In truth, there is no universally-accepted definition of gifted. For some, being gifted could mean having an extraordinary ability in, say, music, art or athletics. Others might argue that those strong in leadership skills are gifted. Typically though, experts use IQ scores to measure giftedness. High intelligence specialist Deborah Ruf, PhD, author of 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options, believes giftedness is on a continuum, with a range consisting of five levels. However, not all giftedness is created equal, and it is very lonely at the top. The higher the IQ score, the smaller the pool of individuals that share it. No wonder many gifted kids feel isolated and different – in many ways they are!
IQ Tests & Giftedness
IQ tests, as they are known, are tests that measure an individual’s intellectual ability or potential. They do not measure what someone has learned already. IQ tests measure innate ability.
Group IQ tests are sometimes given to an entire class to screen for gifted programs, but individual IQ tests, given one-on-one by a trained examiner, provide more reliable results and a great deal more information. Typically, parents who want their child tested must go outside of the school/school district and pay for an assessment. While there are IQ tests for children as young as 2 years of age, most professionals believe waiting until a child is 5 or 6 offers results that are likely to stay stable over time.
Giftedness in our population
What percentage of our population is gifted? This is a subject of much debate. Many experts would tell you that only 3-5% of the population is gifted. However, Dr. Ruf’s years of evaluating children have led her to a different conclusion. In her experience, there are a significantly higher number of highly gifted children than previously thought. Either way, it is clear that a child that is on any level of the gifted spectrum is unique and will stand out from his or her peers in the classroom or a social situation.
* For additional information and assistance, I encourage you to visit Dr. Ruf’s website and read her book, 5 Levels of Gifted. Additionally, you may contact me for a consultation about school placement options.
© Eleanor Munson, PhD. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Eleanor Munson, PhD is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eleanor Munson, PhD with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.


Inequality within advanced countries has returned to levels typical of a century ago. At the global level it remains extremely high despite the rapid growth of major developing countries such as China, India and Brazil. This makes inequality a major economic issue and a major social problem and political challenge as recognised by two recent OECD Reports.
However, until now, economic inequality has been the object of limited research efforts and attracts modest attention in the political arena; despite important advances in the knowledge of its dimensions, a convincing understanding of the mechanisms at its roots is still lacking.
This book provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of the economics of inequality. The authors present the evidence, an investigation of the main mechanisms leading to increasing disparities and arguments for appropriate policy actions.


In the 1850's farmers relied on manual labour, animal power and limited simple tools. Many hours of labour was needed to plant, maintain and harvest any crops. Some methods that were used are walking plows, harrows and hand planting.
Before the 1950's the use of machinery in agriculture was very rare. In 1954 for the first time the amount of tractors was higher than the number of horses and mules on farms. With the use of tractors farmers were now able to spread commercial fertilizer on the crops.


First-Aid Treatment for Eye Injuries
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Accidents can happen anytime, especially involving kids. They can get into all sorts of things, believing they are invincible. More often than breaking their bones, kids suffer eye injuries that can leave them seriously hurt.
The impact of eye injuries on kids, or anyone for that matter, is tremendous. The sense of sight is very important during childhood development, when children start to recognize and relate to the world around them. An eye injury can deal a great blow on the rest of your childs life.
Similar to suffering injuries in other areas of the body, there are first-aid treatments that can be administered to those who suffer an eye injury. But remember, these only bridge the gap until professional help is found. Applying first aid reduces the risk of further damage. However, caution is advised. The one who administers the treatment should at least have experience applying first aid or have the confidence to follow first-aid instructions.
Causes of Eye Injuries and Treatments
Children are very curious. Many are fearless when it comes to exploring their environment on their own. They try to taste and feel all that comes their way. This is one reason why anything that should not be ingested, should be placed on a shelf, out of reach.
Cleaning solutions such as detergent liquids and floor polish should be out of children’s reach. These expose children and their eyes to chemicals that are very harsh and life threatening when consumed. When your kids eye(s) are exposed to chemicals, do the following:
- Avoid rubbing the eyes.
- Immediately wash out the eye with lots of water. Use whatever is closest from a sink, shower or other source. Make sure this water is not exposed to dirty elements, which could worsen the injury.
- Call for medical help while you are doing this or after 15 to 20 minutes of continuous flushing.
- Don’t put a bandage over the eye. Gently cover it with a soft cloth, but don’t apply too much pressure.
Eye Injury From Physical Activity
Kids often play rough and hurt themselves in the process. They end up with bruises and black eyes, which can throb. This could feel like the eye is popping out of the socket and leave your child hurting for days. When this happens, you should:
- Apply a cold compress, but don’t put pressure on the eye.
- Have your child take over-the-counter pain-relief medications. But make sure your child does not have allergic reactions and a history of taking these medications.
- Ask your child if his or her eye hurts. If pain is present, this requires immediate medical attention, especially when there is visible bruising, bleeding or a change in vision.
Foreign Particle in Eye
Playing in the sandbox can be fun, but it can also be a cause for concern when tiny particles blow in the wind and into your kid’s eyes. When this occurs, remember to:
- Avoid rubbing the affected eye. Doing so will only embed the particles deeper and may cause a serious eye infection.
- Pull your kid’s upper lid down, and ask him or her to blink repeatedly.
- Rinse with eyewash, if particle is still present.
- If rinsing doesn’t help, ask your child to close his or her eye, bandage it lightly and see a doctor.
Make sure to consult an eye doctor if your child sustains an eye injury. Anything that harms the eye can be life altering, and you should not take chances. Call the experts at Goodrich Optical 517-393-2660.


There are three main markets for pharmaceuticals, the US, Europe and Japan. Each has its own rules on approvals, but they follow roughly the same principals and have similar requirements.
The most important part of the approvals process is producing data from clinical trials that shows that a drug is safe and effective. This is expensive, so the less profitable generic drugs are approved in the basis of more limited tests that shows them to be clinically equivalent to the already approved drug they are reproducing.
Regulators also give pharmaceuticals companies incentives through marketing exclusivity, a promise to not approve competitors. This is sometimes given to treatments for rare diseases that are designated orphan drugs. A short period of exclusivity is also sometimes given to induce a manufacturer to take the risk of litigation that comes from producing the first generic version of a particular drug.
Apart from the simple question of approval, regulators also approve a drug for specific “labelling”: how a drug may be marketed. Regulators do not simply approve a drug, they approve it to be marketed for specific conditions, and even for specific groups of patients. Although doctors are allowed to prescribe a drug “off-label”, the pharmas are not allowed to promote off-label use, so it is usually too rare to have much impact on sales. Labelling may also include safety warnings. In short, labelling matters.
The progress of a drug through the three stage clinical trial process provides indicators of:
- how likely it is to be approved,
- whether any adverse restrictions on labelling are likely,
- how effective it is (which has an impact on its likely market share.


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its final calculation of 2016 crash fatalities, finding 37,461 traffic deaths, compared with 35,485 in 2015. The only good news is that the 5.6 percent increase was less than 8.4 percent increase from 2014 to 2015.
This is the highest number of traffic fatalities since 2007. After that year, there was a dramatic decline in fatalities to a low of 32,367 in 2011. Though fatalities had remained roughly constant at about 42,000 per year from 1995 to 2007, they suddenly declined by 10 percent in 2008 and another 10 percent in 2009. Fatality rates — deaths per billion vehicle miles driven — had been declining for more than a century, but traffic experts could not explain why there was a large decline in total fatalities in that two-year period. Continue reading


Joint Replacement Surgery – What You Need to Know
If your doctor recommends joint replacement surgery, it helps to know what to expect. Joint replacement surgery involves replacing a damaged joint with a new one called a prosthesis. These new joints usually are made of a metal, plastic or ceramic device. Hips and knees are the joints replaced most often, but shoulders, ankles and elbows can be replaced as well.
When to Consider Joint Replacement Surgery
Joint replacement is usually considered after exercise, walking aids, physical therapy or medications cannot relieve pain and improve mobility. Surgery for hip replacement patients, for example, can help lessen problems walking or make it easier to bend. Joint damage is caused by:
- Other diseases
- Joint wear caused by avascular necrosis (loss of bone caused by low blood supply)
Evaluation and Surgical Options
Before surgery, the surgeon evaluates the patient’s range of motion and joint strength, takes a medical history and takes x-rays to determine the extent of your damage. The doctor may put a small, lighted tube called an arthroscope into the joint to check for damage. In some cases, only the damaged parts would be replaced, not the entire joint. During a hip replacement surgery:
- Diseased or damaged bone and tissue is removed
- A metal stem and attached ball is inserted into the bone
- A cup is inserted into the socket of the hip joint
New joints can be cemented into place to hold the new joint to the bone. Another way is by the prosthesis being placed without cement so bone can grow and attach to it. A prosthesis is designed to duplicate the mechanical properties of the joint being replaced. A prosthetic knee, for example, will be flexible enough to bend without breaking, and strong enough to bear weight.
Most hip and knee replacement patients are discharged from the hospital one to three days after surgery. Patients are encouraged to perform specific exercises recommended by their doctors to help the recovery process. Pain after surgery is normal as it comes from lack of activity and healing tissues.
A majority of patients who undergo joint replacement surgery find it easier to perform daily activities and experience less pain throughout their lives. However, if problems do arise, most can be treated.
Possible complications from joint replacement surgery include infections, blood clots, loosening, dislocation or wear of the new joint, or nerve injury.
Hip replacement patients also may experience a change in leg length or joint stiffening. Following hip replacement surgery, most patients eventually will be able to swim, play golf or bike ride comfortably, but high-impact sports such as skiing and running are not recommended.
Joint replacement surgery is becoming more common in the United States, with more than 1 million Americans having a hip or knee replaced annually. Talk to your doctor for more information about joint replacement options.


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One writer makes a rather grand claim about Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem when he says that it
"was a response to Leibniz’s 250-year-old dream of finding a system of logic powerful enough to calculate questions of law, politics, and ethics". (332)
Perhaps Leibniz’s dream had nothing to do with applying logic to the content of law, politics and ethics; but only to the form of the arguments in which these things were expressed. That is, logic when applied to ethics couldn't show us what is good. It could detect good and bad arguments as to what constitutes the good.
Similarly logic could show faulty reasoning in political and legal debate; regardless of the actual content of these debates.
So, in that sense, it is indeed true that logic can be applied to law, politics and ethics – indeed to anything! Just as the premises of a deductive argument or inference needn't be true in order to be valid; so the content of political, legal and ethical statements doesn't matter; though what follows from them, logically, does matter logicically.
Logic can "provide the tools to resolve ethical questions by mere calculation" (332) if it dealt only with form and not with metaphysical, epistemological and semantic content.
In any case, was Gödel’s theorem really a response to Leibniz’s dream? Perhaps it was just Gödel’s way of showing us that, well, an axiomatic system (or mathematics generally) can't be both fully consistent and complete – that’s it (without philosophical knobs on).
Much has been made of Gödel’s theorem by non-mathematicians and even by many non-philosophers. The writer expresses much of this here. He writes that we "might think that Gödel’s proof implies that the rational mind is limited in its ability to understand the universe" (332). How a result in meta-mathematics could do that (even in principle), I’m not sure. In any case, the mind, again in principle, must surely be limited in some way or ways. Perhaps that means that it could never understand everything there is to know about an infinite universe. Indeed this is bound to be the case. Only an omniscient mind could know everything there is to know about the universe.
The writer agrees with me. He says that "though the mind may have its limitations, Gödel’s result doesn’t prove that these limitations exist" (332). What is limited isn't the mind as such; but that "axiomatic systems are limited in how well they can be used to model other types of phenomena" (332). This has nothing to do with the mind of man taken generically! It's to do with axiomatic systems and the modelling of other types of phenomena – specifically arithmetic and mathematics!
Not only that: the "mind may possess far greater capacities than an axiomatic system or a Turing machine" (332). In fact I would say that of course the mind does actually possess far greater capacities than an axiomatic system or a Turing machine. Evidently! For a start, the mind can create great poems or pieces of music. It has memory, experience, imagination, the ability to dream, create, invent, and manipulate the environment and so on. Some of these things axiomatic systems and Turing machines can do; though many of them they can’t do. And even the ones that can do some of them, or, taken separately, all of them, no single axiomatic system or Turning machine can do all the things a human mind can do – not even a deranged or damaged human mind!
Another common supposed result of Gödel’s Theorem is to assume that his proof implies a limit on artificial intelligence. Perhaps this is a more feasible idea because it must be about the mathematical limitations of artificial intelligence – and that would be relevant to Gödel’s proof. That is, would an indefinite advance in AI be halted by the result of Gödel’s proof which showed that if mathematics can't be both complete and fully consistent, then a project that relies on mathematics (that is, AI) will never be both complete and fully consistent? Thus there will be a limit to what AI can do.


Here is a tale of two lumberjacks…
It was the final of the annual lumberjack competition. After days of chopping, only two competitors remained; an old lumberjack and a young lumberjack, 20 years his junior, who had the strength and speed to beat him in a head to head contest.
They were sent into the woods to see who could cut down the most trees in eight hours. The young lumberjack threw himself into the challenge, working tirelessly all day without stopping, while the older lumberjack took a 15-minute break every hour. With all that extra time the younger lumberjack was confident he’d win.
At the end of the work day, the felled trees were counted. The older, more experienced, lumberjack had cut down nearly one third more trees than the younger man. This made no sense to the young lumberjack. How could the old man have cut down more trees in 25 per cent less time?
He approached the older man to congratulate him and asked, “How did you beat me? I didn’t stop working all day, but you stopped every hour. How did you work less time and cut down more trees?”
The older lumberjack said, “I stopped for 15 minutes every hour to sharpen my axe so that my work would be more productive”.
The lumberjack story is a great metaphor for life. On the one hand, it can be viewed as simply making sure you work with a sharp axe because you’ll struggle to be productive if it’s blunt.
In optometric terms, that can mean investing in the latest equipment, which helps you get the job done more precisely and in half the time it would take using outdated equipment. It can also mean that to produce better patient outcomes, you need to take more hours away from your business for professional development.
For me, the main message I take from this story is that rest and planning are just as important as hard work. We need to work smart, as well as work hard.
In the 1930s, Allan F. Mogensen, the ‘father of work simplification’, coined the phrase, “Work Smarter, Not Harder”. This maxim forever changed the way people thought about work.
Over the past century that phrase has become a well-worn business maxim but are “working hard” and “working smart” mutually exclusive?
If we work smarter and more efficiently does it necessarily mean we’re working ‘less’ hard? Work takes perseverance and time to produce the desired results. Sometimes, work is a hard graft.
For me, the two statements are mutually inclusive: we need to work smart and work hard. Of course, we should work smarter by taking time out to rest, plan, educate ourselves and invest in the latest technologies, but to get the job done, we should also work harder.
Another way to look at it, is that ‘smart work’, without ‘hard work’, just isn’t ‘smart work’. Like the lumberjack’s axe, we need to stay sharp and look for ways to improve ourselves.
When you take time away from your business to sharpen your axe, the hard work will pay off.


Fast Stress Detection via ECG
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Nowadays stress has become a regular part of life. Stress is difficult to measure because there has been no definition of stress that everyone accepts. Furthermore, if we do not get a handle on our stress and it becomes long term, it can seriously interfere with our health. Therefore, finding the method for stress detection could be beneficial for taking control of stress. Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the measurement of the electrical activity of the heart and represents an established standard in determining the health condition of the heart. The PQRST1 complex of ECG conveys information about each cardiac-cycle, where the R-peak is placed in the middle of the PQRST complex and represents the maximum value of the PQRST. Since the PQRST depicts the entire cardio-cycle, the R–peak determines half of the cardio-cycle. The distance between two adjacent R-peaks is defined as a heart rate (HR). The variation of the HR in the specific time frame, defined as heart rate variability (HRV), can reflect the state of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS has two main divisions, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS occurs in response to stress while the PNS results from the function of internal organs. The activity of ANS can cause an acceleration (SNS) or deceleration (PNS) of the HR. The SNS activity is associated with the low-frequency range while, the PNS activity is associated with the high frequency component of the HRV. Therefore, the power ratio of the low and high-frequency components of the spectrum of HRV can potentially show whether the subject is exposed to stress or not  . In this research, we introduced three new indices, with one of them proposed as a proxy to provide equivalent results in the detection of stress or no-stress states while avoiding complex measurement devices as well as complex calculations. The goal was to find a more time efficient method for fast stress detection which could potentially be used in the applications that run on devices such as a wearable smartwatch in tandem with a smartphone or tablet. The experiment was established to measure the literature proposed index for stress measurement  as well as our introduced indices. In the experiment, we induced stress to the participants by using mental arithmetic as a stressor . Theexperiment contained two kinds of trials. In the first one, the participant was exposed to different amounts of cognitive load induced by doing mental-arithmetic while, in the second one, the participant was placed in a relaxed environment. Each participant in the experiment gave feedback in which period of the experiment he/she felt stress. During the entire experiment, we recorded theparticipant‘s ECG. The ECG was used to calculate HRV which consequently was used for the calculation of the values of the index as proposed from the literature for calculating the level of the stress. The same data was used for the calculation of our introduced indices. The values of our proposed index was compared with the index and the participant‘s feedback. Finally, the data analyses showed that our proposed index is suitable to determine whether a participant is exposed to stress.
Cite this version of the work
Aleksandar Malinovic (2019). Fast Stress Detection via ECG. UWSpace. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14698


The report is compiled by experts from 15 agencies and is the first to monitor progress towards the three objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, launched in 2011 by the United Nations. The objectives are universal access, doubled renewables and doubled energy efficiencies programs.
The report also said that 2.8 billion people use wood or other biomass to cook and heat their homes, and to bring electricity to the more than one billion people using conventional energy sources would increase global carbon dioxide emissions by less than one percent. Results show that 20 countries in Asia and Africa account for two-thirds of those without access to electricity, and 75 percent of those use solid fuels-wood, charcoal, animal and crop waste and coal to cook or heat their homes. The improvement rate of energy efficiency, described by a compound annual growth rate of energy intensity, was -1.3 percent between 1990 and 2010.
The report says countries, international organizations and private investors must increase investments by at least $600 billion a year until 2030, including $45 billion for electricity expansion, $4.4 billion on modern cooking, $394 billion in energy efficiency and $174 billion on renewable energy.
To read the full report, click here.


Stopping Microbes Not Missiles: U.S. Plans For Next Global Threat
Spot the next plague before it arrives. Predict the next swine flu outbreak before it makes headlines. Even detect a biological weapon before it's launched.
These are the goals of an ambitious initiative, launched Thursday, to build a worldwide surveillance system for infectious diseases.
Spearheaded by the U.S. government, the Global Health Security Agenda brings together 26 countries, the World Health Organization and several other international group. It aims to stop epidemics and bioterror agents before they spread.
Why is such an early warning system needed?
Because the U.S. and the world are at greater risk than ever before from biological organisms, says Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention.
"Viruses are just a plane ride away," he says. Bird flu could spread out of Asia. Ebola could emerge out of central Africa. Or drug-resistant Staphylococcus can sweep through hospital wards. "In today's globalized world, an outbreak anywhere is a threat everywhere," Frieden says.
The Global Health Security Agenda is an attempt to make the world better prepared to confront those threats, he says. "We want to make sure we do everything we can to prevent emerging organisms from becoming outbreaks and outbreaks from becoming epidemics."
And the Obama administration seems to agree. It has placed several high-ranking officials on the project, not just from the medical side of the government, but also from the U.S. military and the Department of Homeland Security.
Three top officials wrote an opinion piece Thursday on CNN's website to make the case that biosecurity is a key element of national security.
In the piece, Secretary of State John Kerry; Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; and Obama's assistant on homeland security and counterterrorism, Lisa Monaco, argued that infectious diseases have the potential to cause massive economic damage and loss of life, similar to nuclear, chemical or cybersecurity attacks.
They offered two examples to illustrate their point: the economic loss from the H1N1 swine flu in Mexico in 2009 and lives lost from the SARS epidemic in Asia in 2002 and 2003.
The Obama administration has been concerned that many countries don't have the capacity to monitor potential biohazards and emerging diseases, said Laura Holgate, the senior director for weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and threat reduction at the National Security Council.
"In 2012 we were really struck by the reality that 80 percent of the countries didn't meet the WHO deadline to be prepared for disease threats," Holgate said Thursday at a media briefing. In a world where viruses and other biological agents don't respect national borders, she said, the U.S. can't do this alone.
The Global Health Security Agenda plans to build a structure for biosurveillance so that, hopefully, other countries will be able to quickly detect the next major epidemic. The program also will set standards for national laboratories and outline the diagnostic tools needed to spot and contain modern diseases.
The participating countries have committed to creating emergency disease centers that can respond within two hours to an outbreak or other crisis. They also have agreed to link data from this global biosurveillance network through the WHO.
It's unclear how much the Global Health Security Agenda will cost the U.S. Other countries, such as China, are spending their own money on the parts they're implementing themselves.
But the Obama administration did say it's committing an extra $45 million to the CDC's 2015 budget to help low-income countries participate in the network. The money will mainly go to improve surveillance systems, update diagnostic equipment and train staff.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Endless Steps 3D Crazy Optical Illusion
Because we live in a three dimensional world, we expect everything to be three dimensional. When we look at a two dimensional drawing, our mind tries to translate what we see into three dimensions.
This crazy optical illusion uses a perspective trick. Note that on two of the sides, there are three stairs. On the other two sides there are five. This was done to make the stairs line up and all look like they are at right angles in proper perspective.
Also, on the upper left side, the artist used the overlap technique. The stairs are drawn in a way that makes them look like they are on top of each other, which they cannot possible be in reality.
The problem of drawing three dimensional objects from two dimensional pictures allows for some pretty fun 3D Optical Illusions.
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CitationEnnett, Susan T. & Bauman, Karl E. (1996). Adolescent Social Networks: School, Demographic, and Longitudinal Considerations. Journal of Adolescent Research, 11(2), 194-215.
AbstractPeer relationships are considered to be a dominant feature of adolescence, but systematically formed social networks rarely have been studied. A social network analysis was used to describe adolescent friendship patterns and to compare them across schools and time. Ninth graders (n = 1030) atfive high schools identified their friends at Wave 1 and again one year later. The resulting sets offriendship links were subjected to social network analysis. The patterns of linkages identified adolescents as clique members, liaisons, and isolates. Clique membership was the modal social position pattern, but liaisons and isolates also were well represented. The proportions of adolescents representing each socialposition varied across schools. In all samples, cliques were homogeneous in gender, race, and mother's educational level, and cliques were largely stable over a one-year time period. The possibility that social network characteristics could explain a variety of adolescent differences is discussed
Reference TypeJournal Article
Journal TitleJournal of Adolescent Research
Author(s)Ennett, Susan T.
Bauman, Karl E.


On its face, in times of crisis, we love to say “United We Stand, Divided We Fall,” as a theme of unity. The words were used in a rock-ish love song in 1969 [Brotherhood of Man, and later by Glen Campbell & Anne Murray, Elton John and 100 others].
We then go on to praise “Father Abraham” Lincoln as the greatest President that ever lived because he freed the slaves while taking us all under his wing and protecting us. What if we said that’s not at all what Lincoln meant? What did he mean?
June 16, 1858: The rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say) goes back to the Illinois Republican party convention in Springfield, IL, June 1858. In the contentious race for Illinois Senator, any student of history can tell you, rose from the passion and eloquence of months of public debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas a “popular sovereignty” Democrat. On the 16th, Lincoln rose to accept the nomination of the six-year old infant Republican Party. Keep in mind the Republicans emerged as a radical evolution combining the Whig Party [what we’d call ‘liberal platforms’ today] and the radical Abolitionist movement.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, [TOR] 2005, among others, gives us great insight into Lincoln, his intellect, his universe, life, “rivals,” most of whom were like-minded, sharing his ambitions for America. Lincoln has too often been cast as the buffoon even as an ape, but he was likely one of the top two or three original political thinkers, operators and manipulators of our political system. Lincoln also had a complete command of the principles of mathematical logic which he turned into communication skills and political logic in masterful speeches.
Hmm ... he won the race for President in 1860 not by popular vote (29.8%*), but by effective use of the Electoral College process. His electoral victory was undeniable (180 of 303* – almost 60%) while winning less than 1/3 of the people’s. This would not be the only test of Lincoln’s political acumen. [*Handbook of American History, 1968]
[Fun fact – Lincoln won the 1864 election with 55% of popular vote (primarily in North) and by 212 over 21 electoral votes. Even more interesting 4,690,000 voted in 1860, including the South, but 4,010, 725 voted in 1864 with only a 680,000 popular vote increase and without the South participating. Oh, remember only men could vote, women, blacks and Native Americans could not vote.]
--- Excerpt - The House Divided Speech.
Lincoln: “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year, since the policy [Kansas-Nebraska Act] was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.
In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing, or all the other.”
JCC: He says “end to slavery agitation” not “end to slavery.” Importantly, “this government cannot endure,” ... “it will cease to be divided.” It is the agitation, the division by sections that causes discord & disunity which promotes inefficient progress, that is Lincoln’s focus, not slavery unto itself. Slavery is the distraction. What comes in between division and unity? Lincoln has the answer tucked away in his mind. “a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.”
JCC: For the better, the South will break away, the crisis will be reached and it will pass and the country will cease to be divided. A Union will come and save the kingdom. Lincoln would not allow the kingdom to be brought into desolation, but if he cast out the devils then the kingdom would come back anew.
JCC: It is often said that this was one of Lincoln’s greatest speeches or most famous. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free,” “I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become one thing, or all the other.” As Doris Kearns Goodwin states in TOR (p. 198), his statements were “... echoing the Gospels of Mark and Matthew ...”
Following Lincoln’s complete logic we must look at the King James Version of The Holy Bible, “By His Majesty’s Special Command,” (the Bible of his time) and read in full the texts of the books of Matthew 12:25 through 12:37 and Mark 3:23 through 3:27 as Lincoln the student who would have read, the words therein of Jesus’ statement to the Pharisees in total, then re-read and consumed every word into his mind devouring every syllable by syllable. Jesus’ logic, metaphors and parables would not have been lost on Lincoln regardless of the status of his faith or religion. Lincoln knew his audience at the convention and would have played to their ears and sensibilities.
[Lincoln has often been cast as everything from an agnostic to atheist to reverent student of religion, however that’s a debate for another time.]
Next: United We Stand: – Part 2.


Though the recent National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework may allow Australia to improve its response to climate change-related natural disasters, without introducing more pre-emptive measures, increased funding means very little, Paul Barnes, Anthony Bergin, and Robert Glasser write.
The $3.9 billion emergency response fund announced in the Morrison Government’s pre-election Budget will resonate with the tens of thousands of Australians who, over recent months, have suffered terribly from record-setting droughts, floods, and bushfires.
Under the new arrangements, the government would make available up to $150 million per year from the fund between 2019-20 to 2023-24 – as a top-up to existing support – following a significant and catastrophic natural disaster.
But providing support to communities after a disaster has struck is far less effective than decreasing their exposure and vulnerability to the natural hazards from the outset. The strong business case for investing in disaster risk reduction has been underlined for some time by groups as diverse as the Australian Productivity Commission and the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience and Safer Communities.
The US National Institute of Building Sciences, for example, found that every dollar invested in mitigation can save six dollars in future disaster costs.
Mitigation of disaster risk is particularly important for Australia because the country is highly exposed to hazards. For example, 20 per cent of its national GDP and 3.9 million of its population are in areas with high to extreme risk of tropical cyclones, and about 11 per cent of GDP and 2.2 million people are in places with high and extreme risk of bushfires.
The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience and Safer Communities noted in their 2017 report ‘Building resilience to natural disasters in our states and territories’ that, without increased mitigation efforts, the total economic cost of natural disasters in Australia will grow from roughly $18 billion today to over $39 billion by 2050. The effects of climate change will increasingly compound these costs.
The recent and very significant ‘public’ intervention of 23 retired Australian Emergency Service leaders has added an operational view on the matter. It has demonstrated how an increasing frequency of extreme and extended climate change-related emergencies are placing lives, properties, and livelihoods at greater risk, as well as overwhelming the capacity of our emergency services to control the events and render communities safe.
Australian governments need to urgently move beyond an approach focused on funding disaster recovery efforts alone. Governments at all levels should be supporting efforts to limit the exposure and vulnerability of Australian communities to natural hazards through a renewed focus on land-use planning, zoning, flood mapping, and flood control measures.
This message is not new. Independent commentary in Australia as far back as 2008 highlighted the need to widen efforts on disaster mitigation and rethink assumptions about capability and capacity to deal with catastrophic disasters.
We not only need to consistently ‘build back better’ after disasters strike, but must also ensure that recovery and restoration include an emphasis on resilient engineering design as part of infrastructure investments.
The historical tendency to repeatedly replace the same type of bridge or other infrastructure at a location where it has been regularly washed away makes little sense.
The private sector, particularly insurance and investment groups, tends to be more proactive than governments in thinking about how to mitigate the impact of disasters on their operations. Notable examples of industry effort include workgroups such as the Responsible Investment Association Australasia and the Investor Group on Climate Change.
These and other groups actively participate in the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme Finance Initiative on sustainable economic development and are active in developing an ‘Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap’ to ensure alignment of the finance sector with the delivery of resilient and sustainable economic plans, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
These activities by the finance and investment sectors represent a significant sea change nationally. Even the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has emphasised that financial exposures from climate change, including disaster risk, are material, foreseeable, and actionable.
Last month, Guy Debelle, the Deputy Governor of the generally conservative Reserve Bank of Australia, warned that climate change and resulting natural hazards increase the likelihood of non-linear impacts on the economy with potential consequences for financial stability.
Australia needs to adapt its policies to support a more comprehensive disaster management repertoire that incorporates, and ideally mainstreams, efforts to avoid or minimise disaster damage rather than the tendency to primarily provide emergency recovery funds.
Historically, Australia’s investments in mitigation have amounted to only three per cent of what it spends on the disaster response and recovery. Without a change in the right direction the emergency response funds announced in the Budget is just more icing on the same familiar cake.
But not all recent government efforts have been in a response-and-recovery mode. This past week has seen an almost silent launch of the long-awaited National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework from the National Resilience Taskforce (NRTF) within the Department of Home Affairs.
The Framework is designed to guide national, whole-of-society efforts to proactively reduce disaster risk in terms of the likelihood of disruptions and losses. This is centrally about mitigating exposure to hazards and reducing community and institutional vulnerabilities.
The NRTF Framework has three goals. It aims to reduce existing disaster risk, and to minimise creation of future potential for loss through decisions taken across all sectors. It also intends to equip decision-makers with the capability and information needed to reduce disaster risk and manage residual risk exposures.
Further, achievement of these goals requires a focus on four main points. To better understand disaster risk exposures, to support more accountable decisions, and to enhance investment in mitigation actions make up the first three. The fourth is concerned with promoting better governance, ownership, and responsibility for achieving a reduction in the potential for losses and enhanced resilience.
The NRTF Framework is expected to be endorsed by ministers in mid-2019, with an annual ministerial statement on the status of disaster risk reduction to the Australian Parliament expected to be made then too.
We should do more than just provide details for an annual statement to Parliament. Central to a new policy playbook is taking the NRTF Framework and actively engaging in its implementation as a joint effort between local, state, and federal governments and the private sector.
Australia should invest in actively preventing losses from natural disasters where possible. The NRTF Framework provides informed and widely endorsed guidance that is aligned to current international better practice. Without far greater ambition on this front, merely providing $3.9 billion as a top-up to support natural disaster recovery efforts essentially amounts to dispatching an ambulance to the bottom of the cliff.
This article is co-published with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.


Gastrointestinal disease (GID) is a range of disorders that affect the digestive system. The conditions can be standard or rare. Sometimes, the condition requires surgery to remove part or all of the stomach. Patients may consult various types of medical professionals for diagnosis and treatment. If a person has any unusual symptoms, they should immediately see a doctor.
Irritable bowel syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. It can be debilitating for some people, especially if it’s not treated promptly. Common symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, and changes in bowel habits. In addition, patients may experience diarrhea, constipation, or an alternation of both. Treatment for irritable bowel syndrome focuses on relieving the predominant symptoms.
Irritable bowel syndrome is a functional gastrointestinal disorder that overlaps with other gastrointestinal conditions, including constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and pelvic floor dyssynergia. While this overlap is often present during remission phases, there is no definitive evidence that they are related.
Surgery is one of the treatments for Crohn’s disease, which can improve the patient’s quality of life and control symptoms. The procedure involves the removal of part of the intestine, usually the colon or the large intestine. Some patients need more than one procedure. Surgery can reduce inflammation, but it is usually associated with an increased risk of recurrence.
Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory disorder affecting the intestine. This disease is an immune reaction to an infection. The inflammation in the intestine can cause the lining to form channels that can spread infection. These channels, called fistulas, can reach the surface of an organ and spread the infection to other parts of the body. A fistula can also lead to a severe condition called peritonitis.
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic gastrointestinal disease characterized by rectal bleeding and inflammation of the colon. The condition is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking the healthy tissues in the colon. The inflammation results in the deposition of blood and mucus in the stool. The symptoms may also include abdominal pain, weight loss, and nausea. Early symptoms include erythema and scattered hemorrhages. In severe cases, the patient may experience large mucosal ulcers. In addition, islands of normal inflammatory mucosa may project over the ulcerated mucosa. In rare cases, the ulceration may spread to other body parts and cause pain and inflammation.
The best way to treat ulcerative colitis is to work closely with your healthcare team. In addition, taking the prescribed medications is extremely important. Skipping medications can cause flare-ups and make the condition harder to manage. Therefore, you should always follow your healthcare provider’s advice and talk with them regularly.
The symptoms of hereditary hemochromatosis can be mild to severe and develop gradually over a lifetime, depending on the severity of the condition. It usually appears during adulthood, after menstruation and pregnancy, but some people may develop symptoms as early as 20. Symptoms can also vary from person to person depending on the organ affected and the severity of the disorder. Some individuals may show only mild symptoms, while others may develop a severe case that is hard to treat. Therefore, it is essential to be aware of your symptoms and consult with a medical team to determine if this disorder is affecting you.
Diagnosis of hereditary hemochromatosis can be done by performing a blood test to detect the presence of iron in the blood. A liver biopsy may also be required to determine the extent of damage to the organ. Genetic tests may also be recommended for relatives with hemochromatosis history.


From The Daniel Island News
Should you start talking to yourself?
By Steve Ferber
Nov 28, 2012 - 8:59:34 AM
It’s Tuesday evening, near 6 o’clock, and you’re dashing about, looking forlorn on aisle 5. You’re staring at the supermarket shelves, but can’t seem to find where the peanut butter lives. What might you do? Start talking to yourself, out loud (“peanut butter, peanut butter”).
Apparently, what works for the young ones (have you ever heard a toddler talk to themselves, while tying their shoes?), apparently works for adults as well. Researchers have found that talking to oneself, out loud, facilitates both cognition and visual processing.
Why does this method work? Perhaps it’s because our auditory system is activated when we hear the words “peanut butter.” Or perhaps it’s because our cognitive system is activated when we produce the thought . . . that creates the words “peanut butter.” No matter, say the researchers, the bottom line is clear: when we’re in search mode, saying the words of the missing object (our keys, our hair brush, the blue sweater that I just took off), or even silently mouthing the words, apparently triggers our system in a positive way.
In their study, psychologists Gary Lupyan (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Daniel Swingley (University of Pennsylvania), explain: "People often talk to themselves, yet very little is known about the functions of this self-directed speech . . . It has been commonly observed that children spend a considerable time talking to themselves . . .. One way to understand this seemingly odd behavior is by considering that language is more than simply a tool for communication, but rather than it alters ongoing cognitive (and even perceptual) processing in nontrivial ways."
In an article published on livescience.com, Lupyan was quoted as saying: “The general take-home point is that language is not just a system of communication . . . I'm arguing [that] it can augment perception, augment thinking.”
Lupyan and Swingley caution, however, that self-talk, at times, can actually slow the search process. Apparently, the key is how familiar the object is – in other words, if the object you’re searching for is familiar, self-talk will help; if the object is less well known, self-talk may impede the search.
Most beneficial forms of self-talk
Rin Mitchell, writing for the web site bigthink.com, expands on the notion that self-talk can improve brain function. Drawing on research, Mitchell explains that the most beneficial forms of self-talk “are with instructional and thought and action. Instructional self-talk is when you tell yourself each step you need to take in order to complete something while in the process, such as driving a car. Thought and action is the act of setting a goal for yourself and a strategy as to how to accomplish the goal before taking action.”
What does Mitchell recommend? “Start talking to yourself to increase the performance and function of your brain . . . .The key is to practice doing it until it becomes natural. You can use specific ‘cue words’ in your self-talk to help you in whatever goal or task you would like to complete. Eventually, you will learn how to self-talk in a way that benefits you the most in every situation.”
© Copyright The Daniel Island News


Developing a transparent, clean and sustainable supply chain strategy in an increasingly complex world is quite an endeavor. While globalization has dramatically increased competition, many companies have been looking to utilize the workforce in low-cost countries to remain competitive. However, the race for lower costs, added to externalization, can quickly damage a brand’s reputation when sourcing organizations lose visibility over their supply chains. Stories of companies from the textile industry have scarred other sectorisa. Many companies are now encouraged to evaluate their suppliers’ networks to avoid scandals, ensuring product quality and fairness.
For months, companies have to deal with a global pandemic, slowing or even interrupting supply chain operations and jeopardizing many businesses. Some borders are still closed, the workforce has been reduced and some products’ demand has exploded. Supply chain departments have to face their vulnerabilities and cope with enormous challenges. No company and no country is safe from shocks.
Because supply chains keep evolving, many questions have arisen. Are current sourcing strategies resilient enough to fight unpredicted events? What would be efficient and resilient solutions to ensure supply chain operations during such uncertain times? How can supply chain managers gain control over global suppliers in a pandemic situation?
External shocks and supply chain vulnerabilities
Supply chains have constantly been exposed to shocks: natural disasters, data breaches, financial crises, geopolitical disputes, etc. The magnitude of these shocks keeps rising and ends in disastrous economic consequences. In 2019 alone, 40 weather disasters caused damage to organizations exceeding $1 billion each. Companies have established resilient strategies to monitor their vulnerabilities. But, not all shocks are equal, and it is often the unpredicted events that have more impact.
A recent survey from McKinsey Global Institute states that shocks lasting a month or more occur every 3.7 years. The frequency of more minor shocks (1-4 weeks) is even lower (between 2-2.8 years). Supply chains are not exposed to the same shocks based on the industries and multiple variables. Because of their high digitization level, R&D and exposure to digital data flows, semiconductors are susceptible to cyberattacks and trade disputes but are less exposed to natural disasters. On the contrary, labor-intensive industries such as textile and furniture are primarily exposed to natural events (flooding, heat). Shocks may also emerge within the supply chain ecosystem, but these are more predictable (e.g. supplier bankruptcy, plant shutdown). In response, organizations tend to assess the risks and set up business recovery plans in case of disruptions. But, in most cases, these are unpredicted events that cause more damage.
Supply chain strategies are also affected by political and social factors. For instance, developing countries try to seduce industries with their low-cost labor market, while developed countries bet on their data security to host highly digital companies. Recent events such as the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have stressed the importance of self-sufficiency in pharmaceuticals and have accelerated some trends -- the growing role of digitization, the focus on proximity with customers, the ability to reply to sudden urges and the need for regionalization. The August 2020 McKinsey Global Institute’s survey estimates that 16-26% of global exports could relocate in the next five years. But, shifting production from one country to another has a cost that some companies are not ready to pay (e.g. industries with huge fixed investments).
Supply chains are highly exposed to shocks but seem to confirm the maxim saying that there is an opportunity in every crisis. Resilience should not be opposed to efficiency, and companies tend to prove that point.
Complexity, resilience and efficiency
Innovation is at the heart of every resilient and efficient supply chain strategy.
Implementing a digital twin (i.e. a digital copy of the supply chain activities), allowing companies to track their supply chain events, pays off. And, by “supply chain,” it is essential to understand the value chain from raw materials extraction in mines to the final product sold to customers in stores or online. The future stake is not only to monitor what and where Tier 1 suppliers buy, but also to understand what and where Tier 2 to Tier n suppliers buy their components. E-procurement software solutions helping companies create value through order automation, invoice processing and Rfx follow-up are not enough anymore. Supply chain managers must focus on even more strategic operational tasks, such as demand planning forecasts, analytics from finance and marketing and supplier innovation.
The last trend, though, was to acquire a full suite covering the end-to-end process. Benefits are numerous -- one single implementation, ease of change management, one solution provider meaning one single point of contact, low IT maintenance, discounts based on the number of modules purchased, etc. But, how do customers expect total efficiency on the value chain end-to-end process when not acquiring the best-in-class solution for their needs? Technology is growing as fast as market needs are. Still, companies keep spending a ton of money trying to fix data for their end-to-end solution to work efficiently when the problem might come from the solution itself. Developing a transparent and efficient supply chain strategy starts with acquiring the right tools, the ones designed for a sole purpose. That is why a modular approach is often preferred when companies want to get the best out of their information systems. Implementation and integration might be more complex, but outcomes are more significant.
To sum up, companies do not always value investing in innovative solutions to build resilient and efficient supply chains. Top management often pressures operations teams to look for short-term productivity -- +10% sales per year, -5% total costs, etc. If disruptive events tend to occur more frequently, only companies investing in supply chain innovation might survive in the long run. Such investments can also pay off on a short-term basis -- productivity boost, digital capabilities improvement, industry ecosystems strengthening.


A tumor is a lump or mass of tissue that forms when cells divide uncontrollably. A growing tumor may replace healthy tissue with abnormal tissue. It may weaken the bone, causing it to break (fracture).Most bone tumors are noncancerous (benign). Some are cancerous (malignant).Benign tumors are usually not life-threatening. Malignant tumors can spread cancer cells throughout the body (metastasize). This happens via the blood or lymphatic system.
<Image Credit : Zazzle>
To help diagnose Bone Cancer, the doctor asks about the patient’s personal and family medical history. The doctor also performs a physical examination and may order laboratory and other diagnostic tests. These tests may include:
Your doctor will need to take a complete medical history. This includes learning about any medications you take, details about any previous tumors or cancers that you or your family members may have had, and symptoms you are experiencing.
Your doctor will physically examine you. The focus is on the tumor mass, tenderness in bone, and any impact on joints and/or range of motion. In some cases, the doctor may want to examine other parts of your body to rule out cancers that can spread to bone.
- X-rays, which can show the location, size, and shape of a bone tumor. If x-rays suggest that an abnormal area may be cancer, the doctor is likely to recommend special imagingtests. Even if x-rays suggest that an abnormal area is benign, the doctor may want to do further tests, especially if the patient is experiencing unusual or persistent pain.
- A bone scan, which is a test in which a small amount of radioactive material isinjected into a blood vessel and travels through the bloodstream; it then collects in the bones and is detected by a scanner.
- A computed tomography (CT or CAT) scan, which is a series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body, taken from different angles, that are created by a computer linked to an x-ray machine.
- A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure, which uses a powerful magnet linked to a computer to create detailed pictures of areas inside the body without using x-rays.
- A positron emission tomography (PET) scan, in which a small amount of radioactive glucose (sugar) is injected into a vein, and a scanner is used to make detailed, computerized pictures of areas inside the body where the glucose is used. Because cancer cells often use more glucose than normal cells, the pictures can be used to find cancer cells in the body.
- An angiogram, which is an x-ray of blood vessels.
- Biopsy (removal of a tissue sample from the bone tumor) to determine whether cancer is present. The surgeon may perform a needle biopsy or an incisional biopsy. During aneedle biopsy, the surgeon makes a small hole in the bone and removes a sample of tissue from the tumor with a needle-like instrument. In an incisional biopsy, the surgeon cuts into the tumor and removes a sample of tissue. Biopsies are best done by an orthopedic oncologist (a doctor experienced in the treatment of bone cancer) (1). Apathologist (a doctor who identifies disease by studying cells and tissues under a microscope) examines the tissue to determine whether it is cancerous.
- Blood tests to determine the level of an enzyme called alkaline phosphatase. A large amount of this enzyme is present in the blood when the cells that form bone tissue are very active—when children are growing, when a broken bone is mending, or when a disease or tumor causes production of abnormal bone tissue. Because high levels of alkaline phosphatase are normal in growing children and adolescents, this test is not a completely reliable indicator of bone cancer.


Dual Lungs Comparison Kit
Large View | View Related Items | Safety Data Sheet
By Calvin R. Femling, PhD.
Now for the first time you can demonstrate both sets of lungs simultaneously for better lungs comparison with the new interconnected airway system. This system lets you compare the ventilation of both sets of lungs simultaneously, or shut off one of the upper valves to inflate only one set of lungs. Kit includes an interconnected airway system with dual trays; air pump; one pair of reusable, normal inflatable swine lungs with guide; one pair of simulated smoker’s lungs with guide; and one section of dried swine lung with a storage container.
This dramatic demonstration kit provides an impressive, unforgettable, hands-on demonstration of how lungs work and the effects of prolonged smoking by using real swine lungs. Students are able to feel the texture and fragility of the lung, as well as learning that real lungs are not like rubber balloons in a bell jar. The smoker’s lungs have a palpable internal tumor and a physical simulated external tumor to encourage students to feel the texture of the lungs, and to remember that smoking is a known cause of lung caner. The inflatable swine lungs provided with each kit have been preserved with a Bioflex, nontoxic solution that retains the texture and elasticity of fresh lungs.
*NOTE: This product contains natural tissue (color may vary).


During a long, hot summer in Philadelphia, fifty-five delegates from 12 states came together to craft a new constitution. On this day, two-hundred and twenty-five years ago, thirty-nine of those delegates affixed their names to the document that still guides us faithfully today--the Constitution of the United States.
Today is Constitution Day, remembering September 17 of 1787. Today, we celebrate this document that unites us while we still struggle with those issues that divide us. Division is not new, not in this country and certainly not in the history of humanity. Rhode Island boycotted the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. Fourteen delegates had already left Philadelphia and returned home by September 17. Three of the delegates that remained refused to sign the Constitution. No, disagreement and division are not new in this Country. But, our common hopes and dreams--those things that unite us--have always been more powerful than those things that divide us.
As I read our history, I see freedom as the glue that holds us all together. We may not always agree on how to use that freedom or even on how to preserve it, but we all came from somewhere else, somewhere less free. Families still come today, and as long as freedom remains our touchstone, they will continue to come.
If you are prepared to surrender your freedom, if you prefer the cloak of security to the fresh breeze of liberty, there are dozens of countries around the globe that will satisfy you. But if you thirst for self-determination, if you hunger for unbridled opportunity limited only by your dreams and God-given talents, America--governed by the people and the Constitution of the United States--stands alone. Two-hundred and twenty-five years after Benjamin Franklin reportedly emerged from Independence Hall at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention and when asked what had been created responded, "A Republic, if you can keep it," our almost unimaginable experiment in self-governance continues. Please join me today in celebrating our liberty, celebrating the political document that has guided us, and thanking God for his continuing blessings upon our Nation and upon us all.