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Tiredness and speeding are the primary causes of accidents involving transportation professionals. They are well aware of the risks of driving with a certain amount of fatigue, whether from a lack of sleep, physical problems, poor posture at the wheel or daily stress. One of the ways to effectively fight fatigue is to respect driving times - all carriers are aware of the limits: no more than 9 hours per day and 56 hours per week, with a mandatory stop of at least 45 minutes every 4 and a half hours. This allows for a little rest and a chance to recover some strength before continuing on the road. The right climate control in the cabin, light meals and frequent hydration also help. Other procedures for battling fatigue are based on new technologies, such as electronic devices that monitor the driver's attention; these are built into some trucks and are add-ons in others, as is the case of the Optalert sunglasses, which fulfill a similar function. As professional drivers already know, there are additional devices that can help avoid accidents caused by distraction, often due to tiredness, such as those that sound an alarm at an involuntary change of lane, or those that detect objects in the blind spot. Several makes, such as DAF, MAN, Scania or Volvo Trucks, have these already built into their models.

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The name Virginia ranked 379th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of 2000-2003 Social Security Administration statistics and 35th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census. This name is highly rated in the 1990 U.S. Census popularity survey of all ages, but after 1960 does not appear in the state data listing the most popular baby names. This name was first spelled Verginia, and was the feminine form of an ancient Roman clan name, Verginius. Over time its spelling changed due to its association with the Latin term virgo, meaning ''maiden.'' This meaning has driven the use of the name ever since. In 1587, this was the name given the first baby born to English colonists in the New World, Virginia Dare. Both the baby and her home colony were named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen of England. The state of Virginia still proudly bears this name. Virginia Dare's fate was different. She and the rest of the colonists on Roanoke Island mysteriously disappeared within three years of her birth, creating the legend of The Lost Colony which has been reinacted in a grand pageant every summer since 1937.

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Not sure what to get that little busy body? Here are some suggestions for age appropriate two year old toys: - Nesting blocks are fun for hand-eye coordination plus they are fun to build and knock down! - Peg puzzles : the little pegs help with fine motor skills that will help your child later when it's time to learn to hold a pencil and with writing. - Alphabet blocks : help develop hand-eye coordination, thinking and fine motor skills. These learning toys also help with letter, number, shapes and color recognition. When looking for great gift ideas for a 2 year old, look at products that will let a child use their imagination to play. Pretend toys and dress up costumes allow a child to express themselves and have fun! There is nothing more precious than a child making their own cooking sounds or pretending to fix a "boo-boo" with their play doctor kit. Hands on activities like coloring books and crayons as well as paints will encourage creativity in your budding artist.

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Let’s Talk Art "The way a child thinks about her art is more important than the way you think about it," says Herbert. "Never impose limitations and never say, 'I'm not good at this.' It introduces fear. Never evaluate a preschooler's music, art, or dance. Make observations from fact. Say, 'there is a red circle,' or 'see these three red lines.' Evaluating may inhibit creativity or discourage a child." The concept of children understanding art in their own way is not new. Charlotte Mason, a liberal-thinking educator in the late 1800s, wrote in her book Home Education, "We cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon the children's sense of beauty, upon his power of seeing, as in a picture, the common sights of life; he is enriched more than we know in having really looked at a single picture." Parents cannot travel inside their child's brain and ensure that all the educational efforts they make are learned, stored, and applied appropriately. They can be certain, though, that introducing art and music, which have struck emotional chords in humans worldwide for centuries, will enrich an education. The developing mind of a child will soak up whatever it is surrounded with, so why not provide the best history and culture we have to offer?

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Put simply, a credit card provides a short-term loan from a bank that you are expected to repay quickly. In exchange for giving you a short-term loan, the bank will charge you interest — often referred to as an Annual Percentage Rate or APR. An issuing bank will evaluate your credit-worthiness and determine if you are a low risk candidate (likely to repay) or a high risk candidate (unlikely to repay) for a line of credit, and will offer you an APR based on your credit report and how it profiles you financially. Some banks will offer you a “Teaser” APR — essentially a low introductory rate that will change to a higher APR six or more months later. We'll provide some guidance about this concept below.

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Bolivia: Coca-chewing protest outside US embassy Indigenous activists in Bolivia have been holding a mass coca-chewing protest as part of campaign to end an international ban on the practice. Hundreds of people chewed the leaf outside the US embassy in La Paz and in other cities across the country. Bolivia wants to amend a UN drugs treaty that bans chewing coca, which is an ancient tradition in the Andes. But the US has said it will veto the amendment because coca is also the raw material for making cocaine. The protesters outside the US embassy also displayed products made from coca, including soft drinks, toothpaste, sweets and ointments. They were supporting a Bolivian government campaign to amend the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to remove language that bans the chewing of coca leaf. The convention stipulates that coca-chewing be eliminated within 25 years of the convention coming into effect in 1964. Bolivia says that is discriminatory, given that coca use is so deeply rooted in the indigenous culture of the Andes.Eradication The US is opposed to changing the UN convention because it says it would weaken the fight against cocaine production. In a statement, the US embassy said Washington recognised coca-chewing as a "traditional custom" of Bolivia's indigenous peoples but could not support the amendment. "The position of the US government in not supporting the amendment is based on the importance of maintaining the integrity of the UN convention, which is an important tool in the fight against drug-trafficking," it said. The US is the world's largest consumer of cocaine and has been leading efforts to eradicate coca production in the Andes for decades. Bolivia is the world's first biggest producer of cocaine after Peru and Colombia, and much of its coca crop is used to make the illegal drug. Bolivian President Evo Morales has long advocated the recognition of coca as a plant of great medicinal, cultural and religious importance that is distinct from cocaine. As well as being Bolivia's first indigenous head of state, Mr Morales is also a former coca-grower and leader of a coca-growers trade union. The Bolivian amendment would come into effect on 31 January only if there were no objections.

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Books & Music Food & Wine Health & Fitness Hobbies & Crafts Home & Garden News & Politics Religion & Spirituality Travel & Culture TV & Movies Absolute Beginners - Autumn Skies As the long days of summer slip away and skies darken earlier each evening, the first stars of autumn come into view. The centerpiece of the autumn sky is a starry square called the Great Square of Pegasus. In mid-October it lies almost overhead from mid-northern latitudes around 10 pm. Pegasus was the winged horse of Greek mythology, and the Great Square represents the front half of the body of Pegasus. Four stars mark the corners of the Square, boxing in an area of sky so large that you need to hold both hands out at armís length to cover it. Sports fans in North America might think of it as a baseball diamond rather than a square. You should be able to find the Square without much difficulty, but your star chart can help if you need to orient yourself. (For help, see "Absolute Beginners Ė Start Observing." There is a link at the end of this article.) Looking at the Square, imagine a line from the right-hand side of the square down towards the southern horizon and youíll come to a bright star called Fomalhaut. Fomalhaut is part of the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish. In 2008, astronomers released photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope showing a planet in orbit around Fomalhaut. Returning to the Square, imagine a line upwards from the left side. This will lead you to the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, one of the easiest star patterns to recognize. Continue the line northwards for the same distance to see the north pole star, Polaris. Although astronomers talk of the Great Square of Pegasus, these days only three of its stars officially belong to that constellation. In ancient times, one star was shared with neighboring Andromeda, marking her head. When, in 1930, astronomers came to define official boundaries for the constellations, they ended the practice of sharing stars. Andromeda kept her head but Pegasus lost a corner of its square. Andromeda represents the unfortunate daughter of Queen Cassiopeia. She was chained to a rock in sacrifice to a sea monster to atone for the sins of her boastful mother. However, youíll need a good imagination to see Andromeda as more than a couple of crooked lines of stars leading away from the upper left corner of the Great Square. There is, though, one great treasure to be found in the constellation. Two lines extend from the Square. Look at the more prominent of the two lines. If you count two stars along and then go two stars up, youíll come to it: the Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral of stars 2.5 million light years away. On clear dark nights you can glimpse the Andromeda Galaxy with the unaided eye as a hazy wisp of light. The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object you can see without optical aid, but itís more prominent through binoculars and small telescopes. Beyond the shackled feet of Andromeda lies her heroic rescuer, Perseus. This constellation is shaped rather like a distorted capital A. In the sky he is depicted holding the severed head of Medusa the Gorgon, marked by the star Algol. Click for a diagram of the constellation Perseus. Perseus lies in a rich part of the Milky Way, so if you sweep over this area with binoculars, sparkling star fields will spring into view. Beyond Perseus the stars of winter lie in wait, but weíll leave these for another time and return again to our starting point, the Square of Pegasus. Near it lie two well-known, but relatively inconspicuous constellations, of the zodiac. They are Aquarius the water carrier and Pisces the fishes. The stars of Pisces are arranged in a large, faint V-shape below and to the left of the Great Square. The most distinctive feature of Pisces is the Circlet, a ring of stars directly beneath the Square of Pegasus, representing the body of one of the two fish visualized here by ancient astronomers. Below and to the right of the Circlet of Pisces lies Aquarius. This constellationís most distinctive feature is a trefoil-shaped group of four stars that marks the water carrierís jar. From the jar, a stream of faint stars cascades down towards bright Fomalhaut. The Monthly Sky Guide, by Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion Content copyright © 2013 by Mona Evans. All rights reserved. This content was written by Mona Evans. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Mona Evans for details. Website copyright © 2013 Minerva WebWorks LLC. All rights reserved.

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What are placement tests? Certain academic subjects, such as mathematics, often have multiple levels at which student may start when they begin college. Placement tests are academic-subject tests that allow colleges to determine what level a student is ready to enter in each of those subjects. What academic subjects require placement tests? The most common subjects tested for placement are English, mathematics and chemistry. Foreign language placement is also tests at some colleges. Do all colleges require them? Not all colleges require placement tests. Some colleges, typically smaller, for-profit colleges, will only offer one level of their courses. In those cases, there is no need for placement testing. Some colleges that do not give placement testing use other information for placement evaluation such as admissions testing (SAT or ACT) or high school coursework. When do I take them? Many colleges give placement testing during orientation. Community colleges often offer testing on a daily basis in order to more conveniently fit testing into the schedules of newly admitted students. Check with your admission counselor to find out when your testing will be given or if you need to register for your testing. Should I study for placement tests? In general, to ensure proper placement, it is best to brush up on any subject that you have not recently studied. For example, if you have not taken a mathematics course in your last semester of high school, then it is helpful to review mathematics. Also, if you have taken time off between high school and college, it will be helpful to review all subjects on the placement test. If you do not review material before placement tests, you may be placed in a course that is below your ability because you had forgotten some of the information you previously learned. Some colleges will post information about the placement testing on their websites. This information may include the types of information to review. You can also ask your admissions counselor what you should review for your placement test. What is the format of the test? The testing format varies among colleges. Some collegesí placement tests are computerized, while other collegesí placement tests are paper tests. Testing can be multiple choice or completion. There may be essays required. Your admissions counselor should be able to give you information about what the test will be like. Will I need to bring anything for the test? You should ask this question of your admissions counselor or the person you speak with to register for the test. Some colleges do not require students to bring anything to their placement testing. Some items you may want to bring to your placement testing: - Photo ID - Sweater (in case the room is chilly) - Money for vending machines Do transfer students have to take placement tests? In most cases, transfer students do not have to take placement tests. However, it often depends on the courses the student has completed. For example, transfer students who have not taken a mathematics course at their previous college, may be required to take only the mathematics section of placement testing. If I took placement testing at another college, do I have to re-take it? This is a question for your admissions counselor. Some colleges do allow students who can demonstrate a previous placement from another college to forgo placement testing. Colleges that do not require admissions testing (SAT or ACT) may waive testing for individuals who achieved certain scores on their admissions tests. However, in most cases colleges require students to take their test.

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In the summer of 1892, Porter Nye and his family set up a homestead on the south shore of Lake Bemidji. The area was the last territory in Minnesota to be opened for settlement, and the logging boom was just beginning. According to local lore, Nye used some of the first boards produced by a mill on the Mississippi River between Lake Bemidji and Lake Irving to build a small schoolhouse on his homestead. Nye also was the first teacher at the school. In 1902, J. Custer Moore teamed up with Nye to plat the 16-block town site of Nye-Moore, which evolved to Nyemore and, now, Nymore. The next year, residents of the village of Nymore passed a bond issue to build a wood frame school at the corner of Fifth Street and Lincoln Avenue Southeast. The community named the school after President Abraham Lincoln. Also operating in Nymore was the four-grade East School on the current site of Lincoln Elementary School at 1617 Fifth St. N.E. Land speculation took off after 1910 and the original Lincoln School became overcrowded. School taxes also were inadequate to maintain the building. Lincoln School was condemned by the State Department of Education, and on March 5, 1916, the Nymore Village Council petitioned the Bemidji City Council for annexation and school consolidation. It was noted in the Bemidji Daily Pioneer that women voted in the Nymore annexation and school consolidation referendum held later that month. An April 19, 1916, article in the Pioneer stated: "With the annexation of Nymore, a new school will be necessary. A new building will cost about $50,000." Students started the fall 1917 semester in the new brick school at Fifth Street and Lincoln Avenue. The building is now home to Mount Zion Church. With the consolidation of the school districts, Bemidji also supplied Nymore with a 14-passenger bus to transport students. In 1995, Bemidji School District voters approved construction of the new Lincoln Elementary School. Site work began in 1997, and students moved in in October 1999. On July 3, 1999, the school district held a farewell open house at the 1917 building. About 1,000 current and former students, faculty and staff participated. They toured classrooms and viewed artifacts from the school's collection. A special artifact, the portrait of President Lincoln originally hung in 1924 in the hallway at the 414 Lincoln Ave. S.E. school, moved with the students into the current Lincoln Elementary School. He now looks down on continuing generations of Lincoln Lakers in the school lobby. Looking to the future, Lincoln Principal Tom Kusler said he expects the school population of about 500 students to remain steady, or even modestly increase. "We're still able to maintain the same number of sections," he said. There are 37 teachers and 21 classrooms at Lincoln. The big changes will be in technology, he said. This year, three fifth-grade teachers began using electronic SMART Boards in a pilot project. "We have 19 teachers that are getting SMART Boards now," he said. Kusler said the purchases will come from the federal Title I funds, not the Bemidji School District budget. "I think technologies are what we're going to be getting into more and more down the road," he said. Information for this article came from "Celebrating Lincoln School," a Lincoln School History Project, and the Beltrami County Historical Society archives.

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I have been enjoying reading all the posts on this Thread....thank you for sharing your work. I have one question. If as you say: "All the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet are contained in the letter Bet", why is it that the modern form of its shape is different from its ancient form? I would think that the original forms of the Hebrew letters would be where design would be found if it were there. We know that the meanings of the letters did not change, but their shapes did... Your welcome Rose! For starters let me just say this: There is no linguist in the world that can confidently tell anyone where language or written writing originally came from. They cannot truly tell you that so and so writing came before so and so writing. All they can do is surmise. Now, I will tell you from lengthy study that ALL written writing compiled from every known alphabet (even Chinese) can all be linked to the Hebrew block style of writing that first appeared when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the 10 commandments. We can see similarity in these letters even to cuneiform which is said to be the oldest. So what I estimate happened was that Adam and Eve originally spoke this language, and the 7th generation from them which was Enoch (who was recorded in his book as well as the book of Jubilees and additionally the Dead Sea Scrolls) who was the FIRST SCRIBE of written writing which was shown to him by G-dís appointed angel 'Uriel'. Enoch calls these 'ketav einayim' (eye writings). Now through the centuries these letters became mottled and distorted (but we can still see the similarities). Then the letters were revised again (in their proper forms) when Moses came down from Mount Sinai. In my book I have a whole chapter called 'language similarities' in which I reveal how all the alphabetical letters that are found in every single alphabet ever found in the world are still nonetheless the same Hebrew letters. Hebrew was the ORIGINAL PRIMORDIAL LANGUAGE! - always has, and always will be.

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Quantum Time Waits for No Quantum Theory, also quantum mechanics, in physics, a theory based on using the concept of the quantum unit to describe the dynamic properties of subatomic particles and the interactions of matter and radiation. The foundation was laid by the German physicist Max Planck, who postulated in 1900 that energy can be emitted or absorbed by matter only in small, discrete units called quanta. fundamental to the development of quantum mechanics was the uncertainty principle, formulated by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927, which states that the position and momentum of a subatomic particle cannot be specified simultaneously. Spectral Lines of Atomic Hydrogen: When an electron makes a transition from one energy level to another, the electron emits a photon with a particular energy. These photons are then observed as emission lines using a spectroscope. The Lyman series involves transitions to the lowest or ground state energy level. to the second energy level are called the Balmer series. These transitions involve frequencies in the visible part of the spectrum. In this frequency range each transition is characterized by a In the 18th and 19th centuries, Newtonian, or classical, mechanics appeared to provide a wholly accurate description of the motions of bodies—for example, planetary motion. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, experimental findings raised doubts about the completeness of Newtonian theory. Among the newer observations were the lines that appear in the spectra of light emitted by heated gases, or gases in which electric discharges take place. model of the atom developed in the early 20th century by the English physicist Ernest Rutherford, in which negatively charged electrons circle a positive nucleus in orbits prescribed by Newton’s laws of motion, scientists had also expected that the electrons would emit light over a broad frequency range, rather than in the narrow frequency ranges that form the lines in a spectrum. Another puzzle for physicists was the coexistence of two theories of light: the corpuscular theory, which explains light as a stream of particles, and the wave theory, which views light as electromagnetic waves. A third problem was the absence of a molecular basis for In his book Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics (1902), the American mathematical physicist J. Willard Gibbs conceded the impossibility of framing a theory of molecular action that reconciled thermodynamics, radiation, and electrical phenomena as they were then understood. At the turn of the century, physicists did not yet clearly recognize that these and other difficulties in physics were in any way related. The first development that led to the solution of these difficulties was Planck’s introduction of the concept of the quantum, as a result of physicists’ studies of blackbody radiation during the closing years of the 19th century. (The term blackbody refers to an ideal body or surface that absorbs all radiant energy without any reflection.) A body at a moderately high temperature — a "red heat" — gives off most of its radiation in the low frequency (red and infrared) regions; a body at a higher temperature — "white heat" — gives off comparatively more radiation in higher frequencies (yellow, green, or blue). During the 1890s physicists conducted detailed quantitative studies of these phenomena and expressed their results in a series of curves or graphs. The classical, or prequantum, theory predicted an altogether different set of curves from those actually observed. What Planck did was to devise a mathematical formula that described the curves exactly; he then deduced a physical hypothesis that could explain the formula. His hypothesis was that energy is radiated only in quanta of energy hu, where u is the frequency and h is the quantum action, now known as The next important developments in quantum mechanics were the work of German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate Albert Einstein. He used Planck’s concept of the quantum to explain certain properties of the photoelectric effect—an experimentally observed phenomenon in which electrons are emitted from metal surfaces when radiation falls on these surfaces. According to classical theory, the energy, as measured by the voltage of the emitted electrons, should be proportional to the intensity of the radiation. The energy of the electrons, however, was found to be independent of the intensity of radiation—which determined only the number of electrons emitted—and to depend solely on the frequency of the radiation. The higher the frequency of the incident radiation, the greater is the electron energy; below a certain critical frequency no electrons are emitted. These facts were explained by Einstein by assuming that a single quantum of radiant energy ejects a single electron from the metal. of the quantum is proportional to the frequency, and so the energy of the electron depends on the frequency. In 1911 Rutherford established the existence of the atomic nucleus. He assumed, on the basis of experimental evidence obtained from the scattering of alpha particles by the nuclei of gold atoms, that every atom consists of a dense, positively charged nucleus, surrounded by negatively charged electrons revolving around the nucleus as planets revolve around the sun. electromagnetic theory developed by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell unequivocally predicted that an electron revolving around a nucleus will continuously radiate electromagnetic energy until it has lost all its energy, and eventually will fall into the nucleus. Thus, according to classical theory, an atom, as described by Rutherford, is unstable. This difficulty led the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, in 1913, to postulate that in an atom the classical theory does not hold, and that electrons move in fixed orbits. Every change in orbit by the electron corresponds to the absorption or emission of a quantum of radiation. The application of Bohr’s theory to atoms with more than one electron proved difficult. The mathematical equations for the next simplest atom, the helium atom, were solved during the 1910s and 1920s, but the results were not entirely in accordance with For more complex atoms, only approximate solutions of the equations are possible, and these are only partly concordant The French physicist Louis Victor de Broglie suggested in 1924 that because electromagnetic waves show particle characteristics, particles should, in some cases, also exhibit wave properties. This prediction was verified experimentally within a few years by the American physicists Clinton Joseph Davisson and Lester Halbert Germer and the British physicist George Paget Thomson. that a beam of electrons scattered by a crystal produces a diffraction pattern characteristic of a wave (see Diffraction). The wave concept of a particle led the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger to develop a so-called wave equation to describe the wave properties of a particle and, more specifically, the wave behavior of the electron in the hydrogen atom. Although this differential equation was continuous and gave solutions for all points in space, the permissible solutions of the equation were restricted by certain conditions expressed by mathematical equations called eigenfunctions (German eigen, "own"). The Schrödinger wave equation thus had only certain discrete solutions; these solutions were mathematical expressions in which quantum numbers appeared as parameters. (Quantum numbers are integers developed in particle physics to give the magnitudes of certain characteristic quantities of particles or systems.) Schrödinger equation was solved for the hydrogen atom and gave conclusions in substantial agreement with earlier quantum theory. Moreover, it was solvable for the helium atom, which earlier theory had failed to explain adequately, and here also it was in agreement with experimental evidence. The solutions of the Schrödinger equation also indicated that no two electrons could have the same four quantum numbers—that is, be in the same energy state. rule, which had already been established empirically by Austro-American physicist and Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli in 1925, is called the exclusion principle. What is Matter In the 20th century, physicists discovered that matter behaved as both a wave and a particle. Austrian physicist and Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger discussed this apparent paradox in a lecture in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1952. A condensed and translated version of his lecture appeared in Scientific American the following What Is Matter? The wave-particle dualism afflicting modern physics is best resolved in favor of waves, believes the author, but there is no clear picture of matter on which physicists can agree Fifty years ago science seemed on the road to a clear-cut answer to the ancient question which is the title of this article. It looked as if matter would be reduced at last to its ultimate building blocks—to certain submicroscopic but nevertheless tangible and measurable particles. But it proved to be less simple than that. Today a physicist no longer can distinguish significantly between matter and something else. We no longer contrast matter with forces or fields of force as different entities; we know now that these concepts must be merged. It is true that we speak of "empty" space (i.e., space free of matter), but space is never really empty, because even in the remotest voids of the universe there is always starlight—and that is matter. Besides, space is filled with gravitational fields, and according to Einstein gravity and inertia cannot very well be separated. Thus the subject of this article is in fact the total picture of space-time reality as envisaged by physics. We have to admit that our conception of material reality today is more wavering and uncertain than it has been for a long time. We know a great many interesting details, learn new ones every week. But to construct a clear, easily comprehensible picture on which all physicists would agree—that is simply impossible. Physics stands at a grave crisis of ideas. In the face of this crisis, many maintain that no objective picture of reality is possible. However, the optimists among us (of whom I consider myself one) look upon this view as a philosophical extravagance born of despair. We hope that the present fluctuations of thinking are only indications of an upheaval of old beliefs which in the end will lead to something better than the mess of formulas which today surrounds our subject. Since the picture of matter that I am supposed to draw does not yet exist, since only fragments of it are visible, some parts of this narrative may be inconsistent with others. Like Cervantes’ tale of Sancho Panza, who loses his donkey in one chapter but a few chapters later, thanks to the forgetfulness of the author, is riding the dear little animal again, our story has contradictions. We must start with the well-established concept that matter is composed of corpuscles or atoms, whose existence has been quite "tangibly" demonstrated by many beautiful experiments, and with Max Planck’s discovery that energy also comes in indivisible units, called quanta, which are supposed to be transferred abruptly from one carrier to another. But then Sancho Panza’s donkey will return. For I shall have to ask you to believe neither in corpuscles as permanent individuals nor in the suddenness of the transfer of an energy quantum. Discreteness is present, but not in the traditional sense of discrete single particles, let alone in the sense of abrupt processes. Discreteness arises merely as a structure from the laws governing the phenomena. These laws are by no means fully understood; a probably correct analogue from the physics of palpable bodies is the way various partial tones of a bell derive from its shape and from the laws of elasticity to which, of themselves, nothing discontinuous adheres. The idea that matter is made up of ultimate particles was advanced as early as the fifth century B.C. by Leucippus and Democritus, who called these particles atoms. The corpuscular theory of matter was lifted to physical reality in the theory of gases developed during the 19th century by James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann. The concept of atoms and molecules in violent motion, colliding and rebounding again and again, led to full comprehension of all the properties of gases: their elastic and thermal properties, their viscosity, heat conductivity and diffusion. At the same time it led to a firm foundation of the mechanical theory of heat, namely, that heat is the motion of these ultimate particles, which becomes increasingly violent with rising temperature. Within one tremendously fertile decade at the turn of the century came the discoveries of X-rays, of electrons, of the emission of streams of particles and other forms of energy from the atomic nucleus by radioactive decay, of the electric charges on the various particles. The masses of these particles, and of the atoms themselves, were later measured very precisely, and from this was discovered the mass defect of the atomic nucleus as a whole. mass of a nucleus is less than the sum of the masses of its component particles; the lost mass becomes the binding energy holding the nucleus firmly together. This is called the packing effect. The nuclear forces of course are not electrical forces—those are repellent—but are much stronger and act only within very short distances, about 10-13 centimeter. Here I am already caught in a contradiction. Didn’t I say at the beginning that we no longer assume the existence of force fields apart from matter? I could easily talk myself out of it by saying: Well, the force field of a particle is simply considered a part of it. But that is not the fact. The established view today is rather that everything is at the same time both particle and field. Everything has the continuous structure with which we are familiar in fields, as well as the discrete structure with which we are equally familiar in particles. This concept is supported by innumerable experimental facts and is accepted in general, though opinions differ on details, as we shall see. In the particular case of the field of nuclear forces, the particle structure is more or less known. Most likely the continuous force field is represented by the so-called pi mesons. On the other hand, the protons and neutrons, which we think of as discrete particles, indisputably also have a continuous wave structure, as is shown by the interference patterns they form when diffracted by a crystal. The difficulty of combining these two so very different character traits in one mental picture is the main stumbling-block that causes our conception of matter to be so uncertain. Neither the particle concept nor the wave concept is hypothetical. The tracks in a photographic emulsion or in a Wilson cloud chamber leave no doubt of the behavior of particles as discrete units. The artificial production of nuclear particles is being attempted right now with terrific expenditure, defrayed in the main by the various state ministries of defense. It is true that one cannot kill anybody with one such racing particle, or else we should all be dead by now. But their study promises, indirectly, a hastened realization of the plan for the annihilation of mankind which is so close to all our You can easily observe particles yourself by looking at a luminous numeral of your wrist watch in the dark with a magnifying glass. The luminosity surges and undulates, just as a lake sometimes twinkles in the sun. The light consists of sparklets, each produced by a so-called alpha particle (helium nucleus) expelled by a radioactive atom which in this process is transformed into a different atom. A specific device for detecting and recording single particles is the Geiger-Müller counter. In this short résumé I cannot possibly exhaust the many ways in which we can observe single particles. Now to the continuous field or wave character of matter. Wave structure is studied mainly by means of diffraction and interference—phenomena which occur when wave trains cross each other. For the analysis and measurement of light waves the principal device is the ruled grating, which consists of a great many fine, parallel, equidistant lines, closely engraved on a specular metallic Light impinging from one direction is scattered by them and collected in different directions depending on its wavelength. But even the finest ruled gratings we can produce are too coarse to scatter the very much shorter waves associated with matter. The fine lattices of crystals, however, which Max von Laue first used as gratings to analyze the very short X-rays, will do the same for "matter waves." Directed at the surface of a crystal, high-velocity streams of particles manifest their wave nature. With crystal gratings physicists have diffracted and measured the wavelengths of electrons, neutrons and protons. What does Planck’s quantum theory have to do with all this? Planck told us in 1900 that he could comprehend the radiation from red-hot iron, or from an incandescent star such as the sun, only if this radiation was produced in discrete portions and transferred in such discrete quantities from one carrier to another (e.g., from atom to This was extremely startling, because up to that time energy had been a highly abstract concept. Five years later Einstein told us that energy has mass and mass is energy; in other words, that they are one and the same. Now the scales begin to fall from our eyes: our dear old atoms, corpuscles, particles are Planck’s energy quanta. The carriers of those quanta are themselves quanta. One gets dizzy. Something quite fundamental must lie at the bottom of this, but it is not surprising that the secret is not yet understood. After all, the scales did not fall suddenly. It took 20 or 30 years. And perhaps they still have not fallen completely. The next step was not quite so far reaching, but important enough. By an ingenious and appropriate generalization of Planck’s hypothesis Niels Bohr taught us to understand the line spectra of atoms and molecules and how atoms were composed of heavy, positively charged nuclei with light, negatively charged electrons revolving Each small system—atom or molecule—can harbor only definite discrete energy quantities, corresponding to its nature or its constitution. In transition from a higher to a lower "energy level" it emits the excess energy as a radiation quantum of definite wavelength, inversely proportional to the quantum given off. This means that a quantum of given magnitude manifests itself in a periodic process of definite frequency which is directly proportional to the quantum; the frequency equals the energy quantum divided by the famous Planck’s constant, h. According to Einstein a particle has the energy mc2, m being the mass of the particle and c the velocity of light. In 1925 Louis de Broglie drew the inference, which rather suggests itself, that a particle might have associated with it a wave process of frequency mc2 divided by h. The particle for which he postulated such a wave was the electron. Within two years the "electron waves" required by his theory were demonstrated by the famous electron diffraction experiment of C. J. Davisson and L. H. Germer. This was the starting point for the cognition that everything — anything at all — is simultaneously particle and wave field. Thus de Broglie’s dissertation initiated our uncertainty about the nature of matter. Both the particle picture and the wave picture have truth value, and we cannot give up either one or the other. But we do not know how to That the two pictures are connected is known in full generality with great precision and down to amazing details. But concerning the unification to a single, concrete, palpable picture opinions are so strongly divided that a great many deem it altogether impossible. I shall briefly sketch the connection. But do not expect that a uniform, concrete picture will emerge before you; and do not blame the lack of success either on my ineptness in exposition or your own denseness—nobody has yet succeeded. One distinguishes two things in a wave. First of all, a wave has a front, and a succession of wave fronts forms a system of surfaces like the layers of an onion. You are familiar with the two-dimensional analogue of the beautiful wave circles that form on the smooth surface of a pond when a stone is thrown in. The second characteristic of a wave, less intuitive, is the path along which it travels—a system of imagined lines perpendicular to the wave fronts. These lines are known as the wave "normals" or "rays." We can make the provisional assertion that these rays correspond to the trajectories of particles. Indeed, if you cut a small piece out of a wave, approximately 10 or 20 wavelengths along the direction of propagation and about as much across, such a "wave packet" would actually move along a ray with exactly the same velocity and change of velocity as we might expect from a particle of this particular kind at this particular place, taking into account any force fields acting on the particle. Here I falter. For what I must say now, though correct, almost contradicts this provisional assertion. Although the behavior of the wave packet gives us a more or less intuitive picture of a particle, which can be worked out in detail (e.g., the momentum of a particle increases as the wavelength decreases; the two are inversely proportional), yet for many reasons we cannot take this intuitive picture quite seriously. For one thing, it is, after all, somewhat vague, the more so the greater the wavelength. For another, quite often we are dealing not with a small packet but with an extended wave. For still another, we must also deal with the important special case of very small "packelets" which form a kind of "standing wave" which can have no wave fronts or wave normals. One interpretation of wave phenomena which is extensively supported by experiments is this: At each position of a uniformly propagating wave train there is a twofold structural connection of interactions, which may be distinguished as "longitudinal" and "transversal." The transversal structure is that of the wave fronts and manifests itself in diffraction and interference experiments; the longitudinal structure is that of the wave normals and manifests itself in the observation of single particles. However, these concepts of longitudinal and transversal structures are not sharply defined and absolute, since the concepts of wave front and wave normal are not, The interpretation breaks down completely in the special case of the standing waves mentioned above. Here the whole wave phenomenon is reduced to a small region of the dimensions of a single or very few wavelengths. You can produce standing water waves of a similar nature in a small basin if you dabble with your finger rather uniformly in its center, or else just give it a little push so that the water surface undulates. In this situation we are not dealing with uniform wave propagation; what catches the interest are the normal frequencies of these standing waves. The water waves in the basin are an analogue of a wave phenomenon associated with electrons, which occurs in a region just about the size of the atom. The normal frequencies of the wave group washing around the atomic nucleus are universally found to be exactly equal to Bohr’s atomic "energy levels" divided by Planck’s constant h. Thus the ingenious yet somewhat artificial assumptions of Bohr’s model of the atom, as well as of the older quantum theory in general, are superseded by the far more natural idea of de Broglie’s wave phenomenon. phenomenon forms the "body" proper of the atom. It takes the place of the individual pointlike electrons which in Bohr’s model are supposed to swarm around the nucleus. Such pointlike single particles are completely out of the question within the atom, and if one still thinks of the nucleus itself in this way one does so quite consciously for reasons of expediency. What seems to me particularly important about the discovery that "energy levels" are virtually nothing but the frequencies of normal modes of vibration is that now one can do without the assumption of sudden transitions, or quantum jumps, since two or more normal modes may very well be excited simultaneously. The discreteness of the normal frequencies fully suffices—so I believe—to support the considerations from which Planck started and many similar and just as important ones—I mean, in short, to support all of quantum The theory of quantum jumps is becoming more and more unacceptable, at least to me personally, as the years go on. Its abandonment has, however, far-reaching consequences. It means that one must give up entirely the idea of the exchange of energy in well-defined quanta and replace it with the concept of resonance between vibrational frequencies. Yet we have seen that because of the identity of mass and energy, we must consider the particles themselves as Planck’s energy quanta. This is at first frightening. For the substituted theory implies that we can no longer consider the individual particle as a well-defined permanent entity. That it is, in fact, no such thing can be reasoned in other ways. For one thing, there is Werner Heisenberg’s famous uncertainty principle, according to which a particle cannot simultaneously have a well-defined position and a sharply defined velocity. This uncertainty implies that we cannot be sure that the same particle could ever be observed twice. Another conclusive reason for not attributing identifiable sameness to individual particles is that we must obliterate their individualities whenever we consider two or more interacting particles of the same kind, e.g., the two electrons of a helium atom. Two situations which are distinguished only by the interchange of the two electrons must be counted as one and the same; if they are counted as two equal situations, nonsense obtains. This circumstance holds for any kind of particle in arbitrary numbers without exception. Most theoreticians will probably accept the foregoing reasoning and admit that the individual particle is not a well-defined permanent entity of detectable identity or sameness. Nevertheless this inadmissible concept of the individual particle continues to play a large role in their ideas and discussions. Even deeper rooted is the belief in "quantum jumps," which is now surrounded with a highly abstruse terminology whose common-sense meaning is often difficult For instance, an important word in the standing vocabulary of quantum theory is "probability," referring to transition from one level to another. But, after all, one can speak of the probability of an event only assuming that, occasionally, it actually occurs. If it does occur, the transition must indeed be sudden, since intermediate stages are disclaimed. Moreover, if it takes time, it might conceivably be interrupted halfway by an unforeseen disturbance. This possibility leaves one completely at sea. The wave v. corpuscle dilemma is supposed to be resolved by asserting that the wave field merely serves for the computation of the probability of finding a particle of given properties at a given position if one looks for it there. But once one deprives the waves of reality and assigns them only a kind of informative role, it becomes very difficult to understand the phenomena of interference and diffraction on the basis of the combined action of discrete single particles. It certainly seems easier to explain particle tracks in terms of waves than to explain the wave phenomenon in terms of corpuscles. "Real existence" is, to be sure, an expression which has been virtually chased to death by many philosophical hounds. Its simple, naive meaning has almost become lost to us. Therefore I want to recall something else. I spoke of a corpuscle’s not being an individual. Properly speaking, one never observes the same particle a second time—very much as Heraclitus says of the river. You cannot mark an electron, you cannot paint it red. Indeed, you must not even think of it as marked; if you do, your "counting" will be false and you will get wrong results at every step—for the structure of line spectra, in thermodynamics and elsewhere. A wave, on the other hand, can easily be imprinted with an individual structure by which it can be recognized beyond doubt. Think of the beacon fires that guide ships at sea. The light shines according to a definite code; for example: three seconds light, five seconds dark, one second light, another pause of five seconds, and again light for three seconds—the skipper knows that is San Sebastian. Or you talk by wireless telephone with a friend across the Atlantic; as soon as he says, "Hello there, Edward Meier speaking," you know that his voice has imprinted on the radio wave a structure which can be distinguished from any other. But one does not have to go that far. If your wife calls, "Francis!" from the garden, it is exactly the same thing, except that the structure is printed on sound waves and the trip is shorter (though it takes somewhat longer than the journey of radio waves across the Atlantic). All our verbal communication is based on imprinted individual wave structures. And, according to the same principle, what a wealth of details is transmitted to us in rapid succession by the movie or the television picture! This characteristic, the individuality of the wave phenomenon, has already been found to a remarkable extent in the very much finer waves of particles. One example must suffice. A limited volume of gas, say helium, can be thought of either as a collection of many helium atoms or as a superposition of elementary wave trains of matter waves. Both views lead to the same theoretical results as to the behavior of the gas upon heating, compression, and so on. when you attempt to apply certain somewhat involved enumerations to the gas, you must carry them out in different ways according to the mental picture with which you approach it. If you treat the gas as consisting of particles, then no individuality must be ascribed to them, as I said. If, however, you concentrate on the matter wave trains instead of on the particles, every one of the wave trains has a well-defined structure which is different from that of any other. It is true that there are many pairs of waves which are so similar to each other that they could change roles without any noticeable effect on the gas. But if you should count the very many similar states formed in this way as merely a single one, the result would be quite wrong. In spite of everything we cannot completely banish the concepts of quantum jump and individual corpuscle from the vocabulary of physics. We still require them to describe many details of the structure of matter. How can one ever determine the weight of a carbon nucleus and of a hydrogen nucleus, each to the precision of several decimals, and detect that the former is somewhat lighter than the 12 hydrogen nuclei combined in it, without accepting for the time being the view that these particles are something quite concrete and real? This view is so much more convenient than the roundabout consideration of wave trains that we cannot do without it, just as the chemist does not discard his valence-bond formulas, although he fully realizes that they represent a drastic simplification of a rather involved wave-mechanical situation. If you finally ask me: "Well, what are these corpuscles, really?" I ought to confess honestly that I am almost as little prepared to answer that as to tell where Sancho Panza’s second donkey came from. At the most, it may be permissible to say that one can think of particles as more or less temporary entities within the wave field whose form and general behavior are nevertheless so clearly and sharply determined by the laws of waves that many processes take place as if these temporary entities were substantial permanent beings. The mass and the charge of particles, defined with such precision, must then be counted among the structural elements determined by the wave laws. The conservation of charge and mass in the large must be considered as a statistical effect, based on the "law of large numbers." Simultaneously with the development of wave mechanics, Heisenberg evolved a different mathematical analysis known as matrix mechanics. According to Heisenberg’s theory, which was developed in collaboration with the German physicists Max Born and Ernst Pascual Jordan, the formula was not a differential equation but a matrix: an array consisting of an infinite number of rows, each row consisting of an infinite number of quantities. Matrix mechanics introduced infinite matrices to represent the position and momentum of an electron inside an atom. Also, different matrices exist, one for each observable physical property associated with the motion of an electron, such as energy, position, momentum, and angular momentum. These matrices, like Schrödinger’s differential equations, could be solved; in other words, they could be manipulated to produce predictions as to the frequencies of the lines in the hydrogen spectrum and other observable quantities. Like wave mechanics, matrix mechanics was in agreement with the earlier quantum theory for processes in which the earlier quantum theory agreed with experiment; it was also useful in explaining phenomena that earlier quantum theory could not explain. Schrödinger subsequently succeeded in showing that wave mechanics and matrix mechanics are different mathematical versions of the same theory, now called quantum mechanics. Even for the simple hydrogen atom, which consists of two particles, both mathematical interpretations are extremely complex. The next simplest atom, helium, has three particles, and even in the relatively simple mathematics of classical dynamics, the three-body problem (that of describing the mutual interactions of three separate bodies) is not The energy levels can be calculated accurately, however, even if not exactly. In applying quantum-mechanics mathematics to relatively complex situations, a physicist can use one of a number of mathematical formulations. The choice depends on the convenience of the formulation for obtaining suitable Although quantum mechanics describes the atom purely in terms of mathematical interpretations of observed phenomena, a rough verbal description can be given of what the atom is now thought to be like. Surrounding the nucleus is a series of stationary waves; these waves have crests at certain points, each complete standing wave representing an orbit. The absolute square of the amplitude of the wave at any point is a measure of the probability that an electron will be found at that point at any given time. Thus, an electron can no longer be said to be at any precise point at any given time. The impossibility of pinpointing an electron at any precise time was analyzed by Heisenberg, who in 1927 formulated the uncertainty principle. This principle states the impossibility of simultaneously specifying the precise position and momentum of any particle. In other words, the more accurately a particle’s momentum is measured and known, the less accuracy there can be in the measurement and knowledge of its position. This principle is also fundamental to the understanding of quantum mechanics as it is generally accepted today: The wave and particle character of electromagnetic radiation can be understood as two complementary properties of radiation. Another way of expressing the uncertainty principle is that the wavelength of a quantum mechanical principle is inversely proportional to its momentum. As atoms are cooled they slow down and their corresponding wavelength grows larger. At a low enough temperature this wavelength is predicted to exceed the spacing between particles, causing atoms to overlap, becoming indistinguishable, and melding into a single quantum state. In 1995 a team of Colorado scientists, led by National Institutes of Standards and Technology physicist Eric Cornell and University of Colorado physicist Carl Weiman, cooled rubidium atoms to a temperature so low that the particles entered this merged state, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. The condensate essentially behaves like one atom even though it is made up of thousands. - Physicists Condense Supercooled Atoms, Forming New State of Matter A team of Colorado physicists has cooled atoms of gas to a temperature so low that the particles entered a merged state, known as a "Bose-Einstein condensate." This phenomenon was first predicted about 70 years ago by the theories of German-born American physicist Albert Einstein and Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. The condensed particles are considered a new state of matter, different from the common states of matter—gas, liquid, and solid—and from plasma, a high temperature, ionized form of matter that is found in the sun and other stars. Physicists have great expectations for the application of this discovery. Because the condensate essentially behaves like one atom even though it is made up of thousands, investigators should be able to measure interactions at the atomic and subatomic level that were previously extremely difficult, if not impossible, to study The condensate was detected June 5 by a Colorado team led by National Institutes of Standards and Technology physicist Eric Cornell and University of Colorado physicist Carl Wieman. Their discovery was reported in the journal Science on July 14. Cornell and Wieman formed their condensate from rubidium gas. Several groups of physicists, including the teams in Texas and Colorado and a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have been working to form pure condensate in recent years. The goal of the investigations has been to create a pure chunk of condensate out of atoms in an inert medium, such as a diffuse, nonreactive gas. The effort began when methods of cooling and trapping became refined enough that it seemed possible to reach the required conditions of temperature and density. The Colorado team used two techniques: first laser cooling and then evaporative cooling. The laser technique used laser light whose frequency was carefully tuned to interact with the rubidium atoms and gently reduce their speeds. A number of lasers were aimed at the gas to slow the motion of the atoms in different directions. The Colorado physicists then switched to evaporative cooling. In this method, the gas is "trapped" by a magnetic field that dwindles to zero at its center. Atoms that are moving wander out of the field, while the coldest atoms cluster at the center. Because a few very cold atoms could still escape at the zero field point of the trap, the physicists perfected their system by adding a second slowly circling magnetic field so that the zero point moved, not giving the atoms the chance to escape through it. Physicists will now begin to explore the properties of the condensate and see what other materials they can use to form it. One unusual characteristic of the condensate is that it is composed of atoms that have lost their individual identities. This is analogous to laser light, which is composed of light particles, or photons, that similarly have become indistinguishable and all behave in exactly the same manner. The laser has found a myriad of uses both in practical applications and in theoretical research, and the Bose-Einstein condensate may turn out to be just as important. Some scientists speculate that if a condensate can be readily produced and sustained, it could be used to miniaturize and speed up computer components to a scale and quickness not possible before. The prediction that a merged form of matter will emerge at extremely low temperatures is based on a number of aspects of the quantum theory. This theory governs the interaction of particles on a subatomic scale. The basic principle of quantum theory is that particles can only exist in certain discrete energy states. The exact "quantum state" of a particle takes into consideration such factors as the position of the particle and its "spin," which can only have certain discrete values. A particle’s spin categorizes it as either a boson or a fermion. Those two groups of particles behave according to different sets of statistical rules. Bosons have spins that are a constant number multiplied by an integer (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3). Fermions have spins that are that same constant multiplied by an odd half-integer (1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc.). Examples of fermions are the protons and neutrons that make up an atom’s nucleus, and Composite particles, such as nuclei and atoms, are classified as bosons or fermions based on the sum of the spins of their constituent particles. For instance, an isotope of helium called helium-4 turns out to be a bose particle. Helium-4 is made up of six fermi particles: two electrons orbiting a nucleus made up of two protons and two neutrons. Adding up six odd half-integers will yield a whole integer, making helium-4 a boson. The atoms of rubidium used in the Colorado experiment are bose particles as well. Only bose atoms may form a condensate, but they do so only at a sufficiently low temperature and high density. At their lab in Colorado, Cornell and Wieman cooled a rubidium gas down to a temperature as close to absolute zero, the temperature at which particles stop moving, as they could get. The slower the particles, the lower their momentum. In essence, the cooling brought the momentum of the gas particles closer and closer to precisely zero, as the temperature decreased to within a few billionths of a degree Kelvin. (Kelvin degrees are on the scale of degrees Celsius, but zero Kelvin is absolute zero, while zero Celsius is the freezing point of water.) As the temperature, and thus the momentum, of the gas particles dropped to an infinitesimal amount, the possible locations of the atom at any given moment increased proportionally. The goal of the experiment was to keep the gas atoms packed together closely enough that during this process—as their momentum got lower and lower, and their wavelengths got larger and larger—their waves would begin to overlap. This interplay of position and movement in three dimensions with the relative distances between particles is known as the phase-space density and is the key factor in forming a condensate. In essence, the momentum of the atoms would become so precisely pinpointed (near zero) that their position would become less and less certain and there would be a relatively large amount of space that would define each atom’s position. As the atoms slowed to almost a stop, their positions became so fuzzy that each atom came to occupy the same position as every other atom, losing their individual identity. This odd phenomenon is a Bose-Einstein As their experimental conditions neared the realm of Bose-Einstein condensation, Cornell and Wieman noticed an abrupt rise in the peak density of their sample, a type of discontinuity that strongly indicates a phase transition. The Colorado physicists estimated that after progressive evaporative cooling of the rubidium, they were left with a nugget of about 2,000 atoms of pure condensate. and Wieman then released the atoms from the "trap" in which they had been cooling and sent a pulse of laser light at the condensate, basically blowing it apart. They recorded an image of the expanding cloud of atoms. Prior to the light pulse, when the density dropped after the atoms were released, the physicists believed the temperature of the condensate fell to an amazing frigidity of 20 nanoKelvins (20 billionths of one degree above absolute zero). The image showed a larger, expanding sphere of particles with a smaller, more concentrated elliptical-looking center. Cornell and Wieman observed that when a gas is constrained and then released (in an extreme example, as in a bomb), thermodynamics specifies that it will expand outward equally in all directions regardless of the shape in which it had been contained. This occurs because the particles in that gas, even if the gas was very cold, were moving in all different directions with various energies when the gas was This rule of uniform expansion does not hold for a Bose-Einstein condensate. Because the particles were all acting in exactly the same manner at the time of the light pulse, their expansion should give some indication of the shape of the space they had previously inhabited. The uneven, elliptical-looking clump of atoms in the center of the image recorded by Cornell and Wieman thus gave further proof that a condensate had formed. Bose-Einstein characteristics have been observed in other systems, specifically, in superfluid liquid helium-4 and in superconductors. It is believed that liquid helium-4 at a sufficiently low temperature is composed of two components mixed together, the colder of which is a Bose-Einstein condensate. Liquid helium-4, which at very low temperatures is also a superconductor of heat, behaves in dramatic ways, trickling up the sides of containers and rising in Electrical superconductors are also boson-related phenomena. In superconductors, which are also formed by supercooling, electrical resistance disappears. In this case it is the electrons within a substance’s atoms, rather than the atoms themselves, that condense. The electrons pair up, together forming a particle of zero spin. These paired electrons merge into an overall substance that flows freely through the superconductor, offering no resistance to Thus, once initiated, a current can flow indefinitely in a superconductor. Quantum mechanics solved all of the great difficulties that troubled physicists in the early years of the 20th century. It gradually enhanced the understanding of the structure of matter, and it provided a theoretical basis for the understanding of atomic structure (see Atom and Atomic Theory) and the phenomenon of spectral lines: Each spectral line corresponds to the energy of a photon transmitted or absorbed when an electron makes a transition from one energy level to another. The understanding of chemical bonding was fundamentally transformed by quantum mechanics and came to be based on Schrödinger’s wave equations. New fields in physics emerged—condensed matter physics, superconductivity, nuclear physics, and elementary particle physics (see Physics)—that all found a consistent basis in quantum mechanics. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS: In the years since 1925, no fundamental deficiencies have been found in quantum mechanics, although the question of whether the theory should be accepted as complete has come under discussion. In the 1930s the application of quantum mechanics and special relativity to the theory of the electron (see Quantum Electrodynamics) allowed the British physicist Paul Dirac to formulate an equation that referred to the existence of the spin of the electron. It further led to the prediction of the existence of the positron, which was experimentally verified by the American physicist Carl David Anderson. The application of quantum mechanics to the subject of electromagnetic radiation led to explanations of many phenomena, such as bremsstrahlung (German, "braking radiation," the radiation emitted by electrons slowed down in matter) and pair production (the formation of a positron and an electron when electromagnetic energy interacts with matter). It also led to a grave problem, however, called the divergence difficulty: Certain parameters, such as the so-called bare mass and bare charge of electrons, appear to be infinite in Dirac’s equations. (The terms bare mass and bare charge refer to hypothetical electrons that do not interact with any matter or radiation; in reality, electrons interact with their own electric This difficulty was partly resolved in 1947-49 in a program called renormalization, developed by the Japanese physicist Shin’ichirô Tomonaga, the American physicists Julian S. Schwinger and Richard Feynman, and the British physicist Freeman Dyson. In this program, the bare mass and charge of the electron are chosen to be infinite in such a way that other infinite physical quantities are canceled out in the equations. Renormalization greatly increased the accuracy with which the structure of atoms could be calculated from first principles. Theoretical physicist C. Llewellyn Smith discusses the discoveries that scientists have made to date about the electron and other elementary particles—subatomic particles that scientists believe cannot be split into smaller units of matter. Scientists have discovered what Smith refers to as sibling and cousin particles to the electron, but much about the nature of these particles is still One way scientists learn about these particles is to accelerate them to high energies, smash them together, and then study what happens when they collide. By observing the behavior of these particles, scientists hope to learn more about the fundamental structures of the universe. Electrons: The First Hundred Years The discovery of the electron was announced by J. J. Thomson just over 100 years ago, on April 30, 1897. In the intervening years we have come to understand the mechanics that describe the behavior of electrons—and indeed of all matter on a small scale—which is called quantum mechanics. By exploiting this knowledge, we have learned to manipulate electrons and make devices of a tremendous practical and economic importance, such as transistors and lasers. Meanwhile, what have we learned of the nature of the electron itself? From the start, electrons were found to behave as elementary particles, and this is still the case today. We know that if the electron has any structure, it is on a scale of less than 1018 m, i.e. less than 1 billionth of 1 billionth of a meter. However, a major complication has emerged. We have discovered that the electron has a sibling and cousins that are apparently equally fundamental. The sibling is an electrically neutral particle, called the neutrino, which is much lighter than the electron. The cousins are two electrically charged particles, called the mu and the which also have neutral siblings. The mu and the tau seem to be identical copies of the electron, except that they are respectively 200 and 3,500 times heavier. Their role in the scheme of things and the origin of their different masses remain mysteries — just the sort of mysteries that particle physicists, who study the constituents of matter and the forces that control their behavior, wish to resolve. We therefore know of six seemingly fundamental particles, the electron, the mu, the tau and their neutral siblings, which—like the electron—do not feel the nuclear force, and incidentally are known generically as leptons. What about the constituents of atomic nuclei, which of course do feel the nuclear force? At first sight, nuclei are made of protons and neutrons, but these particles turned out not to be elementary. It was found that when protons and neutrons are smashed together, new particles are created. We now know that all these particles are made of more elementary entities, called quarks. In a collision, pairs of quarks and their antiparticles, called antiquarks, can be created: part of the energy (e) of the incoming particles is turned into mass (m) of these new particles, thanks to the famous equivalence e = mc2. The quarks in the projectiles and the created quark-antiquark pairs can then rearrange themselves to make various different sorts of new particles. Today, six types of quarks are known which, like the leptons (the electron and its relations) have simple properties, and could be elementary. In the past 30 years a recipe that describes the behavior of these particles has been developed. It is called the "Standard Model" of particle physics. However, we lack a real understanding of the nature of these particles, and the logic behind the Standard Model. What is wrong with the Standard Model? First, it does not consistently combine Einstein’s theory of the properties of space (called General Relativity) with a quantum mechanical description of the properties of matter. It is therefore Second, it contains too many apparently arbitrary futures—it is too baroque, too byzantine—to be complete. It does not explain the role of the mu and the tau, or answer the question whether the fact that the numbers of leptons and quarks are the same—six each—is a coincidence, or an indication of a deep connection between these different types of particles. On paper, we can construct theories that give better answers and explanations, and in which there are such connections, but we do not know which, if any, of these theories is correct. Third, it has a missing, untested, element. This is not some minor detail, but a central element, namely a mechanism to generate the observed masses of the known particles, and hence also the different ranges of the known forces (long range for gravity and electromagnetism, as users of magnetic compasses know, but very short range for the nuclear and the so-called weak forces, although in every other respect these forces appear very similar). On paper, a possible mechanism is known, called the Higgs mechanism, after the British physicist Peter Higgs who invented it. But there are alternative mechanisms, and in any case the Higgs mechanism is a generic idea. We not only need to know if nature uses it, but if so, how it is realized in detail. Luckily the prospects of developing a deeper understanding are good. The way forward is to perform experiments that can distinguish the different possibilities. We know that the answer to the mystery of the origin of mass, and the different ranges of forces, and certain other very important questions, must lie in an energy range that will be explored in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, a new accelerator now under construction at CERN [also known as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics] near Geneva. The fundamental tools on which experimental particle physics depends are large accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider, which accelerate particles to very high energies and smash them together. By studying what happens in the collisions of these particles, which are typically electrons or protons (the nuclei of hydrogen atoms), we can learn about their natures. The conditions that are created in these collisions of particles existed just after the birth of the universe, when it was extremely hot and dense. Knowledge derived from experiments in particle physics is therefore essential input for those who wish to understand the structure of the universe as a whole, and how it evolved from an initial fireball into its present The Large Hadron Collider will therefore not only open up a large new window on the nature of matter, when it comes into operation in 2005, but also advance our understanding of the structure of the universe. However, although it will undoubtedly resolve some major questions and greatly improve our knowledge of nature, it would be very surprising if it established a "final theory." The only candidate theory currently known which appears to have the potential to resolve all the problems mentioned above—the reason for the existence of the mu and tau, reconciliation of general relativity with quantum mechanics, etc.—describes the electron and its relatives and the quarks, not as pointlike objects, but as different vibrating modes of tiny strings. However, these strings are so small (10-35 m) that they will never be observed If this is so, the electron and the other known particles will continue forever to appear to be fundamental pointlike objects, even if the—currently very speculative—"string theory" scores enough successes to convince us that this is not the case! FUTURE PROSPECTS: Quantum mechanics underlies current attempts to account for the strong nuclear force and to develop a unified theory for all the fundamental interactions Nevertheless, doubts exist about the completeness of quantum theory. The divergence difficulty, for example, is only partly resolved. Just as Newtonian mechanics was eventually amended by quantum mechanics and relativity, many scientists—and Einstein was among them—are convinced that quantum theory will also undergo profound changes in the future. Great theoretical difficulties exist, for example, between quantum mechanics and chaos theory, which began to develop rapidly in the 1980s. Ongoing efforts are being made by theorists such as the British physicist Stephen Hawking, to develop a system that encompasses both relativity and quantum mechanics. Breakthroughs occurred in the area of quantum computing in the late 1990s. Quantum computers under development use components of a chloroform molecule (a combination of chlorine and hydrogen atoms) and a variation of a medical procedure called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compute at a molecular level. Scientists used a branch of physics called quantum mechanics, which describes the activity of subatomic particles (particles that make up atoms), as the basis for quantum computing. Quantum computers may one day be thousands to millions of times faster than current computers, because they take advantage of the laws that govern the behavior of subatomic particles. These laws allow quantum computers to examine all possible answers to a query at one time. Future uses of quantum computers could include code breaking and large database queries. Quantum Time Waits for No Cosmos THE INTRIGUING notion that time might run backwards when the Universe collapses has run into difficulties. Raymond Laflamme, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, has carried out a new calculation which suggests that the Universe cannot start out uniform, go through a cycle of expansion and collapse, and end up in a uniform state. It could start out disordered, expand, and then collapse back into disorder. But, since the COBE data show that our Universe was born in a smooth and uniform state, this symmetric possibility cannot be applied to the real Universe. Physicists have long puzzled over the fact that two distinct "arrows of time" both point in the same direction. In the everyday world, things wear out -- cups fall from tables and break, but broken cups never re- assemble themselves spontaneously. In the expanding Universe at large, the future is the direction of time in which galaxies are further apart. Many years ago, Thomas Gold suggested that these two arrows might be linked. That would mean that if and when the expansion of the Universe were to reverse, then the everyday arrow of time would also reverse, with broken cups re-assembling themselves. More recently, these ideas have been extended into quantum physics. There, the arrow of time is linked to the so-called "collapse of the wave function", which happens, for example, when an electron wave moving through a TV tube collapses into a point particle on the screen of the TV. Some researchers have tried to make the quantum description of reality symmetric in time, by including both the original state of the system (the TV tube before the electron passes through) and the final state (the TV tube after the electron has passed through) in one mathematical description. Murray Gell-Mann and James Hartle recently extended this idea to the whole Universe. They argued that if, as many cosmologists believe likely, the Universe was born in a Big Bang, will expand out for a finite time and then recollapse into a Big Crunch, the time-neutral quantum theory could describe time running backwards in the contracting half of its life. Unfortunately, Laflamme has now shown that this will not work. He has proved that if there are only small inhomogeneities present in the Big Bang, then they must get larger throughout the lifetime of the Universe, in both the expanding and the contracting phases. "A low entropy Universe at the Big Bang cannot come back to low entropy at the Big Crunch" (Classical and Quantum Gravity, vol 10 p L79). He has found time-asymmetric solutions to the equations -- but only if both Big Bang and Big Crunch are highly disordered, with the Universe more ordered in the middle of its life. Observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation show that the Universe emerged from the Big Bang in a very smooth and uniform state. This rules out the time-symmetric solutions. is that even if the present expansion of the Universe does reverse, time will not run backwards and broken cups will not start re-

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Glucose is a type of sugar. It comes from food, and is also created in the liver. Glucose travels through the body in the blood. It moves from the blood to cells with the help of a hormone called insulin. Once glucose is in those cells, it can be used for energy. Diabetes is a condition that makes it difficult for the body to use glucose. This causes a buildup of glucose in the blood. It also means the body is not getting enough energy. Type 2 diabetes is one type of diabetes. It is the most common type. Medication, lifestyle changes, and monitoring can help control blood glucose levels. Type 2 diabetes is often caused by a combination of factors. One factor is that your body begins to make less insulin. A second factor is that your body becomes resistant to insulin. This means there is insulin in your body, but your body cannot use it effectively. Insulin resistance is often related to excess body fat. The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. You will also be asked about your family history. A physical exam will be done. Diagnosis is based on the results of blood testing. American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends diagnosis be made if you have one of the following: Symptoms of diabetes and a random blood test with a blood sugar level greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) - Fasting blood sugar test—Done after you have not eaten for eight or more hours—Showing blood sugar levels greater than or equal to 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L) on two different days - Glucose tolerance test—Measuring blood sugar two hours after you eat glucose—Showing glucose levels greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) - HbA1c level of 6.5% or higher—Indicates poor blood sugar control over the past 2-4 months mg/dL = milligrams per deciliter of blood; mmol/L = millimole per liter of blood Treatment aims to: - Maintain blood sugar at levels as close to normal as possible - Prevent or delay complications - Control other conditions that you may have, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol Food and drinks have a direct effect on your blood glucose level. Eating healthy meals can help you control your blood glucose. It will also help your overall health. Some basic tips include: If you are overweight, weight loss will help your body use insulin better. Talk to your doctor about a healthy weight goal. You and your doctor or dietitian can make a safe meal plan for you. These options may help you lose weight: Physical activity can: - Make the body more sensitive to insulin - Help you reach and maintain a healthy weight - Lower the levels of fat in your blood exercise is any activity that increases your heart rate. Resistance training helps build muscle strength. Both types of exercise help to improve long-term glucose control. Regular exercise can also help reduce your risk of heart disease. Talk to your doctor about an activity plan. Ask about any precautions you may need to take. Certain medicines will help to manage blood glucose levels. Medication taken by mouth may include: - Metformin—To reduce the amount of glucose made by the body and to make the body more sensitive to insulin Medications that encourage the pancreas to make more insulin such as sulfonylureas (glyburide, tolazamide), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (saxagliptin, Insulin sensitizers such as pioglitazone—To help the body use insulin better Starch blockers such as miglitol—To decrease the amount of glucose absorbed into the blood Some medicine needs to be given through injections, such as: Incretin-mimetics such as stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin and decrease appetite (can assist with weight loss) Amylin analogs such as replace a protein of the pancreas that is low in people with type 2 diabetes Insulin may be needed if: - The body does not make enough of its own insulin. - Blood glucose levels cannot be controlled with lifestyle changes and medicine. Insulin is given through injections. Blood Glucose Testing You can check the level of glucose in your blood with a blood glucose meter. Checking your blood glucose levels during the day can help you stay on track. It will also help your doctor determine if your treatment is working. Keeping track of blood sugar levels is especially important if you take insulin. Regular testing may not be needed if your diabetes is under control and you don't take insulin. Talk with your doctor before stopping blood sugar monitoring. may also be done at your doctor's office. This is a measure of blood glucose control over a long period of time. Doctors advise that most people keep their HbA1c levels below 7%. Your exact goal may be different. Keeping HbA1c in your goal range can help lower the chance of complications. Decreasing Risk of Complications Over a long period of time, high blood glucose levels can damage vital organs. The kidneys, eyes, and nerves are most affected. Diabetes can also increase your risk of heart disease. Maintaining goal blood glucose levels is the first step to lowering your risk of these complications. Other steps include: - Take good care of your feet. Be on the lookout for any sores or irritated areas. Keep your feet dry and clean. - Have your eyes checked once a year. - Don't smoke. If you do, look for programs or products that can help you quit. - Plan medical visits as recommended.

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"We believe this is the first time bacterial horizontal gene transfer has been observed in eukaryotes at such scale," says senior author Igor Grigoriev of DOE JGI. "This study gets us closer to explaining the dramatic diversity across the genera of diatoms, morphologically, behaviorally, but we still haven't yet explained all the differences conferred by the genes contributed by the other taxa." From plants, the diatom inherited photosynthesis, and from animals the production of urea. Bowler speculates that the diatom uses urea to store nitrogen, not to eliminate it like animals do, because nitrogen is a precious nutrient in the ocean. What's more, the tiny alga draws the best of both worldsit can convert fat into sugar, as well as sugar into fatextremely useful in times of nutrient shortage. The team documented more than 300 genes sourced from bacteria and found in both types of diatoms, pointing to their ancient origin and suggesting novel mechanisms of managing nutrientsfor example utilization of organic carbon and nitrogenand detecting cues from their environment. Diatoms, encapsulated by elaborate lacework-like shells made of glass, are only about one-third of a strand of hair in diameter. "The diatom genomes will help us to understand how they can make these structures at ambient temperatures and pressures, something that humans are not able to do. If we can learn how they do it, we could open up all kinds of new nanotechnologies, like for building miniature silicon chips or for biomedical applications," says Bowler. Diatoms reside in fresh or salt water and can be divided into two camps, centrics and pennates. The centric Thalassiosira resemble a round "Camembert" cheese box (only much smaller) and pennates like Phaeodactylum look more like a cross between a boomerang and a narrow three-cornered hathence the species name, tricornutum. Not only is their shape and habitat dive |Contact: David Gilbert| DOE/Joint Genome Institute

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The amount of nitrogen entering the Gulf each spring has increased about 300 percent since the 1960s, mainly due to increased agricultural runoff, Scavia said. "Yes, the floodwaters really matter, but the fact that there's so much more nitrogen in the system now than there was back in the '60s is the real issue," he said. Scavia's computer model suggests that if today's floods contained the level of nitrogen from the last comparable flood, in 1973, the predicted dead zone would be 5,800 square miles rather than 8,500. "The growth of these dead zones is an ecological time bomb," Scavia said. "Without determined local, regional and national efforts to control them, we are putting major fisheries at risk." The Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Force has set the goal of reducing the size of the dead zone to about 1,900 square miles. In 2009, the dockside value of commercial fisheries in the Gulf was $629 million. Nearly 3 million recreational fishers further contributed more than $1 billion to the Gulf economy, taking 22 million fishing trips. The Gulf hypoxia research team is supported by NOAA's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research and includes scientists from the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. NOAA has funded investigations and forecast development for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico since 1990. "While there is some uncertainty regarding the size, position and timing of this year's hypoxic zone in the Gulf, the forecast models are in overall agreement that hypoxia will be larger than we have typically seen in recent years," said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco. The actual size of the 2011 Gulf hypoxic zone will be announced |Contact: Jim Erickson| University of Michigan

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The Americas IBA Directory The conservation of rare birdlife has been the focus of Birdlife International for many years. In 1995 they began a project by the name of IBA, or Important Bird Area Program, to pinpoint areas across the globe that are home to endangered species, identifying the various species and protecting those areas to assist in conserving vital birdlife. At present, more than ten thousand of these areas have been identified, and conservation and environmental initiatives have been implemented. Now a new program has been established, namely the Americas IBA Directory. Hundreds of bird species will benefit from the Americas IBA Directory, as it will be a guideline for both conservationists and for authorities. The directory covers 57 different countries and has 2 345 of the most significant areas listed that need to be protected at all costs. Authorities will be able to refer to the directory to find out which of their areas are vital to the survival of birdlife, which bird species are located in that area and the biodiversity of the area, to enable them to take the right steps in protecting the natural habitat and the birds. Some areas that have been listed are significant in the migratory patterns of certain species, while others are crucial nesting sites for numerous endangered birds. Due to a number of these areas being inhabited by local communities, also relying on the natural resources such as water, authorities can assist these communities with sustainable development that will not only benefit the communities but the birdlife as well. Hundreds of organizations have provided support and assistance in the compiling of the Americas IBA Directory. President of Bird Studies Canada, George Finney, explained: “From breeding grounds in Canada, to wintering sites in the south, and all points in between, it is imperative that we understand what is happening to bird populations and the forces that drive change. Bird Studies Canada is proud to work closely with our international partners on this issue, so that better management decisions and conservation actions can be taken.” A large number of agencies will be working together as IBA Caretakers, tracking migratory patterns and data in regard to bird populations, to note changes being made by the birds, and keeping the IBA Directory as up to date and accurate as possible.

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First ever direct measurement of the Earth’s rotation Geodesists are pinpointing the orientation of the Earth’s axis using the world’s most stable ring laser A group with researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) are the first to plot changes in the Earth’s axis through laboratory measurements. To do this, they constructed the world’s most stable ring laser in an underground lab and used it to determine changes in the Earth’s rotation. Previously, scientists were only able to track shifts in the polar axis indirectly by monitoring fixed objects in space. Capturing the tilt of the Earth’s axis and its rotational velocity is crucial for precise positional information on Earth – and thus for the accurate functioning of modern navigation systems, for instance. The scientists’ work has been recognized an Exceptional Research Spotlight by the American Physical Society. The Earth wobbles. Like a spinning top touched in mid-spin, its rotational axis fluctuates in relation to space. This is partly caused by gravitation from the sun and the moon. At the same time, the Earth’s rotational axis constantly changes relative to the Earth’s surface. On the one hand, this is caused by variation in atmospheric pressure, ocean loading and wind. These elements combine in an effect known as the Chandler wobble to create polar motion. Named after the scientist who discovered it, this phenomenon has a period of around 435 days. On the other hand, an event known as the “annual wobble” causes the rotational axis to move over a period of a year. This is due to the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun. These two effects cause the Earth’s axis to migrate irregularly along a circular path with a radius of up to six meters. Capturing these movements is crucial to create a reliable coordinate system that can feed navigation systems or project trajectory paths in space travel. “Locating a point to the exact centimeter for global positioning is an extremely dynamic process – after all, at our latitude, we are moving at around 350 meters to the east per second,” explains Prof. Karl Ulrich Schreiber, meanwhile as station director of the geodetic observatory Wettzell where the ring laser is settled. Karl Ulrich Schreiber had directed the project in TUM’s Research Section Satellite Geodesy. The geodetic observatory Wettzell is run together by TUM and BKG. The researchers have succeeded in corroborating the Chandler and annual wobble measurements based on the data captured by radio telescopes. They now aim to make the apparatus more accurate, enabling them to determine changes in the Earth’s rotational axis over a single day. The scientists also plan to make the ring laser capable of continuous operation so that it can run for a period of years without any deviations. “In simple terms,” concludes Schreiber, “in future, we want to be able to just pop down into the basement and find out how fast the Earth is accurately turning right now." For more information please visit the TU München homepage http://portal.mytum.de/pressestelle/pressemitteilungen/NewsArticle_20111220_100621/newsarticle_view?.

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Special thanks to our guest blogger, Chris Myers, U.S. Space and Rocket Center®, Huntsville, AL for this post Bringing the Cosmos to Space Camp®! At the U.S. Space and Rocket Center® and Space Camp, we are constantly looking for fun and innovative ways to teach our museum guests and trainees about space history and the science and math concepts that surround it. Naturally, we were excited to participate in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics series of instructional webinars in order to get some fresh ideas and content. The creativity started to flow as we reviewed the background material, but the amount and quality of the lesson plans and information presented to us by Mary Dussault and Erin Braswell was impressive. By the end of the first hour of the webinar, we had solid ideas and lesson plans that could be implemented in every program from summer Day Camp for 5-year-olds to Advanced Space Academy® for high-school seniors. And they meet both state and national curriculum guidelines! In this case, our target subject was astronomy. For our younger trainees, we adapted the activities that dealt with colors and filters into a hands-on component for our astronomy briefing “Tenacious Telescopes.” We use PVC pipe, colored felt and theater lighting gel in the primary colors to teach the trainees about how real telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope use filters to look for specific information, and how scientists can put these single-color images together to make a full-color picture. In addition to making it look more like a real telescope, mounting the color filter inside a PVC pipe telescope has the added bonus of keeping our filters fingerprint and wrinkle free. For our Advanced Academy (junior high to high school) trainees, we added an image processing component into our existing astronomy curriculum which is made up of four components. At the beginning of the week, the trainees participate in a lecture called “Exploring the Night Sky” where they learn the basics of astronomy and focus on finding and naming the constellations and deep space objects. Our second astronomy block is the “Micro Observatory Lab,” where our trainees use the Mobs software to compile full-color images of deep space objects. Our third astronomy block is a “Night Telescope” activity, where the trainees use real telescopes to find the same objects in the sky of which they compiled images the day before. And for our final astronomy block, our Advanced Academy trainees learn the stories behind selected constellations in our inflatable Star Lab. We have been running the “Micro Observatory Lab” astronomy block since December, 2011, and have had more than 1,500 trainees from all over the world participate. We have so many students participating that we aren’t able to display all their artwork at once, so we have set up two small rotating exhibits of 12 featured photos each here at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, one located in the Main Museum and the other located in the Science Lab used for our summer Space Academy for Educators® camp, and we plan to add a third, larger display to our computer lab this summer. These kinds of seminars and programs are what make it so awesome to be a part of the network of Smithsonian Affiliates. Imagine all the fun, innovative and educational activities you can dream up with the help of these services! So get out there and sign up for a class today! And spare a glance for the colorful cosmos while you’re at it!

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Songwriting For Beginners: ‘Just Enough’ Music TheoryBy Jeff Oxenford • Category: How To Write Songs, Songwriting Articles (This is an article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.) Question: How do you stop a guitarist from playing? Answer: Put music in front of him. That’s me. I can’t read music and I doubt I ever will. However, over the last three years, I’ve learned just enough about music theory to be dangerous. What I’ve found is that by understanding some basic concepts, I’ve been able to find that next chord I was always searching for. The first step in understanding is that most songs are played in a single key and that the chords in the come from that key. The formula (i.e. what order) you use for the chords is what make up the song. For example, blues often uses the 1, 4, and 5 chords. If you’re playing blues in E, the chords are E, A, B (or B7). The blues progression in the key of C, uses C, F, and G. If you can understand the table below, you’ve got the majority of theory you need. |1 (root)||2||3||4||5||6||7||8 (root)| |Major||minor||Minor||Major||Major or Dominant||Minor||Diminished||Major| Here’s how to understand this table: Guitar frets are in half (H) step intervals. In other words, moving up one fret is moving up a half (H) step. Moving up 2 frets is a whole (W) step. Notes and intervals On a guitar, the open string and the 12th fret on the same string are the same note (just different octave). If you look at the A string, the notes are: | NOTE||A||A# or Bb||B||C||C# or Db||D||D#orEb||E||F||F#orGb||G||G#OrAb||A| To go from A to B is a whole (W) step. To go from A to A# (or Bb) is a half (H) step. Also, note that for B to C and E to F, there is only a half step. There is no B# (Cb) or E# (Fb). The major scale has the following intervals, W W H W W W H. (do, rae, me fae, so la, te, do) Applying this formula, the notes in the A major scale are: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A. As seen on the guitar the A scale looks like: Practice tip – On any string of the guitar, apply the formula W, W, H, W, W, W, H. In other words pick the string: Open, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12. You’ve just played a major scale. Numbers for the Notes We describe the notes in a scale by their numbers (1 – 8). When your playing in the Key of A, A is the 1 note, B is 2 – You get the idea. Chords in the major scale To find chords that will work in the key of A, take the root notes from the scale and use the A chord type A from the table below: |Major||minor||Minor||Major||Major or Dom||Minor||Diminished||Major| The 1, 4 and 5 chord are major chords (A, D, E). The 2, 3 and 6 chords are minor (Bm, etc.) The 7th chord is diminished Below is a listing of the chords in the major scale for all keys. Use the table by following a row: Practice tip: Take one row and play the chords in order. It should like the major scale. Then try the 1, 4 and 5 chords. Move to another row and try the 1, 4 , 5. It should sound pretty familiar. How do you use this in Songwriting? Most songs in folk, rock and blues primarily use combinations of the 1, 4, 5 chords. The 6 and 3 are used often and sometimes the 2. The 7 chord (diminished) isn’t used as often, but it does have a very distinctive sound. *(Other books use roman numerals, so be ready to see I, IV, V). For example: The formula for 12 bar blues is Blues in A – the formula is 1,1,1,1,4,4,1,1,5,4,1,5 (each played for a four count). Check out more Songwriting Basics Republished with permission by Jeff’s Songwriting

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Excerpt of How To Read And Why by Harold Bloom (Page 2 of 5) Printer Friendly Excerpt I turn to reading as a solitary praxis, rather than as an educational enterprise. The way we read now, when we are alone with ourselves, retains considerable continuity with the past, however it is performed in the academies. My ideal reader (and lifelong hero) is Dr. Samuel Johnson, who knew and expressed both the power and the limitation of incessant reading. Like every other activity of the mind, it must satisfy Johnson's prime concern, which is with "what comes near to ourself, what we can put to use." Sir Francis Bacon, who provided some of the ideas that Johnson put to use, famously gave the advice: "Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." I add to Bacon and Johnson a third sage of reading, Emerson, fierce enemy of history and of all historicisms, who remarked that the best books "impress us with the conviction, that one nature wrote and the same reads." Let me fuse Bacon, Johnson, and Emerson into a formula of how to read: find what comes near to you that can be put to the use of weighing and considering, and that addresses you as though you share the one nature, free of time's tyranny. Pragmatically that means, first find Shakespeare, and let him find you. If King Lear is fully to find you, then weigh and consider the nature it shares with you; its closeness to yourself. I do not intend this as an idealism, but as a pragmatism. Putting the tragedy to use as a complaint against patriarchy is to forsake your own prime interests, particularly as a young woman, which sounds rather more ironical than it is. Shakespeare, more than Sophocles, is the inescapable authority upon intergenerational conflict, and more than anyone else, upon the differences between women and men. Be open to a full reading of King Lear, and you will understand better the origins of what you judge to be patriarchy. Ultimately we read -- as Bacon, Johnson, and Emerson agree -- in order to strengthen the self, and to learn its authentic interests. We experience such augmentations as pleasure, which may be why aesthetic values have always been deprecated by social moralists, from Plato through our current campus Puritans. The pleasures of reading indeed are selfish rather than social. You cannot directly improve anyone else's life by reading better or more deeply. I remain skeptical of the traditional social hope that care for others may be stimulated by the growth of individual imagination, and I am wary of any arguments whatsoever that connect the pleasures of solitary reading to the public good. The sorrow of professional reading is that you recapture only rarely the pleasure of reading you knew in youth, when books were a Hazlittian gusto. The way we read now partly depends upon our distance, inner or outer, from the universities, where reading is scarcely taught as a pleasure, in any of the deeper senses of the aesthetics of pleasure. Opening yourself to a direct confrontation with Shakespeare at his strongest, as in King Lear, is never an easy pleasure, whether in youth or in age, and yet not to read King Lear fully (which means without ideological expectations) is to be cognitively as well as aesthetically defrauded. A childhood largely spent watching television yields to an adolescence with a computer, and the university receives a student unlikely to welcome the suggestion that we must endure our going hence even as our going hither: ripeness is all. Reading falls apart, and much of the self scatters with it. All this is past lamenting, and will not be remedied by any vows or programs. What is to be done can only be performed by some version of elitism, and that is now unacceptable, for reasons both good and bad. There are still solitary readers, young and old, everywhere, even in the universities. If there is a function of criticism at the present time, it must be to address itself to the solitary reader, who reads for herself, and not for the interests that supposedly transcend the self. Copyright © 2000 by Harold Bloom. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Simon & Schuster.

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Short Essay Questions The 60 short essay questions listed in this section require a one to two sentence answer. They ask students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the text. Students must describe what they've read, rather than just recall it. Short Essay Question - Prologue, Chapters 1, 2 1. If you were the albino attacker, would you have shot Jacques as quickly? Why or why not? 2. Why is the opening of the book so suspenseful? 3. If you were Langdon and the police wanted to question you about Jacques' murder, what would you do? 4. What are Silas' motivations, based on his actions in the first couple of chapters? Short Essay Question - Chapters 3, 4, 5 5. What is Langdon's reaction to the murder, up to the end of Chapter 5? This section contains 1,239 words| (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page)

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Sri Lanka: Year In Review 2011Article Free Pass In 2011 Sri Lanka continued to recover from its 26-year civil war, which had ended in 2009. Pres. Mahinda Rajapakse enjoyed great popularity among the majority Sinhalese community for having defeated the Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; LTTE). As expected, the United People’s Freedom Alliance, led by Rajapakse, dominated local government elections held in March and July. Predominantly Tamil areas formerly held by the LTTE in the north and east of the country voted for the Tamil National Alliance. During 2011 the president moved to consolidate political power (much of it held by members of his family) in the executive branch of government while placing limits on media freedom, the role of civil society in Sri Lankan politics, and the expression of antigovernment dissent. In August it was announced that emergency regulations in place for nearly three decades were being lifted, but this still left many powers in government hands and failed to allay fears of repression among some Sri Lankans. International attention was directed throughout the year toward alleged violations of human rights in Sri Lanka. A highly critical report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in September charged that both the LTTE and government forces deliberately targeted civilians during the civil war. The government refused to permit an international investigation into human rights violations in Sri Lanka, and in October it announced the creation of a National Action Plan designed to protect and promote human rights and support reconciliation between the communities. Former general Sarath Fonseka, who had commanded the Sri Lankan army in its victory over the Tamil Tigers and later had become a political rival of Rajapakse, was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly stating that the Sri Lankan government had committed war crimes during the civil war. Fonseka was already serving a 30-month jail term after having been convicted of corruption in military procurements. He denied both charges, claiming that they were politically motivated to keep him out of politics. Economic growth in Sri Lanka, which had continued throughout the war period, slowed in 2009 because of the global recession but then accelerated rapidly. GDP was expected to rise by at least 8% in 2011, despite floods in January that displaced more than a million people and damaged rice and other crops. Major economic issues included continued poverty, employment creation and skill provision, the reconstruction of war-damaged areas, a large deficit in the government budget, and persistent inflation. Nevertheless, an IMF mission to Sri Lanka in August–September pronounced macroeconomic conditions there satisfactory and stated that monetary and fiscal policies were appropriate. Yet many believed that to sustain high growth rates in the future, significant policy reforms would be required. Foreign aid and remittances from Sri Lankan workers employed abroad were important sources of foreign exchange. Foreign direct investment was rising, but a conference held in September suggested that fears regarding political risk were holding back that investment. What made you want to look up "Sri Lanka: Year In Review 2011"? Please share what surprised you most...

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Emmanuel, count de las CasesArticle Free Pass Emmanuel, count de las Cases, in full Emmanuel-augustin-dieudonné-joseph, Count De Las Cases (born June 21, 1766, Languedoc, France—died May 15, 1842, Passy), French historian best known as the recorder of Napoleon’s last conversations on St. Helena, the publication of which contributed greatly to the Napoleonic legend in Europe. An officer of the royal navy, Las Cases in 1790 emigrated from France to England, where he wrote and published his Atlas Historique . . . (1802), a work that attracted Napoleon’s attention. Consequently, on his return to France (1809) with other Royalists rallying to Napoleon, Las Cases was given a minor position on the council of state and created count in 1810. After Napoleon’s defeat (1814), he returned to England but joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days (1815), following him into exile at St. Helena. For 18 months he recorded his conversations with Napoleon on his principles of warfare, his identification of the French Revolution with the Empire, his political philosophy, and his sentiments on religion and philosophy. A letter of complaint about Napoleon’s treatment led to Las Cases’ deportation and to the seizure of his manuscript by the British government. Forbidden to enter England, he traveled in Germany and Belgium until he was allowed to return to France after the death of Napoleon in 1822. Recovering his manuscript, he published his Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène (1823), which at once became extremely popular. A deputy for Saint-Denis (1831–34; 1835–39), he sat with the extreme left, opposing the rule of Louis-Philippe. Las Cases’ Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène was the first defense of Napoleon after his defeat. Although prejudiced in Napoleon’s favour, the identification of the idea of the Revolution with Napoleon furthered a union of liberals with Bonapartists, thus contributing to the rise of Napoleon III. What made you want to look up "Emmanuel, count de las Cases"? Please share what surprised you most...

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Dragonflies (order Odonata) are divided into two distinct sub-orders, the Zygoptera or Damselflies and the Anisoptera or Dragonflies. You can find a description of these sub-orders on the "Damselflies" and "Dragonflies" pages. Each species that has been recorded in Great Britain and Ireland is described and illustrated on a separate page. The list below is your key to accessing these descriptions. Click on a species name to see the species description. There you will find photographs, and written description, details of habitat, distribution and status and notes about similar species. Please note that this site is not meant to be a substitute for a good field guide when trying to identify species. There are several good identification guides available, see the booklist for details. David Goddard (with help from Tim Beynon) has put together a guide for assistance with pronunciation of Latin names. The Full Checklist The full list of UK species is presented here (with English and Latin names). You can use this list to navigate to a particular species detail page. Species with a Management Fact File are indicated by [MFF]. You can use this indication to navigate directly to their Management Fact File. Click on images to enlarge.

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Length: 43.200 cm Mummy of an ibis From: Abydos, Egypt Date: Roman Period, after 30 BC An ibis is a kind of wading bird with a long curved beak to dig around for food in the river mud. The Egyptian god Thoth’s name means ‘he who is like the ibis’, and Thoth was often shown with a man’s body and the head of an ibis. Thoth was the scribe of the gods, god of the moon, and in charge of writing, maths and language. He also helped judge the dead (see ‘Weighing the Heart’). In the Late Period, it became very popular to mummify animals and leave them as presents (called ‘offerings’) to the gods. Many thousands of ibis were mummified as offerings to Thoth. They were wrapped in bandages and some were put into pottery jars. This one has been wrapped in a careful pattern, and is very well preserved.

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Not one, not two, but three female addax calves have been born at Brookfield Zoo within the last two months, and one more is expected by the end of the summer. The most recent was born this past Saturday, July 9. The other two were born on May 30 and June 1. All are doing well and can be seen with their mothers—Martha, Sara, and Mali—on exhibit in their outdoor habitat on the north side of the zoo. The three births are a welcomed addition to the North American zoo population because the species is critically endangered in its native Africa. Brookfield Zoo has exhibited addax since 1935 and in 1941 was the first zoo in North America to have an addax birth. Since the arrival of the first breeding pair, there have been 140 addax births at Brookfield Zoo. “We are thrilled about the addax births at Brookfield Zoo and being able to share the significance and importance of these new additions with our guests,” said Amy Roberts, curator of mammals for the Chicago Zoological Society. “What is really exciting is that there is the possibility that one of the calves or their descendants may one day be introduced to the wild as part of a collaborative program.” The pairing of the three new moms with Winston, who is the sire of all three calves, was based on a recommendation by the Association of Zoo and Aquariums’ Addax Species Survival Plan (SSP). The Chicago Zoological Society, which manages the zoo, has been an active participant in the Addax SSP since its inception in 1989. An SSP is a cooperative population management and conservation program for the species in North American zoos. The program manages the breeding of addax in zoos to maintain a healthy, self-sustaining population that is both genetically diverse and demographically stable. Currently, there are 159 addax in 18 accredited North American zoos. Once widespread across North Africa, the addax has been largely driven to extinction in the wild by over-hunting since the mid-1800s as well as civil unrest. Additionally, although highly adapted to hyper-arid conditions, addax are nonetheless impacted by long periods of severe drought. The current addax population is restricted to a narrow band of desert between eastern Niger and western Chad. Researchers estimate there to be less than 300 individuals remaining in the wild, with the last major population of around 200 in the Tin Toumma desert of eastern Niger. However, there is hope for the species thanks to an international collaborative effort involving zoos in North America and Europe, the Tunisian government, and the Convention on Migratory Species. Brookfield Zoo is one of more than 40 zoos worldwide that has provided support for the reintroduction of zoo-born addax into fenced reserves in Tunisia. Current efforts are focusing on securing the remaining wild populations in Niger and Chad, increasing scientific management of captive populations in Africa and elsewhere, and reintroducing individual animals to suitable, secure, and protected areas in former range states. Addax have some of the most impressive horns of all antelope, which is one of the main reasons they have been over-hunted. In older individuals, they can spiral almost three turns and extend nearly three feet. They are one of a group of species called “horse-like antelope,” which are unusual in that the females have horns as long as those of the males. The species lives in one of the most inhospitable habitats in the world, and they are the most desert-adapted antelope. Their feet are extra-large and spread out, perfect for staying on top of loose sand. Their legs are shorter than most antelope, giving them a low center of gravity and keeping them steady—even when the sand shifts under foot. They get nearly all the moisture they need from the sap of vegetation and from dew, going almost their entire lives without drinking water at all. When vegetation is not available, they can live off the water stored in their body fat. They are nomadic, with no fixed territory, following the rains that produce the plants on which they depend. They have a relatively heavy body with a sandy-white coat in the summer that turns grayish-brown in the winter. White markings can be found on their legs and belly, with a black tuft of hair on their forehead, under the horns.

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Buildings don’t work they way they used to.1 Folks are always saying stuff like this. But let me make the case regarding just one factor and you decide. There are other factors of course, but I want to focus on only one for the moment. This one over-arching factor is the amount of energy exchange across the building enclosure. I think that higher levels of thermal resistance and reduced heat gain across building enclosures has forever changed the performance of buildings—and not necessarily in a good way. And things are going to get worse before they get better. Sound familiar? The lens I am going to use to look at this factor is moisture. Why? It is one of the principal damage functions acting on materials along with heat and ultra-violet radiation.2 I think moisture is the key to understanding the performance of buildings in general—and in this particular case—in specific. The consequence of this reduced energy exchange is beginning to be seen all over the place: mold, part load humidity problems, rot, and corrosion. Highly insulated building enclosures with reduced heat gain have low drying potentials and increased interior moisture loads. When they get wet they don’t dry. Stuff is beginning to stink, rot, break and annoy. There are two things to look at here. Levels of insulation and airtight assemblies and heat gain through glazing, roof assemblies and interior loads. Adding insulation and providing airtight assemblies reduces energy flow. That is a good thing right? Well, no—not always. Less energy flow from the inside to the outside the colder things on the outside of the building get in the winter. The colder these things, the wetter these things get and the wetter they stay. This is not good. Less energy flow from the outside to the inside in the summer and the less heat that is generated inside in the summer the less the air-conditioning system runs. This is a good thing right? Well, no—not always. We create something called “the part load humidity problem.” Higher Levels of Thermal Resistance How do we dry wet wood? We kiln dry it. We heat the wood so that the water in the wood is warmer than its surroundings. We add energy to the water and it evaporates. There is a huge exchange of energy. When we put warm wet coffee beans in a room with very cold surfaces we call it freeze-drying. The moisture leaves the coffee beans and accumulates on the cold surfaces. There is a huge exchange of energy. The greater the rate of energy exchange the greater the rate of moisture movement. Drying cannot happen with out an exchange of energy. When my Mom and Dad bought their first house in Toronto, Canada in 1957 there was no insulation in the walls and the house was leaky to air—it had a high air change driven by a traditional chimney. We lived in a 1,200 square foot house and in January, when the outside temperature dropped to 0 degrees F., Momma cranked up the 300,000 Btu oil furnace to maintain an interior temperature of 70 degrees F. The energy flow across the building enclosure was enormous, but oil was cheap, and we were comfortable and happy. The energy flow was so enormous the building enclosure was simultaneously kiln dried and freeze-dried. In fact, the drying potential was so high, we were uncomfortably dry. As a result Poppa insisted that the furnace have a new fangled gadget attached to it—called a humidifier. How things have changed. Well what changed? We’ve begun to insulate—and insulate exceptionally well—and we’re getting the assemblies “tighter” to air change and convection. That results in two things—less energy exchange therefore less drying potential—and things on the exterior side of the enclosure are colder in the winter. Things being colder on the outside lead to something most folks don’t consider. Many building materials are hygroscopic (Figure 1). This means they absorb moisture based on relative humidity. Even more strangely, they don’t care about vapor pressure except if it affects relative humidity. This is a big deal. In fact it is a huge deal. Figure 1: Sorption Curve for Common Building Materials—Note that moisture content goes up as relative humidity goes up. There is no temperature dependence or vapor pressure dependence except where temperature affects relative humidity or where vapor pressure affects relative humidity. Quick, snap quiz, psychrometric chart stuff….as the temperature drops, and vapor pressure is kept constant, what happens to the relative humidity? Buzz/Clang/Bell. Yes, folks, you are correct, the relative humidity goes up. The implications are staggering. Just making things on the outside of your building cold, hygroscopic things, makes them wetter. Period, end of story. But, but, the moisture content of the outside air in the wintertime is low. Yes, grasshopper, it is, but its’ relative humidity is high. The amount of moisture in the absolute sense is low, but in the relative sense it is high. And hygroscopic materials don’t care about the absolute sense; they only care about the relative sense. Why? Second Law stuff—isn’t it always? Check out Photograph 1. Nice, normal, everyday type of house in Cleveland, OH. Twenty years old, no insulation in the wall cavities, built in 1965 (yes, the photograph was taken in 1985—we did have camera’s back then...). The house was perfectly happy at this point for twenty years. Then the homeowner decides to do something crazy, he decides to insulate the exterior walls to save energy and has the cavities blown with dry cellulose. What a dumb idea in 1985 eh? But, never the less, it was a beautiful job, no voids, yes it can be done, and yes it was done. No voids, no convection (Photograph 2—notice how young this engineer once was). Next thing you know, the paint falls off, and the siding gets smelly, moldy and begins to decay (Photograph 3). Huh? The insulation did this? Yup. The drying potential is reduced due to the addition of the insulation so that the moisture entering the cladding assembly from the exterior due to rain and capillarity does not evaporate and this is further exacerbated by the colder siding having a higher local relative humidity and thus a higher equilibrium moisture content due to the sorption properties of wood. Bummer. How to fix this? Easy, wedges were used to create a gap at the overlaps of the siding reducing capillary uptake at the laps and increasing evaporation despite the cladding being colder (Photograph 4). This early lesson in sorption and drying potentials taught this engineer to drain and back-ventilate claddings –especially those on highly insulated assemblies (Photograph 5). Photograph 1: The “Typical House”—Built in 1965 in Cleveland, OH with no cavity insulation in the exterior wood frame walls. No problems for twenty years. Insulation added to exterior walls in 1985 and within one year the paint begins to fail. Photograph 2: Retrofit Cellulose Cavity Insulation—Dry blown cellulose packed into exterior wood frame walls. Injected from the exterior at top of cavity. This author, very young at the time, amazed at how well the insulation worked. Cavities were dry when opened. Photograph 3: Wet Cladding—Problems with mold and decay were worse on north and east elevations. Problems with peeling paint were worse on west and south elevations. Solar radiation cycled the cladding moisture content more on the west and south elevations stressing the paint. UV cross-linked the paint making it less flexible. Less flexibility, more movement on the south and the west led to the peeling paint. Less energy on the north and the east led to the mold and the decay. Photograph 4: Wedgie—So simple and so obvious. After the problem is understood. Wedges created gaps that reduced capillary uptake of surface water, promoted drainage and back ventilation. Photograph 5: Drainage and Ventilation Matt Behind Cladding—This is easy for new construction and re-cladding. Existing buildings are going to be a problem. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Let’s extend this discussion to cavity insulation in general. The same thing happens to the cavity side of sheathing when we insulate cavities. It gets worse when the cavities also have no air flow or convection.3 Sheathings get colder. If the sheathing is hygroscopic, its equilibrium moisture content also goes up. Why take the risk? Insulate on the exterior of the sheathing. This makes the problem go away. The risk is so high in cold climates that folks are no longer insulating the cavities in steel stud walls in places like Ottawa and Montreal—all of the insulation goes on the outside. This is why insulating sheathing is pretty much the name of the game for highly insulated wall assemblies—or at a minimum claddings should be back ventilated and back-drained—or better, do both. This is easy for new construction. The problem is what to do with the existing building stock? What are we going to do if oil ever goes above $100/barrel? Dumb comment. Yes, but now we have a real problem. Folks cannot just go and blow/spray/fill cavities with a bunch of insulation without appreciating the consequences. This is not just a cold climate problem. It is a problem everywhere. In fact it gets worse when we go far south. Read on McDuff… Reduced Heat Gain I am going to let you in on a little secret that us mechanical engineers don’t often share with the rest of the world—air conditioning systems only dehumidify when they run. Yup, when they don’t run, they don’t dehumidify. If there is no load, there is no dehumidification.4 Well, just make them run longer. How? They still make the air cold no matter how you run them. That is good if you need cold air. But what if you don’t need cold air? What if you only need dry air? Well, you still have to make the air cold to get it to drop its water, and when you are done you still have cold air. So now what? Well, you have to heat it back up if you want to use it. This is sometimes called cooling with re-heat. There are other tricks we can do—read on—but at the end of the day we have to add energy back to the air that we cooled. There is no other practical way to do it. It gets worse when we over-ventilate with humid air—especially when it is cloudy and not so hot. Now all you are doing is bringing in moisture. But you are doing it when there is not much of a load—not much of a “sensible load” (heat gain across the enclosure and heat gain from lights and appliances and people—the load you can “sense”) to run the air conditioning system. This moisture that you are bringing in with the ventilation air is also a “load”—but it is a different kind of load that we have pretty much been ignoring up till now and getting away with it. The operative phrase to note is: “getting away with it.” Mechanical engineers like me call this the “hidden load” or the “latent load” (as in “latent defect” or “hidden defect”) and our heads explode when we try to explain this problem to the indoor air crazies who think that only dilution is the solution to indoor pollution. I mean how can too much outside air be bad?5 Arrargah… To take the water out of the air you need to use energy. To make the air comfortable/useful the air can’t be too cold after you have taken the water out of it. Typically heat (energy) has to be added back to the air. Traditionally this heat (energy) was available through lousy glazing systems, too much glass, black roofs with no insulation, poorly insulated walls, energy inefficient lights, and crappy appliances. Well, this traditional “re-heat” due to inefficiency and poor practice is disappearing. Now we are stuck. If we don’t warm up the air after we dry it we are going to get into trouble. We haven’t been, and we are getting into trouble. The buildings are now getting too cold or too humid or worse, both. Ah, this is easy you say. Just make the air conditioning systems smaller—“right size” them. Don’t make me scream. I am getting tired of being told by energy weenies that my equipment is too big.6 I still have to satisfy the “full load” requirement. If you make the equipment too small it doesn’t satisfy the cooling requirements under full load. Let the people be uncomfortable you say. People should suffer you say; we have had it too good you say. Yeah, sure, another greenie weenie value judgment that also makes me scream. I don’t think we should suffer. I like it being good. I don’t have a problem with using energy. I have a problem with wasting energy. Until now we have gotten pretty good at dealing with this part-load problem with face-bypass, run-around coils, hot gas bypass and heat pipes but we have reached our limits. Building enclosures have gotten so good, glazing systems so good, interior load management so good, that we can’t use the same equipment to handle the “sensible load” and the “latent load.” Did I mention just how good the glazing systems have become? Did I mention the low SHGC thing? We used to just install air conditioners and only cared about making it cold inside. We used one piece of equipment to handle the sensible and latent load. The reason this worked is that the latent load was small compared to the sensible load. Not any more. The sensible load has gotten smaller big time. And, much to my chagrin, the latent load has gone up due to over ventilation. The old systems can’t handle the new sensible to latent ratios. We have to separate the two loads. We need separate systems for the sensible load and the latent load. This is a big deal and it results from the low heat gain in the modern enclosure. In other words energy conservation and good construction practice is biting us on the butt. We sometimes refer to this second separate latent load control system as supplemental dehumidification—and we need it when we have a low heat gain enclosure and efficient lighting and appliances. Others call it “preconditioning” of outside air since the largest component of the latent load is the ventilation air or the outside air. Whatever you call it, we need this second system. We don’t often get it and it hurts us. But, but these systems use energy. Yes, as the saying goes—there is no thermodynamic free lunch. You need to use energy to make air cold and you need to use energy to make air dry. We have been very good at making air cold. We now have to get good at making air dry. Think of it this way. For every 100 units of energy you save on the efficiency and on the cooling side, you are going to have to give back about 20 units of energy to be dry. You are still 80 units ahead. Problem is, if you are greedy and want the entire 100 units your building fails and your occupants get very uncomfortable and probably very annoyed. It is pretty amazing to me but the hotel industry figured this out first. They pretty much had the problem first, so it stands to reason that they would also figure it out first. Think about the typical hotel room. The drapes are pretty much closed all the time, the room is empty during the day, and you know the unit has been sized for the full load, with the drapes open, and the room full, and everything on and you know that someone in some bureaucracy somewhere wants way too much outside air. Most of the time your latent load dwarfs your sensible load. So what do you do? You reduce the amount of outside air by installing timers on the exhaust fans and you pretty much ignore the faceless bureaucrat. Then you only run the through-wall unit to control the temperature (i.e. make it the “sensible” system) and install a dehumidifier in each unit control the humidity (the “latent” system) (Photograph 6). A pretty primitive but effective “fix.” In new design we just “hide” the dehumidifier better—or better still make it part of the ventilation system. Photograph 6: Hotel Room Fix—The through-wall unit controls the temperature (the “sensible” system). The dehumidifier controls the humidity (the “latent” system). Guess where this technology is now making an impact—condos and apartments. Small houses are next. We are already separating the latent from the sensible on most commercial design—after all it is the sensible thing to do. North versus South So how come it is worse in the south than the north? Besides the south loosing the Civil War? In the north, it still gets cold and the outside cold air is pretty dry—and walls tend to dry to the outside in the north - so the size of the moisture drying “sink” so to speak—has not changed. But in the south, walls also dry to the inside—and if the inside is humid because of the part load problem—the walls stay wetter because the moisture drying “sink” is smaller. Additionally, in the south the moisture drive from the exterior into the wall is greater while at the same time the moisture drive from the wall into the interior is smaller as compared to the corresponding drives in opposite directions in the north. Let me translate. It is easier to get wet from the outside in the south than it is from the inside in them north. It is also easier to dry to the outside in the north than it is to dry to the inside in the south. With less energy available, it gets worse in the south faster than in the north. Good air conditioning design leads to dry interiors and dry interiors allow walls to dry to the inside. Part load humidity problems lead to wetter walls. Higher levels of thermal insulation and lower heat gain lead to part load humidity problems. Not good. OK, everybody relax. We want and we need much higher levels of thermal control (air tight, insulated assemblies) everywhere. We just have to be smart about it. We want and we need ultra efficient glazing, lights, appliances, and reflective surfaces everywhere. We just have to be smart about it. And we want and we need the right amount of outside air whenever we need it. We just have to be smart about it. This is neither expensive nor difficult, just different. We have to modify our building enclosure and mechanical system paradigms. Get used to it or be steamrolled by the change. Insulate on the outside. Back ventilate and drain your cladding. Separate your sensible load from you latent load. Don’t over ventilate. Existing buildings are going to be a bear. And have a nice day. Yes, I know, pretty arrogant for a relative youngster to say. I am in my 50’s, but when you get to this age you spend as much time looking back as you do looking forward. My mentors tell me that it helps with perspective. It has been said that in order to understand the future you have to understand the past. I am not so ambitious. I am only thinking of today. I think in order to understand the present you have to understand the past… Someone once said that 80 percent of all building related durability problems are due to three principal damage functions (water, heat and UV radiation) with 80 percent of the 80 percent being water. I don’t know who said this. Can someone help me out? I might have just made it up, but I have been saying it so long I no longer remember if I did or not. Aren’t footnotes great… Air flow—air change and convection—increases energy exchange therefore increases drying potential. My Canadian friends heads are now going to explode because they have been taught that air leakage leads to “wetting” from interior sources. Yes, in extreme climates with high interior moisture loads. Think humidified buildings in Canada. Not everywhere else. Come visit the United States, the dollar exchange now works for you and air leakage improves drying potentials. Sensible load. I know you knew that I knew this, but some of the email I have been getting from you folks has been quite picky, which is good, but I want to head off the obvious emails, so continue to be picky, but not on this… Some folks don’t seem to care about the energy thing either. I mean health is paramount and we should always err on the side of caution. How can we argue against health? Easy, when the “healthy” measures are “unhealthy.” Over-ventilation can be unhealthy—and energy wasteful. Read on. This is leading to interesting discussions in the Standard 62 committees. Apparently the Standard 62 committees are not about energy. Apparently energy security is not a 62 problem nor is climate change nor are operating costs. Apparently, it is some other committee’s problem. How about the energy committee (Standard 90.1)? Except that the energy committee does not want to touch ventilation. Cowards. My insider’s perspective (on 62.2 at least) is that there is a lot of mileage to be made by scaring people about under ventilation, and folks are rising to the occasion. Unfortunately, over ventilation in hot humid climates and in mixed humid climates has led to more indoor air problems due to mold resulting from part load issues than under ventilation anywhere else—in my not so humble opinion. And speaking of health and under ventilation where are all the dead bodies? Where is the causal link between health and specific levels of specific indoor contaminants? In my not so humble opinion all of the rates have been just wild assed guesses without a sound epidemiological basis. But the resulting mold from over ventilation is real and demonstrable. Just to make it clear, I have been guessing at “rates” as well, but I have not been afraid to call them “guesses” or tried to hide the guesses behind a lot of bad science. And one more thing, this LEED stuff is making me crazy, the part where you get extra points when you ventilate at an even higher rate than what Standard 62 calls for…what a bunch of green sustainability hypocrisy…doesn’t anyone at the US Green Building Council know anything about energy and part load humidity?

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PREHISTORIC INDIAN DECOY In 1924 a group of scientists excavating in Nevada's Lovelock cave found a cache of 13 tule duck decoys dated to nearly 2000 years. Made to resemble a canvasback drake, these decoys were painted with native pigments and had white feathers tied to their backs with string made from native hemp. This replica decoy is made like the originals, complete with red ochre paint and ground soot used for black. The cane arrow is a highly specialized and ingenious type for taking ducks on the water and this type could have been used with similar decoys. The ball of pitch on the foreshaft creates a hydroplane and causes the arrow to skip on the water making such arrow shots much easier to take. One has to marvel at the ingenuity of the early Indian hunters and the gear they so cleverly made and used. Decoy Only $350

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The Immune System Because the human body provides an ideal environment for many microbes, they try to pass your skin barrier and enter. Your immune system is a bodywide network of cells, tissues, and organs that has evolved to defend you against such "foreign" invasions.The proper targets of your immune system are infectious organisms--bacteria such as these streptococci; fungi (this one happens to be Candida, the cause of yeast infections); parasites, including these worm-like microbes that cause malaria; and viruses such as this SARS virus. Markers of Self At the heart of the immune response is the ability to distinguish between "self" and "non-self." Every cell in your body carries the same set of distinctive surface proteins that distinguish you as "self." Normally your immune cells do not attack your own body tissues, which all carry the same pattern of self-markers; rather, your immune system coexists peaceably with your other body cells in a state known as self-tolerance. This set of unique markers on human cells is called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). There are two classes: MHC Class I proteins, which are on all cells, and MHC Class II proteins, which are only on certain specialized cells. Markers of Non-Self Any non-self substance capable of triggering an immune response is known as an antigen. An antigen can be a whole non-self cell, a bacterium, a virus, an MHC marker protein or even a portion of a protein from a foreign organism. The distinctive markers on antigens that trigger an immune response are called epitopes. When tissues or cells from another individual enter your body carrying such antigenic non-self epitopes, your immune cells react. This explains why transplanted tissues may be rejected as foreign and why antibodies will bind to them. Markers of Self: Major Histocompatibility Complex Your immune cells recognize major histocompatibility complex proteins(MHC) when they distinguish between self and non-self. An MHC protein serves as a recognizable scaffold that presents pieces (peptides) of a foreign protein (antigenic) to immune cells. An empty "foreign" MHC scaffold itself can act as an antigen when donor organs or cells are introduced into a patient's body. These MHC self-marker scaffolds are also known as a patient's "tissue type" or as human leukocyte antigens (HLA) when a patient's white blood cells are being characterized. For example, when the immune system of a patient receiving a kidney transplant detects a non-self "tissue type," the patient's body may rally its own immune cells to attack. Every cell in your body is covered with these MHC self-marker proteins, and--except for identical twins--individuals carry different sets. MHC marker proteins are as distinct as blood types and come in two categories--MHC Class I: humans bear 6 markers out of 200 possible variations; and MHC Class II: humans display 8 out of about 230 possibilities. Organs of the Immune System The organs of your immune system are positioned throughout your body. They are called lymphoid organs because they are home to lymphocytes--the white blood cells that are key operatives of the immune system. Within these organs, the lymphocytes grow, develop, and are deployed. Bone marrow, the soft tissue in the hollow center of bones, is the ultimate source of all blood cells, including the immune cells. The thymus is an organ that lies behind the breastbone; lymphocytes known as T lymphocytes, or just T cells, mature there. The spleen is a flattened organ at the upper left of the abdomen. Like the lymph nodes, the spleen contains specialized compartments where immune cells gather and confront antigens. In addition to these organs, clumps of lymphoid tissue are found in many parts of the body, especially in the linings of the digestive tract and the airways and lungs--gateways to the body. These tissues include the tonsils, adenoids, and appendix. The organs of your immune system are connected with one another and with other organs of the body by a network of lymphatic vessels. Lymphocytes can travel throughout the body using the blood vessels. The cells can also travel through a system of lymphatic vessels that closely parallels the body's veins and arteries. Cells and fluids are exchanged between blood and lymphatic vessels, enabling the lymphatic system to monitor the body for invading microbes. The lymphatic vessels carry lymph, a clear fluid that bathes the body's tissues. Small, bean-shaped lymph nodes sit along the lymphatic vessels, with clusters in the neck, armpits, abdomen, and groin. Each lymph node contains specialized compartments where immune cells congregate and encounter antigens. Immune cells and foreign particles enter the lymph nodes via incoming lymphatic vessels or the lymph nodes' tiny blood vessels. All lymphocytes exit lymph nodes through outgoing lymphatic vessels. Once in the bloodstream, they are transported to tissues throughout the body. They patrol everywhere for foreign antigens, then gradually drift back into the lymphatic system to begin the cycle all over again. Cells of the Immune System Cells destined to become immune cells, like all blood cells, arise in your body's bone marrow from stem cells. Some develop into myeloid progenitor cells while others become lymphoid progenitor cells. The myeloid progenitors develop into the cells that respond early and nonspecifically to infection. Neutrophils engulf bacteria upon contact and send out warning signals. Monocytes turn into macrophages in body tissues and gobble up foreign invaders. Granule-containing cells such as eosinophils attack parasites, while basophils release granules containing histamine and other allergy-related molecules. Lymphoid precursors develop into the small white blood cells called lymphocytes. Lymphocytes respond later in infection. They mount a more specifically tailored attack after antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells (or macrophages) display their catch in the form of antigen fragments. The B cell turns into a plasma cell that produces and releases into the bloodstream thousands of specific antibodies. The T cells coordinate the entire immune response and eliminate the viruses hiding in infected cells. B cells work chiefly by secreting soluble substances known as antibodies. They mill around a lymph node, waiting for a macrophage to bring an antigen or for an invader such as a bacteria to arrive. When an antigen-specific antibody on a B cell matches up with an antigen, a remarkable transformation occurs. The antigen binds to the antibody receptor, the B cell engulfs it, and, after a special helper T cell joins the action, the B cell becomes a large plasma cell factory that produces identical copies of specific antibody molecules at an astonishing pace--up to 10 million copies an hour. Each antibody is made up of two identical heavy chains and two identical light chains, shaped to form a Y. The sections that make up the tips of the Y's arms vary greatly from one antibody to another; this is called the variable region. It is these unique contours in the antigen-binding site that allow the antibody to recognize a matching antigen, much as a lock matches a key. The stem of the Y links the antibody to other participants in the immune defenses. This area is identical in all antibodies of the same class--for instance, all IgEs--and is called the constant region. Antibodies belong to a family of large protein molecules known as immunoglobulins. Scientists have identified nine chemically distinct classes of human immunoglobulins, four kinds of IgG and two kinds of IgA, plus IgM, IgE, and IgD. Immunoglobulins G, D, and E are similar in appearance. IgG, the major immunoglobulin in the blood, is also able to enter tissue spaces; it works efficiently to coat microorganisms, speeding their destruction by other cells in the immune system. IgD is almost exclusively found inserted into the membrane of B cells, where it somehow regulates the cell's activation. IgE is normally present in only trace amounts, but it is responsible for the symptoms of allergy. IgA--a doublet--guards the entrance to the body. It concentrates in body fluids such as tears, saliva, and secretions of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. IgM usually combines in star-shaped clusters. It tends to remain in the bloodstream, where it is very effective in killing bacteria. Scientists long wondered how all the genetic information needed to make millions of different antibodies could fit in a limited number of genes. The answer is that antibody genes are spliced together from widely scattered bits of DNA located in two different chromosomes. Each antibody molecule is made up of two separate chains, a heavy chain and a light chain. The heavy chain is where the binding of antigens occurs, so much genetic variation is involved in its assembly. For example, to form a heavy chain, 1 of 400 possible variable gene segments (V) combines with 1 out of 15 diversity segments (D) and 1 out of 4 joining (J) segments. This makes 24,000 possible combinations for the DNA encoding the heavy chain alone. As this part of the gene assembles, it joins the variable coding segments with those for the constant-C segments of the heavy-chain molecule. T cells contribute to your immune defenses in two major ways. Some help regulate the complex workings of the overall immune response, while others are cytotoxic and directly contact infected cells and destroy them. Chief among the regulatory T cells are helper T cells. They are needed to activate many immune cells, including B cells and other T cells. Cytotoxic T cells (sometimes called killer T cells) help rid your body of cells that have been infected by viruses as well as cells that have been transformed by cancer but have not yet adapted to evade the immune detection system. They are also responsible for the rejection of tissue and organ grafts. Cytokines are diverse and potent chemical messengers secreted by the cells of your immune system. They are the chief communication signals of your T cells. Cytokines include interleukins, growth factors, and interferons. Lymphocytes, including both T cells and B cells, secrete cytokines called lymphokines, while the cytokines of monocytes and macrophages are dubbed monokines. Many of these cytokines are also known as interleukins because they serve as a messenger between white cells, or leukocytes. Interferons are naturally occurring cytokines that may boost the immune system's ability to recognize cancer as a foreign invader. Binding to specific receptors on target cells, cytokines recruit many other cells and substances to the field of action. Cytokines encourage cell growth, promote cell activation, direct cellular traffic, and destroy target cells--including cancer cells. When cytokines attract specific cell types to an area, they are called chemokines. These are released at the site of injury or infection and call other immune cells to the region to help repair damage and defend against infection. Killer Cells: Cytotoxic Ts and NKs At least two types of lymphocytes are killer cells--cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells. Both types contain granules filled with potent chemicals. Both types kill on contact. They bind their targets, aim their weapons, and deliver bursts of lethal chemicals. To attack, cytotoxic T cells need to recognize a specific antigen bound to self-MHC markers, whereas natural killer (NK) cells will recognize and attack cells lacking these. This gives NK cells the potential to attack many types of foreign cells. Phagocytes and Their Relatives Some immune cells have more than one name. For example, the name "phagocytes" is given to the large immune cells that can engulf and digest foreign invaders, and the name "granulocytes" refers to immune cells that carry granules laden with killer chemicals. Phagocytes include monocytes, which circulate in the blood; macrophages, which are found in tissues throughout the body; dendritic cells, which are more stationary, monitoring their environment from one spot such as the skin; and neutrophils, cells that circulate in the blood but move into tissues when they are needed. Macrophages are versatile cells; besides acting as phagocytic scavengers, they secrete a wide variety of signaling cytokines (called monokines) that are vital to the immune response. Neutrophils are both phagocytes and granulocytes: they contain granules filled with potent chemicals. These chemicals, in addition to destroying microorganisms, play a key role in acute inflammatory reactions. Other types of granulocytes are eosinophils and basophils, which degranulate by spraying their chemicals onto harmful cells or microbes. The mast cell is a twin of the basophil, except it is not a blood cell. Rather, it is responsible for allergy symptoms in the lungs, skin, and linings of the nose and intestinal tract. A related structure, the blood platelet, is a cell fragment. Platelets, too, contain granules. They promote blood clotting and wound repair, and activate some immune defenses. Phagocytes in the Body If foreign invaders succeed in getting past your skin barriers and manage to reach body tissues, they are usually recognized, ingested, and killed by phagocytes strategically positioned throughout the body. Macrophages and neutrophils are the main phagocytes involved, with macrophages as the first line of defense. Monocytes stop circulating in the blood and mature into specialized macrophages that migrate into the tissues of the body and prepare for invasion. Large numbers of mature macrophages reside in connective tissue, along the digestive tract, in the lungs, in the spleen, and even along certain blood vessels in the liver, where they are known as Kupffer cells. Neutrophils are short-lived immune cells that remain circulating in the blood. When tissue-based macrophages encounter an invader, neutrophils soon reinforce their immune response by coming to the site of infection in large numbers. The complement system consists of a series of about 25 proteins that work to "complement" the work of antibodies in destroying bacteria. Complement also helps rid the body of antigen-antibody complexes. Complement proteins are the culprits that cause blood vessels to become dilated and leaky, causing redness and swelling during an inflammatory response. Complement proteins circulate in the blood in an inactive form. The so-called "complement cascade" is set off when the first complement molecule, C1, encounters antibody bound to antigen in an antigen-antibody complex. Each of the complement proteins performs its specialized job, acting, in turn, on the molecule next in line. The end product is a cylinder that punctures the cell membrane and, by allowing fluids and molecules to flow in and out, dooms the target cell. Mounting an Immune Response Microbes attempting to get into your body must first get past your skin and mucous membranes, which not only pose a physical barrier but are rich in scavenger cells and IgA antibodies. Next, they must elude a series of nonspecific defenses--and substances that attack all invaders regardless of the epitopes they carry. These include patrolling phagocytes, granulocytes, NK cells, and complement. Infectious agents that get past these nonspecific barriers must finally confront specific weapons tailored just for them. These include both antibodies and cytotoxic T cells. Both B cells and T cells carry customized receptor molecules that allow them to recognize and respond to their specific targets. The B cell's antigen-specific receptor that sits on its outer surface is also a sample of the antibody it is prepared to manufacture; this antibody-receptor recognizes antigen in its natural state. The T cell's receptor systems are more complex. T cells can recognize an antigen only after the antigen is processed and presented in combination with a special type of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) marker. Killer T cells only recognize antigens in the grasp of Class I MHC markers, while helper T cells only recognize antigens in the grasp of Class II MHC markers. This complicated arrangement assures that T cells act only on precise targets and at close range. Activation of B Cells to Make Antibody The B cell uses its antibody-receptor to bind a matching antigen, which it then engulfs and processes. This triggers the B cell to become a large plasma cell producing millions of copies of the same specific antibody. These antibodies then circulate in the bloodstream in search of more matching antigens. B cell antibodies cannot themselves kill an invading organism, but they can use their antibodies to mark invaders for destruction by other immune cells and by complement. Activation of T Cells: Helper Helper T cells only recognize antigen in the grasp of Class II MHC markers. An antigen-presenting cell--such as a macrophage or a dendritic cell--breaks down the antigen it devours, then it places small pieces (peptides) on its surface along with a Class II MHC marker. By exhibiting its catch in this way, antigen-presenting cells enable specific receptors on helper T cells to bind the antigen and confirm (via CD4 protein) that an invasion has occurred. After binding, a resting helper T cell quickly becomes an activated helper T. It assumes command of the immune response, giving orders to increase the number of specific antibody-producing plasma cells and the cytotoxic killer cells needed to quell the attack. Activation of T Cells: Cytotoxic Killer T cells only recognize antigen in the grasp of Class I MHC markers. Here a resting cytotoxic T cell recognizes virus fragments, which are displayed by a macrophage in combination with a Class I MHC marker. A receptor on a circulating, resting cytotoxic T cell (and CD8 protein) recognizes the antigen-protein complex and binds to it. The binding process and an activated helper T cell activate the cytotoxic T cell. Because the surfaces of other infected cells bear the same virus fragments in combination with Class I MHC markers, the activated cytotoxic T cells can quickly recognize, attack, and destroy the diseased cell. Regulatory T Cells Your immune system also has a braking mechanism, a checkpoint to prevent immune responses to self. Without this checkpoint, autoimmune disease could flourish. An additional type of immune cells--regulatory T cells--are these critical braking agents. Researchers don't yet know exactly how regulatory T cells operate. Some think these T cells recognize and compete for the same antigens as those that activate helper and cytotoxic T cells, but that regulatory T cells zero in on a different epitope. Another possibility is that cytotoxic or helper T cells only multiply when regulatory T cells are absent. Regulatory T cells have become important to researchers who are trying to increase the efficacy of vaccines for cancer and AIDS. In addition to increasing the antigenicity of the immunizing element, a better understanding of regulatory T cells will permit scientists to reduce the immune system's brake activity, which often limits the effectiveness of vaccines. Immunity: Active and Passive Whenever T cells and B cells are activated, some become "memory" cells. The next time that an individual encounters that same antigen, the immune system is primed to destroy it quickly. This is active immunity because the body's immune system prepares itself for future challenges. Long-term active immunity can be naturally acquired by infection or artificially acquired by vaccines made from infectious agents that have been inactivated or, more commonly, from minute portions of the microbe. Short-term passive immunity can be transferred artificially from one individual to another via antibody-rich serum; similarly, a mother enables an infant to naturally acquire protection while growing within her by donating her antibodies and certain immune cells. This is passive immunity because the infant who is protected does not produce antibodies, but borrows them. Disorders of the Immune System: Allergy When your immune system malfunctions, it can unleash a torrent of disorders and diseases. One of the most familiar is allergy. Allergies such as hay fever and hives are related to the antibody known as IgE. The first time an allergy-prone person is exposed to an allergen--for instance, grass pollen--the individual's B cells make large amounts of grass pollen IgE antibody. These IgE molecules attach to granule-containing cells known as mast cells, which are plentiful in the lungs, skin, tongue, and linings of the nose and gastrointestinal tract. The next time that person encounters grass pollen, the IgE-primed mast cell releases powerful chemicals that cause the wheezing, sneezing, and other symptoms of allergy. Disorders of the Immune System: Autoimmune Disease Sometimes the immune system's recognition apparatus breaks down, and the body begins to manufacture antibodies and T cells directed against the body's own cells and organs. Such cells and autoantibodies, as they are known, contribute to many diseases. For instance, T cells that attack pancreas cells contribute to diabetes, while an autoantibody known as rheumatoid factor is common in persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Disorders of the Immune System: Immune Complex Disease Immune complexes are clusters of interlocking antigens and antibodies. Normally they are rapidly removed from the bloodstream. In some circumstances, however, they continue to circulate, and eventually they become trapped in, and damage, the tissues of the kidneys, as seen here, or the lungs, skin, joints, or blood vessels. Disorders of the Immune System: AIDS When the immune system is lacking one or more of its components, the result is an immunodeficiency disorder. These disorders can be inherited, acquired through infection, or produced as an inadvertent side effect of drugs such as those used to treat cancer or transplant patients. AIDS is an immunodeficiency disorder caused by a virus that destroys helper T cells. The virus copies itself incessantly and invades helper T cells and macrophages, the very cells needed to organize an immune defense. The AIDS virus splices its DNA into the DNA of the cell it infects; the cell is thereafter directed to churn out new viruses. Human Tissue Typing for Transplants Although MHC proteins are required for T cell responses against foreign invaders, they can pose difficulty during transplantation. Every cell in the body is covered with MHC self-markers, and each person bears a slightly unique set. If a T lymphocyte recognizes a non-self MHC scaffold, it will rally immune cells to destroy the cell that bears it. For successful organ or blood stem cell transplantations, doctors must pair organ recipients with donors whose MHC sets match as closely as possible. Otherwise, the recipient's T cells will likely attack the transplant, leading to graft rejection. To find good matches, tissue typing is usually done on white blood cells, or leukocytes. In this case, the MHC-self-markers are called human leukocyte antigens, or HLA. Each cell has a double set of six major HLA markers, HLA-A, B, and C, and three types of HLA-D. Since each of these antigens exists, in different individuals, in as many as 20 varieties, the number of possible HLA types is about 10,000. The genes that encode the HLA antigens are located on chromosome 6. A child in the womb carries foreign antigens from the father as well as immunologically compatible self-antigens from the mother. One might expect this condition to trigger a graft rejection, but it does not because the uterus is an "immunologically privileged" site where immune responses are somehow subdued. Immunity and Cancer When normal cells turn into cancer cells, some of the antigens on their surface change. These cells, like many body cells, constantly shed bits of protein from their surface into the circulatory system. Often, tumor antigens are among the shed proteins. These shed antigens prompt action from immune defenders, including cytotoxic T cells, natural killer cells, and macrophages. According to one theory, patrolling cells of the immune system provide continuous bodywide surveillance, catching and eliminating cells that undergo malignant transformation. Tumors develop when this immune surveillance breaks down or is overwhelmed. A new approach to cancer therapy uses antibodies that have been specially made to recognize specific cancers. When coupled with natural toxins, drugs, or radioactive substances, the antibodies seek out their target cancer cells and deliver their lethal load. Alternatively, toxins can be linked to a lymphokine and routed to cells equipped with receptors for the lymphokine. Dendritic Cells That Attack Cancer Another approach to cancer therapy takes advantage of the normal role of the dendritic cell as an immune educator. Dendritic cells grab antigens from viruses, bacteria, or other organisms and wave them at T cells to recruit their help in an initial T cell immune response. This works well against foreign cells that enter the body, but cancer cells often evade the self/non-self detection system. By modifying dendritic cells, researchers are able to trigger a special kind of autoimmune response that includes a T cell attack of the cancer cells. Because a cancer antigen alone is not enough to rally the immune troops, scientists first fuse a cytokine to a tumor antigen with the hope that this will send a strong antigenic signal. Next, they grow a patient's dendritic cells in the incubator and let them take up this fused cytokine-tumor antigen. This enables the dendritic cells to mature and eventually display the same tumor antigens as appear on the patient's cancer cells. When these special mature dendritic cells are given back to the patient, they wave their newly acquired tumor antigens at the patient's immune system, and those T cells that can respond mount an attack on the patient's cancer cells. The Immune System and the Nervous System Biological links between the immune system and the central nervous system exist at several levels. Hormones and other chemicals such as neuropeptides, which convey messages among nerve cells, have been found also to "speak" to cells of the immune system--and some immune cells even manufacture typical neuropeptides. In addition, networks of nerve fibers have been found to connect directly to the lymphoid organs. The picture that is emerging is of closely interlocked systems facilitating a two-way flow of information. Immune cells, it has been suggested, may function in a sensory capacity, detecting the arrival of foreign invaders and relaying chemical signals to alert the brain. The brain, for its part, may send signals that guide the traffic of cells through the lymphoid organs. A hybridoma is a hybrid cell produced by injecting a specific antigen into a mouse, collecting an antibody-producing cell from the mouse's spleen, and fusing it with a long-lived cancerous immune cell called a myeloma cell. Individual hybridoma cells are cloned and tested to find those that produce the desired antibody. Their many identical daughter clones will secrete, over a long period of time, millions of identical copies of made-to-order "monoclonal" antibodies. Thanks to hybridoma technology, scientists are now able to make large quantities of specific antibodies. Genetic engineering allows scientists to pluck genes--segments of DNA--from one type of organism and to combine them with genes of a second organism. In this way, relatively simple organisms such as bacteria or yeast can be induced to make quantities of human proteins, including interferons and interleukins. They can also manufacture proteins from infectious agents, such as the hepatitis virus or the AIDS virus, for use in vaccines. The SCID-hu Mouse The SCID mouse, which lacks a functioning immune system of its own, is helpless to fight infection or reject transplanted tissue. By transplanting immature human immune tissues and/or immune cells into these mice, scientists have created an in vivo model that promises to be of immense value in advancing our understanding of the immune system.

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Online CoursesChallenging Behaviour > Continence Promotion > CoSHH > Classroom CoursesModule 1-Classroom courses > Module 2- Classroom Courses > Module 3-Classroom Courses > Medication,Infection and Role of Care Worker-NOCN Level 2 (module 2)-(£120 per Person) Medication,Infection and Role of Care Worker-NOCN Level 2 (module 2) National Qualification in Supporting People with a Learning Disability. This is an induction course for those wishing to get a National Qualification in Supporting People with a Learning Disability. It is suitable for those working with Vulnerable Adults and Children. -Role of a care worker Module's Record of Competence • Legislations governing the prescribing, dispensing, administering, storage and disposal of medication. • Medication policy • Classifications of medication • Types of medication • Different routes/methods of administering medication. • Safe practice of medication. • Checking, Recording & keeping receipts of medication. • Medication Administration record sheet • Noting and reporting changes to individuals. • Adverse reactions to medication. • Checking of Contra/indications whilst giving individual homely remedies. • Importance of medication audits • Safe disposal of medication. • Supporting individuals who are self administering medication. Role of a care worker. • Roles & responsibilities- Care activities • Relevant policies and procedures • Code of practice • Working in partnership with others. • Worker relationship/ maintaining professional boundaries. • Recording individual care plans. Food Safety and Infection Control. • Legislations governing infection control • Effective hand washing & hygiene • Use of protective clothing. • Cleaning of spillages. • Safe handling of specimens • Safe disposal of clinical waste. • Safe storage of food. • Washing of infected laundry, equipments & instruments. • Notifiable diseases- E.g. MRSA, tuberculosis, Scabies, head lice etc. Written Description and Case study Please choose a centre/date: |Sorry, no dates available at the moment.|

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Locust Care Sheet Locust are probably the largest type of insect that you will use as livefood. Adults measure up to 8cm and are a yellow colour with darker brown/purple patches. They are popular for their large gut content which means they are highly nutritious feeders but are somewhat expensive compared to other foptions. The Locust is a fascinating insect. They are quite pleasant to have around and will not try to bite like a cricket would. Locust are often portrayed as a swarm insect that destroys crops and eats everything in their path. In fact, they are lower down the pecking order than crickets so the two should never be mixed, unless the aim is to feed the crickets. However, they do eat a lot and grow fairly quickly. Only adult locust have wings that are able to give them flight. All locust have wings but only at the 5th and final moult a locust develops flying wings and are capable of flight over short distances. Locust have amazing claws they can hold onto and climb just about anything including glass. They tend to hang upside down while shedding so their good grip comes is readily employed. Housing and Heating Housing locust is just like housing crickets, you will want to put them in the biggest tub you can find (of course glass is fine), as long as it is sufficiently deep to deter any would-be escapees. Ventilation is important to locust so make sure the lid is perforated with holes, you can do this with a drill or a soldering iron. As locust prefer to perch a substrate really is not necessary, so a simple stack of egg crates does the trick and also provides hiding places. For water, provide a dish of damp kitchen roll, this prevents drowning and is easily changed when it gets dirty. When it comes to cleaning time after a week or two, there are several options. You are probably best lifting out the hides slowly and transferring them to another tub while working around the rest of the locust while cleaning the tub. Shake the locust off the egg crates and throw them away, swap them with clean ones and you have a nice clean tub of locust. Alternatively you can use all the locust then throw the whole lot away before purchasing a fresh batch. As for temperature, locusts like a temperature of 25-33°C (77-91.4°F) and a dry atmosphere which will prevent fungal infections. Feeding Locust Feeding is very similar to crickets. They need to be provided with a good supply of dry foods, "bug grub" is an insect feeder that has a mixture of ingredients designed to be fed to insects so that they have a good gut content and provide ample nutrients to your pets. Alternative foods can be used such as bran, weetabix, digestives and bread. Fruits such as grapes, apples or vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes and cabbage provide extra vitamins and moisture. If moist foods are available on a regular basis then a water dish is not really needed. Breeding Locust Temperature and humidity are important in breeding. Eggs are laid in a 4 inch deep dish filled with silver or sharp sand so prepare a tub as such. The sand should be kept moist but not too wet so it looks soggy. The female locust will position herself over the sand dish and push her down and deposit up to 200 eggs. Hoppers will emerge after 10 - 12 days. The hoppers will go through 5 instar molting before becoming adult locust.

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In the interior of central Africa the first Catholic missions were established by Cardinal Lavigerie's White Fathers in 1879. In Uganda some progress was made under the not unfriendly local ruler, Mtesa; but his successor, Mwanga, determined to root out Christianity among his people, especially after a Catholic subject, St. Joseph Mkasa, reproached him for his debauchery and for his massacre of the Protestant missionary James Hannington and his caravan. Mwanga was addicted to unnatural vice and his anger against Christianity, already kindled by ambitious officers who played on his fears, was kept alight by the refusal of Christian boys in his service to minister to his wickedness. himself was the first victim: Mwanga. seized on a trifling pretext and on November 15, 1885, had him beheaded. To the chieftain's astonishment the Christians were not cowed by this sudden outrage, and in May of the following year the storm burst. When he called for a young 'page' called Mwafu, Mwanga learned that he had been receiving religious instruction from another page, St. Denis Sebuggwawo; Denis was sent for, and the king thrust a spear through his throat. That night guards were posted round the royal residence to prevent anyone from escaping. Charles Lwanga, who had succeeded Joseph Mkasa in charge of the 'pages', secretly baptized four of them who were catechumens; among them St Kizito, a boy of thirteen whom Lwanga had repeatedly saved from the designs of the king. Next morning the pages were all drawn up before Mwanga, and Christians were ordered to separate themselves from the rest: led by Lwanga and Kizito, the oldest and youngest, they did so—fifteen young men, all under twenty-five years of age. They were joined by two others already under arrest and by two soldiers. Mwanga asked them if they intended to remain Christians. "Till death!" came the response. "Then put them to death!" The appointed place of execution, Namugongo, was thirty-seven miles away, and the convoy set out at once. Three of the youths were killed on the road; the others underwent a cruel imprisonment of seven days at Namugongo while a huge pyre was prepared. Then on Ascension day, June 3, 1886, they were brought out, stripped of their clothing, bound, and each wrapped in a mat of reed: the living faggots were laid on the pyre (one boy, St Mbaga, was first killed by a blow on the neck by order of his father who was the chief executioner), and it was set alight. The persecution spread and Protestants as well as Catholics gave their lives rather than deny Christ. A leader among the confessors was St Matthias Murumba, who was put to death with revolting cruelty; he was a middle-aged man, assistant judge to the provincial chief, who first heard of Jesus Christ from Protestant missionaries and later was baptized by Father Livinhac, W.F. Another older victim, who was beheaded, was St Andrew Kagwa, chief of Kigowa, who had been the instrument of his wife's conversion and had gathered a large body of catechumens round him. This Andrew together with Charles Lwanga and Matthias Murumba and nineteen others (seventeen of the total being young royal servants) were solemnly beatified in 1920. They were canonized in 1964. When the White Fathers were expelled from the country, the new Christians carried on their work, translating and printing the catechism into their nativel language and giving secret instruction on the faith. Without priests, liturgy, and sacraments their faith, intelligence, courage, and wisdom kept the Catholic Church alive and growing in Uganda. When the White Fathers returned after King Mwanga's death, they found five hundred Christians and one thousand catchumens waiting for them. Join the new media evangelization. Your tax-deductible gift allows Catholic.net to build a culture of life in our nation and throughout the world. Please help us promote the Church's new evangelization by donating to Catholic.net right now. God bless you for your generosity. |Print Article||Email Friend||Palm Download||Forums||Questions||More in this Channel||Up| Write a comment on this article|

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St. Bernard of Menthon Born in 923, probably in the castle Menthon near Annecy, in Savoy ; died at Novara, 1008. He was descended from a rich, noble family and received a thorough education. He refused to enter an honorable marriage proposed by his father and decided to devote himself to the service of the Church. Placing himself under the direction of Peter, Archdeacon of Aosta, under whose guidance he rapidly progressed, Bernard was ordained priest and on account of his learning and virtue was made Archdeacon of Aosta (966), having charge of the government of the diocese under the bishop. Seeing the ignorance and idolatry still prevailing among the people of the Alps, he resolved to devote himself to their conversion. For forty two years he continued to preach the Gospel to these people and carried the light of faith even into many cantons of Lombardy, effecting numerous conversions and working many miracles. For another reason, however, Bernard's name will forever be famous in history. Since the most ancient times there was a path across the Pennine Alps leading from the valley of Aosta to the Swiss canton of Valais, over what is now the pass of the Great St. Bernard. This pass is covered with perpetual snow from seven to eight feet deep, and drifts sometimes accumulate to the height of forty feet. Though the pass was extremely dangerous, especially in the springtime on account of avalanches, yet it was often used by French and German pilgrims on their way to Rome. For the convenience and protection of travelers St. Bernard founded a monastery and hospice at the highest point of the pass, 8,000 feet above sea-level, in the year 962. A few years later he established another hospice on the Little St. Bernard, a mountain of the Graian Alps, 7,076 feet above sea-level. Both were placed in charge of Augustinian monks after pontifical approval had been obtained by him during a visit to Rome. These hospices are renowned for the generous hospitality extended to all travelers over the Great and Little St. Bernard, so called in honor of the founder of these charitable institutions. At all seasons of the year, but especially during heavy snow-storms, the heroic monks accompanied by their well-trained dogs, go out in search of victims who may have succumbed to the severity of the weather. They offer food, clothing, and shelter to the unfortunate travelers and take care of the dead. They depend on gifts and collections for sustenance. At present, the order consists of about forty members, the majority of whom live at the hospice while some have charge of neighboring parishes. The last act of St. Bernard's life was the reconciliation of two noblemen whose strife threatened a fatal issue. He was interred in the cloister of St. Lawrence. Venerated as a saint from the twelfth century in many places of Piedmont (Aosta, Novara, Brescia ), he was not canonized until 1681, by Innocent XI. His feast is celebrated on the 15th of June. More Catholic Encyclopedia Browse Encyclopedia by Alphabet The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes. Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration. No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny. Browse the Catholic Encyclopedia by Topic Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912 Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online

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Computer Models How Buds Grow Into Leaves Posted on March 02, 2012 at 08:24:51 am "A bud does not grow in all directions at the same rate," said Samantha Fox from the John Innes Centre on Norwich Research Park. "Otherwise leaves would be domed like a bud, not flat with a pointed tip." By creating a computer model to grow a virtual leaf, the BBSRC-funded scientists managed to discover simple rules of leaf growth. -ADVERTISEMENT-Similar to the way a compass works, plant cells have an inbuilt orientation system. Instead of a magnetic field, the cells have molecular signals to guide the axis on which they grow. As plant tissues deform during growth, the orientation and axis changes. The molecular signals become patterned from an early stage within the bud, helping the leaf shape to emerge. The researchers filmed a growing Arabidopsis leaf, a relative of oil seed rape, to help create a model which could simulate the growing process. They were able to film individual cells and track them as the plant grew. It was also important to unpick the workings behind the visual changes and to test them in normal and mutant plants. "The model is not just based on drawings of leaf shape at different stages," said Professor Enrico Coen. "To accurately recreate dynamic growth from bud to leaf, we had to establish the mathematical rules governing how leaf shapes are formed." With this knowledge programmed into the model, developed in collaboration with Professor Andrew Bangham's team at the University of East Anglia, it can run independently to build a virtual but realistic leaf. Professor Douglas Kell, Chief Executive of BBSRC said: "This exciting research highlights the potential of using computer and mathematical models for biological research to help us tackle complex questions and make predictions for the future. Computational modelling can give us a deeper and more rapid understanding of the biological systems that are vital to life on earth." The model could now be used to help identify the genes that control leaf shape and whether different genes are behind different shapes. "This simple model could account for the basic development and growth of all leaf shapes," said Fox. "The more we understand about how plants grow, the better we can prepare for our future -- providing food, fuel and preserving diversity."

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how to keep your child healthy? Need symptom or treatment information? Look under the symptom or disease headings below. information on health topics that do not concern infectious diseases, check Health Topic: Infants and Children in the CDC Health Topics A-Z pages. and major sites Ounce of Prevention Keeps the Germs Away Simple things you and your family can do to avoid getting an infectious disease. Disinfecting, vaccinating, safe pet keeping... Text and video With swimming such a popular activity, you should know how to protect you and your family from recreational water illnesses (RWIs) and help stop germs from getting into the water where you swim in the first place. Fact sheets and printable materials Salud del Bebé y CDC is not a hospital or clinical facility; we do not see patients and are unable to diagnose your illness, provide treatment, prescribe medication, or refer you to specialists. you have a medical emergency, contacting CDC is not the proper way to get immediate help. Instead, please contact your health care provider or go to the nearest emergency room. If you are a health care provider, please contact your state epidemiologist or local health department.

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You have to like the attitude of Thomas Henning (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie). The scientist is a member of a team of astronomers whose recent work on planet formation around TW Hydrae was announced this afternoon. Their work used data from ESA’s Herschel space observatory, which has the sensitivity at the needed wavelengths for scanning TW Hydrae’s protoplanetary disk, along with the capability of taking spectra for the telltale molecules they were looking for. But getting observing time on a mission like Herschel is not easy and funding committees expect results, a fact that didn’t daunt the researcher. Says Henning, “If there’s no chance your project can fail, you’re probably not doing very interesting science. TW Hydrae is a good example of how a calculated scientific gamble can pay off.” I would guess the relevant powers that be are happy with this team’s gamble. The situation is this: TW Hydrae is a young star of about 0.6 Solar masses some 176 light years away. The proximity is significant: This is the closest protoplanetary disk to Earth with strong gas emission lines, some two and a half times closer than the next possible subjects, and thus intensely studied for the insights it offers into planet formation. Out of the dense gas and dust here we can assume that tiny grains of ice and dust are aggregating into larger objects and one day planets. Image: Artist’s impression of the gas and dust disk around the young star TW Hydrae. New measurements using the Herschel space telescope have shown that the mass of the disk is greater than previously thought. Credit: Axel M. Quetz (MPIA). The challenge of TW Hydrae, though, has been that the total mass of the molecular hydrogen gas in its disk has remained unclear, leaving us without a good idea of the particulars of how this infant system might produce planets. Molecular hydrogen does not emit detectable radiation, while basing a mass estimate on carbon monoxide is hampered by the opacity of the disk. For that matter, basing a mass estimate on the thermal emissions of dust grains forces astronomers to make guesses about the opacity of the dust, so that we’re left with uncertainty — mass values have been estimated anywhere between 0.5 and 63 Jupiter masses, and that’s a lot of play. Error bars like these have left us guessing about the properties of this disk. The new work takes a different tack. While hydrogen molecules don’t emit measurable radiation, those hydrogen molecules that contain a deuterium atom, in which the atomic nucleus contains not just a proton but an additional neutron, emit significant amounts of radiation, with an intensity that depends upon the temperature of the gas. Because the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen is relatively constant near the Sun, a detection of hydrogen deuteride can be multiplied out to produce a solid estimate of the amount of molecular hydrogen in the disk. The Herschel data allow the astronomers to set a lower limit for the disk mass at 52 Jupiter masses, the most useful part of this being that this estimate has an uncertainty ten times lower than the previous results. A disk this massive should be able to produce a planetary system larger than the Solar System, which scientists believe was produced by a much lighter disk. When Henning spoke about taking risks, he doubtless referred to the fact that this was only the second time hydrogen deuteride has been detected outside the Solar System. The pitch to the Herschel committee had to be persuasive to get them to sign off on so tricky a detection. But 36 Herschel observations (with a total exposure time of almost seven hours) allowed the team to find the hydrogen deuteride they were looking for in the far-infrared. Water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs this kind of radiation, which is why a space-based detection is the only reasonable choice, although the team evidently considered the flying observatory SOFIA, a platform on which they were unlikely to get approval given the problematic nature of the observation. Now we have much better insight into a budding planetary system that is taking the same route our own system did over four billion years ago. What further gains this will help us achieve in testing current models of planet formation will be played out in coming years. The paper is Bergin et al., “An Old Disk That Can Still Form a Planetary System,” Nature 493 ((31 January 2013), pp. 644–646 (preprint). Be aware as well of Hogerheijde et al., “Detection of the Water Reservoir in a Forming Planetary System,” Science 6054 (2011), p. 338. The latter, many of whose co-authors also worked on the Bergin paper, used Herschel data to detect cold water vapor in the TW Hydrae disk, with this result: Our Herschel detection of cold water vapor in the outer disk of TW Hya demonstrates the presence of a considerable reservoir of water ice in this protoplanetary disk, sufficient to form several thousand Earth oceans worth of icy bodies. Our observations only directly trace the tip of the iceberg of 0.005 Earth oceans in the form of water vapor. Clearly, TW Hydrae has much to teach us. Addendum: This JPL news release notes that although a young star, TW Hydrae had been thought to be past the stage of making giant planets: “We didn’t expect to see so much gas around this star,” said Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Bergin led the new study appearing in the journal Nature. “Typically stars of this age have cleared out their surrounding material, but this star still has enough mass to make the equivalent of 50 Jupiters,” Bergin said.

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Fill out the form below to find out if you have a case. A new program is making physical and occupational therapy more convenient for adults with cerebral palsy. Using the Internet, the program connects adult cerebral palsy patients to “virtual trainers” who help them complete movement-based training from the comfort of their own homes. The Upper Limb Training and Assessment Program, also known as ULTrA, is part of a joint research and movement therapy project aimed at helping adults who have upper limb and hand impairment. “Physical and occupational therapy are the most important treatments for cerebral palsy. The ULTrA program works with the idea of bringing therapy into the home to allow adults to do their therapy at a time that’s convenient for them,” said Dr. Edward Hurvitz of the University of Michigan. Patients participating in the program have their homes equipped with the computer-based training unit, a training CD, and a high-speed Internet connection. They then complete five 40-minute training sessions a week over the course of an eight-week period. “The computer interface in the individual’s home includes computer-generated images of people stretching, and we also have people in our lab who are able to coach and provide encouragement to participants via web cameras. Being connected to the patients allows us to modify their program as needed, without them coming into the research lab or clinic,” said Susan Brown, Ph.D. Brown, who directs the Motor Control Lab at the U-M School of Kinesiology, said that the technology has “real potential to open up the world for people who have mobility issues.” One cerebral palsy patient, 41-year-old Laura Grable, praised the project. “The ULTrA project is a step toward moving cerebral palsy treatment into the 21 st century. There’s the potential to figure out how to improve range of motion and daily quality of life for people with CP,” she said.

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Good news. There are simple ways to save money especially if you go back to the time-honored concept of BYO – “bringing your own” container of coffee, lunch or water as part of your daily routine. This can do a world of good not only for your pocketbook, but also for the environment, and even your health. Here are some tips to get you started: * Bring your own coffee or tea According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away 25 billion foam cups each year. And 500 years from now, those cups will still be sitting in a landfill. Despite the convenience of foam cups, small changes such as bringing coffee or tea in a reusable container can have both an environmental and economic impact. For example, Genuine Thermos(R) Brand makes a vacuum insulated commuter bottle that will keep a beverage hot for eight hours or cold for 12 hours. Not only is this great for a day at the office or running errands around town, it saves the cost of purchasing beverages day in and day out. If you still like an occasional custom-made coffee or chai latte, some retailers will fill your own bottle. * Bring your own lunch Many grownups still have fond memories of a school lunchbox featuring their favorite TV or movie character. Bringing your own lunch in an insulated lunch carrier is a good way to keep your favorite foods fresh and tasty, and a smart way to save money. According to a report in Time magazine, bringing your lunch to work can cut your weekly costs by 80 percent. To keep foods fresh while on the go, insulated reusable containers are an ideal option. They come in all shapes and sizes to keep snacks or lunch foods hot or cold for hours, saving you the cost of going out and making it easier to stay away from unhealthy temptations. * Keep yourself hydrated As you get in the habit of bringing your own reusable portable container, don’t neglect the one thing every human needs for basic good health – water – to help you hydrate throughout the day. According to the Mayo Clinic, water makes up about 60 percent of your body weight. Lack of appropriate water intake can lead to dehydration, draining your energy and making you feel tired. The Institute of Medicine determined that adequate water intake for men is roughly 104 ounces and is roughly 72 ounces for women. Instead of purchasing bottled water in containers that will also end up in landfills, bring plenty of your own water in a portable, reusable container. One easy option for quenching thirst while on the go is the 24 oz. Hydration Bottle with Meter that is made of BPA-free Eastman(TM) Tritan and has a rotating meter built into the lid to help keep track of your daily water consumption. Embracing the bring-your-own mentality can make a world of difference economically and environmentally. So, take the first step to “bringing your own” on May 23, which is the inaugural National Fill Your Thermos Brand Bottle Day, and celebrate the doing-good and money-saving power of the reusable container.

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Cameron Park Elementary School in Hillsborough held an Early Earth Day Celebration on April 11 with visits from two special guests: NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and UNC's Nobel Prize-winning scientist Oliver Smithies.Williams went to the International Space Station aboard the shuttle Discovery in December 2006 and remained in space for 195 days, setting the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. While she was in the space station, another astronaut cut her long ponytail and sent the hair back to Earth to be donated to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for cancer patients. She also ran the Boston Marathon in space last year to draw attention to fitness for kids. Students also learned Williams worked seven-hour days wearing a 300-pound space suit, ate dehydrated food and exercised frequently to help prevent bone loss due to the lack of gravity. She told the students about the special respect and appreciation for the earth that she gained from her perspective in space.Smithies, who won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine, engaged Cameron Park students in a discussion about the excitement of discovery. Using a basketball, he showed how daylight moves around the earth as it rotates. He also showed students a helix and mentioned his laboratory experiments in genetics. Smithies' work has been recognized as revolutionizing research into the genetic basis of disease.Students also enjoyed outdoor games and lots of learning about conservation, recycling and environmental protection.Outdoor learning exhibits were presented by the North Carolina Fossil Club, SEEDS, North Carolina Fisheries, Orange County Soil and Water Conservation, Orange County Erosion Control, Orange County Solid Waste and Recycling, Bountiful Backyards, and Occaneechi leader John Blackfeather Jeffries.

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1.True / false: A violin string can only produce a single frequency unless its tuning is change. 2.True / false: Most of the sound from a violin comes directly from the strings. 3. As a violin string vibrates, its motional energy is changing rapidly with time. What 2 types of energy are involved in the motion of an oscillating string such as a violin string (ignore friction and changes in GPE):

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Consider four vectors ~ F1, ~ F2, ~ F3, and ~ F4, wheretheir magnitudes are F1= 43 N, F2= 36 N, F3 = 19 N, andF4 = 54 N.Let θ1 =120o, θ2 = −130o,θ3 = 200, and θ4 = −67o, measured from thepositive x axis with the counter-clockwiseangular direction aspositive. What is the magnitudeof the resultant vector ~F , where ~F = ~ F1 +~ F2 +~ F3 +~ F4? Answer in units of N. What is the direction ofthis resultant vector~F? Note: Give the anglein degrees, use counterclockwise as the positiveangular direction, between the limits from the positive xaxis. Answer in units ofo I worked out the first part of thequestion by using trigonomic rules. My X value=-5.68671and my Y value=-33.5474. The magnitude came out to 34.026N. I tried finding the direction by usingθ=tan-1(y/x) but i cant get the rightanswer.

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A common virus that affects 50-70% of adults. If a woman acquires cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during pregnancy, there is about a 15% chance that her infant will have infection and serious complications. Women who have had CMV infection and who are considering breastfeeding their prematurely born infant should check first with their child's doctor since there is a risk of transmitting the virus to the infant through breast milk. Prematurely born infants may not be able to fight off the CMV infection as do infants born at term. CMV infection is usually a mild infection in adults. Infants born to women who have had CMV long before they became pregnant are at low risk of having an infant with serious CMV infection.

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The cardinals were deadlocked. They had been deadlocked for 27 months, since 1292 when Pope Nicholas V died. There were only twelve cardinals and they were evenly divided between two factions of the Roman nobility. Neither side would give way. Each hoped for the perks that would accrue from having one of their number named pope. And then a message arrived from the mountains. Peter Murrone, the hermit founder of the Celestines, a strict branch of Benedictines, warned that God was angry with the cardinals. If they did not elect a pope within four months, the Lord would severely chastise the church. Eager for a way out of their deadlock, the cardinals asked themselves, why not elect Peter himself? Finally the cardinals could agree. In a vote that they declared to be "miraculous" they unanimously chose Peter. When three of the cardinals climbed to his mountain roost to tell Peter he had been chosen, the hermit wasn't happy. All of his life, he had tried to run away from people. Dressed like John the Baptist, he subjected himself to fasts, heavy chains, and nights of prayer without sleep. But when the cardinals and his friend King Charles II of Naples insisted that he must accept the position for the good of the church, Peter reluctantly agreed. Charles II prompted him to name a number of new cardinals--all of them from France and Naples, changing the consistency of the group which would elect future popes. Peter, who was too trusting, made many mistakes. A babe in political matters, he was used by everyone around him. The Vatican staff even sold blank bulls with his signature on them. The business of the church slowed to a crawl because he took too much time making decisions. Within weeks it became apparent he had to resign for the good of the church. But could a pope resign? Guided by one of the cardinals, Benedetto Caetani, Celestine as pope issued a constitution which gave himself the authority to resign. All sorts of rumors followed this resignation. Peter had built himself a hut in the Vatican where he could live like a hermit. Supposedly Caetani thrust a reed through the wall of the hut and pretended he was the voice of God ordering Celestine to resign. Since his mind was undecided as to his proper course, this trick is said to have convinced him. Celestine stepped down on this day, December 13, 1294, having actually filled the position of pope only three months. He was replaced by Caetani who took the name Boniface VIII. Afraid that Peter would become a rallying point for troublemakers, Boniface locked the old man up. He destroyed most of the records of Celestine's short time in office, but he could not unmake the cardinals. Peter escaped and wandered through mountains and forests. He was recognized and recaptured when he tried to sail to Greece, his boat having been driven back by a storm. The last nine months of his life he spent in prayer as a prisoner of Boniface, badly treated by his guards. When he died in 1296, rumor had it that Boniface had murdered him. He was about 81-years-old. In 1313, Pope Clement V declared him a saint. - Brusher, Joseph Stanislaus. Popes through the Ages. Princeton, N. J.: Van Nostrand, 1959. - "Celestine V." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997. - De Rosa, Peter. Vicars of Christ; the dark side of the papacy. Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 2000; especially pp.75ff. - Loughlin, James F. "Pope St. Celestine V." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1908. - Montor, Chevalier Artaud de. Lives and Times of the Popes. New York: Catholic Publication Society of America, 1909. Source of the picture. - Rusten, E. Michael and Rusten, Sharon. One Year Book of Christian History. (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2003). - Silone, Ignazio. The Story of a Humble Christian. [Dramatic account with historical addenda.] New York: Harper and Row, 1970. - Various encyclopedia and internet articles. Last updated July, 2007

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Interviewing Children About Past Events: Evaluating the NICHD Interview Protocol This study, conducted by the NICHD in collaboration with Lancaster University in Lancaster, England, will evaluate the accuracy of information obtained from children using AN ADAPTED VERSION OF NICHD's interview protocol. The NICHD protocol was developed to help forensic interviewers OBTAIN INFORMATION FROM children who may be victims of or witnesses to a crime ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES. This study does not involve forensic interviews, but is DESIGNED TO OBTAIN INFORMATION FROM children ABOUT an event that takes place at their school. The study will examine how children report a brief interaction with an unfamiliar adult, how the memory of the event changes over time, and how the use of different interview techniques can help children give a fuller and more accurate accounts of past experiences. Children 5 and 6 years of age who attend local schools in the Lancaster, England, area may be eligible for this study. Participants will be told that they are going to have their pictures taken and will be escorted by a researcher to a room at the school with another researcher who is posing as a photographer. The "photographer" and the child will put on a costume, such as a pirate's outfit, over their street clothes, helping each other put on pieces of the costume. The photographer will take pictures of the child in the costume. They will each take off the costumes and the child will be told that he or she will receive the photographs at a later time. Another researcher posing as a photographer will come into the room, interrupting the event, and begin to argue with the first photographer about who had booked the equipment. They will resolve the argument and apologize to the child for the interruption. About 6 weeks after the event, the children will be interviewed using the ADAPTED VERSION OF NICHD interview protocol. Half will be interviewed first about the staged event (the photo session), followed by an interview about a fictitious event (e.g., a class visit to the fire station) that could plausibly have happened but did not. The other half of the children will be interviewed first about the fictitious event and then about the staged event. The children will be interviewed according to one of the following three procedures: - The NICHD protocol preceded by a rapport-building phase that includes the rules of the interview and open-ended questions about the child and a recently experienced event - The NICHD protocol preceded by a rapport-building phase that includes the rules of the interview and direct questions about the child and a recently experienced event, or - The NICHD protocol preceded by the rules of the interview and open-ended questions about the child, but no opportunity to practice talking about a recently experienced event. After the interviewer has elicited as much information as is likely to be gained from verbal questions, he or she will present the child with a line drawing of a gender neutral person and ask the child to indicate where the child was touched by the photographer and where the child touched the photographer. Any child who provides a report of the fictitious event will be interviewed in the same way about the fictitious event. After 1 year, the children will be interviewed again in the same manner as the 6-week interview. The interviews will be audio- and videotaped to record the kind of information the children talk about and compare it to what actually happened in the event. |Official Title:||Evaluating the NICHD Interview Protocol in an Analog Study| |Study Start Date:||January 2004| |Estimated Study Completion Date:||October 2006| The NICHD interview protocol was designed to aid forensic interviewers in adhering to best standards of practice when interviewing children. Field studies evaluating its use have demonstrated improvements in both interviewer behavior, and the amount and quality of information obtained from children, compared to interviews conducted prior to its implementation in test sites. Because field studies were conducted in forensic settings, however, it has not been possible to evaluate the protocol's effect on the accuracy of information reported by children. This present study therefore aims to evaluate the accuracy of information obtained using the NICHD interview protocol in an analog study. In addition the study is designed to explore children's willingness to provide details of a suggested, non-experienced event, and the effectiveness of including a human figure drawing as an auxiliary technique for eliciting further information. Furthermore, we will explore the importance of the pre-substantive/rapport-building phase of interviews, and the impact this has on children's reports of experienced and suggested events. Finally, we will explore the effectiveness of the interview protocol with children when a long delay has occurred between the event and the interview. Children will take part, individually, in a staged event at their school, and approximately six weeks later, be interviewed at the university about what they experienced. In addition, children will be asked to talk about a suggested fictitious event (one that has not happened). The order of the interviews will be counter-balanced across children and rapport-building conditions. Some children will be interviewed with an open-ended script that includes practice in episodic memory, some with a script made up of direct questions, including a practice in episodic memory, and some with one that uses open-ended questions but does not provide practice in talking about an event from episodic memory. Approximately one year later children will be interviewed again, so that we can examine children's reports in protocol interviews over a long delay. Children's reports will be analyzed for both overall amount and accuracy of information reported, as well as in response to the different cues and props given in the course of the interview. It is not anticipated that the study will pose any risks to the children involved, and we expect that both the staged event and the interviews will be enjoyable and stimulating. We expect that the results of the study will provide further support for the use of NICHD interview as a safe and effective means of interviewing children about past experiences. In addition to general information on children's eyewitness capabilities, the study is expected to supplement field studies by contributing knowledge about the accuracy of children's memory using the NICHD interview protocol. |United States, Maryland| |National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)| |Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892|

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Growth Hormone and Endothelial Function in Children Objective: This study is designed to determine whether growth hormone treatment in children 8 to 18 years of age alters function of the lining of the arteries. This may play a role in increasing or decreasing the risk of heart disease. Methods. Twenty children, for whom growth hormone therapy will be otherwise provided, will be studied before and 3 months after starting growth hormone. Subjects can be on other hormonal replacements but no other medications. Each study will be done in the fasting state. The blood vessel function will be determined by measuring the change in forearm blood flow before and after blocking flow to the arm for 5 minutes. Blood will be drawn after the test to measure glucose, insulin and fats. Growth Hormone Deficiency Drug: growth hormone |Study Design:||Allocation: Non-Randomized Endpoint Classification: Safety Study Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment Masking: Open Label Primary Purpose: Treatment |Official Title:||Growth Hormone and Endothelial Function in Children| - Change in Reactive Hyperemic response after 3 months of growth hormone [ Time Frame: 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ] - Glucose, Insulin, lipid measurements [ Time Frame: 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ] |Study Start Date:||January 2005| |Study Completion Date:||December 2007| |Primary Completion Date:||June 2007 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)| The purpose of the research is to learn more about how the lining of arteries in the body (called the endothelium) is affected by growth hormone treatment in children and adolescents. Poor function by the blood vessels is associated with increased risk of heart disease or stroke. This research is being done because growth hormone treatment has been shown to make the endothelium work better in adults. Growth hormone treatment may have the same or different effects in children because the dose is larger in children. Children between 8 and 18 years who are to be started on growth hormone will be eligible to participate. Blood vessel function will be studied before starting growth hormone and 3 months after. This will be done by measuring blood flow to the arm before and after 5 min of stopping blood flow to the arm. The three months of growth hormone will be given free. |United States, Ohio| |Ohio State University| |Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43210| |Study Chair:||Robert P Hoffman, MD||Ohio State University|

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the National Science Foundation Available Languages: English, Spanish This classroom-tested learning module gives a condensed, easily-understood view of the development of atomic theory from the late 19th through early 20th century. The key idea was the discovery that the atom is not an "indivisible" particle, but consists of smaller constituents: the proton, neutron, and electron. It discusses the contributions of John Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, and James Chadwick, whose experiments revolutionized the world view of atomic structure. See Related Materials for a link to Part 2 of this series. atomic structure, cathode ray experiment, electron, helium atom, history of atom, history of the atom, hydrogen atom, neutron, proton Metadata instance created July 12, 2011 by Caroline Hall October 10, 2012 by Caroline Hall Last Update when Cataloged: January 1, 2006 AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version) 4. The Physical Setting 4D. The Structure of Matter 6-8: 4D/M1a. All matter is made up of atoms, which are far too small to see directly through a microscope. 9-12: 4D/H1. Atoms are made of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The nucleus is a tiny fraction of the volume of an atom but makes up almost all of its mass. The nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons which have roughly the same mass but differ in that protons are positively charged while neutrons have no electric charge. 9-12: 4D/H2. The number of protons in the nucleus determines what an atom's electron configuration can be and so defines the element. An atom's electron configuration, particularly the outermost electrons, determines how the atom can interact with other atoms. Atoms form bonds to other atoms by transferring or sharing electrons. 10. Historical Perspectives 10F. Understanding Fire 9-12: 10F/H1. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the idea of atoms reemerged in response to questions about the structure of matter, the nature of fire, and the basis of chemical phenomena. 9-12: 10F/H3. In the early 1800s, British chemist and physicist John Dalton united the concepts of atoms and elements. He proposed two ideas that laid the groundwork for modern chemistry: first, that elements are formed from small, indivisible particles called atoms, which are identical for a given element but different from any other element; and second, that chemical compounds are formed from atoms by combining a definite number of each type of atom to form one molecule of the compound. 9-12: 10F/H4. Dalton figured out how the relative weights of the atoms could be determined experimentally. His idea that every substance had a unique atomic composition provided an explanation for why substances were made up of elements in specific proportions. This resource is part of a Physics Front Topical Unit. Topic: Particles and Interactions and the Standard Model Unit Title: History and Discovery This classroom-tested learning module gives a condensed, easily-understood view of the development of atomic theory from the late 19th through early 20th century. The key idea was the discovery that the atom is not an "indivisible" particle, but consists of smaller constituents: the proton, neutron, and electron. It discusses the contributions of John Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, and James Chadwick, whose experiments revolutionized the world view of atomic structure. %0 Electronic Source %A Carpi, Anthony %D January 1, 2006 %T Visionlearning: Atomic Theory I %I Visionlearning %V 2013 %N 21 May 2013 %8 January 1, 2006 %9 text/html %U http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=50&l= Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.

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An electron is a subatomic particles of spin 1/2. It couples with photons and, thus, is electrically charged. It is a lepton with a rest mass of 9.109 * 10 − 31kg and an electric charge of − 1.602 * 10 − 19 C, which is the smallest known charge possible for an isolated particle (confined quarks have fractional charge). The electric charge of the electron e is used as a unit of charge in much of physics. Electron pairs within an orbital system have opposite spins due to the Pauli exclusion principle; this characteristic spin pairing allows electrons to exist in the same quantum orbital, as the opposing magnetic dipole moments induced by each of the electrons ensures that they are attracted together. Current theories consider the electron as a point particle, as no evidence for internal structure has been observed. As a theoretical construct, electrons have been able to explain other observed phenomena, such as the shell-like structure of an atom, energy distribution around an atom, and energy beams (electron and positron beams). - ↑ Massimi, M. (2005). Pauli's Exclusion Principle, The Origin and Validation of a Scientific Principle. Cambridge University Press. pp. 7–8 - ↑ Mauritsson, J.. "Electron filmed for the first time ever". Lunds Universitet. Retrieved 2008-09-17. http://www.atomic.physics.lu.se/research/attosecond_physics - ↑ Chao, A.W.; Tigner, M. (1999). Handbook of Accelerator Physics and Engineering. World Scientific. pp. 155, 188. ISBN 981-02-3500-3.

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The Eflo UFBF is a highly efficient biological process utilising beneficial bacteria to reduce harmful elements to acceptable levels. The filters can operate in an aerobic or anaerobic manner. Nitrate removal in drinking water is achieved in an anaerobic manner by supplying the biomass within the filter vessels with a suitable carbon source such as methanol or acetic acid. The nitrate is reduced and converted by the beneficial bacteria to nitrogen gas and water. Some 93% reduction is typical. The efficiency of the process is determined by the media within the filter vessels. This supports high levels of fixed film growth. Eflo use Filtralite media, an expanded clay product in various grades but typically providing very high specific surface areas and light density. As with all biological processes, there will be a build up of excess biomass and the Eflo UFBF process allows for the automatic removal and collection of this waste.

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Questions Relating To The Future Of Humankind By Jason G. Brent 24 October, 2011 WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY FROM THE NUCLEAR BOMBS DROPPED ON JAPAN IN 1945--20,000 TONS TNT EQUIVILENT--- TO NUCLEAR DEVICES WHICH PRODUCE OVER 57,000,000 TONS TNT EQUIVILENT. 1. After many years of thinking and research I could come up only with three ways by which the growth of the human population can be reduced to zero or made negative, if that were necessary for the survival of our species. a) By war, with or without weapons of mass destruction, starvation, disease, ethnic cleansing, rape, mutilation, and other horrors. This most likely would occur as humanity got close to the carrying capacity of the earth and almost certainly would occur after humankind reached or exceeded the earth's carrying capacity. b) By the voluntary action of all of humanity. This most likely would occur prior to reaching the carrying capacity of the Earth. Of course, this also could happen after humanity reached or exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth and be used to reduce the human population to the carrying capacity of the Earth without violence---provided the horrors in (a) above have not commenced. This action would include education of women, raising their standard of living, modifying the culture of many societies, increasing the standard of living of all of humanity, and many other actions of a similar nature. Voluntary action includes any and all non-violent steps humankind could take to reduce population growth to zero or make it negative except coercive action. c) By the coercive action of society limiting the number of children a person or a couple could produce. This most likely would occur prior to reaching the carrying capacity of the Earth. Of course, it could also be used to reduce human population to the carrying capacity of the Earth after humanity has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth, provided the horrors in (a) above have not commenced. There isn't a single accepted definition of "carrying capacity". For the purposes of this essay I will define "carrying capacity" as the number of human beings combined with the average per capita usage of resources which will permit that number of human beings to exist and survive on this planet for a minimum of 1000 years. An alternative definition of "carrying capacity" is the number of human beings combined with the average per capita usage of resources which if exceeded even for a short period of time will result in the inability of the Earth provide the resources necessary for civilization to continue causing a rapid and horrendous decline in the human population. While no one knows what the carrying capacity of the Earth may be, it cannot be infinite-- it must be finite. No matter how much the average per capita usage of resources is reduced the Earth could not support 1 trillion human beings. Similarly, if the per capita usage of resources were increased such that each human being used 30 times the amount of resources used by the average American is highly unlikely that the Earth could support 1 billion human beings. At present human population is growing. It is highly likely that the average per capita usage of resources will continue to increase due to the rapidly growing economies of India and China and the growing economies of many of the other nations of the world. Therefore, a very strong case can be made that humanity will shortly exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth, if humanity already has not exceeded that capacity. If humanity exceeds the carrying capacity and takes no immediate action to reduce the population and/or the usage of resources to reduce it's impact on the planet below carrying capacity, then humans will enter into a violent competitions for the resources necessary to survive and the horrors set forth in 1(a) will occur. In simple terms, it will be each and every man/group/religion/nation/culture against every other man/group/religion/nation/culture in order to obtain resources which the Earth can provide so that the individual survives-- pure violent Darwinism. Billions will die and die horribly and more importantly the catastrophe will use up and/or destroy any remaining resources such that civilization will be unable to restart forever or at least for thousands of years 2. Does society, no matter how defined, have a right to limit the number of children a person produces by coercion or is the right to determine how many children a person produces absolute and society has no right to interfere with that decision? In considering this question limit yourself to the right I have set forth above and do not consider how that right could or would be enforced and whether enforcing that right would be harmful or beneficial to society. Those questions and any and all others would have to be considered, evaluated and discussed only if the right to limit the number of children a person produces by coercion exists in society. As far as I have been able to determine after doing many years of research I could not find a single human right that was not subject to control or modification by society. Even the right to life is not absolute-- many nations and cultures take away right to life when a person has committed certain types of murder. The right walk the streets as a free person is not an absolute right-- almost every nation or culture takes away that right and places a person in prison when a serious/heinous crime has been committed. Your reasons for your answer are requested. 3. While United Nations issues about eight different projections of the future human population, the most quoted and accepted projection is the "medium" projection. The most recent medium projection/estimation/prediction/prognostication (use whatever word you desire) issued by the UN predicts that the human population will exceed 10 billion and still be growing by the year 2100. Do you agree with that prediction after giving due consideration to the rate by which humanity is using the limited finite nonrenewable resources of our planet and the rate our species is using resources normally considered renewable? Do you agree with that prediction after giving consideration to the projected increase in per capita usage of resources by the nations of the world and in particular by the ever increasing per capita usage of resources of China and India? You may want to review the work of Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute as to the future usage of resources by China. Do you believe that the carrying capacity of the Earth, no matter how defined, is substantially less than 10 billion of our species and that the continued population growth will result in the collapse of society/the social order/civilization and the horrors set forth in paragraph 1 (a) above will happen prior to the year 2100? You may want to consult the works of William Catton, Richard Heinberg, Chris Clugston, David Pimental, James Lovelock and many others. Clugston's work can be viewed free of charge on his web site www.wakeupamerika.com (it is spelled with a 'k" and not a "c")-- pay particular attention to his book "Scarcity". The reasons for your answers to these questions would be most appreciated. Since no rational person would want to control population growth by the horrors set forth in paragraph 1(a) above, there are in reality only two ways to control population growth/reduce population growth to zero/make it negative. No one can present a logically and factually supported case that the voluntary action (as defined in paragraph 1 above) of humanity will reduce population growth to zero prior to the commencement of the horrors described in paragraph 1(a) with absolute certainty. In other words, there is some level of probability that if humanity were to limit itself to voluntary action to control population growth that action will fail and humanity will exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth such that the horrors described in paragraph 1(a) would occur. No one knows what is the chance of success or what is the chance of failure of voluntary action-- no one knows if the chance of success is 70% and the chance of failure is 30% or 80/20 or 60/40 or 50/50 or any other combination of numbers. However, there is a chance of failure and failure will lead to the collapse of society/the collapse of the social order/the destruction of civilization and to the horrors described in paragraph 1(a). More importantly, there is a vastly greater chance of failure of voluntary action if population growth not only has to be reduced to zero but made negative to substantially reduce the human population from the current 7 billion or from the future 10 billion (year 2100) to a much lower number in order for our species to survive for a reasonable period of time. A number of experts (whatever the word "expert" means) ( David Pimental of Cornell University and James Lovelock of Gaia fame, for example) have presented factually and logically supported cases that the Earth's carrying capacity is 2 billion or less of our species. Humanity ignores at its peril the work of these experts. If the chance of success/failure is one set of numbers for voluntary action relating to reducing population growth zero, then there is a second set of numbers for success/failure in which the success side of the equation is substantially reduced and failure side of the equation is substantially increased in considering voluntary action in relation to population reduction. Since chance of failure of voluntary action could result in the horrific deaths of billions, perhaps as many as 9.6 billion--(10.1 billion alive in 2100 less the possible carrying capacity of 0.5 billion = reduction of 9.6 billion),the question becomes---- what level of possible failure of voluntary action is acceptable to humankind? Of course, the number of horrific deaths could be substantially less than 9.6 billion. However, since no one can guarantee with 100% certainty that the voluntary action will not prevent a substantial number of horrific deaths, the leaders of humanity have a duty to convene one or more conferences of the best minds presently on our planet to evaluate and consider coercive population control. It cannot be denied that many arguments can be made against coercive population control--- the experiment in India a number of years ago was a failure, humanity could equate coercive population control with the actions of Adolph Hitler or racists, it will take as long to impose coercive control as to make voluntary action successful and many others. Coercive population control need not be discriminatory. If each couple in the entire world were limited to one child, no religion, group, nationality, race, culture, etc., would benefit at the expense of any other religion, group, nationality, race or culture. This essay is not intended discuss or debate the advantages/disadvantages, or the problems/benefits of coercive population control. Rather, the purpose of this essay is to show that humanity must consider and evaluate coercive population control because there is a substantial, but undefined, risk that voluntary action will lead to the horrific deaths of a substantial number of human beings in the very near future----probably before the year 2050 and almost certainly before the year 2100. Jason G. Brent email@example.com Comments are not moderated. Please be responsible and civil in your postings and stay within the topic discussed in the article too. If you find inappropriate comments, just Flag (Report) them and they will move into moderation que.

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HealtheTimes guides and inspires readers to be proactive about their health and make informed decisions about every aspect of wellness, from lifestyle and dietary choices to environmental issues. It is brought to you by Carlson Labs In the News Obesity and Heart Disease in Kids An obese child’s arteries may be just as clogged as the arteries of a middle-aged adult, finds a recent study. A buildup of plaque in the arteries puts kids at risk for a heart attack or stroke as early as age 30. In the study of 70 mostly obese children ages 6 to 19, researchers used an ultrasound to measure the thickness of the kids’ artery walls in the neck. “We wanted to gauge their vascular age,” says Geetha Raghuveer, MD, MPH, referring to the age at which the level of plaque in the arteries would be normal. In these children, the vascular age was generally 30 years older than their chronological age. Although the growing research linking obesity with heart disease in children is alarming, Dr. Raghuveer is hopeful. “A lot of these kids’ arteries, even though they are in the early stages of atherosclerosis, are not hardened or calcified, not really advanced.” she says there may be an opportunity to implement lifestyle alterations, including exercise and diet. “Perhaps it may be reversed.”

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Use it or lose it? Researchers investigate the dispensability of our DNA| October 2, 2008 Our genome contains many genes encoding proteins that are similar to those of other organisms, suggesting evolutionary relationships; however, protein-coding genes account for only a small fraction the genome, and there are many other DNA sequences that are conserved across species. What are these sequences doing, and do we really need them at all? In a study published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org), researchers have delved into this mystery and found that evolution has actively kept them in our genome. Before the human genome was sequenced, researchers estimated the genome might contain upwards of 140,000 protein-coding genes, but surprisingly, sequencing revealed only about 20,000, accounting for less than 2% of the entire genome. Previously, Dr. Gill Bejerano of Stanford University found that lurking within the other 98% of the genome are stretches of sequences, known as ultraconserved elements, which are identical between humans and animals such as rodents and chickens, even though hundreds of millions of years of independent evolution separates them. Other evidence has suggested that ultraconserved sequences can harbor critical functions, such as regulation of the activity of certain genes. Yet research in this field has produced laboratory results that are seemingly in disagreement: some ultraconserved elements can be deleted from the mouse genome and produce no observable effect on mice. Bejerano cautions that laboratory experiments such as these may not be able to detect slow evolutionary forces at work. "With this in mind, we set out to examine the genomic data, much as someone would examine archaeological data, in search of similar deletion events that have happened naturally, and more importantly, were retained in the wild." "An analogy I like to entertain is that of plate tectonics: a fraction of the phenomena may be strong enough to be directly measured by our instruments, but to appreciate its full magnitude we must dig into the geological record," said Bejerano. "This digging into the genomic record is what our current work was all about. Bejerano and graduate student Cory McLean studied the genomes of six mammals, investigating ultraconserved elements that are shared between primates and closely related mammals, were present in the ancestor of modern rodents, but have been lost in the rodent lineage more recently. The researchers found that the genomic evidence supports an important biological role for ultraconserved elements, as well as thousands of other non-coding elements that are resistant to deletion. "The functional importance of ultraconserved elements is reinforced by the observation that the elements are rarely lost in any species," said McLean. "In fact, they are over 300-fold less likely to be lost than genomic loci which evolve neutrally in our genome." Bejerano explained that while loss of some elements may have a significant impact on the fitness of a species and the loss of other elements might be harder to detect in the laboratory, nearly all changes to these regions are picked up by evolution and swept out of the population. "Perhaps our most striking observation is one of sheer magnitude," Bejerano said. "Our work highlights how essential these dozens of thousands of regions are to the natural evolution of a species even as their actual functions remain, at large, a mystery." Scientists from Stanford University (Stanford, CA) contributed to this study. This work was supported by a Stanford Bio-X Graduate Fellowship and the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation. Gill Bejerano, Ph.D. (email@example.com; +1-650-723-7666) has agreed to be contacted for more information. Interested reporters may obtain copies of the manuscript from Peggy Calicchia, Editorial Secretary, Genome Research (firstname.lastname@example.org; +1-516-422-4012). About the article: The manuscript will be published online ahead of print on October 2, 2008. Its full citation is as follows: McLean, C., and Bejerano, G. Dispensability of mammalian DNA. Genome Res. doi:10.1101/gr.080184.108. About Genome Research: Genome Research (www.genome.org) is an international, continuously published, peer-reviewed journal published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Launched in 1995, it is one of the five most highly cited primary research journals in genetics and genomics. About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is an internationally renowned publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, located on Long Island, New York. It is a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an innovator in life science research and the education of scientists, students, and the public. For more information, visit www.cshlpress.com. Genome Research issues press releases to highlight significant research studies that are published in the journal.

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Are Britons becoming nature nitwits? One in five don't know oak trees come from acorns It's the national tree of England and a symbol of Britain’s seafaring power for hundreds of years. Yet according to a new survey, one in five adults have no idea that oak trees spring from tiny acorns. Instead, millions of ‘nature ninnies’ believe acorns fall from sycamore, elm or birch trees. Scroll down for video Worrying: Millions of 'nature ninnies' believe acorns fall from sycamore, elm or birch trees The survey also found that 15 per cent of adults think cows’ milk comes from male cattle, while a similar number are unaware that tadpoles turn into frogs. The shocking state of ignorance about nature is highlighted by an opinion poll of 2,000 adults carried out in the run up to Open Farm Sunday, when hundreds of farmers will open their gates to the public. Fewer than half the adults surveyed said correctly that bees make honey from nectar, with 59 per cent wrongly believing that honey comes from pollen. Only half knew that robins live in Britain all year round, while two thirds did not realise that sparrows – one of the most common UK birds – also live here all year. And although the call of the cuckoo is one of the great symbolic heralds of the spring, one in ten people said the birds live in the British Isles all through the winter. Farmer and TV presenter Adam Henson admitted he was disappointed by the level of public ignorance revealed in the poll, commissioned by the farming and environment charity Leaf. ‘As a farmer I am passionate about the great British countryside and like most farmers I spend a considerable amount of my time looking after it – along with all the wildlife that lives there too,’ he said. ‘I’m disappointed to see that so many people seem to be confused about the countryside and the role that farmers like me play in nurturing wildlife and tending the land.’ Three out of ten people questioned could not identify the red triangular road sign for frogs or toads crossing – with one in six believing it means ‘beware of frogs’. Women and men got a similar number of answers wrong. However, women were more likely to know that oak trees come from acorns – and that milking cows are female. All ages were unaware of the role of farmers in looking after the countryside, Leaf said. Around 95 per cent did not know that they manage over three quarters of the UK’s land, and fewer than one in four knew that farmers look after most of the hedge- rows, walls and fences in the countryside.

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The shared anger of mice and men: Scientific breakthrough linking humans to rodents could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's and autism By Rob Preece It is one of life's great mysteries - how some people can fly off the handle and become aggressive and violent seemingly without warning. But scientists now believe they know why some humans are more likely to show aggression than others, after they managed to block pathological rage in mice. Researchers found that overly hostile mice and angry men share biological similarities which make them more susceptible to rage - a major breakthrough which could pave the way for new treatments for conditions including Alzheimer's disease and autism. Breakthrough: Researchers found that overly hostile mice and angry men share biological similarities which make them more susceptible to rage In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from the University of Southern California and Italy identified a brain receptor in mice, which malfunctions in overly hostile rodents. When the scientists shut down the brain receptor, which also exists in humans, the excess aggression disappeared. The findings are expected to help experts develop drug targets for pathological aggression, which is a component in Alzheimer's, autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Marco Bortolato, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences at the USC School of Pharmacy, told Science Daily: 'From a clinical and social point of view, reactive aggression is absolutely a major problem. 'We want to find the tools that might reduce impulsive violence.' Scientists had already found that both male humans and mice respond violently to stress if they have low levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAO A). Similarities: Scientists found that both male humans and mice respond violently to stress if they have low levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A 'The same type of mutation that we study in mice is associated with criminal, very violent behaviour in humans,' Bortolato said. 'But we really didn't understand why that is.' Bortolato and his USC colleague Jean Shih worked backwards to replicate elements of human pathological aggression in mice. This meant not only low enzyme levels but also the interaction of genetics with early stressful events, such as trauma and childhood neglect. 'Low levels of MAO A are one basis of the predisposition to aggression in humans,' Bortolato. 'The other is an encounter with maltreatment, and the combination of the two factors appears to be deadly. 'It results consistently in violence in adults.' The research found that, in excessively aggressive rodents lackomh MAO A, high levels of electrical stimulus are required to activate a specific receptor in the brain. Even when this brain receptor does work, it stays active only for a short period of time. Bortolato said: 'The fact that blocking this receptor moderates aggression is why this discovery has so much potential. It may have important applications in therapy. 'Whatever the ways environment can persistently affect behaviour - and even personality over the long term - behaviour is ultimately supported by biological mechanisms.'

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Federal Government Seceded From the States and the Constitution first in 1913.Submitted by realman2020 on Mon, 11/19/2012 - 01:01 In 1861. The Federal government seceded from the states and our constitution first. The southern states broke away from the union. The reason is the Federal government broke the compact or contract. The Federal government overstepped their boundaries in the Constitution. Southern States seceding had nothing to do with slavery. It had everything to do with states’ rights. In 1913. The 16th and 17th Amendment were announced ratified without three-fourths of the states. The Federal Reserve act passed on Christmas eve in 1913. It happened in the dark of night when Congress was in recess. A handful of congressmen and senators by a voice vote passed this backdoor legislation. President Woodrow Wilson singed the bill into law. The Federal government seceded from the Constitution for the bankers. To read more click link below

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Corn crop residues are often left on harvested fields to protect soil quality, but they could become an important raw material in cellulosic ethanol production. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research indicates that soil quality would not decline if post-harvest corn cob residues were removed from fields. This work, led by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) soil scientist Brian Wienhold, supports the USDA priority of developing new sources of bioenergy. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency. Wienhold, with the ARS Agroecosystem Management Research Unit in Lincoln, Neb., led studies that compared runoff rates and sediment loss from no-till corn fields where postharvest crop residues were either removed or retained. The scientists also removed cobs from half of the test plots that were protected by the residues. After the test plots were established, the scientists generated two simulated rainfall events. The first occurred when the fields were dry, and the next occurred 24 hours later when the soils were almost completely saturated. During the first event, on plots where residue was removed, runoff began around 200 seconds after the "rain" began. Runoff from plots protected by residues didn't start until around 240 seconds after it started to "rain." Runoff from the residue-free plots contained 30 percent more sediment than runoff from all the residue-protected plots. But the presence or absence of cobs on the residue-protected plots did not significantly affect sediment loss rates. Wienhold's team concluded that even though cob residues did slightly delay the onset of runoff, sediment loss rates were not significantly affected by the presence or absence of the cobs. The results indicated that the cobs could be removed from other residue and used for bioenergy feedstock without significantly interfering with the role of crop residues in protecting soils. In a related study, Wienhold examined how the removal of cob residues affected soil nutrient levels. Over the course of a year, his sampling indicated that cobs were a source of soil potassium, but that they weren't a significant source of any other plant nutrients.

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Los Gallardos, nestled between the Bedar mountain range and the valley down to the coast, is a pleasant small town, well communicated and an important nexus in the road transport system of the area. It is a rich town, from which several of the local important Spanish dynasties have their homesteads, and it’s beginnings as a base for the mining experts and investors of the mines above it gave it a good start in life. Indeed, it is almost unique in the area as being one of the few towns that has never had a natural spring – the drinking water for the town was piped in from natural springs a couple of kilometers away. Nobody seems sure as to why it is called “Los Gallardos”, the most common explanation being that it was the name given to the rich foreigners who settled there at the turn of the last century. A “Gallardo” in Spanish was a gentleman, and the name was given to mining engineers and investors who came to exploit the mines of Bedar. An alternate theory, expounded to me by a 90 year old man who heard it from his grandfather when he was small, was that it came from the man who built the first house where Los Gallardos now is – a rich sailor from Mojacar, who disliked Mojacar and brought a plot of land next to the old Almeria – Vera route. His surname was “Gallardo” and as his family settled there the hamlet that sprung up was known locally as “el pueblo de los Gallardos”, or the village of the Gallardos [family]. Since the original Almeria – Vera route ran past Los Gallardos (the actual CN340 that runs past the village), and a track split off to go Bedar and Lubrin, it was the logical place for the (mainly British) engineers and investors to settle for their base. Bedar was where the miners lived; Los Gallardos the owners. Ease of communication from that point to nearly all the mines in the area, plus Garrucha (the main port) meant that it was easier for them to build a new base there rather then flog up and down the track to Bedar, which in those days would have taken the better part of a day. Los Gallardos was part of Bedar until 1924, when it was incorporated as a municipio, or a town hall. (Bedar has been mentioned in the records since before 1505, when the position of Bishop of Bedar was created in order to cement Christianity in the mountains). Until the latter part of the 1910s Bedar was a much larger community then Los Gallardos, being the main work base. As the mines close to Bedar started to close, the miners moved to new exploitations, causing a net loss of population and a small surge in the many (now often abandoned) villages in the mountains. The truth of the matter was that the intense mining activity that took place at the end of the 19th century, and whose financial and technical centre was based in Los Gallardos, created and consolidated a large number of villages in the area, such as Bedar, Garrucha, Seron, El Pinar and others. Upon the incorporation of Los Gallardos as an independent village, the new mayor was eager to get up and running with all the trappings of power. Since there was an economic downturn in the area, there were quite a few empty buildings lying around. The town hall was installed in a palm tree warehouse, which was rented from the owners until the late 80′s when money was made available to purchase it, knock it down and rebuild (preserving the original look of the building). The church was installed in another warehouse, which is currently being rebuilt and restored. Check out Sebastians bakery across the plaza from the Church, which has the oldest wood fired bakery in the area (well over a hundred years old, and in one of the original buildings). The square in front of the Church is the original square from the foundation of the village. Calle Seron was it’s first official street. The tarmacking of the main road in 1927 was a pivotal event in the history of Los Gallardos, as it cemented it’s position as the “doorway to the Levante”. Older people in the village still reminisce about a story that shocked the area at the time: The asphalt arrived in large cheaply made barrels of wood, metal lorries not existing at the time. The asphalt would then be mixed and poured onto the surface. The barrels were held together with simple hoops of metal. The children of Los Gallardos were envious of these hoops, and any discarded ones would be pounced upon and used as playthings, although almost all of them were taken away with the workmen. Over one weekend a group of older children hatched a cunning plan – gathering at dusk, they seized their opportunity and stole as many hoops off the barrels as possible. The scandal that erupted on the Monday was, by all accounts, enormous. The foreman of works was incandescent with rage, especially as without the hoops all the barrels had broken and the asphalt split out into the fields. The local judge arrived to investigate, accompanied by the dreaded Civil Guard, famed even before Francos day. After his investigation, he passed a number of fines, ranging from 5 to 20 pesetas, on the parents of the children, but stated that the onus on punishment for the children should be on the local headmaster of the school. The headmaster, as grandfathers still remember, enthusiastically doled out some quite heavy punishments upon the culprits! However, the asphalting of the road lead to the consolidation of Los Gallardos as a transport nexus for the area. A large number of taxi, transport and bus services sprang up over the next few years, although almost all vehicles were confiscated for the war effort during the civil war. Los Gallardos has always been known as “the taxi village”, and several large transport companies were born out of these humbles beginnings. The transport industry in Los Gallardos did not start to reestablish itself until the late 1950′s. The father of the current main taxi driver in Los Gallardos recounts a tale in which he was lucky enough to have a cousin working in SEAT in Barcelona, who was able to help him obtain a coveted car during this austere period. Other marques seem in the area were Peugots and Citroens, usually brought from France, and quite a few Fords. Apparently, although I can’t confirm this, there was for many years a Ford garage in the village. Large companies such as Jerasa, Rodriguez buses, Nilasa and others were all founded in or by Los Gallardos families, and most came out of those early years experimenting with early transport industries. Telephones arrived in the area in 1957, and the switchboard operator (on duty 24/7, 365 days a week) was paid 150 pesetas a month, a lot in 1957 but not so much 10 years later when she was still on the same pay level! She was on duty all day, but since there were only 10 phones in the village, any important calls were usually arranged the day before. Water problems throughout the area were endemic from the turn of the century until the creation of the Almanzora dam, caused by a lowering of the water level as population and agriculture increased, and a corresponding drying up of natural springs. Despite constant promises throughout these decades, no major investment in water infrastructure were made until the 80′s. This lead to the infamous protests by the side of the road as the Caudillo (old Franco himself) drove by on his way to Almeria in the mid 60′s. The old railway bridge by La Perulaca still has graffiti on it saying such things as “Franco mas agua!”. There is no indication that Franco noticed the demonstrations. No doubt he would have had them all shot. Currently Los Gallardos is in a strong expansionist phase. From 1996 to 2006 it was the 4 fastest growing town in Almeria, going from 1761 inhabitants to 3126. Last updated 18th July 2008.

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Banded - Found is coastal drainages of Alabama and Florida from Conecuh River to the Ochlockonee system, male banded topminnows are olive green with orange highlighting the upper gill covers. Bayou - The bayou topminnow has rows of dots and vertical bars, and it has a limited distribution, ranging from the Escatawpa and Mobile basins west to the Lake Pontchartrain drainage in Louisiana. Blackspotted - Blackspotted topminnows are characterized by a dark lateral stripe extending from the mouth to the caudal fin base and by small, distinct black spots along the back and upper sides (a useful characteristic for separating the blackspotted topminnow from the blackstripe topminnow). Blackstripe - The blackstripe topminnow can usually be distinguished from the blackspotted topminnow by the absence of small dark dots along the upper sides and back. Bluefin Killifish - The colorful bluefin killifish is found in Georgia, Florida, and only one pond in extreme southeast Alabama. Golden - When not breeding the golden topminnow is similar in appearance to the banded topminnow; in Alabama, the golden topminnow is limited to tributaries and backwaters of the Mobile Delta, Mobile Bay, and coastal lowland systems. Northern Starhead - The northern starhead topminnow is difficult to identify because of the sexual dimorphism. Northern Studfish - The northern studfish is a colorful topminnow that occurs in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains, upland regions of the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Green river drainages, and in isolated populations in Indiana and Mississippi. Pygmy Killifish - Perhaps Alabama's smallest fish, this fish is very rare in Alabama, but more common in Georgia and Florida. Rainwater Killifish - One of Alabama's smallest fish, it can be confused with the mosquitofish; the edges of the scales of rainwater killifish are edged in black, giving them a diamond-shaped appearance. Russetfin - In Gulf coastal drainages, Fundulus escambiae is distributed from the Perdido River drainage eastward to the Santa Fe River in Florida. Southern Starhead - The southern starhead topminnow is listed as a distinct species because individuals in Alabama are distinguishable from the bayou topminnow on the basis of body coloration. Southern Studfish - Found in the Coosa system and some lower Alabama River tributaries, the southern studfish is most closely related to the northern studfish and stippled studfish. Stippled Studfish - Only found in the Mobile basin, the stippled studfish is characterized by a series of darkened spots on individual scales that form a unique stippled pattern. Whiteline - The whiteline topminnow is an extinct fish that was first found in Spring Creek, Madison County, Alabama, now a part of Huntsville.

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Who doesn’t love hippos? Aren’t they the strangest creature? My second and third grade students agree and we discussed the anatomy of the hippo as we drew their robust bodies. Using a basic oil pastel and watercolor resist, the children turned their drawings into an underwater collage. To start, the children drew a hippo onto a piece of 12″ x 18″ white paper with an oil pastel. After drawing the body, the students drew a water line through the middle of the hippo’s head just below the eyes. Everything above this line was considered the sky and below; the murky water. I provided liquid watercolors so the children could run their brushes over the entire drawing. For a final flourish, children used foam 3-D dots to add fish and birds and tissue paper for watergrass. Lots of techniques in this lesson: directed line drawing, watercolor resist, oil pastel rendering, composition and collage. Whew! Second and Third grade Hippos….

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Dry sockets can on rare occasion result after a tooth is extracted. The blood clot healing in the extraction socket is unexpectedly dislodged leaving a bare painful open area. The technical term for this condition is acute alveolar osteitis. Generally the pain involved with a dry socket is intense, throbbing and unceasing. This pain is often worse than the pain associated with the tooth prior to extraction. A foul odor may be associated with this condition. Pain medication often does a sub par job of relieving the discomfort associated with this situation. What causes dry sockets to occur? Difficult surgical extractions leave patients more susceptable to this problem. Any action that forms suction within the mouth can raise risk level and should be avoided. Actions that should be avoided include but are not limited to: smoking, sucking through through a straw, spitting, vigorous mouth rinsing, sneezing, or coughing. Eating should be very light within the first 24 hours after tooth extraction to protect the affected area. In addition to the sucking action smokers use with cigarettes, smoking is thought to decrease the amount of oxygen available to the healing tissue, thereby, increase the risk of having a dry socket. Avoid smoking for at least the first 48 hours post extraction. Alveolar osteitis seem to occur in 5-10% of extractions. Frequency is greater with teeth of the lower jaw(mandible) and in cases involving wisdom teeth. Women are at greater risk than men for this condition due to hormone fluctuations associated with the menstrual cycle. Women taking oral contraceptives are at even greater risk. Prevention of Acute Alveolar Osteitis. cleanings and xrays. This regimen will hopefully allow problems to be when they are small and easily treatable. Mainaining good oral hygiene during the healing period. Women should schedule extractions during the last week of their menstrual cycles (days 23 through 28). This is when estrogen levels are lowest. Commence with a light, warm salt water rinse beginning 24 hours post tooth extraction. Avoid drinking through a straw, smoking or spitting for at least the first 48 hours post tooth extraction. Avoid alcohol for 48 hours as it can change bleeding patterns after an extraction. Avoid hard foods for 24 hours then carefully chew on the opposite side for an additional 24 hours to minimize injury to the extraction site. Carefully follow the post operative instructions given by the dentist and/or his staff. Treatment for a dry socket. Follow all post operative instruction very closely to avoid getting one. The pain associated with this condition will cause many regrets for patients that deviate from the healing protocol. The dentist may debride the socket of debris which also will cause new blood flow and clotting. Dental staff may place eugenol based iodoform gauze packing material into the socket to ease discomfort while healing commences. The site may need packed daily for up to 7-10 days although most need on 3-5 placements of analgesic packing. Take oral pain relievers. These have varied effectiveness for each individual. Even though the oral cavity is in discomfort, maintaining a proper diet is important to facilitate socket healing. can be a very uncomfortable and unforgettable experience. No patient wants to add this situation to their list of dental experiences. They are best avoided through prevention by receiving regular dental checkups, cleanings and xrays. By following this regimen, problems are usually found when small and extraction of teeth hopefully can be avoided. When tooth removal can not be avoided, closely follow the instructions provided by the dental staff.

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A new approach to improving system performance By Terry Costlow Embedded.com (01/05/10, 08:20:00 PM EST) Speed is a key element in most every electronic design. Whether engineers are creating complex image processing applications or designing systems that extend battery life by working swiftly before returning to sleep mode, speed is a critical factor in a product's success. Though hardware usually gets first consideration when design teams look for ways to improve speed, that's not usually the most effective path. It's fairly straightforward to run the features and functions of a product faster without making any hardware changes. Streamlining software so it runs at optimal rates can bring significant improvements in a way that's so easy to implement units in the field can be enhanced. That's far more cost effective than redesigning hardware. Three of the four basic components in system speed are in software: operating systems, compilers and application software. Hardware is the critical fourth phase, but altering processors, memories, bus architectures and data channels is difficult. Altering the operating system is also difficult once the OS has been selected. That leaves optimizing the software that runs above the operating system as the most straightforward way to increase speed. Applications packages, middleware and drivers take center stage when development teams focus on the features and functions that attract customers. But this software is typically overlooked when the focus shifts to performance. That's a mistake. Significant performance increases can be achieved when acceleration techniques are applied to software that resides above the operating system. It's rare that speed can't be boosted by 20 percent (or even doubled or quadrupled) especially when utilizing an outside firm that specializes in software acceleration who can assist with streamlining programs. Click here to read more ...

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Michael Specter has an interesting article in The New Yorker about global warming and how "dazzlingly complex" it all is once you start to take all of the factors into account. the calculations required to assess the full environmental impact of how we live can be dazzlingly complex. To sum them up on a label will not be easy. Should the carbon label on a jar of peanut butter include the emissions caused by the fertilizer, calcium, and potassium applied to the original crop of peanuts? What about the energy used to boil the peanuts once they have been harvested, or to mold the jar and print the labels? Seen this way, carbon costs multiply rapidly. A few months ago, scientists at the Stockholm Environment Institute reported that the carbon footprint of Christmas—including food, travel, lighting, and gifts—was six hundred and fifty kilograms per person. That is as much, they estimated, as the weight of “one thousand Christmas puddings” for every resident of England. This passage caught my attention. We need to look at the whole picture and not just the impact of our individual actions. Remember all of the "save the rain forest" campaigns during the 1980's? My 7th grade science class wrote a letter to the Ecuadorian Embassy to encourage them to stop deforestation. It's great that carbon emissions are getting so much attention, but they're just a piece of the overall puzzle. Just two countries—Indonesia and Brazil—account for about ten per cent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Neither possesses the type of heavy industry that can be found in the West, or for that matter in Russia or India. Still, only the United States and China are responsible for greater levels of emissions. That is because tropical forests in Indonesia and Brazil are disappearing with incredible speed. “It’s really very simple,” John O. Niles told me. Niles, the chief science and policy officer for the environmental group Carbon Conservation, argues that spending five billion dollars a year to prevent deforestation in countries like Indonesia would be one of the best investments the world could ever make. “The value of that land is seen as consisting only of the value of its lumber,” he said. “A logging company comes along and offers to strip the forest to make some trivial wooden product, or a palm-oil plantation. The governments in these places have no cash. They are sitting on this resource that is doing nothing for their economy. So when a guy says, ‘I will give you a few hundred dollars if you let me cut down these trees,’ it’s not easy to turn your nose up at that. Those are dollars people can spend on schools and hospitals.” The ecological impact of decisions like that are devastating. Decaying trees contribute greatly to increases in the levels of greenhouse gases. Plant life absorbs CO2. But when forests disappear, the earth loses one of its two essential carbon sponges (the other is the ocean). The results are visible even from space. Satellite photographs taken over Indonesia and Brazil show thick plumes of smoke rising from the forest. According to the latest figures, deforestation pushes nearly six billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. That amounts to thirty million acres—an area half the size of the United Kingdom—chopped down each year. Put another way, according to one recent calculation, during the next twenty-four hours the effect of losing forests in Brazil and Indonesia will be the same as if eight million people boarded airplanes at Heathrow Airport and flew en masse to New York. Read Big Foot In measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science. by Michael Specter Via: The Frontal Cortex

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I came accross this website the other day, and was intrigued at the concept behind the site. The concept, quoted from www.blackle.com states: "Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002 In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages." As environmentally conscious attitudes pervade society more frequently, environmental endeavours, however small, are popping up all over the place.

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A form of carbohydrate that will raise blood glucose levels relatively quickly when ingested. The term “fast-acting carbohydrate” is generally used in discussions of treating hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. However, as research accumulates on the subject of carbohydrates and how quickly they are absorbed, some diabetes experts say the term has become outdated. What defines hypoglycemia varies from source to source, but it generally refers to a blood glucose level below 70 mg/dl. In many cases, this will produce the typical symptoms of low blood sugar, which include trembling, sweating, heart palpitations, butterflies in the stomach, irritability, hunger, or fatigue. Severe hypoglycemia can cause drowsiness, poor concentration, confusion, and even unconsciousness. Diabetes care experts generally recommend checking one’s blood sugar level whenever possible to confirm hypoglycemia before treating it. To treat hypoglycemia, the standard advice is to consume 10-15 grams of “fast-acting” carbohydrate. Each of the following items provides roughly 10-15 grams of carbohydrate: - 5-6 LifeSaver candies - 4-6 ounces regular (non-diet) soda - 4-6 ounces of orange juice - 2 tablespoons of raisins - 8 ounces of nonfat or low-fat milk - One tube (0.68 ounces) of Cake Mate decorator gel. There are also a number of commercially available glucose tablets and gels. Benefits to using commercial products include the following: - They aren’t as tempting to snack on as candy is. - They contain no fat, which can slow down digestion, or fructose, which has a smaller and slower effect on blood glucose. - The commercial products are standardized, so it’s easy to measure out a dose of 10-15 grams of carbohydrate. If someone is unconscious from low blood sugar, don’t attempt to give him anything to eat or drink. Rather, take him to the nearest emergency room, or inject glucagon if you have been instructed how to do it. If you can’t get emergency help fast enough and can’t inject glucagon, it may help to rub a little glucose gel between the person’s gums and cheek.

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heated (part of speech: verb) fired, seared, roasted, grilled, baked, scalded, parched, fried, burned, broiled, sweltered, singed, scorched, warmed, boiled, charred, heated, cooked, simmered, toasted, stewed, braised, barbecued, poached - But strange to see, when women and men herein, that live all the season in these waters, that cannot but be parboiled, and look like the creatures of the bath! - "Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete Transcribed From The Shorthand Manuscript In The Pepysian Library Magdalene College Cambridge By The Rev. Mynors Bright", Samuel Pepys Commentator: Lord Braybrooke. - It was intermingled with an oily smell of boiled and parboiled coffee, overpowering in its intensity. - "The Coffin Cure", Alan Edward Nourse. - Should a very highly- flavoured seasoning be preferred, the onions should not be parboiled, but minced raw: of the two methods, the mild seasoning is far superior. - "The Book of Household Management", Mrs. Isabella Beeton.

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Micro vs Macro Micro and macro are prefixes that are used before words to make them small or big respectively. This is true with micro and macroeconomics, micro and macro evolution, microorganism, micro lens and macro lens, micro finance and macro finance, and so on. The list of words that makes use of these prefixes is long and exhaustive. Many people confuse between micro and macro despite knowing that these prefixes signify small and large respectively. This article takes a closer look at the two prefixes to find out their differences. To understand the difference between micro and macro, let us take up the example of micro and macro evolution. To signify evolution that takes place within a single species, the word microevolution is used whereas evolution that transcends the boundaries of species and takes place on a very large scale is termed as macroevolution. Though the principles of evolution such as genetics, mutation, natural selection, and migration remain the same across microevolution as well as macro evolution, this distinction between microevolution and macroevolution is a great way to explain this natural phenomenon. Another field of study that makes use of micro and macro is economics. While the study of the overall economy and how it works is called macroeconomics, microeconomics focuses on the individual person, company, or industry. Thus, the study of GDP, employment, inflation etc. in an economy is classified under macroeconomics. Microeconomics is the study of forces of demand and supply inside a particular industry effecting the goods and services. So it is macroeconomics when economists choose to concentrate upon the state of the economy in a nation whereas the study of a single market or industry remains within the realms of microeconomics. There is also the study of finance where these two prefixes are commonly used. Thus, we have microfinance where the focus is upon the monetary needs and requirements of a single individual where there is also macro finance where financing by the banks or other financial institutions is of very large nature. Micro and macro are derived from Greek language where micro means small and macro refers to large. These prefixes are used in many fields of study such as finance, economics, evolution etc. where we have words like micro finance and macro finance, micro evolution and macro evolution etc. Studying something at a small level is micro while studying it on a large scale is macro analysis. Financing the needs of an individual may be micro financing whereas the financial needs of a builder requiring money for a very large infrastructural project may be referred to as macro finance.

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Pioneering astronomer and physicist Sir Bernard Lovell has died aged 98. Sir Bernard, who was born near Bristol and studied in the city, was the founder of University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory. Jodrell Bank and the surrounding Cheshire countryside is dominated by the Lovell Radio Telescope, which was conceived by Sir Bernard. Professor Brian Cox, who knew Sir Bernard, said he was "an inquisitive scientist all the way". A book of condolence has been opened at the observatory's Discovery Centre. Sir Bernard was born in Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, in 1913 and studied at the University of Bristol before joining the University of Manchester's Department of Physics in 1936. During World War II he led a team developing radar technology, for which he was later awarded an OBE. Following the war, he returned to the university and set about planning the observatory. His iconic 76m (249ft) telescope was completed in 1957. Within days of it becoming operational, it tracked the rocket that carried Sputnik 1 into orbit. The structure remains the third largest steerable telescope in the world and plays a key role in global research on pulsating stars, testing extreme physics theories including Einstein's general theory of relativity. The telescope and his other contributions to radio astronomy led to him being knighted in 1961. Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, said: "Bernard Lovell ranks as one of the great visionary leaders of science. "He had the boldness and self-confidence to conceive a giant radio telescope, and the persistence to see it through to completion, despite the risk of bankruptcy. "What is even more remarkable is that, more than 50 years later, this instrument (after several upgrades) is still doing 'frontier' science. "I recall the celebrations of the telescope's 50th anniversary in 2007. Lovell, though nearly blind, played a full part in the festivities and made a superb speech. "He rightly took great pride in this lasting monument." A spokesman for the university said Sir Bernard was "warm and generous". He said the astronomer had "retained a keen interest in the development of science at Jodrell Bank and beyond," and added: "Indeed he continued to come in to work at the Observatory until quite recently when ill health intervened." Sir Bernard was also an accomplished musician, a keen cricketer and an internationally-renowned arboriculturalist who created an arboretum at Jodrell Bank. He is survived by four of his five children, 14 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Professor Cox, who met Sir Bernard after joining the University of Manchester in the 1990s, said: "I remember once I went to his house and immediately he said 'ah Cox, tell me about this muon' [a sub-atomic particle]. "He knew that I was doing particle physics and thought back to the last time he had thought about such things - he'd been thinking about astronomy for decades - and that's what he wanted to talk about. "That was him - all his life, he was a scientist. "He was a pioneer of radio astronomy and almost invented the subject. "He built the leading telescope and that radio study of the sky has contributed a vast amount to our understanding of the universe." RIP Sir Bernard.

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Presenting - 'Amasia', The Next Supercontinent! Ever since Earth has been in existence there have been the formation and breaking apart of many supercontinents - While Pangaea, that existed between 150-300 million years ago is the most well-known, prior to that was Nuna (1.8 billion years ago), Rodina (1 billion years ago) and many more that cannot be verified because 2 billion year-old rocks containing evidence of magnetic fields, are hard to find. And while most scientists are in agreement that Rodina, Nuna and Pangaea did exist, there is very little consensus on the continents they comprised of - Some experts believe that they were the same ones, while others think that the wandering landmasses reassembled on the opposite sides each time - about 180° away from where the previous supercontinent had come together. Now, a group of geologists led by Yale University graduate student Ross Mitchell have a new theory - They think that each supercontinent came together about 90° from its predecessor. That is, the geographic center of Rodina was about 88° away from the center of Nuna, whilst the center of Panagea, believed to have been located near modern-day Africa, was about 88° away from the center from its super giant predecessor, Rodina. These calculations that were reported earlier this year were based not only on the paleolatitude (The latitude of a place at some time in the past, measured relative to the earth's magnetic poles in the same period) of the ancient supercontinents, but also, for the first time the paleolongitude, that Ross measured by estimating how the locations of the Earth's magnetic poles have changed through time. While the theory is interesting, what is even more so is that the team has also come up with a model of the next supercontinent. If their estimates are accurate, over the next few hundred million years, the tectonic plates under the Americas and Asia will both drift northward and merge. This means that modern day North and South America will come together and become one giant landmass, displacing the Caribbean Sea completely. A similar movement in Eurasia (Australia and South Eastern Asia) will cause the Arctic Ocean to disappear causing the continents to fuse with Canada. The result? A ginormous continent that they call 'Amasia'. The one thing that is not too clear is if Antarctica will be part of this or just be left stranded. While many researchers believe that the Yale team's theory is quite feasible, nobody will ever know for sure - Because unfortunately, none of us are going to be around few 100 million years from now - But it's sure fun to envision the new world, isn't it?

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Advice for Parents of ADD/ADHD Children In the United States, 17 million children are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, and oftentimes it is accompanied by hyperactivity. Dr. Phil and Dr. Frank Lawlis, author of The ADD Answer, offer advice for parents whose children are diagnosed with the disorder. Educate yourself about ADD. In his book, Dr. Lawlis explains that an ADD diagnosis is not a sign of inferior intelligence or a handicap. It does not result in a damaged personality, criminal tendencies, or immoral behavior. ADD is not necessarily a learning disability or a mark of mental immaturity, although such conditions can coexist with ADD. Much of the time, the problems of ADD are related to the brain performing at lowered, subdued ranges. Obtain a proper diagnosis. Many times, parents are quick to make evaluations of their children's unruly behavior. "I always look for other reasons, other causation, whenever I see behavior spinning out of control," Dr. Phil explains. The symptoms a child exhibits may be caused by factors such as divorce, death of a parent, or a change in school and living situation. There are at least two well-documented ways to determine if your child has a neurologically based disorder of ADD or ADHD: a spectrogram or an EEG can identify specific patterns in certain parts of your child's brain. Examine your parenting style. Is the child more difficult with one parent than with the other? It could be that your parenting style is contributing to the problem. Parents need to have a unified front that they both can stand behind and enforce. You must support one another in your actions and discipline. Look at ways that you can change your child's environment, including avoiding fights in front of the kids or reacting to your child differently. Don't feel guilty about disciplining your child. Dr. Phil tells one mom whose child suffers from ADHD: "You have to be willing to visit the structure. You have to be willing to bring the predictability, the consistency and the discipline. It's not something you should feel guilty about; you should feel guilty if you don't do it because he needs the structure. He needs the guidance. He needs the order. He needs the rhythm. He needs all of the things that are necessary to give him a chance to have a flow to his life." Know all the facts before giving your child medication to treat ADD. Dr. Phil and Dr. Lawlis both agree that we are overmedicating our children. In his book, The ADD Answer, Dr. Lawlis asks, "Are we using drugs to control our children's behavior instead of being responsible parents? When we teach our children at a young age to rely on medications, I fear that we are in danger of creating a generation of pill poppers as a result." Also, medication is only about 50 percent effective, and it decreases in effectiveness from the day your child starts taking them. Dr. Phil clarifies his views about medication for ADD: "If it's working for you and your children against a backdrop of responsible parenting, then good for you and you shouldn't substitute my judgment or anyone else's for your own." Monitor your child's diet. "The brain doesn't necessarily use all the foods we give it in the best way, and actually the rawer the food, the more natural the food, the easier it is for the brain to metabolize it and use it for its use. So when you create a food that's not natural, that's been fried or created with a great deal of heat, it just doesn't work as well," Dr. Lawlis explains. Click here to take Dr. Lawlis' Audit for Diet-related Symptoms of ADD. Consider alternative options. Children can learn to control their brain activity to the point that it can affect their ADD or ADHD. The symptoms of ADD can be controlled through Biofeedback, computer images and sounds that show what's going on in the brain. (Dr. Lawlis devotes a whole chapter to this in his book, The ADD Answer). This approach is not an absolute cure for every aspect of ADD. However, it has worked well in helping children learn to control disruptive racing thoughts and impulsive behaviors that impair the ability to focus and concentrate. It offers therapies that help ADD children learn to control basic other reactions, such as heart rate and cardiovascular activity.

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Between 35,000 and 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals in Europe and Asia were replaced by the first modern humans. Why and how this transition occurred remains somewhat controversial. New research from the journal Science suggests that sheer numbers may have played a large role in modern humans’ eventual takeover; archeological data shows that early populations of modern humans may have outnumbered Neanderthals by more than 9 to 1. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/ ... -dynamics/ Humans, Neanderthals got it on By Lily Boisson, CBC News New genome shows Neanderthal trace in humans A new study adds more evidence to the theory that humans and Neanderthals interbred thousands of years ago. The study found that many humans outside of Africa share DNA with the long-extinct species. An international team of researchers has found that a small part of the human X chromosome, which originates from Neanderthals, is present in about nine per cent of individuals from outside of Africa. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story ... eding.html

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— Copyright Dorothy Sloan 2013 — Early Railroad Map of Missouri & Eastern Kansas Very Rare Pocket Map 389. [MAP]. WELLS, J[ohn] G[aylord]. Wells’ New Rail Road and Township Map of Missouri and Eastern Kansas from the Latest Government Surveys. J.G. Wells, 11 Beekman St. New York. 1857. Scale of Miles... Explanation [with symbols] State Capital. County Towns. Rail Roads. Proposed Rail Roads. [pictorial seal] Great Seal of the State of Missouri [below lower neat line at left] Lith. V. Keil 181 William St. N.Y. [centered below lower ornamental border] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by J.G. Wells, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. New York, 1857. Lithograph map of Eastern Kansas, all of Missouri, and parts of Indian Territory, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, and Illinois, printed on bank note paper, full hand coloring, borders in bright rose pink, ornate border of grapes, grape leaves, Native American portrait in oval at each corner; neat line to neat line: 42.8 x 63 cm; border to border: 51 x 71 cm; overall sheet size: 60 x 79 cm; folded into original green embossed cloth (14.7 x 9.5 cm), title lettered in gilt on upper cover (Wells’ New Map of Missouri and Eastern Kansas), printed yellow endpaper affixed to inside upper cover (Wells’ List of New Publications). Mild age toning to map, a few stains at top left, clean splits at a few folds (no losses), overall a fine copy with brilliant color. Uncommon (one copy of the 1858 edition located by OCLC, University of Virginia at Charlottesville). First edition. Not in Modelski’s railroad bibliographies, or other standard sources. Railroads began to be important in the region in the late 1850s, but ironically, the only railroad shown on this map is the Pacific Railroad Line between St. Louis (“The Gateway to the West”) and Jefferson City, with shorter trunk lines to the north and south of St. Louis. Slowly the emigrant and other trails were being replaced by railroad tracks. On the other hand, several proposed lines are indicated, such as one from Jefferson City to Kansas City, and another from Keosauqua, Iowa, to Kansas City. Tooley lists cartographer J.G. Wells (1821-1880) but notes only one map (Ohio) by him. Other located publications indicate that he was active principally in 1857. Circa 1856, Wells published a map of Kansas and Nebraska. In 1857 Wells published an extraordinary amount of material, such as pocket guides for Iowa (Howes W250), Nebraska (Howes W251), and popular guides, such as Wells’ National Hand-Book, and even a book on how to be your own attorney. Other maps by Wells in 1857 include New Sectional Map of Minnesota (1857); New Sectional Map of Kansas (1857); Kansas and Nebraska (1857); New Sectional Map of Nebraska (sold at our Auction 20 in 2007 @ $8,225). He also published an undated panoramic map of the Civil War in the 1860s (one copy located at University of Virginia at Charlottesville). The list of Wells’ forty publications on the front pastedown is impressive. The mysterious Wells’ cartographic output was short-lived and vigorous, and all his maps are very rare. DSRB Home | e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org

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JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald DELTA – In a climate-controlled warehouse here, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, much like a squirrel storing acorns for hard times, is putting away seeds of native plants and grasses for forest restoration and wildlife habitat improvement. “We have three mixes here, maybe 15 species in all, that are going to Grand Junction for aerial reseeding in the area burned by the Pine Ridge Fire last summer,” Jim Garner, a habitat biologist, said last week while moving pallets of seed bags with a forklift onto a truck. The seed mixes, concocted for what will best fit steep slopes, harsh soil and general burn conditions, are among the estimated 140,000 pounds of seed that will be dropped on the Pine Ridge burn area. The recently opened 9,000-square-foot seed repository, built at a cost of $1.2 million, is on a mesa in the Escalante Wildlife Area about six miles west of Delta. The seed warehouse is an effort to be proactive instead of reactive, Garner said. “We used to buy seed when we needed it,” Garner said. “But we were subject to the market price.” As the size, intensity and frequency of wildfires across the West grew, forest officials began to look to the long-range future, Garner said. It was clear that stocking up on seeds would avoid scrambling when they were needed for reseeding, he said. Reseeding helps hold off the invasion of non-native species of plants, Garner said. Increased recreation and energy exploration can transport non-natives on vehicles. The state agency collects seeds or acquires them from collectors and companies, then sends them to nurseries where they can be produced in great number in greenhouses and outdoors, Garner said. The majority of the seeds stocked in the warehouse will be preferred native species, but some non-natives are being produced because of cost, Garner said. “Squirrel tail costs $10 to $15 a pound, but crested wheat is cheap, $2 to $3 a pound,” Garner said. “Aspen fleabane and sulfur flowered buckwheat are $80 a pound.” Use of expensive seeds has to be evaluated in the light of project goals and how critical the situation is, he said. The warehouse eventually will store about 50 to 70 species of grass and flower seeds, among them sagebrush, mountain brome, dusty penstemon, basin wildrye, Sandberg bluegrass, Oregon daisy, western yarrow and sulphur buckwheat. The American dragon head is a native, but it’s aggressive so it has to be used judiciously so as to maintain plant diversity, Garner said. Warehouse stock will include seeds for the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management as well as parks and wildlife projects, Garner said. Temperature is important for storing seeds, Garner said. Seeds have been known to remain viable for 25 to 30 years at room temperature, but it’s not a sure thing, he said. Fans at balcony level will keep the temperature in the ground-floor storage area in the high 70s or low 80s in the summer when the temperature outside is blistering, Garner said. A small cooler is reserved for more finicky seeds, Garner said. Sagebrush seed in a natural setting, for example, lasts a year, but, in the freezer, the seed can be viable for five years. In the cooler, the operative rule is to maintain the combination of temperature and relative humidity less than 100, Garner said. The temperature is kept in the low 40s and the relative humidity at 32 percent, well below the target. On a more expansive scale, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Plant scientists and researchers globally have turned to the bank after natural disasters and in their search for plants with properties that increase their ability to meet medicinal, nutritional and climatic demands. The Delta warehouse has no ties to the federal program, Garner said. The 140,000 pounds of seed will be spread on almost 14,000 fire-scorched acres north of Grand Junction, said David Boyd, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management in northwest Colorado. “The reseeding is expected to take five days of flying,” Boyd said. “We want to do it while there is snow on the ground.” The cost of seed and airplanes is $1 million, Boyd said. “We want to get native seeds down to stabilize the soil before invasive species get started,” Boyd said. “Cheat grass is a concern because it’s not good for livestock or wildlife and it tends to dry quickly, which perpetuates the fire cycle.” Reseeding with seeds from the same area is preferable because the same species can have slight differences depending on latitude. Sagebrush in Colorado and Idaho could differ slightly, Joe Lewandowski, a spokesman for Colorado Park and Wildlife in Durango, said. The idea for the seed warehouse germinated as a result of the Uncompahgre Plateau Project, a native plant program of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, federal and state agencies and utility companies. Since 2002, the partners have harvested seeds from 1.2 million acres of timberland west of Montrose and sent them to growers.

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Can Nutrition Affect Hair Growth? Tocotrienols—a natural compound related to vitamin E—may increase hair growth by as much as 34% Hair loss can cause low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in both men and women. Now a study in Tropical Life Sciences Research holds promise for hair-loss sufferers and reports that tocotrienols—a natural compound related to vitamin E—may increase hair growth by as much as 34%. Counting the hairs on your head Vitamin E is made up of four tocotrienols and tocopherols, respectively called alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. In this study, 38 people (mostly men) with hair loss, were randomly assigned to receive 100 mg of mixed tocotrienols plus 46 IU of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) or placebo daily for eight months. The number of scalp hairs in a specific area of each participant’s head was monitored at four and eight months. The tocotrienol group experienced an average of 34% more scalp hairs compared with the placebo group who experienced a slight decrease. There was no significant increase in the weight of hair clippings in either group during or after the intervention. The study authors comment, “A possible explanation for the effects could be due to the potent antioxidant activity of tocotrienols that help to reduce lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in the scalp, which are known to be associated with alopecia (hair loss).” This is a small study, and further research is needed to investigate and confirm the role of tocotrienols in preventing hair loss. Tips for dealing with hair loss - See a doctor. If you are experiencing hair loss that concerns you, see a doctor. A doctor can help determine if your hair loss is a natural result of aging or is caused by other factors such as nutritional deficiencies, medication side effects, or thyroid, skin, or autoimmune disease. A doctor can also help you choose from a number of conventional and natural options that may help reduce hair loss and improve growth. - Don’t let it get you down. In addition to hair’s social importance, it also serves physical functions, such as protecting your scalp from the sun. Hair loss can affect a person emotionally, and anyone who experiences unwanted hair loss should reach out to a health professional for help. (Tropical Life Sciences Research 2010;21:91–9) Jane Hart, MD, board-certified in internal medicine, serves in a variety of professional roles including consultant, journalist, and educator. Dr. Hart, a Clinical Instructor at Case Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio, writes extensively about health and wellness and a variety of other topics for nationally recognized organizations, websites, and print publications. Sought out for her expertise in the areas of integrative and preventive medicine, she is frequently quoted by national and local media. Dr. Hart is a professional lecturer for healthcare professionals, consumers, and youth and is a regular corporate speaker.

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The Smart Student's Handbook provides information to motivate and guide students on the path to a successful academic career. It will also help parents and organizations that are sponsoring students to monitor their educational performance. Author Leevon Washington Phillips's unique scholastic guide is filled with valuable information to help students get and stay organized, such as: - Goals for individual terms and the year as a whole - Study, assignment, and examination tips - Assignment and performance tracking forms - Class and study timetables - A monthly planner/journal By helping students to better organize their studies, The Smart Student's Handbook inspires students to succeed in their academic pursuits, provides a means of assessing performance, and identifies areas that need improvement.

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Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. “Someday, homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations,” said Somenath Mitra, Ph.D., lead researcher, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. Harvesting energy directly from abundant solar radiation using solar cells is increasingly emerging as a major component of future global energy strategy, Mitra said. Yet, when it comes to harnessing renewable energy, challenges remain. Expensive, large-scale infrastructures, such as windmills or dams, are necessary to drive renewable energy sources, such as wind or hydroelectric power plants. Purified silicon, also used for making computer chips, which continue to rise in demand, is a core material for fabricating conventional solar cells. However, the processing of a material such as purified silicon is beyond the reach of most consumers. “Developing organic solar cells from polymers, however, is a cheap and potentially simpler alternative,” Mitra said. “We foresee a great deal of interest in our work because solar cells can be inexpensively printed or simply painted on exterior building walls and/or rooftops. Imagine some day driving in your hybrid car with a solar panel painted on the roof, which is producing electricity to drive the engine. The opportunities are endless.” The solar cell developed at NJIT uses a carbon nanotubes complex, which is a molecular configuration of carbon in a cylindrical shape. Although estimated to be 50,000 times smaller than a human hair, just one nanotube can conduct current better than any conventional electrical wire. Mitra and his research team took the carbon nanotubes and combined them with tiny carbon fullerenes (sometimes known as buckyballs) to form snake-like structures. Buckyballs trap electrons, although they can’t make electrons flow. Add sunlight to excite the polymers, and the buckyballs will grab the electrons. Nanotubes, behaving like copper wires, then will be able to make the electrons or current flow. “Someday, I hope to see this process become an inexpensive energy alternative for households around the world,” Mitra said. EC

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Food systems are often described as comprising four sets of activities: those involved in food production, processing and packaging, distribution and retail, and consumption. All encompass social, economic, political, and environmental processes and dimensions. To analyze the interactions between global environmental change and food systems, as well as the tradeoffs among food security and environmental goals, a food system can be more broadly conceived as including the determinants (or drivers) and outcomes of these activities. The determinants comprise the interactions between and within biogeophysical and human environments that determine how food system activities are performed. These activities lead to a number of outcomes, some of which contribute to food security and others that relate to the environment and other societal concerns. These outcomes are also affected directly by the determinants. Food security is the principal policy objective of a food system. Food security outcomes are described in terms of three components and their subcomponents: food availability, i.e., production, distribution, and exchange; food access, i.e., affordability, allocation, and preference; and food use, i.e., nutritional and social values and safety. Although the food system activities have a large influence on food security outcomes, these outcomes are also determined directly by socio-political and environmental drivers. These outcomes vary by historical, political, and social context. To capture these concepts holistically and to allow the analysis of impacts of global environmental change, adaptations, and feedbacks, a food system must include:

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Contrary to popular belief cranberries do not grow in water. They grow in beds called 'bogs' made of impermeable layers of sand, peat, gravel, clay and organic decaying matter from the cranberry vines. The vines can only grow and survive when special conditions exist such as an acid peat soil, an adequate supply of fresh water for irrigation and periodic flooding, a supply of sand and a long growing season that extends from April to November. There are two main methods of harvesting cranberries - dry and wet harvesting. EDEN Organic Dried Cranberries are a native American variety Vaccinium macrocarpon organically grown on family owned cranberry bogs in Québec, Canada. Ours are wet harvested, considered by some to be the best way to harvest cranberries. First our grower floods the bog with about 12 to 18 inches of water. Next, a simple machine called a 'water reel' stirs up the water and loosens the cranberries from their vines. The water reel is nicknamed the 'egg beater' and resembles a paddle boat. Cranberries have small air bubbles in the center, and once loosened from the vines they float to the surface of the flooded bog. Harvesters wade out into the bog when all the cranberries are on the surface. Using a specially designed gathering device they hand corral the berries into a large circle forming a thick red carpet of berries which are then loaded into trucks and taken to the processing station. Here the cranberries are cleaned, sorted, and quick frozen. When ready for drying, the cranberries are thawed and infused by immersing them in organic apple juice concentrate that is circulated over them until they reach just the right sweetness or 'Brix'. The infused cranberries are then rinsed, low heat dried, and coated very lightly with a mist of organic sunflower oil to prevent clumping. The low heat drying is warm air circulated until they are dry enough to become shelf stable, requiring no refrigeration. Unlike most commercial dried fruit, EDEN Organic Dried Cranberries contain no added refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup. We use NO sulfites, chemical preservatives, or additives of any kind. Cranberries are native to North America and were first used centuries ago by native Americans. A versatile fruit, they discovered that it could be used not only as a food source, but also as a dye for rugs, blankets and clothing, and as a healing plant to treat arrow wounds. American Indians had many names for the cranberry such as 'sasamanesh, ibimi, and atogua'. To the Delaware Indians it was a symbol of peace. Many native Americans believed that the berries had a special power that could calm the nerves. It's current name comes from early Dutch and German settlers who named the fruit, 'crane berry', because its small, pink blossoms resembled the head and bill of a Sandhill crane. Although folklore and anecdotal accounts of cranberries healthful properties (especially the benefits to urinary tract health) have been touted for centuries, it is recently that scientific research began revealing how healthful cranberries can be. Packed with nutrients like antioxidants and other natural compounds, cranberries are a great choice for the health conscious. The USDA recently found that the high phenolic content in cranberries delivers a potent antioxidant punch, rating it one of the highest out of 20 common fruits rated. To determine the antioxidant activity of various foods, the USDA uses a system referred to as Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). By testing the ability of foods and other compounds to subdue oxygen free radicals, the USDA was able to determine each compound's antioxidant capability. The ORAC value of cranberries is 1,750. Cranberries recently became the first fruit to carry a certified health claim in France. EDEN Organic Dried Cranberries are a delicious, healthy snack, but there's no need to limit them to mere snacking. Use EDEN Organic Cranberries in baking bread, in cakes and muffins, in pie fillings and puddings, in grain and bread stuffing, in hot cereals or on cold cereals. They can also used in making granola, granola bars, popcorn balls and caramel corn.

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Effect on Instruction and Classroom Management By thinking of assessment as part of instruction, teachers obtain immediate instructional suggestions and make any adjustments that are necessary. Teacher observation is a legitimate, necessary, valuable source of assessment information. By asking children to read aloud or to retell a portion of a selection they are reading, the teacher receives immediate information about the level of challenge that the selection presents to various students (Bembridge, 1992; Classroom organization and management suggestions flow from ongoing assessment data. Children who need added support, for example, may be encouraged to work in cooperative groups. Students who are having difficulty gain the support they need, and very able students gain deeper understanding of the materials they are reading as they explain the materials to others (Johnson & Johnson, 1992). Go on to Portfolio Assessment Back to Classroom Assessment Reading/Language Arts Center | Education Place | Copyright © 1997 Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions of Use.

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Prevent or control diabetes, reduce your risk for heart disease |PATIENT STORIES: JUDY HENDERSON, 66 If you have diabetes, you're much more likely to have heart disease, a heart attack or a stroke. In fact, two out of three people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke. But you can cut your chances of having these problems by taking special care of your heart and blood vessels. Judy Henderson, 66, of Naperville, took action and now has her diabetes under control. "I was discouraged," says Henderson. "For six years my A1C scores had been going up, even though I was taking insulin." A1C, a test of average blood glucose levels over two to three months, is a key indicator of how well diabetes is controlled. "In March 2010 when my score reached 7.5 – it's supposed to be under 7 – my doctor sent me to the Edward Diabetes Center. Three months later, my A1C was 6.1 and I'd lost 35 pounds, without focusing on losing weight. Now I need less medication and feel much better." Staff at the Edward Diabetes Center work with patients like Judy to help them make lifestyle changes that lead to healthier diets, increased activity and, ultimately, lower A1C scores. "Goals have to be doable," says Brenda Jagatic, a clinical nurse educator with the Edward Diabetes Center. "If the person hasn't exercised in 15 years, we're not going to recommend starting with 45 minutes of daily exercise. Instead, we might suggest a 10-15 minute walk, three times a day." Henderson says they discussed her A1C numbers and reviewed her log to determine what might work best. "It helped to take my blood sugar four times a day instead of just once," says Henderson. "The most beneficial thing was learning to keep records. I now log meter readings, the carbs I eat, my activities and medications." For more information about the Edward Diabetes Center, visit www.edward.org/diabetes or call (630) 527-3213.

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Topic 6: Writing and Typing Tips Using the features in the AutoCorrect Options and teaching students the quickest way to spell check and find synonyms will enhance their writing. Create a template that includes the information that a student needs to correctly head a paper will reduce frustrations and allow the student to immediately begin work on the content. - Participants will use the autocorrect, and auto text features to reduce the number of keystrokes and errors. - Participants will use the right mouse button to quickly check their spelling and find synonyms of words. - Participants will create a template that contains the necessary student information for a paper heading. Such as name, date, class name. To begin the first Learning Activity, click here.

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- [noun] (physics) the process of diffusing; the intermingling of molecules in gases and liquids as a result of random thermal agitation - [noun] the spread of social institutions (and myths and skills) from one society to another - [noun] the property of being diffused or dispersed - [noun] the act of dispersing or diffusing something; "the dispersion of the troops"; "the diffusion of knowledge" Synonyms: dispersion, dispersal, dissemination

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Arterial Blood Gases Made EasyBy - Iain Hennessey, MBChB(Hons), BSc(Hons), MRCS, MMIS, Specialty Registrar, Paediatric Surgery, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK - Alan Japp, MBChB(Hons), BSc(Hons), MRCP, Clinical Research Fellow, Department of Cardiovascular Research, University of Edinburgh, UK Arterial blood gas analysis plays an indispensable role in the assessment and management of patients with a huge range of acute medical and surgical problems. Its importance as a key tool in the work-up of acutely unwell patients rivals that of the ECG and the chest x-ray. This book covers all aspects of the arterial blood gas in a simple, user-friendly manner. The first part explains the technique, the values obtained and common patterns of abnormalities, while the second part comprises a series of worked examples and case scenarios to allow the reader to put this system into practice. Medical Undergraduates at all stages of training, junior doctors in A&E, anaesthetics, surgery, acute medicine and respiratory medicine Paperback, 152 Pages Published: September 2007 Imprint: Churchill Livingstone - Part 1: The ABG explained Pulmonary gas exchange: the basics Disorders of gas exchange Acid base balance: the basics Disorders of acid base balance ABG sampling technique When and why is an ABG required? Making ABG interpretation easy Part 2: The ABG in Practice The 2nd part of the book contains a series of 25 clinical scenarios each requiring interpretation of an arterial blood gas as the end point. Each scenario comprises a 2 page spread. The first page includes information on history and examination findings, with or without other important test results. The opposing page shows the ABG result in the style of a computer print-out and list a series of questions for the reader to answer. Each scenario has a corresponding "explanation" page at the back of the book.

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No, no Con-Con By Henry Lamb The U.S. Constitution provides two ways to offer amendments to the Constitution: by resolution of the Congress; and by a Constitutional Convention requested by two-thirds of the states. In either case, the proposed amendment(s) must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. There is a very good reason why all 27 amendments to the Constitution were offered by Congressional resolution: a Constitutional Convention is an invitation to disaster. Proponents of a Constitutional Convention claim that opponents of a Con-Con use "…half-truths, myths and outright falsehoods…" to instill fear of the process. They do not, however, provide any examples of the alleged "half-truths, myths, and outright falsehoods." Here is the whole truth, which is neither a myth nor a falsehood. Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows states to apply to the Congress for a Constitutional Convention. Should two-thirds of the states issue such an application, Congress is compelled to call a Constitutional Convention. Note, however, that the Constitution provides the states only with the authority to call for a convention for the purpose of "…proposing amendments…." There is no authority for the states to specify what those amendments might be, or to set, or limit the agenda of a convention. When 34 states have applied for a Constitutional convention, Congress is compelled to call a convention. Here's where the scary begins. Congress sets the time and location for the Con-Con. Congress determines how the delegates are chosen, and how many delegates will be chosen. Congress could designate the existing Senate to be the delegates. Congress could designate the Electoral College from the last Presidential election to be the delegates. Or, Congress could allow the states to choose their own delegates in whatever manner Congress might contrive. But this is not the scariest part. Should a Constitutional Convention ever be assembled, neither Congress nor any state would have any authority or control over what the convention might do. There is no way for Congress to set or limit the agenda of a Constitutional Convention, regardless of what proponents might say. As evidence, consider the only Constitutional Convention that was ever assembled. It was assembled expressly to amend the existing Articles of Confederation, with explicit instructions from some states for their delegates to walk out should the convention stray beyond this specific purpose. History demonstrates that the convention ignored its instructions and abolished the Articles of Confederations while creating an entirely new Constitution. There is nothing to prohibit another Constitutional convention from doing precisely the same thing. Proponents of a Con-Con say that the requirement that three-fourths of the states must ratify whatever comes out of a Constitutional Amendment is a safeguard to prevent radicals on either side from imposing radical provisions. These folks forget that the convention can specify what it takes to ratify whatever they produce. They could produce a new Constitution with an entirely new form of government and specify that ratification would occur upon a simple majority vote in national referendum. They could specify that the new document would be ratified when approved by state legislatures in any combination of states that represent more than 50-percent of the population. Under this scenario, a handful of blue states could transform the government of the United States. Scary? You bet. Scenarios such as this should instill fear and force people to reject the idea of a Constitutional convention for any reason. Here is a thorough explanation of the dangers. There is great need, however, to amend the Constitution. The imbalance in powers between the states and the federal government grows in the favor of the feds every time Congress meets or the President speaks. The United States of America originally was a unique experiment in shared sovereignty - in which the states' power was centered in the Senate, which had to approve virtually every legislative proposal suggested by the President or that originated in the people's House of Representatives. The tension between what the states considered to be in their interest, and what the people's representatives and the President considered to be in their interests created a competition that could not move any idea forward until all parties had agreed. This is the genius of the American System that made America the greatest nation on Earth. The 17th Amendment removed the states altogether from participation in the federal government. The federal government's power and budget has expanded ever since. The time has come to restrain the powers of the federal government, and the best way to do it is to return to the design created by our Founders. Repeal the 17th Amendment!

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Australian Heritage Commission, 2001 26 - An outer suburban house of the 1950s 6 Lewellin Grove, Carrum, Victoria Lewellin Grove house in 1997. After World War II Australia shared in an economic boom created by the rejuvenation of the world economy. Work was plentiful and to ease labour shortages the federal government introduced an immigration program, which added to the economic momentum. These were good times, coming after years of depression and war which had restricted consumer spending and household formation, but the building industry was unable to meet the demand for housing. For around 15 years after the war, shortages of labour and building materials meant that average income earners had to downscale their expectations of housing space, style and amenity. Many built their own houses, or provided unskilled labour to cut construction costs and delays. New houses were smaller and more expensive than before the war. As Robin Boyd put it, 'the traditional plan and structure remained unaltered, but one by one the decorations and embellishments went'. This simple weatherboard house, built in outer suburban Melbourne in 1955, was typical. Modest and unadorned, it enabled the owners to live and raise a family in a suburban setting, during a period of escalating building costs. In 1948 John 'Jack' Frost, a toolmaker from Coventry, migrated to Australia. Born in 1919, he was still single and by making a new start in a new land he hoped to put the sadness of the war years, in which his mother and brother had been killed during the Blitz, behind him. After stints as a mechanical fitter at Yallourn, and as a gold miner in Kalgoorlie, Jack worked as a toolmaker around Melbourne. He was never out of work until the day he retired. He met Gwen Warry, an Australian, and they married in 1954. Jack Frost in the 'bush' on his Lewellin Grove block, 1955. Gwen lived with her parents in Carrum, a seaside resort on Port Phillip Bay, around 35 kilometres from Melbourne. It was located at the edge of a large area of swampland which had been drained and made available for selection during the 1870s. Like most of the small towns along the Bay, Carrum in 1945 was ready to blossom as a suburb. The railway to Frankston had been electrified in the 1920s and provided an excellent service for commuters. A fine beach was nearby and there were ample homesites, their cheapness compensating for the lack of sewers and made roads. Carrum would never be a salubrious suburb because it was flat and flood-prone, but the area had useful community facilities, including a primary school, and later, a high school. After they married the Frosts lived with Gwen's parents. They liked the area and bought a nearby block of land. Close to the shops, school, station and beach, it was an ideal homesite, but a lot of work was needed before a house could be built on it. The lot was covered in tea-trees and banksias and the road was a sand dune. But the land was cheap, and cost only £300; similar lots in nearby Chelsea, served by made roads, were around double the price. The co-operative building society said they didn't mind me building the house myself, as long as I had each progressive stage checked by a qualified builder. The man who sold me the land recommended a builder. 'I've seen people who try to build their own place and then get into all sorts of difficulties', the builder said. 'Why don't you let me build it for you and you can do as much of the building and painting as you can yourself.' The Frosts chose a design within their price range from the builder's book of plans. A fibro-cement garage was included in the price. Jack was earning little more than the basic wage, which in 1955 was less than £12 per week. New three-bedroom houses in Melbourne's outer suburbs typically cost around £3,000. The Frosts could only afford to borrow £2,500, which was still over four times their annual household income. This indicates how difficult things were at the time for working-class families. The house under construction at Lewellin Grove. Many families in Carrum responded to these high costs by building small, basic bungalows at the rear of their property and living in them until they could afford to build a full-size house. The Frosts instead chose to compromise their living space. Their house was only 11 squares; before the war 15 squares had been closer to the norm. It had only two bedrooms; luckily, this did not cause accommodation problems later, for Gwen and Jack's two children were boys (in the late 1960s the lack of space was partially alleviated when Jack built a fibro-cement bungalow in the backyard, which became a third bedroom). The hallway was a mere 38 inches wide. The dining room was a token area too small for its intended purpose and the family and visitors took meals in the kitchen. The dimensions of the front porch ran to only a few square feet. Moulded cornices in the lounge/dining room and an iron porch light and screen door were the only ornamentation. The bathroom did have a separate shower and bath, and the laundry and toilet were inside. Having the house built professionally took a lot of the stress out of the construction process. Jack recalls that, 'A man further up the street who was building his own place was constantly chasing materials which were in short supply - even nails. He insisted on going to pick his own wood, and chose the wood which looked the best, but which turned out to be the worst'. The builder used his contacts to obtain materials promptly, but because he was working on three or four jobs at the time 'progress was jerky'. 'There'd be times when things moved really quickly. Then there'd be frustrating periods when nothing happened. Our hopes would go up and down.' The house under construction at Lewellin Grove. Jack and Gwen provided 'sweat equity' by doing much of the unskilled labour. On weekends they painted weatherboards and window frames. They painted the interior, varnished floorboards and put down the linoleum. Jack and a neighbour built the fences. When a hole was dug in the sand for a septic tank it flooded so quickly that the plumber was convinced that a pan toilet would be necessary. Instead, Jack designed and built a handpump to draw out the water while the septic tank was being built. This toil took up all of their spare time, but they ended up with a soundly-built home. Barbara and Graeme Davison have detected a pioneer spirit amongst post-war suburbanites who 'did battle with the elements, creating little oases of domestic safety and comfort in a dangerous world'. Jack's perspective was that, 'I felt rather like a pioneer because you don't have the chance to do that sort of thing in England. In England you saved up and bought a house which was already built. This idea of a buying a block of land and building your own house was new to me.' Gwen died in 1984, at the age of 59. Jack still lives in his first home: he feels a strong sense of attachment to the place he worked so hard for and sees no reason to move. The house is now sewered, has a concrete driveway and path (laid by Jack), and has been painted inside and out several times, but essentially has remained unchanged. The open fireplace remains the main source of heating and in summer the windows are opened and sea breezes relied upon for cooling. Acknowledgements and Bibliography The 1955 photographs are from Jack Frost and the 1997 photograph was taken by Lionel Frost. Boyd, Robin, Australia's home: Why Australians built the way they did, Penguin, Harmondsworth 1952. Davison, Barbara and Graeme Davison, 'Suburban pioneers', in G Davison, T Dingle and S O'Hanlon, eds, The cream brick frontier: histories of Australian suburbia, Monash Publications in History, Clayton 1995. Greig, Alastair, The stuff dreams are made of: housing provision in Australia 1945-1960, Melbourne University Press, Carlton 1995. Hibbins, GM, A history of the City of Springvale: constellation of communities, Lothian Publishing, Port Melbourne 1984. McGuire, Frank, Chelsea: A beachside community, The City of Chelsea Historical Society, Chelsea 1985. Lionel Frost is an Associate Professor in the School of Business at La Trobe University. He has written several books and articles on aspects of Australia's urban history, including Australian cities in comparative view (1990) and The new urban frontier: urbanisation and city-building in Australasia and the American West (1991). In 1994 he was co-winner of the prestigious Dyos Prize in Urban History, awarded by the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester. Links to another web site Opens a pop-up window

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The Middle School enjoys its own spirited identity at Episcopal while still maintaining a close connection to the Upper and Lower Schools. It is a place where there are opportunities for students to develop a sense of belonging, ownership and responsibility for this community and any other communities in which they participate. We use the Ten Stripes (Self-Control, Faith, Honesty, Courtesy, Kindness, Generosity, Gratitude, Courage, Respect and Sportsmanship) as the foundation of all of our interactions to inspire students to embody these qualities. We have Chapel and advisory programs that are in place to empower and support students to acquire the skills and develop the character and confidence to make good decisions, engage fully and act mindfully. We encourage and teach our students to reflect on the many ways they interact with the community and strive to help them see different perspectives in all that we do. We strive to teach, model and promote important academic ideas, dexterity in communication and strong interpersonal skills. Students are challenged to develop organizational skills, study habits and habits of mind that support individual growth and allow for the pursuit of a challenging academic curriculum. We work to balance Mind, Body and Spirit through participation in a rigorous academic program where we pursue knowledge, big ideas and questions and use a variety of instructional strategies to foster curiosity, exploration, and creativity. We strive for our students to become critical thinkers, independent and lifelong learners, strong communicators, healthy risk takers and good global citizens. A Step Up in Middle School In Sixth Grade, students begin interscholastic competition in athletics and are required to participate in chorus, band, or string ensemble; modern language offerings include French, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. In I and II Form, Latin and classical studies are required and a vibrant elective program is offered. Students can take an active role in shaping the Middle School community through Student Council, Chapel Council, and yearbook for 7th and 8th grade students. Courses in 2-D design, ceramics, music technology, and community theater are offered in the arts and electives like robotics and digital video production push students to weave creativity with technology. Students are expected to gain independence, speak their mind and defend their opinions and are encouraged to develop the confidence in themselves they’ll need to succeed Upper School, in college, and beyond.

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Satellites are tracing Europe's forest fire scars Burning with a core heat approaching 800°C and spreading at up to 100 metres per minute, woodland blazes bring swift, destructive change to landscapes: the resulting devastation can be seen from space. An ESA-backed service to monitor European forest fire damage will help highlight areas most at risk of future outbreaks. Last year's long hot summer was a bumper year for forest fires, with more than half a million hectares of woodland destroyed across Mediterranean Europe. So far this year fresh fires have occurred across Portugal, Spain and southern France, with 2500 people evacuated from blazes in foothills north of Marseille. According to the European Commission, each hectare of forest lost to fire costs Europe's economy between a thousand and 5000 Euros. The distinctive 'burn scars' left across the land by forest fires can be identified from space as a specific reddish-brown spectral signature from a false-colour composite of spectral bands from optical sensors in the short wavelength infrared, near infrared and visible channels. A new ESA-backed, Earth Observation-based service is making use of this fact, employing satellite imagery from SPOT and Landsat to automatically detect the 2004 burn scars within fire-prone areas of the Entente region of Southwest France, within the Puglia and Marche regions of Italy and across the full territory of Spain. Burn scar detection is planned to take place on a seasonal basis, identifying fires covering at least one hectare to a standard resolution of 30 metres, with detailed damage assessment available to a maximum resolution of 2.5 metres using the SPOT 5 satellite. Partner users include Italy's National Civil Protection Department, Spain's Dirección general para la Biodiversidad – a directorate of the Environment Ministry that supports regional fire-fighting activities with more than 50 aircraft operating from 33 airbases – as well as France's National Department of Civil Protection (DDSC) and the country's Centre D'Essais Et De Recherce de l'Entente (CEREN), the test and research centre of the government organisation tasked with combating forest fires, known as the Entente Interdépartementale. "To cope with fire disasters, the most affected Departments in the south of France have decided to join forces to ensure effective forest fire protection," explained Nicolas Raffalli of CEREN. "Within the Entente region we have an existing fire database called PROMETHEE, which is filled out either by firemen, forestry workers or policemen across the 13 Departments making up the region." Current methods of recording fire damage vary greatly by country or region. The purpose of this new service – part of a portfolio of Earth Observation services known as Risk-EOS – is to develop a standardised burn scar mapping methodology for use throughout Europe, along with enabling more accurate post-fire damage assessment and analysis of vegetation re-growth and manmade changes within affected areas. "We want to link up PROMETHEE with this burn scar mapping product from Risk-EOS to have a good historical basis of information," Raffalli added. "The benefit is that it makes possible a much more effective protection of the forest." Characterising the sites of past fires to a more thorough level of detail should mean that service users can better forecast where fires are most likely to break out in future, a process known as risk mapping. Having been validated and geo-referenced, burn scar maps can then be easily merged with other relevant geographical detail. The vast majority of fires are started by the actions of human beings, from discarding cigarette butts up to deliberate arson. Checking burn scar occurrences against roads, settlements and off-road tracks is likely to throw up correlations. These can be extrapolated elsewhere to help identify additional areas at risk where preventative measures should be prioritised. And overlaying burn scar maps with a chart of forest biomass has the potential to highlight zones where new blazes would burn the fiercest. Once such relatively fixed environmental elements, known as static risks, are factored in, other aspects that change across time – including temperature, rainfall and vegetation moisture – can be addressed. These variables are known as dynamic risks. At the end of the risk mapping process, the probability of fire breaking out in a particular place and time can be reliably calculated. The Risk-EOS burn scar mapping service began last year. The intention is to develop further fire-related services by the end of 2007, including daily risk maps combining EO with meteorological and vegetation data. Another planned service will identify 'hot spots' during fires, and map fire events twice a day, permitting an overall assessment of its development and the damage being done. A 'fires memory atlas' set up at national or regional level will allow the routine sharing of all information related to forest fire events and fire risk. "For the future I think near-real time fire and hot spot mapping would obviously be extremely useful," Raffalli concluded. "With these products those managing the situation could see where the fire is, as well as the hot spots inside it. They can then deploy ground and aerial resources with maximum efficiency." Building on ITALSCAR Italy's National Civil Protection Department is providing advice on the implementation of the Risk-EOS service, based on previous experience with an ESA Data User Programme (DUP) project called ITALSCAR. Run for ESA by the Italian firms Telespazio una Societá Finmeccanica and Vitrociset, ITALSCAR charted burn scars across the whole of Italian territory occurring between June and September during the years 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. For the last quarter of a century, Italian legislation had required that all burned areas be recorded and mapped, as no land use change is permitted to occur on such terrain for 15 years after a blaze, no new building construction for the next ten years, and no new publicly funded reforestation for a half-decade. However the mapping of burn scars is the responsibility of local administration and their methodologies and overall effectiveness are highly variable. No central cartographic archive of burn scar perimeters exists: the closest equivalent is a cardset index (Anti Incendio Boschivi or AIB) recording fire-fighting interventions by the Italian Forest Guards. The ITALSCAR burn scar maps were produced across a wide variety of different forest classes. Burn scars were mapped pixel by pixel using an automated software system, followed up with manual photo-interpretation for quality assurance. To ensure confidence in the results they were validated using ground surveys and checked against reports from local fire brigades and Forest Guards' AIB records. The Risk-EOS burn scar mapping service is based around this same methodology. Managed by Astrium, Risk-EOS also incorporates services for flood as well as fire risk management. It forms part of the Services Element of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), an initiative supported jointly by ESA and the European Commission and intended to establish an independent European capability for worldwide environmental monitoring on an operational basis.

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|"money doesn't grow on trees" = don't waste money because it isn't always easy to come by| "Watch how much you spend because money doesn't grow on trees." "have a green thumb" = special ability at making plants grow well "She has a real green thumb for growing beautiful decorative trees." More of Randall's Favorite Learning Resources [ Quiz Script | Text Completion Quiz ] Recycling and protecting the environment is very important in our world today. Now, you will listen to an award-winning essay on trees in which a girl explains why she loves trees? What ideas would you expect to hear in such an essay? |I. Pre-Listening Exercises [Top]| HELPFUL TIP: Deforestation is a serious problem around the world, and planting new trees never seems to keep up with the demand. You can help by recycling paper and even just simply reusing paper for different purposes.| Listen to the conversation by pressing the "Play Audio" button and answer the questions. Press the "Final Score" button to check your quiz. |II. Listening Exercises [Top]| [ Other Audio Options: Play RealMedia | Play Window Media ] Listen to the conversation again as you read the Quiz Script and do the Text Completion Quiz. |III. Post-Listening Exercises [Top]| What environmental problems can you think that pose great danger to nature and our world (e.g., acid rain, deforestation, water pollution)? Are these threats caused by human activity or by natural occurrences? What are some solutions to these problems? Share your ideas on these important issues. Now, write your opinions on a similar topic at Randall's ESL Blog HERE. Randall's Sites: Daily ESL | ESL Blog | EZSlang | Train Your Accent | Tips For Students | Hiking In Utah

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This little LED-lit cube is much more than just a paper lantern: It’s a translucent and flexible thin-film electronic circuit that hooks up a battery to an LED, limber enough to be folded into an origami box. And the coolest thing about circuits like these? You can make them at home. In what follows, we combine basic electronics (an LED Throwie) and papercraft (a traditional origami balloon) to make what might be called an “LED Foldie.” The circuitry consists of aluminum foil traces, ironed onto adhesive paper such as freezer paper, photo mounting paper, or even a laser printed pattern. Something constructed this way can then be folded so fit an LED and battery to complete the circuit. The first step in designing a three-dimensional circuit like this is to see where the parts go. After that we will unfold the model, draw circuit paths between the points that we want to connect, and go from there. To get started, we first folded an origami balloon, and then inserted the components where we wanted them. The balloon has a convenient pocket on the side for a lithium coin cell, and a single hole that allows you to point an LED into the interior of the balloon. (And you can follow along with balloon folding in this flickr photo set.) We marked up the locations of the battery and LED terminals on the origami balloon– while still folded– and then unfolded our “circuit board.” At this point, we have the component locations marked, but no lines drawn between them. The next step is to add those circuitry lines (circuit board wires, or traces) between the battery and LED. One thing to keep in mind for interfacing papercraft to electronics: it’s helpful if the circuit traces fold over the leads for the LED in order to maintain good contact. After connecting the dots (so to speak) we have the resulting layout of our circuit. (See PDF below as well.) Pretty simple here– only two wires! The two round pads contact the two sides of the battery, and the two angled pads contact the two leads of the LED. The next step is to actually fabricate our circuit board. We’ve actually found two slightly different techniques that work well, so we’ll show you both. First is the “Freezer paper” method (which also works with sheets of dry mount adhesive), where you laminate foil traces to the plastic-coated paper. Second is the “Direct Toner” method, where you print out a circuit diagram on a laser printer and laminate the foil to the printed toner. (Both of these methods of fabricating paper circuitry can be applied in all kinds of other arenas besides origami. Our origami balloon example provides a good demonstration of the techniques!) METHOD I: The “Freezer paper” method Next, cut out your traced pattern. Scissors work well, of course. Be careful not to tear the foil! Prefolding your paper and comparing to your circuit layout will show you where to lay the aluminum foil pieces out on your paper. Then, use an iron to laminate the foil to the paper. What kind of paper? The easiest (but slightly obscure) choice is “dry mount adhesive,” which is tissue paper infused with high-quality hot-melt glue. You can get sheets or rolls of it from art supply places for use in mounting artwork and photography. Much more common and equally workable is freezer paper. Freezer paper is a common plastic-coated paper that you can get on rolls at the grocery store– look in the section with the aluminum foil. (Place foil on the shiny side of the freezer paper). We used a small hobby iron to fuse the foil to our different papers, but a regular iron works just as well. The dry mount adhesive did not require much heat, while the freezer paper needed the iron to be on high– that plastic has to melt. We folded a larger sheet of parchment paper over the whole circuit during ironing in order to keep the adhesives from sticking to the iron and other surfaces. We also experimented with waxed paper, which was not sticky enough for the aluminum foil. We even tried ironing copper leaf onto waxed paper, and though it adhered well, it was too fragile and the traces broke upon folding. It would probably work reasonably well in an application where folding isn’t required: It was absolutely beautiful and completely unreliable for origami. Once the foil is adhered to the paper, it is time to refold it. Insert the components, and it lights up. If it doesn’t light up, try turning your battery around. If it still doesn’t light up, make sure your LED leads are contacting the traces. Hint for this circuit: You won’t hurt the LED by plugging it in backwards to that little battery, so this is a better method than actually trying to keep track of the polarity. The LED Foldie naturally wants to sit on the heaviest part, the battery, with the LED projecting into the side of the balloon. The weight of the battery helps keep the circuit connected. METHOD II: The “Direct Toner” method Our last breakthrough came when we created a pdf pattern to print out. We realized that you could fuse the foil directly to the toner from a laser printer. You can print out the pattern (laser printers only: no inkjet!) and iron your foil pieces directly to the paper. Caveat: while the foil sticks well to the toner, it isn’t quite strong enough that you can just iron on a giant sheet of foil and have it only stick where there’s toner, so you still need to cut out the foil shapes, at least roughly. Place your foil carefully over the pattern, and iron very well, very hot. Be sure to cover your work with parchment paper or you will get toner on your iron. When your foil is stuck to the toner, cut out the square and get ready to fold. Inflate, add battery and LED, and admire the glow. As before, if you have trouble, try turning your battery around and making sure that the leads of the LED are making contact with the foil. And there it is: a bridge between papercraft and electronics, or perhaps between etch-at-home printed circuit boards and high-end flex PCBs. We think that there’s some potential here. Your turn! What kinds of origami can you light up? As always, we’d love to see your project pictures in the Evil Mad Science Auxiliary.

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The Evolution Deceit Imaginary Dinosaur-Bird Links As you saw in earlier chapters, it's impossible for birds to have evolved from dinosaurs, since no mechanism can have eliminated the enormous physiological differences between the two groups. Despite this, evolutionists still raise the scenario of birds being evolved from dinosaurs in various ways. They frequently resort to news reports, using pictures of reconstructions and sensational headlines regarding these so-called dino-birds, as if they represented the true facts. These accounts are intended to convince people feathered dinosaurs once lived on Earth. This scenario is presented persistently as it were a proven fact. All objections, criticisms and counter-evidence are totally ignored, clearly indicating that this is deliberate propaganda intended to impose dino-bird myths on society. The biased fossil interpretations we shall examine in the following pages reveal their hollow, deceptive nature. The claim that birds evolved from dinosaurs is actually opposed by a great many paleontologists or anatomists who otherwise support the theory of evolution. As you have seen, two renowned ornithologists, Alan Feduccia and Larry Martin, think this scenario is completely erroneous. This is set out in the textbook Developmental Biology, taught in U.S. universities: Not all biologists believe that birds are dinosaurs... This group of scientists emphasize the differences between dinosaurs and birds, claiming that the differences are too great for the birds to have evolved from earlier dinosaurs. Alan Feduccia, and Larry Martin, for instance, contend that birds could not have evolved from any known group of dinosaurs. They argue against some of the most important cladistic data and support their claim from developmental biology and biomechanics. 170 Many evolutionist publications refer to the thesis that birds evolved from dinosaurs as if it were based on solid evidence and accepted by the entire scientific community. They try to give the impression that the only subject up for debate is which species of dinosaur birds evolved from. Although Martin earlier supported the dino-bird claim, he eventually realized in the light of his research that it was invalid, and abandoned his former ideas: Every time I look at the evidence formerly discovered and then make a claim about the origins of the theropod, I saw its inaccuracy. That is because everything shows its inadequacy. The truth of the matter is that…I seriously suspect that they have the same features with birds and don't think that there exist striking features supporting that birds are of theropod origin. 171 Feduccia admits that concerning the origin of birds, the theory of evolution finds itself in a state of uncertainty. He attaches no credence to the deliberately maintained dino-bird controversy, which is in fact groundless. Important information is contained in his article, "Birds Are Dinosaurs: Simple Answer to a Complex Problem," published in October 2002 in The Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union, in which the most technical aspects of ornithology are discussed. Feduccia describes in detail how the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs, raised by John Ostrom in the 1970s and fiercely defended ever since, lacks any scientific evidence, and how such an evolution is impossible. Feduccia is not alone among evolutionists in this regard. Peter Dodson, the evolutionist professor of anatomy from Pennsylvania University, also doubts that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs: I am on record as opposing cladistics and catastrophic extinction of dinosaurs; I am tepid on endothermic dinosaurs; I am skeptical about the theropod ancestry of birds. 172 Despite being an evolutionist, Dodson admits the unrealistic claims of the theory of evolution, and has come in for severe criticism from his evolutionist colleagues. In one article, he responds to these criticisms: Personally, I continue to find it problematic that the most birdlike maniraptoran theropods are found 25 to 75 million years after the origin of birds . . . .Ghost lineages are frankly a contrived solution, a deus ex machina required by the cladistic method. Of course, it is admitted that late Cretaceous maniraptorans are not the actual ancestors of birds, only "sister taxa." Are we being asked to believe that a group of highly derived, rapidly evolving maniraptorans in the Jurassic gave rise to birds, as manifested by Archaeopteryx, and then this highly progressive lineage then went into a state of evolutionary stasis and persisted unchanged in essential characters for millions of years? Or are actual ancestors far more basal in morphology and harder to classify? If the latter, then why insist that the problem is now solved? 173 Alan Feduccia sets out an important fact concerning the dino-birds said to have been found in China: the "feathers" on the fossils said to be those of feathered dinosaurs are definitely not bird feathers. A considerable body of evidence shows that these fossil traces have nothing at all to do with bird feathers. He says this in an article published in The Auk magazine: Having studied most of the specimens said to sport protofeathers, I, and many others, do not find any credible evidence that those structures represent protofeathers. Many Chinese fossils have that strange halo of what has become known as dino-fuzz, but although that material has been "homologized" with avian feathers, the arguments are far less than convincing. 174 Citing Richard O. Prum, one of the supporters of the dino-bird claims, as an example, Feduccia goes on to mention the prejudiced approach so prevalent on the subject: Prum's view is shared by many paleontologists: birds are dinosaurs; therefore, any filamentous material preserved in dromaeosaurs must represent protofeathers. 175 Latest Research Has Dealt a Severe Blow to Feathered Dinosaur Claims The fossilized structures referred to as dinosaur feathers were shown by Theagarten (Solly) Lingham-Soliar, a paleontologist from Durban-Westville University in South Africa to be nothing more than decayed connective tissue. Professor Lingham-Soliar performed an experiment by burying a dolphin in river mud, semi-permeable to air for a year. The reason a dolphin was selected was that its flesh is easy to analyze. At the end of this period, the professor examined the dolphin's bunches of collagen—which constitutes connective tissue in the bodies of most living things— under a microscope. According to him, the decayed collagen in the dolphin's body bore "a striking resemblance to feathers."1 The German magazine Naturwissenschaften commented that: "The findings throw serious doubt on the virtually complete reliance on visual image by supporters of the feathered dinosaur thesis and emphasize the need for more rigorous methods of identification using modern feathers as a frame of reference." 2 With this finding, it emerged that even a dolphin could leave behind traces of apparent feathers. This once again showed that there are no grounds for regarding extinct dinosaurs with "feathers" as proto-birds. 1. Stephen Strauss, "Buried dolphin corpse serves science," 11 November 2003; http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031111/UDINO11/TPScience/ According to Feduccia, one factor that invalidates this preconception is the presence of these same traces in fossils that have no relationship with birds: Most important, "dino-fuzz" is now being discovered in a number of taxa, some unpublished, but particularly in a Chinese pterosaur and a therizinosaur, which has teeth like those of prosauropods. Most surprisingly, skin fibers very closely resembling dino-fuzz have been discovered in a Jurassic ichthyosaur and described in detail. Some of those branched fibers are exceptionally close in morphology to the so-called branched protofeathers ("Prum Protofeathers"") described by Xu. That these so-called protofeathers have a widespread distribution in archosaurs is evidence alone that they have nothing to do with feathers. 176 Feduccia recalls that various structures found around these fossils and thought to belong to them, were later determined to consist of inorganic matter: One is reminded of the famous fernlike markings on the Solnhofen fossils known as dendrites. Despite their plantlike outlines, these features are now known to be inorganic structures caused by a solution of manganese from within the beds that reprecipitated as oxides along cracks or along bones of fossils. 177 The fossil beds preserve not only an indefinite structure such as dino-fuzz but also bird feathers. But all the fossils presented as feathered dinosaurs have been found in China. Why should these fossils have not emerged from anywhere else in the world—Feduccia draws attention to this intriguing state of affairs: One must explain also why all theropods and other dinosaurs discovered in other deposits where integument is preserved exhibit no dino-fuzz, but true reptilian skin, devoid of any featherlike material (Feduccia 1999), and why typically Chinese dromaeosaurs preserving dino-fuzz do not normally preserve feathers, when a hardened rachis, if present, would be more easily preserved. 178 Feduccia states that some of these creatures portrayed as feathered dinosaurs are simply extinct reptiles with dino-fuzz and that others are genuine birds: There are clearly two different taphonomic phenomena in the early Cretaceous lacustrine deposits of the Yixian and Jiufotang formations of China, one preserving dino-fuzz filaments, as in the first discovered, so-called "feathered dinosaur" Sinosauropteryx (a compsognathid), and one preserving actual avian feathers, as in the feathered dinosaurs that were featured on the cover of Nature, but which turned out to be secondarily flightless birds. 179 Peter Dodson, on the other hand, says, "I hasten to add that none of the known small theropods, including Deinonychus, Dromaeosaurus, Velociraptor, Unenlagia, nor Sinosauropteryx, Protarcheaeopteryx, nor Caudipteryx is itself relevant to the origin of birds."180 He means that these creatures cannot be the ancestors of birds because the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx, lived long before the Cretaceous Period. In short, the fossils portrayed as feathered dinosaurs or dino-birds either belong to certain flightless birds like today's ostriches, or else to reptiles possessed of a structure known as dino-fuzz which has nothing to do with actual feathers. There exists not a single fossil that might represent an intermediate form between birds and reptiles. Therefore, the claim that fossils prove that birds descended from dinosaurs is completely unrealistic. 1) The Alleged Intermediate From: Mononychus Mononychus is one of the fossils used as a vehicle for evolutionist propaganda and depicted with feathers in the 26 April 1993 edition of Time magazine. It was later realized, on the basis of further evidence, that this creature was not a bird. One of the best-known fossils in the alleged dino-bird chain is Mononychus, discovered in Mongolia in 1993 and claimed to be an intermediate form between dinosaurs and birds. Although not the slightest trace of feathers was found in this fossil, Time magazine reconstructed the creature with feathers on the cover of its 26 April, 1993 issue. Subsequent evidence revealed that Mononychus was no bird but a fossorial (digging) theropod. The fact that this fossil had a bird-like breastbone and wrist bones led evolutionists to interpret Mononychus as an intermediate form. Biased interpretations and support from the media gave the impression that some proof existed to back this up. However, the anatomical features depicted as evidence are also found in other animals, such as moles. These inferences represent no evidence at all and they have only led to misinterpretations. Writing to Science News, Richard Monastersky reports, based on observations, why this fossil cannot be classified; Mongolian and U.S. researchers have found a 75-million-year-old bird-like creature with a hand so strange it has left paleontologists grasping for an explanation. . . Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago notes that Mononychus had arms built much like those of digging animals. Because moles and other diggers have keeled sternums and wrists reminiscent of birds, the classification of Mononychus becomes difficult.181 In addition, this fossil is at least 80 million years younger than Archaeopteryx—which totally undermines any proposed 2) Bambiraptor Feinbergi, Depicted with Imaginary Feathers Evolutionist media immediately give certain bird-like features to biased interpretations. The fossil Bambiraptor feinbergi, claimed to be an intermediate form between dinosaurs and birds, was depicted as a feathered reptile in media illustrations. However, there is no evidence that this creature ever had feathers. In 1994, another dino-bird claim was made on behalf of a fossil called Bambiraptor feinbergi, estimated to be 75 million years old. Found in the Glacier National Park in northern Montana, the fossil is 95% complete. Evolutionists promptly claimed that it represents an intermediate form between dinosaurs and birds. When the fossil, belonging to a dinosaur, was introduced as an alleged dino-bird, the report admitted, "Feathers, however, have not yet been found."182 Despite this reservation, the media drew the animal as a feathered creature, and the missing details were added using plenty of creative imagination. The most evident objection to this so-called missing link is again, an error in dating. This alleged intermediate form fossil is 75 million years younger than Archaeopteryx, itself a species of flying bird. This fossil is therefore a specimen that demolished the ancestral relationship claimed by evolutionists. In the same way that this fossil provides no evidence for evolution, it also demolished the ancestral relationship claimed by evolutionists. According to Ohio University professor of zoology John Ruben: A point that too many people always ignored, however, is that the most birdlike of the dinosaurs, such as Bambiraptor and Velociraptor, lived 70 million years after the earliest bird, Archaeopteryx. So you have birds flying before the evolution of the first birdlike dinosaurs. We now question very strongly whether there were any feathered dinosaurs at all. What have been called feathered dinosaurs were probably flightless birds. 183 Evolutionists use a few bird-like characteristics as grounds for their preconceived interpretations. Yet the effort of building a line of descent based on similarities is full of contradictions that evolutionists cannot explain. Whenever evolutionists construct an alleged evolutionary relationship between clearly different living things based on similar structures, they immediately close the subject by describing it as "parallel evolution." They claim that living things with similar complex organs but with no ancestors in common, evolved independently. However, since they cannot account for the origin of these complex organs in even one living thing, their statements that these organs supposedly evolved several times presents a serious predicament. Alan Feduccia states that certain similarities between birds and dinosaurs do not show any evolutionary relationship between the two groups: Bambiraptor is a small dinosaur, but it does have a number of birdlike features, as do many other forms. However there is nothing special about hollow bones, as some mammals and frogs have them. The problem, of course, is that Bambiraptor is some 80 million years beyond Archaeopteryx, and yet is claimed to be the dinosaur most close to bird ancestry. That alone should be a red flag, and a warning that the situation is far more complicated than suspected. 184 3) Confuciusornis Sanctus: Identical to Modern Birds Two paleontologists, Lianhai Hou and Zhonghe Zhou, researching at the Vertebrate Paleontology Institute in China in 1995, discovered a new species of fossilized bird, which they named Confuciusornis sanctus. This was presented to the public as the earliest flying dinosaur, even as evidence for how hands used for grasping turned into hands used for flight. According to Alan Feduccia, however, this fossil is one of the frequently encountered beaked birds. This one had no teeth, and its beak and feathers share the same features as present-day birds. There are claws on its wings, as with Archaeopteryx, and its skeletal structure is identical to those of modern-day birds. A structure known as the pygostyle, which supports the tail feathers, can also be seen. In short, evolutionists regarded this fossil as a semi-reptile, the earliest ancestor of all birds, of a similar age (about 142 million years) as Archaeopteryx and, bearing a close resemblance to present-day birds. This clearly conflicts with the evolutionist theses that Archaeopteryx is the earliest ancestor of all birds. 185 This is also definitive proof that Archaeopteryx and other archaic birds are not intermediate forms. These and similar fossils show no evidence that different bird species evolved from earlier ones. On the contrary, it proves that present-day birds and certain unique bird species similar to Archaeopteryx lived at the same time. Some of these species, such as Confuciusornis and Archaeopteryx, are extinct, but a few have survived to the present day. What is in the heavens and in the Earth belongs to Allah. Allah encompasses all things. (Surat an-Nisa, 126) 4) Protarchaeopteryx Robusta and Caudipteryx Zoui: Vehicles for Biased Interpretations Caudipteryx zoui , Protarchæopteryx robusta The fossils Protarchæopteryx robusta and Caudipteryx zoui do not belong to dinosaurs, but to extinct flightless birds. The efforts to portray these creatures as dinosaurs is an example of evolutionists' eagerness to produce evidence. In the summer of 1996, farmers working in the Yixian Formation found three separate turkey-sized fossils, so well preserved as to give genuine evidence of bird feathers. At first, Ji Qiang and his colleague Ji Shu-An concluded that these fossils must belong to a single species. Noting their surprising similarity to Archaeopteryx, they gave the creature the name Protarchaeopteryx robusta. During his research in the autumn of 1997, Philip Currie concluded that these fossils belonged to two different species, neither of which resembled Archaeopteryx. The second species was given the name Caudipteryx zoui. 186 The discoveries of the Protarchæopteryx robusta and Caudipteryx zoui fossils were depicted as evidence that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. 187 The popular press stated that these fossils were definitely the so-called ancestors of birds. One commentator even wrote that the dinosaur-bird link was "now pretty close to rock solid."188 However, this certainty was again, only a biased interpretation. According to evolutionist claims, Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx were small dinosaurs whose bodies were largely covered in feathers. But on their wings and tails were longer and more complex feathers, arranged like those in present-day birds. However, it is no surprise that these creatures should have feather arrangements similar to modern birds', because their feathers are symmetrically shaped, as observed in present-day flightless birds.189 Therefore, the creatures in question are flightless birds, not dinosaurs. In severely criticizing the dino-bird dogma, Larry Martin and Alan Feduccia stated that these fossils were flightless bird species like the modern ostrich. 190 But adherents of the dino-bird theory are reluctant to accept this because they want to classify the creatures as dinosaurs, even though this fossil provides no support for evolutionist claims. Indeed, this fossil represents a new contradiction to evolutionists' alleged ancestral relationships. According to the evolutionist scenario, these dinosaurs and modern birds both have a special bone that lets them bend their wrists. Again according to evolutionist claims, this feature enabled them to move their forefeet in a wide manner, to catch fleeing prey with their long arms and gripping talons. This allegedly powerful beating movement represented an important part of the wingbeats the today's birds use to fly. However, such interpretations are scientifically invalid, because flight consists of far more complex actions than just wing beating: Any forward beating movement gives rises to a counter impulse that propels the bird backward. For the purpose of flight, the main flight feathers are arranged at such an angle as to push the air back and propel the birds forwards. As in planes, the wings have a special aerofoil shape, which causes air to flow faster over the upper surface than the lower. This, according to the Bernoulli principle, reduces air pressure on the upper surface and creates lift. This is the main factor in take-off, but there is also the question of Newton's Third Law—the reaction to the air being propelled downward.). 191 While refuting the theory of evolution's dino-bird claims, the world of science also confirms that living things are perfectly created. The attitude of evolutionist scientists clearly reveals that they are blindly devoted to the theory in question. In addition, the structure of a wing hypothesized to catch prey is very different from that created for beating in flight. A feathered wing is no advantage to a bird using its wings to catch prey, because a feathered wing's broad surface will only increase air resistance and make movement more difficult. If, the bird flapped for hunting, as evolutionists maintain then its wing structure should help the bird move forward by pushing air back. Therefore, it would be a greater advantage for the bird's wings to let air pass through them, like a sieve or flyswatter. Thus evolutionist accounts are full of illogicalities that conflict with their own claims. In addition to its feathers, Caudipteryx has a series of other features showing it to be a bird—such as that it was carnivorous. Caudopteryx was portrayed as a theropod since it was first unearthed, it was thought to be a carnivore.192 But there were no teeth in its lower skull and lower jaw, and the first two fossil specimens contained the remains of crops that birds use for digesting plant materials.193 Organs such as the crop are found only in birds and not in any species of the theropod family. 194 Protarchæopteryx and Caudipteryx are therefore extinct birds. The only reason they are referred to as dinosaurs is because that's what evolutionists want them to be. 5) Sinosauropteryx: Another Fossil Subjected to Speculative Claims Today's evolutionists have entirely abandoned their claim that the creature was feathered. But a dogmatic approach towards evolution and accepted preconceptions make such errors inevitable. With every new fossil discovery, evolutionists speculate about the dinosaur-bird link. Every time, however, their claims are refuted as a result of detailed analyses. One example of such dino-bird claims was Sinosauropteryx, announced with enormous media propaganda in 1996. Some evolutionist paleontologists maintained that this fossil reptile possessed bird feathers. The following year, however, examinations revealed that these structures so excitedly described as feathers were actually nothing of the sort. One article published in Science magazine, "Plucking the Feathered Dinosaur," stated that the structures had been misperceived as feathers by evolutionist paleontologists: Exactly 1 year ago, paleontologists were abuzz about photos of a so-called "feathered dinosaur" . . . The Sinosauropteryx specimen from the Yixian Formation in China made the front page of The New York Times, and was viewed by some as confirming the dinosaurian origins of birds. But at this year's vertebrate paleontology meeting in Chicago late last month, the verdict was a bit different: The structures are not modern feathers, say the roughly half-dozen Western paleontologists who have seen the specimens. . . . Larry Martin of Kansas University, Lawrence, thinks the structures are frayed collagenous fibers beneath the skin—and so have nothing to do with birds. 195 About the speculative claims regarding feathers and Sinosauropteryx, Alan Brush of Connecticut University had this to say: The stiff, bristlelike fibers that outline the fossils lack the detailed organization seen in modern feathers. 196 Another important point is that Sinosauropteryx had bellows-like lungs, like those in reptiles. According to many researchers, these show that the animal could not have evolved into modern-day birds with their high-performance lungs. 6) Eoalulavis Hoyasi Shares with Wing Structure of Modern-Day Birds The wing structure in Eoalulavis hoyasi is also present in certain present-day flying birds. The feathers on this bird's wing contain a small bunch of feathers attached to the "finger". When the bird wishes to slow down or descend to earth, it decreases the angle of the wing to the horizon. This allows air to flow over the wing's top surface and to stop without falling. Another fossil to demolish evolutionist claims was Eoalulavis hoyasi. This, estimated at some 120 million years old, is older than all the known theropod specimens. Nonetheless, wing structure in Eoalulavis hoyasi is identical to some modern-day flying birds. This proves that vertebrates identical in many respects to modern birds were flying 120 million years ago.197 Any suggestion that theropods, which appeared after this creature, were the ancestors of birds is clearly irrational. This bird's wing has a bunch of small feathers attached to the "finger." Recognizable as the alula, this structure is a basic feature of many birds alive today and consisting of several feathers that permits the bird to engage in various maneuvers during flight. But it had never before been encountered in a fossil bird from the Mesozoic. This new bird was given the name Eoalulavis hoyasi, or "ancient bird with an alula."198 Its presence shows that this bird, the size of a chaffinch, was able to fly and maneuver as well as modern-day birds. The alula functions like the wing flap on an airplane. When the bird wants to reduce its speed or landing, it increases of its wing to the horizon. The drag produced by this wing position helps the bird to slow down. But when the angle between the direction of the air flow and the wing surface gets too steep, turbulence over the wing increases until the bird loses the lift necessary to maintain flight. Like an airplane under similar circumstances, the bird is in danger of stalling in midair. The alula now enters the equation. By raising this small appendage, the bird creates a slot between it and the main part of the wing, similar to what happens when a pilot deploys a craft's wing flaps. The slot allows air to stream over the main wing's upper surface, easing turbulence and allowing the bird (or plane) to brake without stalling. 199 Birds 120 million years ago were using the same technology as that employed present. This realization added yet another insuperable difficulty facing the theory of evolution. 7) Unenlagia Comahuensis: A Dino-Bird Based On Artists' Imaginations Fernando E. Novas of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos Aires and Pablo F. Puerta of the Paleontology Museum in Trelew announced a new fossil, said to be 90 million years old, in the 22 May, 1997, edition of Nature magazine, under the caption "Missing Link."200 They named this fossil Unenlagia comahuensis, meaning "half-bird from north-west Patagonia." This fossil, discovered in Argentina's Patagonia region, consisted of more than 20 pieces of the creatures leg, rib and shoulder bones. Based on these fragments, artists drew a creature complete with a neck, jaw and tail—and subsequently announced that this fossil was an intermediate stage in the transition from dinosaurs to birds. However, Unenlagia comahuensis is manifestly a dinosaur, in many respects. In particular, certain features of its skull and the bone formations behind its eyes closely resemble those of theropods. There is also no evidence at all that it bore feathers. Evolutionist scientists, however, claimed that by raising its forearms, it could make similar movements to those used by birds for flying. But clearly, these prejudiced guesses and assumptions cannot be regarded as definitive proof. On account of its different features, Lawrence M. Witmer of Ohio University describes this creature as a genuine "mosaic". 201 Alan Feduccia also states that Unenlagia comahuensis cannot be a missing link between dinosaurs and birds, emphasizing that it lived 55 million years after Archaeopteryx. 202 As Feduccia stressed in a 1996 article written together with several other authors in Science magazine, almost every dinosaur said to resemble the bird dates back to long after the emergence of the first true birds.203 This creates the problem that scientists refer to as the time paradox. 8) Dromaeosuar: The Dinosaur That Evolutionists Were

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Keeping fit and active in old age or taking cholesterol-busting statins are both vital for preventing early death. And when the two are combined, it dramatically slashes the chances of dying early by up to 70 per cent, scientists found after a 10-year study of 10,000 people. Experts are already calling for everyone over the age of 50 to be prescribed statins to ward off chronic and potentially fatal conditions, even if the patients are at low risk. They say administering statins to an extra five million people would cut heart attacks and strokes by 10,000 a year and save at least 2,000 lives. The pills, which cost as little as 40p a day and are taken by eight million Britons to reduce cholesterol and protect against heart attacks, heart disease and stroke, have also been shown to be a potent cancer-buster. Treatment with statins is important, but better fitness improves survival significantly and is a valuable additional treatment or an alternative when statins cannot be taken US scientists studied 10,000 men and women with an average age of 60 and diagnosed with the high cholesterol condition dyslipidaemia. All had their fitness graded and were divided into those taking statins and those not. Over 10 years, death rates were lowest for people who were both fit and taking statins. That group had a 70 per cent reduced risk of death. For those who were fit but not taking the pills, the chances of dying were reduced by just under 50 per cent. According to the study, published in The Lancet, the differences could not be explained by factors such as age, weight, ethnicity, sex, heart disease history and other drugs. Leader of the study, Dr Peter Kokkinos, of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, said unfit middle-aged and older people would only need to undertake “moderate and feasible” activity such as walking, gardening, and gym classes to gain the same or greater protection than that achieved by statins. He urged people with high cholesterol to improve their fitness to at least a moderate level. He added: “Treatment with statins is important, but better fitness improves survival significantly and is a valuable additional treatment or an alternative when statins cannot be taken.” Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This research shows that the two together (statins and exercise) can provide a winning combination to further improve your heart health, with higher intensity exercise possibly offering more protection. “If you have high cholesterol, speak to your doctor about the best treatment regime.” The most common dyslipidaemias are high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels (hyperlipidaemia), high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol. Statins slightly raise the chance of some “at risk” patients developing diabetes, but their benefits in reducing the likelihood of cardiovascular disease far outweigh risks. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence currently recommends that statins are given to those with a 20 per cent or greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease within 10 years.

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Released September 2, 2009 INSITITE, W.V. – Students are notorious for the amount of paper, plastic and energy they use, says Monica Graff Haines of Green Apple, a maker of eco-friendly school supplies. When going back to school, take the opportunity to teach children some lessons about green living. Packing lunch reduces waste. Fill reusable containers with organic foods; avoid plastic baggies and disposable juice boxes. New is not always better. Before hitting the store to purchase new school supplies, see how many materials you have around the house that you can reuse. Doing small things helps the environment. When picking up or dropping off your child at school, don't idle your car. Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel and produces more pollution than restarting the engine, according to the Consumer Energy Center (http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/).

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Air pollution is a broad term applied to all chemical and biological agents that modify the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Some definitions also consider physical perturbations such as noise pollution, heat, radiation or light pollution as air pollution. Some definitions include the term harmful as a requisite to consider a change to the atmosphere as pollution. The sources of air pollution are divided in two groups: anthropogenic (caused by human activity) and natural. Natural sources include: Anthropogenic sources are mostly related to burning different kinds of fuel. They include: - Volcanic activity - Dust from natural sources, usually large areas of land with little or no vegetation - Gases, such as methane, emitted by the digestion of animals, usually cattle. - Smoke from wildfires. - Dust and chemicals from farming, especially of erodible land, see Dust Bowl - Industrial activity in general. - Vehicles with internal-combustion engines. - Stoves and incinerators, specially coal ones. - Paint fumes, or other toxical vapors. Contaminants of air can be divided in particles and gases. Particles are classified by their sizes. A usual division is in PM10 and PM2.5. PM10 are particles whose size is less than 10 microns (0.01 mm); they are dangerous to humans because they can be breathed and reach the lungs. PM2.5 are particles whose size is less than 2.5 microns (0.0025 mm), and they are even more dangerous because they can pass the alveoli and reach the blood. Important pollutant gases include: The worst single incident of air pollution to occur in the United States occurred in Donora, Pennsylvania in late October, 1948 - Davis, Devra, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution, Basic Books, 2002, hardcover, 316 pages, ISBN 0-465-01521-2

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Donald Ervin Knuth Knuth, Donald Ervin (nōth, kənōthˈ) [key], 1938–, American mathematician and computer scientist, b. Milwaukee, Wis., grad. Case Institute of Technology (B.S. and M.S., 1960) and California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1963). While still a graduate student, Knuth was contracted to write a book about the construction of computer compilers (see programming language). What he wrote instead turned into his monumental series The Art of Computer Programming (3 vol., 1968–), an overview of programming algorithms, each described with mathematical rigor, that has been translated into six languages. Disappointed with the state of computer typesetting, Knuth developed a typesetting program that has become the standard for mathematics and physics. He taught at the California Institute of Technology from 1962 until 1968, when he joined the faculty at Stanford Univ., becoming professor emeritus in 1993. His writings include Surreal Numbers (1974), Literate Programming (1992), and Digital Typography (1999). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: Computers and Computing, Biographies

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Sir George Somers Somers, Sir George, 1554–1610, English naval commander. The leader of several successful privateering ventures against the Spanish, he was knighted in 1603. He was a founder (1606) of the London Company and set out with settlers for Virginia in 1609. They were shipwrecked and landed in the Bermudas, which Somers claimed for Britain. He continued to Virginia but returned to Bermuda (1610), where he died. Several versions of his shipwreck were written at the time, one of which may have inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. More on Sir George Somers from Fact Monster: See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies

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What reaction can I expect from my small children when I tell them we’re separating and in the months following? Posted on January 10, 2012 While no child wants to hear that their parents are breaking up, children often have predictable responses when you tell them that you are separating that relate to their developmental stage. Knowing what these might be will hopefully make you more prepared for the emotional, behavioral and physical changes that will follow. Young children do not fully understand the concept of marriage and separation. They will only understand that mommy or daddy will no longer be living together. Be prepared for them to find it difficult to grasp what is happening. Try to make them understand otherwise they will be frustrated and confused. Children under the age of 5 years old will have various reactions depending on their personality. They will either cry, pretend you never mentioned the separation, they may change the subject because they want to stop their feelings or they go back to focus on what they were doing before you started talking to them or they may show no emotion at all at the time but then leave the room to process their feelings. Once they have been able to process some of the information you tell them they will have lots of feelings and fears about the future. The fear of abandonment is very common and is expressed in a variety of ways. Children may cling, whine and have tantrums when left at childcare. They want the security of being with their main carer and don’t want to be left. When you pick them up they may also be upset because you left them but also relieved and pleased to see you. Children may get upset when moved between parents during access visits and will feel unsettled if their main carer changes e.g. they may have a new person looking after them if mum has to go to back to work. Being around unfamiliar people can make them tearful and anxious. Often they will struggle with a new routine and having to be moved between both parents. Some children often regress in their behaviour. They may return to the comfort of a security blanket or a toy they had outgrown or they may have a lapse in toilet training. It is not unusual for children to have disturbed sleep either. Bear with them, as it won’t be forever. These types of behaviour rarely last for more than a few weeks. Some children may become irritable and engage more in physical activity and fighting. This is because of the hurt they feel and the anger towards the situation. Other children may become more fearful of aggression and being hurt. Children under five may become less imaginative and co-¬‐operative in their play. They may prefer to play by themselves rather than with friends and they may show a preference for adult company as being near adults makes them feel secure. They can show more anger and apathy in their play and in their interactions with peers and adults as they act out how they feel and the situation they are in e.g. when dad comes to the house to pick them up for the day. Many children grow up emotionally together and psychologically strong even though they have had the adverse childhood experience of their parents separating. Young children do not necessarily carry their wounds through into their adult life. If a young child’s life improves and changes, especially during the ages of two and six, the negative effects of early childhood can be reversed. Young children are likely to do just as well in school as they did before the separation. The Kids Coach

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Math is the basis for music, but for those of us who aren’t virtuosic at either, the connection isn’t always easy to grasp. Which is what makes the videos of Vi Hart, a “mathemusician” with a dedicated YouTube following, so wonderful. Hart explains complex phenomena--from cardioids to Carl Gauss--using simple (and often very) funny means. As Maria Popova pointed out yesterday, Hart’s latest video is a real doozy. In it, she uses a music box and a Möbius strip to explain space-time, showing how the two axes of musical notation (pitch and tempo) correspond to space and time. Using the tape notation as a model for space-time, she cuts and folds it to show the finite ways you can slice and dice the axes. Then, she shows us how you can loop the tape into a continuous strip of twinkling notes: If you fold space-time into a Mobius strip, you get your melody, and then the inversion, the melody played upside down. And then right side up again. And so on. So rather than folding and cutting up space-time, just cut and tape a little loop of space-time, to be played over, and over. It’s a pretty magical observation, and it makes even me--the prototypical math dunce--wish I’d tried harder. Yet there’s still time: Hart works for the Khan Academy, a nonprofit that offers free educational videos about math, biology, and more. Check it out. [H/t Brain Pickings]

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The colors are the different echo intensities (reflectivity) measured in dBZ (decibels of Z) during each elevation scan. "Reflectivity" is the amount of transmitted power returned to the radar receiver. Reflectivity (designated by the letter Z) covers a wide range of signals (from very weak to very strong). So, a more convenient number for calculations and comparison, a decibel (or logarithmic) scale (dBZ), is used. The dBZ values increase as the strength of the signal returned to the radar increases. Each reflectivity image you see includes one of two color scales. One scale (far left) represents dBZ values when the radar is in clear air mode (dBZ values from -28 to +28). The other scale (near left) represents dBZ values when the radar is in precipitation mode (dBZ values from 5 to 75). Notice the color on each scale remains the same in both operational modes, only the values change. The value of the dBZ depends upon the mode the radar is in at the time the image was created. The scale of dBZ values is also related to the intensity of rainfall. Typically, light rain is occurring when the dBZ value reaches 20. The higher the dBZ, the stronger the rainrate. Depending on the type of weather occurring and the area of the U.S., forecasters use a set of rainrates which are associated to the dBZ These values are estimates of the rainfall per hour, updated each volume scan, with rainfall accumulated over time. Hail is a good reflector of energy and will return very high dBZ values. Since hail can cause the rainfall estimates to be higher than what is actually occurring, steps are taken to prevent these high dBZ values from being converted to rainfall.

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It is from the traditional family that we absorb those universal ideals and principles which are the teaching of Jesus, the bedrock of our religious faith. We are taught the difference between right and wrong, and about the law, just punishment and discipline. What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live! The past is for learning from and letting go. You can't revisit it. It vanishes. Every human being is born an heir to an inheritance to which he can succeed only in a process of learning. We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you. I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second, and third places, and teaching the fourth. I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. On any longer view, man is only fitfully committed to the rational to thinking, seeing, learning, knowing. Believing is what he\'s really proud of. Racing is a process of learning where the edge lies. The soul of man is nourished by learning, as the body is by food. It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young. Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning. Teaching is the greatest act of optimism The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning. The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be. Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come. Don't look for more honor than your learning merits. You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue. Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning - truth that has been assimilated in experience.

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A lot of pilots are satisfied to fly away with the terminal forecasts and metars (in plain language, please) and I suppose that might meet the letter of the law on weather information. But there is so much more than that to weather and the pilot who puts some effort into understanding weather, and how it affects his flying, will find less weather-related surprises as a flight unfolds. Let's look at some of the basics that are available to us and see what we learn from them. The Synopsis:Maybe the word is misunderstood, but as it appears at the beginning of an area forecast it is basically a description of the weather map. It is followed by a clouds and weather forecast. Do pay attention to the note "Non MSL hgts denoted by AGL or CIG." That means cloud bases are generally above sea level except where noted. Big difference in the mountains. Why is this basic item important? The location of high and low pressure areas and fronts tells a lot about the conditions that will be available for flying. If a trip is headed toward a low or a front, conditions will likely deteriorate the closer the airplane gets to the condition. Tops will probably be higher and bottoms lower. At lower altitudes, there will likely be turbulence in the frontal zone. This may not be wing-bending but it will make the flying more difficult and any passengers less comfortable. We have to be careful with weather maps. The ones on TV in the morning generally show weather for the whole day. For flying, we need to know what is expected to exist at a specified time. Official prog (for prognostic) charts are available on the web at adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov. There is a lot of other good stuff there, including a useful icing forecast. Lows: Low pressure areas are more important to flying weather than high pressure areas because the lows make the inclemencies that challenge us. The circulation around a low is counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and air flows around and into a low and then circulates upward. Low pressure areas almost always move, though they can become stationary or erratic in their movement. The normal movement of a surface low is roughly with the wind flow at the 500-millibar level, or about 18,000 feet. The prog charts will show the projected movement of lows, or you can look at the 18,000-foot wind forecast and visualize the movement. Upper lows are just that: complete circulations aloft. They are complex, it is difficult to forecast the formation, movement or dissipation of an upper low, and they can make nasty weather over a wide area. Called cut-off or closed lows aloft, if one is overhead nearby, the best surface forecast is for continuous clag. Any surface low might not be directly below the low aloft, and the air swirling into the surface low and then up into the low aloft can be quite bothered. Bad place to fly. Fronts: They come in cold, warm, stationary or occluded versions. The cold variety can spawn serious thunderstorms, especially when the low is strong and the temperature difference on the warm and cold side of the front is great. Warm fronts make for inclement weather over a wider area and can harbor embedded thunderstorms. Occluded fronts, generally found where a cold front overtakes a warm front because of an exceptionally strong circulation around a low, can make for nasty, bumpy flying. This is especially true just as the fronts are starting to occlude. Stay as far away from the driving low as possible. Stationary fronts come when a low peters out or moves so far away that the circulation is no longer strong enough to move the fronts. The weather might stay bad for days in a stationary frontal zone and only the development of a strong new low will change things. If all the parameters for a front are not met, the condition might be called a trough and, to a pilot, it might seem for all the world like a real front. Source Regions:That's simply where the air is coming from. Visualize the flow around the low and if the source of the low-level air along your route is moist, as in that coming from over the oceans or the Gulf of Mexico or California, then there will be plenty of ingredients for clouds and rain. The stronger the flow, the more important this becomes. Wind: A complete pilot studies wind, especially surface and wind aloft forecasts. If the forecasts are bang-on, that means the model of the atmosphere is accurate and the other forecasts should be pretty good. If the wind forecast is incorrect, then the other forecasts might be too. Generally, a wind that is more southerly or easterly than forecast means the surface weather will be worse than forecast. A stronger wind than forecast means that the low pressure area causing the wind is stronger than forecast. Wind shear is important, too. Defined as a change in direction and/or velocity over distance or height, wind shear can result in enthusiastic turbulence and can create low-altitude hazards around airports. There is always wind shear in frontal zones and where areas of strong wind (jet streams, streaks or cores) aloft interact with areas of lighter winds. Temperature & Dewpoint: This is really basic, but these items give clues to a lot of things. We learn early and often that if they are close, the flying weather suffers. They are especially important as the day is ending and beginning, when a small spread can result in rapidly deteriorating weather after sunset, or fog at and just after sunrise. If there is a big difference in the temperature and dewpoint ahead of and behind a cold front, there is probably a lot of action in the frontal zone. Also, if the temperature aloft is warmer than forecast, that means more moisture. The ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture doubles with every 11 degrees Celsius rise in temperature. That is why, when the talking heads say a heavy rain would have been so much snow, they don't know what they are talking about.

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Foreign Minister Bob Carr has welcomed a new framework to support the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Senator Carr said the framework involves scientific and technical cooperation between Australia and New Zealand to promote a permanent and effective ban on nuclear weapon tests. "International cooperation enhances the ability of scientific experts to provide advice to their governments on whether a nuclear test has occurred," Senator Carr said. "Cooperation between Australia and New Zealand can serve as a model for others around the world and will strengthen the CTBT. "Australia strongly advocates the earliest possible entry into force of the CTBT, so we are taking technical steps to prepare for that time." In the 16 years since the CTBT opened for signature, the CTBT Organization has largely completed work on a global network of over 300 facilities to monitor the environment for acoustic waves and radionuclide particulates and gases from a possible nuclear explosion. Data collected by these facilities is made available to CTBT parties, who have the final responsibility in determining which events – about 30,000 per year - could be a nuclear explosion. Although the CTBT has not yet entered into force, its monitoring system has already shown its potential by readily detecting nuclear tests conducted by North Korea in 2006 and 2009. Technical agencies in Australia monitoring for nuclear explosions are Geoscience Australia and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. The framework for bilateral cooperation is set out in a memorandum of understanding between the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs. - Minister's office: (02) 6277 7500 - DFAT Media Liaison: (02) 6261 1555

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A stinky little problem: True to its name, malodorous bug invades many area homes DOVER — A small insect notorious for generating big headaches around the Seacoast is once again giving homeowners reason to gripe. Stink bugs — small, smelly pests that can damage crops and overwhelm buildings — have been a recent source of frustration as they congregate in masses outside and inside homes in preparation for the winter months. “I'm not sure why, but this has been a great year for them,” said Alan Eaton, an entomologist at the University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Extension program. “They search for cracks or crevasses to hide in and form huge masses on buildings.” And these masses have been visible as of late, with large numbers invading homes in search of overwintering sites. As Eaton explained, most of these stink bugs are known as the western conifer seed bug — an insect which has expanded eastward since first being detected in Pennsylvania in 1992. The western conifer seed bug is a relative of the brown marmorated stink bug — another insect that has contributed to this sudden influx. The brown marmorated stink bug, however, is currently only present in eight municipalities statewide. Therefore, Eaton credited the western conifer seed bug as the primary source of these recent headaches. “Sealing holes, cracks, and other openings is the best approach,” Eaton said. “There are a lot of places people might not think about that are actually great for these insects.” Although neither bites, is poisonous, or spreads disease, these dime-sized bugs emit terrible odors when triggered and are classified as agricultural pests. Stink bugs can cause widespread damage to fruit and vegetable crops, including peaches, apples, green beans, soybeans, cherries, raspberries, and pears, among others. And once inside homes, neither insect needs much space to feel comfortable and secure — they've been known to settle around window sills, picture frames, and behind television screens. Once nestled in their new locations, these insects pass the winter months in a deep hibernation, returning once again around May or June. For now, effective strategies to reduce these insects remain unclear — although sprays are somewhat effective, researchers have said numbers are too big to eradicate entire populations. And although Eaton said Sept. 15 is normally the deadline to seal up any holes, crevasses, or cracks the bugs may take advantage of, he noted it's still worth the effort to take precautionary measures today.

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Looking for a spooky way to light your home and yard this Halloween? Consider the eerie illuminations of candles, lamps, and solar lights. Many people carve Jack-o-Lanterns every autumn when the leaves begin to fall, but not everyone thinks of pumpkins in terms of their sustainable energy potential. A stroll around the Farmer’s Market provides a ton of options for finding that perfect pumpkin. This year, I will be carving my very first Jack-o-Lantern! I’ve watched others carve pumpkins and hollow out gourds for birdhouses, but now it’s time for me to give it a go. Jack-o-Lantern Carving Tips: 1. Choose a flat-bottomed pumpkin so it won’t roll around. 2. Cut out the lid at an angle to prevent it from dropping inside. 3. Sprinkle cinnamon or pumpkin spice inside the lid so it smells like a pumpkin pie! By placing candles inside jars with loose beans, rice or gravel, they can light a path to your porch for trick-or-treaters (or gently illuminate the garden while you drink hot cocoa around a bonfire). Need more jars? Clean out your used jam or spaghetti sauce jars and instead of recycling them, reuse them for candles. Alternatively, create “iluminarias” from tea lights and paper bags. Just place a couple inches of sand inside the paper bag, and nestle the tea light into the center. Candles are almost as controversial as Harry Potter. Candles themselves aren’t always sustainable, and can pollute our indoor air, depending on the ingredients and where they’re sourced. Avoiding palm oil and paraffin (a petroleum by-product) is a good place to start. Paraffin candles release carcinogenic toxins into the air, and palm oil is sometimes farmed using unsustainable methods that harm overseas ecosystems and displace local populations. You can keep your holiday celebrations cleaner with options like beeswax or soy candles, which often burn longer than paraffin even though they are more expensive. Now you can dress up like a super hero and capture the power of the sun — literally! If you’re like me, and think the tiny pumpkin strings of lights are super cute, you don’t have to miss out on them this year to save electricity. Buy solar-powered or LED string lights instead. There are all sorts of pumpkin and holiday-themed solar lights online these days. Sustainable lighting isn’t just great for giving a ghostly glow to your porch, they’re great all year ‘round. Alternative lights like luminarias, lanterns, candles and solar-powered strings of lights can create a perfect romantic atmosphere or bring a Christmas tree to life without using any electricity. Working with nature allows nature to work for you. And lighting a candle is more fun than flicking a switch! Ripples is a blog connecting people to resources on sustainable living while chronicling their off-grid journey and supporting the work of nonprofit organizations. Read more on this topic and others at www.RipplesBlog.org

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