Datasets:

alexchen4ai

/

test-pretrained

like 0

Born a slave, Booker T. Washington rose to become the commonly recognized leader of the Negro race in America. Although he continually strove to be successful and to show other black men and women how they too could raise themselves, his leadership became controversial, and his critics ironically accused him of keeping the Negro down and in his place. Washington's method of uplifting was education in a harmonious trinity of the head, the hand, and the heart. From his founding of Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to his death in 1915 Booker T. Washington exerted a tremendous influence on the consciousness of his people. W. E. B. Du Bois with his concept of developing the "talented-tenth" into leaders through liberal education represented those who felt that Washington placed too much emphasis on industrial education. However, Washington's own Christian character and his education of the heart can give us added insight and perspective into the man and his approach. For the first nine years of his life until 1865 when the close of the Civil War emancipated the boy Booker and the remainder of his race, he like many other Americans of dark skin had been considered a piece of property on a Southern plantation. Any education extraneous to their enforced labor had been forbidden to most Negroes in the South. By 1895 however, in his historic Atlanta Exposition Address, Washington was to say: Starting thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscellaneous sources), remember the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements, buggies, steam engines, newspapers, books, statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug-stores and banks, has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles.1 This famous speech placed Washington in the national spotlight as the leader of his race. How did he rise to the top? What were the methods he used to raise his people, and how did he discover those ways? Declared free, Booker and his mother and brother John journeyed several hundred miles from the plantation in Franklin County, Virginia to Malden in West Virginia where they joined his step-father who worked in the salt furnaces and coal-mines.2 Booker had to work in the mines until nine at night, but his intense desire to learn enabled him to master a Webster "blue-back" spelling book, and even led him to move ahead the hands of the clock at work so he could get to his night school by nine.3 It was at this Kanawha Valley school that he selected the name Washington which his older brother later adopted.4 While playing marbles with other boys, an old, colored man told Booker about the meaning of Sunday school. He gave up his marble game for regular Sunday school attendance in Malden, and later he became the teacher and superintendent of this school where he had learned to read.5 Once while working in a coal mine in the earth over a mile from the light of day, Booker overheard two men mention a school for the colored where poor but worthy students could work for their bed and board while learning a trade. The fire of ambition was lit in the boy, and everything he did pointed toward his one goal---Hampton Institute. Later the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar was to describe this attribute. The secret of Mr. Washington's power is organization, and organization after all is only a concentration of force. This concentration only expresses his own personality, in which every trait and quality tend toward one definite end.6 He took a job in the home of Mrs. Ruffner, an exacting, stern disciplinarian who demanded cleanliness and precise truth all the time. Previous boys had lasted only about a week under Mrs. Ruffner, but Booker was to devote himself for several years to perfecting his work, allowing no leisure for mischief.7 This practice was continued at Hampton Institute where he was accepted after enduring several tests of his industriousness culminating in the use of a broom in a "sweeping examination." His training served him well, and he became an assistant janitor for several years while a student at Hampton. In General Armstrong, the Principal of Hampton, Washington saw the ideal he was to strive for---honest, confident, "the most perfect specimen of man, physically, mentally and spiritually, that I had ever seen."8 Washington was inspired by educational work and felt that General Armstrong was but part of "that Christlike body of men and women who went into the Negro schools at the close of the war by the hundreds to assist in lifting up my race."9 The other great benefit Washington received from Hampton was his attitude toward education which changed from the common idea that education would free one from manual labor, to a love of labor, self-reliance, and usefulness, an unselfishness that strives to do the most to make others useful and happy. By experiencing this transformation himself, Washington could lead others through a more practical education. As the Reconstruction period was closing in the late seventies, Washington taught school in West Virginia, dabbled in politics in support of making Charleston the capitol of West Virginia, and assisted with the education of Indians at Hampton Institute.10 When a normal school for colored was being established in Tuskegee, Alabama, the organizers asked General Armstrong to suggest a principal, assuming no qualified Negro could be found. However, he gave Washington a high recommendation, and on July 4, 1881 Tuskegee Institute opened its doors. The beginning was humble and the first efforts were in agriculture with "one hoe and a blind mule."11 A loan of $500 from General Marshall of Hampton Institute enabled them to buy a farm of 100 acres.12 Washington struggled to raise the money to pay back the loan and meet the payments on land and buildings. By 1900 the school owned 2,460 acres. Starting with three shanties which were repaired for class-rooms and dormitories, within two decades sixty buildings stood on the campus, and all but four of them had been built by students as part of their industrial education.13 By the third year student enrollment went from 30 to 169 and by 1894 it was 712 with 54 officers and teachers.14 Money received by the Institute in the first two years was $11,679 which was almost doubled the third year and after fourteen years was about $80,000 annually. With these fourteen years of hard effort behind him, Booker T. Washington suddenly rose to national prominence in 1895. In the spring of that year he gave a well-received speech on "Industrial Education" at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Nashville American called it a "complete success" and compared Washington to Frederick Douglass as a "benefactor to the Negro race."15 Washington was on the verge of national recognition. At the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in September, 1895, Negroes were invited to display their products, and Washington was selected as one of the State Commissioners of the Exposition as Tuskegee and Hampton had the largest Negro exhibits. The Board of the Exposition decided to invite Washington to deliver an address at the opening of the Exposition, marking the first opportunity for a Negro to speak on the same platform as white men in the South. He was diplomatic in his approach due to the predominantly white Southern audience, and yet was determined to say only what he felt in his heart was true and right.17 Washington spoke against agitation for social equality, and spoke toward "the highest intelligence and development of all" that the "enjoyment of all the privilege that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing."18 By coupling the higher good of absolute justice with material prosperity they could bring their "beloved South a new heaven and a new earth."19 Although criticized later by Du Bois as a compromise, the speech had tremendous power and within the context of the times probably did much to improve the friendship and working relationship between the races. Washington had always felt that his people needed leadership from within, but the examples were few.20 Frederick Douglass had been the best, but he had recently died. After the famous Atlanta speech Washington was commonly introduced as the successor to Frederick Douglass. The Tuskegee leader was soon communicating with Presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Taft, advising them on qualified Negroes for office. Roosevelt asked Washington, because he wanted men of character, not just of ability.21 Due to his leadership position and accomplishments, Washington exerted a great influence on most Negro newspapers, grants of money given to Negro institutions, and political appointments. As a man of action he was successful, but those who favored more emphasis on liberal education and the rights of man were antagonistic toward his personal control over these matters. Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk in 1903 conjecturing that the result of Washington's policies was Jim Crow legislation in the South. The exposing of the "Tuskegee Machine" of Washington's financial support of newspapers, magazines, and lobbying, unleashed the frustrations of men like Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter, a Boston militant.22 At times Washington appeared to confuse his personal power with the cause of his race, as the abuse of greatness is the abuse of the power. As if in defense of the Tuskegee graduate, Washington in The Story of the Negro compares the "courage" of the hero who in harsh and bitter remarks attempt to vindicate his race, while another man works patiently and persistently in a Negro school for years to help to uplift his race and yet gets no reputation for courage.23 One of Washington's most famous statements was, "I will let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him." Washington would never willingly or knowingly do anything to "provoke bitterness between the races or misunderstanding between the North and the South."24 In the twenty years before his death on November 14, 1915, Washington gave numerous speeches and wrote several books, while running Tuskegee Institute. How he nurtured the character of the students at Tuskegee sheds considerable light on Washington's attitudes and educational philosophy. Washington's way was to combine industrial training with mental and moral culture. His method was to study the conditions and needs of the people and then to satisfy them practically as well as he could. He observed that the need to take care of one's body and property, and to establish an economic foundation on the soil of agriculture and the use of industry were more important than the memorization of facts and reading of Latin and Greek. Therefore Washington stressed cleanliness, personal neatness, care of field and flock, housekeeping and mechanical skill as the immediate needs to be met In his important book on industrial education Working With the Hands, Washington wrote, "I soon learned that there was a great difference between studying about things and studying the things themselves, between book instruction and the illumination of practical experience."25 The important work of the teacher was not just to impart knowledge and maintain discipline, but to "bring school life and real life into closer contact."26 In the new industrial age the young people needed to "increase the value of the material they handle and to make themselves more useful as individuals."27 Tracing the history of the Negro, Washington found that in Africa they did little work as they lived off the tropical resources in a primitive way. Then Negroes were over-worked in America. Washington agreed with Abraham Lincoln that in slavery and ignorance a man gives the lowest and most costly service, yet in "freedom and enlightenment he renders the highest and most helpful form of service."28 With freedom many Negroes had adopted the attitude that labor was lowly and that education should raise them above work, but Washington felt that they had "to learn the difference between being worked and working---to learn that being worked meant degradation, while working means civilization."29 He wanted the black man to get out from under the drudgery and get on top of his work by putting skill and intelligence into it "to make the forces of nature---air, water, horse power, steam, and electric power---work for him."30 This way blacks could accomplish four times the work with half the labor. Washington did not want to start with education that was a thousand miles or a thousand years away from the Negro's present condition, for he saw a larger picture: The white race has been two or three centuries learning that they have made a mistake in simply cultivating the head---in not coupling education of the head with the education of the hand. They have only discovered their mistake in the closing years of the nineteenth century.... And are not the masses of all races in all lands hungry? Are they not waiting and crying for the sort of education that will enable them to conquer their hunger by conquering the forces of nature and the ignorance which wastes more than it utilizes?31 Through the proper training of head, hand, and heart, Tuskegee could develop teachers and leaders who would go out to the people to "live among them and show them how to lift themselves up."32 Industrial training had three functions. First, black students could work to pay their expenses at school. Secondly they could develop skills that would be of economic value when they left school. Third and most important was to teach economy, thrift, the dignity of labor, and provide a strong moral backbone.33 Thus industrial education aided moral education. After emancipation, education had first stressed the intellectual - literature, math, and sciences. The result was that skilled tradesmen began to die out while the liberally educated could find little work. This education according to Washington's perception had placed a barrier between the young person and his work, because he felt above it. The attitude that work was degrading had led to laziness. For Booker "all honest work is honorable work." Women knew abstruse subjects, but not how to cook or sew. He was not against mental development, but wanted to balance it with the practical. "No race can be lifted until its mind is awakened and strengthened. By the side of industrial training should always go mental and moral training, but the pushing of mere abstract knowledge into the head mean little."34 Industrial education was only a foundation. From it would come the professional, public positions of responsibility, moral and religious strength, and wealth and leisure which would allow one to enjoy literature and the fine arts. With the above perspectives, Washington set to work in building an educational institution. In 1881, the first year of Tuskegee Institute, Washington began his students with the basics---to "teach them how to take care of their bodies in the matter of bathing, care of the teeth, and in general cleanliness. We also felt that we must not only teach the students how to prepare their food but how to serve and eat it properly."35 The attitude he found was "the feeling that to work with the hands was not conducive to being of the highest type of lady or gentleman. This feeling we wanted to change as fast as possible by teaching students the dignity, beauty and civilizing power of intelligent labor."36 In fact work soon became mandatory at Tuskegee. At first many students and parents did not like the industrial training as they wanted book learning. Despite the protests, Tuskegee continued its policy and gradually the complaints lessened. When the Negro people began to see the results of the industrial teaching, the response became so enthusiastic that Tuskegee had to refuse admission to hundreds every year who wanted this training. By 1900 Washington could write that it had been ten years since he had had a single objection to the students participating in industrial work.37 As the instruction at Tuskegee was expanding by 1900 into 33 trades and industries, the students were actually building the school. In an address at one of the meetings organized by General Armstrong in large cities to raise money for Tuskegee, Washington declared: From the first we have carried out the plan at Tuskegee of asking help for nothing that we could do ourselves. Nothing has been bought that the students can produce. The boys have done the painting, made the bricks, the chairs, tables and desks, have built a stable and are now moving the carpenter shop. The girl do the entire housekeeping, including the washing, ironing and mending of the boys' clothing. Besides, they make garments to sell, and give some attention to flower gardening.38 The value of this work for self-confidence, esteem and disciplined conduct must have been immense. How likely was it that a student would try to carve his name on a door, for example, when an older classmate was liable to tap him on the shoulder and say, "I built that door"? In 1892 Tuskegee held its first Negro Conference. The conference announced two goals: First, to find out the actual industrial, moral and educational condition of the masses. Second, to get as much light as possible on what is the most effective way for the young men and women whom the Tuskegee Institute, and other institutions, are educating to use their education in helping the masses of the colored people to lift themselves up.39 The resulting consensus of the participants was published. Their appraisal and concerns can be summarized as follows: First: thankfulness for existing freedom and harmony with white neighbors. Second: most live agriculturally on rented lands and are in debt for supplies. Third: mortgage system and credit leads to excessive spending with higher prices and interest. Fourth: religion is improving in purity, becoming less superstitious and emotional, and more a part of daily living. Fifth: schools are poor, ill-equipped and open only about three and a half months a year with little attendance. Sixth: remedies for these conditions are: 1) raise own meat and bread at home; 2) buy land; 3) young people learn trades; 4) broaden the labor of women; 5) economize and pay off debts; 6) ministers and teachers give more attention to material conditions and home life; 7) supplement State-provided schools with own money and construction; 8) hire mentally and morally fit teachers; 9) eliminate sectarian prejudice over schools. Seventh: gratitude to all who help educate the Negro. Eighth: appreciation for friendliness of Southern white businessmen. Ninth: best aid is toward developing Christian leaders as object lessons for upliftment. Tenth: cultivate friendship in the South and discourage emigration.40 These policies of the grassroots blacks indicate agreement with the approach of Booker T. Washington. The value of these conferences which were held annually was overwhelming, especially as the people were able to mark their improvement from year to year. Soon Worker's Conferences and Farmers' Conferences were also organized.41 More and more students were going out to their communities and setting an example as they spread the Tuskegee spirit In 1899 Washington could proudly write: As we continue placing men and women of intelligence, religion, modesty, conscience, and skill in every community in the South, who will prove by actual results their value to the community, this will constitute the solution for many of the present political and sociological difficulties. It is with this larger and more comprehensive view of improving present conditions and laying the foundation wisely that the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is training men and women as teachers and industrial leaders. Over four hundred students have finished the course of training at this institution and are now scattered throughout the South, doing good work. A recent investigation shows that about 3,000 students who have taken only a partial course are doing commendable work.... Wherever our graduates and ex-students go, they teach by precept and example the necessary lesson of thrift economy, and property-getting, and friendship between the races.42 For Washington, then, the end of education was not mere knowledge or skill, but goodness, usefulness, and power that a man may help his fellow man.43 He called any education "high" which enabled one to perform this service, and "low" that which did not make for character or effective service. Washington taught a Gospel of Service and observed that even the President of the United States was the servant of the people. The greater one is, the more he can be of service. Therefore, one should develop the ability to do. Teachers by putting more of themselves into their work would not only add to their own happiness and usefulness but would be "doing real work toward hastening the coming of that kingdom for which they daily pray," that they might "be used as tools to serve therewith their fellows and their Maker. This is the end of all living."44 Work, therefore led to the higher religious and spiritual goals. Perhaps the real key to Booker T. Washington's success was spiritual and inner development. He began to love and understand the Bible while at Hampton, and spent a year of study at Wayland Seminary where the "high Christian character of Dr. King" made a strong impression on him.45 The first religious services at Tuskegee Institute were conducted on Thanksgiving Day 1882 by a pastor from Montgomery.46 A few years later an ordained minister was named chaplain of the school which Washington described as "non-denominational but by no means non-religious."47 Even though Tuskegee was non-sectarian, its daily life was permeated by active religion. Washington himself described the following significant religious influences at Tuskegee: l) preaching service every Sunday for all teachers and students; 2) Sunday morning Christian Endeavour Society with scripture readings, prayer, and songs; 3) thirty-six Sunday school classes; 4) YMCA run by students which looks after the sick, needy, and elderly in the area; 5) two missionary groups and a YWCA for the young women; 6) Humane Society for the proper care of animals; 7) Tuskegee Women's Club and Mothers' Council in household matters; 8) every evening except Fridays and Saturdays the Principal or his representative led the whole school in devotional services in the chapel; 9) Friday evening prayer-meetings of informal worship, probably the most powerful of all services due to the home-like atmosphere; 10) Week of Prayer held for two weeks in January with usually about a hundred and fifty students happily converted who sign the following pledge: I thank God that I was led by the Spirit to accept Christ. I am glad I am a Christian, and I promise: l. That, as soon as I can, I will join the church of my choice, and by word and deed help to build up the kingdom of Christ on earth. 2. That I will, daily, think of, or read some portion of the Bible, and will pray, in private each day of my life, closing each prayer with this verse: "Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole; I want Thee forever to live in my soul; Break down every idol, cast out every foe: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." 11) Bible Training School established in 1893 to prepare students for the Christian ministry. These students helped the churches in the community every Sunday and turned in written reports of their work. Every morning a voluntary prayer meeting was conducted by one of the Bible students. In addition all the students were organized into companies of twelve to fifteen with a teacher to counsel them. These social groups made the students feel more at home and improved discipline.48 Observing that the Negro was religious but that he tended toward emotionalism, Washington sought to educate his people into the higher teachings and to encourage them to make their devotion practical every day in improving their own and their neighbors' lives. Washington believed that the attitude of some that religion was below the educated and independent mind was the greatest error and had no real joy. He discovered in his experience that the leaders in the educational and commercial world and in uplifting the people, were usually religious in their community life.49 Most of all Washington wanted to go beyond the outer helps of Bible study and church attendance to find the inner spiritual experience. As you value your spiritual life, see to it that you do not lose the spirit of reverence for the Most High as revealed in your own life and experience, reverence for the Most High as revealed in the men and women about you, in the opening flower, the setting sun, and the song of the bird. Do not mistake denominationalism for reverence and religion. Religion is life, denominationalism is an aid to life.... We must get the inner life, the heart right, and we shall then become strong where we have been weak, wise where we have been foolish.50 Washington, then, believed in opening and purifying the heart with the help of the Supreme Being. Another source of inspiration on the Tuskegee campus was Dr. Washington's informal talks to the students on Sunday evenings. Here he continually encouraged students to choose the higher life of honesty and purity, to see from the "higher-light point of view" and look for the good in a person.51 He pointed out that the person of high character was happy, successful, respected, and loved, while the lower way was hard, miserable, and distrusted, for it is the person with the great big heart who is happy. He counseled them, "Throw open your heart. Say now, 'I am not going to be conquered by little mean thoughts, words and acts any longer. Hereafter all my thoughts, all my words, all my acts, shall be large, generous high, pure."52 The goal of the religious life, for Washington, was to share the character of God, to be one with Him and therefore like Him. To be Christ-like was not to be unnatural, but by living it one could discover the power and helpfulness practically. Washington held that the higher qualities of character were the invisible and eternal qualities that last forever. He described the intangible fruits of this Christ-like way of life: Now, if those who annually go out from the schools of our great country, wherever they go, will carry with them something of this healing power, this power that will cure men merely by letting them come in contact with them, even in the slightest manner, if they will catch something of the Christ-like spirit, we can have a heaven, as it were, on earth. I do not believe in waiting for the heaven of the future. If we imitate the life of Christ as nearly as possible, heaven will come about more and more right here on earth. No person can expend any life force without receiving life force in return. When we give out this spirit, something of this healing power, we receive in return more strength for ourselves.53 Washington firmly believed that a person reaped what he sowed, and therefore suggested putting the most one can into life. To summarize Washington's solution to the race problem: it was both practical and spiritual. Intrinsic character must be developed from within. No one else can bestow upon a person character, and once achieved, no one can take it away. The Christian way was not to agitate hostilely, but to patiently endure all wrongs while removing one's own faults and impediments. "The race that hates will grow weaker, while the race that loves will grow stronger "54 "No individual of any race can contribute to the solution of any general problem until he has worked out his own peculiar problem.... The despised Negro has then chance to show the world that charity which suffereth long and is kind and which never faileth."55 In The Future of the Negro Washington wrote: Each race must be educated to see matters in a broad, high, generous, Christian spirit: we must bring the two races together, not estrange them . . The man is unwise who does not cultivate in every manly way the friendship and good will of his next-door neighbor, whether he be black or white.56 Washington did not want to aggravate the race problem, but to heal it in the loving Christian way. In l907 Washington concluded a speech to ministers in Nashville with this suggestion: If you want to know how to solve the race problem, place your hands upon your heart and then, with a prayer to God, ask Him how you today, were you placed in the position that the black man occupies, how you would desire the white man to treat you, and whenever you have answered that question in the sight of God and man, this problem in a large degree will have been solved.57 By asking whites to see themselves in the blacks' predicament, Washington was calling for a humanitarian solution to prejudice. In the light of the difficult conditions that Booker T Washington faced and the efforts that he made to contribute to their solution one can well recognize the reasons for his popularity among the black masses and great influence he had in his time. Rather than demanding that the white race change their ways, he showed how black people could change themselves, overcome obstacles, develop strength of character, and rise by their own effort to honorable positions of respect, and most important, self-esteem. No problem was too lowly to confront and no ambition was too high to attain; but from his own experience, Washington was convinced that one must start at the bottom with a healthy body and a solid economic basis. From this foundation one could grow to the heights without danger of falling as long as one had developed a strong character through intrinsic effort. Theodore Roosevelt gave a realistic appraisal of the man in the context of his times: He kept his high ideals, always; but he never forgot for a moment that he was living in an actual world of three dimensions, in a world of unpleasant facts, where those unpleasant facts have to be faced; and he made the best possible out of a bad situation from which there was no ideal best to be obtained. And he walked humbly with his God.58 Booker T. Washington struggled up himself and then gave to his people what he felt they needed---education for the skill of hand, light of mind, and honesty of heart. 1. Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery, p. 157. 2. Ibid., p. 17. Also The Story of My Life and Work in the Booker T. Washington Papers Volume 1 The Autobiographical Writings (Hereafter BTW Papers Vol. 1) pp. 13-15. From now on parallel references will be given from Up From Slavery with its page numbers since it is the more popular autobiography. 3. Up From Slavery, pp. 19-22. 4. Ibid., p. 24. 5. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 16. 6. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Representative American Negroes" in The Negro Problem, p. 194. 7. Booker T. Washington, Working With the Hands, pp. 6-10. 8. BTW Papers Vol. 1, 21. 9. Up From Slavery, p. 39. 10. Ibid., p. 51. 11. Booker T. Washington, "Industrial Education for the Negro" in The Negro Problem, p. 20. 12. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 32. 13. Booker T. Washington, "Industrial Education," p. 21. 14. BTW Papers Vol. 1, pp. 38, 47. 15. Ibid., pp. 61-64. 16. Ibid., pp. 69-70. Up From Slavery, p. 145. 17. Up From Slavery, p. 148. 18. Ibid., pp. 156-157. 19. Ibid., p. 158. 20. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 413 from My Larger Education. 21. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 441. 22. See Louis R. Harlan, Booker T. Washington for a critical view of the Black leader. 23. Basil Mathews, Booker T. Washington, p. 293. 24. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 446. 25. Working With the Hands, p. 12. 26. B. T. W. Putting the Most Into Life, p. 9. 27. Ibid., p. 18. 28. Selected Speeches of Booker T. Washington, p. 193, to the Republican Club of New York City, February 12, 1909 (Lincoln's 100th birthday). 29. B. T. W., "Industrial Education for the Negro," p. 9. 30. B. T. W., The Future of the Negro, p. 61. 31. B. T. W., Sowing and Reaping, pp. 27, 29. 32. The Future of the Negro, p. 111. 33. Ibid., p. 111. 34. "Industrial Education for the Negro," pp. 12-18. 35. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 31. 36. Ibid., p. 31. 37. Ibid., p. 37. 38. Ibid., p. 43. 39. Ibid., p. 135. 40. Ibid., pp. 138-140. 41. Ibid., p. 142. 42. The Future of the Negro, pp. 125-126. 43. B. T. W., "Some Lessons of the Hour" in Character Building, pp. 141-142. This book is a collection from his Sunday evening talks to the students at Tuskegee. 44. B. T. W., Putting the Most Into Life, pp. 16, 5. 45. BTW Papers Vol. 1, p. 25. 46. Ibid., p. 36. 47. Working With the Hands, p. 192. 48. Ibid., pp. 192-199. 49. Putting the Most Into Life, pp. 23-25. 50. Ibid., pp. 25, 27. 51. Sowing and Reaping, p. 14. 52. "Have You Done Your Best" in Character Building, p. 48. 53. Sowing and Reaping, pp. 22-23. 54. Selected Speeches, p. 205. 55. Putting the Most Into Life, pp. 34-35. 56. The Future of the Negro, p. 65. 57. Selected Speeches, p. 189. 58. Emmett J. Scott and Lyman Beecher Stowe, Booker T. Washington, p. xii. RISING OUT OF SLAVERY Part 1 RISING OUT OF SLAVERY Part 2

<urn:uuid:aacf2d86-7b80-4d3c-bbf1-2fbd8cf6bdd2>

Somewhere under the Guadalupe sand dunes are several 5-ton sphinxes, buried after movie director Cecil B. DeMille finished filming “The Ten Commandments” there more than 90 years ago. The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center hopes to raise $15,000 by the end of the year to excavate one of the sphinxes from the set location of the 1923 silent film. The funds will supplement a recent $80,000 grant from the County of Santa Barbara. The center will rely on fundraising events and community support to meet its financial goal, volunteer coordinator Kyleigh Rogers said. The Dunes Center plans to uncover and restore the body of one sphinx before reuniting it with its face, which currently resides in a Dunes Center exhibit. The process is set to unfold over a course of 20 months, Rogers said. A speedy excavation is necessary to maintain the set piece’s integrity before it falls victim to the elements, said Lindsey Whitaker, the center's education and administrative coordinator. “This is the last chance to get any of the set out of the ground,” Whitaker said. DeMille initially buried his movie set, which included 21 sphinxes, far below the sand’s surface. Over the past 91 years, however, wind has shifted the dunes’ sand, exposing some set pieces although most are believed to still be buried. After spending so much time underground, any exposed plaster-of-Paris sphinxes are sensitive to Guadalupe’s salty air. The sphinxes turn to mush upon air exposure, Whitaker said. As for the remaining 20 sphinxes, Whitaker said their whereabouts are largely unknown. Until the 1990s, they were up for grabs to the public. “There’s documentation of people who have picked them up and put them in their backyards,” Whitaker said.

<urn:uuid:da9df933-b9f6-4d45-b89c-a3fbcef6c8c0>

|Product #: EMC3442019_TQ| Aunt Gertie's Garden (Lexile 380) (Resource Book Only) eBookGrade 2 Please Note: This ebook is a digital download, NOT a physical product. After purchase, you will be provided a one time link to download ebooks to your computer. Orders paid by PayPal require up to 8 business hours to verify payment and release electronic media. For immediate downloads, payment with credit card is required. This leveled Read & Understand story for grade 2 is about how Aunt Gertie planted two gardens so that everyone got fresh vegetables. Students read the story, answer questions, define vocabulary, add suffixes, and cover a variety of reading skills on five activity pages. (Find other leveled stories by searching 'Lexile 2.') Submit a review

<urn:uuid:0e542f90-2695-4b18-95af-efd63d6b3630>

States that have decriminalized marijuana have also seen dramatic increases in children requiring medical intervention, according to research in the Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Association of Unintentional Pediatric Exposures with Decriminalization of Marijuana in the U.S.") which analyzed call volume to U.S. poison centers from January 2005 through December 2011. The call rate to poison centers in states that decriminalized marijuana increased by more than 30 percent per year between 2005 and 2011, while the call rate in non-legal states did not change. More pediatric exposures in decriminalized states than in non-legal states required medical evaluation, had moderate to major clinical effects and required critical care admissions. Neurologic effects were the most common. The most common therapy was administration of intravenous fluids. Aggressive interventions were rare and there were no deaths. As of December 2013, 18 states and the District of Columbia had passed legislation allowing medical marijuana, which includes many edible products. Sales are projected to more than double between 2011 and 2015, which skeptics argue was a big motivation for lawmakers to ignore the health data and focus on tax revenue. "We believe that high-dose edible products – such as candies, cookies and chocolates – may have played a significant role in the increased rate of reported exposure chiefly because kids can't distinguish between products that contain marijuana and those that don't," said lead study author George Sam Wang, MD, of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver, Colorado. "These edible products may be attractive to children and tend to contain higher concentrations of the active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol. "Pediatricians, toxicologists and emergency physicians need to be willing to advocate for the safety of children to lawmakers as this burgeoning industry expands across the U.S. As more states decriminalize marijuana, lawmakers should consider requirements – such as child-resistant packaging, warning labels and public education – to reduce the likelihood of ingestion by young children."

<urn:uuid:7c656664-05ec-4ff3-8371-5f014d495f51>

PHILADELPHIA--A team of Canadian scientists may have discovered a wayto use a simple dye as a litmus test to identify abnormal areas of themouth that may become cancers. According to a study published in the September 1 issue of "CancerResearch", the scientists found that lesions that took up the dye knownas toluidine blue were six times more likely to become oral cancers. The team also discovered that the dye-staining lesionscontained molecular alterations that are linked to high risk of oralcancers -- even at early stages. "In oral cavity lesions, tissue that stained positive withtoluidine blue were more likely to advance to cancer than lesions thatdid not stain with the dye," said Miriam Rosin, Ph.D., Director of theBC Cancer Agency's British Columbia Oral Cancer Prevention Program andProfessor, Simon Fraser University. Rosin is the senior author on thestudy, funded by the National Institute of Dental and CraniofacialResearch, of the National Institutes of Health. Toluidine blue is an accepted indicator of oral cancers, Rosinsaid. The current studies, however, demonstrate that the dye accuratelypredicts which pre-malignant lesions are likely to advance towarddisease. Those lesions appear as white or, less frequently, redpatches. "The vast majority of those white patches are often from minorinflammation and irritation," Rosin said. Some, however, are inclinedto become cancer--and are the ones targeted by this simple imagingtechnology. In the study of 100 patients, Rosin and her colleagues learnedthat toluidine blue-stained lesions became squamous cell carcinomasmore quickly than lesions that did not stain. The scientists alsodetermined that dye-stained oral lesions were more likely to beaberrant not only at the gross tissue level but at the moleculargenetic level as well. Toluidine blue was applied to lesions in themouths of patients during dental visits to determine the value of thestain for imaging precancerous lesions. "Oral premalignant lesions that stained with toluidine blueconsistently contained loss of chromosomal genetic information," Rosinsaid. In patients with dye-stained lesions, Rosin and colleagues founda strong association with loss of genetic information, termed loss ofheterozygosity (LOH), on one or more chromosomes. "Patients with positively stained tissue had a higherincidence of LOH at multiple sites, including regions on chromosomearms 3p or 9p or both as well as on parts of other chromosomes" Rosinsaid. Rosin's Cancer Research article reports results from the initialphase of a long term study that followed 100 patients for 44 months. Bythe completion of the longitudinal study, Rosin and colleagues willmonitor 400 patients. The current report links the staining of cells with toluidineblue in mouth tissue to the higher risk of patients likely to developsquamous cell carcinomas. When biopsied, lesions that stained blue mostoften showed microscopic abnormal tissue development � dysplasia � thatis associated with cancer risk. The Rosin team then established that the dye-stained lesionshad characteristic molecular alterations that are linked to higher riskfor oral cancers -- even when the dye stained tissue is at an earlystage, when dysplasia is minimal. Cells with molecular changes took upthe blue dye before the lesion acquired extensive dysplasia. Thefindings are among the first steps in designing and implementing animaging screening program that dentists and oral hygiene professionalscan use to make first-line decisions about early stage biopsies andreferrals for anti-cancer related care. More than 300,000 people worldwide will be diagnosed with oralcancer this year. In the United States, 30,000 people will develop oralcancers. The five-year survival rate for oral cancer remains between 40and 50 percent--a statistic that hasn't changed over the past severaldecades. "The disease is usually identified fairly late inprogression," Rosin said. "At that stage, it is frequently not amenableto the successful intervention that we'd like. The whole deal ofchanging survival outcome is that you have to get at the diseaseearlier." British Columbia is a likely setting for developing a triagemodel to screen and identify high risk lesions among dental patients.Ninety percent of the Province's residents see a dentist at least onceevery two years. Approximately 2,500 dentists in British Columbia forma potential Province-wide screening network that will forward high riskpatients to special care facilities. "With enough training of those who are doing the screening,the dye should help the clinicians find those patients with lesionsthat should really be moved forward for assessment," Rosin said.Training and technology should enable the people at the point ofscreening to determine whether the lesion should be monitored, or ifthe patient should be referred for further assessment. In some cases,the dentist can decide immediately whether a biopsy should be taken atthat point. The multidisciplinary research team that collaborates withRosin includes pathologists, oral medicine specialists, dentists, oralsurgeons, radiation oncologists, molecular biologists, statisticiansand epidemiologists. Her colleagues include, the lead author on the publication,Lewei Zhang, Catherine Poh, Robert Priddy, University of BritishColumbia; Michele Williams, Joel Epstein, Scott Durham, Nhu Le, GregHislop, John Hay, Wan Lam, British Columbia Cancer Agency/CancerResearch Center; Hisae Nakamura, Denise Laronde, Simon FraserUniversity; and Ken Berean, Vancouver Hospital and Health SciencesCenter, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research is aprofessional society of more than 24,000 laboratory, translational, andclinical scientists engaged in all areas of cancer research in theUnited States and in more than 60 other countries. AACR's mission is toaccelerate the prevention and cure of cancer through research,education, communication, and advocacy. Its principal activitiesinclude the publication of five major peer-reviewed scientificjournals: "Cancer Research"; "Clinical Cancer Research"; "MolecularCancer Therapeutics"; "Molecular Cancer Research"; and "CancerEpidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention". AACR's Annual Meetingsattract nearly 16,000 participants who share new and significantdiscoveries in the cancer field. Specialty meetings, held throughoutthe year, focus on the latest developments in all areas of cancerresearch. Cite This Page:

<urn:uuid:1e44045f-ffe7-4243-b03f-f1f604ebefa9>

Most successful dieters regain the weight they lost. But new research shows that stepping on a scale every day, then cutting calories and boosting exercise if the numbers run too high, can significantly help dieters maintain weight loss. The study, conducted by researchers at The Miriam Hospital and Brown Medical School, reports results of the first program designed specifically for weight loss maintenance. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine. Unlike other obesity studies, which focus on how to lose weight, the clinical trial called STOP Regain tested a method that taught participants how to keep those pounds from coming back - regardless of what method they used to lose the weight in the first place. Led by Rena R.Wing, PhD, Director of the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center at The Miriam Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown Medical School, the study taught successful dieters a technique called "self-regulation." With the goal of maintaining their weight within five pounds, participants were taught to weigh themselves daily and to use the information from the scale to determine if they needed to adjust their diet or exercise routine. The intervention worked: Significantly fewer participants regained five or more pounds during the 18 month long program. The program was most successful when delivered in face-to-face meetings, although the Internet also proved a viable delivery system to help participants maintain their weight loss. "If you want to keep lost pounds off, daily weighing is critical," Wing said. "But stepping on the scale isn't enough. You have to use that information to change your behavior, whether that means eating less or walking more. Paying attention to weight -- and taking quick action if it creeps up -- seems to be the secret to success." "We know that losing weight and keeping weight off is very tough for many people," said Robert J. Kuczmarski, Dr. P.H., R.D., director of the Obesity Prevention and Treatment Program at the National Institutes of Health. "However, the results of STOP Regain show that there are definite actions that people can take before their weight begins to creep upward. Weight control and better health are not one-shot deals and this study will help people see that," he adds. In the study, Wing and her team enrolled 314 participants who'd lost at least 10 percent of their body weight -- averaging nearly 20 percent of their body weight or 42 pounds -- within the last two years. A third of participants were assigned to a control group, and received quarterly newsletters about eating and exercise in the mail for the duration of the study period. The other two-thirds were assigned to groups that would test the weight maintenance program. One third received the intervention over the Internet, the final third in face-to-face group meetings. Whether delivered over the computer, or in person, the education and support program was virtually identical. Participants were taught strategies specific to preventing weight regain, many gleaned from Wing's National Weight Control Registry, a registry of more than 5,000 people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off for at least one year. Strategies taught in the trial included eating breakfast, getting an hour of physical activity each day and regular weighing - participants were given a scale and urged to use it daily. They also reported their weight weekly, either over the Internet or by phone, depending on the study group. Participants were also introduced to a weight-monitoring system based on color zones. If they were within three pounds of their starting weight after the weekly check-in, they were in the "green zone" -- and received encouraging phone messages and green rewards, from mint gum to a dollar bill. If they'd gained between three and four pounds, they landed in the "yellow zone" and were instructed to tweak their eating habits or exercise routine. If they gained five pounds or more, they were in the "red zone" and encouraged to restart active weight-loss efforts. They were urged to pull out a red toolbox they received at the start of the program that included items such as a meal replacement shake, a pedometer, a diet diary -- and their own weight success loss story. Participants who were in the "red zone" also had the chance to get one-on-one counseling by phone, email or in person. Both groups attended weekly meetings for the first month of the study period, then monthly meetings either in groups or via a computer chat room. Internet participants received a laptop computer, an Internet connection and technical support. Results were resounding: In the control group, 72 percent of participants gained five or more pounds during the year and a half study period. But only 55 percent of Internet participants -- and 46 percent of participants in the face-to-face group -- gained back that much weight. "The Internet intervention worked, but the face-to-face format produced the best outcomes," Wing said. "Both were successful because the message that people got -- pay attention to your weight, then take action to maintain it -- was effective. People were told to take personal control of their health and were given the tools to do it. And they kept off the weight." The authors note that daily weighing was strongly associated with prevention of weight gain, but only in the Internet and face-to-face groups. Intervention participants who weighed themselves daily had an 82 percent reduction in the odds of regaining five or more pounds compared to those who did not weigh daily. However, daily weighing in the control group had little effect on the amount of weight regained. "This suggests that participants in the intervention groups were able to use the information from the scale to make constructive changes in their eating and exercise behaviors," says Wing. "It's further evidence that getting on the scale each day is only part of the solution." Wing and her team conclude that the concept of an intervention exclusively designed for weight-loss maintenance is an important approach to the successful treatment of obesity. Future studies should examine ways to refine the Internet format, as well as test interventions designed to last longer than 18 months. The STOP Regain team also includes Deborah Tate, PhD, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill, and Amy Gorin, PhD, Hollie Raynor, PhD, and Joseph Fava, PhD, of The Miriam Hospital and Brown Medical School. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases funded the work. The Miriam Hospital, http://www.miriamhospital.org, established in 1926, is an academic medical center affiliated with Brown Medical School. Nationally recognized as a top hospital in cardiovascular care, The Miriam Hospital offers particular expertise in cardiac catheterization, angioplasty and women's cardiac care. One of 20 designated Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) sites, The Miriam is a leader in the treatment, research and prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as weight management and obesity research. The Miriam Hospital has been awarded Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Services three times, is in the top 25 of all hospitals nationwide in terms of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and is committed to excellence in patient care, research and medical education. Brown Medical School (http://bms.brown.edu) is Rhode Island's only school of medicine and the hub of the state's academic medical enterprise. As part of an Ivy League university, the medical school attracts leaders in teaching and clinical care and, with its seven affiliated hospitals, brings in nearly $200 million in external research funding each year. Brown Medical School's Department of Community Health, ranked sixth in the nation by US News and World Report, offers comprehensive graduate programs in epidemiology, biostatistics as well as a Master of Public Health degree Cite This Page:

<urn:uuid:8c186a4e-0f4c-41ba-b781-034d0bf4a813>

People who did not earn a high school diploma could be more likely to get H1N1 and the vaccine might be less effective in them compared to those who earned a diploma, new research shows. The University of Michigan study looked at a latent virus called CMV in young people, and the body's ability to control the virus. Previous studies have shown that elderly people with less education are less successful at fighting off CMV, but this is the first known study to make that connection in younger adults as well, said study co-author Jennifer Dowd, who began the work while in the Health and Society Scholars program at the U-M School of Public Health. Previous studies have shown that high levels of CMV antibodies make it tougher for the elderly to fight new infections like H1N1, and hampers the body's immune response to the flu vaccine. The U-M findings suggest that lower socioeconomic status may make it tougher even for adults of all ages to fight new infections and may make the flu vaccine less effective. "We're showing that the ability to keep CMV under control varies by income and education even at much younger ages, and this could have implications for the ability to fight new infections like H1N1 for all ages, not just the elderly," said Dowd, now an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hunter College. Allison Aiello, assistant professor of epidemiology at University of Michigan SPH, is co-author. "We looked at CMV because it is an infection that is not cleared from the body but rather persists in a latent state with periodic reactivations in generally healthy individuals," Aiello said. " Immune response to CMV may serve as a marker of general immune alterations and is therefore an important indicator of health risks." CMV is a latent virus in the herpes family. Infection is common but the majority of people aren't symptomatic because the immune system keeps the virus under control. People of lower income and education lose immune control more easily, Dowd said. Their weakened immune systems, which may be due to increased levels of stress, make them more susceptible to other infections as well. "What is going on with the dramatic (downturn) in the economy could actually translate into people's susceptibility to these diseases," Dowd said. CMV is thought to be a prime culprit in breaking down the immune system as we age, and CMV is also associated with chronic conditions like heart disease. In the study, a person with less than a high school education had the same level of immune control as someone 15-20 years older with more than a high school education, Dowd said. "When you listen to the current news about H1N1, it's interesting because everyone feels that this is a random threat, that we all have an equal chance of getting it," Dowd said. "This study points out that certain groups are potentially more susceptible and it's not just people with existing chronic illness." The study, "Socioeconomic Differentials in Immune Response," will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Epidemiology. Cite This Page:

<urn:uuid:5959020e-f926-4a46-902b-7a6eacf68256>

A drug prescribed for Parkinson's disease may also treat restless leg syndrome without the adverse side effects of current therapies, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Rasagaline works by prolonging the effect of dopamine, a chemical that transmits signals between nerve cells in the brain. The cause of RLS is unknown, but research suggests a dopamine imbalance. Parkinson's is caused by a dopamine insufficiency. "The hope is that Rasagaline, because it prolongs the effect of existing dopamine, instead of producing more, will not come with adverse side effects," said Dr. Shyamal Mehta, an MCG neurologist and neuroscientist. "We are trying to evaluate its safety and efficacy in treating RLS at this point. When it has been used to treat Parkinson's, it's been well-tolerated with few side effects." Current RLS therapies include a group drugs that work by activating existing dopamine receptors, prompting the brain to make more dopamine. The problem, Mehta said, is that those drugs usually come with adverse effects, because dopamine increases feelings of euphoria. "People taking those drugs often report behavioral problems like addiction, because the pleasure they get from things like shopping is multiplied," he said. "They can cause impulse-control problems, like gambling or hypersexuality as well. They can also cause increased sleepiness and sudden sleep attacks, which can be quite disruptive and dangerous." Some reports also suggest decreased efficacy after extended use, as well as symptoms beginning earlier in the day. Restless leg syndrome, which affects 10 percent of the population, is characterized by prickling or tingling in the legs and an urge to move the legs. Symptoms are more noticeable at rest, such as during bedtime or a long car ride. RLS can also cause depression and daytime sleepiness, Dr. Mehta said, and is linked to conditions including iron deficiency, renal failure, pregnancy and Parkinson's. Cite This Page:

<urn:uuid:ea8ff1e7-bb37-4089-bd46-b7d0ad84ab44>

As you read these words, the air’s molecules are zipping around you at 2,000 miles per hour, faster than a speeding bullet, and bombarding you from all sides. Meanwhile the atoms and molecules that make up your body incessantly tumble, vibrate or collide with one another. Nothing in nature is ever perfectly still, and the faster things go, the more energy they carry; the collective energy of atoms and molecules is what we call, and feel as, heat. Even though total stillness, corresponding to the temperature of absolute zero, is physically impossible, scientists have edged ever closer to that ultimate limit. In such extreme realms, weird quantum effects begin to manifest themselves and to produce new and unusual states of matter. In particular, cooling gaseous clouds of atoms—as opposed to matter in the liquid or solid state—to a small fraction of a degree above absolute zero has enabled researchers to observe matter particles behaving as waves, to create the most precise measuring instruments in history, and to build the most accurate atomic clocks.

<urn:uuid:ac2e3406-bdee-4628-b6eb-6b39e83353de>

Ewan J. Innes, MA(Hons Scot. Hist.) FSA Scot Synopsis: This essay describes the change in fortunes for Robert I after the winter of 1307 and the reasons for those changes - both political and military. Please see my copyright policy if you wish to cite any part of this essay. This period in Scottish History is best described as exciting. For adventure this period has no equal. On his return to Scotland Bruce engaged in a style of campaign (guerrilla warfare) which was to remain unchanged until Bannockburn, and from then after. Indeed many people wrongly regard this period as being a prelude to Bannockburn itself. Until the death of Edward I, in July 1307, Bruce never seemed to have any luck, with defeats at Methven and Dalry, and the loss of 3 out of 4 of his brothers and most of his supporters. Indeed when he returned to Scotland in 1307 and learnt of the gravity of the misfortunes he had suffered he could rest in the knowledge that with the imminent death of Edward the butchery would soon be at an end. Bruce's first concerns, on his return in 1307 were to secure Galloway and then the North i.e. the fastnesses of Lochaber, Buchan, Sutherland and Ross. Bruce landed in Carrick in February 1307, from where he learnt that his Brothers Thomas and Alexander had met with a crushing defeat at the hands of the MacDoualls and had been beheaded. Bruce was now in a very serious position and it was at this time that he made a momentous, indeed revolutionary decision: he would revert to guerrilla warfare instead of trying to beat the English at their own game, i.e. pitched battle. Bruce was the first of the senior Scottish nobles to realise this and to this, in my opinion, could be attributed his success from Based in Carrick and Galloway Bruce made small scale raids in order to harass and spread panic among the English garrisons. He could from there, as his fame spread, recruit supporters until he was strong enough to break out into the lands north of the Forth where he could get many more followers and more space to manoeuvre. The English commanders under Aymer de Valence had a hard time keeping communications open between the castles in the Southwest and the East, Edward although a dying man was always eager for news of how the campaign was going sending letters demanding more news and impatient for success. Edward became increasingly angry at the failed English attempts to capture Bruce. In contrast Bruce was slowly winning the initiative and in April succeeded in defeating a large English force in Glen Trool. This was quickly followed in May by the avenging of Methven when Bruce defeated Aymer de Valence at Loudoun Hill followed shortly by the defeat of the Earl of Gloucester. Here, as at Glen Trool and Loudoun Hill, Bruce showed the tactical skill with which his name was to become synonymous. The picking of his battleground and the deployment of his troops were masterly so negating the larger and superior English forces. At last Bruce was having his long awaited success and with this an increase in his support within Scotland. Bruce seems to have stayed in the South West until September taking a more aggressive policy than he had done before Loudoun. With the death of Edward in July, the style of rule which Scotland was under changed radically. On August 25th Edward of Caernarvon the new king retired South with the great expedition which had been planned by his father not to show his face North of the Border for three years. The effect of this was to leave Bruce free to deal with his main Scottish enemies, the Comyns, the MacDoualls of Galloway and the Lords of Argyll. A force under the command of James Douglas was left to recover Douglasdale, upper Clydesdale and the Forest as far as Jedburgh which he did with great success; while Bruce at the beginning of September marched North, gathering recruits in Lennox, Menteith, Fife, Strathearn, Atholl and Angus as he went, with a squadron of galleys sailing up Loch Linnhe 'Lame' John of Lorn felt himself to be threatened by Bruce's actions and agreed to a truce knowing full well that he would receive no help from Edward II. Bruce attacked Inverlochy castle which fell at an unknown date and then swept north through the Great Glen taking and destroying Urquhart and Inverness castles and burning Nairn. These actions left the earls of Ross and Sutherland exposed and in a very difficult position. As such they were left with no option but to make a year long truce with Bruce. Secured by this truce, Bruce moved East and in November unsuccessfully attacked Elgin and threatened Banff. At this important juncture, when the capture of the entire North of Scotland was within his grasp, the king (de facto as well as de jure) contracted a serious illness, caused by the strain of the past year and a half of rough living. This gave John Comyn time to gather a large force enabling him to take back some of the land lost. The king was forced to withdraw from the damp coastal lands of Buchan to the wooded lands near Slioch were he was able to hold a defensible position. Bruce's condition was causing concern with winter deepening and with not enough food to feed the 700 men under his command. At this point (Christmas Day) the earl's men drew near and an archery battle ensued with no conclusive outcome. The earl withdrew only to return a few days later, again they found Bruce's force too strong, indeed able to retire in good order to the The king eventually recovered and during the first three months of 1308 he took the castle of Balvenie and destroyed Duffus castle. He then drove towards the Black Isle and destroyed the castle of Tarradale forcing the earl of Ross to retire. Bruce was further helped by the capture of the earl of Sutherland's castle of Skelbo by troops belonging to William Wiseman one of his Northern supporters. A further attack was made on Elgin but again without success. The above information comes from a worn and in places illegible letter from the sheriff of Banff to Edward II telling of the situation as it stood in the North and Northwest. Bruce finally routed the earl of Buchan at the battle of Inverurie. The date of this battle is one of the principal problems in interpreting what little evidence is available to the historian. From the available evidence a date between March 23rd and March 26th is possible. Whatever the date it is clear that Bruce was willing to leave Buchan unsubdued at his back while he attacked Elgin whereupon being repulsed he doubled back so tempting John Comyn out and destroying his army at Inverurie. After the battle Bruce set about laying the lands of the earl and those loyal to him to waste in the 'herschip' of Buchan. Bruce was now finally in control of the North after the earl of Ross submitted to him in Within a year of his return to Scotland Robert I was now in possession of a huge belt of Scottish territory. The reclaimed lands stretched from the Ayrshire coast to Jedburgh. Galloway was paying tribute and between the Forth and the Mounth English and their adherents were confined to the defensible castles and burghs while North of the Mounth the English had been expelled - apart from at Aberdeen and Banff -. However, before Bruce could set about clearing the English from Scottish soil he had to deal once and for all with the MacDougalls; the rulers of Argyll, and the chiefs of Galloway, namely the MacDoualls and the MacCans. Bruce had to subdue this area as it was vital for the ruler of Scotland to have control of the western approaches to the Realm. The Argyll campaign is a very good example of the problems inherent within the study of the early, critical years of Robert I's reign. The problem stems from the inability to assign the campaign to a particular year. It seems that the barons of Argyll did not support the lord of Lorn, very like the refusal of the Moray landowners to support the earl of Ross. The truce between Bruce and John MacDougall had expired by the middle of 1308 and Bruce led a large force into Argyll in order to bring MacDougall to heel. He was met at the Pass of Brander by John of Lorn and a large force of Argyll men aiming to do what Bruce had done in Glen Trool to the English. Bruce however was not going to be caught so easily and sent a troop of Highlanders under James Douglas to climb the slopes of Ben Cruachan in order to get above the ambush planned by Lame John of Lorn. When Bruce's troops came into view along the pass they were attacked by a hail of stones and arrows from the slopes of the Ben. Immediately afterwards hey were themselves attacked by Douglas. This action caught the Argyll men by surprise and as they were now being attacked from the front as well as behind they broke and fled. Bruce followed this victory up by taking the castle of Dunstaffnage. While Bruce was dealing with Argyll his only surviving brother Edward overran Galloway in a campaign noted for its savagery. It was however a brief campaign and many Gallovadians were slaughtered. Dungal MacDouall was driven out with all his kin and many other local chiefs were slain. Edward Bruce however failed to eject the English garrisons and it was not until 1313 that the final castle fell. By the autumn of 1308 the three districts where Comyn and Balliol loyalty was strongest, namely Buchan, Argyll and Galloway were under the control of the king. The king now also had control of the safest port in the North, namely Aberdeen, and had started the long struggle to retake the English held castles with the capture of Forfar, the first major English held castle south of the Mounth. Bruce was finally able to hold his first Parliament in the spring of 1309 which shows the confidence and support which he was gaining all the time. It also saw the resumption of Franco-Scottish relations. 1309 saw the resumption of a dour struggle between the Scots and the English garrisons, unsupported by Edward II, which fell through stratagem, starvation or surrender. Edward II, embroiled in domestic troubles, let the garrisons fend for themselves. By the end of 1309 the chief castles still in enemy hands were in the South, with the Southeast very strongly held although the English position in the Southwest was very weak. Bruce's tactics for taking castles were novel in the extreme. The Scots had no English style siege equipment and had to rely upon skill and ingenuity. A castle should be surprised at night and an entry forced with rope ladders fitted with grappling hooks. In this way the major castles of Perth, Edinburgh, Roxburgh and others were taken until the only one left was Stirling. The story from here I feel needs reviewing. The usual story is that a year long truce was agreed between Edward Bruce and Sir Philip Moubray. However this story comes only from Barbour and it is unlikely that a year would be agreed to, for, after Bannockburn at the Cambuskenneth Parliament the lands of those Scots who had fought for England were forfeited. It should be noted that there was an announcement made a year earlier informing people that their lands would be forfeited unless they came to the kings peace and I think that Barbour is confusing this with the truce. So in reality Edward had only a few months to prepare although he had agreed to an expedition in principle for Once Bruce was relatively secure in Scotland he began to show the Northern counties of England what he meant by "defending himself with the longest stick that he had". In successive raids into England the Scots plundered and looted with relish. The English counties, with no help forthcoming from the South, were left with no option but to arrange truces in order that they could avoid further attack. It has been estimated that over £20,000 was collected from the English counties in order that they would be safe from the In looking at the success of Bruce we can see that it was due to an excellent military brain and with a mixture of incredible luck and good strategy mixed with inept English governing and generalship it is not surprising that he succeeded. However it is my opinion that Bruce would never have succeeded if Edward II had been half as good as his father. Ewan Innes, November 11 1989

<urn:uuid:bac02d3d-4106-4f69-bf77-a3a6d35d98a1>

Ryegrass is easy to spot in a lawn due to its shine. Also, it leaves a "whitish" cast when mowed. It is a bunchgrass, which germinates quickly and is often found in grass seed mixtures with Kentucky bluegrass. It is primarily found in cool-season areas of the north, but may not survive as far north as Minnesota, Wisconsin or Canada. - Width: 1/8" wide - Tip/blade: pointed tip - Color: dark green, but lighter than bluegrass, and shiny on one side of the blade - Feel: soft - Growth: grows quickly from seed; a bunch-type grass that won't fill in naturally like bluegrass - Additional: has visible veins on the blade; shreds when mowed with a dull blade; broad collar; sheaths below ground are reddish in color

<urn:uuid:856cf449-87e5-4509-bb06-4a4b72122a42>

August 16, 2011 County, state and University of California officials plan to hold a meeting Aug. 18 to update the public, the nursery industry, landscapers and arborists about the troubling discovery of exotic weevils that threaten several species of crop-bearing and landscape palms. The County’s Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture are closely watching the weevil situation. Eight South American palm weevils were discovered in the last few weeks in the San Ysidro area near the U.S. – Mexico border. The seriousness of this species is not fully known. Meanwhile, a close relative, the red palm weevil, dubbed the “world’s worst pest of palms” was discovered in August 2010 for the first time ever in the U.S. in a palm tree in Laguna Beach. The informational meeting will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the San Diego County Farm Bureau offices at 1670 E. Valley Parkway in Escondido. Officials will present the latest information about the weevil discoveries, what agencies are doing, what actions they might take, how to identify the pests and what people can do to help. Finding out how far the weevils have spread is crucial in planning a response. Anyone seeing a weevil 1 ½ inch to 2 inches long with a long, pronounced “snout” should report it. Weevils smaller than 1 ½ inches are not a concern. Officials said it is difficult to detect weevil infestations because they live inside palms, but that infested palms will often suffer notched new fronds or damage to the top of the crown. Palms that the South American palm weevil threatens includes: date palms, Canary Island date palms, coconut palms, African oil palms, sago palms and Washingtonia fan palms. Adult South American palm weevils are black and sometimes have a velvety appearance. People who believe that their palms may have South American palm weevils are being asked to call the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s toll-free pest hotline at 1-800-491-1899, or at 619-698-1046. County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures California Dept. of Food and Agriculture Red Palm Weevil information

<urn:uuid:796f2cb9-4592-45f3-9591-ffe77b4c434a>

We'll go to the first principle. 1. The 'Standing Out' Principle Eagles fly alone at high altitude and not with sparrows or other small birds. No other bird go to the height of the eagle. We'll go to the first principle.1. The 'Standing Out' Principle - Stay away from sparrows and ravens. Eagles fly with eagles. 2. The 'Vision' PrincipleEagles have strong visions. They have the ability to focus on objects up to five kilometers away. When an eagle sites its prey, it narrows its focus on the prey and sets out to get it. No matter the obstacles, the eagle will not move its focus from the prey in view until it gets hold of the target 3. Eating PrincipleEagles do not eat dead things. They feed only on fresh prey. Vultures eat dead animals, but eagles will not. - Be careful with what you feed your eyes and ears with, especially in movies and on TV. - Stay clear of outdated information. - Always keep yourself updated and do your research well. 4. The 'Flying principle'Eagles love the storm. When clouds gather, the eagle get excited. The eagle uses the storm's wind to lift itself higher. Once it finds the wind of the storm, the eagle uses the raging storm to lift itself above the clouds. This gives the eagle the opportunity to glide and rest its wings. In the meantime, all the other birds hide in the leaves and branches of the trees. - We can use the storms of life to rise to greater heights. - Achievers relish challenges and use them profitably. 5. Participation And Preparation PrincipleThe eagle prepares for changes: when ready to lay eggs, the female and male eagle identify a place high on a cliff where no predators can reach. The male flies to the earth and pick thorns and lay them on the crevice of the cliff, then flies to earth again to collect twigs which it lays in the intended nest. He flies back to the earth and picks thorns laying them on top of the twigs. He flies back to the earth and picks soft grass to cover the thorns. When this first layering is complete, the male eagle flies back to the earth and picks more thorns, lays them on the nest; flies back to get it on top of the thorns, then plucks its feathers to complete the nest The thorns on the outside of the nest protect it from possible intruders. Both male and female eagles participate in raising the eagle family. The female lays the eggs and protect them. The male builds the nest and hunts. During the time of training the young ones to fly, the mother eagle throws the eaglets out of the nest. Because the young eagles are scared, they jump into the nest again. The mother eagle throws them out and then takes off the soft layers of the nest, leaving the thorns to bare. When the scared eaglets jump into the nest again, they are pricked by thorns. Shrieking and bleeding, they jump out again wondering why the mother and father who love them so much are torturing them. Next, mother eagle pushes them off the cliff into the air. As they shriek in fear, father eagle flies out and catches them up on his back before they fall and brings them back to the cliff. This goes on for sometime until they start flapping their wings. They get excited at this new found knowledge that they can fly. - The preparation of the nest teaches us to prepare for changes. - The preparation for family teaches us that active participation of both partners leads to success. - The pricking by the thorns tells us that sometimes being too comfortable where we are may result in us not experiencing life, not progressing and not learning at all. - The thorns of life come to teach us that we need to grow, get out of the nest and live on. - The people who love us do let us languish in sloth but push us hard to grow and prosper. Even in their seemingly bad actions, they have good intentions. 6. Shedding Principle. The eagle knows when to retire. When the eagle grows older, its wings become weak and cannot take it as fast as it should. When it feels weak and about to die, it retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on its body until it is completely bare. It stays in this hiding place until it has grown new feathers, then it can come out. - We occasionally need to shed off old habits and vain glory that ensnare us rather than adding values to our lives. Over to you What do you think about this principles. Are they all valid? Do you have any contrary opinion? Let me know via your comment below. If you don't want to miss the next post, you should follows us on facebook, twitter, Or you can subscribe via email to get it right in your inbox.

<urn:uuid:346d29ef-d264-411d-b68e-ce857e9db34e>

About the SEER Program The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute works to provide information on cancer statistics in an effort to reduce the burden of cancer among the U.S. Population. For an in-depth look, read our program overview, or take a look at our fact sheets & brochures. SEER collects data on cancer cases from various locations and sources throughout the United States. Data collection began in 1973 with a limited amount of registries and continues to expand to include even more areas and demographics today. - List of Registries - Registry Groupings for Analyses - Population Characteristics - SEER Data Management System Special studies addressing topical issues in cancer prevention and control, and databases that assist in the research of epidemiological and health services for the elderly, are just a couple of the research areas currently supported by the Surveillance Research Program. Quality improvement is an integral part of the SEER Program's activities and it is dedicated to improving data quality by performing rigorous quality control studies and various data assessments.

<urn:uuid:1ddbdd85-e820-4d0f-a719-16cfc94da849>

To View the May 2014 Digital Issue -- Click Here Importance of Sheep Often Forgotten as Years Fly By By Clint Krebs May is here and most of the lambs are on the ground. Shearing is winding down and after this last winter I am sure most everyone is looking forward to spring and summer. It is the time of year when sheep fulfill their part of “our symbiotic” relationship by converting grass and sunshine into food and fiber. It is no wonder they have been part of humans lives for over 6,000 years. As I learn more of the history about man and sheep, I am always reminded of the importance of sheep, when people were immigrating to new places of the world. Trailing sheep on the ground seems pretty straight forward, but can you imagine what it would be like to be on one of the ships in the 1600s crossing the Atlantic for 6 to 8 weeks with a couple hundred sheep on board. I have not been able to find out how the sheep were fed and watered, or any details of their care, but it must have been pretty amazing. However, when the new settlers accomplished the ocean crossing, it was the source for the beginning sheep flocks on the east coast. The first British colony was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. However, the sheep were all eaten in the first winter. It was two years later before more sheep were brought to Virginia and, because of attacks by wolves and Indians, 40 years later there were only 3,000 sheep in the colony. In 1657, transportation of sheep out of Virginia was forbidden. Maryland was established in 1632 with the same Leicester long wool type sheep as Virginia. On the other hand, the Carolinas, founded in 1663, started with some of the better breeds from England. Maybe this is why we still have a wool textile industry there today. Progress was slow because wool manufacturing was forbidden in the new colonies. All of the wool was required to be sent to the home countries for processing. Holland brought sheep to their colonies in 1625, some from the island of Texel. Sweden sent sheep into Delaware in 1638 and required the Swedish settlers to send wool home to pay for their passage. Sheep reached Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1624, mainly the Down types – Texel, and Romney. Southdowns arrived in Rhode Island in 1648. Massachusetts had 3,000 sheep in 1640 and they were described as “sort of coarse Leicester, but of the commonest kind." In the original settlements, each family kept a few sheep near their home. As the sheep numbers increased, they were co-mingled with others and grazed on common land by a hired sheepherder. Allotments of grazing rights, and the ratios of different livestock were regulated by governmental authorities. The settlers in New England were required to have 5 or 6 sheep for every cow. By necessity, communities worked together to control predators. I find it fascinating that 350 years later we are still working on government regulations concerning grazing on our public lands, predator control, and issues about our employees who are herding and tending to sheep. The original colonies would not have survived without sheep, and regulations were put in place to insure and require sheep production. In today’s world, regulations are increased every day which often hinder sheep production. How soon we forget.

<urn:uuid:d822f54c-4488-4391-86a4-5c94e5ebe181>

History of the Social Security Disability Insurance Program When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, the original program was designed to pay benefits only to retired workers aged 65 and older. The amendments of 1939 added two new categories of benefits: payments to the spouse and minor children of a retired worker (known as dependents benefits) and survivors benefits paid to the family of a deceased worker. That change transformed Social Security from a retirement program for individuals into a family based economic security program. The Social Security Amendments of 1954 initiated the Disability Insurance (DI) program that provided the public with additional coverage against economic insecurity. Effective as of 1955, there was a disability "freeze" of workers' Social Security records during years when they were unable to work. Although that measure offered no cash benefits, it did prevent such periods of disability from reducing or wiping out retirement and survivors benefits. This legislation outlined the work requirements, the definition of disability, the nature of the disability determinations, and the emphasis on rehabilitation, which are still fundamental to the disability program. On August 1, 1956, as he signed new disability legislation, President Eisenhower said, "We will…endeavor to administer the disability [program] efficiently and effectively, [and]…to help rehabilitate the disabled so that they may return to useful employment…. I am hopeful that the new law…will advance the economic security of the American people." These amendments provided cash benefits to disabled workers aged 50–64 (after a 6-month waiting period) and to adult children of retired, disabled, or deceased workers, if the children had been disabled before the age of 18. Over the next 4 years, Congress broadened the scope of the program, providing benefits to disabled workers' dependents in 1958 and permitting disabled workers under the age of 50 to qualify for benefits in 1960. In 1967, the act was further amended to provide benefits for disabled widows and widowers aged 50–64 at a reduced rate. The Social Security Amendments of 1972 further enhanced the disability program by: - reducing the waiting period from 6 months to 5; - increasing from 18 to 22 the age before which a "childhood disability" must have begun; - extending Medicare coverage to persons who had been receiving disability benefits for 24 consecutive months; and - establishing the needs-based Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program to replace the Old-Age Assistance, Aid to the Blind, and Aid to Permanently and Totally Disabled programs. The SSI program, unlike the Social Security disability program, provided benefits to disabled children under the age of 18. Throughout the 1970s, growth in the disability rolls was higher than expected as a result of increased applications. In addition, relatively few beneficiaries were being rehabilitated and returning to work. As a result, Congress enacted legislation in 1980 that: - limited disability benefit levels, - tightened administration of the Social Security and SSI disability programs by instituting a review of initial disability decisions and by establishing a periodic review of continuing disability requirements, - enhanced rehabilitation and work incentive provisions, and - withheld payment of benefits to incarcerated felons. In response to concerns arising from the implementation of the 1980 provision regarding the continuing disability review process, Congress passed legislation in 1982 that ensured persons, appealing decisions on the cessation of their disability claim could: - elect to have benefits and Medicare coverage continued pending review by an administrative law judge, and - have an opportunity for a face-to-face evidentiary hearing at the reconsideration level of appeal. Two provisions of the Social Security Amendments of 1983 affected the disability program: - The age at which full retirement benefits are payable was gradually increased from 65 to 67 to restore financial soundness to the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) programs. The increase in full retirement age, which began in 2000, means that disabled workers and widow(er)s may remain on the DI rolls for an additional 2 years before "converting" to age-based benefits. It is also likely that more of these older workers will apply for and become entitled to disability-based benefits because of this change. - Benefits to disabled widow(er)s were improved by decreasing the benefit reduction for beneficiaries under the age of 60 and by continuing payments to certain disabled widow(er)s who remarried. In 1984, Congress enacted a number of changes affecting the interpretation of disability, such as instituting a "medical improvement standard" in the continuing disability review process, revising the mental impairment listings, and considering the combined effect of all impairments when determining eligibility for benefits. From 1984 through 1998, many relatively minor legislative changes were made in the Social Security disability program. Those changes provided additional Medicare protection for the disabled, made the definition of disability for disabled widow(er)s the same as that for disabled workers, prohibited eligibility for individuals whose drug addiction or alcoholism was a contributing factor to their impairment, and modified the provisions for a trial work period. On December 17, 1999, President Clinton signed into law the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. The purpose of that legislation is to improve the disability program's work incentives by giving beneficiaries greater choice in seeking rehabilitation and employment services. The provisions of the act: - create a Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency program that provides disabled beneficiaries with a voucher they may use to obtain vocational rehabilitation services, employment services, and other support services from an employment network of their choice; - prohibit the Social Security Administration from initiating continuing disability reviews while the beneficiary is using a ticket; - provide for expedited reinstatement of benefits for individuals whose prior entitlement to disability and health care benefits had been terminated as a result of earnings from work (those former beneficiaries may request reinstatement of benefits without filing a new application); - establish a community-based work incentives planning and assistance program for the purpose of providing accurate information about work incentives to disabled beneficiaries; - expand health care services by allowing the states to offer Medicaid buy-in for workers with disabilities even though they may no longer be eligible for disability benefits under Social Security or SSI because their medical condition has improved; and - allow people with disabilities who return to work to continue their premium-free Medicare Part A coverage for an additional 4½ years beyond the 4 years previously provided. (Medicare Part B can also continue if premiums are paid.) Definition of Disability The definition of disability under Social Security is different from that used by other disability programs. Social Security pays benefits only for total disability; it does not pay benefits for partial disability or for short-term disability. To be eligible for benefits a person must: - be insured for benefits, - be younger than full retirement age, - have filed an application for benefits, and - have a Social Security-defined disability. Meeting the insured requirement means that a person must have worked long enough—and recently enough—under Social Security. The number of work credits (quarters of coverage) a person needs to qualify for benefits depends on the individual's age when he or she becomes disabled. Section 223(d)(1) of the Social Security Act defines disability as an— - inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months, or - in the case of an individual who has attained the age of 55 and is blind (within the meaning of blindness as defined in section 216(i)(1)), inability by reason of such blindness to engage in substantial gainful activity requiring skills or abilities comparable to those of any gainful activity in which the individual has previously engaged with some regularity and over a substantial period of time. In most cases, a dollar amount is used to indicate whether a person is engaging in substantial gainful activity (SGA). For 2009, the SGA amount was $980 per month for a nonblind individual and $1,640 per month for a blind person. Effective January 2001, the SGA level is adjusted annually on the basis of the national average wage index. A medically determinable physical or mental impairment is an impairment that results from anatomical, physiological, or psychological abnormalities that can be shown by medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques. An impairment must be established by medical evidence consisting of signs, symptoms, and laboratory findings. Types of Benefits Available The Social Security program pays benefits to disabled individuals and to certain dependents. Those benefits include the following: Monthly cash benefits, after a 5-month waiting period, for a disabled worker and family. The worker and eligible family members continue to receive benefits, as long as the worker remains disabled, until the worker reaches full retirement age (at which time, the disabled-worker benefit converts to retired-worker benefits) or dies. (Eligible family members would become eligible for retirement- or survivor-based benefits.) The spouse of a disabled worker is eligible for benefits if he or she is aged 62 or older or has in his or her care a child under the age of 16 or a disabled adult child who is entitled to benefits on the worker's earnings record. Unmarried children are entitled to benefits until they reach age 18, or until age 19 if they are a full-time elementary or secondary school student. - Monthly cash benefits, after a 5-month waiting period, for a disabled widow(er) or a disabled surviving divorced spouse who is aged 50 to full retirement age, referred to in this publication as disabled widow(er)s. - Monthly cash benefits payable to disabled adult children of disabled, retired, or deceased workers. Those children must be aged 18 or older and must have become disabled before the age of 22. The 5-month waiting period does not apply to disabled adult children. - Medicare benefits, which are available 2 years after the disabled worker, disabled widow(er), or disabled adult child becomes eligible for benefits. - Vocational rehabilitation services, which are available for disabled beneficiaries who could return to work if they were provided with some assistance. Initial Disability Decisionmaking Process The disability decisionmaking process begins when an individual files an application for benefits at a Social Security office. An employee in the office determines if the applicant meets the nonmedical requirements for benefits such as age, work credits, performance of SGA, and relationship to the insured worker. If those requirements are met, the application is sent to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) office in the state where the applicant resides. The DDS then decides whether an individual is disabled under Social Security law. Disability examiners and medical staff in the DDS office use medical evidence from the applicant's doctors, hospitals, clinics, or institutions where the individual received treatment. Those medical sources are also asked for information about a person's ability to do work-related activities, such as walking, sitting, lifting, carrying, and remembering instructions. The DDS may need more medical information before they can decide a person's case. If it is not available from the individual's current medical sources, they may ask the applicant to go to a special examination, called a consultative examination, that is paid for by the Social Security Administration (SSA). A five-step sequential evaluation process is used to decide if a person is disabled. Those steps are as follows: - Is the individual working? If the person is working and earning more than the SGA amount, the person generally cannot be considered disabled. This decision is made by a Social Security employee. If the person is not working at the SGA level, the file goes to the DDS. - Is the condition "severe"? A condition must interfere with basic work-related activities for a claim to be considered. If it does not, the person is not found disabled. If it does, the DDS will go to the next step. - Does the individual have an impairment that meets or equals one that is described in SSA's Listing of Impairments? SSA maintains a list of impairments for 14 major body systems: musculoskeletal, special senses and speech, respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, genitourinary, hemic and lymphatic, skin and subcutaneous tissue, endocrine, multiple body, neurological, mental, neoplastic, and immunologic. Those impairments are so severe that they automatically mean that a person is disabled. If the condition is not on the list, the DDS will have to decide if it is of equal severity to a listed impairment. If it is, the person is found disabled. If not, the DDS goes to the next step. - Can the individual do the work he or she previously did? If the person's condition is severe but not at the same or equal severity as an impairment on the list, then the DDS must determine whether it interferes with a person's ability to do his or her past work. If it does not, the claim will be denied. If it does, the DDS goes to the next step. - Can the individual do any other type of work? To determine an individual's ability to do other work, the DDS considers the person's medical conditions, age, education, work experience, and any transferable skills. If the DDS decides the person cannot do other work, the claim will be approved. If the DDS decides that the person can do other work, the claim will be denied. A person is considered blind if his or her vision cannot be corrected to better than 20/200 in the better eye or if his or her visual field is 20 degrees or less, even with a corrective lens. A number of special rules apply to persons who are blind. Those rules recognize the impact of blindness on a person's ability to work. For example, the dollar amount used to determine whether a blind individual is engaging in SGA is higher than the limit for a sighted person. If an applicant's claim for disability benefits is denied, he or she has the right to appeal that decision. There are four levels of appeals: (1) reconsideration by the state DDS, (2) hearing by an administrative law judge (ALJ), (3) review by the Appeals Council, and (4) federal court review. At each level of appeal, claimants or their representative must file the request for appeal in writing within 60 days from the date of the notice of denial. Generally, the reconsideration is the first step in the appeals process. The reconsideration is a case review and is similar to the initial determination except that the case is assigned to a different disability examiner and medical team at the DDS. Claimants are given the opportunity to present additional evidence, which is considered along with the evidence that was submitted during the initial determination. If the claim is again denied, the individual may request a hearing before an ALJ. Usually the ALJ will hold a hearing, although the claimant may ask that his or her case be decided on the basis of the written record without a hearing. At the hearing, the claimant and witnesses testify under oath or affirmation, and the testimony is recorded verbatim. The ALJ, who is responsible for looking into all the issues, receives documentary evidence as well as the testimony of witnesses. The ALJ will allow the claimant, the claimant's representative, or both to present arguments and examine witnesses. The final step in the administrative appeals process is at the Appeals Council. If the claimant is dissatisfied with the hearing decision, he or she may request that the Appeals Council review the case. The council, made up of administrative appeals judges, may also, on its own motion, review a decision within 60 days of the ALJ's decision. The Appeals Council considers the evidence of record, any additional evidence submitted by the claimant, and the ALJ's findings and conclusions. The council may grant, deny, or dismiss a request for review. If it agrees to review the case, the council may uphold, modify, or reverse the ALJ's action, or it may remand it to the ALJ so that he or she may hold another hearing and issue a new decision. Claimants may file an action in a federal district court within 60 days after the date they receive notice of the Appeals Council's action. If the U.S. District Court reviews the case record and does not find in favor of the claimant, the claimant can continue with the appellate process to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to meeting the strict medical definition of disability, an individual must also meet an insured-status requirement. To be eligible for disabled-worker benefits, a person must have worked long enough and recently enough under Social Security. A person can earn up to four work credits per year. The amount of earnings required for a credit increases each year as general wage levels rise. The number of work credits a person needs for disability benefits depends on the individual's age when he or she becomes disabled. To be fully insured, the maximum number of credits a person needs is 40. To be currently insured, a person generally needs 20 credits earned in the last 10 years ending with the year he or she becomes disabled. However, younger workers may qualify with fewer credits. Dependents of a disabled worker are eligible for benefits if the worker meets both the medical and insured-status requirements. Disabled widow(er)s and disabled adult children do not need to meet a work requirement themselves, but the worker on whose record they are filing must be insured. To determine the amount of a person's monthly cash benefit, SSA uses the following four-step process: Calculate each worker's average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). First, the worker's annual covered earnings after 1950 are indexed to reflect the general earnings level in the indexing year—the second calendar year before the year of eligibility (that is, the year a worker becomes disabled). Earnings in years after the indexing year are not indexed but instead are counted at their actual value. The period used to calculate the AIME equals the number of full calendar years elapsing between age 21 and the year of first eligibility. The actual years used in the computation are the years of highest earnings minus dropout years equal to one-fifth of the number of elapsed years rounded to the next lower integer (to a maximum of 5 dropout years). However, the number of years of earnings used is at least 2. Effective for initial entitlement after June 1980. Disabled workers who receive fewer than 3 dropout years under the one-fifth rule may be credited with additional dropout years based on child care, up to a total of 3 dropout years. (To receive this credit, a worker must have had no earnings in that year and must have been living with a child under age 3.) However, the number of years of earnings used is at least 2. Effective for July 1981. The AIME is calculated as the sum of the highest year's earnings, divided by the number of months in the computation period. Compute the primary insurance amount (PIA). The formula used to compute the PIA from the AIME is weighted to provide a higher PIA-to-AIME ratio for workers with low earnings. For workers who become disabled in 2009, the PIA is equal to the sum of: 90 percent of the first $744 of AIME, plus 32 percent of the next $3,739 of AIME, plus 15 percent of AIME over $4,483. When subsequent retirement benefits are computed at conversion to retired-worker benefits at the full retirement age (FRA), or at retirement for a worker who earlier recovered from a disability, the years of disability are disregarded from the PIA calculation. That preserves insured status and benefit level. Alternative methods of computing the PIA apply to workers who have low earnings but a steady work history over most of their adult years and to workers who also receive a pension based on their own noncovered work. Compute the family maximum (FMAX). Monthly benefits payable to the worker and family members or to the worker's survivors are limited to a maximum family benefit amount. The family maximum level for retired-worker families or survivors usually ranges from 150 percent to 188 percent of the worker's PIA. The maximum benefit for disabled-worker families ranges from the smaller of 85 percent of AIME (or 100 percent of the PIA, if larger) to about 150 percent of the PIA. Beginning with the first year of eligibility, the PIA and FMAX are increased by cost-of-living adjustments. Compute the person's monthly benefit amount (MBA). Disabled workers and persons retiring at the FRA are paid 100 percent of the PIA. The PIA is reduced for workers who retire between the age of 62 and the FRA. If a disabled worker receives reduced retirement benefits before disability entitlement, the disability benefit is reduced by the number of months for which he or she received reduced retirement benefits. Dependents of retired or disabled workers may receive up to 50 percent of the PIA. Disabled adult children of deceased workers may receive up to 75 percent of the PIA Disabled widow(er)s aged 50–60 may receive up to 71.5 percent of the PIA. Disabled widow(er)s aged 60 to the FRA may receive up to 100 percent of the PIA, but benefits are reduced for age, with a maximum reduction of 28.5 percent. All monthly benefits are limited by the family maximum, so dependents may not receive their full MBA. Benefits Offset and Withheld Disabled-worker and dependents' benefits may be offset if the disabled worker receives workers' compensation (WC) or other public disability benefits (PDB). The Social Security Amendments of 1965 require that benefits be reduced when the worker is also eligible for periodic or lump-sum WC/PDB payments, so that the combined amounts of the disabled worker's and family's Social Security benefits plus the WC/PDB payment do not exceed 80 percent of the worker's average current earnings. The combined payments after reduction are never less than what the total Social Security benefits were before reduction. The reduction continues until the month the worker reaches age 65 or the month the WC/PDB payment stops, whichever comes first. If a spouse or disabled widow(er) worked for a federal, state, or local government to which he or she did not pay Social Security taxes, the pension he or she receives from that agency may reduce his or her Social Security benefits. That provision is known as the government pension offset. The offset will reduce the amount of the Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the amount of the government pension. The annual earnings test applies to nondisabled beneficiaries under the FRA. Benefits for those beneficiaries are withheld $1 for every $2 they earn above the annual earnings limit. In the calendar year a beneficiary attains the FRA, for months before the FRA, $1 is withheld for every $3 earned over the annual earnings limit for that age group. A retired worker's earnings will also affect his or her dependents' benefits, including those of disabled adult children. In addition, a spouse's earnings may affect benefits for his or her children. (How a disabled beneficiary's work affects his or her benefit is discussed in the next section.) Other reasons for withholding benefits include spouses who no longer have an entitled child in their care, beneficiaries who are incarcerated, or beneficiaries whose whereabouts are unknown. Special rules make it possible for disabled beneficiaries to work and still receive monthly benefits and Medicare or Medicaid. Those rules are known as work incentives. Disabled beneficiaries are encouraged to return to work by providing a trial work period (TWP) and an extended period of eligibility (EPE). During the TWP, earnings are allowed to exceed the SGA dollar amount for 9 months. During the 3-year EPE that follows the TWP, benefits are withheld only for those months in which earnings exceed the SGA amount. After the end of the EPE, monthly benefits are terminated when earnings exceed the SGA amount. Certain impairment-related expenses that a person needs to make in order to work may be deducted when counting earnings to determine whether the work is substantial. Even if cash benefits are withheld, Medicare and Medicaid coverage can continue. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act has further improved work incentives. That law substantially expands work opportunities for people with disabilities. The provisions of the law become effective at different times in different parts of the country. The provisions below apply to Social Security and SSI. - Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program. Starting in 2002, some Social Security and SSI disability beneficiaries received a "ticket" that they may use to obtain vocational rehabilitation and other employment-support services from an approved provider of their choice. The program is voluntary and will be phased in nationally over a 3-year period. Expanded Availability of Health Care Services. As of October 1, 2000, the law expands Medicaid and Medicare coverage to more people with disabilities who work. It extends Medicare Part A premium-free coverage for 93 months after the trial work period for most disabled beneficiaries who work. In addition, states now have the option to expand Medicaid coverage to workers with disabilities using income and resource limits set by the states. - Expedited Benefits. Effective January 1, 2001, if a person's Social Security or SSI disability benefits have ended because of earnings from work and if he or she becomes unable to work again within 60 months because of his or her medical condition, the person would be able to request reinstatement of benefits, including Medicare and Medicaid, without filing a new application. - Disability Reviews Postponed. Effective January 1, 2001, an individual using a "ticket" does not need to undergo the regularly scheduled disability reviews. Effective January 1, 2002, people who have been receiving Social Security disability benefits for at least 24 months will not be asked to go through a disability review because of the work they are doing. However, regularly scheduled medical reviews could still be performed and benefits could be terminated if earnings were above the limits. - Work Incentives Outreach Program. The law directs the Social Security Administration to establish a community-based work incentives planning and assistance program to disseminate accurate information about work incentives and to give beneficiaries more choice. SSA has established a program of cooperative agreements and contracts to provide benefits planning and assistance to all disabled beneficiaries, including information about the availability of protection and advocacy services. - Protection and Advocacy. The law authorizes SSA to make payments to protection and advocacy systems established in each state to provide information, advice, and legal services to disability beneficiaries. More information about work incentives can be found at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/work/. In general, benefits continue as long as a person remains disabled. However, under Social Security law, all disability cases must be reviewed from time to time to make sure that people receiving benefits continue to meet the disability requirements. Benefits continue unless there is strong proof that a person's impairment has medically improved and that he or she is able to return to work. How often a case is reviewed depends on the severity of the impairment and the likelihood of improvement. The frequency can range from 6 months to 7 years. Here are general guidelines for reviews. - Improvement expected—If medical improvement can be predicted when benefits start, the first review will be 6 to 18 months later. - Improvement possible—If medical improvement is possible but cannot be predicted, the case will be reviewed about every 3 years. - Improvement not expected—If medical improvement is not likely, the case will be reviewed about once every 5 to 7 years. During a review, the disabled beneficiary is asked to provide information about any medical treatment he or she has received and any work he or she might have done. An evaluation team, which includes a disability examiner and a doctor, then requests the individual's medical records and carefully reviews his or her file. If the team decides a person is still disabled, benefits will continue. If they decide that the person is no longer disabled, the individual can file an appeal if he or she disagrees with the determination. Otherwise, benefits stop 3 months after the beneficiary is notified that his or her disability ended. Benefits for dependents continue as long as the disabled worker continues to be entitled to benefits. However, a person's benefits may be terminated for other reasons. The most common reasons to terminate benefits are the following: - The beneficiary dies. If the deceased was the worker, eligible dependents may become entitled to survivors' benefits. - The disabled worker or disabled widow(er) attains the FRA, and their benefit is automatically converted to retired-worker benefits or aged widow(er)s benefits, respectively. - The disabled beneficiary is no longer disabled because of medical recovery or successful reentry to the workforce. - A spouse and worker divorce (with some exceptions). - Certain divorced spouses remarry. - A spouse no longer has a child under the age of 16 or a disabled child in his or her care. - A child reaches age 18. - A student reaches age 19 or is no longer attending elementary or secondary school full time. - Dependent children marry. - Dependents become entitled to another equal or larger benefit. Benefits usually stop effective with the month the terminating event occurred.

<urn:uuid:20c99fe7-b084-40cb-a451-2d8f7e78246e>

The nose landing gear of space shuttle Endeavour is lifted during operations to raise the shuttle for securing to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) on Sept. 14, 2012. The shuttle is inside the Mate-Demate Device at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The carrier SCA will carry Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display. Credit: collectSPACE.com/Ben Cooper (LaunchPhotography.com) For the last time in space shuttle history, a NASA orbiter has been mounted to the top of a jumbo jet to be flown to its next destination. For shuttle Endeavour, now sitting piggybackatop the space agency's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), its next and final mission is to become a museum exhibit. The spacecraft, flying aboard the aircraft, will leave at sunrise on Monday (Sept. 17) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for Los Angeles, where it is destined for display at the California Science Center (CSC). "It is the youngest of our fleet, it's our baby," said Stephanie Stilson, NASA's flow director for orbiter transition and retirement, as she discussed Endeavour's soon departure. "We are letting go of our baby and turning her over to California." Endeavour was built in the wake of the loss of space shuttle Challenger in 1986. It flew 25 missions, many to support assembly of the International Space Station, before being retired in June 2011. To prepare Endeavour for its ferry flight to the West Coast, NASA technicians on Friday (Sept. 14) towed the shuttle from where it was temporarily parked inside its former launch assembly building to the runway where it last returned from space. Arriving at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility in the pre-dawn hours, Endeavour was moved into a gantry-like steel structure known as the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) to be paired with the 747 SCA. [Gallery: Endeavor Mated to Carrier Aircraft] "We are a little bit sad that this will be the last time that we're doing this," Stilson told reporters covering the mating operations. "There were definitely some tears this morning during the rollover from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the Mate-Demate Device, especially from those who have worked on Endeavour for a long period of time." Over the course of several hours, the 155,000-pound (70,000-kilogram) shuttle was attached to a metal sling and hoisted 90 feet into the air so that the carrier aircraft, known by its tail number as NASA 905, could be towed in underneath it. Endeavour was then lowered onto the back of the jetliner, such that three ports on its underbelly aligned with the attachment points protruding from the 747's upper fuselage. The two craft were "soft-mated" by mid-afternoon. On Saturday, technicians will work to "hard mate" the connection, securing bolts that will hold the two vehicles together in flight. The air- and space-craft combo will exit the MDD on Sunday morning in preparation for their final departure on Monday. The space shuttle era's final ferry flight will take Endeavour on a cross-country tour. In addition to performing low passes while flying over several NASA facilities, the carrier aircraft and its orbiter passenger will make planned stops in Houston and El Paso in Texas, and at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California before finally landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Sept. 20. The journey, and its pre-departure preparations, are subject to both weather and operational constraints and could be delayed or changed, NASA officials advised. Once on the ground in Los Angeles and without a corresponding Mate-Demate Device at LAX, Endeavour will be hoisted off the SCA using two large cranes and positioned onto a modified NASA overland transporter. On Oct. 12, the shuttle will begin a two day road trip to the California Science Center, moving through the streets of Inglewood and L.A. on a 12-mile (19-kilometer) journey to its new home. The California Science Center will open the new Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion on Oct. 30.

<urn:uuid:1c787573-5aab-42d4-8fc0-6ab8b2ab02c1>

This artist's conception of the 4C60.07 system shows two colliding galaxies, one of which (left) has already turned most of its gas into stars and its black hole is ejecting jets of charged particles. This galaxy is pulling gas and dust from the neighboring galaxy (right), where star formation is occurring. Credit: David A. Hardy/UK ATC Our Milky Way galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its core, as do most if not all other large galaxies in the modern universe. These gravity wells can have masses of millions to billions times that of the sun. Now, astronomers have more support for the idea that such black holes are common among the earliest galaxies going back to nearly the beginning of time. A new study suggests galactic black holes were around even 12 billion years ago when the universe was only 1.7 billion years old and galaxies were just beginning to form, the astronomers said. The new conclusion comes from the discovery of two distant and interacting galaxies, both of which contain black holes at their hearts that will most likely merge. The pair is 12 billion light-years away, which means the light seen by astronomers left the scene 12 billion years ago. (A light-year is the distance light will travel in a year, or about 6 trillion miles, or 10 trillion km.) "Remarkably, both galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centers, each capable of powering a billion, billion, billion light bulbs," said lead researcher Rob Ivison of the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Center. "The implications are wide-reaching: You can't help wondering how many other colossal black holes may be lurking unseen in the distant universe." Astronomers had first noticed one of the galaxies, called 4C60.07, due to its bright radio emission, which is a telltale sign of a quasar, or a rapidly spinning black hole that is feeding on its home galaxy. And until now, they thought hydrogen gas surrounding the central black hole was undergoing a burst of star formation, churning out stellar babies at a rate of about 5,000 suns every year. More recently, they used the Submillimeter Array of eight radio antennas located in Hawaii, finding 4C60.07 was not forming stars after all. In fact, its stars appeared to be relatively old and quiescent. Instead, a burst of star formation is taking place in the previously unseen companion galaxy, which is rich in gas and deeply enshrouded in dust. The new radio emission data also showed a stream of gas being pulled from this newly discovered galaxy by its neighbor, 4C60.07. "These two galaxies are fraternal twins," said researcher Steve Willner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts. "Both are about the size of the Milky Way, but each one is unique." The research also involved looking at data on the galaxies collected by the Spitzer Space Telescope.? "The expectation is that the galaxies would merge and then the black holes would merge," Willner told SPACE.com. "And I don't want to be anywhere nearby when that happens. It'll be very spectacular." He added, "By now, if we could see them now probably we would have a very big, but old galaxy with one giant black hole in the center that's the merger of the two." - Video - Slow Birth of a Black Hole - Video - Black Hole Warping Time & Space - Vote Now: The Strangest Things in Space

<urn:uuid:e09c2629-ec9d-4179-a4b6-35290c8eb78f>

GRE test takers come from all walks of academic life and ultimately venture out into a wide variety of careers. Perhaps you’re seeking a masters or doctoral degree in literature. Maybe oceanography is your game, or the socio-political dynamics of ancient Rome. The bottom line is that if you’re planning to attend graduate school in any field other than business, law, or medicine, you’ll need to take the Graduate Record Examinations General Test as part of the admissions process. If you find yourself overwhelmed by this prospect, a healthy dose of perspective is in order: The GRE is a means to an end. That’s it. The GRE is not an IQ or personality test. It doesn’t measure intelligence, creativity, or talent. Rather, the GRE is a test that you can study for, much like you would study for a biology or history test. That means you can learn what’s being tested and how to answer the questions correctly. That’s why we wrote this book: to help you face the GRE without fear and get into grad school. In the following pages, you’ll find a brief summary of the GRE to familiarize you with the basic components of the test. The chapters that follow will provide a much more detailed profile of each of the three sections on the test, along with the tips, strategies, explanations, and practice questions you’ll need to raise your score on the GRE.

<urn:uuid:b6a48dd7-0b50-4cb4-bbe1-ec7df69bf819>

Lens Filters: Neutral Density The main purpose of a neutral density lens filter is to reduce the intensity of light. You might be wondering why would we add a lens filter to reduce the light when we could get the same exposure effect by closing the aperture? Well, the reason you would use a neutral density, or ND, filter is to reduce your light without sacrificing the depth of field. Why Use a ND Filter? Besides depth of field, another reason to use a ND filter is to reduce light without sacrificing your shutter speed. The classic example is: what if you are shooting a waterfall? You want the image to look blurred so you use a slow shutter speed. But, slowing your shutter down means you're allowing more light through the lens, and this could over expose the image. To compensate for this, you use an ND filter to reduce the light, get the desired effect, and go home happy about your work. Selecting the Right Filter ND filters come in many variations. Here are the most common kinds: ND.3, ND.6, ND.9, ND1.2, ND1.5, ND1.8. As the number goes up, so does the intensity of the filter. So how do you know which one to use? A general rule of thumb is that as ND goes up in a level like .3 to .6 the reduction of light is about one stop. So the difference between ND.3 and ND1.2 is that 1.2 reduces the light by four stops while .3 only brings it down one stop. Fortunately, in the age of digital photography, you can experiment a little and see the results instantaneously. All ND filters are grey in color. The darker the color, the heavier the ND. IF you find yourself in a situation where the filters are not properly labeled, hold the filters next to a light and compare their shadows. The ND with a darker shadow is the heavier of the two. ND also comes in the form of a gel. Gels are cellophane sheets that can be placed over lights to create effects. If you needed to bring a light's intensity down and do not have any other options like a scrim or net, you can use ND to bring it down. You want to avoid that though because gels are fairly expensive. The practical use for ND in a gel form is for shooting interiors. If you're shooting inside a room with windows and don't want the view outside to be washed out and over exposed, you can put ND on the windows to balance your exposures. To do this, cut the ND to the same size of the window. Next, take a spray bottle full of water and spray the window. Place the gel on the window; the wetness will hold it in place. Next, use a squeegee to flatten the gel and remove the bubbles from the window to make the tint look natural. It's a little time consuming and labor intensive, but the effect looks great.

<urn:uuid:1d42e312-f4c2-4ddc-ba5b-0a01eceb27e7>

The present king Periyapulle alias Vegarajasekeram, had a son. He was a young prince, but he had been sentenced to death. This prince had been saved by a person named Simon Sinnyo. A painting depicting this incident had been discovered in the Maha Saman Devale in the Sabaragamuwa district. The painting is done on stone. King Pararajasekeram, who tried to flee, through fear of the Portuguese army, was captured by the Portuguese. He was beheaded. Quite a number of people, who were serving in positions connected to the palace of this king, were captured and imprisoned. At this juncture, the Portuguese got the opportunity to claim money, jewellery and even valuable utensils of the king. The commander-in-chief, Andro de Mandoza then advised the people of this area to conduct their day-to day affairs well. He summoned the chiefs of Jaffna and held a discussion. After that he issued an order. Later on, he got the chiefs to promise that they would protect the law of the country and uphold their customs and manners. He requested them to accept the king of Portugal as their king too. These conditions were accepted by both parties. They swore to abide by them. Therefore the commander-in-chief acting on the advice of his counselors brought the prince, who was saved by Simon Sinnyo and made him king. the son of Periyapulle alias Vegarajasekaram was named Hendarmanasinghe. He was crowned under the name, Pararajasekara. The Portuguese gave this king a platoon of soldiers and a mercenary army to see to his safety. This king was ever grateful to the Portuguese for saving his life and gaining the throne for him. He saw to it that he ruled Jaffna until his death, forever remaining faithful to the Portuguese. It was between 1591 AD – 1615AD that King Pararajasekera ruled Jaffna. There were a few important people who opposed him. A plot was hatched by King Wimaladharmasuriya and the king of Tanjore to bring another prince to the throne of Jaffna. An army was sent from Tanjore, to help the rebels. But as this army was caught by the enemy, when they were on their way, the plan had to be abandoned. The king gave permission to the Franciscan priests to build churches in Jaffna. They somehow suspected that the king of Jaffna had some connection with the king of Kandy. Meanwhile as Sitawaka Rajasinghe had no son to succeed him, the kingdom had no king for sometime. Trouble arose regarding kingship. During this time, the most important person in the island was Aritta Kivendu. He was a ‘Sannasi’ who came from India. He somehow won the heart of King Rajasinghe and obtained an important post in the army as a He got his name changed to Manampperuma Mohottala. He was planning to grab the throne of Sitawaka. By this time, the people had made a grandson of King Rajasinghe, the king of Sitawaka. He was Rajasuriya by name. With the connivance of Manamperruma, Rajasuriya was put to death. Thereafter, a sister of King Rajasinghe, Princess Maha Biso Bandara, took the power into her hands. She was the widow of Commander Veediya Bandara. She was also named Princess Suriya.

<urn:uuid:179dd5fc-dea8-4567-ada1-e5c933fe6866>

Odachi that were used as weapons were too long for samurai to carry on their waists like normal swords. There were two methods in which they could be carried. Odachi swordplay styles focused on downward cuts and different wields than those of normal swords. The Odachi's importance died off after the Osaka-Natsuno-Jin war of 1615 (the final battle between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyori). Since then it has been used more as a ceremonial piece. The purpose of the Odachi can be categorized as follows: Most Odachi were used for the first two reasons. Our Odachi Giant Samurai Sword Features: Weight: 3.6 Lbs

<urn:uuid:97f2003a-6a86-4d69-8845-37f699066cb8>

Extreme form of abstract art developed in the USA in the second half of the 1960s and typified by artworks made in very simple geometric shapes based on the square and the rectangle Minimalism or minimalist art can be seen as extending the abstract idea that art should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. Aesthetically, minimal art offers a highly purified form of beauty. It can also be seen as representing such qualities as truth (because it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is), order, simplicity, harmony There are strong links between minimal and conceptual art. Minimalism picked up on the constructivist idea that art should be made of modern, industrial materials and many minimal works explore the properties of their materials. Minimal art was mostly three-dimensional but the painter Frank Stella was an important minimalist. The other principal artists were Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, and Richard Serra.

<urn:uuid:ed209bd4-18f4-4fa9-853c-69d79d5e62fa>

- Aeris Stewart - Claremont, CA - United States This conversation is closed. Unbiased religious education should be mandatory at all public schools. I feel like prejudice and racism comes from ignorance. If children are taught the basic principles of most religions, they'll be more understanding towards those who believe something different. Before I reached junior high, I was terrified of Muslims, Mormons, and Wiccans. However, after digging deeper into my history book, I realized that they were people just like me. If religious education starts earlier, I feel like children will have a more open mind and be more prepared to work in an ever-changing, diverse world.

<urn:uuid:e56e734a-ca3c-477f-9014-7f883b9cb864>

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has called Texas home since 1963, when the Manned Spacecraft Center opened in Houston. The site was selected thanks to the lobbying efforts of Lyndon Baines Johnson, then vice president, and Houston Congressman Albert Thomas. “The road to the Moon lies through Houston,” Thomas said at the time. Humble Oil gave Rice University 1,020 swampy acres to bequeath to NASA for the site. (In February 1973, less than a month after Johnson’s death, the Manned Spacecraft Center was renamed in the late president's honor.) Astronauts—“tight-lipped, square-jawed and blue-eyed, dedicated patriots, fit heirs to the mantle of Jesse H. Jones and Glenn McCarthy,” in Reinert's words—took to life in Houston, “the biggest up-from-the-bootstraps boomtown in the world, where ... if you're cagey enough, ambitious enough, tight-fisted and stout-hearted enough, you can Make It, climb to the top of the world and ride in monogrammed Cadillacs to the Petroleum Club.” As the United States and the Soviet Union jostled to put the first man into space, the latter country prevailed in April 1961, when Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth aboard Vostok 1. Alan B. Shepard followed him into space a month later on Freedom 7, but it would be nearly a year before an American, John Glenn, would make a full trip around the earth. After Mercury and Gemini projects demonstrated that the United States could put a man into space, NASA turned its attention to the moon. President John F. Kennedy, speaking in September 1962 to a crowd of 40,000 gathered in Rice University's stadium, declared that going to the moon is the “the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.” Six years and ten months later, Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the moon. Twelve men ultimately walked on the surface of the moon over the course of five more missions , ending with Apollo 17 in 1972. (Budget cuts would scuttle the final three planned Apollo missions.) After three Skylab missions and a rendezvous with the Soviets in space, NASA took a six-year break from human spaceflight until the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia in April 1981. The Shuttle spent the next 30 years ferrying astronauts into low-earth orbit to conduct experiments, release satellites, and help build the International Space Station. After the Challenger exploded shortly after launch in January 1986, Al Reinert reflected about what had gone wrong at NASA, finding that the space agency's tragedy is that instead of viewing exploration as an end in itself, NASA had been "reduced to the level of petty politics, sucking up to every special-interest group that appears at the launchpad: congressmen, corporations, journalists, Saudi princes, generals and admirals, and teachers,” he wrote. Shuttle missions resumed after almost three years. Tragedy would revisit in the Shuttle program in February 2003, when Columbia disintegrated during reentry over East Texas. Gary Borders, editor of the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, described the next few hours in the newsroom as the police scanner “crackled nonstop" as citizens called in to report finding debris in their yards. To date, more than 84,000 pieces of Columbia have been recovered in more than 38 counties in Texas and Louisiana. In 2007, S.C. Gwynne penned a Texas Monthly cover story about the astronaut love triangle, finding that the bizarre sex scandal “illustrated in excruciating detail just how fundamentally purposeless, money guzzling, overpressurized, and phenomenally dangerous the shuttle was 26 years after its first mission.” The Shuttle, which Reinert dubbed the “the least sexy spaceship ever imagined,” would make its final flight in June 2011, flying 135 missions in total. Now, NASA’s future is unclear. A recent report from the National Research Council found the agency is suffering due to a lack of consensus on what its next human spaceflight goal should be. Should NASA send astronauts back to the moon? To Mars? To an asteroid? These questions have yet to be answered. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history as the first humans to set foot on the surface of the moon. Forty years later, the researchers, astronauts, engineers, scientists, and NASA officials who made the voyage possible remember the day the Eagle landed. The lovesick antics of diapered astronaut Lisa Nowak are some combination of funny and sad but seemingly not revealing of anything larger, until you realize that her tragic, tabloidy breakdown says everything you need to know about NASA’s many troubles. “It’s funny: I’ve never been scared on a shuttle mission. It’s just the nature of the job. You’re busy, you’re focused, you’re well trained, and you go, ‘You know, if I’m going to die, there’s nothing I can do about it.’” Thousands craned their necks at the sky Thursday to catch of glimpse of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which made its final trip across Texas perched on the back of a 747.

<urn:uuid:80075aaa-2b5f-4230-9dc0-023ae41adadd>

Emphysema destroys the air sacs in your lungs, making it harder and harder to breathe. Millions of people struggle with it every day, but a new treatment could help many advanced cases. On air or selling air, Linda Sachs was passionate about her radio career, but after being diagnosed with emphysema getting enough air became a big problem. Linda Sachs says, "I was afraid I was just going to die because, you know, my lungs were failing me." University of Pittsburg Medical Center's doctor Frank Sciurba is one of several researchers nationwide testing a new minimally invasive procesure to improve lung function. Doctor Frank Sciurba says, "The nitanol coils go in the lungs, straight, as straight wires, and then they fold up like a baseball seam. They fold in half, then they fold in half again, and as they do that, they, they bring in the lung." The coils allow the healthier portion of the lung to expand and tighten, helping patients to breathe better. Doctor Sciurba says, "This is a trial I'm, I'm real hopeful for because I really would like to have a tool that I can offer our more advanced patients." Linda says she felt better right after her procedure. Sachs says, "To be able to take more in is just a thrill." The renew coil trial is recruiting 315 patients in 30 centers nationwide. For more information go to http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01608490 or call Christine Ledezma, UPMC Clinical Research Coordinator, at 412-864-3368. BACKGROUND: Emphysema occurs when air sacs in the lungs are destroyed gradually, which will make a patient progressively short of breath. It is one of the many diseases known collectively as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). As emphysema worsens, it turns the spherical air sacs, which look like a cluster of grapes, into large pockets with gaping holes in their inner walls. This results in the reduction of the surface area of the lungs and the amount of oxygen that reaches the bloodstream. The elastic fibers that open the small airways leading to the air sacs slowly get destroyed as well. (Source: www.mayoclinic.com) SIGNS: A patient can have emphysema for years without knowing it. Shortness of breath will begin gradually. Then, patients may start avoiding activities that can cause them to get winded. Eventually, emphysema will cause shortness of breath even while resting. Immediate medical attention is needed if a patient is so short of breath that they can't speak, their lips or fingernails turn gray or blue, their heartbeat is usually fast, or if they're not mentally alert. Smoking is the leading cause of emphysema and treatment can only slow the progression, not reverse the damage. Long-term exposure to airborne irritants, including tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke, air pollution, coal and silica dust, or manufacturing fumes, can cause emphysema too. (Source: www.mayoclinic.com) TREATMENT: The first step for patients with emphysema would be to quit smoking. Smoking cessation drugs, bupropion hydrochloride (Zyban) or varenicline (Chantix), can help. Bronchodilators, inhaled steroids, and antibiotics can also help treat emphysema. Therapies, like pulmonary rehabilitation and supplemental oxygen, can help as well. In severe cases, the doctor might recommend a lung transplant or lung volume reduction surgery. (Source: www.mayoclinic.com) NEW TECHNOLOGY: Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is the first center in North America to enroll patients into an FDA approved clinical trial that will test whether the insertion of small coils can collapse the diseased lung areas and improve lung function, along with exercise tolerance among patients with advanced emphysema. The study aims to recruit 315 patients in 30 different U.S. and European centers. The RENEW Lung Volume Reduction Coils provide a minimally invasive alternative to lung volume reduction surgery. European pulmonologists have been investigating the device for four years, but researchers at UPMC believe that only a large, randomized trial can medically prove the device's effectiveness. The coils are small, elastic, shape-memory coils that are made of a metal that is commonly used in medical implants. Researchers implanted up to 10 coils in wire form into the lung of one patient. After deployment the wires recoil, pulling in the damaged lung area so that the remaining, healthy lung can inflate and deflate more effectively while improving airway function and breathing both at rest and during exercise. (Source: http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2013/Pages/Patients-Trial-Coils-Emphysema-Lungs.aspx) For study information contact: Christine Ledezma, UPMC Clinical Research Coordinator (412) 864-3368. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

<urn:uuid:04c5f2ba-39b7-4b6c-8ddb-d5b06c2f2ffa>

By Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of The Atlantic's founders and a regular contributor. Some twenty years after his death, the magazine ran an assortment of writings from his journals and letters, including the essay excerpted here, in which he paid tribute to the genius of William Shakespeare. Genius is the consoler of our mortal condition, and Shakespeare taught us that the little world of the heart is vaster, deeper, and richer than the spaces of astronomy … There are periods fruitful of great men; others, barren, or, as the world is always equal to itself, periods when the heat is latent—others when it is given out. They are like the great wine years … His birth marked a great wine year, when wonderful grapes ripened in the Vintage of God. When Shakespeare and Galileo were born within a few months of each other, and Cervantes was his exact contemporary, and, in short space, before and after, Montaigne, Bacon, Spenser, Raleigh, and Jonson. Yet Shakespeare, not by any inferiority of theirs, but simply by his colossal proportions, dwarfs the geniuses of Elizabeth as easily as the wits of Anne, or the poor slipshod troubadours of King René … The Pilgrims came to Plymouth in 1620. The plays of Shakespeare were not published until three years later. Had they been published earlier, our forefathers, or the most poetical among them, might have stayed at home to read them. Volume 94, No. 563, pp. 365–367 By William Dean Howells When William Dean Howells arrived in Boston in 1860 as a twenty-three-year-old self-educated journalist from Ohio, he was thrilled to meet Atlantic founders James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James T. Fields. Six years later he became an assistant editor at the magazine, and by 1871 he had risen to editor-in-chief. Twenty-six years after retiring from that position, he looked back nostalgically upon the satisfactions of editing such a magazine. The magazine was already established in its traditions when I came to it, and when I left it fifteen years later it seemed to me that if I had done any good it was little more than to fix it more firmly in them. During the nine years of its existence before my time it had the best that the greatest writers of New England could give it. First of these were, of course, Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, Mrs. Stowe, and Bryant, and after them followed a long line of gifted people... The rejection of a manuscript often left a pang, but the acceptable manuscript, especially from an unknown hand, brought a glow of joy which richly compensated me for all I suffered from the others. To feel the touch never felt before, to be the first to find the planet unimagined in the illimitable heaven of art, to be in at the dawn of a new talent, with the light that seems to mantle the written page: who would not be an editor, for such a privilege? Volume 100, No. 5, pp. 594–606

<urn:uuid:12e94bb1-62ff-4b7f-9b48-d90b047afd4a>

The oceans are changing faster today and in more ways than at any time in human history. We are the cause. Which is why I welcome the launch of the Global Ocean Commission, dedicated to ending the neglect, in international affairs, of the high seas. These seas lie far beyond the horizon – 200 nautical miles offshore to be precise – and begin where sovereign national waters give way to the global commons, owned by none, shared by all. There was a time when foreign travel gave many people a familiarity with the high seas. Rather than a few hours in a plane, "long haul" often meant days or weeks spent staring at an endless canvas of sea and sky. Today, few of us know much about what happens beyond the horizon and still fewer care. Like all common spaces, the high seas are vulnerable to misuse and abuse. Our indifference is costing the world dear for the high seas are being plundered. For most of our maritime history, the open oceans have been seen as dangerous places to be traversed as quickly as possible. Remote and enduring, they were home to giant fish and whales; seabirds wandered their featureless expanses and ancient corals grew in the eternal darkness of the abyss. Whalers were first to spot the high seas' potential as a source of wealth, slaughtering their way through the 19th and 20th centuries until the great whales were a few breaths from extinction. Ocean-going seabirds such as albatross and petrels were also early victims of exploitation due to the vulnerability of coastal nesting sites. But commercial fishing was a relative latecomer. Fishing began in earnest in the 1950s as long-line and drift-net fleets sought profit in open ocean species such as tuna, swordfish, marlin and shark. By the 1980s, they were everywhere. The huge collateral damage done by these fisheries soon caused alarm. Drift nets spread lethal curtains tens of miles long killing indiscriminately, taking turtles, whales and dolphins alongside the target fish. They were banned by the UN in 1992 but long lines studded with tens of thousands of hooks continue the massacre. Enough long lines are set every night to wrap around the globe 500 times. In a separate development, from the 1960s, Soviet and European vessels began to probe deeper in response to the decline of their shallow water fish stocks. They found riches on the Atlantic frontier, where continental shelves fall away into the deep, and around the summits of submerged offshore mountains. But these fisheries have proved highly vulnerable to overexploitation. Within the space of a few decades, species such as the roundnose grenadier and orange roughy have become so depleted they are considered threatened with extinction. Deep sea fisheries carry another high cost in loss of coral forests and sponge groves. Life is glacial in the frigid inkiness of the deep, so these habitats have developed over thousands of years, sustained by table scraps sinking from a narrow surface layer where sunlight fuels plant growth. The bottom trawls that are used to catch fish cut down animals that are hundreds or even thousands of years old. Without ever making a conscious decision to do it, we are losing unseen habitats whose equals on land would include the giant redwood glades of North America, the baobabs of Madagascar and Amazon rainforest. Where are the regulators in all of this? Many high seas fisheries have little or no protection. Regional fisheries management organisations, where they exist, have been charged by the United Nations with management of fish stocks such as tuna. The best of them are sleeping on the job; the worst, as with the "management" of the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna, make decisions in the full knowledge that what they are doing is destroying what they are supposed to protect. Fishing is not the only problem. Remote as they seem, the high seas are no further than anywhere else from the inescapable influence of climate change, nor are they beyond the reach of pollution. Mercury and industrial emissions from power plants and industry shed their toxic loads far out to sea. Chemicals concentrate in the surface layer that separates air from water and can quickly leapfrog across thousands of miles of ocean in wind-whipped aerosols. Circulating currents gather the floating refuse of modern society into enormous regions that have been dubbed the "great ocean garbage patches". Over the years, drifting plastics fragment into ever-smaller particles that pick up and concentrate chemical pollutants such as mercury and DDT. Small fish mistake plastics for food and pass chemicals up the food chain until they reach the flesh of animals we eat, like tuna and sharks. What goes around comes around. If this were all we had to fix, it would be challenge enough. But there is more. Climate change is enlarging the deserts of the sea as surely as it is doing so on land. Surface waters of the open ocean have all the light but few nutrients, which severely limits productivity. Most of the time, upward mixing of nutrients is inhibited by a density barrier between the warm and light surface layer and cold, dense water below. Global warming is heating the surface ocean, making it even harder to cross between these layers. This in turn is starving deeper waters of oxygen that has to mix downwards from the atmosphere and surface plants. The living space in the oceans is shrinking. There is one final blow to the integrity of the oceans that may yet prove the heaviest of all. Carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is building up in the sea as well as the atmosphere. There, it forms carbonic acid (as in fizzy drinks). Acid is the nemesis of carbonate, the basic ingredient of chalk and a fundamental building block of ocean life, including shellfish, corals and plankton. If we do nothing to curtail emissions, ocean acidity will soar by the century's end toward levels not experienced for 55 million years in a period of runaway global warming. It is difficult to predict the exact outcome, but let's just say that last time around, corals and chalky plankton suffered badly. We carry on today much as we have done for thousands of years, using natural resources as if they were endless. But population growth changes everything. We must get to grips with the consequences of our planetary dominance, otherwise the consequences will master us. Out of sight and out of mind they may be, but the high seas are vital to everyone. By virtue of their sheer size they play a dominant role in the processes that keep our world habitable. They are too big for us to let them fail. The Global Oceans Commission has urgent work to do.

<urn:uuid:fa5c6429-57fa-48f5-8030-e69551ab7590>

Autographed Photograph: W. C. Handy Date: September 21, 1948 |Dubbed "The Father of the Blues" although perhaps somewhat erroneously, W. C. Handy is largely responsible for the form of blues we know today. Musician, composer, conductor, and publisher, Handy, although he didn't invent the blues, did faithfully and accurately transcribe the power of this musical expression. William Christopher Handy was born in Florence, Alabama November 16, 1873. Denied permission to learn the guitar by his pastor father, Handy bought an old trumpet which he stole away to practice. He eventually became a freelance musician, and then a leader of his own band in 1896. His travels as a struggling musician throughout the South exposed him to two new emerging forms of music, ragtime and more importantly jazz. By 1909, Handy had settled in Memphis where his dance band popularized some of the African American folk songs and rural blues he had heard in his early travels in the South. That same year, Memphis mayoral candidate E. H. "Boss" Crump commissioned Handy to write a campaign song. The tune "Mr. Crump" eventually became "Memphis Blues," and in 1912 was Handy's breakthrough. This was followed by "St. Louis Blues," an incredible success and the first commercial blues tune to reach a national audience. In 1926, Handy published Blues: An Anthology, a collection of traditional blues which provided a keystone of African American heritage for the Harlem Renaissance and awoke the white world to black folk music. Handy began to lose his sight in the 1930s, and was probably completely blind at the time this portrait was taken. One of first songwriters to use 'blue notes' (flatted thirds and sevenths), purists do not consider Handy's own compositions as "true" blues, but his transcriptions did establish the now accepted twelve-bar blues - one of the most dynamic and versatile forms of music in the world. A Brief List of W. C. Handy Compositions - "Yellow Dog Blues" (1914) - "Joe Turner Blues" (1915) - "Hail to the Spirit of Freedom" (1915) - "The Hesitating Blues" (1915) - "Beale Street Blues" (1917) - "Long Gone" (1920) - "Aunt Hagar's Blues" (1920) - "Loveless Love" (1921 - Ray Charles recorded as "Careless Love" in 1960) - "John Henry Blues" (1922) - "Atlanta Blues" (1924) - "Friendless Blues" (1926) - "Chantez la bas" (1931) [ Pic of the Month ] [ Pic Archive ]

<urn:uuid:09f71e44-877a-4b08-9c33-7f27acbf3f51>

Researchers have highlighted the eight unexplained symptoms that are most closely linked to cancer. The Keele University team also points to the age at which patients should be most concerned by the symptoms, which include blood in urine and anaemia. The other symptoms are: rectal blood, coughing up blood, breast lump or mass, difficulty swallowing, post-menopausal bleeding and abnormal prostate tests, reports the BBC. Cancer Research UK said unusual changes in a person’s health should be checked. The figure for each symptom was calculated by combining the results of 25 previous studies. They found that, if the patient was below the age of 55, there were only two signs, which reached the ‘one-in-20’ threshold. These were a rectal prostate examination, which gave abnormal results, and a breast lump. After 55, but only in men, there was evidence that difficulty swallowing could be a sign of oesophageal cancer, while blood in the urine was highlighted as a particular concern for men and women aged over 60.

<urn:uuid:df22e162-4a52-432f-be75-cd1b88562a79>

Japanese poetry seems to be gaining greater and greater popularity with Western poets. The much abused Haiku of course has worn the brunt of this assault by everyone from first year poetry teachers and students, to Microsoft and office jokes, but serious poets recognise that this little poem is a truly remarkable art form. The Tanka is also gaining in popularity and rightly so and both of these forms will be dealt with later. Before dealing with these two forms however, there are two other Japanese forms which in my opinion should be discussed, and may interest poets looking for something different. The first form is called the Katuata, and the second the Choka. The most intricate Japanese Poetry form is the Choka, or Long Poem. The early form consisted of a series of Katuata joined together. This gives a choice of form structures of ..... 5 - 7 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 7.. etc, or .. 5 - 7 - 5 - 5 - 7 - 5.. etc. In the poem below Ryter uses three 19 onji (Katuata) for his Choka. Later the form introduced the Japanese equivalent of a couplet consisting of 12 onji or sound units, pausing after the fifth unit, giving it a structured sequence of multiples of, 5 - 7 onji and still with a finishing sequence using the Katuata of, 5 - 7 - 7 (19) onji, or 5 - 7 - 5 (17) onji. there is no freedom escaping from my cocoon I must seek you once again I am drawn to you like a moth to a candle circling nearer and nearer the deadly flame calls now my wings are scorched why must my nature be so? In Toybox above the Katuata is 5 - 7 - 7, and below in Thunderstorm a Katuata of 5 - 7 - 5, has been chosen instead. storm passes overhead thunder rolls, lightning flashes Christopher feels fear comforting his loved ones. Tigger, Owl and Pooh, creating nearness within them. strange creatures bonded closer. The Choka can be any total line length and indeed many exceeded 100 lines. lightning crashes and flashes no peaceful moments silent sobbing tears flowing there is no peace here loud noises of breaking heart waiting for phone call. Looking at this, it is easy to see why Poetic Historians believe the Katuata is the original basic unit of Japanese poetry using either the 17 or 19 unit onji.

<urn:uuid:9fe8ffed-4617-4b08-b54e-4185213a0389>

Boffin retracts martian water claims No puddles on Mars, after all Gosh darn it, there are no puddles on Mars after all. The researcher responsible for announcing the discovery of standing water on the Martian surface has retracted his claims (see full piece on New Scientist's news blog), after readers of the August publication pointed out that the spot the "water" was standing on was not flat, but part of a sloping crater. Rob Levin had based his analysis of the image on the assumption that the region was flat, or at least horizontal. He then identified the substance in the channels as water, based on the fact that all the edges of the surface are "in a plane and all at the same altitude". But put the surface on a slope, and the analysis falls apart. Levin says "I am sorry we made such a large mistake". New Scientist, for its part, has decided to retract the original story. Space editor Maggie McKee writes: "We work extremely hard to publish accurate, timely, and interesting stories, so we regret the confusion this story has caused". Say it isn't so, NS. The scientist's error is not the journalist's mistake. What was reported was accurate: boffin claims to have seen water on Mars, scientific community is sceptical. That is all still true, isn't it? ®

<urn:uuid:661e0947-d079-4350-aeae-d56b3963bf11>

Russia plans 2025 Moonbase, 2035 Mars shot All your base ... Russia will put cosmonauts on the Moon by 2025, the head of the country's space agency has said. A permanent manned base might follow. "According to our estimates we will be ready for a manned flight to the Moon in 2025," Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov told AFP. He said that Russia could establish a lunar "inhabited station" between 2027 and 2032. Manned moon visits have only ever been carried out by the USA, with six Apollo missions landing astronauts on the Earth's satellite from 1969 to 1972. According to NASA, the Apollo programme cost $19.4bn. Assuming 1970 dollars, that would equate to $104bn-odd today, which is a lot of oil and gas revenue for the Kremlin to spend. The US is also planning future manned trips to the moon, using staged-rocket technology rather similar to that of the Apollo programme, and a moonbase - and then on to Mars. In the nearer term Roskosmos plans to complete its parts of the International Space Station by 2015, and carry out "major modernisation" to its Soyuz orbital-lift craft. Russia might get around to cosmonauts on Mars after 2035, according to Perminov. he said that difficulties with background radiation in space would be hard to surmount, and the two or three year length of the journey would "involve huge challenges in terms of storage space and stress on the crew" - according to AFP. Nothing was actually said about vodka, apparently.®

<urn:uuid:d1e69372-ba2b-45e1-bfc1-b2d6593a0a60>

by Georges Dreyfus and THL. The Practice of Memorization Most monks… start their careers when they are young (between six and twenty).2 Their first task is to memorize a large number of rituals. Memorization typically proceeds as follows. Every day, the young monk memorizes a fixed and gradually increasing amount of textual material. Usually he starts with a couple of sentences, gradually increasing to one side or both sides of a folio. Some become memory virtuosi, able to memorize five or even ten folios a day.3 In the evening, the student meets with his teacher, who examines him on the material learned that day and gives him a new piece. The teacher recites the piece, making sure that the student knows exactly how to read the passage. This precision in reading is particularly important for mantras.4 Though they are in Sanskrit, they are written in the Tibetan alphabet. Hence, they are difficult to read. The teacher’s reading is quite important: it is considered a form of transmission (lunglung) and authorizes the student to work on the text. Most Tibetan monks insist on the importance of such transmission (though not all agree). Once the teacher is satisfied, the student is ready for the next day’s memorization. After rising and doing the usual chores, such as cleaning his room or that of his teacher, the young monk sits down cross-legged on a bed or on a cushion on the ground and performs a few devotional recitations; in particular he invokes Mañjuśrī, the patron bodhisattva of wisdom. This invocation ends with the syllable dhīḥ, the sonic seed of this bodhisattva, which is repeated as many times as possible in a single breath: dhīḥ, dhīḥ, dhīḥ, dhīḥ… Such repetition is thought to increase the intellectual faculties and hence to help one memorize. The young monk then proceeds to memorize the passage given to him the night before. He loudly reads it from his text bit by bit, rocking his body back and forth. He starts with the first word or two of the first sentence or line of a stanza (often but not always the text is written as poetry; the verses of seven, nine, or eleven syllables, grouped in four-line stanzas, are easier to retain than prose), reciting that element until he has mastered it. He then moves on incrementally until he has memorized the whole sentence, which he recites, still in a loud voice, several times. The same process is repeated for subsequent sentences; and after memorizing each, he recites the sentences that he has just memorized. Thus, by the end of the session, the whole passage forms a whole that can be integrated with the passages he has already memorized. The process of memorization is aural. Without relying on visual mnemonic devices, Tibetan monks memorize their texts by vocalizing them. The only support is a tune to which the words are set. In certain monasteries (such as NamgyelRnam rgyal, where monks are expected to memorize an enormous amount of liturgical material), the text is memorized to the same tune to which it is later chanted. In scholastic monasteries or in smaller monasteries, there is no fixed tune. But in both cases, students concentrate entirely on the text’s sonic pattern, ignoring other associations as much as possible.5 If the whole day is devoted to memorization, the session is often finished around noon, just before the young monk has lunch (often with his teacher). The afternoon is taken up in various ways, depending on the wishes of the teacher, the age of the student, the day of the month, the type of institution, and so on. Some teachers are quite strict and closely watch their pupils, who have to spend most of the afternoon reciting what they have memorized. Others allow greater freedom. At the NamgyelRnam rgyal monastery in India, monks memorize new material in the morning and recite earlier lessons through the whole afternoon and evening. Rgan Blo bzang rgya mtsho [Dreyfus’s principal teacher at the Dialectic School in Dharamsala, India] had a much easier time: his first teacher was very a kind man who did not keep tight discipline. GenlaRgan lags would spend the afternoon playing with other young monks, unless there was some special event (a full-day liturgical service) or a specific task to be done. The evening is spent practicing the texts previously memorized. The student starts by reciting that morning’s passage several times, until his recitation is fluent and almost effortless. He then goes back to the parts of the same text learned on preceding days, ending with the passage learned the same day. He may add other texts learned previously. This exercise, which usually takes one or two hours, is essential to ensure that passages once memorized are not forgotten. At first, the passage newly memorized, which could be recited quite fluently in the morning, comes in the evening with difficulty, if at all. It needs to be fixed again in the memory, a task best done just before the student goes to sleep. After a night of sleep, the text starts to take its fixed form, which has to be constantly strengthened until it becomes ingrained—a process that takes many days of repetition. In this way, the student’s hold on previous passages increases, and the new passage is integrated gradually into the memorized text as a whole. It is only when the texts are so well learned that they come to mind automatically that frequent recitation is no longer needed. At that point, reciting them a few times a year can keep them alive in the monk’s memory. In the evening, the young monk being trained in memorization faces the biggest ordeal of the day: the dreaded exam on that day’s passage. The student enters the teacher’s room and hands over the passage he has been working on. He then sits or squats at the feet of his teacher, who is seated on his bed (the usual position of most Tibetans when they are at home), and repeats the passage by heart. Sometimes the teacher asks him to recite previously learned passages. Any mistake is immediately punished. Some teachers hit their students for any mistake. An error in pronunciation might draw a single stroke, but a failure in memory could lead to a more serious beating. GenlaRgan lags was lucky; his teacher, who was also a relative, was kind toward his students. Others are much less pleasant, and there are even some sadists who brutalize their students. Once the exam is over, the cycle starts again with the transmission of a new passage to be memorized the next day. This process of memorization is practiced not only by monks and nuns, but also by laity. Most laypeople recite religious texts every day and often memorize the briefer ones, using the same technique described here. The memorization of such texts relies only on sound. A friend of mine reported that when he was a child, his parents made him memorize the maṇḍala offering, a text recited in which one offers a symbolic representation of the to the universe to the deity worshipped or the guru. It describes the objects to be offered: the sun (nyimanyi ma), the moon (dawazla ba), the precious umbrella (rinpoché dukrin po che gdugs). My friend, however, understood these to be the names of people and thought the text referred to Mrs. Sun, Moon, and RinpochéRin po che being there (duk’dug). - Texts and the Curriculum - Final Examinations and the Title of Geshédge bshes - Specify View: - Specify Format:

<urn:uuid:7d4a6b27-c5bc-4445-b5da-391df8f4137f>

Creativity is innate in some people. But for some people who lack creativity, they might need inspiration. One thing that is innate in many humans is emotion. Humans are emotional creatures, but they have the ability to think and gauge their situation to make rational decisions. With emotion, even people who lack creativity, can be creative. With extreme emotion, one can be creative. One such strong emotion is depression. When a person is depressed, one looks at a gloomy outlook towards the world. Depression is naturally caused by disillusion. Disillusion in a sense that things have changed undesirably for the person, or one of his or her dreams have been broken down to the point that it is virtually impossible to achieve. With this, a person develops a penchant for realism, cynicism and existentialism. Creativity can develop in a depressed person if they find that they cannot do anything except to have their fingers and their bodies moving. Some people who become depressed can write songs. Others can paint and write stories about their experiences, or how they think things should be. Depression can also be relieved by creativity. The creative product can serve as a mirror to the depressed, which can help them see their situation and realize what to do. This particular situation helps them develop both skill and grow themselves into better persons. Depression also has its perks, but only if it does make a person creative. Extreme depression may not be as creative as it involves meaninglessness, death and severe malignancy, which can be fatal to the person and the people around him or her.

<urn:uuid:f6f182b6-18b2-4b0e-b500-d934881abcc4>

TOKYO (March 20, 2014) — Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (YRC), working with researchers from Japan’s aerospace industry, has made advances in the study of turbulence and acoustic waves generated by rolling tires that it claims could lead to breakthroughs in reducing tire-generated noise and improving aerodynamic performance. Yokohama said the “realization of a simulation of a flow structure enabling precise measurement of acoustic waves” opens up the potential for technological breakthroughs that could lead to reducing pass-by noise generated by tires and improving their aerodynamic performance at the same time. YRC researchers made their discoveries while working with a team of researchers led by Professor Kozo Fujii at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), which is part of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Specifically, YRC said they succeeded in the world’s first “simulation of near real-scale flow structures (turbulence) around a tire rolling on a road surface and the acoustic waves (noise) generated from these structures.” Conventional computational methods have limited accuracy in the vicinity of the tire’s contact point with the road surface, YRC said. The joint research team succeeded in increasing the accuracy of such computations by using a supercomputer and a high-resolution computational method developed by researchers at ISAS/JAXA for use in space exploration research. By directly simulating a detailed tire model, the joint research team attained the computations of the air-flow field around a rolling tire at close to actual scale along with its acoustic field, YRC said. As a result, the researchers were able to demonstrate for the first time that the source of noise from tires is not only caused by the turbulence structure around a rolling tire but also from the compressed flow structures in front of a rolling tire caused by the air circulating around it. This work builds on research Yokohama has undertaken in recent years toward the development of next-generation environmental technologies through the use of various simulations. In 2010, Yokohama Rubber established an aerodynamic simulation technique that enables simulation of air flow around tires under actual use conditions. Using this technique, in December 2012, Yokohama Rubber developed its fin tire design, which reduces aerodynamic drag on a vehicle by controlling the air flow in the wheel well. YRC said it will continue to support further research in these areas. It did not say how much time or capital was invested thus far in the research.

<urn:uuid:a6e2e5b0-d53b-408e-9120-aed3a638584c>

The shell program /bin/bash (hereafter referred to as “the shell”) uses a collection of startup files to help create an environment to run in. Each file has a specific use and may affect login and interactive environments differently. The files in the /etc directory provide global settings. If an equivalent file exists in the home directory, it may override the global settings. An interactive login shell is started after a successful login, using /bin/login, by reading the /etc/passwd file. An interactive non-login shell is started at the command-line (e.g., [prompt]$/bin/bash). A non-interactive shell is usually present when a shell script is running. It is non-interactive because it is processing a script and not waiting for user input between commands. For more information, see info bash under the Bash Startup Files and Interactive Shells section. The files /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile are read when the shell is invoked as an interactive login shell. The base /etc/profile below sets some environment variables necessary for native language support. Setting them properly results in: The output of programs translated into the native language Correct classification of characters into letters, digits and other classes. This is necessary for bash to properly accept non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English locales The correct alphabetical sorting order for the country Appropriate default paper size Correct formatting of monetary, time, and date values This script also sets the INPUTRC environment variable that makes Bash and Readline use the /etc/inputrc file created earlier. Replace [ll] below with the two-letter code for the desired language (e.g., “en”) and [CC] with the two-letter code for the appropriate country (e.g., “GB”). [charmap] should be replaced with the canonical charmap for your chosen locale. The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running the following command: Locales can have a number of synonyms, e.g. “ISO-8859-1” is also referred to as “iso8859-1” and “iso88591”. Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly, so it is safest to choose the canonical name for a particular locale. To determine the canonical name, run the following command, where [locale name] is the output given by locale -a for your preferred locale (“en_GB.iso88591” in our example). LC_ALL=[locale name] locale charmap For the “en_GB.iso88591” locale, the above command will print: This results in a final locale setting of “en_GB.ISO-8859-1”. It is important that the locale found using the heuristic above is tested prior to it being added to the Bash startup files: LC_ALL=[locale name] locale country LC_ALL=[locale name] locale language LC_ALL=[locale name] locale charmap LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_curr_symbol LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_prefix The above commands should print the country and language names, the character encoding used by the locale, the local currency and the prefix to dial before the telephone number in order to get into the country. If any of the commands above fail with a message similar to the one shown below, this means that your locale was either not installed in Chapter 6 or is not supported by the default installation of Glibc. locale: Cannot set LC_* to default locale: No such file or directory If this happens, you should either install the desired locale using the localedef command, or consider choosing a different locale. Further instructions assume that there are no such error messages from Glibc. Some packages beyond LFS may also lack support for your chosen locale. One example is the X library (part of the X Window System), which outputs the following error message: Warning: locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C Sometimes it is possible to fix this by removing the charmap part of the locale specification, as long as that does not change the character map that Glibc associates with the locale (this can be checked by running the locale charmap command in both locales). For example, one would have to change "de_DE.ISO-8859-15@euro" to "de_DE@euro" in order to get this locale recognized by Xlib. Other packages can also function incorrectly (but may not necessarily display any error messages) if the locale name does not meet their expectations. In those cases, investigating how other Linux distributions support your locale might provide some useful information. Once the proper locale settings have been determined, create the /etc/profile file: cat > /etc/profile << "EOF" # Begin /etc/profile export LANG=[ll]_[CC].[charmap] export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc # End /etc/profile EOF The “C” (default) and “en_US” (the recommended one for United States English users) locales are different. Setting the keyboard layout, screen font, and locale-related environment variables are the only internationalization steps needed to support locales that use ordinary single-byte encodings and left-to-right writing direction. More complex cases (including UTF-8 based locales) require additional steps and additional patches because many applications tend to not work properly under such conditions. These steps and patches are not included in the LFS book and such locales are not yet supported by LFS.

<urn:uuid:533c6715-13c5-4978-984d-b61bb8cef0e2>

Share this infographic on your site! Embed this infographic on your site! HOMESCHOOLED: HOW AMERICAN HOMESCHOOLERS MEASURE UP Once upon a time, all children were homeschooled. But around 150 years ago states started making public school mandatory and homeschooling eventually became illegal. It wasn't until the 90's that all states made it legal again. Today, with more than 2 million homeschoolers making up 4% of the school-aged population, it's the fastest growing form of education in the country. 32 states and Washington D.C. offer Virtual Public Schools - free education over the internet to homeschooling families: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia (DC), Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming. 4 States offer tax credits for homeschooling families: Iowa, Arizona, Minnesota, Illinois. 10 States don't require notification of homeschooling: Alaska, Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut. 14 States require notification of homeschooling: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Delaware. 20 States and D.C. require notification of homeschooling, test scores and/or professional evaluation of students: Washington, Oregon, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, New Hampshire, Maine, D.C., Hawaii. 6 States require notification of homeschooling, test scores and/or professional evaluation of students; plus other requirements like curriculum approval, parent qualification, home visits by state officials: North Dakota, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rode Island. No Federal help is available to homeschooling families yet. The IRS says that homeschooling costs "are nondeductible personal, living, or family expenses." Home schooling is the fastest growing form of education in the country. Education Level of Homeschooling Parents (Fathers/Mothers) Number of children in homeschooled families: Most important reasons parents say they homeschool their kids (students, ages 5-17, 2007): Standardized achievement tests: On average, homeschoolers rank in at the 87th percentile. (Note: The 87th percentile is not the test score. It is the percent of students that scored lower... so, only 13% of students scored higher.) Grade Placement compared to public schools: WHEN THEY GROW UP Homeschooled Adults' Perception of Homeschooling "I'm glad that I was homeschooled" "Homeschool gave me an advantage as an adult" "Homeschool limited my educational opportunities" "Homeschool limited my career choices" "I would homeschool my own children" Homeschooled / General Population "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days--would you say that you are ..." Average homeschool family spends $500/child/year. The average public school spends $9,963 per child per year, not including capital expenditures or research and development.

<urn:uuid:45ec2983-855b-4c92-b93b-ab8291dc48f7>

Diving in North Sinai North Sinai, as the term is used in this book, means the northern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. There is a big chunk of Sinai that lies further to the north, traditionally referred to as north Sinai, but it does not reach the Red Sea. The North Sinai coast stretches from Taba, the Israeli border post, to the northern section of Ras Muhammad National Park at Nabeq. It encompasses the towns of Dahab and Nuweiba, and includes some of the Gulf of Aqaba's finest dive sites. Like the rest of the Sinai, the northern coast is populated by Bedouin tribes whose ancestors migrated there from the Arabian peninsula centuries ago. The Sinai is an arid, mountainous desert. The north coast follows the same weather patterns as the rest of the peninsula, receiving almost no precipitation and experiencing extremely hot, dry summers and winters marked by warm days and cooler evenings, with temperatures often falling sharply toward freezing during the night. Here you will find some of the least spoiled reefs on the Egyptian coastline, with none of the hustle and bustle of the more developed diving areas to the south. Luxuriant coral gardens and sheer offshore canyons attract a dense population of reef fauna, and the clear waters bring crystal visibility to add to your diving pleasure. The area's reefs are home to a dazzling array of Red Sea reef species, from huge Napoleon wrasse to tiny, glittering anthias. The range of pelagic species is also more than respectable. In addition, sea turtles and dolphins frequent North Sinai reefs, lending every dive the excitement of a possible encounter. The reefs themselves are shining examples of tropical coral at its best, with a vast, lush range of hard and soft corals including exquisite table Acropora, Stylophora, massive Porites and Goniopora, fire coral, low-lying cabbage coral, spiky elkhorn coral, graceful gorgonians and pulsing Xeniid soft corals. A steady north wind blows onto the North Sinai coast for much of the year, raising waves which can at times make access to the best sites difficult. As autumn moves toward winter, these onshore winds can be especially troublesome, but even during the worst weather there are plenty of sheltered sites to enjoy. Access to North Sinai dive sites is almost exclusively from shore. this is partly a result of the prevailing winds which, combined with the area's sheer coastline, make it impossible for boats to anchor. However, since the best sites lie within a few meters of the coastline this is not a problem. Dive Operators and Facilities North Sinai hosts a number of professional dive operations. The bulk of these are clustered in Dahab, the area's main resort town, but others can be found in Nuweiba and even Taba. Most are of a high technical standard, offering tuition through a number of certification agencies and employing multilingual Western and Egyptian dive staff. Jeeps or pickup trucks ferry divers to the dive sites, and a full range of rental equipment is available. Local Dive Etiquette Because shore entries are the norm here, it is especially important Back to Dive Sites in Egypt Last Updated: May 29th, 2011 Who are we? Tour Egypt aims to offer the ultimate Egyptian adventure and intimate knowledge about the country. We offer this unique experience in two ways, the first one is by organizing a tour and coming to Egypt for a visit, whether alone or in a group, and living it firsthand. The second way to experience Egypt is from the comfort of your own home: online.

<urn:uuid:b1e0f298-9c67-45c1-9222-042da402e800>

INTEGRATED VOICE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM The integrated voice communications system (IVCS) is a computer-controlled telephone system. It is a relatively new system within the Navy. The communications, Man-on-the-Move (MOM) LHA-1 class ships were the first to receive the communications, and certain battle soundsystem. Now the CG-47 class ships are being fitted powered telephone circuits. The two switching out with the IVCS. It is anticipated that future centers, one forward and one aft, contain the classes of ships will also be fitted with the IVCS. major control equipment for the system. The IVCS consolidates the communication The hardware components will be quite functions and features normally provided by similar from one class of ship to another. several systems into a single integrated network. However, the system's capacity, number of A stored-program processor-controlled circuit-terminals, and functional capabilities may be switching system provides for the quite different among different classes of ships. interconnections. It consists of two interconnected The software programs should also be different. interior-communications switching centers, dial Frequent improvements to the system are terminals, net terminals, terminal accessories, expected to accommodate changes in the and associated cabling. The IVCS allows for shipboard requirements. station-to-station telephone conversations, IVCS nets are similar to the sound-powered conference calls, and net communications. The telephone circuits. They are closed-loop IVCS also connects up with the ship's announcing communications circuits. All phone talkers on a net system, shore telephone lines, radio will be able to monitor the communication of any Figure 2-8.-Call net terminal. 2-18 station on the net. Dial telephones, when given a permit by the computer program, may be used to dial into preselected nets. A permit is defined as a capability entered into the computer program for certain dial-phone terminals. Nets may be crossconnected at the switching center to allow two or more nets to be interconnected. Net numbers may vary between the various classes of ships. Just as in the sound-powered telephone system, net discipline must be maintained. If it is not, the net may become jammed and communications will break down. The IVCS uses the following types of equipment to facilitate communications: 1. Net jack boxes-These replace the soundpowered telephone jack box and allow one phone talker to connect to one net. No call-out capability is provided. When a headset is connected and the jack box is turned on, the phone talker is in connection with all other phone talkers on the net. 2. Call net terminals-The call net terminals (fig. 2-8) have 4,8, or 16 push buttons that allow for calling other call net terminals on the net. Either a headset or a handset may be connected to this terminal. No OFF-NET calls maybe made from call net terminals. However, off-net calls may be made from a dial-telephone terminal if that terminal has the proper net permit. 3. Dial-telephone terminals-The dialtelephone terminals (fig. 2-9) replace the rotarydial telephones. The terminals are push-button types and may use either a handset or a headset for communication. All dial-telephone terminals Figure 2-9.-Dial-telephone terminal. 2-19 are capable of communicating with any other dialtelephone terminal on the ship. With the proper permit, they may be used to dial into nets, the ship's 1MC, the 5MC, selected radio circuits, or the interconsole intercoms in CIC. The interior-communication electricians are trained to alter the program to allow rapid changes to the IVCS permits. Permits may also be assigned to allow call forwarding, shore telephone access, call override, and conferencing. All dial-telephone terminals allow the answering party to transfer calls to another dial-telephone terminal. 4. Multi-line terminals-This terminal is similar to a telephone used in a business office. Up to five lines are connected to it, each with a separate telephone number. When you call a multi-line terminal and the first line is busy, the call will be automatically forwarded to the second number. A hold button allows the individual to put a call on hold to answer another line. These telephones are normally found only in very busy areas such as CIC, the bridge, and engineering control. Headsets, handsets, or speakers maybe connected to these terminals. 5. Automatic terminals-These terminals are similar to the dial-telephones terminals, but these may be operated in the hands-free mode. The calling party controls the conversation with a push-to-talk button. When it is released, the calling party will hear the station called. When the button is depressed, the station called will be cut out so that the calling station can talk. 6. Headset-The IVCS headset may be connected to any terminal in the IVCS network. The IVCS uses a lightweight headset with no chest piece. The microphone is attached to a movable boom on one of the earpieces. A push-to-talk button is located on the phone cord; it must be depressed when the operator wishes to speak. This button has a clip to allow it to be attached to the wearer's clothing. The cord on the headset is a flexible coiled-type cord. 7. Handset-The IVCS handset may also be attached to any terminal in the IVCS network. It is similar to a regular telephone handset, except it has a push-to-talk button between the earpiece and the mouthpiece. Figure 2-10.-Preprinted message blank.

<urn:uuid:de59c782-d68a-48d0-b3a3-a9c502548aad>

Dinosaurs in Texas People have discovered the fossils of 21 different dinosaurs in Texas! These dinosaurs fall into three groups or "batches" in terms of geologic time. No one knows what colors dinosaurs were. This picture is just one artist's guess! What do you think? Age: about 225 - 220 million years Age: about 119 - 95 million years Age: about 75 - 65 million years Big Bend Region * These dinosaurs were found after 1995 and are not in this drawing. There is very little evidence of Jurassic dinosaurs in Texas. Non-Dinosaur prehistoric animals:

<urn:uuid:d85d2414-42b3-4c3d-85a0-1bdee52e7764>

CO2 Concentration in Atmosphere Reaches New Highs in 2010 Photo via Free Photo Well, that didn't take long. After global emissions stalled following the worldwide recession around 2008--even falling in some otherwise heavily polluting nations like the US of A--it looks like everyone can rest assured: we're back on track with CO2 concentrations steadily a-risin' in the atmosphere. According to a report from Reuters, Levels of the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have risen to new highs in 2010 despite an economic slowdown in many nations that braked industrial output, data showed on Monday. Carbon dioxide, measured at Norway's Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, rose to a median 393.71 parts per million of the atmosphere in the first two weeks of March from 393.17 in the same period of 2009, extending years of gains.Which means that despite the recession throwing a wrench in the worldwide greenhouse gas-spewing machinery, carbon emissions burning industry is back online. It's still below the pre-recession levels of rise, which had been 2 parts per million a year, but it nonetheless signals that economies reliant on fossil fuel burning have resumed expansion. Reuters reminds us that carbon concentrations have risen a whole third since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and adds: Concentrations can keep rising since each carbon molecule emitted typically lingers in the atmosphere for many years. The U.N. panel of climate scientists says the rise will cause more floods, mudslides, heatwaves, sandstorms and rising sea levels.Indeed we do, Mr. Holmen, indeed we do. The data "seem to show that we continue to emit as if there was no tomorrow," Kim Holmen, director of research at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said of the carbon readings.

<urn:uuid:139fb04f-1f56-4cdb-be13-eae702dfbc72>

From Green Right Now Reports Portland voters have rejected fluoridation of the city’s water, with 60 percent of residents voting against fluoridation in a referendum on Tuesday. The move will keep Portland, which has three times before rejected fluoridation, as the largest un-fluoridated city in the U.S.. In most large U.S. cities, officials have long fluoridated city water supplies, backed by decades of assurances from public health entities, like the Centers for Disease Control and dental groups, that fluoride delivered this way improves dental health and is safe to consume. But anti-fluoride forces have been gaining ground in the scientific debate over fluoridation, which began in the U.S. in the mid-2oth Century. Fluoride opponents say it’s the early science on fluoride that’s shaky, and that recent investigations show that fluoride consumption, may contribute to bone damage, an increased risk of thyroid disease and lower IQs in children. These concerns, among others, have led dozens of smaller U.S. communities to drop fluoridation in the last two decades. “We are proud of our Portland colleagues who used science and integrity to defeat fluoridation,” said Dr. Paul Connett, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Citizens groups fighting fluoridation included Clean Water Portland, Sierra Club, the Portland branch of the NAACP and Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality employees union. Clean Water Portland opposed fluoridation for many reasons, listing as No. 1, concerns that the fluorosilic acid used to fluoridate water is an industrial waste product of the fertilizer industry. Fluoride is an industrial waste product (it’s true) “The National Academy of Sciences and even fluoridation promoters acknowledge that FSA is an industrial waste byproduct from fertilizer manufacturing,” CWP wrote on its website. “FSA is a highly acidic and corrosive liquid that is entirely different than the natural mineral calcium fluoride. The FDA has flately dismissed claims that fluoride is a “nutrient” as promoters claim. Adding it to our water would expose Portlanders and our kids to another risky chemical at a time when we are already over-exposed to a host of chemicals from plastics to pesticides.” Other reasons to reject fluoride include the fact that FSA can be contaminated with arsenic and lead; studies show its ineffective against tooth decay, and there is no reason to swallow fluoride to get the benefit of protecting tooth enamel. “Drinking fluoridated water to protect against cavities is like swallowing sunscreen to prevent sunburn,” the group wrote on its website. Portland joins Wichita, Kansas, which rejected fluoridation by a 20 percent margin six months ago, and comes just after an announcement by Israel that it will be ending its mandatory fluoridation program, according to FAN. “The 21st century does not take well to anachronistic medical practices, and fluoridation is no exception. This is why more than 120 communities have rejected fluoridation over the past 3 years alone,” says FAN’s Campaign Director, Stuart Cooper. “The trend is towards less fluoridation, not more.” Too much fluoride hurts teeth Fluoride concerns have risen in recent years as even government reports have shown people are being over exposed to the chemical. Fluoride’s presence in fruit juices, tea and dental products, as well as in most urban drinking supplies in the U.S., caused a rise in adolescents with fluorosis, the teeth mottling that indicates excessive fluoride consumption. That prompted the US Health and Human Services Department to propose a lower safe threshold for fluoride in 2011 even as it continued to hail fluoridation as one of the Top 10 public health achievements of the 20th Century. City councils continue to support fluoridation, despite the new science, seemingly persuaded by decades-long public health campaign to push fluoride as the magic bullet for dental health. Fluoride has been shown to strengthen tooth enamel, but it can be accomplished with topical treatments, via toothpaste and dental treatments. Another argument against fluoridation that has caught the attention of some city councils, but not others, is that it may be a needless expense, if one believes that fluoride is best applied topically and not ingested. In Portland, residents quickly petitioned to stop fluoridation after a newspaper reported that the City Council had conducted secret, (i.e., illegal) meetings on the subject before mandating in September 2012 that city water supplies be fluoridated. Many were outraged by the council’s circumventing public hearings. The petitions, signed by at least 30,000 residents, stopped the City Council mandate and prompted the vote this spring. Portland’s NAACP and national black leaders oppose fluoridation because fluorosis has been shown to be highest in communities of color, in part because mothers use fluoridated tap water to mix formula. While Portland stands alone, for now, among large U.S. cities, most western countries, including the vast majority of Europe, do not fluoridate their water, according to FAN. Studies by the National Research Council (NRC) and Harvard University have raised “serious questions about the safety of current fluoride exposures,” Connett said. In 2006, the NRC has called for further research into the role of fluoride in chronic disease, warning that it could increase the incidence of thyroid disease, disrupt the endocrine system and contribute to neurological disorders and bone damage. But the government has not funded such research.

<urn:uuid:c98142ba-7d35-440f-b8f9-7ed2e91aa72b>

Last week, more than 500 students from Yinghua Academy poured into the Minnesota Zoo, excited to put their budding Chinese language skills to use discussing animals from snow monkeys to starfish. Sixth-graders such as Katherine St. Martin-Norburg of St. Paul set up presentations in which their classmates could play a game or hear a song developed by students about one of the zoo's animals. The visit was part of the zoo's popular World Language Days, which draw thousands of students each February to learn about animals in languages such as Spanish, Japanese and American Sign Language. Katherine, who attends the Minneapolis Chinese-language immersion charter school, said she enjoyed explaining snow monkeys to other visitors. "It's fun," she said. "At first, I was surprised we were coming here." The number of student visitors to the zoo is beginning to rebound after falling 15 percent during the recession when school leaders cut field trips to save money. Zoo leaders responded by expanding popular programs such as language days while developing customized learning experiences. This year, the zoo estimates 80,000 students from preschool to college will visit the Apple Valley zoo. Carol Strecker, director of education for the zoo, says schools have a lot of demands for their time and resources, so she needs to demonstrate how the facility and exhibits fit in with curriculum. "We've really tried to up our game," Strecker said. "It doesn't make sense to offer programming to teachers if it doesn't meet their needs." The zoo still focuses on biology, ecology and conservation, Strecker says, but looks for unique ways such as language days to deliver the lessons. "They're still learning it; they're just learning it in another language," she said. Sue Berg, executive director of Yinghua, said her charter school's parent-teacher organization jumped at the chance to help fund the students' trip to the zoo. "This is an opportunity for students to apply their skills in real life," Berg said. "That's the end goal, conversation and interaction." Besides expanding popular programs, zoo officials are building ones that fit educators' changing needs. Strecker is working on a STEM curriculum that will meet growing demand for science, technology, engineering and math courses. It will focus on the relationship between animals and engineering, Strecker said, such as how beavers build dams or how humans study animal behavior to solve problems. For schools that can't afford a trip, the zoo started a program that helps pair districts with charitable donors. It also is working on ways to reach students right in their classrooms. Each year, the zoo reaches about 25,000 students in the metro through outreach programs such as its Zoomobile. Now, it is exploring virtual visits through teleconferencing to connect with more schools. The goal of this outreach is to expose as many students as possible to what the zoo has to offer. "There is strong evidence that out-of-school experiences with science at institutions like ours have a real impact," Strecker said. "You have to be completely in tune with teachers and understand what they need and what they are going through." Gina Goralski, the zoo's school programs director, said students light up when they walk through the facility's doors. Animals are an easy way for students and teachers to connect. "Animals are a huge attraction for everyone," she said. "Everyone loves them. It's a way to get kids to have a good time and to learn without realizing they're doing it." Christopher Magan can be reached at 651-228-5557. Follow him at twitter.com/cmaganPiPress.

<urn:uuid:ec48fe6f-1855-4282-8090-0a84f3b3321e>

Suicide. It's tough to talk about, but learning the facts and signs can save a life. Center for Counseling and Psychological Health (CCPH) is spreading the word, as part of a grant-funded project training individuals and groups to recognize those at risk, and intervene if needed. In October, 2009, the department received a second three-year federal grant to expand prevention efforts. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free, confidential suicide prevention and intervention services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call toll-free, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Learn more at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults and second leading cause among college students in the United States. Each year approximately five thousand individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 take their own life. Most of those who die could have been helped. Someone considering suicide frequently confides in a friend or relative, who may be able to help the person to seek appropriate and lifesaving treatment. Students and suicide College students can face serious mental and behavioral health issues, including depression and binge drinking. The challenge for mental health professionals is how to identify and help them; nationwide, fewer than 20% of students who die by suicide are past or current clients of their school's counseling center. However, students who do connect with services often benefit significantly. UMass Amherst surveys have shown that over 80% of those who sought mental health care said services helped them stay in school and improve academic performance. Why Do People Consider Suicide Because each individual is unique, there is no single reason why someone has suicidal thoughts or may attempt to kill themselves. Factors that may contribute to having suicidal thoughts are: - A major life transition that is very upsetting or disappointing - A loss of an important relationship or the death of a loved one - Depression, anxiety or other serious emotional troubles - Feelings of hopelessness or despair - Low self-esteem or shame - Failure to live up to one's own or others' expectations - Extreme loneliness - News of a major medical illness - Severe physical or emotional pain - Alcohol or drug problems There are many verbal and nonverbal warning signs that someone may be suicidal and crying out for help. These warning signs include: - Extended depression, sadness or uncontrolled crying - Giving away personal or prized possessions - Lack of interest in previously enjoyed activities - Lack of interest in personal appearance - Withdrawal from friends - Lack of energy or ambition - Changes in sleeping or eating habits - Increased use of drugs or alcohol - Restlessness or hyperactivity - Increased risky behaviors - Hopelessness and helplessness - Remarks like: "It'll be over soon," "I can’t take it anymore," "I have no reason to go on," "My life will never get better," or "People will be better off without me." - Disclosure of previous suicide attempts - A recent loss or trauma from which a person is not recovering Suicide myths and facts People who talk about suicide won't really do it. Fact: Almost everyone who attempts suicide has given some clue or warning. Don't ignore suicide statements. If a person's going to attempt suicide, nothing will stop them. Fact: Most who attempt suicide remain uncertain of the decision until the final moment. Most suicidal people don't wish for death – they wish for the pain to stop. People who commit suicide are unwilling to seek help. Fact: Studies show that more than half of suicide victims sought professional help within six months of their death. Anyone who attempts suicide must be psychotic or insane. Fact: Most people who commit suicide aren't psychotic, although many are depressed. Talking about suicide may give someone the idea. Fact: Talking about suicide doesn't give someone suicidal thoughts – the opposite is true. Bringing up the subject and talking about it is one of the most helpful things you can do. It helps a suicidal person feel understood and shows you understand the suffering the person's experiencing. Ways to Help - Listen: Help a suicidal friend to talk about whatever is painful or distressing and offer them emotional support. - Express Your Concern: Encourage them to contact others who could be supportive. - Ask Directly: Ask direct questions about suicidal thoughts, plans, or intentions. Listen to what is said and treat it seriously. - Help Someone To Stay Safe: If they are in immediate danger, stay with them and call a Resident Assistant (R.A.), local police, or the University Health Service for urgent assistance. - Encourage The Person To Seek Help: You may want to offer to accompany them to talk to the R.A., a Mental Health Clinician, or to UHS Urgent Care. - Talk with A Clinician or Someone Else You Trust: This way you can share the responsibility with others, attend to your own need for support, and check out how you can continue to be of help. Resources for Help In an emergency, call one of the following numbers: - Campus Police: (413) 545-2121 - Faculty and Staff Assistance Program: (413) 545-0350 - Acute Emergency: 911 - Center for Counseling And Psychological Health: (413) 545-2337 - UHS Urgent Care: (413) 577-5000 If you have questions about yourself or a friend, you can talk with a mental health professional at the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health, located at 127 Hills North. The CCPH offers free trainings for the UMass Amherst campus community. Learn to recognize the warning signs of suicide and what to do if you see them – you could save a life. For information or to schedule a session, call (413) 545-2337. About the training The 'gatekeeper' model, developed at Syracuse University, focuses on training those who most directly interact with students. Experiential exercises replicate the emotional experiences of someone in crisis, giving participants the skills and information they need to assist at-risk students. - Warning signs; - Response modes; - Campus resources; and - Current suicide statistics and research. Trained gatekeepers don't provide mental health care; rather, they use the techniques and resources learned to connect students with needed services. Why training is important - Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. - 5,000 young adults – 1,100 college students die by suicide every year. - Research indicates 10% of college students have suicidal thoughts. - Even one death is one too many.

<urn:uuid:34389de7-6272-4f0c-9480-b31a6fe5b00b>

PHILADELPHIA -- Hosts can do their holiday guests a big favor by serving smaller portions using smaller utensils. That the word from psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings, to be published in the journal Psychological Science, demonstrate the power of what the researchers have termed "unit bias": the sense that a particular portion of food is appropriate. Unit bias provides the basis for understanding why portion size influences how much food you eat. Their work on how individuals decide what goes into a single serving of food offers further warning to the weight-conscious in the coming holiday season. "In terms of food, unit bias applies to what people think is the appropriate amount to consume, and it shows why smaller portion sizes can be just as satisfying," said Andrew B. Geier, lead author and a graduate student in Penn Department of Psychology. "A 12-ounce can of soda and a 24-ounce bottle are both seen as single units. But be careful, the 24-ounce bottle, though viewed as one unit, is actually more than two and a half servings of soda." Unit bias can be seen in all types of consumption, whether it is how much food you take or how many times you ride the roller coaster. This bias, the researchers believe, is mostly derived from a culturally designated "proper" portion. It may also explain why portion size causes the French to eat much less than Americans. he French eat from smaller portion sizes, but small portion size is only a barrier if there is something keeping them from consuming more portions," Geier said. "This is where we believe unit bias comes into play; without it, people would just eat more units." According to Geier, people see food in natural consumption units, whether that is a single wrapped candy or a plateful of food. Geier and Penn psychology professor Paul Rozin designed their experiments to observe how people choose to act in the presence of unlimited free food in public or private settings. In their study, they presented unsuspecting people with M&M's candies, Tootsie Rolls and Philadelphia-style soft pretzels. When changing the size of the portions whether by offering a whole or half of a pretzel, for example people will see the offered portion as a single unit. In the pretzel experiment, people would take and eat an entire pretzel even though they were eating twice as much as the other people who were sufficiently satisfied with a half pretzel as a single unit. They also observed how the means of serving the portion could influence how much food is eaten. In the M&M experiment, the researchers offered a large mixing bowl of the candy at the front desk of the concierge of an apartment building. Below the bowl hung a sign that read "Eat Your Fill" with "please use the spoon to serve yourself" written underneath. If presented with a small spoon, most passersby would take a single scoop, even though the sign encouraged them to take more. If given a much larger spoon, the subjects would still take a single scoop, even though that one scoop contained much more candy. The subjects were inadvertently eating twice as much candy when the larger scoop happened to be in the bowl. "It is more than just people afraid of appearing greedy. They didn't know they were being observed," Geier said. "We have a culturally enforced 'consumption norm,' which promotes both the tendency to complete eating a unit and the idea that a single unit is the proper amount to eat." The researchers believe a better understanding of unit bias will aid in studying the psychology of obesity. "When we talk about overeating and obesity, we talk calories consumed and grams of fat, but we rarely mention context and environment what people see as the acceptable amount to eat," Geier said. "There are environmental elements that dramatically affect the choices and quantities of food we consume. This is a fundamental aspect of human food choice, which is seriously understudied considering its mammoth impact on the number of calories we consume every day. "

<urn:uuid:efdbab42-9f67-4743-8968-dab1badb4774>

Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston (March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863), was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas, and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, US Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor of the state. Although a slaveholder and opponent of abolitionism, he had unionist convictions. He refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union, and resigned as governor. To avoid bloodshed, he refused an offer of a Union army to put down the Confederate rebellion. Instead, he retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died before the end of the Civil War. His earlier life included migration to Tennessee from Virginia, time spent with the Cherokee Nation (into which he later was adopted as a citizen and took a wife), military service in the War of 1812, and successful participation in Tennessee politics. Houston is the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two different states (although other men had served as governors of more than one American territory). A fight with a US Congressman, followed by a high-profile trial, led to his emigration in 1832 to Mexican Texas. There he soon became a leader of the Texas Revolution. He supported annexation by the United States. The city of Houston was named after him during this period. Houston's reputation was honored after his death: posthumous commemoration has included a memorial museum, a U.S. Army base, a national forest, a historical park, a university, and the largest free-standing statue of an American.

<urn:uuid:4d27cc79-d015-4792-95f6-12f6d94396f8>

Opening up the mailbox to find those long-awaited college acceptance letters is one of the high points for high school seniors. Incurring student loan debt, however, is the reality for millions of these young students who need a way to finance their education. According to a TransUnion study, student loan balances increased a whopping 75% from 2007 to 2012. The average debt per borrower increased by 30% to $23,829. There is some good news, however, for those who have taken out federal student loans. The interest rates on those loans are lower than private loan interest rates.Borrowers also have more legal rights with federal loans than they do with private loans. Here are some important rights to be aware of: 1. The Right to Defer Payment. Say you're in graduate school or the military. You can defer loan payments until you are out. You can also defer payments through a hardship deferment if, for example, you are sick and unable to work. 2. The Right to Pay Based on What You Earn. One such program is the "pay as you earn" plan that puts the monthly payment at 10% of your discretionary income based on your income and family size. 3. The Right to Loan Forgiveness. For those who work in areas such as early childhood education, law enforcement, public health, emergency management, the military or government positions, they may be eligible to have their student loan balances forgiven … if they've made 120 payments under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. 4. The Right to Change the Payment Schedule. For those graduates making less than they thought upon graduation, they can elect to change their payment schedule from the standard schedule of 10 years to an extended repayment plan of up to 25 years. Doing so will, of course, decrease the monthly payment, but increase the overall interest paid on the loan. Perhaps one of the best ways for today's students to manage their money wisely is through personal finance classes in high school. Such classes provide students with critical guidance on finances and areas such as how to handle all those tempting credit card offers. Yet, according to research from the Council for Economic Education, just 22 states required a high school course in economics in 2011, and only 14 states required that a course in personal finance be offered. By educating themselves on their student loan rights and responsibilities, borrowers can find themselves on more solid financial footing after graduation. Regina Lewis is a national television contributor and host of USA TODAY's "Money Quick Tips" videos. Follow her on Twitter: @ReginaLewis. Previous Money Quick Tips:

<urn:uuid:17c7ddcc-b5a9-462a-8cdf-e705e9457d8b>

It's a phrasal verb. To confront an unpleasant situation with resolution and assurance: had to face up or get out; finally faced up to the problem. face up - Definitions from Dictionary.com In your example sentence "face up" can be analyzed in two ways: either it functions as the main verb, with 'have to' as its modal or it functions as the object of the main verb 'have to'. Pick the one you know. Lastly, the verb "face" is transitive; e.g., face the music. The phrasal verb "face up" is also transitive and takes a to-prepositional phrase as its object. All the best. - For Teachers

<urn:uuid:d8af9b51-c8d1-4bd2-85c8-95335cd52624>

Speeding up your shower by two minutes can save about five gallons of water each day. Piping leftover shower water to your lawn can conserve 25 gallons per day — or more than 9,100 gallons in a year. Those are two examples of how some San Diegans have reduced their water binge in recent years. They’ve also made improvements such as buying low-flush toilets, water-sipping dishwashers and water-efficient clothes washers. Between 2007 and 2013, the region’s residents, businesses and other institutions cut per-capita water use by 27 percent — from 211 gallons per day to 153. Now we’re being asked to dry out some more. But is it possible to wring more savings? Consider this: Between 1998 and 2002, the average American used 152 gallons of water per day, according to a 2006 United Nations report. The per-capita figure in Australia, the driest continent on Earth, was 130 gallons in that same time period. Most Europeans used 50 to 80 gallons per day, while many Africans subsisted on less than 13 gallons each day. While parts of the developing world don’t have enough clean drinking water, experts said Americans and residents in other industrialized nations tend to waste potable water in lots of ways. Curtailing this waste would require being more mindful of consumption patterns and adopting greater reuse of wastewater, they said. A good place to start might be the outdoors: More than half the water used in San Diego County goes to irrigate lawns and gardens, according to local water officials. Swapping out conventional sprinklers for drip- or weather-based irrigation systems will yield savings. But the simplest solutions involve timing. “The quick and dirty way is to reduce your watering time by 20 percent,” said Greg Rubin, owner of California’s Own Native Landscape Design in Escondido. “Or you can lengthen your interval between waterings by a day. That right there will save you 15 to 20 percent right off the bat.” The water diet might stress plants slightly, he said, but over time can wean the yard off excessive watering. Also, aerating lawns to break up mineral deposits allows water to penetrate the soil. Removing turf completely will slash water bills dramatically. People who want lawns for pets, children or recreation can switch to lower-water grass varieties or keep only a few patches of grass. “There’s that balance there, where you can still have a little bit of turf,” said John Bolthouse, executive director of the Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego. Another key is putting water to work — recycling it for multiple uses. Tanks and barrels collect rainwater, while “gray lines” pipe leftover water from showers and washers to backyard plants. In Chula Vista, new homes are pre-plumbed for simple graywater systems, according to city code sections approved last year. “We obviously hope that it reduces the cost of installation and streamlines the purpose for the new homeowner,” said the city’s environmental resource manager, Brendan Reed. Local water districts are recycling municipal water for irrigation through “purple pipe” systems, while the city of San Diego is pursuing plans to purify it to drinking-water standards. Eventually, experts said, everyone will need to take the waste out of wastewater. “Most people who hire me have an aversion to waste,” said Candace Vanderhoff, founder of Rainthanks and Greywater, which installs rain-barrel and graywater systems. “It drives them crazy that water is leaving the site that they could use.”

<urn:uuid:2c15fc91-951d-42f2-832d-3842c2c9f3f9>

Human prowess is not supposed to have a reverse gear. Computer chips shrink and become more powerful. Skyscrapers grow taller, and spaceships travel farther. Medicine keeps people alive longer. But for almost a decade, the Summer Olympics have offered a mysterious exception. In some of the most basic ways imaginable – how fast people can run, how high they can jump, how far they can throw – the march of progress has stopped. The track and field athletes competing in Greece may well struggle to match the performances of their predecessors. Four years ago, no relay team was able to cover 400 meters as quickly as four U.S. runners had in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. Carl Lewis jumped farther in Seoul than any man would 12 years later in Sydney, Australia, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee did the same among women. In more than two-thirds of track and field events, in fact, the gold-medal performances in 1988 would have been good enough to win again in 2000. Just one result from 1976, by contrast, would have won in 1988, among the 32 events in which comparisons are possible, said Raymond Stefani, a professor of electrical engineering at CSU Long Beach who studies the Olympics. In more than a century of Olympic history, only world wars, by killing millions of people in their athletic prime, had previously caused this kind of stagnation. So its return has inevitably raised the question of whether human beings are finally approaching the limits of physical accomplishment, after decades of unfulfilled predictions about such limits. Many athletes and coaches, and some scientists too, say the answer is probably yes. To others, however, a less natural explanation is more likely. At least some of the record performances from the 1970s and '80s are a result of the miracle of drugs. Only now, after a decade of more effective drug testing, do athletes seem to be catching up to the steroid-aided results of the past, many Olympics watchers say. The Athens Games have the potential to clear up some of the mystery. More stagnation will suggest that athletics may well have entered an era of only minuscule improvements. "Athletes are reaching their potential," said Mark Elliott, an assistant track coach at Louisiana State University, which has highly ranked men's and women's teams. "You won't see much faster times anymore. If there's any going beyond the records, it's just going to be very, very small." A return to progress, on the other hand, could mean that the limits remain somewhere off in the future. "We're moving back to normality," Stefani argued. "There's nothing I see that says we're hitting a plateau." Nearly every day over these Summer Games will offer a new data point, a new example of the latest being less. The argument that the limits to performance are within sight has obvious appeal. Somewhere, those limits exist – nobody seems to think that a one-minute mile is possible – and athletes will eventually approach them. Beside the stagnation of Olympic results, the recent progress of women in sports and a dearth of breakthroughs with new equipment offer reasons to wonder if the time is now. For decades, female athletes were closing the gap between their performances and those of males. Women had long been denied the athletic scholarships, endorsements and training resources that men had received, and as the playing field began to be leveled, women made rapid improvements. In 1970, the women's world record in the 400-meter dash was 18 percent slower than the men's. It is 10 percent slower today. But many researchers say the remaining gaps could exist forever in most sports. Men have a higher concentration of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, allowing them to breathe more efficiently than women can. Men also have less body fat on average, and thus more muscle per pound of weight, than women do. "Most of the difference today is really due to biological differences," said Phillip B. Sparling, a professor of applied physiology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He estimates that men's performances will remain roughly 8 percent to 11 percent better in most events. The gaps between the men's and women's record have actually increased somewhat in recent years in the races at 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 meters. The difference in the marathon has shrunk, although it is still slightly more than eight percentage points. Athletic gear seems to have followed a similar path to that of female athletes over the last decade. Fiberglass poles that make vaulting easier, synthetic tracks that mitigate the effects of bad weather, and deeper pools and lane lines that calm waves have all existed for years. Perhaps the most heralded recent invention, the full-body swimsuit, ended up having little if any effect on times, many say. "We've reached a peak from a technological standpoint," said Rowdy Gaines, a gold medalist in 1984, who is now a commentator for NBC Sports. "I do believe swimming is reaching a plateau. I don't think it's going to happen in the next four to six years. But I think it's going to happen in my lifetime." Unlike runners, swimmers and weight lifters have continued to improve in recent Olympics, but not at nearly the rate they once did. Swimming times fell less between the 1988 and 2000 Summer Games than they did during a typical four-year span in the 1960s and '70s. But if athletes are now beating times from the '80s that were drug-aided, as many people suspect, any kind of gain starts to look impressive. The new swimming world records set in the first few days of the Olympics, including one by Michael Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley, seem to support the idea that athletes have not yet reached the limits of performance. The idea that no future generation will devise ways to top this one is as misplaced now as it has always been, say those who believe the stagnation has more to do with drugs than anything else. "When I was competing in the early '60s, we thought our times were pretty close to the human limit," said Phillip Whitten, the editor in chief of SwimInfo, a magazine that covers the sport. "And now they're pretty good times for 13-and 14-year-old girls." Track and field results may have slid backward because the doping was widespread for longer in the sport than it was in swimming. Many top runners have recently been investigated for suspected drug use, including Tim Montgomery, who holds the world record in the 100-meter dash. "We're not comparing clean to clean" in track, Stefani said. If drug testing is able to stay a step ahead of drug use – no sure thing – he predicted that progress could return to its old trajectory: Roughly 80 years from now, the record time at 800 meters, for example, would simply be double today's record at 400 meters. The Olympics are also not the only venue for studying times, of course. In some events in which gold-medal times have increased since 1988, like the men's 200-meter dash, the world record has since been broken, at another event. But records are not falling as they once were, suggesting that the current period is not normal. To most experts, the odds have risen that human beings have entered an era of only small improvements. "At some point, we have to reach that," said Dave Johnson, director of the Penn Relays. "That's the way I see it. But the wonderful thing about sports is that you're always surprised."

<urn:uuid:d0e6b781-5983-4b26-84d2-501577e4b13d>

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a platform that supports the execution of programs that are developed using the Java programming language. It is available for multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux and MacOS. The JRE platform also supports Java Applets which can be loaded from Web pages. For more information, visit the link shown below. Remote exploitation of a buffer overflow vulnerability in Oracle's Java Runtime Environment could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. During the parsing of specially crafted Soundbank resource, an overly long length value can lead to a stack buffer overflow condition within the Java Runtime Environment. The length value may cause a pointer to reference a location outside the bounds of a fixed sized stack buffer, a memory write is then performed by dereferencing the pointer. This condition may allow a remote attacker to subvert execution control and execute arbitrary code. Exploitation of this vulnerability results in the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. In order to exploit this vulnerability, a user must load a web page containing a specially crafted Java applet. An attacker typically accomplishes this via social engineering or injecting content into compromised, trusted sites. Typical social engineering attacks will pass URLs as part of instant messages or electronic mail. Java SE is vulnerable. JDK and JRE 6 Update 25 and earlier, JDK 5.0 Update 29 and earlier and SDK 1.4.2_31 and earlier are vulnerable. It is possible to disable the Java plugin in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Google Chrome. Oracle Corp. has released a patch which addresses this issue. For more information, consult their advisory at the following URL. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the name CVE-2011-0814 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for security problems. 12/15/2010 Initial Vendor Notification 12/15/2010 Initial Vendor Reply 06/08/2011 Coordinated Public Disclosure This vulnerability was reported to iDefense by binaryproof. Get paid for vulnerability research Free tools, research and upcoming events Copyright © 2011 Verisign, Inc. Permission is granted for the redistribution of this alert electronically. It may not be edited in any way without the express written consent of iDefense. If you wish to reprint the whole or any part of this alert in any other medium other than electronically, please e-mail customer service for permission. Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, this information.

<urn:uuid:c68da14e-9f08-4672-b2d7-9fa72e02abe3>

Click here to learn more. March 27, 2014: We've scoured the Web to find the best and most compelling animal stories, videos and photos. And it's all right here. Erin Cramer was home sick recently when the dog she’d adopted two months earlier started acting strangely. Clobber, a Greyhound, was standing with his nose against a wall upstairs in her Indianapolis home. She tried to take him outside, but he immediately pulled her back inside, and raced back up the stairs the moment she took off his leash. Still not sure what Clobber was up to, Cramer went to the laundry room, where she felt like she was hit by a “wall of gas.” It turned out that her water heater was leaking gas into the room, and a plumber she called for help told her it was also sparking. “[The plumber] said it probably would have ignited the gas fumes and taken out not only this house but several around me,” Cramer said. She’s very grateful to her alert dog. “If it wasn’t for him coming into our lives, we probably wouldn’t be here right now.” — Watch it at Indiana’s Fox 59 Just a month after it shocked the world by euthanizing a healthy giraffe, Denmark’s Copenhagen Zoo said it killed two lion cubs and their parents on Monday, in preparation for the arrival of a new male lion. The decision has sparked a massive global backlash on social media. The zoo defended itself, saying it had to do this for genetic purity and conservation. “If the zoo had not made the change in the pride now, then we would have risked that the old male would mate with these two females — his own offspring — and thereby give rise to inbreeding,” officials said in a statement. The situation has caused an uproar among animal activists around the world. Gerald Dick, executive director of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, explained that American zoos prefer to use contraception to prevent overpopulation or inbreeding, European zoos often favor animals expressing their natural behavior and use selective euthanasia as a last resort. — Read it at The New York Times A new study shows a Cuvier’s beaked whale was able to hold its breath while diving for more than two hours and reaching nearly two miles below the surface off the coast of Southern California. Scientists from the Cascadia Research Collective used 3,700 hours of satellite data to study the whales’ diving behavior. “It’s remarkable to imagine these social, warm-blooded mammals actively pursuing prey in the darkness at such astounding depths, literally miles away from their most basic physiological need: air,” said lead author Gregory Schorr. Their findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE. — Read it at Discovery News Pandas Have a Sweet Tooth Giant pandas might eat bamboo almost exclusively, but a new study finds that they also love sugar. The research team gave pandas at the Shaanxi Wild Animal Rescue and Research Center in China two bowls of water over the course of six months. One contained only water, and the second contained water with one of six natural sugars at varying concentrations. They found that the bears had a clear preference for the sweetened water — and they preferred natural sugars to artificial sweeteners. The researchers also used DNA testing to confirm that pandas have sweet-taste receptors. "Our results can explain why Bao Bao, the 6-month-old giant-panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is apparently relishing sweet potato as a first food during weaning," said study leader Danielle Reed of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. The results were published in the journal PLOS ONE. — Read it at Live Science Emergency dispatchers in Nebraska were concerned when they answered a 911 call recently and were met only with breathing and scratching. Then, they learned that the call had not come from a person in distress, but from a little dog who accidentally dialed 911 from her owner’s smartphone when she was trying to curl up next to her on the couch. The owner, Melissa Acosta, realized Sophie, her 2-pound Japanese Chin, had called 911 when she heard a voice from her phone asking for the address of the emergency. Acosta called the incident “a little embarrassing.” — Read it from AP via the Washington Post More on Vetstreet.com: Like this article? Have a point of view to share? Let us know! Thank You For Signing Up for the Petwire newsletter, sending you all the pet news each week directly to your inbox. Get the latest pet news, tips, tricks, and expert advice sent right to your inbox! Researchers found that dogs became aggressive and pushy when their owners showed interest in a plush toy dog. Our editors' favorite books this summer include Misty of Chincoteague and the buzzed-about new novel The Bees. Is it true that black pets are less likely to be adopted? We asked the ASPCA to help us get to the bottom of this… Want to have a fun and relaxing vacation this summer? Make sure you follow the advice from these travel-savvy canines. Dr. Ann Hohenhaus breaks down the similarities and differences in the ways cancer can affect humans and animals. The Kooikerhondje is a fun-loving and intelligent red and white Dutch retriever who was bred to lure ducks into a… If the video doesn't start playing momentarily, please install the latest version of Flash.

<urn:uuid:c8086313-266d-422a-9ecb-36e630a946e3>

The Lewis and Clark expedition of 18041806 encountered many Native American groups as it traversed the prairie, plains, and plateau country, finally arriving at the northwest coast. The American West, opened by Lewis and Clark, was visited not only by explorers but also by photographers and artists, who recorded the landscape and its inhabitants. These images were disseminated in prints, books, and photographs, expanding our countrys knowledge of its Trade between Native Americans and Europeans was well established in some areas by the early nineteenth century. Lewis and Clark carried glass beads popular with Native American women for use in their arts. Dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, this selection of objects offers evidence that the native peoples encountered by Lewis and Clark maintained their traditional styles and methods of production nearly one hundred years later, incorporating native and trade materials. will be beaded garments from the Plains and Prairie peoples, basketry utilizing local fibers crafted by peoples of the plateau, and Native American objects that show the effect of continued contact The University of Virginia Art Museum is located at 155 Rugby Road, one block from the Rotunda. Admission is free. Public hours are 1:00-5:00, Tuesday through Sunday.

<urn:uuid:a0984814-537d-4db7-8835-5b35c8451675>

Verb conjugation of "flirtear" in Spanish |Conjugate the verb flirtear:| ...él ha flirteado... Check out the Translation of flirtear in Spanish-English in our Spanish Dictionary He also told me that he had build his scooter by himself. I could not understand how a doctor was able to build such a machine on his own. It seems that the circumstances made people capable of many things. I was a little confused because I recognized the voice and I had booked at Luisa's guest house. She explained me that she was sharing the phone with her neighbor and her neighbor was not honest. The ice blocks that usually break off during the summer started already to break off in spring due to the Global warming. The glaciers in general were loosing volume as we were told and as we could see.

<urn:uuid:bd41a6f0-3147-4528-9a32-52608542aa3c>

LINKThe link method of HTTP adds meta information (Object header information) to an object, without touching the object's content. For example, it requests the creation of a link from the specified object to another object. The request is followed by a set of object headers which are to be In cases in which a new header is added and the semantics of the header do not allow it to coexist with a similar header, then the previous header is deleted. For example, an object may only have one title, so specifying a title overwrites and preexsiting title. Link TypesThe link type unless void is specified in the WWW-Link object field for each link. If not specified, void Unresolved pointsAs this is generalised to allow any metainformation to be added, a better name might be DESCRIBE or attribute (as a verb). I don't like "describe" as it does not suggest alteration. "Bestow"/"Rescind" might be better. For example, one could bestow a title or author on something previously title-less. We are looking at a general data model behind here a little like a relational database. This function adds records. "Set" Related MethodsLINK is like POST except that - no storage is requested for the destination - the destination is not assumed to be subordinate to the specified object. - See also: UNLINK.

<urn:uuid:54e688d1-c68b-479e-b3ad-c577cf5b9b2e>

For the first watershed assessment of the Community Planning Process, we focused on Upper Joseph Creek watershed. The upper section encompasses 174,000 acres of federal and private land. Crow, Elk and Chesnimnus Creek are the main drainages, which provide critical habitat to steelhead. The watershed contains open prairies, dense forest, and lush creek sides. Opportunities abound to see elk grazing, hear songbirds singing, wonder at wildflowers blooming, and see raptors soaring. It is also a working landscape, with century-old ranches and livestock operations, small-scale logging and fuel reduction, and habitat work. This land has been used continuously for 8,000 years, starting with the Nez Perce. The Benefits of Collaborating in Upper Joseph CreekOpened 32 miles of instream habitat for all life stages of steelheadRemoved 28 culverts for fish passage and natural channel flowImproved 11.6 miles of road to slow erosion and increase water infiltrationReplaced 3 bridges on Peavine and O'Brien RoadRehabilitated 25 upland water sitesThinned, harvested, and/or burned 14,312 acresExceeded $5 million in local economic benefit A diverse group of organizations and individuals worked together to assess the condition of Upper Joseph Creek in four aspects: riparian, rangeland, forest & fuels, and roads & recreation. Based on this updated information, the group made recommendations for improving habitat conditions and natural functions. The projects to implement these recommendations created jobs. Flaws in past restoration projects and poorly maintained roads and culverts combined to block steelhead and salmon access to upstream habitat. Alongside local partners, Wallowa Resources removed fish barriers and restored natural channel flow to over 32 miles of the Doe, Elk, and Chesnimnus creeks. A majority of the watershed is working rangeland. The range group created maps to classify and assess fences, water developments, and invasive plants. Based on these conditions, the group implemented projects that improved animal production and distribution and relieved livestock pressure on riparian areas. Our forests evolved with disturbance such as fire, which maintains diversity and favors trees like Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, and Western Larch. Past management practices, such as overstory logging and fire suppression, have altered natural forest variation. Today, dense stands of Grand Fir increase the risk of frequent and intense wildfire. By combining prescribed burns and tree thinning/harvesting, we can improve our forest habitats. Over 815 miles of road crisscross the Upper Joseph Creek Watershed at a density of over 2.5 miles of road per square mile, which exceeds the US Forest Service's standards. Due to budget decreases, the Forest Service is struggling to maintain this vast road network. However, this road access is valuable to ranchers, recreationists, firewood cutters, loggers, and the Nez Perce. After an assessment of the entire road network, initial restoration work repaired bridges and roads, and installed gates for seasonal road closures. More recently, 7 miles of marginal road was decommissioned. The biggest project removed 28 culverts, which improved road conditions and fish habitat. View the Upper Joseph Creek Assessment Study PDF Plan Here

<urn:uuid:1018f90a-1a85-40d1-a35c-a3f9381cb67f>

Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in their early stages can be difficult for physicians to spot, and many diagnoses are incorrect. A finding by researchers at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center may soon help in the diagnosis of such diseases. The researchers have used an advanced technique to identify proteins in the human body, known as biomarkers, that can indicate whether a patient has a particular neurodegenerative disease, or determine the progression of a disease. Searching for biomarkers is nothing new, but the researchers used a cutting-edge proteomics system, called iTRAQ, that relies on isotopic labeling of protein molecules. The system could help a physician determine the amount of a biomarker a patient may have in his body, which can help with diagnosis. In a large multi-site study, the researchers identified more than 1,500 potential biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with one of three neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s, Parksinson’s, or dementia with Lewy bodies. Researchers identified different sets of potential biomarkers corresponding to each disease; each of the proteins are linked specifically to one of the diseases. The results appear in the new issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. “We’re getting very close to being able to use these biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and dementia with Lewy bodies,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Jing Zhang, associate professor of pathology at the UW. His lab is at Harborview Medical Center. “This is a major improvement on other biomarker detection techniques.” Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people in the United States, and the toll of the diseases is expected to worsen as the Baby Boomer generation grows older. Though researchers and clinicians are learning more and more about the diseases, there is still uncertainty in the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. The biomarkers identified in this study need to be tested in a larger population of patients before becoming part of a full diagnostic tool, Zhang said, but these results are promising. The extensive number of proteins that the research team found in patients with neurodegenerative diseases will likely help researchers create a large panel of biomarkers that could be used in a clinical diagnosis and in monitoring disease progression. The multi-site study also included researchers from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle; and Applied Biosystems in Framingham, Mass.

<urn:uuid:e74e8089-0439-4961-b4a2-6ef0ea85f203>

Jargon – Search Engine A search engine is a program that indexes web pages based (mainly) on the content of the web site. It allows you to enter a key word or phrase into a search engine (like Google) and be presented with many, sometimes 100′s of thousands, of web sites that relate to your key word or phrase. For search engines to be useful they have to index the web well before you type in your search criteria. They do this by continuously “spidering” the web. “Spidering” is the term given to using automated programs to “visit” web sites in order to categorise there appropriateness to show up in searches using various keywords. Search engines are very sophisticated in what they do, google for example looks at over 100 criteria in order to categorise a web site. Find out more about how search engines work here. Search engines fall in and out of vogue based on how they rate against other search engines for retrieving appropriate web pages. As the technology changes so does the most popular search engine, at the moment Google ranks supreme, with about 80% of the worlds search going through it. MAny people have a favourite search engine (usually the one installed as a default on their computer or the one they first used) but there are new challengers all the time, try for example www.alltheweb.com or www.webwombat.com.au for searches with an Australian bent, or the latest and greatest www.teoma.com.

<urn:uuid:b675939b-2f4b-4259-aacb-d51e1622dffe>

Epilepsy and Your Child's School Epilepsy and Learning Disabilities Statistically, children with epilepsy are more likely to have learning disabilities than other kids, according to Turk. But that doesn't mean that children with epilepsy are underachievers. Plenty of children with epilepsy are straight-A students. If your child is having problems in school, talk to your doctor about possible reasons. Among them: - Sometimes, learning disabilities are directly related to the epilepsy. Whatever is causing seizures in the brain may also affect your child's ability to learn. - Also, epilepsy medicines might cause side effects that can impair a child's ability to concentrate. - Your child could have an unrelated learning disability, like any other child. - Lastly, depression may be a serious and unrecognized issue for children with epilepsy. Depression is "definitely a problem for young adults with epilepsy, and I think for kids, too," Turk says. Kids with depression may have low energy, a limited attention span, and bad grades. Parents should not assume these symptoms are normal for children with epilepsy. Turk says that parents who notice their child is having problems in school should step in quickly. "Don't stick your head in the sand," he says. "You need to get it checked out. The learning disability may have little to do with the epilepsy itself. It may be something that can be corrected easily." Fighting Epilepsy Stigma in Your Child's School Coping with people at school who don't understand epilepsy is just one example of the stigma that you and your child may face at times. "Some people don't understand epilepsy. They think it's a mental illness or a kind of retardation," Turk says. "That's obviously not true, but the reaction that children with epilepsy get to their condition can really shape their outcome." "Even if your child is very smart, if his teacher treats him like he's stupid because he has epilepsy, that can become a self-fulfilling prophesy," says Turk. It's important to fight these misunderstandings and prejudices when you encounter them. Explain that children with epilepsy are usually just as capable as other kids. You may meet people who call your child an "epileptic." Explain why the term isn't used anymore: A child with epilepsy isn't defined by this condition. Instead, epilepsy is usually a small part of his or her life. No doubt you and your child will meet some people with outdated ideas about epilepsy. But take heart. Turk says the public's understanding of epilepsy is improving, largely thanks to parents who talk openly and honestly about the condition. "I think it's very important for people with epilepsy not to hide it," says Turk. In the long run, every child with epilepsy will benefit from your openness.

<urn:uuid:65929775-ea3f-4cc7-a3c0-4672e30a04c1>

Jury Still Out on Routine Dementia Screening for Seniors Panel says benefits unproven, but Alzheimer's experts say early detection is important Gandy said a recent report found that Alzheimer's may kill six times as many people as previously believed. "This figure came as no surprise to dementia specialists," he said. "As long as primary-care physicians and other professionals fail to confront the epidemic status of dementia, the more time will be required before governments take seriously the economic threat of the dementia epidemic." Heather Snyder, director of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer's Association, said there is value in detecting dementia early, despite the task force's stance. "Their recommendation is that they can't make a recommendation," she said. "It's very important to separate insufficient evidence from no evidence." The Alzheimer's Association supports early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's, Snyder said. "We know there is a better chance that an individual would be able to benefit from the current medications that are available," she said. "They would be able to take advantage of clinical trials and participate in conversations with their family about planning for their care and financial future." According to the task force, dementia affects approximately 2.4 million to 5.5 million Americans. It results in trouble remembering, speaking, learning new things, concentrating and making decisions that affect daily life. Alzheimer's disease is one type of dementia. Mental decline is not always as severe as Alzheimer's. A recent study, published in the March/April edition of the journal Annals of Family Medicine, found that only about 20 percent of people who experience mild cognitive impairment will go on to develop serious brain-related disorders such as Alzheimer's. Although some people will be stricken with Alzheimer's or other dementia, many will see their symptoms remain the same or disappear, the researchers said. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of experts in prevention- and evidence-based medicine. It makes recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling and medications.

<urn:uuid:fd329832-72ad-476c-b502-d7663b972040>

Tour Stop 8: Hercules Club Hear Wireless Wilderness Audio for: Stop #8 Directly ahead of you is one of the most fascinating trees in the forest. Do you see all of the cone-like bumps that cover the bark? These are not the result of a disease or an insect infestation. They are a normal part of this tree, which is called a Hercules Club. The tree is also called the Toothache Tree or Tickle Tongue Tree, because the bark and leaves contain a chemical compound that produces a numbing sensation in the mouth. Native Americans and early settlers used the leaves as a remedy for toothaches, and mothers would rub their baby’s gums with the leaves to soothe the pain of teething. Hercules Club trees produce purple berries in summer that attract birds. In turn, the birds distribute the seeds, which tend to flourish in sunny, isolated locations where they can grow without much competition. The Hercules Club tree is a native member of the citrus family, and like other members of this family, it is a preferred food for caterpillars of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly. During the summer, you may see a large black and yellow butterfly hovering around the leaves of the tree, touching her abdomen to the leaves – she is laying eggs that will turn into caterpillars and then eventually into butterflies. To view: Tour Map To learn more about: Hercules Club

<urn:uuid:1abbdb24-1cc3-4310-bd21-9680e7f426f2>

Guests and Research Alphabetized Index of Garden Answers Appearances & Events || Over-wintering Your Plants Bring in Your Green Tomatoes! Well, if you garden up here in the North and haven't done it already, its time to start ripping out your tomato plants. Seed some lettuce and spinach in their place and bring all your big green tomatoes inside; they'll ripen up better on your kitchen counter at this point than they would outdoors. The best way to get the most ripe tomatoes is to place your greenies in low cut cardboard boxes out in the open; one layer of love apples only--don't stack them! It's ALWAYS one on the bottom that goes bad. And Your Pepper plants! But DON'T harvest any of your peppers while they're still green--and don't toss those plants! Peppers are tropical perennials that can live for many years, and they love to be brought INdoors for the winter. And wait'll you see how early you get ripe peppers when you take those BIG plants out to the garden NEXT year! Yes, this is especially good news for us hot and sweet bell pepper growers who endured a frustratingly cold and wet summer; a lot of our plants are just now getting in gear--with frost lurking right around the corner! Well, if you dig up those pretty plants all covered with flowers and unripe fruits carefully and bring them inside to sit in front of a sunny window, those flowers will turn into peppers, and your green fruits will ripen up! And if you provide some artificial light, they'll keep producing tasty treats for you all winter. That's right--these plants don't have to die; you can--and should--treat just like lemon, orange and other citrus trees in pots: Wheel 'em out for the summer and back inside for the winter! Here's How to Turn Peppers Into Houseplants! No matter where you live, it's time to perform my absolute favorite gardening trick and bring your pepper plants inside for the winter! This works best with small compact plants--like almost all hot pepper varieties--and smaller sized sweet bell peppers. Make a wide, deep circle around each plant with a sharp shovel. Then slide the shovel underneath, lifting the plant up with its roots tucked safely inside an island of soil, and plop it into a nice big pot--ten inches is an ideal size. If you need more soil in the pot, use a light, loose seed-starting mix like Pro-Mix--not poor-draining garden dirt! Water your potted plants well, leave them outside for a few days to get adjusted, then wash the leaves down carefully with plain water to remove any pests, and bring 'em in! Put them in a sunny South facing window, and they'll ripen up their green peppers and stay alive for replanting outside next Spring. (I wind up with such BIG plants to put out in the Spring that they quickly bloom, and we get ripe red bell peppers before our first tomatoes!) Clean those windows first--on both sides--and you'll double the amount of light your houseplants receive--even if the windows didn't look dirty! Artificial light is even better; you can fit four nice-size pepper plants in 10-inch pots underneath a four-foot long shoplight. Use a pair of 40-watt cool-white bulbs--not plant lights, they just aren't bright enough. Hang the lights on chains and move them up as the plants grow, but keep the tops almost touching those cool bulbs--those plants will flower and fruit for you indoors all winter long! Bring in These Pretty Garden FLOWERS Too! Potting up my pepper plants and bringing them inside for the winter has become my favorite gardening trick. But peppers aren't the only tropical plant you can do this with; it works just as well--maybe even better--with two favorite bedding flowers: Begonias and impatiens. They're really easy to bring indoors, and they'll bloom for you all winter long! Pot them up, leave them sit outside for a few days to get acclimated, wash them carefully with water to remove any hitchhiking pests, and then use them to liven up your South or East facing windowsills. Don't bother with extra lighting--these shade lovers DON'T need any! Replace those outdoor posies with pansies, and you'll have blooming flowers indoors and out all winter long!

<urn:uuid:598f7258-7c49-4416-a2a5-ade8f503e387>

(CBS News) Sixty-seven million Americans - about one-third of the country - have high blood pressure, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released Tuesday. However, only half of them have are actively working to control it. About 36 million Americans aren't taking medication or other measures to keep their blood pressure at healthy levels. "We have to roll up our sleeves and make high blood pressure control a priority every day, with every patient at every doctor's visit," CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a teleconference with TIME. "We can use the whole health-care team. We know that when pharmacists, nurse practitioners, allied health workers, office staff are all involved in care, we can see rapid and dramatic improvements in blood pressure control." High blood pressure or hypertension is a condition where a person has a systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 90 mmHg, according to the CDC. Left untreated, it is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. People with high blood pressure are four times more likely to die from a stroke and three times more likely to die from heart disease. The disease contributes to nearly 1,000 deaths per day and about $131 billion in direct health care costs annually. According to the report, out of the 36 million Americans with untreated or incorrectly treated high blood pressure, an estimated 14 million are not even aware they have the disease. Another 6 million know they have the disease but were not on medication, and an estimated 16 million were being treated but still had persistent high blood pressure. About 89 percent of the subjects had a source of health care, and 85 percent had health insurance. "[About half] of Americans with high blood pressure don't have it under control and because of that, it's public enemy No. 2," Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news conference according to HealthDay. He added that public enemy No. 1 is tobacco. The information was published in a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Sept. 4 that used data from the 2003-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It included answers from 22,992 representative Americans over age 18. To combat the problem, the CDC is encouraging members of the private sector to join Million Hearts, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiative co-led by CDC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that is attempting to prevent a million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. They also are working with pharmacists on how to provide education and counseling for people with high blood pressure, and are focusing on the issue as part of a Leading Health Indicator, a project focusing on clinical preventative medicine. They also pointed out that counseling by health care providers to encourage patients with high blood pressure to take their medicine and make lifestyle changes (like eating a low-sodium diet, exercising and quitting smoking) may help lower the incidence of the disease, as well as regularly monitoring patients' blood pressure. The CDC suggested that health care systems should consider allowing 90-day refills for blood pressure medications and lower or remove the cost for such medications.

<urn:uuid:7c97b069-882e-41c1-843a-21b68416fc6f>

Edited by 80_Calo, Sarah Eliza, Teresa, Brandon and 1 other If you shoot guns, and want to learn how to shoot accurately, you probably surfed the Internet searching for ways to shoot guns accurately. Luckily, this article will teach you how. Read on. 1Load the gun.Ad 2Choose a shooting position: prone (laying down), kneeling or sitting, or standing. Assume the position. 3Hold the gun properly. Determine your dominant eye. Place the butt of the gun on your shoulder and the hand corresponding to your dominant eye near the trigger. Use the other hand to hold the front of the gun. 4Make sure the safety is turned off. 5Aim. Look into the front sight and then the back sight. Make sure the back sight is exactly on what you want to shoot at. Breath in, let half the air out of your lungs, steady, aim again and fire. to fire pull slowly back on the trigger do not jerk it you may misfire and exhale.Ad - Do not tense up when shooting. Also, make sure the gun is the correct size for you. - Well maintained guns will shoot better. Make sure the gun is clean and sighted properly. - Name brand ammo is a must when shooting long distances. - Remember practice makes perfect. Go to the range a few times a week, and soon you will be able to hit the bull's-eye 3 out of 5 shots. - Never point a gun at a person! - Never smoke around any gunpowder or light up. Never smoke when cleaning your gun as the liquids you use to clean your gun are very flammable. - Don't keep loaded guns around animals. Both dogs and pet snakes have accidentally shot their owners. - Don't handle a firearm if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Things You'll Need

<urn:uuid:055d207a-9913-4ebc-abac-7f94ce1a4b2d>

Islam and the Imperial Legacy in Russia and Central Asia "Successive Russian regimes from tsarist to post-Soviet times have policed Islam, portraying the state as the defender of Orthodoxy," said Robert Crews, Title VIII-Supported Research Scholar, at a Kennan Institute Noon Discussion on 25 November 2002. However, when viewed in conjunction with other policies, anti-Islamic campaigns appear to have been episodic, their objectives varied, and outcomes mixed, especially under the Soviets. Crews explained that other state policies, practices, and institutions have created interconnections between these regimes and the populations they governed that cannot be understood by recourse to the repression paradigm alone. According to Crews, the most enduring legacy of Islam in the states of the former Soviet Union has been shaped by a very distinctive mode of policing Islam. These practices date to Catherine the Great, under whom the Russian state became both a patron of Islamic institutions and police. Crews suggested that this framework has endured, with some periodic departures and mutations throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, regardless of who has occupied the Kremlin or the new post-Soviet Presidential palaces. Crews remarked that Muslims have also played a central role in shaping Russian and post-Soviet state building. Since the late eighteenth century, state institutions have framed debates among Muslims about the meaning of the "correct" interpretation of Islam. According to Crews, the outcome of contests over access to state patronage and policing has had an enormous impact in directing religious change among Muslims in the past two centuries. At the same time, these conflicts within Muslim communities–and the state's capacity to mediate these differences–have also been a key to state formation. Crews' research shows that even in the tsarist period, amid conflict with Muslim rebels and with Ottomans, many Muslims continued to look to the state to guard Islam from clerics, relatives, and neighbors who were not sufficiently pious. In turn, the regime could look to Muslim villagers to alert them about deviants in their midst. Crews noted that the policing and judicial institutions of the empire deepened their reach into local communities by taking on the mediation of such disputes–in a pattern that officials and Muslims would replicate, with some variations, with expansion into Central Asia. Crews went on to discuss the policing policies of the twentieth century. He explained that in the early part of the century, a younger generation of reformers confronted established Islamic authorities with new media, like the press and the theater, calling for the reform of the faith in the name of "progress" and "the nation." According to Crews, they remained marginal in Central Asia until they forged an alliance with the Bolsheviks and the Soviet state after 1917. Crews explained that their victory was short lived, as they did not survive the destruction of the clerical infrastructure and schools in the 1920s and 1930s. Still, "debates with deep roots in the region about the authority of Sufi guides, the veneration of saints, and interpretation of Islamic law continued to involve the state in the later Soviet period." Crews noted that in the post-1991 era, the contest for religious authority and meaning has stretched to include proponents of radical change – those who wish not only to "re-islamicize" society but also to create an "Islamic state." In addition, there is evidence of reconstruction of extensive ties with the wider Muslim world. But Crews noted that there are divisions across state lines and even within them as different groups stake claims on authority and resources to define the boundaries of the Islamic community. According to Crews, a concern with perceived containment has forced these regimes–and Muslim communities–to forge new alliances against common enemies. But the identity of these enemies is far from certain. Crews explained that each state is struggling to define the relationship between state and religion. All avow a secular identity, but each backs "official" institutions. In Russia, the Orthodox Church gained the symbolic status of the state church, with "traditional confessions" such as Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism also accepted. However, Protestant, Catholic, and other religious communities ostensibly alien to the Russian past are left in limbo. Crews pointed to similar policies in Central Asia, where various Protestant groups have been harassed. Crews concluded that state power has not only been repressive but also productive of new modes of religious authority and community identity. Policing Islam, he said, has not involved the wholesale suppression of Islam; instead it has meant the advancement of particular interpretations of the faith not against but with the policing organs of successive regimes. Crews recommended that scholars, practitioners, and policy makers look more closely at the policing practices of these regimes and the broader geopolitical context rather than waving the banner of alarm about Islam as a threat to stability, civil peace, and the protection of fundamental human rights.

<urn:uuid:9fef4266-4749-4637-ab0b-32226c44f96b>

This image shows the Rover at work. Click on image for full size Image from: JPL/NASA Soils explored by the Rover One of the objectives of the Mars Pathfinder mission was the examination of the composition of the soil and how it was laid down. As the Rover traversed the surface exploring the rocks of Mars, it also sampled the soil near those rocks. Soil experiments were performed by spinning the Rover's wheels (mostly the rear wheels). As the wheels dug into the surface, the Rover discovered that much of the ground is made of dust, possibly deposited during many of the Martian Global Dust Storms. Scientists found three types of soils in the Martian surface near the Pathfinder landing site (+ one special type). - Dark Soil (dark gray) - Bright Soil (bright red) - Disturbed Soil (disturbed by the passage of the Rover & movement of the airbags, & sort of dark-red) - Lamb-like Soil (just found around the rock "the Lamb") Everywhere the Rover passed, it disturbed the soil, and the soil underneath turned out to be a darker red-brown soil than it's surroundings, suggesting that parts of the surface of Mars have a top-coat. An example of disturbed soil occured when the Rover crossed the Mermaid Dune , shown here . In general, the soils seem to be similar to those soils found at the Viking Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store! Our online store on science education, classroom activities in The Earth Scientist specimens, and educational games You might also be interested in: This image shows the rock called Pooh Bear. Soil found near Pooh Bear seemed to be a clumpy kind; finely grained, cloddy, and rocky. This was different from the soils found near the rock Scooby Doo, which...more The goal of the Mars Pathfinder (MPF) mission was to analyze the rocks and soil of Mars. The MPF was actually 2 parts, a lander and a rover. The lander stayed right where it landed while the rover named...more The Mars Pathfinder was launched in December 1996 on a Delta II rocket. The spacecraft entered the atmosphere on July 4th, 1997, where a heat shield, parachutes, and airbags helped it land. After impact...more These are the findings of Mars Pathfinder. Rounded Pebbles, Cobbles and possible Conglomerates were found - a result from analysis of the landing site, the rocks, and the soils. showed that there were...more Even though the rocks seem to be much the same, scientists can see three basic differences in these rocks. These differences help them figure out more about weathering processes on Mars and where the soils...more The Viking I and Viking 2 missions were designed to both orbit Mars and land and make exploratory observations on the planet's surface. At this stage in the history of the exploration of Mars, scientists...more The Mars Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001, from Florida. After a six-month, 285 million-mile journey, the Odyssey arrived at Mars on October 24, 2001. The Odyssey is in its aerobraking phase right now....more

<urn:uuid:5939c338-dc33-4c2a-8387-c2e9cc012210>

Animal Kingdom Gets a New Root - 5:19 pm | The animal kingdom has gained a cousin and lost a mother. In a fundamental reconfiguration of the tree of life, scientists now say that the last common animal ancestor is not — as was commonly believed — a sponge or comb jelly, but rather an as-yet-unknown forerunner of amoeba-like creatures called placozoans. "It’s a question that has plagued animal biologists for a couple hundred years: What could be the mother of all animals?" said Rob DeSalle, an evolutionary biologist at the American Museum of Natural History. "We’ve turned it upside down." Since Carl Linnaeus put life in taxonomic order in 1735, scientists have proposed a variety of original or ur-animals, from Ernst Haeckel’s hypothetical, embryo-like gastraea to larval jellyfish called planula. But in recent years, zoologists have favored either sponges or comb jellies as occupying a bifurcation point between Bilateria — creatures with bilateral symmetry, including humans and most of the animal kingdom — and the jellyfish, corals and polyps belonging collectively to Cnidaria. Those hypotheses were based on relatively rough comparisons of anatomy and a handful of genes. Molecular sequencing and supercomputer-enabled data analysis give biologists a clearer picture of life’s narrative — but DeSalle’s analysis, published Monday in Public Library of Science Biology, has merely moved the mystery to another level. Comb jellies and sponges don’t appear to have predated Bilateria, but rather belong with Cnidaria in a single branch of the animal kingdom, originating in the lowly placozoans. But while some scientists, among them DeSalle, thought that placozoa might represent the last common ancestor of all animals, it appears to belong solely to this newly defined branch, leaving the ur-animal shrouded in mystery. "It fits in with what you might think is the most basal animal. It’s only got three cell layers and four cell types. Its motility is primitive. It lives in warm oceans. It’s got all the earmarks of the thing that gave rise to all animal life," said DeSalle. "But that’s not what the results show. And though placozoa is the ur-cousin of complicated life, we still don’t know the ur-mother." DeSalle’s team fed data on 9,400 biological characteristics — from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences to RNA molecular structure — from 70 species spanning every major class of animal on Earth into a program that searched for patterns of relationships, determining which order made linear sense. Out of this came the new tree, with DeSalle’s would-be ur-animal at the start of one branch. Identified just 100 years ago crawling on an aquarium wall, placozoans have not even been studied in their ocean habitat, but its genome was sequenced in 2008. University of Texas taxonomist David Hillis called placozoa "among the most interesting animals that almost no one has ever heard about," but was less enthusiastic about the conclusion, which he said "represents a fine distinction in how we reconstruct the ancestral animal." But such fine distinctions are fascinating to DeSalle. Since placozoa don’t have a nervous system and jellyfish do, the findings suggest that nervous systems evolved at least twice, independently of each other. This insight could stimulate research that provides a deeper understanding of our own nervous systems. "Evolution has done all these experiments, and when you reconstruct common ancestors, you’re reconstructing the results of the experiment," said DeSalle. "If you want to look at the development of our brains, of our nervous system, of anything we have as a result of experiments that nature has done, the best way to do it is to reconstruct our ancestors." DeSalle said a common animal ancestor is likely to come from Deuterostomia, a group of phyla that includes sea cucumbers. Citation: "Concatenated Molecular and Morphological Analysis Sheds Light on Early Metazoan Evolution and Fuels a Modern ‘Urmetazoan’ Hypothesis." By Bernd Schierwater, Michael Eitel, Wolfgang Jakob, Hans-Jürgen Osigus, Heike Hadrys, Stephen Dellaporta, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis and Rob DeSalle. Public Library of Science Biology, Jan. 26, 2009. Image: Trichoplax, the only known placozoan / Wolfgan Jakob - The Difference Between a Tree of Life and an Encyclopedia of Life - What’s Old Is New: 12 Living Fossils - Forgotten Experiment May Explain Origins of Life - A New Taxonomy Tries to Change an Ancient System

<urn:uuid:dbae205d-f4af-42a5-a1a2-76d5e5462510>

Roble, a species in the roble group of Tabebuia (generally T. rosea), ranges from southern Mexico through Central America to Venezuela and Ecuador. The name roble comes from the Spanish word for oak (Quercus). In addition, T. rosea is called roble because the wood superficially resembles U.S. oak. Other names for T. rosea are mayflower and apamate. The sapwood becomes a pale brown upon exposure to air. The heartwood varies from golden brown to dark brown, and it has no distinctive odor or taste. The texture is medium and the grain narrowly interlocked. The wood weighs about 642 kg/m3 (40 lb/ft3) at 12% moisture content. Roble has excellent working properties in all machine operations. It finishes attractively in natural color and takes finishes with good results. It weighs less than the average of U.S. white oaks (Quercus) but is comparable with respect to bending and compression parallel to grain. The heartwood of roble is generally rated as moderately to very durable with respect to decay; the darker and heavier wood is regarded as more resistant than the lighter-colored woods. Roble is used extensively for furniture, interior woodwork, doors, flooring, boat building, ax handles, and general construction. The wood veneers well and produces attractive paneling. For some applications, roble is suggested as a substitute for American white ash (Fraxinus americana) and oak (Quercus). *Much of the base wood information presented here is made available by the USDA FPL FS. If you are interested in a much more technical description of wood properties, I encourage you to visit the source.

<urn:uuid:37ceb392-9378-47ed-a74d-3052188aaca5>

17 entries found for iron. The first 10 are listed below. To select an entry, click on it. Main Entry: 1iron Function: noun 1: a heavy magnetic silver-white metallic element that quickly rusts in moist air, occurs in meteorites and rocks, and is widely used -- see ELEMENT table 2: something made of iron: as aplural: handcuffs or chains used to bind or hinder movement b: a heated metal tool used for branding c: a household device with a flat metal base that is heated to smooth or press cloth 3: STRENGTH 1, hardness <muscles of iron>

<urn:uuid:9bfb7b22-90ac-46fe-b9ce-99047a39dbee>

Great museums of Europe. Milan : Skira ; New York : Rizzoli International, 2002 |注意：||Originally published in Italy in 2002 by Skira Editore.| |描述：||255 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 31 cm.| |内容：||Vatican museums -- The Hermitage Museum -- Musee du Louvre -- British Museum -- Museumsinsel - the Island of Museums -- Prado Museum -- |其他題名：||Dream of the universal museum| |責任：||introduction by Antonio Paolucci.| "This volume devoted to the Great Museums of Europe illustrates eight emblematic museums which, however specific and diverse their collections may be, all hark back to a shared root in the idea of representing in a microcosm the path of development of human culture. Beginning from the earliest example of encyclopaedic collections, specifically those of the Vatican Museums, which originated with the display of classical sculpture in the Belvedere Courtyard at the behest of Pope Julius II, and continuing on to the Russian Imperial Collections displayed in the citadel of the palace of the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, as well as the Hapsburg Collections, later assembled in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna and the Bourbon Collections now housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid; from the Napoleonic dream of the Universal Museum to the present-day structure of the Louvre in Paris, as well as its counterpart, the British Museum in London, founded to accommodate the marble sculptures from the Parthenon that Lord Elgin brought back from Athens. And finally, the ambition to create a citadel of culture, a new Acropolis of universal knowledge, was fully present in the Prussian museum system built on the Museumsinsel in Berlin and, on a smaller scale, in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam." "Each of the eight chapters recounts the history of the individual museum, the creation and transformation of the individual collections, illustrated with a spectacular array of photographs and specific, thorough captions, that provide, as it were, a second and easy-to-follow path through the rooms and the masterpieces that make up the history of human culture."--BOOK JACKET. - Gosudarstvennyĭ Ėrmitazh (Russia) - Musée du Louvre. - British Museum. - Museumsinsel (Berlin, Germany) - Museo del Prado. - Rijksmuseum (Netherlands) - Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. - Museums -- Europe. - Museums -- Europe -- History. - Museums -- Vatican City. - Gosudarstvennyĭ Ėrmitazh (Russie) - Museumsinsel (Berlin, Allemagne) - Rijksmuseum (Pays-Bas) - Art -- Musées -- Europe. - Art -- Musées -- Vatican. - Germany -- Berlin -- Museumsinsel. - Vatican City.

<urn:uuid:6103adae-1439-44ca-961b-175769131dfc>

A broad and powerful coalition of Canadians announced Monday the world's most ambitious model for saving the Northern woods. Those woods, the "boreal" forests that run all around the far Northern hemisphere, are nowhere near as productive or biologically diverse as tropical rainforests, but scientists say they play a key role in planetary climate and provide crucial habitat for billions of migrating birds. Anyone who's every been there - I have - can tell you that boreal forests also have a rare beauty and power. They are global treasures. This agreement, the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, covers just over half of Canada's land mass - 1.3 billion acres, or one-tenth of all the Earth's remaining forests. One half of that will be forever off-limits to logging and development. The other half will be managed for sustainability, with the Forest Stewardship Council and environmental groups acting as watchdogs. Most observers think the coalition has the political momentum to see the model adopted by the Canadian government. There were of course compromises made along the way - as there would be in any effort which has won the vehement support of environmentalists, industry and native peoples - but those should in no way blind us to the staggering magnitude of this plan's achievement: ten percent of the world's forests, set aside or managed under a damn-fine approximation of the best sustainable forestry practices around. Monday was a good day.

<urn:uuid:9f750303-02bb-4cf0-a6ed-fb35daa73694>

As Jeffrey Sheban of The Columbus Dispatch recently commented, "In 1851, when Simon Lazarus opened a men's tailor shop on the dirt road that was High Street, Columbus really was a cow town." Columbus was a frontier town then, boasting 17,882 residents, and High Street was the main thoroughfare, named "High" because the street is on the watershed between the Scioto River to the west and Alum Creek to the east. Columbus was an exciting place in the early nineteenth century: The Ohio State Journal of 1827 reported "some 18 citizens of Hamilton Township, Franklin County, engaged in an all day squirrel hunt. Before nightfall they had killed 1458 squirrels." Apart from the squirrel hunts, the frontier town had much to offer its citizens. Columbus became the county seat in 1824, and in 1834, it was incorporated as a city. The Franklin County Courthouse, completed in 1840, was considered one of the most elegant edifices of its kind. The Ohio Canal produced a commercial revolution in central Ohio after it opened in 1831. When the National Road, the great original pathway of civilization on this continent, came to Columbus in 1833, it brought the isolated Ohio town into profitable and practical contact with the west and the far west. The great Whig Convention of 1840, which nominated "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" for President and Vice President, was held in Columbus. War of 1812 & the Civil War Both the War of 1812 and the Civil War took their tolls on Columbus. The Ohio Penitentiary housed Southern prisoners of war, and the infamous Morgan's Raiders came to Columbus and stole clothing from the Lazarus store. In a move that "took some guts, though it may not have been very smart," according to Robert Lazarus, Fred and Ralph gathered up a couple of guns from the store and went to Camp Chase where Morgan's Raiders were staying. The short version of the story: they got the goods back! The Civil War demand for uniforms expanded the men's clothing industry and led to the development of sizing standards. When Johnny came marching home at the end of the Civil War, one of the first things he wanted was to get out of his uniform. Each soldier went to Lazarus where he would be ushered into the basement to exchange his uniform for store clothes (leaving his uniform behind). One such customer entered the store with $400 in his uniform pocket. He received his new "duds" and left the store. A month later he returned, insisting that he had either lost his $400 or left it in his old clothes. "Mr. Lazarus remembered the man. He took him down into the old clothes room and the man found everything except the trousers he had worn. Mr. Lazarus remembered then that when the man had changed clothes he threw his uniform trousers into the air, glad to be free of them. Looking up they saw the trousers caught on a nail in the ceiling. A hasty examination revealed $400 in the pocket." 1890s: Spanish American War The Lazarus whistle brought the first news of the declaration of the Spanish-American War to Columbus citizens. A day-to-day diary of the war's progress was maintained in Lazarus' windows. By 1898, the store had grown to accommodate 150 "associates," all men, and all of them marched in a parade to welcome home Spanish-American War veterans. 1909: The "New" F.&R. Lazarus store In 1902 young Simon Lazarus entered store management; sadly, Ralph Lazarus died in 1903. In 1907, during a major depression, Simon and Fred Jr., persuaded the senior Fred Lazarus to gamble on the future of apparel retailing by setting plans to build a new six-story store across the street from the old one. The new Lazarus would offer "everything ready-to-wear" for ladies and children, men and boys. With Fred Sr.'s approval, they bought the site of the old United States Hotel. Fred Lazarus Jr. later commented that "we made a loan to build the store, $350,000, and pledged all the family's real estate. It was a big risk for the family." The new F.&R. Lazarus store opened on Monday, August 17, 1909, on the northwest corner of High and Town Streets. After the old store closed on Saturday night, August 15, stock was moved across Town Street on a ramp. As was the custom for a Saturday night, it was 11p.m. before the store was cleared of customers. "At 12 o'clock," reported the local newspapers, "the city closed off Town Street, and a platform was laid down from curb to curb six feet wide. This was covered with a canopy in case of rain, and everything was put in trucks and moved across to the new building." The store's fixtures and the new departments' merchandise were already installed, so only the merchandise from the old store had to be placed. On Monday morning the bigger and better Lazarus store opened its doors to the public and supported the proud boast that "We have never been closed one minute for construction or repairs!" The Lazarus family published this ad in the Columbus News on August 16, 1909: A live chick will break its shell—a dead one never. We have "broken our shell" and have earned the reputation of a "live" concern. We welcome you, one and all, residents of Columbus and the surrounding countryside, to our new home, the largest ready-to-wear concern in the middle west. Our new home is your new home, and such we hope to greet you tomorrow morning. Come and see the Escalator (moving stairway), the Niagara Soda Fountain, the large Aviary filled with singing canaries on the mezzanine, and all of the other attractions. Sales nearly doubled the first year in the new store. According to Charles Lazarus, however, "When the first escalator was installed, it evidently scared the daylights out of people. They had to take it out a year later." One Lazarus patron was so taken with the escalator, though, that he wrote a poem in its honor: What's the crowd a pushin' and a shovin' over there? 1913: The Columbus Flood On March 25, 1913, a disastrous flood hit Columbus. Three to 22 feet of water covered land stretching from the Scioto River to the Hilltop. Ninety-three people lost their lives, four bridges were torn out, and nearly $6,000,000 worth of property was destroyed. Simon Lazarus headed the Relief Committee. The F.&R. Lazarus store cited the heroism of its associates in the Lazarus Enthusiast: "Our West Side associates proved heroes in this ordeal—we're proud of them. Heroes, too, were those associates who braved dangerous currents and fatal obstructions in the rescue work. Messrs. Wiskcohil, Streich, Sifrit, Sachs, and Tharpe used every available canoe in the store to save some of our marooned West Siders. They were first to penetrate some of the most dangerous places in the flooded district." World War I In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Mondays became known as "Fuel-less Mondays," and the Lazarus store remained closed on that first business day through 1918 to conserve energy. A sign in electric lights across the front of the store urged Columbus citizens to "Back Those Bayonets with Thrift Stamps." World War II While the 1930s had been a dark era for most of the country, 1939 was even darker when World War II began. Lazarus supported the war effort in Columbus just as it had for World War I. The store dedicated its High and Town Street corner window as the Columbus Victory Corner on May 23, 1942. Clubs and civic groups were invited to participate in Victory Corner bond selling programs in competition for Certificates of Merit (awarded by the Treasury Department Defense Savings Staff of Ohio), and they responded so enthusiastically that Victory Corner Schedules were set up three to four months in advance. In 1942, the store began opening at 12:00 noon on Mondays for the convenience of Columbus' many defense workers. By midsummer, 1942, almost 100 Lazarus associates were in the armed services and word had come that one associate, Lieutenant Robert J. Meder, had participated in the bombing of Tokyo. Grave shortages of consumer goods, the rationing of shoes and restaurant foods, price controls, and the loss of young men and women to the armed forces were among the retail complications during the war. Buyers of those years remember the frantic search for merchandise to sell, and the instant customer response when it was advertised. One Lazarus associate, a high school student in the receiving room, says she was popular at North High School because she knew when the Spaulding loafers came in. A food executive said sadly in 1944, "Can you imagine Lazarus dining room serving cake made with a mix?" Nylon stockings, or any-fiber stockings, were in such short supply that the rare new shipment always caused a riot. The Post-War years After the war ended in August of 1945, life gradually improved. In 1945 a revolving credit service called the Budget Charge Account was introduced, and in 1947, extensive credit promotion by traveling public relations representatives began in the out-of-town trading areas. In 1947, people outside of Franklin County held 13,000 charge accounts; by 1950 the number had quadrupled. Also in 1947, Lazarus opened its first parking garage, winning the Ohio Architects' award that year. In 1948 Lazarus added the first modern escalators in central Ohio (an escalator had been installed in 1909, but it was removed in 1914 because few people used it and, according to Fred Lazarus, Sr., "it was a creaky old thing and people were afraid of it."). The Lazarus Annex was added in 1946 which permitted expansion in many departments. Late in the 40s, the television boom began, and television sets went flying out of Lazarus. In the summer of 1948, the first Red Apple Pins for courtesy were awarded to associates who were nominated for the honor by letters from customers. The associate who received five courtesy commendations wore a bronze apple. Silver pins denoted ten commendations, and gold pins denoted twenty. Those crazy 50s The Chintz Room and the Buckeye Room replaced the fifth floor Main Dining Room in the early 1950s. The Copper Kettle opened on the Annex lower level, and The Highlander Grill replaced the Soda Grill in the West Basement. Another wonderful Lazarus innovation was the Self-Improvement Clinics for teens and pre-teens which began in 1950. Lazarus used one radio spot to announce the projected series of classes, and the response was so great and the waiting lists so long that the course was not advertised again until 1958. The "U-Ask-It" Phones were also installed in 1950, allowing customers to obtain instant information. After picking up a phone to ask a question, a customer was directed from wherever he or she was to wherever he or she wanted to go! In 1951, Lazarus celebrated its Centennial Year, and everyone worked for six months to improve the merchandise, service and personnel planning. Key events included two series of window displays with 20 historical dioramas made especially for Lazarus, which "froze" highlights in Ohio history—Jenny Lind singing in the Columbus Opera House, for example, or the Wright Brothers working on their first plane. As a Centennial Gift to the community, $100,000 was earmarked for the purchase of the building which housed Community Service Agencies. The store held a 100th Anniversary Sale, and Ed Sullivan made a personal guest appearance at a men's style show. Finally, the Look to Lazarus television show, which began broadcasting in 1950 (and ended in 1952), really "hit its stride" during the Centennial Year with hundreds of VIP visitors to the store. Lazarus invented the Secret Gift Shop, introduced in 1957 and copied by stores across the country. There young children could shop alone—no adults were allowed except for the staff members designated to work the area—and have their Christmas gifts for family and friends put into suitcase boxes that they could open and close as often as they liked! The psychedelic 60s and 70s The late 1950s and all of the 1960s were the years of the "youthquake" when war babies became teenagers. Then, as now, teen fashions were trend setters, forecasting skirt lengths, silhouettes, colors, and mixed patterns that affected the styles preferred by adults. Customer demand for fashion variety to match differing approaches to wardrobe and home decoration resulted in a "boutique shop" trend, which had room to grow since Lazarus expanded its downtown store by 300,000 square feet. Carnaby Street was a teen-man fashion trend, and Mary Quaint was the designer of choice for young girls. The 1960s also saw the opening of branch stores: Westland opened in 1962, Northland in 1964, Eastland in 1967, and the Richland store, located in Ontario, Ohio, opened in 1969. The 1970s were a sad time for Lazarus: Robert Lazarus Sr., active in management from before World War I to the early 1970s, died on February 4, 1973. Robert commented once that "a department store is a living mirror of our civilization in which we see the constantly changing needs and wishes of our people. The department store is as big and diverse as civilization. Yet it is microscopic in its detail. It is as purposeful as any business run for a profit. Yet it is as changeable as a woman's whim. It has to be all these things if it is to survive and prosper." While the Lazarus family grieved over the loss of Robert, the stores continued to do well. In 1970, Kingsdale in Upper Arlington opened; in 1971, the Home Store East and the Lima Mall store opened; the Castleton store in Indiana opened in 1973; in 1974, Lafayette Square, another Indiana store, debuted; and finally, three new stores opened in the fall of 1978: Washington Square (Indianapolis) and the two Budget Capri stores in Columbus and Westerville. In addition, Charlie's, a fast-service restaurant, joined the downtown store and several of the branches. By the 1960s, however, it was becoming apparent that consumer preferences were changing. New roads and highways made it easier for customers to get to stores in shopping centers. Shopping became more informal. While generations of women had once donned dresses and white gloves for a trip to the downtown Lazarus, it became more convenient for them to remain in their everyday clothes and visit their suburb's shopping center where they could park for free close to the door. Around the nation downtown department stores were closing. The beginning of the end While the downtown Lazarus store remained open until 2004, the operation was scaled back during its final years. A significant portion of the building was empty, and the number of in-store restaurants fell from nine to one. The store's elaborate holiday season window displays were eliminated, the Christmas parade was ended, and, in its final years, even Santa's throne was empty. For Columbus residents with happy memories of the store's glory years, though, having the Lazarus store open downtown, regardless of its limited offerings, remained an important connection to the vibrant and vital enterprise that had played a major role in the formation of the city. Your support enables WOSU to produce quality programming about Ohio culture and history. Become a friend of WOSU. We are indebted to several institutions for sharing the wonderful images that bring this story to life: The Ohio Historical Society, WBNS, and The Columbus Dispatch. In addition, we are grateful to The Columbus Foundation for supporting this production.

<urn:uuid:8203d13e-fb26-4175-9b23-4a99f9d733c8>

A study done in the UK reports that firstborns are more successful than the other siblings. Researchers at the University of Essex's Institute for Social and Economic Research surveyed 3,553 individuals and 1,503 groups of siblings, and discovered that firstborn children tended to have higher educational aspirations and attainment (level of education completed). Researchers found that firstborns had a 16 percent higher probability of attending further education compared with later born siblings. Licensed professional counselor Dr. Dawn Romano says there are other factors to consider, but she agrees there is something to the study. "I do agree with the studies that have been done and with this particular study," she explained. "They are finding that there is an advantage to being the first born in the family." Of course Dr. Romano said there are other factors. The study examined sibling birth order, number of children in the family, age spacing, sex health, relationships with one another and educational aspirations. Dr. Romano said spacing may factor in because "parents may just not have as much time to devote to spending with each child. The advantage the first born would have... being the only child before the siblings are born and having the parents undivided attention may not be as much if another child is born soon afterwards." The idea is that with widely spaced siblings, parents are able to spread out their resources.

<urn:uuid:f751295f-778c-45fe-9e88-23e67ebba925>

Ever wonder how those huge warriors in 300 got it on before Astroglide and KY Jelly? Or what all those women did when their men were off in battle for years at a time? How did they make it all work? The men and women of ancient Greek and Roman societies are notorious for their procreation, homoeroticism and battle-time shenanigans as much as they're remembered for democracy and urns. Ancient erotic cowgirl sculpture In the Greco-Roman world sex was bountiful. As women were the guardians of citizenship they were comparatively more independent than their descendents and played an influential part in marriage and society. In some societies they would be encouraged to bear children even if their husbands could not provide his end of the parentage. Women as bearers of children were just as much considered property of the state in some regions as they were to their husbands, so their sexuality was highly valued (though to clarify, women were definitely property and sex outside of marriage for women was more complicated). The power women had sexually for such an ancient era was admirable. It was important in these societies that women have sex, as a lack of sperm was thought to trigger hysteria. This was the subject highlighted in a stage play dated back to the 3rd century. Another depiction of women's sexual power on the stage was Aristophanes' immortal Lysistrata, staged in Athens in 411 BCE. It told the tale of women withholding sex from their husbands in order to force them into talks of peace during the Peloponnesian war. Aristophanes, in his typically comic manner, was commenting both on tension between the genders as well as the Athenian loss during the war in Sicily two years prior. Sex between married couples was sacred, but sex itself did not signify a specifically intimate relationship between two people. Sex outside the marriage bed was only seen as adultery if it was not with a slave, someone of the same sex or with an exchange of money. Concubines and prostitutes spent time with married men just as escorts do in contemporary society. Similarly, some societies respected the profession while others looked down on prostitutes (since they were literally owned by their pimps but not married). Either way, having a relationship with an escort was not legally condemnable. Our modern faux pas on sex outside of marriage just simply did not exist in ancient times. In Greece, there was also no limit on age nor gender. Pederasty (sex between adult men and boys just past puberty) was common, with the emphasis placed more on who was on top in the sexual act (considered the more masculine and higher in society) and on bottom (lower social status or younger age). They had no term for homosexuality, with practices happening constantly and without comment during times of war that proponents of Don't ask don't tell in our Western society might never fully comprehend. So how did all these men and women get off, especially when they were separated by miles and years? How did they not tear their bodies apart with all this sex? Ancient bone dildo First off, dildos were extremely common and unashamedly given as gifts (often to a woman from her man went he off to war, or when he didn't come home from one). A brothel in Ancient Greece, recently dated to about 2,000 years ago, unearthed dildos, vaginal and anal probes and forms of lubrication. Dildos were so socially accepted that many were buried with theirs. These stones were smoothed just enough for ease of penetration, kept just rough enough for pleasure. The lubrication of choice was the oil that was common in cooking and for burning as fuel—olive oil. Olive oil was readily available, taken on long journeys for various uses and stored in droves in ancient brothels and personal rooms apportioned for sex alone. Though (mistakenly) been thought to be a contraceptive and used almost always with women, it also made an easeful lubricant for anal sex between men during times of stressful battle, when the practice often employed. Roman sex scene, reverse cowgirl Olive oil is lubricant that can still be used safely today. The lighter the better, evidently. Circumcision, or the lack thereof, was also considered in these ancient civilizations. Herodotus (485-420BCE) deplored circumcision, noting that other cultures utilized the "practice circumcision for the sake of cleanliness, considering it better to be clean than handsome". An uncircumcised penis was also thought to need less lubrication than a circumcised one (though it would later be thought that a circumcised penis enjoyed greater pleasure). What did religion say about everyone getting it on in such a loose manner? Especially as women's land ownership and place in society increased, sex was considered a gift from the gods, and they worshiped Venus, Cupid and Dionysus (the god of wine and merriment) with gusto. This liberation of women and sexuality was not to last, though, as a new religion was on the horizon when the sexually conservative Christians started tearing down ancient temples and put sexual independence to rest. Ancient escorting eventually became socially questionable as it is today, and pornography—a word derived from the Greek "writing of harlots”—is now illegal in some states in the U.S. Yet we can thank our predecessors for the balance between social civility and sexuality that we, in some ways, have inherited and an understanding we are working toward. The Roman Empire was renown for significant advances in politics, literature, science and religion as well as strength during times of war. If they could contribute so much to history whilst being so sexually liberated, so can we.

<urn:uuid:206da579-f837-48b9-89e9-69fbd8fbcbc3>

While the state of its water supply improved slightly this summer – it was 70 days away from running out of potable water as opposed to 50 last summer – Las Vegas is still raising water rates and looking for additional capital to complete water supply projects. To put this number in perspective, consider that engineers hired to complete a water supply study estimate that Las Vegas should have three years of water stored for emergencies. Las Vegas has limited options available to them which is driving demand for wastewater reuse technology and water efficient solutions for irrigation, air conditioning, and other processes. We see Las Vegas as a microcosm of the broader water challenges faced around the world. Trends such as population growth, urbanization, industrial growth, and the associated changes in consumption patterns, combined with a failing infrastructure and climate change are converging to create a significant water supply and demand imbalance that is driving the adoption of innovation technologies. All end users – from municipalities, to industrial groups such as oil & gas, food & beverage, and mining, commercial users like hotels and resorts, as well as agricultural users and even households – are forced to change the way they manage their water to adapt to this new reality.

<urn:uuid:abff2bf2-2080-46af-886b-df33febbba3b>

Understanding Ages & Stages You don't need a doctorate in psychology to help children, but a little background on child development will help you build programs and activities that are more effective and appropriate. Understanding a few basic concepts will help build your relationships with the children and set the stage for learning. For example, working with groups of pre-readers or kids at the early stages of reading (typically ages 3 to 8) requires exposure to specialized teaching methods. The lack of such training often results in children "acting out" in classes when inexperienced instructors try to engage them in activities that do not meet their developmental needs. As children grow older, they become more sophisticated and better able to master more and different learning skills, but that growth is only one aspect of the process of maturing into a complete and capable adult. Most important, an understanding of child development will help you think about each child's strengths, resources and challenges; the expectations you should have; and how you can help them best. The Domains of Growth Kids mature in three domains of growth: cognitive, physical and socio-emotional. The cognitive domain includes intellectual and academic skills, such as math, language and science; the physical domain involves factors such as dexterity and being comfortable with one's body as it changes and matures; and the socio-emotional domain is the realm of emotions, psychology and social skills. Traditional educational environments tend to focus almost exclusively on the cognitive domain, paying less attention to the other two, but it's important that your program take a "whole child" approach, incorporating age-appropriate learning in all three domains. For example, if you are doing a project on dance, don't just study it in books or watch a video—get the kids up and moving. For the socio-emotional domain, try having them talk about how they danced in a way that reinforces positive interaction. One of the many reasons we are advocates for inquiry-based learning is that it is better at incorporating the whole child approach. Different age groups reach milestones in each domain at different times. Most physical competencies are achieved in the early ages, and most of the basic "hardwiring" of adult logic and thinking skills begin to appear around age 12. Match your skills components accordingly. One particular challenge for youth workers in underserved communities is that children may be lagging in one or more domains. Observe your children with an open mind and see where their specific needs and strengths lie. Also remember that other factors, such as gender, nutrition and home environment, influence the age at which kids master certain skills. Although it's important to get a complete picture of each child's strengths, challenges and competencies in each domain, avoid thinking in terms of buzz words and pop psychology. Labels can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Even if kids never hear you say words like "at risk" or "ADD," they'll respond to how you treat them and the expectations you show. Applying Child Development Concepts In general, you'll create much more effective programs by grouping kids of the same age range together. Although you sometimes might want to match younger children with older ones for tutoring or mentoring relationships, keeping children of similar ages together will let you focus on common needs and will enable them to interact with each other on the basis of common experiences. Working with children across even modest age ranges can be demanding. Chip Wood, the author of Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14: A Resource for Parents and Teachers, notes that "the maximum range for even the most talented teachers is about a three-year chronological and two-year grade spread." How you implement these guidelines will change according to your goals and resources, but consider the following rules of thumb: - At ages 5 to 7, skills in all domains are emerging. - At ages 6 to 8, kids are beginning to consolidate their growth in all domains. They're still learning fundamental communication, math and problem-solving skills, and their social and community awareness is expanding. - At ages 9 to 11, kids are well coordinated in large and fine motor skills and they now have an increased attention span. Their developing self esteem requires positive reinforcement and it is important for them to be part of a group. - At ages 12 to 14, kids start looking at art and music more seriously. They are more sophisticated at conceptualization and abstract thinking, and they start making the shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Here's an exercise to try with other members of your center's staff. Collect a number of children's books and examine them. If they specify a recommended reading age, do you agree? Even if you do, are they right for your kids? What domains of growth does each explore? What developmental themes are addressed? Compare thoughts with your colleagues and see if you get any ideas for how to use some of the books in your sessions. How you group kids by age will be a key factor in your planning, affecting everything including how you schedule sessions in your center to the activities you choose to pursue in those sessions. Although you always want to offer kids high expectations for achievement in order to build their skills and self-esteem, nothing will be more frustrating or demoralizing than setting goals that are beyond them developmentally.

<urn:uuid:d559d1da-a598-4ae3-a669-093468ef6266>

So is it global warming or just better meteorlogical measuring systems? The debate will continue. After all we can use computers on these babies now. But there have been eight official Category 5 (the biggest and meanest) hurricanes in the past five years. THat is unprecedented. The Associated Press account contains this description of the newly set hurricane record: "Tuesday was historic for two reasons: It was the first time on record that two Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes made landfall in the same year, with Felix coming two weeks after Hurricane Dean slammed into southern Mexico. "And Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes have never made landfall the same day, according to records dating back to 1949. The closest comparison happened at 5 a.m. on Aug. 24, 1992, when Andrew devastated southern Florida 23 hours after Lester hit Baja California, Mexico, the Hurricane Center said." Both hurricanes brought intense wind and lots of water. Nicaragua was the worst hit, getting the full force of Category 5 Felix. Of course, Felix won;t really affect Gulf of Mexico oil production but the oil traders still jacked up the prices. Any price in a storm, they say.

<urn:uuid:a84c99b5-0bb9-40b1-8527-bfbba45bba55>

Chip-and-PIN readers can be tricked into accepting transactions without a valid personal identification number, opening the door to fraud, researchers have found. Researchers at Cambridge University have found a fundamental flaw in the EMV — Europay, MasterCard, Visa — protocol that underlies chip-and-PIN validation for debit and credit cards. As a consequence, a device can be created to modify and intercept communications between a card and a point-of-sale terminal, and fool the terminal into accepting that a PIN verification has succeeded. "Chip and PIN is fundamentally broken," Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University told ZDNet UK. "Banks and merchants rely on the words 'Verified by PIN' on receipts, but they don't mean anything." The researchers conducted an attack that succeeded in tricking a card reader into authenticating a transaction, even though no valid PIN was entered. In a later test, they managed to authenticate transactions, without the correct PIN, with valid cards from six different card issuers. Those issuers were Barclaycard, Co-operative Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, HSBC and John Lewis. The central problem with the EMV protocol is that it allows the card and the terminal to generate ambiguous data about the verification process, which the bank will accept as valid. In particular, the terminal can record that a PIN verification has taken place, while the card itself receives a verification message that does not specify that a PIN has been used. The resultant authorisation by the terminal is accepted by the bank, and the transaction goes ahead. This means that while a PIN must be entered, any PIN code would be accepted by the terminal, the researchers said in a paper entitled Chip and PIN is Broken. The researchers said the engineering and programming skills necessary to make a man-in-the-middle device to conduct the attack are elementary. "The attack doesn't require too much technical skill [to emulate]," said Steven Murdoch, who took part in the Cambridge University research, alongside Anderson and Saar Drimer. Behind the attack The attack targets the way the various security mechanisms interact in the cardholder verification process. In this process, the chip in the card and the terminal decide how to authenticate the transaction. The cards examined by the researchers all recognised as authentication, in descending order of preference: PIN verification; signature verification; and no verification. The majority of transactions require PIN verification. The customer enters their number on a PIN entry device. The PIN is then sent to the card, which compares it to a PIN...

<urn:uuid:f628acea-968f-42fe-b1d6-04ba272f307e>

Volume 14, Number 7—July 2008 Testing for Coccidioidomycosis among Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia Coccidioidomycosis is a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in disease-endemic areas. Because testing rates influence interpretation of reportable-disease data and quality of CAP patient care, we determined the proportion of CAP patients who were tested for Coccidioides spp., identified testing predictors, and determined the proportion of tested patients who had positive coccidioidomycosis results. Cohort studies to determine the proportion of ambulatory CAP patients who were tested in 2 healthcare systems in metropolitan Phoenix found testing rates of 2% and 13%. A case-control study identified significant predictors of testing to be age >18 years, rash, chest pain, and symptoms for >14 days. Serologic testing confirmed coccidioidomycosis in 9 (15%) of 60 tested patients, suggesting that the proportion of CAP caused by coccidioidomycosis was substantial. However, because Coccidioides spp. testing among CAP patients was infrequent, reportable-disease data, which rely on positive diagnostic test results, greatly underestimate the true disease prevalence. Coccidioidomycosis (valley fever) is a disease caused by Coccidioides spp., dimorphic fungi that thrive in the alkaline soil of warm, arid climates (1). Infection may occur when conidia in disrupted soil are inhaled. Coccidioidomycosis-endemic areas include the southwestern United States, parts of Mexico, and Central and South America. In the United States, these areas include parts of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Utah (1). The clinical manifestations of coccidioidomycosis have been well established (2–4); 1–3 weeks after a person inhales the spores, most persons with symptomatic infection will have a clinical syndrome consistent with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) (3). Serologic testing is the most frequently used method for diagnosis of primary pulmonary coccidioidomycosis (3,5). For most patients, serologic reactivity ends after a few months unless infection is active. Although 95% of symptomatic pulmonary infections are self-limiting and resolve after several weeks or months without antifungal therapy, ≈5% progress to asymptomatic residua, such as pulmonary nodules or cavities (2). Among all recognized infections, extrapulmonary disease involving the meninges, bones and joints, skin, and soft tissues occurs in <5% (2). Risk factors for severe or disseminated infection include immunosuppression, diabetes, preexisting cardiopulmonary disease, second- or third-trimester pregnancy, and African or Filipino descent (6). Previous studies suggest that the true prevalence of coccicioidomycosis is substantially underestimated (6,7). One study, which used rates of skin-test conversion, estimated that clinical illness would develop in ≈30,000 persons per year in southern Arizona (7). Another study found that coccidioidomycosis was serologically confirmed for 29% of CAP patients in primary care clinics in Tucson, Arizona (8). To understand more about the unmeasured prevalence of disease, we evaluated Coccidioides spp.testing practices for ambulatory clinic patients with CAP in Maricopa County, which encompasses most of metropolitan Phoenix in Arizona, a state where coccidioidomycosis is reportable. Our objectives were to estimate the proportion of patients with CAP who were tested for coccidioidomycosis, to determine predictors of testing, and to determine the proportion of CAP patients who had coccidioidomycosis. To accomplish our objectives, we performed 3 related studies: a data analysis, a retrospective cohort study, and a case–control study. To describe the epidemiology of coccidioidomycosis in metropolitan Phoenix, we analyzed data from the National Electronic Telecommunication System for Surveillance. We calculated county-specific and age group–specific incidence rates for 1999–2004. Population denominators were obtained from the US Census Bureau (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html). Retrospective Cohort Studies To determine the proportions of CAP patients tested for Coccidioides spp., we performed retrospective cohort studies in 2 healthcare systems (systems A and B) in metropolitan Phoenix. System A served large numbers of patients without private insurance, whereas system B was associated with an insurance company. System A comprised 13 clinics and system B comprised 17 (Table 1). Race and ethnicity data were available for patients in system A (19% white, 6% black, 69% Hispanic, 4% other) but not system B. Administrative databases from both systems were screened to identify outpatient visits from January 1, 2003, through December 31, 2004, in which patients were assigned primary or secondary codes from the International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9), beginning with 486 (pneumonia, organism unspecified). Patient charts were selected by simple random sampling for chart review to determine whether patients met inclusion criteria. Patients were included if their initial visit was as an outpatient, they had no history of coccidioidomycosis, and they had CAP as defined by the clinician. Patients were excluded if they were hospitalized or had been residents of a long-term care facility within 14 days of symptom onset. Demographic, clinical, diagnostic data (including Coccidioides spp. testing), and outcomes were extracted from medical records for all subsequent visits within 2 months after the initial clinic visit. Preliminary results, obtained by using Current Procedural Terminology codes for Coccidioides spp. serologic testing (86635, 86329, 86331, or 86171), indicated that 13% of patients in system B were being tested for Coccidioides spp. compared with 1% in system A. Assuming α = 0.05 and a power of 80%, a sample size of 86 was needed for each cohort to show a difference in testing frequency between the 2 systems. To determine factors associated with coccidioidomycosis testing (testing predictors) among CAP patients, we conducted a case–control study in system B. We identified all ambulatory patients who had visited system B in 2003 and 2004 and had an ICD-9 code for “pneumonia, organism unspecified” and a Current Procedural Terminology code for Coccidioides spp. serologic testing. Patients with CAP were defined by the same criteria used in the cohort studies. Case-patients were defined as CAP patients who had received Coccidioides spp. serologic testing, regardless of test result. Controls were defined as patients who met the definition for CAP but had not received Coccidioides spp. serologic testing. A simple random sample of visits was reviewed to confirm inclusion criteria and to confirm Coccidioides spp. serologic testing associated with the pneumonia. All data were entered into Epi Info (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], Atlanta, GA, USA). Analysis was performed in Epi Info, SAS version 9.1 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA), and StatXact 6 (Cytel Software Corp., Cambridge, MA, USA). Confidence intervals (CIs) on difference in proportions were determined by assuming 2 independent binomial proportions and using an exact method. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare continuous variables. Univariate logistic regression models related the dependent variable (a clinician ordering a test for Coccidioides spp.) to independent variables such as age (>18 years vs. <18 years); reported rash; chest pain; symptoms >14 days, as well as other demographic or clinical symptom characteristics. A final multivariable model was chosen by using the stepwise selection procedure. Independent variables that remained significant (α<0.05) while other significant variables were controlled for were included in the final model. Exact 95% CIs are reported because of low observed cell counts. In 2004, Maricopa County had the most reported cases of coccidioidomycosis in Arizona (2,704 cases), followed by Pima and Pinal Counties (715 and 164 cases, respectively). Compared with other counties in Arizona, Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal Counties also had the highest incidence rates (77, 77, and 75 cases per 100,000 persons, respectively). The incidence rate in Maricopa County has increased from 42 per 100,000 persons in 1999 to 77 cases per 100,000 persons in 2004. Maricopa County shows a seasonal pattern with cases peaking in the winter season (Figure), similar to findings reported elsewhere (9). Coccidioidomycosis was reported in every 5-year age category; the incidence rate for coccidioidomycosis was 8/100,000 for those <5 years of age and increased steadily with each age group; incidence for persons 55–64 years of age was the highest (166/100,000). Groups of persons >65 years of age also had high incidence rates (65–74 years, 161/100,000; 75–84 years, 147/100,000; >85 years, 153/100,000). Retrospective Cohort Studies In system A, 619 visits for “pneumonia, organism unspecified” were identified, from which 132 (21%) were sampled for chart review. From the 132, 66 (50%) were excluded: 11 had no charts available, 21 were miscoded or did not have a clinical diagnosis of pneumonia, 30 were initially hospitalized, and 4 had been residents of long-term care facilities or hospitalized within the 14 days before symptom onset. The remaining 66 patients were confirmed by chart review to have CAP and were included. In system B, 14,695 visits for “pneumonia, organism unspecified” were identified, from which 159 (1%) were sampled for chart review. From the 159, 72 (46%) were excluded: 6 had no charts available, 25 did not have clear documentation of pneumonia, 37 were initially hospitalized, 1 had been hospitalized within 14 days before symptom onset, and 3 had a history of coccidioidomycosis. The remaining 87 patients were therefore included. Patient Characteristics and Clinical Description (Table 2) Of CAP patients, 11% of those in system A were <18 years of age compared with 37% in system B (difference 26%, 95% CI 12%–39%, p<0.01). Patients in system A were significantly more likely than patients in system B to have been seen initially in an emergency department (26% vs. 6%, difference 20%, 95% CI 7%–33%, p<0.01). Clinical signs and duration of symptoms before the initial visit were similar for patients in both systems. In systems A and B, respectively, cough was the most commonly reported symptom (82% and 79%), followed by fever (33% and 58%) and dyspnea (27% and 26%). Approximately 50% of patients in each group had focal findings on lung examination. In terms of coexisting conditions, 38% of patients in system A had diabetes compared with 8% in system B (difference 30%, 95% CI 16%–43%, p<0.01); diabetes is a risk factor for severe pneumonia and for complicated Coccidioides spp. infection (10). Similar proportions of those with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were found in both systems. Few patients had a diagnosis of HIV, pregnancy, or organ transplantation, and few were receiving immunosuppressive medications. Chest radiographs were less likely to have been taken for patients in system A than for patients in system B (23% vs. 83%, difference 60%, 95% CI 47%–72%, p<0.01). Of those in both systems who did have chest radiographs taken, similar proportions had findings consistent with pneumonia (78% and 81%, respectively). All patients in both systems received treatment with antibacterial drugs. Coccidioides spp. serologic testing was low overall for patients in systems A (1/66, 2%, 95% CI 0.04%–8%) and B (11/87, 13%, 6%–22%). Patients in system A were significantly less likely than patients in system B to have had Coccidioides spp. serologic testing performed at any point during the clinical course of disease (difference 11%, 95% CI 3%–20%, p = 0.01). In system B, 7 (64%) of 11 tested patients were tested during a follow-up visit rather than at the initial visit. Of those 11 patients, 1 (9%) had a reactive serologic test result for Coccidioides spp. Median duration of symptoms before testing for patients in system B was 27 days (range 1–99 days); most patients (64%) were tested after symptoms had been present for at least 2 weeks. Patient outcomes were similar. In system A, 2 (3%) were known to have been hospitalized for worsening of pneumonia, and no patients were known to have died. In system B, 6 patients (7%) were hospitalized for worsening pneumonia, and 2 died; cause-of-death data were unavailable. Of 14,695 potential CAP-patient visits in system B, we randomly selected 60 case-patients (i.e., those with CAP who had been tested for Coccidioides spp.) and 76 controls (i.e., those with CAP who had not been tested). According to univariate analysis, patients who had chest pain (odds ratio [OR] 4.6, 95% CI 1.8–11.8), rash (OR undefined, 95% CI 1.2–undefined), or those with symptom duration >14 days (OR 5.8, 95% CI 2.1–15.7) were significantly more likely to have been tested (Table 3). Additionally, patients >18 years of age (OR 5.5, 95% CI 2.1–15.3) and those who had diabetes or were receiving an immunosuppressive medication (OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.0–16.5) were significantly more likely to have been tested. The multivariate model identified the following as being significantly more likely to have been tested for coccidioidomycosis: adult patients (adjusted OR 5.3, 95% CI 1.5–24.0) and those who reported rash (adjusted OR 21.1, 95% CI 2.2–∞), chest pain (adjusted OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.2–13.8), or symptoms for >14 days (adjusted OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.3–14.2). The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test showed no evidence of a lack of fit (p = 0.8). Of the 60 case-patients who were tested for Coccidioides spp., 9 (15%, 95% CI 8%–26%) had positive results. Of these 9, 3 had immunoglobulin (Ig) M by enzyme immunoassay alone, 3 had IgM and IgG by enzyme immunoassay (IgG titers 4, 8, and 8 by complement fixation), 1 had IgM and IgG by immunodiffusion, 1 had a single high IgG titer (128), and another had a rising IgG titer (<2 initial; 16 at 4 weeks). Our study directly measured serologic testing practices for coccidioidomycosis. The proportion of ambulatory patients with CAP who were tested for Coccidioides spp. was low in this coccidioidomycosis-endemic area. Because incidence rates of CAP in this area of the United States are not available, the number of CAP patients who do not receive serologic testing for Coccidioides spp. cannot be estimated. However, if incidence rates are comparable to those in other parts of the country (6), the number of patients with CAP who are not tested for coccidioidomycosis would be high. If CAP is the result of coccidioidomycosis in as many as 10%–15% of these untested patients, then large numbers of patients would remain undiagnosed. According to recently published Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) guidelines, the benefit of antifungal therapy for uncomplicated respiratory Coccidioides spp. infection is unknown (6). However, treatment is more likely to benefit groups at risk for severe or disseminated infection (6). Although these groups are especially likely to benefit from early testing for coccidioidomycosis, other benefits of early diagnosis may exist for all patients with coccidioidomycosis, regardless of risk for severe disease. Such benefits may include avoidance of unnecessary use of antibacterial agents, earlier identification of complications, decreased need for further expensive diagnostic studies, and reduction of patient anxiety (3). Reasons that CAP patients may not be tested for Coccidioides spp. are unclear but are likely complex. First, professional consensus for optimal testing practices may have been lacking. Although guidelines developed by national professional organizations for the management of CAP were available during the study period (11–13), these guidelines did not directly address the best strategy for Coccidioides spp. serologic testing (11–13). IDSA guidelines for the treatment of coccidioidomycosis also did not clearly recommend serologic testing for patients with CAP (6,14). The most recent IDSA/American Thoracic Society guidelines for CAP, published after the study period, now recommend evaluating travel history or exposure to disease-endemic area during the initial assessment rather than waiting for a failed response to therapy (15); these guidelines may lead to increased testing for coccidioidal CAP. Second, physicians may be unaware of the benefits of early testing or the possible high prevalence of coccidioidomycosis in those with CAP in Arizona and therefore may not understand the utility of testing. Regardless of the reasons, the lack of testing in the presence of widespread disease hampers epidemiologic understanding of this disease and subsequently may affect public health decisions related to resource allocation to control disease, educate physicians, and develop a vaccine. Our data also illustrate the marked differences in process of care for ambulatory patients with CAP in different health systems. Patients in the uninsured population, system A, were less likely to be tested than patients in the primarily insured population, system B. This disparity is evidenced by the higher proportion of CAP patients in the insured system who received chest radiography in addition to serologic testing. Public health officials may be able to address these disparities by providing general recommendations for diagnostic testing of patients with CAP in coccidioidomycosis-endemic areas; process-of-care measures such as chest radiography and Coccidioides spp. serologic testing may help determine effectiveness of such interventions. Of the tested CAP patients in system B, 15% had serologic evidence of recent Coccidioides spp. infection; this proportion is much lower than that (29%) found in a recently reported study (8). Several differences may explain this discrepancy. First, our study population was located in a different area of Arizona. Second, our definition of CAP differed from the definition used in the other study and is likely more representative of actual CAP found in outpatient practices (8). However, our proportion may overestimate the true proportion of CAP caused by coccidioidomycosis because testing in our cohort was subject to a decision made by the treating physician. Nevertheless, the high proportion could signify that a large number of pulmonary coccidioidomycosis diagnoses are likely missed in Maricopa County alone and that the overall extent of pulmonary coccidioidomycosis is higher than that indicated by reportable disease data. Further studies are needed to better quantify the extent of disease. Our study has several limitations. First, in contrast to definitions used in many studies, our definition of CAP included patients whose diagnosis was made by a clinician without a chest radiograph or with a negative chest radiograph. However, although some patients may not have truly had CAP, our definition reflects what clinicians actually believed they were treating, which is clinically relevant to whether a diagnostic test is ordered. Second, although the study populations were geographically dispersed throughout metropolitan Phoenix and included varied population segments, they may not be generalizable to populations in health systems in other areas of Arizona. Third, at system B, controls were inadvertently oversampled during 2003, so we were unable to include visit year in our analysis. However, it is unlikely that the biased selection based on year led to substantial bias for other variables such as age, sex, clinic location, signs, symptoms, coexisting medical conditions, or testing. Fourth, data on socioeconomic status were not available for either system, and race or ethnicity data were not available from system B. Fifth, because our study evaluated ambulatory rather than hospitalized patients with CAP, our conclusions cannot be generalized to the hospital, where testing practices are likely to differ. Our study shows that testing for Coccidioides spp. among ambulatory patients with CAP is infrequent in metropolitan Phoenix. Providers in metropolitan Phoenix and other coccidioidomycosis-endemic areas should consider testing patients with CAP for coccidioidomycosis. Further epidemiologic studies are needed to better determine the true extent of pulmonary coccidioidomycosis. Dr Chang is a medical epidemiologist in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, Mycotic Diseases Branch, at CDC. His research focuses on fungal diseases and infections among transplant recipients. We thank Andy Roher and Elizabeth Smith for their assistance with data abstraction and Kenneth Komatsu, Miriam Vega, Emma Viera Negron, Gordon Jensen, and Rick Weber for assistance with study design and implementation. All financial support for this study was provided by CDC and the Arizona Department of Health Services. - Pappagianis D. Epidemiology of coccidioidomycosis. Curr Top Med Mycol. 1988;2:199–238. - Chiller TM, Galgiani JN, Stevens DA. Coccidioidomycosis. [viii. ]. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2003;17:41–57. - Galgiani JN. Coccidioidomycosis: a regional disease of national importance. Rethinking approaches for control. Ann Intern Med. 1999;130:293–300. - Stevens DA. Coccidioidomycosis. N Engl J Med. 1995;332:1077–82. - Pappagianis D, Zimmer BL. Serology of coccidioidomycosis. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1990;3:247–68. - Galgiani JN, Ampel NM, Blair JE, Catanzaro A, Johnson RH, Stevens DA, Infectious Diseases Society of America. Coccidioidomycosis. Clin Infect Dis. 2005;41:1217–23. - Dodge RR, Lebowitz MD, Barbee R, Burrows B. Estimates of C. immitis infection by skin test reactivity in an endemic community. Am J Public Health. 1985;75:863–5. - Valdivia L, Nix D, Wright M, Lindberg E, Fagan T, Lieberman D, Coccidioidomycosis as a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006;12:958–62. - Park BJ, Sigel K, Vaz V, Komatsu K, McRill C, Phelan M, An epidemic of coccidioidomycosis in Arizona associated with climatic changes, 1998–2001. J Infect Dis. 2005;191:1981–7. - Santelli AC, Blair JE, Roust LR. Coccidioidomycosis in patients with diabetes mellitus. Am J Med. 2006;119:964–9. - Bartlett JG, Breiman RF, Mandell LA, File TM Jr. Community-acquired pneumonia in adults: guidelines for management. The Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis. 1998;26:811–38. - Mandell LA, Bartlett JG, Dowell SF, File TM Jr, Musher DM, Whitney C. Update of practice guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent adults. Clin Infect Dis. 2003;37:1405–33. - Niederman MS, Mandell LA, Anzueto A, Bass JB, Broughton WA, Campbell GD, Guidelines for the management of adults with community-acquired pneumonia. Diagnosis, assessment of severity, antimicrobial therapy, and prevention. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2001;163:1730–54. - Galgiani JN, Ampel NM, Catanzaro A, Johnson RH, Stevens DA, Williams PL. Practice guideline for the treatment of coccidioidomycosis. Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis. 2000;30:658–61. - Mandell LA, Wunderink RG, Anzueto A, Bartlett JG, Campbell GD, Dean NC, Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society consensus guidelines on the management of community-acquired pneumonia in adults. Clin Infect Dis. 2007;44(Suppl 2):S27–72. Suggested citation for this article: Chang DC, Anderson S, Wannemuehler K, Engelthaler DM, Erhart L, Sunenshine RH, et al. Testing for coccidioidomycosis among patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2008 Jul [date cited]. Available from http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/14/7/07-0832 Comments to the Authors Comments to the EID Editors Please contact the EID Editors via our Contact Form. - Page created: July 12, 2010 - Page last updated: July 12, 2010 - Page last reviewed: July 12, 2010 - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) Office of the Director (OD)

<urn:uuid:a9dc7767-ec15-4ea6-a8c1-2f1c9a9f0fea>

The missing binary model in the last chapter was the big one. Gender was more than one of the many oppositional tropes that shaped Vanity Fair, it was the term by which the magazine positioned its readers in relation to one another. Gender was from the start a concern of the magazine. When Conde Nast first bought Dress magazine in 1913 it had been a men's fashion magazine. When Dress and Vanity Fair appeared it did so with the intent of expanding its focus to the kaleidoscopic whirlwind it eventually became. "Dress" was soon dropped from the title - with a promise that this editorial choice did not evidence a diminished interest in fashion. One of the things that happened when Dress and Vanity Fair became Vanity Fair was that Fashion itself - in a magazine that until recently had been about stylish men's attire - was re-sexed. While it is personified as "Dame Fashion," Fashion is also erotisized as a part of an underlying courtship narrative. Here Dame Fashion is also a Rival (the capitol R draws attention to the great rhetorical weight the magazine placed on its clever use of this word) suitor - competing with the magazine's many other interests for the object of desire that they all shared - the debutante-like attention of the reader - here gendered as female regardless of the biological sex of the person reading. Rita Felski, in The Gender of Modernity, argues that the "language of publicity" (Berger's phrase 131) always has a governing logic of gender difference. Women were increasingly responsible for making choices about what products their families would buy, even if the money used in these exchanges was earned by their husband's labor and not by their own. To be a consuming subject in the modern world was therefor to enact the position of the feminine in ways that to be a producing subject was not. In order for Vanity Fair to reinvent itself as a magazine fit for a modern consumer public, in needed to reinvent its readers. The well-dressed men who had read Dress had to become linguistic androgynes who could enact both masculine and feminine subjectivities when a given advertisement or article required it of them. This mixing of supposed masculine (such as purchasing power) and supposed feminine (such as the irrationalism of insatiable desires) attributes made many people nervous. Because it offered women new kinds of pleasures and at least some illusion of personal autonomy, Felski argues that the arena of consumption was a site of many of the culture's anxieties about gender relations. Many worried that To address the modern consumer was therefor to address an androgyne - not just because the reader may have been either male or female, but also because any modern consumer always combined elements of male and female subjectivity. While this androgyny has many oppressive elements to it (the fact that it all takes place as part of an exploitative economic order, for instance) it has liberatory potential as well. Vanity Fair exhibited a marked interest in the erotics and economics of androgyny, and even a limited willingness to explore those possibilities. The magazine allowed confusion and ambivalence to reign on many of its pages, meditating on the fragility of gender roles and on the disorienting sensuality of a world without them. However it was certainly not involved with some kind of utopian degendering of the world, and many pages of Vanity Fair (especially in the 1930s) seem eager to contain the gender-corrosive energies that others had let loose. Through 1929 the table of contents page suggested the gender work of the magazine better than any other single regular feature. Below the title there was a single image divided in two showing a man and a woman engaged in some activity together (such as performing music). Between the two images was the list of the magazine's contents - mediating the distance between them. The layout of these pages imitated the cultural work of the magazine; it occupied a place between masculinity and femininity that was open to exploration. While this space was somehow imaginary (the picture would only make literal sense if the two sides were put end to end) the magazine seemed to open up the space of the impossible and put itself firmly in it. Full-page advertisements for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company appeared in every issue in 1929. These always depicted a woman engaged in some domestic activity - such as playing with children in the nursery in September- and being able to stay more involved with her task because of what was often called "the new telephone convenience." Significantly, the women in the ads always had short cropped hair and shapelessly slender, boyish figures. This body was able to contain and convey the semiotic contradiction of a woman who could purchase a new telephone from AT&T and yet play the part of nurturing domestic - who could not be interrupted from the "games" with her children, but who also had "important calls" which could not be "delayed." This series of ads also played to class based anxieties in much the same way as the Mr. Tyler subscription ads. The ad from the August issue showed a servant woman using a phone that had been installed in the kitchen. The implication was that many telephone lines would help run a house with many servants - but once again what would seem to be a clear address to the wealth cannot remain stable through the whole ad. The address structure opens up at the last minute: "each residence has its special opportunities for telephone convenience. Your local Bell Company will be glad to plan with you the arrangements best suited to you own." In exactly the moment when the magazine seems its most elitist, it takes on the intensely democratic rhetoric of the new technology's universal applicability. A brief overview of AT&T ads from other magazines shows us beyond any real doubt that - even if Vanity Fair editors thought little about the magazine's advertising content - advertisers thought a great deal about what to put in the pages of Vanity Fair. An ad from a Harper's Magazine from July 1927 shows a chart of telephones which depicts the inevitability of widespread telephone use with a kind of Darwinian evolutionary iconography. The ad plays not to dominant ideologies about gender but to those about technology. Women are totally absent, but men occupy a ghostly presence. The reference to the Darwinian charts depicting the rise of man, who grows from ape to homo-erectus in all his phallic glory, ally the telephone with a masculine model of power and progress. An third type of AT&T ad appeared in American Home magazine in December of 1931. Once again, AT&T evidences sensitivity to the kind of publication in which its ads appeared. The emphasis here is not on the woman on the phone. Unlike in the Vanity Fair ads she is presented as doubly secondary: the photograph distracts the reader from her body with the splendor of the newly redecorated room while the caption under the photograph goes to great lengths to make it clear that the woman on the phone is not the consumer. "My dad had my room done over… and gave me a telephone for Christmas!" she exclaims. The readers of American Home were reminded that even in the domestic world it was men who directed the money and men who managed the resources. Perhaps the best evidence that AT&T was very conscious of what kind of magazines it was advertising in comes from the regionally specific Sunset Magazine which was printed and circulated in Southern California. Rather than playing to readerly anxieties about gender, the ads routinely played to anxieties about natural disaster (April, 1929) and separation from friends and family in the east (January, 1929). Others issues referred to the importance of telephones to modern business expansion and economic well being. The point of all this is not merely that AT&T thought about where its ads were appearing, but that corporations in general were concerned about issues of audience and that there ads may be read in these terms. The ads that appeared in Vanity Fair for AT&T were deeply concerned with the relationship between gender, modernity, and the new possibilities of the androgynous consuming subject. They are our most convincing proof that the magazine as a whole, and its readers shared those concerns. AT&T did not advertise in Vanity Fair in 1933, though they continued to run full-page advertisements until December of 1932. These had lost some of the focus they had in 1929. Some were rather hollow feeling reworkings of ads that had run in 1929 - such as the one that appeared in November. Others seemed less willing to explore the complicated possibilities of changing gender roles then they had been on the eve of the depression. The December, 1933 ad not only signaled the end of AT&T's advertisements in Vanity Fair but closed the door on many of the disruptive energies that the companies older ads had let loose. It showed a woman asking a man - her husband, we assume - to buy her an extra telephone for their living room. Clearly whatever had made the playful exploration of aesthetic and economic androgyny possible was no longer at work in the culture of the early depression. Another corporation with ads that seemed to reconfigure the possibilities of gender was Fisher Body. Like AT&T, the automobile manufacturer, which sold bodies to General Motors, ran full-page ads in most issues of Vanity Fair throughout 1929. Also like AT&T, they did not run ads in 1933. What was very different was the set of gender complications the ads invoked. With the accompanying slogan, "look to the body," Fisher's ads always featured a prominent and usually full color depiction of a woman's body, while the body of an automobile was always monochrome and sometimes not even part of the ad. By inviting the reader to "look to the body" on display - a body that frequently had exposed legs and shoulders - they made an awkward equation of the sexualized female body and the object for sale, valued for its strength and the modernity of its technology. Here Vanity Fair did the work of positioning its readers in relation to femininity and to modern technology and insisted that those relations were exchangeable for one another. This equation of the semi-pornographic with the technologically new gains a new kind of urgency when examined in light of the discourse of streamlining which was then gathering speed and, by 1933 would be firmly in place as the dominant technological aesthetic in America. Richard Guy Wilson makes the argument that streamlining appealed to Americans because it responded to a basic contradiction in widely held assumptions about aesthetics and technology. On the one hand, Americans wanted to see technology at work in the things around them. On the other hand, the radically new forms of the machine age posed a threat to aesthetic values that had been basically stable for generations - aesthetics which valued handcrafted elegance and simplicity of form. Streamlining reacted to this contradiction in much the same way that Vanity Fair reacted to the desire to fit the values of the modern world inside the values of the old. The tear drop shape which was streamlining's signature required a degree of modern technology to produce, and the then-new use of wind tunnels for aerodynamic testing gave it an air of machine-like efficiency. Yet unlike the machine aesthetic of the early 1920s, the reality of streamlining was that it covered the working technology of the machine with a technologically produced shell that was not itself a machine. In Mythologies, Roland Barthes argues that striptease (of all things) works by invoking a similar kind of contradiction. The techno-skin of the streamlined object, like the erotic element of the striptease, works like a kind of homeopathy which cures with a measured dose of the offending illness. Barthes goes on: In Vanity Fair, streamlining appeared most forcefully in a group of ads for General Electric Refrigerators. While the refrigerators hardly resembled a teardrop, they are an early example of modern technology's attempts to manifest itself under erasure. Each of the ads shows a person remarking on the hidden-ness of the refrigerator's machine-ness. In the February 1929 issue, the top of the page declared, "All the machinery is on top - you never see it, never oil it, barely hear it!" The latest technological innovation was technology's invisibility. These GE ads, like the Fisher ads, were regular features in 1929; often they appeared only pages away from one another. Taken together, as magazine-logic demanded that they should be, they pronounced a strange alliance between the striptease which compared the machine to a woman's body (Fisher's) and that which took up the logic of striptease to describe a purely technological phenomenon (GE). The subject position that the reader was asked to take up was one that could relate to new technologies as if they were an object of sexual desire, but could also relate to objects of sexual desire as if they were new technologies. The use of sexual desire to sell was not unique to Vanity Fair, what was unique was the characteristically kaleidoscopic range of forms that desire could take. That multiplicity of forms was further complicated by the sheer range of things to which the reader of Vanity Fair had to respond. The magazine possitioned its readers in relation to cars, Picassos, refrigerators, physicists, socks, and foreign countries, and each page of Vanity Fair helped to make, remake, and destabilize the terms by which all the others could signify. The GE ads were not the only ones to work with a crisis of interiors and exteriors. Earl-Glo, a company that made rayon overcoat linings, had a full-page, black and white ad in the September 1929 issue. "It would take a good line to explain a bad lining" the ad warns. The illustration shows a man taking off his overcoat and, with the help of a "coat room girl," exposing the tattered lining he would have wanted to keep secret. An androgyne with a fur and a slick, dark evening gown (perhaps his date) looks on in horror. Among New York sophisticates, for whom Freud was still very current, this warning would have signified off of the fear that unconscious desires and drives which might be "as ragged as the ruffles of a Russian refugee" could appear in the form of slips of the tongue and other outward manifestations of the interior world. It responded to an anxiety that was only possible in the culture of the managed self - that the elements of human existence that defied management could expose the fraudulence of any closely-managed external image. Modern technology - here represented by rayon, "the modern lining material" as the advertisement called it - could help even with this seemingly impossible task. The advertisement worked by playing off of a real fear, but in doing so it helped to teach people what kinds of thing they should be afraid of and under what circumstances they should fear them. In many ways, the Earl-Glo ad more closely resembled the ads of 1933 than any of the other 1929 ads. Along with the more overtly political focus that the magazine took with the worsening of economic conditions came a more conservative position, especially with regards to gender. Similarly, the much shorter issues (often only half as many pages as those of 1929) offered fewer different viewpoints and possible subject positions. The magazine, ads and all, began to rely more on conventionally determined gender signification and began to do more work to maintain, rather than to complicate the coherence of gender roles and relations. An extended investigation of these ads is not so important as was the investigation of the ads of 1929, simply because the 1933 advertisements do not represent so richly varied a kaleidoscope of different positions. One company that provided an array of striking full-page advertisements during the Depression was Listerine. These do not merit extended investigation, but were part of a larger trend toward reinforcing conventional gender roles by insisting on the need to be attractive to members of the opposite sex. What is significant is that it shows how the magazine's readers were looking for an inexpensive panacea for all of the problems of unattractiveness, from bad breath to dandruff. Far more rare in the 1930s were the ads, like the Earl-Glo page I discussed above, that asked for readers to consider, invest in, and manage each part of themselves separately and with separate, potentially incompatible logics. More interesting, if more conservative, are the advertisements for Ethyl Gasoline. The February 1933 issue is representative of many of the others. An older man's masculinity comes into question when his son remarks that all the cars of the roadway went faster than his. this ad responded to the anxiety that economic hardship was turning men into inadequate role models for the younger generation. In order to raise his son correctly, the man in the car had to buy the premium grade gas, and thereby preserve the speed of his car and all that it stood for - particularly his potency as embodied in his ability to reproduce his own masculinity in his son. Unable to do that, he was hardly a man at all. Another example comes from the April 1933 issue. A doctor on his way to deliver a baby is in a race with a stork - a symbol of the antiquated mythology about the appearance of babies - everything that modern medicine was supposed to have out-run. Here it is not the doctor's masculinity that is under attack, but the superiority of modern medical technologies over the superstitious narratives of pre-industrial pseudo-science. Together these ads illustrate a more widespread trend in Vanity Fair and in the culture at large. Forces like technology and modernity which in 1929 had enjoyed a complex position of androgyny were now reassigned their masculine identities. The Depression was the end of Vanity Fair until the magazine reopened in the early 1980s as a kind of shrine to the modern celebrity. In the 1930s advertising revenue became more rare for the magazine, but those revenues had never covered the cost of publication even at the best of times. The real reasons Conde Nast closed its doors in the beginning of 1936 seem to have been that - while in the 1920s he could tolerate a magazine that consistently lost money, in the 1930s he could not. However commercial the reasons for closing the magazine were, the world that Vanity Fair had stood for was already crumbling. Terry Cooney explains in Balancing Acts that even those who had been the most avid supporters of autonomous, a-political modernism in the 1920s became politically charged in the 1930s (129-131). Vanity Fair, while certainly more political during the Depression than it ever had been before, was never able to make any meaningful link between its politics and its aesthetics. Hellen Lawrenson described the "light" and "heavy" sides of the magazine as like a light child and heavy child trying to play together on a seesaw (Hoffman 73). In spite of this, Vanity Fair continued to be very popular in the 1930s, and it continued to find new readers even as those readers grew poorer. 1931 was its best selling year ever; 1935, the year it collapsed, was its second best selling year ever (Hoffman 380). Perhaps Vanity Fair was doing too good a job giving its readers what they wanted - those who had little money perhaps chose to buy Vanity Fair rather than the products it advertised. Whatever the reason, Vanity Fair's readership, as big as it was, no longer had the market value it once had. In 1934, long after Vanity Fair had stopped laying out its table of contents page in the manner it had in 1929, it published a rather remarkable article that reenacted some of the iconography of those pages. The article superimposed photographs of nine film actresses onto one another, and did the same for nine actors. The result was supposed to be a composite that would indicate the ideal of beauty for both men and women in 1934. The title of the of the article - like a punch line for the running joke that had been the whole history of the magazine - was "Male and Female: We Create Them." Ever the proponant of satiric wit, Vanity Fair here satirized itself and its own cultural work, even as the world that had made that work possible was giving way beneath its feet. Indeed Vanity Fair had produced many different kinds of male and female possibilities, and perhaps, beginning to see that its work was becoming increasingly impossible, it left this article as its epigram. Or perhaps like most of what went between its pages, it was simply another destabilizing gesture aimed at gender, identity, and beauty.

<urn:uuid:eff77bf3-6cc5-4d5f-a333-ac634ce0329c>

I WISH to abstain from instituting any comparison, or drawing any parallel whatever, between the social features of the United States and those of the British possessions in Canada. For this reason, I shall confine myself to a very brief account of our journeyings in the latter territory. But, before I leave Niagara, I must advert to one disgusting circumstance, which can hardly have escaped the observation of any decent traveller who has visited the Falls. On Table Rock there is a cottage belonging to a Guide, where little relics of the place are sold, and where visitors register their names in a book kept for the purpose. On the wall of the room in which a great many of these volumes are preserved, the following request is posted: "Visitors will please not copy nor extract the remarks and poetical effusions from the registers and albums kept here." But for this intimation, I should have let them lie upon the tables on which they were strewn with careful negligence, like books in a drawing-room: being quite satisfied with the stupendous silliness of certain stanzas with an anti-climax at the end of each, which were framed and hung up on the wall. Curious, however, after reading this announcement, to see what kind of morsels were so carefully preserved, I turned a few leaves, and found them scrawled all over with the vilest and the filthiest ribaldry that ever human hogs delighted in. It is humiliating enough to know that there are among men The quarters of our soldiers at Niagara are finely and airily situated. Some of them are large detached houses on the plain above the Falls, which were originally designed for hotels; and in the evening-time, when the women and children were leaning over the balconies watching the men as they played at ball and other games upon the grass before the door, they often presented a little picture of cheerfulness and animation which made it quite a pleasure to pass that way. At any garrisoned point where the line of demarcation between one country and another is so very narrow as at Niagara, desertion from the ranks can scarcely fail to be of frequent occurrence: and it may be reasonably supposed that when the soldiers entertain the wildest and maddest hopes of the fortune and independence that await them on the other side, the impulse to play traitor, which such a place suggests to dishonest minds, is not weakened. But it very rarely happens that the men who do desert are happy or contented afterwards; and many instances have been known in which they have confessed their grievous disappointment, and their earnest desire to return to their old service, if they could but be assured of pardon, or of lenient treatment. Many of their comrades, not withstanding, do the like from time to time; and instances of loss of life in the effort to cross the river with this object are far from being uncommon. Several men were drowned in the attempt to swim across, not long ago; and one, who had the madness to trust himself upon a table as a raft, was swept down to the whirlpool, where his mangled body eddied round and round some days. I am inclined to think that the noise of the Falls is very much exaggerated; and this will appear the more probable when the depth of the great basin in which the water is received is taken into account. At no time during our stay there was the wind at all high or boisterous, but we never heard them three miles off, even at the very quiet time of sunset, though we often tried. Queenston, at which place the steamboats start for Toronto (or I should rather say at which place they call, for their wharf is at Lewiston, on the opposite shore), is situated in a delicious valley, through which the Niagara River, in colour a very deep green, pursues its course. It is approached by a road that takes its winding way among the heights by which the town is sheltered; and, seen from this point, is extremely beautiful and picturesque. On the most conspicuous of these heights stood a monument erected by the Provincial Legislature in memory of General Brock, who was slain in a battle with the American Forces, after having won the victory. 1 Some vagabond, supposed to be a fellow of the name of Lett, who is now, or who lately was, in prison as a felon, blew up this monument two years ago, and it is now a melancholy ruin, with a long fragment of iron railing hanging dejectedly from its top, and waving to and fro like a wild ivy branch or broken vine stem. It is of much higher importance than it may seem, that this statue should be repaired at the public cost, as it ought to have been long ago. Firstly, because it is beneath the dignity of England to allow a memorial raised in honour of one of her defenders to remain in this condition, on the very spot where he died. Secondly, because the sight of it in its present state, and the recollection of the unpunished outrage which brought it to this pass, is not very likely to soothe down border feelings among English subjects here, or compose their border quarrels and dislikes. I was standing on the wharf at this place, watching the passengers embarking in a steamboat which preceded that whose coming we awaited, and participating in the anxiety with which The recruit was a likely young fellow enough, strongly built and well made, but by no means sober: indeed, he had all the air of a man who had been more or less drunk for some days. He carried a small bundle over his shoulder, slung at the end of a walking-stick, and had a short pipe in his mouth. He was as dusty and dirty as recruits usually are, and his shoes betokened that he had travelled on foot some distance, but he was in a very jocose state, and shook hands with this soldier, and clapped that one on the back, and talked and laughed continually, like a roaring idle dog as he was. The soldiers rather laughed at this blade than with him: seeming to say, as they stood straightening their canes in their hands, and looking coolly at him over their glazed stocks, "Go on, my boy, while you may! you'll know better by-and-by:" when suddenly the novice, who had been backing towards the gangway in his noisy merriment, fell overboard before their eyes, and splashed heavily down into the river between the vessel and the dock. I never saw such a good thing as the change that came over these soldiers in an instant. Almost before the man was down, their professional manner, their stiffness and constraint, were gone, and they were filled with the most violent energy. In less time than is required to tell it, they had him out again, feet first, with the tails of his coat flapping over his eyes, everything about him hanging the wrong way, and the water streaming off at every thread in his threadbare dress. But the moment they set him upright, and found that he was none the worse, they were soldiers again, looking over their glazed stocks more composedly than ever. The half-sobered recruit glanced round for a moment, as if his first impulse were to express some gratitude for his preservation, but seeing them with this air of total unconcern, and having his wet pipe presented to him with an oath by the soldier who had been by far the most anxious of the party, he stuck it in his mouth, thrust his hands into his moist pockets, and, without even shaking the water off his clothes, walked on board whistling; not to say as if nothing had happened, but as if he had meant to do it, and it had been a perfect success. Our steamboat came up directly this had left the wharf, and soon bore us to the mouth of the Niagara; where the stars and stripes of America flutter on one side, and the Union Jack of England on the other: and so narrow is the space between them that the sentinels in either fort can often hear the watch-word of the other country given. Thence we emerged on Lake Ontario, an inland sea; and by half-past six o'clock were at Toronto. The country round this town, being very flat, is bare of scenic interest; but the town itself is full of life and motion, bustle, business, and improvement. The streets are well paved, and lighted with gas; the houses are large and good; the shops excellent. Many of them have a display of goods in their windows, such as may be seen in thriving county towns in England; and there are some which would do no discredit to the metropolis itself. There is a good stone prison here; and there are, besides, a handsome church, a Court-house, public offices, many commodious private residences, and a Government Observatory for noting and recording the magnetic variations. In the College of Upper Canada, which is one of the public establishments of the city, a sound education in every department of polite learning can be had at a very moderate expense: the annual charge for the instruction of each pupil not exceeding nine pounds sterling. It has pretty good endowments in the way of land, and is a valuable and useful institution. The first stone of a new college had been laid but a few day It is a matter of deep regret that political differences should have run high in this place, and led to most discreditable and disgraceful results. It is not long since guns were discharged from a window in this town at the successful candidates in an election, and the coachman of one of them was actually shot in the body, though not dangerously wounded. But one man was killed on the same occasion; and from the very window whence he received his death, the very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the commission of his crime, but from its consequences), was displayed again on the occasion of the public ceremony performed by the Governor General to which I have just adverted. Of all the colours in the rainbow, there is but one which could be so employed: I need not say that flag was orange. 2 The time of leaving Toronto for Kingston is noon. By eight o'clock next morning the traveller is at the end of his journey, which is performed by steamboat upon Lake Ontario, calling at Port Hope and Coburg, the latter a cheerful, thriving little town. Vast quantities of flour form the chief item in the freight of these vessels. We had no fewer than one thousand and eighty barrels on board between Coburg and Kingston. The latter place, which is now the seat of government in Canada, is a very poor town, rendered still poorer in the appearance of its market-place by the ravages of a recent fire. Indeed, it may be said of Kingston, that one half of it appears to be burnt down, and the other half not to be built up. The Government House is neither elegant nor commodious, yet it is almost the only house of any importance in the neighbourhood. There is an admirable gaol here, well and wisely governed, There is a bomb-proof fort here of great strength, which occupies a bold position, and is capable, doubtless, of doing good service; though the town is much too close upon the frontier to be long held, I should imagine, for its present purpose in troubled times. There is also a small navy-yard, where a couple of Government steamboats were building, and getting on vigorously. We left Kingston for Montreal on the tenth of May, at half-past nine in the morning, and proceeded in a steamboat down the St. Lawrence River. The beauty of this noble stream at almost any point, but especially in the commencement of this journey, when it winds its way among the thousand Islands, can hardly be imagined. The number and constant successions of these islands, all green and richly wooded; their fluctuating sizes, some so large that for half an hour together one among In the afternoon we shot down some rapids where the river boiled and bubbled strangely, and where the force and headlong violence of the current were tremendous. At seven o'clock we reached Dickenson's Landing, whence travellers proceed for two or three hours by stage-coach: the navigation of the river being rendered so dangerous and difficult in the interval, by rapids, that steamboats do no make the passage. The number and length of those portages , over which the roads are bad, and the travelling slow, render the way between the towns of Montreal and Kingston somewhat tedious. Our course lay over a wide, unenclosed tract of country at a little distance from the river-side, whence the bright warning lights on the dangerous parts of the St. Lawrence shone vividly. The night was dark and raw, and the way dreary enough. It was nearly ten o'clock when we reached the wharf where the next steamboat lay; and went on board, and to bed. She lay there all night, and started as soon as it was day. The morning was ushered in by a violent thunder-storm, and was very wet, but gradually improved and brightened up. Going on deck after breakfast, I was amazed to see floating down with the stream a most gigantic raft, with some thirty or forty wooden houses upon it, and at least as many flag masts, so that it looked like a nautical street. I saw many of these rafts afterwards, but never one so large. All the timber, or "lumber," as it is called in America, which is brought down the St. Lawrence, is floated down in this manner. When the raft reaches its place of destination, it is broken up; the materials are sold; and the boatmen return for more. At eight we landed again, and travelled by a stage-coach for four hours through a pleasant and well-cultivated country, At noon we went on board another steamboat, and reached the village of Lachine, nine miles from Montreal, by three o'clock. There we left the river, and went on by land. Montreal is pleasantly situated on the margin of the St. Lawrence, and is backed by some bold heights, about which there are charming rides and drives. The streets are generally narrow and irregular, as in most French towns of any age; but, in the more modern parts of the city, they are wide and airy. They display a great variety of very good shops; and both in the town and suburbs there are many excellent private dwellings. The granite quays are remarkable for their beauty, solidity, and extent. There is a very large Catholic cathedral here, recently erected; with two tall spires, of which one is yet unfinished. In the open space in front of this edifice stands a solitary, grim-looking, square brick tower, which has a quaint and remarkable appearance, and which the wiseacres of the place have consequently determined to pull down immediately. The Government House is very superior to that at Kingston, and the town is full of life and bustle. In one of the suburbs is a plank road -- not footpath -- five or six miles long, and a famous road it is too. All the rides in the vicinity were made doubly interesting by the bursting out of spring, which is here so rapid, The steamboats to Quebec perform the journey in the night; that is to say, they leave Montreal at six in the evening, and arrive in Quebec at six next morning. We made this excursion during our stay in Montreal (which exceeded a fortnight), and were charmed by its interest and beauty. The impression made upon the visitor by this Gibraltar of America: its giddy heights; its citadel suspended, as it were, in the air; its picturesque steep streets and frowning gateways and the splendid views which burst upon the eye at every turn: is at once unique and lasting. It is a place not to be forgotten, or mixed up in the mind with other places, or altered for a moment in the crowd of scenes a traveller can recall. Apart from the realities of this most picturesque city, there are associations clustering about it which would make a desert rich in interest. The dangerous precipice along whose rocky front Wolfe and his brave companions climbed to glory; the Plains of Abraham, where he received his mortal wound; the fortress so chivalrously defended by Montcalm; and his soldier's grave, dug for him, while yet alive, by the bursting of a shell; are not the least among them, or among the gallant incidents of history. That is a noble Monument, too, and worthy of two great nations, which perpetuates the memory of both brave generals, and on which their names are jointly written. 4 The city is rich in public institutions and in Catholic churches and charities, but it is mainly in the prospect from the site of the Old Government House, and from the Citadel, that its surpassing beauty lies. The exquisite expanse of country, rich in field and forest, mountain height and water, which lies stretched out before the view, with miles of Canadian villages, glancing in long white streaks, like veins along the landscape; the motley crowd of gables, roofs, and chimney-tops in the old hilly town immediately at hand; the beautiful In the spring of the year, vast numbers of emigrants, who have newly arrived from England or from Ireland, pass between Quebec and Montreal, on their way to the back-woods and new settlements of Canada. If it be an entertaining lounge (as I very often found it) to take a morning stroll upon the quay at Montreal, and see them grouped in hundreds on the public wharfs about their chests and boxes, it is matter of deep interest to be their fellow-passenger on one of these steamboats, and, mingling with the concourse, see and hear them unobserved. The vessel in which we returned from Quebec to Montreal was crowded with them, and at night they spread their beds between decks (those who had beds, at least), and slept so close and thick about our cabin door, that the passage to and fro was quite blocked up. They were nearly all English; from Gloucestershire the greater part; and had had a long winter passage out; but it was wonderful to see how clean the children had been kept, and how untiring in their love and self-denial all the poor parents were. Cant as we may, and as we shall to the end of all things, it is very much harder for the poor to be virtuous than it is for the rich; and the good that is in them shines the brighter for it. In many a noble mansion lives a man, the best of husbands and of fathers, whose private worth in both capacities is justly lauded to the skies. But bring him here, upon this crowded deck. Strip from his fair young wife her silken dress and jewels, unbind her braided hair, stamp early wrinkles on her brow, pinch her pale cheek with care and much privation, array Which of us shall say what he would be, if such realities, with small relief or change all through his days, were his? Looking round upon these people; far from home, houseless, indigent, wandering, weary with travel and hard living: and seeing how patiently they nursed and tended their young children; how they consulted ever their wants first, then half supplied their own; what gentle ministers of hope and faith the women were; how the men profited by their example; and how very, very seldom even a moment's petulance or harsh complaint broke out among them: I felt a stronger love and honour of my kind come glowing on my heart, and wished to God there had been many Atheists in the better part of human nature there, to read this simple lesson in the book of Life. We left Montreal for New York again on the thirtieth of May; crossing to La Prairie, on the opposite shore of the St. Lawrence, in a steamboat; we then took the railroad to St. John's, which is on the brink of Lake Champlain. Our last greeting in Canada was from the English officers in the pleasant barracks at that place (a class of gentlemen who had made every hour of our visit memorable by their hospitality and friendship; and, with "Rule Britannia" sounding in our ears, soon left it far behind. But Canada has held, and always will retain, a foremost place in my remembrance. Few Englishmen are prepared to find it what it is. Advancing quietly; old differences settling down, and being fast forgotten; public feeling and private enterprise alike in a sound and wholesome state; nothing of flush or fever in its system, but health and vigour throbbing in its steady pulse: it is full of hope and promise. To me -- who had been accustomed to think of it as something left behind in the strides of advancing society, as something neglected and forgotten, slumbering and wasting in its sleep -- the demand for labour and the rates of wages; the busy quays of Montreal; the vessels taking in their cargoes, and discharging them; the amount of shipping in the different ports; the commerce, roads, and public works, all made to last ; the respectability and character of the public journals; and the amount of rational comfort and happiness which honest industry may earn: were very great surprises. The steamboats on the lakes, in their conveniences, cleanliness, and safety; in the gentlemanly character and bearing of their captains; and in the politeness and perfect comfort of their social regulations; are unsurpassed even by the famous Scotch vessels, deservedly so much esteemed at home. The inns are usually bad; because the custom of boarding at hotels is not so general here as in the States, and the British officers, who form a large portion of the society in every town, live chiefly at the regimental messes: but, in every other respect, the traveller in There is one American boat -- the vessel which carried us on Lake Champlain, from St. John's to Whitehall -- which I praise very highly, but no more than it deserves, when I say that it is superior even to that in which we went from Queenston to Toronto, or to that in which we travelled from the latter place to Kingston, or, I have no doubt I may add, to any other in the world. This steamboat, which is called the Burlington, is a perfectly exquisite achievement of neatness, elegance, and order. The decks are drawing-rooms; the cabins are boudoirs, choicely furnished and adorned with prints, pictures, and musical instruments; every nook and corner in the vessel is a perfect curiosity of graceful comfort and beautiful contrivance. Captain Sherman, her commander, to whose ingenuity and excellent taste these results are solely attributable, has bravely and worthily distinguished himself on more than one trying occasion: not least among them in having the moral courage to carry British troops, at a time (during the Canadian rebellion) when no other conveyance was open to them. He and his vessel are held in universal respect, both by his own countrymen and ours; and no man ever enjoyed the popular esteem, who, in his sphere of action, won and wore it better than this gentleman. By means of this floating palace we were soon in the United States again, and called that evening at Burlington; a pretty town, where we lay an hour or so. We reached Whitehall, where we were to disembark, at six next morning; and might have done so earlier, but that these steamboats lie by for some hours in the night, in consequence of the lake becoming very narrow at that part of the journey, and difficult of navigation in the dark. Its width is so contracted at one point, indeed, that they are obliged to warp round by means of a rope. After breakfasting at Whitehall, we took the stage-coach for Albany: a large and busy town, where we arrived between five Tarrying here only that day and night to recruit after our late fatigues, we started off once more upon our last journey in America. We had yet five days to spare before embarking for England, and I had a great desire to see "the Shaker Village," which is peopled by a religious sect from whom it takes its name. 5 To this end, we went up the North River again as far as the town of Hudson, and there hired an extra to carry us to Lebanon, thirty miles distant: and of course another and a different Lebanon from that village where I slept on the night of the Prairie trip. The country through which the road meandered was rich and beautiful; the weather very fine; and for many miles the Kaatskill Mountains, where Rip Van Winkle and the ghastly Dutchmen played at ninepins one memorable gusty afternoon, towered in the blue distance like stately clouds. 6 At one point, as we ascended a steep hill, athwart whose base a railroad, yet constructing, took its course, we came upon an Irish colony. With means at hand of building decent cabins, it was wonderful to see how clumsy, rough, and wretched its hovels were. The best were poor protection from the weather; the worst let in the wind and rain through wide breaches in the roofs of sodden grass, and in the walls of mud; some had neither door nor window; some had nearly fallen down, and were imperfectly propped up by stakes and poles; all were ruinous and filthy. Hideously ugly old women and very buxom young ones, pigs, dogs, men, children, babies, pots, kettles, dunghills, vile refuse, Between nine and ten o' clock at night we arrived at Lebanon: which is renowned for its warm baths, and for a great hotel, well adapted, I have no doubt, to the gregarious taste of those seekers after health or pleasure who repair here, but inexpressibly comfortless to me. We were shown into an immense apartment, lighted by two dim candles, called the drawing-room: from which there was a descent, by a flight of steps, to another vast desert called the dining-room: our bedchambers were among certain long rows of little whitewashed cells, which opened from either side of a dreary passage; and were so like rooms in a prison that I half expected to be locked up when I went to bed, and listened involuntarily for the turning of the key on the outside. There need be baths somewhere in the neighbourhood, for the other washing arrangements were on as limited a scale as I ever saw, even in America: indeed, these bedrooms were so very bare of even such common luxuries as chairs, that I should say they were not provided with enough of anything, but that I bethink myself of our having been most bountifully bitten all night. The house is very pleasantly situated, however, and we had a good breakfast. That done, we went to visit our place of destination, which was some two miles off, and the way to which was soon indicated by a finger-post, whereon was painted, "To the Shaker Village." As we rode along, we passed a party of Shakers, who were at work upon the road; who wore the broadest of all broad-brimmed hats; and were in all visible respects such very wooden men, that I felt about as much sympathy for them, and as much interest in them, as if they had been so many figure-heads of ships. Presently we came to the beginning of the village, and alighting at the door of a house where the Shaker manufactures are sold, and which is the head-quarters of the elders, requested permission to see the Shaker worship. Pending the conveyance of this request to some person in authority, we walked into a grim room, where several grim hats were hanging on grim pegs, and the time was grimly told by a grim clock, which uttered every tick with a kind of struggle, as if it broke the grim silence reluctantly, and under protest. Ranged against the wall were six or eight stiff, high-backed chairs, and they partook so strongly of the general grimness, that one would much rather have sat on the floor than incurred the smallest obligation to any of them. Presently, there stalked into this apartment a grim old Shaker, with eyes as hard, and dull, and cold as the great round metal buttons on his coat and waistcoat; a sort of calm goblin. Being informed of our desire, he produced a newspaper wherein the body of elders, whereof he was a member, had advertised, but a few days before, that in consequence of certain unseemly interruptions which their worship had received from strangers, their chapel was closed to the public for the space of one year. As nothing was to be urged in opposition to this reasonable arrangement, we requested leave to make some trifling purchases of Shaker goods; which was grimly conceded. We accordingly repaired to a store in the same house, and on the opposite side of the passage, where the stock was presided over by something alive in a russet case, which the elder said was a woman; and which I suppose was a woman, though I should not have suspected it. On the opposite side of the road was their place of worship: a cool, clean edifice of wood, with large windows and green blinds: like a spacious summer-house. As there was no getting into this place, and nothing was to be done but walk up and down, and look at it and the other buildings in the village (which were chiefly of wood, painted a dark red like English barns, and composed of many stories like English factories), I have nothing to communicate to the reader beyond the scanty results I gleaned the while our purchases were making. These people are called Shakers from their peculiar form of They are governed by a woman, and her rule is understood to be absolute, though she has the assistance of a council of elders. She lives, it is said, in strict seclusion, in certain rooms above the chapel, and is never shown to profane eyes. If she at all resemble the lady who presided over the store, it is a great charity to keep her as close as possible, and I cannot too strongly express my perfect concurrence in this benevolent proceeding. All the possessions and revenues of the settlement are thrown into a common stock, which is managed by the elders. As they have made converts among people who were well to do in the world, and are frugal and thrifty, it is understood that this fund prospers: the more especially as they have made large purchases of land. Nor is this at Lebanon the only Shaker settlement: there are, I think, at least three others. They are good farmers, and all their produce is eagerly purchased and highly esteemed. "Shaker seeds," "Shaker herbs," and "Shaker distilled waters" are commonly announced for sale in the shops of towns and cities. They are good breeders of cattle, and are kind and merciful to the brute creation. Consequently, Shaker beasts seldom fail to find a ready market. They eat and drink together, after the Spartan model, at a They are said to be good drivers of bargains, but to be honest and just in their transactions, and even in horse-dealing to resist those thievish tendencies which would seem, for some undiscovered reason, to be almost inseparable from that branch of traffic. In all matters they hold their own course quietly, live in their gloomy, silent commonwealth, and show little desire to interfere with other people. This is well enough, but nevertheless I cannot, I confess, incline towards the Shakers; view them with much favour, or extend towards them any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul detest, that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be entertained, which would strip life of its healthful graces, rob youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and age their pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a narrow path towards the grave: that odious spirit which, if it could have had full scope and sway upon the earth, must have blasted and made barren the imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power of raising up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet unborn, no better than the beasts: that, in these very broad-brimmed hats and very sombre coats -- in stiff-necked, solemn-visaged piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whether it have cropped hair as in a Shaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo temple -- I recognise the worst among the enemies of Heaven and Earth, who turn Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old Shakers, and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the strong probability of their running away as they grow older and wiser, which they not uncommonly do: we returned to Lebanon, and so to Hudson, by the way we had come upon the previous day. There we took [the] steamboat down the North River towards New York, but stopped, some four hours' journey short of it, at West Point, where we remained that night, and all next day, and next night too. In this beautiful place: the fairest among the fair and lovely Highlands of the North River: shut in by deep green heights and ruined forts, and looking down upon the distant town of Newburgh, along a glittering path of sunlit water, with here and there a skiff, whose white sail often bends on some new tack as sudden flaws of wind come down upon her from the gullies in the hills: hemmed in, besides, all round, with memories of Washington and events of the revolutionary war: is the Military School of America. It could not stand on more appropriate ground, and any ground more beautiful can hardly be. The course of education is severe, but well devised and manly. Through June, July, and August, the young men encamp upon the spacious plain whereon the college stands; and all the year their military exercises are performed there daily. The term of study at this institution, which the State requires from all cadets, is four years; but, whether it be from the rigid nature of the discipline, or the national impatience of restraint, or both causes combined, The number of cadets being about equal to that of the members of Congress, one is sent here from every Congressional district: its member influencing the selection. Commissions in the service are distributed on the same principle. The dwellings of the various Professors are beautifully situated; and there is a most excellent hotel for strangers, though it has the two drawbacks of being a total-abstinence house (wines and spirits being forbidden to the students), and of serving the public meals at rather uncomfortable hours: to wit, breakfast at seven, dinner at one, and supper at sunset. The beauty and freshness of this calm retreat, in the very dawn and greenness of summer -- it was then the beginning of June-were exquisite indeed. Leaving it upon the sixth, and returning to New York, to embark for England on the succeeding day, I was glad to think that among the last memorable beauties which ad glided past us, and softened in the bright perspective, were those whose pictures, traced by no common hand, are fresh in most men's minds; not easily to grow old, or fade beneath the dust of Time: the Kaatskill Mountains, Sleepy Hollow, and the Tappaan Zee. Return to table of contents

<urn:uuid:62d65dbf-ce97-4f08-98b6-6ffd4b723b71>

National Emission Standards For Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) For The Wood Building Products (Surface Coating) Industry, Background Information Document. National emission standards to control the emission of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) from the Wood Building Products (Surface Coating) industry are being proposed under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. This standard will reduce emissions from major source wood building product (surface coating) facilities that emit either 10 tons of one specific HAP or 25 tons of total HAP per year. A wood building product is defined as any finished or laminated wood product that contains more than 50 percent by weight wood or wood fiber and issued in the construction, either interior or exterior, of a residential, commercial, or institutional building. These emission reductions are expected through a switch from high-HAP coatings to low- or no-HAP coatings. This option is less cost prohibitive than the use of a regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO), which was examined as an "beyond the floor" control option. This regulation will require each affected source to track the HAP content, the solids content and the amount of each coating applied by the facility. These values will be used to calculate an overall facility emission limit in units of lb HAP/gal solids. |Surface coating; Wood building products; Air pollution; NESHAP; Hazardous air pollutant; HAP; Window; Door; Panel; Reconstituted wood; Flooring; Tileboard; Doorskin; Class 1 hardboard; Laminate flooring| |Office of Air and Radiation| |Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards| |Emission Standards Division| |Background Cost-Related Document|

<urn:uuid:85fa5c31-e0c0-48e4-9ba2-7e2f5f3d6f67>

Republican National Debt: $12 Trillion and Counting This page explains [#the green line] January 11, 2012. Republicans blame the "Democratic Congress" for their debt increases. The trouble is that Congress was only Democratic 8 out of the 20 years, and in those 8 years, on average, Congress passed smaller budgets than the Republican presidents requested. The specifics are all right here: It Was the Republicans. So, let's add up the debt under Reagan and the Bushes. We can't blame Reagan for the debt's increase until his first budget took effect, October 1, 1981. Then, for 12 years until Sept. 30, 1993, the Republicans ballooned the debt. Later, George W. Bush took over. - Under Reagan and Bush: $3.4 Trillion increase in the debt. - Under George W. Bush: $6.1 Trillion.[#1] - Total: $9.5 Trillion. (without counting interest) But wait, there's interest on that debt ... continued below the graph. |The debt went up during Clinton's years only because of $2.2 Trillion interest on the Reagan-Bush debt. Otherwise Clinton would have paid off most the remaining WWII debt. G.W.Bush got [#sand-bagged] by Reagan.| Just like a mortgage, the debt incurs interest, so the Reagan-Bush-I debt grew during the Clinton years. The average debt interest rate in those years was about 6.5%, which would increase it over 50% without compounding, but with compound interest the total debt – including interest – increased by $2.2 trillion. - Total Republican debt from above: $9.5 trillion - Interest on Reagan-Bush debt under Clinton: $2.2 trillion - Interest on $11.7 trillion after G. W. Bush: $0.3 trillion - (detailed calculation) - Grand Total Reagan-Bushes Debt: $12 trillion (as of Sept. 30, 2010). If the Republicans had not run up this $12 trillion debt, we could easily have pulled out of the Great Recession. PopNotes used above: The Obama stimulus package spent $36 billion ($0.036 trillion) before the end of Bush's final budget years. This has been subtracted. [=the green line] The Green Line on the graph above shows what the debt would have been if Reagan and the Bushes had balanced their budgets. (Full-size graph) [=sand-bagged] Not as Bad as He Looks Almost half of the debt that Bush II ran up was from interest on the Reagan-Bush-I debt, but it was still all Republican.

<urn:uuid:989efc45-656f-4cc3-a341-fe1a5aa0a7bb>

o BUDGET FIRST, SPENDING SECOND: Congress and the President will decide on overall budget levels early in the budget year-making macroeconomic policy decisions in 20 broad spending categories-before considering levels of spending for individual programs. o A LEGALLY-BINDING BUDGET: The budget will be in the form of a simple one-page joint resolution, passed by both the House and Senate and signed by the President, rather than a hyper-detailed non-binding concurrent resolution. Making the budget a law will ensure that it is enforceable; enacting it up front will prevent last-minute arguments at the tail end of the process. To ensure on-time performance, no appropriations can be considered until the simplified, one-page budget has become law. o ENFORCEMENT OF BUDGET LIMITS: Congress will no longer be able to "waive" the spending levels of the budget resolution. A 2/3 supermajority vote will instead be required for over-budget spending. Additionally, the President will be given the power to make line item reductions, for the limited-and constitutional-purpose of bringing spending back to the levels originally set by Congress in that year's budget. o TRUTH IN BUDGETING: Codifies and strengthens 1995's "baseline budgeting" change in the House Rules. Instead of calling a scaled-back increase a "cut," the budget will use real dollars to compare last year=s actual spending to this year=s proposed spending-ending the pernicious bias in favor of increased spending. o "RAINY DAY" FUND FOR NATURAL DISASTERS: Creates a specific budget function for reserves against the costs of relief from floods, earthquakes, fires, and other natural disasters-so that "unplanned" expenses don't bust the budget. o "LOCK-BOX" FOR SPENDING CUTS: Ensures that budget savings from floor amendments to appropriations bills result in actual spending cuts, rather than higher spending on other programs. o NO MORE BLANK CHECKS: Blank-check spending through "such sums as may be necessary" appropriations will be abolished. Fixed-dollar spending will be required for all accounts, except Social Security and interest on the debt. o "PAY AS YOU GO": Requires that over-budget supplemental spending be offset by reductions elsewhere in the same budget category, not by new taxes. o NO MORE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS: If Congress and the President cannot agree, an automatic Continuing Resolution will keep the government from shutting down by freezing total government spending at last year's levels. This will encourage cooperation by eliminating threats to shut down the government as a negotiating tactic. Deficit spending has plagued American taxpayers for years. But only recently in American history has over-spending threatened to swallow up the entirety of our income tax receipts. In fiscal 1996, payments for interest on the national debt consumed more than half of the $650 billion in income taxes paid by all 114 million U.S. taxpayers. During the Clinton-Republican Congress years of "deficit reduction," the national debt has grown by more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars. (It topped $5 trillion early in 1996.) And while deficits-the annual increases in the debt-are moderating, inherent costs on the ever-larger national debt are rising steadily, and ominously. It's long past time that we put an end to the federal government's mismanagement of our nation's fiscal affairs. Massive federal borrowing has given us permanent inflation and higher interest rates. It has raised the cost of capital for American business, crowding out entrepreneurs and large firms alike. It has hijacked our national savings from private to government use, destroying job creation in the process. As a result, senior citizens' savings are being eroded; young couples seeking a first home can't obtain a mortgage; laid-off workers trying to find new employment find there are no jobs available. Getting our national budget mess cleaned up would go a long way toward putting America's free enterprise economy back on track. And while the current budget mess in Washington appears to offer little hope of this, straightening out our nation's fiscal affairs is not nearly so difficult as it first appears. The simple truth is this: the chronic failure to balance the budget is the inevitable result of a poorly designed Congressional budget process, which not only permits but encourages violation of the very laws designed to force rational choices among competing priorities. The current process virtually guarantees wasteful spending and financial chaos. Not least among the reasons that the system is subject to manipulation and abuse is that very few people understand how it works. Even within Congress itself, terms like "current services baseline," "602(b) allocation," and "undistributed offsetting receipts" often produce blank stares. The budget committees, whose members at least have the incentive and opportunity to understand the process, are powerless to enforce its requirements. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which sets out the current process, is routinely ignored; and there is no remedy at hand to enforce it. As in the Old West, the man with a gun can make his own law-and too often Congress has done just that. Back in January 1989, on my very first day in Congress, then-Speaker of the House Jim Wright announced from the chair that he intended to break the law. This may shock most Americans, but in fact it is routine business in Washington. Speaker Wright pledged at the start of the 101st Congress that the House would complete work on the required 13 appropriations bills by the August recess. The law requires final action on these bills by June 30. Imagine the consequences if you were to ignore the April 15 deadline for filing your income tax return. Yet when it comes to more than $1.9 trillion in annual spending, that is precisely what is now done-and has been done routinely each year since the passage of the 1974 Act. The utter mismanagement of the federal budget is nowhere better illustrated than in the fact that Congress repeatedly violates almost every one of its legal deadlines. The Current Non-System In place of the process mandated by law, the current Congressional leadership is forced to ride on top of the totally extra-legal system that has been built over the past two decades. The sheer complexity and incomprehensibility of this budget-making system shield it from effective public scrutiny. Virtually no member of Congress-let alone the public-even reads the huge spending bills the Congress adopts. The current non-system also produces budgetary gridlock and threats of government shutdowns on almost an annual basis. Too often, these budgetary games of "chicken" end with Congress presenting the President with a take-it-or-leave-it decision on a hastily crafted omnibus continuing resolution or an 11th-hour reconciliation bill running into the thousands of pages and comprising virtually all federal spending for the entire year. Such a system serves only the interests of those who seek to guarantee that government spending is uncontrollable. This was evidenced most recently in the fiscal 1997 budget debate, by Congress' last-minute accession to an additional $7 billion in spending to avert another government shutdown. This was not, however, the intention of those who drafted and passed the 1974 Act. Rather, this law represented an effort to place taxing and spending decisions within the context of an overall budget. Until 1974, Congress never voted on a budget. The federal "budget" was simply the sum of the separately enacted annual appropriations bills, along with whatever financial commitments had been enacted into law in prior years. To rectify this, the 1974 Act established the House and Senate Budget Committees, and provided for an annual budget to be adopted by Congress. The act required the passage of a non-binding first concurrent resolution on the budget early in the budgeting year, and a binding second concurrent resolution toward the end of that year. Additionally, it was intended that the second resolution would be enforced through reconciliation instructions that would require the various congressional committees to report to the floor whatever legislation was necessary to achieve the established targets. (In practice, Congress simply ignored the requirement that it pass a second budget resolution, and the requirement of two resolutions was done away altogether in the first Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law, enacted in 1985.) Finally, the act set up a legally binding timetable to ensure the timely adoption of individual spending bills. Certainly, providing for a floor vote on overall budget targets, mandating the timely adoption of spending bills, and enforcing overall budget limits through reconciliation represented positive steps. It is thus not for lack of a workable concept, but rather of effective enforcement mechanisms, that the 1974 Act has failed to bring order and coherence to the budgeting process and, thus, failed to bring discipline to Congressional decisions to spend money. To repair the broken-down Congressional budget process, we must design a system with teeth in it to make sure that neither Congress nor the President abandons it for some less restrictive expedient. Beginning as a member of President Ronald Reagan's Working Group on Budget Process Reform, and continuing through to my present service as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, I have spent nearly a decade in developing and refining a comprehensive proposal to rewrite the 1974 Act that would do just that. The Solution: The Budget Process Reform Act The Budget Process Reform Act, which by the end of the 104th Congress had gained the support of a majority of members of the House of Representatives, is based on the premises that an effective budget process must do each of the following: o Encourage early consultation and cooperation between Congress and the President. o Produce binding decisions on overall budget levels early in the budgeting year. o Be evenhanded with respect to the President and Congress, not giving either an advantage in dealing with the other or in establishing spending priorities. o Tie each individual spending decision to an overall, binding budget total. o Require explicit decisions on spending levels for all federal programs, not just those arbitrarily deemed "controllable." o Prevent actual or threatened annual shut-downs of the federal government. o Be as simple as possible in concept and means of implementation, so that the process is clear and understandable to Congress and the public. o Not raise difficult questions of constitutionality. o Contain a bias in favor of spending restraint that could be overcome only if both the President and Congress wish to do so. o Protect individual members of Congress against the political fallout from tough spending decisions by placing the burden to cut spending on the process rather than on specific legislators. To accomplish these objectives, the Budget Process Reform Act will completely overhaul the existing process. The most basic of these reforms deals with the nature of the budget itself. Using the Budget as a Planning Tool Most people and organizations use budgets as planning and forecasting tools. By its very nature, a budget must be adopted before the spending it is meant to control. The federal government, however, routinely fails to adopt its budget on time, in advance of spending bills. In fact, the federal budget process often isn't completed until the same time that all of the underlying spending bills are finished-often well beyond the deadline for which the budget is required. The misuse of budgets in federal financial planning has even corrupted the language. Ask anyone in Washington, D.C. what is the budget for the Pentagon, and they'll tell you how much we're currently spending on the Pentagon. Because federal "budgets" are agreed upon only at the eleventh hour (or later), they have no significance independent of the appropriations process itself. To address this problem, the first and most fundamental reform of the Budget Process Reform Act is that Congress will be required to budget first, and spend second. Specifically, the Act requires that Congress enact a simplified budget, in the form of a legally binding joint resolution signed by the President (as opposed to the present non-binding concurrent resolution), before any spending legislation can even be considered. By deciding on overall budget totals instead of individual programs, it is much more likely that Republicans and Democrats within Congress will come to agreement. Likewise, since the budget will be presented to the President for his signature or veto, it will be more likely to reflect a decision on overall government spending that combines the priorities of both the President and Congress. Second, the Budget Process Reform Act contains enforcement mechanisms to keep Congress within budget ceilings for all spending. (Social Security, with its earmarked taxes and trust fund, and interest on the debt, with a constitutional guarantee of "full faith and credit," are excepted.) Third, the Act provides a sustaining mechanism that would be triggered in the event Congress and the President fail to act, so that the federal government will not be shut down because of political deadlock. How the Act Works These are the basic elements of the Budget Process Reform Act, which together form a coherent system that will bring long-overdue discipline to Congressional fiscal management: Budget First, Spending Second: The Budget Process Reform Act will require that Congress approve a legally binding budget (in the form of a joint resolution) by April 15 of each year. Until the budget is signed into law, no authorization or appropriation bill could come to a vote in either the Senate or the House, or in any committee or subcommittee. The budget will set ceilings on all federal spending (except Social Security and interest on the debt) for the coming fiscal period. One-Page Budget: Unlike the current system, in which the "budget" is so detailed it is the size of a phone book, the Act calls for a budget that will fit on a single page-setting specified ceilings on government spending within 20 categories. (One of these categories will be for natural disaster relief, so that Congress and the President will be forced to budget and pay for these unforeseen contingencies.) Because the budget will focus on macroeconomic choices rather than particular programs, it is far more likely that Congress and the President will agree. By focusing first on how much the federal government should spend in the coming year-relative to the economy, and in light of available revenues-wrangling over the more detailed breakdown presently required in the President's budget submission (and routinely included with the Congressional budget resolutions) will be avoided. (The President's budget in its present detailed form will continue to be provided, but only after passage of the more general, and binding, budget blueprint.) The result will be the establishment of a binding budget, jointly reached by Congress and the President early in the budgeting year-the cornerstone of rational reform. The Act's purpose is to end the current chaos of the budget process. But experience has shown that Congress will seek ways to avoid-if not simply violate-any legal requirement aimed at promoting fiscal responsibility. To make sure that Congress can't escape the discipline of the new budget process, the Act contains several mutually reinforcing enforcement mechanisms that, in effect, lock the doors on all the exits-and even deny Congress the tools to pick the locks. These enforcement mechanisms will end the sad spectacle of Congressional law-breaking, making it far more likely that federal spending will be contained within the agreed-upon ceilings. They are the heart of the Budget Process Reform Act. The Two-Thirds Requirement: Under the Act, Congress will continue to pass its budgets by simple majority vote. The budget will, for the first time, take the form of a binding and enforceable law. Breaking these laws is not meant to be easy: Congress will be permitted to enact spending legislation in excess of the budget ceilings only by a super-majority vote-two-thirds of both houses. Such a requirement is constitutional: Article I, section 5, clause 2 of the Constitution gives each house of Congress the power to determine its own rules. Indeed, two-thirds majorities have been required by the rules of the Senate. Senate Rule 22, for example-as amended in 1949-required the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire membership to end a filibuster. Furthermore, rules of congressional procedure may be adopted in the form of a statute as well as by mere resolution. The requirement of a super-majority for spending outside of the budget will provide a strong incentive for both the President and Congress to reach agreement, since neither-although perhaps for different reasons-wishes to be in the situation where all spending requires a super-majority vote. It will also provide a powerful tool to hold Congress to the budget choices it makes-at least for a single fiscal period. Likewise, if Congress and the President fail to enact a budget at all, then all authorizing and appropriating legislation will require a super-majority for passage. The only way to adopt spending proposals by simple majority will be to authorize and appropriate within the ceilings of a duly enacted budget law. Pay-As-You-Go: The Budget Process Reform Act will also end the bias put in place by the 1990 budget deal in favor of raising taxes as a preferred means of offsetting excess spending. The Act expressly requires that once the budget is enacted in the form of a law, any over-budget spending must be fully offset by cuts elsewhere. No More Blank Checks: The Act abolishes the budget category of the "permanent and indefinite appropriation." Such open-ended "blank-check" appropriations-which authorize the spending of "such sums as may be necessary"-will be banned, because they are fundamentally inconsistent with the concept of a budget. There are currently over 260 federal spending accounts in this category, including such programs as the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, the Special Milk program, the Sport Fish Restoration program, Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico, and the Office of the Independent Counsel. Under the current system, any member of Congress who seeks to reduce the growth of spending on a "blank check" program must introduce legislation and obtain an affirmative vote to do so. But anyone who wishes to increase spending on a program with an open-ended appropriation need only sit back and watch it grow. By requiring Congress and the President to decide how much it is appropriate to spend on a program during the coming fiscal period, the Act will do much to ensure that the federal government lives within its means. At the same time, requiring fixed-dollar appropriations for all federal programs (except for Social Security and interest on the debt) will not in any way mandate reductions in any program. A majority of Congress will be able to decide to spend as much as it wants on each and every part of the budget. But under the Act, instead of autopilot growth, a rational choice will be made within the context of each category of the budget. The "blank check" portion of the federal budget is often described as "uncontrollable." But no part of the budget is "uncontrollable"-rather a significant part of it is merely uncontrolled. This is just as true of the so-called "entitlement" programs, such as Food Stamps and the Office of the Independent Counsel. There is nothing in nature requiring that entitlement programs have open-ended appropriations. Indeed, Sen. Richard Lugar proved that fixed-dollar appropriations can be used for entitlement programs with his amendment to the Food Stamp program. As a result of the Lugar Amendment, the Food Stamp program operates within a fixed-dollar annual appropriation, but, nevertheless, entitles eligible households to receive certain levels of benefits. If the Secretary of Agriculture concludes that projected outlays will exceed the amount appropriated, he or she is required to recalculate the allotment to which each household will be entitled in order to keep expenditures within the statutory ceiling. Following this model, the Act authorizes the heads of the relevant cabinet departments and agencies to adjust benefit levels and eligibility requirements, up or down as Congress instructs, so that by year end, the program will have spent just what Congress approved. "Baseline Budgeting" Abolished: The Act will codify for both the House and the Senate, and for the Executive Branch, the 1995 change in House rules abolishing "baseline budgeting." Instead of calling a scaled-back increase a "cut," the budget will use actual dollars to compare one year's actual spending to the next year's proposed spending-ending this long-standing confusion in the budget process. Line Item Reduction: If Congress votes to spend in excess of the budget, then the President will have the authority to rescind the over-budget portion of any spending. Congress, in turn, can override a "line item reduction" by a two-thirds vote. This new authority serves an entirely different purpose than the line item veto. Line item reduction will be applicable only to the over-budget portion of proposed spending. The President will have the authority only to enforce Congress's own budget decisions, as previously enacted into law, a traditional executive role. In the event that spending is approved in the absence of a budget, the President will have the authority to use line item reduction against any spending in excess of the budget for the previous fiscal period. Spending Cut "Lock-Box": Under the current budget process, savings from spending cut amendments adopted on the floor of the House or Senate are routinely used to boost spending on other programs covered by the same appropriations bill. The Act will close this loophole. Under the Act, net spending reductions made by floor amendments to appropriations bills will automatically reduce the 602(a) and 602(b) allocations that determine how much each committee and subcommittee of Congress is permitted to spend. These changes will ensure that spending cut decisions made on the floor of the House and Senate are respected, and that each appropriation bill's total spending is reduced accordingly. No More Budget Act Waivers: In recent years, one of the most notorious ways that Congress has cheated the budget process is to "waive" the requirements of the 1974 Act. During each of the last two Congresses, 50% of all rules adopted to govern debate on the floor of the House waived all or part of the 1974 Act. To prevent this end-run of the system, the Budget Process Reform Act requires that any waiver must be adopted on the floor in a discrete vote, with a two-thirds super-majority necessary for passage. Together, these enforcement mechanisms ensure that the budget will be a useful tool of fiscal discipline that can no longer be ignored. By strengthening the Congressional power of the purse, rigorous enforcement of the budget law as written by Congress (and signed by the President) should do much to restore respect for Congress' lawmaking powers. The third, and final, element in the Budget Process Reform Act is the sustaining mechanism: an automatic continuing resolution. The Act provides a safeguard against the contingency that Congress and the President fail to complete action on any part of the budget by October 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. In such an event, the previous year's funding levels will automatically be re-appropriated for the upcoming fiscal year. The automatic continuing resolution will apply to all spending except Social Security and interest on the debt. Both the President and Congress will want to avoid this result, since it would deprive each of the opportunity to influence the budget. An added virtue of this sustaining mechanism is its bias in favor of spending restraint: in no year since 1965 has federal spending remained frozen from the prior year. The sustaining mechanism is not the preferred means of determining federal spending levels, but rather is a form of disaster insurance against the contingency that Congress and the President do absolutely nothing. The government will not shut down, federal spending will not grow on "auto-pilot," the President bill have a powerful incentive to work with Congress, and Congress will not be tempted to lay at the President's feet on September 30 a mountainous appropriations bill that he cannot read and must sign if he wishes to avoid shutting down the government on October 1. The budget process created in the 1974 Budget Act is not simply an esoteric irrelevancy-it's a basic part of the problem. Our current budget "process" is a major cause of our chronic deficit spending. The Budget Process Reform Act provides a powerful system of reforms to require the federal budget to say what it means and mean what it says.

<urn:uuid:eb1ba70a-cf66-4f4f-92ba-0eb67088defc>

Bonds are widely viewed as a low-risk investment that can fortify overall portfolios against the ups and downs of stocks. Yet, while they can reduce risk to portfolios through diversification, bonds themselves present risks that most investors aren't aware of. A bond is a contract between an investor and a borrower (a company, government or government agency) calling for the investor to lend that entity money for a set time period at a set rate of interest. If you hold a bond to the end of this period (called maturity), the borrower then pays you the amount you invested plus the interest (known as the coupon). Like any asset class, bonds have distinct advantages and disadvantages. These days, the disadvantages are mounting, as interest rates have begun to creep upward. This upward movement — and the fact that, after years of historically low interest rates, they have nowhere to go but up — suggests that further increases are probably in the cards. Rising interest rates tend to punish holders of existing bonds, so many investors are understandably skittish about bonds these days. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that everyone should have bonds in their portfolios — in greater amounts as they age and approach retirement — bonds aren't for everyone. Whether they are for you depends on what role you reasonably expect them to play in your portfolio. To consider this, you need to understand bond risks. These include: • Credit (or default) risk. Bonds with good credit quality — known as investment-grade — are generally considered to be among the planet's safest investments, but nothing is absolutely guaranteed. And many bonds don't have good credit. Regarding corporate bonds (those issued by companies to raise investment capital), you should rely on credit ratings, an alphabet soup that starts with AAA and goes down from there. Any bonds with credit ratings of BB or below are considered junk bonds because of their relatively high risk of default compared with investment-grade bonds. Credit quality is critical. With stocks, most people recognize the risk that their value will go down but they are unaware that bonds also hold that same risk. High credit risk means you may never recoup your initial investment, much less receive the interest you were guaranteed. Junk bonds are highly speculative — not a place where the average individual investor should be. So it's a good idea to avoid junk and instead invest in investment-grade corporate bonds, and U.S. agency bonds, which, though they pay low rates, have the lowest credit risk of any bond. • Interest rate risk. As the interest rates of new bonds reflect the economy's prevailing rates, new bonds issued during such periods pay higher rates than those issued when rates were lower. So, if you own a bond that pays 3 percent when new bonds are being sold at 5 percent, this means your bond is worth less, should you choose to sell it. If you choose to hold on to a bond of good credit quality until maturity, you'll probably get your money back plus the interest. But if the bond has a long term — for example, 30 years — and prevailing interest rates ratchet up high enough, you could be losing because of inflation, which tends to rise with interest rates. Let's say you have a 10-year, $1,000 bond that pays 3 percent annually. Every year, you'll receive $30 in interest, and at the end of the 10 years, you'll get your $1,000 back.

<urn:uuid:bbafe1c0-7620-4f7a-b246-6b72463ef64f>

Android UI: Understanding Views After getting to know the Android UI philosophy, we are now ready to delve into the more hands-on stuff. In this lesson, part of the “Android UI Design – Basics” course, you will get introduced to the Views, the main building blocks of Android UIs. You will learn about the major built-in components like TextView and ImageView, as well as various input controls like buttons,checkboxes,textfields etc. Additionally, you will learn about the event based architecture that drives Android UIs and how to properly utilize listeners in order to handle events. A small sample app is built based on those principles. Finally, you will learn about adapters and how they can be used along with Views in order to create visually beautiful applications.

<urn:uuid:6acee616-bbc9-4c4f-8370-c314b1d89591>

State of the Art | Comprehensive Treatment Approaches for Autism | Other Treatments for Specific Deficits | Pharmacotherapy | Conclusion and Future Research | References In the past 5 years, a notable shift in the understanding of autism treatment has resulted from publication of the National Research Council's (2001) book Educating Children With Autism, which formulated treatment guidelines based on a meta-analysis of existing empirical treatment outcome studies in children up to age 8 years. The National Research Council report emphasized several treatment quality parameters and can be seen as serving to dispel the notion that one treatment is best for all. Instead, treatments that are more individualized (in ways we will discuss) provide a "best practice" standard. In this chapter we focus on the National Research Council findings and on specific comprehensive intervention models designed in a manner consistent with these best practices; we also summarize the state of the psychopharmacological art in treating autism.

<urn:uuid:19ad602f-96bb-454b-b58b-b1accf6775ad>

Cancer has been labeled as the most aggressive disease on the planet due its destructive effect. Cancers can be classified as benign or malignant. Benign cancer cells or tumors normally act by compression of the neighbouring tissues and curable by surgery. Malignant cancer cells are the most dangerous strains that destroy neighbouring tissues leading to massive destruction of the body system. This is why medics have to take biopsy from any tumor tissue for pathological investigation. This helps to determine whether the cells involved are benign or malignant. In modern medicine, there is cancer screening by use of various biomarkers that are manufactured by several pharmaceutical firms. However, cancer is a disease largely originating from lifestyle as well as genetic composition of an individual. Since food nutrients support the biological function of our body systems, then food nutrients can fend off challenges posed by cancer disease. We need to feed on selective food nutrients to support regulatory mechanisms in our body system. Certain food nutrients provide important chemical nutrients that help to prevent certain types of cancer occurrence whereas others like red meat and packed food can expose an individual to increased risk of the disease occurrence. For example, avocados are rich in glutathione nutrient, a powerful antioxidant that attacks free radicals in the body by blocking intestinal absorption of certain fats. They also supply more potassium than bananas and are a strong source of beta-carotene. Scientists also believe that avocados may be useful in treating viral hepatitis, a cause of liver cancer as well as other sources of liver damage. Cabbage has a chemical component that can combat breast cancer by converting a cancer-promoting estrogen into a more protective variety. Carrots contain a lot of beta carotene, which may help reduce a wide range of cancers including lung, mouth, throat, stomach, intestine, bladder, prostate and breast. Chili peppers contain a chemical which may neutralize certain cancer causing substances and may help prevent stomach cancer. Grapefruits like oranges and other citrus fruits are believed to help prevent cancer by sweeping carcinogens out of the body. Grapefruit may also inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro. They also contain vitamin C, beta-carotene, and folic acid. There are a number of mushrooms that appear to help the body fight cancer and build the immune system. Such mushrooms contain polysaccharides that are powerful compounds in building the body immunity. They also have a protein called lectin, which attacks cancerous cells and prevents them from multiplying. Nuts contain the antioxidants that may suppress the growth of cancers. Some people are allergic to the proteins in nuts, so if you have any symptoms such as itchy mouth, tight throat, wheezing after eating nuts, you need to stop and consider taking a selenium supplement to eliminate this allergy. Oranges and lemons contain Iimonene which stimulates cancer killing immune cells such as lymphocytes body defence (cells) that may also break down cancer causing substances. Papayas have vitamin C that works as an antioxidant and may also reduce absorption of cancer causing nitrosamines from the soil or processed foods. Papaya contains folacin, also known as folic acid, which has been shown to minimize cervical dysplasia and certain cancers. Tomatoes contain lycopene, an antioxidant that attacks roaming oxygen molecules known as free radicals that are suspected of triggering cancer. It appears that the hotter the weather, the more lycopene tomatoes produce. They also have vitamin C, an antioxidant which can prevent cellular damage that leads to cancer. Watermelons and red peppers also contain these substances, but in lesser quantities. It is concentrated by cooking tomatoes. Green tea and black tea contain certain antioxidants known as polyphenols which appear to prevent cancer cells from dividing. Consumption of fruits and vegetables has been associated with decreased risk of cancers of the colon and rectum. Last but not least, some soya products contain non-steroidal estrogens that could help prevent both breast and prostate cancer by blocking and suppressing cancerous changes. You have a very important role to play... The writer is a doctor at the Rwanda Military Hospital-Kanombe.

<urn:uuid:ede6592b-3922-4ca5-86f8-c9d6f760e784>

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea The story basically begins with the very intelligent Professor Arronax calculating basic measurements. He's a modern french biologist during this time period. The professor had somewhat of an understudy, an apprentice if you will, named Conseil. Conseil was just about as skilled as the professor as far as classification, and knowing so much information about just about everything. One day, the professor got a letter that invited him to go on a select tri... Adrift in the Pacific: Two Years Holiday At the end of the school year, fifteen young students, from eight to fourteen years old, embark on the "Sloughi", a boat that should lead them to their families dispersed on the coasts of New Zealand. Unfortunately, while the sailors are celebrating their last free evening in the local pubs, the "Sloughi" loses its anchor and heads to the open sea in the middle of the night. In the morning, a violent storm prevents the children from saiingl back to the h... All Around the Moon Picking up where From the Earth to the Moon left off this sequel follows the first lunar explorers in a dangerous journey around the moon. The sequel to From the Earth to the Moon. The world's first 3 space travellers, Impey Barbicane, Michael Ardan and Captain Nicholl attempt to become the first men on the moon, but their journey is fraught with mishap. On earth the 3 travellers are sealed into the projectile along with Ardan's dogs Diana and Satellite... Around the World in 80 Days Phileas Fogg is a very punctual person. He is extremely wealthy, straight forward, and even eccentric. Like any regular day, he walked into a club, met with some friends, and in conversation, places a bet of 20000 pounds, saying that he can travel around the world in 80 days. Of course, back then, this would have been near to impossible, for they didn't have the technology we have today. If he fails to make it back to the club in exactly 80 days, h... Around the World in Eighty Days Around the World in Eighty Days Translated by G.M. Towle and N. Danvers Folio Society (London), 1982 (first pub. 1872, current text from 1899 ed.), 223 PP Today when astronauts circle the world every few hours and an ordinary tourist, if they so desire, can fly around the world in a few days with relative ease and little expense, it is difficult to imagine that making the journey in eighty days was still a fantasy when Jules Verne first... Caesar Cascabel CAESAR CASCABEL recounts the journey of the travelling circus of the Cascabel family, from Sacramento as far as European Russia, while passing by Canada, Alaska, the Strait of Behring and Siberia. The head of the Cascabel household had to start this perilous voyage after the money intended to pay the tickets of the boat, which was to take them along to France from New York, was stolen by thieves. So, Caesar crosses initially the vast forests of Canada. A... Captain Antifer In 1831, Kamylk Pasha, a wealthy Egyptian, decides to bury his whole fortune, in precious stones, on a small island whose location is only known by him and the captain of the ship. A few years later, jailed in an Egyptian prison and knowing that he would soon die, Kamylk Pasha writes a letter to Thomas Antifer, A French sailor who saved his life during the Napoleonic Egyptian campaign, to reveal to the sailor the longitude of the island. The sailor is al... Floating Island: The Pearl of The Pacific First published in 1895. A French string quartet, on tour in the U.S.A., gets lost between San Francisco and Los Angeles after a coach accident. At night, they're invited by Calistus Munbar to come spend the night in his town. The following day, the members of the quartet awake in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on Standard Island, a 27 square kilometers island built for billionaires looking for comfort and peace. This floating island is impelled by huge... From The Earth to the Moon In the first part of Jules Verne's Classic science fiction duology describing man's space voyage, the members of the Gun Club strive to build a gun capable of firing a projectile to the moon. A bold group of artillery specialists seek to send the first projectile to the moon and are faced with technical difficulties and angry sceptics standing against them. After the end of the American Civil War the artillerist of the Gun Club are bored. They worry tha... Into Niger Bend Into Niger Bend is a adventure story much like Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. A group of adventurers are sent forth on a mission for the government and travel together with a woman and her uncle on an adventure to find the truth about her brother's death.... Jules Verne list of books Journey to the Center of the Earth In the novel, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, author Jules Verne tells the fictitious story of three men and their adventures as they descend into the depths of the earth. The leading character in this expedition is a fifty-year-old German professor named Hardwigg. He is an uncle to the narrator, Henry (Harry), a simple Englishman. The other man is Hans, a serene Icelandic guide. Professor Hardwigg finds a piece of parchment that says there is ... Journey to the Centre of the Earth Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a scrap of paper written in old Icelandic. Axel later manages to decipher it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they desend into it's crater with the help of a guide named Hans Bjelke, in hopes to reach the centre of the earth! They will face starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion, but eccentric Professor Lindenbrock won't give up unt... Keraban the Inflexible: Adventures in the Euxine Keraban is a Turkish tobacco merchant living in Constantinople. He's conservative and very stubborn so when the city administration decides to tax the people who want to cross the Bosphorus, Keraban says that he won't pay a cent to come back home, just a few miles away, on the other side of the Bosphorus. He will journey by land around the Black Sea in order to come back to his mansion. Accompanied by his friend, the Dutch merchant Van Mitten, Keraban st... Magellania Magellania¨Dwhich refers to the region around the Strait of Magellan¨Dis the home of Kaw-djer, a mysterious man of Western origin. But when a thousand immigrants become stranded on his island in a storm and ask him to be the leader of their colony, will Kaw-djer go against everything he believes in to help them live and prosper in this foreign land at the end of the world? Jules Verne penned Magellania in 1897, following the death of his brother and ... Master of the World Robur, the Master of the World, shows off his new invention, The Terror to the USA, but hides himself in a mountain. ... North Against South This book, also known as Texar's Revenge, was first published in 1887. The setting is Jacksonville, Florida in 1862. James Burbank is the owner of Camdless-Bay, an important farm which employs many black slaves. Burbank, native to NYC, sees with attention and hope the abolitionists's navy approaching Jacksonville because he does not share the ideas of the Confederates about slavery. Burbank's main enemy is Texar, a former slaver, not convicted until now ... Jules Verne novels The Mighty Orinoco First published in 1898. When he learns the death from his wife and their daughter in a shipwreck, Colonel de Kermor decides to leave the French Army and to disappear after having trusted the custody of his estate to his faithful friend, Sergeant Martial. But his daughter Jeanne has in fact miraculously survived the shipwreck and comes back home. A few years later, Jeanne de Kermor learns that her father is in San Fernando in Venezuela. She convinces the... Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Dr. Pierre Aronnax is a scientist who is asked by the United States government to accompany a mission aboard the ship Abraham Lincoln in pursuit of a terrifying monster that has been destroying ships. America and Europe is in an uproar over the cause over a spate of attacks on ships sailing in the Pacific Ocean. Survivors of the attacks claim to have seen a large monster with many blowholes. Dr. Pierre Arronax is a scientist specializing in marine studie...

<urn:uuid:84d0d298-c252-4d15-84ee-364833cf732c>

Why A Sense of Belonging Matters For Learning This week I blogged about a new study that suggests one reason why there are so few women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math): they are vulnerable to feeling that they have to put in more effort than others to achieve the same results, and that therefore they must not “belong” in that sphere. There’s a lesson here about the importance of a “growth mindset”—researcher Carol Dweck’s term for the belief that success is all about effort, and that “even geniuses work hard”—but what I want to focus on today is this notion of belonging, and how crucial it is for effective learning. Learning is social, as I wrote in this New York Times piece about social factors that affect intelligence. The level of comfort we feel in another person’s presence can powerfully influence how intelligent we feel, and in some sense, how intelligent we actually are, at least in that moment. Now multiply that one-on-one interaction by tens or hundreds, and you start to get a sense of how important a sense of belonging to a learning community can be. Early on in school, some children get the sense that, academically speaking, they don’t belong—that they’re not one of the “smart kids.” The same thing can happen when young people start middle school, or high school, or college: they take a look around and think, “I don’t belong here.” In our work lives, too, we may form an assumption that we’re not quick or sharp enough, not sufficiently creative or innovative, to belong at the top of our fields. Social psychologists have documented how corrosive this self-doubt can be: sapping our motivation, lowering our expectations, even using up mental resources that we could otherwise apply to absorbing knowledge or solving problems. The feeling of not belonging becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. By contrast, a solid sense that we’re among our peers, that we’re where we ought to be, can elevate our aspirations and buoy us in the face of setbacks. So: how do we bolster a sense of intellectual belonging—in ourselves, our children, our students and employees? Here are three ideas. Create your own community. In the late 1970s, Uri Treisman was a researcher at UC-Berkeley interested in why African-American students often struggled in the university’s math courses, even as Asian-Americans in the same classes flourished. With some probing, he discovered part of the answer: Asian students studied together in groups, while black students tended to work alone. Treisman’s insight became the basis of his Emerging Scholars program, in which students organized into study groups tackle challenging problems together. The lesson: even if you don’t feel a kinship with the school or company you’re a part of, you can find a smaller community within it that will foster the feelings of belonging and identification that allow learning to blossom. Take care with transitions. When we’re starting at a new school or a new job, our sense of ourselves is especially fragile; we carefully inspect our new environment, looking for cues that this is a place we belong. Some researchers, in fact, have tied the slide in many students’ grades that happens in middle school to the transition from elementary school itself: during this fraught passage, some students decide school isn’t for them. Studies by Stanford professor Gregory Walton and others have shown that interventions delivered at such key moments—like a video shown to college freshmen in which upperclassmen explain that everyone feels unsure of themselves early on, but that these feelings go away—can increase feelings of belonging and improve performance. Avoid impossible role models. Although we’re supposed to feel inspired by successful figures, comparing ourselves to these superstars can make us feel that we’ll never belong in their stratosphere. A recent study of middle-school girls exposed to eminent women in STEM fields, for example, found that the experience actually made them less interested in math, and led them to lower their their judgment of their own ability and their odds of success. The achievements of these role models, investigators concluded, seemed “unattainable.” What’s the alternative? Find flawed role models—people who succeed but also fail. In one study, for example, students who were taught about the failures and setbacks of well-known scientists became more interested in science, remembered the material from their science lesson better, and did better at complex open-ended problem-solving tasks related to the lesson. Reminding ourselves that those we look up to struggle, too, can make us feel that we belong in their company. How about you—did you feel like one of the “smart kids”? Did you feel like you belonged in high school or in college—and do you feel like you belong in your career now? Please share your thoughts.

<urn:uuid:446384c4-470e-4a7a-a217-72cea3395d5c>

The Beagle Voyages Again ||Bert Thompson, Ph.D. Brad Harrub, Ph.D. While the grinch may be green, he was not the green man of interest on Christmas Day 2003. The “little green man” in the news on this particular Christmas comes from the distant planet of Mars. Over the next month, the media will delight in inundating the public with stories about researchers combing the Martian surface, searching for signs of life. The volley began on Christmas morning. While many of us were fighting with cardboard boxes and the plethora of tools required for things that were labeled “some assembly required,” a group of scientists from Europe was awaiting word of the landing from the first of three space probes. The journey for the first probe began on June 2, 2003, when it was launched toward Mars. December 25 was to be the day this European spacecraft would land on the cold, distant planet. Two U.S. land rovers, the Spirit and Opportunity, are slated to reach the Martian surface on January 3 and 24 respectively, and will be making headlines in the coming days. The European space probe was named after the HMS Beagle, the ship on which Charles Darwin traveled prior to writing his famous work, The Origin of Species. That ship set sail in 1831 for a desolate place known as Tiera del Fuego. While many have called that environment somewhat depressing, the surface of Mars definitely would prove even more so—as scientists are quickly discovering. Known as the Beagle 2, the lander was sent in search of signs for life—past, present, or future. Writing for Nature magazine’s on-line Web site, Philip Ball reported that the Beagle 2 was aimed at an “immense meteorite crater close to the Martian equator called Isidis Planitia” (2003). He noted that the surface there is “mostly hardened dust with a scattering of rocks—neither so dusty as to smother the lander, nor too rocky to present a danger for the touchdown” (2003). The probe is a small, conical pod about the size of a bicycle wheel. In their pursuit to find life outside the Earth (and to discount a Creator), researchers are anxious to analyze the composition of the Martian surface. Many believe that just under the dry surface may be a frozen water layer—which all scientists agree is a prerequisite for life. As such, the Beagle 2 was equipped to dig below the Martian surface, in order to analyze the components therein. Ball observed: “When NASA’s Viking probes landed on Mars in the mid-1970s, they found a surface that was dry and apparently sterilized by ultraviolet rays from the Sun, dashing hopes that microbes might be thriving there. The Pathfinder lander mission of 1997 also failed to find any sign of life past or present” (2003). Aside from water, the probe also will look for things like the existence of carbonate minerals, and the occurrence of organic molecules. If all had gone as scheduled, the Beagle 2 was to land on Christmas Day. After its large, gas-filled airbags detached and the parachutes were cut away, the solar panels were to be unfurled, allowing the lander to power itself up. The compactness of the probe did not allow it to have enough battery power to last into the night; thus, the solar panels were essential to its success. But as of late evening on December 28, no signals had been received. The European team will continue trying to make contact with the space probe throughout the oncoming days and weeks. Their best hope remains with the Mars Express—the spacecraft on which the Beagle 2 “hitchhiked,” and that currently is orbiting Mars. However, if that spacecraft fails to pick up a signal during the first week of January, the probe most likely will be considered lost. Somewhere on the Martian surface sits an expensive space probe that is the result of millions of research dollars and years of advanced research. The Beagle 2 may prove to be somewhat of an embarrassment to evolutionists, who were hoping to find evidence of life on Mars in the distant past. But while this first one may turn out to be a dud, the onslaught from the media will continue, and reports will continue to arrive about the “potential” of life on Mars. We encourage you to be diligent in dissecting fact from fiction as “life on Mars” stories make the headlines. [NOTE: For assistance in separating fact from fiction in regard to claims about life on Mars, see: (1) Life on Mars?; (2) Mars Rock Update; (3) Life on Mars—The “Rest of the Story”; and (4) Life on Mars, or Miniscule Balls of Digested Matter? . Ball, Philp (2003), “Fingers Crossed for Beagle 2,” Nature Science Update, [On-line], URL: http://www.nature.com/nsu/031222/031222-3.html.

<urn:uuid:f43f0fec-cef3-4a2f-8cea-e21e77403356>

Submitted to: Postharvest Biology and Technology Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: September 21, 1999 Publication Date: N/A Interpretive Summary: Superficial scald is a serious, costly storage disorder of apple and pear fruits. The main symptom of scald is marked discoloration of the skin which makes the fruit unacceptable for fresh market sales. Scald can be largely controlled by treating fruit with the antioxidant DPA, but this drench treatment requires use of a fungicide as well, resulting in chemical lresidues on the skin that could pose a health risk. This study examined the biochemical basis of the prevention of scald in apples by DPA treatment and low oxygen atmosphere storage. It also resulted in a relatively simple method for determining the level of DPA residue in apple peel tissue. The objective of this work is to find safer and less expensive means of controlling scald. This will benefit the apple industry by eliminating the cost of postharvest chemical treatments and opening foreign markets that forbid the sale of treated fruit. The consumer and general public will also benefit as a consequence of fewer chemical residues on the apples and reduced release of potentially hazardous chemical waste into the environment. Technical Abstract: Treatment with diphenylamine (DPA) and storage under low oxygen are the major commercial means of limiting superficial scald in apple fruit. Synthesis and oxidation of alpha-farnesene are thought to be directly involved in induction of this storage disorder. Control of scald by DPA has been ascribed to its ability to block in vitro and in vivo oxidation of ffarnesene to conjugated trienes (CTs), but DPA reportedly has multiple effects, including reduction of farnesene synthesis, ethylene production, and respiration. The time course and levels of farnesene and CT accumulation in peel tissue were compared in Empire apples that were either DPA-treated or untreated and stored for up to 28 weeks at 0C in air or under 1.5 percent oxygen. Also, it was found that the HPLC-UV method developed to quantify farnesene and CTs could be used to simultaneously measure the concentration of DPA residue. In air-stored fruit, DPA treatment protracted rather than diminished farnesene synthesis; a similar maximum level of farnesene was reached at 15 and 28 weeks in untreated and DPA-treated fruit, respectively. DPA treatment delayed the onset of CT production by about 5 weeks and reduced CT accumulation more than 2.5-fold. Low oxygen was overall more effective than DPA treatment in reducing synthesis and oxidation of farnesene. In combination, DPA and low oxygen had a synergistic effect, resulting in a 9-fold reduction in farnesene and virtual elimination of CT production over 28 weeks. In both air and 1.5 percent oxygen, DPA residue in peel tissue declined rapidly during the first 15 weeks of storage and more gradually thereafter, with an overall drop from about 11 to 1.1 ug per g.

<urn:uuid:93c5630f-271e-4b90-aa0c-e56067675a4c>

The US Government Accountability Office has recommended that the FCC formally reassess its limits for radio frequency exposure from cell phones, according to a report publicly released on Tuesday. The limits created in 1996 were based on data that is now two decades old, and while hundreds of studies have been conducted on the subject since, not many are useful or conclusive. The debate over the relationship between cell phone radiation exposure and human health has raged for over 16 years. For every seemingly solid, definitive study proving that cell phones have no appreciable effect on human health under current limits, a new batch of people would come out of the woodwork claiming debilitating radio frequency sensitivity (a psychosomatic condition, according to other studies). For every subject matter expert's attempt to reassure the public that cell phones don't cause brain tumors, a political entity would introduce legislation capping the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of consumer mobile phones. The council of Europe and World Health Organization declared cell phones to be possible carcinogens in May 2011, and the devices continued to sell at incredible rates. Since the FCC's limits were introduced, reason and action have failed to shake hands again and again. On Friday, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a bill requiring cell phone manufacturers to "examine, label, and communicate adverse human biological effects associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields from cell phones and other wireless devices, and for other purposes." The problem is, there's little agreement on what the "adverse human biological effects" are, in part because no one has really created a workable definition of normal usage yet. The GAO writes in its report "Studies we reviewed suggested and experts we interviewed stated that epidemiological research has not demonstrated adverse health effects from RF energy exposure from mobile phone use, but the research is not conclusive because findings from some studies have suggested a possible association with certain types of tumors, including cancerous tumors." The GAO also points out that it is difficult to separate the effects of cell phone RF radiation from other sources of ambient radiation. Furthermore, there's no precedent for the effects of low-level long-term exposure; cell phones simply haven't been around that long. Likewise, the way we use cell phones has changed significantly since 1996. Now, we text more than we call, so phones spend less time sitting adjacent to our brains. Furthermore, in 2012 we're far more likely to keep our phones in our pockets than in 1996, when many a portable phone made cars, purses, or bags their permanent home. While some studies make a point of being absolutely clear about usage and proximity, too many rely on self-reported usage or assume usage patterns out of sync with the modern day. Because of all these factors, GAO has formally requested that the FCC "reassess and, if appropriate, change its current RF energy exposure limit and mobile phone testing requirements related to likely usage configurations." Maybe, finally, we'll get to the bottom of this. Listing image by benymarc

<urn:uuid:8c6b89f0-45b2-47a4-bd98-3f7579ef3b7e>

Brace for a potentially tumultuous storm season that might be almost as intense as 2005, government forecasters said Thursday. They released an outlook calling for 14 to 23 named storms, including eight to 14 hurricanes. They call for three to seven of the hurricanes to be major, with sustained winds greater than 110 mph. "If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record," said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2005, historically the most active year, 28 storms, including 15 hurricanes, swirled to life. In an average season, 11 named storms form, including six hurricanes — two of them intense. Whether the season is active or extremely active hinges on whether La Niña emerges over the coming months, said Gerry Bell, NOAA's lead hurricane forecaster. La Niña is an atmospheric force that nurtures storm formation. For now, the Atlantic basin is in a neutral state, meaning neither El Niño nor La Niña is exerting influence, he said. "But conditions are becoming increasingly favorable for La Niña to develop," Bell said. "The main uncertainty in this outlook is how much above normal the season will be." Otherwise, NOAA expects three main factors to fuel the season: abnormally warm waters in the tropics; an ongoing, decades-long era of Atlantic hurricane intensity; and the absence of El Niño, the atmospheric condition that kills tropical systems. NOAA's seasonal outlook, presented during a news conference in Washington, D.C., makes no attempt to say how many storms will strike land or which coastal areas are most at risk. However, Lubchenco said, "The greater likelihood of storms brings an increased risk of a landfall. In short, we urge everyone to be prepared." The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season starts Tuesday and runs through Nov. 30. Last May, NOAA predicted nine to 14 named storms, including four to seven hurricanes. Of those, it expected one to three to be major. The season actually saw nine named storms, including three hurricanes, two of them intense. NOAA officials say the seasonal outlook is intended to be a guide, to let people know what's in store. The agency will issue an updated outlook in early August, before the peak of the hurricane season. Meanwhile, a new Mason-Dixon poll released on Thursday shows many Gulf and Atlantic coast residents might be complacent heading into the 2010 storm season. Forty-five percent said they don't feel vulnerable to a hurricane; 47 percent have no survival kit; 74 percent have taken no steps to bolster their homes; 36 percent have no family disaster plan and 13 percent said they might not or would not evacuate even if ordered to leave. The poll surveyed 625 adults who live within 30 miles of the coast between Virginia and Texas. Ken Kaye can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or 954-572-2085.

<urn:uuid:387d9733-4b40-41d6-8fdd-2bc11b3e9db7>

The city on the Rio de la Plata estuary has endured much but survives and prospers as the soul of Argentina. Argentina's capital has come to epitomize the huge South American nation's rich, turbulent and diverse history. Buenos Aires' evolution from its founding in 1536 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Mendoza and the Catholic Church has not been an easy one, but today this lusty multicultural megacity of some 13 million people endures and thrives as the country's political, financial and cultural nucleus. Some regard it as a little slice of Europe in the Southern Hemisphere (“The Paris of the Pampas”), a legacy of the Spanish, Italian and German immigrants who flocked there over the centuries and left their imprimatur on Buenos Aires' art, architecture, music, theater, literature and cuisine — all of which has fused with the country's indigenous native American culture to produce a passionate amalgam best appreciated in Argentina's signature dance, the tango. For if anything characterizes the Argentine temperament, it's passion. Well, business, too, as Buenos Aires' other pursuit is high finance, the activity most likely to attract business aviation operators to make that long flight to 34o south. The economic power of Buenos Aires can be seen in its 2011 gross geographic product (GGP) of $84.7 billion (U.S.), which amounted to a quarter of the wealth generated by Argentina as a whole. Among the world's cities, Buenos Aires' economy ranks 13th, and its port on the Rio de la Plata estuary is one of the busiest in South America, serving as a distribution center for the southeastern corner of the continent through the complex river system that empties into the estuary.

<urn:uuid:41c1b045-a844-4e83-bdff-8338792eb407>

If you are above 50, You really need to care about your heart. The leading cause of death of seniors is heart disease so aware them for heart problems. Heart disease is a wide range of diseases that affect heart, and in some cases, blood vessels. Generally, the conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain (angina) or stroke is known as Heart disease. For seniors, Heart disease is the leading cause of death. In U.S. heart disease is a killer and cause of disabilities. Heart disease is found in different forms such as Coronary heart disease, Cardiomyopathy, Cardiovascular disease and Ischaemic heart disease like Heart failure, Hypertensive heart disease, inflammatory heart disease, and Valvular heart disease. Main symptoms and warning signs of heart attack: - Tightness, discomfort or crushing - Fullness or burning - Heaviness, pressure or squeezing Pain from the centre of the chest spreading - Up to neck, jaw, shoulder or back - Down one or both arms - Anxiety or fear - Shortness of breath - Denial, refusing to admit that anything is wrong - Paleness, sweating or weakness - Nausea, vomiting and/or indigestion Warning signs in women Women have less obvious symptoms such as indigestion like discomfort, vague chest pressure or discomfort, nausea or back pain. It is crucial for women and their doctors not to ignore those easy-to-miss symptoms. Tips for a Healthy Heart There are many ways to prevent heart problems, which can concentrate on key lifestyle areas. Some tips for a healthy heart are as follows: - Do not smoke, and avoid used smoke: The risk of heart attacks and heart failure are markedly increased by smoking. Your cardiovascular risk is rapidly reduced by giving up smoking. - Exercise: To do exercise for 30 to 60 minutes everyday is new recommendation. With the help of Exercise, you can maintain a healthy weight and keep your heart strong and disease free. - Maintain a healthy weight: The risk of heart attacks, heart failure and diabetes have been increased due to Obesity. The best way to maintain a normal weight is a healthy diet and exercise program. - Get your cholesterol levels checked: High cholesterol does not originate any symptoms until it is too late. Therefore, you have to know about your healthy cholesterol level so go for check up as soon as possible. - Take your medications as recommended by your physician: Without discussing with physicians, many patients stop taking their prescribed medications. Studies show that risk for heart attacks, strokes, heart failure become much higher for those who stop their cardiovascular medications and their survival will be reduced compared to those who adhere to their medical regimen. - Maintain a healthy cholesterol level: If your LDL (“bad” cholesterol) is less than 100 then it is the ideal level. Convinced persons need to attain even lower LDL cholesterol levels. It is important to keep your HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels up. Know your lipid levels and converse to your doctor about the best plan of action to keep your cholesterol levels perfect. - Get your blood pressure checked: Many patients with hypertension are not conscious that they have this circumstance. There are very well abided and effectual treatments for high blood pressure. - Maintain a normal blood pressure: High blood pressure is a main risk factor for heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. Your systolic blood pressure should be below 140 and your diastolic blood pressure below 90. Convinced persons need to attain even tighter manage of their blood pressure. - See your doctor: The best ways to keep your heart healthy and avoid problems down the road are, follow the medicines and do exercises suggested by your doctor. - Take omega-3 fatty acids: Studies show that risk of heart disease become lower by getting one gram a day of omega-3 fatty acids in the diet or taking supplements such as fish oil capsules. Healthy Heart Exercises for seniors: To stay healthy and independent, National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend four types of exercises for seniors, which are as follows: - Strength exercises: strength exercises will help to build older adult muscles and increase metabolism in your body that helps to maintain the level of your weight and blood sugar. - Balance exercises prevent falls by building leg muscles. Every year, U.S. hospitals have 300,000 admissions for broken hips, many of them seniors and falling is often the cause of those fractures, according to the NIH. Balance exercises will help an older adult by avoiding problems as they get older and stay independent by avoiding the disabilities that could result from falling. - Stretching exercises can give more freedom of movement to be more active during your senior years. Your endurance or strength will not be improved by alone Stretching exercises. - Endurance exercises are any movement such as walking, swimming, jogging, biking, even raking leaves, which increase your heart rate and breathing for a lengthened period. Start with as little as 5 minutes of endurance activities at a time and build up your endurance steadily. Healthy Heart diet for seniors: Diet plays main role to keep healthy you and your heart so always take healthy diet and avoid problem down the road. So for your dieting, consult your Doctor and follow-eating plan, which fulfill your dietary needs. - Beware of chemicals in your food like caffeine, MSG, and other food additives. - Total fat intake should be less than 30 percent of total calories daily. - Saturated fatty acid intake should be less than 10 percent of total calories daily. - Sodium intake should be no more than 3000 milligrams per day. - Polyunsaturated fatty acid intake should be no more that 10 percent of total calories daily. - Monounsaturated fatty acids make up the rest of total fat intake, about 10 to 15 percent of total calories daily. - Cholesterol intake should be no more than 300 milligrams per day. - Nuts can heap to Lower down cholesterol. Healthy Heart Diet chart: |Healthy Fats (raw nuts, olive oil, fish oils, flax seeds, avocados)||Damaged fats (trans fats from partially hydrogenated foods, deep fried foods); saturated fats (whole-fat dairy; red meat).| |Colorful, nutrient-loaded fruits and vegetables||Processed food (foods that come in a package); foods high in sodium| |Fiber rich foods (whole grains and legumes)||Refined carbohydrates (white starches).| |Fish (especially wild salmon, whitefish, tilapia, catfish, flounder, and mahi mahi)||Red meat| |Water||Fruit juices, soda|

<urn:uuid:8b5aaaaa-b877-4518-acbe-85df7fe57a9f>

Origin and Meaning of the Name Anniston Miscellaneous Info for Anniston Used in:English speaking countries Additional Info:Modern respelling of the traditional surname Aniston. Derived from the English form of the Greek Agnes, Annis, Aniston is a surname originally borne by those who lived in a town with a church devoted to St. Agnes. Although the root origin is a feminine name, it's use as a surname indicates that the name is masculine. Modern trends have seen it used in both genders. Jennifer Aniston, the American actress, is a notable bearer of this surname. Similar Names to Anniston for Boys & Girls The name meaning of Anniston and the name origin of Anniston have been reviewed by our name experts.

<urn:uuid:6937d8f5-be7c-4a9f-9d0a-3f71623e52a0>

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article |Part of the Politics series| |Basic forms of| A federation (Latin: foedus, foederis, 'covenant'), also known as a federal state, is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is known as federalism. It can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. Germany with sixteen Länder is an example of a federation, whereas neighboring Austria and its Bundesländer was a unitary state with administrative divisions that became federated, and neighboring France by contrast has always been unitary. Federations may be multi-ethnic and cover a large area of territory (e.g. India), although neither is necessarily the case. The initial agreements create a stability that encourages other common interests, reduces differences between the disparate territories, and gives them all even more common ground. At some time this is recognized and a movement is organized to merge more closely. At other times, especially when common cultural factors are at play such as ethnicity and language, some of the steps in this pattern are expedited and compressed. The international council for federal countries, the Forum of Federations, is based in Ottawa, Ontario. It helps share best practices among countries with federal systems of government, and currently includes nine countries as partner governments. Several ancient chiefdoms and kingdoms, such as the 4th century BC League of Corinth, Noricum in Central Europe, and the Haudenosaunee Confederation in pre-Columbian North America, could be described as federations or confederations. The Old Swiss Confederacy was an early example of formal non-unitary statehood. Several colonies and dominions in the New World consisted of autonomous provinces, transformed to federal states upon independence (see Spanish American wars of independence). The oldest continuous federation, and a role model for many subsequent federations, is the United States of America. Some of the New World federations failed; the Federal Republic of Central America broke up into independent states 10 years after its founding. Others, such as Argentina and Mexico, have shifted between federal, confederal, and unitary systems, before settling into federalism. Brazil became a federation only after the fall of the monarchy (see States of Brazil), and Venezuela became a federation after the Federal War. Australia and Canada are also federations. Germany is another nation-state that has switched between confederal, federal and unitary rules, since the German Confederation was founded in 1815. The North German Confederation and the Weimar Republic were federations. Founded in 1922, the Soviet Union was formally a federation of Soviet Republics, Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union and other federal subjects, though in practice highly centralized under the Government of the Soviet Union. The Russian Federation has inherited a similar system. Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Malaysia became federations on or shortly before becoming independent from the British Empire. The Forum of Federations was established in 1999. In a federation the component states are in some sense sovereign, insofar as certain powers are reserved to them that may not be exercised by the central government. However, a federation is more than a mere loose alliance of independent states. The component states of a federation usually possess no powers in relation to foreign policy, and so they enjoy no independent status under international law. However, German Länder do have this power, which is beginning to be exercised on a European level. Some federations are called asymmetric because some states have more autonomy than others. An example of such a federation is Malaysia, in which Sarawak and Sabah entered the federation on different terms and conditions from the states of Peninsular Malaysia. A federation often emerges from an initial agreement between a number of separate states. The purpose can be the will to solve mutual problems and to provide for mutual defense, or to create a nation state for an ethnicity spread over several states. The former was the case with the United States and Switzerland, the latter with Germany.[clarification needed] However, as the histories of countries and nations vary, the federalist system of a state can be quite different from these models. Australia, for instance, is unique in that it came into existence as a nation by the democratic vote of the citizens of each state, who voted "yes" in referendums to adopt the Australian Constitution. Brazil, on the other hand, has experienced both the federal and the unitary state during its history. Some present day states of the Brazilian federation retain borders set during the Portuguese colonization (i.e. previous to the very existence of Brazilian state), whereas the latest state, Tocantins, was created by the 1988 Constitution for chiefly administrative reasons. Seven of the top ten largest countries by area are governed as federations. A unitary state is sometimes one with only a single, centralised, national tier of government. However, unitary states often also include one or more self-governing regions. The difference between a federation and this kind of unitary state is that in a unitary state the autonomous status of self-governing regions exists by the sufferance of the central government, and may be unilaterally revoked. While it is common for a federation to be brought into being by agreement between a number of formally independent states, in a unitary state self-governing regions are often created through a process of devolution, where a formerly centralised state agrees to grant autonomy to a region that was previously entirely subordinate. Thus federations are often established voluntarily from 'below' whereas devolution grants self-government from 'above'. It is often part of the philosophy of a unitary state that, regardless of the actual status of any of its parts, its entire territory constitutes a single sovereign entity or nation-state, and that by virtue of this the central government exercises sovereignty over the whole territory as of right. In a federation, on the other hand, sovereignty is often regarded as residing notionally in the component states, or as being shared between these states and the central government. A confederation, in modern political terms, is usually limited to a permanent union of sovereign states for common action in relation to other states. The closest entity in the world to a confederation at this time is the European Union. While the word "confederation" was officially used when the present Canadian federal system was established in 1867, the term is recognised to be a misnomer since Canadian provinces are not sovereign and do not claim to be (with the notable exception of some governments over the last 30 years with Quebec). In the case of Switzerland, while the country is still officially called the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica, Confédération suisse) this is also now a misnomer since the Swiss cantons lost their sovereign status in 1848. In Belgium, however, the opposite movement is under way. Belgium was founded as a centralised state, after the French model, but has gradually been reformed into a federal state by consecutive constitutional reforms since the 1970s. Moreover, although nominally called a federal state, the country's structure already has a number of confederational traits (ex. competences are exclusive for either the federal or the state level, the treaty-making power of the Federating units without almost any possible veto of the Federal Government). At present, there is a growing movement to transform the existing federal state into a looser confederation with two or three constitutive states and/or two special regions. By definition, the difference between a confederation and a federation is that the membership of the member states in a confederation is voluntary, while the membership in a federation is not. A confederation is most likely to feature these differences over a federation: (1) No real direct powers: many confederal decisions are externalised by member-state legislation. (2) Decisions on day-to-day-matters are not taken by simple majority but by special majorities or even by consensus or unanimity (veto for every member). (3) Changes of the constitution, usually a treaty, require unanimity. Over time these terms acquired distinct connotations leading to the present difference in definition. An example of this is the United States under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles established a national government under what today would be defined as a federal system (albeit with a comparatively weaker federal government). However, Canadians, designed with a stronger central government than the U.S. in the wake of the Civil War of the latter, use the term "Confederation" to refer to the formation or joining, not the structure, of Canada. Legal reforms, court rulings, and political compromises have somewhat decentralised Canada in practice since its formation in 1867. An empire is a multi-ethnic state or group of nations with a central government established usually through coercion (on the model of the Roman Empire). An empire often includes self-governing regions, but these will possess autonomy only at the sufferance of the central government. On the other hand, a political entity that is an empire in name, may in practice consist of multiple autonomous kingdoms organised together in a federation, with a high king designated as an emperor. One example of this was Imperial Germany. A federacy is essentially an extreme case of an asymmetric federation, either due to large differences in the level of autonomy, or the rigidity of the constitutional arrangements. The term federacy is more often used for the relation between the sovereign state and its autonomous areas. A federation differs from a devolved state, such as the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain, because, in a devolved state, the central government can revoke the independence of the subunits (Scottish Parliament, Welsh National Assembly, Northern Ireland Assembly in the case of the UK) without changing the constitution. A federation also differs from an associated state, such as the Federated States of Micronesia (in free association with the United States) and Cook Islands and Niue (which form part of the Realm of New Zealand). There are two kinds of associated states: in case of Micronesia, association is concluded by treaty between two sovereign states; in case of Cook Islands and Niue, association is concluded by domestic legal arrangements. The relation between the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey in the Channel Islands and the United Kingdom is very similar to a federate relation: the Islands enjoy independence from the United Kingdom, which, via The Crown, takes care of their foreign relations and defence – although the UK Parliament does have overall power to legislate for the dependencies. However, the islands are neither an incorporated part of the United Kingdom, nor are they considered to be independent or associated states. The Isle of Man does not have a monarch, per se; rather, the British Monarch is, ex officio, Lord of Mann (irrespective of the incumbent's sex). Overseas territories, such as the British overseas territories, are vested with varying degrees of power; some enjoy considerable independence from the sovereign state, which only takes care of their foreign relations and defence. However, they are neither considered to be part of it, nor recognised as sovereign or associated states. The distinction between a federation and a unitary state is often quite ambiguous. A unitary state may closely resemble a federation in structure and, while a central government may possess the theoretical right to revoke the autonomy of a self-governing region, it may be politically difficult for it to do so in practice. The self-governing regions of some unitary states also often enjoy greater autonomy than those of some federations. For these reasons, it is sometimes argued[by whom?] that some modern unitary states are de facto federations. De facto federations, or quasi-federations, are often termed "regional states". Spain is suggested as one possible de facto federation as it grants more self-government to its autonomous communities than most federations allow their constituent parts. For the Spanish parliament to revoke the autonomy of regions such as Galicia, Catalonia or the Basque Country would be a political near-impossibility, though nothing bars it legally. Additionally, some regions such as Navarre or the Basque Country have full control over taxation and spending, transferring a small payment to the central government for the common services (army, foreign relations, macroeconomic policy). For example, one scholar discusses the "federal nature of Spain's government (a trend that almost no one denies)." Each autonomous community is governed by a Statute of Autonomy (Estatuto de Autonomía) under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. |Parts of this article (those related to the three pillars) are outdated. (June 2011)| The European Union (EU) is a type of political union or quasi Federation. Robert Schuman, the initiator of the European Community system, wrote that a supranational Community like the Europe's founding European Coal and Steel Community lay midway between an association of States where they retained complete independence and a federation leading to a fusion of States in a super-state. The European Founding Fathers made a Europe Declaration at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 18 April 1951 saying that Europe should be organized on a supranational foundation. They envisaged a structure quite different from a federation called the European Political Community. The EU is a three pillar structure of the original supranational European Economic Community and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Euratom, plus two largely intergovernmental pillars dealing with External Affairs and Justice and Home Affairs. The EU is therefore not a de jure federation, although some academic observers conclude that after 50 years of institutional evolution since the Treaties of Rome it is becoming one. The European Union possesses attributes of a federal state. However, its central government is far weaker than that of most federations and the individual members are sovereign states under international law, so it is usually characterized as an unprecedented form of supra-national union. The EU has responsibility for important areas such as trade, monetary union, agriculture, fisheries. Nonetheless, EU member states retain the right to act independently in matters of foreign policy and defense, and also enjoy a near monopoly over other major policy areas such as criminal justice and taxation. Since the Treaty of Lisbon, Member States' right to leave the Union is codified, and the Union operates with more qualified majority voting (rather than unanimity) in many areas. By the signature of this Treaty, the participating Parties give proof of their determination to create the first supranational institution and that thus they are laying the true foundation of an organized Europe. This Europe remains open to all nations. We profoundly hope that other nations will join us in our common endeavour. — Europe Declaration signed by Konrad Adenauer (West Germany), Paul van Zeeland, Joseph Meurice (Belgium) Robert Schuman (France) Count Sforza (Italy) Joseph Bech (Luxembourg) and Dirk Stikker, J. R. M. van den Brink (The Netherlands). Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism. — European Constitutionalism Beyond the State. Edited with Marlene Wind (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003) page 23, Joseph H. H. Weiler Those uncomfortable using the "F" word in the EU context should feel free to refer to it as a quasi-federal or federal-like system. Nevertheless, for the purposes of the analysis here, the EU has the necessary attributes of a federal system. It is striking that while many scholars of the EU continue to resist analyzing it as a federation, most contemporary students of federalism view the EU as a federal system. (See for instance, Bednar, Filippov et al., McKay, Kelemen, Defigueido and Weingast) — R. Daniel Kelemen A more nuanced view has been given by the German Constitutional Court. Here the EU is defined as 'an association of sovereign national states (Staatenverbund)'. With this view, the European Union resembles more of a confederation. The Russian Federation has inherited its structure from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) that was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union and itself was considered a federation of national territories. The RSFSR consisted of autonomous republics, which had a certain degree of autonomy, at least de jure, and of other types of administrative units (oblasts and krais), whose status was the same as that of oblasts in other – mostly unitary – Soviet Socialist Republics. Today's Russia is defined as a federation in its Constitution (Article 5), and Russia's federal subjects, i.e., the constituent republics, oblasts, krais, the federal-level cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, as well as one autonomous oblast and four autonomous (national) okrugs, are equal in legal terms, save for some symbolic features allowed to republics (constitution, president, national language). Some regions (Yakutia) have concluded agreements with the Federation so as to modify the degree of their autonomy. In 2004-2012, according to an amendment passed in December 2004, governors and presidents of Russia's constituent regions, who were previously elected by popular vote, were now proposed by the President of Russia for the approval of the local parliament Local parliaments theoretically have the authority to reject the candidate, but if this occurs three times, the parliament may be dissolved by the President and new parliamentary elections held. In 2012 direct elections were returned, but candidates now require approval signatures from 5-10% (depending on region, only 1 signature per MP allowed) municipal MPs. At the end of apartheid, the former four provinces (Cape, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal) and the Bantustans were converted into nine provinces. Each province has a government constituted by a unicameral legislature (called Parliament in the Western Cape) and an executive branch with a premier and executive council. The powers of provinces are circumscribed by the national constitution which limits them to certain listed "functional areas". In certain cases there is a concurrence between national and provincial levels, while in others there are exclusive competences for each one. This system is known as "co-operative government". This system would be considered as a "de facto" federation, because actually the power of provinces was given by the national government to the provincial level. Moreover, the creation of a "provincial constitution" is optional, if the province government does not want do it rules additionally the national constitution. Ultimately, unlike the majority of federal systems, South Africa has a single national court system, and the administration of justice is the responsibility of the national government. Certain forms of political and constitutional dispute are common to federations. One issue is that the exact division of power and responsibility between federal and regional governments is often a source of controversy. Often, as is the case with the United States, such conflicts are resolved through the judicial system, which delimits the powers of federal and local governments. The relationship between federal and local courts varies from nation to nation and can be a controversial and complex issue in itself. Another common issue in federal systems is the conflict between regional and national interests, or between the interests and aspirations of different ethnic groups. In some federations the entire jurisdiction is relatively homogeneous and each constituent state resembles a miniature version of the whole; this is known as 'congruent federalism'. On the other hand, incongruent federalism exists where different states or regions possess distinct ethnic groups. The ability of a federal government to create national institutions that can mediate differences that arise because of linguistic, ethnic, religious, or other regional differences is an important challenge. The inability to meet this challenge may lead to the secession of parts of a federation or to civil war, as occurred in United States (southern states interpreted slavery under the tenth amendment as a state right, while northern states were against slavery, with a catalysis occurring in the then Kansas Territory) and Switzerland. In the case of Malaysia, Singapore was expelled from the federation because of rising racial tension. In some cases internal conflict may lead a federation to collapse entirely, as occurred in Nigeria, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the United Provinces of Central America and the West Indies Federation. The federal government is the common or national government of a federation. A federal government may have distinct powers at various levels authorized or delegated to it by its member states. The structure of federal governments vary. Based on a broad definition of a basic federalism, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and govern through common institutions with overlapping or shared powers as prescribed by a constitution. Federal government is the government at the level of the sovereign state. Usual responsibilities of this level of government are maintaining national security and exercising international diplomacy, including the right to sign binding treaties. Basically, a modern federal government, within the limits defined by its constitution, has the power to make laws for the whole country, unlike local governments. The United States Constitution was created to limit the federal government from exerting power over the states, but certain amendments gave the federal government considerable authority over states. Federal government within this structure are the government ministries and departments and agencies to which the ministers of government are assigned. For a detailed list of federated units, see Federated state#List of constituents by federation. There are 27 federations as of October 2013. |Year est.||Federation||Federating units||Major federating units||Minor federating units| |1853||Argentina||Provinces of Argentina||23 provinces||1 autonomous city| |1920||Austria||States of Austria||9 Länder or Bundesländer| |1995||Bosnia and Herzegovina||Divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina||2 entities||1 district| |1889||Brazil||States of Brazil||26 states (Previously 18 provinces during the monarchical period between 1822 and 1889)||1 federal district and 5,565 municipalities| |1995||Ethiopia||Regions of Ethiopia||9 regions||2 chartered cities| |1949||Germany||States of Germany||16 Länder or Bundesländer| |1950||India||States and territories of India||28 States||7 Union Territories, including a National Capital Territory| |2005||Iraq||Governorates of Iraq||18 provinces| |1821||Mexico||States of Mexico||31 states||1 federal district| |1979||Federated States of Micronesia||Administrative divisions of the Federated States of Micronesia||4 states| |2008||Nepal||Zones of Nepal||14 zones||75 districts| |1963||Nigeria||States of Nigeria||36 states||1 territory| |1956||Pakistan||Provinces and territories of Pakistan||4 provinces||4 federal territories including a federal capital territory| |1992||Russian Federation||Federal subjects of Russia||21 republics, 46 oblasts, 9 krais, 1 autonomous oblast, 4 autonomous okrugs, 2 federal-level cities| |2012||Somalia||Federal Member States of Somalia||18 states| |2011||South Sudan||States of South Sudan||10 states| |1956||Sudan||States of Sudan||17 states| |1848||Switzerland||Cantons of Switzerland||26 cantons| |1776||United States of America||States of the United States||50 states||1 federal district; 4 Commonwealths; 1 incorporated territory, 11 unincorporated territories| |1863||Venezuela||States of Venezuela||23 states||1 federal district, 1 federal dependency| |Year est.||Federation||Federating units||Major federating units||Minor federating units| |1901||Australia||States and territories of Australia||6 states||2 territories| |1970||Belgium||Divisions of Belgium||3 Communities, 3 Regions| |1867||Canada||Provinces and territories of Canada||10 provinces||3 territories| |1963||Malaysia||States of Malaysia||13 states||3 federal territories| |1983||Saint Kitts and Nevis||Islands/parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis||2 islands/14 parishes| |1971||United Arab Emirates||Emirates of the UAE||7 emirates| Some of the proclaimed Arab federations were confederations de facto.

<urn:uuid:4978eeee-864a-423a-8dbc-128c54d1e506>

Karl Foord, Extension Educator - Horticulture One of the projects I am engaged in this summer is the identification and location of the nests of native bees. My partner in this effort is Heather Holm, who is the author of a recently published book entitled, "Pollinators of Native Plants". With additional help from Joel Gardner, a bee biologist and graduate student at the University of Minnesota, and Colleen Satyshur, the research coordinator at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, we have been able to identify a half dozen different nesting sites of ground nesting native bees. These sites have included areas on: 1) the University of Minnesota campus (Photos 1 & 2), 2) the front of an apartment complex on Como Avenue in St. Paul (Photos 3, 4 & 5) , 3) Purgatory Park, Minnetonka (Photo 6 & 7), 4) a pick-your-own blueberry farm in Champlin Minnesota (Photo 8 & 9), 5) a pick-your-own blueberry farm in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, and 6) a residence in Chaska. These sites had several features in common. There was a degree of exposed soil and the areas were mostly untended e.g. ignored or left alone. The fact that these areas are undisturbed by human activity is a critical feature. However, this also means that the areas might not meet the standards of tidiness and neatness often embraced by most urban and suburban neighborhoods. My upbringing left me with the impression that areas with exposed dirt and perhaps a few weeds were the sign of a slovenly, lazy person. One who did not care enough about their own property to maintain the unspoken but expected standard of tidiness. One key aspect of this standard seems to be a weedless dark green lawn. The lawn is an English invention indicating aristocratic status. In essence a demonstration that the owner could afford to keep land not being used for buildings or food production. Wealthy families in America began mimicking such English landscaping styles in the late 1700's. The first lawnmowers were invented in the 1830s in England. The subsequent improvement of these machines permitted middle-class families to imitate aristocratic landscapes and grow finely trimmed lawns in their back gardens. Jump to the 20th century and behold the increased value of a home through landscaping and its most prominant feature - the well manicured lawn. Maintaining such a lawn may require fertilizers, pesticides, and gasoline powered mowing and maintence equipment as well as water, depending on location. The University of Minnesota Turf program is searching for ways to reduce the environmental impact of lawns through drought-tolerant, slower growing species as just one of their approaches. It was the interest in native bees and their nesting sites that has had me reconsider the negative associations associated with some open ground and untidy areas. I now consider such areas to be an important and purposeful part of my landscape, as it provides nesting sites for native bees. For what used to be an eyesore, is now a place of beauty when occupied by our fascinating native pollinators. Perhaps it is time to reconsider lawns in terms of their benefits and ecological impacts.

<urn:uuid:42437296-e708-44a6-ae1b-326211c641ea>