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Wed February 6, 2013 Smokers turning to e-cigarettes to help them quit As smoking bans become more widespread, some cigarette smokers have turned to so-called 'electronic cigarettes.' But health experts says it's too soon to say whether e-cigarettes are safe. Instead of burning tobacco, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, or e-cigarettes, have a heating element that vaporizes a solution of nicotine to inhale. A survey in four countries led by Roswell Park Cancer Institute shows there is growing awareness of 'electronic cigarettes' among smokers. The study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows nearly 80 percent of users believe the devices are less harmful. The devices do help smokers avoid indoor smoking bans and they're a cheaper alternative to costly tobacco cigarettes. But based on current users in the study, among the 85 percent who indicated they use the devices to help them quit smoking, only 11 percent say they have have succeeded. "I think the biggest concern that people have in tobacco control and public health is that they could be attractive to youth or they could prevent people from quitting smoking entirely," said Director of the Tobacco Research Laboratory at Roswell Park Dr. Richard O'Connor. 'There's relatively low success in quitting smoking on a given attempt, anyway," O'Connor said. "A large majority of them are looking at them as a way to get them off cigarettes. Whether they actually succeed in the long-term is something we plan to look at as we continue doing more surveys." O'Connor points out e-cigarettes first hit the market in 2003 and only gained popularity the past four years. "There's limited data available because they've only been out a relatively short period of time," O'Connor says. "So isn't a large extensive epidemiology of their use or their long-term health effects." O'Connor points out the study is a snapshot in time from 2010 to 2011, so further research will be needed to determine whether e-cigarettes have a positive effect on public health.

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A Yale-led research team will spend the next five years developing a new breed of sophisticated “socially assistive” robots for helping young children learn to read, appreciate physical fitness, overcome cognitive disabilities, and perform physical exercises. The purpose of the $10 million, federally funded effort, announced April 3, is to create self-adapting machines capable of cultivating long-term interpersonal relationships and assisting pre-school-age children with educational and therapeutic goals. “The big idea is that we’re building robots to help kids,” said Brian Scassellati, the Yale computer scientist who is leading the intensive, multi-university project. “At the end of five years we’d like to have robots that can guide a child toward long-term educational goals, be customized for the particular needs of that child, and basically grow and develop with the child. We want the robot to be the equivalent of a good personal trainer.” The robots would supplement, not replace, human teachers and caregivers, Scassellati said, and would work both with regularly developing children and those with social or cognitive deficits. “What many children really need is individualized attention every day for periods of weeks, months, or years,” he said. The interrelated technical, social and pedagogical challenges are daunting. The scientists will attempt to model the dynamic nature of social interaction and develop novel algorithms that endow the robots with a vast array of behavioral options. Currently there are many robots that learn single skills under controlled laboratory settings. But Scassellati and his team will attempt to create complex robots that readily adapt to the changing needs, abilities, interests and idiosyncrasies of individual children. “We want to build a healthy relationship of trust and respect between the child and the robot so that the child will work hard to achieve the goals set by a teacher or clinician.” Ideally, the robots will be able to successfully engage children for up to a year, Scassellati said. “You stop listening to the guy that tells the same joke every day,” he said. “A child does the same thing with a robot that never changes.” In all, the team involves 17 principal investigators from four universities — Yale, Stanford, MIT and the University of Southern California. The researchers represent a diverse group of intellectual disciplines, including computer science, robotics, educational theory, and developmental psychology. “The foundation for this unusual and important project was laid by the Scassellati group’s remarkable research demonstrating the effectiveness of using robots to help autistic children develop social skills,” said Steven Girvin, Yale’s deputy provost for science and technology. Other Yale researchers on the team include John Morrell and Aaron Dollar of mechanical engineering, and Fred Volkmar and Rhea Paul of the Yale Child Study Center. The National Science Foundation is supporting the research though its Expeditions in Computing program. The $10 million grant is one of the largest awards that the agency makes.

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HOW TO PREVENT VACCINE INJURY By Byron J. Richards, CCN April 10, 2008 It is a colossal failure on the part of our government to not warn parents of the actual risks associated with vaccines. The blind insistence that vaccines are safe and effective is not supported by science, at least for a significant number of our children. There are now 25,000 children per year developing autism (1 in 150), a problem that has expanded in direct proportion to the increase in vaccinations. How do you know if your child is at risk? The government’s primary goal appears to be to prevent parents, en masse, from refusing to vaccinate their children. To prevent such a “run on the public health bank” all caution is being recklessly thrown to the wind. American children are now the most vaccinated people in the world. What are we actually doing? The vaccination problem needs to be objectively solved so that public health is maintained, yet needless vaccine injury is avoided. It should not be of any great comfort to parents that scientists hardly understand how the immune system works. The simplistic idea that vaccines offer protection against disease has an element of truth and a significant element of risk. This article explores the risk in greater depth. I will first explain what is known about the nature of the risk and follow with some natural options that can really help out. Vaccine Adjuvants – A Double-Edged Sword Giving a fully active virus as a vaccine would obviously cause the disease. On the other hand, a weakened or deadened form of the virus may not produce much of an immune response thereby making the vaccine worthless. This problem has been “solved” by combining the weakened disease with an immune activator called an adjuvant. An adjuvant does not contain the disease; rather it is intended to initiate the first step in fighting an infection – the inflammatory response. This is like giving a general wake up call to the immune system. This can be done with an irritant or a more specific toxin the immune system is likely to recognize based on eons of exposure. In the irritant category the most common adjuvants used in vaccines your child will get are salts of aluminum (aluminum phosphate and aluminum hydroxide). The safety of aluminum salts has been called into question following the poor health of many Gulf War Veterans who received multiple aluminum adjuvant vaccinations. Many scientists consider that their poor health was caused by the adjuvants in the vaccines they were given. In 2003 French researchers identified aluminum hydroxide vaccine adjuvants as the cause of a new disease consisting of pain and chronic fatigue; noting similarities to problems in Gulf War soldiers. In a recent study mice were given aluminum hydroxide at doses comparable to Gulf War soldiers. Extensive testing was done of their cognitive ability as well as analysis of the nervous system upon sacrifice. The results showed that aluminum hydroxide caused nerve-related motor defects. Analysis of brain tissue showed 255% increase in inflammatory markers along with 35% loss of motor neurons. It has been over a year since this study was published. Why isn’t the CDC doing the same experiment with the adjuvant load from their recommended vaccine schedule? Any substance that is adversely neurotoxic in an adult is likely to be more neurotoxic in the evolving nervous system of a baby. Not following up on this is gross negligence on the part of the CDC. Another common adjuvant is bacterial endotoxin (the outer membrane of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria), also known as lipopolysaccharide or LPS. Since we have been battling bacteria since the beginning of our evolution, our immune systems recognize LPS as an invasion – setting off a powerful inflammatory immune system reaction. The toxicity of any bacterial infection relates to LPS. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health freely acknowledge that the proinflammatory effects of adjuvants in vaccines “underlie many of the observed toxic effects.” What the new science shows very clearly is that all the inflammation that is generated by adjuvants is actually not necessary for activating the immune response. This means that our government is sticking by a vaccine program that relies on firing a toxic shotgun at the immune system even though they know a laser-guided approach would have much less risk of vaccine injury from direct toxicity. The problem for our government is that they don’t currently have the ability to make safer vaccines; thus they blindly defend the safety of a very crude approach and refuse to conduct tests that would easily show the current vaccine program is not safe. It is quite clear that an inflamed nervous system is an undeniable feature in autism. What Does NF-kappaB Have to Do With It? Nuclear Factor kappa-B is the “brain” residing within every cell of your body, including cells of your nervous system. It is a gene transcription factor, meaning that it tells your cells how to behave depending on what is happening. When everything is running smoothly, NF-kappaB has its feet up on the lawn chair in a relaxed mode of operation. Under stress NF-kappaB initiates survival strategies. NF-kappaB is the main regulator of all inflammatory and immune responses, and is intimately involved with the healthy function of your nervous system. NF-kappaB is an active intelligence within your cells. The last thing you would ever want to do is mess up NF-kappaB. Adjuvants, due to their intentionally inflammatory mode of operation, activate NF-kappaB. This is done to ramp up the immune system so it can “see” the weakened virus in the vaccine. The million dollar question is: “How much NF-kappaB activation can a child take before their NF-kappaB system overheats and sets a fire in their brain called autism?” When NF-kappaB overheats it generates large amounts of inflammatory immune system messengers (like TNFa and IL6) and massive numbers of free radicals that damage nerve cells. If a child is already acutely inflamed then the NF-kappaB pump has already been primed and the risk for vaccine injury is greater. Acute inflammation is caused by illness, injury, surgery, poor diet, and stress at home. This problem is magnified if the child had a history of inflammation while in the womb, was born prematurely, or had health struggles during the first few years of life. Even a previous round of vaccines can prime the inflammatory NF-kappaB pump. Environmental toxicity is another factor that cannot be ignored, as is the health of the mother prior to and during pregnancy. A mother’s obesity and eating habits have a significant effect on the nerve health of her child. The main point to understand is that if the NF-kappaB system is already on the edge of overheating due to other factors, then the intentional pushing of this system with vaccines poses a serious risk to the child. Multiple vaccines given at one time, with multiple pro-inflammatory adjuvants, obviously increase the risk. Any person objectively reviewing the science on this issue could reach no other conclusion. The issue of NF-kappaB is so important that the next generation of vaccines will utilize it in an attempt to make less toxic vaccines (the laser-guided approach rather than the shotgun). While NF-kappaB-targeted vaccines will be less blatantly toxic, making them free of adverse side effects is another story altogether. Manipulating NF-kappaB is playing with the essence of the life force of a cell. At any given time there are numerous ons and offs relating to how NF-kappaB is naturally working to maintain health. The new vaccines will turn on the inflammatory aspect of NF-kappaB – which could easily upset the applecart in some other needed aspect of health. No matter how good research scientists are at developing new vaccines, there will always be a percentage of at-risk-already-inflamed children who are likely to respond in a poor manner. Vaccine safety is not just about better vaccines; it’s also about protecting those who are most likely to poorly react to them. It is not possible to have a good public health policy for disease prevention that fails to take this fact into account. Nutrients that Can Help Mother Nature has provided an array of NF-kappaB modulating compounds. Unlike drugs, nutrients are far more compatible with genes as we evolved using nutrition to assist survival. When we provide our cells needed nutrients, NF-kappaB seems to know what to do with them. It is very clear that NF-kappaB uses nutrition to help cool itself off – like a tall glass of ice water on a hot day. A diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables is the foundation for NF-kappaB anti-inflammatory nutrition. When a mother eats this way during pregnancy and while nursing she is passing tremendous benefit to her child. It is now clear that such good health habits are passed along, a type of fetal programming of the taste system, wherein the child is now more likely to eat healthfully and consequently have better function of NF-kappaB. On top of a good diet there are certain “super nutrients” that significantly help NF-kappaB behave in a healthy manner. These help NF-kappaB not get overheated or too bent out of shape. The following list of nutrients is by no means complete; I’ve selected them because I’ve used them for years and I know they work. There is plenty of science to support their common sense use, for young and old. Such extra nutrient support can be used as needed to: 1) Calm down nerves from existing life stress or a pattern of wear and tear, 2) Calm down nerves following an inflammatory event, such as vaccinations, 3) Stabilize nerves that are struggling, 4) Generally improve cognitive function and nerve development. The five nutrients I’ve selected for discussion are the tocotrienol form of vitamin E, the herb silymarin, grape seed extract, lipoic acid, and acetyl-l-carnitine. This is a treasure trove of NF-kappaB modulating nerve and energy support nutrients. are a special form of vitamin E with unique antioxidant properties that are in many ways superior to plain vitamin E. For example, a recent study showed that tocotrienols offered superior protection to the nervous system from methylmercury – a potent nerve toxin. It is very clear that tocotrienols work NF-kappaB, are a superior brain protecting nutrient, and are also helpful for inflammation in the system by reducing NF-kappaB. Silymarin or Milk Thistle is an herb that is commonly used to protect the liver as well as to help the liver clear toxins. Silymarin also works by modulating NF-kappaB to turn down inflammation. One study showed it was able to stop the LPS induced toxicity in brain cells. Another study showed it stop the autoimmune-driven damage to nerves (demyelination) while reducing inflammation. Grape seed extracts contain proanthocyanidins that have also been shown to directly turn off LPS toxicity by turning down NF-kappaB. Taking the extract before damage to the nerves, as from alcohol consumption, helps prevent brain damage. Taking the extract after damage to nerves is already in progress helps stop the damage. Grape seed extracts are another top choice for nerve protection. R-Alpha Lipoic Acid and Acetyl-L-Carnitine work synergistically to restore mitochondrial energy production in nerve cells. It is now believed that one factor involved with vaccine injury is poor mitochondrial function. Lipoic Acid is another nutrient now proven to lower NF-kappaB and reduce the inflammation associated with LPS toxicity. Acetyl-l-Carnitine has been extensively studied for its role in memory and cognitive function. It also exerts powerful nerve protection by a variety of different mechanism. Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts! As you can see, there is plenty of science to support the use of nutrition to help out the brain – and this is just a sample of some of the better options. These nutrients are typically quite easy to mix into juice, apple sauce, or yogurt. The tocotrienol oil can be squeezed from the softgel capsule directly into the mouth. Powders can be mixed in water and administered with a dropper during nursing. Moms can take any of these nutrients which will transfer in her milk. Nutrition excels at the safe and natural regulation of inflammation, including nerve inflammation, primarily by helping NF-kappaB work normally. © 2008 Truth in Wellness, LLC - All Rights Reserv

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Podcasts & RSS Feeds Most Active Stories - Investigators Ask For Public's Help In Ongoing Abigail Hernandez Investigation - Ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas Wants To Buy Market Basket Chain - Bare Shelves, High Spirits As Market Basket Employees Continue Rally - On Demand: What's New To Netflix, Redbox, And Amazon Prime For July 2014 - Winnipesaukee's Mail Boat Is Part Floating Post Office, Part Time Machine Shots - Health News Fri December 14, 2012 How To Talk To Your Kids About The Conn. Shootings Originally published on Tue December 18, 2012 8:03 am When acts of violence against children become national news, it's natural for kids to worry and wonder what it means for them. So amid the coverage of the shootings in Newtown, Conn., that have claimed the lives of 20 schoolchildren, what should parents do for their kids? "The key thing is limiting their exposure to news media, TV," says Dr. Daniel Fagbuyi, medical director for disaster preparedness and emergency management at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "We've found this over and over in different disasters." Kids, especially older ones, will have questions. "You do have the dialogue with them about it," says Fagbuyi, a pediatric emergency specialist. Be ready to give reassurance and support. "You want to make them feel secure," he says. " 'Yes, this happened. It was wrong, but here's what we're doing to protect you.' " A guide from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has advice tailored for kids of varying ages. Infants and toddlers can't really grasp the details of a traumatic event like this one. But they're highly attuned to adult caregivers' emotional reactions and may echo them. Be aware of that. Preschoolers can understand the basics. "Keep the message simple," Fagbuyi says. Reassure them, but don't lie. Grade-school kids are smarter and more mature, he says. "Be honest with them," he says. Children this age can handle the facts, but don't make the details too specific. They may be afraid. "Ascertain what are their fears and then address them," he says. Fagbuyi says parents can share their own feelings with kids this age, too, but be sure to explain what adults are doing to keep children safe. For older children, their own emotional development can come to bear on how they make sense of the news. Some teens may reflexively say everything is OK, even when it's not. "For high-schoolers, you have to be upfront and candid," he says. "They'll act out. They may be angry." Let them know it's all right to express their feelings. "Help them do it in a healthy way that's not all bottled up." If you've got older kids, be with them when they are getting information about the shootings from the TV, radio or Internet. Let them ask questions and talk about the coverage. Don't let them overdo either the talking or the media monitoring.

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Effective Coaching: Technical Instruction This week’s article is the second of a 3-part series examining the question “What are the commonalities of great coaches?” Our first article examined Administration, our second Technical Instruction, and our third being Motivation. The idea behind this series of articles is to provide a bit of perspective on how we all fit into either teaching others or individually learning ourselves. There are three major components to successful coaching; administration, motivation, and technical instruction. TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION is the academic component that is most lacking in the world of coaching. My explanation for this is that the responsibility to accrue technical knowledge for any sport usually falls on the shoulders of the coach. Either the coach does not know where to look, may not have resources readily available, or perhaps just doesn’t understand how much is behind athletic performance. It requires one to have an open mind to the possibility that there may be things that exist of relevance and importance beyond your own knowledge base. The very point of the Performance Training Blogis to educate and disseminate quality information. But in order to learn, one must be ready to admit they do not know everything – for when can anyone really know everything? I laugh when I hear a person either being described or describing him or herself as an expert. There is no such thing as experts. Certainly, it’s fair to say that you may have an area or strength or specialization, but the idea that all knowledge for a particular skill has been assimilated seems unrealistic. There’s always room to grow. Technical knowledge of a sport or skill is a combination of the sport sciences; physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology, metabolic load, and psychology to name a few. Any one of these areas could be studied to the level of a PhD. But it is the responsibility of the individual coach or athlete to educate him or herself, and to understand that unless they have invested significant and legitimate time in obtaining background in their specific discipline, that they may not have all the answers. It consistently amazes me how often I see a loving parent or even a veteran coach who cross-coaches an appointed mentor. From a fundamental standpoint, the lead coach is the one who the athlete works with everyday, at every practice, and depends on in the moment of competition. Coaches are in charge of assessing their athletes, developing realistic goals based on their assessment, and finally creating a plan of action for training to help their student of sport. How can a person who has not been through this process from the beginning – someone who does not possess a competent background in their sport through education – adequately work with an athlete. The simple answer is that they can’t, and won’t be able to until they have a legitimate background. But remember, even veteran coaches can become complacent. Experience can turn to poison when not mixed with humility. A final thought to understanding the technical aspect of sport is to realize that game strategy isn’t always what leads to a successful outcome during competition. As it was explained within the Administration article segment, technical instruction may not be fully captured if you have an athlete who is not taking their sport seriously, missing practices, becoming a disciplinary distraction, etc. Technical instruction is the one component of a successful coaching triad which cannot be fully captured without consistent efforts in the administrative and motivational areas. It can also be the difference between winning and losing in the moment of competition as there is usually only a small degree of difference between victory and defeat. Next week will feature the third and final installment to this article and is focused on Motivation.

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Quantifying changes in abundance of food plants for butterfly larvae and farmland birds Smart, S. M.; Firbank, L. G.; Bunce, R. G. H.; Watkins, J. W.. 2000 Quantifying changes in abundance of food plants for butterfly larvae and farmland birds. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37. 398-414. 10.1046/j.1365-2664.2000.00508.xFull text not available from this repository. 1. Recent changes in population size of butterflies and farmland birds across north-west European landscapes have been linked to the effects of agricultural intensification. Reduction in food supply has been postulated as one of the proximal causes of these trends but the generality of this explanation has not been tested at a large scale and across animal species. 2. Changes in abundance of food plants for butterfly larvae and lowland farmland birds in the British countryside were analysed for the period 1978–90 using data from fixed plots recorded as part of the countryside surveys of Britain. 3. Associations were sought between these changes and trends in population size of selected butterflies and birds recorded from long-term monitoring schemes. 4. No associations were found between change in abundance of food plants and either increasing, stable or decreasing animal groups. At the level of individual animal species, significantly more decreases than increases in food plant frequency were found for herbivorous bird species irrespective of population trend. The size of the reduction in food plant frequency was also significantly greater for the declining bird group than for stable or increasing groups. 5. Few significant associations were detected between population trend and food plant trend for butterfly species. However, the results suggested a positive relationship between increasing butterflies and increased abundance of Elytrigia repens and Urtica dioica. 6. Food plants that increased in abundance comprised species favoured by lack of management and increased nutrient availability. Increases in abundance were also associated with linear landscape features such as hedges and streamsides. Decreasing plant species included arable weeds and stress-tolerant species typical of unimproved grasslands. 7. Based on evidence of local associations between animal and food plant change and the need for viable populations of food plants to exist within the range of each animal species, we support measures designed to enhance and maintain populations of declining food plants. Much evidence now exists to identify practical measures that husband food resources for many bird and butterfly species. The challenge for conservation policy is to manage their implementation at scales necessary to influence national trends. |Item Type:||Publication - Article| |Digital Object Identifier (DOI):||10.1046/j.1365-2664.2000.00508.x| |Programmes:||CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Other| |CEH Sections:||_ Pre-2000 sections| |Additional Keywords:||agro-ecosystems, conservation, Countryside Survey, herbivory| |NORA Subject Terms:||Botany Agriculture and Soil Science Ecology and Environment |Date made live:||04 Mar 2009 11:34| Actions (login required)

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| || | Ask Marilyn: More on Washington's Two Birthdays Ronald Johnson of Clarksburg, Maryland, writes: Marilyn: In your answer to the question about our judicial system and Watson, you wrote that February 11, 1731, was the same date on the Julian calendar as February 22, 1732, on the new and current Gregorian calendar. (January 6, 2013) At the time, people were angered because they claimed they had lost eleven days of their life. They would really have been mad if they thought they had lost one year and eleven days. Of, course, they hadn't lost any days: The calendar had been moved eleven days forward, not a year and eleven days. Actually, I didn't write that the dates were the same on the two calendars, but I see how the sentences could have been read that way. Anyway, the National Archives knows best. News, Blogs & Events Web

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The Yosemite Views collection includes 22 mounted albumen prints taken by Carleton E. Watkins circa 1876. The prints are part of "Watkins' New Boudoir Series Yo Semite and Pacific Coast." These general landscapes of Yosemite Valley include Cathedral Rocks, Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, Half Dome, Agassiz Rock, Union Point, El Capitan and others. Carleton E. Watkins was born in Oneonta, Oswego county, New York, on November 11, 1829. He was the youngest of five children of a Scottish innkeeper. During his youth he became acquainted with Collis P. Huntington, who frequented his father's hotel. Soon after the discovery of gold, both young men went to California, where Huntington later became one of the Big Four who built the Central Pacific Railroad. 22 mounted photographic prints, albumen, 14 x 22 cm. 22 digital objects Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Restricted originals. Use viewing prints only. Use of originals only by permission of the Curator of Pictorial Collections, The Bancroft Library.

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The Holy Prophet Ezekiel lived in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. He was born in the city of Sarir, and descended from the tribe of Levi ; he was a priest and the son of the priest Buzi. Ezekiel was led off to Babylon when he was twenty-five years old together with King Jechoniah II and many other Jews during the second invasion of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnessar. The Prophet Ezekiel lived in captivity by the River Chebar. When he was thirty years old, he had a vision of the future of the Hebrew nation and of all mankind. The prophet beheld a shining cloud, with fire flashing continually, and in the midst of the fire, gleaming bronze. He also saw four living creatures in the shape of men, but with four faces (Ez. 1:6). Each had the face of a man in front, the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle at the back (Ez. 1:10). There was a wheel on the earth beside each creature, and the rim of each wheel was full of eyes. Over the heads of the creatures there seemed to be a firmament, shining like crystal. Above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, like glittering sapphire in appearance. Above this throne was the likeness of a human form, and around Him was a rainbow (Ez. 1:4-28). According to the explanation of the Fathers of the Church, the human likeness upon the sapphire throne prefigures the Incarnation of the Son of God from the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who is the living Throne of God. The four creatures are symbols of the four Evangelists: a man (St Matthew), a lion (St Mark), an ox (St Luke), and an eagle (St John); the wheel with the many eyes is meant to suggest the sharing of light with all the nations of the earth. During this vision the holy prophet fell down upon the ground out of fear, but the voice of God commanded him to get up. He was told that the Lord was sending him to preach to the nation of Israel. This was the begining of Ezekiel’s prophetic service. The Prophet Ezekiel announces to the people of Israel, held captive in Baylon, the tribulations it would face for not remaining faithful to God. The prophet also proclaimed a better time for his fellow-countrymen, and he predicted their return from Babylon, and the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple. There are two significant elements in the vision of the prophet: the vision of the temple of the Lord, full of glory (Ez. 44:1-10); and the bones in the valley, to which the Spirit of God gave new life (Ez. 37:1-14). The vision of the temple was a mysterious prefiguring of the race of man freed from the working of the Enemy and the building up of the Church of Christ through the redemptive act of the Son of God, incarnate of the Most Holy Theotokos. Ezekiel’s description of the shut gate of the sanctuary, through which the Lord God would enter (Ez. 44: 2), is a prophecy of the Virgin giving birth to Christ, yet remaining a virgin. The vision of the dry bones prefigured the universal resurrection of the dead, and the new eternal life bestowed by the Lord Jesus Christ. The holy Prophet Ezekiel received from the Lord the gift of wonderworking. He, like the Prophet Moses, divided the waters of the river Chebar, and the Hebrews crossed to the opposite shore, escaping the pursuing Chaldeans. During a time of famine the prophet asked God for an increase of food for the hungry. Ezekiel was condemned to execution because he denounced a certain Hebrew prince for idolatry. Bound to wild horses, he was torn to pieces. Pious Hebrews gathered up the torn body of the prophet and buried it upon Maur Field, in the tomb of Sim and Arthaxad, forefathers of Abraham, not far from Baghdad. The prophecy of Ezekiel is found in the book named for him, and is included in the Old Testament. St Demetrius of Rostov (October 28 and September 21) explains to believers the following concepts in the book of the Prophet Ezekiel: if a righteous man turns from righteousness to sin, he shall die for his sin, and his righteouness will not be remembered. If a sinner repents, and keeps God’s commandments, he will not die. His former sins will not be held against him, beause now he follows the path of righteousness (Ez. 3:20; 18:21-24).

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A well-known Florentine sculptor and architect of the Renaissance, b. 1442; d. May 24, 1498 Majano, BENEDETTO DA, a well-known Florentine sculptor and architect of the Renaissance, b. at Ma-o, Tuscany, 1442; d. at Florence, May 24, 1498. During his early life he cultivated the art of wood-mosaic, at which he was singularly expert. King Corvinus of Hungary invited him to his court, and it is said that the destruction on the journey of some preciously executed inlay work he was taking to his royal patron induced the artist to seek more durable material. In 1471-72 he carved the monumental altar for the Duomo of Faenza dedicated to San Savino; in 1474, the bust of Pietro Mellini, shrewd and life-like, in the Bargello; in 1480, the framework of the doorway at the Palazzo Vecchio, a delicate piece of chiselling still in place. Also in 1480, with his brother Giuliano, he built and made the sculptures for the little oratory of the Madonna dell 'Olivo, outside Prato. The charming adolescent St. John of the Bargello is ascribed to the year 1481. In 1489 Benedetto designed the Strozzi Palace at Florence which still stands (continued by Cronaca), one of the most picturesque memorials of its day. It is believed he went to Naples in 1490, and there executed various sculptures, among others an Annunciation at the church of Monte Oliveto. The tomb of Filippo Strozzi, with its lovely roundel of Mother and Child supported by cherubs (S. Maria Novella, Florence), dates from about 1491. In 1493-94 he made carvings at San Gimignano in the chapel of the child-patron, Santa Fina; a bust of Onofrio Vanni in the sacristy; and the beautiful tomb of San Bartolo in the church of Sant' Agostino; the circular high-relief in the arch of the Madonna and Infant Blessing is one of his most exquisite creations. Benedetto's best-known and most esteemed production is the pulpit at the Franciscan church of Santa Croce, Florence (about 1495). Minor works are the group of the seated Madonna and Child at the oratory of the Misericordia, Florence; the bust of Giotto at the Duomo, and of Squarcialupi in the Bargello; in Siena, the reliefs of the Evangelists at the Duomo, and a marble ciborium in the church of S. Domenico; a fine bust of Filippo Strozzi in the Louvre, Paris, and another in Berlin; and a door found at Borgo San Sepolcro, now in a private collection at Palermo. The portico of S. Maria delle Grazie, at Arezzo, is his. He was buried in the crypt of S. Lorenzo. Bode is of the opinion that he was the Florentine who most nearly approached the German School, but, in his best works, he retains the subtilty and distinction, the fineness and nervous beauty of Donatello and of Rossellino. M. L. HANDLEY

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The EU Habitats Directive is the most important legislation on environmental matters in Europe. This Directive establishes, amongst others, a list of species for which each Member State must create Special Areas of Conservation with specific protection objectives and measures. These areas set up a global European network of protected areas, called the Natura 2000 Network. To date it is probably the most successful conservation tool currently in place, which covers almost 18% of the terrestrial lands. Unfortunately, this success is hindered by Member States’ poor performance when it comes to the marine environment. With only five habitats and 18 marine species included in the Habitats Directives’ annexes, only a ridiculous 1% of European waters are now protected. The lack of representativity of marine ecosystems in the annexes of the Directive is a real obstacle for Member States to complete their Natura 2000 network at sea. It also reveals the lack of political interest in protecting our marine environment, while more and more pressures on the oceans are putting European livelihoods at threats. Consequently the marine component of the Natura 2000 network severely lags behind the terrestrial part, in terms of number of sites, size and management: What is the Habitats Directive? The Habitats Directive was created in 1992 to address the commitments assumed after the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to protect at least 10% of the world ecoregions and as a way to tackle the decline of EU habitats and species. This directive includes measures focused on protecting and recovering the environment and includes five annexes specifying the habitats and species that will be protected. What is the Natura 2000 Network? According to the Habitats Directive, each country must designate Sites of Community Importance (SCI) that will make up the Natura 2000 Network, a European network of protected places for the conservation of important habitats and species. Additionally, every country must include management plans for each SCI, which becomes then a Special Areas of Conservation (SAC). Apart from the SCIs, created to protect habitats listed in Annex I and species in Annex II, the Natura 2000 Network also includes Special Protection Areas for birds (SPA), according to Annex I of the Birds Directive, focused on protecting birds that temporarily or permanently live in the European territory. What are the steps necessary to set up the Natura 2000 Network? The EU is biogeographically divided into nine terrestrial areas: Alpine, Atlantic, Black Sea, Boreal, Continental, Macaronesia, Mediterranean, Pannonian and Steppic. The marine environment is divided into the five following: Baltic, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black Sea and Macaronesia. Each region was evaluated according to each country’s proposals. A committee, made up of experts from the European Commission, the scientific community and some NGOs, determines whether the proposals are Sufficient or Insufficient, for each species and habitat. If they are Insufficient, the corresponding country must develop new proposals for Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) to be evaluated by each country and the European Commission. In the case of Special Protection Areas for birds (SPA), these are directly included in the Natura 2000 Network, without undergoing the evaluation process. Currently, all the biogeographically divided terrestrial regions have been evaluated as the Habitats Directive was first applied to land ecosystems, since more information about these areas is available. It is only since 2010 that marine bioregions have also been assessed through the biogeographical process. In early 2011 new sites were designated by some Member States (Oceana PR). Others must further their efforts to create marine protected areas because their proposals for protecting species and habitats were deemed Insufficient. The marine environment in the Natura 2000 network The annexes of the Directive only include five marine habitats and 18 marine species (see list below). More important marine species like corals, sponges, sharks, and algae must be included due to their endangered state and because many of them are unprotected by international legislation and conventions. As of June 2012, Europe protects 4.5% of its marine surface and is half-way from complying with its commitments before the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which requires the protection of at least 10% of the marine surface by 2012 (this objective was postponed to 2020 at the last Conference of the Parties in October 2010, but the EU had already committed to achieve this within the initial timeframe of 2012). MARINE SPECIES HABITAT DIRECTIVE *priority species and natural habitats 1101 * Acipenser sturio 1102 Alosa alosa 1103 Alosa fallax [saboga] 1938 Phoca hispida botanica 1224 * Caretta caretta 1227 * Chelonias mydas 1095 Petromyzon marinus 1099 Lampetra fluviatilis 1100 * Acipenser naccarii 1113 * Coregonus oxyrinchus 1364 Halichoerus grypus 1351 Phocoena phocoena 1349 Tursiops truncatus 1365 Phoca vitulina 1366 * Monachus monachus 2578 Gibbula nivosa 4125 Alosa immaculata 4127 Alosa tanaica 1120* Posidonia beds 1180 Submarine structures made by leaking gases 8830 Submerged or partially submerged cave

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Teach Your Children Well: Lessons in Stress and Self-Esteem for Kids By Antonia McGuire Network, Winter 2007 Christine Chenard has a new perspective on kids and stress. Her head shakes in her hands while recalling the day her son came home after a full day of junior kindergarten with homework. She immediately sat Joseph down to practice spelling his name, but they both got upset. ‘He wasn’t listening and I was getting frustrated. And then I realized he was tired from school and wanted – needed – time to relax and unwind,’ says the 44-year-old Sarnia resident. She admits to being a perfectionist, but she didn’t realize what impact it had until the first parent-teacher interview. ‘I was told he was quite anxious in class.’ His little hands were shaking during arts and crafts, the teacher told her. The stay-at-home mother of four has since scrapped her old ways and made changes to help reduce her kids’ stress. Christine and her husband Guy enrolled their bundles of joy in junior and senior kindergarten part-time. They also cut out weekday extracurricular activities after a year of rushing through meals and homework to get to karate, Beavers and swimming lessons. Hurried children don’t get time to digest their day, she observes. Christine isn’t the only one concerned about stress in children. Many educators, support staff, researchers and policy-makers are promoting the idea of stress prevention by teaching kids ‘emotional resiliency.’ Andrée Michaud is a community nurse assigned to three schools just outside of Montreal. She created a stress awareness workshop two years ago when elementary students, as young as Grade 1, complained of sore tummies and headaches around test time. ‘Some feel stressed earlier than others because they put pressure on themselves. These ones tend to have a more competitive personality,’ says Ms. Michaud. While personality is part of it, she adds, parents also play an important role. ‘I think they are an example. When parents are stressed, the kids are too. Not everyone stops to realize.’ Dr. Sonia Lupien, director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress at Douglas Hospital, McGill University, says it’s a matter of perception. ‘If people are stressed themselves or don’t think kids can be stressed, they won’t recognize it as a potential problem in their child,’ says the Montreal researcher. Stress is not about being pressed for time, says Dr. Lupien. ‘If we put time pressure on people in the lab, they won’t get stressed. But if we trigger the four characteristics – novelty, unpredictability, threat to sense of self or ego, and poor sense of control – they will snap 100 percent of the time,’ she explains. Dr. Lupien and her team recently designed the De-Stress for Success program to help kids understand how stress affects learning and how to cope with the changes of moving from elementary to high school. A pilot project began in January 2007 in a handful of elementary and secondary schools in Montreal. Rather than resorting to how-to articles on getting a stress-free life, Dr. Lupien believes what it really takes to combat those overwhelming feelings is battle tactics and perspective. ‘The reverse of stress is not meditation or relaxation,’ she says, ‘it is resilience and plan B.’ Measuring the prevalence of childhood stress is a thorny issue among experts. ‘It is difficult to provide solid numbers for stress in children because stress is defined and measured differently across studies,’ says Tania Schramek, coordinator of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress. One expert says children who lack skills socially, intellectually or developmentally tend to experience more school stress. ‘Our society is not for the fragile children because there is a lot of pressure and expectations,’ says Dr. Patricia Garel, a children’s clinical psychiatrist at Saint Justine Hospital and professor at l’Université de Montreal. ‘So if you don’t have appropriate skills, it will be harder.’ The way children cope depends on the potential and the environment of each child, she adds. When asked for an opinion on whether child stress is increasing among the general population, Dr. Garel said she believes so. ‘I believe that the increase is related to many factors, among which are the rapidity of changes in our society, the easy availability of information, the lack of stable landmarks, and the frequent insecurity of the adults who are supposed to reassure and to protect the children.’ Observes Dr. Garel, ‘Parents are always important in helping their children by offering a ‘buffer’ and an understanding of the external world.’ There are exercises you can play with your kids to help ease their stress levels, says Dr. Lupien. Transitional phases like the first day of kindergarten can be especially stressful for children dealing with separation anxiety. ‘When my daughter was going into kindergarten, I said to her, ‘You’re going to go and it’ll be great.’ To give her a sense of control, I said to her, ‘You can put anything in your lunch – as long as it’s healthy,” recalls Dr. Lupien. ‘It worked like a charm.’ While it is normal for children of all ages to experience spurts of anxiety, ‘certain personalities are more reactive to stress,’ says Dr. Lupien. ‘We’ve found those with low self-esteem will be more reactive and snap.’ Indeed, studies have observed that low self-esteem is closely related to feelings of depression, hopelessness, and suicidal tendencies. A 1995 study of ‘Self-Esteem Deficits and Suicidal Tendencies among Adolescents,’ published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, concluded that ‘assessment of adolescents should include an evaluation of self-esteem, and therapy should attempt to address any self-esteem deficits.’ A 1998 study in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found that high levels of anxiety lead to depression in children and adolescents. To reduce the risk of mental health problems in the future, many educators are teaching life skills that will enable their students to cope with difficult situations in a healthy way. Marilyn Yee, area school counsellor for the Vancouver School Board, has been delivering an anti-anxiety and early intervention program for elementary students called FRIENDS for Life. It is a cognitive-behavioural program that teaches skills such as positive thinking, problem-solving, using peer support and conflict resolution. Roughly 75 percent of BC school districts have adopted the program for classroom use. FRIENDS stems originally from the research work of American psychologist Phillip Kendall, who developed the Coping Cat Workbook in the late 1980s. Coping Cat was used to individually treat children with a diagnosis of over-anxiety, separation anxiety or avoidant disorder. Kendall was the first researcher to conduct a randomized treatment study of general anxiety disorders in children. His work was adapted and extended in Australia by a research group of clinical psychologists into the Coping Koala program, which added a family intervention component. Coping Koala was further refined by Dr. Paula Barrett and fellow researchers at Griffith University, Queensland, who tailored FRIENDS into a teacher-friendly intervention to promote psychological resilience. Developed through extensive scientific research and clinical validation over the past 10 years, the program is appropriate for use by trained teachers, guidance counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals. In its 2004 report on ‘Prevention of Mental Disorders: Effective Interventions and Policy Options,’ the World Health Organization recognized FRIENDS as a ‘promising prevention of anxiety programme for children from 7 to 16 years of age,’ one that supports the WHO-endorsed strategy of ‘strengthening the emotional resilience and cognitive skills needed to avoid the development of anxiety disorders.’ In southern Ontario, educators have been welcoming guest instructors into their classrooms for almost a decade to teach a Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) program called Self-Esteem Is Elementary. Designed for kids in Grades 5 to 8, the six-week classroom series promotes positive self-esteem and teaches them how to function better in relationships. It gives children the confidence to face life’s challenges by focusing on self-esteem, feelings, communication styles, anger management, conflict resolution, stress management, and bullying. ‘We explain that stress is very different for everyone – where one stressor might be difficult for one individual to handle, another person may have multiple stressors but feel that they can cope,’ says Julie Acker, a mental health promotion specialist at CMHA Lambton County Branch in Sarnia. ‘From a mental health perspective, we believe if we can teach children resiliency skills now, they can be building blocks for emotional and mental development.’ Each year, the CMHA branch teaches roughly 25 sessions in schools across the county. CMHA Lambton County Branch also delivers another popular program, called Kids Have Stress Too! Developed by the Psychology Foundation of Canada in collaboration with Toronto Public Health and the Toronto District School Board, the program is designed to help parents and caregivers understand childhood stress and how to teach their kids to deal with stress effectively. By tackling the issue at both ends – with children and parents alike – CMHA is boosting the odds of a better outcome. Veteran teacher Antoinette Pachlarz hosted the Self-Esteem Is Elementary program last spring in her Grade 7 class at John Fisher Elementary School in Forest, Ontario. ‘My first impression was that the topics selected were right on,’ Ms. Pachlarz says. Advocates of the program say the high participation rate, as well as pre- and post-program evaluations, show that children are receptive to the lessons. In one segment, the instructor challenges students to think of compliments to give out to people in class throughout the week and then talk about it. People have a tendency to focus on the negative, observes Ms. Pachlarz, but this program dwells on the positive. ‘Once students feel good about themselves,’ she says, ‘they are more capable of caring for others.’ Schoolteacher Ted Janssens agrees. ‘If a kid doesn’t feel good, he’ll target others to make himself feel good.’ Janssens is a teacher at Dawn Euphemia School in rural southern Ontario, where a CMHA session wrapped up last month. ‘As soon as students feel more included,’ he observes, ‘they are more apt to be successful both academically and personally.’ Antonia McGuire is a freelance writer who lives in Ottawa. A Shared Responsibility: Ontario’s Policy Framework for Child and Youth Mental Health Noting that mental health services today focus primarily on intervention and treatment, the Ontario government recently released a new mental health policy framework for children and youth that places ‘increased emphasis on health promotion, illness prevention and earlier identification.’ By enhancing services that promote optimal health and prevent mental illness, the goal, over time, is to ‘reduce the need for more intensive, costly services/supports, reduce the duration and severity of mental illness, and improve the life trajectory of children and youth.’ The framework identifies five guiding principles, including the need for ‘community driven’ services and supports, provided as close to home as possible. ‘The broader community should be responsible for the well-being of their children, youth and their families/caregivers and be engaged in planning services and supports within their local communities.’ To ensure that practices and programs for children are effective, they must be ‘evidence-based and accountable.’ The new framework is a hopeful sign of change. See ‘A Shared Responsibility: Ontario’s Policy Framework for Child and Youth Mental Health’ (November 2006), at www.children.gov.on.ca. Recognizing the Signs of Stress According to Thelma Maxwell, public health nurse for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, the key to recognizing stress in children is to understand their level of development and personality. While some children might appear visibly stressed, others keep their anxiety undercover and worry silently. The two most common signs that children are under stress are: - any change in their normal behaviour, and - a regression in their behaviour. Here are some other signs to look for: - Reoccurring headaches, stomach aches, neck pain - Nervous habits such as nail biting, temporary twitches, deep sighs - Sweaty hands - Accelerated heart rate and breathing - Clingy or impulsive behaviour - Becomes more quiet than usual - Constant worries or sensitivity to changes - Excessive energy or restlessness - Increased irritability, anger, panic, sadness - Daydreaming or distracted - Trouble falling asleep and/or oversleeping longer than usual - Facial cues like frowning or strained looks Sources and Related Resources Centre for Studies on Human Stress Canadian Mental Health Association, Lambton County Branch Children’s Mental Health Ontario Kids Have Stress Too! Cole, D.A., et al. (1998). A Longitudinal Look at the Relation between Depression and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 66(3): 451-60. content.apa.org Overholser, James C., et al. (1995). Self-Esteem Deficits and Suicidal Tendencies among Adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 34(7): 919-928. www.jaacap.com World Health Organization, Prevention of Mental Disorders: Effective Interventions and Policy Options (2004). www.who.int » Return to Network, Winter 2007 – Contents

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Theodore of Smolensk The holy right-believing Prince Theodore of Smolensk and Yaroslavl, also known as Theodore the Black, due to his swarthy appearance, was a prince of Rus during the time of the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century. Prince Theodore was destined by God to be famous in the Land of Rus through his military exploits. He is commemorated on September 19. The uncovering of his relics along with those of his sons David and Constantine is commemorated on March 5. The date of birth of Prince Theodore is unknown. He was born into the family of the Prince of Smolensk, Rostislav Mstislavich, and was named in baptism after the Great Martyr Theodore the Stratelates. His year of birth was prior to 1239 as he had been taken away from Smolensk into hiding while the Warrior-Martyr Merkuni saved the city from being captured by Khan Batu of the Golden Horde. During 1240, his father, Prince Rostislav, who was a great-grandson of Prince Rostislav of Smolensk and Kiev, died. In the division of his father's estate, the infant Theodore was left with the small holding of Mozhaisk after his older brothers divided the land amongst themselves. In Mozhaisk, Theodore grew up studying the Holy Scripture, participating in church services, and learning the military art. In 1260, Prince Theodore married Maria Vasil'evna, daughter of Prince Vasily of Yaroslavl and became prince of Yaroslavl. From their marriage, a son, Mikhail, was born, but soon Theodore's wife died. As Theodore was spending much of his time at military efforts and campaigns in alliances with the khans of the Golden Horde Mikhail was raised by his mother-in-law, princess Xenia. As the khans recognized the spirit and military strength of the Orthodox Rus they began to draw the Russian princes into alliances, and the khans then turned to them for military assistance. The Church made use of these closer relations to bring Christian enlightenment to the foreigners. In 1261, through the efforts of St. Alexander Nevsky and Metropolitan Kirill III of Moscow an Orthodox diocese was established at Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde. In the year 1276, a council at Constantinople presided over by Patriarch John Bekkos replied to questions of the bishop of Sarai, Theognost, about the order for baptizing Tatars, as well as the reception into Orthodoxy of the Monophysite and Nestorian Christians among them. During these years, Prince Theodore served with the Horde. Having distinguished himself by military exploits on the Ossetian campaign, he gained favorable attention from khan Mengu-Temir, who regarded the Orthodox Church with respect, and who, as khan, issued the first "yarlyk" ("decree" or "grant") about church tax-exemption for Metropolitan Kirill. After serving three years with the Horde, Prince Theodore returned to Yaroslavl, that was ruled by princess Xenia with her grandson Mikhail, to be rejected by the populace. Theodore then returned to the Horde about the year 1266, where he was welcomed, especially by the wife of the khan Mengu-Temir, who being fond of the prince wished for him to have the hand of her daughter. Such a marriage was tremendously significant for Rus' as the khans had long held that the Russian princes were consider to be vassals or subjects. The khan's decision to allow the marriage of his daughter to a Russian prince was to acknowledge Prince Theodore as an equal and to acknowledge the primacy of Orthodoxy since, before the marriage rite of crowning, the Tatar princess would be required to accept holy baptism. The khan agreed this because union with Russia was very important for him. Thus, khan Mengu-Temir ordered his daughter be given to prince Theodore after her baptism. So, after her baptism as Anna, Prince Theodore married the daughter of the khan. The khan also ordered that the Orthodox faith was not be desecrated. While he remained in Sarai, Theodore's wife Anna bore him two sons, David and Constantine. During these years Theodore gained tremendous influence at the Horde. He brought glory to the Russian Land and Church. Orthodox Christianity gained strength among the Tatars, and the Horde began to adopt Russian customs, morals, and piety. Russian merchants, architects, and skilled craftsmen carried Russian culture among the Horde to the shores of the Don, the Volga, the Ural mountains, and even to Mongolia itself. This began the missionary movement of the Orthodox Church towards the East that would enlighten the tribes with the light of the Gospel truth all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Orthodox Russian princes and their retinues participated as allies in the Mongol campaigns, and thus learned of and became familiar with the expanses of Asia, Siberia, and the Far East. In the year 1330, more than thirty years after the death of Prince Theodore, Chinese chronicles mention Russians in Peking. Theodore lived in Sarai until 1290, at which time he received news from the city of Yaroslavl that his first son, Prince Michael, had died. Given rich gifts and a large retinue, the khan sent Theodore back to Rus where again he became the prince at Yaroslavl and began to concern himself with strengthening and building his city and principality, and especially the monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The princes of Russia soon sought friendship and alliances with him. His ties with the son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrew Alexandrovich, became especially strong as Theodore supported him in all undertakings. After Prince Andrew became Great Prince of Vladimir, Theodore joined with him on military campaigns. In 1296, Theodore, with Bishops Simeon of Vladimir and Ishmael of Sarai, negotiated a peace agreement among Grand Princes Andrew, Michael of Tver, and Daniel of Moscow, ending a bloody fratricidal war and established peace in the Russian lands. The following year he also asserted unsuccessfully his claim as the rightful Prince of Smolensk that had been usurped by his nephews. However, soon after the campaign the warrior-prince became ill. On September 18, 1299, the Theodore gave orders that he be carried to the Savior-Transfiguration monastery. There, he received monastic tonsure. Near the end of the ritual, Theodore asked that the service be interrupted. With the blessing of the igumen, and to grant the wish of the dying prince, they carried him into the monastery courtyard. In the courtyard where a throng of the people of Yaroslavl had already gathered the prince repented before the people for having sinned against anyone or holding ill-feelings against anyone. He then blessed all those who had sinned against him or borne him enmity, and begged their pardon and accepted responsibility for all his deeds before God and man. Only after his repentance did the humble warrior achieve his desire to finish his unusual and much-troubled life's path by accepting the angelic schema. All night the igumen and the brethren of the monastery prayed over the saintly prince. At the second hour of the night they began to ring the bell for Matins. Theodore laid silently upon his monk's cot and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ. When the monks began the third "Glory" of the Psalter, he made the Sign of the Cross and gave up his soul to the Lord. His son St. David, who died in 1321, ruled at Yaroslavl after him, while his second son, Constantine, had evidently died earlier. The veneration of Prince Theodore by the Church in the Yaroslavl region began soon after his death. During the years 1322 to 1327, Bishop Prochorus of Rostov commissioned the famous Theodorov Gospel, adorned with miniatures, in memory of St. Theodore. Previously, Bp. Prochorus had been igumen of the Savior-Transfiguration monastery at Yaroslavl. He knew Prince Theodore personally and had witnessed his tonsure and public repentance before the people. Historians think that the miniatures sewn into this manuscript had come from an earlier Gospel owned by St. Theodore himself, and which he had brought with him to Yaroslavl as a blessing from his native Smolensk. On March 5, 1463, the relics of Prince Theodore and his sons, David and Constantine, were uncovered at Yaroslavl. The chronicler, an eyewitness to the event, recorded, "At the city of Yaroslavl in the monastery of the Holy Savior they unearthed three Great Princes: Prince Theodore Rostislavich and his sons David and Constantine and brought them above the ground. The Great Prince Theodore was a man of great stature, and they placed his sons David and Constantine beside him. Their stature was less than his. They had lain in a single grave." The physical appearance of the holy prince so impressed those present at the uncovering of the relics that an account of this was entered into the Prologue (lives of saints) in St. Theodore's Life, and also into the text of the Manual for Iconographers. Shortly after the uncovering of the relics, the Life of the holy Prince Theodore the Black was written by the hieromonk Anthony of the Yaroslav Savior monastery with the blessing of Metropolitan Philip of Moscow. Another version of the Life was written by Andrew Yuriev at the St. Cyril of White Lake monastery, while a third and more detailed Life of St. Theodore was included in the "Book of Ranks of Imperial Genealogy," compiled under Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow. Over the centuries spiritual songs have been composed about Prince Theodore glorifying his piety and discernment, beneficence and kind-heartedness, and his concern for building and adorning churches. - St Theodore the Prince of Smolensk and Yaroslav - Uncovering of the Relics of Nobleborn Prince Theodore (Feodor) of Smolensk and his sons David and Constantine (Konstantin) of Yaroslavl' - Prince Theodore of Smolensk (Black)

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Using school clubs to influence behaviour modification and stigma reduction among Jamaican youths National Aids Committee, Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican society has been flooded with information on safer sex practices. Despite the large input of resources and efforts geared towards behaviour change, the HIV prevalence rate remains high at 1.8% of the population (among the 15-49 age group), and alarming rates of 1% and 6% among children of the 10-14 and 15-19 age groups respectively. The Trelawny Parish AIDS Association (TPAA) believes that early interventions targeting preadolescents and adolescents to positively influence behaviour formation are critical to effectively reducing infection rates overall. Description: A 3-year pilot project was conducted in 9 primary schools in the parish of Trelawny, Jamaica, with over 150 children between the ages of 9 and 12 years. The primary objective was comparing the attitudes of students in positive behaviour formation programmes with students who did not participate. The pilot project involved the combination of dance, drama, and song, to create an initiative dubbed “Sounds of Change”. Lessons learned: Participants became confident in speaking about HIV/AIDS and its impacts, the power of choice, and the benefits of reduced discrimination. The techniques involved in Sounds of Change appear to be successful tools, educating not only participants and their peers, but also reaching older adolescents and parents. On average, students in the programme reported delaying sex, with some opting for, and encouraging abstinence among peers. As a result, the programme's scope has been broadened to include older youths (from 13-18 years old), through HIV Awareness Clubs launched in all 7 secondary/high schools in Trelawny. Next steps: TPAA is working with schools to expand the programme, providing continuing support for adolescents as they mature, and adopting systems to quantitatively measure success. It is envisioned that Sounds of Change may serve as a model for national implementation, helping to permanently change the landscape of AIDS in Jamaica. Back to the Programme-at-a-Glance

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It was March 1864 when four Mormon families braved the rugged terrain of Utah’s untamed south central canyon lands and settled the small town of Panguitch, Utah. Facing starvation, harsh winters, and tension with the local Native tribes, these pioneers risked survival to establish a community where their beliefs and lifestyle could thrive. Due to the infamous Black Hawk War raging between the Mormons and the Natives, the first settlement in Panguitch was hesitantly abandoned in 1866. Yet determined pioneers returned in 1871 to continue their predecessors work. Located in canyon territory around 6,630 feet above sea level, settlers of Panguitch faced the challenge of finding a way to effectively utilize the areas short growing seasons and endure the long, bitter winters. The first winter thoroughly tested the settlers’ survival skills. With supply routes blocked by snow and crops freezing immaturely, residents, growing dangerously hungry, gathered seven men who volunteered to make the perilous journey over the mountain to secure flour. With snow too deep for wagons, the volunteers were forced to walk most of the trek. To avoid falling through the snow’s crust, the men used quilts to cover the surface of the snow, creating a cushion to safely walk across. Reaching the end of one quilt, they would place another one down before retrieving the first. This technique led the men safely to the neighboring settlement, and back home again, saving the inhabitants from starvation and blazing into Utah’s history as the famous “quilt walkers.” To honor the innovation of these brave men, the town of Panguitch hosts an annual “Quilt Walk,” reenacting the perilous journey and highlighting local quilters with their embroidered works of art.

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Andrei Sakharov: Theoretical Physics and Practical Humanics Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University Commemorative Ceremony on the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Death of Andrei Sakharov, 14 December 1999, European Parliament, Strasbourg Strasbourg is quite an appropriate place to talk about Andrei Sakharov the physicist. He was born to Moscow physics, but it was Strasbourg that served as the cradle for Moscow physics. The two founding fathers of Moscow physics graduated from Strasbourg University and took their doctorates here.1948-1955: First and second H-bombs, and Tokamak * 1958: The moral and political conclusions drawn from the figures * 1967: ABM and the "metamorphosis" of Andrei Sakharov * 1968: Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom * 1968-75: Peace, Progress, and Human Rights. Nobel Peace Prize * ABM and personal responsibility in 1968 and 1999 * The experimenter Petr Lebedev (1866-1912) became a professor at Moscow University in 1900 and became the first Russian physicist of world stature. His main achievement was the measurement of the minute pressure that light exerts on any illuminated surface. The theorist Leonid Mandelshtam (1879-1944) taught at Strasbourg University for 10 years and returned to Russia on the eve of WWI. He became a professor at Moscow University in 1925 and created the Moscow School of theoretical physics. What is most remarkable is that both physicists manifested high moral standards and served as role models for Sakharov’s milieu. There are many reasons to think that Andrei Sakharov was a lucky person, and this milieu was only one piece of his luck. Another piece of the luck was the family he was born into. It belonged to Moscow intelligentsia with personal connections to Leo Tolstoy and the whole world of Russian culture. Andrei’s parents happened to survive the Civil War and Stalin’s Terror, although there were good reasons to arrest them: one of Andrei’s grandfathers was a general in the Czar’s army, while the other was an active member of the Constitutional Democratic party banned by the Bolsheviks in the very first months of their rule. Andrei was the beloved first-born. His parents provided him with an unusual amount of home education – he did not enter public school until the age of 13. Sakharov thought that it might have diminished his ability to communicate with people but, on the other hand, his family environment protected his inner freedom from early intrusions of Soviet public life. Andrei’s father taught physics in college and wrote popular science books. He was Andrei’s first science teacher and a key figure in the process of his intellectual and moral growing up. Another key figure for Sakharov’s maturing was Igor Tamm, who guided his graduate study in the theoretical department of the Lebedev Physical Institute, a place where Mandelshtam’s traditions in science and ethics prevailed. Sakharov plunged into pure physics in 1945, after three years of work for an ammunition factory during the war time. By that time Igor Tamm was one of the most prominent theoretical physicists in Russia. His accomplishments included the theory of Cherenkov radiation that earned him the Nobel Prize in 1958. Tamm’s way of teaching combined a passion for fundamental physics, a gentleness towards his students and the old-fashioned morals of "pre-Revolutionary" descent. Tamm’s socialist ideals were of this same pre-Revolutionary descent. All those elements shaped Sakharov’s world view. 1948-1955: First and second H-bombs, and Tokamak Twice, in 1946 and 1947, Sakharov declined invitations to join the Soviet nuclear project -- he was unwilling to leave his beloved mentor and the pure physics he began to enjoy in the Lebedev Physical Institute. But in 1948 he had no choice: the Project came to the Institute and drafted Tamm and his team into H-bomb research. Sakharov turned out to be adept at the combination of theoretical astrophysics and engineering inventions that was at the core of the thermonuclear project. The state of matter at the center of Hiroshima mushroom had more in common with the stars than with the Earth. Sakharov was entirely absorbed by his professionally fascinating business for ten years. Those were the prime years of the Soviet thermonuclear project, when the first H-bomb, the idea of TOKAMAK reactor for controlled fusion, and the full-fledged H-bomb of 1955 were born. His creativity was bolstered by his sincere belief that the terrifying "gadgets" he developed, were a vital necessity. He felt committed to the goal of making his socialist country strong enough to ensure peace after the devastating war of so recent past. He did not even need a conceptual justification such as "strategic parity" or "mutual nuclear deterrence". As he put it: "Back then we sensed it mainly at an emotional level." Later on he was tough to himself by admitting that he "had subconsciously <> created an illusory world to justify" himself. In the first phase of the Cold War, Sakharov, like most of his colleagues on the both sides of the Iron Curtain, was "possessed by a true war psychology". Totalitarian control over information enabled the Soviet propaganda to succeed in brainwashing too many people. But there was some "ideological" soap for this brainwashing. It was in 1949 that Bertrand Russell, the world-famous philosopher and mathematician, who had nothing to do with military-industrial complex, wrote: "If <> only [world] war can prevent the universal victory of communism, then I, for my part, would accept war in spite of all the destruction that it must involve." The Iron Curtain was difficult to see through from each side of it. The death of Stalin and the birth of the H-bomb changed the world. In 1955, the Einstein-Russell Manifesto urged governments of the world to realize "that their purposes cannot be furthered by a world war", and urged them "to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them." 1958: The moral and political conclusions drawn from the figures As to Sakharov, he started his practical thinking about world war and peace in 1958. It realized in his article on the radiocarbon from nuclear explosions. He wrote about the so-called ‘clean bomb’ promoted in the U.S., a nearly pure fusion bomb that produced almost no radioactive fallout. However, any atmospheric explosion of an H-bomb produces radiocarbon from atmospheric nitrogen. And Sakharov calculated, on the basis of available biological data, that radiocarbon produced by a one-megaton clean bomb would result in 6, 600 deaths worldwide over a period of 8,000 years. So, his scientific conclusion was quite definite. Sakharov, however, went beyond science to ask: "What moral and political conclusions should be drawn from these figures?" The figures meant that the atmospheric testing of any hydrogen bomb—"clean" or not—is harmful to humans. The moral and political conclusion – that the testing should be stopped – was evident to Sakharov but not to the majority of his colleagues in H-bomb science. They measured the harmful effect in percents, and thought those percents were negligible. For Sakharov, the appropriate unit of measurement was one human life, and that was much more difficult to neglect. For him the death toll from atmospheric nuclear testing – however small compared to deaths from other causes – was a scientifically proven fact. In that, he was a self-confident physicist. But he was a humanitarian when he wrote in 1958: "The remote effect of radiocarbon does not reduce the moral responsibility for future lives. Only an extreme deficiency of imagination can allow one to ignore suffering that occurs out of sight." Since then Sakharov measured each atmospheric test in 6600 deaths per each megaton, 6600 dead men, women, and children all over the globe for generations to come. Since then he regarded "nuclear testing in the atmosphere as a crime against humanity, no different from secretly pouring disease-producing microbes into a city's water supply." Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov renounced a world harmony that would cost the death of a single child. Sakharov’s position was rooted in a sense of personal and professional responsibility rather than a general contemplation of world harmony. That was why he held himself responsible for the failure to prevent a pointless test in the fall of 1962. He remembered: "I was overwhelmed by my inability, unbearable bitterness, shame, and humiliation. I put my face down on my desk and wept. That was probably the most terrible lesson of my life: you can't sit on two chairs at once!" And that was why Sakharov was proud of his contribution to the Limited Test Ban Treaty signed in Moscow in 1963, for it saved the lives of people who would have perished had testing continued in the atmosphere. 1967: ABM and the "metamorphosis" of Andrei Sakharov Sakharov was quite serious about maintaining strategic parity as long as it prevented world war. Unlike his American colleague Robert Oppenheimer, he did not feel that physicists had "known sin" by working on nuclear weapons. Nor was he like Edward Teller, proud to have persuaded political leaders of the necessity of building the hydrogen bomb. The two American physicists were considered as antagonists. In Sakharov’s opinion, both men deserved respect, and he did see parallels between his own fate and those of both American physicists. One could say, though, that the three life lines were perpendicular to each other -- that’s how "non-Euclidean" the geometry of the nuclear age was. And the way to prevent world war was equally non-Euclidean: Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD. Sakharov’s life line turned "perpendicular" to itself in 1967-68. At that time progress in technology was about to destabilize the mad strategic balance and therefore make war much more probable. A new variable emerged in the strategic equation -- the antiballistic missile defense, or ABM. And this new element made the secret father of the Soviet H-bomb to emerge as a public figure to advocate peace and human rights. As a top expert in strategic weaponry Sakharov was involved in professional discussions of military strategy of potential enemies armed with deep distrust together with ballistic as well as antiballistic missiles. A detailed investigation revealed that the unthinkable -- a strategic nuclear strike – was about to transform into something possible. However Soviet political leaders proved to be insensitive to this possibility. They seemed to believe that because of the very notion of "defense", ABM defense was to ensure peace. In July 1967 Sakharov sent an official classified memorandum to the Soviet leadership to argue that the moratorium proposed by the U. S. on ABM defense would benefit the Soviet Union and that otherwise the arms race in this new technology would increase the likelihood of nuclear war enormously. Sakharov substantiated this point in detail and also sought permission to publish an accompanying article in a Soviet newspaper to explain to the public how the new "defensive weapon" could be more dangerous than the offensive one. Sakharov suggested that such an unofficial article would support the "groups of the Western scientific intelligentsia <> that under favorable conditions can curb their ‘hawks’. These groups played an important role in the preparing of the Moscow test ban treaty." The government ignored the twenty-page memorandum of the technical expert and refused to let him initiate a public discussion of the ABM issue in the Soviet press. The rejection was a solid confirmation to the scientist that the Soviet leaders were oblivious to the danger to which they were subjecting the world. Such a government was as much a menace to peaceful coexistence as the "Western hawks". 1968: Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom In February of 1968 Sakharov started writing his essay "Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom". His point of departure was the threat of thermonuclear war, the threat that had increased with the impending ABM race. If he expanded the scope of his considerations to the social and political realms it was only because the very nature of the problem required such an extension. It was his professional competence that was expanding, rather than that he leaped beyond the bounds of his second profession of strategic-weapon designer. In this endeavor he relied on his professional experience in the area of vital importance for international security. He relied on his personal experience of the inner mechanics of the Soviet regime. He relied on his sense of personal responsibility. And he was to destroy his illusory world of the Soviet state, and to expose his understanding of the real world to the public. The key element of his understanding was the interdependence of global international security and human rights of individuals. In 1968 the intellectual freedom was paramount for him. In fact, it was the "freedom of thought, opinion and expression" granted in Articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration proclaimed, by ironic coincidence, in 1948, the year Sakharov invented the first Soviet H-bomb. Twenty years later he discovered that those Universal Human Rights were not merely noble ideals, but the only basis for humanity to survive the H-bombs of both super-powers. Sakharov released his essay to Samizdat -- homemade publishing and hand-to-hand distribution of literature, ignoring censorship. It was his first Samizdat paper. By courtesy of the KGB, it reached the Politburo in May and might have been more effective than his previous official letter. A few weeks later the Soviet government agreed to begin negotiation on ABM. After Sakharov’s essay had reached the West and had been published there in July 1968, he was immediately dismissed from the military-scientific complex. An unexpected reward for his courage was the opportunity to return full-time to his primary profession of theoretical physicist. He started his part-time return in the early 1960s when he was in his forties - too old for original creativity in fundamental theoretical physics. So he felt very lucky since he originated two bright ideas in 1966 and 1967, on the eve of his humanitarian idea of 1968. He was fascinated with cosmology and theory of elementary particles. His most successful idea in pure physics treated the disparity of matter and anti-matter in the Universe. He restored his self-confidence in the theoretical physics, and it may have bolstered his confidence in the realm of humanics as well. The starting point of Sakharov’s reflections on peaceful coexistence was the lack of intellectual freedom. He enjoyed such freedom in physics and it was the greatest freedom possible in Soviet life. 1968-75: Peace, Progress, and Human Rights. Nobel Peace Prize The government’s response to his social creativity made him focus on social agenda much more than he had expected. He met the challenge and started to develop a philosophy based on real social experimentation. He elevated intellectual freedom to the level of a human rights issue, viewing it as the only real basis of international security. On his path from theoretical physics to practical humanics , he acquired new friends involved in the defense of the human rights of concrete individuals. In this community he met Elena Bonner, and again felt lucky to find a sweetheart a friend, a comrade-in-arms, and … personal security service. In 1975 when the Soviet authorities would not allow Sakharov to go abroad to accept the Nobel Prize recognizing his "fearless personal commitment in upholding the fundamental principles for peace between men," she had to be his spokesperson at the award ceremony. Sakharov titled his Nobel lecture «Peace, Progress, and Human Rights», three goals which, as he had discovered seven years earlier, were inextricably linked. Five years later the same commitment was rewarded by the Soviet exile, and Elena Bonner had to cope with the KGB to keep Sakharov’s contacts with the outside world. One of the most important of these contacts was his article "Danger of Thermonuclear War" written in the forth year of his exile. Sakharov continued to feel a responsibility as a professional expert in the MAD strategic balance. Upon his return from exile Sakharov enjoyed three years of freedom and seven months of professional politics as a member of the Soviet parliament. Those were the last seven months of his life. ABM and personal responsibility in 1968 and 1999 Many features of Sakharov’s life were too unique for others to follow suit. However, one of those features is quite reproducible – his feeling of personal responsibility. That feeling urged him to break the rules in 1968. The contemporary situation in international security has an element that urges us to revisit his feat of 1968. In Sakharov’s view, the strategic ABM was the major threat to the bipolar political world of his time. That is why, even while in exile, Sakharov opposed Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative of 1984 (nicknamed Star Wars) even though the American president supported Sakharov more than any other political leader. Sakharov was still a responsible technical expert. However, he made quite a clear distinction between all-out ABM defense and defense against one or several rogue missiles. As he wrote in 1967: "Although an effective defense against a massive attack by a powerful enemy is impossible, entirely possible and necessary is a more modest objective, which is important for saving lives, -- defense against a surprise thermonuclear attack on a smaller scale (one having the aim of provocation, for example)." Much has changed in the worlds of politics and weapons technology since Sakharov wrote those words and the ABM treaty was signed in 1972. Nowadays, when a rogue state is able to get a ballistic missile even if at the cost of the starvation of its own population, the second part of Sakharov’s conclusion becomes quite relevant. Whether or not Sakharov’s conclusion remains valid is another question. However, the current debate on revising the ABM treaty of 1972 is dominated by politicians and military officers rather than hi-tech experts capable of explaining the difference between strategic ABM defense and defense against small-scale missile attack. It takes both scientific expertise and personal responsibility of a technical expert to do the job similar to the one done by Andrei Sakharov in 1967 – to explain whether in 1999 there is still a critical difference between the "Star Wars" program and "saving human lives". Strasbourg is quite an appropriate place to talk about Andrei Sakharov the humanitarian. It is the ironic reality of the history of science that the fruitful Strasbourg physics was a by-product of the Franco-German War. Likewise, Andrei Sakharov the humanitarian physicist was a by-product of the Soviet totalitarian civilization. Many colleagues of Sakharov thought that the prevention of World War III was a by-product of military technology based on advanced science. And many of them are thinking that controlled thermonuclear reactor, a by-product of uncontrolled fusion research, is the only sustainable source of energy for sustainable world. Sakharov thought highly of the ability of science to improve human life. "Science and Freedom" was the title of one of his last lectures given in Lyon in September, 1989. He spoke about an appropriate epithet for the 20th century and contemplated a few nominees: "The Century Of World Wars", "The Century Of Genocide", "The Century Of Terror". He opted, however, for the name "The Century Of Science". Nevertheless, that uncontrolled scientist came to realize that it takes humanitarian efforts to control the progress of science for the better of humanity, and that human rights are the only real base for such efforts.

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There has been plenty of bad news about bees lately. Reports of colony collapse disorder (CCD) predict disaster for honeybees and the pollination services they provide. Based on the thousands of news stories on CCD, as well as two recent films, one is likely to conclude that honeybees are quickly going the way of the dodo. But what do the data reveal? Are honeybee numbers falling? Is honey production in a tailspin? This week Randal Rucker, professor of economics and agricultural economics at Montana State University, answers these questions and more. Professor Rucker is a Lone Mountain Fellow at PERC working on projects related to pollination markets and colony collapse disorder. He has published research on various issues related to agricultural policy, contracting, and natural resource management, and is co-author with Ernest C. Pasour Jr. of Plowshares & Pork Barrels: The Political Economy of Agriculture. We thank Dr. Rucker for taking the time to answer our questions. For more of PERC’s ongoing Q&A series, see the Q&A series archive. Q: How is colony collapse disorder (CCD) affecting bees and beekeepers? A: With CCD, a beekeeper will check his hive one day and find it to be healthy. When he comes back to check it again, those hives that have been hit by CCD will have few or no adult bees present. The queen often remains, the colony contains food, and there is brood remaining. The adult bees are nowhere to be found. CCD has increased the costs of beekeeping. Commercial beekeepers now make more splits (see below) going into the winter. If a beekeeper does not get hit by CCD, then he probably has more hives in the spring than he had going into the winter. If he gets hit by CCD then he may lose half or more of his colonies. In this case, if he has contracts to pollinate almonds in the spring, he will have difficulty fulfilling those contracts. Q: Why do you think the media portrayed CCD as a "crisis" and in turn the public presumed that government action is desirable or necessary? A: CCD is a crisis for those beekeepers that get hit hard by CCD. In aggregate, however, our research suggests that most market indicators have not changed noticeably since the onset of CCD. Colony numbers have not fallen, honey prices have not risen, package and queen prices have not shown dramatic increases, and honey production and yields have not been affected. With the exception of almond fees, pollination fees have not changed much since the fall of 2006 when CCD first appeared. Our analysis suggests that almond pollination fees have risen (by roughly 10 to 15 percent) since the appearance of CCD. Why has the media portrayed CCD as a crisis? Possibly because most people do not understand how beekeeping and pollination markets work. There has been limited acknowledgement in the press that beekeepers lose bees every winter and that they know how to deal with those losses. Q: How is CCD affecting pollination markets? A: As indicated above, most of the market measures you can think of that might indicate a crisis have not changed much. The back-of-the-envelope calculations we have done to date suggest that the increase in almond pollination fees we have found probably causes the retail price of a $7 one pound can of Blue Diamond almonds to increase by about three cents. Q: How do beekeepers adapt to increased mortality in their bee colonies? A: There are several methods by which commercial beekeepers can increase their colony numbers to offset the potential increase in winter mortality since the onset of CCD. Our surveys of Washington and Oregon beekeepers suggest that the most frequently used method has been splitting and re-queening. Beekeepers can split a healthy hive by taking up to half the colony’s population, and placing those bees in an empty colony. They purchase a queen for the new colony and have it delivered through the mail. The process of transferring the bees to a new colony takes a good commercial beekeeper about twenty minutes. Today, the queen might cost them $15 - $20. Depending on how many bees were extracted from the original colony, it can be at sufficient strength to provide pollination services within a relatively short time period. Within about six weeks, the new colony will be at full strength. Q: What lessons can we draw from the adaptation of beekeepers? A: Markets work. Honey bees are resilient, and commercial beekeepers are savvy businessmen who have figured out how to respond to the problems caused by CCD. The data on the market indicators mentioned above suggest that beekeepers have adapted to this new disease quickly. Q: Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner briefly discuss beekeepers in their recent best seller Super Freakonomics. They claim that fruit farmers and beekeepers create positive externalities for one another, and for that reason they set up shop next to one another. Is their assessment of the relationship between beekeepers and orchard owners accurate? A: No. There are commercial beekeepers who manage thousands of colonies and travel thousands of miles each year to provide pollination services to orchard owners and farmers with crops that require these services. The classic story about beekeepers not receiving any benefits from the pollination services provided by their bees is a myth. Our research suggests that the first pollination contracts were probably negotiated in the early 1900s. Prior to that, the description provided in Super Freakonomics may have been accurate in some instances, although we suspect that at least as frequently orchard owners and farmers may have simply owned a few bee colonies to provide the (smaller scale) pollination services they required.

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ὅπως, originally a relative adverb meaning a. The adverbial meaning of ὅπως is still seen in its use as an indefinite relative and as an indirect interrogative; and by the fact that in its place ὅπῃ, ὅτῳ τρόπῳ, ἐξ ὅτου τρόπου are sometimes used. By association with the subjunctive ὅπως became a conjunction (cp. μή πως) used with or without ἄν in final clauses (see cross2196, cross2201). On the use as a conjunction in object clauses after Herbert Weir Smyth [n.d.], A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [info] [word count] [Smyth].

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Mist rolls through a deforested section of the Amazon rainforest on June 8, 2012 in Para state, Brazil. photos and reporting by Mario Tama / Getty Images The Amazon, home to 60 percent of the world’s largest forest and 20 percent of the Earth’s oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of Brazil. The area is populated by over 20 million people and challenged by deforestation, agriculture, mining, a governmental dam building spree and illegal land speculation. More than one million hectares of wood have disappeared in protected indigenous reserves between 1987 and 2011, according to the Brazilian government. More than 242 square kilometers in the reserve have already been destroyed according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks rainforest destruction by satellite. A truck transports illegally harvested Amazon rainforest logs near protected indigenous land on June 10, 2012 near the Arariboia Indigenous Reserve, Maranhao state, Brazil. Workers load charcoal, produced from illegally harvested Amazon rainforest wood, into a truck on June 8, 2012 in Rondon do Para, Brazil. Illegal wood charcoal is used to power smelters producing pig iron to make steel for industries including U.S. auto manufacturing, according to Greenpeace. Illegal charcoal camps can result in slave labor and the destruction of rainforest on protected indigenous lands. Over 2,700 charcoal camp workers were liberated from conditions akin to slavery between 2003 and 2011, according to Greenpeace. A worker sweats as he works for $40 per truckload of charcoal. Mario Tama / Getty Images The Amazon rainforest has meant prosperous times for many in Brazil, but environmental and cultural disaster for others.

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In honor of Martin Luther King Day, President and First Lady Michelle Obama serve lunch in the dining room at So Others Might Eat, a soup kitchen in Washington January 18, 2010. In 1994, Congress passed legislation encouraging Americans to observe the King Holiday as a national day of service that brings people together from different backgrounds to meet needs in their community. The Corporation for National and Community Service was designated as the lead federal agency to execute the King Day of Service. Participation has grown every year since its inception. The King Day of Service provides Americans the opportunity to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King through service to meet local and national needs. For more information, visit Serve.gov/mlkday. Please click on a thumbnail to the left to view the larger image. Various photo sizes, as well as additional information about the image, is available by hovering your mouse over the larger image to the right. You can also download the original image by selecting "Save Photo".

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Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a human antibody administered in a single low dose in laboratory mouse models can repair myelin, the insulating covering of nerves that when damaged can lead to multiple sclerosis and other disorders of the central nervous system. The study will be presented on Oct. 9 at the American Neurological Association meeting in Washington, D.C. “The repair of chronic spinal cord injury is seldom modeled in laboratory studies, but it is an important reality for the treatment of humans. The concept of using natural human antibodies to treat disease of this kind has not yet been tested in humans, but these research findings are very promising,” says Moses Rodriguez, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist and the study’s corresponding author. “The findings could eventually lead to new treatments that could limit permanent disability,” states Arthur Warrington, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic scientist and study author. Myelin repair normally occurs spontaneously, but in multiple sclerosis and other disorders of the central nervous system, the myelin repair process occurs very slowly or fails altogether. Researchers are trying to determine how to speed up the myelin healing process, which they hope will eventually lead to new treatments for patients. The antibody, which was genetically engineered from a single cell, binds to myelin and the surface of cells in the brain and spinal cord, then it triggers the cells to begin the repair process called remyelination. This antibody is the first known reagent designed to induce repair by acting within the central nervous system at the damage sites on cells responsible for myelin synthesis. The study uses laboratory mouse models of chronic progressive multiple sclerosis in humans. The severity of the disease and also success of the treatment were largely defined by how naturally active the mice were, particularly during the night because mice are nocturnal and are especially active at this time. They received a single dose of the antibody. A minimum of 25 mcg/kg was needed to trigger remyelination, which is equivalent to about 2 mg in the average adult, considered a very low dose. The myelin repair plateaued after five weeks in the mice models. In addition, when combined with daily methylprednisolone, (an immune modulating steroid) the antibody still promotes remyelination in mouse models. This is an important fact because the first multiple sclerosis patients treated with the antibody will have been treated first with methylprednisolone. As a naturally occurring protein of the immune system, antibodies do not appear to carry any side effects, nor are they toxic -- even when administered at 4,000 times the minimal effective dose -- though the concept has not yet been tested in humans, the researchers say. In summary, this antibody: -- Promotes remyelination with a single dose as low as 25 mcg/kg in mice models -- The remyelination plateaus at five weeks after a single dose -- Converts a model of chronic immune mediated demyelination to one that repairs with the speed of a toxin induced model of demyelination In terms of replicating the findings in humans, the researchers have already produced the antibody through genetic engineering and conducted preliminary toxicology experiments in mice showing that 1,000 times the therapeutic dose is not toxic. The study continues to be explored in animal models and eventually, in clinical trials. In short, the critical finding is that when combined with methylprednisolone, the antibody still effectively promotes remyelination and does not make the mice worse, Dr. Warrington states. Source: Mayo Clinic Explore further: Drugs used to treat lung disease work with the body clock

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LEON: The space chip that Europe builtJanuary 8th, 2013 in Astronomy & Space / Space Exploration Boasting a fivefold performance improvement on the ERC32, ESA’s LEON2-FT is once more manufactured by Atmel, marketed as the AT697. Features are etched onto its underlying semiconductor at 180 nanometre scale, compared to the single-chip ERC32’s 500 nm. The smaller the scale of course, the more computing power can be crammed onto an individual chip. Credit: Atmel (Phys.org)—Just like home computers, the sophisticated capabilities of today's space missions are made possible by the power of their processor chips. ESA's coming Alphasat telecom satellite, the Proba-V microsatellite, the Earth-monitoring Sentinel family and the BepiColombo mission to Mercury are among the first missions to use an advanced 32-bit microprocessor – engineered and built in Europe. All of them incorporate the new LEON2-FT chip, commercially known as the AT697. Engineered to operate within spacecraft computers, this microprocessor is manufactured by Atmel in France but originally designed by ESA. To give an idea of the kind of complex factors involved in its design, the 'FT' in its name stands for 'fault tolerant', meaning it can withstand the random memory 'bit flips' due to space radiation (for more information, see the link: LEON: The making of a microprocessor for space). This year's Proba-V microsatellite – surveying daily vegetation growth on a daily basis for a community of scientists previously served by the Spot satellites – will use the AT697 processor in its main flight computer. And while Alphasat employs an older ERC32 chip in its main flight computer, LEON2-FT will be operating an experimental star tracker aboard the satellite as well as the payload computer. Also with ERC32-based flight computers, ESA's Sentinels, the first of which will also be launched in the coming year, will similarly harness LEON2-FT chips in their GPS receivers and startrackers for navigation. ESA's 2014 IXV Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle for testing atmospheric reentry will control its avionics with a LEON2-FT chip. And 2015's BepiColombo mission to Mercury and 2018's Gaia star-mapper are both using the same design. The underlying LEON design has also been made available to Europe's space industry as the basis for company-owned 'system-on-chip' microprocessors optimised for dedicated tasks. For instance, Astrium is using it to create a space-based GPS/Galileo satnav receiver. How did ESA end up designing computer chips in the first place? As one of the only bodies worldwide to deal with the entire range of space activities, the Agency is as concerned with the internal components used to put together missions as the design of the missions themselves. "One of the main reasons for ESA to exist is to ensure the independence of Europe's space industry," said Roland Weigand of ESA's microelectronics section. "If we are too dependent on parts from outside Europe whose supply could be restricted at any time then the competitiveness, even the long-term viability, of our space sector comes into question. That's become a real concern with foreign export controls and related regulations. "ESA first became motivated to get involved with microprocessor development back in the 1990s as they became more central to the performance of space missions. "Independence from non-European parts is also a driver of our European Components Initiative, in place for the last decade, which is working with European industry to bring new components to market." Provided by European Space Agency "LEON: The space chip that Europe built." January 8th, 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-01-leon-space-chip-europe-built.html

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Orchids belongs to the Orchidacae family, with all the difference in size, shape, colour and scent. A majority of orchids are perennial epiphytes, which grow anchored to trees or shrubs in the tropics and subtropics. Other species are lithophytes, growing on rocks or very rocky soil, or are terrestrial. Nearly all temperate orchids are terrestrial. Orchids are one of the most fascinating, beautiful and peculiar variety among the flowering plants. Orchids generally have simple leaves with parallel veins. The seeds are generally almost microscopic and very numerous. Some species of orchids may flower two or three times a year and some flower annually. It is estimated that there are about 25,000 species of orchids in the world. The most famous orchid in the world is the vanilla orchid (planifolia). Both the seeds and surrounding pulp within the seed pod of the Vanilla orchid are used to make the extremely popular flavoring vanilla extract. Orchids are grown for the astonishing beauty and variety of their flowers. Most white orchids are pollinated by night-flying moths, colourful orchids usually by bees and the smaller orchids by mosquitoes. Of the many orchid varieties, the Phalaenopsis, Cymbidium and Dendrobium orchids are the most popular types. Orchids are identified by their flowers, whose structure is always complex, designed to attract pollinating insects. The basic orchid flower is composed of three sepals and three petals, with the medial petal usually modified and enlarged (then called the labellum or lip), forming a platform near the center of the corolla. In many orchids, the sepals are colored and generally resemble the petals. The reproductive organs in the centre (stamens and pistil) have been transformed into a structure called the column. Hobby growers should try growing hybrids of Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Dendrobium, Oncidium, Vanda and Epidendrum. Out of about a thousand species of orchids in India, over 600 are to be found in Arunachal Pradesh alone, hence this state can rightly be called as "Orchid Paradise". The National Orchid Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens is considered by some to be among the finest collections of orchids in cultivation open to the public. Orchids can impart a wide variety of messages, but historically the meanings of orchids have included wealth, love, and beauty. In Victorian England orchids took on the mantle of luxury. No doubt this image stems from the fact that these flowers are hard to find anywhere but tropical places. Anyone during this era who could afford to buy these exotic blooms would have to be a rich person. Orchids still have a connotation of luxury as they are still hard to find and exotic.

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Ground shaking can be quite frightening. The Earth we walk on, and build on, becomes unstable. When it starts moving violently it can feel as if there is no safe haven for us. The Earth shakes with the passage of earthquake waves , which radiate energy that had been "stored" in stressed rocks, and were released when a fault broke and the rocks slipped to relieve the pent-up stress. The strength of ground shaking is measured in the velocity of ground motion, the acceleration of gound motion, the frequency content of the shaking and how long the shaking continues ( the "duration"). When assessing the potential shaking hazard at a given site, how frequently strong motion is expected to re-occur their is another critical factor to be considered. Interestingly, the characteristics of waves produced by an earthquake rupture are also strongly influenced by the fault rupture orientation, its depth, and the details of how the slip spread across the ruptured fault patch. For example, "directivity" causes earthquake ground motions in the direction of rupture propagation across a fault to be more severe than that in other directions from the earthquake source. Directivity was clearly demonstrated in the 1994 Northridge M6.7 earthquake. The fault that broke in the earthquake was a reverse fault dipping to the south. The break began "down dip" and ruptured northward and upward, but never broke the surface. Luckily much of the energy released by the quake was directed north into less populated areas rather than south, toward the LA Basin. A rupture may also start at, or propagate into, strong patches along a fault plane. If the strong patch fails, it may slip more than the surrounding fault and radiate more strongly than adverage seismic energy. You are at little risk from even strong ground shaking if you are strolling in an open field (though it could knock you off your feet). Rather it is how earthquake ground motions affect structures, their contents, and the soils they are built on, that drive the risk . To understand our risk of losses from earthquakes we must understand the ground motion hazard at a given site as well as how vulnerable or fragile our structures and infrastructure are to these ground motions. The USGS has invested in developing tools to help planners, engineers, and the rest of us better understand the seismic hazards we will likely face someday so that structures can be designed with the appropriate level of seismic resilience to the shaking levels that occur at the site of its construction. Our current understanding of earthquake hazards has been integrated in the production of national and regional maps of probabilistic earthquake ground shaking through the USGS, National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project (NSHMP). These maps integrate the results of research in historical seismicity, paleoseismology, strong motion seismology, and site response. The maps try to take into account all the possible locations and magnitudes that are likely to happen in future hypothetical earthquakes. USGS scientists produced these maps since the early 1970s (with major improvements implemented in 1996) in close cooperation with engineers and building officials involved in producing building codes for earthquake-resistant building construction. As of the year 2000, all US model building codes incorporate ground motion hazard maps derived from the USGS studies. This integration of earthquake hazards science and building codes helps assure that structures will be engineered to have the appropriate level of resistance to catastrophic damage from shaking likely to occur in the area where they are built. Engineers also use these values to design important structures to specific levels of performance following an earthquake. These performance levels start at engineering for prevention of collapse and loss of life to designing structures that continue to function at a high level immediately following the earthquake. The NSHMP project updates the national map every six years integrating what has been learned from earthquake hazards research activities by universities, State Geologic Surveys, the USGS, and others to keep them current. Ground motion is affected by near surface soils, deep geologic structure such as sedimentary basins, and the mechanics of the earthquake itself. The NSHMP does a good job estimating the level and frequency of input shaking at a given site but does not account for many conditions that impact ground motion in a region. More sophisticated modeling of all these effects goes into the production of Urban Seismic Hazard Maps where they exist. This Seattle Urban Seismic Hazard Map shows shaking levels at 1 hertz frequency that have a 10% chance of being exceeded in the next 50 years. A high resolution version of these and other related maps are available from the USGS.

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National Falls Prevention Awareness Day Prevent Blindness America Supports National Falls Prevention Awareness Day on September 22 - Millions with Refractive Error, Eye Disease at Increased Risk for Falls - CHICAGO (Sept. 18, 2013) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that one out of three people ages 65 and older falls each year. And, according to the National Council on Aging, every 15 seconds an older adult is treated in an emergency room for a fall-related injury. People who fall are 2 to 3 times more likely to fall again. By the year 2020, direct and indirect costs related to injuries from falls are expected to reach $54.9 billion. Unfortunately, those with impaired vision are more likely to experience falls and injuries. Vision impairment can affect balance. It also increases the risk of tripping or misjudging steps, stairs or curbs. Today, based on data from the 2012 “Vision Problems in the U.S.” study, more than 48 million Americans over the age of 40 have refractive error, in addition to the more than 36 million with cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Prevent Blindness America joins with more than 70 national organizations of the Falls Free™ Coalition to declare Sept. 22, 2013, the first day of autumn, as National Falls Prevention Awareness Day. This year’s theme, “Preventing Falls—One Step at a Time,” is aimed at educating the public on the risk factors for falls and prevention strategies. The CDC also states that most falls are caused by a combination of multiple risk factors. Some risk factors can be modifiable including: - Poor vision - Lower body weakness - Difficulties with gait and balance - Use of psychoactive medications - Postural dizziness - Problems with feet and/or shoes - Home hazards “The overall impact of a fall on an older person can be devastating, beyond just the initial injury. The effects on the patient, caregivers and family can be emotionally and financially enormous,” said Hugh R. Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness America. “We hope that by alerting the public to the dangers of falls, as well as educating them on ways to avoid them, we can help prevent unnecessary injuries. And, maintaining healthy vision is one way to accomplish this!” For more information about National Falls Prevention Awareness Day or general eye health, please contact Prevent Blindness America at (800) 331-2020.

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The Romans and the Celts regarded February as the start of spring. February, along with January, was introduced onto the Roman calendar by Numa Pompilous when the calendar was extended from ten to twelve. The word February comes from the word 'februa' - which means cleansing or purification, and reflects the rituals undertaken before Spring. The Anglo Saxons called February 'Sol-monath' (cake-month), because cakes were offered to the gods during that month. February was also known to the Saxons as 'sprout-kale' from the sprouting of cabbage or kale. Having only 28 days in non-leap years, February was known in Welsh as 'y mis bach' - the little month. In Shakespeare's time about 400 years ago, the second month of the year was called 'Feverell'. In Isaac Newton's time one hundred years later it had become 'Februeer'. The modern name, February, is only about a hundred years old. (the Christian festival of lights ) 2nd February is Candlemas Day. This ancient festival marks the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. In olden times, many people used to say that the Christmas season lasted for forty days - until the second day of February. Robert Herrick in his poem 'Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve' writes, DOWN with the rosemary and bays, Down with the misletoe ; Instead of holly, now up-raise The greener box (for show). How did this 2nd February come to be called Candlemas? It was the day of the year when all the candles, that were used in the church during the coming year, were brought into church and a blessing was said over them - so it was the Festival Day (or 'mass') of the Candles. Candles were important in those days not only because there was no electric lights. Some people thought they gave protection against plague and illness and famine. For Christians, they were (and still are) a reminder of something even more important. Before Jesus came to earth, it was as if everyone was 'in the dark'. People often felt lost and lonely. Afraid. As if they were on their own, with no one to help them. Then came Jesus with his message that he is with his followers always ready to help and comfort them. As if he is a guiding light to them in the darkness. Christians often talk of Jesus as 'the light of the World' - and candles are lit during church services to remind Christians of this. Candlemas traditions, superstitions and weather lore 12 - 14 February were traditionally said to be 'borrowed' from January. If these days were stormy, the year would be favoured with good weather: but if fine, the year's weather would be foul. The last three days of March were said to be borrowed from April. It is said that if the weather is fine and frosty at the close of January and the beginning of February, there is more winter ahead than behind. When the cat lies in the sun in February She will creep behind the stove in March. Of all the months of the year Curse a fair February. If it thunders in February, it will frost in April. If February give much snow, A fine summer it doth foreshow. The flower called snowdrop appears in February and is a symbol of hope. According to legend, the snowdrop became the symbol of hope when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. When Eve was about to give up hope that the cold winters would never end, an angel appeared. She transformed some of the snowflakes into snowdrop flowers, proving that the winters do eventually give way to the spring. There is an old rhyme which says: "The Snowdrop, in purest white array, First rears her head on Candlemas day." The name snowdrop does not mean 'drop' of snow, it means drop as in eardrop - the old word for earring. Snowdrops are also known as known as Candlemas bells. The Latin name for the snow drop is Galanthus, which means "milk flower". One of the strangest things ever to happen in England took place during the night of the 8th February 1855. During the night, heavy snowfall blanketed the countryside and small villages of Southern Devon. In their houses, people huddled beneath their bedclothes on a night of intense cold. Slowly the first light of dawn came to reveal a bleak frozen landscape - and the footprints. To the astonishment of all, when people left their houses they found thousands of mystery footsteps. These were in the shape of a cloven hoof, but they moved in single file. More astonishingly was the fact that they covered a distance of one hundred miles or more and went through fields, gardens, towns, and even over rooftops. At first people were intrigued, but then became very frightened. The news swept quickly over the country and many people believed the footprints belonged to the devil. The London newspapers published the story and experts came to investigate the footprints, before the snow melted. Nobody could offer any satisfactory solution to the mystery. Shrove Tuesday marks forty days before Easter. The forty days are supposed to be a time of quietness and fasting. Shrove Tuesday (sometimes called Mischief Day) was the last day before Lent, so it was the last day for fun and food for a long time. A special game of football is a played in February. It is played differently from the game our country is well known for. This game of football has no rules and is played on Shrove Tuesday. In some villages and towns traffic would be stopped and all the men would come out into the street at a set time. The church bell would ring and a football would be thrown into the crowd and the biggest ever football game was played. This game is still played in some places in England. Skipping is also a traditional Shrove Tuesday game. The last few days before Lent are known as Shrovetide. A time of feasting and revelry. Collop Monday was traditionally the day to eat large pieces of fried meat. Shrove Tuesday was the last time luxury foods could be used. All over Britain different Shrove Tuesday meals were made - sometimes it was broth (Scotland), or doughnuts (Hertfordshire), frying pan pudding (Lincolnshire) or pea soup (Cornwall) - but the most usual meal and the meal we still make today is pancakes. Candlemas is a traditional Christian festival that commemorates the ritual purification of Mary forty days after the birth of her son Jesus. On this day, Christians remember the presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple. Forty days after the birth of a Jewish boy, it was the custom to take him to the temple in Jerusalem to be presented to God by his thankful parents. In pre-Christian times, this day was known as the 'Feast of Lights' and celebrated the increase strength of the life-giving sun as winter gave way to spring. This feast is called Candlemas because that was the day on which the year's supply of candles for the church were blessed. St Valentines Day This was originally thought to be the day on which birds chose their mates. There are many traditions and tales associated with romance activities on Valentines day including: - the first man an unmarried woman saw on 14th February would be her future husband; - if the names of all a girl's suitors were written on paper and wrapped in clay and the clay put into water, the piece that rose to the surface first would contain the name of her husband-to-be. - if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a rich person. Each year in Britain, we spend around £503m on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts for Valentine's Day. Traditionally these were sent anonymously, but now-a-days we often make it clear who is sending each 'Valentine'. Shrove Tuesday marks forty days before Easter. Read more about Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday (the day after Shrove Tuesday) A playground tradition was to carry a piece of twig from an ash tree in your pocket or down your sock. Anyone who didn't have an ash twig had his or her feet trodden on. Find out more about Ash Wednesday Kissing Friday (the Friday after Ash Wednesday) Friday of Shrove Week, English schoolboys were once entitled to kiss girls without fear of punishment or rejection, a custom that lasted until at least the 1940s. In Sileby, Leicestershire, Kissing Friday was called Nippy Hug Day. There men could demand a kiss from the woman of their choice, but if their petition was denied, they had the right to 'louse', or pinch, the woman's posterior - perhaps mimicking the pinching of lice? This is the day when members of the Scout and Guide movements remember their founders Lord and Lady Robert Baden-Powell. - (occurs once every four years) We have created a special page about leap years 5th - Birth date of Robert Peel in 1788. Formed first police force in London, hence nickname 'Bobbies'. 6th - Queen Elizabeth ll came to the throne on this day in 1952. 7th - Charles Dickens was born in 1812 8th - A minor earthquake shook Britain in 1750. 8th - A strange thing occurred in Devon (see above) 11th - Sir Francis Drake became the first known Englishman to sail the pacific in 1578 11th - Thomas Edison born in 1847 The phonograph and the motion-picture projector were only a few of Thomas Edison's more than 1,000 inventions. 12th - Birth of Charles Darwin in 1809 14th - St Valentines Day 15th- In 1971 Britain went decimal. All the banks were shut on the 11th and 12th to prepare for the change over. Three million ponds was spent converting the country’s phone boxes to take the new two pence pieces. Every cash register in the country had to be changed. 20th - On this day in 1896 the cinema came to Britain when a programme of films was shown for the first time to a paying audience. 23rd - Birth of George Frederick Handel in 1685 23rd - Birth of Samuel Pepys in 1632

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Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology | In parapsychology, psi (From the Greek, psi, twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet; from the Greek psyche, “mind, soul”) is a neutral term for parapsychological phenomena, such as extra-sensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK). "Psi" is pronounced with a silent "p", i.e., like "si" in "silent". The term was coined by biologist Benjamin P. Wiesner, and first used by psychologist Robert Thouless in a 1942 article published in the British Journal of Psychology. Psi was argued by Thouless and Wiesner to offer a non-theoretical manner of referring to ESP and PK, these terms being unjustifiably loaded with suggestions as to how the phenomena were caused or experienced. Although Thouless and Wiesner were careful to offer psi as merely referring to certain phenomena worthy of study, it has come to connote the processes that somehow cause these phenomena, or a certain faculty of human psychology. In a 1994 paper in the Psychological Bulletin, Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton defined psi thus: The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer, processes such as telepathy or other forms of extrasensory perception that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. The term is purely descriptive: It neither implies that such anomalous phenomena are paranormal nor connotes anything about their underlying mechanisms. Similarly, according to the Parapsychological Association, psi can be used either as a noun or adjective to identify paranormal processes and paranormal causation; the two main categories of psi are psi-gamma (paranormal cognition; extrasensory perception and psi-kappa (paranormal action; psychokinesis), although the purpose of the term "psi" is to suggest that they might simply be different aspects of a single process, rather than distinct and essentially different processes. See also Edit - ↑ http://parapsych.org/glossary_l_r.html#p Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved January 29, 2007 - ↑ http://www.parapsych.org/faq_file1.html#6 What do parapsychologists study?, From the FAQ of the website of the Parapsychological Association, Retrieved February 3, 2007 - ↑ http://www.ramcconnell.com/psibonds.htm Retrieved February 5, 2007 - ↑ Thouless, R. H. (1942). Experiments on paranormal guessing. British Journal of Psychology, 33, 15-27. - ↑ Bem, D. J., & Honorton, C. (1994). Does psi exist? Replicable evidence for an anomalous process of information transfer. Psychological Bulletin', 115, 4-18. - ↑ http://www.parapsych.org/glossary_l_r.html#p Parapsychological Association Glossary of Parapsychological terms - nl:Psi (paranormaal) - pt:Psi (parapsicologia) - sv:Psi (parapsykologi) |This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|

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Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology | Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline) In game theory the War of attrition is a model of aggression in which two contestants compete for a resource of value V by persisting while accumulating costs at a constant rate c. The model was originally formulated by John Maynard Smith (1974). Strategically, the game is an auction, in which the prize goes to the player with the highest bid, and both players pay the loser's low bid. The evolutionarily stable strategy when playing this game is a probability density of random persistence times which cannot be predicted by the opponent in any particular contest. This result has led to the prediction that threat displays ought not to evolve. - Bishop, D.T. & Cannings, C. (1978) A generalized war of attrition. Journal of Theoretical Biology 70: 85-124. - Bishop, D.T., Cannings, C. & Maynard Smith, J. (1978) The war of attrition with random rewards. Journal of Theoretical Biology 74:377-389. - Maynard Smith, J. (1974) Theory of games and the evolution of animal contests. Journal of Theoretical Biology 47: 209-221. - Maynard Smith, J. & Parker, G. A. (1976). The logic of asymmetric contests. Animal Behaviour. 24:159-175. |This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|

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Scientific Investigations Report 2008–5136 The Illinois River located in northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma is influenced by point and nonpoint sources of nutrient enrichment. This has led to increased algal growth within the stream, reducing water clarity. Also, sediment runoff from fields, pastures, construction sites, and other disturbed areas, in addition to frequent streambank failure, has increased sedimentation within the stream and decreased water clarity. A study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to characterize the increased turbidity by determining the organic and inorganic composition and mass of suspended material in the Illinois River from August 2005 through July 2007. Water-quality samples were collected at four sites on the Illinois River (listed in downstream order): near Viney Grove, Arkansas; at Savoy, Arkansas; south of Siloam Springs, Arkansas; and near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In general, turbidity, total suspended solids, suspended-sediment concentration, organic material concentration (measured as volatile suspended solids and ash-free dry mass), and chlorophyll a concentration were the greatest in samples collected from the Illinois River at Savoy and the least in samples from the most upstream Illinois River site (near Viney Grove) and the most downstream site (near Tahlequah) from August 2005 through July 2007. For example, the suspended-sediment concentration at the Illinois River at Savoy had a median of 15 milligrams per liter, and the total suspended solids had a median of 12 milligrams per liter. The Illinois River near Tahlequah had the least suspended-sediment concentration with a median of 10 milligrams per liter and the least total suspended solids with a median of 6 milligrams per liter. The turbidity, total suspended solids, suspended-sediment concentration, organic material concentration, and chlorophyll a concentration in samples collected during high-flow events were greater than in samples collected during base-flow conditions at the Illinois River at Savoy, south of Siloam Springs, and near Tahlequah. For example, the median turbidity for the Illinois River at Savoy was 3 nephelometric turbidity ratio units during base-flow conditions and 52 nephelometric turbidity ratio units during high-flow conditions. Organic material in the Illinois River generally composed between 13 and 47 percent of the total suspended material in samples collected from August 2005 through July 2007. Therefore, most of the suspended material in samples collected from the sites was inorganic material. Overall, the highest percentage of organic material was found at the Illinois River near Viney Grove and at the Illinois River near Tahlequah. The Illinois River south of Siloam Springs had the lowest percentage of organic material among the four sites. In general, the percentage of organic material was greater in samples collected during base-flow conditions compared to samples collected during high-flow conditions. The mean seasonal concentrations and percentages of organic material were the least in the fall (September through November) in samples collected from August 2005 to July 2007 from the four Illinois River sites, while the greatest concentrations and percentages of organic material occurred at various times of the year depending on the site. The greatest concentrations of organic material occurred in the summer (June through August) in samples from sites on the Illinois River near Viney Grove, at Savoy and south of Siloam Springs, but in the spring (March through May) in samples from the Illinois River near Tahlequah. The greatest percentages of organic material (least percentages of inorganic material) occurred in the summer in samples from the site near Viney Grove, the winter and summer at the site at Savoy, in the spring, fall, and winter (December through February) at the site south of Siloam Springs, and in the winter at the site near Tahlequah. Although a wide range of variability is evident in the data, several observations can be made about the suspended-material data collected from the four sites on the Illinois River from August 2005 through July 2007. Samples from the Illinois River near Savoy had the greatest turbidity, suspended-sediment concentration, total suspended solids, chlorophyll a, and organic material concentrations among the four sites, indicating that it may be the most affected by activities in the basin upstream from the site, causing increased suspended inorganic and organic material. Downstream from the Illinois River at Savoy, the data indicate that although a similar concentration of suspended material is being transported downstream, less organic material is being entrained, transported, or being added to the stream near the site south of Siloam Springs compared to the site upstream at Savoy. Even farther downstream at the Illinois River near Tahlequah, the data indicate that less of the suspended material, which was observed in samples from the two upstream sites, is being transported past the site near Tahlequah and the concentration of inorganic particles is less because of deposition upstream from the site, or the channel morphology may be more conducive for algal growth, increasing the effects of sources of organic material on the total mass of suspended material. Posted August 2008 Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge. Galloway, J.M., 2008, Determination of organic and inorganic percentages and mass of suspended material at four sites in the Illinois River in northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma, 2005-07: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5136, 31 p. Study Area Description Purpose and Scope Quality Control and Quality Assurance Hydrologic and Water-Quality Conditions Comparison of Suspended Material Method Results Organic and Inorganic Percentages of Suspended Material Appendix – Water-quality data from August 2005 to July 2007 for the Illinois River sites near Viney Grove, Arkansas; at Savoy, Arkansas; south of Siloam Springs, Arkansas; and near Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

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Tables are primarily constructed by defining rows, but it’s often useful to define their structure as columns as well. Unlike rows, columns don’t directly contain any cells; rather, they implicitly group adjacent cells between rows. This may not seem important, but it means that there isn’t an easy way to select a column for styling purposes (the best you could do was to set a width attribute on the top-most table cells, be they element aims to solve the problem by providing a mechanism for selecting columns and applying the necessary attributes. The idea is that you can col element to define all of your columns’ attributes—alignment, colors, and so on, up-front, before you begin the process of writing out each row. col element can appear on its own (as shown in the HTML example below, there’s one col for each of the subsequent rows’ cells, with alignments set only for the first three columns), but it can also appear inside a colgroup element. It is important to note that if you use one or more colgroup then all cols must be enclosed in one or more col element is used to set different class attributes on the first three columns in the table (which can then be styled with <table border="1"> <col class="col1"/> <col class="col2"/> <col class="col3"/> <col/> <tr> <th colspan="4" scope="col">Work Contact Points</th> </tr> ⋮ </table> Use This For … This element is used for identifying individual table columns and applying styles to them (either using HTML attributes or CSS), rather than repeating the styles for each cell, row after row after row. This element has reasonable support, though the breadth of support depends heavily on which attributes are applied. Attribute support varies between browsers (it would be so much easier if all browsers tested, supported, and ignored the same set of attributes, but unfortunately, this is not the case). A better approach is to apply class names to the respective col elements, then let CSS styling take care of alignment, colors, widths, and so on.

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|Biographical detail : ||Ottoman Sultan who crafted the distinctive institutions of the empire, which reached the fullest extent of its power during his reign. Suleiman’s first military moves were against Belgrade, which he captured in 1521. Rhodes was his second target. In 1526 he took Hungary and launched the famous seize of Vienna in 1529, which he conquered the same year. Then he subdued Charles V in 1532. In 1534 he took Tabriz and Baghdad, Corfu, Moldavia were occupied in 1537. Thus his empire reached its apex. Under Suleiman I, the Shariah received a more exalted status and legal expert (the qadis) dispensed justice in the courts, their consultants (muftis) interpreted the law, and the teachers in the madrasahs became an official government corps thus created a moral and religious link between the sultan and his subjects. This was especially valuable in the Arab provinces, where the partnership between the state and the ulama helped people to accept Turkish rule. Suleiman I had granted European traders diplomatic immunity under the treaty known as Capitulations that meant that Europeans traders living in Ottoman territory were not required to observe the law of the land. But it was clear later on that these Capitulations were weakening Ottoman sovereignty. Suleiman I under whose rule the empire reached the limits of its expansion, Istanbul enjoyed a cultural renaissance, which was chiefly characterised by superb architecture, notably that of the court architect Sinan Pasha. However after his marriage with a `Russian' girl Roxeliana, the groundwork was laid for two situations – Harem influence and the elevation of the favourites – which were to prove disastrous for the empire in later centuries. Suleiman I, the only son of Selim I and the 10th Ottoman Sultan, was well known as al-Qanuni (the Lawgiver) in the Islamic world and Suleiman `the Magnificent’ by the Western historians.

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The Spring 2012 issue of Ohio Genealogy News includes articles about researching Ohio ancestors who served in the War of 1812. Derek S. Davey writes about using soldier rosters, service records, pension records, and bounty land records in his article “The War of 1812 in Ohio: Finding Ancestors Who Served.” There is also a guide to Ohio libraries and historical societies that have War of 1812 resources. Eric Johnson’s article provides an explanation of “odd battalions” of the war. Ohio Genealogy News is published quarterly by the Ohio Genealogical Society. Issues can be read in the Special Collections Division. Filed under: Genealogy Tagged:American History,Ancestors,Genealogy,Genealogy Magazines,Genealogy Resources,Military Records,Ohio,Ohio Ancestors,Ohio Genealogical Society,Ohio Genealogy,Ohio Historical Societies,Ohio Libraries,War of 1812,Wars

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· Mappr - takes Flickr images and allows you to paste them on a map · Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color. · Montagr – create a photo mosaics from photos found on Flickr. Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools. Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to: Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you. You might want to check out FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker. There’s a ton of librarians out there that have created their own Librarian Trading Card. So have fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps. If you are up to the challenge while you’re at it, create a trading card of your own. :) or a movie poster or magazine cover from this Flickr site.* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map) In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com) - Idea #1: Use Flickr toys to make a magazine cover. Many classes make their own magazine. This would be perfect! Example for covers: "Crusade Times," "Heading West," or "Genetics Today." Students could create a magazine cover and headlines for a famous person, historical event, or story character. Your students could also add a subtitle that refers to the curriculum content standard or Model School Library Content Standard addressed by the project so your students could "send a message" to parents and administrators. - Idea #2: Create trading card sets. Liven up 5th grade mission projects, annual "animal" or "state" reports, and other topics that are ripe for change. Each student could create a card or student groups could design their own trading card pack. Trading the cards can be a fun game, but they can also be useful for recommended reading, books, illustrators, authors, and historical bios/dates. How would you use them? How about using them as Flash cards for vocabulary, periodical table, foreign language or ELL. [Consider engaging your parent-teacher organization or SITE Council in a project like this, as it is a fun way to increase student academic achievement.]

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The Gaia focal plane will be the largest ever developed, with 106 CCDs, a total of almost 1 Gigapixels and physical dimensions of 0.5m × 1m. The focal plane assembly is common to both telescopes and serves five main functions (in order of occurrence): The 106 detectors are distributed over the focal plane as follows: Observation Sequence in the Focal Plane Every object crossing the focal plane is first detected either by SM1 or SM2. These record respectively the objects only from telescope 1 or 2. This is achieved by a mask that is placed in each telescope intermediate image in the across scan direction (parallel to the detector column). Next, a surrounding window is allocated to the object and is propagated through the following CCDs of the row as the imaged object crosses the focal plane. The object is confirmed by the detectors in the first column of the Astrometric Field (AF1) for eliminating false detections (cosmic rays). The object then progressively crosses the 8 next AF columns, followed by the BP, RP and RVS detectors. The spacecraft's accurate attitude control provides the position of the imaged object versus time, which is used for operating the detectors along the line in windowing mode. This reduces the readout noise to a few electrons. The nominal integration time per CCD is 4.42 seconds, corresponding to 4500 pixels along scan. For bright saturating objects, the integration time in AF1-AF9, BP and RP is reduced by activating electronic TDI gates in the detector over a short period corresponding to the bright star window. The purpose of the TDI gates is to lower the effective number of pixels along scan. Twelve gates are available in the detector and allow optimising the signal collection for bright stars at the minimum expense for faint stars. All CCDs have the same format and are derived from e2v Technologies design and are large-area, back-illuminated, full-frame devices. They are operated in Time Delay Integration (TDI) mode with a TDI period of 982.8 μs. The Focal Plane Assembly The focal plane is passively cooled to 170 K for reducing its sensitivity to radiation. The box shaped CCD radiator provides the radiative surface with the colder internal payload cavity (120K) as well as CCD shielding against radiation and support for the photometer prisms.

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Do We Have the World on a String? We can't understand how quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity could reconcile without first understanding how they -- right now -- do not. Because it turns out that neither one really works if the other is true. Einstein said that space-time is a smooth constant, and that only big things can warp it. Quantum mechanics said that the smallest parts of the universe are constantly, dramatically fluctuating and changing. If quantum mechanics is correct and everything is in fuzzy motion constantly, then gravity wouldn't work the way Einstein predicted. Space-time would also have to be constantly at odds with everything around it, and would act accordingly. Moreover, quantum mechanics said that you couldn't -- with any certainty -- declare a set order. Instead, you had to settle for predicting probabilities. On the other hand, if general relativity is correct, then matter couldn't fluctuate so wildly. You would, at some point, be able to know where all matter is and exactly where it's going. Which, again, is at odds with quantum mechanics. But rest assured that scientists, physicists and armchair experts alike are all desperately trying to find a way to reconcile the two. One front-runner is string theory, which says instead of a particle acting as a dot, it acts as a string. That means it would be able to wave and move and loop and generally do all sorts of stuff that one point couldn't. It could also transmit gravity on a quantum level, and the spread of the particles on a string would theoretically make a less jumpy, less crazy atmosphere. Which opens the theory, of course, to agreeing with general relativity. But keep in mind that string theory has never been confirmed with any experiment -- and there's much debate if it can be proven at all. If such a monumental experiment were to occur, it would likely happen at a particle accelerator. That's where we might find superpartners. (No, not Batman and Robin). Superpartners are a part of string theory that says each particle has a supersymmetrical partner particle that's unstable and that spins differently (for example, the electron and the selectron or the graviton and the gravitino). Lucky for us, in 2010 we found evidence of our first Higgs boson when crashing particles together in the Large Hadron Collider, so we might be on our way to experimentally proving string theory. Spin also might help us experiment with quantum entanglement, where electrons get caught in each other's spin. It's easy to see in small spaces, but scientists are working to send photons into space and back to measure how it works over a large distance -- and curvature -- of space and time. But we also might look to black holes to suss out a Theory of Everything (a TOE!). In a black hole, you have a really heavy thing (a star, which general relativity applies to) and a really small thing (the teeny tiny speck it's crushed into, which quantum mechanics explains). So if we can determine what happens -- or what changes -- when the big gets small, we just might reconcile quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity.

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The runas command is a useful command that allows a user to run a command as another user (typically a privileged user, such as administrator) by providing the password when prompted: runas /u:administrator delete file.txt In a command shell this will not work as the penetration tester is never prompted for the password. To circumvent this issue, it’s possible to use the “schtasks” or “at” command to run the command at a short time in the future as the specified user. One caveat to this is that the command shell has to have administrative or SYSTEM privileges to work. Command shell access on Windows targets can have many pitfalls. A command shell is not the same as Terminal Access. Hitting CTRL-C while inside a command shell over a netcat connection will cause the netcat connection to drop. This is the case with Windows targets as well. If you have gained shell access on a Windows system by launching a netcat listener on the Winows target system and interacting with it using a netcat client you will be in a command shell and not in Terminal access (as you would be with a Telnet session). Command Shell access should not be confused with the use of the Windows Command Processor (cmd.exe). Command line and command shell are oft confused terms.

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Recommended ReadingCompiled by Alison J. Smith, Department of Geology, Kent State University Below is a list of books, articles, and websites that will help you with any background you may feel you need prior to attending the summer workshop. All the articles here are electronically available, either through open access websites, such as the PNAS articles (PNAS articles are open access, available through their archives), or through participating servers such as are held by most universities and large public libraries. Interactive maps and graphics from NOAA NOAA Acrtic Theme Page - see what the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) are all about Image Libraries of Common Paleoecological Proxies (Pollen, Diatoms, Ostracodes...) Radiocarbon Calibration, A Vignette-Key Concept in Geomorphology Publication by Quan Hua, November, 2009, open commons publication Alley, Richard B., 2000. The Two Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future, Princeton University Press.Imbrie, John and Imbrie, Katherine P., 1986. Ice Ages, Solving the Mystery, Harvard University Press. Birkeland, Peter, 1999. Soils and Geomorphology, Oxford University Press. (see pages 268-306 and 339-346) Adovasio, J. & J. Page (2002) The first Americans: in pursuit of archaeology's greatest mystery. Random House, New York. Bonnichsen, R., B. Lepper, D. Stanford, and M. Waters (2006) Paleoamerican origins: beyond Clovis. Center for the Study of the First Americans, College Station, Texas. Gillespie, A., S.C. Porter and B. Atwater (2004) The Quaternary period in the United States. Elsevier Science, New York. Jablonski, N., editor (2002) The first Americans: the Pleistocene colonization of the New World.Memoirs California Academy of Sciences, No. 27. Meltzer, D.J. (2009) First peoples in a New World: colonizing Ice Age America. University of California Press, Berkeley.Ubelaker, D., editor, (2006) Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 3, Environment,Origins, and Population. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Reimer et al., 2009. INTCAL09 and MARINE09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 YEARS CAL BP, Radiocarbon, Vol 51, Nr 4, 2009, p 1111–1150. The Younger Dryas Broecker, W., G. Denton, R.L. Edwards, H. Cheng, R. Alley & A. Putnam (2010) Putting the Younger Dryas cold event into context. Quaternary Science Reviews29:1078-1081. Broecker, W.S. (2006) Was the Younger Dryas triggered by a flood? Science312:1146-1148 Carlson, A. et al. (2007) Geochemical proxies of North American freshwater routing during theYounger Dryas cold event. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)104:6556-6561 Firestone et al. (2007) Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)104:16016-16021Meltzer, D.J. and V.T. Holliday (2010) Would North American Paleoindians have noticed Younger Dryas age climate changes? Journal of World Prehistory23:1-41 Bradley, B. & D. Stanford (2004) The North Atlantic ice-edge corridor: a possible Palaeolithic route to the New World. World Archaeology36:459-478. Bradley, B. & D. Stanford (2006) The Solutrean-Clovis connection: reply to Straus, Meltzer and Goebel. World Archaeology38:704-714. Pitulko, V. et al. (2004) The Yana RHS Site: Humans in the Arctic before the Last Glacial Maximum. Science303:52-56. Straus, L., D. Meltzer, & T. Goebel (2005) Ice Age Atlantis? Exploring the Solutrean-Clovis'Connection.' World Archaeology37:506-531.Westley, K. & J. Dix (2008) The Solutrean Atlantic hypothesis: a view from the ocean. Journalof the North Atlantic1:85-98. Catt, J.A., 1991. Soils as indicators of Quaternary climate change in mid-latitude regions. Geoderma 51: 167-187. Dahms, D., and V.T. Holliday, 1998. Paleosols as environmental indicators: A critical review. Quaternary International 51/52: 109-114. Retallack, G.J., 1993. Classification of paleosols: Discussion. Geological Society of America Bulletin 105: 1635-1636.Retallack, G.J., 1994. The environmental factor approach to the interpretation of paleosols. In Factors of Soil Formation: A Fiftieth Anniversary Perspective, edited by R. Amundson, pp. 31-64. Soil Science Society of America Special Publication No. 33, Madison, Wisconsin.

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High School (9-12) Activity Browse Results 1 - 20 of 457 matches Is Greenland Melting? part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:GreenlandMelt DATA: Thickness, velocity, and annual melt extents of the Greenland ice sheet TOOL: My World GIS SUMMARY: Explore map layers to examine annual melting and long-term changes of Greenland's ice sheet. Shrinking Forest - Growing Problem part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Shrinking Forests DATA: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Images. TOOL: ImageJ. SUMMARY: Process and measure time-series SAR images to analyze the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Produce a color composite image showing the oldest to most recently deforested areas. Using NASA NEO and ImageJ to Explore the Role of Snow Cover in Shaping Climate part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Exploring Albedo with NASA NEO DATA: NASA Satellite Images. TOOLS: ImageJ and Image Composite Explorer (ICE) of NASA Earth Observations (NEO). SUMMARY: Explore and animate satellite images of reflected short wave radiation, snow cover, and land surface temperature downloaded. Then observe, graph, and analyze the relationship between these three variables. Envisioning Climate Change Using a Global Climate Model part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Envisioning Climate Change Using a Global Climate Model DATA: NASA/GISS Model II Global Climate Model. TOOL: Educational Global Climate Modeling Suite (EdGCM). SUMMARY: Run climate modeling software to visualize how temperature and snow coverage might change over the next 100 years. Using Satellite Images to Understand Earth's Atmosphere part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Using Satellite Images to Understand Earths Atmosphere DATA: NASA Satellite Images. TOOLS: ImageJ and Image Composite Explorer (ICE) of NASA Earth Observations (NEO). SUMMARY: Use ImageJ to create an animation showing the change in monthly concentration of aerosols over the course of a year and compare it to a similar animation showing change in carbon monoxide concentration. Then use NEO ICE to create histograms and scatter plots, investigating the relationship between aerosol concentration and carbon monoxide concentration. Cool Cores Capture Climate Change part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Cool Cores Capture Climate Change DATA: ANDRILL Sediment Core Data. TOOL: Paleontological Stratigraphic Interval Construction and Analysis Tool (PSICAT). SUMMARY: Create graphic models of sediment cores based on data provided by ANDRILL scientists to demonstrate evidence of climate change over Earth's Geologic Time. Climate History from Deep Sea Sediments part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Case Study: Climate History from Deep Sea Sediments DATA: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Core Data. TOOL: Virtual Ocean. SUMMARY: Locate potential core, log, and seismic data to map the marine sediment biostratigraphy. Search for a specific planktonic foraminifera that prefers warmer ocean conditions. How Many Is A Million? part of Cutting Edge:Rates and Time:Visualizations with Teaching Notes Roger Steinberg, Department of Natural Sciences, Del Mar College Description To help students visualize the immensity of geologic time, or even the immensity of just one million years, I have created a very large ... A River Runs Through It: an exploration in land use and water resource management part of Cutting Edge:Environmental Geology:Activities This is an in-class activity where students learn about the interconnectedness of land use, water quality, and water resource management. Students are assigned a river front parcel of land to develop, unaware that ... Mapping Local Data in a GIS part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:MyMap DATA: Student-collected GPS data and site characterizations TOOLS: MyWorld GIS, spreadsheet program - Follow a study of Urban Heat Islands as an example of map-based science research projects. Metacognition Training through Think-Aloud Pair Problem Solving [TAPPS]: Two Lessons about Rivers part of Cutting Edge:Metacognition:Activities Attached is a description of how to use "Think-aloud Pair Problem Solving" in a classroom. It is followed with two lesson plans on the topic of rivers. From Grid to Home part of Cutting Edge:Energy:Energy Activities This one-period classroom activity is designed to have students analyze energy use, cost, and source patterns from household to regional scales and relate these patterns to CO2 emissions. This idea was generated at ... Calculation of your personal carbon footprint part of Cutting Edge:Energy:Energy Activities This worksheet walks the students through the steps for calculating their personal carbon footprint. Additionally it helps them consider options for reducing their carbon footprint and the potential costs of those ... Energy Gallery Walk part of Cutting Edge:Energy:Energy Activities This is a cooperative learning activity using the Gallery Walk Strategy (strategy from the Starting Point Gallery Walk web pages) to enrich student understanding of the complex nature of solving our nation's ... Energy and the Poor - Black Carbon in Developing Nations part of Cutting Edge:Energy:Energy Activities In this activity, students will explore impacts of the use of wood, dung and charcoal in developing countries for fuel, producing black carbon. In-class discussion will generate a list of several broad topics, ... Power Source part of Cutting Edge:Energy:Energy Activities In this lesson-opening activity, students or groups are tasked to make concept sketches that track the source of electrical power as far back as they can conceive. The concept sketches reveal students' prior ... Sea Ice Extension for the Earth as a System Learning Activity part of Cutting Edge:Visualization:Examples The purpose is to identify global patterns and connections in environmental data contained in the GLOBE Earth Systems Poster; to connect observations made within the Earth Systems Poster to data and information at ... Detecting El Niño in Sea Surface Temperature Data part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:PMEL DATA: Sea Surface Temperature (SST). TOOL: My World GIS. SUMMARY: Examine 15 years of SST data from the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Create and analyze average SST maps to identify El Nino and La Nina events. Hotspot Lesson: Mantle Plumes part of ERESE:ERESE Activities This lesson introduces the theory of mantle plumes and possible ways of finding evidence to support the theory. The Heat is On: Understanding Local Climate Change part of Cutting Edge:Visualization:Examples Students draw conclusions about the extent to which multiple decades of temperature data about Phoenix suggest that a shift in local climate is taking place as opposed to exhibiting nothing more than natural ...

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Teaching Notes for the Lifestyle Project - Introduce the project in a way that provides motivation - Offer an alternate assignment - Maintain motivation throughout the project - Do the project yourself - Adaptations for Distance Learning The ideal groundwork for the lifestyle project accomplishes the following goals: - introduces the topics (energy use, water use, waste production, food production), - illuminates the concept that for most Americans, we could be considerably more conscientious about our resource use, - establishes a mood in the classroom wherein students get excited about taking on a challenge. - Have a classroom or lab discussion using a town-meeting format. The topic is that your town is seeking to solve an energy shortage. Several possible types of energy sources will be discussed, along with the pros and cons of each. It becomes evident that there are serious drawbacks to every type of energy use. Almost inevitably, a student will come up with the idea of conserving energy in order to solve the shortage, rather than building a new power plant. From there you can challenge the class if they think they could save enough energy, collectively, to solve this hypothetical problem. This exercise has been very successful. It usually takes a full class period. - Give a campus-based quiz to asses students' environmental habits (this would need to be modified for your own campus) - Take a web-based "footprint quiz " that provides a generalized calculation of the environmental impact of a student's lifestyle. One example is the ecological footprint quiz (more info) The lifestyle project is not for everyone. Students should not be forced into changing their personal habits, but rather they should be given the option and encouraged to do so. When you offer the lifestyle project, it is important to also offer a traditional assignment on a related topic so that students who are not interested or incapable of doing the project have a more comfortable alternative. Here is an example of alternative assignment: Have the student play the role of a consultant to a community, corporation, campus or local government. The consultant's job is to find ways to reduce energy use, water use, garbage output, or food inefficiencies (i.e. the same categories as the project) on a scale appropriate for a small community, campus or corporation. The topic should be limited to only a few of the project categories, rather than all five, so that there is room for some depth in their research and writing. Acting as a consultant, the student should develop a conservation and waste reduction strategy, a concrete outline, and supporting evidence of where a similar plan has worked before. Students are encouraged to add their own ideas, but the paper should be based on research and strategies that have worked in actual communities. This project is most successful with frequent input from the instructor all the way through the three weeks. Some of the problems that come up include: - The project may seem too challenging and students may feel like it is impossible to do. - Students may be able to conserve a little bit, but won't truly inconvenience themselves or break their routines. - Students may have misconceptions about energy use (i.e. using batteries does not magically require no energy; with a thermostat you do not need to turn the heat up on a cold day) which cause them to get off on the wrong track and prevent effective conservation. - Students may run out of ideas for how to further reduce their consumption. - You can motivate students by your own example or by providing ideas about easy ways to save energy. - Give a "show and tell" of project ideas, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, refillable milk containers, soap that has no wrapper (Sappo Hill), a notepad made out of junk mail, fabric grocery bags, and so on. - Explain the recycling rules in your area so everyone knows what is recyclable and what isn't. You could also give a fun recycling quiz. - Provide ideas for how to take the project further, such as shopping at a local co-op or farmer's market. - Set up a forum for students to post their best conservation tips (web site, discussion board, posters in the hallway) - Reward great ideas or heroic efforts with eco-friendly treats, like a cloth grocery bag, a compact fluorescent light bulb, and so on. In addition to spending a few minutes in class going over these ideas, be sure to reinforce them in your responses to student journals. You can share your experiences in your lifestyle project by talking to the class, by writing a bit about your experiences in student journals, or by posting your own journal on the course website. The lifestyle project is well-suited for use in a distance learning class for a variety of reasons. - Distance learning students are generally more mature and may have their own households. Therefore, the idea of energy conservation can be more easily adapted to their households, rather than just a dorm room. - The students are more likely to have families, and the project takes on a new dimension when students are able to involve their families. - Students in a distance learning environment often do not feel connected to their classmates or instructors. This project is very effective in bringing the class together with a shared experience. - Many distance learning courses feature a discussion area, which is an ideal way for students to share their ideas and questions about the project. Adaptations for distance learning - As with any learning environment, it is important to introduce the project in a way that opens the door and puts the students in the mood to take on the personal challenge of the project. Because it may be harder to get to know your students in an on-line environment, it is critical that you provide some questions or activities to gauge student response and to let the students warm up to the idea of the project. One suggestion for introducing students to the project is the ecological footprint quiz (more info) , a simple, interactive, web-based questionnaire that measures one's ecological footprint. - Learning activities leading up to the project should address the same or similar environmental topics that the project does, so that students have an understanding of their personal impacts. For example, what is the relationship between personal energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and global warming? - The rules of the project are complicated and students may not absorb all the nuances of the categories and restrictions simply by reading through the handout. Set up a a list of frequently asked questions or a bulletin board where you can address student questions . Be proactive by posting the answers to common questions or reiterating some of the rules. - In addition to answering questions, it is useful to provide a forum for students' to share their experiences and insights as the project progresses. For example, a student who is tired of eating macaroni and cheese may be looking for ideas for vegetarian meals. Others may be able to describe new energy-saving tricks they have learned. - Provide quick turnaround for student questions and for reading their journals. Your responses can clarify questions or provide encouraging feedback and can greatly influence their progress. - Although the lifestyle project is appropriate for a culminating experience, consider using it midway in a course. The experience of the project will let you and the students get to know each other, and will pull the class together as a team.

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THE ILIAD Collection Chapter 8: Uncharted Territories The Age of Discovery was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contact with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and mapping the planet. The Age of Discovery can be seen as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era, triggering the early modern period and the rise of European nation-states. Accounts from distant lands and maps spread with the help of the new printing press fed the rise of humanism and worldly curiosity, ushering in a new age of scientific and intellectual inquiry. Nature themed personal collection by Paul Hector Theofanous Rocks stock by RiNymph-Stock Stars/Nebula stock by resurgere Tools: Adobe Photoshop CS6 WALLPAPER AVAILABLE HERE!!!

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“Management” education takes place in MBA programs, which are remarkably standardized in content —across schools and around the world. Yet the MBA is more B than A, more about the functions of business than the practice of managing. In the name of developing general managers, therefore, it tends to train staff specialists. No wonder so many MBAs have for many years gone into consulting and investment banking — often more than 60% from the most prestigious American schools. Education at every level divides subject matter into sharp categories — defined by how the knowledge has been created, not how it is used —as specialists in each field promote their own views of the world. In MBA programs, for instance, students get the word on shareholder value in finance, on empowerment in organizational behavior, on customer service in marketing. Somehow they are supposed to put this all together. They never do. That is because management is neither a science nor a profession, neither a function nor a combination of functions. Management is a practice — it has to be appreciated through experience, in context. Management may use science, but it is an art that is combined with science through craft. In other words, managers have to face issues in the full complexity of living, not as compartmentalized packages. Knowledge may be important, but wisdom — the capacity to combine knowledge from different sources and use it judiciously — is key. This is not to deny the role of formal education in management development. Business schools have important things to teach about managing. But by teaching it in the ways they generally do, they miss great opportunities for creative learning suited to practicing managers. It is therefore time to reconsider the very idea of management education, specifically the design of degree programs for practicing managers. Business schools may pride themselves on teaching new product development and strategy, but their MBA programs have not been seriously re-evaluated since the 1950s. In an attempt to develop a new perspective on management education combined with management development, we have in recent years worked with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, INSEAD in France, Lancaster University in England, and McGill University in Canada; with faculty in Japan from Hitotsubashi University, Kobe University and the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; and with colleagues at the Korean Development Institute.

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Bats in Smokies threatened by fungusWritten by Admin Biologists in the Smokies have confirmed that two different kinds of bats found in a park cave have white-nose syndrome, a life-threatening fungus. White-nose syndrome has been responsible for the deaths of millions of bats in Eastern North America. It is named for a white fungus that forms on the faces of many infected bats. The disease causes bats to become restless during hibernation, moving about the cave and burning up fat reserves or losing body water they need to survive the winter. Expending the calories while they are supposed to be hibernating causes them to become emaciated, unable to make it through until spring when insects return. There is no known cure for the disease. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to 11 bat species and the largest hibernating population of the endangered Indiana bat in the state of Tennessee. Of the species that reside in the park, at least six of them that hibernate in park caves and mines are susceptible to the fungus. In 2009 all 16 park caves and two mining complexes were closed to any public entry to delay the importation of the pathogen on visitors’ clothing or gear. Park caves will continue to remain closed to human access to minimize the chances of spreading the disease to other areas. Park visitors should not handle dead bats or bats found to be acting abnormally. If you see a dead, sick or injured bat, call 865.436.1230.

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If the name of the verb is followed by an asterisk (*), the conjugation page will be for a verb that is conjugated in the same pattern as the verb linked. Definitions given on this page are designed to make it easier to identify the verbs. Most verbs have more meanings than are listed here. Most irregular verbs are included in the list. If a verb is not included here, it is probably regular. If a verb is listed but it not a link, a conjugation page has not yet been written for that verb. echar* (to throw), economizar* (to save), edificar* (to build), elegir* (to choose), emancipar* (to free), embarazar* (to make or become pregnant), embeber* (to absorb), embotellar* (to bottle), empezar* (to begin) ennegrecer* (to blacken), ennoblecer* (to ennoble), enojar* (to anger), enseñar* (to teach), entender* (to understand), enterrar* (to bury), entrar* (to enter), entredecir* (to interrupt), entregar* (to surrender), entretener* (to entertain), enviar* (to send), envolver* (to wrap) equivocar* (to mistake), errar* (to err), escoger* (to choose), escribir (to write), esforzar* (to strain), esparcir* (to spread), esperar* (to wait), establecer* (to establish), estar* (to be), evitar* (to avoid), exigir* (to demand), existir* (to exist)

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T -SQL programmers share a basic and surprisingly challenging problem: correctly calculating the difference between two datetime values. SQL Server doesn't provide a built-in solution for this task, so you have to create your own. Although SQL Server's DATEDIFF() function lets you calculate the difference between two datetime values in terms of a specified unit (e.g., year, month, day), DATE DIFF() considers only the specified unit and those higher in the temporal hierarchy— not lower units. For example, if you specify a unit of day, SQL Server will consider only the year, month, and day and ignore lower units (hour, minute, second, millisecond). Notice the following query, which asks for the difference in years between two values that are just 3ms apart: SQL Server returns an incorrect value of 1 (instead of 0) for the number of years between these values because the function doesn't check units lower than year but rather simply subtracts 2005 from 2006. Let's look at how to get the correct datetime difference, taking all units into consideration. In other words, given two timestamps—from_ts and to_ts—let's see how to return the difference in terms of years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds. Test Your Solution First Set up the datetime-differences problem by running the code in Listing 1 to create the TimeStamps table and populate it with sample data. Table 1 shows the Time-Stamps table's content. Each row contains an integer key (keycol) and a pair of timestamps (from_ts and to_ts). The task is to correctly calculate the differences between the timestamp pairs, considering all possible datetime units, and produce the desired result that Table 2 shows. Before looking at my solution, take some time to try to solve the problem yourself. Your solution should handle cases in which from_ts is later than to_ts, in which case your code should generate a negative result. The sgn result column should identify whether the result is positive (1) or negative (-1). (Note that the outputs I show omit the from_ts and to_ts values to save space; you can correlate these values back to the TimeStamps table based on keycol.) Now, let's walk through my solution, which Listing 2 shows. First, consider the innermost query at callout F in Listing 2, which generates the derived table D1, shown in Table 3. This query uses simple CASE expressions to achieve its purpose: to place the larger value of the timestamp pair (from_ts, to_ts) in the result column to_ts and to place the smaller value in from_ts. This operation allows for simpler calculations later, guaranteeing that from_ts is smaller than or equal to to_ts. The sgn result column will hold a value of 1 if from_ts is less than or equal to to_ts and -1 if from_ts is greater than to_ts. Callout E shows the query that accepts D1 as its input, then generates derived table D2, which Table 4 shows. This query uses the DATEDIFF() function to calculate the date-unit differences (i.e., year, month, day). Remember that the unit difference that DATEDIFF() calculates might have an offset of 1 from the correct value because the function doesn't consider units lower than the unit specified in the temporal hierarchy; the next step will take care of that offset. The query at callout D accepts D2 as its input and generates derived table D3, which Table 5 shows. This query uses a CASE expression for each date unit, adding the corresponding unit difference you received from the previous query to the from_ts value. If the result is greater than to_ts, the difference that DATEDIFF() calculated was greater than the correct value by 1, so the code subtracts 1 from the difference. This logic, which fixes the inaccuracy in DATEDIFF()'s calculation, is a key element of the solution. Why not use the same logic to calculate the difference for the time units in the timestamp values? The reason is that when you get down to the time units, the difference between two timestamps might be higher than an integer can hold. In such cases, the calculation would overflow, so you need to handle the time units separately. Calculating Time Elements Now that you've calculated the correct differences for the date units, you need to return from each unit only the portion that the higher-level unit doesn't cover. For example, say you're given the timestamps 20030321 14:27:12.233 and 20060115 11:45:22.263. The calculations in the query at callout D in Listing 2 will yield 2 years, 33 months, and 1030 days, each correct independently. But to show the result in combined units, you need to return only the portion of months after subtracting the higher-level unit, which in this case is 9 months (33 months ? 2 years). Similarly, you want to return only the portion of days after subtracting the years and months, which is 24 days in our example (1030 days ? (2 years and 9 months)). Eventually, you'll return a difference of 2 years, 9 months, and 24 days (plus lower units). The next steps return the date elements and prepare the inputs you need to calculate the time elements. The query at callout C accepts D3 as its input and generates the derived table D4, which Table 6 shows. This query simply shifts from_ts forward by each of the three date-unit differences (y, m, and d), generating the values y_ts, m_ts and d_ts, respectively. The solution will use each of these timestamps as an anchor to return only the relevant portion of a date unit. The query at callout B accepts D4 as its input and generates the derived table D5, which Table 7 shows. This query returns only the relevant portion of each date unit, subtracting the difference between to_ts and the higher-level anchor from the independent date unit. The query also calculates the difference in seconds (s) between the day anchor and to_ts. The listing will use s in the next step to calculate all time elements except the milliseconds element. The next query, at callout A, accepts D5 as its input and generates the final desired result, which Table 2 shows. The query uses simple integer division (/) and modulo (%) to calculate the hour (h), minute (mi), and second (s) units based on the original seconds difference value you received from derived table D5. The query also calculates the millisecond difference (ms) by subtracting the milliseconds unit of from_ts from that of 1000 plus the milliseconds unit of to_ts modulo 1000.The reason for adding 1000 to the ms unit of to_ts, then calculating the modulo by 1000, is to accommodate a case in which the ms unit of to_ts is smaller than the ms unit of from_ts. Encapsulating Logic in a Function You now have a way to correctly calculate differences between two datetime values. And you can encapsulate this logic in a function that accepts two datetime values as inputs. You just need to determine how to return the output. You can create a table-valued function and return the different datetime elements and the sign of the result in different columns of a result row. Or, you can create a scalar function that concatenates all output elements in a single character string. Listing 3 shows an example of a scalar function that calculates datetime differences. The only change you need to make to the original solution is to add a layer that formats the output as a scalar value, as callout A in Listing 3 shows. To test the function, run the following code: You'll receive +0002-09-24 21:18:10.030 as the output, meaning that the difference between the two inputs is positive, 2 years, 9 months, 24 days, 21 hours, 18 minutes, 10 seconds, and 30ms. To verify that the result is correct,use DATEADD() to add all elements to the @from_ts input, and note that you get the following @to_ts input: DATEADD(minute, 18, DATEADD(hour, 21, As with many problems I cover in this column, solving the datetime-differences challenge involves a lot of logic. To stretch your logic muscles, remember to check out this month's Logical Puzzle, page XX. And don't miss the new section of this column, "Catch That Bug!" Itzik Ben-Gan (firstname.lastname@example.org), a mentor at Solid Quality Learning, teaches, lectures, and consults internationally. He manages the Israeli SQL Server Users Group, is a SQL Server MVP, and is a coauthor of Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000 (Apress).

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The MP treatment plan was originally designed to treat an inflammatory condition known as sarcoidosis. The treatment consists of using the drug Benicar, combined with the avoidance of all sources of vitamin D, and eventually adding various antibiotics, especially minocycline. After being used by sarcoidosis patients for some years, it was then theorized and claimed that the treatment could treat other inflammatory conditions. Eventually it was also claimed that it could treat fibromyalgia and CFS, conditions which are not recognized by the medical literature as being inflammatory in nature. Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease, which is characterized by the presence of granulomas. Granulomas often occur as an immune response to certain types of infections and foreign bodies. However, no specific cause for sarcoidosis has yet been found. Many suspect an infectious cause, and studies are ongoing to find the infection. Others believe that while an infection may trigger the disease, that genetic and immune factors can significantly affect the course of the disease. Several articles state that over 50% of sarcoidosis patients eventually undergo remission without any treatment. The other patients develop a chronic form, which requires treatment to resolve. Steroids (glucocorticoids) that suppress the immune system are the main drugs that are used to treat sarcoidosis. Other immune suppressant drugs and antibiotics are also being used. However, many cases are hard to treat, and symptoms can last for years. Given the scarcity of traditional treatment options, it’s not surprising that someone has found an alternative way to treat it. One of the main beliefs of the MP is that an infection is the cause of all the conditions that the MP claims it can treat, and that an excess of vitamin D prevents the body from properly fighting the infection. Originally it was believed that an excess of the active form of vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D, was the problem. However, the medical literature only mentions a few specific diseases where this production contributes noticeable amounts of 1,25(OH)2D to the circulating levels. Sarcoidosis is one of those diseases. In conditions such as sarcoidosis, activation of immune cells, i.e. macrophages and T cells, results in the production of 1,25(OH)2D. The MP claimed that this was also occurring in unrelated conditions, such as CFS, fibromyalgia, and chronic Lyme. However, many people with those other conditions were not found to have elevated 1,25(OH)2D. This was eventually explained by the belief that the inactive form of vitamin D, 25(OH)D, is capable of reducing inflammation and blocking the production of 1,25(OH)2D. The MP claims that if people lower their 25(OH)D levels, by avoiding vitamin D intake, that this would result in elevated levels of 1,25(OH)2D, and this would prove that inflammatory, or “TH1 production” of 1,25(OH)2D was occurring. Furthermore, the MP also believes that 25(OH)D actually blocks 1,25(OH)2D from attaching to the vitamin D receptor, preventing 1,25(OH)2D from properly stimulating the immune system. The MP claims that this blocking prevents the body from fighting the infection. Thus, they now believe that 25(OH)D is also harmful, and they recommend avoiding vitamin D, in order to reduce 25(OH)D to below normal levels. Positive Results from the MP Do Not Prove the MP’s Vitamin D Theories. Does vitamin D really hinder these diseases? The medical literature does not support this claim, nor does it support the belief that 25(OH)D blocks the effects of 1,25(OH)2D. And in fact, the avoidance of vitamin D in the MP treatment, has never been properly studied, to see what, if anything, it contributes to the effects of the treatment. The treatment was designed for sarcoidosis, and was then applied to other conditions, without testing to see whether avoidance of vitamin D is actually of any benefit for those other conditions. Perhaps, for those other conditions, only other aspects of the MP treatment are useful. For example, other treatments that simply use antibiotics, have been successful at treating inflammatory conditions. Indeed, there are even cases of sarcoidosis being successfully treated simply by antibiotics. Additionally, minocycline, which is the primary antibiotic use by the MP, may be especially potent in inhibiting granulomas. And what about Benicar? Is Benicar helping sarcoidosis in the way that the protocol theorizes? ARBs such as Benicar have many useful effects on the body. Benicar not only has positive effects on the vascular system, but also has both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. It may also be capable of increasing insulin sensitivity and affecting calcium metabolism. Studies about new effects of ARBs are constantly being published. Benicar could be helping sarcoidosis in one way, while helping other conditions in totally different ways. The MP claims that Benicar acts as a vitamin D agonist, but there is no lab study that supports this claim. Additionally, Benicar has not been studied at the high doses used by the MP, for the conditions that the MP treats. The more complete blocking of angiotensin II receptors at such high doses, may have even more positive effects than presently known. And it might be, that Benicar’s many positive effects, may be capable of offsetting the negative effects that occur from the vitamin D deficiency that results from being on the MP. Thus, there is no clear evidence that a reduction of vitamin D has any significant positive effects in the MP. Both Benicar and antibiotics are known to have many positive effects, for many different conditions, while there is no proof in the medical literature that reducing 25(OH)D to below normal levels, has any positive effects. And what about the negative reactions to the MP treatment, that the MP claims is the body’s response to the killing of the infectious bacteria by the treatment. Are these reactions actually that, or are they simply side effects from the treatment? The MP has yet to conduct any lab tests to support their theories. They have run computer simulations to support their beliefs about interactions of vitamin D metabolites, Benicar, and other substances, with the vitamin D receptor (VDR), but there is no guarantee that such simulations can accurately predict what actually happens in the body. For example, the author of the MP predicted that some of the statin drugs could interact with VDRs. But actual lab tests showed no such interaction. Indeed, the idea that such drugs have vitamin D type properties, was originally proposed by a non-MP researcher, and he has written that the MP author “is perhaps over-optimistic in suggesting that modern molecular biology can give precise answers to questions about actions of drugs because knowledge is inevitably incomplete.” Since learning about the MP, I have tried to read as many medical studies as I could, that discuss sarcoidosis, ARBs, and vitamin D, and have learned many facts that I’ve not seen discussed elsewhere. Therefore, I’m presenting that information here, for anyone who is interested in the MP. The intent of this web page is not to dissuade people from using the MP treatment. Instead, the intent is to question the validity of the theories connected with the treatment. These theories are often presented as being facts on MP web pages. Perhaps this is due to cognitive dissonance. Whatever the reason, many people who read those web pages end up believing that these theories are facts, when they are not. I have therefore decided to write this web page, in order to separate fact from theory, and to also point out when the MP theories are not supported by known facts. Given that the MP itself has changed some of its own views, such as recognizing that not everyone needs to avoid sunlight, we believe that it’s reasonable to question some of the other beliefs also. The MP believes that excess 1,25(OH)2D production is occurring in many diseases, but the MP defines the upper limit for normal 1,25(OH)2D to be 45 pg/ml, while lab tests and studies define it to be 60-65 pg/ml. The MP believes that vitamin D metabolites play a role in sarcoidosis and many other diseases. Vitamin D is a substance which the skin creates due to sunshine exposure. It is also found in supplements and certain foods. Vitamin D can either be stored in the body, or metabolized by the liver into 25(OH)D, which then circulates in the bloodstream and tissues. Only later is it then converted to the metabolite 1,25(OH)2D, which is the form that has hormonal active properties. both stimulates and inhibits the immune system. 1,25(OH)2D enhances the activity of immature immune cells (cell-lines, bone marrow cells), while it inhibits the activity of more mature cells (peripheral blood monocytes and peritoneal macrophages). Some researchers believe that this dual effect allows 1,25(OH)2D to stimulate the immune system, while providing a mechanism for preventing overstimulation. One of the ways that this comes into play, is when immune cells produce 1,25(OH)2D themselves. For example, when macrophage immune cells are activated by the TH1 (inflammatory) cytokine IFN-gamma, they are able to produce 1,25(OH)2D. This type of production is far different from the more common renal production of 1,25(OH)2D, which is controlled by the presence of calcium. Renal 1,25(OH)2D production controls calcium levels in the body. Thus, if you increase calcium intake, it will decrease the need for 1,25(OH)2D, and renal 1,25(OH)2D production will be reduced. However, TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D does not respond to calcium. And in certain conditions, where excess inflammation occurs, excessive amounts of 1,25(OH)2D can be generated, which is then reflected by increasing serum levels. However, this requires immune cells to be activated, and this has not been shown to be occurring in conditions such as CFS and fibromyalgia. Furthermore, IFN-gamma is a necessary requirement for unregulated immune 1,25(OH)2D production to occur. IFN-gamma is increased in inflammatory conditions such as sarcoidosis, which helps to explain the excess 1,25(OH)2D that occurs in those conditions. However, IFN-gamma is not increased in CFS and fibromyalgia. In fact, in CFS, IFN-gamma may actually be decreased. Thus, there is a lack of evidence that 1,25(OH)2D TH1 production occurs in those other conditions. The MP believes that an excess of 1,25(OH)2D impairs the immune system in sarcoidosis, preventing it from properly fighting pathogens called Cell Wall Deficient bacteria, or CWD. (Note: CWD are not mycoplasmas.) Some researchers have theorized that CWDs play a role in a number of diseases. For example, lab studies have shown the possibility that CWD may alter the way the immune system responds to an infection, However, there still is much controversy regarding whether CWD have any significant effects in human disease, and studies have yet to confirm that CWDs play a role in sarcoidosis In any event, if 1,25(OH)2D is somehow a factor in preventing a proper immune response against a pathogen, it would be important to know if significant TH1 1,25(OH)2D production was occurring. One way would be to simply test serum 1,25(OH)2D. The MP believes that if the serum level of 1,25(OH)2D is above 45 pg/ml, then it is abnormally high. They obtained this figure from the Merck manual. However, the Merck’s normal range of 1,25(OH)2D was defined decades ago, and is most likely based on older laboratory testing assays, which were known to have problems. The MP recommends using Quest laboratories to test 1,25(OH)2D levels. However, Quest themselves defines the normal range to be 15-60 for adults (27-71 for younger than 17 years). These values have been confirmed by studies. For example, in a study which showed that 1,25(OH)2D levels decrease with obesity, the average 1,25(OH)2D level for the study population was 108.2 pmol/L (41.6 pg/ml), with a standard deviation upper limit of 56.4 pg/ml.. However, for subjects with the lowest BMI (body mass index), the average 1,25(OH)2D was 45.8 pg/ml, with a standard deviation upper limit of 62.1 pg/ml. A previous similar study showed even higher levels, i.e. an average 1,25(OH)2D level of 44 pg/ml for obese subjects, versus 52 pg/ml for nonobese subjects The MP gives no clear reason why they believe that the upper limit should be according to Merck. Thus, many people are being told by the MP that they have elevated 1,25(OH)2D, when it might not necessarily be so. Testing Methods used by the MP for Dysregulated 1,25(OH)2D Production are flawed, due to the fact that serum 1,25(OH)2D is affected by Calcium, Phosphate, PTH, and other factors. For many years, the MP also believed that excess production of 1,25(OH)2D could be proven by computing the ratio of serum 1,25(OH)2D to 25(OH)D. A high ratio was believed to indicate the presence of TH1 1,25(OH)2D production, and this meant that your condition could be treated by the MP. The MP now states that this test is often unreliable. Instead, they now use absolute levels of 1,25(OH)2D and 25(OH)D. But 1,25(OH)2D can be significantly influenced by many factors that have nothing to do with TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D, so that neither the D-ratio nor the absolute test are reliable ways to prove TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D. And it is because of the fact that 1,25(OH)2D levels can be influenced by many factors, that 25(OH)D is the main test used by the medical community to determine a vitamin D deficiency, and not 1,25(OH)2D. The conversion rate of 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D can vary due to a number of factors. For example, 1,25(OH)2D levels can vary significantly during the menstrual cycle. Also, a study has shown that women with PMS have high serum levels of 1,25(OH)2D, and low levels of 25(OH)D. This is partially due to a direct influence of estrogen on renal 1,25(OH)2D production. Estrogen supplementation has been shown to increase 1,25(OH)2D levels. Using the MP criteria, some of these women with PMS would be deemed by the MP to have TH1 1,25(OH)2D production, when they did not. Although the D ratio test is used less, the MP web page still states that “a D-ratio that is higher then 2 is a sign of inflammation. A normal ratio in a healthy person is between 0.75 to 1.75.” However, in practice, normal people do have a ratio of 2 or higher. For example, a recent study on postmenopausal women aged 45-58, showed that the average ratio was 1.98. Additionally, this study compared women who had different forms of the vitamin D binding protein (DBP). DBP binds to vitamin D metabolites in the serum and tissues. Different genetic forms exist. The D ratio was found to be different for women who had different forms of the DBP. This is theorized to be due to the fact that the different forms have different metabolic rates. For women with one specific form, the D ratio was found to be an amazing 2.49. Thus, the D ratio test is flawed, yet it was used for many years to diagnose people with a TH1 condition. Therefore, it’s unknown how many people who have tried the MP during those years, really had a TH1 condition. The most obvious flaw in measuring 1,25(OH)2D, is the fact that serum 1,25(OH)2D is significantly affected by dietary calcium. Taking more calcium, will decrease parathyroid (PTH) levels, which will then decrease 1,25(OH)2D levels. It is possible that some people on the MP who initially had high levels of 1,25(OH)2D, may simply have not been taking or absorbing enough calcium. And in fact, some people on the MP have eventually added calcium supplementation, which has then lowered both their PTH and 1,25(OH)2D levels. One wonders how many people who started the MP due to high 1,25(OH)2D levels, had high levels simply due to not taking enough calcium. 1,25(OH)2D production is also dependent on dietary phosphate Thus, in addition to calcium, phosphate also affects 1,25(OH)2D levels. Any changes in dietary phosphate, intestinal phosphate absorption, or renal phosphate reabsorption, can affect serum levels of 1,25(OH)2D. In fact, some people with CFS and fibromyalgia may actually have phosphate diabetes, a condition that depletes phosphate. Another problem with the ratio test is the following requirement listed on an MP web page: “The D ratio is not a sufficient indicator of vitamin D dysregulation, especially when 25-D levels rise above 15 ng/ml.” The reason for this is the belief that 25(OH)D reduces inflammation and therefore blocks the TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D. The problem with that statement, is that even in healthy people, at the levels of 25(OH)D that the MP recommends, a significant rise in PTH levels occurs, which results in increased levels of 1,25(OH)2D. Therefore, a high ratio of 1,25(OH)2D to 25(OH)D at those levels of 25(OH)D, can have nothing to do with increased inflammation, and thus cannot be used as an indicator of inflammation. Interestingly, there is no proof that higher levels of 25(OH)D, can significantly reduce TH1 1,25(OH)2D production. For example, there is a study on sarcoidosis patients whose levels of 25(OH) D were on average 25 ng/ml, and giving them oral vitamin D still resulted in a significant increase of 1,25(OH)2D production. In that study, oral Vitamin D.(100,000 IU) was given to people with and without sarcoidosis. People without sarcoidosis had no change in their 1,25(OH)D levels due to this dose. However, in sarcoidosis patients, this dose caused the 1,25(OH)2D levels to significantly rise, during which 25(OH)D levels rose to almost 50 ng/ml, well past the point at which the MP claims that 25(OH)D starts to block 1,25(OH)2D. But there was no sign of reduced 1,25(OH)2D production from 25(OH)D. Instead, in all patients, an approximate doubling of 25(OH)D levels, resulted in a doubling of 1,25(OH)2D levels, no matter what their initial 25(OH)D levels were. Similarly, a study on rheumatoid arthritis has shown evidence of TH1 1,25(OH)2D production. This was done by giving patients a single dose of 250 µg of 25(OH)D. Before the dose was given, initial levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D were measured, both in the serum and the synovial fluid of the inflamed joints. These measurements showed that synovial 25(OH)D levels directly correlated with synovial 1,25(OH)2D. This implies that immune cells in rheumatoid arthritis joints are producing 1,25(OH)2D. The study also showed that serum 25(OH)D levels correlated with 25(OH)D synovial levels, which implies that serum 25(OH)D can directly affect immune production of 1,25(OH)2D. However, there was no sign that high serum levels of 25(OH)D were able to suppress TH1 1,25(OH)2D production, as the MP claims. 1,25(OH)D production in the joints increased at the same rate even in patients whose 25(OH)D serum levels were significantly greater than 20 ng/ml. Additionally, serum 1,25(OH)2D were unaffected by 25(OH)D levels. Serum 1,25(OH)2D levels of patients were similar to that of a healthy control group. Thus, there was no evidence that serum 1,25(OH)2D levels were significantly affected by TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D in rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, unlike sarcoidosis, the amount of TH1 1,25(OH)2D produced in rheumatoid arthritis is usually not great enough to have a significant effect on serum levels. This is likely true also of other conditions. Sarcoidosis is one of only a few known conditions where TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D significantly affects 1,25(OH)2D serum levels. This could possibly be due to the location of the disease. Or perhaps it’s due to the type of immune cells that produce the 1,25(OH)2D. In sarcoidosis, the main source of 1,25(OH)2D is believed to be macrophages, while in most other diseases, T cells are believed to be the major source of 1,25(OH)2D. In any event, there is no evidence that circulating levels of 1,25(OH)2D are affected by inflammation in most of the conditions that the MP claims to treat. However, there are many other influences that can affect 1,25(OH)2D levels, such as a deficiency of calcium. And different factor from s are present in different diseases. In sarcoidosis, 1,25(OH)D serum levels often rise with increasing disease activity, but the opposite is true for rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, using the D ratio is an invalid way of testing for TH1 1,25(OH)D production. The proper way to test for this, is by administering a large dose of either of vitamin D or 25(OH)D, and then seeing if 1,25(OH)2D levels increase. When one lowers 25(OH)D levels below 20ng/ml, as recommended by the MP, this will likely increase PTH levels. This is because it’s been found that PTH inversely correlates with 25(OH)D serum levels. The lower the 25(OH)D, the higher the PTH. 20 ng/ml has long been defined by the medical literature to be the lower limit of the normal vitamin D range. This limit was decided, based on where PTH started to significantly rise. However, that limit is most likely much lower than it should have been. Recent research has shown that PTH continues to drop at higher levels of 25(OH)D. This information, combined with results from other studies, has caused many doctors to recommend that 25(OH)D levels should at least be 32 ng/ml. However, the MP web pages further states that “It is desirable for the D-25 level to be 12 ng/ml or lower”. At this level, PTH levels will be very significantly elevated. Such low levels of 25(OHD are a definite risk for bone loss. In fact, in a case where hyperparathyroidism and sarcoidosis occurred simultaneously, bone loss lab markers were almost reduced to normal after the hyperparathyroidism was treated, even though 1,25(OH)2D levels were still above normal. The researchers concluded that “PTH but not 1,25(OH)2D may primarily be involved in the stimulation of bone turnover.” Indeed, 1,25(OH)2D levels do not appear to be a risk factor for osteoporosis, but low levels of 25(OH)D are associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis. It is elevated PTH, and not elevated 1,25(OH)2D, which causes bone loss. Many MP pages say the opposite, that 1,25(OH)2D causes bone loss. I.e. “As 1,25-D rises above a certain range (around 43 pg/ml), it stimulates bone osteoclasts, or cells that remove minerals from the bone. Stimulated osteoclasts dissolve bone material, causing it to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream - leading to osteoporosis and osteopenia.” Not only is there no proof that this occurs, but studies have shown that 1,25(OH)2D can actually be used to treat osteoporosis. The MP goes on to say that “Vitamin D does not reverse osteoporosis.” The problem with this statement is that’s it’s based on many studies in which the level of vitamin D supplementation had been too low. For example, they state: “The study of more than 36,000 middle-aged and older women – the largest ever to test the health benefits of vitamin D – found that calcium and vitamin D had essentially no benefit on the bone density of the women involved.” However, the problem with this study is that it only used 400 IU of vitamin D. Such low doses are simply not capable of achieving normal levels of 25(OH)D that are necessary to have an effect on osteoporosis. Thus it’s little wonder that this and other studies have shown little benefit from vitamin D on osteoporosis. It should be noted that even if one’s PTH levels do not increase as the result of lowering one’s 25(OH)D levels, this doesn’t mean that one is healthy. The tumble level PTH response could be blunted due to other conditions. For example, magnesium deficiency has recently been recognized as a reason for the inhibition of PTH. If your PTH levels aren’t increasing, that could mean that you have a significant magnesium deficiency, which by itself could be the cause of many health problems. Another reason that PTH levels can be low, is that it is being suppressed, due to excessive calcium serum levels that results from bone loss. This is known to occur in rheumatoid arthritis. In rheumatoid arthritis, PTH and 1,25(OH)2D serum levels have been found to decrease as disease activity increases. A recent study has shown one possible reason for this effect, which is that free serum ionized calcium is elevated in many rheumatoid arthritis patients, and this excess free calcium causes the suppression of PTH and 1,25(OH)2D production. This explanation has been overlooked in the past, because total serum calcium was found to be normal in these patients. However, this is deceiving, because albumin levels are decreased in rheumatoid arthritis, and calcium in the serum is bound to albumin. The reduced albumin levels are most likely caused by the increased inflammatory cytokines. This lack of albumin results in less bound calcium and more free ionized calcium. In a 2008 article, the MP challenges the new FDA recommendations for increased vitamin D supplementation. That article claims that the new level of 25(OH)D, that vitamin D experts and the FDA are now recommending, is too high, In support of their claim, the article cites a study by Dr. Pollack on the “serum parathyroid hormone concentrations in African American women”. That study found that “a serum concentration of 40–50 nmol/L 25(OH)D is needed to prevent a rise in PTH concentrations in calcium-sufficient African American women in midlife.” This 25(OH)D level is much lower than the 75–80 nmol/L range presently being recommended as the optimal level. However, what the MP article doesn’t mention, is in that study, Dr. Pollack states that “we ultimately reject the clinical utility of the threshold as a way of identifying optimal vitamin D,” Indeed the point of the study was not that the optimum 25(OH)D levels should be lower, but that the optimum level cannot simply be judged by when PTH stops increasing. And in fact, Dr. Pollack states in a later study, that there is an “emerging consensus that 25(OH)D concentrations > 75 nmol/L may be optimal for bone health and extra skeletal effects.” Dr. Pollack also states that “It is quite possible that African Americans (and others) may require less vitamin D for skeletal health but may require greater intake for prevention of these noncalcemic disorders.” Indeed, 25(OH)D production is affected by pigmentation in the skin For example, according to one article, the “median vitamin D intakes of American blacks are below recommended intakes in every age group, with or without the inclusion of vitamin D from supplements. Despite their low 25(OH)D levels, blacks have lower rates of osteoporotic fractures. This may result in part from bone-protective adaptations that include an intestinal resistance to the actions of 1,25(OH)2D and a skeletal resistance to the actions of parathyroid hormone (PTH). However, these mechanisms may not fully mitigate the harmful skeletal effects of low 25(OH)D and elevated PTH in blacks, at least among older individuals. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that vitamin D protects against other chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers, all of which are as prevalent or more prevalent among blacks than whites.” On the other hand, for other patient groups, PTH levels can be used to support the recommendation for a higher 25(OH)D level. For example, in a study on the “Prevalence of Vitamin D inadequacy among postmenopausal North American women receiving osteoporosis therapy”, it concludes that there is a significant “increase in serum PTH at 25(OH)D concentrations less than 29.8 ng/ml” (74.5 nmol/L). Additionally, there are other parameters that also can be used to support a higher level of 25(OH)D. For example, in a study on glucose metabolism, as measured by HbA1c (A1C), it was found that “There was a nonlinear association between 25(OH)D and A1C: a steep linear decrease in A1C by 25(OH)D until 65 nmol/l and only smaller decreases with further increases”. Also, in a study on healthy postmenopausal women, 1,25(OH)2D levels were shown to fall below 80 nmol/L, The study concluded that for that study group, “the conversion of 25OHD to active vitamin D depends on the substrate concentration”, and that “vitamin D insufficiency should be considered at P-25OHD levels below 80 nmol/L”. Thus, there is definite evidence for the new higher 25(OH)D recommended levels. The MP article also states that due to vitamin D supplementation, that it is “very difficult to find a population which can be studied in order to ascertain what the level of natural metabolic homeostasis for 25-D might actually be. Two studies do provide a glimpse, however. The first found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Chilean healthy postmenopausal women. The average level of serum 25-D sampled from 90 healthy ambulatory women showed that 27% of premenopausal, and 60% of postmenopausal women, had 25-D levels under 50 nmol/L. A study showing hypovitaminosis D is common in both veiled and nonveiled Bangladeshi women, found a 25-D level less than 40 nmol/L in approximately 80% of the healthy young women. These studies show a wide variation in levels of 25-D being generated by populations whose diets have probably not yet been significantly altered by ’The Sunshine Vitamin’, indicating that the unsupplemented metabolic homeostasis is probably in the range 23–60 nmol/L, and that it falls with advancing age.” However, vitamin D researchers have pointed out what’s wrong with this reasoning. For example, Dr. Hollis has written: “Past attempts to define "normal" circulating 25(OH)D were seriously flawed. To properly define "normal" 25(OH)D status in humans, it makes more sense to measure 25(OH)D in "healthy subjects" who are sunbathers, fieldworkers, construction workers, or other individuals who work outside, who are not overly clothed, and who are without sunblock. Humans did not evolve in today’s sun-shy culture, so "normal" with respect to circulating 25(OH)D levels should not be defined by the current average or median population level. In sun-rich environments where clothing or cultural practices do not prevent sun exposure, circulating 25(OH)D ranges from 135 to 225 nmol/L (54–90 µg/L) (1,14,15). Thus, we must be very careful how we define "normal" or adequate or sufficient with respect to circulating 25(OH)D.” Other studies confirm that high levels of 25(OH)D occur in unsupplemented people in sunny locations. For example, in a Brazilian study, where “the control group consisted of 30 healthy men and the mean age was 34.6 years”, the mean level of 25(OH)D was 82 ± 25 nmol/L". Another study confirms these high levels: In a group of “(49 men and 72 women) aged 17-33 years, mean age 24.7 ± 2.7 years”, “mean serum 25OHD concentration was 78.7 ± 33.1 nmol/L for the group as a whole.” During the summer, the levels reached as high as 97.8 +/- 33.5 nmol/L. The MP article additionally states the belief that vitamin D studies need to test not just 25(OH)D levels, but also 1,25(OH)2D levels. The MP believes that a low level of 25(OH)D is not necessarily the consequence of insufficient vitamin D, but may actually be due to the downregulation of 25(OH)D, resulting from extra production of 1,25(OH)2D. In support of this theory, they give the following example: “Just a few months ago, a commentary in Journal of Nutrition was uncertain how to explain the results from a comprehensive clinical study showing that at the end of their pregnancies, even though 90% were taking prenatal vitamins, ‘‘vitamin D deficiency’’ was still common in the cohort of pregnant women. The commentary suggested that maybe this might be due to lack of compliance on the part of women in the cohort, or perhaps they just needed even more supplementation than twice the daily reference intake (DRI), the amount they were being given. Surely, when the model fails to describe the data, it is time to question the model, not the data.” However, it must be noted, that this study was the “first pregnancy study that used the 80-nmol/L cut-point to define vitamin D insufficiency.” It’s no wonder then, that vitamin D insufficiency was found to be common, as the vitamin D supplement in the study was only 400 IU. That dose is the recommended dose based on the older lower level of 25(OH)D from 1997, and would of course be insufficient for many people to achieve the newer level of 25(OH)D. In fact, according to some studies, that dose is insufficient to cause any significant changes in 25(OH)D. For example, to quote one study: “What effect does a daily dose of 400 IU vitamin D for an extended time (months) have in adults? The answer is little or nothing. At this dose (10 µg/d) in an adult, circulating 25(OH)D concentrations usually remain unchanged or decline.” Therefore, much higher doses would be necessary to significantly raise 25(OH)D levels. For example, in the previously mentioned study on African American women, in order to achieve concentrations >75 nmol/L, a dose of 2800 IU was deemed necessary for those with 25(OH)D, >45 nmol/L and a dose of 4000 IU would be necessary for those with a concentration <45 nmol/L. Thus, despite what the commentary in the journal said, there really is no mystery why vitamin D deficiency was still common. The MP article and web pages claim that low 25(OH)D levels could be “due to the downregulation of 25(OH)D, due to extra production of 1,25(OH)2D.” High levels of 1,25(OH)2D have been shown to be able to suppress production of 25(OH)D. This is a fact that’s been well known since 1984. However, according to one vitamin D researcher, “the physiologic significance of this is not clear”. This researcher points to a study he conducted on phosphate deprivation, which caused an serum 1,25(OH)2D, but did not suppress 25(OH)D levels. Conversely, a study on phosphate ingestion, which decreased 1,25(OH)2D, did not alter 25(OH)D. Many other studies have shown little or no correlation between 1,25(OH)2D and 25(OH)D levels. For example, in a study where ketoconazole was used to block the production of 1,25(OH)2D, 1,25(OH)2D levels decreased from 113 to 70 pmol/L, but 25(OH)D only increased a very small amount, from 52 nmol/L to 55 nmol/L. Also, in a study on Crohn’s disease, patients who had significantly elevated 1,25(OH)2D compared to controls (57.8 vs. 42.1 pg/ml), still only had slightly less 25(OH)D levels (24.2 vs. 27.0 ng/ml). The MP article did not provide any studies to support their claim that extra production of 1,25(OH)2D can play a significant role in decreasing 25(OH)D levels. Presently, it appears that 1,25(OH)2D can only significantly suppress production of 25(OH)D, when levels of 1,25(OH)2D are definitely abnormally high, such as which occurs in sarcoidosis and hyperthyroidism. The MP article further states: “Arnson et al.(52) noted that ‘‘on the whole, vitamin D confers an immunosuppressive effect’’ in autoimmune disease. That immunosuppression was confirmed by Waterhouse et al.(12) They joined Barnes et al.(50) in noting that correlation between the 25-D and active 1,25-D metabolites seemed strongest in disease, and weakest in health.” The Waterhouse article is written by MP authors, and they used the Vitamin D ratio to support their claim that elevated 1,25(OH)2D production in people was occurring in people who were using the MP treatment. However, no properly matched control groups were used to define what is the “normal” D ratio. In their article, the “normal” D ratio was defined by selecting several studies, neither of which had patients who were matched by gender, age, location, and race, to the people using the MP treatment. Nor was it confirmed that the vitamin D testing procedures were the same, which could be significant, since some tests show less 1,25(OH)2D, while others show more. And, as the MP has pointed out, improper storing of blood samples can reduce observed levels. As for the Barnes study, this was a study that compared the levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D in male and female multiple sclerosis patients and control volunteers. They found that the absolute values were no different between the two groups. However, while there was a significant positive correlation between 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D, this was only true in females, but not males, which indicates that some sort of gender effect was involved, perhaps unrelated to multiple sclerosis Or, perhaps it is due to a gender effect related to MS, as it has been found that there is renal dysfunction in MS females, but not in males. Thus, it could be that a renal dysfunction plays a role in the production of 1,25(OH)2D in women with MS. Interestingly, the mean 25(OH)D serum levels of the multiple sclerosis females was 79.1 nmol/L, which is above the range that the MP article claims is normal. And these women were not taking any vitamin D supplements, so this is yet another study that supports the new higher recommended 25(OH)D levels. Additionally, we are surprised that the MP article selected this study to support their views. This is because, the 25(OH)D levels of these women is much higher than the point at which the MP claims that 25(OH)D is supposed to be able to block 1,25(OH)2D production by the immune system. Thus, such high levels should be very significantly suppressing such production, so that very little unregulated 1,25(OH)2D would be present. Any association between 1,25(OH)2D and 25(OH)D at that point would be unrelated to 1,25(OH)2D immune production. any event, it is also worth noting that in another study on multiple sclerosis, a possible association between low 25(OH)D levels and MS relapses has been shown: “25(OH)D serum levels were lower and intact PTH (iPTH) serum levels were higher during MS relapses than in remission. The study was conducted in As an aside, the MP article also states “Our own work has shown that restoring VDR competence, with a VDR agonist, induces an immunopathologic response when patients suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases are challenged with bacterial protein synthesis inhibitors.” The VDR agonist that is referred to here is the angiotensin receptor blocker Benicar. The MP theorizes that it is also a VDR agonist, but no actual lab study has confirmed this. “Chronically ill subjects, whose conditions have not previously responded to antibiotics, sometimes experience unrestrained immunopathology when a VDR agonist is administered concurrently with the antibacterials. An initial uncontrolled, observational study has shown that recovery often accompanies reduction of the putative bacterial load.” The MP has not presented any data showing that bacteria levels have decreased, nor have they presented a study which shows that “unrestrained immunopathology” is an indication that bacteria are being more effectively killed. In conclusion, we do not believe that the studies quoted by the MP article, supports the MP’s claim that the new vitamin D recommendations are too high or harmful. The MP believes that vitamin D is improperly labeled as a vitamin, as it really is a steroid hormone precursor. This is essentially true. However, it is because of this fact, that some vitamin D researchers believe that the normal level of 25(OH)D levels should be much higher than is presently recommended. Quoting from the vitamin D council web page: “Unlike other steroid hormones, vitamin D has very unusual metabolism in most modern humans, called first-order, mass action, kinetics. All this means is that the more vitamin D you take, the higher the 25(OH)D level in your blood, and the higher the 25(OH)D level in your blood, the higher the levels of activated vitamin D in your tissues. No other steroid hormone in the body behaves like this. Think about it, would you like your estrogen level to be dependent on how much cholesterol you ate? Or your cortisol level?” “No, the body must tightly regulate powerful steroid hormones through substrate inhibition, that is, if an enzyme turns A into B, when the body has enough B, B inhibits the enzyme and so limits its own production.” “Not so with vitamin D, at least at modern human vitamin D levels.” “Why would the kinetics of vitamin D be different from all other steroids?” “Maybe they are not.” “Maybe vitamin D levels are so low in modern humans that its metabolic system is on full blast all the time in an attempt to give the body all the vitamin D metabolites it craves.” Dr. Hollis has asked, “Is vitamin D's metabolism different in populations in the upper end of 25(OH)D levels (a population of sun-exposed people and a group of women prescribed 7,000 IU per day)? “ According to Dr. Hollis’s study, “vitamin D's kinetics can be normalized, made just like all other steroid hormones in the body, but you have to get enough sunshine or take enough vitamin D to get your 25(OH)D level above 50 ng/ml, and 60 ng/ml would be better. Then your body starts to store cholecalciferol in the body without much further increase in 25(OH)D levels. The reaction becomes saturable. This is a remarkable discovery and it implies levels of 30 and 40 ng/ml are usually not sufficient. It also implies actual vitamin D levels (cholecalciferol levels), not just 25(OH)D levels, may be useful in diagnosing and treating deficiency. Note, that not all of the sun-exposed individuals or women prescribed 7,000 IU/day achieved such levels. That's because the sun-exposed individuals were tested after an Hawaiian winter and because prescribing and taking are two different things. So my answer to "How much should I take if I have cancer?" is take enough to get your 25(OH)D level above 60 ng/ml, summer and winter.” The fact that PTH levels respond to serum 25(OH)D, points to a fundamental difference in how the medical community views 25(OH)D, versus what the MP believes in. The medical community believes that serum 25(OH)D is very important, while the MP does not. The reason that serum 25(OH)D is believed to be important, is that while serum 1,25(OH)2D affects bone metabolism, many other tissues actually respond to serum 25(OH)D. This is because other tissues contain the enzyme 25(OH)D-1-alpha-hydroxylase, which is capable of converting 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D. This explains why PTH is significantly affected by 25(OH)D levels. The parathyroid gland first converts the 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D, and it then responds to that. The conversion of 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D occurs in many tissues, as long time vitamin D researcher Professor Reinhold Vieth describes: “Vitamin D nutrition probably affects health beyond just bone. The mechanisms involved in mediating the non-classic (i.e. non-bone) effects of vitamin D are probably, through 1,25(OH)2D produced locally, using circulating, 25(OH)D as the substrate. Many tissues possess, 25(OH)D-1-alpha-hydroxylase, including the skin (basal, keratinocytes, and hair follicles), lymph nodes, (granulomata), pancreas (islets), adrenal medulla, brain, pancreas, and colon. An even wider range of tissues, possess receptors for 1,25(OH) 2D (VDR). All of this reveals a system for paracrine regulation of tissue processes that involves the local production of 1,25(OH)2D. Sufficient vitamin D nutrition, and hence, appropriate 25(OH)D concentration is essential to this local, paracrine role of 1,25(OH)2D that is not generally reflected in the circulating level of 1,25(OH)2D. The paracrine components of the vitamin D endocrine/paracrine systems account for the many effects of vitamin D nutrition and/or UVB light on health and disease prevention.” It is not surprising that many tissues and cells in the body rely on serum 25(OH)D to obtain 1,25(OH)2D, rather than serum 1,25(OH)2D. 1,25(OH)2D circulates in a very small amount in the serum, and thus may have little ability to affect vitamin D receptors in all tissues. But perhaps more importantly, as we previously saw, serum 1,25(OH)2D levels are heavily influenced by many factors, such as calcium intake, so that it doesn’t make sense that other tissues would be dependent on serum 1,25(OH)2D. By generating 1,25(OH)2D themselves, tissues have the ability to control how much 1,25(OH)2D is present, rather than relying on serum levels. For example, upon stimulation from pathogens, macrophage immune cells upregulate the expression of 25(OH)D-1-alpha-hydroxylase, leading to increased conversion of 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D, which then stimulates the production of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin. Another possibly important role of 25(OH)D, is it’s ability to influence certain forms of cancer. For example, 1,25(OH)2D has been found to inhibit the growth of certain forms of cancer cells, such as in the prostate. However, serum levels of 1,25(OH)2D that are required to achieve significant effects, are often above toxic levels. On the other hand, certain prostate cells are capable of converting 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D. Because of this, it’s been found that 25(OH)D itself, is capable of also inhibiting cancer prostate cell growth, and that the effects are attainable using safe doses of vitamin D. And regarding studies on vitamin D and cancer, it should be noted that some studies are flawed, in that all they do is to test 25(OH)D levels at a single time, and use that level to see if there is any correlation between vitamin D and cancer rates. These studies are of only limited use, because cancer often develops over many years, so that it’s important to know what the 25(OH)D levels were during those years. Additionally, many cancer studies involving vitamin D supplementation are also flawed, because they have used doses than are lower than are presently being recommended by many vitamin D experts. This is why the study from June 2007, that showed a decrease in all cancers, was so interesting, as it used a relatively high dose of 1100 IU over several years. This study also combined vitamin D with a high dose of calcium, which may be important, as some forms of cancer appeared to respond to a combination of vitamin D and calcium supplementation. Given the importance of 25(OH)D, it is thus very controversial that the MP claims that 25(OH)D blocks the action of 1,25(OH)2D. According to the vitamin D MP web page: “1,25-D is the only metabolite that turns the VDR on. Everything else turns it off, or at least modifies its capabilities. So exogenous Vitamin D and 25-D both bind into the VDR and block it from working properly. They will displace any 1,25-D from the receptor in a dose-dependent manner. The higher the concentration of Vitamin-D or 25-D competing with the endogenous 1,25-D the more of that 1,25-D will be displaced from the VDR.” This theory is the basis for the reason of why the MP recommends a low amount of 25(OH)D. It’s not necessarily to lower 1,25(OH)2D levels. It is because they claim that 25(OH)D interferes with the activities of 1,25(OH)2D. This is also the basis of why they claim that 25(OH)D levels have to be low for the vitamin D ratio test to be valid. They believe that 25(OH)D blocks 1,25(OH)2D’s ability to create an adequate TH1 response. A lowered TH1 response would result in reduced inflammation, and reduced inflammation would then mean less 1,25(OH)2D being produced by the TH1 immune system. To quote again from the vitamin D MP web page: “Vitamin D supplementation can increase levels of 25-D high enough to actually shut down the inflammatory production of 1,25-D. When the concentration of 25-D rises above about 25 ng/ml it displaces 1,25-D from the active site in the VDR (Vitamin D Receptor), deactivating the VDR and reducing the body's ability to mount a Th1 immune response”. However, the medical literature is filled with studies that show that it’s 1,25(OH)2D that has the ability to reduce inflammation, not increase it. In fact, one of such studies is posted on one of the MP’s own web pages. If 25(OH)D could block the effects of 1,25(OH)2D, then according to the medical literature, that would cause an increase in inflammation, not a decrease. The claims by the MP, of the effects from 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D, drastically opposes the fundamental viewpoints of many vitamin D researchers. To understand their views of vitamin D, I highly suggest you click here to read a chapter in a book on vitamin D, that was written by long time vitamin D researcher Professor Reinhold Vieth. Any unreferenced statements that I make in the following paragraphs are taken from that chapter. Firstly, the levels of 25(OH)D which results from supplemental vitamin D, at the dose which is recommended in the US, is much lower than that which can be produced from sunshine. The highest claimed safe oral dose (which few people take) is 2000 IU. However, sunshine can create up to 5 times that amount. The current US RDA for vitamin D, for adults under 50, is only 2% of what a person with white skin can naturally produce in 20 minutes of summer sun. Thus, “natural” production of vitamin D, according to the theory on the MP web pages, would severely affect VDR activity much much more than oral sources. However, there are no studies that show that this happens. If inactive forms of vitamin D were able to affect VDR activity, it would affect serum calcium levels, and the body would then have to offset that by changing the levels of 1,25(OH)2D levels. But this does not happen. Inactive levels of vitamin D can vary significantly, but under normal circumstances, active levels will usually stay the same. Secondly, no study that I’ve yet found, mentions that inactive forms of vitamin D adversely affects VDR functioning. Unmetabolized vitamin D has not been found to directly affect the VDR, in a study on the effects of different forms of vitamin D on calcium absorption And in molecular studies on VDRs, the binding ability of 25(OH)D is believed to be 500 times lower than 1,25(OH)2D. In another article, that number is quoted as being 1000 times lower. On the other hand, the amount of 25(OH)D in the blood stream is hundreds times greater than active D, which might lead one to speculate that this greater amount of 25(OH)D might offset it’s lower binding ability. making 25(OH)D just as likely to attach to VDRs. However, this is not totally the case, because in that same article, it’s pointed out that 25(OH)D is much more tightly bound to proteins in the plasma, by a factor of at least 10. Not only that, but the storage capability in plasma for vitamin D is huge. Unlike many other steroids, such as glucorticoids, where the binding proteins circulate at the same order of magnitude as the steroids themselves, the vitamin D binding protein circulates at a level that is 50 times more than the vitamin D metabolites themselves. Thus, under normal situations, the bloodstream is meant to store lots of 25(OH)D. The body’s processes that handle vitamin D, appear to be much better suited for handling excess amounts of vitamin D, than a deficiency. This is likely due to the fact that our ancestors were out in the sun for much longer periods of time, with less clothing, and in tropical zones, so that the body had to deal with large amounts of vitamin D production, rather than a limited amount. Large amounts of vitamin D production can be easily handled. However, when toxic levels do occur, such as due to intoxication, Vieth has theorized that it’s the 1,25(OH)2D which is the source of toxic side effects such as hypercalcemia, and not the 25(OH)D. This is because the 25(OH)D binds more easily to the binding protein in the plasma blood, and this then leaves less amounts of the protein for 1,25(OH)2D to bind to. The unbound “free” amount 1,25(OH)2D in plasma increases, making it more available to VDRs in tissues. This theory has been confirmed in a study on patients with vitamin D toxicity, where the level of free vitamin D was found to be significantly increased, due to excessive amounts of 25(OH)D. Given the strong binding ability of 1,25(OH)2D on VDRs, and that 25(OH)D levels can be easily increased due to natural production, most researchers do not credit 25(OH)D with being able to significantly affect VDRs. In fact, in a study on sarcoidosis, radioactive 1,25(OH)2D was bound to VDR receptors on T-lymphocytes (T cells), and it was found that 25(OH)D was unable to displace it, yet it could be displaced by normal 1,25(OH)2D. “Lavage T-lymphocytes from patients with tuberculosis or with sarcoidosis, but not those from normal control subjects, expressed 1,25(OH)2D3 receptors as demonstrated by binding of [3H]1,25(OH)2D3, which was inhibited by the presence of excess unlabeled 1,25(OH)2D3, but not by the presence of unlabeled 25(OH)D3.” Thus, this does support the theory that 25(OH)D can displace or block the effects of 1,25(OH)2D. The MP claim about 25(OH)D could be easily tested for, and probably should have been noticed by at least one study in the medical literature by now, as it would be appear to be a fundamental effect of 25(OH)D. For example, if 25(OH)D blocks 1,25(OH)2D stimulation of VDR, then PTH should be stimulated, not suppressed by 25(OH)D, as 25(OH)D would be blocking the suppression effects of 1,25(OH)2D. As another example, it’s known that 1,25(OH)2D can reduce rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. But 25(OH)D doesn’t appear to block these effects of 1,25(OH)2D, as shown by the fact that increased 25(OH)D levels are also associated with reduced symptoms rather than less. There are multiple such examples in the literature. For example, in a test on super high doses of vitamin D for multiple sclerosis (from 28 000 to 280 000 IU/wk), 25(OH)D reached twice the top of the physiologic range, yet there were no adverse effects. If 25(OH)D really does block 1,25(OH)2D at lower levels, then such high doses of 25(OH)D surely should block almost all 1,25(OH)2D activity, with dire effects. Instead, this study concluded that “vitamin D intake beyond the current upper limit is safe by a large margin.” The only proof that the MP has presented for their theory that 25(OH)D blocks 1,25(OH)2D, is a computer simulation. However, no actual lab studies have been presented. In fact, on the MP discussion web page, when a person asked for a real study that shows that 25(OH)D is an antagonist to the VDR and blocks 1,25(OH)2D, the response was “I just can't recall any single paper which shows that, as it is a pragma which forms the underpinning of all the drug discovery in Vitamin D analogs, and has been proven many, many times by individual drug discovery groups.” However, this is not true. Indeed, an analog of 25(OH)D has also been shown to be a Vitamin D agonist analog. In fact, if 25(OH)D has significant antagonistic effects on the VDR, then it would be especially useful for Paget's disease, where hypersensitivity to 1,25(OH)2D occurs, and research is ongoing to develop effective VDR antagonists. Unfortunately, true VDR antagonist are much rarer than VDR agonists. For more information about vitamin D, I highly suggest to click here to read the information on the Vitamin D council site. The MP’s original claim about vitamin D, was that excess production from 1,25(OH)2D in sarcoidosis is a major cause of the inflammation. Indeed, a few researchers have hypothesized that 1,25(OH)2D might play a significant role in granulomas formation. This is mainly based on the fact that 1,25(OH)2D has the ability to promote the creation of immune cells that granulomas are created from. If this theory was found to be true, then that would at least explain why the MP works for sarcoidosis. But that explanation would not apply to other conditions that don’t involve granulomas. Granuloma formation is a complex immune process that is more than just a group of white cells. One cannot generalize what the effects of 1,25(OH)2D will be for any given condition, based on what its effects are on sarcoidosis. Indeed, even other granulomatosis diseases may respond differently to 1,25(OH)2D, as exemplified by the fact that 1,25(OH)2D has been found to be beneficial for tuberculosis. But whatever the effects of 1,25(OH)2D are, the fact is, that the medical literature doesn’t yet support the belief that 1,25(OH)2D can significantly affect the progression of sarcoidosis. For example, drugs such as ketoconazole, that are able to lower the production of 1,25(OH)2D, have been given to sarcoidosis patients. However, while they are able to reduce the elevated 1,25(OH)2D levels, and decrease hypercalcemia, there is no evidence that they can control any of the other symptoms in sarcoidosis, or the course of the disease. Additionally, lab tests have shown that granuloma formation can occur even in animals lacking the vitamin D receptor (VDR). In fact, the granulomas formed in such animals, were actually significantly larger than in normal animals. Thus, even though elevated vitamin D has known to be associated with sarcoidosis for almost 2 decades, no study has yet proven that 1,25(OH)2D is a major cause of the chronic inflammation seen in sarcoidosis. In any event, the main focus of the MP these days is with regard to 25(OH)D, as they believe that it blocks proper stimulation of the vitamin D receptor (VDR). However, the MP also believes that 1,25(OH)2D is also bad, in that it overstimulates the VDR, and allows the CWD bacteria to either enter immune cells or hide from the immune system. Unfortunately, the latter claim can’t easily be proven, because CWDs aren’t not easily detected. First, it has to be proven that CWDs are significantly present in the conditions that the MP treats, and then it has to be proven that 1,25(OH)2D effects them. Neither of these has yet been proven. On the other hand, the medical literature is now starting to document the fact that vitamin D has infection fighting properties. This has long been suspected, given the long held belief that sunshine helps with treat tuberculosis. New studies have shown that vitamin D supplementation can help treat tuberculosis. The receptor TLR2 on immune cells responds to tuberculosis mycobacterium, which causes an increase in VDR expression and 1,25(OH)2D production, leading to increased levels of the cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (LL-37), which is capable of killing tuberculosis mycobacterium. Note, however, that no proof has been shown that 25(OH)D blocks this process. Indeed, the addition of 25(OH)D has been shown to improve the production of LL-37. This is because, as the study showed, the rate of conversion of 25(OH)D of 1,25(OH)2D is upregulated by the stimulation of the TLR2 receptor, in order to provide sufficient levels of 1,25(OH)2D. Furthermore, the study found that “African Americans have significantly decreased serum 25(OH)D3 levels and are known to have increased susceptibility to M. tuberculosis infection, as well as more rapid and more severe course of disease. We observed that serum levels of 25(OH)D3 in African Americans were significantly lower than in a Caucasian cohort. Strikingly, when these serum samples were used to support TLR2/1 activation, the induction of cathelicidin mRNA was significantly lower in the presence of serum from African American than the Caucasian individuals. Finally, supplementation of the African American serum with 25(OH)D3 to a physiologic range restored TLR induction of cathelicidin mRNA.” MP web pages have declared that the VDR Nuclear Receptor is at the heart of human innate immunity. While VDR activation has been shown to increase production of LL-37, this only occurs in epithelial cells. Not only that, but it only occurs in certain epithelial cells. For example, it does not occur in colon epithelial cells. Additionally, other processes are capable of producing LL-37, without the help of the VDR. And while LL-37 does have potent antimicrobial properties, many bacteria have developed methods to avoid the effects of LL-37. However, the MP still does consider excess 1,25(OH)2D to be a problem. To quote from one web page: "In order to induce recovery from chronic inflammatory disease, it is necessary to restore VDR functionality by removing all exogenous sources of the secosteroid we call ‘Vitamin-D’, and dampen down over-exuberant VDR activity, for example with the ARB Olmesartan. This enables the immune system to recognize the pathogens.” However, any belief that 1,25(OH)2D blocks the body’s ability to fight infections, is not well supported by the medical literature. For example, a study on using 1,25(OH)2D to prevent graft rejection, showed that "1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 prolongs graft survival without compromising host resistance to infection or bone mineral density”. I also did a thorough search for any studies in PUBMED that showed detrimental effects from 1,25(OH)2D on infections, and I could find very few studies. In one study, turkeys whose immune systems were artificially depressed by corticosteroids, were given 1,25(OH)2D supplementation, and then exposed to E. coli infections. Higher mortality rates occurred due to this 1,25(OH)2D supplementation. This is not too surprising, as combining 1,25(OH)2D and corticosteroids is known to have additive immunosuppressive effects. And since this situation was a TH2 immunosuppressed condition, it has little relevancy for a TH1 condition. Interestingly, a previous study showed that normal vitamin D supplementation, under the same immunosuppressive conditions, had beneficial effects against the E. coli infections. Thus, under normal circumstances, vitamin D intake would be useful for such an infection. This shows the problems with many lab studies regarding the immunosuppresive effects from 1,25(OH)2D, versus real situations that involve vitamin D supplementation. The production of hormonally active 1,25(OH)2D involves several steps. It starts with the unmetabolized form of vitamin D which is in supplements and foods, and which is also created in the skin due to sunshine exposure. Once in the body, it is either stored in tissues, eliminated from the body, or metabolized by the liver into 25(OH)D. 25(OH)D binds to a protein and circulates through the serum and tissues. As an aside, several MP web pages make the mistake of claiming that all of the vitamin D is metabolized and stored as 25(OH)D. This is incorrect. It is the unmetabolized vitamin D which is stored in various tissues in the body 25(OH)D only lasts in the body for about 2-3 weeks. Unmetabolized vitamin D lasts for several months. The latter is used as a source of vitamin D by the body during the winter, in areas where the sun is not high enough to stimulate vitamin D production (i.e. which includes about half the 25(OH)D is mainly converted into the hormonally active metabolite 1,25(OH)2D. This primarily occurs in the kidneys, where it's used to control calcium levels. 1,25(OH)2D usually lasts in the body for less than a day. Many other tissues can also convert 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D. This non-renal production is believed to be used for local tissue effects. It usually results in the production of much smaller amounts of 1,25(OH)2D, compared with renal production. Such extrarenal production usually does not contribute much to serum levels, except in conditions such as sarcoidosis. It’s recently been found that 1,25(OH)2D can also be directly created in the skin due to sunshine. The MP uses this fact to support their claim that “any and all 25-D which is made from sunlight is energetically converted to 1,25-D” The MP believes that this production is upregulated in TH1 conditions, such that “sunlight is not usually a significant contributor to the 25-D levels of Th1 patients.” But the researchers who discovered that the skin could directly produce 1,25(OH)D, do not believe that this process could result in a significant amount of 1,25(OH)2D. Instead, in the conclusion of the study, they stated that “the photoproduced 1,25(OH)2 D3 quantities in vitro are very minute though. We measured 1,25(OH)2 D3 quantities of 175-177 fmol/106 cells in cellular homogenates and medium of BM15766-pretreated cells after UVB irradiation.” “This implies that only 0.005% of the intracellular 7-DHC is converted into 1,25(OH)2 D3” “cutanous 1,25(OH)2 D3 photoproduction probably does not contribute to the systemic effects of 1,25(OH)2 D3 . Indeed, the low 1,25(OH)2 D3 levels in hepatectomized or nephrectomized animals suggest that epidermal 1,25(OH)2 D3 production cannot compensate for the lost 1-hydroxylase activity in these animals and therefore that epidermal 1,25(OH)2 D3 photoproduction maximally accounts for a small fraction of total systemic 1,25(OH)2 D3 levels.”. One of the researchers who authored that study, is Professor Roger Bouillon. He has been studying vitamin D since the 1970s, and is a strong believer that vitamin D deficiency is a wide spread problem. In fact, he has recently stated his belief that over one billion people may be suffering from a vitamin D deficiency. The small production of 1,25(OH)2D in the skin, is likely there to create a local effect, such as protecting the skin against the damages of sunshine exposure. Localized production of vitamin D is a common scenario in the body. 1-hydroxylase, the enzyme that creates 1,25(OH)2D, has been found in many different tissues in the body. However, there is no study to support the claim that the activity of this enzyme is up regulated in the skin in TH1 conditions. In fact, one study that did measure the skin levels of 1-hydroxylase in sarcoidosis, did not find elevated levels. According to that study, in skin from patients with sarcoidosis, “1-hydroxylase was normally expressed in basal keratinocytes of the epidermis.” Some people on the MP who avoid sunlight and wear sunglasses for a long period of time, and who then develop rapid negative symptoms when they are then exposed to the sun, often attribute this due to 1,25(OH)2D production. It is a fact that healthy people with lower 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D levels, will produce greater amounts of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D, when exposed to either sunlight or vitamin D supplementation, compared to people with higher levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D. Thus, the lower your 25(OH)D levels, the more sensitive one will be to the effects of sunshine and vitamin D. Therefore, it’s not surprising that people who avoid sunlight and vitamin D, will become more sensitive to it’s effects. Also, we have read several other statements on that MP web site, that are also incorrect regarding the ability of sunshine to produce vitamin D. For example, one web page states that people can get sufficient amount of vitamin D via sunshine, “in only a fraction of the amount of time they spend driving each week." However, this is not so, as a study has shown that when driving in a car with one’s windows closed, in direct sunshine, only 11% of the sun’s ultraviolet rays are able to get through. When the car is in shade, 0% gets through. Thus, people in a car, are exposed to a very limited amount of the sun rays that are necessary to produce of vitamin D. Even if one does not have an elevated vitamin D ratio, the MP believes that having a bad reaction to Benicar, means that you have a TH1 dominant condition, and that you can then be treated by the MP. The MP believes that Benicar has almost no side effects in normal people, and so that any bad effect is due to the body reacting to bacteria dying off, and that these bacteria are the real cause of TH1 conditions. This method of using of Benicar to diagnose a TH1 condition is described by the MP as a “therapeutic probe”. To quote one MP web page: “A therapeutic probe is a method of determining a diagnosis that might be difficult to decide by other means.” “For example, if someone has pain in their great toe but blood tests are nonconclusive, the doctor may have the patient take a medication for gout. If the pain goes away, the patient is presumed to have gout and the medication is continued to prevent future episodes.” However, there are several problems with these statements. First, the term "therapeutic probe" is not a standard medical term. In fact, the term is only found on a handful of web pages on the whole internet, and on just about all of them, the term is used to refer to a real physical probe. Secondly, the analogy with gout is flawed, due to the fact that in the case of the MP, a negative effect is expected from the medicine, while in the case of gout, a positive benefit is expected. Giving a medicine to see if a person will get better from it, and then continuing that medicine due to the fact that a positive benefit occurred, is of course extremely common. However, giving a medicine specifically to see if a person will get worse from it, and then continuing that medicine because this occurred, is quite rare. While it’s true that many medicines will first cause side effects before the positive benefits occur from it, these side effects are almost never considered to be a sign that the medicine is the proper medicine to use to treat a person. And lastly, the gout example is simply wrong. Gout attacks are treated using normal anti-inflammatories, not gout specific medicines. Gout specific medicines are only useful to prevent gout attacks. However, since gout attacks often takes months or years to reoccur, one would have to use gout medicine for a very long time, before seeing the results. Thus, this is not a practical way in which gout is diagnosed. Instead, gout is diagnosed by taking samples of the synovial fluid of the joint, and by excluding other possible diagnoses based on other lab tests and symptoms. In any event, the MP states that “persons without TH1 inflammation would note only a mild reduction in blood pressure if they took Benicar 40mg every eight hours. A positive response to a therapeutic probe with the Benicar blockade would be any reaction, either a reduction in symptoms or an increase in symptoms.” However, there is no proof that a lowering of blood pressure is the only thing that will happen to healthy people at such a high dose. Benicar has not been studied at this dose in either healthy people, or people with inflammatory diseases. Even at lower doses, many negative effects from Benicar have been reported by people taking Benicar for hypertension. Headaches, chest pain, muscle pain, and coughing, are just a few of the side effects that people experienced. However, when these same effects are experienced by people on the MP, they are explained as being reactions to bacteria dying off, and that experiencing these symptoms indicates that the person has a TH1 condition. Many of the side effects from Benicar are due to the effects of blocking angiotensin II, and the decrease in aldosterone levels. These changes can lead to a decrease of blood pressure and volume, which can aggravate orthostatic related problems. People with CFS and fibromyalgia are prone to having orthostatic problems, and they may experience symptoms from Benicar that other people may not experience. Benicar can significantly lower aldosterone. Decreased aldosterone can cause fatigue, headaches, muscle weakness, and constipation, all symptoms that have been reported by people on the MP who have taken Benicar. People who are prone to dehydration, or who have kidney problems, are more susceptible to symptoms that result from decreased aldosterone levels. Also, certain drugs can inhibit the production of aldosterone, and thus could potentiate the effects of Benicar. For example, some NSAIDS can reduce aldosterone levels. Potassium channel blockers, such as the anti-diabetic drug glyburide, can also block inhibit the production of aldosterone. Thus, ARBs may be able to lower kidney functioning in people who are susceptible to this problem. This may especially be true, given the very high doses of Benicar that are used by the MP. However, it should also be noted that the effect of ARBs on aldosterone levels can be highly variable, and often such an effect can take many weeks and months before it occurs. In a study on long-term use of an ARB, aldosterone decreased in about half the patients, while in the other half it increased. This increase occurred due to an effect known as “aldosterone escape” or “aldosterone breakthrough”, where the body uses other ways to produce aldosterone. For ARBs, this effect possibly could be due to the stimulation of the AT2 angiotensin II receptor, which is not blocked by Benicar. Whatever the reason, it's obvious that Benicar’s effect on aldosterone might be patient specific, and thus it’s impossible to generalize about what Benicar's effects will be for any one person. Some of people on the MP have reported abnormal kidney tests, such as high BUN levels. They are told by the MP that this is due to the die off of bacteria, which then affects kidney functioning. None of these claims are supported by any study, though. Instead, there is a much more simple explanation, which is that this effect is due to a condition known as “type 4 renal tubuluar acidosis”. This condition can be caused from taking ARBs. In fact, the initial side effects of acidosis, such as fatigue, muscle weakness, and headaches, are commonly reported by people on the MP. It’s possible then, that in some cases, these reported symptoms are actually due to temporary acidosis. Indeed, some people on the MP have discovered that they can offset these effects by taking remedies that decrease acidosis. Benicar can decrease ACE levels. Decreased ACE levels can lead to increased bradykinin levels, and this effect is believed to be the cause of some of the side effects that can with drugs that inhibit ACE. Specifically, coughing is a common side effect of ACE inhibitors , and some people on the MP had reported coughing after starting Benicar. One MP web page claims that Benicar is a “is a very weak anti-hypertensive agent”, and that “its effects are so minimal that doctors don’t use it very often.” No reference for this claim was provided. However, the medical literature has documented that Benicar has been shown to be effective at lowering blood pressure in both stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension. In fact, several studies have shown that Benicar is as or more effect than other ARBs. According to one study, “Olmesartan efficacy was consistently at the highest end of the range of efficacy of ARBs studied.” That MP web page then goes on to minimize any effects from low blood pressure. They state that ““Marshall Protocol patients with extremely low blood pressure (85/55 or lower) have been able to continue taking Benicar.” ““The NIH has created no medical standards that define low blood pressure, or a range in which low blood pressure is considered dangerous.” However, studies do show negative effects from low blood pressure. A 2007 review article has stated that “A number of studies have provided strong evidence for reduced cognitive performance in hypotension, particularly in the domains of attention and memory. EEG studies have demonstrated that the hypotension-related poorer mental ability is also reflected in diminished cortical activity. Contrary to convention, more recent research has suggested a deficient regulation of cerebral blood flow in persons with low blood pressure. In addition to reduced tonic brain perfusion, studies demonstrated insufficient adjustment of blood flow to cognitive requirements. Altogether, these findings suggest that more attention should be allocated to chronic hypotension in both research and clinical practice.” If Benicar is unavailable, then the MP says that minocycline can be used to test for a TH1 disease. According to an MP web page: “Minocycline almost always provokes a Herxheimer reaction in a patient with Th1 inflammatory disease.” The Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction, is a reaction that is known to sometimes occur when taking antibiotics for infections, However, the Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction is only known to occur with specific types of infections, usually complex organisms such as syphilis and Lyme. It only occurs very soon after the first dose of an antibiotic. But the medical literature states that it definitely does not occur in everyone. Thus, any test that is based on whether this reaction occurs or not, is unreliable. The lack of such a reaction does not rule out the presence of an infection. On the other hand, minocycline is known for having many major side effects, which is why other tetracycline antibiotics, such as doxycycline, are often preferred for certain conditions (i.e. Lyme disease). For example, minocycline can produce major vestibular side effects, the most common being dizziness and nausea, but other symptoms have also been noted. However, these symptoms are known to occur in healthy people, so they are not a reaction to bacteria dying off. Additionally, even more serious problems have been known to result from minocycline, such as intracranial pressure, and various pulmonary complications such as pulmonary lupus, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and eosinophilic pneumonia. The latter problems are especially worth being aware of, since their symptoms could easily be mistaken for sarcoidosis symptoms. The MP further states that if neither Benicar nor minocycline cause a negative reaction, then “if the level of a person's 25-D is above about 25 ng/ml then their immune system may not be able to kill the bacteria, even with the help of antibiotics, and the probe would fail.” We question how it is possible that 25(OH)D can block the killing effects of minocycline on the bacteria. Even in patients who have a greatly compromised immune system, antibiotics are still able to effectively treat infections. In any event, because of this belief, people on the MP are often told that they must reduce their 25(OH)D, by avoiding all possible food sources of vitamin D, avoiding sunlight, and wearing NOIR sunglasses, before trying a therapeutic probe. In fact, the avoidance of vitamin D by itself is considered to be a “mini” therapeutic probe, so that having a bad reaction due to reduced vitamin D levels, is supposedly a sign of a TH1 condition. However, the reduction of 25(OH)D could create negative effects by itself, irrespective of supposed killing of bacteria, due to decreased anti-inflammatory effects from reduced 1,25(OH)2D tissue levels. However, some of the effects from reduced 25(OH)D can be due to less obvious reasons. For example, a reduction of 25(OH)D will often increase parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels, and elevated PTH can cause fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, depression, sleep problems, headaches, and palpitations. Few people realize that PTH is capable of many direct effects, that are independent of PTH’s effects on calcium levels. Additionally, the change in life style and diet, and the light deprivation, that are recommended in order to lower vitamin D, can have numerous negative effects of their own, independent of the negative effects that occur from a reduction of 25(OH)D levels. The MP has started to avoid referring to negative reactions from the MP as being Herxheimer reactions. Instead, they are now being referred to as being symptoms of “immunopathology”. Immunopathology refers to the body’s immune system’s reactions to diseases. The MP believes that this term more correctly describes the reactions. However, the MP is still using this new term in a unique way. With regard to infections, the term is usually used to describe the symptoms caused by the body fighting an infection. The MP however is using it to describe symptoms that it believes are due to the body’s reactions to the dying off of the bacteria. Not only that, but the MP believes that almost any negative symptom can be attributed to this phenomena. According to one MP web page, “The following is only a partial list of possible herxheimer symptoms: fatigue, muscle weakness, rash, headache, photosensitivity, pain anywhere, numbness, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, ringing in the ears, toothache, sinus congestion, nasal stuffiness, fever/chills, flu-like bodyache, cough, irritability, depression, sleep disturbances and ‘brain-fog.” In essence, practically any negative symptom that one experiences on the MP, can be considered as an “immunopathology” symptom. The MP almost never believes that a negative effect is a side effect of the medicine. This is quite unusual, considering that most treatments for serious medical problems have some significant side effects. The MP thus has a whole different paradigm for looking at the source of side effects, than traditional medical medicine. As written on their web page, “The Marshall Protocol is a curative therapy and it is normal to feel worse before we feel better. The knowledge and remembering that, helps us and our family to manage that both physically and mentally to continue on the MP.” Not only that, but the MP basically states that there is no way to avoid these negative reactions, and that anything you do to reduce these symptoms will reduce the efficacy of the treatment. To quote the administrator of the MP web page , “the concept that you can recover without herxheimer is just plain wrong. As the white cells die you will suffer. At least a little. Anything you take which reduces that suffering is almost certain to be reducing the pace, and certainty, of your recovery.” If all these negative symptoms are the result of the body’s reaction to white cell die off, and it is so strong that it is impossible to offset their effects, surely this is something that could be measured in some way by a lab test. Instead, the MP relies on the presence of almost any negative reaction as being an indicator that white cells are dying off. We find this curious, given the fact that the MP prides itself on being based on the latest discoveries and molecular medicine, yet it cannot provide a more selective method of screening patients for who might benefit from their treatment. Indeed, their criteria have become less selective over the years, and they now have a long list of unrelated diseases which they claim to be able to treat. As an aside, the administrator of the MP web page has also written: “In my work with Sarcoidosis patients, it is my experience that recovering MP patients understand and welcome the Herxheimer reactions even when they must endure temporary increased suffering. They accept it as the price that they must pay in order to get well and they even seem to find it gratifying to experience tangible evidence of bacterial elimination.” Given this very strong expectation by patients that negative effects on the MP are a good sign, one wonders how often it is that reported “herxing” symptoms, are actually perceived symptoms. It is well known that placebos can cause side effects in people, a phenomena known as the nocebo effect. If people can experience side effects from a placebo, how much more likely might such negative effects occur, if such effects are believed to be a good sign? This is not to say that the effects which people are experiencing are not real. However, because they are told that their symptoms will get worse, they could simply be concentrating more than usual on their symptoms, and thus end up believing that they have become worse. Or they could be having a flareup of their symptoms for other reasons. Whatever the case, there simply is no way of truly knowing whether reported negative effects are real or not, given the power of expectation. In conclusion, the tests used by the MP are vague and non-specific, and not supported by the medical literature. Thus, there is no reason why such tests should be relied upon. Unless a more reliable test can be created, perhaps people who are interested in the MP, should simply try it, and see if it works or not. The MP believes that Benicar has the ability to lower 1,25(OH)2D, and that this is partially the reason why Benicar can treat TH1 conditions They say that they have observed that 1,25(OH)2D levels are reduced by Benicar. It’s unclear how they can make this claim, given that people who are taking Benicar, are also avoiding vitamin D at the same time. How can one tell if the decrease of 1,25(OH)2D is actually due to the Benicar itself, rather than the avoidance of vitamin D? However, since ARBs such as Benicar can reduce inflammation and lower TH1 activity, it is possible that this would then lower TH1 1,25(OH)2D production. But the MP has recently been claiming a different reason for why Benicar can lower 1,25(OH)2D. Based on a computer simulation, the inventor of the MP has claimed that Benicar and other ARBs can significantly interact with the vitamin D receptor (VDR), and it is postulated that this is one of the reasons why Benicar can treat TH1 conditions. In a published paper, on the basis of the computer simulation, it was concluded that “the ARBs Olmesartan, Irbesartan and Valsartan … are likely to be useful VDR antagonists at typical in-vivo concentrations.” On the other hand, since the paper was published, the author has changed his conclusion, and now believes that Benicar is at least a partial agonist of the VDR. As stated on the MP web page: “when Benicar docks into the VDR displacing 25-D and 1,25-D it at least partially activates the VDR.” However, no actual lab study has been done to prove this claim. And while computer simulations are useful, they still are not a substitute for an actual study. Indeed, this same author, using computer simulations, has also stated that statin drugs have a significant ability to interact with the VDR: *simvastatin is capable of exerting a direct effect on the VDR at a normal therapeutic dose, although lovastatin would do so at higher doses.” However, an actual study has disputed this claim, by showing that “statins do not directly activate vitamin D receptor.” Real studies on VDR agonists require real lab studies, using real VDR and cells. We wonder why no one has yet bothered to do this for ARBs. A huge amount of money has been invested by companies attempting to create vitamin D agonists and antagonists. If ARBs had a significant direct effect on VDRs, this would be a revolutionary discovery, and it would a boon to ARB drug companies. We await real studies, and confirmation of the MP’s claims, by vitamin D researchers. Another reason that the MP states to support their theory that Benicar interacts with a non-angiotensin II receptor, is that they believe that Benicar is only useful if it is given at very high doses, doses that are much higher than the doses that are normally recommended to reduce blood pressure. They believe that this indicates that some other type of receptor is being activated by Benicar. However, this assumes that AT1 receptors are saturated at the doses that are given to reduce blood pressure. But this is not the case. People who have high blood pressure, often have high systolic pressure, but normal diastolic pressure. Doses of Benicar above 40mg, results in only small additional decreases of systolic blood pressure, and this is the reason why higher doses are not given for hypertension. On the other hand, diastolic pressure continues to significantly decrease at higher doses, even at 80mg. And as plotted on a graph, the rate of decrease at the 80mg dose, is very similar to that at10mg, so that even higher doses might likely still have additional effects. Thus, there is no indication that AT1 receptors are totally saturated by high doses of Benicar, even at 80mg. Other studies also support this assertion. For example, angiotensin II plays an important role in wound healing. Thus, in theory, an ARB could reduce the rate at which a wound heals. And indeed, at high doses, this was shown to occur. However, at doses normally given for hypertension, the effect was minimal. Thus, this shows that AT1 receptors are not saturated at such doses, and that the effects from higher doses of Benicar could still simply be due to a more efficient blocking of AT1 receptors. However, if ARBs can lower 1,25(OH)2D, there is another explanation for such an effect. It is based on the fact that angiotensin II itself can affect calcium metabolism. Indeed, in a recent lab study, angiotensin II was found to accelerate osteoporosis by activating osteoclasts, and Benicar was shown to block this affect. Thus, if one blocks angiotensin II via ARBs, this could change calcium levels, which would then affect the amount of 1,25(OH)2D produced by the kidneys. This has actually been shown to occur. In a study on hypertension, it was found that the use of ACE inhibitors resulted in a decrease in 1,25(OH)2D levels. The study "This therapeutic group acts by blocking angiotensin II synthesis. Consequently, it has a beneficial effect on the skeleton because there is a decrease in angiotensin concentration. It has been hypothesized that angiotensin can indirectly act on bone cells by regulating the flow of bone marrow capillaries or directly by binding to AT1 receptors located on osteoblasts, thus promoting the mediator release that would activate the osteoclasts." "The reduction of angiotensin II levels has a beneficial effect of inhibiting bone resorption and promoting mineralization." "Angiotensin II can interfere with calcium metabolism. The administration of this peptide in a group of healthy volunteers caused a decrease in ionic calcium levels and an increase in PTHi levels. The decrease of calcemia was not related to an increase in calciuria, but it could be caused by an increase in calcium uptake by vascular smooth muscle cells. In our patients, ACE inhibitors increased the level of calcium, although the concentration of PTHi was not modified. These data suggest a beneficial effect on the blockage of the synthesis of angiotensin in calcium metabolism.” If angiotensin II can directly affect calcium levels, then this might explain a study on sarcoidosis which showed that serum ACE levels were found to correlate with serum ionized calcium levels, independent of any effect from 1,25(OH)2D. And this could also help explain why hypercalcemia often occurs in sarcoidosis, but rarely occurs in Crohn's disease, even though 1,25(OH)2D is elevated in both diseases. The difference could be that ACE is rarely found to be elevated in Crohn's disease, A more recent study on the lowering effect of ACE inhibitors on 1,25(OH)2D levels has shown that the effect occurs mainly in people with the gene that is associated with higher levels of ACE. This supports the claim that angiotensin II is directly responsible for the elevation of 1,25(OH)2D. In this new study, they present another possible theory for this effect, which is that angiotensin II may be able to increase the production of 1,25(OH)2D, due to its ability to upregulate the TLR4 receptor in renal immune cells. Stimulation of the TLR4 receptor on other immune cells is known to produce 1,25(OH)2D. So perhaps angiotensin II directly upregulates 1,25(OH)2D production on immune cells by upregulating TLR4 expression, rather than indirect via an angiotensin II effect on calcium. However, this theory is presently only based on studies of different cell lines. Nevertheless, it's an intriguing theory, due to the fact that nonbacterial substances that are up regulated by inflammation, are known to be able to stimulate the TLR4. Thus, in theory, inflammation due to raised ACE, may be able to affect 1,25(OH)2D levels, even in the absence of an infection. While ARBs have not yet been studied, to see if they also affect 1,25(OH)2D levels, one could easily speculate that ARBs would have at least a strong, if not stronger effect, than ACE inhibitors, given ARB’s better ability to block the effects of angiotensin II. Indeed, in further support of this theory, is the fact that it’s been shown that an ARB was capable of suppressing the expression of both TLR2 and TLR4 in monocytes. This effect seems likely to be due to the blocking of the angiotensin II receptor (and not via the VDR, as the MP claims), as monocytes without the AT1 receptor had significantly increased expression of the TLR receptors. If this effect is confirmed, this would give a clear explanation as to why Benicar could lower 1,25(OH)2D, as lowering the response to TLR2 or TLR4 is capable of lowering TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D. ARBs might also be capable of affecting 1,25(OH)2D levels via other pathways. For example, angiotensin II is capable of upregulating growth hormone (GH). Surprisingly this has received only scant interest in the medical literature even though it’s a proven effect in humans, and the effect can be blocked by an ARB. This property might be relevant for people on the MP, as GH is a known stimulator of kidney production of 1,25(OH)2D, via an action independent of PTH. Blocking angiotensin II might lower 1,25(OH)2D production, due to a reduction of GH. Interestingly, serum GH levels have been found to be elevated in patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. The author’s theory is that elevated GH levels can cause pain and inflammation in muscles and joints. Yet another effect of angiotensin II is the ability to increase PTH levels. This has been shown to occur in at least one study. This study also showed that atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) can also suppress PTH, and a second study has shown that blocking angiotensin II can directly increase ANP. Thus, another reason why Benicar might be able to lower 1,25(OH)2D levels, is that it is blocking the angiotensin II induced release of PTH. Lowering PTH decreases renal 1,25(OH)2D production. However, this effect on PTH might be masked by the MP, due to the protocol’s avoidance of vitamin D. Avoiding vitamin D intake would lower 25(OH)D levels, which would then lower calcium absorption, prompting the body to produce more PTH. But this attempt possibly could be offset by the opposite action of Benicar, so that little change in PTH may be noted. A direct effect of angiotensin II on PTH may explain a curious phenomenon in sarcoidosis. In some patients, PTH is normal or elevated, even though 1,25(OH)2D levels are increased. For example, one study has shown that PTH was two or three times higher than people without sarcoidosis. This is unexpected, because one would have expected that the increased 1,25(OH)2D levels in sarcoidosis would suppress PTH. Perhaps this increased PTH, is due to elevated ACE. Increased angiotensin II production might be increasing PTH in some patients. Some people have questioned whether the MP is simply reducing inflammation without really treating the real cause of diseases. They additionally wonder if perhaps the MP is over suppressing the immune system in conditions that aren’t not necessarily TH1 conditions. While the MP claims that it can treat conditions such as CFS and chronic Lyme disease, the medical literature does not recognize these conditions as being TH1 dominant. In fact, there is some evidence that CFS may be a TH2 dominant condition. Chronic Lyme is theorized to possibly be a state of immunosuppressed tolerance to the infection. If Benicar can reduce TH1 responses, could this have negative effects on infections, in conditions where TH1 cytokines are not elevated, and may actually be suppressed? Recent studies are now showing that angiotensin II may have profound effects on the immune system’s innate response to infections. As we previously mentioned, a study has shown that ARBs are capable of lowering the expression of receptors that detect bacteria. Yet another study has shown that angiotensin II receptors are essential for the development of the full innate immune and stress responses to bacterial endotoxin.. Unfortunately, there are few studies that look at the use of ARBs in actual infectious conditions. ARBs are mainly used for lowering blood pressure, and for cardiac and kidney disease. The single study that I did find, was a lab study on rats, in which an ARB was used for a kidney infection, in order to reduce the scarring associated with the infection. It accomplished this, but it was also observed that bacterial counts were significantly higher. Another study showed that injecting angiotensin II increased the host resistance to a bacterial infection. They concluded: “As AII acted on the host as an immunomodulator rather than on the bacteria, resistance to the effects on this molecule may not occur. This would be an advantage over antimicrobials, which allow the development of resistant strains. This observation should benefit not only individuals with normally functioning immune systems (as described here) but those with impaired immune systems as well, including patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy (e.g., chemotherapy [antirejection drugs after transplantation]) or patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection”. One of the positive effects found in this study, was that angiotensin II increased respiratory burst activity. The respiratory burst “is a process that produces reactive oxygen intermediates which, along with toxic nitrogen intermediates and a cocktail of proteinases and other enzymes, are used to acidify lysosomes (vacuoles) within the macrophages, which usually fuse with, and kill, any ingested bacteria.” Thus, in theory, reducing angiotensin II could decrease anti-bacterial activity. Additionally, it’s interesting to note that 1,25(OH)2D also increases this burst activity, So a combination of reducing 1,25(OH)2D and angiotensin II may significantly downgrade this immune response. As an aside, the MP does not believe that chronic Lyme disease is due to Lyme bacteria. It believes it is due to cell wall deficient bacteria. This is one of the reasons why the MP does not use the same types or levels of antibiotics that are used by many people who treat Lyme. Additionally, some studies indicate that resolution of Lyme disease is associated with a strong TH1 response. It is because of such reasons, that have led people to question whether the MP can proper treat the actually source of chronic Lyme disease, or whether it is simply treating the symptoms, without actually affecting the bacteria. The MP recommends vigorously avoiding sunshine, and some people on the MP have reported that they feel worse when they are exposed to sunshine. Since sunshine produces vitamin D, some people have concluded that it is the increase in vitamin D that is causing their symptoms. However, since sunshine has many different effects, a number of possible reasons can be given for sensitivity to sunshine. Sunshine is definitely known to be an immunosuppressive. It has well known suppressive effects on the skin immune system, which is one of the reasons why skin cancer occurs due to overexposure to the sun. It can also suppress skin reactions to antigens that the skin comes in contact with. But there are some researchers who believe that sunshine can have other effects on the systemic immune system, in ways that have nothing to do with vitamin D. For example, one study has shown that exposure to sunlight caused an increase of the serum level of inflammatory cytokines IL-8 and TNF-alpha. This is probably due to the fact that these cytokines are known to be produced in the skin due to sunlight exposure. Whether it’s possible that a significant amount of these cytokines can enter the serum and cause systemic effects is still debatable, as another study using shorter exposure to sunlight, showed that there was no rise in cytokines after sunlight exposure. However, there might be more subtle changes to the immune system that have not yet been studied. For example, one study has shown a change in the number of a certain type of immune cell in the serum, due to sunshine exposure. But whether cytokines are elevated or not, the effect of sunlight on melatonin production is definitely a significant effect. Light suppresses melatonin production, and avoidance of sunshine would raise melatonin production. Melatonin is known to have significant effects on the immune system. Anecdotal reports in the medical literature of sarcoidosis being treated with melatonin have been known for many years, and a 2006 open pilot study has shown that melatonin can indeed be an effective treatment for sarcoidosis. Melatonin is a potent antioxidant. For example, a recent lab study has shown that it can reduce inflammatory injury from colitis, via the inhibition of NF-kappaB. Melatonin has also been found to help conditions such as IBS, CFS, and fibromyalgia. The MP not only recommends avoiding sunlight, but also recommends wearing noir sunglasses, even indoors. Since melatonin production is mainly affected by exposure of light on the eyes, such a protocol could easily be expected to significantly alter melatonin levels. On the other hand, the effects from melatonin are complex, as both stimulating and suppressing effects on the immune system have been observed. If indeed melatonin can help a condition such as sarcoidosis, it would be pure speculation as to how it might be able to help, due to a lack of data. Indeed, it’s possible that melatonin might help some conditions, while it might hurt others. Thus, the increase in melatonin might be the reason why some people feel worse when they start the MP and avoid bright lights. However, for those people who like to speculate, here’s an interesting thought. Melatonin is produced from tryptophan. And since tryptophan levels are low in sarcoidosis and other conditions, due to IDO being elevated, perhaps melatonin levels are also decreased because of that. It’s also possible that some people with certain conditions are more susceptible to suppression of melatonin. A recent study has shown that people who experience migraines, are supersensitive to the effects of light. In response to light, their melatonin levels decrease much more than in the average person. This is believed to be due to the hyperexcitability state of their nervous system. It would be very interesting to see if sensitivity was altered in TH1 and other chronic conditions. Unfortunately, no studies on this have been done. If sensitivity was found to be elevated, it might explain the light sensitivity that people on the MP have reported. Sensitivity to light may also be due to a magnesium deficiency. Light sensitivity has long been claimed to be a symptom of a magnesium deficiency. Some people believe that light sensitivity that occurs during a hangover, is due to the drop in magnesium levels that occurs due to alcohol. A magnesium deficit would increase excitability of the nervous system, which could in theory cause light sensitivity. One researcher has postulated further that light sensitivity, magnesium depletion, and disturbed melatonin production, are all related, and that this condition could possibly be treated with a combination of magnesium supplementation and darkness therapy. This is. however, speculation. Nevertheless, magnesium deficiency is a more common problem than many people realize, and high level magnesium supplementation has been found to be very useful in chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia and CFS. The MP, however, does not make use of it. Perhaps if it did, light sensitivity and other symptoms might be reduced. The MP claims that it’s treatment can normalize low thyroid levels. The MP also claims it can treat Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune form of hypothyroidism, where autoantibodies react against the thyroid gland. Considering that increased levels of thyroid autoantibodies and cases of Hashimoto’s have been found in sarcoidosis patients, there might indeed be a connection between these autoantibodies and sarcoidosis. Immune increasing therapies such as IL-2 and IFN-alpha, which have been known to trigger sarcoidosis, have also been known to trigger autoimmune hypothyroidism. Thus, increased cytokines may play a role in autoimmune hypothyroidism, just as it does in sarcoidosis. Indeed, excess TH1 production is a characteristic of Hashimoto’s, and reducing the TH1 response can help Hashimoto’s. Thus, it may be possible that a therapy that treats sarcoidosis by reducing the TH1 response, may also have a positive effective on Hashimoto's thyroiditis,. However, it's also possible that lowering inflammation, may help to normalize low thyroid levels, even in cases of hypothyroidism that don’t involve autoantibodies. That's because the cytokine IL-6 has been shown to correlate with lower levels of the T3 thyroid hormone in inflammatory conditions, which is possibly due to the fact that IL-6 has been shown to inhibit the conversion of T4 to T3. If the MP is capable of lowering inflammatory cytokines, then it might be capable of lowering IL-6. In support of this theory, is the fact that angiotensin II is known to increase IL-6 levels, and some studies show that Benicar can lower IL-6 levels. Thus, Benicar might be able to increase levels of T3. Thus, there are some possible valid reasons why the MP could affect thyroid levels. However, the MP has made further claims that vitamin D is capable of interacting with thyroid receptors. This claim is based solely on the results of a computer simulation program, and not a real lab test. Also, this simulation showed that vitamin D only affects the alpha-1 thyroid receptor. But this particular receptor is not significantly involved in the regulation of TSH, the hormone that stimulates the production of thyroid hormones: Thus, even if vitamin D could interact with this thyroid receptor, it would not likely have an effect on TSH or thyroid levels. Indeed, studies on commonly accepted therapeutic dosages of 1,25(OH)2D, do not show any effect on TSH levels: On the other hand, it should be noted that extremely high levels 1,25(OH)2D may increase TSH levels: This effect, however, is not related to thyroid receptors, but is due to an increase in TSH production, in response to stimulation from TRH, the hormone created by the hypothalamus which triggers the pituitary gland to release TSH. Indeed, other studies have found that 1,25(OH)2D was capable of increasing prolactin, another hormone controlled by TRH. But these studies involved using very high doses of 1,25(OH)2D. Most people, including patients using the MP, do not have such high levels. This would explain why there are no case studies of elevated levels of 1,25(OH)2D being associated with elevated levels of TSH. This result seems logical, when you consider the fact that 1,25(OH)2D circulates at a much lower level than most hormones. For example, free levels of the T3 thyroid hormone circulates at a level of 1/200 of the level of free 1,25(OH)2D, so it seems unlikely that such low doses of 1,25(OH)2D could affect thyroid receptors. And in fact, the amount of 1,25(OH)2D that the thyroid receptors would be exposed to, is probably even much less, given that much of the free 1,25(OH)2D would be attaching itself to vitamin D receptors instead of thyroid receptors. Thus, even if 1,25(OH)2D was capable of interacting with thyroid (or other hormone) receptors, it’s very unlikely that 1,25(OH)2D could be present in an amount great enough to significantly interact with those receptors The MP states that Benicar is the most useful in treating inflammatory conditions. This has actually been confirmed in a lab study on the use of ARBs in experimental arthritis (non-bacterial form). ARBs were shown to reduce the severity of the arthritis, by their ability to reduce TH1 responses. And Benicar was shown to be the best at doing this. This study also showed that constant high doses were necessary to achieve significant results. This is also in agreement with the protocol, which states that it's important that Benicar be constantly taken. Such an effect might be important for certain inflammatory conditions. For example, in rheumatoid arthritis, it’s been found that ACE levels in the synovial fluid are greatly increased, and may be contributing to joint destruction. Thus, Benicar may be useful in treating such arthritic conditions, by blocking angiotensin II. Benicar may be particularly useful for certain inflammatory diseases, because out of several ARBs, it appears to be especially effective at reducing advanced glycation end products, an effect which is believed to be independent of it’s ability to block angiotensin II. Additionally, Benicar is capable of blocking advanced glycation end products (AGEs)-induced angiogenesis in vitro by suppressing receptor for AGEs (RAGE) expression RAGE has been found to play a role in a number of inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and sarcoidosis. RAGE may also be involved in fibromyalgia. The MP believes that Benicar works the best because of some special property that it has that other ARBs don’t have. Besides the VDR theory, another MP theory is that it is interacting with receptors on cell wall deficient bacterium, which the protocol believes is the cause of many inflammatory conditions, including sarcoidosis. Some cell wall deficient bacterium have been found to have receptors that respond to angiotensin II. However, these receptors are definitely not angiotensin II specific receptors, as they also respond to angiotensin I. Not only that, but they also react to other, totally unrelated proteins. On the other hand, they have not responded at all to several ARBs that were tested. This is not surprising, considering that ARBs were designed to only interact with one particular type of angiotensin II receptor, AT1. ARBs interact very little with other angiotensin II receptors, such as AT2. Their binding potencies to AT2 are often thousands times less when compared to AT1. And while Benicar has not been tested with these bacterium, there’s no evidence that it would interact with them. This is especially true, considering that Benicar was designed to interact with AT1, much more specifically that any other ARB. And while some of the other ARBs are known to partially interact with other non-angiotensin II receptors, no real study has shown this to be the case with Benicar. Thus, Benicar appears to be the least likely ARB to interact with a totally different type of receptor, such as the one found in these bacterium. The study of ARBs on experimental arthritis did not involve bacterium at all. ARBs worked due to the suppression of TH1 responses. Benicar was found to be the most potent at doing this. Thus, this appears to be the more likely reason why Benicar has been found to work the best in the protocol. ARBs such as Benicar appear to have multiple benefits for inflammatory conditions. As previously mentioned, at least one study has shown that ARBs can reduce TH1 inflammatory effects. One possible reason for this may be the previously discussed ability of angiotensin II to stimulate IFN-gamma production in T cells. ARBs would thus reduce this effect, leading to a reduction of macrophage activation. However, another property of angiotensin II, which is being intensely studied, is it's effect on adipose fat fat cells have only been recently been recognized as possibly playing a significant role in many inflammatory conditions. These cells, known as adipocytes, secrete a group of substances known as adipocytokines. Some of these adipocytokines are well known inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha and IL-6. Others are unique substances, such as the hormone adiponectin. This hormone is the most abundant hormone in the blood stream, at a level that is 3 times higher than any other hormone. One of adiponectin's main effect appears to be to an ability to control insulin sensitivity. Adiponectin levels inversely correlate with insulin sensitivity and obesity. Adiponectin also appears to have anti-inflammatory properties, which may play a role in the vascular inflammation that is associated with obesity. Adiponectin has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects on both adipocytes and macrophages, causing suppressed production of TNF-alpha and IL-6. The factors that control adiponectin levels are still being studied, but one class of drug that appears to increase adiponectin levels are ARBs. ARBs have been found to elevate adiponectin levels, and at the same time reduce insulin resistance, An improvement of insulin sensitivity and glucose control have been well noted by people on the MP. This effect alone may be significant to some people. For example, a significant number of people with fibromyalgia have found improvement of symptoms on low carbohydrate diets, possibly due to such diets reducing the effects from insulin resistance. ARBs ability to treat insulin resistance may be an important property from many chronic diseases. Benicar has been shown to be capable of significantly increasing adiponectin levels. Thus, this could be yet another significant anti-inflammatory effect of Benicar. On the other hand, some studies have indicated a pro-inflammatory effect from adiponectin. This apparent conflict may have been resolved by a recent study which showed that indeed adiponectin did cause an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines production by macrophages. However, "pre-treatment of macrophages with adiponectin and subsequent re-exposure to it resulted in the development of tolerance. This effect of adiponectin appears to be much more fundamental since it made macrophages also tolerant to other powerful pro-inflammatory stimuli." In other words, "adiponectin, by being constantly high in lean individuals, renders macrophages resistant to pro-inflammatory stimuli, including its own." This complex property of adiponectin means that an increase in adiponectin does not necessary mean an immediate anti-inflammatory reaction. In fact, just the opposite, that initially an inflammatory reaction can occur. If an ARB was truly capable of causing an increase in adiponectin, this might initially cause a worsening of inflammatory symptoms. Therefore, this could explain why some people feel an initial bad reaction to taking Benicar, which the protocol theorizes is due to a herxing reaction. This property might also explain the observation that ARBs need to be taken at a constant high dose in order to achieve a significant reduction in TH1 inflammatory responses. This may be due to the fact that adiponectin must be kept at a relatively constant, decently elevated level, in order to provide an anti-inflammatory response. Adiponectin has been found to have a further ability, that of being able to bind to bacterial LPS and to neutralize it’s effect, and thus be capable of moderating the inflammatory response to infections. Interestingly, the immune elevating therapy that is used in HIV, that is known for triggering autoimmune problems like sarcoidosis, just so happens to contain a class of drugs whose side effect is to reduce adiponectin levels. One could speculate that this might be a possible reason why such therapy can trigger inflammatory conditions. The multiple effects of blocking angiotensin II, have caused ARBs to be used for some conditions, without it being known why they work. For example, ARBs have been found to be useful in preventing migraines, even though the reason why they work is still “a matter of speculation.” ARBs also may have the ability to suppress the central nervous system's reactions to stress. This is likely due to the fact that angiotensin II is able to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, and ARBs block this effect. Reducing this stimulation can not only reduce stress, but can indirectly affect the immune system, as stress increases levels of glucocorticoids and catecholamines, which influence the immune system. A stress reduction effect might be especially beneficial for fibromyalgia, as there is much evidence that shows that the sympathetic nervous system is in a hyperactive state in fibromyalgia. Reducing the sympathetic nervous system might also help to undo tense muscles in fibromyalgia. This effect appears to vary in different ARBs, as a study that compared several ARBs, showed that not all of them had the same level ability to reduce noradrenalin sensitivity, at comparable doses. Additionally, the study showed that the effect was dose dependent, sometimes requiring a high dose for the effect to be noticed. Benicar has not be studied for this effect, so it’s possible that Benicar has this potent ability at doses being used, and the high doses that the MP requires, might be because this effect is only noticeable at that level. Certain ARBs are capable of increasing serum uric acid. Uric acid is a potent antioxidant, with the ability to scavenge peroxynitrite. Such an effect could be significant for many of the conditions that the MP claims to treat. One study has proposed that Benicar might be capable of increasing serum uric acid. However, this has yet to be proven in an actual clinical study. On the other hand, this effect might only be seen with very high doses of Benicar, as used by the MP. Additionally, there have been a few reports of people on the MP who have noticed increased serum uric. ARBs also are able to enhance blood flow in muscles, by blocking the vasoconstriction effects of angiotensin II. And ARB’s ability to improve insulin sensitivity, can further help muscle functioning. Finally, ARBs also have an antiplatelet effect (via the release of nitric oxide). This might further help fibromyalgia (for information regarding this, see my web page on the guaifenesin treatment for fibromyalgia, as guaifenesin not only can relax muscles, and but it also happens to have an antiplatelet property, which could play a role in its treatment of fibromyalgia.) The possibility that lowering angiotensin II might be of help in some people with fibromyalgia, CFS, and chronic Lyme, is supported by the fact that 2 alternative therapies use salt supplementation. Salt increases water retention, which reduces the production of angiotensin II. A popular remedy for fibromyalgia is a supplement known as Recuperat-ion. This is supposedly a mineral supplement, yet it basically only contains tiny amounts of magnesium and calcium, a very small amount of potassium, but a lot of sodium. Similarly, there is a popular treatment plan for Lyme, which uses vitamin C and a huge amount salt. The reason for using salt in that treatment, is the belief that salt helps to kill the Lyme bacteria (although no study has shown that a high salt diet is useful for against any known infection). We believe that it is too coincidental that 2 remedies are using salt for conditions that often overlap, and believe it likely that both treatments are effective for the same reason, namely salt’s well known effect on blood volume. Low blood volume is a problem for many people with fibromyalgia and CFS, so salt’s water retention ability could be the useful effect. However, the reduction in angiotensin II could just as well be the important effect, because that would have benefits for everyone, not just people with low blood volume. While the MP believes that lowering angiotensin II is not effective, and that only blocking it is useful, this belief was mainly based on experience with the MP for sarcoidosis. Simply lowering angiotensin II, may be useful for other conditions that are not autoimmune diseases. Wearing noir sunglasses is part of the MP treatment. These glasses block both visible and nonvisible light, and the MP claims that they are necessary to reduce neurological symptoms associated with TH1 diseases. The MP says these symptoms include "fatigue, irritability, aggressiveness, lack of concentration, brain fog, photosensitivity, transient loss of memory, mood swings, confusion, anxiety, anger, neurosis and even psychosis." Increased eye sensitivity to light, or photophobia, is often mentioned in the medical literature as being a symptom seen in sarcoidosis. This is not surprising, given that several different types of inflammatory eye conditions are frequently seen in conjunction with sarcoidosis. In fact, one article has stated that "ocular involvement may also be the initial manifestation of sarcoidosis in many patients." But sarcoidosis is not the only inflammatory disease that is associated with eye disorders. Ocular involvement is also seen in many other autoimmune diseases. However, the medical literature does not recognize that these eye problems are associated with neurological symptoms. Indeed, the main reason for which the MP recommends NOIR glasses, is not due to any existing eye problem. Instead, the MP believes that photophobia and neurological symptoms occur due to the MP treatment itself, and that NOIR glasses must be worn before starting Benicar, in order to avoid these symptoms. This belief is so strong, that the MP has stated that not wearing the glasses was not an option. However, little proof was provided. Indeed, after many years of making this claim, the MP is now saying that not everyone develops photosensitivity, and that some people might even be able to do the MP treatment without having to avoid sunlight and bright light. But how is it that the MP treatment can cause photophobia to occur in some people? The MP has given several theories as to why this eye sensitivity occurs. One is that "the eyes have a complete, self-contained, renin-angiotensin system in them." However, if angiotensin II was the cause of the problem, then high levels of Benicar would suppress the condition, not increase it. Another theory is that increased vitamin D production occurs due to light exposure on the eyes. However, while vitamin D receptors have been found in retinas, no study has shown evidence for production of vitamin D in the eyes. Besides which, even if either of these theories are correct, then eye inflammation should also be occurring, and that could then be detected by an eye exam. However, the main theory given for the eye sensitivity to light, is that light causes "stimulation of the amygdala in the brain", and that this leads to the neurological symptoms. The amygdala is a portion of the brain that is involved in emotional responses, particularly in those relating to fear. Thus, stimulation of the amygdala could cause many neurological symptoms. And in fact, studies have shown a possible connection between panic and anxiety disorders, and amygdala functioning. However, why would light provoke a fear response from the amygdala? Humans are normally afraid of darkness, not light. But studies do show that some people with panic disorders suffer from photophobia. Indeed, according to this study, “Light hypersensitivity has often been considered a possible factor of panic attack pathogenesis, and several studies suggest a neurobiological hypothesis to explain the relation between light and panic attacks.” Thus, light may indeed cause neurological problems in some people. However, even though this photophobia may be a true physiological problem, it was found that this symptom could be significantly reduced via cognitive behavioral therapy. Perhaps since light triggers panic attacks in these people, that light itself becomes something to fear, and this then causes light to be even a greater trigger for panic. Cognitive behavioral therapy then helps to overcome this fear, and reduce symptoms. Thus, it is possible that the belief that light is dangerous, can lead to an increased fear response to light, which can then lead to increased neurological symptoms. A different example of this is found in the medical literature, where a boy became very afraid of light, due to the fact that it would trigger seizures. Using cognitive behavioral therapy, the boy was not only able to eliminate his fear of light, but to also greatly reduce his seizure response to light, to the point that the boy was able to discontinue his anti-seizure medicine. If fear of light can be a factor in photophobia, then it seems possible to us that if someone believes in the MP’s theory that light was harmful, then this belief could lead to a fear of light. Perhaps this by itself would not lead to photophobia. However, it might be a significant factor, if this fear is also combined with the avoidance of sunlight and wearing NOIR glasses. These two actions would seem to likely cause the eyes to be less accustomed and more sensitive to bright light. Exposure to bright light would then become uncomfortable, so that this physical response, combined with the fear of light, could be a strong enough trigger to provoke photophobia and neurological symptoms. Many people with the chronic diseases that the MP are helped by taking antibiotics. But are the infections that they treat, the cause of the condition, or are they the result of the condition? For example, significant immune hyporesponsiveness is present in sarcoidosis. Could this fact make people with sarcoidosis more susceptible to the immunosuppressive effects of 1,25(OH)2D. Sarcoidosis is well known to be "associated with anergy (poor response to antigens in vitro and in vivo)”, and this effect appears to be due to very high levels of regulatory CD4+CD25+ T cells. These T regulatory cells promote immune tolerance and protect against autoimmunity. One study on sarcoidosis has found very high serum levels of these cells. In fact, according to that study, “there is no clinical situation in which a T reg amplification of such magnitude (up to 21% of CD4+ T cells) has been found in the blood of patients.” A deficiency of these cells is believed to be a factor in some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. On the other hand, an excess of these regulatory cells can suppress immune responses to infections, and may play a role in creating chronic infectious states. Because of this, the study on sarcoidosis concluded that people with sarcoidosis might be more susceptible to infections. These CD25 regulatory cells are also able to inhibit the expression of inflammatory cytokines by T cells. However, they aren’t efficient at reducing levels of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, cytokines which are critical for the formation of granulomas. So while the granuloma immune response may not be significantly reduced by these regulatory cells, systematic immune responses in the rest of the body may be reduced by them in sarcoidosis. . The formation of CD25 regulatory cells is critically dependent on the cytokine IL-2, and IL-2 is elevated in sarcoidosis. IL-2 is produced by activated T cells, and stimulates the growth of immune T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells. Because of these effects, IL-2 has been used to treat conditions that have suppressed immune systems, such as cancer and AIDS. However, macrophage immune cells also have IL-2 receptors, and IL-2 can increase macrophage production of IFN-gamma. Activation of macrophages and elevated IFN-gamma levels are well known and important characteristics of sarcoidosis. Thus, it’s not surprising that there has been a reported case of sarcoidosis reoccurring due to IL-2 cancer therapy. Indeed, there are examples of other immune upregulating therapies being able to trigger sarcoidosis. For example, interferon therapy for viral infections, which also increase IFN-gamma production, has also been known to trigger sarcoidosis. This implies that the state of the immune system can play a major role in the triggering and the resolution of sarcoidosis. But the other half of the story is, of course, the effects of pathogens in sarcoidosis. New studies continue to be published that show evidence of mycobacterial infections in the granulomas of sarcoidosis. And there is new evidence that gram negative bacteria may be able to increase the levels of the cytokine IL-18 in sarcoidosis. This may be significant, since IL-18 can increase IFN-gamma production, and Il-18 levels have been found to be higher in sarcoidosis patients with disease progression. On the other hand, these studies show evidence not only for the presence of different strains of bacteria, but also for different forms of pathogens (i.e. fungi and viruses). The fact that no single pathogen has been identified as being associated with sarcoidosis, has led many researchers to theorize that while an infection is likely a trigger for sarcoidosis, that the true cause of sarcoidosis is a dysfunctional immune system. This conclusion is also based on the results of studies that show that the risk of sarcoidosis is strongly associated with genes that affect the immune system, and also that environmental and occupational risks factors increase the likelihood of sarcoidosis. This could explain why in some people, the disease resolves, simply due to the suppression of the immune system. Nevertheless, in some people, infections could significantly affect the course of the disease. And the highly elevated levels of CD25 regulatory cells could increase the risk of secondary infections, confounding the situation. Indeed, one might speculate that secondary infections could be the reason why in some people, the disease does not easily resolve. And it could be the reason why antibiotic therapy could be effective in some people, as prescribed by the MP. However, does 1,25(OH)2D significantly affect the immune system in sarcoidosis? The MP believes that it overly stimulates the immune system, but the medical literature extensively documents many immunosuppressive effects of 1,25(OH)D. If the latter is true, then the elevated levels seen in sarcoidosis, combined with the elevated CD25 levels, could lead to an immune system that was especially susceptible to infections. Regardless of what the effects of 1,25(OH)2D on sarcoidosis might be, the elevation of CD25 in sarcoidosis by itself, could be preventing proper immune responses to infections. This is one of many unique features found in sarcoidosis, which are not found in other inflammatory conditions. Any therapy that can effectively treat sarcoidosis, is thus treating a very unique condition. Such a treatment may not necessarily be as effective for other inflammatory conditions. One possible reason for the lack of ability of CD25 to control sarcoidosis, is the elevated IL-6 found in sarcoidosis. Elevated IL-6 is known to be capable of suppressing the effects of CD25. And elevated IL-6 has been found to be associated with the chronic form of sarcoidosis. And, as we previously described, Benicar may be capable of lowering levels of IL-6. Thus, suppression of IL-6 by Benicar may be one way that the MP treatment specifically helps sarcoidosis. However, there are actually many unique ways that the MP treatment that could help sarcoidosis. But before I describe those, it will be helpful to first know about factors that influence granulomas. The MP may not necessarily help all TH1 conditions, but there are reasons to believe that it has effects that may specifically help granulomatosis diseases. Sarcoidosis is a granulomatosis disease with many complex features, the obvious one being the granulomas themselves. Knowing how granulomas are formed and sustained, can help one to better understand how ARBs and vitamin D affect sarcoidosis. The quotes below, describe some of what is known about the granuloma formation. While it’s a bit wordy, I think it’s worthwhile for people to read, to see how unique and complicated the granuloma process is. But feel free to skip to the next section. The quotes were taken from the following article: Immunology Letters,Volume 92, Issues 1-2 , 29 March 2004, Pages 135-142 T cell contributions to the different phases of granuloma formation “Primarily, granuloma formation is a protective response to chronic infections with persistent pathogens. The function of the granuloma in infection is to contain the pathogen, thereby preventing dissemination of the organism and restricting the inflammation to protect surrounding healthy tissue. Nevertheless, chronic granulomatous inflammation can cause damage and fibrosis to surrounding tissue.” “The process of granuloma formation can be divided into four phases: initiation, accumulation, effector, and resolution. Each of these phases involves T cells, which are absolutely required for the formation of the delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) granuloma. During initiation, macrophages are attracted to the persistent inflammatory stimulus and begin to nucleate the granulomatous lesion. During accumulation, CD4+ T cells accumulate at the site and recruit other effector cells, including T cells, more macrophages and in some cases eosinophils. The accumulation phase is critical in granuloma formation, since without CD4+ T cells, the nascent lesion would not mature through the accumulation of effector cells. During the effector phase, various effector cells attempt to reduce the pathogen load through diverse mechanisms. Finally, once the threat from the pathogen has been reduced or eliminated, the infiltrating cell population is reduced and the formation of scar tissue is induced. “ “During the initiation phase, the basic structure of the granuloma is established by recruitment of specific cell types. Similarly, during the accumulation phase, effector cells are recruited to destroy the pathogen and strengthen the structure of the granuloma.” “Macrophages are a natural choice for the central mediator of initiation, since they are part of the innate immune system and are recruited early to the inflammatory site without the need for specific antigen recognition.“ “The involvement of T cells in initiation is more controversial, since it is generally expected that T cells require time for antigen presentation and subsequent activation before they can respond. In contrast to controlled experimental infections, T cells in an organism in the real world are constantly being activated in response to other antigenic challenges. Thus, it is possible that non-granuloma antigen-specific T cells may infiltrate and participate. Thus, while macrophages are likely to play the primary role in initiating granuloma formation, in a complex world of multiple infections, non-specific T cells may also play an auxiliary role. In summary, initiation is the least understood phase of granuloma formation. Whether different granulomas initiate by a common mechanisms or by different mechanisms such as frustrated phagocytosis, macrophage fusion or T cell induced macrophage activation remains to be seen.” “In contrast to initiation, much more is known about the accumulation phase of the granulomatous response. While macrophages continue to have a significant role in inducing chemokines and adhesion molecules, CD4+ T cells are known to play the central role in recruiting and organizing effector cells at the site of granuloma formation” “Intuitively, the accumulation of infiltrating cells at the developing granuloma is determined by the number of cells entering the granuloma balanced by the number of cells leaving the granuloma. Cells can be recruited to the granuloma from the circulation under the influence of chemokines and adhesion molecules. Recruitment is probably the major mechanism controlling the cellular composition of the granuloma, but survival may also contribute. “ “TNF has long been recognized for its important role in granuloma integrity. Recent evidence indicates that some of its effect may be mediated through regulation of cell recruitment. Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice, which lack B and T cells, are unable to form granulomas around schistosome eggs deposited during infection, but administration of exogenous TNF restores granulomas. This is likely to result from impaired chemokine secretion and recruitment of macrophages. In addition, though TNF has no chemoattractant ability of its own, it has been shown to cooperate with other chemokines in vitro to arrest the migration of T cells. Thus, TNF may aid in retaining T cells at the developing granuloma site.” “While trafficking of cells to the granuloma is the main mechanism of accumulation in the granuloma, inhibition of apoptosis may also play a role. Granulomas are a site of intense inflammation where cells will eventually die, but the kinetics of death can be regulated by altering the apoptotic sensitivity for a population of granuloma-residing cells. This can contribute to the life span and character of the local inflammation.” “Ideally, in an infection, the immune system specifically recognizes the invading pathogen and directs T cells specific for that pathogen to the inflammatory site. However, it is clear that, while initial T cell infiltration will be specific for local antigen, chronic inflammation, such as granulomas, will allow the recruitment of non-specific T cells. “ The data from various studies “favor a model of granuloma formation in which a few local antigen-specific T cell can initiate granuloma formation, followed by the arrival of non-specific T cells to the site. The proportion of local antigen-specific T cells can range from none to dominant in different granuloma models. In infectious granulomas where this is a strong systemic immune response, pathogen-specific T cells may dominate.” “CD4+ T cells are essential to granuloma formation and function. In addition to their roles in the initiation and accumulation phases, CD4+ T cells are also thought to have important direct effector functions. In Th1 type granulomas as exemplified by tuberculous granulomas, CD4+ T cells are the main source of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and augment the production of TNF by macrophages. IFN-γ is thought to activate macrophages to kill intracellular infections via acidification of the phagosomal compartment housing the infection and production of NO, which is thought to have potent bactericidal effects. CD4+ T cells must have roles other than NO induction, since CD4-deficient mice have poor granuloma formation and high mycobacterial loads despite near normal levels of IFN-γ and NO. IFN-γ appears to synergize with TNF to achieve bacterial control. Mice deficient in TNF form loose granulomas, which poorly control bacterial numbers. In summary, CD4+ T cells play an important role in the effector phase both by recruiting other effector cells and by secretion of effector cytokines.” “Resolution of granuloma formation ends in fibrosis. Fibrosis serves to wall off the granuloma contents and is part of both the wound healing response and organ damage. Two cytokines have been implicated in granulomatous fibrosis, TGF-β and more recently, IL-13, both produced by a population of granuloma-homing T cells. TGF-β has also been found in fibrotic granulomas of human tuberculosis and sarcoidosis patients. “ Granulomas have a vital role in fighting severe forms of infections. But when granulomas don’t resolve on their own, or if the granuloma response is inappropriate for the presenting pathogen, or if the resulting inflammation is the source of severe effects, granuloma suppression is desirable. One then needs to use methods that lowers the immune system activity that drives granuloma formation. One way of reducing granuloma activity is by blocking angiotensin II. Blocking of angiotensin II has been found to significantly decrease IFN-gamma production of T cells, by 30% in one study. This is significant, given that IFN-gamma is necessary for production of 1,25(OH)2D by macrophages in sarcoidosis. Interestingly, while it was known as far back as 1987 that angiotensin II can increase T cell production of IFN-gamma production, it's only been in the last few years that studies have been published regarding blocking this effect, in relation to treating inflammatory diseases. There are several ways that T cells can become activated, which then leads to production of IFN-gamma. One way is due to the actions of dendritic immune cells (DCs). Dendritic cells “are highly specialized antigen-presenting cells with a unique ability to activate resting T lymphocytes”. “Dendritic cells constantly sample the surroundings for pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. Once they have come into contact with such a pathogen, they become activated into mature dendritic cells.” They then are induced “to travel through the blood stream to the spleen or through the lymphatic system to a lymph node. Here they act as antigen-presenting cells: they activate helper T-cells and killer T-cells as well as B-cells by presenting them with antigens derived from the pathogen. Every helper T-cell is specific to one particular antigen. Only professional antigen-presenting cells (macrophages, B lymphocytes, and dendritic cells) are able to activate a helper T-cell which has never encountered its antigen before. Dendritic cells are the most potent of all the antigen-presenting cells.” DCs may play an important role in autoimmune diseases such as sarcoidosis and Crohn’s, as studies show that DCs are present at the sites of inflammation in these diseases, rather than the spleen or lymph nodes. A recent study on sarcoidosis has concluded “unequivocally that DCs infiltrate into sarcoid granulomas in humans.” It was found that “the number of total blood DCs was significantly decreased in patients with sarcoidosis.” “A number of mature DCs infiltrated exclusively into the lymphocyte layer of the sarcoid granuloma. The decrease in immature blood DCs and the accumulation of mature DCs in the granuloma suggest that DCs experience a maturation process during or after their movement from the blood to the granuloma.” “It is hypothesized that the migrating DCs may regulate the T cell response in sarcoidosis”. “These findings suggest that the blood DC subsets may migrate into the affected tissues, contributing to the formation of the granulomas in sarcoidosis.” Dendritic cells, like macrophages, produce ACE, and therefore angiotensin II. In fact, one study showed that DCs “expressed the highest level of ACE per cell among the human cells tested.” DCs also contain angiotensin II receptors. In a lab study, pre-incubation of DCs with angiotensin II increased the production of TNF-α by 80% and IL-6 by 50%. Thus, blocking angiotensin II can reduce TH1 cytokine production by DCs. Not only that, but angiotensin II can also affect the differentiation of DCs, so that blocking angiotensin II via ARBs, results in dendritic cells that are less active. A reduction of dendritic cell activity via Benicar may be able another way that it helps sarcoidosis. 1,25(OH)2D also plays a role in the activity of dendritic cells, but its effects are opposite to that of angiotensin II. 1,25(OH)2D affects the differentiation of DCs, both by preventing the generation of DCs from monocytes, and also redirecting already differentiated DCs toward a more immature stage, which promotes tolerance in the immune system, rather than activating T cells. However, the more mature a DC becomes, the less responsive it is to the effects of 1,25(OH)2D. It’s thus likely that the effects from angiotensin II, combined with other factors, offsets the effects of 1,25(OH)2D, resulting in the accumulation of mature DCs into granulomas, promoting their formation, and elevating TH1 responses and inflammation. And not only are mature DCs unaffected by 1,25(OH)2D, but they also produce 1,25(OH)2D themselves, just like macrophages do. Another effect of 1,25(OH)2D is to increase the macrophage production of ICAM-1. ICAM-1 is “a cytokineinducible adhesion molecule that can be expressed on a variety of cells during inflammation. ICAM-1 is supposed to be of primary importance with regard to both cell recruitment and cell-cell interaction in the lung in various pulmonary diseases.” It “plays a major part in leukocyte homing to sites of chronic inflammation, which is a crucial step during the inflammatory response.” However, the study of 1,25(OH)2D’s effect on ICAM-1, demonstrated that “the expression of ICAM-1 on AM [alveolar macrophages] from patients with sarcoidosis is up-regulated and reflects disease activity in the pulmonary compartment. ICAM-1 plays a major role in granuloma formation.” ICAM-1 is very important in providing a proper granuloma immune response against infections. However, the study on ICAM-1 and sarcoidosis, concluded that “considering the role of ICAM-1 in cell-cell interaction, an increased release of 1,25-(OH)2D2 in granulomatous lung diseases may provide an amplifying loop in the immune response. It may contribute to the perpetuation of the alveolitis and subsequent formation of granulomata in sarcoidosis.” Besides recruitment of immune cells, 1,25(OH)2D may also play a role in the regulation of apoptosis (cell death) in granulomas. Apoptosis is known to be decreased in sarcoidosis, and one study has shown that the expression of the protein p21 is upregulated in sarcoid macrophages. P21 is an important regulator of the cell cycle, and 1,25(OH)2D is a potent upregulator of p21. Thus, 1,25(OH)2D may also contribute to granuloma formation via the reduction of apotosis (note, in cancer cells, p21 induces apoptosis, which is one reason why 1,25(OH)2D is believed to have anti-cancer properties). Thus, in sarcoidosis, a reduction of 1,25(OH)2D could be specifically helpful, by reducing factors that promote granuloma formation. The importance of T cells in granuloma formation and inflammatory conditions, is well illustrated in AIDS patients. Granulomas are rare in AIDS. The TH1 immune system is depressed, with low amounts of the TH1 cytokine IL-12, and low levels of CD4 T cells. Additionally, serum 1,25(OH)2D is often either severely depressed, or totally non-existent (possibly due to certain HIV drugs that prevent 1,25(OH)2D production). Serum ACE is sometimes elevated, but this is most likely due to the widespread renal disease that occurs in association with However, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in AIDS have been triggered by using therapies that increase the immune system, such as the HAART therapy. Cases of sarcoidosis, excess 1,25(OH)2D production, and hypercalcemia, have been known to occur in conjunction with HAART. These cases seem to occur when CD4 levels are raised to a certain level. However, even at that level, CD4 levels are still quite low. So how could such a strong immune response like sarcoidosis, occur in a suppressed immune system? I believe it is due to something that AIDS, sarcoidosis, and if Crohn's all have in common, which is that TNF-alpha is elevated, and that it plays a major role in all these diseases. Elevated TNF-alpha is often a marker for activated macrophages. Macrophages are activated in AIDS, sarcoidosis, and other inflammatory conditions, and macrophages are a significant source of TNF-alpha. TNF-alpha is also an essential component in granulomatous diseases, such as sarcoidosis. TNF-alpha is necessary for the formation of granulomas. One study has shown that the release of TNF-alpha by macrophages was much better at predicting the prognosis of the sarcoidosis, than ACE. Crohn's disease is also associated with granulomas. Not only are intestinal granulomas quite commonly found, but granuloma skin lesions occur in a significant percentage of patients. These skin granulomas can occur, even when intestinal symptoms are not present. This is not surprising, given that TNF-alpha levels are still very high, even when the disease is in remission. The TNF-alpha inhibitor drug Infliximab, has been successfully used to treat several diseases where excess TNF-alpha is present. However, TNF-alpha inhibitors do carry risks. For example, tuberculosis, which is another granulomatous disease, is due to a bacteria which often is not actually eradicated from the body, but is simply isolated inside granulomas, causing the disease to became latent. The inhibition of TNF-alpha, can lead to a breakdown of these granulomas, freeing the tuberculosis bacterium, and causing a reactivation of the disease. Proper testing for tuberculosis and other similar granuloma infections can avoid these risks. An increased risk of other types of infections have been noted. However, while the MP claims an increased risk of cancer from this type of treatment, the actual observed increased risk has been found to be very small. Since anti TNF-alpha treatment can lead to the reactivation of tuberculosis, by releasing the bacteria from granulomas, one might speculate that the breakup of granulomas in sarcoidosis, would cause similar adverse effects, if pathogens resided in them. However, infliximab has been used successfully in sarcoidosis, without evidence of immune problems. In fact, infliximab has been able to treat sarcoidosis patients, who did not respond well to the normal treatment of corticosteroids and other immunomodulatory agents. And infliximab has allowed these patients to be able to reduce their use of these other drugs. In pulmonary sarcoidosis, macrophages are believed to be the main source of TNF-alpha. Sarcoidosis patients who are resistant to corticosteroid treatment, often have significantly elevated TNF-alpha secretion from macrophages. Lupus pernio, a skin condition that can sometimes occur with sarcoidosis, has been found to respond to anti-TNF treatment. This condition has been found to be significantly associated with patients who develop the chronic form of sarcoidosis, rather than the form that undergoes remission. But another factor that increases the level of TNF-alpha, is the number of immune cells. T cells such as CD4 are key to granuloma formation. Controlling apoptosis of T cells is apparently very important to proper treatment, as it's been found that the TNF-alpha inhibitors which are the most effective, are the ones that increase CD4 apoptosis. It's interesting to compare sarcoidosis with another granulomous disease, tuberculosis. In both cases, 1,25(OH)2D is produced by the immune system. However, there are some important differences. One is that a lack of vitamin D has been associated with a greater risk of developing tuberculosis. Secondly, decreased IFN-gamma levels in tuberculosis is often associated with more severe symptoms, due to the fact that the immune system is not reacting strong enough to contain the infection. Administration of IFN-gamma appears to have beneficial effects on resistant forms of tuberculosis. On the other hand, therapies that increase IFN-gamma, are known to worsen sarcoidosis. So while both sarcoidosis and tuberculosis are granulomous diseases, in which macrophage production of 1,25(OH)2D occurs, treatment of them is drastically different. Treatment of one involves suppressing the immune system to reduce inflammation, while the other involves stimulating the immune system. One cannot assume that reducing 1,25(OH)2D would be beneficial for any given disease, simply based on the presence of TH1 production of 1,25(OH)2D. When excess 1,25(OH)2D levels occur, it is of course prudent to reduce it. But when that is not the case, it would only make sense to reduce it, if there is a clear indication of excess or dysfunctional macrophage activation. It’s interesting to note, that in a study comparing sarcoidosis and tuberculosis, TNF-alpha was only significantly elevated in the serum and bronchial fluid of sarcoidosis patients, but not in tuberculosis. Additionally, unlike sarcoidosis, where blocking TNF-alpha has been found to be useful, TNF-alpha is essential for the immune system for fighting tuberculosis, and blocking it would worsen the infection. Since 1,25(OH)2D has been found to be useful in fighting tuberculosis, perhaps increased amounts of 1,25(OH)2D are only detrimental, for conditions when TNF-alpha levels are either elevated, and/or not helpful for recovery from the disease. There are many studies indicating that angiotensin II increases TNF-alpha in many organs or cells, such as skeletal muscle, cardiac fibroblasts, monocytes, and the kidneys. ARBs can sometimes reduce TNF-alpha, and this effect appears to be more potent in ARBs than in ACE inhibitors (ACEIs). This might be one reason why the MP claims that only ARBs are useful, and not ACEIs. It would also explain why the protocol believes that Benicar helps to suppress the Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions that occur from bacteria die off. Elevation of TNF-alpha has been shown to occur in a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, and one study has shown that this reaction was suppressed by the anti-TNF drug Inflimixab. Thus, ARBs, and perhaps particularly Benicar, may have a strong ability to suppress TNF-alpha, and this could account for part of their usefulness. Excess TNF-alpha, may be an important factor in bone density loss seen in some TH1 conditions. For example, in a Crohn's study on patients with elevated 1,25(OH)2D, there was a correlation between elevated 1,25(OH)2D levels and decreased bone mass density (BMD). On the other hand, in comparison to Crohn's, a study on BMD in sarcoidosis patients showed much less significant effects from 1,25(OH)2D, except in patients who were older women. Increased levels of 1,25(OH)2D are much more common in sarcoidosis than in Crohn’s, so why the difference? Here's one possible explanation. TNF-alpha levels in Crohn's, are far in excess of levels seen in any other condition (it's 640 times the normal level of TNF-alpha). Excess TNF-alpha production in bone cells, causes bone loss, via several possible different mechanisms. Thus, serum TNF-alpha may have an effect on bone loss, especially if the levels are very high. In fact, a recent study has shown that the anti-TNF drug Inflimixab improves BMD in Crohn's patients. Additionally, the reason that decreased BMD in sarcoidosis mainly only occurs in older women, could possibly be due to the fact that older women are more likely to have decreased estrogen levels, and decreased estrogen is known to increase TNF-alpha production in bones. Thus, perhaps it’s the TNF-alpha, and not elevated 1,25(OH)2D that is the major cause bone loss in these conditions. Indeed, according to a recent lab study, “exogenous 1,25(OH)2D3 increased serum calcium independent of PTH, not due to increased bone resorption, but likely due to increased intestinal calcium absorption in association with increased renal calcium reabsorption facilitated by enhanced expression of renal transporters. Endochondral bone formation was augmented, which emphasizes the important role for the active form of vitamin D in growth and which may indicate an important role for this sterol in facilitating the achievement of peak bone mass. Exogenous administration of 1,25(OH)2D3 also, independently of PTH, increased both cortical and trabecular bone.” Additionally, the MP has attributed many sarcoidosis symptoms, such as pain and fatigue, to the elevated 1,25(OH)2D. However, the symptoms may be related to another problem commonly found in sarcoidosis, known as small fiber neuropathy, or SFN. SFN is a type of neuropathy which is easy to misdiagnose, which is why it's often been overlooked. Common symptoms of SFN are both pain and fatigue, but many other seemingly unrelated symptoms are often associated with it. There are several possible factors that play a role in SFN, and one of the prime factors is TNF-alpha. In fact, a patient with sarcoidosis and SFN, had her SFN successfully treated by anti-TNF alpha therapy. Thus, it’s possible that symptoms attributed to 1,25(OH)2D, are actually due to TNF-alpha.. Beyond the scope of this article, is the possibility that the antibiotics that are used by the MP, may be effective due to their anti-inflammatory and other effects. For example, minocycline is well known to have anti-inflammatory effects, and has been found to be useful in rheumatoid arthritis. It also has neuroprotective and analgesic effects. Zithromax also is known to have anti-inflammatory effects, and it has been found to beneficial for the lung disease cystic fibrosis. Clindamycin may also have anti-inflammatory effects. Some studies show that its anti-inflammatory effects require very high concentrations. However, these effects might still be present in the MP, because clindamycin concentrations in lung macrophages has been found to be huge, due to an active transport process into the cells. Interestingly though, clindamycin’s ability to fight certain intracellular bacteria was shown to be very low. Perhaps it’s effectiveness in the MP, therefore, is not due to it’s ability to fight intracellular bacteria, but is due to other abilities, such as it’s anti-inflammatory effects. Also, even if the anti-inflammatory effects of these antibiotics is individually low, perhaps the effect is much stronger when combined together, as recommended by the MP. As an aside, the MP claims that using these 3 antibiotics together provides superior bacteria killing, because they act in different ways. It is true that combining antibiotics with different modes of action is often more effective than using a single antibiotic. Minocycline is a tetracycline antibiotic, while zithromax and clindamycin are two different forms of macrolides. They do indeed act somewhat differently, in that they bind to different areas of bacteria RNA. Nevertheless, their main mode of action is still similar, i.e. they act by inhibiting protein synthesis. And because of this similarity, if bacterial resistance to one of these drugs occurs, resistance to one of the drugs may also occur. This cross resistance not only occurs between macrolides, but it also occurs between macrolides and tetracyclines, “mostly because their major resistance determinants are carried on the same mobile element.” Indeed, for some infections, resistance to macrolides is much more likely to occur, when the macrolides are combined with tetracyclines. And even if cross resistance doesn’t occur, the overuse of macrolides is known to result in resistant bacteria. According to a recent article: “Macrolide use is the single most important driver of the emergence of macrolide resistance in vivo. Physicians prescribing antibiotics should take into account the striking ecological side-effects of such antibiotics.” According to people’s experiences of the MP, as recorded on the web, the MP treatment does appear to help some people with sarcoidosis. It may also be helping other conditions, but if it does, there is no guarantee that it is working in the same way that it helps sarcoidosis. This is because Benicar has many effects that could be beneficial for a host of different conditions. And antibiotics have long been known to be beneficial for some of the conditions that the MP claims to treat. It may be possible that either one or both of these remedies may be the primary reasons for the benefits of the MP for some people. The lowering of vitamin D levels may not necessarily be a factor. However, there is no way of knowing this, given that people who start the MP are first told to reduce their vitamin D, before they start take Benicar and antibiotics. Also, it is invalid to claim that feeling good on the MP proves that reducing vitamin D helps. This is because many of the effects of a vitamin D deficiency can be offset by simple measures. For example, the major negative effect of a vitamin D deficiency, which is reduced calcium absorption and increased PTH levels, can mostly be offset by supplementing with sufficient calcium. Other possible negative effects from a vitamin D deficiency, such as insulin resistance and increased cancer rates, might be offset by the positive effects which Benicar has on these conditions. And the reduced infection fighting ability of vitamin D, can be offset by the antibiotics that are used by the MP. Thus, the negative aspects of a vitamin D deficiency are likely being offset by the MP treatment. Therefore, the fact that some people are doing well on the MP, doesn’t necessarily mean that the decrease in vitamin D is necessary. And since everybody on the MP reduces their vitamin D level, there is no way of knowing whether this aspect of the treatment plan is necessary for every condition. And now, congratulations to anyone who has actually read everything up to here. I’m glad someone found it interesting enough to read. If you have questions about any medical condition and treatments for them, I highly suggest that you not only learn how to use PUBMED, but also visit sites such as groups.yahoo.com,, where you can find many discussion groups on just about every known health condition out there, and where you might find people who used to be on the MP treatment. Mark London MRL@PSFC.MIT.EDU

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Global environmental issues on the agenda at conservation summit in South Korea By Summit Voice SUMMIT COUNTY — When it comes to the global environment, there’s no shortage of issues to discuss, so delegates to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s quadrennial summit meeting should have plenty to talk about the next 10 days. This edition of the congress starts today on on Jeju Island, South Korea, with 8,000 people from more than 170 countries on-hand to tackle some of the most pressing environmental issues facing the planet. The congress brings together government and non-governmental organizations, scientists, business and community leaders. Follow the proceedings at the IUCN’s twitter hub. “Nature is inherently strong, but we must improve how quickly nature and people adapt to change,” said IUCN director-general Julia Marton-Lefèvre. “If we strengthen nature, we’ll see that ecosystems are more resilient and people, communities and economies are healthier.” Along with updates to the IUCN Red List of endangered species, the agenda includes discussions on growing threats to tuna populations, new data on coral reef destruction and the urgent need to stop countries making false claims on ocean protection. Some local issues are also on the table, with Korean and German experts debating how to use the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, and its surprisingly intact nature, to promote peace, referencing experiences from the former iron curtain. Across the border, replanting and rehabilitating the destroyed forests of North Korea will also be addressed. Some key themes: • Conservation works: “The slowness of global decision making on environmental issues belies what’s really happening on the ground. Many local results show that investing in nature and restoring natural areas brings social and economic returns. Even if every success isn’t replicable across all ecosystems, cultures or political systems, they point the way to making nature more resilient globally,” ~Enrique Lahmann, IUCN Congress Director. • Nature provides solutions to climate change adaptation. “Ecosystem-based adaptation is a cost effective, no-regrets solution that governments ought to incorporate proactively into national policies and take immediate action to implement on the ground,” Improving the management of river systems, coral reefs, mangroves and forests all tangibly improve the resilience of neighboring communities to deal with both the sudden and long-term consequences of climate change.” ~ Chong-Chun Kim, Secretary General of the Korean Organizing Committee. “ Nature+ is about boosting natural resilience. “Nature is inherently strong, but we must improve how quickly nature and people adapt to change. “If we strengthen nature, we’ll see that ecosystems are more resilient and people, communities and economies are healthier.” ~ Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN.

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- Eclipse in a Different Light - In Path of Totality: Measuring Angular Size and Distance, students learn about the natural phenomena that create a total eclipse. Students also explore the history, mythology, science, and math that relate to these amazing events. NASA scientists and engineers introduce a satellite where scientists make artificial eclipses in order to learn more about the Sun's corona. Using hands-on lessons, web-based activities and simple tools, students will measure the angular size and predict the angular distance of objects in the sky. - Ancient Observatories: Timeless Knowledge - In Ancient Observatories: Timeless Knowledge, students will learn how cultures from ancient times to the present have used the Sun and other objects in the sky to mark the passage of time. They will see how archaeoastronomers use ancient observatories to predict seasons and special events. Using simple tools of geometry and the angle bisector method, students will measure the movement of the Sun and find solar noon for their location. By conducting inquiry-based and web activities, students will make connections between NASA research and the mathematics, science, and technology they learn in their classrooms. - Venus Transit - In the Venus Transit, students will learn about the importance of using scale models to represent the size and distance of objects in the solar system and beyond. They will be introduced to the astronomical unit (AU), the baseline distance from the Earth to the Sun, which astronomers use to determine the relative distances from the Earth to other planets, stars, asteroids, and objects in space. They will also discover fascinating facts about the Venus Transit, a celestial and historical event, which helped astronomers determine the scale of the solar system. By conducting inquiry-based and web activities, students will make connections between NASA research and the mathematics, science, and technology they learn in their classrooms. - Dancing in the Night Sky - In Dancing in the Night Sky, students will learn about the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. They will learn the many legends and myths that have revolved around the aurora throughout the history of mankind. Students will also discover how NASA scientists and engineers use satellite technology to measure and analyze aurora data. They will see how Norwegian scientists apply the concepts of data analysis and measurement to study the Northern Lights by using ground-based instruments and sounding rockets. By conducting hands-on and web activities, students will make connections between NASA research and the mathematics, science, and technology they learn in their classrooms. - Having a Solar Blast NASA engineers and researchers use data analysis and measurement to predict solar storms, anticipate how they will affect the Earth, and improve our understanding of the Sun-Earth system. Mathematics: data analysis, measurement Science: science as inquiry, unifying concepts and processes, physical science, Earth and space science, science and technology, science in personal and social perspectives NASA Research: Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) Be sure to keep you eye on NASA TV for the latest updates and information on programs featuring Sun-Earth Connection science! You will also find a multitude of resources including the following: - Daily NASA Television Programming Schedule: This is the standard programming schedule for NASA Television, updated weekly. Programming may be preempted at any time for coverage of live events. Click on the "Live Events" link below for updates. - Live Events, News and Special Event Programs: This schedule lists press conferences, mission coverage, employee events and Agency special event coverage and is updated frequently. - NASA Television Video file: This advisory to the news media describes the most current audio and video resource material of Agency events. The advisory is updated frequently. The video file airs at 12 p.m. (EST or EDT), with replays at 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m., 12 a.m., 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. - Education File: This schedule of programming is specifically designed for students and teachers. The Educational File airs weekdays from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. On weekends, the Education File airs from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.(EDT or EST) Education file may be preempted by other events. Space Weather Fact The March 13, 1989 Quebec blackout, the result of a major geomagnetic storm, caused a $6 billion loss to the Canadian economy.

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Gentle reminder: Actually, to provide a better answer for the rest of the community, please don't say something like "Do not talk about the four types of memory", as even if you know it well, there may be a thousand and one citizens of the internet arriving here hoping for a collateral answer :) EDIT: Paging is the accurate term for the following action. swapping is used colloquially for paging, quite interchangably these days, though. swapping originally refers to moving of a program's memory space completely onto "secondary storage" (as opposed to "main storage", which is an archaic term for... RAM, in a way). The boundary between paging and swapping, is considerably blurred by windows and UNIX systems calling the paging space swaps. And then, one must know about paging in order to understand the concept of active, wired and inactive memory. Paging means that the memory page is moved out of random access memory (i.e. the RAM) and onto the harddisk. this allows the running application to, in total, request more memory than the amount of system ram available. Note that although paging out means a huge performance penalty to access that particular bit of information again, paging can occur in two different cases: (Quoting myself: Disadvantages of not having a swap partition) - When there is not ENOUGH memory for all applications - in the case where this happen to a system without swapspace, it will cause failure to allocate memory for new application requesting new memory pages - and this usually result in termination of the program - When some memory pages (memory is divided into 'pages') is used some time ago, but is no longer used now, it would be transferred on the swapfile and the remaining memory can be used to do something else which could be more useful (e.g. even caching!) - when this happen in a system without swapspace, this will result in idle pages being staying in memory. This is nothing too serious though, as we have pretty large amount of memory these days... The four types of memory are classified as follows: Wired: Used by an application that claims that the chunk of allocated memory must stay physically in RAM, and not swappable onto disk no matter it is recently used or not. i.e. another application may NOT request that particular trunk of memory. Examples are part of the memory utilized by the system, and that used by virtual machines. Active & Inactive: These are memory used usually by user-mode applications, in which they are swappable onto disks. Active means that it is recently used, and Inactive means that they are not recently used. The operating system thus would swap out inactive first, and then active later if necessary. Free memory: Memory that aren't used. They are used for other purposes such as caching of the harddisk. If your question is in a dire situation where memory is inadequate, what sequence would the system allocate to a new application, then the sequence would be to allocate free memory → inactive memory → active memory In a sense, even recently used memory could be paged, The 'wired' part is what would not be paged out at all costs. In modern systems though, it is rather unlikely that active memory got paged out as we have plenty of RAM available.

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In is inexcusable that a sluggish U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may sabotage a key effort to revive the Everglades and drastically reduce coastal pollution. The Corps’ Civil Works Review Board this week surprised state officials and environmentalists by refusing to approve the Central Everglades Planning Project, which would clean up water from Lake Okeechobee and release it into the Everglades. Now excess water is dumped into the Caloosahatchee River on the west coast and the St. Lucie River on the east coast. The delay could be devastating because Congress plans to develop a water bill this summer, and the last such bill was passed in 2007. Florida officials were optimistic Congress would split the costs of the $2 billion project. Now, thanks to the dawdling Corps, federal funds for the effort could be lost for years. Gov. Rick Scott rightly urged the Corps to quickly reconsider. Noting that the rainy season that results in harmful Okeechobee discharges is rapidly approaching, Scott said that though the state had collaborated on the cleanup plan with its federal and local partners, “the federal government added more bureaucratic hurdles in our efforts to restore water quality ...” Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, also castigated the Corps’ lackadaisical attitude: “Ignoring last summer’s environmental and economic destruction, caused by the Corps of Engineers dumping of billions of gallons of polluted water into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries, the Corps is showing callous disregard for the people and businesses.” It is not as if the Army Corps did not know the importance of approving the project in time to be considered in the congressional water bill. And the agency is familiar with the plan and knows the importance of avoiding massive discharges of polluted water from the lake. The water is dumped as a safeguard against flooding but has proved devastating to both coasts, resulting in algae blooms, fish kills, dying seagrass beds and unsafe bacteria levels. It has been blamed for the deaths of manatees, dolphins and pelicans. Yet corps officials told a Sun Sentinel reporter that getting the review done in time to allow the project to be included in the federal water bill is not their priority. Nobody expects a rubber stamp, but as Scott points out, Florida has worked with federal officials throughout the process. There is no need for delay. The Central Everglades Planning Project would improve Everglades wildlife habitat and augment South Florida’s drinking water supplies. In contrast, continuing to send the water to the coasts is damaging to the environment and the economy. Scott is precisely right. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Review Board bureaucrats desperately need a sense of “urgency.”

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New Mammal Discovered An illustration, released by World Wildlife Fund Indonesia, shows a possible new species of mammal, called Red Bornean carnivore. (Photo: Wahyu Gumelar/World Wildlife Fund Indonesia/AP Wide World) By Gail Hennessey December 12, 2005Lurking in the mountains and rainforests of Borneo, an island of Indonesia, is a mysterious new creature. Scientists are excited by the possibility that it may be a new species of mammal never seen before. Recently photographed by a camera trap in an area called the "Heart of Borneo," the mammal may be the first new species found there in about a hundred years. Larger than a house cat, with dark red fur and a long bushy tail, the mammal spends a lot of time in trees. This could be why it hasn't been spotted before, scientists say. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) hopes to capture one of the mysterious creatures to determine whether it is indeed a new species. "Until we have a live specimen in our hands, we can't be 100 percent sure. Now, I'm only 90 percent sure," said Stephan Wulffraat, a Dutch biologist coordinating the search. Researchers are setting fur traps next to camera traps. The fur traps will snag a patch of the animal's hair for DNA testing. Camera traps, relying on infrared beams set up along forest paths, will take photographs when the animal trips the beam. New and in Danger The new find may be in for trouble from an old problem: destruction of habitat. The government of Indonesia plans to build the world's largest palm oil plantation in Borneo. "There is a message beyond the discovery of this animal," Nita Irawati Murjani told Scholastic News Online. Murjani is the International Communications Officer for the WWF. "That is the importance to save the Heart of Borneo, a proposed conservation area, which is predominated by mountainous regions covered by very large interconnected rain forests. By protecting this area, it will ensure the survival of Borneo's unique biodiversity." More than 360 new species, mostly insects and plants, have been discovered on Borneo since 1994. The last mammal found in Borneo was the ferret-badger in 1895. With the island currently boasting 44 mammals that can't be found anywhere else in the world, scientists are excited to increase that number by one. RELATED WEB SITES Borneo: Island in the Clouds Explore this Web site to learn about the unique history and geography of Borneo. Check out our Scholastic News Special Report to learn about endangered species and the importance of conservation. KID TO KID NEWS Listen to what kids have to say about today's top stories.

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Recommended Grades: 4-6 Using an adorable panda, Koo, Jon J. Muth challenges readers to stretch their minds and imaginations with twenty-six haiku about the four seasons. In the author’s note, Muth explains that haiku has evolved over time and now poets no longer adhere to the rigid structure of 5-7-5 syllables. Instead, Muth uses sensory images to capture a moment of emotion in words. Mentor Text: Author’s Craft/Word Choice: Read aloud Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons and discuss how haiku has evolved over time. Look at several of the haiku and talk about Muth’s use of sensory details instead of the typical 5-7-5 syllable structure. Using Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons as a mentor text for author’s craft, encourage students to write haiku that develops through sensory images, instead of the traditional, rigid 5-7-5 syllable structure. ©2014 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.

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I have long been fascinated with the Northern Lights - aka, the Aurora Borealis. As we approach the maximum activity levels of the current solar cycle, there is hardly a week goes by that there is not some solar event that contributes to some spectacular views in the skies of the very northernmost latitudes. Unfortunately, despite many trips up north, I have typically traveled (a) during the summer, when long days and short nights interfere with viewing, (b) during cloudy, rainy weather, and (c) during solar minima when the sun does not generate the proper conditions for aurorae. And yet, this winter produced some absolutely fantastic views, and I'll provide a link below that can lead you to some of those pictures. On at least one occasions, a red or green aurora glow could be seen as far south in the U.S. as Huntsville, Alabama. If you know anything about the conditions that produce aurorae, you'll understand that seeing effects that far south is pretty unusual. |Sunspot AR1476 over Paris, 5/10/12, photo by "VegaStar-Carpentier"| Spaceweather.com is the site I visit first to learn what sunspots are active, whether there are going to be optimum conditions for aurorae, whether the solar wind is likely to generate geomagnetic storms which interfere with electromagnetic broadcasts and power. It's also an excellent site to find pictures of Aurora Borealis, sunspots (like the one above, showing the "Hawaii"-shaped sunspot AR1476 which was large enough to be seen by naked eye at sunset, photo from Spaceweather.com Realtime Image Gallery #65105), the recent annular solar eclipse, International Space Station sightings, and learn of meteor showers and near-Earth asteroids. It is through the Spaceweather site that I learned of this incredible photo montage of this past winter's Northern Lights. Two other sites that I visit for additional information are Solarham.net and NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. Solarham provides a lot of detailed technical information, since solar activity has profound effects on amateur ("Ham") radio function. The "Satellite Displays" function on the NOAA site provides some interesting pictures, including the POES Auroral Maps which show intensity of aurora activity over both the north and south hemispheres. If you're looking at these sites and trying to figure out what "K-Index" means, or why a "North" Bz means no aurora, I suggest you head on over to Stephanie Osborn's Comet Tales blog to learn more about it. With more than 20 years in the military and civilian space program, Stephanie has a way of explaining solar and astronomical phenomena that is as easy to read as her novels. Don't be like COL Jack O'Neill of Stargate SG-1 and shout "Coronas1", learn about Corona Mass Ejections (CMEs) and the major consequences that they can produce here on Earth. Stephanie is the one who introduced me to the sites I have mentioned here, and I just can't thank her enough. In fact, I'm going to plug her upcoming book: "The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Rendlesham Incident" due out later this year. I have reviewed Steph's first two novels which find Sherlock Holmes displaced to the 21st century here, and I can't wait for the next. Visit her website for more information. So, until next time - look up! (but not directly into the sun) and fill your brain with the greatest wonder in our sky.

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Monthly Archives: October 2007 The Reformation was a political and religious movement in Europe that began in the 1500′s and lasted for roughly 150 years. It is difficult to pinpoint exact starting and ending dates for the Reformation, but we can point to two events that seem to begin and to culminate the Reformation era: 1517 (Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and his protest against the indulgence system of the Roman Catholic Church) and 1648 (The Peace of Westphalia, treaties that ended both the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War and thus put an end to most of the civil disruption caused by the religious movement). 1. Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (October 31, 1517) It has been argued that the importance of Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg is often overestimated, since all public disputations were promoted in this manner. Furthermore, it is evident from the 95 Theses that Luther’s decisive break with Rome is not yet clear. He upholds the indulgence system, papal authority, and the existence of purgatory. Yet, this crucial event deserves to be at the forefront of any discussion on important Reformation events because it is the spark that led to the flames of revolution. Luther’s 95 Theses were published, printed, and disseminated into Europe, and the publication ignited a religious fervor that exploded across Germany and beyond. 2. The Marburg Colloquy (1529) Luther and Zwingli’s discussion of the theology of the Lord’s Supper may seem an odd choice for the 2nd … The Reformation was, in many ways, a politically-motivated religious movement of the 16th century. Even Roman Catholics today affirm that the Church of the time was in desperate need of reform. Yet, Martin Luther came to understand that the true dividing line between him and Rome was not in papal authority, the sale of indulgences, the existence of purgatory, or even the place of tradition. The fundamental difference was found in how the gospel worked… in other words, on what basis is a person justified before God? Infusion versus Imputation The Protestants differed from Roman Catholic on justification in several important ways. First, they believed that justification was a declaration of righteousness made by God regarding human beings. They countered the Catholic notion that justification was God’s action of “making” someone righteous by infusing grace into them. Instead, justification was being “declared” righteous, not being “made” righteous. The Protestants believed that righteousness was not infused into the believer, but imputed to the believer. In other words, God justifies sinners by seeing them as righteous on account of Christ’s righteousness reckoned or imputed to them. How does God justify the ungodly? By declaring an ungodly person as “righteous” based on the righteousness of someone else. God does not accept sinners by making them righteous, or by giving them heavenly grace, but solely on the basis of the death and resurrection of His Son in the place of the sinner. Christ’s death was the moment in which he took our sins upon himself and died a … “The road to the future runs through the past.” So says the late Robert Webber in the first book of his Ancient-Future series. In Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, Webber encourages evangelicals to return to the model of the early church as a way to bring renewal and guidance to our churches as we navigate through the murky seas of postmodernism. (To read my interview with Dr. Webber shortly before he died, click here.) Ancient-Future Faith is a thought-provoking book with many good insights. Webber’s knowledge of history and theology ground this book in the need for corporate worship that is focused on God, a church that understands itself as the body of Christ, and an evangelistic outlook as a process of discipleship. What I Liked Webber is right to show us how we can learn from the early church. Webber is also right to chastise evangelicals for so quickly dismissing the roots of our history and heritage. There is much to be gleaned from the classical Christian period, even if we have too often neglected our past by choosing instead to chase after the most contemporary expressions of Christianity. Webber rightly emphasizes the importance of discipleship over quick-conversion evangelism. He claims that, for a postmodern world, the church’s witness is the most effective apologetic that we can put forth. He is also right to advocate the recovery of symbolism in our worship services. The generalizations found in Ancient-Future Faith are often misguided. Webber’s charts, diagrams, and tables comparing the current worldview … Only a few short months passed once I had discerned God’s call on my life to Romania. In September 2000, the big day arrived. I said goodbye to my brothers and sisters, boarded a plane with my parents, and headed overseas with a one-way ticket. During the trip, I kept asking myself, What are you doing? I was a bright-eyed, naïve nineteen-year-old heading over to a third-world country, with almost no knowledge of the language. I had no ties with any missionary agency; nor was I commissioned and sent out as a representative of my church. I had no salary and no way to support myself, except to live off the savings I had accumulated during my year of work between high school and college. I had no close friends in Romania, only a handful of acquaintances. I had no idea exactly when I would be returning to the U.S., only that my place of residence would be a foreign country and a university campus. I wasn’t scared. The situation didn’t frighten me. I dreaded the loneliness that would overwhelm me in a few days when I said goodbye to my parents and they headed back to the States. I dreaded the lack of knowledge and the time that would pass before I could speak Romanian fluently. But I wasn’t scared. My decision had been firm. God had led me to this place and I had answered the call. I wasn’t going to look back. My parents spent a week with … “And he (the younger son) was longing to be fed with the pods that the pig ate, and no one gave him anything.” - Jesus, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (Luke 15:16) Jesus’ story about a father and two sons has followed the younger son into a distant country, where he has foolishly squandered away the wealth gained from the family inheritance. Now working for a Gentile, he winds up feeding pigs, and finding he has the same desires as the pigs themselves. Jesus adds that one extra detail that emphasizes the boy’s depraved condition – he has such an intense hunger that he longs to eat pigs’ food. Once we have suppressed our consciences by continually disobeying God’s Law, we lose all sense of moral proportion and begin to follow animalistic instincts. Like the younger son, we’re ready to start eating pigs’ food. Our culture is headed down the road of animalism, with certain beliefs so upside down that some people act more like animals than some trained animals do! The business world is often described as “dog-eat-dog,” where you must claw your way to the top. Perhaps there are few lost people as financially destitute as the younger son in Jesus’ story, but there are nice looking people, beautifully clothed, working in luxurious offices who appear to be upstanding citizens, but who actually behave like animals in the business world. The ruthless instinct based in pride makes people want to tear down anyone who gets in their … “Lord God, You have appointed me to be a pastor in Your Church. You see how unfit I am to undertake this great and difficult office, and were it not for Your help, I would long since have ruined it all. Therefore I cry unto You; I will assuredly apply my mouth and my heart to Your service. I desire to teach the people, and I myself would learn ever more and diligently to meditate upon Your Word. Use me as Your instrument, only do not forsake me, for if I am left alone I shall easily bring it all to destruction. Amen. “ “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” – Martin Luther, the first of the 95 Theses “I began to understand that “the justice of God” meant that justice by which the just man lives through God’s gift, namely faith. This is what it means: the justice of God is revealed by the gospel, a passive justice with which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘He who through faith is just shall live.’ Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” – Martin Luther, 1545 “We are in truth and totally sinners, with regard to ourselves and our first birth. Contrariwise, in so far as Christ has been given for us, we are holy and just totally. Hence from different aspects we are said to be just and sinners at one and the same time.” – Martin Luther “The will is like a beast standing between two riders. If God rides, it wills and goes where God wills… If Satan rides, it wills and goes where Satan wills; nor can it choose to run to either of the two riders or to seek him out, but the riders themselves contend for the possession and control of it.” – Martin Luther “You cast your sins from yourself and onto Christ when you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are you sins, to be borne … Here they are! The top most-visited Kingdom People posts during my first year blogging. Enjoy the very best of Kingdom People! February 8, 2007 I’m sad to announce that the most visited post at Kingdom People in the past year was about the difficult circumstances at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. After visiting the “Saving Bellevue” site, I felt compelled to offer some thoughts about how to handle church problems. Since February, more than 2500 have visited this post alone, most of them sidetracked in their search for the actual Saving Bellevue site. You can imagine the comments that this post generated – on both sides of the debate. January 18, 2007 Everyone likes a good quiz. If you haven’t taken this one, try it now. You know you want to. February 20, 2007 I used to listen to Rob Bell all the time. His current direction worries me. My post about his non-answer to the homosexuality echoes Ben Witherington’s concerns. March 26, 2007 A month after first posting on the Bellevue discussion, I tried to redirect the discussion by asking the question: “What should one … Since Kingdom People is turning 1 this week, I’m taking a break from new posts and “rerunning” links to the top 25 most visited posts from the previous year. We’re in the Top Ten now… each of these are posts that created a lot of comments. Join in the discussion. January 5, 2007 When asked on my Systematic Theology exam what I believed about the “extent” of the atonement, I answered by questioning the question itself. There’s no right answer, because it’s not the right question. Once my exam answer was posted on the blog, it elicited some good comments and feedback. July 23, 2007 My earliest contribution to SaidatSouthern got people talking. Check out some good discussion about our Christian vocabulary. February 28, 2007 In late February, Corina and I were surfing a Romanian tabloid’s website and we found a news story accusing Romanian evangelical leader Paul Negrut of plagiarizing his Ethics course. I had taken the course in 2004 and knew the accusations were false. By telling the other side of the story, I managed to quell the furor that was soon to erupt once the ABP published the story. In celebration of Kingdom People’s first birthday, we’re recapping the previous year by listing the twenty-five most visited posts of the year. July 3, 2007 I know I wasn’t the only person excited to see that Derek Webb had rejoined Caedmon’s Call for their new album, Overdressed – one of the best Caedmon’s albums in years. A couple months before the release, I interviewed band members Todd and Garrett about the album, the band, and the future. June 28, 2007 Chances are, I’m always near a book. When talking to some friends about the benefits of reading “widely” and not only in one Christian tradition, I was struck by the idea: This would be a great post. Apparently, other big bloggers thought so too, and “On Reading Widely” became one of the most popular posts of the year. November 10, 2006 The third post in a series of interviews with converts from Eastern Orthodoxy to evangelicalism and vice versa. This is the post where I analyzed the interviews and discovered sola scriptura to be the major dividing line, or as Theron put it: “the whole house of cards.” November 9, …

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UPDATE: The ban was passed into law by the Parliament of Catalonia on the 28 July 2010, coming into full effect in 2012. The final vote was 68 for the ban, 55 against, with nine abstaining. On 28 October, the conservative nationalist, People’s Party lodged an appeal with the Spanish Constitutional Court on the grounds that the regional parliament has exceeded its powers in banning a practice of national cultural significance. For more detail, see our posts here and here. Bullfighting afficianados have been treated to some spectacularly gory action in 2010. In Spain, in a widely-publicised incident in May, bullfighter Julio Aparicio’s jaw and lower throat were pierced by a bull’s horn which emerged from his mouth. Only one month earlier, Spain’s most charismatic and popular bullfighter, José Tomás, suffered a severe goring in Mexico which required a transfusion of eight litres of blood. The human body normally contains five litres. But despite the inherent risks, only fifty-two toreadors have died in the ring since 1700. Even more recently (13 June 2010) tragedy was echoed as farce when Mexican ‘novillero’ (novice), Christian Hernandez, turned tail and fled the arena [the video at this link really is worth watching] when, after failing to kill his first bull in the allotted time, he dived over the barrier headfirst to escape the second. This is not without precedent. In 1847, José de los Santos fled in fear of a bull in the Valencia ring, leapt over the fence and impaled himself on his own sword. Hernandez’s reward for what many would consider an entirely sensible decision was to be arrested and taken to the local police station for ‘breach of contract’. In a common law country it seems bizarre that someone should be arrested and treated as a suspected criminal for a civil matter but in Mexico it is not irregular. He was released after the payment of a fine and has since announced his retirement from bullfighting. These recent reversals of the usual odds, along with an increasingly vocal and organised protest movement, have intensified a national debate in Spain that has split the country along regional lines between those arguing for the abolition of this ritualised slaughter of bulls and those declaring the bullfight a protected cultural treasure, offering government grants and tax cuts to its promoters. This is an issue charged with political significance as the Catalan region is home to many separatist movements, with bullfighting viewed as emblematic of Spanish colonial culture by both sides. On 18 December 2009, the parliament of Catalonia approved by 67 votes to 59, the preparation of a law to ban bullfighting in the region, initiated in response to a petition signed by 180,000 people calling for it to be banished from the region. The passage of that law is now being debated and the final vote to pass it into law will be cast within the next two months. In Barcelona, the committee set up by Catalonia’s parliament in response to the public petition, has heard such testimony as that of bullfighting advocate and professor at the Sorbonne, Francis Wolff, who sets a new bar for circular argument: They have been conserved as a breed precisely because of their bravery … The only use they have is exactly the one for which they have been bred. Indeed, fighting breeds are the result of centuries of genetic selection by ranchers. To produce the best calves, the breeder tests all their cattle for three traits: encaste (breeding), nobleza (nobility) and bravura (fierceness). According to one breeder: For the females, this is done by taunting the cow with a red cape, which they charge at. Males however aren’t tested with a cape because when they see the cape in the plaza it must be for the first time. Males instead have to charge against a big horse protected with a thick cover and themselves get jabbed in the back to provoke anger, which causes some blood loss. When the Catalonian parliament passed their resolution, the eastern regions of Valencia and Murcia, immediately declared the bullfight part of their protected cultural patrimony, a sacred part of the regional identity. Madrid’s head of the regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, has announced that bullfighting is to be put on the schedule of items of “special cultural value”, protected by law: It is an art-form that deserves to be protected and that has been part of Mediterranean and Spanish culture since time immemorial. This issue also has a high legislative profile within Catalonia where, at the same time the ban is debated, the parliament is also passing measures to protect the correbous, a regional tradition in which burning torches are attached to bulls’ horns and they are sent to run through the streets. The associated practices are extremely cruel. Former bullfighters tell of bulls being intentionally debilitated with tranquillisers and laxatives, beatings to the kidneys, petroleum jelly rubbed into their eyes to blur vision, heavy weights hung around their neck for weeks before the fight, and confinement in darkness for hours before being released into the bright arena. Ninety percent of bulls killed in fights have their horns ‘shaved’ before the fight. Horn shaving involves sawing inches off the horns so that the bull cannot properly judge where they will strike. The killing is highly ritualised. First, the toreador‘s assistants wave large purple capes at the bull to see how it reacts and moves in the bullring. The colour of the cloth actually makes no difference as bulls are colour blind; they go for the cloth because it is a large moving target. Next, two picadores (lancers on horseback) enter the arena with the objective of piercing the neck of the bull to weaken its neck muscles. The horses ridden by the picadores are used as fodder and tend to be old plough horses. They are often drugged and blindfolded, have wet newspaper stuffed in their ears to impair their hearing, and there have been documented cases of their vocal cords being cut so that their cries do not distract the crowd. With this done, three banderilleros take turns stabbing banderillas (small spears with barbed metal tips) into the bull’s neck. Now the bull is significantly weakened from loss of blood as well as its pre-fight trauma and the toreador then attempts to deliver the coup de grâce by drawing a sword and driving it between the neck vertebrae and into the heart. This requires great accuracy and the toreador will usually make several painful attempts, puncturing the lungs with the sword emerging through the ribcage, before successfully piercing the heart. This rarely kills the bull outright but he will bleed to death in front of a cheering crowd within the next few minutes. If he is slower in dying, the full team of bullfighters will move in and stab him until he stops moving. If the kill is ‘clean’, (that is, less agonisingly prolonged than is usual) the matador is rewarded by popular acclaim. A judge will then decide the reward which is comprised of grisly tokens taken from the bull; one ear is good, two ears is better. The ultimate accolade, rarely given, is an award of two ears and the tail. These trophies are cut off the bull as he lies on the sand, often paralysed but not yet dead. Bullfighting is a celebrity culture which places matadors on the same social scale as pop singers and movie stars. This has culminated in such spectacles as a record-seeking exploit to see a 16 year-old, ‘child-prodigy‘ of the ‘art,’ Jairo Miguel Sánchez, be the youngest-ever person to slaughter 6 bulls in an afternoon. Jairo’s life has been spent in pursuit of this goal. According to the Guardian he has: [B]een fighting professionally since he was 12 and … first sank a sword into a living animal when he was eight. Jairo Miguel has been one of the most controversial figures in bullfighting since, at the age of 10, he fought and killed a young bull. He was also gored twice: the first time, when he was 14, he was left with two cracked ribs. A second goring saw a bull’s horn brush his aorta, puncture a lung and penetrate to within an inch of his heart. Spain refuses to license bullfighters before they are 16 and Jairo’s early exploits attracted some significant fines. So Jairo’s former-bullfighter father, Antonio Sánchez, took his 11-year-old son to Latin America to pursue a career as a professional. Interestingly, the crowd cheers for the matador in Spain but in Latin America there is perhaps a stronger identification with the colonised rather than the coloniser and it is the bull that has the support of the audience. All the same, special exceptions to animal welfare laws continue to be made for bullfighting. There are comprehensive circus bans in Bolivia coming into effect next year (more on this in another post) but bullfighting is still permitted as it is hugely popular in the wealthier eastern regions and would require the expenditure of significantly more political capital. In Venezuela, a movement has recently emerged to challenge the tradition and there was an unprecedentedly large protest in Merida this February against the bull fights that are part of the annual “Sun Festival.” Bullfighting resulting in the death of the animal is practiced in only ten countries in the world: Spain (except in the Canary Islands where it has been banned since 1991), France, Panama, Portugal, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Mexico (where there is no age limit for toreadors). A ‘bloodless’ form is legal in the state of California, USA. Cultural traditions are, as a general rule, worth protecting. But a reconciliation with the rights of animals to be free from cruel treatment is urgently required when this preservation allows such anachronisms as the public ritual torture of a sentient being to be passed off as sport and allows conduct that would be completely impermissible under the animal welfare law of the very same country. Although, Spanish animal law varies widely between regions. In Andalucia, there is no law whatsoever prohibiting cruelty to domestic animals but agricultural animals are protected from cruelty throughout Spain by European Union law. It is even more anomalous that Spain should lead the world with federal legislation guaranteeing ‘Great Apes’ (chimpanzees, orang-utans, gorillas and bonobos) a right to life, freedom, and protection from experimentation and torture. But then, there was no known animal experimentation involving great apes being conducted when the law was passed and it certainly did not have a highly-lucrative industry built around it as is the case with bullfighting.

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The underground railroad is neither underground, nor an actual railroad. Underground was akin to today’s deals on the side in that much of it was secret. And railroad referred to the code used. It was actually a network of secret routes and safe houses used by back slaves in the United States to escape and go to free states and Canada. Some led to Mexico and even overseas. The term is also used in reference to abolitionists and allies, both white and black, both free and enslaved, who brought aid to the fugitives. It consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, safe houses and help provided by abolitionist sympathizers. Individuals were often made up of small, independent groups so that secrecy could be maintained. Some would know of connecting “stations” but knew little else of the operation. Escaped slaves were led north along the route, moving from one station to another. “Conductors” came from various backgrounds: free-born blacks, white abolitionists, former slaves, Native Americans and various churches. To cut the risk of infiltration, many people affiliated with the Underground Railroad knew only of their part of the operation, and nothing of the whole scheme. The conductress were the ones one who moved the slaves from station to station. Sometimes that meant a conductor would pose as a slave in order to enter a plantation. The slaves would travel mostly at night, about 10 to 20 miles (15 to 30 km) to each station. Then they would stop at each “depot” or “station” during the day to eat and rest. The stations were usually out of the way like barns. While resting, a message was relayed to the next station, to let the owner there to let the station master know that the runaways were on their way. Many references are akin to the railway system. Some examples are: * the people who helped slaves find the stations were called “agents”. * guides were known as “conductors”. * hiding places were called “stations”. * “station masters” hid slaves in their homes or barns. * escaped slaves were sometimes called “cargo” or “passengers”. * financial backers were known as “stockholders”. Refugees would refer to Canada as The Promised Land, and the Mississippi River as The Jordan River as biblical references. Routes were often indirect on purpose. The journey was difficult especially for women and children. Yet one of the more famous abductors was a woman, Harriet Tubman. Another famous abductee was a man named William Stills. He was known as “the father of the Underground Railroad”. He helped hundreds of slaves escape, sometimes as. Many as 60 a month! He kept careful records, often each entry included a short biography, always with railway terminology. He kept in touch with many and would act as a middle man in communication between them and those left behind. He lat published the accounts in the book The Underground Railroad in 1872. He wrote in a code that only those involved would understand. For instance, one record states, “I have sent via at two o’clock four large hams. And two small hams” indicating that four adults and two children were sent by train from Harrisburg to Philadelphia. The word “via” meant that they were not passengers on a usual train, but rather via Reading, Pennsylvania. In this particular case, The authorities were tricked into going to the regular train station, while Stills was able to meet them at the correct station and lead them to safety. Some estimates that by 1850, roughly 100,000 slaves escaped via the underground railroad. You can read so much of this on Wikipedia. To find out more about the remarkable Harriet Tubman, I suggest About.com – a wonderful article written by Jone Johnson Lewis. If you are willing to pay, I recommend Amazon.com for the book Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad (ISBN: 1566635462) - An End to Slavery (tkmorin.wordpress.com) - Ford Presents $1 million Grant to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (motortrend.com)

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Preservation of historical buildings and sites involve maintaining the integrity of the place through protection and restoration using both old and new materials. The preservation of historical buildings may involve several stages which may or may not include rehabilitation, restoration and reinforcement. The world could be moving faster than ever but there are benefits to preserving historical sites and keeping things as they were many years ago. There are many ways communities can revitalize and modernize neighbourhoods while maintaining historical buildings. One of the many reasons historical building must be preserved is the character they bring to a neighbourhood or a place. Buildings and spaces with history have character. They bring a certain charm to a neighbourhood that new buildings don’t. Many old buildings created in the 19th century are beautiful. Historical establishments serve as reminders of the past. This is one of the reasons preserving historical buildings is important. Understanding the past, having reminders of the past even just in architecture will allow people to understand where they are and where they are headed. When people understand what the community has gone through and have visual reminders of their past then they can feel more connected to a place. The historical buildings can allow people to understand what happened in the past and how things could possibly play out in the future. Preserving our past gives us more understanding and hope for the future. Preserving buildings means you are saving on construction costs by making use of structures that are already there instead of tearing down old buildings just to create new ones. Many old buildings remain structurally sound even if they were built a long time ago. When you save buildings, you are also in turn saving the environment. This is because construction of buildings requires the use of materials such as lumber which will have an impact on the environment. Even the use of cement and other materials and the whole process of constructing new buildings have impacts on the environment. The building is already there to begin with, it makes better sense for the environment if we made things we built last longer. Existing buildings can still be used for modern uses and processes. Historical preservation also comes in handy for making old buildings usable and earth-friendly. Some repairs may be needed to make buildings more energy-efficient but generally, doing repairs on buildings still uses less energy than knocking down old buildings down and building new ones from scratch.

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July 28, 2014 Mon July 28th, 2014 Quiz: Why is a plain pizza called a Margherita? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What was the origin of the term “to overturn your soup kettles” as a sign of revolt? History for 7/28/2014 Birthdays: Jacqueline Kennedy, Richard Rogers, Ibn al’ Arabi- philosopher 1165, Marcel Duchamp, Rudy Vallee. Sally Struthers Peter Duchin, Vida Blue, Joe E. Brown, Jim Davis the creator of Garfield, Frank Yankovic the Polka King, Elizabeth Berkley, Earl Tupper the inventor of Tupperware, Hugo Chavez 450AD- Roman emperor Theodosius II died without a designated heir. 754 A.D. Pope Stephen III crowns Pepin the Short King of the Franks or French. Pepin was the son of Charles the Hammer and the father of Charlemagne. Pepin had asked for the Pope’s help to legitimatize his overthrow of the last king of the Merovingian Dynasty, Childeric IV, whom he had locked up in a monastery. In return he gave his military guarantee to the Vatican’s hold over a buffer state in the center of Italy. The Papal States would remain a political reality for 1,100 year until absorbed into united Italy in 1870. 1428- The Aztecs overthrow the Tepanec kingdom and begin their rise to empire. While the Inca in Peru were a homogeneous empire the Aztec ruled Mexico by conquest and subjugation of other tribes. So when Cortez and the Spaniards arrived in 1519 they found hundreds of Indians willing to join them against the Aztec. 1540- Henry VIII married his fourth queen Catherine Howard. This was seen as an old man's autumn fancy. Henry was in his 50's and Catherine a teenager who still had the hots for boys her own age, a bad idea if she wanted to keep her head. 1586 - Sir Thomas Harriott first introduced potatoes to Europe. At first people thought they were poisonous because their blossom resembled that of toxic nightshade. 1588- The English sea captains led by Thomas the Earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Drake were playing a game of bowls when they were told the Spanish Armada had been sighted off the coast of Cornwall. The Armada was so big, its front row of ships reached seven miles across. Leicester cooly said:" Come Drake, there’s time to finish the game." They finished their game, and defeated the Armada the next day. 1609- Sir George Somers was shipwrecked on the uninhabited island of Bermuda. He stayed to found a settlement, claiming the island for Britain. 1615- French explorer Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron. 1655- Poet, playwright and duelist Cyrano de Bergerac died in Paris. The famous play about him and his big nose was written by Edmond Rostand in 1895. 1750-Composer Johann Sebastian Bach died. He had suffered blindness in his old age but is eyesight returned shortly before his fatal stroke. Elderly and ill, he one of his final compositions was a chorale prelude: "Come, Kindly Death- come for my life is dreary, and of earth I am weary, etc." He and his wife Anna Magdelena had 17 children,, and 7 more by his first wife. Many of whom became composers Johann Christian Bach, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, etc. Bach’s music was soon forgotten until rediscovered by Mendelsson and others in the 1820s.. Albert Einsteins brother Alfred said Bach’s music" almost makes one want to become Christian." 1788- Master British portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds visited the other master British portrait painter Sir Thomas Gainsborough, who was dying or cancer. They had been enemies for years, but now at the end they made up. When Reynolds left him, Gainsborough said "Goodbye until we meet in the Hereafter, Van Dyck in our company." 1808- The Turkish Janissaries, the royal guard, depose Sultan Mustapha VI and replaced him with his cousin Mehmed II. The Janissaries were the real power in Istanbul at this time, keeping a supply of royal princes in the harem, to be taken out as needed. Sultans sometimes picked what Harem girl they would favor that night by how many cloves she could hold in her bellybutton. 1809- Battle of Talavera. General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated the French army in Spain and for that was made Viscount Wellington. Sir Hugh Gough, who would later earn fame conquering the Punjab in India, was a major at the time. In this battle Gough was so grievously wounded he was laid out on a pile of corpses for dead. Wellington was commenting to his staff upon his bravery, when to prevent being buried alive, Hugh signaled by pushing his arm up out of the corpses, and waved his hat at the startled Wellington." Uhh..M’Lord, I’m not dead yet…" 1812- General Light Horse Harry Lee was a Revolutionary War hero and had eulogized George Washington as "First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen". But this year the old general got involved with mob violence in Baltimore while trying to protect a publisher friend who was against "Mr. Madison’s War with the British”, what we now call the War of 1812. Despite his fame Lee was dragged by a mob and beaten senseless, one of his eyes almost gouged out. He went to the West Indies to convalesce –and escape his creditors, but he never fully recovered. His 5 year old son was future Civil War General Robert E. Lee. 1821- Peru declared independence from Spain. 1839- Italian revolutionary Guisseppe Fleschi wanted to assassinate the king of France, King Louis Phillipe. He rigged up a strange device that could fire 25 gun barrels simultaneously. He pointed this machine at the king during a military parade and pulled the string. All the guns went off but not one hit their intended target. Ironically the only person killed was the elderly war minister Marshal Mortier, an old general of Napoleon's who had spent thirty years amid shot and shell and had never been scratched. 1841- The body of Mary Cecilia Rogers was pulled out of New York Harbor. The sensational murder of the “Beautiful Cigar Girl” inspired Edgar Allen Poe to write “ The Mystery of Marie Roget.” 1858- The French photographer Nadar went up in a balloon and took the first aerial photograph. 1866-BUFFALO SOLDIERS- An act of Congress called for the creation of two all black cavalry regiments to serve in the peacetime army's frontier duty. These units, the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry became the famous "Buffalo Soldiers". They were so named by the Indians because an African-Americans hair resembled the tuft of hair between a buffalo's horns to them, a symbol of magical strength. Buffalo Soldiers finally defeated the Apaches and charged up San Juan Hill right alongside Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Their captain in Cuba named John Pershing was given the nickname Blackjack Pershing not for a love of cards but for preferring to lead Black troops to white. 1867- The Daughters of St. Crispin, the first women's labor organization. 1896- Happy Birthday Miami! The City of Miami incorporated. 1882- Parsifal, the last opera of Richard Wagner was produced at Bayreuth. As a way to ensure its financial solvency Wagner left instructions to never tour Parsifal but it should stay at Bayreuth. This lasted a few decades. 1898- Spain asks for peace talks with the United States to end their war. The Spanish American War began in April and ended in December. 1914- THE RUSH INTO WORLD WAR I ACCELLERATES. Britain suggested an international conference to settle Austria’s grievances against Serbia. Austrian Foreign minister Berchtold informed the British ambassador that it was too late for mediation because Austria had already declared war. The German Kaiser was having second thoughts but slipped out of Berlin to go yachting to avoid the Russian ambassador who was trying to make him commit to discussing peace terms. Part of the muddle that aggravated the meltdown of diplomacy, was many of the top European statesmen were on their Summer vacations while this crisis deepened. 1932-THE BATTLE OF ANACOSTIA FLATS- Capitol Hill was surrounded by 20,000 Bonus Marchers- poor World War One veterans and their families who desperately marched to Washington to demand help from the ravages of the Depression and their promised back pay. On this day President Hoover's response was to order the US Army to drive them away by force. Gen. Douglas MacArthur with his aides Patton and Eisenhower send tanks, saber wielding cavalry and bayonet armed troops to break up the homeless peoples dwellings. Facing them on the makeshift barricades eyewitnesses saw a black man waving a large American flag and Charles Frederick Lincoln, a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln. These poor veterans and their families had come from as far as Honolulu and no record was kept of how many were killed or died on the walk home. Pres. Hoover was jubilant that order was restored, and the public was jubilant when they voted him out of office later that year. 1933- The first singing telegram. It was delivered to singer Rudy Valee by Western Union operator appropriately named Lucille Lipps. 1945- Congress endorses United Nations Charter. Congress' refusal to join the League of Nations in 1919 help doom that organization. 1945-A B-25 Mitchell bomber flying in thick fog struck the 78th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City. It killed a dozen people, including some when one of it's 1,500 lb engines shot through the building and down onto 33rd street. One woman in an elevator had the cables cut and fell 80 stories at 200 miles an hour to the basement. Miraculously she lived. Despite the devastation the building did not collapse but stayed sound. As a result US and World air traffic control standards were stiffened, air traffic controllers finally got the power to order planes down, and large planes kept away from flying over large urban areas. 1948- In honor of the death of D.W. Griffith, all Hollywood studios observed three minutes of silence. 1948- The Premiere of that utterly memorable film " ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN." For you hardcore film trivia fans this film is the only other time than the original Tod Browning movie that Bela Lugosi played Count Dracula on film. 1965-VIETNAM- President Lyndon B. Johnson had been wrestling with a problem since June 5th. In Vietnam the war against the Commie Viet Cong was going badly. Strategic bombing of the North has failed to stop incursions in the South and the latest government in Saigon had fallen and been replaced by a group of generals led by Ngyen Kao Key. Johnson had to pull out or expand US commitment. This day, at a routine Friday 12:30 PM press briefing, calculated to not be well attended, LBJ made the announcement that US forces in Vietnam would be expanded dramatically from 75,000 to 125,000- eventually to 450,000 by the end of 1967. What LBJ wasn’t saying was he had now decided that US ground troops would carry the bulk of the fighting. Not just to prop up the South Vietnamese, but to defeat the Communists outright. He would still try to do his Great Society Programs while running a trillion-dollar war that all his experts doubted was winnable. This one decision destroyed Johnson’s Presidency, and cracked the thriving post war economy creating recession and domestic political turmoil. 1971- Photographer Diane Arbus probed increasingly darker subject matter, circus freaks, severe birth defects. This day she committed suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills, then slitting her wrists. 1998- In Afghanistan the Taliban ordered mass destruction of television sets. They also forbade the Internet, and shaved the heads of their national soccer team for daring to wear shorts. 1999- Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco declared today Marilyn Chambers Day, in honor of the San Francisco native, and star of classic porn like Behind the Green Door. 2061- The next predicted appearance of Halley’s Comet. Yesterday’s Question: What was the origin of the term “to overturn your soup kettles” as a sign of revolt? Answer: The Turkish Sultan’s royal guards were the Janissaries. By the late 1600s they controlled who would become Sultan. Their signal of a revolt and coup was to overturn their soup kettles. July 27, 2014 sun July 27th, 2014 Quiz: What was the origin of the term “to overturn your soup kettles” as a sign of revolt? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What was the Chautauqua Movement? History for 7/27/2014 Birthdays: Confucius, Alexander Dumas fils, Enrique Granados, Hillaire Belloc, Norman Lear, Maureen McGovern, Keenan Wynn, Leo Durocher, Peggy Fleming, Bobby Gentry, Jerry Van Dyke, Vincent Canby, Betty Thomas, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ilya Salkind, David Swift –director of the Haley Mills Disney films like The Parent Trap, Maya Rudolph is 42, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 37. 1214- THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES-England loses her lands on continental Europe. Ever since 1066 there was a technically sticky point of medieval etiquette, because the King of England was also Duke of Normandy, thereby a vassal of the King of France. For years nobody pushed the question. Finally paranoid English King John Lackland had his boy nephew Arthur of Brittany castrated and then killed for fear he would try and overthrow him. King Phillip of France convened a Feudal grand jury over the murder and as his Feudal Suzerain formally stripped King John of Aquitaine, Gascony, Poitou, Brittany, Vexin, Anjou and hereditary Normandy, the so-called "Angevin Empire". King John naturally didn't go along with this and the issue was decided by battle. After the battle King Phillip was called Phillip Augustus, King John's nickname was changed from John Lack-land to John Softsword. The French victory doubled the size of France and cut England off from the continent of Europe. Although the English tried several more times to get back Normandy, England went on to develop her own unique society, instead of being a Norman adjunct. King John even grew to prefer speaking English over French! 1586- Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco pipe home to England from America. Columbus had of course brought cigars and other duty-free home years earlier but tobacco was one of the goodies that kept England interested in American colonies after everyone realized there weren’t any more gold-rich Aztec-Inca Empires to plunder. King James I called smoking a filthy and unhealthful habit, but Raleigh persisted. He even paused for a few last puffs before putting his head on the executioners block. 1661- England passes the Navigation Act, spurring shipbuilding, especially in the U.S colonies. The masts of the British Navy were harvested from tall New Hampshire oaks. 1667- At Sulzbach near Baden a lucky cannonball killed Marshal Turenne, general of Louis XIV. Turenne was one of the most brilliant commanders of the age and idolized by military strategists like Napoleon. 1861- One week after losing the Battle of Bull Run, Union Army commander Irwin MacDowell was replaced by General George B. McClellan. “Little Mac” McClellan was a brilliant organizer with a Napoleon complex a mile wide. He once kept President Lincoln and the Secretary of War cooling their heels for hours in his drawing room while he took a nap. Never able to defeat Robert E. Lee, he would persist in writing friends letters like “Once Again God has chosen me to be the savior of My Country.” 1880-BATTLE OF MAIWAND: The Afghan leader Ayub Khan's tribesmen destroy a British invasion force. Dr. Watson told Sherlock Holmes he was there . One of the heroes of the battle was a little terrier named Bobbie who was a regimental mascot and was wounded several times. He was brought to London and received a medal from Queen Victoria, but was later run over by a London taxi. 1900- HUNS-In Bremerhaven, Kaiser Wilhelm II addressed a contingent of German marines about to embark to go to China to help in the international effort to put down the Boxer Rebellion. Caught up in the the moment, Wilhelm said: "Take no prisoners! Kill all those who fall into your hands! As the deeds of the Huns of Attila resound through history for their ruthlessness, so like the Huns, make the name of Germany live in Chinese annals for a thousand years!" An embarrassed chancellor Von Bulow called it "The worst speech of the year and possibly of the Kaiser's career." He tried to release an edited version to the press but someone leaked the full text. When the Kaiser read the edited speech, he said: My dear Bulow. You left out all the good parts." Germans got the nickname Huns for years afterwards. 1914-Austria declared war on Serbia. The first declaration of World War I. 1921- Two Toronto scientists, Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate the hormone Insulin to treat diabetes. 1921- SHAKESPEARE & CO. opens in Paris. The English language bookshop on the Seine owned by Sylvia Beach was the most famous hangout for the U.S. expatriate intellectuals. Shakespeare & Co. championed writers like James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Carlos Santayanna, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and more. After the Nazi occupation the shop was liberated personally by Ernest Hemingway who shot snipers off it's roof. After paying his respects to Sylvia, Hemingway and his G.I. buddies went on to liberate the Ritz hotel and it's famous wine celler. 1937- The invading Japanese Army enters Beijing, then called Peiping, the former Peking. Most of the art treasures of the old Imperial City had been crated up and moved to Taipei. 1939- Nazi High Command gave secret orders for German supply ships to put to sea, fill up on supplies like fuel oil at neutral harbors in the Americas and take their positions in the Atlantic. In effect, this is the first hostile move against Britain, four and a half weeks before the attack on Poland and the declaration of war. 1940- HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUGS BUNNY. Warners short-"A Wild Hare”-There were several earlier prototypes of the famous rabbit, white with a different voice, but this is the short that launched his career. Bugs says “Whats Up Doc?” for the first time, co-opting a line uttered by Clark Gable while chewing a carrot in the Frank Capra film “It Happened One Night”. 1946- Writer Gertrude Stein died. Her last words to Alice B. Toklas were:" What is the Answer?" When Alice said nothing, Gertrude said:" Well then, What's the Question?" 1953- THE KOREAN WAR ENDS- The Treaty of Panmunjom. After 170,000 Americans casualties and millions of Koreans & Chinese killed, the treaty fixed the border basically where it was when the war started in 1950. The South Korean Government was outraged and considered it a betrayal, because it acknowledged the permanent breakup of Korea in to two parts. South Koreans weren’t even allowed at the negotiating table. But America and China were tired of the endless death and stalemate and wanted out. Before the treaty went into effect, South Korean President Sygmun Ree opened all POW camps and let all the North Korean troops who didn’t want to return home, run free. South Korea never signed the treaty so is still technically at war with the North. 1953- The Tonight Show debuted on NBC. It's first host was Steve Allen. 1965- The U.S. Government forces cigarette companies to print warning labels on the their packages about the hazards of smoking. 1977- John Lennon got his green card. Richard Nixon considered him a dangerous radical. Several times in 1972 he was under 60 day notice to leave the country. 1986- Gregg Lemond became the first American to win the Tour de France bicycle race. 1993- IBM announced it would eliminate 35,000 white-collar jobs. Downsizing becomes a popular sport in corporate America. The more workers laid off, the higher your stock rose. The chairman of General Electric Jack Welch, was nicknamed “Neutron Jack” after the neutron bomb that kills off people but leaves buildings intact. He wrote op-eds in the NY Times defending the practice of outsourcing jobs. 1996- A bomb packed with nails goes off during Olympic celebrations in Atlanta Georgia. One woman was killed and dozens injured. While hunting the bomber, the media decided to focus on an overweight security guard named Richard Jewel. Ironically Jewell was the one who first alerted police to the suspicious package, and tried to evacuate the area, otherwise more people would have been killed. After weeks of merciless hounding by the press, the FBI declared Jewel completely innocent. In 2003 the police finally caught the real culprit, abortion clinic bomber and backwoods fruitcake Eric Rudolph. 2007- The Simpson’s Movie debuted. Yesterday’s Question: What was the Chautauqua Movement? Answer: In 1874 a reverend John Heyl Vincent began an adult education program at a summer camp at Lake Chautauqua NY. To reach out to isolated, rural people and bring them culture, lectures, and concerts. The Chautauqua Movement spread nationwide in open-air tents every summer. Chautauqua died out in the 1920s with the advent of radio and more of the lectures transitioned into Pentecostal evangelism. July 26, 2014 Sat July 26th, 2014 Question: What was the Chautauqua Movement? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Who invented the term “to jump the shark”..? History for 7/26/2014 Birthdays: Salvador Allende, Serge Koussevitsky, George Bernard Shaw, Gracie Allen, Carl Jung, Stanley Kubrick, Blake Edwards, George Grosz, Pearl Buck, Jason Robards Jr, Aldous Huxley, Jean Shepard, Vivian Vance, Emil Jannings, Sandra Bullock is 50, Kevin Spacey is 53, Kate Beckinsdale, Mick Jagger is 71 1533- Athawuallpa, Emperor of the Incas, was executed by Francisco Pizzarro. The Great Inca was captured by ambush at Cajamarca and forced to fill a large room with gold and two of silver to get his release. This was accomplished, but Pizzarro decided to kill him anyway. Athawallpa accepted baptism out of fear of being burned alive, the Inca mummified their kings and carried their remains around like saints relics, being burned denied you access into the next world. So he was garroted-strangled with a twisting stick behind the rope. The Spaniards then burned his body anyway. The Inca didn't completely submit but withdrew deeper into the Andes and fought on for 70 more years. Pizzarro became first governor of Peru and lived in Lima where he was run through with a sword during a feud with another Spanish noble family. 1656– Rembrandt van Rijn declared bankruptcy. 1694- The Bank of England opened on London's Threadneedle Street. It issued the first bank checks. 1757- Battle of Hastenbeck- The Duke of Cumberland, the bastard son of King George II who had defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden, took over a Hanoverian army in the Netherlands. The British general was so badly beaten that he signed a treaty of his own at Klosterzeven with the French pledging not to militarily intervene anymore in Central Europe and even giving up Hanover, King George’s family home. In London Prime Minister Pitt called Cumberland “a Coward and Traitor!” 1758- Admiral Boscowen’s fleet with the aid of New England militia captured the French fortress of Louisbourg on the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, This was the first step in the British conquest of Canada. 1775- U.S. Postal System begins. Ben Franklin as first postmaster general. The year before Franklin had been fired by the Kings Privy Council in London from his post as postmaster of the Colonies. Interesting enough the only time a US postal system ever operated at a profit was the Confederate Postal System ran by a man named John Regan. 1790- The Funding Bill passed in Congress that was the first step in the master plan of Alexander Hamilton to start the US economy. He struck a deal with states rights politicians like Thomas Jefferson that allowed the US government to assume all the outstanding debts the individual states accrued during the Revolution. This act bound all the loose knit states more firmly under the Federal Government’s leadership. In return Hamilton proposed moving the site of the American Capitol from Philadelphia to a more southern site, like some area in Maryland near George Washington’s Virginia home. This site for the federal City would eventually be Washington DC. Of course all of this create a huge federal budget deficit, but in Hamilton’s thinking big deficits were good for a country, they implied solidity. 1815- THE WHITE TERROR- It was said after the French Revolution that the Royal Bourbon family had learned nothing but remembered everything. After the Battle of Waterloo smashed Napoleon's power forever, restored King Louis XVIII issued his Royal Ordinances, lists of Bonaparte supporters to be arrested. Some like Marshal Ney and General Labedouyere were shot, some jailed, Marshal Brune was lynched, most fled into exile in America where Napoleon’s brother Joseph had resettled the Bonaparte family in Philadelphia. Others fled to New Orleans where for years they defiantly waved the Tricolor flag at arriving French merchant ships. When Andrew Jackson fought British troops at New Orleans over the roar of the guns French volunteers sang Le Marseillaise at the bagpiping Highlanders, A group of Napoleon’s veterans tried to found a colony on an island off Galveston Texas, but were driven away by a hurricane . One of the exiles hanging around Philadelphia, a 16 year old draftee named Michel Bouvier was the ancestor of Jacqueline Kennedy. 1822- The Liberators meet. Simon Bolivar confers with Jose San Martin at Guayaqui, Equador. 1826- School teacher Cayetano Ripoll became the last person executed for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition, which had been raging since 1492. Napoleon had suspended their activities when he occupied the country in 1808, but they restarted after he left. 1835 - 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii. 1847- The Republic of Liberia was declared, the first democratic republic in Africa. Joseph Jenkins-Roberts elected first president. When the US government finally outlawed the African slave trade in 1825 one problem was what to do with all the boatloads of slaves still at sea completing the Middle Passage and all the unsold slaves in harbor depots? It was decided to send all these people to a specific beach on the West African Coast. The freed slaves called themselves Liberia and named their capitol Monrovia in honor of James Monroe, who was US president at the time of their liberation. 1861- Mark Twain left St. Jo Missouri to go west and sit out the Civil War. He went with his brother Oren Clemens who had been appointed to administer the Nevada territory. 1887 - 1st Esperanto book published. 1903 –FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL AUTO TRIP- Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, mechanic Sewell J. Crocker and Bud the Wonderdog in their Winton Touring Car rode into New York City, having left San Francisco sixty-three days before. They are the first to cross the United States by automobile. They did it to win a $50 bet that you could cross the country by auto in 90 days. Jackson won the bet but spent $8,000 of his own money to do it. He was hailed as the Great Automobilist and his car was put on display bedecked with flags. 1917- The last two-horse street car made it’s final run down Broadway. There were now more automobiles than horses on the streets of American cities. 1925- Exhausted by his verbal battle with Clarence Darrow in the just concluded Scopes Monkey Trial, famed statesman William Jennings Bryan died in his sleep. 1926 - National Bar Association incorporates. 1941- Angered by Japan's refusal to stop it's invasion of China and now Indochina, President Roosevelt orders Japan's overseas assets frozen and embargoes oil and steel. Since the U.S. was then the world's leading producer of oil and steel this meant Japan's imports were cut by 90% and her industry would soon dry up. Japan had a strategic oil reserve that could last only three years. FDR also closed the Panama Canal to all Japanese shipping. The generals in Japan now felt war with America was inevitable. 1945-The Potsdam Declaration-Truman and Churchill call upon Japan one more time to surrender unconditionally. All the leaders now knew about the Atomic Bomb- including Stalin, who had been told by an American spy Klaus Fuchs. With a tentative schedule of dropping it the first week of August, they wanted to give Japan one more chance. The Japanese cabinet decided to ignore the Potsdam Declaration, and hope to use a diplomatic route to Stalin to force negotiations. They were unaware that Stalin was planning to attack Japan also. 1945- While the Big Three Potsdam conferences were going on, at home a British general election turned Winston Churchill out of office. He had to embarrassingly leave the conference and was superceded by Labor candidate Clement Atlee, who assumed a junior role in the talks. Churchill used to refer to Atlee as “a sheep in sheep’s clothing” 1947- HAPPY BIRTHDAY CIA ! Pres. Truman signs the National Security Act, creating the CIA, the NSC, The Joint Chiefs and all those other groups that draw unscrutinised federal budgets. 1948- President Truman issues Exec Order # 9981 to the U.S. military to ban segregation. At the time the US Army was more segregated than it had been in 1865 or 1776. (What's this with Truman and July 26th?) 1951- Charlie Chaplin driven into exile by red-baiters. He was on a holiday to Britain when he learned his visa had been revoked by the U.S. government. He didn't return until 1972. Despite his immense achievements in Hollywood History, when the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated later that year, Chaplin’s name was deliberately excluded. 1952- Evita Peron the beautiful First Lady of Argentina died at age 33. 1953- Fulgensio Batista had suppressed the evolution of democracy in Cuba and ruled as a dictator. This day a 25 year old lawyer and part time left handed baseball pitcher named Fidel Castro with a few followers tried to start a revolt by raiding the impregnable Morcado Barracks. The pathetic assault was immediately crushed and the survivors including Castro jailed. But the event was seen by the people and the world that Cubans would not submit quietly. When Castro was released in 1956 and started his more organized guerrilla campaign he called his group the July 26th Movement. 1956- The Suez Crisis. Egypt's Gamal Nasser, on the anniversary of the exit of King Farouk I (1952) and the declaration of the Republic, nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been run by an Anglo-French cooperative. Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt but the war was stopped by the intervention of the US and USSR. 1958- Top US test pilot Ivan Kinchilo was killed in a plane crash. His F-104 malfunctioned only 800 feet off the ground and he ejected, but couldn’t prevent his parachute from delivering him into the fireball of wreckage. Kinchilo has been called the First Spaceman, since in 1956 piloted a Bell-X test plane to the edge of the stratosphere. A friend of Neil Armstrong and the Gemini astronauts, many say had Kinchilo lived he would have been an important figure in the NASA Space Program. 1959- KPFK , Los Angeles lefty alternative radio of the Pacifica Network, starts up. 1979- Alvin Texas recorded 43 inches of rain in one day. 1984- Edward Gein died peacefully in a prison for the criminally insane. Gein was arrested in 1957 and sentenced to life for mass murder. Police found his farm in Wisconsin decorated with human body parts and heads in the freezer and in the stove, and the dried cadaver of his mother. His story inspired "Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs". 1991 – Children’s comic Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman was arrested in Florida for masterbating in an adult movie theater. The film was Naughty Nurse Nancy. 1995- After a year of investigation the General Accounting Office noted that all documents pertaining to the Rosswell UFO Incident of 1947 had disappeared or been destroyed. …Hmmm. Yesterday’s Quiz: Who invented the term “to jump the shark”..? Answer: The term was coined by writer Jon Hein because in Sept 1977 the fifth season of the TV show Happy Days featured the Fonz waterskiing in his trademark leather jacket, and literally jumping over a shark. Since then it has come to mean where a quality TV show goes past the point of no return into banality and silliness. July 25, 2014 fri. July 25th, 2014 Quiz: Who invented the term “to jump the shark”..? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Queen Elizabeth II has reigned for 61 years, but she is not yet the longest reigning English Monarch. Who is? History for 7/25/2014 Birthdays: Bishop Theitmar of Merseberg-975AD, Arthur Balfour, Thomas Eakins, Maxfield Parrish, Stuart K. Hine 1899 missionary who wrote the hymn "How Great Thou Art", Walter Payton, Walter Brennan, David Belasco, Adnan Khashoggi, Imam, Jack Gilford, Illeana Douglas, Estelle Getty, Matt LeBlanc, Louise Brown, the first "test-tube" baby-conceived by in vitro fertilization in 1978. Today is the Feast of Saint James, called San Diego or Santiago de Compostela in 325 A.D. The Council of Nicea- The Roman Emperor Constantine called all the Bishops and Patriarchs of Christianity to answer the problems posed by the Arian (Gnostic) Christian sect. The Arrians asked: "If Jesus was God on Earth, then who was minding the store upstairs? And how can you kill God? Maybe he was just pretending to be dead..." They came up with the Nicean Creed (The Apostles Creed) and the Mystery of the Trinity, "One In Being with the Father" If you can't figure this out, some nun would be happy to rap your knuckles for asking. 1554- Queen Mary I of England "Bloody Mary" married King Philip II of Spain in Winchester Cathedral. Phillip didn’t linger long in England and Mary was much older than him and beyond child bearing years. 1570- Czar Ivan IV once more demonstrated why his got the name Ivan the Terrible by ordering mass executions of his supposed enemies in Moscow. This day he had Boyar Prince Viskavati hanged from a gallows and slowly sliced up with knives, allowing him to live just long enough to watch Ivan rape his wife and daughter. 1593- Henry IV, after a bloody religious-civil war had made himself King of all of France except Paris, which was holding out against him. When he asked why they were so stubborn in their resistance they said it was because he was a Protestant. "Well then," the King said-"Paris is well worth a Mass!" and he converted to Catholicism. Henry’s family, the Bourbons, became the royal dynasty of France and today is still on the throne of Spain. Just last month Henry IV remains were found, a pierced ear for a pearl earring. 1788- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony #40 in G minor. 1792- THE BRUNSWICK MANIFESTO- The Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia sent armies invading into France to help their brother-king Louis XVI put down the unruly French Revolution. This day the military commander of the invasion, Charles Willliam the Duke of Brunswick issued a proclamation to the French people that if they didn’t knuckle under to their King like all good little peasants should do he was going to kick their butts! He especially threatened Paris with a "memorable-vengence". This arrogant threat enraged the French people and all but decided King Louis and Marie-Antoinette would be executed. Danton and Marat called for a mass rising of the French nation. The Duke de Brunswick was defeated in battle by rampaging Frenchmen shouting Aux 1814- Battle of Lundy’s Lane. American forces defeat a British invasion force near Niagara Falls. 1822- General Augustin Iturbide has himself crowned Emperor of Mexico. 1846 -The Spanish-Californios residents of Los Angeles chase the U.S. occupying force out of town a second time. 1871- Samuel Colt patents the "peacemaker", the most famous Western sixgun. Gunfighters filed off the barrel sight so it wouldn't catch on your clothes during a quickdraw, and carried it "5 beans in the wheel" meaning while walking they kept it set at the one empty chamber, so it doesn't accidentally go off in the holster and shoot you in the foot, which might look embarrassing. Most gunfighters carried it in their belts or a waist high holster. Wild Bill Hickock carried his 1860 Navy Colts backwards in a red sash. The familiar low-on-the-hip two gun holsters didn't become common until cowboys saw them in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in the 1880’s. Colonel Colt got very rich from his invention, and had an annoying habit of shooting his guns off in courtrooms and restaurants like Yosemite Sam. 1871 An electric carousel was patented by Wilhelm Schneider, Davenport, Iowa 1894-the Sino Japanese War. The Japanese surprise attack the Korean peninsula amphibiously at the Bay of Inchon, giving Douglas MacArthur the same idea 57 1897- Young writer Jack London went to the Klondike to look for gold. He didn’t find much but did get material for a lot of good stories. 1898- The US army invaded Puerto Rico. Spain had granted the island home rule but America got possession of it in the treaty ending the Spanish American War. It’s been a US commonwealth ever since. Puerto Ricans were given full US citizenship in 1917 and self government in 1942. As of the last referendum in 1993 Puerto Ricans still preferred the status of commonwealth. 1909-THE WRISTWATCH- Frenchman Louis Bleriot flew the English Channel. Bleriot had no fuel gauge in his plane. He knew the rate that his plane burned fuel so he kept a clock in his cockpit to mark the time. But a problem was the engines vibrations would rattle the clock to uselessness. So he asked his friend Charles Cartier the jeweler to make him a reliable timepiece free from vibrations. Cartier created a pocketwatch that you could strap to your wrist with the clockface showing- the Wristwatch. By World War One wristwatches supplanted pocketwatches as the standard male accessory. 1918- In Russia the anti-Communist White Guards entered Ykaterinburg one week too late to prevent the murder of Czar Nicholas II and his family. They discovered the bullet ridden blood soaked room and after capturing one of the Bolshevik agents involved in the murder spread the news to the world of the crime. Soviet apologists for years maintained that the murder of the Imperial Family was done upon the initiative of the local Soviet council under Commissar Yakovlev. But documents discovered in 1989 revealed the murder of Nicolas II was a direct order from Lenin. 1920- The French Army occupies Damascus after Lawrence of Arabia and Faisal's All-Arab Congress government fail. Faisal's son was given the Kingdom of Mesopotamia (Iraq) after his claims to the Hejaz region was trumped by Saudi King Ibn Saud. The French would hold Syria as a colony after World War II, which is why the Syrians have never been very pro-western since. 1927- The Tanaka Memorial- Japanese statesman Baron Tanaka spelled out for the Japanese government a strategy of conquest for the next twenty years, calling for Japan to achieve economic dominance by creating a Greater East Asian Economic Sphere from Korea to Australia. This document was considered by Anglo-American strategists the "Mein Kampf " of the Japanese. 1934- Nazi agents assassinated the Austrian Chancellor Englebert Dolfuss for resisting Fascist encroachment, and having a very silly name. 1936- Orchard Beach opened in the North Bronx. 1940- In Nazi occupied Paris a Gestapo agent walks into the French offices of MGM studios and confiscates the release prints of "Gone With The Wind." They are taken to Berlin for a screening for top Nazis officials. Gone with the Wind was one of Hitler’s favorite movies. 1943- The Birth of L.A. Smog! A newspaper headline from this date mentions a 'gas-attack' of exhaust and haze that reduced visibility to three short blocks. 1943 - Benito Mussolini was overthrown as premier of Italy and imprisoned while the Italian government tried to open negotiations with the allies. Hitler responded by rescuing Mussolini and militarily occupying Italy. 1944- Operation Cobra- The Allies break out of the Normandy beachheads and hedgerows and unleash Patton's fresh Third army into the French interior countryside. Between now and the Battle of the Bulge the German Army can do little more than retreat to the Rhine. 1951- CBS conducts the first broadcast of color television. NBC made color tv popular in the mid 1960's. 1953-Chuck Jone's "Duck Dodgers in the 24 and 1/2 Century". 1953- New York City Subway fares rise from 10cents to 15 cents. Subway tokens are issued for the first time. 1959-"The Kitchen Debates" Vice President Richard Nixon traded catty comments with Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev at the American kitchen of the future exhibit in a Moscow Trade Show. 1965 – Folk Music star Bob Dylan was booed off stage at the Newport Folk Festival for using an electric guitar. Alan Lomax the great Smithsonian Folk Music historian got into a fistfight over it and Pete Seeger threatened to pull the electric plugs. 1968-Pope Paul VI published the encyclical Humane Vitae, which set the Church policy against all forms of birth control other than the Rhythm Method. No to the Pill, Condoms and other contraception. This made the Pope a real drag to the 1969 - 1st performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at the Fillmore East in 1969 – Senator Edward Kennedy plead guilty to leaving scene of an accident a week after the Chappaquiddick car accident that killed his campaign worker Mary 1972- The story was broken of the Tuskegee Experiments- that in the late 1940’s and 50’s the US Government did medical experiments on unwilling humans, injecting with them with syphilis and other diseases. The subjects used were exclusively African American men. One went mad and leapt out of a window. President Clinton officially apologized to the survivors in 1993. 1975 - "A Chorus Line," longest-running Broadway show (6,137), premiered. 1984- Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became 1st woman to walk in space 1985- Movie star Rock Hudson publicly acknowledged that he had AIDS. 1990 - Roseanne Barr sings the National Anthem at a San Diego Padre game, joke- impersonating ball players by spitting, grabbing her crotch and screeching during her rendition. It didn’t go over well with the more patriotically minded in that conservative town. 2000- An Air France Concord supersonic airliner exploded on takeoff, killing everyone on board. The investigation proved a piece of metal debris that fell off the previous Continental Airliner exploded one of the Concords tires and the resultant wreckage was sucked into the planes engine. Both Britain and France suspended SST flights for over a year and in 2003 discontinued them forever as being too expensive. Queen Elizabeth II had reigned for 61 years, but she is not yet the longest reigning English Monarch. Who is? Yesterday’s Question: Answer: She’ll have to rule 7 more years to catch Queen Victoria, who ruled for 68 years. jul 24, 2014 July 24th, 2014 Question: Queen Elizabeth II had reigned for 62 years, but she is not yet the longest reigning English Monarch. Who is? Yesterday’s Question Answered below: On a crucifix, above Christ’s head are the letters INRI. What does that mean? History for 7/24/2014 Birthdays: Simon Bolivar, Amelia Earhart, Alexander Dumas fils, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Graves, Pat Oliphant, Bela Abzug, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ruth Buzzi, Lynda Carter, Chief Dan George, Robert Hays, Gus Van Sant, Anna Paquin, Michael Richards, J-Lo Jennifer Lopez is 44 634 A.D. Accession of Omar as the third Caliph after Mohammed. This event caused the great split in the Moslem world. After the death of the Prophet his first successor was his best friend and companion during the Hijrah, Abu Bakir. But after his death the unrelated general and second best friend supporter Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, nicknamed "the Just" was nominated successor. Mohammed's daughter Fatima and son-in-law and cousin Ali Ibn-Abu Taleb split off with their followers. After the death of Ali and his two sons Hassan and Hussein their group under the third Fatimid Caliph, Osman Ibn-'Affan became the Shiite sect of Islam while the main branch under Omar became the Sunnite. The rivalry is similar to the Protestant-Catholic split in Western Christendom. 1567- Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned by the Scots and forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son James VI. Mary was raised in exile at the French court and her autocratic French ways and Catholic religion didn’t sit well with the Presbyterian Scots lords and their chaplain John Knox. So as soon as the succession was secure with a baby Mary was bundled off to prison and later turned over to Elizabeth of England for execution. 1568- Don Carlos was the eldest son of King Phillip II of Spain, the most powerful monarch in the world at the time. But Carlos and his dad didn’t get along, it all started when the King Phillip decided to marry the 16 year old bride Margaret of France, originally intended for Carlos. When Carlos showed signs of mental instability, he decided to take the side of Dutch rebels and made noises like he wanted to overthrow his father. Phillip had him imprisoned. He died of dysentery after fasting three days then gorging on meat and ice water, but many in Europe accused his father of poisoning him. 1656- Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza was excommunicated by the Rabbis of the Portuguese Synagogue in the Hague. His radical ideas of God made Jews, Catholics, Protestants and even some other humanists attack him, but his ideas formed the basis for modern rationalist philosophy. A German writer called Spinoza “Der Gott bedrunken Mensch” The Man Drunk on God. Albert Einstein, Kant, Goethe and Voltaire were all inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza. 1701- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTOWN!- After paddling in birchbark canoes 49 days from Quebec, French explorer Antoine de al Mothe-Cadillac and several families found the City of Detroit. 1758 – Mr. George Washington Esq., admitted to the Virginia House of Burgess. 1784- On his way home from France after the American Revolution, Dr Benjamin Franklin stopped on the British Isle of Wight. While there he met his only son William Franklin, the former Royal Governor of New Jersey. While Franklin was a leading patriot William stayed loyal to Britain and suffered imprisonment and exile. The two men loathed one another, they only agreed to meet to humor grandson Temple Franklin. After an all night conversation nothing was settled and Franklin never spoke nor wrote to him ever again. When Franklin died he wrote William out of his will. “ It’s only what he would have done to me.” Temple never recovered any salaries Congress owed Ben Franklin, but he did inherit lands in New Jersey from his Tory father. 1794-The End of the "Reign of Terror". After tens of thousands of deaths and fear rampant, a group of French politicians called the Directorate overthrow Maximillien Robespierre and have him and his Jacobin followers guillotined. Robespierre didn't go quietly, a soldier named Charles Merda shot him in the face shouting Vive la Republique!" His brother Augustin Robespierre tried to escape out a window but just succeeded in breaking his hip. At the guillotine Robespierre’s second in command Saint-Just was defiant to the end: " I curse the dust I'm made of! I give it to you! Scatter my bones and Republics shall spring from them!" Robespierre wasn't so eloquent on the scaffold. He just bellowed in pain from the jaw wound. A woman shouted at him:" Go to Hell, Villain, and go knowing with you go the curses and maledictions of every wife, every mother !" When his head plopped into the basket Parisians cheered and applauded for 15 minutes. Then they overthrew and smashed the fearsome guillotine. Napoleon was careful to keep few political prisoners and if he executed any he used a firing squad. He shrank from ever using the hated guillotine. He renamed the place where the Guillotine was set up Place de la Concord. 1824- The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian published the results of the first ever US public opinion poll- a clear lead for Andrew Jackson for president. 1832- French immigrant Benjamin Booneville led the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains in Southern Wyoming. Booneville was a US Army captain who answered personally to President Jackson. Many believed he used the wagon train as an opportunity to assess British power in the Northwest. 1847- The Mormons reach the Great Salt Lake. After trekking 1500 miles for17 months since Illinois, leader Brigham Young said :"Enough. This is the place.' 1847 - Rotary-type printing press patents by Richard March Hoe, NYC. 1901- William Porter, also known as O.Henry, was released from jail after doing time for embezzlement. While in jail he found he had a talent for writing. 1923- Treaty of Lausanne - The western powers end the Greek-Turkish War and confirm the Turkish Republic's borders from the old Ottoman Empire. The Turks keep Anatolia and their Aegean coastline, The French Syria, The Greeks the Ionian islands, the British Palestine, the Bolshevik Russians get Yerevan and the Armenians and Kurds get nothing. 1934- Cecil B. DeMille’s epic film Cleopatra premiered. It starred Claudette Colbert wearing skimpy metal lingerie that Lady Gaga could envy. 1938 - Instant coffee invented. 1948-HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARVIN THE MARTIAN- Warner's "Haredevil Hare" featuring the first Marvin the Martian. 1965- Bob Dylan released the song “Like a Rolling Stone”. 1966- Actor Montgomery Clift died at age 45. 1967-VIVE QUEBEC LIBRE. French President Charles DeGaulle was on a state visit to Canada. While giving an address to a huge crowd of in Quebec City he uses the same words he used in 1940 to call for French freedom from Nazi tyranny to announce his tacit support of French Canadian independence: “Vive Le France, Vive Quebec, Vive Quebeque Libre!” Long Live Free Quebec. The Ottawa government cut short the remainder of his trip and packed him off back to Paris. But his words set the province aflame. All the separatist sentiment dividing Canada for next two decades-national referendums, the Meech Lake accords, the FLQ conspiracy and the Quebec Separatist movement, can trace their beginnings to those three words said on that day. 1969- After successfully landing on the moon and returning to Earth, Apollo 11 safely splashed down in the ocean. 1980- In London’s Dorchester Hotel, comedian and actor Peter Sellers died of a heart attack. He was 54. 1983-George Brett of the Kansas City Royals had a second homerun he hit nullified after Yankee manager Billy Martin complains he had too much pine tar on his bat. 1985-Walt Disney's "The Black Cauldron" premiered. 1998- Russell Weston was a schizophrenic who believed Navy Seals were hiding in his cornfield. He had shot his mothers twenty five cats because they had fleas. This day he went to Washington and tried to shoot his way into the US Congress, He killed two security guards before he was brought down in a hail of bullets. I wonder if the Congress was debating gun control at the time? 2002- Only once since the Civil War had a U.S. Congressman been officially expelled. Today the House of Representatives voted 420 to 1 to expel Congressman James Trafficante for his conviction on Bribery and extortion charges, and having the worst haircut on Capitol Hill. 2005- American Lance Armstrong won the Tour du France bicycle race for an unprecedented 7th time, even after surviving testicular cancer that had spread to his spine and brain. Steroids or not, it was still one hell of an achievement. After he confessed to juicing, his medals were taken away. Yesterday’s Question: On a crucifix, above Christ’s head are the letters INRI. What does that mean? Answer: In Latin Ieazus Nazarenensis Rex Iudaeum. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

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Landa, 29, and another inmate from Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women have spent eight hours a day, seven days a week for much of the year reading, writing and watching butterflies. "It's a wonderful experience and it's very rewarding," Landa said. "It's very interesting and amazing to help populate life." There are only a handful of known populations of Taylor's checkerspot (Euphydryas editha taylori) butterflies in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. The species has long been on the minds of local conservationists and the military because the largest concentration of the thumb-sized black, white and orange butterfly is on a swath of grassland that abuts a live-fire artillery range on Joint Base Lewis-McChord... For several years, The Evergreen State College has partnered with the state Department of Corrections to create jobs for inmates to study everything from mosses to frogs. In the course of their studies, the inmates also play an active role in increasing populations of wildlife... "We don't just want to have them focus on producing butterflies. We want them to understand what they are doing," Bush said. "Hopefully, it inspires them to seek environmental careers or additional education, or, at the very least, it helps them understand our ecosystems better." A grant from the military paid for supplies for the $35,000 greenhouse at Mission Creek Corrections Center; inmates built the facility, according to corrections staff. 18 October 2011 Butterflies are free (though their keepers aren't) A hat tip to Keith for alerting me to an article in the Seattle Times about a new program instituted in the state of Washington, in which inmates raise butterflies:

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Hypocrites (450-339 BC) ) was an influential Greek philosopher of the fifth century B.C. and the founder of the Hypocritical school of philosophy. He was most famous for devoting his entire life to preaching a philosophy of the virtues of honesty, humility, sobriety and chastity, while at the same time practicing the virtues of deceit, arrogance, lechery and dishonesty. Hypocrites is perhaps most notable for his magnum opus, the six-part treatise Do As I Say, Not As I Do, which is, to this day, influential especially in hard-line Christian evangelical circles. The Reverend Ted Haggard, for example, is a noted follower of Hypocrites, and is considered a leading scholar in the field of Hypocrisy. edit Hypocrites' Early Life Born in the city of Hippo, the child of a banker father and a snide mother, Hypocrites grew up appreciating the fine art of rhetoric. He attended the finest of Greek academies, under the tutelage of eminent philosophers such as Idiocrates. Once, when he was 16 years old, Hypocrites was pressed, by another student, on the subject of slavery. Was it not true, argued this student, that slaves were merely people, like any other, deserving of the same freedom? Yes, agreed Hypocrites. Well then, continued the student, doesn't it follow then that your family should give up its many slaves and set them free? No, said Hypocrites, for if we did that, then we would be forced to cook our own food and do our own laundry. For many years this was considered an ironclad defense of the practice of slavery. Hypocrites got his first employment as a scribe, where he quickly made a name for himself by mentioning the importance of diligence and probity in the office. He then quickly ascended to the rank of Juror, through bribery and blackmail, as well as through the public dissemination of certain facts injurious to the person of his chief rival, Naivetous, among them the rumor that Naivetous could not be trusted and often gave advice contrary to what he in fact would do. edit Hypocrites on Eating Hypocrites argued that the body was a temple for the soul, and that one should therefore consume only healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Hypocrites himself subsisted entirely on cheese steaks slathered in bacon grease, usually soaked overnight in boiling oil to enhance its flavour, which he ate three at a time seven times a day, and washed down with a pint of Carlsberg. He explained that by so doing, the apparent contradiction between preaching the virtues of healthy eating and while gorging himself on unhealthy food would reinforce the dualism of the psyche and soma, improving his health and stimulating his mind. Hypocrites prided himself on being a good role model to the youth, which he best summed up in this maxim: "I do these terrible things to myself so that I might show others the error in their ways." Hypocrites thought that by partaking of these pernicious (though delicious) foods he might set the example of the slovenly elder. edit Hypocrites on Politics Hypocrites was, unsurprisingly, one of the greatest statesmen of Ancient Greece. He was a tireless champion of justice and peace, as evidenced by his time in office, whereby corruption and graft grew feverishly, and Athens went to war four times. Hypocrites pledged to free all of Greece's slaves during his tenure. Nearly all slaves were subsequently removed from ownership by the private citizens of Greece, and were instead transferred to Hypocrites' fabulous country estate, which acted as a sort of "halfway house" so that the slaves might someday be able to function in everyday society. There the slaves were tutored in the fine arts such as picking olives, washing clothes and serving meals. A number of these slaves even took part in some of Hypocrites' famous auctions, from which people from far and wide would attend to buy priceless items that had somehow been lost. One man in particular, Augustus of Samos, tells of his good fortune at one of these auctions: "Hypocrites' soldiers came onto my premises with spears and shields drawn, and proceeded to take away from me my slaves, my priceless family pottery, and even my wife. They left me a note saying that I could retrieve these items at a sale to be had later that day. I managed to get most of my goods back, though it cost me several hundred drachma, and the items, even my wife, were worth only half that on a fair market." Stories like this abound during Hypocrites' time as governor, tax collector, and emperor. edit Hypocrites on Ethics edit Hypocrites on Humility One of Hypocrites' most famous teachings was the teaching of humility. It was said many times that Hypocrites was the humblest man in existence, indeed, the humblest man who had ever walked the earth. This was mainly said by Hypocrites himself, as he endlessly traversed the ancient world, preaching about the value of humility and of how he stood as a shining example of humility to inspire the "wretched, disease-ridden masses", as he denoted the common man. Hypocrites was also a strong proponent of chastity, which he argued was the most noble and pure of all virtues. So strongly attached was he to this ideal that he traveled almost every night to Athens' brothels so as to promote his philosophy among the harem, as he felt they were most in need of his lessons. Hypocrites was known to teach the virtues of chastity to two or three prostitutes at once, often until the early hours of the morning, when the sheer effort of his tireless tutoring performance would exhaust him completely and he was often found sleeping in the beds of his students. Hypocrites' love for chastity can probably best be surmised from his desire to always be around virgins and others pure of heart. Often he would require their presence, sometimes several at a time, sometimes alone, for "philosophical education and physical recreation." Little is known about what transpired during these bed-side chats, but this can be surmised: there were rapturous experiences, as evidenced by the sounds emanating from his chamber. Hypocrites is often quoted as saying "A bushel of virgins and a bushels worth of olive oil is all I need in this world." edit Following One's Ideals Perhaps the only other virtue Hypocrites was so strongly devoted to was the virtue of honestly living one's ideals. Hypocrites was a tireless critic of those who professed an ideal, but acted otherwise, often excoriating them as utterly dishonest and morally corrupt. Yet Hypocrites often exempted himself from such criticism, claiming that he was merely demonstrating to others how the people in question behaved. For instance, he tirelessly attacked Aristotle for preaching moderation but eating too many olives during a party, and criticized Plato for promoting ethics and justice, but having once eaten a grape at a fruit stand without paying for it. Of note is how Hypocrites managed to find numerous inconsistencies in the behavior of most, in fact, all of Greece's other notable statesmen and philosophers, while at the same time remaining perfectly true to his teachings. It truly is a testament to Hypocrites that, as others floundered in their beliefs, he managed to behave in a most carefree manner, as if he were totally unburdened by responsibility. Another area in which Hypocrites was a leading figure was in the condemnation of violence. A tireless pacifist, Hypocrites would notably refuse to partake in violence and would in fact help those who meant him harm. Often, when he was pressed by ruffians in some of the gambling halls he frequented, Hypocrites would, to show the odiousness of violence, smash a chair over the head of bystander, and then quickly remark "The depravity!" under his breath. It is thought that only by impressing the ugliness of violence upon his fellow Greeks could Hypocrites ever hope to reach their dull, sullen hearts. edit Hypocritical Philosophy in the Modern Era The Philosophy of Hypocrites has undergone a major resurgence as of late. Probably the leading advocates of a return to Hypocritical ideals are the Christian fundamentalists and the Republican Party. Long known for their philosophical acumen, these groups have refined Hypocrites' teachings to their logical best. For example, when the Republican party makes its platform one of fiscal conservatism, and then proceeds to amass record-breaking deficits, the intellectual capital is clearly borrowed from the great Hypocrites himself. Perhaps in this, more than anything else, the level of scholarship and intellectualization behind modern conservatism can be best summed up. However, the Democratic Party is hard at work attempting to beat the Republicans in establishing the true Hypocratic practice. President Obama, for example, ran for office on the platform of not going to war over weapons of mass-destruction like his predecessor. He then proceeded to tell North Korea, "Stop building those rockets, guys. We mean it. Stop building those things, or else." He has also stated, "It might be a really long time - like, forever - before we get those troops out of Iraq like we said we would. Because, well... anyway, it's Bush's fault. Thank you." edit See Also |Greek:||Greek gods - Greek mythology - Greek language - Greek Empire - Byzantine Empire (mostly Greek)| |Greeks:||Achilles - Alexander the Great - Aristotle - Euripides - Helen of Troy - Heraclitus - Herodotus - Hesiod - Hippocrates - Homer - Homo - Hypocrites - Idiocrates - Mediocrates - Pericles - Phil the Greek - Plato - Plutarch - Pythagoras - Socrates - Sophocles - Testiclēs - UnNews:Greek Prime Minister target by perv - Zorba The Greek| |Gods & Titans:||Zeus - Poseidon - Aphrodite - Chaos - Chronos - Cholera - Hermaphrodite - Athena - Hades - Prometheus - Uranus| |Greece:||Ancient Greece - Athens - Sparta - Rhodes - Thermopylae - Delphi - Geece| |Greecey Food:||Olives - Olive Oil - Wheat - Darth Feta - Ouzo - Souvlaki| |Greek Ingenuity:||Comedy - Tragedy - Philosophy - Sodomy - Olympic Games| |Greek Speak:||The Aeneid - The Iliad - The Odyssey - The Destiniad - Oedipus the King|

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by Lidija Grozdanić Few urban settlements outside the South American continent exhibit such visible thirst for space as Brazil’s Cidade Meravilhosa. The vortex of mixtures and co-existing extremes, permeating all aspects of Rio de Janeiro’s life, creates an urban continuity glued together by a single unifying force – the desire to live in the city. Clinging to steep hill slopes, burdened by poverty and inadequate infrastructure, informal settlements are pulsating tentacles of the urbanscape, reminding the Rio+20 participants of the urgency of addressing sustainable urbanization issues. Reports show that Latin America is more urbanized than any other region in the developing world, with 80 percent of its relatively young population currently living in cities, a share expected to rise to 85 percent by 2025. The region's 198 large cities—defined as having populations of 200,000 or more—together contribute more than 60 percent of GDP. Although considered as engines of economic growth, there are serious downsides to the urban and economic agglomerations taking place in large cities. The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) reports that cities “can become so large that their diseconomies begin to slow them down… In the recent past, growth rates in Brazil's São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have dropped from above to below the national averages in these two economies.” Informality, socio-spatial segregation, persistent poverty, pollution, poor transportation systems, and other challenges are increased by the growing phenomenon of rural exodus to cities. According to the MGI reports, cities have to address four dimensions of sustained urban economic growth: economic performance, social condition, sustainable use of resources, and finance and governance. While the official document of the Rio+20 Summit was being negotiated, a set of roundtables concerning sustainable cities took place in Rio. Hosted by the C40 initiative (a coalition founded in 2005 by 20 major cities which has grown to include 59 now) and supported by the Clinton Foundation, the event held at Copacabana Fort resulted in signing of the agreement for cities to reduce annual greenhouse emissions by around 250 million tons by 2020. Characterized by global media as one the most significant developments to come out of Rio+20, the agreement indicates that the inability to reach a global consensus has been somewhat redeemed by the agility of municipal authorities. "We're not arguing with each other about emissions targets, we're going out and making progress," said Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York and chairman of the C40. While sharing the same commitment, cities are able to shape the sustainability model according to their own particular situation and challenges. Pragmatic and result-oriented, this approach was adopted by C40 Mayors on behalf of C40 cities. Additionally, a Solid Waste Network was launched at the meeting: a peer-to-peer learning tool that will assist local governments in reducing coming from waste management. "The message the mayors want to send here is that a series of decisions and actions can and are already being taken," said Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes. During the conference, host city Rio de Janeiro was hailed as a model of sustainable development for recent efforts including this month’s closure of a large open-air landfill on the banks of the city’s hyper-polluted Guanabara Bay. The city is also working on a project to divert organic matter from waste to generate organic fertilizer. There is a palpable and immediate influence of large conferences on their host cities. The Summit held in 1992 was the turning point towards a new urban approach for the city of Rio de Janeiro. Taking advantage of the international repercussions surrounding the event, the local government focused its efforts in rescuing Rio’s public spaces. The Copacabana and Ipanema sidewalks, in their current state, were but part of the simple and inexpensive urban strategy of restoring the depleted social life of the city and redeeming Rio’s reputation, then associated with urban violence and insecurity. Instead of focusing attention on cars, the design projects generated by the program have privileged pedestrians, significantly reducing crime rate and carbon emissions. By signing the C40 agreement, exactly 20 years after the first Earth Summit, Rio is ready to take the sustainability effort one step further.

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UNIFORM INSIGNIA WORN CENTERED ABOVE "BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA" STRIP Youth and Adult members (Cub and Webelos Scouts, Boy and Varsity Scouts, Venturers, and Sea Scouts, plus Scouters in all programs) may wear this strip if they show their knowledge of a foreign language or the sign language for the hearing impaired by: - Carrying on a 5-minute conversation in this language. - Translating a 2-minute speech or address. - Writing a letter in the language (Does not apply for sign language) - Translating 200 words or more from the written word. Morse Code Interpreter's Strip Special requirements exist for the special Interpreter's Strip for Morse code. The Morse Code interpreter strip designates those who are proficient in Morse Code and denotes their availability for emergency communications and other types of supporting communication for Scouting and the community. Youth and adults may wear this strip if they show their knowledge of Morse Code by: - Carrying on a five-minute conversation in Morse Code at a speed of at least five words per minute. - Copying correctly a two-minute message sent in Morse Code at a minimum of five words per minute. Copying means writing the message down as it is received. - Sending a 25-word written document in Morse Code at a minimum of five words per minute. NOTE: The strips shown on this page are a representative sample of some of the languages available. Others can be ordered through the Council Service Center. Older strips were red and white, while newer strips are khaki-tan and red. |Korean (in English)|

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Water: Healthy Watersheds Hydrology and geomorphology are intricately linked through erosional and depositional processes that create a dynamic equilibrium in healthy watersheds. The dynamic equilibrium of the physical system establishes the dynamic equilibrium of the biological system, thus maintaining the ecological integrity of the system as a whole. Reference conditions are important for hydrologic/geomorphic assessments of aquatic ecosystems. Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (PDF) (4 pp, 227K, About PDF) The Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) is a new framework offering a flexible, scientifically defensible compromise for broadly assessing environmental flow needs when in-depth studies cannot be performed for all rivers in a region. ELOHA is especially useful for state-level assessments. Follow the link to read case studies of the ELOHA method. Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process The Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process is a framework and set of tools developed by the USGS to characterize the 5 major components of the Natural Flow Regime. As streamflow is a “master variable” in aquatic ecosystems, this assessment provides valuable information regarding the ecological integrity of the system. Watershed Assessment of River Stability and Sediment Supply (WARSS) WARSSS is a technical procedure developed by Dr. David L. Rosgen for water quality scientists to use in evaluating streams and rivers impaired by excess sediment. Characteristics and Classification of Least Altered Streamflows in Massachusetts USGS presents a method for developing a hydrologic classification of rivers in Southern New England. This method identifies the degree of alteration of streamflows. New Jersey Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Software (PDF) (80 pp, 1.69MB, About PDF) The Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process recognizes that streamflow is strongly related to many critical physiochemical components of rivers, such as dissolved oxygen, channel geomorphology, and water temperature, and can be considered a “master variable” that limits the disturbance, abundance, and diversity of many aquatic plant and animal species. A Regional-scale Habitat Suitability Model to Assess the Effects of Flow Reduction on Fish Assemblages in Michigan Streams (50 pp, 5.4MB, About PDF) An ecological classification of river segments, catchment size, and July river temperature is used to assess the effects of reduced baseflow on fish species and assemblages. The method is useful for identifying streams with healthy baseflows and streams vulnerable to ecological disruption as a result of reduced baseflow. The method provides a framework for developing regional environmental flow standards across Michigan rivers that parallels ELOHA. Minnesota DNRs Stream Habitat Program The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources assesses shape, flow, connectivity, biology, and water quality of its 90,000 miles of rivers and streams to provide a holistic view of the state’s water resources. Vermont Stream Geomorphic Assessment Vermont has produced a River Corridor Protection Guide to explain the science behind river corridors and offer detailed procedures and tools for corridor delineation. Vermont uses the river corridor in its work with landowners and town, state, and federal agencies as a science-based river and riparian land use planning, conservation, and management tool to avoid conflicts between human investments and the dynamics of rivers. A physical habitat simulation model that simulates the consequences of ecosystem alteration due to changing spatial distributions of physical attributes of a river and variations in flow. MesoHABSIM builds upon the PHABSIM model. Proper Functioning Condition (PFC) (PDF) (58 pp, 1.91MB, About PDF) PFC tool is a qualitative watershed assessment tool developed by BLM that assesses proper functioning of riparian-wetland areas and the condition of these areas based on observations focusing on the physical condition of the channel and riparian-wetland area. PFC is used widely in the West as a quick assessment tool to determine the stream’s stability and identify management practices that need to be changed in order to improve channel conditions. The basic questions PFC answers is whether or not at stream channel and its wetland-riparian area can withstand high flow events, e.g., 5-, 10-, and 20-year events without significant loss of integrity. PFC can be used to identify riparian-wetland systems for protection.

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By Pamela Redwine Nutrition & Food Safety Area Agent Mississippi State University Extension Service Submitted by Lisa Stewart, Webster County Director The weather is warm, the sun is out and kids are starting to hit the field for spring sports season. So April is a great time to recognize National Youth Sports Safety Month. While sports are a great way for kids to stay active, be fit and build teamwork, it’s also important to stay safe. Every year, more than 20 million American kids participate in sports. But nearly 1 million will suffer a serious sports-related injury. Strains, sprains and fractures are the most common injuries in kids. So if your child is participating in youth sports be sure to make yourself – and your child – aware of all the proper safety issues and procedures. Preventing Injuries During Youth Sports According to information provided by the University of Denver, here are some ways to prevent sports injuries: • Enroll your child in organized sports through programs that are committed to injury prevention. • Make sure coaches and support staff are CPR and first-aid certified, and the program has emergency protocols in place. • Make sure your child’s coaches are educated on proper use of equipment, that equipment is maintained and that coaches enforce rules regarding proper equipment use. • Invest in proper gear for your child’s selected sport. Safety gear that is too big or too small won’t be as effective as gear that fits properly. Teach your child how to properly care for and use sports and safety equipment. • Include warm-ups and cool-downs as part of your child’s sport participation. Warm-up exercises help minimize the likelihood of muscle strain and make the body’s tissues more flexible. Cool-down exercises help loosen muscles that tighten during exercise. • Encourage hydration during sport participation. Whether you choose water or sports drinks, ensure your child hydrates frequently while active. • Ensure your child wears sunscreen and a hat (when possible) during outside activities. Children should play a variety of sports to encourage cross-training. • Dr. Amy Valasek, a pediatric sports medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, recommends that children engage in no more than five days per week of sport-specific training to allow the body to recover. Treating Injuries For immediate treatment of sprains and strains, remember RICE • Rest. Reduce or stop using the injured area for at least 48 hours. • Ice. Put an ice pack on the injured area for 20 minutes at a time, four to eight times per day. Wrap the ice pack in a towel prior to use. • Compression. Consult your doctor on the best option to compress an injured area. • Elevation. Keep the injured area elevated above the level of the heart to decrease swelling. If an injury is not fully healed before a child returns to a sport, it is possible that the child will suffer a re-injury in the same area. It is important that the injury be allowed to heal, and that the child return to normal activity gradually to reduce the risk of re-injury. Even if the child is eager to return to playing a sport, he or she should take it slow and avoid overexertion. Always consult your doctor regarding any severe injuries or injuries with prolonged swelling and/or pain.

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by these essays and the conclusions advanced by their authors have a significance for the understanding of king-centred and aristocratic-dominated societies everywhere, medieval England and Wales included. R. R. DAVIES Aberystwyth BLOODFEUD IN SCOTLAND, 1573-1625. By Keith M. Brown. John Donald, Edinburgh, 1986. Pp. 299. £ 25.00. This is an important book on two counts. First, it belongs and relates to a corpus of recent work transforming our understanding of Jacobean Scotland and associated especially with Gordon Donaldson and Jenny Wormald. Second, it is part of a rather different tradition, heralded by Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane, of applying the techniques and thought-processes of anthropology and sociology to early-modem British societies. Dr. Brown's erudition is remarkable, and his reader constantly finds cross-comparisons not only with research into sixteenth-century continental states but into Sudanese, Amazonian and Philippine tribes, the ancient Roman republic, the Mafia, the Ottoman aristocracy and New York City street gangs. In keeping with its two foci, the book appears to fall implicitly into two very different sections. The first is an analysis of the early-modem Scottish bloodfeud itself, the second a study of the changing problem of law and order in the reign of James VI. Broadly, the 'feuding society' of sixteenth-century Scotland was a decentralised state with strong family bonds and powerful lordship. Young men had a high profile, the carrying of arms was both a duty and a sign of rank, and neither the law nor the judges which enforced it were ever thought of as objective. The power of a lord to protect and advance the interests of kin and tenants was best displayed by his prowess in conducting a quarrel: one who avoided clashes and ignored slights was regarded as a liability by his dependents, for his presumed weakness attracted predators. The occasions for feuds were almost all local, such as disputes over inheritances, boundaries and revenues, and religious and national political factions could cut across them. Nevertheless, such quarrels regularly invaded the royal court, and once established they could last for generations. They were generally ended by pressure from kin and allies of the combatants who wished to reunite the local community. Even at the height of a feud, care was usually exercised by both sides to limit the damage done to a region. Raiding was selective and episodic and never degenerated into anarchy, and while Scottish nobles murdered each other with some regularity, they were reluctant to employ judicial violence in political changes. The long list of political executions which marks Tudor history had no parallel over the Border. Dr. Brown goes on to show that there was an epidemic of feuding in late-sixteenth-century Scotland. Rising prices and population, the Reformation and (above all) the collapse of the monarchy all acted to increase tensions within a society already imbued with This text was generated automatically from the scanned page and has not been checked. Typical character accuracy is in excess of 99%, but this leaves one error per 100 characters. The National Library of Wales has created and published this digital version of the journal under a licence granted by the publisher. The material it contains may be used for all purposes while respecting the moral rights of the creators.

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Windows Sidebar is a long, vertical bar that is displayed on the side of your desktop. It contains mini-programs called gadgets, which offer information at a glance and provide easy access to frequently used tools. For example, you can use gadgets to display a picture slide show, view continuously updated headlines, or look up contacts. Sidebar can keep information and tools readily available for you to use. For example, you can display news headlines right next to your open programs. This way, if you want to keep track of what's happening in the news while you work, you don't have to stop what you're doing to switch to a news website. With Sidebar, you can use the Feed Headlines gadget to show the latest news headlines from sources you choose. You don't have to stop working on your document, because the headlines are always visible. If you peripherally see a headline that interests you, you can click that headline, and your web browser will open directly to the story. Open Windows Sidebar by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Windows Sidebar. To keep Sidebar visible at all times, you must set it so that other windows won't cover it. The Sidebar width is a fixed size. Because of the space Sidebar requires, this option works best if you're using a large or wide-screen monitor or multiple monitors. Open Windows Sidebar properties by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Windows Sidebar Properties. Select the Sidebar is always on top of other windows check box. Windows comes with a small collection of gadgets, but only some of them appear on Sidebar by default. To understand how to use gadgets, let's explore three gadgets that you'll see on Sidebar when you first start Windows: the Clock, Slide Show, and Feed Headlines. When you point to the Clock gadget, two buttons will appear near its upper-right corner: the Close button—which is the top button—and the Options button. Clicking the Close button removes the Clock from Sidebar. The button below the close button displays options for naming the clock, changing its time zone, and showing its second hand. Not all gadgets have an Options button. Gadgets without an Options button don't have settings that can be changed. Next try resting the pointer on the Slide Show gadget, which displays a continuous slide show of pictures on your computer. When you point to Slide Show, the Close and Options buttons will appear near the upper-right corner of the gadget. Clicking the Options button allows you to choose which pictures appear in your slide show, control the speed at which your slide show plays, and change the transition effect between pictures. By default, Slide Show displays items in the Sample Pictures folder. Point to Slide Show, and when the Options button appears, click it. In the Folder box, select the location of the pictures you want to display. In the Show each picture list, select the number of seconds to show each picture. In the Transition between pictures list, select the transition you want. Feed Headlines can display frequently updated headlines from a website that supplies feeds, also known as RSS feeds, XML feeds, syndicated content, or web feeds. Websites often use feeds to distribute news and blogs. To receive feeds, you need an Internet connection. By default, Feed Headlines won't display any headlines. To start displaying a small set of preselected headlines, click View headlines. When you point to Feed Headlines, the Close and Options buttons will appear near the upper-right corner of the gadget. Clicking the Options button allows you to choose from a list of available feeds. You can add to the list by choosing your own feeds from the web. Internet Explorer, a web browser included with Windows, looks for feeds on every webpage you visit. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Internet Explorer. Browse to a webpage that has feeds. Click the arrow next to the Feeds button, and then, in the list that appears, click the feed you want. On the webpage that appears, click Subscribe to this feed. In the dialog box that appears, click Subscribe. The feed should now be available to Feed Headlines. To display the feed in Feed Headlines, see the procedure below. Point to Feed Headlines, and then click the Options button. In the Display this feed list, click the feed you want to display. To scroll through the headlines, point to Feed Headlines, and then click the downward- or upward-pointing arrows that appear on the bottom edge. Before a gadget can be added to Sidebar, it must be installed on your computer. To see which gadgets are installed on your computer: At the top of Sidebar, click the plus sign (+) to open the Gadget Gallery. Click the scroll buttons to see all the gadgets. Click a gadget, and then click Show details to see information about it at the bottom of the dialog box. You can download additional gadgets from the web. To find gadgets online, go to the Microsoft Gadgets website. You can add any installed gadget to Sidebar. If you want, you can add multiple instances of a gadget. For example, if you are keeping track of time in two time zones, you can add two instances of the Clock gadget and set the time of each accordingly. Double-click a gadget to add it to Sidebar. Right-click the gadget, and then click Close Gadget. You can organize your gadgets in any of several ways: You can keep all of the gadgets attached to Sidebar. You can change the display order of gadgets in Sidebar. To do this, drag a gadget to a new position. You can keep some gadgets attached to Sidebar and place some on the desktop. You can detach all of the gadgets from Sidebar and place them on the desktop. If you organize your gadgets this way, you might want to close Sidebar. You can detach gadgets from Sidebar and place them anywhere on the desktop. To detach a gadget from Sidebar, drag it to the desktop. To reattach the gadget, drag it to any part of Sidebar. If you have trouble dragging a gadget, you might need to drag from a different part of the gadget, such as an edge or corner. You might want to close Sidebar if you detach all the gadgets from it. For more information about customizing Sidebar, see Customize Windows Sidebar.

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A machine shop has three machines, where on a given day a machine fails with probability . Machine 1 feeds both machines 2 and 3, so if machine 1 fails, there is no production that day. Only one machine can be repaired on the same day so it is available for the following day. If several machines are down, they are repaired in priority order 1, 2, and 3. A machine that has been repaired is assumed to be working the next day. The states enumerate all possible combinations of failed machines, and the process starts with all machines working. Visualize the process, with the vertex labels showing the machines that are down. There is production if no machines are down, or only one of machines 2 and 3 is down. The probability that there is production at full capacity. The average time it takes to get from all machines down to no machines down.

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A. STDs are caused by bacteria and viruses. STDs caused by bacteria include chlamydia ("kla-mi-dee-a"), gonorrhea ("gon-or-ree-a"), trichomoniasis ("trik-o-mo-ni-a-sis"), and syphilis ("si-fi-lis"). These STDs can be treated and cured with antibiotics. STDs caused by viruses include HIV/AIDS, genital herpes, genital warts, and cytomegalovirus ("si-to-meg-a-low-vi-rus"). These STDs can be controlled, but not cured. There is no way to get any of these viruses out of a person's body once he or she has become infected. Finding and treating STDs early is the best way to take care of you.

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Updated Fri, Mar 28, 2014 10:59 am Wednesday, April 2 • 9 p.m. Follow the scientists who are returning apex predators to their natural environments — and learn why. A growing number of scientists are discovering that removing top predators from the wild has thrown ecosystems off-kilter, triggering domino effects that we are just beginning to understand. NOVA follows scientists who are trying out a simple but controversial solution: returning apex predators — like coyotes, bears and panthers — to their natural environments. Can these newly introduced predators restore the natural balance of their ecosystems without threatening the humans who live among them? Find out when NOVA's "Wild Predator Invasion" airs Wednesday, April 2 at 9 p.m.

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Freshwater conservation in the Peruvian Amazon Latin America/Caribbean > South America > Peru The Abanico del Pastaza wetlands and the Pacaya Samiria national reserve in northeastern Peru are extremely rich in biological and cultural diversity. But decades of development has effected water quality and reduced fish populations, the main source of food and income for many local communities. WWF is working with indigenous groups to help manage threats to the region and protect themselves from the negative effects of commercial oil development and overfishing. WWF is also promoting conservation efforts in the protected areas. Extremely rich in biological and sociocultural diversity, the Abanico del Pastaza Wetlands Complex and Pacaya Samiria are of high conservation value and have been categorized as one of sixteen priority areas for biodiversity conservation in the Amazon River and Flooded Forest (ARFF) Ecoregion. However, due to the high degree of connectivity in the Abanico del Pastaza, unsustainable natural resource extraction activities have had a profound and widespread impact on freshwater habitats, affecting wildlife populations, migration processes, and ecosystem health. Two major threats to both the biological and cultural diversity of the Complex are petroleum extraction and commercial over-fishing, both of which will be addressed. Several oil lots currently being promoted threaten biodiversity conservation in the wetlands. It is critical to restore specific areas as soon as possible and reduce current contamination generated by oil companies in order to conserve Lake Rimachi’s, and the region’s, remaining, important natural resources over the long term. 1. Improve livelihood opportunities and general welfare in priority communities in the Abanico del Pastaza and Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. 2. Improve the indigenous community members and leader’s capacities, as well as those of the Pastaza Watershed Coordination Committee (PWCC) members in concert with policymakers and oil companies, on the viability of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, as well as designing mechanisms of social and environmental compensation for the recuperation of degraded ecosystems. 3. Sustainable natural resource management practices are identified and being implemented and replicated by communities in selected sites in the Pastaza River Basin and Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. 4. Reduce the levels of overfishing through the implementation of a fishing management plan in Lake Rimachi, and an improvement of the market to ensure that economic benefits from the Complex’s natural resources flow directly to Kandozi indigenous communities. 5. Improve policies and planning pertaining to the Pastaza River Basin, by supporting the participatory development of transparent legal mechanisms that promote equitable and sustainable development in the River Basin, and protect stakeholders' natural resource rights. This project is part of a long-term conservation program with the following goal: Promote and guarantee biodiversity conservation in this area through sustainable and participatory management of its ecosystems and natural resources, based on a scientific understanding of its ecological, hydrological, socioeconomic and cultural processes as well as on respect for the rights of those indigenous groups that live in the area. At a larger scale, the program’s goal directly contributes to the achievement of the primary goals established at the ecoregional level for the Amazon River and Flooded Forests Ecoregion, which include: ensuring freshwater representation and integrity; maintaining and restoring connectivity and ecological and hydrological processes; and ensuring viable species populations. Over the long term, the goal responds to the issue by providing indigenous groups with the skills and tools to conserve the Complex’s ecological processes. By building their capacity for sustainable management of natural resources and other strategies, threats to the area’s biodiversity can be controlled. This will result in an improvement of water quality, a reduction in deforestation and over-fishing and the sustainable and controlled use of other natural resources. Freshwater contamination problems are too severe to be resolved over the short-term. However, through the exercise of indigenous people’s rights and the strengthening of their federations, the involvement of policymakers and civil society will be promoted so that better environmental standards exist and plans for adaptation and remediation of the areas affected by oil company activities are respected, thereby reducing the threat posed by petroleum extraction. By promoting participatory management of natural resources, the overexploitation of these resources will decrease, resulting in increased economic benefits for indigenous communities based on sustainable natural resource management strategies which will also benefit the Complex’s biodiversity. A. Freshwater ecosystem recovery. After more than 30 years of contamination in the Corrientes River due to irresponsible oil extraction activities, FECONACO, the indigenous federation that groups the Achuar and Urarinas people from this river, Pluspetrol, an Argentinean oil company, and the Government of Peru have signed a historical agreement that requires Pluspetrol to reinject 100% of production waters into old oil pits. Production waters also known as formation waters contain at least twice as salt as seawater and heavy metals like mercury, cadmium and barium among others. B. Facilitation of actor cooperation on the Peruvian and Ecuadorian borders of the Pastaza River Basin. The first bi-national Achuar Congress was held in August 2006 in San Lorenzo, Loreto, with more than 130 participants. The discussion of this meeting focused on 4 main issues: governance, territory, education and petroleum. After 3 days of intense discussions, many agreements were reached regarding environment conservation. A very important resolution was achieved: "The Achuar indigenous people of Peru and Ecuador reject any oil-related activity in their ancestral territories". The Achuar position against oil activity in their territories is still united and now is official for both countries. Building capacities in COBNAEP will improve coordination between Achuar people in the Pastaza basin from Peru and Ecuador. C. Reduction of overfishing levels in Lake Rimachi. In December 2006, the election of the new directive of APA Yungani (Artisanal Fishing Association) was held in the town of Musa Karusha, very close to Lake Rimachi. More than 70 indigenous Kandozi fishermen as well as the Director of the Regional Office for Production - DIREPRO, participated during 2 days of intense debate. Personnel from the local NGO Racimos de Ungurahui, a WWF partner, assisted in the legal issues and personnel from DIREPRO assisted in technical issues. Second elections for the new APA Yungani Directive were held with participation from DIREPRO’s director to improve governance in the Kandozi territory (6 years ago DIREPRO, formerly known as Ministry of Fishing, was not allowed in Kandozi territory).

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y2 = x3/(2a - x) r = 2a tan(θ)sin(θ) Click below to see one of the Associated curves. |Definitions of the Associated curves||Evolute| |Involute 1||Involute 2| |Inverse curve wrt origin||Inverse wrt another circle| |Pedal curve wrt origin||Pedal wrt another point| |Negative pedal curve wrt origin||Negative pedal wrt another point| |Caustic wrt horizontal rays||Caustic curve wrt another point| The name first appears in the work of Geminus about 100 years later. Fermat and Roberval constructed the tangent in 1634. Huygens and Wallis found, in 1658, that the area between the curve and its asymptote was 3πa2. From a given point there are either one or three tangents to the cissoid. The Cissoid of Diocles is the roulette of the vertex of a parabola rolling on an equal parabola. Newton gave a method of drawing the Cissoid of Diocles using two line segments of equal length at right angles. If they are moved so that one line always passes through a fixed point and the end of the other line segment slides along a straight line then the mid-point of the sliding line segment traces out a Cissoid of Diocles. Diocles was a contemporary of Nicomedes. He studied the cissoid in his attempt to solve the problem of finding the length of the side of a cube having volume twice that of a given cube. He also studied the problem of Archimedes to cut a sphere by a plane in such a way that the volumes of the segments shall have a given ratio. It is in commentaries on Archimedes' On the sphere and the cylinder that the cissoid appears and is attributed to Diocles. The pedal curve of the cissoid, when the pedal point is on the axis beyond the asymptote, at distance from the cusp four times that of the asymptote, is a cardioid. If the cusp of the cissoid is taken as the centre of inversion, the cissoid inverts to a parabola. The caustic of the cissoid where the radiant point is taken as (8a, 0) is a cardioid. If points P and Q are on the cissoid so that PQ subtends a right angle at O then the locus of intersection of the tangents at P and Q lies on the circle with diameter (a/2, 0), (2a, 0). Other Web site: |Main index||Famous curves index| |Previous curve||Next curve| |History Topics Index||Birthplace Maps| |Mathematicians of the day||Anniversaries for the year| |Societies, honours, etc||Search Form| The URL of this page is:

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Spiritual Classics, Pt 1: Buddhism The first of a six-part series exploring the sacred texts of the major religions, with the Buddha's First Sermon, Heart Spoon and the Heart Sutra. Rachael Kohn: The Symphony No.5 by American composer, Philip Glass. He's one of the many Westerners who've been inspired by the words of the Buddha Hello, I'm Rachael Kohn, and you're listening to ABC Radio National. Welcome to Spiritual Classics, a monthly series on The Spirit of Things that looks at some of the Holy Texts of the world's major religions. In the coming months, we'll look at the scriptures of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Confucianism and Taoism. But for the first in the series, we look at the Holy Texts of Buddhism. Rachael Kohn: The history of Buddhism spans 2500 years from its origin in India through to most parts of Asia, and into the West in the 20th century. Buddhism takes its name from Buddha, which means enlightened one, and that's what Siddhartha Gautama became when he left his family to seek the Truth. Buddhism has many schools of thought and practice, but it's probably fair to say that the most popular forms in the West at the moment are Japanese Zen and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. Today you'll get some idea of why. Australian Zen teacher, Subhana Barzaghi, and Tibetan Buddhist nun, Robina Courtin, join me later to share their favourite texts. But first, English Buddhist, Stephen Batchelor, who trained in both the Tibetan and Zen traditions, has recently turned his hand to translating the Buddha's First Sermon. It outlines the basic teaching of Buddhism, also called the Dhamma. Stephen Batchelor: The wheel of Dhamma is a symbol for the teaching that the Buddha gave, and he compares it to a wheel in the sense that he sets in motion a teaching, a doctrine, a practice, one might say a culture that is now moving through time, moving through space. And one might consider it as a metaphor for Buddhism itself, a Dhamma chakra, a Dhamma wheel, something that is always in its own process of transformation and change as it goes through different historical epochs, different cultures, and keeps moving on, fulfilling the Buddha's initial intention and communicating his teaching in different languages and different forms of practice throughout time. Rachael Kohn: And Dhamma itself refers to teaching? Stephen Batchelor: Dhamma is a tricky word. It certainly means the teaching of the Buddha but it also means what is referred to by those teachings. So it refers to the understanding of reality that the Buddha considered to be conducive to the experience of awakening and enlightenment. Turning the Wheel of Dhamma. This is what I heard. The lord was dwelling at Baranasi in the Deer Park at Isipatana. He addressed the group of five monks: "One gone forth does not pursue two extremes. Which two? Indulgence in sense pleasure, which is low, vulgar, ordinary, ignoble and meaningless. And indulgence in self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble and meaningless. This one has awoken to a middle path that does not lead to either of these extremes. It is a path that generates vision and awareness. It leads to tranquillity, insight, awakening and release. It has eight branches: true seeing, true thought, true speech, true action, true livelihood, true resolve, true mindfulness, true concentration. This is the ennobling truth of anguish: birth is painful, ageing is painful, sickness is painful, death is painful, encountering what is not dear is painful, separation from what is dear is painful, not getting what one wants is painful. In short, the five clinging clusters are painful. This is the ennobling truth of the origin of anguish: the craving that leads to repeated existence, given over to delight and lust, keenly indulging in this and that. That is: craving for stimulation, craving for existence, craving for non-existence. This is the ennobling truth of the cessation of anguish: the traceless fading away and cessation of that craving, the letting go and abandoning of it, freedom and independence from it. This is the ennobling truth of the path that leads to the cessation of anguish: the path with eight branches: true seeing, true thought, true speech, true action, true livelihood, true resolve, true mindfulness, true concentration. 'Such is anguish. It can be fully known. It has been fully known. Such is the origin of anguish. It can be relinquished. It has been relinquished. Such is the cessation of anguish. It can be experienced. It has been experienced. Such is the path that leads to cessation. It can be created. It has been created.'" Rachael Kohn: Now this is the first sermon the Buddha gave. So it was after his enlightenment. Where did he experience his enlightenment? Stephen Batchelor: He experienced his enlightenment in a town nowadays called Bodhgaya which is south of the Ganges. And having had that insight, he then wondered where he could find people who might understand what he had just understood. The first people he thought of were those five ascetics with whom he had previously been practising all kinds of austerities, and he knew that they were living there at Baranasi, which is the great holy city of India, and so he walks about 100 miles, crosses the Ganges and finds his five former companions in the so-called deer park at Isipatana, which nowadays we call Sarnath. Rachael Kohn: When does this actual text date from? Stephen Batchelor: The dating of these texts is difficult. The Buddhist texts were not actually written down until about 300 years after the Buddha's life. Probably in the 1st or 2nd century before Christ. But until that period, they were retained in an oral tradition through groups of monks repeatedly reciting these texts, and through the generations keeping them going. Rachael Kohn: Now this sermon starts out identifying two types of practice which are to be avoided. Who was he referring to when he spoke about the two extremes that one is to avoid? Stephen Batchelor: Well the two extremes refer to how on the one hand one's life can be totally driven just by the pursuit of fleeting pleasures and sensory indulgence and so on. And this would broadly be a description perhaps of the worldly life, of people who have not given much thought to anything beyond their immediate sense-gratification and who spend their whole lives in pursuit of sensory pleasure. The other extreme refers to what was very common in India at that time: those who renounced the world, became ascetics, and believed that the way to freedom and understanding entailed adopting the counter-position of ordinary people in the world. In other words, instead of pursuing sense pleasures, you actually deliberately inflict various kinds of mortification and pain on yourself. Rachael Kohn: And that's exactly what the Buddha did initially to himself. Stephen Batchelor: That's correct. The Buddha when he left home, that was his renunciation of the indulgence and sense pleasures, if you wish. But he then, having pursued certain kinds of meditation, tried for a long time to somehow free himself from attachments and desires by literally torturing himself with different kinds of austerity, starving himself and doing exercises like that. But in the end, he realised that that path actually led nowhere except to pain and a certain detachment perhaps, but certainly it did not lead to the kind of insight and understanding that he was seeking. And so his middle path is very much a way in which he's transcended not just the extreme of sensory indulgence, but also the extreme of sensory mortification, and this is the keynote really, I feel, of his teaching. Rachael Kohn: Is this sermon the first time we see a reference to what becomes the Eightfold Path? Stephen Batchelor: Yes, in this sermon he introduces first of all the idea of the middle way, and then he says, 'Well what is this middle way, or this middle path?' and he then outlines a path that is quite striking in some ways, because it doesn't start for example with meditation and concentration, it starts with the way you see things, and that leads to how you think about them, and how you speak and how you act, and how you earn your living. And on that ethical basis, then he goes into resolve, mindfulness, concentration, which are the more explicitly spiritual aspects of the path. What I think is very remarkable about this is that he sees a spiritual life not as reducible to certain interior, private spiritual exercises, but actually as a way of life, as something that encompasses and embraces, how you think, how you behave, how you work, all of this becomes integral to the process of the path to awakening and enlightenment. Rachael Kohn: It almost sounds as if the eight branches, as you've translated it here, are identifying eight virtues almost: true seeing, true thought, true speech, true action, true livelihood, true resolve etc. Stephen Batchelor: That's correct. It is a path that really is about encouraging particular virtues, and in other texts he then contrasts these aid virtues with eight non virtues, or eight fallings away from the path. He talks of false seeing, false thought, false speech and so forth. So he sets up a dichotomy between how we may be prone instinctively, and by habit and by cultural conditioning, just to do things without thinking, to a way of life in which we become that much more conscious of how our thinking, our speech, our action can become true, not only in the sense of honest and correct, but also somehow conducive to the freeing of the mind. That I think is a very crucial aspect of Buddhist practice. Ethics is seen very much as the foundation for a certain kind of inner freedom and liberation. Rachael Kohn: Now of course this sermon is where the Four Noble Truths are enunciated. What is the relationship between those Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path? Stephen Batchelor: The Four Noble Truths, or as I've translated them here as the Four Ennobling Truths, are the Buddha's vision of the nature of the human dilemma, (its anguish, its suffering, its pain) recognising that that pain, that anguish has a source, an origin, in a particular way of grasping and craving and clinging (that's the Second Truth). The Third and the Fourth Truths are a way of describing his vision of how the human dilemma can be resolved. And the Third Truth, cessation of anguish, is pointing to the fact that it is possible not to grasp and crave and cling. We can actually experience perhaps momentarily, perhaps in degrees, a slowing down, a stopping of that deeply seated habit of mine to always want to sort of hold on to something, which the Buddha sees very much as what is at the root of so much of our inner anguish, our alienation. Rachael Kohn: And that can include even holding on to the idea of enlightenment, can't it? Stephen Batchelor: Oh indeed. Craving knows no bounds, and although we might think of it initially in terms of craving for chocolate and cakes, it is equally applicable to craving or clinging on, say, to the Buddhist teaching or to enlightenment or the spiritual path. The problem lies not in the objects that we crave and cling to, it is far more a recognition that this attitude of mind is the source of so much trouble. And so the Buddha's practice, which is then enunciated in the Fourth Truth, which is in fact the Eightfold Path - that is his prescription for how we can live our lives in such a way that everything we do is more conducive to letting go of craving, which implies again finding a degree of contentment and wellbeing in what we do, living an engaged, a conscious, and a moral life - all of that can become a path that opens up the mind, opens up the heart, and thereby releases us from that tight grip of ego and self. Rachael Kohn: This sermon is often referred to as the blueprint for the practices and the doctrines of Buddhism, but it also contains something of a confession of the Buddha's own enlightenment. Stephen Batchelor: Absolutely. The Four Noble Truths are very often presented as the sort of basic beliefs that a Buddhist would have. The problem with that is that when the Buddha presented them, he didn't present them as axioms of faith, he actually presented them as a series of injunctions, and that each truth has its own particular injunction attached to it. So when he talks of anguish, of suffering, he then says 'Suffering is to be fully known'. When he speaks of craving, he says, 'Craving is to be relinquished'. When he speaks of the stopping of craving, he says, 'That is to be experienced'. And when he speaks of the path, he says 'That is to be created, cultivated, brought into being.' So each truth reflects a particular aspect of the overall practice, which is complex. It has to do with knowing, with letting go, with experiencing, and with creating, and those four actions are I think, the four pillars that constitute the structure of Buddhists' engagement, meditation, or whatever kind of action you are involved in. Rachael Kohn: Stephen, I know that right at the beginning, this sermon is addressed to five monks, but that's a bit of historical fudging, isn't it? I mean he wouldn't have had monks at the time that he was giving this teaching. Do you think that this was initially meant for a monastic community? Stephen Batchelor: Most of the Buddhist texts, when they were remembered and taught initially, were done so within the monastic community. Lay people were included and such sermons would certainly have been delivered to them as well. But at the Buddha's time, he was really concerned with building up a body of professionals, as it were, of teachers, of practitioners, who would be able to realise these teachings within their lives, because they would have dedicated themselves to that sort of lifestyle. We have to remember that at the Buddha's time, most of the lay people would have had very little, if any education. They would for the most part have been tied to an agrarian economy, and would not really have had the opportunity or the leisure that would have allowed them to really go into depth in these sorts of teachings. There are nonetheless, examples of householders who do achieve high levels of attainment. But broadly speaking, this is a monastic tradition at the outset, and the teachings are there for monks and later nuns. But the five monks are somewhat mis-named here. They're really five ascetics, and they then became the first five monks after having heard this discourse. So in some senses it's correct, but you're right, it's somewhat of a misnomer. Rachael Kohn: Stephen, what are the particular challenges of translating from the original Pali? Stephen Batchelor: Well there are a number of challenges. First of all, the language in which these texts are recorded, reflects a world, a culture that's very different from our own. So we are continuously having to try to find idiomatic, intelligible English terms to convey what in Pali are often highly technical and abstruse ideas. Rachael Kohn: Can you just explain the connection between Pali and Sanskrit? Stephen Batchelor: Sanskrit is the classical Indian language of the Vedas and the classical texts. Pali is more of a spoken, idiomatic version of that. One might compare Sanskrit to Latin, Pali perhaps to Italian. And the early Buddhist texts are recorded not in Sanskrit, but in this more vernacular idiomatic language of Pali. Pali simplifies a lot of the complications of classical Sanskrit, thereby making it that much more easy to interpret and to get a handle on, than its parental language of Sanskrit. Rachael Kohn: When did you learn Pali? Stephen Batchelor: I've only been studying Pali seriously for a few months, but I've been familiar with the Pali tradition for many, many years, and I've worked with the technical terms in Pali. Recently I decided I had to actually grapple with the grammar and the syntax, and so I'm now making a concerted effort to do that, and this text is the first translation I've done as an exercise, really. Rachael Kohn: Do you find in translating a text, it comes alive to you in a different way than it had before? And do you feel more intimately attached to it? Do you find things in it you hadn't really appreciated before? Stephen Batchelor: When you translate a text in a language with which you are not very familiar, you have to slow way down. You have to read each word very carefully, you have to check each grammatical signifier in a term. And in doing so, you therefore enter a much more reflective and meditative relation to the actual text. When you read it in English, because English is so natural to you, you often read it as though it were an article in a magazine or a book, and you can read through it quite quickly, but you often don't apply yourself to the text with the same degree of rigour and precision that you would if you had to translate it into your own tongue, you had to struggle with how each word should be rendered in English. This text, 'Turning the Wheel of Dhamma', is one of the common texts you find in all the different Buddhist traditions, and it exists in Pali, in Sanskrit, in Chinese, in Tibetan, and they're effectively identical. "So there arose in me vision, awareness, intelligence, knowledge and illumination about things previously unknown. As long as my knowledge and vision was not entirely clear in these ways about the reality of the four truths, I did not claim to have had a peerless awakening in this world with its humans and celestials, its gods and devils, its ascetics and priests. Only when my knowledge and vision was entirely clear in all these ways did I claim to have had such awakening. The knowledge and vision arose within me: 'The freedom of my mind is unshakeable. This is the last birth. There is no more repeated existence.'" Rachael Kohn: From the First Sermon of the Buddha, read there by Stephen Batchelor in his own translation. Stephen has published many books on Buddhism, including a guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, and his most famous, Buddhism Without Beliefs. Rachael Kohn: The heart is the seat of compassion, and it plays an important role in Buddhism. Robina Courtin is an Australian-born nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, who's lived in California for many years, where she leads meditation sessions with prisoners on death row. I asked her to bring one of her favourite texts. Robina Courtin: Well there's this little text called Heart Spoon, which is very strange, but the meaning of it is that it's something which you would use to really feed the heart, to feed you, to really inspire you. The subtitle is Encouragement through Recollecting Impermanence and as you surely know, Buddhism talks a lot about impermanence and particularly in the Tibetan tradition, we have this whole approach to thinking about death, not just to make us depressed, and this is the point of this thing, but to inspire us, to energise us, to use it as a wake up all to want to use your life well. It's these little verses by this Tibetan lama of the 1920s who had this reputation of being very wrathful, very strong. So he's very direct, and his name is Pabongka Rinpoche. Rachael Kohn: Robina, how would you use this text? Robina Courtin: Well commonly, among the Tibetans, they memorise things, to an extraordinary degree, because they say it needs to be in your mind because when you die, you bring it with you, whereas if it's just in a book, what can you do? Which actually makes a lot of sense. But also that when it's in your own mind, it becomes yours, and I know from the few things that I've memorised, my own prayers and various things that really inspire me. So the use of this, by the reading of it, it reminds you, it triggers in yourself the recognition of your own impermanence, the likelihood of your death, and the wish therefore to want to energise yourself to practice. So you use it to inspire yourself, to energise yourself. Rachael Kohn: Would you do it every day? Robina Courtin: Some people would. Depends, this one I don't, but some people have certain texts. There's one for example which is one of the Buddhist teachings, it's the Heart Sutra. As a short version of it I find that extremely inspiring, and I say that every morning as part of my prayers, and I've memorised it. Rachael Kohn: Can you give us an example from the texts that you've brought? Robina Courtin: Yes, I can. Ah, the hurt! Kind Lama, look to this pitiful one - How I behave and how I've cheated myself my entire life. Please, look upon this mindless one with compassion. The essential advice to give yourself-Heart-Spoon- Keep it deep within your heart. Don't be distracted; don't be distracted! Reflect upon the state of your life from the essential drop at your heart. Since beginningless cyclic existence, which hasn't ended up to now, Though you've experienced countless cycles of rebirths- Just so many variations on happiness and pain- You've achieved not the slightest of benefit from them. Rachael Kohn: It's so important for these teachings to be personalised in this first person account. Robina Courtin: Yes. That's exactly right. So what's happening here, this is very common, the verse starts and he says, 'Kind Lama'. Well this word Lama is the term that - he's usually referring to his own personal teacher. And in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition there's this very strong relationship, really similar I'd say, to the relationship between a Christian and Jesus actually. That between the student and one's spiritual teacher. And the word actually in Sanskrit, the equivalent of lama is guru, and in Sanskrit I think I've heard that it means 'heavy with knowledge'. So the lama is the one that you see is the embodiment of the Buddha and the one whom you pray to and who inspires you. So you're sort of turning to the lama first. And then there's essential advice, this one of impermanence, keep it within your heart. And then this whole business of 'since beginningless cyclic existence' which hasn't ended up to now, of course as we know. Buddha is saying that we've been going from life upon life, and the heart of it is here, when he says that you've not achieved the slightest benefit. It sounds initially a bit depressing but what it means is we haven't achieved this ultimate potential of ours, which Buddha would say we all have innately, which is to become a fully enlightened being. Here we are still struggling through samsara and making all the same mistakes and not having learned from it. So this kind of exhortation to inspire yourself to come on, you know, get on with it, really start to practice. Rachael Kohn: Is there any positive vision in these teachings? I mean is there ever an imagining that you will become enlightened, or is it all just reminding you of how small you are? Robina Courtin: Now that's an interesting point actually. There's bodies of works of all the different approaches, so this one is the one that you're really seeing how lazy and hopeless and useless you are, and in order to do this, because it sounds quite shocking actually, you've got to really have some strong confidence in yourself and real belief, real confidence in your potential. You wouldn't have this type of approach if you're feeling a bit sort of sensitive with yourself, and having some low self-esteem. You'd actually then turn to the other verses, the other types of text which are also utterly marvellous and poetic, and they're the ones that are describing the fulfilment of the result, all the inspirational things about your potential and the fulfilment of the compassion, the wisdom, they are another whole body of things and they're extremely inspirational from another point of view, they encourage you to see the potential. So there's these different approaches. Rachael Kohn: Robina, I know that you work with prisoners. Would you ever bring a text like this to them, or would it be too depressing. Robina Courtin: No, that's very interesting actually, Rachael. We're finding with people in prison that they're seeing this as their wake-up call. So they're really already able to use, as we'd say in Tibetan Buddhism, use problems on the path. Their problems are in-their-face and they're realising their impermanence, especially the guys on Death Row. So for this, they use that in exactly this way, they're getting their own wake-up call. So that it makes a lot of sense to them, definitely. Rachael Kohn: Can you read us some more? Robina Courtin: OK. You appear so capable, smart, and clever, but you're a fool As long as you cling to the child's play of the appearances of this life. Suddenly you're overwhelmed by the fearful Lord of Death And, without hope or means to endure, there's nothing you can do. - This is going to happen to you! So it sounds kind of fundamentalist doesn't it, and it really does depend on where you're at with it. So I can say, to me, I find this really kind of useful. And I think the thing behind this is, that when things are going well, when our life is comfortable, then we're kind of lulled into a kind of laziness. We think everything's fine, aren't I lucky, things are wonderful. But with the guys in prison, that's been their wake-up call because suddenly their pleasant, happy life is just gone. Then hearing these words really reminds you how you've wasted your life, unless you're really using it, as he says here, 'to practice virtuous actions', which means to benefit others, and really do your practice and develop your wisdom, develop your compassion, not be angry, not be mean, not be unkind. So when we're just floating along, we need this to remind ourselves to come on, we can do a lot more. So actually as he says, it's if you really care about yourself this is the approach. Rachael Kohn: Robina, do you have a changing relationship to texts? Do you love them one day or for a while, and then have a hard time with them later? Do they always speak to you in that - ? Robina Courtin: No, I understand. That's depending on where I'm at in my life, for example, at a certain period, it was almost like I was in retreat mode, very intensively working through certain things in myself, and didn't want much to do with the outside world. So therefore they were the types of practices that would do in the thinking, and the contemplating I'd do, and now for example, this period of my life, when I'm fully involved within the outside world, working in prisons, doing all sorts of things, then these work for me. But also it's reading about the suffering of others and then having the wish to want to benefit, that's what's very inspiring. So it depends on different times in your practice and in your life I think, the things that use to move you. I mean, as I said before one of my favourite things is the Heart Sutra, which is the words of the Buddha himself. Others are the teachings of my own Lama, others are this one, this 1920s Lama. So it's anyone that moves me, I don't mind. Rachael Kohn: Can you remind us again what the text is, what it's called? Because you think, "I'm not going to die for some time, I'm not going to die for some time," While you're distracted by the never-ending activities of this life, Suddenly the fearful Lord of Death arrives, Announcing, "Now it's time to die." - This is going to happen to you! Though you make arrangements, saying "tomorrow" and "tomorrow," Just then, suddenly, you have to go. - This is going to happen to you! And without choice, leaving behind in disarray Your left-off work, left food and drink, you have to depart. - This is going to happen to you! It's interesting this Lord of Death business. Of course in Buddhist terms there's no such thing as 'Lord of Death', but it's just this kind of vivid imagery, because in reality the Buddha is saying it's your own karma that determines what happens, when, if even how long your life is, so that's just imagery, there's no person called Lord of Death. There's no time other than today to spread [your bedding] and go off to sleep; Upon your last bed you fall like an old tree, And others, unable to turn you with their [lily]-soft hands, Tug at your clothes and blanket. - This is going to happen to you! Even if you completely wrap [your body] in last under and outer clothes, Still you have no freedom to wear them other than just today, And when [that body] becomes as rigid as earth and stone, You behold for the first time your own corpse. - This is going to happen to you! Though you struggle to speak your last words, Your will and expressions of sorrow, Pitifully your tongue dries up, and you can't make yourself clear- An intense sadness overwhelms you. - This is going to happen to you! It's interesting. I think this is very common actually in our practice. In our tradition, we use certain methods of visualisation. One is to visualise the Buddha in various ways, and visualising light coming and you're saying mantra, and that's where you're really visualising your potential, so it's a very blissful types of practice. But this one is really using the same skill which we use all day, every day, which is this creative imagination of ours but we're using it in terms of what I want to get, my nice meal, and get this, and get that, and where am I going for my holiday? And complaining about the mean husband, and do you see? So it's using your creative imagination to tell you about something that will happen, which is called your death, but which we don't like to think about. So it isn't meant to make you scared, it is a reality you know, and we have this creative imagination, so all this whole approach is really use it to help you, and then you'll get a wake-up call from this, and then you'll think, Great, no time to waste, I must get on with it. Must continue to practice. This is the whole idea behind it. Rachael Kohn: So it's an invitation to make death your companion? Robina Courtin: Absolutely. The way Buddha's talking, he says that in our minds we've got this series of very entrenched misconceptions about the way things are, about our own self and life, and he says, This is why we suffer. And one of these major ones, the way they say it is, we have this primordial clinging to self and my life, the status quo, as being permanent, unchanging. So when things are going nicely, we can't even imagine it will change. We think Wow, finally I've found happiness. But we all know from our lives you can't guarantee. Suddenly tomorrow somebody dies, the job finishes, you get sick, and it's so shocking to us. So this type of approach all its doing is getting us to see that life changes, and then you appreciate what you do have far more, and don't want to waste it. So it's an extremely skilful approach, I find certainly, myself. Rachael Kohn: A Venerable Robina Courtin, visiting her native Australia and reading there from one of her favourite texts, Heart Spoon, written by a Tibetan lama in the early 20th century. Robina mentioned that back in California where she lives, she chants the Heart Sutra every morning. And the music you're hearing is from the CD called Heart Sutra, by the Tibetan born musician, Tenzin Choegyal, who now lives in Brisbane. Rachael Kohn: The Heart Sutra is one of the Wisdom Sutras or sermons that the Buddha is meant to have spoken to his disciples. There are many sutras, but the Heart Sutra is distinctive for being the shortest, only one page. Perfect for chanting. Subhana Barzaghi: My name is Subhana Barzaghi, I'm a Zen teacher in the Diamond Sangha and I'm going to read the great Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra. I'm going to read the first couple of lines of the Sutra. Avalokitashvara bodhisattva, practising deep Prajnaparamita, clearly saw that all skandhas are empty, transforming anguish and distress. 'Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form. Sensation, perception, mental reaction, consciousness are also like this. Shariputra, all things are essentially empty. Rachael Kohn: Subhana that is a very important prajna text, a wisdom text in the Mahayana tradition, but does it hold a special place in Zen? Subhana Barzaghi: Yes it does. It is in some sense the heart essence of the teaching of the Zen tradition, and this essence we chant regularly in the Zen tradition, in the Mahayana, the schools throughout South East Asia and in Australia every day in the Zen temple. So this essence refers to the direct teachings of the heart-mind, the wisdom, prajna meaning wisdom here. Rachael Kohn: Well those essential teachings are pretty difficult, the idea of form in the void and void in the form. What does that mean? Subhana Barzaghi: It is true that it is difficult to understand and it's not to be understood in a kind of intellectual way, but to be realised. To realise emptiness is exactly form, is a profound teaching, that takes quite a degree of contemplation, meditation practice, in order to understand and truly embody and understand that teaching. Emptiness here does not mean a nihilistic kind of emptiness, but emptiness is exactly manifesting as form as this moment, as this very life, and so it's not sort of a sense of vacant kind of emptiness, but rather a fullness as well as empty of a separate permanent entity that we call self. So it's empty of a separate self. Rachael Kohn: Emptiness there is full of potential then. I suppose potential to understand, to realise, but what's interesting here is this is the Heart Sutra, and not mind. Is there a relationship there? Subhana Barzaghi: Well certainly. In the East, they refer to heart-mind, and often they actually touch the centre of the chest at the heart, meaning mind also. So it's the heart essence of the mind, and the essential essence of who we are really. So yes, it's the heart of all things in the understanding of the Zen tradition. Rachael Kohn: In the passage you read, two people were named, Avalokitashvara and Shariputra. Can you tell us who they were? Subhana Barzaghi: Avalokitashvara Bodhisattva is the embodiment of compassion. Bodhisattva means enlightened being, and so the embodiment of compassion is speaking the truth here, the teachings of the Prajnaparamita, and he is addressing Shariputra, who was one of the senior disciples of the Buddha, and who was also a very intelligent disciple of the Buddha. So he's teaching Shariputra the essence of the teachings of Buddhism. And he's conveying it through the Sutra. Rachael Kohn: So the person who reads the Heart Sutra is almost taking on the persona of Shariputra. They are being taught, as it were. Subhana Barzaghi: We are all Shariputra. Shariputra's right here. Sometimes Shariputra was also considered to be not only one of the wise disciples but also just an ordinary sort of bumbling along, humble sort of person who's trying to grapple with these huge kind of difficult concepts and philosophy and practices. And so Shariputra represents just every one of us really, who's trying to grapple with this beautiful Sutra and profound and difficult Sutra. Rachael Kohn: You also mention the skandhas. Now they actually are the sort of elemental parts of our being. How would you describe what the skandhas are? Subhana Barzaghi: In the Buddhist texts, the five skandhas are considered like the five rivers or the five elements, the five aggregates that make up the human condition. And the five aggregates are form, rupa, sensation, which is feeling, and mental perception, and mental formations, concepts and consciousness. So form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness are the five rivers, the five aggregates that make up the human condition. And it's said that when the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree and attained enlightenment, he sat there and investigated the five aggregates, these five rivers of experience, saw deeply into that, and realised the truth, that they were completely empty of a permanent, separate self, that they were an interconnected to each other, interconnected oneness, that there was no sense of a kind of solid entity behind all of our experience that the self often refers to, that there's not something there that all of this experience is happening to, but rather an interconnected conditional reality that is arising and dissolving each moment. So this is the kind of teachings around 'emptiness is form, form is exactly emptiness', and in fact the whole Sutra is kind of unpacking and distilling, and expounding upon those couple of lines, 'form is emptiness, emptiness is exactly form'. It's not that we realise a kind of vacant emptiness, but we realise the fullness and of a flowing moment of life as well. Rachael Kohn: Subhana, does this text, the Heart Sutra, have any very special personal significance for you? Subhana Barzaghi: Yes. When I first encountered the Heart Sutra, I was certainly curious and intrigued by it, and also confounded by it. I did not understand it, and yet it pulled me, it challenged me to really be curious and inquire deeper into what is the true meaning of the Heart Sutra? It was really a journey for me, a journey of discovery, a journey of learning, of profound learning, and profound practice, in a way, and discovering that eventually realising and recognising that I am the Heart Sutra, that you are the Heart Sutra, that all beings are the Heart Sutra. And so it was a journey of recognition eventually, that that is my story, and perhaps it is your story, it's all our story. So there was some deep, deep familiarity in the end, an intimacy with the Heart Sutra from something that was distant and abstract and unknown and confusing, to something that was very intimate and personal, and very, very meaningful to me. Rachael Kohn: Do you chant the Heart Sutra regularly? Is it something you feel you have to reconnect to, or do you just learn its message and that's it? Subhana Barzaghi: Both. And all of the above. We chant the Heart Sutra regularly, and there's something that I love about chanting the Heart Sutra too, because when we chant it we use a wooden instrument. It's called a mokugyo in Japanese, and it has the sound of a tock, tock, tock, tock, and it has a resonance there and there is the kind of sound of a heartbeat. So even in the chanting it's very heart like, it goes straight to the heart, so to speak. And so yes, we chant it and the chanting is also of course an incredible reminder too for me, a reminder of these ancient teachings. And we also recite it, we study it, so it's not just to be studied and recited and chanted, but also it is a practice in itself. So it is also a tool for meditation, a tool for contemplation and inquiry. CHANTING AND TOCKING Rachael Kohn: The Sydney Zen Centre chanting the Heart Sutra. And we heard from Subhana Barzaghi, a Zen Roshi, and resident teacher at the Sydney Zen Centre. This has been the first in our monthly series, Spiritual Classics, looking at some of the Holy Texts of the world's great religions. Our second in the series is just in time for Christmas, when we'll be looking at the New Testament. Today's program was produced by me and Geoff Wood, with technical production by Angus Kingston. - The Heart of Understanding : Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra - Thich Nhat Hanh - Parallax, 2005 - Movement VIII - Compassion - Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Dennis Russell Davies - Symphony No. 5 - Philip Glass - CD details: Nonesuch 79618 2 - Tenzin Choegyal - Born in the Himalayan Kingdom of Mustang as his family was escaping from Tibet in the early 1970s, Tenzin has called Australia home since 1997. - Dr Rachael Kohn - Geoff Wood / Dr Rachael Kohn

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Humans and Neanderthals shared ancestor, not beds No hanky-panky Anthropologists have dealt a blow to theories that humans and Neanderthals interbred, according to a new study. Over the last two years, several studies have suggested that Homo sapiens got it on with Neanderthals, an hominid who lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for up to 300,000 years but vanished more than 30,000 years ago. The evidence for this comes from fossil DNA, which shows that on average Eurasians and Asians share between one and four per cent of their DNA with Neanderthals, but Africans almost none. But a new study by scientists at Britain's University of Cambridge suggests the shared DNA came from a shared ancestor, not from "hybridisation" or reproduction between the two hominid species. Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Andrea Manica and Anders Eriksson at the university's Evolutionary Ecology Group devised a computer model to simulate a genetic odyssey. It begins with a common ancestors of Neanderthals and H. sapiens who lived around half a million years ago in parts of Africa and Europe. Around 300,000 to 350,000 years ago, the European population and the African population of this hominid became separated. Living in genetic isolation, the European range evolved bit by bit into Neanderthals, while the African range eventually became H. sapiens, which expanded in waves out of Africa from around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Communities of H. sapiens that were geographically closer to Europe - possibly in North Africa - retained a relatively larger share of the ancestral genes, according to the theory. They also became the first colonisers of Eurasia during the progressive 'Out of Africa' migration. This could explain why modern-day Europeans and Asians but not Africans have the tiny bit of genetic similarity with Neanderthals. "Our work shows clearly that the patterns currently seen in the Neanderthal genome are not exceptional, and are in line with our expectations of what we would see without hybridisation," says Manica. "So, if any hybridisation occurred - it's difficult to conclusively prove it never happened - then it would have been minimal and much less than what people are claiming now." One of the great questions of anthropology is what happened to the Neanderthals. Hybridisation would have answered that, at least partly. By interbreeding with humans, the Neanderthals were not wiped out by H. sapiens or by climate change as some contest. Instead, Neanderthal genes were merged into the genome of the dominant strain of Homo. In a separate study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists led by Svante Paabo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, found that Neanderthals and H. sapiens split between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago, an earlier date than thought. The team also calculate that humans split from chimpanzees - our closest primate relative - around seven to eight million years ago, earlier than the six-to-seven million years ago that is a common estimate.

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TIME SPENT ON CULTURAL ACTIVITIES How people spend their time was the subject of an ABS survey conducted in 1997. People aged 15 years and over were asked to record what they did during a two-day period. Information was recorded on eating, sleeping, paid work, housework etc. - all of which are considered essential activities. The time left in the day after these essential activities have been done is considered free time, and it is under the broad heading of free time that most culture and recreation activities appear. Many free time activities can be undertaken simultaneously with another activity (e.g. watching TV while eating a meal, or listening to the radio while doing housework). The information presented below shows the time spent by participants on each activity, regardless of whether it was the main activity being undertaken at the time or whether it was a secondary activity being undertaken simultaneously. It is perhaps not too surprising that watching TV was found to be the activity which took up most people's leisure time. Approximately 87% of Australians watched TV for an average of just over 3 hours (182 minutes) per day. This means that in 1997, Australians aged 15 years and over spent a total of 37 million hours watching TV each day. Other activities on which Australians spent a large amount of time included listening to the radio and reading. 1.1 AVERAGE TIME SPENT BY PARTICIPANTS ON SELECTED CULTURE AND LEISURE ACTIVITIES(a)(b) - 1997 spent by all of day spent on activity by all |Visiting entertainment and cultural venues | |Attendance at sports events | |Religious activities and ritual ceremonies | |Sport and outdoor activity | |Games, hobbies, arts and crafts | |Watching TV | |Watching videos | |Listening to radio | |Listening to CDs, records and tapes | |Attendance at recreational courses | |(a) Includes only those who have taken part in the activity. | |(b) Includes cultural activities which were undertaken as a secondary activity. | |ABS, Time Use Survey, 1997, data available on request. | The Time Use Survey found that visiting entertainment and cultural venues attracted about 5% of the population who spent on average about two hours when they attended. The total time spent by all Australians on visiting entertainment and cultural venues (1.4 million person hours per day) was similar to the time spent on religious activities and listening to CDs, records and tapes (1.2 million person hours per day). Activities included movies, concerts, theatres and the library. More details from this survey about the time spent visiting each type of venue can be obtained from the ABS publication Time Use on Culture/Leisure Activities, 1997 (cat. no. 4173.0). This page last updated 23 May 2008

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In my experience, most cyclists take handling skills for granted. Consequently, a lot of crashes can be avoided by being aware of your surroundings and having the skills necessary to react instinctively to emergency situations. By practicing these skills in a controlled environment, you'll become a faster and safer cyclist. To get started, find an open area where there's no traffic (like a parking lot), some orange cones (water bottles can be substituted) and a partner. Braking: Begin circling the course. Have your partner randomly call out "stop." Bring your bike to a quick, safe, controlled stop. Have your partner stop quickly as well and look at the distance between your bikes. If you have good reflexes and reaction time, the distance between your bikes will be close. Practice braking in a variety of situations, such as cornering and braking with your partner in front of you (be careful). If you're a beginner, apply both brakes with even pressure. As you get more experienced, apply slightly more pressure to your front brake. Cornering: Choose your line through each corner. If you corner correctly, you should clip the apex of the turn. Make sure your inside crank arm is in the vertical position so that your pedal doesn't touch the ground. Practice cornering inside and outside in both directions and try to pick up your speed each time. Start to sprint out of corners. Set up a slalom course and also practice 180-degree turns. Looking: A key element of road safety is being able to see what's going on around you. Beginners have a tough time looking over their shoulder while keeping their bike straight. Have your partner ride several bike lengths behind you. At regular intervals look over your shoulder and call out how many fingers your partner is holding up. Have your partner tell you if you veered or continued straight. Bumping: This needs to be performed on a grassy field using a mountain bike. Have your partner "bump" you slightly and touch shoulders simulating situations that occur in pack racing. You should get used to contact with other riders without panicking. Riding position: Practice transitioning smoothly from various riding positions such as sprinting, climbing in and out of the saddle and descending. Drafting: Have your partner vary his or her speed over the course and try to maintain a constant distance from you partner's rear wheel. Performing these drills a few times per season won't help you much. You have to take what you learn and apply it on the road. Good habits need to be practiced thousands of times before they become good form. Awareness is your greatest asset when riding in traffic situations. Try to anticipate what drivers are going to do. Eye contact is very important, as is visibility. Constantly check what's going on around you and stay focused on what you're doing.Search for a cycling event Matt Russ has coached and trained athletes for over 10 years around the country and internationally. He currently holds licenses by USAT, USATF, and is an Expert level USAC coach. Matt has coached athletes for CTS (Carmichael Training Systems), and has been certified by Joe Friel's Ultrafit Association. Matt's fitness articles can be found online and magazines such as Inside Triathlon. Visit www.thesportfactory.com or e-mail him at email@example.com for more information.

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Alaska Department of Fish and Game Secondary Site Navigation Kachemak Bay Research Reserve Located at the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula in Southcentral Alaska, the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve (KBRR) is the only fjord-type estuary in the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) System. Glacial meltwater coupled with ocean circulation patterns drive an abundance of marine plants, birds, fish, and other organisms. Kachemak Bay is characterized by submerged glacial moraine at the mouth and snow-covered peaks and ice sheets guarding the south. The Harding Icefield, one of the last remaining alpine ice sheets left in North America, spawns 15 glaciers that flow into Kachemak Bay. Well over 60 species of waterfowl and marine birds rely on Kachemak Bay for feeding and breeding. The bay supports marine mammals including whales, porpoises, Steller sea lions, seals, and sea otters, as well as abundant salmon and halibut, and smaller populations of clams, and crabs. These marine resources support a vibrant fishing community and sustain wildlife populations including bear, river otter, and wolf. KBRR is a state-federal-local partnership managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Sport Fish Division in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with input from a Community Council made-up of community members and state and federal agency partners. The work done by KBRR provides a basis for informed coastal decision-making and stewardship through integrated research, monitoring, education, and professional training. Research staff and visiting scientists conduct research and monitoring within watersheds and coastal areas of the Reserve. The education team hosts public discovery labs and outdoor programs that focus on coastal and estuarine ecology. The Coastal Training Program provides workshops and trainings targeting coastal management professionals, and covering topics of concern to the local community. The bathymetry, or bottom of the Bay, is characterized by a submerged glacial moraine or sill at the mouth of the Bay and deep trenches and holes extending to almost 200 m (600 ft) deep within the Bay. The Bay is separated into an inner and outer bay by a 7 km (4.5 mile) long relic glacial moraine spit that extends south from the community of Homer (pop. 5,400). The south side of the bay is mostly rocky and lined by rugged snow covered mountains. Because the tree line elevation at this latitude is only 500 m (1500 ft), the 2000 m (6,000 ft) alpine summits resemble those of much loftier mountain ranges. Fifteen glaciers flow into Kachemak Bay from the Harding and other icefields, some of the last remaining ice fields in North America. Large volumes of sediments derived from these glaciers help build and sustain the predominantly sand and gravel beaches surrounding the estuary. The Fox River Flats, at the head of the bay, is a huge salt marsh complex supporting thousands of migratory birds, five species of Pacific salmon, and serves as an important haul-out for harbor seals.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Indiana farmers could be in for a warm and wet early spring when they head into the fields to plant their crops, the Indiana State Climate Office said. But they also could expect a return to drought in some parts of the state during the growing season. “It will be warmer and wetter to start the planting season,” said Dev Niyogi, state climatologist, based at Purdue University. “This is expected to turn to some drying in the growing season, leading to mild to moderate drought conditions across Indiana.” He said areas of the state particularly susceptible to drought again are the southern, west and southwest counties. But the question for now is how wet of an early spring farmers can expect as they prepare to plant their corn and soybean crops. The Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts a wetter-than-normal spring in the Great Lakes region from Wisconsin south to Tennessee and east into Ohio, an area that includes Indiana. Soil moisture has been improving in this region. The CPC’s outlook for March through May in Indiana is for precipitation about 2.5 inches above normal. That is a state average, and precipitation would vary by Last year during the same three months, Indiana’s precipitation fell 4.19 inches short of normal, according to an analysis by the climate office. Extremely dry conditions then set in, leading to widespread drought that continued into the fall. Indiana and most of the eastern Corn Belt states have had enough precipitation in recent months to eliminate drought, although 13 of Indiana’s extreme northern counties still have abnormally dry conditions, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. Drought persists in the Great Plains states, some still enduring exceptional drought, the monitor’s highest level of dryness. Precipitation in the early spring in Indiana is more likely to be in the form of rain than snow because temperatures from March through May are expected to be about 2 degrees above normal, the climate office said. Rain can be more efficient than snow in adding moisture to soil. Last year for the same period, temperatures were 7.3 degrees above normal, and there was little rain. Planting conditions were so favorable that some farmers got into their fields in March to plant corn. Planting of that crop typically begins in mid-April when there is less chance of a destructive freeze. Soybeans usually follow a couple of weeks later. Lack of rain in the spring hindered development of corn and soybean crops as drought conditions began to worsen. In addition, fruit crops such as apples, peaches, grapes and strawberries developed rapidly because of the unseasonably warm weather, and garden plants bloomed early.

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The continuum of wind powered machines has a very long history unlike that of solar powered membranes. One immediately thinks of the Greek island of Mykonos, and the Dutch windmills which have served for centuries close to a millennia and actually they were also found in Spain, England, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Sailing cultures understood the power of the wind so it is no wonder that windmills, actually wind engines, were first created in areas that depended upon sailing vessels for commerce. And it is quite logical that canvas was used as the resistive element that captured the wind power since sails on boats had a similar function but for an entirely different end. Wikipedia has a good explanation of the history of such wind engines. They were called windmills, since for the most part, the practical use was for the milling or grinding of grain for the purpose of baking bread which was a staple throughout Europe. One immediately conjures up images of the Dutch and their dykes and farming developments and of Don Quixote upon the mention of the word. As the US evolved with the expansion westward and the establishment of farms throughout the Midwest and Western States after the Civil War, farming created the necessity of having pumps to pull water up from the ground and so Aermotor in Chicago and other similar companies producing competitive products became ubiquitous and Iconic in farming country. You can still see these machines in various conditions if you drive off from the Expressways. They worked and they worked well for many years. And some of the companies still exist, producing the same product for over 130 years. And there are museums and special interest groups concerned with wind engines. In Michigan, the Amish in Centerville are known for keeping them running. The oil crises of the 1970’s and afterward awakened the need for being careful in the use of energy, and the more recent social movements founded by Professors and college students and an increasingly more technologically developed and intelligent society have expanded interest and demand rapidly in the last 10 or so years. Green is the new mantra and all sorts of solutions to our energy needs are being developed. It is evident that the efficiencies of solar powered solutions are always established for comparison. Why not for the wind engines? Now after WWII NASA set about to develop some wind engines to generate electricity and the 3 bladed NASA fan has become de rigueur. Images of the 3 bladed wind engines are now seen everywhere and they have come to symbolize intelligent energy creation to virtually everyone. But are these designs actually the most efficient ones possible? No one seems to know their efficiency so that vital issue is completely overlooked and virtually never discussed. But that is the central and most important question of all. It has been calculated that the maximum possible efficiency for a wind engine is 59%. The NASA fans are reputed to have efficiencies in the high 20% to low 30% range. What is their actual efficiency, and can it be improved upon? An Engineer educated at the U of M “Engine” school at approximately the same time as Kelley Johnson, the father of the “Skunk Works”, entered the picture in his retirement from Ford Motor Company. His name is Bill Allison and he spent a lifetime in automotive suspension development and held many patents. One of his most interesting creations was the development of the Packard Torsion Ride Suspension. Jay Leno in his website gives a very detailed description of Bill’s work and it is very informative and delightful. http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/at-the-garage/classics/1955-packard-caribbean/ Bill was a very real mechanic, blacksmith, and artist craftsman as well as a highly refined engineer steeped in academia. I once talked with a Ford Design engineer and he mentioned being a new hire and watching Bill artfully swage a heavy rod by hand for some project that he was working on. So in his retirement in the late 70’s Bill decided to try developing a wind engine. His first effort was to build something that looked like a combine with blades that traveled up an inclined plane and rotated over and back on down in a belt fashion over two pulleys. A subsequent ice storm taught him the importance of simplicity when the contraption disintegrated and he caught that event on camera. It was funny but painful to watch because so much effort had gone into it. But Bill laughed too and he continued. His next effort was to approach the wind engine in the traditional fashion with a series of blades on a horizontal axis mounted atop a vertical axis so that the engine could point to the wind. You can see one of his early configurations with 4 blades in a first Popular Science article. Notice the efficiency that he is announcing… some 40% and he is very proud of that. Below you see a subsequent design, one of his 8 bladed configurations. Following simple logic he added blades and perfected them and in a later Popular Science article you can see him displaying a compound fan design. That appeared on the front cover of Popular Science in the early 80’s Bill rationalized that complex design by saying that the different blade groups were for different wind conditions. But ultimately he simplified the design and with his meticulous engineering data acquisition using a dynamometer that he constructed. He finished the explorations with a 10 blade fan in a 12 segment configuration. He discovered that his fans were developing cones of pressure resistance like nacelles that would cause the wind to circumvent the fan. By pulling two of the blades the cone would instantly disappear and he would pull more power. Ultimately Bill hit the theoretical maximum 59 to 60% efficiency in a test with his final design before he delved into configurations for wind engine sets in the environment. Bill patented several fans and his final design was the simple 10 blade fan unpatented. Bill carefully studied each aspect of each element of the design. Here we see his conclusion on the blades… they are stainless steel because they have to take the abuse of the weather. And Bill found that they had to be highly polished and dead flat to “pull the most power” as he would say it. He would reflect that when you are trying to extract energy from the wind you needed resistors rather than propellers. He eschewed the NASA designs as having propellers but actually they are more like sails or wings. He built many differing designs including the propeller types initially and he concluded that current theories were entirely wrong. Dead Flat and out far enough on stems to capture the wind energy without inducing any drag which would occur on the inner 1/3 of the fan disc. The designs are clever and being from Detroit, he of course, thought to use a fine engineering material for safety and longevity. After solving the issue of the blade design he began working on configurations. You can see that he has done many but ultimately he discovered that more blades pull more power but there is a limit. When he built a 12 bladed design he found that it pulled less power than the 10 bladed designs and he set out to find out why. Bill had built a twin balance dynamometer in his basement and became convinced that most people were testing their fans in ducted wind tunnels. He concluded that the data was imperfect in the ducted designs because the confinement caused a supercharged effect that you could never achieve in the real world. The oncoming wind actually has a choice as to where to flow and it can and it does avoid obstructions. Using dry ice and water in front of a 3’dia floor fan he noticed that a pressurized nacelle would build up in front of the fan disc and that the wind would circumvent the fan once it was established and the amount of power that could be pulled would quickly drop. And so he found that by pulling two blades opposite each other the nacelle would disappear and he could maximize the efficiency of the fans. Seeing his dynamometer and free flow wind tunnel was a lot like looking at the Wright Brother’s models and experiments at Kitty Hawk. While the rig looked almost flimsy you could tell that he knew exactly what he was doing and he kept meticulous engineering data on all of his experiments. He dated the data and noted the temperature, barometric pressure and relative humidity as he ran each test. And so it was that he was able to calculate the % efficiencies with his HP Calculator for each test and with the 10 bladed fans, absent 2 in a 12 blade configuration, and one day he actually pulled the 59% efficiency. Ultimately he calculated and concluded that a 16ft dia. fan could provide all the power that would be needed for the common house. So that brings to mind that if he could achieve such efficiencies then why are we putting up fans all over the country of low efficiency designs? That simply doesn’t make sense. Was his work correct? While I believe that it is, why isn’t there an international contest amongst both manufacturers and student engineers from engineering schools around the world, to contribute to the development of wind engine technology? Too many have prematurely concluded that the answer has been found. It hasn’t. Certainly if we can enjoy the sight of the solar car competitions, why can’t we enjoy something similar for wind engines? Not only would there be great excitement, there could be prizes and the world would all be the better off because of it. And the winning schools would benefit too. Perhaps there could be an X Prize for wind engine development. So I would propose such a competition and perhaps it could be called the Allison Prize in honor of a great engineer who knew exactly what he was doing. Who could put such a competition on and pull it off for the betterment of humanity?

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Reseña del editor Control can be defined as keeping a physical variable (pressure, temperature, level, flow etc.) as constant as possible by measuring instantaneous value of physical variable, comparing it with the desired value and using the difference to make a correction which reduces this difference. It may include everything from a process control computer and then the control components: the switches, stepping motors, solenoids, and sensors. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is used in Industries from last twenty yeas. This is a very flexible controlling device, can be used in every type of industries for the automation. An era was started after the invention of microprocessor; to design develops microprocessor-based system for automation of the machines. Similar is in the case of PLC, when it was discovered in an automobile industry. PLC which has a fixed hardware, manufactured by the several manufacture worldwide, can be in-corporate in any mechanical and electrical system by writing suitable programs, as per the need of the user of machine or system. To fulfill this need this control panel simulator will help the students to be a PLC user. Biografía del autor Tanveer Ahmed,EEE: Studied Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, BSS Jr. Engineer at Orascom Telecom (Banglalink) Ltd., Bangladesh.

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Gauss's Day of Reckoning A famous story about the boy wonder of mathematics has taken on a life of its own I started my survey with five modern biographies of Gauss: books by G. Waldo Dunnington (1955), Tord Hall (1970), Karin Reich (1977), W. K. Bühler (1981) and a just-issued biography by M. B. W. Tent (2006). The schoolroom incident is related by all of these authors except Bühler. The versions differ in a few details, such as Gauss's age, but they agree on the major points. They all mention the summation of the same series, namely the integers from 1 to 100, and they all describe Gauss's method in terms of forming pairs that sum to 101. None of these writers express much skepticism about the anecdote (unless Bühler's silence can be interpreted as doubt). There is no extended discussion of the story's origin or the evidence supporting it. On the other hand, references in some of the biographies did lead me to the key document on which all subsequent accounts seem to depend. This locus classicus of the Gauss schoolroom story is a memorial volume published in 1856, just a year after Gauss's death. The author was Wolfgang Sartorius, Baron von Waltershausen, professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Göttingen, where Gauss spent his entire academic career. As befits a funerary tribute, it is affectionate and laudatory throughout. In the portrait Sartorius gives us, Gauss was a wunderkind. He taught himself to read, and by age three he was correcting an error in his father's arithmetic. Here is the passage where Sartorius describes Gauss's early schooling in the town of Braunschweig, near Hanover. The translation, except for two phrases in brackets, is by Helen Worthington Gauss, a great-granddaughter of In 1784 after his seventh birthday the little fellow entered the public school where elementary subjects were taught and which was then under a man named Büttner. It was a drab, low school-room with a worn, uneven floor.... Here among some hundred pupils Büttner went back and forth, in his hand the switch which was then accepted by everyone as the final argument of the teacher. As occasion warranted he used it. In this school—which seems to have followed very much the pattern of the Middle Ages—the young Gauss remained two years without special incident. By that time he had reached the arithmetic class in which most boys remained up to their Here occurred an incident which he often related in old age with amusement and relish. In this class the pupil who first finished his example in arithmetic was to place his slate in the middle of a large table. On top of this the second placed his slate and so on. The young Gauss had just entered the class when Büttner gave out for a problem [the summing of an arithmetic series]. The problem was barely stated before Gauss threw his slate on the table with the words (in the low Braunschweig dialect): "There it lies." While the other pupils continued [counting, multiplying and adding], Büttner, with conscious dignity, walked back and forth, occasionally throwing an ironical, pitying glance toward this the youngest of the pupils. The boy sat quietly with his task ended, as fully aware as he always was on finishing a task that the problem had been correctly solved and that there could be no other result. At the end of the hour the slates were turned bottom up. That of the young Gauss with one solitary figure lay on top. When Büttner read out the answer, to the surprise of all present that of young Gauss was found to be correct, whereas many of the others were wrong. Incidental details from this account reappear over and over in later tellings of the story. The ritual of piling up the slates is one such feature. (It must have been quite a teetering heap by the time the hundredth slate was added!) Büttner's switch (or cane, or whip) also made frequent appearances until the 1970s but is less common now; we have grown squeamish about mentioning such barbarities. What's most remarkable about the Sartorius telling of the story is not what's there but what's absent. There is no mention of the numbers from 1 to 100, or any other specific arithmetic progression. And there is no hint of the trick or technique that Gauss invented to solve the problem; the idea of combining the numbers in pairs is not discussed, nor is the formula for summing a series. Perhaps Sartorius thought the procedure was so obvious it needed no explanation. A word about the bracketed phrases: Strange to report, the Worthington Gauss translation does mention the first 100 integers. Where Sartorius writes simply "eine arithmetischen Reihe," Worthington Gauss inserts "a series of numbers from 1 to 100." I cannot account for this interpolation. I can only guess that Worthington Gauss, under the influence of later works that discuss the 1-to-100 example, was trying to help out Sartorius by filling in an omission. The second bracketed passage marks an elision in the translation: Where Sartorius has the pupils "rechnen, multiplizieren und addieren," Worthington Gauss writes just "adding." I'll have more to say on this point below.

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Logan County, Kentucky From Ancestry.com Wiki |This article is a stub. Help us to expand it by contributing your knowledge. For county page guidelines, visit U.S. County Page Content Suggestions.| Logan is a county in Kentucky. It was formed in 1792 from the following county/ies: Lincoln. Logan began keeping birth records in 1852, marriage records in 1790, and death records in 1853; records were not consistently kept until 1911 and all vital information prior to that is widely unavailable. It began keeping land records in 1792, probate records in 1795, and court records in 1793. For more information, contact the county at 229 W. 3rd St./P.O. Box 358,Russellville 42276-0358 or the Logan County Genealogical Society at 278 W. 4th Street/P.O. Box 853, Russellville, KY 42276-0853. On the attached map, Logan is located at B8. For information about the state of Kentucky see Kentucky Family History Research.

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Excerpted from "Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better," by Clive Thompson. Reprinted by arrangement with The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright (c) Clive Thompson, 2013. Is the Internet ruining our ability to remember facts? If you've ever lunged for your smartphone during a bar argument ("one-hit father of twerking pop star" — Billy Ray Cyrus!), then you've no doubt felt the nagging fear that your in-brain memory is slowly draining away. As even more fiendishly powerful search tools emerge — from IBM's Jeopardy!-playing Watson to the "predictive search" of Google Now — these worries are, let's face it, only going to grow. So what's going on? Each time we reach for the The short answer is: No. Machines aren't ruining our memory. The longer answer: It's much, much weirder than that! What's really happening is that we've begun to fit the machines into an age-old technique we evolved thousands of years ago — "transactive memory." That's the art of storing information in the people around us. We have begun to treat search engines, Evernote and And frankly, our brains have always been terrible at remembering details. We're good at retaining the gist of the information we encounter. But the niggly, specific facts? Not so much. In a 1990 study, long before the Interwebs supposedly corroded our minds, the psychologist Walter Kintsch ran an experiment in which subjects read several sentences. When he tested them 40 minutes later, they could generally remember the sentences word for word. Four days later, though, they were useless at recalling the specific phrasing of the sentences — but still very good at describing the meaning of them.

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Relevant laws include The Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 (as amended), The Organic Act of 1944 (as amended), The Federal Plant Pest Act of 1957 (as amended), and the Federal Noxious Weed Act of 1974 (as amended). Regulations promulgated under these laws are found in the Code of Federal Regulations, specifically in CFR 319. To determine whether the crop or plant part that you want to import is prohibited, you can check the Plants for Planting Manual. Prohibited plants include such valuable crops and natural flora as apples, bamboo, citrus, elms, grapes, grasses, maples, peaches, potatoes, rice, sweet potato, and sugarcane. When any plant part capable of vegetative propagation is excised from a foreign plant and then shipped to the United States, these propagules usually carry most, if not all, of the pests present in or on their original foreign plants. Therefore, in order to protect U.S. agriculture from the introduction of foreign pests, small quantities of these plants must be inspected during growth and tested for pathogens while in quarantine at an APHIS approved containment facility. A network of quarantine programs across the United States ensures that all prohibited plant genera can be imported through quarantine. After release from quarantine, these plants or plant parts can be propagated or distributed without federal restrictions. Special permits must be obtained by the importer if these plants are genetically modified (genetically engineered), if they are listed on the Federal Noxious Weed list, or if they are regulated by the importer’s state department of agriculture.

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LITTLE ROCK, AR (News release) - To Consumers of Electronic Cigarettes, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Other Vapor Products: The Arkansas Department of Health is issuing this Public Health Advisory to consumers and is advising caution when considering e-cigarettes, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), and vaping devices. These devices contain and emit harmful chemicals, are currently unregulated, and pose known and unknown health risks to users and non-users alike. - The Arkansas Department of Health is issuing this Public Health Advisory to consumers and is advising caution when considering e-cigarette, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), and vaping devices. - These devices contain and emit harmful chemicals, are currently unregulated, and pose known and unknown health risks to users and non-users alike. - E-cigarettes/vapor products contain chemicals, including nicotine. Nicotine is toxic and highly addictive and affects the nervous system and heart. It can be absorbed into the body through inhalation, ingestion and skin contact. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress A Report of the Surgeon General Executive Summary (2014), reports that the evidence is sufficient to infer that nicotine activates multiple biological pathways through which smoking increases risk for adult onset diseases, including atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer. - E-cigarettes/vapor products are not emission free and their pollutants could be a health concern for users and secondhand smokers. These products should not be used indoors or in cars. - Secondhand vapor contains chemicals that can be inhaled by non-users. Bystanders can inhale nicotine, propylene glycol and tobacco-related contaminants, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein. - Current scientific information about the effects of using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) is inadequate to assure the public that they are safe. Coupled with the absence of state or federal regulation of manufacture, this information should prompt consumers to be cautious about using the devices as well as exposure to secondhand emissions. Effects on Children - Excessive exposure to nicotine can result in poisoning, particularly in young children and pets. Liquid contained or used in e-cigarettes or vapor devices should not be accessible to children. - Pregnant women should avoid using these devices and children should not be exposed to them. The nicotine crosses the placenta and can damage the lungs, heart, and central nervous system of the developing fetus. - Pregnant women should know exposure to nicotine, in conventional or electronic cigarettes, may: cause a miscarriage; cause low birth weight, creating significant health challenges for their babies; affect the unborn baby’s blood flow, heart rate and breathing; contribute to sudden infant death syndrome. - Parents should be aware that electronic cigarettes and similar electronic nicotine delivery devices are available in a variety of flavors, such as bubble gum, strawberry, chocolate, and mint, which may be attractive to children. Arkansas Act 1188 of 2013 prohibits distribution of “alternative nicotine products” directly, indirectly by an agent or employee, or through vending machines to minors under the age of 18. “Alternative nicotine products” includes both e-cigarettes and any product containing nicotine that is intended for human consumption. The age of the individual purchasing these products must be verified using a photographic identification card, or if purchased online, verification must be performed through an independent, third-party age verification service. - Parents should not allow children to play with electronic cigarettes or similar devices. They contain batteries and liquid chemicals which, if swallowed, could cause serious health complications. Nicotine is a known poison. Bottles of e-juice, used in e-cigarettes, are a poison risk for small children and pets. - E-cigarettes may lead to an increase in nicotine addiction among young people. E-cigarette use among middle and high school students in the U.S. doubled to 1.78 million students in 2012, compared with the year before, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Confusion on Enforcement/Normalization of Smoking - Many electronic cigarettes/Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems emit a vapor that looks like cigarette smoke. The similarity of these products to combustible cigarettes creates confusion for employees and visitors and presents enforcement challenges for workplaces, restaurants/bars, state agencies, and other indoor/outdoor campuses that have existing tobacco-free policy/ordinances. - ENDS re-normalize smoking behaviors and reverse clean indoor air gains. Some national organizations have released policy statements on ENDS including the American Academy of Pediatrics in December 2013 suggesting ENDS should be treated like other combustible tobacco products and that sales to minors should be prohibited. The World Health Organization (WHO) in July 2013 advised that consumers not use ENDS until safety has been demonstrated. - It is illegal for e-cigarettes to be marketed as a smoking cessation aid. A number of electronic cigarette companies have received warning letters from the FDA for making such claims. - Electronic cigarettes and similar electronic nicotine delivery devices have not been tested adequately as tobacco cessation devices. Until Food and Drug Administration approval is given, the Arkansas Department of Health recommends that FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy products, such as nicotine patches, which contain controlled doses of nicotine, be used for tobacco cessation efforts. See the attached references for this public health advisory. Copyright 2014 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Adaption of Lesser-Known Wine Grape Cultivars to Climatic Features of the Snake River Valley American Viticultural Area Horticultural Crops Research Project Number: 5358-21000-041-22 Start Date: Apr 01, 2010 End Date: Sep 30, 2012 The market for wine grapes is increasingly global. A large share of this global market is based upon a few specific cultivars that consumers know and associate with high quality, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Riesling. Production of these global cultivars has increased in pace with a recent increase in world production of grapes and, in some cases, has resulted in an oversupply. The recent market saturation of global cultivars has stimulated interest in exotic, new products (varietal wines) in order to expand or maintain markets. Global predominance of a few major cultivars is undesirable also for ecological reasons because it reduces the genetic diversity of wine grapes under commercial production and leaves the industry vulnerable to threat from a potentially lethal insect or pathogen. There is great potential for minor cultivars from old world production regions to produce wines in the U.S. that are superior to their place of origin and these cultivars may be well adapted to newly emerging grape production areas, such as the Snake River Valley in Idaho. Little information is currently available about the performance of lesser-known, exotic cultivars in wine grape growing regions of the U.S. Research is particularly needed on the performance of exotic cultivars under the limitations and advantages of growing conditions in the U.S. which are most likely unique from the conditions in their region of origin. Traditional methods of evaluating cultivar performance are costly because site-specific conditions influence results and limit their applicability to a narrow geographic range. The objectives of this project are to identify lesser-known wine grape cultivars from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and France, that are well-adapted to the climatic features of the Snake River Valley American Viticultural Area; to integrate performance data from the Idaho field trial site; and to provide a graduate student with a training opportunity. The adaptation of lesser-known cultivars to climatic conditions in the Snake River Valley will be accomplished by evaluating the viticultural performance of 18 lesser-known cultivars planted in a randomized, block design with six replications at a trial established in a commercial vineyard in Southwestern Idaho. A graduate student will be recruited through a cooperator at Boise State University who will collect, analyze and report viticultural performance data. The trial will be established and data will be collected following protocols established by the multi-state NE 1020 Coordinated Wine Grape Cultivar Evaluation project. Viticultural performance data will be interpreted relative to two “global” cultivars planted as reference standards in the Idaho site as well as trial locations in other states. The trial site in Idaho will estimate cultivar adaptation to high elevation desert. The proposed evaluation scheme enhances resource-efficiency because trial results will be applicable over a range of climatic conditions, providing useful information for existing as well as newly emerging wine grape production sites.

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Oneof the pivotal figures in early sixteenth-century German art, Cranach the Elder was the Reformation artist par excellence. A close friend and follower of Martin Luther (they were godfathers to one another’s children), Cranach collaborated with Luther in producing numerous single-sheet woodcuts and book illustrations that were crucial for the spread of the new evangelical theology in the early years of the Reformation in Germany. The “Passional Christi et Antichristi” (Wittenberg, 1521), for example, contrasts the holy life of Christ with the decadent life of the pope and the venal customs of the Curia Romana in thirteen antithetical pairs of woodcuts, with brief texts from the Bible and papal decretals composed by Philipp Melanchthon and Johann Schwertfeger. The epilogue was perhaps written by Luther himself. In 1529 Cranach created the quintessential new Reformation image, the “Allegory of Law and Grace,” contrasting mankind’s damnation under the law of Moses with his hope of salvation under the New Testament’s offer of grace in Luther’s interpretation. The allegory was typically produced both as a woodcut (London, British Museum) and as a panel painting (Gotha, Schloßmuseum) and was often copied. Portraits by Cranach and his son, Lucas the Younger, of Luther (Weimar, Schloßmuseum), Melanchthon (Frankfurt am Main, Städel), and the other reformers (Toledo Museum of Art), as well as the many copies and variants made from them by workshop assistants, have determined our perception of the reformers to the present day. Cranach took his name from the town of his birth, Kronach, near Bamberg. He was probably trained by his father, the painter Hans Maler. By 1503 he was working among a circle of humanists at the University of Vienna. His earliest known works, created at this time, were characterized by a religious and spiritual intensity and an emphasis on man’s relationship to nature and constituted the beginning of the stylistic movement known as the Danube School. In 1504 Cranach was called to Wittenberg by Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony. There he developed the smooth, linear style that became the standard form of expression of his large and productive workshop and that determined the appearance of painting in Saxony throughout the sixteenth century. Until his death Cranach served as court artist to Frederick the Wise and successors John the Steadfast and John Frederick the Magnanimous, decorating the elector’s favorite residences, such as the Veste Coburg and Torgau castles, but no traces of his mural paintings survive. In addition to the many portraits of members of the Saxon nobility, produced as woodcuts or painted on panel, Cranach served their more private tastes with small paintings of a tantalizing, mildly erotic nature, showing nude Venuses or Lucretias. After 1508 he used a winged serpent as a signature on his own work and on the products of his workshop. In Wittenberg he was one of the two wealthiest citizens, the result of earnings not only from the workshop but also from the pharmacy, wine store, bookstore, and printer’s shop he owned. From 1519 to 1545 he served on the Wittenberg city council and was elected burgomaster on three occasions. After Charles V took John Frederick prisoner at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, Cranach followed him into exile at Augsburg and Innsbruck, and after the elector’s release in 1552, he accompanied him to Weimar, where the artist died in 1553.

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(Received 14 August 2003; accepted 12 April 2004) Published Online: 2004 | ||Format||Pages||Price|| | |PDF Version||11||$25||  ADD TO CART| Electrical conductivity of soils has been demonstrated to be an important parameter for determining their basic properties. As measurement of soil conductivity using the DC field is limited by irreversible changes in the state of the soil and the errors due to electrode polarization, application of an AC field has been recommended. However, it has been noted that researchers have resorted to the ‘single frequency measurements’, considering that impedance is purely resistive, which may not always be true. Hence, it becomes essential to study electrical conductivity of soils in a broad frequency range. With this in view, using the concept of Impedance Spectroscopy (IS), conductivity measurements were carried out on different type of soils in the 20 Hz to 1 MHz frequency range, and details of the study are presented in this paper. Measured data has also been analyzed using Nyquist and Bode formats, and a good matching of the results has been noted. This demonstrates utility of the developed methodology and the ease with which electrical conductivity of soils can be determined in the laboratory. Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai Stock #: JAI12128

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Published: Jan 1970 | ||Format||Pages||Price|| | |PDF Version (640K)||38||$25||  ADD TO CART| |Complete Source PDF (6.2M)||38||$81||  ADD TO CART| The commonly used thermocouple types are identified by letter designations originally assigned by the Instrument Society of America (ISA) and adopted as an American Standard in ASA C96.1-1964. This section covers general application data on the atmospheres in which each thermocouple type can be used, recommended temperature ranges, limitations, etc. Physical and thermoelectric properties of the thermoelement materials used in each of these thermocouple types are tabulated in Section 3.1.2. The following thermocouple types are included (these are defined as having the emf-temperature relationship given in the corresponding letter-designated Table in Section 10. within the limits of error specified in Table 41 of that section): Type T—Copper (+) Constantan (−) Type J—Iron (+) Constantan (−) Type K—Originally Chromel (+) Alumel (−) Type E—Originally Chromel (+) Constantan (−) Type R—Platinum/13% Rhodium (+) versus Platinum (−) Type S—Platinum/10% Rhodium (+) versus Platinum (−) Type B—Platinum/30% Rhodium (+) versus Platinum/6% Rhodium (−) Temperature limits stated in the text are maximum values. Table 2 gives recommended maximum temperature limits for various gage sizes of wire. Table 3 gives nominal Seebeck coefficients for the various types. Temperature-emf equivalents and commercial limits of error for these common thermocouple types are given in Section 10. Paper ID: STP46139S

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Modern units are predominantly manufactured, generally sized to nominal modular dimensions that assume placement using 3/8-in.- (9.5-mm) thick mortar joints. Over time, the function of mortar shifted from filling cracks between tight-fitting units to providing a bedding material for placement and positioning of standard-sized units. Mortar is expected to harden more rapidly than in the past, binding units into structural elements or a cladding system. While traditional masonry is strong in compression and weak in tension, grouted reinforced masonry efficiently uses the tensile and ductile properties of reinforcing steel in combination with masonry grout to produce structures and structural elements that are strong in both compression and tension, capable of resisting extreme loads such as occur during high winds or earthquakes. Masonry is not used solely for structural applications; it often serves as a veneer or cladding. As such, it provides a low maintenance, weather-resistant, durable, and aesthetically versatile exterior. Construction techniques often include use of metal accessories (such as ties and anchors) embedded in mortar. In summary, modern masonry is designed to meet a broad range of performance expectations. It is site-constructed under varying weather conditions by skilled craftsmen using units, mortar, grout and metal accessories. Trends toward more efficient, safe and serviceable masonry construction have placed an emphasis on speed of construction, the use of grouted reinforced masonry in structural applications, and incorporation of ties and wall drainage systems in veneer applications. Masonry has become a high performance construction material and system, which has impacted requirements for mortar and grout. Back to feature

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The P-T Extinction was a Slow Death Thomas J. Algeo. Credit: University of Cincinnati A painstakingly detailed investigation shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events. The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth’s marine life, and it killed in stages, according to a newly published report. Thomas J. Algeo, professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, worked with 13 co-authors to produce a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Their analysis, published Feb. 3 in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, provides strong evidence that Earth’s biggest mass extinction phased in over hundreds of thousands of years. About 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, Earth almost became a lifeless planet. Around 90 percent of all living species disappeared then, in what scientists have called “The Great Dying.” Algeo and colleagues have spent much of the past decade investigating the chemical evidence buried in rocks formed during this major extinction. The world revealed by their research is horrific and alien: a devastated landscape, barren of vegetation and scarred by erosion from showers of acid rain, huge “dead zones” in the oceans, and runaway greenhouse warming leading to sizzling temperatures. The evidence that Algeo and his colleagues are looking at points to massive volcanism in Siberia. A large portion of western Siberia reveals volcanic deposits up to five kilometers (three miles) thick, covering an area equivalent to the continental United States. And the lava flowed where it could most endanger life, through a large coal deposit. “The eruption released lots of methane when it burned through the coal,” he said. “Methane is 30 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. We’re not sure how long the greenhouse effect lasted, but it seems to have been tens or hundreds of thousands of years.” A lot of the evidence ended up being washed into the ocean, and it is among fossilized marine deposits that Algeo and his colleagues look for it. Previous investigations have focused on deposits created by a now vanished ocean known as Tethys, a kind of precursor to the Indian Ocean. Those deposits, in South China particularly, record a sudden extinction at the end of the Permian. “In shallow marine deposits, the latest Permian mass extinction was generally abrupt,” Algeo said. “Based on such observations, it has been widely inferred that the extinction was a globally synchronous event.” Paleogeography during the Permian-Triassic boundary extinction 252 million years ago. Credit: Thomas Algeo Recent studies are starting to challenge that view. Algeo and his co-authors focused on rock layers at West Blind Fiord on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. That location, at the end of the Permian, would have been a lot closer to the Siberian volcanoes than sites in South China. The Canadian sedimentary rock layers are 24 meters (almost 80 feet) thick and cross the Permian-Triassic boundary, including the latest Permian mass extinction horizon. The investigators looked at how the type of rock changed from the bottom to the top of the section. They looked at the chemistry of the rocks. They looked at the fossils contained in the rocks. They discovered a total die-off of siliceous sponges about 100,000 years earlier than the marinemass extinction event recorded at Tethyan sites. Chemical clues, Algeo said, confirm that life on land was in crisis. Dying plants and eroding soil were being flushed into the ocean where the over-abundant nutrients led to a microbial feeding frenzy and the removal of oxygen – and life – from the late Permian ocean. What appears to have happened, according to Algeo and his colleagues, is that the effects of early Siberian volcanic activity, such as toxic gases and ash, were confined to the northern latitudes. Only after the eruptions were in full swing did the effects reach the tropical latitudes of the Tethys Ocean. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exobiology Program.

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Silly Sally's Pet Snake recognition is an essential component to children’s literacy. By recognizing letters in print, they can relate them to their corresponding sounds.The best place to start with emergent readers is introducing those letters as symbols and teaching the sound/sounds that associates with them. In our lesson today we will be learning about s and the sound /s/. We will practice writing our letter in upper and lower case so identify it when we see it in print. I want the children to identify the letter s when it is written and the when it is heard and also identify this letter in a group of objects, the letter and some without. - A picture of Silly Sally and her pet snake - Primary Paper - Dry erase board for the teacher to model - Sheet with different objects on it. Some with /s/ and some without. - Book: Secret Seahorse Stella. Secret Seahorse. Barefoot 1. Explain Why: I will talk to the children and inform them on why we are doing this lesson. I will tell them that we are learning the letters and the sounds that go with them. "Today we are going to learn about a sound and a letter that goes with that sound. When I think of peanut butter, I might think of jelly. Just like the relationship we made butter and jelly, we need to learn to make that association with the and the sound/sounds they make. For example, b=/b/, l=/l/ and today we will be learning about s=/s/." By doing these lessons, they are helping us become better readers. 2. Review: We will begin our lesson by reviewing our previously learned letters/sounds. This review would include all of the letters up to the letter s. We will discuss each letter; the sound it makes and we will give example of a word that starts with that letter. For ex. F=/f/, feet, fall, 3. Explain How: I will introduce our letter s and teach the sound it makes. I will write the letter in erase board so the children can see. We will look around our room and find as many things that start with /s/ We will look in a mirror and see how our lips are shaped, our teeth are together and out is flat and right behind our teeth. We will say a tongue twister and do a motion every time we hear the sound /s/. Sam said he was sorry he put salt in Sally's sandwich. Our motions is putting our hands together and moving them like a slithering snake. 5. Simple Practice: Next we will learn how to make our letter by writing it on primary paper. We will write it in upper case and lower case. For upper case: we will talk about how it is a little c from the rooftop to the fence and a backwards from the fence to the sidewalk. For lower case it is the same thing but you start at the fence and finish sidewalk. Don’t let the snake break. We have to help it slither in one motion. I will have the students write them both ten times to give them lots of practice. I will walk around to make sure they are all writing correctly. Once they have finished writing, I will ask the students some questions to get them to identify the sound /s/. Do you hear /s/ in sad or mad. Do you hear /s/ in or band. Do you hear /s/ in star or moon. Do you hear /s/ in silk or milk. 6. Whole Texts: I will put some sentences on the board that have the letter s in them and we will read a whole class. "I see sweet sugar cookies that are so yummy to eat. Will Sam swim in the ocean with him suit on?" Whenever they hear the sound /s/ they have to slither their snake using their hands. We will also read Secret Seahorse by Stella Blackstone. They will also do the snake with their hands when they hear the s in the book. 7. Assessment: I will hand out a worksheet to all the students and have them get out their crayons. This sheet has all kinds of objects on it like stars, moon, snail, sock, lamp, tree, ect. The children will color the objects that they hear a /s/ in. I will take this up to see how well the children did identifying the objects with /s/. Wyatt, Miss Millie the Moose: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/innov/wyattel.html Meg Betbeze, Hurry Home, Henry!: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/innov/betbezeel.html Stella. Secret Seahorse. Barefoot Sally and her pet snake: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/006623820X/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-4565844-0643141#reader-page Return to Constructions.

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In this article What is impetigo?Impetigo is a highly contagious skin infection caused by bacteria. It first appears as blisters around your baby’s nose and mouth, but it can spread to other parts of her body. Depending on the type of impetigo, the blisters may be tiny and burst easily, or be larger and take a few days to burst. Once the blisters have burst and dried, a scabby tan or yellow-brown coloured crust will form. The crusts will gradually heal and won't leave scars. See a photo of impetigo in our rashes and skin conditions gallery. Impetigo isn't usually painful, but it can be itchy. Your baby may also have a temperature and swollen lymph glands in her face or neck. How did my baby get impetigo?The bacteria can enter your baby's body through cold sores, cuts or grazes, insect bites and stings, eczema, or other areas where her skin is damaged or sensitive (NHS 2012). Your baby could easily have picked up the bacteria if she was in close contact with someone who has impetigo. She could also have got impetigo by touching toys, clothing, or towels that an infected person has used. How can my baby’s impetigo be treated?Take your baby to the doctor if you think she has impetigo. Your doctor will prescribe an antibiotic cream to clear up the infection (NICE/CKS 2013). If your baby’s impetigo is severe or widespread, your doctor may prescribe antibiotic tablets. Give your baby the full course of antibiotics, even if her symptoms clear up quickly. This will prevent the infection from returning or becoming resistant to the antibiotics. It's also important to keep the areas of impetigo clean. This will help it to heal and prevent it spreading to other areas of your baby’s skin. Follow these hygiene steps: - Gently wash the scabs with soap and warm water twice a day. - Pat the area dry using a clean towel each time, and don't let anyone else use the towel afterwards. Or you could use disposable paper towels. - Wash your hands or use gloves before applying antibiotic cream to your baby’s skin. - Trim your baby's fingernails to prevent her skin becoming damaged if she tries to scratch her impetigo. Scratching could spread the infection to other areas. - Cover the infected skin on your baby's face with a loose gauze dressing. If the impetigo has spread to your baby's body, dress her in loose cotton clothes. Your baby’s impetigo should get better in a week to 10 days with treatment. Take your baby back to the doctor if: - the treatment doesn't seem to be working after a week - your baby still has a fever, or if she develops one after a few days of treatment - the infected area becomes noticeably red and tender (NICE/CKS 2013) Your doctor may need to take a skin sample to be sure which bacteria are causing the problem. He may give your baby a new prescription. If your baby keeps getting bouts of impetigo, talk to your doctor. How can I prevent my baby from spreading impetigo to others?Your baby will have been infectious for four days to 10 days before the rash became obvious. So it is difficult to stop her spreading impetigo to others. The main thing is to keep your baby away from other babies and children, and keep her at home if she goes to nursery. Do this until all the patches of impetigo have crusted over and healed, or until two days after she has started antibiotic treatment (HPA 2010). Also follow these hygiene steps to protect the rest of the family from impetigo: - Keep your baby’s soap, flannel, towels, sheets, hairbrushes, and clothing separate from those belonging to other family members. - Wash your baby’s sheets, towels, and clothes at a high temperature after she has used them. Also wash any soft toys, and wipe down plastic or wooden toys with detergent and warm water. - Make sure everyone in your household washes their hands regularly with soap and water. - Cover any cuts and grazes on your baby’s skin with a plaster, and treat any eczema or other conditions that lead to broken skin. Are there any complications of impetigo?If your baby’s impetigo isn’t treated, other more serious conditions can sometimes develop (NICE/CKS 2013). If you are concerned about any symptoms your baby has as well as impetigo, contact your doctor. Very occasionally, untreated impetigo can lead to: - A deeper, more serious skin inflammation called cellulitis. - A form of psoriasis that causes sores on the chest, arms, legs, and scalp. - Blood poisoning, also known as septicaemia. - Scarlet fever. - A kidney disorder called glomerulonephritis. This is accompanied by high blood pressure and blood in the urine (NHS 2012). It is a good idea to look out for these complications, but be assured that they are very rare (NHS 2012). BAD. 2011. Impetigo. British Association of Dermatologists. www.bad.org.uk [pdf file, accessed February 2014] HPA.2010. Guidance on infection control in schools and other childcare settings. Health Protection Agency. www.hpa.org.uk [pdf file, accessed February 2014] NHS. 2012. Impetigo. NHS Choices, Health A-Z. www.nhs.uk [Accessed February 2014] NICE/CKS. 2013. Impetigo. NHS Clinical Knowledge Summaries. www. cks.nice.org.uk [Accessed February 2014]

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The Rundown on Roseola Roseola has been around for centuries and has many names to prove it: roseola infantum, exanthema subitum, three-day fever, and sixth disease. It is the sixth in a list of classic childhood illnesses involving a fever and rash that medical students memorize long before they see them in the flesh. Yet unlike measles, rubella, and scarlet fever, the agent causing roseola was unknown to medicine until just recently, when it was discovered that a virus called human herpes virus 6 (HHV6) is responsible for this ubiquitous childhood illness. With this knowledge, the medical community hopes to find accurate diagnostic tests for this germ, and perhaps an effective medicine to treat it. A Routine Infection Infection with HHV6 is so common that antibodies against it can be found in 97 percent of blood donors, meaning almost all adults have at some point been infected with this virus. Roseola is but one manifestation of HHV6 infection, and about 30 percent of children between six months and two years will suffer from it. Yet 90 percent of one-year-olds will show antibodies against HHV6 in their blood, meaning that many, many infections are either without symptoms or present as a vague febrile illness during infancy. For a child’s first six months of life, antibodies from the mother protect the infant from infection. After this age, infection rates skyrocket—making roseola almost exclusively an infection of infancy and toddlerhood. Like all viruses in the herpes family (varicella causing chicken pox, herpes simplex causing genital or oral herpes), HHV6 causes an initial infection which resolves, but the virus is never cleared from the body. It remains latent within a body and has the potential to reactivate years, even decades later. In the case of varicella, this means shingles, and for herpes simplex, it is recurrent genital lesions or cold sores. It is unclear what a reactivation of HHV6 in healthy adults means, but a reactivation in an immuno-compromised person can cause serious illness. This virus is only found in humans, and at any one time 75 percent of healthy adults are shedding live, infectious virus into their saliva. A kiss or close contact is all it takes for an adult to unknowingly spread HHV6 to an infant. YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN

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CFD Analysis of Jet Fire CFD can be used to evaluate the benefit of installing thermal hazard mitigation measures such as the use of thermal radiation barriers to protect against flame impingement. An example is given below for a 2-inch methane jet flame test conducted by BakerRisk. The fuel was released into an area with a matrix of pipes designed to form a congestion zone. The wind speed at the time of the experiment was estimated to be 5 m/s with cross wind at an angle close to 45° relative to the fuel release direction. The source pressure was 250 psig and its temperature was ambient. The figure below shows images of the flame taken from different angles during the test. The height of the congestion structure surrounding the flame is 6 ft, which indicates that the combined visual dimension of the flame (horizontal length and vertical height) is around 45 ft from the point of release (which is 10 ft upstream of congestion structure). The Figure to follow shows the CFD results in the form of a 3D envelope of fuel concentration >0.1% mass fraction that defines the flame boundary. A comparison between the Figures 5 & 6 clearly shows that the predicted flame shape, height and length agree reasonably well with the test results. The test was performed in an open atmosphere and wind conditions were not controlled during the test period. The testing efforts at BakerRisk in Jet Fire Research have led to significantly improved thermal radiation contour assessment methods.

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Pupil feedback makes the biggest possible difference in supporting learning and helping children make the best possible progress. This comes in a variety of forms from verbal feedback, pupil self assessment and feedback in marking. At Bannockburn we are proud of the way we have developed a culture of feedback in marking. We focus our feedback on pupil progress, effort and determination. We provide children with next learning steps or a learning question linked to the learning intention. Shown in this section are a variety of examples taken from pupils' books. Here is a copy of our feedback marking guidance notes

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The History of Stone Cutting When asked what I do for a living, my response is usually “Lapidary”. This inevitably gets the “Huh?” response. Most people have no idea that there is a lapidary field and that lapidary may quite possibly be one of the oldest professions! A lapidary is an artist who practices the craft of working, forming, and finishing stone, mineral, and gemstones into decorative pieces or wearable items. In prehistoric times, man learned to make tools from stone, using one stone to chip away at another, and in the process learned that stones good be worked and that they had different hardnesses. By 3,000 B.C. man had developed his lapidary skills to such an extent that they could make cylinders from serpentine. In all ancient civilizations history records the cutting of natural stone for tools and adornment. Beads, scarabs, amulets, seals, even bowls were cut from stone. It is believed that around the 1300’s early faceting occurred. But in the 1400’s real developments began. Grinding wheels were developed, shapes were improved upon, and better polishing rock techniques emerged. The lapidary field of gem cutting for jewelry began to divide into two techniques. Faceting-described as to place and polish facets onto a mineral specimen; and cabochon cutting or cabbing -described as shaping and polishing a stone usually with a convex top and a flat bottom. Traditionally opaque and translucent stones are cut into cabochons and transparent stones are faceted. However that distinctive has become more blurred as fantasy cuts, sculpted stones and carved stones have hit the market. The town of Idar-Oberstein in Germany soon emerged as the gem cutting capital of the world. According to historical records, miners in the late 14th century found agates not far from the tiny towns of Idar and Oberstein and began to cut it into cabochons and sculptures. The actual history of the industry there probably predates the existing records of it. It is known that mechanized mining operations for the extraction of stones within the vicinity of the towns, began in the late 1400s, creating a demand for gem-cutters, and stone-carvers who migrated to the area. By the start of the 18th century, there were about 15 cutting gem shops. This number doubled by the beginning of the 19th century. A large boom occurred when German emigrants discovered large agate deposits in Brazil and brought the material back to be cut. By the late 1800s, there were more than 150 gem cutting shops in Idar-Oberstein. In China, lapidary work specializing in jade carving has been continuous since the Shang dynasty. But in the early 1900’s it emerged as the place where mass amounts of commercial cabochons could be produced cheaply. To this day there is no way Americans can compete in that market. For this reason, up until the 1960’s any lapidary work done in America was mostly just for hobby or competition. The 1970’s saw a strong surge in the craft market, and the 80’s was a time when it was big to “invest” in gemstones. Still it wasn’t till the late 1980’s when lapidary really took off in America, and the American lapidary market began to emerge as the leading lapidary in the world. Unfortunately the general public still thinks of gemstones as diamonds and rubies, with maybe some knowledge of tiger’s eye and onyx. Even the turquoise boom in the 70’s failed to introduce opaque gemstones to the public. Mention chrysocolla or chalcedony to somebody not in the field and you are likely to still get that “huh?” response. The rise of the metaphysical belief in energy of crystals and stones in the last 20-30 years has definitely made people more aware of the rock and mineral field. But we still have a long way to go. There are now a large number of American designer cabochon cutters, and most of them have good originality and skill. I believe their craftsmanship is the best in the world. Custom jewelers have a great array of stones to choose from. This pushes the cutters to always look for new and unusual materials and to try different shapes too. Unfortunately their efforts are not cheap. Perhaps understanding the process can help jewelers and the public begin to appreciate the stones available to them. Please read my page on Cutting Custom Cabochons for more information!

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E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. a sacred bird, according to the Swedish legend received its name from flying round the cross of the crucified Redeemer, crying Styrka! styrka! (Strengthen! strengthen!). (See Christ, in CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS.) Storks are the sworn foes of snakes. Hence the veneration in which they are held. They are also excellent scavengers. (Stork, Anglo-Saxon, storc.) Twill profit when the stork, sworn foe of snakes,

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E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. In the Greek and Roman Church the thumb and first two fingers represent the Trinity. The thumb, being strong, represents the Father; the long or second finger, Jesus Christ; and the first finger, the Holy Ghost, which proceedeth from the Father and the Son. (See BLESSING.) Some bishops of the Anglican Church use this gesture while pronouncing the benediction.

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In An Effort To Raise Awareness About Healthcare Disparities, The Blue Cross And Blue Shield Association Supports National Minority Health Month April 17, 2012 CHICAGO – In recognition that April is National Minority Health Month, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies nationwide are reinforcing their commitment to encouraging care delivery that is safe, effective, patient centered and equitable. “Health and healthcare disparities are a result of many factors, including language and cultural barriers, and access to care,” said Allan Korn, MD, BCBSA senior vice president and chief medical officer. “Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies nationwide are committed to promoting health equity for all patients regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic status to ensure that they receive high quality care.” According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s 2010 National Healthcare Disparities Report, data shows that racial/ethnic minorities and low income populations on average receive poorer healthcare and experience higher rates of avoidable complications compared to non-minorities. For example: - Black patients with diabetes are hospitalized for lower extremity amputations twice as often as white patients. - Asians are less likely than whites to have a primary care doctor. - Hispanics age 13 and older are diagnosed with AIDS at a rate three times higher than non-Hispanics. - American Indians and Alaskan Natives are less likely than whites to receive recommended colorectal cancer screenings. Collectively, Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies provide coverage for 100 million individuals and are working to meet the needs of the nation’s increasingly diverse population. Additionally, the Blue System supports the goals of the Department of Health and Human Services National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity, which promotes raising awareness, strengthening leadership, focusing on outcomes, promoting cultural competency, and utilizing data to help reduce healthcare disparities. Nationally, Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are implementing healthcare quality initiatives that help improve the quality of care that patients receive and these programs can also help to address healthcare disparities and promote health equity. One example is patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) – healthcare settings which provide patients with coordinated care. The Commonwealth Fund 2006 Health Care Quality Survey found that when adults had health insurance coverage and participated in a medical home select racial and ethnic disparity in access and quality are reduced or even eliminated. Today more than 4 million Blue members in 38 states have access to care through PCMHs – making the Blues’ market leaders in this important area of innovation. Additionally, Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are working to address healthcare disparities in their local communities and have the ability to tailor approaches for the communities and diverse populations that they serve. Examples include: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Anthem), which has affiliated health plans in 14 states, offers a free web-based course, Guiding Patients to Better HealthCare, to community health workers in an effort to help reduce health disparities and empower patients. The course gives these important community resources tools to help African-American and Latino patients communicate better with their doctors and more effectively navigate the healthcare system. The hour-long course, developed by Anthem, is available in both English and Spanish and is aimed at health educators, such as nurses, certified patient educators, patient navigators, patient advocates, community health workers, and promotores del salud. To access the course, go to www.BridgingHealthCareGaps.com, select your state from the pull-down menu under ‘Providers,’ and then click the ‘Training’ tab. Florida Blue recently introduced the Diabetes Health Care Disparities Project, which identified African-American members who had gaps in care surrounding diabetes disease management. Members who had gaps in at least two categories – hemoglobin A1C test, retinal eye exam, hypertension treatment, lipid screening and nephropathy testing – were contacted by the company’s care consultant team, who sought to educate our members on the benefits of such testing, and to encourage increased participation. The results included higher levels of member participation in all categories. Future efforts will include adding Hispanic members to the outreach efforts, while also creating more in-depth intervention campaigns for those diabetics who are at higher risk due to poor blood sugar control that could lead to future diabetes-related complications. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) is providing more than $8.5 million over three years in funding to help 12 safety net health center programs in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., implement medical home and care coordination programs for the region’s most vulnerable population, the chronically ill. The 12 programs will serve low-income, medically underserved communities – addressing chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure, as well as a wide spectrum of medical issues including primary adult care and pediatric health, specialized care with HIV-targeted case management, and specialized services for homeless, minority, and uninsured populations. In all, the funded programs are expected to provide services to as many as 66,000 individuals at more than 20 locations throughout the region. CareFirst’s Safety Net Health Center Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative is among the largest of its type ever by a private insurer to support safety net health centers. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation improves the conditions that have an impact on the health of low-income communities across the state. The Foundation added a specific focus on health equity in 2011 to advance community strategies that improve opportunities for people to reach their full health potential. It supports the use of health impact assessments, which help community decision-makers identify the potential health benefits and unintended risks of projects and policies, working in collaboration with The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Impact Project. In May 2012, the Foundation will be releasing an update to its health equity report “The Unequal Distribution of Health in the Twin Cities.” The report looks at the impact of neighborhood conditions, median area income, education levels, and race on life expectancy. Highmark Inc. recently became the first Blue Cross and Blue Shield company to receive a Distinction in Multicultural Health Care by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). This award exemplifies the company’s leadership in working to improve healthcare for all Americans, and specifically recognizes Highmark’s Commercial HMO and Medicare Advantage HMO products offered under the Keystone Health Plan West subsidiary. Clinical interventions targeting minority members have resulted in improvements in hypertension medication adherence and improved blood pressure control, colorectal cancer screening rates and diabetes care. Other accomplishments include culturally tailored health outreach to communities throughout Pennsylvania in collaboration with minority media; ongoing cultural competency training of the Highmark workforce; a focus on improving health literacy; and successfully collecting race, ethnicity and language data on the company website. To learn more about the importance for health equity, visit www.bcbs.com/closingthegap. More information about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health’s National Minority Health Month can be found at: http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/Actnow/. About the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a national federation of 37 independent, community-based and locally-operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide healthcare coverage for nearly 100 million members – one-in-three Americans. For more information on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and its member companies, please visit bcbs.com. We encourage you to connect with us on Facebook, check out our videos on YouTube, follow us on Twitter and check out The BCBS Blog, for up-to-date information about BCBSA.

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Calf Muscle Strain (Pulled Calf Muscle; Gastrocnemius Strain; Gastrocnemius Tear; Gastrocnemius Muscle Injury)En Español (Spanish Version) A strained calf muscle is a partial tear of the small fibers of the muscles. The calf muscles are located in the back of your lower leg. The Calf Muscles © 2008 Nucleus Medical Art, Inc. A calf strain can be caused by: - Stretching the calf muscles beyond the amount of tension that they can withstand - Suddenly putting stress on the calf muscles when they are not ready for the stress - Using the calf muscles too much on a certain day - A direct blow to the calf muscles These factors increase your chance of a strain. Risk factors for calf muscle strain include: Sports that require bursts of speed, such as: - Long jump - Tight calf muscles - Cold weather Symptoms of calf muscle strain include: - Pain and tenderness in the calf - Stiffness in the calf muscles - Weakness of the calf muscles - Pain when pushing off the foot or standing on tiptoe - Bruising on the calf (if blood vessels are broken) - Popping sensation as the muscle tears (possibly) The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. They will also ask about your recent physical activity and how the injury occurred. The doctor will also examine your calf for: - Tenderness and/or bruising directly over the calf muscles - Pain when contracting the calf muscles, particularly against resistance Muscle strains are graded according to their severity. - Stretching with some microtearing of muscle fibers - Recovery can be complete in about 2 to 3 weeks - Partial tearing of muscle fibers - Recovery can take up to 1 to 2 months - Complete tearing (rupture) of muscle fibers - Complete recovery can take more than 3 months For a severe calf strain, athletes may have an MRI scans. The scan will help predict the length of their recovery. Treatment depends on the severity of the strain. Treatment usually includes: Take aspirin , ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), or acetaminophen (Tylenol) to help relieve pain. If you still have tenderness in the calf while taking these drugs, do not return to physical activity. Check with your doctor. Start within first 24 hours: - Rest—Do not do activities that cause pain, such as running, jumping, and weightlifting using the lower leg muscles. If normal walking hurts, shorten your stride. Do not play sports until the pain and local tenderness are gone. - Cold—Apply ice or a cold pack to the calf area for 15–20 minutes, 4 times a day, for several days after the injury. Wrap the ice or cold pack in a towel. Do not apply the ice directly to your skin. - Compression—Wear an elastic compression bandage (eg, Ace bandage) around your lower leg to prevent additional swelling. Wrap from the toes up the leg so as to not cause swelling below the wrapping. Be careful not to wrap the bandage too tightly. - Elevation—Keep your leg higher than your heart as much as possible for the first 24 hours to minimize swelling. - It is best not to take aspirin or ibuprofen during the first 24 hours if you have a lot of swelling. Those meds interfere with the clotting mechanism. - Heat—Do not use heat at all during the first 3 to 5 days. Use heat only when you are returning to physical activity. Then use it before stretching or getting ready to play sports. - Stretching—When the acute pain is gone, start gentle stretching as recommended by a health care professional. Stay within pain limits. Hold each stretch for about 10 seconds and repeat 6 times. Repeat stretches 4 to 6 times during the day. - Strengthening—Begin strengthening exercises for your calf muscles as recommended by a professional. This is very important to guard against further problems. To reduce the chance that you will strain a calf muscle: - Keep your calf muscles strong so they can absorb the energy of sudden physical stress - After a short warm-up period, stretch out your calf muscles before physical activity - Learn the proper technique for exercise and sporting activities to decrease stress on all your muscles American Academy of Family Physicians American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation American Council on Exercise Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology Healthy Living Unit American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. Available at: http://www.sportsmed.org/. Armfield DR. Sports-related muscle injury in the lower extremity. Clin Sports Med . 2006;25(4):803-42. Hamstring strains: expediting return to play. The Physician and Sportsmedicine . 1996;24(8). Renstrom P, et al. Sports Injuries: Basic Principles of Prevention and Care . Boston, MA: Blackwell Scientific Publications;1993. Runner's Resource Guide: Basic Stretching Exercises. Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma website. Available at: http://www.nismat.org/traintip/runner/stretch.html . Last accessed: July 7, 2008. The Foot and Ankle. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Available at: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00144 . Last accessed July 7, 2008. Last reviewed November 2007 by John C. Keel, MD Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Copyright © 2011 EBSCO Publishing All rights reserved.

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There are many ways to embellish candles, as you may see from my article entitled, "Embellishing Candles." This particular candle making project will deal with the exterior surface of your free standing candles. Today, we will be talking about Decoupage. The definition listed on Wikipedia is: Decoupage (or découpage) is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cut outs onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf, etc. Commonly an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnishes (often multiple coats) until the "stuck on" appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30-40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as The Art of Japanning after its presumed origins. There are many varieties on the traditional technique involving purpose made 'glue' requiring fewer layers (often 5 or 20, depending on the amount of paper involved). Cutouts are also applied under glass or raised to give a three dimensional appearance according to the desire of the decouper. Currently decoupage is a popular handicraft. We will be applying colored paper, printed images or anything you choose to add to your candle that is printed on paper. This will add a different and personal touch to a free standing candle that you created earlier. This technique works ideally with a candle that is greater than 3 inches in diameter. The candle you choose can be a pillar of any shape. Choose and cut images or patterns that will fit onto the sides of the selected candle. As always, prepare your candle making workspace and gather your materials. Colored paper or printed images Dipping vat, a coffee can will do. Large enough to hold enough wax to submerge your candle Small, soft paintbrush Paraffin wax approximately 1 pound Melt your paraffin wax until it reaches 194 degrees Fahrenheit Prepare your dipping vat. In order to get an accurate amount of wax needed to cover the outside of your candle, you will need to place your candle inside the dipping vat and fill with water. Since wax is bouyant, you will need to hold the candle down. Using your magic marker, mark the water level and remove candle. Empty dipping vat and wipe dry the vat and candle. Pour melted wax into dipping vat to within 1 inch of going over mark. Grasping candle by wick, dip entire candle into wax with one smooth motion. Remove and then place on your wax paper. Quickly place your colored paper or printed images onto candle and smooth as needed. Once again in a smooth motion, dip entire candle into dipping vat and place on wax paper. Allow the wax to set. The wax will appear cloudy until it dries, which will leave a clear finish. Taking your paintbrush, tap into place the gold leafing on the top edges and anywhere you choose on the sides to cover any blank areas not covered. Use your nylon stocking to buff the exterior of the candle to give it a smooth shiny finish. This candle making project is a little more time consuming than many others, but will produce unique and distinct candles to enjoy.

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