Search is not available for this dataset
text
stringlengths 185
4.03k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| token_count
int64 410
512
| preceding_token_count
int64 0
23
|
|---|---|---|---|
The idea of linking THE HEART CODE to Bohemian came when I was imagining where the character of Gamma was from.
The word Bohemia came into my head. Hmmmm, I mused – and researched the country of Bohemia and learned it was named and claimed in 600 AD as BOHEMIA — which means “HOME OF THE BOII.”
So why was it called home of the Boii? Who were the Boii? The Boii were a Celtic Tribe who migrated to the Prague area around 3000 BCE.
There is more to this very interesting story – and it is in the Novel THE HEART CODE.
I tied the Bohemians to the Heart’s Wisdom because the philosophy behind the two are very similar.
The original Boii Celts migrated to Prague from a territory between the Caspian and Black Seas – where they lived along with many other Tribes who all grew over time, intermingling and sharing common language elements. It must have been a fertile region, north of Mesopotamia – for the tribes outgrew the space and were forced to relocate due to crowding. When this happened around 3000 BCE – they scattered to the Middle East, India, Asia and the Celtic tribes settled across Europe. This is known because they all took with them the common roots of the languages from which modern-day linguists were able to trace back to the original territory between the Black and Caspian Seas
Many of us think of Celtic as only in Ireland – when that was the last place they existed. By 2000 BCE, they populated much of Europe — all the way up to Scandinavia. Currently, there are 14 different tribes of Celtics identified.
So now here is my fiction based on the facts: The definition of a Bohemian, besides being born in Bohemia, is someone who is of independent spirit, often artistic, living to his own drummer. A small band of migrating people would have a better chance of surviving if they all had different skills and abilities. Thus – they would not be inclined to make their children just like them. They would look and honor the uniqueness and encourage them to follow their true heart – with unique skills that would benefit the tribe.
So while I am | <urn:uuid:5befd089-7ace-4bbf-b0a6-7d49094d442a> | 512 | 0 |
IBM launches user-friendly quantum computing simulator
IBM has launched a new simulator that allows users to tinker with quantum computing through the Cloud.
Jon Simon/Feature Photo Service for IBM
Quantum computing is open to the masses, virtually.
IBM launched an online quantum computer simulator through the Cloud early Wednesday. The simulator will allow anyone with Internet access to run experiments on IBM's physical quantum processor. The project, called IBM Quantum Experience, is the first virtual simulator to be linked directly to hardware.
IBM's goal for the project? To raise interest in a technology that could accomplish tasks in moments that a traditional computer would find impossible.
"Quantum computing is becoming a reality and it will extend computation far beyond what is imaginable with today’s computers," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director at IBM Research, in a press release. The "IBM Quantum Experience will make it easier for researchers and the scientific community to accelerate innovations in the quantum field, and help discover new applications for this technology."
Quantum computing is a hot topic for many of the world's largest technology companies. Google is working with NASA to build a large quantum machine, Microsoft is working on its own version, and Intel and others are also attempting to develop the technology.
The theory behind the tech is that the basics of quantum physics can be used to create more powerful computing machines. Bits, the basic unit for normal computers have a value of zero or one, but a quantum bit (qubit) has the potential to be zero or one or a superposition, a special combination of the two that has unique properties depending on the problem being calculated.
"Everything about quantum computing is probabilistic," Dr. Scott Aaronson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, explained in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor.
The goal is "to create a superposition that has a large probability of being the right answer. If you had an algorithm that purely had an 80 percent chance of giving you a correct answer, that's great. If you weren't happy with that number you could just run the algorithm another 100 times," he added.
What's the end goal for quantum computing research? Hopefully a machine that can solve problems that require a large degree of probability to answer in a relatively efficient time.
Two major applications are quantum mechanics | <urn:uuid:a9b374f7-fbfb-4eed-b7f4-4a26e1c66d0f> | 512 | 0 |
Samuel Pfaff, a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory, studies the fetal development of the spinal cord. The objective is to discover how nerve cells are formed and wire up correctly.
Of special interest to him is how motor neurons develop and make connections between the spinal cord and muscles in the body, since these connections are necessary for all body movements. Spinal cord injuries lead to paralysis because motor neuron function is disrupted. Degenerative diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrigís disease), spinal muscle atrophy and post-polio syndrome result from the loss of motor neurons.
Thaler, J., Koo, S., Kania, A., Lettieri, K. Andrews, S., Jessell, T.M., and Pfaff, S.L. (2004). A post-mitotic role for Isl-class LIM homeodomain factors in the assignment of visceral spinal motor neuron identity. Neuron 41: 337-350.
Pak, W., Hindges, H., Pfaff, S.L., O’Leary, D.D. (2004). Magnitude of binocular vision controlled by Islet-2 repression of a genetic program that specifies laterality of retinal axon pathfinding. Cell 119: 567-78.
Marquardt, T., Shirasaki, R., Ghosh, Carter, N., S., Andrews, S.E., Hunter, T., Pfaff, S.L. (2005). Co-expressed EphA receptors and ephrin-A ligands mediate opposing actions on growth cone navigation from distinct membrane subdomains. Cell 121: 127-39.
Yeo, M., Lee, S.-K., Pfaff, S.L., Gill, G.N. (2005). SCP phosphatases function in silencing neuronal gene expression. Science 307: 596-600
Myers, C.P., Lewcock, J.W., Hanson, M.G., Gosgnach, S., Aimone, J.B., Gage, F.H., Lee, K-F | <urn:uuid:fa82a419-1ec7-47af-ab3d-9e2caf799316> | 512 | 0 |
The tween years are an interesting time for your children, as they begin to take their first steps towards puberty, and naturally, start getting curious about the world of dating and relationships. The good news is that in those fleeting tween-age years before your young one crosses over from childhood to being a full-fledged teenager, he or she is likely to be open with you about their thoughts and feelings. This is a good time for parents to guide their children towards a healthy understanding of love and relationships.
Get Inside your Child’s World
One of the most valuable ways that you can invest in your parent-child relationship is to connect with your child and understand the world through her eyes. Spend time together, and be present as you initiate conversations on who her friends are, and what she likes, dislikes, dreams and worries about. This will give insights into your child, and enables you to guide her views on relationships, while addressing any misconceptions that you might pick up on.
Keep Clear of Negative Talk
It can be tempting to steer your child away from all conversations about love and relationships. Some parents may be fearful of their child dating before he is emotionally ready, or dating someone unsuitable. However, avoid making blanket statements about dating such as, “dating is bad for you” and “dating will distract you from your studies, and you will fail!”. Instead, encourage conversations and engage with your children as they share their thoughts with you.
Emphasise Positive Friendships
The most vital relationship advice you can share with your child is that all positive romantic relationships are rooted in strong friendships. Discuss with your child the traits found in good relationships such as mutual respect, compromise, being supportive and having healthy boundaries. Take the time to clearly share how these are also traits that are found in solid friendships. You might even share about the positive experiences of relatives and family friends to provide your child with real-life examples that she can relate to. Provide your child with the opportunities to form healthy friendships with both boys and girls, and open your home to these friends so that they can safely meet and bond with some parental supervision.
Set Boundaries Early
Some parents opt to take a ‘wait and see’ approach to dating and relationship boundaries, clamping down on when they believe their child has crossed the line. This will likely lead to resentment towards the parents and conflict in the | <urn:uuid:e925c439-cc40-4a2e-b27b-87508d8c49f2> | 512 | 0 |
Forget the croak. This frog was all about the crunch.
Researchers from the University of Adelaide are part of an international team that has been looking into a 68 million-year-old frog called Beelzebufo (Devil Toad).
Specifically, it’s Pac-Man like mouth.
According to the study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the frog — which grew up to a foot and a half in length and weighed more than 10 pounds — had a powerful bite.
Reconstructing its anatomy (it really did look to be made entirely of a mouth) allowed its chomp force to be calculated.
Modern descendants of the ancient amphibian, genus Ceratophrys, have a head about two inches wide. These horned frogs can exert a force of about 6.7 pounds.
“This is the first time bite force has been measured in a frog,” says Professor Kristopher Lappin at California State Polytechnic University. “And, speaking from experience, horned frogs have quite an impressive bite, and they tend not to let go. The bite of a large Beelzebufo would have been remarkable, definitely not something I would want to experience first-hand.”
Scaling the modern horned frogs to its much larger ancestor proved it was a formidable predator.
“Unlike the vast majority of frogs which have weak jaws and typically consume small prey, horned frogs ambush animals as large as themselves — including other frogs, snakes, and rodents,” says Dr. Marc Jones, researcher at the University of Adelaide’s School of Biological Sciences and honorary researcher at the South Australian Museum.
In comparison, Beelzebufo, which is anatomically similar to the modern horned frogs, may have had a 500-pound bite.
That’s comparable to modern wolves and tigers.
“At this bite force, Beelzebufo would have been capable of subduing the small and juvenile dinosaurs that shared its environment,” says Jones. | <urn:uuid:075bb545-c2cf-4062-921a-9d5534d7cf42> | 475 | 0 |
A self evident proposition is a proposition that any rational person will agree is certainly true upon grasping it. In this post, I will demonstrate that there are self evident propositions.
The strongest argument for the claim that there are self evident propositions is to just list several of them so that the reader can see that some propositions are really self evident. Here are three:
- There is an objective reality.
- A thing is identical to itself.
- I am conscious.
I will explain each of these.
“There is an objective reality” means that there is a fact of the matter about something. For example, if I say that we landed on the Moon, and someone else denies that we landed on the Moon, there is a fact of the matter about which of us is right. The fact of the matter about whether we landed on the Moon is one component of the objective reality in which we live.
The existence of an objective reality is contained in every experience we have. When I experience the fact that my alarm clock is red, I can see immediately that my alarm clock really exists, that it really has certain properties like redness, and that its existence and properties are independent of my mind. This experience shows me directly that there is an objective reality.
“A thing is identical to itself” means that a thing is what it is. A tree is a tree, and has all of the properties required for being a tree. Symbolically, this is often expressed “A is A,” where A refers to anything that exists.
This proposition, called the law of identity, is contained in every thought and every observation we have. When you observe a computer, you also observe that that computer is a computer. When you think of the number one, you can see that the number one is the number one. This is one of the undeniable foundations of rational thought.
“I am conscious” means that I am aware of the world and can identify things that exist using my mind. I can perceive the things that exist, whether they be cars, animals, or anything else that is presented to my senses. I am actually aware of the world.
Obviously, the fact that we are conscious is forced upon us by every perception or thought we have. If I perceive a lamp, I can see that I am aware of that lamp. If I think about Nazi Germany, I can see that my mind is thinking about Nazi Germany. Every act of my consciousness contains | <urn:uuid:c603b108-aa6c-4a30-bfee-0803428373b8> | 512 | 0 |
Hi there all, if there is one thing that I am very passionate about, it is helping my students find success. This comes in many forms, from personal to academic success, and everything in between! However, I know from many years of teaching, that the best thing I can do for my students, besides help shape them into being a contributing citizen, is to help their literacy skills, and more specifically, their writing skills. Without solid writing skills, students can not access higher education and better paying jobs, simple. So from the very beginning of the academic year, I start my students on a journey of writing critically and analytically about music. This I do with every single class I teach, from Year 7 all the way through to Year 12. This post is all about sharing my 5 easy steps to success in this area. I will say one important thing first, I use the modelled, guided and independent model in my teaching, and I will always teach a skill more than once, then let students have a go with my support, then I usually assess them in the independent part in an assignment of some sort. So let’s go….
In this step it is important to teach any of the terms or musical ideas that are important to the concept that you are studying. How you choose to do this will depend on your teaching style, you can be hands on with a practical approach, you can be purely written or even a combination of both. The main thing is that you teach so that your students will learn to recognise musical ideas in other pieces of music.
In this step, I have several sets of questions that accompany each of the music concepts, each set is age appropriate for the class I am teaching. They can be for example, for the concept of duration/rhythm –
- What is the tempo of the music?
- Are the notes mainly long or short?
- What is the time signature of the music?
- What instrument keeps the beat?
These are typical questions I use for my Year 7 and 8 classes, and the questions get more in depth and harder as my students progress through this subject.
Once a set of questions is chosen, I will make sure that my students understand what the question is actually asking. It is at this time, if needed, that I will reteach any ideas so that everyone in the class knows what we are listening for.
In this step, the music is played (as often as needed | <urn:uuid:f8e3df92-4e6e-4697-8e89-b759ad956a68> | 512 | 0 |
Hi there all, if there is one thing that I am very passionate about, it is helping my [...] ), questions are answered and recorded. This can be done as a class, in small groups or as an independent activity. I am more concerned when first teaching this step that everyone gets the correct answer together – and again if ideas need to be explained, you would do it at this point.
Choose a paragraph writing template. This will of course depend on what your school might be using. In my career, over the last 10 years, I have had to teach 3 different models! They are all essentially the same, just a different name for each part of the paragraph. In my products I have two different templates – P.E.E.L. and T.X.X.X.C.
Once you have a template that you are using, scaffold the paragraph so that all of your students know what goes where. This is an important step in the process as it in now that students are hopefully starting to make connections with other subject areas and the same process there! It’s great to see the “penny drop” and the “lights go on” as your students make the all important connections.
Write your paragraph, check and edit, then publish. Hint, I will often put the music back on at this stage so the students have something to listen to while they write. Done!
This process, when I model it, and we do it as a class together, usually takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on the class and how fast they write.
If you would like to watch a video explaining this 5 Step Process in more detail, go to my Facebook page and you will see videos on each individual concept. There are 2 there so far, and more will be added in the next couple of weeks. There are also the slides that accompany each of the videos for FREE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. click the links below to download.
The writing of paragraphs for each concept is included in each of my units of work that are for sale in my store as well.
As always, if you have found this post helpful, don’t forget to share, sign up to become a follower, or even click the “like” button below!
Julia from Jooya | <urn:uuid:f8e3df92-4e6e-4697-8e89-b759ad956a68> | 491 | 23 |
What is Magnetic Stirrer:
- A magnetic stirrer is an equipment used to create rotating magnetic field. The magnetic stirrer is designed such that there is a small bar magnet and a stand or plate containing the rotating magnet.
- In general the bar magnet is coated with plastic and plate contains rotating magnet. It is possible to create a rotating magnetic field with the help of a rotating magnet.
Working of Magnetic Stirrer:
- An external magnetic field is applied to the magnetic stirrers mix solution which facilitates the rotating of the small magnetic bar placed in the mixture of interest.
- The way this works is the rapidly rotating magnetic field makes the bar magnet rotate which ends up stirring the liquid. Since their size is usually small they are highly preferred in laboratory experiments.
Functions and uses of a Magnetic Stirrer:
- The magnetic stirrers are also known as magnetic stir plates and quite commonly used for experiments in chemistry and biology.
- There are very useful when you need to mix component, either solids or liquids and get a homogeneous liquid mixture. Some of the common samples include bacterial growth media as well as buffer solutions.
- The main function of a stirrer is to agitate the liquid for speeding up the reactions or improving mixtures. A magnetic stirrer is often used with hot plates.
Types of a Magnetic Stirrer:
There are several types of Magnetic Stirrer available and it all depends on your selection of size, application and configuration. The various different type are listed below:
Magnetic Mini Stirrer:
As the name suggests, the mini magnetic stirrer is a compact sized stirrer that occupies very little space and allows the users to regulate the speed with great precision with the help of the controls provided. It has been wisely designed to be resistive to harmful chemicals present in a laboratory environment. In addition to which it also consists of a speed regulator that ensures that the device never exceeds the maximum speed.
Magnetic Stirrer with Timer:
Again the name says it all. This is the type of stirrer that has the ability to automatically shut off the motor after the set amount of time. The way this works is that it uses an in built timer to shut off the stirrer when the pre – selected period of time has been over. Besides which the speed is also automatically reduced | <urn:uuid:2a7c4117-941f-4bbf-86b5-35c6f2766e0c> | 512 | 0 |
What is Magnetic Stirrer:
- A magnetic stirrer is an equipment used to create [...] and the load is automatically removed.
Heavy-Duty Magnetic Stirrer:
The heavy duty magnetic stirrer are true to their name. They have a greater chemical resistance and are highly durable, besides which they also have a high mixing capacity. Additionally they have an internal electronic control device that regulate the speed automatically with respect to the load. Thus the heavy duty magnetic stirrer makes for a perfect instrument for use in a laboratory or production environment.
Battery Powered Magnetic Stirrer:
The battery powered magnetic stirrer come in handy where there is no electric outlet. Their main application is in incubators. They consist of rubber feet and their speed can be controlled with the help of the speed control knobs provided. In general alkaline batteries can be used with these devices though rechargeable batteries should work just fine.
Air Operated Turbine Magnetic Stirrer:
If you have the requirement for stirring liquid up-to one liter than the air operated turbine separator is the ideal equipment. The major advantage being that it eliminates the hazards associated with sparking from electrical sources.
Benefits of using a Magnetic Stirrer:
One of the major advantages of a magnetic stirrer is that it minimizes the risk of contamination since only there is only an inert magnet bar that is placed inside the sample (fluid).
Additionally this can also be easily cleaned. A manual stirrer is not as consistent as the magnetic one and the magnetic one is also critical for reproducible mixing or mixing over long time scale. For example, protein dialysis requires multi hour or overnight sample mixing and is sensitive to bacterial contamination.
Specifications of using a Magnetic Stirrer:
- There are many different types of Magnetic Stirrers available.
- Here are the specifications of a Magnetic Stirrer from Neuation, called i Stir Uno.
- This one has no moving parts and is truly maintenance free.
- It has a software driven gradual acceleration and an adjustable speed.
- It is microprocessor controlled and has the last run memory storing ability.
The basic specification goes as below:
- Max RPM – 1500 RPM
- Speed Setting – 15 to 15 | <urn:uuid:2a7c4117-941f-4bbf-86b5-35c6f2766e0c> | 512 | 23 |
“Teachers teach that students learn” is the teachers’ philosophy in Indonesia in teaching English as a foreign language. Most of Indonesian teachers are still using teacher-centered approaches in their classroom. As the writer has experienced in learning English for many years, she felt uncomfortable with this approach. The students do not have any opportunities to share their ideas, opinions, etc. during the learning process. Consequently, the students are not able to transfer what they have mastered in the classroom to the real-life situation. There is an approach that can create a more student-centered classroom called The Silent Way (SW). This approach allows the students to have opportunities in practicing the target language by discovering or creating, not remembering and repeating. The method in SW is the teacher keeps silent to allow the students have opportunities in practicing English. He keeps silent to make the students speak more in English. Although the teacher keeps silent, he keeps monitoring the students and corrects them when they do mistakes in applying English. One of the advantages of using this approach is the students do not have to memorize the materials.
Key Word: The Silent Way, student-centered classroom
As a student who has learned English for many years, the writer has experienced that most of the Indonesian teachers are still using teacher-centered approaches in their classroom. The teacher dominates the class by explaining the materials too much and the students are quiet to listen to the teacher’s explanation. “Teachers teach that students learn” is the teachers’ philosophy in describing how they manage the class. The way they implement the philosophy makes most Indonesian students use these three habits in learning English as their foreign language: formation, memorization and repetition. The teachers often forget to give the students opportunities to practice in their class. Consequently, the students are not able to transfer what they have already learned in the class to communicative use outside it or in the real-life situations. It means that this learning process has not achieved the goal yet in making the students able to communicate in the target language. Benjamin Franklin’s words “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn” represents the Silent Way approach to make the class more effective.
This article will explore how the Silent Way creates a more student-centered classroom and allow them to have opportunities in practicing the target language by discovering or creating, not remembering and repeating. The learning hypotheses underlying Gatte | <urn:uuid:67b2e78a-bc3c-462d-99a7-d97f9815e377> | 512 | 0 |
“Teachers teach that students learn” is the teachers’ philosophy in Indonesia in teaching English as [...] gno’s work could be stated as follows:
- Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates rather than remembers and repeats what is to be learned.
- Learning is facilitated by accompanying (mediating) physical objects.
- Learning is facilitated by problem solving involving the material to be learned.
(Richard and Rodgers, 2001: 81)
An overview which includes the Silent Way’s history, theory and principles will be given first. Then, this article will discuss the Silent Way in practice. Finally, there will be a reflection on how the Silent Way improves the students’ ability in using target language in communication.
ENGLISH TEACHING IN INDONESIA
As stated in the introduction, the teachers in Indonesia are still using the teacher-centered approaches in teaching English in their classroom. It is supported by the writer’s experiences in learning English for about 10 years. Many students who learn English as their foreign language feel uncomfortable with teacher-centered approaches used by their teachers since they cannot share their ideas, opinions, expressions, etc. during the learning process. The teachers are talking too much in the classroom and the students are usually taking some notes in their books to remember and repeat what they have learned. That’s why most of the students are not able to use English since they are only taking notes without practicing English in their class.
THE SILENT WAY
In the 1950s, Caleb Gattegno, an educational designer of reading and mathematics programs, developed a method of language teaching called the Silent Way. It is based on the premise that the teacher should be silent as much as possible in the classroom but the learner should be encouraged to produce as much language as possible (Richard and Rodgers, 2001: 81). When the teacher is silent, it means that he is giving the students opportunities to practice the target language in the class as stated by Gattegno (1976: 80), silence is considered the best vehicle for learning, because in silence students concentrate on the task to be accomplished and the potential means to its accomplishment. Repetition (as opposed to silence) “consumes times and encourages the scattered mind to remain | <urn:uuid:67b2e78a-bc3c-462d-99a7-d97f9815e377> | 512 | 23 |
“Teachers teach that students learn” is the teachers’ philosophy in Indonesia in teaching English as [...] scattered”.
The approach provides the students to discover or create what is to be learned, not remember and repeat it. The Silent Way uses color charts and the colored Cuisenaire rods, small pieces of wood which vary in length and color. By using the wall charts coloring the different letters, each sound of the functional vocabulary is always represented by the same color. When the teacher uses a pointer to indicate the words on the charts, the students can work out their pronunciation by looking at the colors. Some principles of the Silent Way are as follows:
- The teacher should start with something the students already know and build from that to the unknown.
- Language learners are intelligent and bring with them the experience of already learning a language.
- Language is not learned by repeating after a model.
- Students’ actions can tell the teacher whether or not they have learned.
- Students should learn to rely on each other and themselves.
- The teacher works with the students while the students work on the language.
- The teacher makes use of what students already know.
- Learning involves transferring what one knows to new contexts.
- Reading is worked on from the beginning but from what students have learned to say.
- Silence is a tool.
- Meaning is made clear by focusing students’ perception, not through translation.
- Students can learn from one another.
- If the teacher praises (or criticizes) students, they will be less self-reliant.
- Errors are important and necessary to learning.
- If students are simply given answers, rather than being allowed to self-correct, they will not retain them.
- Students need to learn to listen to themselves.
- At the beginning, the teacher needs to look for progress, not perfection.
- A teacher’s silence frees the teacher to closely observe the students’ behavior.
- Students learn they must give the teacher their attention in order not to miss what he/she says.
- Students should engage in a great deal of meaningful practice without repetition.
- The elements of the language are introduced logically, expanding upon what students already know.
- Students gain autonomy in the language by exploring it and by making choices.
- Language is for self-expression.
- The teacher can gain valuable | <urn:uuid:67b2e78a-bc3c-462d-99a7-d97f9815e377> | 512 | 23 |
“Teachers teach that students learn” is the teachers’ philosophy in Indonesia in teaching English as [...] information from student feedback.
- Some learning takes place naturally as we sleep.
- The syllabus is composed of linguistic structures.
- The structures of the syllabus are not arranged in a linear fashion, but rather are constantly being recycled.
- The skills of speaking, reading, and writing reinforce one another.
(Larsen-Freeman, 2000: )
The advantages of this way are:
- The Silent Way belongs to a tradition that views learning as a problem-solving, creative, discovering activity, in which the learner is a principal actor rather than a bench-bound listener.
- The rods and the color-coded pronunciation charts (called Fidel charts) provide physical foci for student learning and also create memorable images to facilitate student recall. In psychological terms, these visual devices serve as associative mediators for student learning and recall.
- The Silent Way is also related to a set of premises that we have called “problem-solving approaches to learning.”
(Richard and Rodgers, 2001: 81)
In conclusion, the Silent Way is a great approach to make a more student-centered classroom. The activity in the Silent Way allows students to find many ways in expressing the situation in the target language. The goals of the teacher’s silence are the students’ progress in learning English, such as the students can practice the language, they are curious about it and they begin to explore it actively.
Gattegno, C. 1976. The Common Sense of Teaching Foreign Languages. New York: Educational Solutions.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 2000. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Richard, Jack C. and Rodgers, Theodore S. 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Second Edition. USA: Cambridge University Press. | <urn:uuid:67b2e78a-bc3c-462d-99a7-d97f9815e377> | 458 | 23 |
[continued from here]
On the antithesis and the common sphere
In Reformed theology, what exactly does the antithesis pertain to? According to both Cornelius Van Til and Gordon Clark (despite their disagreement on other matters), the antithesis exists at the level of one's philosophy. In other words, there is a fundamental disagreement between the systems of Christianity, and that of other belief systems. Christianity is unique and contends against all other philosophies and religions. The antithesis lies at the level of thought, of philosophy, and maintaining the antithesis is done by way of vigilance in constantly renewing our minds after God's Word (Rom. 12:2), thinking God's thoughts after him.
It will be noticed that the antithesis exists at the level of systems, not persons. Contrast this with the Neo-Kuyperian view that is expressed by Aaron Lim and his professor David Engelsma:
Describing the antithesis between Covenant children and unbelievers, Prof. Engelsma writes:
“First, the life of the believer is subject to the Word of God, whereas the unbeliever’s life is independent of the Word and in rebellion against it. Second, the goal of life is different. The believer directs his life towards God. His life is God-centered. The unbeliever leaves God out. His life is man-centered” (pg 57, Reformed Education).
[Aaron Lim, "Our Children's Education: A Covenant Necessity (III): The Evils of Public Education," Salt Shakers 33 (Jul 2015), 15]
Now it is true that theology is to be worked out in life. But when one applies the doctrine of the antithesis, one has to actually deal with how Scripture speaks about the world before applying one doctrine to the exclusion of others. Here is where the problem begins for those who are radically pushing a total antithesis, for Scripture teaches that there is not just a category of "good" and a category of "evil," but also a category called "common."
The notion of "common" is associated with the Noahic Covenant, which focuses on preservation of this world, not on salv | <urn:uuid:6bbf17cc-0546-4c37-8033-76870a12d7df> | 512 | 0 |
[continued from here]
On the antithesis and the common sphere
In Reformed [...] ation and special grace. It is concerned with this age, which in Latin "age" is saeculum, from which we get the word "secular." Reformed theology does not just speak about the ultimate in the coming age, but also has practical teaching and application for [the penultimate] things of this world. For example, marriage is a common or secular institution, for there is no marriage in heaven (Mt. 22:30). But just because marriage is not of ultimate value does not mean that it should be denigrated (as in Monasticism), or that Scripture has little concern for it! Imagine if we were just to focus on ultimate things, then marriage should be seen as unimportant, and working in secular jobs also. We will then go back to the medieval notion that some jobs, the "spiritual callings of ministers," are really vocations from God. Or we can take the Neo-Kuyperian route and attempt to make all jobs "special" and thus baptize one's secular job into a ministry, which tends to subvert what one is actually employed to do.
The PRCA's rejection of common grace is certainly at the root of this radicalization of Kuyper's view of the antithesis. But what the PRCA fails to do is to distinguish the (Neo)-Amyraldian and Neo-Kuyperian view of "common grace" with the Calvinist view of "common grace." The Calvinist notion of "common grace" has to do with penultimate reality, not ultimate reality. It is formally instituted in the Noahic Covenant, and treats creation (though penultimate) as important. Over against the Amyraldian view of "common grace" as being in some sense salvific, the consistent Calvinist denies the salvific value of common grace. Common Grace is nothing more and nothing less than a creational (non salvific) good. It pertains to the common kingdom, not the spiritual kingdom of the church and the kingdom.
It is because there is a legitimate category called "common" or "secular" (saeculi) that we do not have to pigeon-hole everything into "good" and "evil" categories. | <urn:uuid:6bbf17cc-0546-4c37-8033-76870a12d7df> | 512 | 23 |
[continued from here]
On the antithesis and the common sphere
In Reformed [...] We see this radical antithesizing tendency at work in Engelsma's shocking words concerning the topic of friendship:
Friendship with the unbeliever is both impossible and forbidden. Friendship demands oneness in Jesus Christ. My friend and I must have God as our God together. Whoever is an enemy of God is my enemy” (pg 70, Common Grace Revisited, RFPA, 2003; as cited by Aaron Lim, "Evils," 15)
According to Engelsma, friendship MUST always be based upon oneness in Jesus Christ. That axiom is of course totally unsubstantiated, and makes sense only if we is pressed with the false dichotomy between "good" and "evil." If one reads Scripture, one can see Abraham developing friendships with people like Abimelech (Gen. 21:22-33), who is an unregenerate Canaanite ruler. King David, the man after God's heart, developed a friendship with the pagan king of Tyre Hiram (1 Chron. 14:1, 1 Ki. 5:1). Friendship therefore is a "common sphere" blessing, which can be infused with spiritual benefits to be sure (among believers) but it is not exclusively Christian. Engelsma' definition of "friendship" is one example of such radicalization of the Kuyperian doctrine of the antithesis, such that now we have a distinction between "friendship" and "Christian friendship." That is why the third stated reason is ridiculous. There is no "antithesis" between the persons of unbelievers and the persons of believers, but between their faiths. Or to use philosophical language, antithesis applies to the area of epistemology not ontology. We all still remain humans and sinners in need to salvation. Only if we refuse to acknowledge the penultimate and focus just on the ultimate can we have such antithesis being placed between believers and unbelievers! At least we do not (as yet) have a difference between air and "Christian" air, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone has thought about that already.
We will go | <urn:uuid:6bbf17cc-0546-4c37-8033-76870a12d7df> | 512 | 23 |
I have come across the curious reticence of Historians when they write on Indian history.
They are prepared to take as authentic texts/books by Authors from the West,from Plato, Thucydides,Xenophon,Ptolomey, Strabo,Megasthanes,Huan -tsuang,The Bible,Iliad,Odessey,Koran ,they brush aside Indian texts as myths,legends and the works of ancient Indian writers as figment of overworked imagination!
But facts of Indian history are being confirmed by Archeology, Etymology, Cultural cross references,asro dating,Archeoastronomy,Carbon dating,Sea floor movements,Glacial movements,Strata verification , Plate Tectonics ,Cave paintings,and Epigraphs.
Western history,as revealed by these tools,are quite nascent when compared to the Timeline of India.
The earlier western texts can not quote the much more ancient Indian texts because they had no access or even if they had,their knowledge was limited because of their poor understanding of Sanskrit ,Brahmi of various hues and the Ethos of Indian culture.
And nearly all of them miss out sources other than those in Sanskrit.
There was and is Tamil,Kannada,Telugu, Bengali.
These languages are also ancient and they have vast literature.
References found in these sync with what is found in Sanskrit.
Sanskrit and these languages quote each other on historical events.
Thus we find that,
Kannada and Tamil kings took part in the Mahabharata war,
Bengal was over twenty-five Thousand years old,
Varanasi is the oldest continuously inhabited city of the world,
So ,when foreign authors write on Indian history,they record what they have seen and not on what happened earlier in India.
Yet some of them like Strabo,Megasthanes,Huan-tsusang,Fa-hien refer to the antiquity of India.
Strabo and Megasthanes refer to Tamil and Lanka in detail.
The assignment of dates in Indian history now is based nearly wholly on these western sources,and not much on Indian sources.
If one were to devote time to | <urn:uuid:094c25bf-ad70-46fe-9140-11ea8d098592> | 512 | 0 |
I have come across the curious reticence of Historians when they write on Indian history.
[...] study Indian texts and cross reference them among Sanskrit,Pali,Tamil,Kannada texts and further check with Epigraphs found in Indian temples,real Indian history would emerge.
It stands to reason to trust these multiple sources as they were independent of each other , region wise language wise and the kings of these countries were at war with others at many a times.
The problem arises when the current date assigned to an event in Indian history is way Off the mark by as much as 10,000 years!
Yet, the evidence is compelling.
One such is the the dating of Tamil Chera kings and the Satavahavana dynasties.
Satavahavana dynasty ruled initially from Prathistana,Amravathi and their kingdom encompassed Central India,Andhra, Maharashtra, Karnataka.
They succeeded the Kanva dynasty.
The first king is Simuka.
One of the greatest kings was Gautamiputra Satakarni.
He assisted the Chera King Cheran Senguttuvan.
As Senguttuvan is dated around 9600 BC,Gautamiputra Satakarni and the Satavahavana dynasty may be dated from the present First Century BC to 9600-9500 BC.
‘This declaration by this king happened in the first century CE. This is known from the fact that this king was a friend of Gautamiputra Satakarniwhose time period has been documented. The name Satakarni is “Nootruvar kannar” in Tamil. He provided boats to enable Cheran’s army to cross the Ganges. From there onwards, till their destination in the Himalayas, they had met with some resistance. Silappadhikaram makes a mention that this Cheran king won over the “ill-mouthed Yavanas” before reaching the Himalayas (from where he procured the stone for making the image of Kannagi).. | <urn:uuid:094c25bf-ad70-46fe-9140-11ea8d098592> | 479 | 23 |
In 2010, the highest rates (17.7%) of mental illness were among emerging adults 18 to 25 years of age. In 2012, more than 19% of persons between the ages of 18 and 25 had an identifiable mental illness, with 4.1% identified as having a serious mental illness (US Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, 2013). Despite the growing need for developmentally oriented mental health services for this age group, the special needs of emerging adults are largely neglected as they transition from child to adult systems of care. Thus, there is need for a professional forum where clinicians and researchers can advocate for this age group and best practices in the psychological assessment and treatment of emerging adults can be developed, organized, and disseminated. Given the need for developmentally informed services for this age group, clinical child and adolescent psychologists are likely to find clinical work with emerging adults a natural extension of work done from a developmental perspective with younger clients.
Consequently, the Emerging Adulthood Special Interest Group (EA SIG) of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology is dedicated to the promotion of policy, practice, research, and training directly relevant to the psychological assessment and treatment of individuals 18 to 25 years of age.
The primary goal of the EA SIG is to provide a professional forum that supports the development of psychological science and practice designed to promote the well-being of individuals experiencing social and psychological difficulty during the developmental transition from adolescence to early adulthood.
To this end, the EA SIG is interested in:
a. Educating others about emerging adult development
b. Promoting awareness of the service needs of this age group
c. Supporting research relevant to the psychological assessment and treatment of emerging adults
d. Developing models of service delivery for this age group
e. Defining best practices for use with this age group
f. Disseminating information about the psychological assessment and treatment of this age group
The EA SIG is also interested in pursuing these goals through collaboration with other professional organizations in a manner consistent with the goals of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and the American Psychological Association. As such, the EA SIG seeks to establish a national platform for the exploration and development of psychological science and practice devoted to emerging | <urn:uuid:b46ef7e1-4ba1-4c1d-a947-1c8db773a13f> | 512 | 0 |
In 2010, the highest rates (17.7%) of mental illness were [...] adulthood mental health. Establishing a presence of this kind will help to mobilize clinical efforts to support emerging adults as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.
The EA SIG seeks to be a national educational and collaborative resource for psychology students, clinicians, parents and families, and emerging adults involved in mental health systems of care.
The EA is interested in highlighting:
- The normative developmental milestones of emerging adults and subsequent deviations associated with psychiatric difficulties
- Treatment needs of emerging adults
- Psychosocial factors related to mental health outcomes among emerging adults
- Current national and federal policies and initiatives related to transitioning youth
- Best practices in service delivery among emerging adults
The EA SIG will identify and establish research priorities for emerging adults with psychological difficulties, with a particular emphasis on the difficulties encountered during the transition to adulthood. This includes the identification and empirical exploration of theoretical models, measurement tools, methodological approaches, and interventions specific to emerging adults.
Service Delivery and the Promotion of Best Practices
The EA SIG seeks to articulate and highlight the best practices in service delivery to emerging adults experiencing psychiatric difficulty. In this regard, the EA SIG will also develop and support efforts to begin to establish an empirical base focused on mental health service delivery to emerging adults.
As a network of concerned scientists and practitioners, the EA SIG is interested in developing, organizing, and disseminating theory and knowledge that will improve the delivery of psychological services to young adults needing support as they negotiate diverse pathways to early adulthood.
Thomas J. McMahon, Ph.D.
Chair, EA SIG
Yale University School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and Child Study Center
Amanda Zayde, Psy.D.
Montefiore Medical Center/ Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Emerging Adulthood SIG Executive Committee Members
Thomas McMahon, Ph.D.
Yale University School of Medicine
Connecticut Mental Health Center
Dr. McMahon is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Child Study at the Yale University School of Medicine. As a clinician, educator, and researcher, he is interested | <urn:uuid:b46ef7e1-4ba1-4c1d-a947-1c8db773a13f> | 512 | 23 |
In 2010, the highest rates (17.7%) of mental illness were [...] in ways in which the principles of developmental psychopathology can be used to expand understanding of substance abuse, family process, and child development. He is presently the director of the Young Adult Service at the Connecticut Mental Health Center and actively involved in the doctoral psychology internship programs offered by the Department of Psychiatry and the Child Study Center.
Nakia M. Hamlett, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Dr. Hamlett is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Connecticut College and also holds an appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Hamlett’s primary clinical and research interests focus on child and adolescent development, developmental psychopathology, emerging adult mental health, positive behavioral support plans, psychodiagnostic assessment of children and young adults, psychotherapy integration, and parenting interventions. Her secondary interests include the development of personality disorders and high-risk behaviors in adolescents and young adults.
Division Board Liaison
Mary Fristad, Ph.D.
Ohio State University
Dr. Fristad is a professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Human Nutrition at Ohio State University, and the director of Research and Psychological Services in the OSU Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Fristad’s primary clinical and research interests are in the assessment and treatment of depression and bipolar disorder in youth, particularly using psychosocial and nutritional interventions. She is currently in Year 10 of the LAMS Study (Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms), a multi-site cohort of over 700 youth who are now adolescents or young adults; this study provides detailed information about the evolution of mood and non-mood symptoms in relation to family functioning, treatment history and brain structure and function over time.
Amanda Zayde, Psy.D.
Montefiore Medical Center
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Zayde is the director of the Mentalization-Based Parenting Program and the associate director of the Psychology Internship Training Program at the Child Outpatient Psychiatry Department at Montefiore Medical Center, Wakefield Division. She is also an assistant professor of Psychiatry and | <urn:uuid:b46ef7e1-4ba1-4c1d-a947-1c8db773a13f> | 512 | 23 |
In 2010, the highest rates (17.7%) of mental illness were [...] Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her areas of clinical and research interest include using mentalization-based parenting interventions to interrupt the intergenerational transmission of trauma, developmental psychopathology and attachment theory, and the assessment and treatment of emerging adults.
Communication Member-at Large
Adriana DeAmicis, Ph.D.
Dr. DeAmicis is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Yale University Mental Health and Counseling Center, and completed her internship and post-doctoral training at the Connecticut Mental Health Center’s Young Adult Services. Her clinical interests focus on working through the stresses of life transitions and the resulting effects on interpersonal relationships and psychological adjustment, in adolescent and young adult populations. Her research is currently examining the role of social support as a protective factor against peer victimization and aggression, and as a factor in psychological adjustment during these times of transition for emerging adult populations.
Beth Garland, Ph.D.
Texas Children’s Hospital
Dr. Garland is an assistant professor and licensed psychologist who specializes in the mental health needs of youth aged 12-24. Clinically, Dr. Garland specializes in eating-related disorders (Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder) as well as weight management, providing individual and family therapy alongside a multi-disciplinary team at Texas Children’s Hospital. Also, Dr. Garland is currently funded by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health to assist and study transition-aged youth with awareness of mental health issues as well as transition from pediatric to adult-based care.
Brooke Ziegelbaum, Psy.D.
Dr. Ziegelbaum is a postdoctoral fellow at Cognitive Behavioral Psychology of New York. Her areas of research interest include emotion regulation, suicidality, trauma, mindfulness and mentalization. She has received extensive clinical training in evidence-based treatments including CBT, DBT, ACT, mindfulness, and mentalization based interventions. She is particularly interested in the emerging adulthood developmental period. | <urn:uuid:b46ef7e1-4ba1-4c1d-a947-1c8db773a13f> | 491 | 23 |
In 1961 the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) undertook the University Development Program (UDP), later named the Education for Development Program (EFD). The program lasted until 1983 and helped to support fifteen universities in developing countries around the world.
Attacking the University Problem
The UDP’s main objective was “to help create strong universities recognized as centers of excellence, largely staffed by indigenous scholars, and engaged in teaching and research relevant to national and regional needs.” Unlike previous RF university grants which were typically given to specific departments, UDP resources supported university-wide initiatives. Writing on problems and solutions for developing nations as early as 1956, Norman S. Buchanan, Director for the Social Sciences, noted that while assistance to specially selected university departments may have worked well in North America and Europe, the same approach would not suffice in the developing world. Instead, he argued for a “larger, more integrated attack on the university problem as a whole in place of the pin-pointed attack forward from a generally solid front.” Although this more general support may have been new, UDP grants still focused on key areas of RF interest, including agriculture, health and the social sciences, but new areas were also added, including support to confront systemic problems in university administration and finance.
Recipient universities were also expected to be actively engaged with their own development. The RF adapted a long-term approach to problems through the UDP, and the Foundation expected a matching commitment from foreign governments and university administrations. RF President J. George Harrar wrote of this relationship in 1961 that, “[t]he Foundation’s role will be one directed toward helping the universities achieve their own aspirations in terms of national needs defined and directed by their own leadership. In each center, there must be strong desire on the part of the university authorities to progress toward the goals which they themselves have established and continuing effort on their part to generate increasing local support and to merit assistance from external sources.”
In the UDP the RF saw an opportunity to create a niche for the organization in the post-colonial world. While other international organizations and national governments concentrated on the immediate needs of the developing world, the RF committed to projects that would reap benefits in the decades to come. As articulated in 1956: “RF’s resources do not allow it to compete with these large-scale programs | <urn:uuid:55eb71c3-5794-4a4b-b46e-818c35dddca2> | 512 | 0 |
In 1961 the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) undertook the University [...] of other agencies. But could it not perform a singularly important role in development if it were to bring a few universities in these countries to a level of excellence? If RF could do this the consequences for human well-being would be exceedingly large.”
Survey and Selection
The RF selected schools to receive UDP funding by conducting surveys throughout the summer of 1961. RF officers surveyed universities in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Most of these institutions had received prior funding from the RF, a factor that weighed heavily in the Foundation’s decisions. Chief among the Foundation’s selection criteria were strong university leadership, a dynamic environment receptive to change, and an ability to function as a regional or national center capable of diffusing knowledge. Among the first universities chosen to participate in UDP were the: Universidad of Chile, Universidad del Valle in Colombia, University College in Nigeria, University College of East Africa, and the University of the Philippines. The program was later expanded to include additional universities.
“Risks for Good Cause”
Working in newly emerging or developing nations carried risks, and RF officers understood the potential pitfalls presented by the UDP. As described in the 1961 program proposal: “This risk is concerned principally with the possibility that changes in local political attitudes could make it difficult if not impossible for the Foundation to pursue one or another of these projects to its logical conclusion.” The Foundation’s experience in Zaire perfectly illustrated these concerns. Yet the RF forged ahead with the program, noting, “The officers are aware of this contingency, but believe that the Foundation should not ignore great opportunities for contributions to human welfare because of the risk involved. The Foundation has always been willing to accept risks for a good cause …“
After final grants in Brazil and Indonesia in 1983, the EFD formally ended. In that year’s annual report, the RF expressed its belief that the goals of the program had been “largely realized” and went on to note that, “[w]ith the conclusion of the EFD program, the Foundation has completed a two decade contribution to the development of advanced educational capacity in several developing countries. Throughout the developing countries, excellent and mature universities now exist that no longer require the type of generalized institutional support that has been characteristic of the E | <urn:uuid:55eb71c3-5794-4a4b-b46e-818c35dddca2> | 512 | 23 |
In 1961 the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) undertook the University [...] FD program.” The RF continued funding education projects related to agriculture, health and population management before returning to higher education in 2000.
Partnership for Higher Education in Africa
The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa was established in 2000 as a collaborative effort between the Rockefeller, Ford, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundations and the Carnegie Corporation. These organizations were later joined by the William and Flora Hewlett, Andrew W. Mellon and Kresge Foundations. Over its ten-year life-span the partnership members sought to foster change in institutions of higher learning located in African nations undergoing economic and political reforms at the start of the new millennium. These countries included Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
Some key partnership goals included:
- Increasing access to technology
- Diversifying student populations
- Fostering new talent and ideas
- Creating skills for national development
- Strengthening university management
This program mirrored many of the goals of the RF’s earlier programs in university development, and like those programs, The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa also had its share of successes and failures. While the partners achieved more working together that they might have separately, collaboration did not always run smoothly. At times there were failures of communication and a lack of collaboration between the partner philanthropies. Several partners changed leadership during the partnership, and new leaders did not necessarily share their predecessors’ commitment to the program. The partnership, however, succeeded in contributing a half billion dollars toward the improvement of African universities, helping to strengthen many university administrations and especially to improve technology. Primary among these initiatives was the Bandwidth Consortium which substantially lowered the costs of internet service for African universities.
Susan Parker, Lessons from a Ten-Year Funder Collaborative: A Case Study of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (Clear Thinking Communications, 2010) 15.
Parker, 30-35.
Parker, 5-6. | <urn:uuid:55eb71c3-5794-4a4b-b46e-818c35dddca2> | 489 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium rose from its ashes to launch the era of satellite megaprojects.
An artist’s rendering of an Iridium Next satellite in orbit. Image: Iridium
Matt Desch didn’t set out to change the world, but he just might do it anyway. As the CEO of Iridium, the only company that provides satellite communications to every inch of the globe, he is at the helm of Next, a fleet of telecommunications satellites that is arguably one of the most ambitious space projects ever undertaken.
By this time next year, Iridium will have sent 75 Next satellites into orbit. Each one will be replacing a first-generation Iridium satellite that has been in orbit for almost two decades. Once these new satellites are in place, they will establish radio contact with one another over thousands of miles of empty space to create the largest and most complex mesh network ever placed in orbit.
Like the first-generation network, these Iridium Next satellites will provide critical phone and data services to everyone from scientists in Antarctica and military contractors in the Middle East, to drug mules in Central America and climbers on the summit of Mount Everest.
But the Next constellation also comes with a suite of new features. Not only will it provide an orbital backbone for the expanding Internet of Things, the satellite network will also be tracking planes and ships in regions they’ve never been tracked before. Almost 70 percent of the Earth isn’t covered by radar, which is why the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight was able to disappear into the ocean in 2014 without a trace. Iridium hopes to make these sorts of tragedies obsolete.
That’s if everything goes according to plan, of course, and Iridium isn’t exactly known for its successes. A little under 20 years ago, it was the subject of one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in history. Indeed, the original fleet of satellites that Iridium is replacing with its Next constellation came within hours of a fiery demise, after the company decided to cut its losses after filing for bankruptcy and deorbit them.
In this sense, each Iridium Next launch not only represents the culmination of several years | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 0 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] ’ worth of intensive design, research, and testing by an international team of scientists and engineers, but also the dogged pursuit of a (quite literally) lofty goal in the face of overwhelmingly bad odds. In order to get a better understanding of the stakes, I followed the next generation of Iridium satellites from their birth in a warehouse in the Arizona desert to their delivery to orbit nearly 500 miles overhead.
Last October, I met Desch, who has been Iridium’s CEO for nearly 12 years, for breakfast at a restaurant in Solvang, California. We had just finished watching the third batch of ten Iridium satellites get delivered to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched from nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was well before noon, but both Desch and I had been awake for hours.
As we devoured our avocado toast, Iridium engineers on the East Coast were busy maneuvering the satellites into their orbital planes while Desch explained why SpaceX and Iridium are ideal partners.
“In many ways, the Falcon 9 was built around the Iridium payload because we were the first ones to work with SpaceX,” Desch told me. “Launching is about a third of our costs and if SpaceX wasn’t around, I just couldn’t afford it.”
On the other hand, Iridium, which was SpaceX’s first customer and remains its largest, provides SpaceX with a major source of revenue that it won’t find anywhere else in the commercial sector. As Desch bluntly put it, “Nobody launches 75 satellites.”
Desch’s faith in Elon Musk’s rockets hasn’t wavered over the years, but watching the Falcon 9 rocket explode on the launch pad in September 2016 made an impression on him. The first ten Iridium satellites had been scheduled to head to orbit a few weeks later, but the explosion delayed deployment until last January.
SpaceX touts its “flight proven” rockets as a cost-saving measure, but the extra risk that comes with flying on a used rocket is part of the reason why Iridium’s | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] original contract with the private spaceflight company specified that its cargo would never be flown on a Falcon 9 booster that had previously been to space. On the other hand, the rocket that claimed a Facebook satellite that September had been brand new, a forceful reminder that when it comes to space travel there are no guarantees.
Flying “used” would save Iridum some money, but it’s a gamble: Each of Iridium’s payloads is worth a quarter billion dollars and the loss of even a single one would be disastrous. After lengthy talks with SpaceX and his insurance providers, however, Desch recently opted to send the fourth and fifth batches of Iridium satellites on flight-proven rockets. Given the high stakes of each launch, this speaks volumes about his confidence in Musk’s company.
On December 22, SpaceX carried a batch of Iridium satellites to orbit on a previously flown rocket for the first time. Whatever Desch’s anxieties were about flying used, they proved to be unfounded—the launch went flawlessly.
How to Build a Satellite
Iridium’s journey to space begins in a nondescript building in pastoral Gilbert, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb. This building is home to Orbital ATK, the aerospace company overseeing the manufacturing process of the Iridium Next constellation, and sits just across the street from a farm where a handful of cows spend their days idly chewing cud. The sterile hallways of the Orbital ATK building are cavernous and lined with doors plastered with warnings that these rooms house strictly controlled materials.
Under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), many satellite parts are subject to the same stringent oversight as weapons like tanks and hand grenades. These technologies are usually off limits to civilian eyes and can’t be shared with foreign governments. This regulation has been a pain the side of the space industry for years, but for a visitor to Orbital ATK’s facilities like myself, it mostly meant I wouldn’t be bringing a camera inside.
The facility consists of five massive clean rooms for storing and assembling satellites. Or | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] bital ATK has registered each of these as a Foreign Trade Zone, a legal distinction that is the industrial equivalent to a duty free shop at an airport and saves the company paying steep taxes on imported parts. The largest FTZ is reserved for the manufacture of Iridium satellites, consists of 18 workstations, and has technicians in cleanroom suits working on site 24/7.
Most satellites are unique and their production is a painstaking process that can last years. This wasn’t going to work for Iridium: The company needed to manufacture 81 satellites (75 to be placed in orbit with six remaining on the ground as spares) in the amount of time it usually takes to make one. In short, Iridium tasked Orbital ATK with doing for aerospace what Henry Ford had done for the automobile.
This was a challenge for a relatively small company, but it had some experience in the area. In the late 90s, Orbital also oversaw the construction of the first constellation of Iridium satellites, when the idea of mass producing satellites was totally unprecedented and deemed by many to be impossible.
Many of the engineers that worked on that first constellation are still at the company today, but this time the design of the Next satellites was overseen by the French aerospace company Thales.
Thales had a legacy satellite design that was adapted for the Iridium payloads, but according to the Orbital ATK and Thales engineers I spoke with, the design collaboration process could still be painstakingly slow due to ITAR restrictions. Often, Thales would send its preliminary designs to Orbital ATK, only to find a number of adjustments needed to be made, even though the exact nature of these adjustments was unclear due to restrictions on the sharing of component designs.
After a drawn-out revision process, the satellite designs were passed off to Orbital ATK, which began to manufacture seven of the planned 81 satellites. These seven satellites are the only ones that run the gamut of testing, which includes subjecting them to intense vibrations, electromagnetic interference and acoustic tests that Michael Pickett, Orbital ATK’s | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] director of program management, described to me as “blasting the satellites with the biggest, baddest rock concert speakers you can imagine.”
The point of these tests was to validate the design process—if the satellites still worked after this mechanical torture, it meant the other 74 satellites that would pass through the assembly line should work fine, too.
After the design validation tests, Orbital ATK kicked its 18-station assembly line into high gear. Until the last one is finished, sometime in early 2018, the assembly line will see five to six satellites from start to completion each month. The process starts with assembling the different parts of the satellite body—called the “bus”—which is about the size of a Mini Cooper. Once the bus is completed, Orbital ATK technicians begin testing the satellite’s electronic components and communication modules, antenna alignment, and insulation.
Toward the end of the assembly line, each satellite is placed in a thermal chamber for 12 days and is subjected to extremely high and low temperatures to see how it will hold up in the hostile space environment. If the satellite survives, it progresses to station 15, where the star tracker that will be used to track the satellite’s position in orbit is installed. This station also holds sentimental value for the Orbital ATK engineers—the point where a plate dedicating the craft to a specific employee or investor is installed on the craft.
Next, the satellites’ fuel tanks are filled with helium and placed in an airtight tent that is pumped full of nitrogen. Due to the size difference of these molecules, the engineers are able to look for any leaks that might’ve cropped up during the assembly process.
Finally, the solar panels that will serve as a power supply for the satellite are installed and the craft is basically ready for orbit. Iridium then has to decide whether or not the satellite will be one of the ten going up on the next SpaceX rocket. If not, it will join a few dozen other satellites stacked two-high and covered with black tarps inside a large storage room, until they’re ready for launch.
If a finished satellite is destined to go up on the next | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] launch, its batteries will be removed from cold storage and installed on the craft at the last station. Here, the satellite’s software is uploaded to the craft and Iridium technicians at its Satellite Network Operations Center in Virginia establish contact with the satellite to make sure they will be able to communicate with the craft while it’s in orbit. The satellite is then loaded into a custom shipping container for its journey to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, its final stop on Earth.
After liftoff, Iridium’s global network of technicians takes over to make sure the satellites are communicating with one another and the gateways on Earth as they are maneuvered into orbit—a process that can take up to a month. Once they are properly in orbit, the satellites will not only begin talking to one another and Iridium devices on the ground, but also one of the three gateways that link the satellite constellation to the telecommunications infrastructure that most of us use on a daily basis.
When I visited Iridium’s main gateway in Tempe, Arizona, it was a hive of activity. (The other two gateways are exclusively for the US Department of Defense and Russia, respectively.) Iridium technicians sat in a darkened control room watching satellites tear across a projection of the Earth as they monitored calls being routed through the network for any signs of an error.
According to Stuart Fankhauser, Iridium’s vice president of network operations, it wasn’t so long ago that the operating room was a dead zone as the company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.
“I was one of the last guys here,” Fankhauser told me. “It was just me and four others, and we ran everything. It was very quiet, very eerie.”
Iridium was spun off as a subsidiary of Motorola in the 1990s. Its first-generation constellation was originally expected to cost around $3.5 billion, but by the time the satellites were functional, Motorola had sunk almost twice that much into the revolutionary project.
To make matters worse, in the early 90s there were hardly any customers for Iridium’s satellite phone service, | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] the constellation’s raison d’être. This was partly due to the unwieldy size of the company’s satellite phone (affectionately known as “the brick”), but mostly a consequence of its cost: thousands of dollars for the phone and then around $7/minute to make a call. Before it filed for bankruptcy, Iridium had roughly 60,000 customers, but increasing cell phone coverage in the United States and Europe meant that the very populations that could afford the device had increasingly little need for it.
In August 1999, Motorola pulled the plug on its ambitious satellite project and Iridium filed for bankruptcy, just nine months after the satellite constellation went live. Unless another company bought it out—and by 1999, no investor in their right mind would touch this space-age Icarus—Iridium would be done for.
Enter Dan Colussy, the former president of Pan American airlines who had been monitoring Iridium’s troubles with great interest. Just hours before Motorola was scheduled to begin the deorbiting process, Colussy was busy negotiating terms with the Department of Defense, Saudi financiers, and Motorola executives that would allow him to formally purchase the company for around $35 million, a fraction of the billions of dollars the tech giant had sunk into it.
As detailed in Eccentric Orbits, journalist John Bloom’s tell-all memoir of Iridium’s unlikely rise and spectacular failure, Colussy, who didn’t respond to my requests for comment, knew the satellite constellation would be good for something, he just wasn’t sure what. Iridium was an unprecedented technological feat that simply seemed too valuable to allow it to burn up in the atmosphere. Sixteen years later, Colussy’s intuition is finally being proven correct, but Iridium’s employees told me it was an uphill battle to make it here.
“We had to be pretty scrappy back then,” Fankhauser told me as we walked through Iridium’s Tempe gateway facility. “We were burning our investors’ money so we bought supplies off eBay and liquidators from failing dotcoms. It was humbling.”
The gateway is one | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] half of Iridium’s backend operations. The other half, a test facility just down the road, is constantly probing the satellite network for weaknesses or seeking ways to improve Iridium’s service. Inside the test facility are two large Faraday cages filled with every type of Iridium phone and IoT device that operates on the Iridium network.
These devices are used to call two partially disassembled satellites in another room that have been programmed to “think” they’re in orbit in order to test the load-bearing capacity of the operational network and the compatibility of various devices. On the day I visited, Iridium engineers had successfully managed to place 1,700 simultaneous calls through a single satellite, a company record.
Walt Everetts is Iridium’s vice president of satellite operations and ground development and oversees the day to day activities at the test center. He showed me a large interactive map in the test center’s lobby that depicted calls on the network in real time. Small colored dots indicated different types of services: someone in Dubai calling someone in China or a sailor in the Atlantic checking their email. But the vast majority of the dots indicated machines talking to other machines.
As Everetts and Desch both pointed out, the growth of the Internet of Things is a key reason why they believe Iridium will be a viable company this time around. Although facilitating calls between humans is still a core component of the company’s business, most of the network is used to route information between computers, whether these are tsunami monitoring buoys in the middle of the ocean, or chips implanted to track endangered animals. In fact, Desch said over half of Iridium’s almost 1 million subscriptions are now IoT companies looking to connect their devices.
End of an Era
Iridium is one of the few companies in the aerospace sector, alongside SpaceX, that can claim to have anything close to a fan club. Aside from the customers actually using its products, there are a number of astroheads around the world cataloging a phenomenon known as Iridium flares. The original satellites were designed with a large reflective surface, meaning at certain angles the sunlight produces a bright flare that can be | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
The Making of the Largest Satellite Constellation in History
How Iridium [...] seen with the naked eye at night, even in light polluted cities.
This passion was also expressed by Iridium technicians I spoke with, who had an uncanny habit of referring to the satellites in the same manner a parent might speak about their child. Indeed, each one has a name—Everetts has named two after his sons—and this adds a degree of gravitas to the deorbiting process, which can take anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on how much fuel is left in a satellite. At the time of writing, six of the original Iridium satellites launched in the late 90s have been successfully deorbited. Several others will meet their demise later this year.
Yet the end of the original Iridium network is also the beginning of something new—not just for the company, but for space exploration as a whole.
Today, companies like OneWeb, Boeing, and SpaceX are in a race to create massive broadband networks consisting of hundreds of satellites, but Iridium doesn’t see them as much of a threat. In the first place, most of these planned constellations are for consumer broadband, whereas Iridium provides specialized services. More importantly, however, none of these companies has even come close to getting those projects off the ground.
This race to take the internet to space calls to mind other ambitious and ill-fated satellite telecommunications companies of the 90s, like Teledesic and Globalstar. Both these companies collapsed after Iridium filed for bankruptcy and demonstrated that there wasn’t a real market for satellite phones. It’s highly likely this new crop is carefully watching Iridium, just like the space industry did back in the 90s, to see whether its ambitious program will work. So far, everything has gone off without a hitch.
But 35 more satellites still need to be launched. And there is plenty of opportunity for error. The gamble is a big one, and so is the reward—being the first, and only, company to provide communications coverage to every inch of the globe.
“We’re the only company that’s ever launched this many satellites and we’re the only one still doing it today,” Desch told me. “ | <urn:uuid:6c105182-b996-43f3-8fe3-63714a61cdce> | 512 | 23 |
to read Domain names?
The domain names
are always organized from right to left as is the case in any name (the family names to the right and the personal names to the left.).
These descriptors are actually called 'Domains'.
The TLD or the Top Level Domain, also
called the parent domain is mentioned to the far right of a domain
name; the mid-level domains are obviously in the middle while the
machine name is to the far left. It is often "www". The different
levels of domains are separated by dots or periods.
Some facts about the Domain Name Systems
The main function of the Domain Name System
or the DNS is to store the names and the addresses of the servers of
the public internet. Here are some interesting facts about it:
Domain Name Systems is around 30 years old before which a public
system was only identifiable with its host name. The addresses of
all the host names were maintained in one big file. The process
became difficult and complicated in the later years when computer
network grew. It was then that support domains were added and the
single level naming system was changed to the multi level naming
DNS was first implemented in 1980, it originally defined only 6
original Top Level Domains that were .com, .edu, .mil, .net, .org
and .gov while there are more than 700 TLDs today on the internet.
The wide expansion for domain names only happened post 2011 with
the basic aim of better classification of the web sites, based on
there are more than 100 million domains that are registered under
.com solely. While there are a few that are specifically affiliated
to certain kinds of businesses, there are others that are registered
by individuals for their personal purposes.
works both in forward and the reverse direction, i.e. the host names
of the web sites and the other internet servers can be converted to
the IP addresses (called the forward DNS look ups) or translating
the addresses to the names (called the reverse DNS look ups). The
reverse DNS lookups are not too common but they are often used in
troubleshooting by the network administrators.
remains the prime target when it comes to hacking the websites.
Hacking happens when a | <urn:uuid:8105b15d-ba5f-4f17-8ff0-09a165f4ccbb> | 512 | 0 |
A little under a year ago, the New York Times reported on do-it-yourself insulin pumps. Tech savvy people, mostly parents to diabetics, were pairing glucose sensors with insulin pumps. These would allow caregivers to constantly monitor glucose levels. Some even made what are, in effect, artificial pancreas, with the glucose sensor triggering the insulin pump, automating insulin delivery.
In September, the FDA approved MiniMed 670G, a mostly automated insulin pump, for sale to the general public. The device was made available spring 2017. The device is only available in the US, and Medtronic, the device manufacturer, has stated there is no timeline to bring it to other markets—diabetics can only access the years old previous version.
Automated insulin pumps illustrate two important aspects of drug and medical device regulation. First, existing regulatory systems have been slow to adapt to changes in the development of new medical devices, and medical innovation more broadly. Second, safe and effective medical devices are often unavailable in the UK, while British newspapers abound with stories of life-saving drugs unavailable in Britain.
Brexit gives the UK the opportunity to tackle both challenges and to become a leader in medical innovation. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the UK’s own regulatory body, were both designed for a different era.
They were created for big medicine, when large, multi-national corporations were the primary drivers of innovation. The world is in the early stages of changes in the nature of medical innovation. The era of big medicine will soon be behind us. To take full advantage of the coming changes in the structure of innovation, regulatory policy must adapt.
The UK has two advantages which could allow it to lead the charge in medical innovation.
First, the UK has a well-educated population, even relative to other developed countries, scoring near the top of the pack in maths and science, according to the multi-national TIMSS exams. It also has disproportionately strong higher education, with more universities in the world top 10, top 50, and top 500 than any country except for the US, according to most rankings. It has the human | <urn:uuid:7ff8a59f-ad30-4445-9156-b09aa3b03a3e> | 512 | 0 |
Protein deficiency symptoms are the first signs that your diet may be lacking in complete proteins. When your body isn't getting the nutrition it needs to function well, it gives you signals that something is wrong. Pay attention to these symptoms and seek medical advice if you experience them.
Common Protein Deficiency Symptoms
Even with a wide variety of protein sources available, some people experience protein deficiency symptoms due to a lack of protein intake. Severely restrictive diets, lack of knowledge about nutrients, and even poverty can contribute to protein deficiency. Protein deficiency is nothing to fool around with either; deficiency can lead to gallstones, arthritis, and muscle deterioration, as well as heart problems. Here are some of the most common symptoms.
Edema is a collection of fluid under the skin, which most commonly affects the legs, feet, and ankles but can occur anywhere on the body. Protein is essential for maintaining a balance of water in your body; without it, you may store water improperly.
Severe weight loss is one symptom of a protein deficiency. It may be attributed to muscle wastage, as your body breaks down your muscles in an attempt to get protein from them.
Thinning or Brittle Hair
Hair loss and thinning or brittle hair can also be caused by a protein deficiency. Hair is made up of protein, so a deficiency may lead your hair to lack the amount of protein it needs to stay healthy. If you become deficient enough, your hair will even begin to fall out.
Ridges in Nails
Ridges or white lines in both finger and toe nails can be caused by a lack of protein the diet. Ridges that run from top to bottom on the nail can indicate an ongoing protein deficiency, while a ridge that runs transverse may indicate a deficiency that has now passed.
Skin that loses pigment and burns more easily in the sun can be caused by a lack of iron, as well as protein. Frequently, foods that are rich in iron also contain protein, and protein is necessary for the body to utilize iron properly. Anemia or lack of iron may result in pale skin.
Skin rashes, which may be accompanied by dry or flaking skin are a symptom of a protein deficiency. These rashes are caused by extreme protein deficiency and may re | <urn:uuid:ff659211-a481-403f-81df-37491aff7e84> | 512 | 0 |
Protein deficiency symptoms are the first signs that your diet may be lacking in complete proteins. [...] semble eczema or other dry skin rashes.
Weakness and lethargy may be caused by a lack of protein in the diet. Over time, as your stores of protein are depleted, your body will begin to break down muscle tissue, which can lead to a feeling of general weakness or lethargy.
Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are crucial in wound healing. When your body heals itself, it needs to repair or produce tissues. These tissues use amino acids in the repairs, and a lack of protein can lead to a slower building process.
Difficulty in sleeping could be caused by a serotonin deficiency, which is caused by a lack of certain amino acids. These amino acids are produced when protein is broken down, and a diet with insufficient protein could lead to difficulty in sleeping.
Headaches can be caused by many things, including a protein deficiency. A lack of protein may lead to headaches in one of a couple ways:
- By causing anemia
- By causing low blood sugar
Fainting and general weakness may be caused by a protein deficiency as well. This may be attributed to low blood sugar or to your body's need to break down muscle tissue to get the nutrients it needs.
Not all of the symptoms of protein deficiency are physical. Some are emotional or mental, and include the following:
- Crankiness, moodiness
- Problems with conflict resolution
- Severe depression
- Lack of energy, no desire to do things
If you are experiencing some of these symptoms, make an appointment to see your primary doctor as soon as possible. It only takes a simple blood test to determine if protein deficiency is the culprit. Make sure you tell your doctor what types of proteins you currently eat, and in what amounts. Treatment for protein deficiency is easy, but the lack of protein first must be properly diagnosed by your doctor. If you suspect that you may have a protein deficiency, don't wait to seek help. | <urn:uuid:ff659211-a481-403f-81df-37491aff7e84> | 463 | 23 |
How many New Year’s resolutions have you made in your life? How many have you successfully accomplished? The estimate is that less than 10% of New Year’s resolutions are actually achieved (University of Scranton Psychology Professor John C. Norcross, Ph.D.). There’s a lot of homespun folksy advice out there this time of year about how to make sure you reach your New Year’s goals, but I thought I’d share the actual science of how to change behavior.
There’s two main lines of brain and behavior science that influence New Year’s resolutions: The science of habits and the science of self-stories.
Let’s start with the science of habits.
A lot of New Year’s resolutions have to do with making new habits or changing existing ones. If your resolutions are around things like eating healthier, exercising more, drinking less, quitting smoking, texting less, spending more time “unplugged” or any number of other “automatic” behaviors then we are talking about changing existing habits or making new habits. Habits are automatic, “conditioned” responses. You get up in the morning and stop at Starbucks for a pastry and a latte. You go home at the end of work and plop down in front of the TV. Here’s what you need to know about the science of changing existing habits or making new ones:
- Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not hard to change habits IF you do so based on science.
- To change a new habit you essentially have to create a new one, so whether you are changing an existing habit or creating a new one, the “scientific” method for doing so is the same.
- You have already created literally HUNDREDS of habits that you have now, and you don’t even remember how they got started, so creating habits can’t be that hard or you wouldn’t have so many of them!
To create a new habit you have to follow these three steps (based on B.J. Fogg and Charles Duhigg)
- You MUST pick a small action. “Get more exercise” is not small. “Eat healthier” is not small. This is a big reason why New Year’s resolutions don’t work. If it’s a habit and you want a new one it M | <urn:uuid:c5841d5e-15c5-4d80-9711-8af223a8468a> | 512 | 0 |
How many New Year’s resolutions have you made in your life? How many have you successfully [...] UST be something really small. For example, instead of “Get more exercise” choose “Walk 1/3 more than I usually do” or “Take the stairs each morning to get to my office, not the elevator”, or “Have a smoothie every morning with kale in it”. These are relatively small actions.
- You MUST attach the new action to a previous habit. Figure out a habit you already have that is well established, for example, if you already go for a brisk walk 3 times a week, then adding on 10 more minutes to the existing walk connects the new habit to an existing one. The existing habit “Go for walk” now becomes the “cue” for the new habit: “Walk 10 more minutes.” Your new “stimulus-response” is Go For Walk (Stimulus) followed by “Add 10 minutes.” Your existing habit of “walk through door at office” can now become the “cue” or stimulus for the new habit of “walk up a flight of stairs.” Your existing habit of “Walk into the kitchen in the morning” can now be the stimulus for the new habit of “Make a kale smoothie.”
- You MUST make the new action EASY to do for at least the first week. Because you are trying to establish a conditioned response, you need to practice the new habit from the existing stimulus from 3 to 7 times before it will “stick” on its own. To help you through this 3 to 7 times phase make it as EASY as possible. Write a note and stick it in your walking shoe that says “Total time today for walk is 30 minutes”. Write a note and put it where you put your keys that says: “Today use the stairs.” Put the kale in the blender and have all your smoothie ingredients ready to go in one spot in the refrigerator.
If you take these three steps and you practice them 3 to 7 days in a row your new habit will be established.
Now let’s tackle the science of self-stories.
The best (and some would say the only) way to get a large and long-term behavior change, is by changing your self-story.
Everyone has stories about themselves that drive their | <urn:uuid:c5841d5e-15c5-4d80-9711-8af223a8468a> | 512 | 23 |
How many New Year’s resolutions have you made in your life? How many have you successfully [...] behavior. You have an idea of who you are and what’s important to you. Essentially you have a “story” operating about yourself at all times. These self-stories have a powerful influence on decisions and actions.
Whether you realize it or not, you make decisions based on staying true to your self-stories. Most of this decision-making based on self-stories happens unconsciously. You strive to be consistent. You want to make decisions that match your idea of who you are. When you make a decision or act in a way that fits your self-story, the decision or action will feel right. When you make a decision or act in a way that doesn’t fit your self-story you feel uncomfortable.
If you want to change your behavior and make the change stick, then you need to first change the underlying self-story that is operating. Do you want to be more optimistic? Then you’d better have an operating self-story that says you are an optimistic person. Want to join your local community band? Then you’ll need a self-story where you are outgoing and musical.
In his book, Redirect, Timothy Wilson describes a large body of impressive research of how stories can change behavior long-term. One technique he has researched is “story-editing”:
- Write out your existing story. Pay special attention to anything about the story that goes AGAINST the new resolution you want to adopt. So if your goal is to learn how to unplug and be less stressed, then write out a story that is realistic, that shows that it’s hard for you to de-stress, that you tend to get overly involved in dramas at home or at work.
- Now re-write the story — create a new self-story. Tell the story of the new way of being. Tell the story of the person who appreciates life, and takes time to take care of him/her-self.
The technique of story-editing is so simple that it doesn’t seem possible that it can result in such deep and profound change. But the research shows that one re-written self-story can make all the difference.
I’ve tried both of these techniques — creating new habits using the 3-step method, and creating a | <urn:uuid:c5841d5e-15c5-4d80-9711-8af223a8468a> | 512 | 23 |
A Brief History of Ohio Juvenile Institutions
Prior to the institution of the Ohio Reform School in 1857, male juvenile offenders were sent to adult penitentiaries. The ORS housed boys between 8 and 18 years old. It adopted the cottage style “open system” rather than a large structure to house inmates. Boys entered the ORS with a number of “demerits” that were based on the nature of their crimes. Bad behavior led to additional demerits, but good behavior led to the loss of demerits. Once a boy reached zero demerits, they were freed and returned to their families (Ohio History Central n.d.).
The Breaking Point
By 1992, the Ohio juvenile prison system was breaking down. The state had 11 facilities with the capacity to house 1,400 inmates. However, there were nearly 2,500 boys held in these institutions. Nine counties instituted a pilot program in 1993 to curb the rising problems within the system. They began to funnel non-violent offenders into community based programs with mental health services, family counseling, and substance abuse treatment, rather than youth prisons (Shaffer 2015).
The immediate results were clear. The number of inmates dropped 40% in the first year, the daily cost per offender in youth prisons was around $550, but community-based programs cost only $200. Recidivism rates were cut in half, and 85% of the courts in the system approved of the reforms. Although a marked improvement, Ohio juvenile corrections facilities suffered from many of the same problems that most institutions do.
The Institutional State of State Institutions
In 2010, the Children’s Defense Fund, in conjunction with the Annie E. Casey Foundation – the organization most famously connected with the uber-successful “Missouri Model” – released a report on the state of juvenile institutions in the state of Ohio. The Missouri Model promotes keeping youths in smaller facilities rather than gigantic institutions. They focus on treatment over incarceration. They promote group therapy over isolation. The staff promotes positive interaction over abuse and intimidation. They encourage education, family involvement, and stay with youths | <urn:uuid:c1f21ce1-3853-49e3-92aa-324e9574079d> | 512 | 0 |
A Brief History of Ohio Juvenile Institutions
Prior to the institution of the Ohio [...] after they are released.
Abuses and Lawsuits
The Ohio Department of Youth Services (ODYS) faced a federal lawsuit filed in 2004 that was finally settled in 2008, over its unconstitutional treatment of inmates. There were complaints about increased violence and abuse coming from both guards and other inmates. In one incident, inmates were being transferred in a face down position from one facility to another (Prison Legal News 2015). Other accusations involved isolation, and racial bias in mental health treatment.
By 2012, the ODYS filed a motion to terminate a stipulation requiring court-ordered monitoring of the system. The court agreed that no more, or at least, very few unconstitutional actions were taking place within the ODYS, and monitoring ended (Prison Legal News 2015).
In 2014, the ODYS settled another lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department over the unlawful seclusion of inmates. As part of the settlement, ODYS agreed to reduce and eventually end seclusion of youths and increase the availability of mental health treatments to better determine the root causes of behavior that led to such a punishment (Department of Justice 2014).
A 2016 lawsuit was filed by Disability Rights Ohio (DRO) against the Multi-County Juvenile Detention Center (MCJDC) in Lancaster, OH for refusing to allow DRO to investigate their facilities with private and confidential access. While given a tour, the MCJDC did not allow DRO to have private conversations with inmates – a confidential discussion that ensures the safety of an inmate who may have concerns about their treatment at the facility. This is a violation of state and federal law (Disability Rights Ohio 2016).
The state of Ohio began instituting a national program of Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) in the state’s five largest counties in 2010. Prior to the implementation of JDAI, Ohio’s juvenile incarceration rate was among the top third of all states. Only 33% of juveniles were detained for person-off | <urn:uuid:c1f21ce1-3853-49e3-92aa-324e9574079d> | 512 | 23 |
A Brief History of Ohio Juvenile Institutions
Prior to the institution of the Ohio [...] enses, more than 40% for drug offenses, and 25% for violating probation, status offenses, violating court orders, or other technical offenses (Children’s Defense Fund 2010).
The four core goals of JDAI are to: 1) Eliminate the overuse of secure detention; 2) Minimize failures to appear in court and reduce delinquent behavior; 3) Redirect public finances from building new facilities to creating responsible alternative strategies; and 4) Improve conditions in secure detention facilities.
According to the Children’s Defense Fund (2010), a multi-level approach was proposed for juvenile reforms in Ohio, including:
- Continue and Expand County-Based Detention Reform.
- Continue State Leadership on Reducing Incarceration Rates.
- Create a System of State Oversight, Assistance and Accountability for Detention.
- Ensure that All Youth Risking Detention Have Effective Legal Representation.
By 2017, there was a 29% reduction in juvenile admissions across the eight sites that implemented JDAI reforms (Kuhlman 2017), and many other sites were closed. The institution of Community Intervention Centers have been implemented in Cleveland and Dayton, and the state plans to hire more guards and train them in de-escalation techniques (Shaffer 2017). Unfortunately, there is a severe lack of statewide data on the successes (or lack thereof) of JDAI reforms in Ohio’s juvenile facilities. However, one of the five initial reform sites in Franklin County “experienced a 90% success rate at their evening reporting center for youth at high risk for reoffending, with not one participant being readmitted to their Reception Center with a new charge” (Children’s Defense Fund 2015). If we extrapolate these results to the other sites, that is an amazing positive development in Ohio’s juvenile justice system.
The facilities run by the ODYS have instituted reforms over the same period as well. The daily population has fallen dramatically in the ODYS | <urn:uuid:c1f21ce1-3853-49e3-92aa-324e9574079d> | 512 | 23 |
A Brief History of Ohio Juvenile Institutions
Prior to the institution of the Ohio [...] , many facilities have closed, and an increase in behavioral and mental health treatment programs. However, recidivism rates are all over the place – they are up and down depending on the length of stay and age of the inmate. Regardless, they are nowhere near as low as rates in the JDAI facilities (Children’s Defense Fund 2015).
Ohio is a state that is desperately trying to reform its facilities. The long-lasting ODYS has been essentially court-ordered to reform its institutions. Meanwhile, JDAI reforms have been implemented in many other facilities. This is a positive development in both cases, but the JDAI results are outpacing that of ODYS. As mentioned earlier, statewide data from JDAI in Ohio is lacking. However, given the results that we do know from Ohio counties and similar results from other states that have implemented the Missouri Model, we can assume that statewide data would yield similar outcomes.
Closing facilities, eliminating huge detention centers, treating inmates like human beings, focusing on education, lowering recidivism rates, and helping released youths to reintegrate back into society after leaving a facility have made Missouri the most successful state for juvenile reforms in the country. Their results outpace all other states. JDAI in Ohio appears to be delivering similar results. Therefore, I believe that the Missouri Model based JDAI reforms should be the new standard for juvenile reforms in not just Ohio, but in all states.
Children’s Defense Fund. 2010. “Rethinking Juvenile Detention in Ohio.” Retrieved from http://www.cdfohio.org/research-library/2010/JuvDetention_Issue_Brief.pdf
Children’s Defense Fund 2015. “Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet Series.”
Department of Justice. 2014. “Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against State of Ohio to End Unlawful Seclusion of Youth in Juvenile Correctional Facilities.” Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-settles-lawsuit-against-state-oh | <urn:uuid:c1f21ce1-3853-49e3-92aa-324e9574079d> | 512 | 23 |
A Brief History of Ohio Juvenile Institutions
Prior to the institution of the Ohio [...] io-end- unlawful-seclusion-youth-juvenile
Disability Rights Ohio. 2016. “DRO Files Federal Lawsuit Against Juvenile Detention Facility for Denying DRO Access to Detained Youth.” Retrieved from https://www.disabilityrightsohio.org/news/dro-files-federal-lawsuit-against-juvenile-detention-facility-for-denying
Kuhlman, Mary. 2017. “National Model Inspires Juvenile Detention Reform in Ohio.” Public News Service. Retrieved from http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2017-04-17/juvenile- justice/national-model-inspires-juvenile-detention-reform-in-ohio/a57182-1
Ohio History Central. n.d. “Ohio Reform School.” Retrieved from http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Ohio_Reform_School
Prison Legal News. 2015. “Court Ends Injunctive Monitoring of Ohio Juvenile System.” Retrieved from https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jan/12/court-ends- injunctive-monitoring-ohio-juvenile-system/
Shaffer, Cory. 2015. “Ohio’s Effort to Reform Juvenile Prisons is a National Model.” Cleveland.com. Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/10/ohios_efforts_to_reform_juveni.html
Shaffer, Cory. 2017. “Reforms to Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center Will Balance Public Safety with Dignity of Teens, Officials Say.” Cleveland.com. Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com/courtjustice/index.ssf/2018/04/reforms_to_cuyah | <urn:uuid:c1f21ce1-3853-49e3-92aa-324e9574079d> | 512 | 23 |
Every 11 years, our sun’s magnetic activity rises and falls, generating more dark sunspots at the peak of the cycle and fewer at the dip. The biggest flares are caused by magnetic waves crashing into each other along the sun’s equator.
The most powerful solar flare since 2006’s happened September 6, 2017, and was an X9.3! September 4-10, 2017 had a single complex sunspot called Active Region 2673 emit six other radiation flares. Four were X-class solar flares. This scrambled shortwave radio signals in Africa for an hour and created huge auroras that were visible down to Arkansas on September 7, 2017.
It seems bizarre to have this massive solar activity is during an unusually weak cycle.
In the 1960s, solar researchers discovered the peak flare rate happens a few years after the sunspot’s maximum. Even stranger, the strongest flares tend to occur on the cycle’s downslope. The quietest cycles may even produce the biggest flares. The biggest solar storm in recorded history, called the Carrington event, occurred at the end of another especially weak cycle in early September 1859. Modern simulations estimate that flare may have been an X45.
“When you’re descending to a quiescent phase of the cycle and things are getting more organized and simplified, how is it we are getting things this complex?” asks solar physicist Madhulika Guhathakurta, spokesperson for NASA’s Heliophysics Division. “It still remains an interesting question.”
McIntosh and his colleagues believe they’ve answered this riddle. The powerful solar flares occur when opposing bands of magnetism “vie for supremacy.” Similar to jet streams on Earth, which usually staying at certain latitudes, except that these solar magnetic bands slide all around during the cycle. They start near the sun’s poles, about 55° N and 55° S, and move toward the equator, pulling on each other with tremendous magnetic force twisting in opposite directions. When they finally meet at the equator, BOOM!!! KAPOW!!!
These complicated sunspots are called deltas, look like dark and | <urn:uuid:456a7115-5c64-45fe-b469-462c3efcbc71> | 512 | 0 |
Flashcards in Normal Development III Deck (12):
What is Erikson's 3rd Psychosocial Task of Life? When does it occur
Between 3-6 Years
1st task: trust
2nd task: exploring is ok even if its scary
3rd task: exploration overriding anxiety/fear
During the cognitive development between age 3-6, they become able to
1. Symbolize: endow an object with qualities and meaning
2. Fantasy: mental representation formed from current perceptions or memories
What is the function of fantasy formation?
To achieve vicarious gratification
Mechanism to delay action
When does the emergence of spoke language occur? Do we comprehend or speak first?
Comprehension before speech
At age 2 years, how many words does the baby know
At age 5 how many words does the baby know
Speech is an important part in the development of the child's....
1. Autonomous identity (being able to say you can do things yourself)
2. Gender identity: (I'm a girl!)
3. Sexual identity
What is meant when we say children start to replace action dominance with verbal dominance
With the development of speech, the child must start expressing his feelings rather than showing them. This transition is supported by the parents. (Example: saying you're angry instead of throwing a toy at your parent)
Ultimate Sexual Identity occurs by age 18 and shapes.....
1. From which sex and in what way they will seek sexual gratification
2. In what way the person prohibits this gratification based on rules from the family, religion, society or absence of rules
What are the steps in sexual identity development and when does this occur?
1. Imitation and identification with liked-sex heterosexual parent
2. Discovery of anatomical sexual differences between boys and girls (2-4 years), at the same time as the kid is realizing what death is
3. Body damage anxiety
When does the Heterosexual "Oedipal Conflict" occur? What does this mean?
Basically the child fantasizes about having a romantic relationship with the opposite sexed parent and replacing the other parent. But then they have the fear of separation with the idea of replacing on of the parents, and thus they have an EXTERN | <urn:uuid:ffba5a60-3570-4c81-bafe-9df205035524> | 512 | 0 |
A BBC study examining the impact of sleep schedules on volunteers emphasized what many of us already know—more sleep is good for our bodies and brains.
Nevertheless, it never hurts to have another reminder that the magic number of eight hours isn’t just ideal. In several crucial ways, ample sleep is necessary to make us more productive in our work day.
Certainly, we’re all more productive when we arrive to work rested. However, sleep’s positive impact goes much deeper into our daily lives than that.
Find yourself forgetting important details, or do you need to plaster Post-It notes all over your desktop? Your sleep schedule could be to blame, as the BBC report details.
“Deep sleep sounds restful, but during it our brains are actually working hard. One of the main things the brain is doing is moving memories from short-term storage into long-term storage, allowing us more short-term memory space for the next day. If you don't get adequate deep sleep then these memories will be lost.”
Afford yourself adequate time to fall into a deep sleep, and the many bits of new information that come at you every day are more likely to stay on your mind longer.
Every career has deadlines or criteria to meet that induce stress. Maybe you have a long, traffic-marred daily commute. Either way, each and every one of us deals with stress in our daily lives.
If your eyelids are fluttering at your work space or you’re punching your steering wheel in traffic, another hour of sleep might be the remedy.
“During REM sleep an extraordinary thing happens. One of the stress-related chemicals in the brain, noradrenalin, is switched off. It's the only time, day or night, this happens. It allows us to remain calm while our brains reprocess all the experiences of the day, helping us come to terms with particularly emotional events.”
That’s all well and good, but who can find an extra hour to sleep? With work and domestic responsibilities, many of us already feel there aren’t enough hours in the day.
It doesn’t take much budgeting of your time in our parts of your day to find a little more time to get the necessary amount of sleep.
Program the TV shows you’re staying up an extra half-hour to watch into the DVR to save for the weekend | <urn:uuid:a4dd9478-dac1-4941-981e-13df33836e8a> | 512 | 0 |
Recently, several companies have taken the lead in using information and communications technology (ICT) to address pressing sustainability challenges as diverse as climate change, urban development, water scarcity, health care, and sustainable food chains:
SAP's “Sustainability Map” profiles the role that business software can play in helping customers address sustainability challenges and covers aspects such as sustainability performance management, energy and carbon, product stewardship, and sustainable supply chains.
For example, SAP is working with Nestlé to provide solutions for product traceability of foodstuffs.
IBM’s “Smart Planet” initiative examines the role of ICT and sophisticated data analysis to help solve sustainability challenges such as energy, food security, traffic congestion, national security, urban development, and water scarcity.
For example, IBM will be the systems integrator for American Electric Power’s “gridSmart” initiative to upgrade the distribution grid to better handle distributed power generation, storage, and efficiency programs.
Hitachi’s “Environmental Vision” aims to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and solve other environmental challenges from the use of Hitachi Group products.
For example, Hitachi Software Agricultural Information Management System uses satellite imagery of crop growth to improve efficiency, save energy, and optimize the use of fertilizer and chemicals.
Governments are taking notice of the opportunity to use ICT as a sustainability solution. In April, the European Union published a communication with a typically snappy title (“Mobilizing Information and Communications Technologies to Facilitate the Transition to an Energy-Efficient, Low-Carbon Economy”), which emphasized the role of ICT in enabling energy-efficiency improvements in major energy-using sectors, especially buildings, construction, and logistics. An updated communication, with timelines and targets, is expected later in 2009.
There is no doubt that ICT has a role to play in addressing sustainability challenges. But to achieve maximum potential, the industry needs to increase the depth and scope of its engagement with large enterprise and government customers.
It is BSR’s premise that the ICT Industry can improve its effort by:
Taking this Agenda Forward
There are many next steps that companies can take to maximize the impact of ICT as a sustainability solution on company strategy and revenues:
Breaking Out of ICT
While | <urn:uuid:d4a7ad6d-9bdb-47e3-97ff-a3c58c09eb7d> | 512 | 0 |
Recently, several companies have taken the lead in using information and communications technology (ICT) to address pressing [...] it’s important for ICT companies to innovate for sustainability transformation, it’s even more critical that those firms working in energy, food, transportation, agriculture, retail, and manufacturing consider how ICT can help them.
So let’s try an experiment promoting ICT and sustainability right now: If you’re working for an ICT company, forward the PDF of this article to your customers and make sure they read it.
Related Resource: Learn more at the BSR Conference 2009, which features a session on “Sustainability Solutions.” This one-hour conversation with IBM will inspire you to think big about the possibilities of a technology-enabled sustainability transformation.
Making sustainability a central focus: With so many sustainability challenges top-of-mind for governments, ICT companies can afford to place identification of sustainability solutions at the center of their business strategy for enterprise markets.
According to the Climate Group/Global eSustainability Initiative’s 2008 “Smart 2020” report, the ICT sector can help reduce global carbon-dioxide emissions by 15 percent by 2020, especially in areas such as motor systems, grids, buildings, and logistics. A U.S. addendum to the report states that the ICT sector could cut annual emissions by 13 to 22 percent against business as usual.
Co-innovating with customers: Product development, sales and marketing, and sustainability functions within ICT companies should be collaborating much more closely with purchasing, information technology, and sustainability functions in their largest enterprise and government customers in a much more deliberate effort to co-create sustainability solutions.
In particular, ICT companies could learn by asking themselves the following questions:
- What are the sustainability priorities and challenges of our largest enterprise and government customers? There are plenty of areas to think about: food security and traceability, access to financial products in rural areas, energy efficiency in retail or manufacturing environments, and sustainable water management, to name a few.
- What are the relevant sustainability goals and targets of our largest enterprise customers—for example, in carbon-dioxide emissions, waste reduction, energy efficiency, or water use?
- What is the potential role of | <urn:uuid:d4a7ad6d-9bdb-47e3-97ff-a3c58c09eb7d> | 512 | 23 |
Recently, several companies have taken the lead in using information and communications technology (ICT) to address pressing [...] ICT solutions in helping these customers address sustainability challenges and achieve sustainability goals? More specifically, which of our products and services have functionality that can help deliver these goals?
- Who within our enterprise and government customers are key influencers (e.g. R&D, buyers, product development, sustainability, sales and marketing), and how can we best engage them?
- What is the size of the potential addressable market?
- Are there key enterprise customers that we should engage with first?
Moving from reports to action: The ICT industry has done an excellent job raising the profile of its role and measuring the potential impact. The opportunity now is to systematically identify and implement opportunities to generate new revenues by helping enterprise customers save emissions.
- Identify opportunities: From “Smart 2020” and other reports, identify the broad areas of opportunity to help your enterprise customers cut emissions in areas such as motor systems, logistics, buildings, grids, and construction.
- Look at your products and services: Which of your products and services (now and in the future) could help deliver these savings?
- Identify the potential market: Which of your existing enterprise customers would be interested in opportunities to explore solutions further?
- Develop new revenue opportunities from carbon-dioxide savings: What are the new market and revenue opportunities based on helping customers reduce emissions?
- Establish a map for products, services, and issues that links the sustainability priorities of key customer segments (e.g. food and agriculture, oil and gas, transportation, mining, and consumer products) with the ICT products, services, and solutions your company provides.
- Engage in conversations with key internal influencers (sales and marketing, account managers, product development, and R&D) and external influencers (buyers, strategy, and sustainability teams) to understand sustainability priorities and opportunities.
- Host sustainability solutions workshops that bring together the relevant participants from customers/suppliers to identify the greatest opportunities and explore approaches to co-innovation. These participants could include representatives from sales and marketing, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, product design and development, and account managers and buyers.
- Train sales, marketing, and product development staff in the sustainability challenges faced by their biggest customers. | <urn:uuid:d4a7ad6d-9bdb-47e3-97ff-a3c58c09eb7d> | 508 | 23 |
Twenty-five years ago this fall, a crowd of thousands gathered along the east side of the Berlin Wall and demanded, with the urgency of people who had spent decades under an authoritarian communist regime, that the border guards let them pass to the other side. That night, the gates swung open and the sledgehammers came out. Soon, the wall was all but destroyed, and the two countries it had kept apart for almost 30 years were finally joined back together.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall, which Germany will commemorate next month with an illuminated display of white balloons where the concrete barrier once stood, was one of the most extraordinary events of the 20th century. Not only was it a crucial factor in the eventual shriveling of communism in Europe, it was also a demonstration of what peaceful protest could accomplish in the face of an oppressive government.
But before it fell, the wall did something that most people never think of: It created a massive laboratory for studying human society.
Imagine this: If you were a researcher trying to determine how a political system affects people’s values, beliefs, and behavior, you would ideally want to take two identical populations, separate them for a generation or two, and subject them each to two totally different kinds of government. Then you’d want to measure the results, the same way a medical researcher might give two sets of patients two different pills and then track their progress.
Ethically, such a study would be unthinkable even to propose. But when the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, it created what London School of Economics associate professor Daniel Sturm calls a “perfect experiment.” While people in West Germany voted in free elections, read independent newspapers, and protested if they felt dissatisfied with their government, their Eastern counterparts lived inside a surveillance state ruled by a zealously doctrinaire communist party. Where “Ossis”—an unofficial term for those who lived in East Germany—drove famously shoddy Trabant cars, wore drab clothing, and drank off-brand soda, their “Wessi” counterparts enjoyed Pepsi and regularly saw BMWs in the street. The two halves of the country were like a pair of identical twins separated at birth and raised by two very different sets of parents.
Over the past decade, the Berlin | <urn:uuid:002cdf69-6888-40ea-b217-7a154fa915d3> | 512 | 0 |
Twenty-five years ago this fall, a crowd of thousands gathered along the east side of the Berlin [...] Wall has emerged as a uniquely powerful tool for answering questions about politics, economics, and human nature. How well does state propaganda actually work? What role do friendships play in stimulating business and trade? How does living under a repressive regime affect people’s inclination to trust strangers and government institutions?
The results have proved exciting for researchers, but their value goes beyond the ivory tower: They’re also likely to be important in preparing for real-world situations we may see in the future, like the opening of North Korea and Iran. “Understanding how, say, propaganda created by such regimes affects people’s preferences is very important, particularly when these regimes sooner or later collapse,” said Alberto Alesina, an economist at Harvard University.
The insights that have piled up since the fall of the wall make it clear how long a single political event can continue to have social and economic effects on the people who lived through it. The marks it left are still being uncovered and measured, more than half a century after the architects of the wall unwittingly made it possible.
The split was formalized in 1949: West Germany became an independent state in Europe; its smaller eastern counterpart, carved from territory the Soviet Union seized after liberating it from the Nazis, slipped behind the Iron Curtain. A little over a decade later, it became clear that unless drastic measures were taken, the massive wave of emigration flowing out of the East would cripple the country. And so a cinder-block wall went up in Berlin, complete with barbed wire and heavily armed guards who would shoot anyone who tried to climb across. Practically overnight, family members who lived on different sides of the wall were separated with no promise of seeing each other again. Grocery stores in the East abruptly stopped importing food from the West. And while there were a handful of checkpoints permeating the wall—which ultimately stretched a total of 96 miles—permission to cross was basically never granted to people from the East.
For the next 28 years, East and West Germany were run about as differently as two countries could be. In East Germany’s controlled economy, every citizen was guaranteed a (low-paying) job, housing was owned and allocated by the state, and people couldn’t buy Levi | <urn:uuid:002cdf69-6888-40ea-b217-7a154fa915d3> | 512 | 23 |
Twenty-five years ago this fall, a crowd of thousands gathered along the east side of the Berlin [...] ’s jeans except on the black market. West Germany, meanwhile, grew into an economic and industrial powerhouse: By 1989 it was the third largest economy in the world, producing and selling a panoply of consumer goods. Politically, it was wide open; when a magazine editor was jailed for publishing unflattering articles about the military, public outrage was so intense that the editor was freed and and the country’s defense minister resigned.
Alberto Alesina was thinking of none of this when he started working on a question that others in his field had found extremely difficult to answer definitively: How important is a country’s official ideology in shaping people’s political attitudes? A breakthrough came when Alesina spoke to a colleague, the economist Nicola Fuchs-Schundeln, who had recently used data on post-reunification Germany to study whether all the extra money people in the East were earning after the wall came down had made them more likely to save. The same approach, they realized, could help with Alesina’s question about political attitudes.
At first, the researchers didn’t know what to expect. On the one hand, East Germans might be resentful of the system that had constrained their lives; on the other hand, it was also plausible that they had become comfortable with the notion that a government would provide for basic needs at the expense of an open society.
Alesina and Fuchs-Schundeln used data from a German survey administered in 1997, and split the respondents into two groups based on where they had lived before reunification. What they found was that, at that point, people from the East still tended to believe in the social-service model. They were also more likely to support a robust government program to help the unemployed, and significantly more inclined to believe that social conditions, rather than individual will, determined a person’s lot in life.
“We tend to think of preferences as a fundamental thing that economists cannot explain,” said Alesina. “[Our paper] says, ‘Look...living under a communist regime changes people’s political preferences.’”
It goes the other way too, if slowly: When Alesina and Fuchs-Schundeln looked at | <urn:uuid:002cdf69-6888-40ea-b217-7a154fa915d3> | 512 | 23 |
Twenty-five years ago this fall, a crowd of thousands gathered along the east side of the Berlin [...] survey results from 2002, they found that the two groups of Germans had begun to converge politically. Based on the data, they estimated that it would take between one and two generations—20 to 40 years— for the gap to fully close, and “for an average East German to have the same views on state intervention as an average West German.”
The differences between the two Germanys went far beyond economic ideology. West Germans all had access to Western television networks, including one that was American-controlled; they watched uncensored newscasts, shows like “Dallas” and “Dynasty,” and commercials for everything from Corn Flakes to Volkswagens. Most East Germans could get those broadcasts too, but a significant proportion of them—between 10 and 15 percent—lived in areas the signal didn’t reach. These people, concentrated mainly in Dresden and the surrounding Elbe Valley, were sometimes referred to as “the valley of the clueless,” forced to watch “political propaganda and Soviet-produced movies,” wrote Leonardo Bursztyn, a management professor at UCLA, and his German coauthor Davide Cantoni.
Western television, Bursztyn and Cantoni found, had an impact on East Germans and how they spent their money: Those who’d had access to it were much more inclined to buy Western products they’d seen advertised than those who had not. (In the ongoing debate about whether advertising works at all, consumption data on post-reunification Germany suggests the answer is “yes.”) Television affected people’s mindset in other ways as well. In a separate but related study, it was shown that watching Western TV had actually shaped East Germans’ views about work and chance, making them “more inclined to believe that effort rather than luck determines success in life.”
Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of life in East Germany was the surveillance state. Anyone you knew might be an informant to the secret police, the powerful Stasi, who maintained files on an estimated 6 million citizens and were known to pressure people to turn in neighbors, co-workers, and sometimes even friends and family members as traitors. Economists Helmut Rainer and Thomas Siedler used survey data to try to figure | <urn:uuid:002cdf69-6888-40ea-b217-7a154fa915d3> | 512 | 23 |
Twenty-five years ago this fall, a crowd of thousands gathered along the east side of the Berlin [...] out whether living that way had left a psychological scar. They looked at the results of a Germany-wide survey that had been administered twice a year since 1980: According to their analysis, East Germans were much less trusting toward other people than their counterparts.
Perhaps discouragingly, their mistrust did not lift easily when the Stasi’s reign ended. When the researchers compared survey data collected not long after reunification to data collected in 2002, it was clear that living in a democracy for a decade had not made East Germans significantly more trusting of others.
Other studies have shown additional lasting differences. One found that, because in East Germany women were encouraged to work more than they were in the West, East Germans were significantly more likely to believe that men and women are equal. Another found that, because the East German regime ran official doping programs for athletes, East Berliners were much more accepting than West Berliners of performance-enhancing drugs 20 years after reunification. Another paper, by Tarek Hassan of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, looked at how businesses grew and spread when the border fences fell, and found that they tended to follow networks of personal connections. Ossis who did a lot of business with the former Wessis after reunification were disproportionately likely to have had friends, or friends of friends, on the other side of the wall before it was torn down.
These findings might be just the beginning of the Berlin Wall’s lessons. “I’m surprised there aren’t more people using it,” said Daniel Sturm, who coauthored a paper about the economic slowdown suffered by cities that were in the center of Germany before the division but became peripheral afterward. “I think there are lots of open questions that we’ll learn more about from observing what happened in Germany.”
An event that disrupts the lives of tens of millions of people is, obviously, more than just an experiment, and there’s arguably something reductive about treating it like one. The researchers are well aware of this moral complexity.
“People have said to me, ‘How can you do it?’” said Nicola Fuchs-Schundeln, who is a professor at Goethe University Frankfurt. “It almost | <urn:uuid:002cdf69-6888-40ea-b217-7a154fa915d3> | 512 | 23 |
Most Common Disabilities Under FEHA And How Employers Should Accommodate Them
The federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) gives disabled job applicants and employees protection against being discriminated against based on their disability, and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) gives them even more protections. Employers are prohibited from not hiring an applicant due to a disability or denying a worker a raise, promotion, or other benefit of employment because he is disabled.
Furthermore, employers in California have a duty to make a reasonable accommodation of an applicant’s or employee’s disability unless it would cause them undue hardship. Common ways employers can make a job easier for a disabled worker to perform include:
- Making the workplace accessible and usable.
- Changing the person’s responsibilities or work schedule.
- Reassigning the person to a vacant position that is more suitable to his needs.
- Modifying or providing equipment or devices to assist the worker in doing his job.
- Modifying tests or training materials.
- Providing a qualified interpreter or reader.
- Providing other accommodations based on the worker’s disability.
What Are Common Disabilities Employers Must Accommodate?
Under the FEHA, a disability is defined as “an impairment that makes performance of a major life activity difficult.” This is much broader than the definition under the ADA, protecting many more disabled workers. Some common protected disabilities and ways employers can accommodate them include:
- Back and spinal injuries. These are often caused by repetitive movements, lifting too much, car and work accidents, and more. Workers who must lift at their job can be accommodated by limiting their lifting or transferring them to another job that does not require lifting.
- Mental or psychological impairments. These account for a large number of claims for disability protections and include mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, manic depression, or other psychological problems. While it can be challenging to accommodate this type of disability, employers are required to do so. Ways that this disability can be accommodated include job modifications, transfer of some of the employee’s duties to other workers, or a job transfer to a more appropriate position that is available.
- Limb disabilities. These include | <urn:uuid:1c7f0892-0aa9-41d2-a507-82443ed78eaa> | 512 | 0 |
Most Common Disabilities Under FEHA And How Employers Should Accommodate Them
[...] disabilities to a person’s arms, hands, legs, or feet. An example is carpel tunnel syndrome. An employer could accommodate a worker who can no longer stand by moving him to another position that does not require standing or provide more frequent breaks. A worker who must type might be accommodated by offering typing lessons to help with the problem, modifying his work station, or transferring the worker to another job duty requiring less typing.
- Neurological impairments. If a worker suffers from a neurological disorder like epilepsy, severe migraines, or other nervous system disorders, he can still be a productive employee with accommodations. Adjustments the employer could make include adjusting the worker’s schedule so he does not have to drive at night or providing him with a flexible schedule based on his needs due to his disability.
- Heart conditions. Some heart conditions can cause a person to become disabled, especially if he works in a physically demanding profession. Limiting heavy lifting is a reasonable accommodation an employee can expect an employer to make.
- Substance abuse. An employer is not required to accommodate illegal drug use, but is expected to accommodate alcoholism by taking actions like giving the worker an extended leave while he receives treatment for his addiction. However, an employer is not required to allow a worker to be intoxicated on the job.
- Diabetes. Employers could work with their employees who suffer with this by changing the rules, facilities, or terms of employment to accommodate the employee’s disability.
- Hearing and vision impairment. Many reasonable accommodations can be utilized to accommodate hearing or vision loss, such as providing computer technology that could assist with reading or hearing. What would be needed would depend on the person’s job duties and needs.
- Blood disorders. If a person suffers with a blood disorder, the employer must treat the situation appropriately so that the person does not pass on a disease. Transferring an employee out of a position where he handles food could be a reasonable accommodation.
Many accommodations do not take much effort and are not expensive, which makes disability discrimination even more unjust.
Do you believe your employer or a prospective employer failed to accommodate your disability? The Law Offices of Corbett H. Williams are here to help you enforce your important rights and obtain the compensation you | <urn:uuid:1c7f0892-0aa9-41d2-a507-82443ed78eaa> | 512 | 23 |
Today, Friday 1st December recognises World AIDS Day, a day in which we are given the chance to stand up and join in the campaign to help put an end to one of the world’s most serious health and development challenges.
Although over recent years we have seen a decrease in HIV prevalence; across the world today there still currently exists a massive 36.7 million people living with the HIV virus, with over 10,500 of those in the UK and Ireland. (Source: Global Health Policy).
With regards to the Sustainable Development Goals, without ensuring that all people are healthy and happy we can never fully achieve a secure level of sustainable development. Although all these goals are interlinked and interdependent of each other, Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing places a particular focus on this issue, with target 3.3 stating that by 2030, we aim to “end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases”.
So, what can I do to help combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
There are so many ways in which you can get involved and help us to combat major health issues across the world such as HIV and AIDS. Below are just a few quick ideas
Educating ourselves and those around us is one of the best things we can do when planning to take action of any kind. How can we deal with an issue such as HIV/AIDS if we don’t know anything about it? Read, explore and learn – and then share this learning with your friends and family! Through education not only do we learn when and where an issue exists, but we can also discover the best ways to go about tackling it!
Across the world there are hundreds of development organisations which focus their work on tackling the problem of HIV/AIDS. Volunteering your time to work with these organisations and help those suffering from AIDS is a real hands on way in which you play your part in the tackling of this huge epidemic.
If you ever feel like you would like to get involved with the work of Children in Crossfire, we are always welcome to anybody who wants to give a helping hand – whether it’s to fundraise, to educate or just to have a bit of fun, give us a call on (028) 71269898 or drop us | <urn:uuid:2999ed8c-00d7-4b1e-b528-3b8e7db5295c> | 512 | 0 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “There is no future without a past, because what is to be cannot be imagined except as a form of repetition.” Is history really such a predictable thing? In some way, it is. Past events influence the current economy, culture, and education of a given country, creating unchangeable national ‘genes’. Knowing one's history, it’s sometimes possible to foresee and avoid potential problems, determine a better strategy of actions, and overcome challenges. Undoubtedly, history is a good teacher that is able to educate the generations.
Each nation has its unique historical background. Today’s giant, the USA, passed through numerous stages of its growth and development as well. It took centuries to build its strength, mainly thanks to the contribution of some outstanding personalities who dedicated their lives to fighting for justice and whose impact on history is truly substantial.
People who Changed the United States of America
American history is all about fighting for rights, freedom, and equality. No wonder, the US is called ‘a land of liberty’. Presidents constitute the first group of people that comes to mind when speaking about any country’s history, as they are the ones who represent it. Presidents also bear responsibility for the well-being of the population, so granting necessary rights and freedoms should be the task of top priority for them. Among the most famous people in the history of the US are George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Ronald W. Reagan, and Barack Obama.
Apart from presidents, there are many other well-known and influential people who took a stand in history of the USA. Here are some of them:
- Participants of the War of Independence, civil and women’s rights movement activists and politicians: Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Ralph Nader;
- Warfare: George Marshall;
- Inventors: Samuel F. B. Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Robert Oppenheimer, Jonas Salk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates;
- Writers: James | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 0 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] Fenimore Cooper, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway;
- Journalists and publishers: Margaret Fuller, James Gordon Bennett, William Lloyd Garrison, William Randolph Hearst;
- Musicians and singers: Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson;
- Producers: Samuel Goldwyn, Walt Disney.
Great leaders in history
They say “The secret to success is good leadership”. Leaders are best revealed at hard times facing dangers and challenges, forced to react quickly and wisely. Therefore, important events in American history serve as a propitious background upon which the famous American leaders introduce their names to the world.
American history is comparatively short, though full of wars and protest rallies. This is how such a diverse nation was united into one strong country. In order to understand this process better, let’s pay attention to the Founding Fathers of the US and other world-known activists.
He started his military career at the age of 21 confronting the French and thus provoking the French and Indian War. Later on, Washington became the first president of the US and is still referred to as the ‘Father of the country’. He was unanimously elected for two consecutive terms, being the only president in history receiving 100% of the electoral votes. Washington added the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution. He also served as a Commander-in-Chief during the American Revolution. Take a look at some eloquent facts about George Washington:
- He never received an official education;
- Despite the fact that he lost more battles than he won, his martial career was quite successful. Washington held the rank of a General of the Armies of the United States, the highest possible rank in the US Army;
- He established the Cabinet of Advisors;
- He contributed to creating the US Navy through signing the Naval Act;
- He wrote a letter to the Hebrew Congregation granting Americans a religious and conscience freedom;
- He was the only US President who took part in a battle while performing his presidency at the same time;
- He was the only Founding Father who bequeathed freeing all his slaves | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] upon his wife’s death and included such an order into his will.
The first US President has written nearly 20,000 letters in his lifetime. That’s the source of numerous George Washington quotes:
- “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
- “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.”
- “The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.”
- “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
- “Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.”
- “Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe.”
- “Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.”
- “Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.”
Being the second US President, he witnessed the end of the American Revolution. Adams was the first President to reside in the White House. Out of five Founding Fathers, he was the only one who didn’t own any slaves. However, Adams didn’t support abolitionism either. The Adams held presidency twice: John Adams, serving as the second US President, and his son, John Quincy Adams, as the sixth one. John Adams treated Thomas Jefferson as his rival. Ironically, he died the same day as Jefferson, uttering his last words, “Thomas Jefferson survives”. In fact, Jefferson had died a few hours earlier.
Here are some of John Adams quotes:
- “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”
- “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
- “Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”
- “Power always thinks... that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.”
- “Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.”
- “Fear is | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] the foundation of most governments.”
Occupying the position of the third US President, he is best known as an author of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by Congress in 1776. He is also famous for purchasing Louisiana, which doubled the US territory. In 1815, Jefferson founded the Library of Congress by selling up to 10,000 of his own books to the government. In 1819, he founded the University of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson quotes given below effectively reflect his political and intellectual power:
- “All men are created equal.”
- “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”
- “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”
- “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
- “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
- “When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.”
- “That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.”
- “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”
The 16th President of the US is considered to be a national hero and the top-ranked US President according to polls and surveys. What made him so popular? Lincoln was performing his presidency at the time of the Civil War, being positioned as Commander-in-Chief. He struggled to finally end the slavery era in the US history. Consequently, in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was adopted: it canceled slavery and set each slave free. Together with him saving the Union from splitting, the Proclamation got listed among the biggest Abraham Lincoln accomplishments. His most famous speech, short but distinct, was delivered the same year under the name of “Gettysburg Address”. Lincoln was not only a bright politician, but also a genuine intellectual: he is the only US president to own a patent. Moreover, he was a self-taught lawyer who practiced law and got nicknamed as ‘Honest Abe’.
Now, take a look at world-known quotes | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] attributed to Lincoln:
- “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
- “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
- “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
- “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.”
- “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Famous black people
What names come to your mind when you hear "famous black people"? Probably, Barack Obama, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Eddie Murphy, Louis Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, right? Their fame goes ahead of them. However, it’s a result of a long struggle for their right to be acknowledged.
Racism has always been considered as one of the major problems throughout the entire American history. White people used to show their superiority over African-Americans, severely oppressing them. The latter could be easily bought and sold, exploited, and treated like animals. Jefferson’s statement, “All men are created equal” was ignored when talking about blacks until they raised their voices and started fighting.
The key demand of the Civil Rights Movement was to grant blacks the right to vote on equal terms with white people. Now and then African-Americans were discriminated in their suffrage being forced to pass literacy tests instead. Well, when did blacks get the right to vote? This essential event happened on August 6, 1965: the President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act granting racial minorities the rights to vote. It also forbade a literacy tests practice. Below there is a list of some of the most famous black people in American history and their major achievements.
After serving as a sergeant during World War II, Medgar Evers studied in Alcorn College. He then applied to the University of Mississippi Law School but failed for the reason of racial segregation. So he referred to the NAACP hoping | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] to get assistance there. Since then, Evers had been working as the first state field secretary of the organization in Mississippi. He aimed to finally abolish discrimination of the blacks, thus drawing attention to his personality. What is more, Medgar Evers is known for investigating the murder of an African-American teenager Emmett Till who was accused of speaking with a white woman. Such actions infuriated segregation supporters, which resulted in Evers’ assassination in 1963. He was shot by Byron De La Beckwith and died an hour later. It took 31 years to sentence his killer. 7 years after Evers’ death, Medgar Evers College was established (a senior college of CUNY).
Medgar Evers quotes embody his inner strength and commitment to his life’s aim:
- “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.”
- “Our only hope is to control the vote.”
- “When you hate, the only person that suffers is you because most of the people you hate don’t know it and the rest don’t care.”
- “Freedom has never been free.”
Undoubtedly, the name Martin Luther is associated with Martin Luther King Jr. But his contribution wouldn’t have been so magnificent if his father, Martin Luther King Sr. hadn't inspired him by his personal example. He was a Baptist Church presbyter in Atlanta, Georgia, at the same time heading up the NAACP department, namely a Civil and Political League. Following his father’s attitude and active position toward the Civil Rights Movement, King Jr. became an iconic activist and spokesperson of the Movement. He first performed as a leader during the Montgomery bus boycott, serving as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference afterwards. Another prominent step forward the organization of nonviolent racial discrimination protests in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1963 he delivered his most famous speech at the March on Washington. Martin Luther King Jr. was also the youngest man to be awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated in 1968 and his name is still often referred to when speaking about passionate leaders in American history. May Martin Luther King Jr. quotes inspire you to realize true human values and keep on following them | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] :
- “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
- “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
- “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
- “The time is always right to do what is right.”
- “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
- “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”
- “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
On the contrary to Martin Luther King, Malcolm X fought for the separation of blacks and whites, not for their integration into one unity. He persuaded the crowds that black people originally inhabited the Earth, thus they were superior to the whites. Malcolm X presented his vision and got numerous followers, convincing the masses that the time of tolerance and endless waiting was over. Therefore, he never supported the nonviolent struggle of African-Americans and assured his supporters that it was essential to protect themselves from inequality “by any means necessary”. His ideas were really radical. For instance, he offered African Americans to go back to Africa and create a community free of white oppressors. The leader was assassinated in 1965. The same year, the Autobiography of Malcolm X was published, a collaborative work of Malcolm X himself and Alex Haley, who interviewed him. This piece of writing sheds some light on Malcolm’s life and outlook. 30 years later, the Time included this book in the list of ten books worth reading. Below there are some Malcolm X quotes:
- “If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.”
- “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”
- “If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.”
- “How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
History is powerful. Siri Hustvedt, an American novelist, once wrote, “ [...] ? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?”
- “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”
In 1955, a 14-year-old black boy named Emmett Till came to a grocery store and spoke to its owner, a young white woman Carolyn Bryant. She then testified that the boy flirted with her, breaking the existing code of conduct between black men and white women. Such an incident sparked fury in Carolyn Bryant’s husband and his brother, which resulted in them violently mutilating the teenager and shooting him to death. They ended with sinking the corpse in the river. The murder immediately grasped the attention of both local and international newspapers. The question of human rights and racism overflew the audience’s minds activating the NAACP’s role and causing mass and individual protests. Rosa Parks confessed that she was thinking of Emmett Till while not giving up her seat in a bus, which led to the bus boycott.
What happened to those two men who committed a murder? Well, they were acquitted, but the case has been thoroughly investigated by Timothy Tyson who revealed the results of his interview with Carolyn Bryant. Only in 2017, it became known that she fabricated the testimonies of Emmett Till’s behavior that day, and that there was nothing offending or threatening in the way the boy spoke to her. Indeed, better late than never.
Another family of great leaders is the Obamas. Barack Obama Sr., a citizen of Kenya, got a brilliant education, first at the University of Hawaii where his son, Barack Obama young was born, and then at the University of Harvard. He returned to his Motherland holding a master’s degree in economics. Thanks to his American diploma, Obama was offered a job as an economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Transport and later got promoted, becoming an economic analyst in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance. Because of his conflicts with the Kenyan President, Barack Obama Sr. was fired, becoming blacklisted in his own country.
One of them was the 44th American President Barack Obama inaugurated in 2009 | <urn:uuid:a302ff5c-3b81-4790-b4e5-49a923a25fe0> | 512 | 23 |
November 14, 2017 by Bruce Rose
You have finished the initial phases of your new design and are anxious to see the project through to completion, but a few tasks remain, including the selection of the low voltage dc input power connector. Specifying the proper dc power connector is not a complex task and can be completed quickly and painlessly. Selecting one of the more commonly used models is often the best choice for power supply connections as these connectors are inexpensive and readily available.
Low voltage dc power connectors, often referred to as barrel connectors, have both current and voltage ratings specified by the manufacturer. These ratings ensure reliability when using these connectors in power delivery applications. Both the jack and the plug of barrel connectors feature one exposed conductor and a second recessed conductor. A benefit of the recessed second conductor is that it is difficult to accidentally create a short between the two conductors. Additionally, there should be little concern that sensitive components will be damaged by plugging a power connector into an incorrect receptacle since barrel connectors are almost exclusively used to supply power to electronic devices.
While there is not an absolute standard for the definition of barrel power connectors, the electronics industry has drifted towards common usage of the terms jack, plug and receptacle. The jack typically receives power and is mounted in the appliance, either on a PCB or in the chassis. The plug is most often located on the electrical cord and supplies power from the power supply. A receptacle is also mounted on a power cord and receives power from a mating plug.
The definitions of gender for dc power connectors are less standardized than the definitions of jacks, plugs and receptacles. Some in the industry avoid declaring male and female when discussing connectors, while many engineers, following the conventions of the RF connector industry, have accepted the center pin configuration for defining the gender of barrel power connectors. The connector with the center pin is accepted as male and the mating connector is accepted as female. Users should be aware that there are standardized jack and plug combinations in which the center pin is in the jack for some and in the plug for others.
A common standard for defining barrel connectors is the diameter of the inner pin and outer sleeve. Common diameters of the inner pin and outer sleeve are shown in the table below:
|Inner Pin Diameters (mm)|| | <urn:uuid:15eda0a6-9b5a-4a41-b79a-7ceab6571544> | 512 | 0 |
November 14, 2017 by Bruce Rose
You have finished the initial phases [...] Outer Sleeve Diameters (mm)|
The diameter of the inner sleeve (which interfaces with the inner pin) should be slightly larger than that of the mating pin, but manufacturers have not standardized upon a common clearance. The typical mating connection to the outer sleeve is a cantilevered flat spring and thus the clearance between the outer sleeve and the mating connector is not critical to the proper functioning of the connector.
A third dimension specified on dc power connectors is the depth of insertion. Jack insertion depth dimensions may often be less than the plug barrel lengths which can be explained for two reasons. First, the plug barrel may not be required to be completely enclosed by the receiving jack when the connectors are mated and thus a longer plug barrel length than the jack insertion depth is acceptable. Second, in some installations, the depth of the chassis wall must be considered. When the connectors are mated, that additional depth needs to be accounted for in the plug barrel length.
The standard dc barrel plug or jack has two conductors, one each for power and ground. Convention is for the center pin to be power and the outer sleeve to be ground, but reversing the connections is acceptable. Some power jack models include a third conductor which forms a switch with the outer sleeve conductor. One use of the switch function is to detect or indicate the insertion of a plug. Another use of the switch function is to select between power sources dependent upon whether a plug is or is not inserted into the jack.
In addition to selecting the connector pin and sleeve dimensions, the design engineer needs to also specify the mounting style of the dc power connector. Panel mounted connectors have the advantage of mounting almost anywhere on the product chassis, but do require wires to connect to the associated circuitry. PCB mounted connectors are available in horizontal and vertical mechanical orientations and the electrical connections can be surface mount (SMT) or through hole. It should be noted that many jacks with SMT signal connections will also have through hole pins or tabs to improve the jack’s mounting robustness. Although the tabs will be through hole soldered to the PCB, they may or may not be electrically connected to the jack. Typically mounting stabilization pins are | <urn:uuid:15eda0a6-9b5a-4a41-b79a-7ceab6571544> | 512 | 23 |
A new mechanism to inhibit proteasomes, protein complexes that are a target for cancer therapy, is the topic of an article published in the journal Chemistry & Biology. The first author of the study is Daniela Trivella, researcher at the Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (LNBio/CNPEM).
The findings of the study, conducted with FAPESP support in partnership with researchers from the University of California in San Diego, United States, and at the Technische Universität München, in Germany, are paving the way for the development of a new generation of chemotherapy drugs that are more effective and less toxic.
"We have already developed a series of molecules based on the newly identified mechanism. Now we plan to synthesize them in partnership with CNPEM researcher Marjorie Bruder and test their potential. The goal is to optimize the proteasome inhibition effect, make the compound even more selective of tumor cells and eliminate the resistance problems found with drugs that are currently available on the market," Trivella said.
A member of the category of enzymes known as proteases, the proteasome is a protein complex responsible for several essential functions inside cells, such as eliminating harmful or non-functioning proteins and regulating the processes of apoptosis (programmed cell death), cell division and proliferation.
In 2012, the drug carfilzomib, inspired by a natural molecule called epoxomicin, was approved. Also in 2012, U.S. and Brazilian researchers isolated a natural molecule in cyanobacteria from the Caribbean called carmaphycin, whose reactive group (the portion of the molecule that interacts with the proteasome) is the same as that of carfilzomib. The molecule is known as an epoxyketone.
"Epoxyketones are very potent selective inhibitors of the proteasome because they interact with this enzyme in two stages: the first reversible and the second irreversible," Trivella explained.
To optimize its effect and find new reactive groups, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego developed a series of synthetic analogs with slight structural modifications.
Triv | <urn:uuid:bb12ea2f-8730-4b3a-9245-23b1224bd4ef> | 512 | 0 |
A new mechanism to inhibit proteasomes, protein complexes that are a target for cancer therapy [...] ella tested these compounds during an internship in California in her post-doctoral research when she was still associated with the Chemistry Institute at the University of Campinas (Unicamp).
One of the molecules tested had an enone as a reactive group and had characteristics of carmaphycin and another natural molecule named syringolin, isolated from plant pathogens.
By investigating the reaction mechanisms of the new molecule, named carmaphycin-syringolin enone, the researcher verified that unlike syringolin, and thus like the epoxyketone, the enone interacts with the proteasome in two stages, with the second stage being irreversible.
Additionally, Trivella had observed that in the case of the enone, the second reaction occurs more slowly, increasing the duration of the reversible phase of carmaphycin-syringolin enone inhibition.
"Because the irreversible inactivation of the proteasome has toxic effects, the best window of reversibility observed for the carmaphycin-syringolin enone will potentially reduce the toxicity of this new class of proteasome inhibitors," Trivella said. "The compound would therefore present a balance between selectivity and potency."
Toxicity tests are still underway. In parallel, studies have been conducted with the help of crystallography techniques to discover exactly how the interaction between the enzyme target and the carmaphycin- syringolin enone target occurs.
"We discovered that a chemical reaction called hydroamination occurs, which had never before seen under physiological conditions. This type of reaction is frequently used by synthetic chemists in preparing substances, but normally it requires very specific temperature and pH conditions and the use of catalysts to occur. It has never been reported as a mechanism of enzyme inhibition," Trivella said.
Inspired by this new mechanism for proteasome inhibition, the LNBio group plans to synthesize and test a new series of carmaphycin-syringolin enone analogs to determine their effects on the therapeutic window (preferential death of tumor cells in relation to healthy cells) and assess whether they are also capable of reacting with proteasomes that are res | <urn:uuid:bb12ea2f-8730-4b3a-9245-23b1224bd4ef> | 512 | 23 |
Provincial and Territorial Ranking
- Relative to international peers, most provinces are middling to poor performers on connectivity.
- In B.C., 78 per cent households have broadband subscriptions, earning the province a “B”—the top ranking among the provinces and seventh place among international peers.
- With household broadband subscription rates five percentage points below the Canadian average, Nova Scotia and Manitoba score “D” grades and are the lowest-ranking provinces.
Why is connectivity important to innovation?
The Internet has become critical infrastructure for business, government, science, the arts, education, and social interaction generally. Organizations and individuals depend on the Internet to exchange ideas and information, to sell and buy goods and services, to aid education, and to socialize. In these and other ways, the Internet supports innovation and commercialization activities, in terms of both developing capacity for innovation and implementing, marketing, and selling the results of innovation. As access to the Internet spreads, not only are innovators better enabled to share ideas and collaborate across distances, but access to potential markets and customers is improved when those end-users are more connected as well.
How is connectivity measured?
Connectivity is measured as the share of households with fixed broadband subscriptions. Although availability is higher—reaching 100 per cent in some regions—what matters is whether people are in fact using that capacity. A measure of subscriptions is therefore a better measure than availability.
Access to the Internet can be through either fixed broadband (including digital subscriber lines or DSL, cable modem, and fixed wireless) or mobile broadband (including wireless communication standards such as 3G or 3G equivalent, HSPA+, and LTE). Ideally, comparable data would exist for both fixed and mobile subscriptions, as well as for Internet penetration among businesses in addition to households. However, the share of households with fixed broadband subscriptions provides a reasonable measure of Internet use generally.
How do the provinces rank relative to international peers?
Most provinces are middling to poor performers on connectivity relative to international peers. With 78 per cent of its households with broadband subscriptions, B.C. earns a “B” and ranks first among the provinces and seventh among international peers. B.C. trails six countries, including Sweden (86 per | <urn:uuid:0f6b0774-b18c-41fd-9030-5af1b9bf2983> | 512 | 0 |
Provincial and Territorial Ranking
- Relative to international peers, most provinces are [...] cent connectivity), Denmark (84 per cent), the Netherlands (83 per cent), and Finland (81 per cent)—all four of which score “A”s.
Along with B.C., Ontario (77 per cent), P.E.I. (76 per cent), and Alberta (76 per cent) all rank above the national average and earn “B” grades.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick, along with Canada as a whole, score “C” grades, with their shares of broadband subscriptions ranging from 73 to 75 per cent. And with household broadband subscription rates of 70 per cent, Nova Scotia and Manitoba score “D” grades, joining France (70 per cent), the U.S. (68 per cent), Ireland (65 per cent), and Japan (65 per cent) at the back of the class.
How do the provinces rank relative to each other?
B.C. is the highest-ranking province, followed by Ontario, P.E.I., and Alberta. All four provinces score “B” grades and place above the Canadian average on connectivity. Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick have household broadband subscription rates at or slightly below the Canadian average and earn “C” grades. With household broadband subscription rates of 70 per cent—five percentage points below the Canadian average—Nova Scotia and Manitoba score “D” grades and are the lowest-ranking provinces.
Although the difference between the top- and bottom-performing provinces is only 8 percentage points, given that Canada’s top-performing province, B.C., achieves only a “B” grade relative to international peers, there is substantial room for improvement by all provinces, especially Nova Scotia and Manitoba.
Does price matter?
Prices for broadband subscription services tend to be higher in the Atlantic provinces than in other provinces. However, there does not appear to be a relationship between prices and subscription rates across provinces.1 For example, while Manitoba has one of the lowest broadband subscription price | <urn:uuid:0f6b0774-b18c-41fd-9030-5af1b9bf2983> | 512 | 23 |
Provincial and Territorial Ranking
- Relative to international peers, most provinces are [...] averages of all provinces, it ranks last in subscriptions. By contrast, P.E.I. has one of the highest price averages, but scores a “B” and ranks third among provinces on connectivity.
Similarly, price differences do not appear to explain subscription rate differences between international peers.2 For example, although Japan and France have the lowest median Internet broadband purchase prices of the peer countries, they earn “D”s for connectivity. By contrast, while Switzerland and Germany have the third- and fourth-highest median broadband prices, they have above-average broadband subscription rates and earn “B”s for connectivity.
Although subscription rate differences across regions may not be explained by price differences, the fact that between 22 and 30 per cent of Canadian households, depending on province, do not have access suggests that for a sizable minority of consumers, price may be a consideration.
Are there differences in broadband speed across provinces and international peers?
Among the 16 peer countries, Canada’s median broadband download speed of 31 Mbps ties for 5th with Belgium, France, and Sweden.3 Although this is much slower than the Netherlands’ median broadband speed (61 Mbps), it is not much slower than the median speeds of Denmark (40 Mbps), the U.K. (36 Mbps), and Norway (35 Mbps). Moreover, Canada’s median broadband download speed is nearly twice as fast as that of its neighbour, the U.S. (17 Mbps).
Although comparable data for the provinces are not available, another measure of speed—specifically, household availability of broadband at speeds of 25 to 100 Mbps—reveals significant differences in capacity across provinces. Whereas 87 per cent of B.C. households have access to broadband with download speed between 25 and 100 Mbps, only 48 per cent of P.E.I. households have such access. Households and businesses that have access to higher download speeds will be able to share more information more quickly and collaborate more effectively, giving them an innovation advantage.
How can provinces increase broadband subscription rates | <urn:uuid:0f6b0774-b18c-41fd-9030-5af1b9bf2983> | 512 | 23 |
PG Cert: FT 3-4mo, PT 8mo; PG Dip: FT 8mo, PT 2yrs; MSc: FT 1 yr, PT 3 yrs
Please see website
30 November 2017
The benefits of GIS are increasingly recognised within government, business, education and the voluntary sector, and the applications of geospatial data technologies are steadily growing. Using GIS, it is possible to combine data from a broad range of sources and in a variety of formats, such as paper and digital maps, routinely collected administrative data, censuses and population surveys, satellite imagery, aerial photography, GPS tracking and surveys, LiDAR and crowd-sourcing. The uses of GIS are very diverse, and include mapping, spatial analysis, planning and decision-making within a wide range of disciplines and sectors – common examples include environmental management and conservation, resource management, emergency service planning and humanitarian assistance, health care provision, land use planning and urban development, the utilities, transport, geo-demographics, mineral extraction and retail analysis. Increasing uptake of GIS and associated techniques and technologies means that there is a growing demand for qualified personnel who have the skills to manage spatial data effectively. Strong industry links help ensure that our course is relevant to the needs of employers.
The course is designed to help people gain understanding and experience of GIS concepts, functionality and applications. Content focuses on the representation, acquisition, management, manipulation and analysis of spatial data. It also includes modules on remote sensing, spatial databases, web-GIS and GIS in the commercial environment. Additional optional modules include GIS work experience, spatial analysis and modelling, GIS for environmental management, and Customising GIS.
After successfully completing the PgDip modules, you may transfer to the Masters part of the programme. This requires the completion of a substantial independent research project, written in the form of a research journal article (which may, with agreement of your supervisor, be submitted for publication).
As part of the course resources, you will be provided with a free copy of ArcGIS, the remote sensing package ERDAS Imagine, and the data analysis package SPSS.
Gaining experience in the workplace and being able to apply academic learning within that context is very beneficial for students preparing to enter the workplace, so we offer the option of undertaking | <urn:uuid:edd02546-3aea-494f-bdc0-6a07b43cb410> | 512 | 0 |
PG Cert: FT 3-4mo, PT 8mo; PG Dip: FT [...] a GIS Work Experience module to full-time students. This entails working within an organisation for 2.5 days per week over a six-week period. Placements (which are unpaid) may be in the public sector, private companies, charities or education. Students who take this module find it extremely helpful for both their professional and personal development and refer particularly to benefits such as broadening their technical skills, gaining experience of team-working and of independent problem-solving, improved confidence and of learning about the geospatial industry and employment through exposure to real-world applications of GIS.
Part-time students who are in GI-related employment may opt to undertake the GIS Workplace Project.
GIS and geospatial technologies underpin a rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar industry, and are becoming increasingly mainstream within both the public and private sectors, resulting in a need for graduates who have a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills.
Graduates of this course have secured employment in a variety of GIS-related roles worldwide, in GIS positions including technicians, analysts, scientists, surveyors, data specialists, mapping officers, consultants, project managers, development, sales and marketing, customer support, GIS training, lecturing and research (including funded PhD projects). The breadth of potential uses of GIS ensures a great diversity of job opportunities; for example, our graduates have found employment with mapping agencies, GIS and SatNav companies, environmental consultancies, ecological and marine resource management and environmental agencies, renewable energy companies, forestry, fisheries, town planning departments, heritage agencies, health and emergency services, housing authorities, local government, aid agencies, countryside recreation, rural development, retail analysis, utilities and infrastructure, Further and Higher Education, mining and mineral exploitation and the oil industry, among others. Knowledge and understanding of geo-spatial data is also increasingly required in a variety of jobs outside of the GI profession, making a GIS qualification a valuable asset enhancing employability in a range of fields.
Visit the Geographic Information Systems - PGCert/PgDip/MSc page on the Ulster University website for more details! | <urn:uuid:edd02546-3aea-494f-bdc0-6a07b43cb410> | 494 | 23 |
In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University collaborate with Ze-liang Chen's group at academy of Military Medical Sciences report that an Ebola virus-encoded microRNA-like fragment serves as a biomarker for early diagnosis. It is published in Cell Research.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe infectious disease caused by Ebola virus species. EBOV caused an epidemic in West Africa in 2013-2015, and have resulted in at least 24,000 suspected cases and 10,000 confirmed deaths. Early diagnosis of EVD is not only essential for implementation of effective interventions but also critical for prevention of the spread of infection. However, it is particularly difficult to diagnose EVD at an early stage. Ebola causes symptoms seen in many other infections, including malaria, typhoid, and influenza, and some patients even developed illness without specific signs and symptoms. Current methods to diagnose suspected Ebola virus infection include reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G ELISA.
In previous studies, the same group along with others had demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) produced by eukaryotic cells and viruses are present in human blood in highly stable, cell-free forms and these so called circulating miRNAs can serve as non-invasive biomarkers for the early diagnosis of various diseases, including viral diseases. Since there are insufficient feasible methods established to diagnose EVD at early stage, Zhang's trying to make breakthroughs by speculating EVDV-specific small non-coding RNAs that could be detected in human blood.
A gratifying finding was reported that the group extrapolated a putative sequence of miRNA-like fragment encoded by EVDV using the principle of miRNA production in eukaryotes. In cellular environment, the existing and maturation of the putative miRNA-like fragment in the presence of a cloned pre-miR sequence were then verified. With the collaboration of Academy of Military Medical Sciences, they further identified the Ebola virus-encoded mi | <urn:uuid:2fe624c1-d528-4de9-a17e-00c2181da081> | 512 | 0 |
In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University collabor [...] RNA-like fragment in serum of EVD patients by qRT-PCR, Northern blotting and TA-cloning/sequencing. Strikingly, subsequent results showed that this miRNA-like fragment existed in acute phase but disappeared in recovery phase of EVD survivors. With great clinical significance, this miRNA-like fragment was detectable in EVD patients before development of viremia with detectable Ebola genomic RNA, suggesting that it is an earlier biomarker than genomic RNA and could advance diagnosable window for EVD.
Early diagnosis is critical for Ebola epidemic control:
1) Early diagnosis increases the chance of survival of EVD patients. It is estimated that about 60% of Ebola infections remain undiagnosed in the community; while 60-90% of untreated patients with Ebola die, supportive medical care could reduce this rate to below 30%. Even among the patients who managed to arrive at the hospital for treatment, most died within 2 days after admission, as it was too late for those patients to receive proper treatment for such a severe disease.
2) Early diagnosis helps curtail the spread and intentional release of EBOV. Each Ebola patient is estimated to transmit the virus to around 1.8 additional people without effective isolation, leading to the exponential growth of infections. Early diagnosis and isolation can reduce the transmission to well under one additional person per infected case, thereby minimizing the possibility of virus transmission to others. In developed countries, the well-established medical system can rapidly identify and isolate potential patients; however, in West Africa effective management was not taken in time, resulting in the present massive Ebola outbreak. Thus, in the region with fragile and underfunded health systems, early diagnosis is particularly important for containing the epidemic. Accordingly, the currently identified miRNA-like fragment may function as an early biomarker of EVD to advance the diagnosable window and reduce the difficulties in the isolation and treatment of patients who develop suspicious symptoms. More importantly, because the miRNA-like fragment of EBOV is highly conserved, it may predict and prevent Ebola outbreaks in the future if Ebola arises again | <urn:uuid:2fe624c1-d528-4de9-a17e-00c2181da081> | 512 | 23 |
In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University collabor [...] .
The researchers of this project include Zeliang Chen1, 3, Hongwei Liang2, Xi Chen2, Yuehua Ke1, 3, Zhen Zhou2, Mingjuan Yang1, 3, Ke Zen2, Ruifu Yang1, 3, Chao Liu 1, 3, Chen-Yu Zhang2 of 1Institute of Disease Control and Prevention, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing 100071, China; 2State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sci- ences, Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for MicroRNA Biology and Biotechnology, NJU Advanced Institute for Life Sciences (NAILS), School of life sciences, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210046, China; 3China Mobile Laboratory Response Team for Ebola in Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone; 4State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing 100071, China
This work was supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program; 2014CB542300), the Chinese Science and Technology Major Proj- ect of China (2015ZX09102023-003), the Research Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Health (201302018), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81550001), the National Key Program for Infectious Diseases of China (013ZX10004-203
Chen et al.: " An Ebola virus-encoded microRNA-like fragment serves as a biomarker for early diagnosis of Ebola virus disease" Publishing on Cell Research, February 23, 2016.
Chen-Yu Zhang (Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for MicroRNA Biology and Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechn | <urn:uuid:2fe624c1-d528-4de9-a17e-00c2181da081> | 512 | 23 |
The speed and scale of digital disruption is placing businesses large and small under unprecedented pressure to transform the way they operate, to innovate, and to respond to and anticipate the new challenges and opportunities that massive technological change brings. Companies don’t necessarily have the internal resources to help them to do this or the time or budgets to hire external resource.
Crowdsourcing allows businesses to use the input of a much wider group of people than their own R&D or innovation experts such as all employees, customers, students, to help address some or all of the issues raised by digital disruption. Diverse individuals from outside the business can bring varied skills, backgrounds and perspectives to address a company’s needs in completely new and fresh ways. Companies can ask crowds to find solutions to specific problems or to figure out what kind of problems can be solved within certain contexts. Crowdsourcing innovation is also very closely connected with open innovation and co-creation. While it has many advantages, crowdsourcing also brings risks that need to be addressed.
I had the privilege of hosting Business Value Exchange’s Twitter Chat session: Crowdsourcing: a Risky Road to Innovation?, to discuss some of the issues around crowdsourcing innovation:
The session was structured around three main questions:
1. What are the applications of crowdsourcing? e.g. sourcing innovation/R&D
There are many different applications of crowdsourcing innovation such as hackathons to build prototypes within a defined context. A slightly different method is to use an open API approach which allows others to build new services and products on top of a company’s own service in order to extend the core offering. Meanwhile co-creation is one type of crowdsourcing where customers are part of the innovation process.
Crowds can be used for different kinds of problem solving whether it is a specific problem looking for a solution or whether companies are seeking new ideas on ways to add value to their customers for example. As a general point, crowdsourcing is useful for companies seeking help in executing ideas especiallly when the crowds concerned are groups of expert developers, data scientists or designers. After all, ideas on their own aren’t especially valuable.
2. What is the collateral of crowdsourcing? (Iterative prototyping of ideas, crowd feedback)
The experimental nature of crowdsourcing means that there is an element of surprise | <urn:uuid:0eb7b78c-0729-42b6-b805-f448641330b1> | 512 | 0 |
The ancestors of the Craynay surname are thought to have lived in the ancient Scottish kingdom of Dalriada. The name Craynay was given to someone who lived on the island of Jura in the Inner Hebrides
. The name is derived from Gaelic Mac Crain.
Early Origins of the Craynay family
The surname Craynay was first found in the islands of Jura and Islay
, where they held a family seat
from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest
and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.
Early History of the Craynay family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Craynay research.Another 221 words (16 lines of text) covering the years 180 , 1625, 1649, 1856 and 128. are included under the topic Early Craynay History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Craynay Spelling Variations
The translation of Gaelic names in the Middle Ages was not a task undertaken with great care. Records from that era show an enormous number of spelling variations
, even in names referring to the same person. Over the years Craynay has appeared as MacCraney, Craney, Crainey, MacCrain, McCranie, MacCranny, MacCranne, MacCranney, MacCrayne and many more.
Early Notables of the Craynay family (pre 1700)
More information is included under the topic Early Craynay Notables in all our PDF Extended History products
and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Craynay family to Ireland
Some of the Craynay family moved to Ireland
, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.Another 125 words (9 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Craynay family to the New World and Oceana
Significant portions of the populations of both the United States and Canada are still made up of the ancestors of Dalriad | <urn:uuid:df6c22ad-32a8-4e91-845b-856b06f37d98> | 512 | 0 |
Maggots may trump scalpels when it comes to treating large wounds that won't heal easily, according to French researchers.
Studies have suggested maggots might be a helpful alternative to debridement, potentially offering antibacterial and healing benefits in addition to keeping the wound clean – although not all researchers are convinced insects are the way to go.
In a phase III study in patients with venous ulcers on their legs, the French researchers randomly assigned patients to either maggot therapy or traditional debridement, with just over 50 patients in each group. Both groups of patients were hospitalized for two weeks and blindfolded during treatment sessions so they wouldn't know which treatment they received.
The sterile bugs, of the species Lucilia sericata, came in little bags that were placed over the wounds twice a week. Maggots secrete substances into the wounds that liquefy dead tissue and then they ingest the material to further degrade it in their guts, according to Dr Anne Dompmartin of Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen and colleagues.
Debridement is faster with maggots
There was no difference in pain or crawling sensations between the two groups, the researchers reported today in the Archives of Dermatology.
There was no significant difference between groups in the primary endpoint, percentage of slough in wounds at day 15. These percentages were 55.4% in the maggot group and 53.8% in the control group.
At day eight, however, the percentage was significantly lower in the maggot group: 54.5% vs 66.5% in the control group (P=0.04).
The researchers conclude that debridement is significantly faster with maggots than with scalpels. "Because there is no benefit in continuing the treatment after one week, another type of dressing should be used after two or three applications of maggots," they say.
Maggots approved for medical use
But Dr Nicky Cullum, a professor of nursing at the University of Manchester in the UK who has studied the use of maggots in wound care, told Reuters Health in an email that while the French patients experienced only mild pain, patients in her study had often complained of severe pain.
"In real clinical life patients know whether they are receiving maggot therapy or not, therefore the | <urn:uuid:861e5802-6a96-44b2-966f-a0ed236480b1> | 512 | 0 |
The key to understanding when to use was or were in a sentence is determining whether you need to use the subjunctive mood or not. A verb is in the subjunctive mood if it expresses an action or state that is not reality. For example, it might be hypothetical, wished for, or conditional.
“Was” and “Were” as Past and Subjunctive Verb Tenses
To better see what we are up against when deciding when to use was or were, let’s compare the past and subjunctive conjugations of to be side by side.
Our chart reveals something delightful. You can’t go wrong choosing were with the second person (you), the first person plural (we), the second person plural (you), or the third person plural (they). We only need to make a choice about when to use was or were with the first person singular (I) and the third person singular (he, she, or it). Isn’t that great news?
Is It “If I Was” or “If I Were”?
Use were if the state of being you are describing is in no way the current reality. This is true whenever a hypothetical situation is expressed, for example.
Would you invite me over if I were more polite at the dinner table?
The first sentence can be described as an unreal conditional clause. These hypotheticals are easy to spot because they are often introduced by an if and are related to another clause containing a would or could.
Another type of unreal conditional sentence that uses the same construction demanding the subjunctive were is the impossible or improbable type.
Here the speaker implies that the puzzle is unsolvable. Therefore, solving the puzzle is not a likely reality, and the subjunctive were is used instead of the past tense was.
That does not mean that every clause beginning with if I requires the use of if I was rather than if I were.
In this sentence, the speaker acknowledges that it is possible he or she may have incorrectly thought that Felicity loves puppies and has given her a puppy in error. The fact that it is possible the speaker is describing reality makes this an indicative sentence, not a subjunctive one. Therefore, we use was instead of were.
Use “Were,” Not “Was,” for Wishful Thinking
A | <urn:uuid:073e4a1e-ae69-4227-b7bc-9219af475e5c> | 512 | 0 |
Many older games required players to collect a certain number of different currencies to get an extra life or some other in-game perk. The concept of video game currencies has evolved dramatically over the decades and today, in-game currencies have begun to impact real-world values.
In-game currencies are often used by developers as a back-end way to make a profit (when not charging for the game), since it offers an option for players who don’t want to pay an initial out-of-pocket expense just to find out whether they like they game.
Virtual currencies are created to work strictly within a specified game economy. For example, Eve Online uses ISK (Interstellar Kredits) as their virtual currency. But ISK isn’t transferrable to another game, like World of Warcraft. Virtual currencies aren’t intended for real world use. For example, you wouldn’t be able to walk into your local groceries and buy a bag of groceries – although that would be pretty cool.
Oftentimes, virtual currencies are associated as being centralized. The reason is because these currencies are controlled by the game developers. These games often have some variation of a centralized banking system on which the game economies run.
Digital currencies can be used to purchase real-world tangible items, outside of the game realm. BitCoin is an example of a digital currency. Anyone can use BitCoin to make purchases in real life as well as the virtual world. Many would argue that BitCoin is a digital cryptocurrency — a digital token created from peer-to-peer networking groups. A cryptocurrency is considered decentralized, because there is no central governing body that controls it.
Many gamers were thrilled when BitCoin started to rise in popularity. More and more companies are now starting to incorporate BitCoin as a form of payment, including game companies like Zynga.
Nexon offered users a chance to buy in-game perks, advantages, skins, and similar stuff through the use of their in-game (virtual) currency, which players bought with actual money. Players could exchange real money for virtual currency by means of a phone call, SMS, credit card, or PayPal.
This unique in-game currency feature distinguished Nexon from many other game companies at the | <urn:uuid:e60ace1f-fb1a-4216-9a8c-aba3bdd3ccd2> | 512 | 0 |
Staff blog: aluminium skies
Quinag conservation officer Romany Garnett takes stock of her year as the evenings draw in
For days and weeks we have had rain. We have had drizzle and sheets of rain, hail that has turned wet and torrential downpours. The burns are gushing full and the white froth of waterfalls is tumbling down but the land is waterlogged. The hinds and calves become easily chilled with less body mass to keep them warm. The stags, being larger bulk feeders, are able to retain their condition and keep better insulated from the worse weather.
The tits and robins tend to stay tucked away sheltering from the rain. They ruffle their feathers out to form air pockets that provide insulation and some birds are able to grow extra feathers for the cold weather. Cold wet weather is a challenge for small birds and their energy levels rely on good food sources. Some birds have an oil gland specially designed for waterproofing that is spread while preening.
As more water tumbles down out of the hills I hope that the essential nutrients in the soil are not all leached out by the heavy rain. Extremes of weather are probably what is to be expected from the effects of climate change. This change has been put down to human activities since the industrial revolution with a 40 per cent increase in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. We have a choice and the unprecedented challenge for us all is to combat the rise of CO2 emissions before it is too late. The importance of planting trees and looking after our soils for carbon sequestration is more vital than ever in halting the global rise in temperature.
Helping trees to grow on at the CALL Little Assynt tree nursery feels like a good step towards combating climate change. Local volunteers arrive fortnightly to help Nick the nursery manager with general nursery tasks like weeding and grading trees. This is part of a Trust-led session aimed at helping vulnerable adults to get involved in conservation work. If it is raining then we find tasks to do in the shelter of the polytunnel. All the trees here are locally sourced and most will be planted out in the area.
As the evenings draw in we took the local wildlife watch group on an owl hunt. Once in the woods we made owl calls | <urn:uuid:6b25923f-1f4f-4377-914f-e592f53daebe> | 512 | 0 |
The Harput plain
Houshamadyan, under this heading, will reflect on the Armenian places in the plain. Under the Ottoman administrative system, this area accords to the Harput sub-district (kaza) which is part of the province (vilayet) of Mamuretül-aziz.
This area, during the Ottoman era, has had a dense population of Armenians located in villages and towns. Its main towns are Harput and Mezire (Mamuretül-aziz) and, around them, tens of villages and small towns inhabited by Armenians. If Armenian life in the villages is characterised by a rich agricultural tradition, the trades in the small and large towns have greatly developed, and by the end of the 19th century some of them have reached industrial standards.
The educational and cultural life in the Harput plain is just as rich. From the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, many Armenian mixed schools, from primary to the completion of secondary standard, have been opened in the towns of Harput and Mezire (Mamuretül-aziz). Country areas have also been endowed with a whole network of Armenian schools. Cultural life in this sense is also living an unprecedented upsurge that is gradually spreading its positive effects to other Armenian-inhabited towns and villages to be found in the same region. Naturally, the swift decrease in illiteracy and school education has opened doors for the development of the plain of Harput’s Armenians’ social life and economy.
The plain of Harput however has been, during the last decades of the Ottoman era, the theatre of the worst forms of anti-Armenian violence. The influence of the local aghas and begs is still very great in rural areas, and they dominate many villages’ means of production. The government’s slackness and the absence of the rule of law often leave the region’s Armenian and Kurdish peasantry in a defenseless position. In other words the situation was ripe for anti-Armenian violence to be fomented. All this has provided the opportunity for a flow of emigration, especially from the Armenian villages in the Harput plain, to the prosperous, large Ottoman towns and cities, or even as far as the United States of America.
So this and subjects | <urn:uuid:48f58619-6e5c-4483-a8a6-ed111f72be4b> | 512 | 0 |
Young girls who get extra calcium from food tend to gain more bone mass than those who get it from tablet supplements, a Finnish research team reports.
The team conducted the study to learn how to maximize the children's peak bone mass during the rapid-growth period of puberty in which 60 percent of the adult bone mass accumulates and thus prevent osteoporosis in adulthood.
The study, published in the November issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that children who already receive adequate amounts of calcium in their diets do not benefit from any form of extra calcium, the study found.
For two years, Dr. Sulin Cheng from the University of Jyvskyl in Finland and her colleagues followed a group of 195 healthy girls, ages 10 to 12, whose calcium intake was under the National Nutrition Council recommended levels (less than 900 mg a day.) They randomly assigned the children to receive 1000 mg calcium tablets, 1000 mg calcium plus 200 IU vitamin D tablets, low-fat cheese (1000 mg of calcium), or placebo tablets.
The researchers measured the effect of calcium supplements on bone mass and body composition. They analyzed the data using traditional statistics and a new model that takes into account the rate of body growth. They found that the cheese group showed more beneficial effects in their bones than any of the other groups.
However, when individual growth speed was taken into account, they found no beneficial effect with any of the interventions - just calcium, calcium combined with vitamin D, or cheese supplementation.
In the Finish study, most subjects were already receiving adequate levels of calcium in their diets. Only one percent of the girls in the total screened population (more than 1000 girls) had a dietary calcium intake below 400 mg/day. "In Nordic countries, people already get enough calcium," added Cheng.
The authors believe that their study brings up a very important question for the entire medical community: how to avoid the unnecessary calcium supplementation in normally growing children. "I hope these results will make doctors and authorities think about this issue," said Cheng. | <urn:uuid:f5833186-4b06-4bbf-9859-98090c0c8de7> | 498 | 0 |
A drug used to treat genital herpes can also slow progression of the AIDS virus among co-infected patients, doctors report on Monday.
Most people infected with HIV are also coincidentally infected with type 2 herpes simplex virus, or HSV2.
Previous lab research has shown that using an anti-HSV2 drug called aciclovir reduces the amount of AIDS virus in the blood.
What was unknown, though, was whether this also had an impact on the spread of HIV in the body.
The answer, according to a study published by The Lancet, is that aciclovir does have a braking effect that is modest but could become a useful option for doctors.
It could buy time before a patient has to be given powerful drugs to combat HIV.
Jairam Lingappa of the University of Washington led a trial in 14 sites in southern and eastern Africa, recruiting 3,381 heterosexual volunteers who were co-infected with HSV2 and HIV-1, the main strain of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
Half of the group were assigned to aciclovir, taking twice-daily doses of the drug, or to a dummy lookalike pill, and were followed for up to 24 months.
The key question was whether the volunteers' count of CD4 cells, the immune cells that are destroyed by HIV, fell below 200 per microlitre by the end of the trial.
On this score, aciclovir reduced the risk by 16 percent. Of the volunteers on aciclovir, 284 fell below the 200 CD4 count, whereas the number among the placebo group was 324.
Using another yardstick, the researchers also found that, among volunteers whose immune system was in better shape, aciclovir also reduced by 19 percent the risk of a CD4 count falling below 350 cells per microlitre.
The findings are important, says Lingappa, because they suggest another weapon could be added to the skimpy pharmaceutical armoury for treating HIV.
Recent evidence has shown that people with HIV have a better chance of survival if they are given antiretrovirals at an earlier stage of infection.
As a result, the World Health Organisation | <urn:uuid:57302f18-d3b6-4b40-846f-3a141f901456> | 512 | 0 |
The United States Constitution, consisting of a Preamble, seven Articles and twenty-seven Amendments was initially signed on September 17, 1787. A durable document, intended to adapt to changing times, it was most recently amended in 1992.
Legal.com examines several of the Clauses and Amendments of the Constitution in subsections under Supreme Court. By clicking these subsections, you can read more about individual Articles and Amendments, along with the full text of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions which provide modern day interpretations of the Constitution.
You can download a PDF of the complete text of the U.S. Constitution here.
The text of the ten original Amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, is as follows:
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process | <urn:uuid:703b9c17-fd16-40cc-8a41-e536c3e572e4> | 512 | 0 |
GENERAL view of the interior of the Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne, Germany. The author notes that Jews from Central Europe who abandoned their faith out of embarrassment illustrate a dynamic we still see today.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The tragedy of Rahel Levin Varnhagen von Ense (1771-1833) is that of a generation of German Jews who abandoned their Judaism and Jewish identity because they believed that their way of life was an obstacle to the superior European Enlightenment and that their Judaism only caused them pain and embarrassment.
This was especially the case in the literary and intellectual salon life created by an elite group of women who brought together Jews and Christians to discuss German culture and the issues of the day in what historian Jacob Katz described as the “semineutral society.”
Katz, analyzing Jewish life in the Enlightenment and Emancipation periods, paints a portrait of societies in which Jews were not granted equality with Christians in Europe but were beginning to be accepted socially and intellectually in salons such as Rahel’s. The earliest example of the “semineutral society” and a harbinger of salons was the acceptance by Christians in Berlin of the great 18th-century Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, dubbed the “German Socrates.”
But did the Enlightenment and Emancipation really start to level the playing field, allowing Jews and Judaism to take their rightful place alongside the faith of Catholics and Lutherans? They did not. In fact the opposite is true.
Historian Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg in his study on the origins of modern antisemitism argues that “some of the most advanced circles in Europe in the nineteenth century were quite impatient with Jews and even hated them.”
In The French Enlightenment and the Jews (1990) Hertzberg traces the Jew hatred that would culminate in the Holocaust to such Enlightenment superstars as Voltaire, who provided the bridge between the antisemitism of classic paganism and the modern age. Yes, Voltaire advocated tolerance of Jews in his battle against medieval ignorance and superstition, but this is the way he expressed it: “In short we find in [ | <urn:uuid:b95a924b-6ce8-4e19-a67b-2f9f9c817932> | 512 | 0 |
GENERAL view of the interior of the Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne [...] Jews] only an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and enriched. Still, we ought not burn them.”
As Jews, we often think how wonderful Enlightenment and Emancipation were to our people. Yet, if you want to understand why Rahel and almost all the Jewish women who hosted the salons converted to Christianity, you have to understand the dynamics between “enlightened” Christians and the Jews whom they “accepted.”
The salons were not neutral territory. They were not a refuge for Jews who wanted to discuss their faith seriously with Christians. They were centers of Jewish inferiority.
In salons in Berlin and Vienna that hosted Christian statesmen, philosophers, scientists, theologians and humanists, the encounter between Jew and Christian was not serious discussions of Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed or the groundbreaking Hebrew poetry of Judah Halevi. If Rahel Varnhagen is any gage of discussions in these salons, they focused on Kant, Goethe, Schiller and Lessing. I would include Mendelssohn as well.
Any serious attempt to discuss Judaism on its own terms – instead of the Enlightenment caricature of a Religion of Revelation that was superstitious and anti-social – had no place in these “meetings of the minds.” Take Rahel for example. Hannah Arendt, the influential and controversial 20th-century German-Jewish political thinker, in her meditation on the one hundredth anniversary of Rahel Varnhagen’s death, discusses in depth Rahel’s idolization of Goethe. Arendt writes, “Without Goethe [Rahel] would have seen her life only from the outside, its ghostly contours.”
Rahel was raised in a traditional home – she could not have embraced Ezekiel, Ibn Gabirol or Gracia Nasi to deprive her bitter life of its “ghostly contours”? We, the aristocrats of humanity, are debasing ourselves? The Jewish encounter with the | <urn:uuid:b95a924b-6ce8-4e19-a67b-2f9f9c817932> | 512 | 23 |
GENERAL view of the interior of the Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne [...] non-Jewish world in the modern epoch is one-sided and humiliating. Let Rahel worship Goethe. But did she not have any pride or dignity? Why did she not announce to her salon that she was the heir to a 4,000-year history rich in events, creativity and successes? The Jewish elite in Germanic lands simply integrated into their soul the caricature of Judaism that was the hallmark of the Enlightenment.
The situation with the women who created the salons did not end well. In 1819, after Rahel’s salon disbanded, she married a minor Prussian diplomat – he was 14 years younger than she – and converted to her husband’s religion, Protestantism. In a letter to husband Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, Rahel writes: “Dear August, my heart is refreshed in its innermost depths; I thought of Jesus and cried over his passion. I have felt, for the first time in my life that he is my brother. And Mary, how she must have suffered! She witnessed the pain of her beloved son, and did not succumb, but kept standing at the cross! I could not have been able to do that; I would not have been strong enough. May God forgive me. I confess how weak I am.”
Yes, Rahel, you are weak. Judaism is your affliction and to blame for your spiritual malaise. Its tribalism and superstition are the cause of all your woes. And you cry for Jesus on the cross instead of all your brothers and sisters who were burned to death for your newfound faith.
You are weak. Even Heinrich Heine, the great German lyric poet of the 19th century, born a Jew but a convert to Lutheranism, found the strength toward the end of his life to make a creative return to his people. You never returned.
Welcome to the “semineutral society.” Henrietta Herz, Dorothea Mendelssohn, Fanny von Arnstein – all converts to Christianity, all founders of the salons. Obviously, it was not just women who abandoned their tribal superstition for the compassion of Christ. | <urn:uuid:b95a924b-6ce8-4e19-a67b-2f9f9c817932> | 512 | 23 |
Prion diseases-incurable, ultimately fatal, transmissible neurodegenerative disorders of mammals-are believed to develop undetected in the brain over several years from infectious prion protein. In a new study, National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists report they can detect infectious prion protein in mouse brains within a week of inoculation. Equally surprising, the protein was generated outside blood vessels in a place in the brain where scientists believe drug treatment could be targeted to prevent disease. The study, from NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), appears in the Sept. 22 issue of mBio.
Scientists believe prion diseases potentially could be treated if therapy starts early in the disease cycle. However, identifying who needs treatment and pinpointing the optimal timeframe for treatment are open questions for researchers.
Human prion diseases include variant, familial and sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The most common form, sporadic CJD, affects an estimated one in one million people annually worldwide. Other prion diseases include scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle.
In their study, the NIAID scientists injected infectious scrapie prion protein into the brains of mice. After 30 minutes, they began observing whether the injected material generated new infectious protein at the injection site. By examining mouse brain tissue, the researchers measured and detected new infectious prion protein three days after infection on the outside walls of capillaries and other blood vessels at the injection site. Using Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC), a feasible testing method for people, the scientists detected newly generated prion protein after seven days. In prior studies, it took about six weeks to detect infectious prion protein. The new findings enhance scientific understanding of where infectious prion diseases might take hold in the brain and provide possible targets for treatment.
B Chesebro et al. Early generation of new PrPSc on blood vessels after brain microinjection of scrapie in mice. mBio. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01419-15 | <urn:uuid:cf35c031-b74c-4736-86c3-1949a856940b> | 512 | 0 |
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to the physicists Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for the detection of gravitational waves, predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 in his general theory of relativity. The discovery was announced on 11 February 2016 by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration1 of which the CNRS is the only French member. It is the result of both theoretical and experimental work by a host of scientists over several decades. The award is therefore an encouragement to the entire gravitational wave community, in which Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne were pioneers, as were the French researchers Alain Brillet and Thibault Damour, who recently received the CNRS Gold Medal2. The CNRS pays tribute to the recognition by the Nobel Prize jury of this major breakthrough.
Predicted by Einstein a century ago, gravitational waves long represented a ’holy grail’ for physicists. In 1974, Russel Hulse and Joseph Taylor discovered a binary system made up of a pulsar in orbit around a neutron star (PSR 1913+16), which earned them the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics. Studying this system provided the first indirect evidence of the existence of gravitational waves.
It was only several decades later, on 14 September 2015, that the first signal from a gravitational wave was detected by the two LIGO3 interferometers. This very first detection was announced on 11 February 2016 by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations, which have been working hand-in-hand since 2007. More than 70 researchers and engineers from CNRS laboratories were among the thousand or so authors of the publication. There have been three further detections since then, the latest of which, on 14 August 2017, was made by the LIGO and Virgo4 detectors. This first detection by a network of three instruments, which in particular significantly improved localization of the source in the sky, illustrates the astronomical potential of gravitational waves.
The LIGO and Virgo projects began separately in the 198 | <urn:uuid:27b2fdab-8384-497f-97f5-7064fc2acc78> | 512 | 0 |
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to the physicists [...] 0s. Virgo was initially set up thanks to the visionary ideas of France’s Alain Brillet and Italy’s Adalberto Giazotto. Construction of the Virgo interferometer, at Cascina, Italy, began in 1996. It was funded and carried out by the CNRS and INFN (the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics), which took on a long-term commitment to this major research facility. Over the years, contacts and exchanges between the LIGO and Virgo collaborations became increasingly close, until in 2007 they began to jointly exploit their data. It was also in 2007 that the Netherlands joined the Virgo collaboration in order to take part in building the Virgo detector, and then Advanced Virgo5, followed by three more countries—Poland, Hungary and, more recently, Spain—whose teams6 participate in the scientific exploitation of the LIGO-Virgo data.
The first detections of gravitational waves, celebrated by the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, were made possible by ambitious multiannual upgrading programs, from 2010 to 2015 for LIGO and from late 2011 to 2017 for Virgo.
In parallel with the development of the instruments, a long-term endeavor—to which France made a decisive contribution thanks in particular to Thibault Damour’s work—provided the theoretical models that made it possible to predict, analyze and interpret the signals observed, first from the PSR1913+16 binary system and eventually from the latest direct detections of gravitational waves.
1 Read the press release : View web site
2 Read the press release : View web site
3 LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) is a detector made up of two interferometers located in the US, at Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington State.
4 Virgo is an interferometer located at Cascina, near Pisa (Italy).
5 An upgraded version of the first-generation Virgo detector.
6 The organizations and research groups involved are Nikhef | <urn:uuid:27b2fdab-8384-497f-97f5-7064fc2acc78> | 512 | 23 |
In part two of our introduction to How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character we explored the cognitive hypothesis, which suggests that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills (e.g., reading, writing, recognizing patterns, calculating, etc.) the type of intelligence that gets tested on IQ or standardized tests, and that the best way to build these skills is to practice them as early and often as possible.
In part three, we’ll explore one of the major themes of the book, which is that “character,” and more specifically “performance character” is the more fundamental driver of success, and it too can be nurtured and developed. Tough believes society has gotten significantly off track, focusing too much on building a narrow set of cognitive skills and abilities, and taking a misguided approach to teaching children how to build all-important “character” skills.
As such, he finishes his introductory chapter by sharing two examples of the type of research that supports the notion that character, not cognitive skills, should be considered of primary importance as we educate children. First, he introduces a University of Chicago economist named James Heckman, who won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2000 for developing a new statistics methodology for understanding the economy.
Heckman, buoyed by his academic pedigree, pivoted in the mid 2000s from a pure focus on economics, toward understanding education and social issues. Most relevant for Tough’s book and research, is Heckman’s analysis of the GED test. It turns out that the GED program (General Education Development program), which administers a test high school dropouts can take to indicate they have the same academic skills of a high school graduate, has proven to be a useful tool for understanding the importance of character attributes. The GED was supposed to be a test that “leveled the academic playing field,” allowing children born into poverty and difficult circumstances to pass one single test that demonstrated they were ready for college.
Heckman has found that, in fact, in many ways a GED holder is exactly like a typical high school graduate. By comparing the two groups (GED holders and regular graduates of high school) Heckman found that the GED holder performs similarly on standardized tests like the ACT and SAT, and has a similar IQ. However | <urn:uuid:b94eaa4e-8aa1-4d05-bac9-58b402b9fa18> | 512 | 0 |
In part two of our introduction to How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, [...] , when it comes to graduating from college, the GED holder is absolutely nothing like the typical high school graduate. Whereas 46% of high school graduates are enrolled or graduated from college by age 22, only 3% of GED holders are still in or graduated from college at that age. What Heckman found is that the GED in fact separates “bright but non-persistent and undisciplined dropouts from other dropouts.” Because the average GED holder is not good at staying focused on a long-term goal, planning ahead, or adapting to their environment (the types of things one must do to successfully get through high school), they tend to be unable to succeed in college.
Tough notes that what Heckman’s research doesn’t address is whether and how character attributes such as persistence, grit, curiosity, etc. can really be taught. He then introduces a student, who is discussed later in the book, Kewauna Lerma, who was born into a very difficult and disruptive family situation. Through her freshman year of high school, she was on her way to dropping out. But, he describes how, during her sophomore year (after a series of discussions with teachers, grandparents, etc.), she completely turns her life around, and ultimately graduates from high school, and is accepted to college. He wraps up his introduction by reinforcing that this book is going to be all about understanding on a deep, personal level how character attributes enabled Kewauna Lerma to turn her life around, and on a macro societal level, understanding how a whole generation of children can be steered towards success and away from failure.
Initial Review and Analysis
This is a powerful book. The main theme, that academic success comes from character traits like grit and curiosity and not necessarily proficiency in math, reading, and writing, is counterintuitive and somewhat inspirational, regardless of whether it’s 100%, 75%, or 50% accurate. My personal view is that it’s much more true than false. Certainly, some people seem to be blessed with high IQs that help them succeed academically with a bit less effort than others, and you can also find examples of students that | <urn:uuid:b94eaa4e-8aa1-4d05-bac9-58b402b9fa18> | 512 | 23 |
+44 1803 865913
By: Donna Yarri
The ethical treatment of animals has become an issue of serious moral concern. Many people are challenging long-held assumptions about animals and raising questions about their status and their treatment. What is the relationship between humans and animals? Do animals have moral standing? Do we have direct or indirect duties to animals? Does human benefit always outweigh animal suffering? The use of animals for experimentation raises all of these questions in a particularly insistent way. Donna Yarri offers an overview of the current state of the discussion, and presents an argument for significantly restricted animal experimentation. She points to the important similarities between humans and animals, arguing that the actual differences are differences of degree rather than kind. For that reason, she says, we must rethink our use of animals in experimentation. Animal cognition and animal sentiency together are the basis for the argument that experimental animals do have rights, which Yarri here enumerates. Christian theology, she shows, supports the existence of animal rights and contains additional resources within which a more humane animal experimentation can be worked out. Animal experimentation is not completely ruled out, and Yarri provides a model for what benign experimentation would look like. She concludes with a concrete burden-benefit analysis that can serve as the foundation for informed decision-making.
"The time is ripe for a new book on the ethics of animal experiments, and this is it. Yarri's work is comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and pragmatic. She writes with admirable clarity, avoiding the pitfalls of polemics and prejudice. This book is deeply informed about recent developments in science, legal theory, and public policy. And it is eloquent about the contributions of theology and philosophy to our understanding of animals and their place in our world. Indeed, Yarri has succeeded in writing a text that functions as both an excellent introduction to the field of animal welfare and an indispensable aid to the promotion of more humane practices in colleges and corporations. She points no fingers, but she does point the way forward to a better understanding of the scope of our moral obligations." -- Stephen H. Webb, author of On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion forAnimals
"The Ethics of Animal Experimentation is must-read for everyone interested | <urn:uuid:476a13a7-1ea8-4c7e-8486-a164292689d6> | 512 | 0 |
Subsets and Splits