Makes me laugh every time….
Makes me laugh every time….
Killer Robots? 80′s Gore? In a shopping mall?!?! YES PLEASE!
Move Over Troll 2 and The Room, you’ve got some competition!
The best horror-comedy ever made.
I Think We’re Alone Now is a documentary that focuses on two individuals, Jeff and Kelly, who claim to be in love with the 80′s pop singer Tiffany. Jeff Turner, a 52-year-old man from Santa Cruz, California has attended Tiffany concerts since 1988. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, Jeff lives alone off of government checks and has never had a girlfriend.
Jeff spends his days hanging out on the streets of Santa Cruz, striking up conversations with anyone who has a moment to spare about conspiracy theories, God and Tiffany. Kelly McCormick is a 35-year-old intersex sports fanatic from Denver, Colorado, who claims to have been friends with Tiffany as a teenager. She credits Tiffany as the shining star who has motivated her to do everything in her life. Through both humorous and heartbreakingly sensitive scenes, the film takes look at Jeff and Kelly’s lives, revealing the source of their clinging obsessions. It is absolutely enthralling from beginning to end and really makes you feel for this slightly crazy but ultimately (in Jeff’s case, anyway), lovable duo.
Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever” starts as many hillbilly horror movies begin. A creepy redneck walking through the woods in a daze. While we watch this creepy man walking in the woods, we come upon a dog we believes to be sleeping. After poking it a few times, the man pulls the dog up and notices that its flesh is rotted, spurting blood on him in the process. We soon realize that this is NOT going to be like every other horror movie.
Five college friends, Jeff (Joey Kern), Marcy (Cerina Vincent), Paul (Rider Strong), Karen (Jordan Ladd) and Bert (James DeBello), have rented a cabin in the woods. While driving to it they stop at a local convenience store for food. Outside the store, Dennis (Matthew Helms), a mentally handicapped young boy, bites Paul on the hand. At the cabin, Jeff and Marcy have sex and Paul and Karen go swimming in the nearby lake. Bert goes hunting for squirrels in the woods with a BB gun, but accidentally shoots the man who discovered the rotting dog, mistaking him for a squirrel. The man’s face is badly rotted. Scared, Bert shoots at him again to repel him before running back to the cabin. Later, the friends hear a knocking at the door and discover it is the diseased man. Desperate for help, the hermit tries driving away in their car, but vomits blood inside it. After the man exits the car Paul sets the man on fire and he runs into the woods, dying in the lake.
A young deputy, Winston Olsen (a hilariously offensive Giuseppe Andrews), shows up at the cabin and tells Paul he will call a tow truck. Karen drinks a glass of water from the lake and begins feeling ill. That night she is quarantined in the tool shed once Paul discovers rotten spots on her thighs. Fearing that they will also become infected, the others argue about what they should do. The next day, Bert realizes that he is also infected with the virus, but does not tell the others. When Paul and Marcy insist on helping Karen, Jeff, wanting to avoid becoming infected, runs into the forest with the remaining beer, the only reliable untainted beverage available. Bert drives off to find a doctor. Is it too late for them?
“Cabin Fever” is a no-holds-bars white knuckle horror-comedy that is both scarier and funnier than 95% of the other crap out there. The setup is simple: Five teens decide to go camping out in the woods at an old cabin when, one-by-one, they begin to become the victims of a killer flesh eating virus. As one might expect, many characters are killed in an awesome over-the-top gory fashion and there is a solid amount of nudity for a 2003 horror flick. It can be argued that this movie is not for everyone but fans of 80′s gore films will be in gore heaven.
P.S. I’ve talked to many people who have said they didn’t care for this movie because it wasn’t scary. Sorry, wrong type of horror flick. Watch it expecting “Evil Dead” and you’ll be fine.
Going into Wes Craven’s new horror thriller “Cursed” I had very low expectations. First of all, the movie had been cut fairly severely from an R to a PG-13 and the movie had been retooled for the past two years (Thankfully the DVD is the unrated cut). Not only this but “Cursed” also wasn’t screened for critics. All signs point to “Terrible Movie.”
The film begins when two friends, Jenny Tate (Mýa) and Becky Morton (Shannon Elizabeth), are at a pier and decide to get their fortune told by Zela (Portia de Rossi). She foretells that they will suffer a horrible fate, but they don’t believe her and walk away laughing. A little while later, Becky realizes Jenny has disappeared and can’t find her on the pier; Becky was driving. One night, while in a car together, Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) and his sister Ellie (Christina Ricci) hit an animal and another car. They attempt to rescue the other driver, Becky Morton, but she is suddenly dragged and eaten by an unknown creature. Jimmy and Ellie are both slashed by the creature’s claws. Jimmy starts to believe that the creature was a werewolf, but no one will believe him. He and his sister start to exhibit wolfish tendencies (such as both of them eating raw bacon, Ellie catching a fly in her bare hand, and being attracted to the smell of blood) but Ellie denies it, apparently proving her point by touching a silver picture frame and not getting burned. Jimmy becomes much stronger, as exampled when a bully named Bo (Milo Ventimiglia) forces him to join the wrestling team. He easily defeats three wrestlers, including Bo.
Meanwhile, Jenny is torn apart in a parking garage by a wolf-like creature. Zela’s prediction for Jenny and Becky comes true. Eventually, Ellie starts to believe the werewolf idea, and Jimmy proves it when he holds a silver cake server and gets burned (he then discovers that the picture frame Ellie touched was actually stainless steel). He goes to warn Ellie with the help of Bo, who shows up at their house to say he’s gay and apparently likes Jimmy. Bo and Jimmy race to where Ellie is, and in the meantime she figures out that her boyfriend, Jake (Joshua Jackson), is a werewolf. He confirms that, but claims it wasn’t him that attacked her and Jimmy. Another werewolf attacks, seemingly proving his story. Bo and Jimmy try to help, but Bo is knocked out. But…..who is the werewolf?
Surprisingly, this movie ain’t half bad. In fact, it’s actually really quite good. What we have here is a fun little werewolf thriller about a brother and sister that get attacked by a mysterious creature and are forced to deal with what they have become. There are some good scares (gotta love the Mya scene in the parking lot) and some surprisingly solid laughs (I loved Christina Ricci’s bitchy coworker and the “gay” subplot involving the head of the wrestling team). Not everything works in the film–the ending is a bit overkill and some of the effects are a bit iffy–but overall, I’d say it’s definitely at least worth a rental. It isn’t a bad way to spend two hours of good, solid creature feature entertainment. Just don’t expect an Oscar worthy movie and you’ll be fine.
In 1974, a woman is making a wax head in the kitchen while her son eats cereal in his highchair. Her husband enters carrying a young boy who is shouting and kicking. The boy is forced into a highchair and strapped in place by his father. After being strapped and taped to his chair by his mother, he scratches her hand. She then slaps her child across the face.
In 2005, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) with her friend Paige (Paris Hilton) and Paige’s boyfriend Blake (Robert Ri’chard) are on their way to a highly anticipated football game in Louisiana. Eventually, Carly’s delinquent twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray) and his friend Dalton (Jon Abrahams) also join them. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until Nick smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, Carly and Paige go exploring, Carly falls down a cliff and lands in deer remains and sees a fake hand. Wade’s car’s fan belt is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester (Damon Herriman), who offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game.
The two arrive at Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town. Unable to find an attendant at the auto mechanics shop, they wander into the church, disrupting a funeral. There, they meet a mechanic named Bo (Brian Van Holt), who offers to sell them a fan belt after the funeral. While waiting for the services to end, Carly and Wade visit the wax museum, which itself is made of wax and is the central feature of the town. Afterward, they follow Bo to his house to find a proper fan belt. While there, Wade is crippled and stabbed by a long-haired man with a wax facemask named Vincent. Bo grabs Carly, super glues her lips shut and locks her in a cellar. Dalton and Nick arrive in Ambrose to look for Carly and Wade. Vincent meanwhile strips and shaves Wade, then puts him in a chair with a metal contraption on his head which pins his eyes open. Vincent pulls a couple of levers which showers the immobile Wade with hot wax.
Can Wade escape? Will Paris die? Are any of them safe? Oh please…House of Wax isn’t really big on plot. It’s got your normal set-up that deals with extremely attractive boys and girls ending up in a bad situation. Some live, some die. If you’ve seen a horror film in the last 30 years, you know how it goes. The movie is slow going and a bit choppy at the beginning but still with it. Even after watching countless horror films over the last few years, I’ve gotta admit that I’ve become jaded and can smell things coming a mile away.
So the production team decided to go with that idea and jack it up a notch and tell the audience, OK, you know what’s going to happen next, but we’re going to make it ugly so you’ll jump out of your seat. And casting Paris Hilton was a stroke of genius because for the first time that I can recall a hot female character that people still wanted to see die. And, she did a nice striptease down to her underwear before the bad stuff happened to her. When things get bad, it gets really bad in a hurry. In fact, all the death sequences were quite horrible to watch, yet I couldn’t help but feel that the horror movie geek inside of me was very, very satisfied.
When Wendy Christensen has a vision of an accident on the roller coaster, resulting in her and her friends’ deaths, she instantly begins to panic, causing more of her friends to be left of the ride. The remaining friends, including Wendy’s boyfriend, are stuck on the roller coaster and find themselves involved in the accident. With death waiting around the corner, Wendy and Kevin Fischer must try and work out death’s plan, before they and the remaining survivors end up dead. Ahh, gotta love the Final Destination movies. As stupid as some of the stories sound, they manage to get the job done in bloody, inventive ways. Final Destination 3 opens with said rollercoaster accident in what may be the best opening act for a horror movie since, well, Final Destination 2′s freeway accident.
The acting is bad, the story borderline, but it doesn’t really matter. The deaths (nail gun, tanning bed, cherry picker) are ingenious in their design and that ending is one of the better ones of the series. Nonetheless, in all honesty, this is probably my least favorite of the franchise. The characters are pretty annoying and movie feels strangely padded. After the wonderful “Final Destination 2″, this feels a bit like a let down. That being sad, there is enough carnage candy to go around for those who love their bodies extra bloody. This isn’t high art by any means but it gets the job done.


Our MARISH dress in Feni is made with a soft cotton gauze and features pockets, buttons up the front, and a detachable wrap belt. This is a great ensemble for your summer dress collection!
Made in California
Model is 5'11 wearing size S
Fabric: Cotton Gauze
Care : Hand Wash Cold, Lay Flat to Dry


Sorbus Floating Shelf — Hanging Wall Decoration Shelves — Perfect Trophy Display
DECORATE & DISPLAY Add character and warmth to any modern or traditional interior Contrast shelves at staggering heights on the wall for a more energetic result or mount side-by-side for clean streamlined look
AMADA HOMEFURNISHING Floating White Shelves
Unique and Exquisite Vanity Design: Amada new style floating shelves adopt the concept of contemporary decorating to polish each sturdy MDF wood to perfect beautiful. With the special golden metal bracket, bring you a noble and luxurious home style.
InPlace Shelving 9084672 Floating Slimline Wall Shelf
STYLE: Decorative 1.25" square edge shelf features contemporary design
Furinno Turn-S-Tube 4-Tier Shelf Multipurpose Display Rack
Quality material: Manufactured from high Quality durable composite wood and plastic tubes. Holds up to 20 lbs. Per shelf
BAMEOS Floating Shelf
Minimalist style The minimalist design wall shelf full of modern styles, flat and solid shelves with white finish, can perfectly match any style of walls and rooms. Whether you want to display decoration or increase storage space, this minimalist wall shelf can meet your needs and add beauty to your life.
FURINNO JAYA Simple Home Adjustable 3-Tier Shelf Bookcase
Adjustable shelves provide easy storage and display for decorative and home living accessories
BOMID White Floating Wall Shelves Shelves
MODERN DESIGN: These crown molding mantle shelf are designed in bohemian style and are modern.; Whether you have a classic, modern, or traditional home, these molding ledge shelves are a great addition to your house decor
AMADA HOMEFURNISHING Amada White Floating Invisible Shelves Wall Mounted 3 Sets
Well-designed Floating ShelfOur shelf is made of MDF Laminate with a smooth matte black finish that looks rustic but modern. Anything different? Sure, Amada shelves can not only organize daily sundries to make your room tidy and neat, but also can display your beloved art pieces on the wall to decorate your home and make it full of aesthetic flare.
Love-KANKEI Floating Shelves Rustic Shelves Wall Mounted Set 3 of Wall Storage Shelves for Living Room
Different installation style - The unique design of the right-angled trapezoid brackets allow you to install the shelf with the board on the top of the brackets or below, and all the necessary accesorries, including screws, anchors and instruction are in the package, very easy to install on the wall
WG WILLOW & GRACE DESIGNS Willow & Grace Floating Shelves - White Rustic Shelves for Wall Storage, Easily Mounted
Breeze to install - These whitewash (NOT PURE WHITE) floating shelves feature an easy mounting, hidden bracket that gives it a streamlined look that is ideal for various decor styles, from modern to contemporary, and vintage to rustic or traditional


By Alan Dowd – ASCF Senior Fellow
June 2012 – The end of the space shuttle program came on July 21, 2011, when Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Sadly, that day also marked the end of America’s manned spaceflight program—at least for the foreseeable future. It should have never come to this, and it doesn’t have to be this way. Before considering how best to correct America’s self-imposed exile from the heavens, it’s important to look at the causes and consequences.
Decades of benign neglect and a confluence of events conspired to steer us toward this unhappy destination.
One of those events was the Columbia disaster of 2003. Pre-Columbia, NASA had planned to deploy the shuttle until 2022. In fact, each shuttle was built for 100 missions. Discovery, the oldest of the now-retired shuttles, flew just 39. But the loss of Columbia radically altered plans to fly space shuttles into the 2020s.
The shuttle’s critics, citing the Columbia and Challenger disasters, argued that it was too expensive and too undependable. It’s worth noting, however, that the shuttle program settled into an efficient routine in the years between Challenger and Columbia. For 17 solid years, to be exact, the shuttle made the miracle of human spaceflight so seemingly effortless and ordinary that it became a footnote. Takeoffs weren’t televised, spacewalks weren’t broadcast and landings weren’t reported. Carrying humans beyond that place where space and sky collide—and back—was just part of what America did. So, policymakers of both parties and the public at large shrugged at the man-made miracle of spaceflight and largely failed to invest in, plan for or think about life after the shuttle. The result: The greatest spacefaring power on earth is stuck on earth.
Given NASA’s dwindling resources, this was inevitable. Consider the difference between Washington’s investment in the pre-Apollo NASA and the post-Columbia NASA. In the early 1960s, NASA accounted for about 1.1 percent of federal spending, as historian Derek Leebaert recalls in The Fifty Year Wound. By the time the Eagle had landed on the lunar surface, he notes that the U.S. was tasking “300,000 workers at around 20,000 companies in all 50 states” on the space program. Today, NASA outlays amount to less than 0.5 percent of federal spending.
The old saying, “You get what you pay for,” is true. As Norman Augustine, chairman of President Barack Obama’s Human Spaceflight Plans Committee (HSPC), observed in 2009, “This nation could afford a strong human spaceflight program…it’s simply a question of priority.”
But since manned spaceflight was not a priority, funding declined, and a gap between the end of the shuttle and the beginning of its successor program emerged. Under the Bush administration’s plan, that gap had a defined endpoint of March 2015. The Bush administration proposed phasing out the shuttle to divert resources to the Constellation program, which would use the best of the shuttle and Apollo programs to carry Americans beyond low-earth orbit.
As Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan noted in an open letter in 2010, Constellation “was endorsed by two presidents of different parties and approved by both Democratic and Republican congresses.” But President Obama canceled Constellation and flat-lined NASA spending. NASA funding was just $17.8 billion in 2012, and the White House requested less for 2013.
Putting on a brave face, NASA chief Charles Bolden—a former astronaut—says Washington’s spending plan for NASA “requires us to live within our means,” which is what Americans expect of their government. It’s just that the administration’s willingness to starve NASA stands in such stark contrast with its eagerness to pour unprecedented sums into virtually every other government program. This isn’t a partisan issue. As Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson observes, “The important role NASA plays in pushing innovation…argues for a bigger commitment to the agency than either the administration or Congress is currently making.”
How much bigger? One HSPC member told The Washington Post that NASA needs some $50 billion to sustain a manned program beyond low-earth orbit.
Of course, given the nation’s badly strained fiscal condition, there’s no political will for diverting that much cash to NASA. That may change as Americans watch the Russians and Chinese surge ahead in spaceflight.
Russia began carrying American crews and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) after the Columbia disaster. NASA is paying Russia $753 million to deliver Americans to and from ISS through 2015. Bridging the gap by relying on Russia was always an imperfect workaround. Michael Griffin, NASA administrator under President George W. Bush, called it “unseemly in the extreme”—and understandably so. But it’s more than unseemly and imperfect. “It is dangerous for the United States to find itself dependent upon any external entity for a strategic capability, and space transportation is just that,” Griffin warned in February 2008.
Of course, collaborating with Russia as a short-term stopgap is far different than counting on Putin and his puppets indefinitely. Consider the high-stakes bargaining—or if you prefer, blackmail—this unfortunate situation invites. (Russia recently raised fares from $55.8 million per seat to $62.7 million.) Just as worrisome is Russia’s space competence. In 2011, Russia lost an unmanned spacecraft for a few days and then found it in the wrong orbit. This followed failure of a Russian satellite to reach orbit due to what news agencies called “a basic fuel miscalculation.”
Still, as National Defense magazine reports, Russia conducted 31 launches last year. For the first time in history, China (with 19 launches) fired more rockets into space than the United States (18). This year, China plans 21 launches. Indeed, “China has accorded space a high priority for investment,” as the Pentagon reports:
• In 2007, China deployed its first lunar orbiter. That same year, Beijing tested a direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile against one of its own satellites, demonstrating its ability to attack satellites in low-earth orbit.
• The Pentagon’s 2011 review of Chinese military power reports that Beijing “is developing a multi-dimensional program to improve its capabilities to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by adversaries.” The 2012 review adds, “Over the past two years, China has…conducted increasingly complex close-proximity operations between satellites.”
• Beijing has begun deploying elements of a manned space station, with the goal of conducting a lunar landing by 2020. How ironic: Just as China begins to leap toward the moon, earth’s first emissary to the moon surrenders the high ground.
If, as Augustine noted, there are “leadership benefits of being among the world’s space-faring nations,” there are consequences to not being a space-faring nation. “To be without carriage to low-earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future,” as the Apollo trio puts it, “destines our nation to become one of second- or even third-rate stature.”
We’ve been here before. Almost six years elapsed between the Apollo-Soyuz linkup in 1975 and America’s next manned space mission, the maiden voyage of Columbia. That period ominously coincided with what is generally considered the nadir of America’s post-World War II power.
We got ourselves into this fix, and we can get ourselves out. But it’s going to take time, talent and treasure. Regrettably, we don’t have a surplus of any of these right now.
Every day we defer hard decisions and needed investments is a day China and Russia close the gap further—or worse, expand their lead. Building new spaceships is not like flipping a light switch. Yet in can be done sooner rather than later, but only if America summons the will to begin. The alternative, as President John Kennedy warned in 1962, is “to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space.”
As to talent, the Apollo generation’s pool of physicists, designers and engineers is rapidly draining away. “Fifty years ago,” Griffin observed in 2008, “almost twice as many bachelor’s degrees in physics were awarded in the United States.” Equally concerning, some 38 percent of technology PhDs are conferred on foreign-born students, “most of whom return to their home countries,” according to Griffin. This was not the case at the beginning of the Space Age. William Pickering came to America from New Zealand to study at Cal Tech; he then led the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during its most critical and consequential decades. Washington plucked an army of rocket scientists from Germany after World War II. Chief among them, of course, was Wernher Von Braun, father of the Jupiter and Saturn V rockets.
In short, we have regressed from in-sourcing space operations to outsourcing them. This has to be reversed, which brings us to treasure. America’s next chapter in space depends on a healthy, innovative economy; a mix of public-private space partnerships; free-market incentives that persuade foreign-born, U.S.-schooled scientists to apply their talents here; and, yes, increased investment. To be sure, we must guard against a return to what historian Paul Johnson once called “the show-biz era of space travel,” with “its contempt for finance, its assumption that resources were limitless.” But there is a happy medium between yesterday’s space-spending frenzy and today’s under-funded minimalism.
On the matter of public-private partnerships, there’s nothing in the Constitution that says government agencies are the only means of delivering Americans into space. Private firms like NASA’s new partner SpaceX offer promise. Just last month, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral and docked a capsule with ISS. But it pays to recall that the rocket was unmanned and is unable to lift what a shuttle could carry. The Falcon 9 is expected to carry 22,000 pounds. By contrast, the shuttle could deliver a 65,000-pound payload into orbit.
There is one other way to end America’s post-shuttle problem: Shift all space operations, including manned spaceflight, to the U.S. military. Such a transition may already be underway. Whether it’s by design or by accident is unknown. What we do know is that national-security space spending is estimated to be more than double the shrinking NASA budget; the military space workforce grew from 15,791 in 2009 to 16,739 in 2011, while the civilian space sector shed 8,000 jobs in 2010 alone; and the Air Force is testing a super-secret space plane.
In other words, the end of the shuttle doesn’t mean the end of America’s presence in space. Even so, it’s difficult to imagine that the United States will be able to hold or enhance its position relying on an unproven space plane, under-strength commercial rockets, an undependable Russia and unmanned assets


This essay has been submitted by a law student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers.
Nurses Roles And Duties To The Patient
In today’s society, the legal system has become the center piece of a highly decorated health care system. Just as every civilian is liable to legislative laws set by the federal or state government, more so nurses are placed at an increased risk for a lawsuit in comparison to the average civilian. The laws that govern the profession of nursing are Common and statutory laws. Statutory laws are written on a state level, since licensure is granted by individual states, while common laws can go beyond what is covered by statutory law. Common law often generate from the decisions of past legal proceeding. Civil laws can branch from either statutory or common law. In regards to this, nurses tend to be involved in civil law suit which involves one person violating the rights of another. Tort is a branch of this civil law which can be further broken down into intentional, unintentional and quasi intentional tort. The health care system has evolved to a state where preventing law suit and liabilities has been deemed of more importance that ensuring adequate patient care.
Nurses spend tedious amount of time documenting every steps taken in the care of patient than they do implementing it. Stressed by having to look over their shoulder about every step taken, the mere mention of a law suit can send any nurse into a stated of shock and awe. An aspect of tort where nurses tend to be liable is in respect to obtaining consent from a client before performing care and in witnessing an informed consent before a procedure. The type of torts involved can be classified as negligence (unintentional), Assault or Battery (intentional).
“Negligence can be defined as an omission of an act that a reasonable and prudent person would perform in a similar situation". (Catalano, 2006, p.173.) Assault can be defined as an attempt to touch another person or the threat of doing so; if actual physical contact which causes harm to a person that has not consented to it occurs, it is then called battery. Over years, there has been an increase in nurse’s involvement with law suits, hence one needs to protect their interest by attaining an understanding of what informed consent is, what it entails and how nurse can become liable with charges of negligence and assault?
According to Catalano (2006), informed consent is a legal and ethical issue “that can be defined as the voluntary permission by a client or the client’s proxy to carry out a procedure on the client" (p. 173.) The nurse needs to be aware of this definition and its key points that is, it should be voluntary. She should also confirm that the client is knowledgeable about the procedure to be performed before she witnesses the signing.
The nurse need to know that adequate information about the procedure such as “the purpose of the treatment, potential complications, acceptable alternatives treatments, outcomes hoped for and consequences of not having treatment" are provided to the client. (Catalano, 2006, p.173.) This will help accomplish her duties as a patient advocate and ensures that the patient makes a knowledge based decision about his care. The nurse also needs to be aware of the exceptions to informed consent such as:
emergency situations when the client is unconscious, incompetent or otherwise unable to give consent and in situations where the health care provider feels that it may be medically contraindicated to disclose the risk and hazards because of illness, sever emotional distress, serious psychological damage, or failure on the part of the client to receive life saving treatment. (Catalano, 2006, p. 174.)
Failure to follow the guideline or execute knowledge based practice in obtaining informed consent makes the nurse liable to law suit of negligence or assault/battery. Negligence, with respect to the nurse’s failing to satisfactorily and thoroughly ensuring that the client understands the risks involved in the procedure he consented to. Assault, in reference to the nurse witnessing or performing a procedure different for what the client was informed which in turn causes or could cause harm to the patient.
Negligence and Assault are both torts that could have been avoided by properly executing the informed consent process, thus reducing liability. Nurses should understand that the purpose of attaining an informed consent from the client is aimed at “ impressing upon the patient the importance of the document the patient is signing" while getting the “patient’s agreement to undergo the procedure." (“Frequent Questions on Informed Consent," 2009.) The signing of a document notifies and affirms to the client that the document and his decision is on record and can be used in legal proceedings. This makes an informed consent form a legal document.
The role of nurse in this process is to witness that the patient or their assigned proxy, as applicable, is the one who signs the consent. The nurse should also verify and assess that whoever is signing is competent, taking note of the previously discussed criteria in judge the client’s competence. The nurse should also be aware that the physician is responsible for explaining the procedure; the discussion and acquisition is not in the nurse’s role, neither should it be delegated to other staffs. Catalano (2006) supports this statement in saying that “Nurses can reinforce the physician teaching and even supplement the information but should not be the primary or only source of information for informed consent…" (p. 174.)
Tabak & Zvi (2008) presented a case study exemplifying the nurse’s role as an advocate or coordinator for the client in reference to informed consent. They presented a scenario involving a 15 years old patient from a strictly Jewish family, diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia, whose parents denied him any knowledge of his condition. The parents requested that the child not be told of his diagnosis and decided to use chemotherapy for treatment as advised by their rabbi. They refused consent to Port A cath transplant and freezing his sperm. They also refused to sign a consent form for the procedure they already agreed to until consultations were finished. Even though according to the Jewish tradition the client is referred to as a man since his 13th birthday (bar-mitzvah), he was not allowed some degree of decision making in his care.
A nurse as a client advocate, knows the implication of the parent’s decision on the client not just in reference to him being uninformed but also the effects of the method of treatment chosen by the parents and their refusal to sign a consent form. The parents refused to save the patient’s sperms even though they are aware that their treatment choice could render him sterile. This creates an ethical dilemma, in which the nurse whose duty to the client is one of nonmaleficence, benevolence, veracity and promoting his autonomy would now have to make a decision while assessing her own belief, the parent’s wishes and societal views. To resolve this ethical dilemma, Tabak & Zvi (2008) suggest that:
the nurse can help the parents understand the situation; ensure they appreciated the consequences – positive and negative, short term and long term- of their decisions and actions; and show them what parental obligations is and is not and how to give the child the information he ought to have. (p. 106.)
In doing this, the nurse should present to the parents detailed information about the consequences of their choices and provide alternative choices. Information can be provided in the form of pamphlet, internet based researches, videos and brochures. Tabak & Zvi (2008) also summits that the nurse should assess the “patient’s maturity and competence to understand and cope with hard decisions and then defend their autonomy against the authority of physicians and parents." (p. 106.) By doing this, the nurse assumes her role as the client’s advocate and reduces her risk of any future liabilities along with helping the client to make an informed decision about his plan of care and future implications.
Although a nurse’s role in procuring an informed consent is that of a witness, the nurse still needs to be aware of his or her liability and protect against lawsuits. To do this nurse needs to be confident that proper steps and judgment were made in reference to the client understanding and making an informed decision about care. Since a nurse’s role in the informed consent process almost seem to melt into the role of a physician, nurses need to take proper precaution and practice only within their scope of practice. Nurses need to acquire and practice skills needed to properly execute the process of informed consent and incorporate evidence based practice in their day to day activities. Since most nurses become entwined with the legal system through tort, nurses need to take steps to prevent all forms of it. The nurse also needs to have the skills needed to work through conflicts and obstacles such as with the 15 years old client whose nurse needed to advocate on behalf of. This case study exemplifies the crucial roles nurses play in the informed consent process and in fulfilling their duties to their patients.
Cite This Essay
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:


As you look down the aisle of your local supermarket, there is no doubt you have noticed the array of options when it comes to milk-like drinks and substitutes. From soy to almond and even rice milk, it is sometimes difficult to know which one to choose, if any. Looking to try something new and healthy? Soy milk could be the answer. Here are some pointers about this cool concoction.
- Soy milk is made from cooked and pressed soybeans; it is often used as a milk substitute.
- Plain soy milk can be used in place of cow's milk in various recipes such as puddings, soups, and sauces.
- If you opt to utilize soy milk instead of cow's milk, it can affect the taste of the end product - so utilize caution. You can try replacing half of the cow's milk with soy milk to be on the safe side.
- Soy milk is available in many flavors and varieties: low-fat, fat-free, fortified, chocolate, vanilla, etc.
- Soy milk is high in protein, low in saturated fats, and cholesterol free.
- Individuals who are lactose intolerant can use soy milk in their favorite recipes.
- Soy milk can sometimes curdle… so caution must be taken when adding it to acidic foods.


Mental Attitude: Does Smoking Affect Voting Behavior?
Individuals who smoke cigarettes appear to be less likely to vote than nonsmokers. The authors of a new study surveyed 11,626 people and found that 17% of those polled were smokers, and daily smokers were 60% less likely to vote than nonsmokers. Lead author Dr. Karen Albright writes, “On one hand, the result is intuitive. We know from previous research that smokers are an increasingly marginalized population, involved in fewer organizations and activities and with less interpersonal trust than nonsmokers. But what our research suggests is that this marginalization may also extend beyond the interpersonal level to attitudes toward political systems and institutions.”
Nicotine & Tobacco Research, May 2015
Health Alert: Dementia May Increase Health Risks Among Hospitalized COPD Patients.
Taiwanese researchers examined data on one million individuals collected between 2000 and 2010 and found that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and dementia have an elevated risk for acute respiratory dysfunction, severe sepsis, and hospital mortality. More specifically, they found that patients with both conditions were 1.38 times more at risk for severe sepsis, 1.39 times more at risk for acute respiratory dysfunction, and 1.69 times more at risk of dying during their hospital stay.
Medicine, June 2015
Diet: High-Fiber Diet May Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk.
Eating a fiber-rich diet may lower one’s risk for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. The authors of a new study found that those whose diets contain more than 26 grams of fiber each day are 18% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who consume less than 19 grams of fiber per day. When researchers focused on types of fiber, they discovered that people who consume higher amounts of cereal and vegetable fiber are 16-19% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with fiber-poor diets. Interestingly, the researchers found that fruit fiber consumption was not associated with reduced diabetes risk. Study author Dr. Dagfinn Aune concludes, “Taken together, our results indicate that individuals with diets rich in fiber, in particular cereal fiber, may be at lower risk of type 2 diabetes.”
Diabetologia, May 2015
Exercise: Avoid Overuse Injuries.
Performing the same exercises day after day can lead to an overuse injury. The Mayo Clinic recommends the following to avoid such injuries: engage in a variety of exercises, don’t do too many exercises in one day, warm up before and cool down after a workout, wear appropriate shoes, and use good form and technique.
Mayo Clinic, June 2015
Chiropractic: Resolution of Daily Cervicogenic Headaches.
A 13-year-old patient with a complaint of daily headaches presented for a trial of chiropractic care. His doctor of chiropractic utilized spinal manipulation to treat cervical and thoracic spinal joint fixations, which a thorough examination had revealed to be the possible underlying cause of the adolescent’s chief complaint. The patient reported his headaches resolved during the course of treatment, which consisted of eight visits over two months. This case documents the potential benefits of chiropractic care in the management of headaches in adolescents.
Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health, April 2015
Wellness/Prevention: Limited Evidence for Mammograms for Women in Their 40s.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer says that there is limited evidence to support preventative breast cancer screening for women in their 40s. However, they add that for women aged 50 to 75, the research shows that routine mammograms reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer. The revised guidelines recommend routine screening start at age 50 and be done every two years. The expert panel advises that women in their 40s should discuss the pros and cons of mammography screening with their doctor and then make an informed decision.
New England Journal of Medicine, June 2015


(Ehrenberg) Simonsen 1979 Category: Centric
BASIONYM: Gaillonella italica Ehrenberg 1838
SYNONYM(S): Melosira italica (Ehrenberg) Kützing
REPORTED AS: Aulacoseira crenulata (Thwaites 1848)
Frustules are cylindrical and are connected face-to-face to form filamentous colonies. Valves are 4-24 µm in diameter, with a mantle height of 9-20 µm. The ratio of the mantle height to valve diameter usually ranges from 0.7 to 5. The mantle has almost straight sides, and the valve face is flat with slightly convex margins. The straight or slightly sinuous rows of mantle areolae are inclined to the left (sinistrorse) or almost parallel to the pervalvar axis, 17-25 rows in 10 µm. The mantle areolae vary in shape from circular to slit-like. Spines are large, spatulate or anvil-shaped and originate from two to four costae. One or more pervalvar rows of areolae terminate at the base of the spine. Separation valves are rare and have thinner, pointed spines than linking valves. The number of rimoportulae is most often two, but may be one or more per valve. Externally, the rimoportula openings are not distinguishable from areolae. The ringleiste is solid, shallow, and thick. Resting spores are often observed and produced as semi-endogenous pairs. Spore frustules superficially resemble those of vegetative cells, but conspicuously lack visible spines, have thicker cell walls, may have a convex valve face, and often have incomplete rows of mantle areolae. Not all populations of A. italica appear to form resting spores; spores are especially common in fossil deposits and in populations from shallow polymictic lakes.
There has long been confusion surrounding the identity of Aulacoseira italica. Crawford et al. (2003) studied type material of both A. italica (Gallionella italica) and A. crenulata, confirmed that they represented the same taxon, and that A. italica was the earlier and correct name. Note that in the type material, the rimoportulae (illustrated in Crawford et al. 2003) are positioned along a stria about 4-5 areolae from the ringleiste and appear internally as long, straight tubes integral with the valve wall. In material from Florida, rimoportulae appear internally as short, sessile processes. The spore forms have also been separately named as Melosira laevis and M. semilaevis (Van Heurck 1882)
Basionym: Gaillonella italica
Author: Ehrenberg 1838
Diameter: 6 µm
Rows of areolae in 10 µm:
Sie unterscheidet sich durch einen gekerbten Cirkelrand von G. distans, könnte aber, da ich nur wenige, nicht völlif deutliche, Exemplare sah, zum Jugendzustand der G. varians gehören. – Grösse 1/384 Linie.
Cite This Page:
Potapova, M., English, J., and Edlund, M. (2010). Aulacoseira italica. In Diatoms of the United States. Retrieved July 25, 2016, from http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu/taxa/species/aulacoseira_italica
Species: Aulacoseira italica
Reviewer: Sarah Spaulding
Crawford, R.M., Likhoshway, Y.V. and Jahn, R. (2003). Morphology and identity of Aulacoseira italica and typification of Aulacoseira (Bacillariophyta). Diatom Research 18: 1-19.
Ehrenberg, C.G. (1838). Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen. Ein Blick in das tiefere organische Leben de Natur. erlag von Leopold Voss, Leipzig. pp. 1-xvii, 1-548, pls. 1-64.
Kützing, F.T. (1844). Die kieselschaligen Bacillarien oder Diatomeen. Nordhausen. 152 pp., 30 pls.
Simonsen, R. (1979). The diatom system: ideas on phylogeny. Bacillaria 2: 9-71.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) western Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) study was completed during the years 2000-2004 (see citations at bottom of this page). Over 1200 streams and rivers in 12 western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) were selected for sampling based on a stratified randomized design. This type of design insures that ecological resources are sampled in proportion to their actual geographical presence. Stratified randomized design also allows for estimates of stream length with a known confidence in several “condition classes” (good or least-disturbed, intermediately-disturbed, and poor or most-disturbed) for biotic condition, chemistry and habitat.
Results are published in:
Johnson, T., Hermann, K., Spaulding, S., Beyea, B., Theel, C., Sada, R., Bollman, W., Bowman, J., Larsen, A., Vining, K., Ostermiller, J., Petersen, D. Hargett, E. and Zumberge, J. (2009). An ecological assessment of USEPA Region 8 streams and rivers. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 Report, 178 p.
Stoddard, J. L., Peck, D. V., Olsen, A. R., Larsen, D. P., Van Sickle, J., Hawkins, C. P., Hughes, R. M., Whittier, T. R., Lomnicky, G. A., Herlihy, A. T., Kaufman, P. R., Peterson, S. A., Ringold, P. L., Paulsen, S. G., and Blair, R. (2005). Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) western streams and rivers statistical summary. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report 620/R-05/006, 1,762 p.
Stoddard, J. L., Peck, D. V., Paulsen, S. G., Van Sickle, J., Hawkins, C. P., Herlihy, A. T., Hughes, R. M., Kaufman, P. R., Larsen, D. P., Lomnicky, G. A., Olsen, A. R., Peterson, S. A., Ringold, P. L., and Whittier, T. R. (2005). An ecological assessment of western streams and rivers. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report 620/R-05/005, 49 p.


Northern China in the summer of 1900 was the scene of the Boxer Rebellion, one of the most spontaneous, disorganized, violent and downright peculiar uprisings of that or any other century. Vividly described and detailed by Cornell University historian David J. Silbey in his new book, The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China, the rebellion was at once a peasants’ insurgency, an attack on modernism, a clash of cultures and a game changer in the nascent international struggle for power in the Pacific in the new century. Based on letters, diaries and memoirs of many participants, Silbey’s brisk narrative traces the root causes, the wild and bloody clashes between the ill-armed Boxers (who mystically believed themselves invulnerable) and the combined military units of Japan, Russia, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy and the United States, and the global consequences of this hitherto-bewildering struggle.
‘China has a long tradition of having secret societies rise up when [that country] is in chaos’
What was the origin of the Boxers?
To understand the Boxers, you have to understand what was going on with China in the late 19th century. It was a country in chaos. The government was not working effectively. The economy was being horribly disrupted by the arrival of industrialism and modernity—railroads, telegraph and the like. Even the environment was not cooperating; northern China was subject to floods and droughts.
Was the rebellion a response to that chaos in China?
Yes, China has a long tradition of having secret societies rise up when China is in chaos. They’re a combination of secret clubs, mutual-aid societies and martial-arts groups. They are communities of action and support for the people getting hurt. The Boxers were one of these.
What was the Boxers’ ideology?
The name “Boxer” is a rough translation of an expression that means “fists united in righteousness.” They were dedicated to two things: One, a set of martial-arts rituals that promised physical immunity to harm—if done correctly. Two, to getting rid of corrupting influences in Chinese society and compelling the ruling dynasty to drive out modern “decadent” influences. They had a simple slogan: “Exterminate the foreigner; support the [Qing] dynasty.”
They blamed China’s ills on foreigners?
Yes, exactly. There was a logic to it: Many Chinese worked in industries that were disrupted by the arrival of the railroad and the telegraph. There was a sense that China’s balance had been thrown out of whack by these modern innovations, and only by destroying the innovations and the foreigners who brought them could the balance be restored.
How widespread was xenophobia?
Very, especially among rural Chinese. They were very insular and unused to outsiders—such as Western missionaries—especially outsiders with massively different values from theirs.
Who were the Boxer leaders?
There was no real leadership. Each local group had its own leader, but not officially and not nationally. That was both the strength and weakness of the movement—weakness in that they didn’t coordinate well, but strength in that there was nobody to lock up.
How did the Boxers grow so quickly and spark a full-blown rebellion?
They offered a very simple view of the world that coincided with the way many Chinese were perceiving what was going on—and offered a solution. The Boxer message was easy to understand, easy to transmit and simple to carry out. In a fairly illiterate population that is something that can spread very quickly—as it did in that drought summer of 1900.
How large did the movement get?
It’s hard to answer that authoritatively—they did not count themselves and do reports. My estimate is that Boxer groups in the villages probably topped out south of 100 people. Once they got into cities like Beijing, where the population was in the millions, their numbers were probably in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. The total number of Boxers across northern China was probably 500,000 to 1 million.
Why did the Boxers attack foreign missionaries so savagely?
The Boxers went after the foreigners they saw every day—missionaries, railroad engineers, telegraph workers—the foreigners who represented what they saw was wrong with China. Remember, this was a very violent culture. It is a cliché to say that life was cheap in China at the time, but to some extent that was true. Add to that the strangeness of the Westerners to the Chinese; it was very easy for them to dehumanize their targets, to see them as not real human beings.
So the foreign missionaries were a really disruptive force?
Immensely so. Especially in the northern provinces, and Shandong was one of the provinces where missionaries—especially the German missionaries—were really aggressive about proselytizing. Just by their presence the missionaries were making a value statement, essentially saying: “You are insufficient, your religion is wrong, your education system is wrong. We are going to correct you.”
What were all these Westerners—missionaries, diplomats, technicians, soldiers—doing in China?
Early in the 19th century a few European imperial powers—England, France, Denmark and Belgium—divided the world among themselves. Then, later in the century, the new powers—the United States, Germany, Russia and Japan—sought empires of their own, but the only big chunk left was China. The Chinese tried to resist but failed. They were not strong enough militarily or politically, so parts of China got nipped off as “concessions.” That’s when the British acquired Hong Kong and the Portuguese acquired Macao.
What did the Westerners want?
The British and the Americans were interested in markets. The Germans and the Russians wanted territory. The Japanese wanted domination, and their two rivals in Asia were the Chinese and the Russians. They wanted to control China.
Why did Western diplomats and their military units react so sluggishly to the Boxer uprising?
Chinese political and social life had been very chaotic for the previous decade. So at first the Boxers were seen as just more social chaos. The Westerners were surprised by how quickly the rebellion exploded in Beijing, where at the beginning of May 1900 things were essentially fine, and within two weeks the legations were besieged by Boxers. Finally, there had been a lot of turnover among people posted at the embassies in China, so many of the ministers lacked the long-term experience to see that the Boxer uprising was something really different.
How did Western military units in China coordinate their attacks?
Badly. If you tried to design the worst possible command structure for military expeditions, you couldn’t come up with anything worse than how the Westerners managed it in China in 1900. For their second expedition they organized a generals’ council, which met every day to decide on policy. You know the old joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee? This was the same thing, and it went about as well.
How did the Boxer Rebellion end?
It’s a mystery. The Boxers just disappeared in the middle of August, hanging the Chinese army out to dry. It very quickly lost Beijing, and the empress and emperor had to flee. None of the histories really explain where the Boxers went. Here’s what I found: For January through July 1900 the rainfall totals there were below 1 inch per month, which is very low. It’s the drought. But in August 1900, 15 inches of rain fell, and in September, 10 inches. The drought ended, and I think what happened is that the men who joined the Boxers decided, All right, I had an adventurous time, I exterminated some foreigners, I supported the dynasty, and now it’s time to go back to my real life as a farmer. They just went home.
What were the long-term consequences of the Boxer Rebellion?
It cemented the collapse of the Chinese dynasty. And that’s when the revolutionary elements in China saw both the fecklessness of the dynasty and the nasty imperialism of the West. People like Mao Zedong and Sun Yat-sen took strong lessons from the Boxers.
And the global consequences?
It confirmed Japan as the rising power in Asia. The United States also became an Asian power, committed to some kind of role in China and in the Philippines—thus putting Japan and America on a collision course.


Indigenous people in the Americas have struggled against centuries of racism, attempts at genocide, and cultural discrimination. Indigenous women today and in the past have worked for the recognition and respect for native legitimate rights, such as the right to self-determination and territory, to cultural heritage, to control over their own resources. Some have felt an obligation to tell people about what has happened to their people. Learning the language of the dominant group, they have used it to testify about their peoples fate. In the process they have become cultural mediators - bridges - between the oppressors and their people. They also have become influential leaders working to improve the condition and status of their communities. Two such women from different eras are Sarah Winnemucca, a 19th century North American Paiute woman, and Rigoberta Menchú.
Rigoberta Menchú: In 1992, Rigoberta Menchú, a 33 year old Maya Quiché Indian, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of Guatemalas Indian peoples. Although she had been living in exile, because of the threats on her life, the prize put a spotlight on human rights abuses directed at Indians in Guatemala. During the years of Guatemalas thirty-six year long internal conflict in the 1970s and 80s, the longest in Latin America, the military turned on the Indians, accusing them of anti-government leftist leanings. A truth commission set up after the war ended said that more than 200,000 civilians were killed during the conflict and some 400 Mayan villages were razed. 38,000 people were taken by military death squads and never seen again. Thousands of children were orphaned, and one million people uprooted to become refugees. Rigoberta Menchú, a witness to these horrors including the torture and killing of her mother and father, became an active organizer who worked to help her people to defend themselves. Often she taught women how to defend themselves not only against government repression, but against traditional male injustice as well. She noted that her mother thought that daughters should be raised to become women who were useful to the community, that their participation in the struggle should be equal to that of her brothers.
Because the military targeted political leaders, in 1981 Menchú had to flee the country. In exile Rigoberta became internationally famous through interviews, speeches, and a book called I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in Guatemala. It told the tragic story of her life, opening with these words: This is my testimony...Id like to stress that its not only my life, its also the testimony of my people...My personal experience is the reality of a whole people. While some of the facts in the book were later questioned, the story remains an indictment of the exploitation of Guatemalas Indians and has been widely distributed throughout the world. At a later press conference Menchú stated that her book was not an "autobiography" but a "testimony." "For common people such as myself, there is no difference between testimony, biography, and autobiography ... What we do is tell what we have lived." Later she wrote a second book, Crossing Borders, which begins with her being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and her return to Guatemala in 1994.
In accepting the Nobel Prize Rigoberta Menchú said that the honor she received recognized the struggle of many who have dared to speak the truth. We have broken the silence around Guatemala. Now I would like to see Guatemala at peace, with indigenous and nonindigenous people living side-by-side......We indigenous people, not just the Guatemalan people, deserve this prize. It is a gift of life, a gift for history and a gift of our time. Her goal is permanent recognition and respect for the rights of indigenous communities, and for peace and justice.
Menchú spent years lobbying the U.N. urging the world body to give nongovernmental organizations representing the dispossessed greater voice. As a result of her efforts, The United Nations declared 1993 the International Year for Indigenous Populations. In 1996 she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO. With her prize she helped found the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation which has aided the return of exiled Indigenous Guatemalans, initiated in 1993. In Guatemala, the Foundation is contributing to the expression of human rights through its campaign for civil participation and education for democracy and peace. It is monitoring the advances and shortcomings of the government with regard to indigenous communities. On the international level, the Foundation has played a major role in the Summits of Indigenous Leaders.
Menchú moved back to Guatemala, but on receiving death threats moved to Mexico City. In 2004 the new president of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, invited Menchú, to join his administration as "goodwill ambassador to the peace accords." In 2005, Rigoberta requested Spain to probe the abuses in Guatemala in the 1970s and 80s. Spains highest court has ruled that cases of genocide committed abroad could be judged in Spain even if no Spanish citizens had been involved. In Rigobertas eyes, any attempt to erase the evidence, and memory, of the past is like the second genocide against the people of Guatemala. The genocide case resulted in international arrest warrants for a number of perpetrators. "It is going to be very tortuous road, and it's a test of the Guatemalan justice system," Menchú said of the likelihood that the case will ever be heard in her country. She has also acknowledged that for her the struggle for human rights is permanent and ongoing.
To learn about Sarah Winnemucca, a 19th century North American Pauite woman who testified about the treatment of her people click here
For information about a unit on pre-Columbian Mayan women with excerpts from Rigoberta Menchús speeches click here


10-27-08, 9:28 am
Original source: People's Democracy
Despite heavy rain over several previous days, the skies cleared sufficiently early Wednesday (October 22) morning over Sriharikota to enable a textbook launch of India’s historic and first mission to the Moon. At the time of going to press, the Chandrayaan-1 satellite was in orbit around Earth awaiting a series of sling shots that would take it to its destination orbit around the Moon, after which the mission’s scientific studies would start.
Even though many crucial hurdles remain to be crossed, the successful launch itself has been greeted with euphoria in India and significant notice abroad. Chandrayaan (“vehicle to the moon” in Sanskrit) has been widely hailed as showcasing India’s growing and impressive capabilities in space technologies and as a welcome addition to the pool of scientific knowledge about the moon and, indirectly, about the Earth and the wider solar system. But it has also received some criticism, chiefly that such missions yield little tangible benefit, that developing countries like India can ill afford such esoteric experiments and that the considerable sums of money spent of them are incongruous in a nation still plagued by chronic poverty.
This article takes a close look at the goals and tools of the mission, its significance for India both in science and technology and in a broader strategic sense, and also examines the issues raised by critiques of this mission which may also apply to space exploration in general.
Chandrayaan in context
The Mission itself is certainly not pathbreaking within the overall context of international space exploration. Chandrayaan may be India’s first mission to the Moon, but there have been as many as 68 others.
The former USSR conducted the first moon mission on Jan 2, 1959, followed swiftly by the US in March the same year. Japan broke the superpower duopoly in January 1990 by sending a spacecraft to orbit the moon, but with mixed results, followed by the successful Kaguya launch in 2006. The European Space Agency (ESA) launched a lunar probe in September 2003 and China sent its spacecraft Chang-e 1 to orbit the Moon in 2007. India is therefore the sixth nation (counting the EU as one entity) to demonstrate its capability to reach the Moon and, at least nascently, beyond.
After the flurry of unmanned Moon Missions in the 60s, and the dramatic manned missions by the US starting in 1969, interest in the Moon waned, with no lunar missions for almost 15 years during the 80s and 90s. Of late, though, there has been a sharp revival in lunar missions, prompted partly by the arrival of new players in the space, and perhaps more so, by the availability of improved technologies with a promise of richer findings. The USA has announced a $100 billion programme to return to the Moon by 2018, with all-new launcher and lander, the Moon being used here to test technologies for an extensive Mars mission.
So the question is, is India merely reinventing the wheel in a “me too” mission?
The Indian Moon Mission, Chandrayaan, was approved by the government in November 2003 on the basis of a proposal by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) developed over several years of spade work and peer review. Whereas India has launched many a rocket and placed several satellites in orbit around Earth, Chandrayaan is India’s first mission out of the near-Earth environment into deep space, a term nominally used to describe space beyond 100,000 km from Earth. In that sense alone, the Mission marks a significant scaling-up of India’s space programme and of technologies in several fields.
Chandrayaan-1 was launched by an upgraded version of ISRO's work horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) with more powerful rockets and more propellant. This was the 14th PSLV launch, with only one failure, and a total of 29 satellites have been put into a variety of Earth orbits by them. The PSLV launch of the Chandrayaan, relatively heavy at 1,304 kg, and its accurate placement in transfer orbit, has solidified ISRO’s reputations as a reliable and cost-effective launch service provider, about which more later.
Perhaps the most significant technological up-scaling of India’s space capabilities under Chandrayaan has been the setting up of the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) consisting of an 18-m and a 32-m antenna at a new campus in Byalalu near Bengaluru. Whereas existing tracking stations are being upgraded to support the mission during the launch and early Earth Transfer Orbits up to a range of about 100,000 km, the new antennae will perform the tracking and control functions, and real-time downloading of information from the scientific instruments over the much greater distances of over 400,000 km involved in the lunar mission. More importantly, while the 18-m antenna is tailored specifically for Chandrayaan-1 mission, the state-of-art 32-m antenna can also support other planetary missions, for instance to Mars.
Mission and Payloads
So far only the first steps of the Mission have been covered. Chandrayaan was placed in its first orbit around Earth within about 18 minutes from launch and then into a highly elliptical orbit 22,858 km away from Earth at its longest (apogee) and 247 km away at its nearest (perigee). At suitable times, and after sufficient momentum has been gathered, the spacecraft’s motors would undertake a series of “sling-shot” firings to lift the craft to higher and more extremely elliptical orbits, the last with apogee at 386,194 km bringing it almost to the moon (see figure).
At around 200,000 km from Earth, the satellite will begin to experience significant pull from the Moon’s gravity, increasing as the craft gets closer to the Moon. At roughly 60,000 km from the Moon, the craft would have reached what is called Lagrange Point No.1 when it is ready for “capture” by Moon’s gravity. At this point, the craft is slowed down, allowed to be captured by the Moon, and its orbit further lowered to its ultimate intended 100 km circular orbit around the Moon where it will stay for two years.
Following this, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) would be ejected from Chandrayaan to crash onto the Moon’s surface, conducting various observations mostly on the way down but also after impact. Contrary to a lot of chatter in the media about “planting the Indian flag”, the MIP, having crashed, would be in no position to do this, but has been painted with the Indian tricolor to symbolically register India’s arrival on the Moon.
Chandrayaan carries 11 payloads, five Indian and six from different international partners, to carry out various tasks together contributing to the main scientific objectives of the Mission, namely to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the Moon covering both the bright and dark sides and to conduct detailed studies on the distribution of various important chemicals and minerals, on the existence and availability of water ice (so called to distinguish it from other frozen liquids) and others while also seeking to develop and test different instruments.
Images and information on the composition of the very thin lunar atmosphere and of the fine dust thrown up by the landing impact would be sent back by the MIP throughout its descent and landing, and are expected to be useful in planning future missions especially soft landings. The spacecraft’s Terrain Mapping Camera would send back three-dimensional images of the lunar surface with high spatial and altitude resolution of 10 metres or lower. All earlier moon missions, including the US and Soviet manned and unmanned lunar missions, have together only looked at a relatively small area of the Moon’s surface, mostly on the bright side, so Chandrayaan’s 3-D atlas of the Moon will be a major new contribution.
The other Indian payloads include a High Spectral Imager (HySI) which will gather and transmit high-resolution mineralogical data of the lunar surface and also about the Moon’s lower crust by looking in craters at material that could have been brought up by crashing meteorites. A Lunar Ranger Laser Instrument (LRLI) will study the Moon’s topography and especially its gravity field about which very little is known, using lasers rarely used on the Moon. Adding significant value to the data, a High-Energy X-Ray (HEX) Spectrometer will conduct so far the highest resolution X-ray studies whose main aim is to examine the possibility of water having traveled to the lunar poles.
The spacecraft carries six international payloads selected on the basis of an Announcement of Opportunity by ISRO which has levied no charge thus conveying its commitment to international scientific collaboration.
Chandrayaan is the first partnership of USA’s NASA with India’s space program. Given the hiatus in American lunar missions, and its declared intention to return to the Moon in 2018, Chandrayaan has given NASA an opportunity to explore and study new potential landing sites through a Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) which will also search for ice deposits near the lunar poles. NASA also has a Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) to map the composition and geographical distribution of mineral resources on the lunar surface, particularly on the permanently shadowed north and south polar regions.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has put on board 3 instruments which were also deployed on its earlier SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology) lunar probe, but which would study the Moon over greater area and more intensively on Chandrayaan-1. An X-ray Spectrometer would look for and assess quantities of several elements, particularly magnesium and iron, which could give a clue as to the history of the Moon such as whether its surface was earlier molten magma. An Atom Reflecting Analyser would try to track and capture images of atoms taking off due to solar wind activity in the absence of a magnetosphere or atmosphere on the moon, while another near-infrared spectrometer would examine the composition of the Moon’s surface.
A new and interesting experiment is the Bulgarian RADOM or Radiation Dome Monitoring Experiment which will study the effects of radiation in the lunar and near-lunar environments. Such radiation is known to be a hazard to humans during extended stay in space and this study is expected to result in better predictive ability and design of protection gear for future space crews.
Consensus in the global scientific community is that these instruments, along with the infrastructure and methodologies of their deployment, represent a considerable advance over earlier efforts at gathering scientific data on and about the Moon.
Cost and Benefits?
Whenever issues of space exploration are discussed, questions arise as to the benefit to humans of the knowledge or experience generated, and especially whether the cost justifies these benefits. And it is common for such discussions to veer around to the spin-off benefits of space technologies, famous examples being Velcro fasteners, non-stick pans, alternative applications for space suits and so on. Of course, all technology development, especially in unfamiliar or extreme environments (and space is both) will have spin-off benefits. But this writer has always believed that no amount of frying pans can be used to weigh cost-benefits of space science. Science has always advanced through the quest for new knowledge and pushing known boundaries. And practical applications and benefits to human society have always followed, somewhat later, but often in ways that could not have been predicted earlier. Should early humans have asked what benefits could be expected by observing and calculating the movement of planetary bodies?
Of course, society should always weigh the costs and foreseeable benefits of science and of the knowledge that is sought to be generated. In this case, some aspects need to be put in perspective.
It is well known that basic science research is the foundation of advanced technological capabilities of a nation, and that India has lagged far behind what is desirable in this regard for many decades now. The space program offers one of the unfortunately rare theaters of scientific activity that can give a fillip to basic research in the country. Peer review of the Chandrayaan mission proposal also noted this as one of the important considerations in giving it approval, as did the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology.
A lot of comment has been made about the “high cost” of Chandrayaan in a poor country such as India. The total cost of Chandrayaan is Rs 360 crore or about $80 million. This includes about $20 million for the Deep Space Network whose infrastructure will be available for all future deep space missions. Europe’s SMART-1 mission cost about $180 million which is itself about one-fifth of usual European scientific space missions. Japan’s Kaguya lunar probe cost $487 million and even China’s Change-1 cost $180 million.
Chandrayaan’s cost of $80 million is roughly equal to that of a medium-sized passenger aircraft such as the stretched version of the Boeing 737 which costs $75-80 million, while the long-haul Boeing 777 passenger jet required by Air India costs about $240 million!
Not only is the Chandrayaan cost effective relative to similar missions by other nations, this relative low cost is itself a tremendous advertisement for Indian space services in a highly competitive launch industry, and will help generate enormous revenues for ISRO and its commercial arm, Antrix.
The big question mark does not belong with Chandrayaan-1 but with the projected manned lunar mission currently spoken of in 2020. There is absolutely no evidence to support any additional benefit of manned lunar landings, as compared to, say, space crew spending extended periods in a space station. The cost would be enormous with little benefit to show for it except for some chest thumping.
Speaking of which, the media coverage of and comments about Chandrayaan have revealed two disturbing trends.
The first was unnecessary jingoism, going far beyond justified national pride. And the second, more seriously, was its extension in projecting national advantage rather than a gain for the common human heritage. Some commentators spoke of the planting of the Indian flag as giving the right to India to extract minerals from the Moon at some future date, reminding one of the worst of colonialism when Europeans went around planting national flags in other peoples’ countries and “claiming” these territories as their own to exploit. Even some ISRO spokespersons and retired space scientists have regrettably spoken grandly about the possibility of future extraction of minerals from the Moon. Unfortunately, the international Space Treaty of 1967 and the Moon Agreement of 1979 are both silent on both such exploitation and on militarization of the Moon. Rather than join the US and some other nations in a race to exploit the Moon or use it for military purposes, India should take the lead in pushing for international agreements to prevent militarization of the Moon and any use of the Moon, such as national or private exploitation, that does not benefit all of humankind without damaging our planetary neighbor like we have damaged our own planet.


Public Health England have published a new e-cigarette evidence review today, compiled by independent experts. Its key findings conclude:
- The risks associated with vaping are very small compared to those of smoking and there are significant health benefits in switching from smoking to vaping
- At least 20,000 smokers successfully quit each year with the help of e-cigarettes, contributing to an acceleration in the rate of people giving up smoking across the country
- There is a misconception that vaping is as harmful as smoking; in fact around 40% of smokers have not even tried an e-cigarette
- Less than 10% of adults realise that most of the harms to health from smoking are not caused by nicotine but by the toxic smoke
- The use of e-cigarettes in the UK has remained at the same level over the last few years at just under 3 million (6% of the population)
- The evidence does not support the concern that e-cigarettes are encouraging an increase in smoking among young people (youth smoking rates in the UK continue to decline, regular use is rare and is almost entirely confined to those who have smoked)
- There are around 79,000 deaths a year in England caused by smoking, with someone admitted to hospital from smoking every minute.
You can read the full report here.
Put the right insurance in place for your vaping business
Anthony Jones are a specialist e-cigarette insurance broker, with real experience of the vaping market. We take the time to understand your business and what you need from your insurance. If you want to be confident of having the right insurance in place, please get in touch. We don’t charge anything for our time or the advice we give. You can call us on 0208 003 9711, send us an email, or fill out our online proposal form.


In The Skillful Teacher, Stephen D. Brookfield emphasizes the importance of teaching that is contextually informed. He explains that this critical reflection is really identifying and questioning if in fact the content we are teaching is accurate and valid for the students. In order to do so there are four lenses through which we can check the accuracy of our actions and assumptions. The first, students’ eyes, is perhaps obvious but there are three others that provide feedback: colleagues perceptions, educational literature, and our own personal autobiographies (p. 20).
Brookfield, S. (2006). The skillful teacher: On trust, technique and responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.


A brief recap of what I have been discussing for the past 3 weeks…. I defined what perfectionism is which is a set of self-defeating thought patterns that push you to try to achieve unrealistic or unobtainable goals… I also differentiated between negative and positive perfectionism which are just to mention a few, negative perfectionist sees mistakes as signs of unworthiness on the other hand positive perfectionist sees mistakes and failures as part of growth. I also discussed the effects of negative perfectionism which are: procrastination, missed opportunities and so on…. I also mentioned causes of perfectionist behaviour in ourselves, root causes are mostly from childhood If you missed any of these series you can click on the links below:
Today I am wrapping up this series by discussing ways to manage or avoid extreme perfectionism
what are they?
When we surrender to the moment, to change, to messiness or imperfection, we allow the seeds of excellence to grow. Excellence is that drive toward raising ourselves up to our own highest good thereby allowing our unique gifts, talents, and personalities to benefit the highest good of all.
Excellence, unlike perfectionism, is about lovingly pushing ourselves to act, think, relate, and create from the highest part of ourselves.
Perfection is about controlling the outcome in order to receive love and acceptance. It’s all about fear. Surrender is about accepting where we are at in any moment, knowing that we are a work in progress.
- Be aware of your motivations for perfection
Ask yourself this question why are you a perfectionist? after reviewing all the traits I mentioned earlier on in the last 2 series… look at the 3 common motivations for being a perfectionist… maybe to be a better person, to be the best you can be and to do things right by others
Knowing these motivations serve to remind yourself of why you strive for perfection to begin with, after which you can use them to cross-check with your behaviour and see if your perfectionist tendencies actually serve you or pull you away from your vision of yourself.
For example, say you are a perfectionist because you want to achieve your best results in everything you do. Say you are preparing a presentation and you can’t seem to finish it because you keep finding things to edit. More specifically, these things you keep mulling over are little, nitty-gritty things, which don’t make a difference to the overall output.
It helps to review these questions: How does your obsession with trivial details help you to achieve your best results in life? Could you actually spend that time, elsewhere, in a more meaningful manner that enables you to achieve better results?
Make sure your perfectionism doesn’t turn into a self-sabotaging tool.
- Recognize that ideals are directions, not absolutes
Neurotic perfectionists tend to beat themselves up incessantly over little setbacks and thwarts to their plans. They tend to see them as “failures”; in their minds, they think: “If I don’t achieve my goal or vision, that means I’ve failed. There is no point in doing any of this anymore. I have no way to rectify this situation. It’s a lost cause.”
As a perfectionist, you should recognize that your ideals are directions to work towards and not absolutes which you need to achieve. It is not your ideals that are the problems here; it’s your attachment towards them which need correction.
Ideals are very good. Whatever ideals you have, continue to hold them, they drive you in your growth. Commit yourself to said ideals and goals. At the same time, don’t attach yourself to them. They are meant as to inspire, guide, and bring the best out of you, not to make you feel bad about yourself. If you ever feel bad about not achieving a certain ideal or goal, review your attachment with it, and let go of this attachment.
- Respect and love yourself
Are you beating yourself over something that could have been better? Let go of all these negative thoughts in your mind. You did what you could within that particular context. Recognize you are an individual with your own rights and integrity versus subjecting yourself to all the self-abuse and self-depreciation. Treat yourself with the respect you deserve.
- Focus on the big picture
Overcoming perfectionism requires you to start seeing the forest for the trees. Use prioritization techniques such as Time Management to aid you in identifying tasks which you should do and tasks which you should abandon altogether. For the tasks which you need to be involved in, use the 80-20 principle to help you gauge when to stop. Whenever a particular task is taking too much of your time, it is good to ask yourself ‘Does this matter in the bigger scheme of things?’. If it doesn’t, chuck it.
- Focus on what can be done
Forget about mistakes that were made in the past which you cannot do anything about. Learn from them and move on; obsessing over them does not change anything at all. Realize that the time you spend thinking about your mistakes actually takes you away from time which you can have spent on more productive things instead! Stop worrying about things that are not within your control, such as the future, past and perceptions by others. Plan for contingencies (proactive) but beyond that, do not waste your time mulling over it.
- Delegate and let go
Have faith in other people’s abilities and delegate tasks to them. If they do not seem to be doing a particular task right, teach and help them instead of taking over entirely. Teach a man how to fish so there is more fish for everyone, rather than doing all the fishing yourself and limiting the total output.
- Enjoy the entire process
The process is the longest part of achievement – enjoy it! Find ways to lighten it up – learn to laugh at yourself, take things positively, rest/eat/sleep/play when it is time to, take part in enriching recreational activities, do not deprioritize your social gatherings or time off from work.
- Celebrate the victories and progress made
Give yourself a pat in the back for everything that you do, regardless of the outcome. Reward yourself or other people if a good job is done. Give credit where credit is due. Wholeheartedly celebrate your victories when they come along—you have rightfully earned them!
10. Constantly remind yourself that buying into myths of perfection will hurt you and your life.
By watching too many movies, listening to too many songs and just taking in what the world is telling you it is very easy to be lulled into dreams of perfection. It sounds so good and wonderful and you want it. But in real life it clashes with reality and tends to cause much suffering and stress within you and in the people around you. It can harm or possibly lead you to end relationships, jobs, projects etc. just because your expectations are out of this world. It’s helpful to remind yourself of this simple fact. Whenever you get lost in a perfectionist head-space you remind yourself that it will cause you and your world harm. And so it becomes easier to switch your focus and thought patterns because you want to avoid making unhelpful choices and avoids causing yourself and other people unnecessary pain.
Food for thought
our imperfection gives us room to grow and become better people… There is beauty in the cracks in the wall, there is beauty in imperfection CELEBRATE OUR IMPERFECTIONS


In a new video, Professor N J Wildberger calls for the end of ‘infinity’
Norman J Wildberger is an Associate Professor in mathematics at UNSW (University of New South Wales) in Sydney Australia, and he has a PhD in mathematics from Yale. He is well-known for his excellent educational videos on YouTube and for being an Ultrafinitist. He voices some of his objections to the concept of ‘infinity’ in his recent video (below) “MathFoundations178: The law of logical honesty and the end of infinity”.
At 27 seconds into the video he announces “It’s time for us to face the music and expel infinity from mathematics”. He goes on to consider the physical universe and argues there are no “infinite things” in our world. He claims we cannot imagine an ‘infinite’ set, we only imagine we can imagine one. If we accept the existence of finite sets, does this mean other sets must exist that are ‘not finite’? Surely not, because if we can see a visible hotel it doesn’t mean an invisible one must exist, and if we have a moveable kitten it does not mean an immovable kitten must exist.
There is an argument that sets which are not finite must be infinite. This presupposes that both finite and “infinite” sets already exist, whereupon we could say the ones that are not finite are “infinite”. Professor Wildberger says “we don’t have such a pool of sets to begin with”.
Regarding the removal of infinity from mathematics, he warns “This is an argument that has enormous implications” and “a lot of mathematics really has to be re-thought”
You can watch the video below.
I (Karma Peny) posted a YouTube comment to highlight the issue that we have no clear statement to describe what mathematics is. I said that mathematics was originally devised to solve real-world problems and that it was underpinned by real-world physics. It’s apparent generic nature can create the illusion that mathematics has its own ‘existence’ and that it is not simply a tool based on real-world physics.
I compared the axiom ‘an infinite set exists’ with an axiom ‘the god of thunder exists’. We can claim both are consistent and cannot be disproved, but both these axioms are equally worthless and irrelevant in the real-world, just as are any deductions derived using these axioms. I concluded “It is often argued that the use of ‘infinity’ in mathematics has proven to be very successful, but the successes could be despite the use of ‘infinity’ rather than because of it. I suspect we will have more clarity and even more successes if we abandon the use of non real-world axioms”.
My comment attracted a brilliant response from YouTube user ‘Amonojack A’. Here is part of this response… “So-called ‘pure math’ was born out of the idea that it might be worth developing mathematical objects and relations that correspond to no physical situation yet discovered, but could. Seems noble enough. The problem came when people failed to keep track of context. They floundered into musing about things that not only had no known physical analog, but that couldn’t ever even conceivably have a physical analog”.
Professor Wildberger was so impressed with these comments that he published them both in their entirety here, on his own website.


In a living cell, hundreds to thousands different chemical reactions take place in parallel. However, many chemical reactions produce reactive or toxic compounds that could harm or even kill a cell. How do organisms protect themselves against such toxic intermediates? Now, scientists from the Center for Synthetic Microbiology in Marburg (SYNMIKRO) discovered that some cells produce proteinaceous nano-reactors inside which they perform hazardous chemical reactions.
A team around Tobias Erb at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany and member of the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) studied the bacterial enzyme propionyl-CoA synthase, which catalyzes three different reactions. One of these reactions produces the reactive compound acrylyl-CoA, which is chemically similar to acrylamide, a hazardous compound that has gained world-wide attention in the early 2000s. The Max Planck researchers became interested in understanding how bacterial cells that use propionyl-CoA synthase protect themselves against the toxic acrylyl-CoA formed by the enzyme.
“When we obtained the atomic structure of propionyl-CoA synthase, we were surprised to learn that the enzyme forms a small nano-reactor, which contains a central reaction chamber to sequester acrylyl-CoA”, said Iria Bernhardsgrütter the first author of the study. “Even when we perturbed the reaction sequence of the enzyme, it kept acrylyl-CoA effectively inside without any measurable leakage.”
But how does the nano-reactor control which reaction intermediates to keep inside? The trick is a dynamic regulation. The first reaction of the enzyme induces the closing of the reaction chamber, so that acrylyl-CoA is produced exclusively inside the closed enzyme. The central chamber is only opened again once acrylyl-CoA was converted further into a harmless product.
“It is amazing how nature built this small enzyme reactor that is so sophistically regulated” says Tobias Erb who directed the study. Proteinaceous containers were already known to biologists, but the one discovered by the SYNMIKRO Scientists is by far the smallest one ever reported. With an inner volume of 33 nm3 it is 1024 – or a trillion trillion times – smaller than a soccer ball. Additionally, it shows this precisely controlled opening and closing.
“We now hope to learn more about the building principle of this beautiful biocatalyst” says Erb. “Imagine we were able to build and use such reactors also for the chemical industry. These enzyme reactors could help us to perform challenging chemical reactions in an environmental friendly and sustainable manner in the future” concludes Erb. Besides being supported by the Max Planck Society, the study obtained support from the US Department of Energy, the European Union and Collaborative Research Center 987 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Originalpublikation: Bernhardsgrütter I, Vögeli B, Wagner T, Peter DM, Cortina NS, Kahnt J, Bange G, Engilberge S, Girard E, Riobé F, Maury O, Shima S, Zarzycki J, Erb TJ The multicatalytic compartment of propionyl-CoA synthase sequesters a toxic metabolite. Nature Chemical Biology (2018). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41589-018-0153-x


The “Development of the transport is one of the most important tasks” poster was used in Soviet Russia to encourage and justify the work of the people.
The image is one of modernity with a train towering over a man on a horse. This is intended to depict the power of a train in comparison to the traditional horse. Behind this image is one of numerous other trains zooming along their tracks.
During the Soviet era freight rail travel increased 55 times and passenger train travel increased 10 times. With vast expanse of the Soviet empire it was an important means of communications for the people from different sides of the country. The following article explains more about rail transport in the Soviet Union.
This is one of a series of posters which encouraged work and industry in the Soviet Empire during Stalins rain. Another in our collection of Soviet Propaganda Posters include the for proletarian Park of Culture and Recreation poster.


According to Wikipedia, ophidiophobia
is a particular type of specific phobia, the abnormal fear of snakes. It is sometimes called by a more general term, herpetophobia, fear of reptiles and/or amphibians. The word comes from the Greek words “ophis” (ὄφις) which refers to snake, and “phobia” (φοβία) meaning fear.
An ophidiophobe not only fears them [snakes] when in live contact but also dreads to think about them or even see them in video or still pictures.
About a third of adult humans are ophidiophobic, making this the most common reported phobia.
This post is a heads up to my readers (ophidiophobic or otherwise), the next four posts on this blog are going to be true snake stories. Consider yourself warned!
The image of the snake is from https://classroomclipart.com/clipart/Clipart/Animals/Reptile_Clipart/Snake_Clipart.htm.


Many people have trouble getting fiber in their daily diet. The goal is 20-35 grams of fiber a day. Fiber is found only in plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and legumes. Fiber is not digested and does not add calories. Making sure you have enough fiber in your diet helps lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and constipation.
Benefits of Fiber:
- Makes you feel fuller sooner and you feel full longer
- Slows the rise of blood sugar after eating
- Lowers blood cholesterol
- Prevents constipation
Two Types of Fiber:
- Found in bran, whole grains, some vegetables and nuts
- Helps prevent constipation. It increases stool volume and lets it pass easily through the intestines
- Found in oats, beans, citrus fruits and barley
- May help lower blood sugar and cholesterol
Increase fiber slowly. Adding it too quickly can cause diarrhea, gas and bloating. Increase by no more than five grams a day. Drink plenty of water and non-calorie fluids. A high fiber diet can cause constipation if you do not get enough fluid.
Ways to increase your fiber intake:
- Use brown rice rather than white rice.
- Include a bean dish at least once a week; add beans to salads.
- Use whole grain cereals that have at least four grams of fiber per serving; combine with fresh fruit.
- Eat whole fruit rather than drinking juice.
- Snack on fruits, vegetables, popcorn or high fiber crackers.
- Eat the skin on fruits and vegetables when possible.
- Increase vegetables portions at lunch and dinner
- With packaged foods, look for foods with at least two grams of fiber per 100 calories.
- Use whole grain bread rather than white bread. Whole grain should be the first item listed on the food label. Avoid large amounts of processed grains.
Average fiber content of foods
| Fruits || Serving Size || Grams of Fiber per Serving |
| Apple with skin || 1 medium || 3 |
| Figs, dried || 2 medium || 4 |
| Pear || 1 medium || 4 |
| Strawberries || 1 cup || 4 |
| || || |
| Grains, Cereals and Pasta || Serving Size || Grams of Fiber per Serving |
| Bran cereal || 1/3 cup || 8 |
| Brown rice, cooked || 1/2 cup || 2 |
| Pumpernickel bread || 1 slice || 3 |
| Whole wheat pasta || 1/2 cup || 3 |
| || || |
| Vegetables || Serving Size || Grams of Fiber per Serving |
| Broccoli || 1/2 cup || 2 |
| Brussel sprouts || 1/2 cup || 3 |
| Spinach || 1/2 cup || 2 |
| || || |
| Legumes, Nuts and Seeds || Serving Size || Grams of Fiber per Serving |
| Baked beans, canned || 1/2 cup || 3 |
| Lentils || 1/2 cup || 4 |
| Peanuts, dry roasted || 1/4 cup || 3 |
| Sunflower seeds || 1/4 cup || 2 |
Reference: The American Dietetic Association’s Complete Food & Nutrition Guide, Roberta Larson Duyff, MS, RD, CFCS, Chronimed Publishing, 1998, p. 150.