finally he bowed before the Mountain, and Ngai commanded him to make sacrifice among the figs and light a fire. The sacrifice of a goat beneath a fig tree is still considered a way to call rain in times of drought, but in this first case it was a different form of life sustaining rain that Gikuyu sought. After the sacrifice he plunged nine sticks into a fire, and prayed. The fire erupted into an inferno, from which nine strong young men emerged. Giving thanks, Gikuyu took them back to his daughters, and the nine marriages were blessed by Ngai. Each of the daughters made her own homestead, and nine separate clans of the Kikuyu were born. the unity of these clans was known as the Nyumba ya Mumbi, in honour of their Mother. The peak of Kirinyaga has since remained the sacred home of Ngai. As at Riuki, all Kikuyu homesteads were traditionally built to face this Holy Mountain. A group of local women come to the centre to perform for visitors, with a series of dances traditionally performed at weddings and initiations and to sing songs. These are simple love and courting songs, traditional hunting songs and chants used when going to work in the fields. The highlands of Kenya are rich fertile land, and this is a great farming culture- with a great cuisine that has grown from freshly grown vegetables. The highlight of the day is a chance to sample a typical Kikuyu meal- delicious healthy food including sweet potatoes, Githeri (a maize and bean stew), Mukimo (a mashed combination of green peas and potato) with roasted goat and Irio, a great Kikuyu favourite. There are also displays of traditional medicine, healing and divination. Riuki can arrange extended programs to visit local farms and schools, or even to spend the night under the stars by a campfire on a traditional banana fibre mat, or to spend the night in a specially arranged homestay in a typical Kikuyu home. For anyone with a free day in Nairobi, the Riuki Cultural Centre is an excellent way to discover more about another culture, and make many new friends along the way. For more info click here Click here or email the Centre.

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Irish Fiddle Lessons - Ian Walsh teaches the Irish Hornpipe The Golden Eagle. Tags:How to Play the Song "The Golden Eagle" on an Iris,Ian Walsh,irish Fiddle Lesson,Learn To Play Fiddle,Learning Irish Fiddle,The Golden Eagle,Violin fiddle lessons Grab video code: Hi! Welcome to OnLineLessonVideos.com. I’m Ian Walsh and I’m going to teach an Irish tune today on the fiddle. It’s called the Golden Eagle and it’s a horn pipe. We’ll play it in the key of G. I’ll start off by playing you a sample of the tune along to a quick track that I’ve set at about 70 beats per minute. So here we go with the Golden Eagle. Let’s begin by leading into this tune with some pickup notes. We’ll start on the C, this is on the A string here. You work up A, B, C which plays right next to your first finger pretty much right on top of it. So that could be our first note and we’ll start with the triplet here. So three notes and then we’ll go to the G. So let’s just cycle through that a few times [Demonstration]. Try sliding into your first note, the C and I’ll give it a little bit of an aggressive edge [Demonstration]. Let’s take a look at another section here, we go down to our B on the g string and we play. So we’re crossing three strings, pretty quickly there and I’m not doing anything special with my bow. I’m keeping my bow movement short and I’m working at the top of my bow but I’m not slurring any notes, I’m going straight up and down here. So from B [Demonstration], so those notes are B, D, G, B. Let’s take a look at another section here. We start with the open D. This is a little bit easier, you’re only working across two strings and you’re using your first and third fingers. Let’s take a look at another one. This is more or less a G arpeggio and it starts on the G on the d string and we play [Demonstration]. So again, you’re moving across three strings here ending on the e string on that G note with your second finger. So let’s go back to the beginning here and we’ll look at that pickup note, the C, B, A down to your first note of the tune, the G. Take a look at the second little section. You go down to that low B and all the way up to the B again. Then we look here to the low D [Demonstration] and then finally we have that G arpeggio [Demonstration]. Notice I’m leaving my fingers down on the A string here. You can visualize two of the double stamps that are readily apparent here for the G. You can use a G with a D with your A and your E string or you can do the G and the B. Leaving your fingers down can be good practice for getting your fingers just on the individual strings. Let’s put all of these together and see what it sounds like. I’ll count us in, one, two, three, [Demonstration] one, two, three [Demonstration]. One more time, one, two, three [Demonstration]

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Railroad worker injuries are covered under the Federal Employees Liability Act which requires that a railroad maintains their fleet, ensuring that their trains are in good working order and free of defects. If a railroad does not comply with these standards, they may be liable for injuries to their workers. Damages railroad workers may receive include medical treatments, present and future lost wages and mental trauma. An injury on the railway can range from a minor sprain to a spinal injury so severe that it leads to death. Some of the most common injuries that affect railway workers are head trauma, knee injuries, back injuries, neck injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, brain trauma or spinal cord injuries. The Federal Employees Liability Act protects railroad workers and others as diverse as clerical employees whose day-to-day functions do not directly involve trains or outdoor activity.

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Students in the 12-quarter Graphic Design bachelor?s degree program have an opportunity to expand on theory, practice and process, developing skills in creative problem solving. This program is designed to establish a strong foundation in traditional design and computer skills, and then build advanced competence in the application of the skills. Students have an opportunity to learn to couple their creativity with sound business skills necessary for entry into the field. They can learn to initiate, manage, produce, and deliver effective design concepts. Students study two- and three-dimensional design, marketing, and media design. They explore color theory, visual composition, typography, information graphics, digital and print production processes, and law as it relates to the graphic arts. Students also have an opportunity to learn to use computer illustration, image manipulation, web layout and programming, and page layout programs to master design skills. Graphic Design students have the opportunity to learn the skills to write effective r?sum?s and conduct successful job interviews. They graduate with a professional portfolio to show potential employers and are prepared to join the industry in entry-level positions in fields such as advertising, business communication, publishing, and education. For graphic designers, exciting challenges are available; they work on projects like corporate identity programs, consumer package designs, annual reports, exhibition materials, direct mail literature, brochures, manuals, catalogs, and interactive presentations. They create company logos, business cards and stationery, letterheads, print advertisements, magazine and CD covers, posters, signs, and billboards. Graduates will be prepared to seek entry-level positions in agencies, design firms, print houses, and corporate environments. Objectives: Upon completion of this program, graduates will be able to: ? Demonstrate and apply competencies in industry-specific computer software programs within the context of producing concrete projects. This includes technical aspects of prepress, output, and quality reproduction as well as Web design. ? Analyze and incorporate aesthetics and formal concepts of layout design. This includes spatial relationships, communication legibility and effectiveness, interrelationships among imagery and text, balance, typography, and color theory. ? Demonstrate design concepts and relate these to historical and contemporary trends and social context by producing successful visual solutions to assigned problems. ? Model the interdependence of content and visual expression and be able to evaluate and critique their ideas. Graduates must be able to verbally articulate the vision behind their creative work and explain and promote their solutions. ? Demonstrate professional presentation; articulation of knowledge of graphic design and visual problem solving, and mastery of industry standards, professional practices and ethics.

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About Our School Pathfinder K-8 is located at the Cooper Elementary Building on Pigeon Point in West Seattle. Pathfinder K-8 is an alternative public school where children are engaged in expeditionary learning. Native American cultures are the foundation from which we teach about many cultures, providing opportunities for our students to make their own cultural connections. Pathfinder educates students to become passionate, lifelong learners, respecting themselves, others and the environment. At Pathfinder we believe: - A safe, respectful environment is essential for learning. - High academic and behavioral standards encourage children to reach their personal best. - A complete education comes from a caring community, including the partnership of students, staff, parents and other contributors. - Children must learn to solve problems and be responsible citizens in social and academic settings. - Multicultural education broadens awareness of and fosters and appreciation for diversity. - Children need current technology, and the appropriate tools and physical environment to support their learning. - Teaching our children to respect and care for our natural environment creates future stewards for our planet.

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I’ve seen several articles debating when oil production will peak. For those of you who have missed them, oil prices rise due to scarcity (real or not) or increased production costs, and the latter become important sometime around when oil production peaks. Also, the time for us to go through the second half of the world’s oil will be considerably less than the history of oil use to date, and our transportation infrastructure in particular is heavily oil-based. Among climate change scientists, there seems to be less worry about running out of oil, and considerably more worry about its use. Recent readings have given me some understanding. David Greene, et al, from (pdf file) Running Out of and into Oil: Analyzing Global Oil Depletion and Transition Through 2050 “It is possible that the world could go partway down the path of developing unconventional oil resources and later reverse direction. But such a strategy would strand huge investments in the more capital-intensive production and refining of unconventional oil. If the transition to unconventional oil is gradual, there might be time to introduce low-carbon alternatives and a reversal might not be too costly. But if the transition to unconventional oil is sudden and massive, the world’s economies might quickly become locked into a high carbon future. Avoiding or even slowing the transition to unconventional fossil resources might improve the world’s chances of successfully dealing with global climate change.” The unconventional oil sources referred to are coal to liquids (synfuel), for example, or natural gas to liquids (isn’t all natural gas needed for electricity and heating?) Both increase carbon emissions, in part because of the energy needed to convert them to liquid. Both are expensive because they require so much energy for the process. Oil prices will rise if we hit a peak, but Europeans and others are already living with much higher gasoline prices. Detour: A vote on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is expected soon. My understanding is that oil companies are not particularly interested in drilling there without some kind of guarantee (a large guarantee, but will that dissuade Congress?), as there is relatively little oil, and it’s relatively far from where it would be used. I’m not sure why anyone would vote for opening up the site to oil drilling, both for practical reasons and because it’s nice to imagine those few places in the world not crowded by us. What I hear is, “got you, you crummy environmentalists”, but perhaps our legislators have other reasons, poorly articulated to date. Certainly these reasons have little to do with oil security, even for the rare person who also votes to increase car mileage standards. That said, the overwhelming concern to the caribou is not the drilling, but the use of oil. Climate change alters the environment at high altitudes faster, and refuge status will not protect ANWR. Return: From my reading, it is apparent that the rest of the world, as non-OPEC is generally referred to, is running out of oil much faster than is OPEC. Fareed Zakaria in The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad points out that governments that finance themselves without taxes are not as accountable to citizens. Hence there is worldwide discomfort at financing these governments. But the discomfort is not great enough here in the United States to taxing oil in order to encourage us to change our behavior. We would be much better off raising taxes on oil use today. Even a moderate tax, perhaps as little as $1/gallon, will begin to shift behavior, to help stretch out our current oil supply and allow the transitions away from fossil fuels, so that we don’t finance OPEC governments so heavily. Oh, I’ve heard many, particularly poor people, say, but we can’t afford it. Perhaps more earned income credit, or some other mechanism, could help the poor in this transition, and let people choose whether to spend the extra money on a car or the bus. It isn’t right to ignore those who will be hurt in a transition. But we are wrong if we do not transition. Some talk about making the carbon tax revenue neutral, an idea I was more sympathetic to until the Bush deficits, and back when I thought roads and bridges are paid for by the current gasoline tax rather than out of general revenue. We could do more regional planning of mass transit systems. We could use some of the gasoline tax to pay for the roads and mass transit that makes our roads less crowded. We could teach bicycling as a PE option, as those who learn to bicycle and signal correctly are less dangerous to themselves and others and are more likely to continue bicycling as adults. This would leave more oil for those of you who can’t or don’t want to bicycle. There’s lots we can do. The cost of our transportation continues to increase. The obvious increases in price are accompanied by the continued power of corrupt governments, the costs to agriculture and water supplies and human settlements and peace from climate change. Let’s add some of these costs, or the desire to avoid these costs, to the price of gasoline. The costs will be paid, either as lower costs consciously assumed today or higher costs imposed tomorrow.

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Tax Day has just passed by, and there has been customary grumbling in some circles about how awful income taxes are in the United States. However, most of the data on taxes indicate that Americans are actually paying the least they have in decades. The tax burden is lighter on nearly every segment of society. Politicians wonder how we wound up with a deficit The 1950s were an ideal decade to a lot of people. Wholesome and clean television shows like “Howdy Doody” and “Leave it to Beaver” ruled the airwaves; people pursued the American Dream with gusto and patriotism; and they paid more in income tax — before Medicare and Medicaid ever existed, according to USA Today. Average Americans devoted about 27 percent of their gross income to taxes from the 1950s until the 1990s, when the tax rate began to trail off. In 2010, it was down to 23.6 percent of gross income. Were taxes to be raised back to 1950s levels of taxation, it would raise approximately $500 billion. According to MSN, the Internal Revenue Service estimates that it issues more than $328 billion in tax refunds every year. The people who have benefited, at least in some way, from lower income taxes and some generous tax breaks are poorer households, according to CNN. It was widely reported that the Tax Policy Center found that 45 percent of households did not or would not have to pay a dime in income taxes. Not having to pay taxes does sound attractive, but 68 percent of those people earned $50,000 per year or less. For people who earned $500,000 to $1 million per year, only 1.6 percent didn’t owe or have to pay any taxes, and only 1 percent of people who earned $1 million or more didn’t owe or have to pay. Still, the tax burden placed on the wealthiest seems disproportionate even to the wealthy. Charles Munger, right hand man to none other than Warren Buffet, said at a recent Berkshire-Hathaway conference that hedge fund managers paying lower tax rates than “professors of physics or cab drivers” was “demented,” according to the Motley Fool. IRS not immune to fraud The Internal Revenue Service is collecting less and paying more these days. The IRS wound up paying more than $12 million to dead people in a tax scam ring, according to MSN. More than 5,000 returns were filed fraudulently using the names and Social Security numbers of deceased individuals in the hopes of fooling the IRS into cutting a check to someone who wasn’t alivet. A man in Florida was ordered to apply for an Electronic Filing Identification Number, which was used by others after he received it to find recently deceased people and electronically filing tax returns using their identities. The IRS has recovered more than $800,000 from Bank of America accounts and more than $700,000 in Chase accounts used for this purpose.

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Rutabagas are a wonderful addition to the winter diet. They are a member the brassica genus of plants which includes other cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Their sweet, yellow flesh can be mashed, roasted, steamed or sauteed. Rutabagas are rich in vitamin C, dietary fiber, potassium and antioxidant compounds, important nutrients for any healthy diet. And they offer plenty of those nutrients! - One cup of cubed, boiled rutabaga contains 66 calories’ It has 2.2 grams of protein, 4 percent of the recommended daily amount! - That one cup of rutabagas also offers 12 percent of the recommended daily intake of fiber. One cup provides 3.1 grams. - It also provides 16 percent of the daily potassium requirements and 10 percent of the daily value of magnesium and phosphorus. - Rutabaga is an excellent source of vitamin C. One cup provides 53 percent of the recommended daily value and 4 to 9 percent of the B-vitamins. - Rutabaga contains the phytochemicals called isothiocyanates. These are best obtained from raw cruciferous vegetables because they can’t be absorbed as well after the vegetable is cooked. The health benefits of you’ll gain from these flavorful roots are also impressive! - The phytochemicals remove carcinogens from the body and help the liver process toxins. One phytochemical, glucosinolate, may inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors. - It’s store of antioxidants help prevent free radical damage to our cells and DNA, boosts the immune system and helps prevent illness and disease. Rutabaga also contains carotenoids, which help stimulate the antioxidant activity. - Rutabaga is a good source of fiber which helps support the body’s digestive system, is essential to colon health, digestion and healthy metabolism. The glucosinolates may also help the stomach process bacteria. - The potassium found in rutabaga helps promote bone strength, aids in energy production and supports heart health and metabolism. Still not sold on rutabaga? Try slow-roasting with a touch of sea salt, and grape seed oil as part of a winter dinner, add to soups and stews, or get a big dose of phytochemicals with a crunchy salad of walnuts, chopped rutabaga, spinach, and dried cranberries. If you’re not already a rutabaga fan … give it a try, you will be!

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Oct. 13, 2010 -- The idiom “a dog’s life” suggests that pooches have it made when it comes to happiness, but new research indicates that the emotional states of dogs can be as varied as the moods of their owners. Dogs can see their food bowls as half empty rather than half full, just as human pessimists see a glass of water as half empty instead of half full. British researchers who tested separation reactions of dogs say they found that some dogs are more likely than others to become depressed and anxious when left alone, causing them to bark, scratch at doors, chew on furniture, and generally misbehave. On the other hand, optimistic dogs are more likely to behave better and become more relaxed when left alone. Mike Mendl, PhD, head of animal welfare and behavioral research at the University of Bristol, and colleagues, studied 24 dogs, males and females, that had been sent to two animal centers. Each dog was tested beforehand for separation anxiety-related behaviors. A researcher played with each dog in an isolated room for 20 minutes. The next day the dogs were taken back to their rooms and left alone for five minutes while video cameras recorded their behavior. Some of the dogs barked, jumped on furniture, and scratched at the door, but the “optimistic” ones did not -- or didn’t do it as much. To study optimistic or pessimistic tendencies, the dogs were trained so that when a bowl was placed at one location in a room, it contained food, but when put somewhere else, it didn’t. Then the bowls were placed at ambiguous locations between the positive and negative positions. “Dogs that ran fast to these ambiguous locations as if expecting the positive food reward were classed as making relatively ‘optimistic’ decisions,” Mendl says in a news release. "Interestingly, these dogs tended to be the ones who also showed least anxiety-like behavior when left alone for a short time.” He says about half of dogs may at some point engage in behaviors related to separation anxiety, such as barking, scratching, or tearing things up when separated from owners. “Our study suggests that dogs showing these types of behavior also appear to make more pessimistic judgments generally,” he says. “We all have a tendency to think that our pets and other animals experience emotions similar to our own, but we have no way of knowing directly because emotions are essentially private,” he says. “However, we can use findings from human psychology research to develop new ways of measuring animal emotion.” It’s known that the emotional states of people affect their judgments, and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation in a positive way. And it’s apparently the same with dogs. “What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs -- that a ‘glass-half-full’ dog is less likely to be anxious when left alone than one with a more pessimistic nature,” Mendl says.

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