The competency of the Child witness to give evidence depends on the capacity of understanding and consistency of the witness. It is also to be seen how far it fits with the rest of the witness and it is a matter of prudence to weigh the evidence of a child witness to be accepted by the Judge.
Where there is no preliminary examination. It is the recorded statement of a child which ordinarily furnishes sufficient material to Judge the competency of the witness. If the recorded statement of a child witness shows that he or she has a rational understanding, it can’t be wiped off merely on account of the absence of voir dire.
A child of tender age may be allowed to testify if the Court is satisfied that he has the capacity to understand the questions put to him and give rational answers to those questions. The persons of seven or eight years have been allowed to depose if they were found capable of understanding the question and giving rational answers to those questions.
It is only a rule of prudence that there should be a record of the questions asked by the trial Court for ascertaining if the child witness understood the questions. The non-recording thereof cannot be gound for rejecting the testimony of a child witness if it otherwise appears to be reliable. Section 118 of the Evidence Act is in negative form and said that a witness of ten years shall be competent to testify unless the COurt considers that his tender age is likely to prevent him from understanding the questions put to him or from giving rational answers to these questions. A reading of the statement of the witness shows that he understood the questions put to him and gave rational to those questions. His conduct in running to the village and informing the other witnesses about the kidnapping provides sufficient strengthen this testimony and there was no reason to disbelieve him. In the first information report, it was mentioned that he had come to the village immediately after the kidnapping and informed the villagers about it. There could be no possibility of the witness being tutored to give the statement which he has given in the trial Court.
It was argued with a vehemence that the preliminary examination of a child witness is imperative and inadmissible. Admittedly, PW 1 is a child. Her age has been mentioned from 10 to 12 years in her statement. The statement does not show that any voir dire was made to judge her competency to testify. But the absence o voir dire does not render ipso facto the statement of a child witness admissible provided it cannot be gathered from the statement that he or she understood the questions and had given rational answers. Wher there is no preliminary examo=ination, it is the recorded statement of a child, which ordinarily furnishes sufficient material to Judge the competency of that witness. If the recorded statement of a child witness shows that he or she has a regional understanding, it cannot be wiped off merely on account of the absence of voir dire.
It is desirable that Judges and Magistrates should always record their opinion that the child understood the duty of speaking the truth and state why they think that otherwise, the credibility of the witness may be seriously affected, so much, so that in some cases it may be necessary to reject the evidence altogether. In the instant case, three test questions were put to the witness by the Sessions Judge, and her answers were recorded. No, where there is an indication available either in the Sessions Judge as to what opinion he had formed about the understanding capacity of the child. There is also no indication that it was evidence of this witness that cannot be relied upon for the purpose of sustaining the conviction.
A child’s evidence is not inadmissible merely because no oath was administered to it. Under Section 115 of the Evidence Act, all persons are competent to testify unless the Court considers that they are prevented from understanding the question put the Court considers that are competent to testify unless the Court considers that they are prevented from understanding the questions put to them or from giving rational answers to those questions by reasons of tender age. Thus the only test of competency is the capacity to understood questions and to give rational answers. From the preliminary questions put to the witness and the answers given by her, it is clear that she was able to give answers though she did not understand the implications of an oath. There is nothing in her evidence that is adverse to her veracity.
In Varkey Joseph v. the State of Kerala, quoted in Sudha Karan v. the State of Kerala, it was held as follows:
” It is very desirable that a trial Judge should preserve on record, apart from the evidence of a child witness in a case, the question be put to the witness in the preliminary examination and the answers which would help the appellate Court to come to the conclusion whether or not the trial Judge’s decision in regard to the competency of the child witness was right or wrong.”
The competency of a person to testify as a witness is a condition precedent to the administration to him of an oath or affirmation and is a question from his credibility when he had been sworn or affirmed. The Court is at liberty to test the capacity of a witness to depose by putting proper questions. It has to ascertain in the best way it can whether from the extent of his intellectual capacity and understanding he is able to give a rational account of what he has seen or heard on a particular occasion. If a person of tender years can satisfy those requirements his competency as a witness is established. The question of whether a witness has intelligence enough to understand the import and significance of questions or go give rational answers is not the same as the competency to testify, The Court has the discretion to form its own opinion whether a child witness has sufficient understanding to be qualified to be a witness. The questions of the capacity of the witness to testify are questions for the judge himself to decide.
Where there is no record of the Court’s opinion that the child understands the questions put to him but the Court proceeds to record the evidence, it must be taken that the Court considered the witness as competent to testify. There is no provision in law to ask preliminary questions to test the capacity of a child witness to testify, though it is always a wholesome course to be adopted. The object of such preliminary questioning is not to legalize the evidence but only to save the time of the Court not further progress in the examination of such of a child witness, if it is satisfied that the child witness is not a competent child witness. If, in fact, the child is examined as a witness, the best test of his capacity to testify is the evidence itself and the manner in which it is given.


By Stewart Fast, Queen’s University
There are now more than 18,000 grid-connected solar power generation sites in Ontario and more than 50,000 proposals for solar generation. Most of these sites are owned by individual households and some by community co-operatives like OREC. This is a significant change to the physical structure and ownership model of our electricity system. Instead of small numbers of very large electricity generation sites (e.g., three nuclear generation stations in all of Ontario) we see large numbers of very small electricity generation sites. In the past, the role of citizens in the electricity system was limited to being a consumer of electricity. Now citizens are pursuing the role of electricity producers.
What does this mean for decision-making and coordination of the electricity sector? What new perspectives do these citizen-producers bring to the table? These kinds of questions relate to what academics and policy-wonks often call “governance.” Governance is a broad term. At a very general level it means social and economic coordination or the “steering” of society. Governance implies a shift away from government by the state to governance by both state and non-state actors. By introducing thousands of electricity producers into the electricity sector, the governance of electricity in Ontario may be changing.
Here are three potential changes: (1) Increased energy literacy (2) Social license for new generation projects (3) More social cohesion and resilience in communities.
(1) Increased energy literacy . North Americans use three times more energy and emit three times more greenhouse gas per capita than the global average. Yet, few Canadians are aware of even the most basic facts about energy. A 2012 Senate report found “a disturbing lack of energy literacy, awareness and sophistication amongst Canadians” and declares “… improving energy literacy … essential for our prosperity now and in the future.” There is evidence in the academic literature that ownership of electricity production leads to greater awareness of the patterns of energy consumption, to feelings of empowerment and to citizens taking climate change more seriously. Intuitively this makes sense. Producers estimate, measure and compare electricity generation quantities and sources as part of their new role. Energy coops like OREC often have education as part of their mandate. A concrete example is OREC’s project at the Samuel Genest high school which provides a real-time and hands on learning experience with energy production to high school students and their parents.
(2) Social license for new generation projects. Ontario like other parts of the world faces severe problems around social acceptance of new electrical generation projects. From the cancelled natural gas plant scandal to a powerful social movement opposed to wind farms, Ontario energy planning desperately seeks legitimacy. Involving citizen-producers and energy co-ops like OREC may help to rebuild the trust and legitimacy of the planning process. In consultations conducted in 2013 by the Ontario Power Authority: Sixty-one percent (61%) indicated a preference to have their communities represented by citizens or community advocacy groups rather than the electricity utilities and local governments in energy planning. To a certain extent this is already occurring; in 2013 OREC joined with other community groups and solar businesses to advocate that regulatory agencies recognize planned regional transmission station upgrades. In other words, citizen-producers and energy coops are actors that are already engaged in a policy direction that the provincial government is pushing for: that is for regional actors take more responsibility for their own energy needs; be it new generation, conservation or transmission and distribution changes.
(3) More social cohesive and resilient communities. Joint ownership of solar electricity generation such as the model pursued by OREC brings citizens together in a shared activity. It creates linkages between neighbours and serves to build social capital and cohesion in communities. Strong communities are more resilient to all types of hazards. Social capital and community resilience will the topic of an upcoming blog.
Hear more about OREC and implications for governance of the electricity sector on Feb 10 at the University of Ottawa.


General Situation of GM crops in Portugal
Pilot survey conducted by the Conservation Agriculture Association (APOSOLO, Portugal, www.aposolo.pt)
Agriculture accounts for 2.5 per cent of GDP and employs 11.7 per cent of the workforce. Despite its overall importance to the economy, Portugal’s agricultural productivity remains lower than the EU average due to low sector investment, and limited adoption of new farming technologies and fertilizer usage. Crop production has also been impacted by severe drought in past years.
Olives (250 200 ha); grapes (181 200 ha); maize (95 700); wheat (60 400 ha); potatoes (25 800 ha). A combination of abiotic (e.g., recurrent droughts) and biotic stresses (e.g., a range of insect pests and fungal diseases that affect olive and grape production) result in heavy yield losses and increased pesticide use.
Ongoing research on key agricultural crops focuses on in vitro propagation and marker-assisted selection to address production constraints. GM approaches are very limited. This is reflected in a very low number of experimental field trials for GM crops in recent years, which are predominantly carried out by the international private sector.
Insect-resistant GM maize is approved for commercial cultivation since 1999. Portugal’s legal framework follows the relevant EU Directives, including those on labeling and traceability. In addition, there are detailed technical requirements for farmers producing GM crops, including mandatory notification of the State and adjacent farmers, and completing mandatory training. Autonomous regions, such as Madeira, have declared themselves “GMO-free”.
Experiences of farmers
Insect-resistant GM maize is grown in around 7 900 ha in 2011, compared to around 4 900 ha in 2010. The increased adoption is due to a higher overall maize area and severe corn borer attacks in previous growing seasons. GM maize farmers generally experienced higher crop yields and increased incomes per hectare. Farmers’ associations do not have a common position on GM cultivation. The Portuguese Farmer Confederation tends to support GM technology, while the National Confederation of Agriculture has a clear position against GM crops.


Home Page Sample
In a small party with people standing and talking in pairs, each member of a pair stands at a “socially acceptable” distance from the other and the two can hear each other without any trouble. However, if the density of people in the room increases, why does hearing become more difficult, and what does each member of a pair do in response? Why can a voice still be distinguished? You might notice these same effects in many other environments, such as a noisy restaurant or subway car.
As the density of people increases, the background noise of their conversations (sounds coming directly to you from them plus sounds reflecting from the walls and ceiling, as well as from other people) also increases. When the background noise becomes about as loud as the conservation you are having, you and your partner automatically raise your voices, an effect known as the Lombard effect, after Etienne Lombard who studied the phenomenon in 1911. Because all the other pairs of people have the same problem of hearing, they also raise their voices and so, you still have a problem hearing your partner. At some point, to avoid screaming, you and your partner step closer than normal (inside the “personal space” of one another). If someone quiets the party, say for an announcement, and then the conversations resume, the voice levels quickly (exponentially with time) return to their former values. The Lombard effect has been studied in some animals, such as birds that automatically raise the sound level of their calls when confronted with increased background sounds from other birds.
If someone were to record your conversation with your partner, using a single microphone, and then play it back later (in a quiet room), you probably would not be able to distinguish your partner’s words as well as you did when you heard them “live.” The difference is that, in person, you hear the partner with two ears---the slight delay between what the ears hear and the slight difference in sound intensities at the ears help you to distinguish your partner’s voice from the on slaught of other voices. The effect is dubbed the cocktail party effect. Being able to see your partner’s mouth motion and “bodylanguage” can also help you fill in for words or even for entire sentences that you did not hear clearly. None of these clues are available if you listen to a single-microphone recording of the conversation. Then you must use other clues, such as searching for intelligent thoughts or recognizable tones buried in the background noise. Being able to pull a conversation out of such background noise is sometimes too easy, such as when you can easily hear the voice of an audience member who was sitting near the recorder when a bootleg recording of a concert was made. Being able to recognize familiar sounds in a noisy background is used by some animals, such as a chick king penguin hearing its parents in the din produced by thousands of other nearby king penguins.


The integration of emerging countries into world trade, particularly China, has disrupted global trade and production chains. The Chinese and Korean examples show that this integration process is taking place in successive phases. Starting with a specialisation based on their comparative advantage, emerging countries then diversify their production before specialising again by moving upmarket and reducing their dependence on foreign inputs.
The integration of emerging countries, particularly China, into world trade has upended the trade landscape and global production chains over the last 30 years.
To illustrate this process, we can look at emerging economies through three distinct, but interrelated perspectives: (i) their level of integration into global value chains (proxied by the import content of their exports); (ii) the degree of specialisation of their exports; and (iii) their share of low-end versus high-end exports.
An analysis of international value-added trade data suggests that emerging countries followed a strategy of integrating into global trade in successive stages. Like China, these countries initially benefited from being specialised according to their respective comparative advantages in global value chains, before diversifying their production and exports and ultimately specialising again as they upscaled their manufacturing capabilities. This latter phenomenon has been accompanied by a movement up the value chain for these sectors of specialisation, a process called re-insourcing by which a country gradually lowers its dependence on the foreign inputs needed to produce such goods (electronic components, machines) by increasing the share of local manufacturing in exports.
Consequently, the relationship between a country's level of integration into global value chains and its level of economic development does not appear to be linear. A trend towards re-insourcing certain stages of production of global value chains is currently under way in several emerging Asian countries, raising the question of what will come next for their integration.


Spirulina: the latest and greatest superfood yet? spirulina tablets: the most nutritious natural wholefood gram per gram in the world.
Spirulina is a microalga native to alkaline lakes in hot climates. Spirulina is the most nutritious wholefood rich in natural vitamins (not synthetic), minerals and antioxidants and contains no sugars, and is low in fat, saturates and calories.
Spirulina has large amounts of pro-Vitamin A necessary for good skin, eyes and the immune system. Spirulina contains Vitamin B12 necessary for the normal structure and function of the brain and neurological system.
Spiralyne spirulina has many phytonutrients; it is 31 times more powerful than blueberries and 60 times more powerful than spinach.
If you compare the nutrients in Spiralyne spirulina tablets to other foods you will find it has;
· 290% more calcium than whole milk
· 830% more protein than tofu
· 4500% more beta carotene than carrots
· 8000% more iron than spinach
(Based on a typical analysis of Spiralyne spirulina and the above foods).
Furthermore, there is more antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity in 3 grams of spirulina than in five servings of fruits and vegetables . It is for these reasons and others that spirulina is called a superfood and is said to be ‘the most nutritious natural wholefood known to man’.
Spirulina can prevent malnutrition; an issue that doesn’t only affects poorer countries. Healthy eating is an issue that affects many of people in the U.K. The British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition estimate that at least 3 million people in the UK alone are suffering or at risk of malnutrition. Spirulina can help many people by ensuring their intake of many of the nutrients required.
In fact, spirulina’s remarkable nutritional properties have attracted interest from space agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency that have been researching spirulina to feed to their astronauts in space.
Spirulina has other properties that are even more special; it contains a variety of antioxidants such as beta-carotene and C-Phycocyanin that inhibit the damage caused to the body (DNA, RNA and cell structures) by free radicals. A Japanese study on spirulina isolated a ‘new’ compound named ‘calcium spirulan’ that is highly effective fighting infectious diseases supporting the immune system.
To find out more about the remarkable properties of spirulina, please visit: http://www.spiralyne.co.uk
 Moorhead K, Capelli B, Cysewski G (2005), Nature's Superfood: Spirulina ISBN #0-9637511-3-1


The Roman aqueduct of Mytilene is one of the most important technical works of antiquity, probably dating to the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century AD. It has strong elements of classicism which is why it was considered as “Hadrianic”. It was built to transport water from the springs of Olympus to the ancient city of Mytilene, on a route of about 28 km. It is estimated that it supplied the city with 127,000 cubic meters of water per day.
The project’s engineer was a real genius who achieved a continuous water flow over irregular terrain with different ground levels by bridging the valleys with rows of arches for the water conduits to be placed across. Sections of aqueducts and pipelines are still preserved at various points along the route.
The most impressive part of the aqueduct is the water bridge with its tiers of arches that survives in Moria,with a length of 170 m and a maximum height of 26 m. It comprises 17 pillars made of carved stone plinths, while the arches of the upper tier bearing the water conduit are made of solid brick. The pillars and tholites of the arches are of local marble.
However, the monument’s long exposure to the weather conditions, its foundations resting on a torrent bed and particularly the recent increased seismic activity in the Lesvos region, have contributed to the deterioration of the aqueduct’s strength and stability. The recent earthquakes that hit the area caused the vault bricks of the central arch of the water bridge to visibly give way, resulting in the need for immediate measures to be taken to secure critical areas of the monument.
The response of the Ministry of Culture and Sports was immediate. By decision of Lina Mendoni, the Directorate for the Restoration of Ancient Monuments was financed with 90,000 euros to prepare a study for evaluating the condition of the aqueduct, its topographic documentation and photogrammetric mapping, as well as taking immediate measures to stabilize its structure.
At the same time, by a new decision of the Minister, the Lesvos Ephorate of Antiquities is being subsidized with 30,000 euros, to proceed with clearing the area, removing unsuitable and rusty scaffolding and fencing the monument. Lastly, as the monument is located on land not yet expropriated, the Ephorate of Antiquities in collaboration with the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture is preparing the expropriation file to be submitted immediately to the Central Archaeological Council for legal opinion.


We are at a history-shattering point of transition, where resources and energy will not be scarce, and will never again be scarce. In the past half century, humanity has developed technological capabilities which are now growing exponentially. The best known example is Moore’s Law: that the number of transistors we can put on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. In a cell phone, one person has at his or her fingertips more computing power than NASA used to put astronauts on the moon forty-four years ago. The only things holding us back are old thinking in the Malthusian mold that denies the possibility of technological solutions; and old ideologies of political economy that prevent us from reforming the financial and monetary systems for the common good and to pay for what we need to do.
Economics today is hopelessly confused by a myriad of definitions for “capital”, “wealth” and even “money”. An economy is simply how a society organizes itself to procure, produce, and distribute the material, non-material, cultural, and spiritual goods and services required to sustain and reproduce human life at ever higher levels of happiness, security, and well-being. All else are really superfluities. Therefore, the major concern of economics should be the nurturing and deployment of the human mentation required to find and transform the natural resources required, and managing the scientific and industrial structures required.
In other words, the development of science and technology.
The progress of human technology can roughly be summarized as moving ever further down 1) a spectrum of energy density and 2) molecular and atomic scale. From the rapidly diffused light and heat of burning wood twigs, we have progressed to concentrate fire in boilers, then in internal combustion engines, and are now mastering the techniques of directing and manipulating single molecules, atoms, and even photons. We can now perform surgery on genes, and arrange individual atoms. These technologies are all breathtakingly recent in the context of known human history.
The implications are enormous. Almost every economics textbook I have seen – and I have acquired quite a few and looked at many, many others for just this reason – begins with some definition or other involving the allocation of scarce resources. People who have suffered through an Econ 101 course know that scarcity is central to mainstream economic thinking. In the best selling textbook on macroeconomics, economist H. Gregory Mankiw writes near the bottom of the first page:
The management of society’s resources is important because resources are scarce. Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and services wish to have. Just as each member of a household cannot get everything he or she wants, each individual in a society cannot attain the highest standard of living to which he or she might aspire.I will put this as simply as possible: Mankiw’s and all other’s arguments that resources are scarce is a smokescreen that prevents us from seeing how rich oligarchs manipulated national economies. (Mankiw was George W. Bush’s chief economist, and earlier this year wrote a piece entitled “Defending the One Percent” – honest, not joking, that’s Mankiw’s title).
The typical environmentalist belief that the planet’s resources are finite falls right into this trap. What we consider as resources is defined by our ability to access and process them – in other words, our technology. As Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler argue in their book, February 2012 book, Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
When seen through the lens of technology, few resources are truly scarce; they’re mainly inaccessible. Yet the threat of scarcity dominates our worldview.Thus, the most important economic activity human beings undertake is scientific research. But I am here to tell you that no economics textbook I have seen has ever discussed the overriding importance of scientific and technological development and deployment. They all, therefore, lack a sound foundation for actually assisting the human species in our task of surviving and thriving. Aluminum, for example, is ridiculously abundant. It is, after oxygen and silicon, the third most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, accounting for 8.3 percent of the world’s weight. Yet, until relatively recently in human history, the use of aluminum by humans was far more scarce than the use of gold or silver. It was not until 1886 that the Hall-Heroult process was developed, using electricity to extract aluminum from its ore, bauxite, and aluminum became cheap and plentiful. Diamandis and Kotler argue that
technology is a resource liberating mechanism. It can make the once scarce the now abundant.But many progressives and liberals object that our world is overpopulated, and the planet simply cannot support a high standard of living for nine billion people. We are already using thirty percent more natural resources than the planet can sustain. Diamandis and Kotler explain example after example of new technologies that will solve this problem. Such as nano-engineered filters for making drinking water from the most heavily polluted sources, to new materials that will allow us to build photovoltaics without semiconductors, reducing the cost of solar energy by not one, but several orders of magnitude.
Just as important – and as hopeful – as these new technologies, is the fact, demonstrated over and over and over again, that as a society becomes more prosperous, more economically secure, and healthier, the birth rate drops dramatically. In fact, the birth rate collapses. We have seen this happen in Britain and the USA in the mid-1800s, in Japan in the late 1800s, in South Korea in the 1960s, in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and India more recently. In a number of advanced industrial countries, such as Italy and Japan, the birth rate is now actually insufficient, and the populations of those countries are shrinking. Diamandis and Kotler write:
John Oldfield, managing director of the WASH Advocacy Initiative, which is dedicated to solving global water challenges, explains it this way: "The best way to control population is through increasing child survival, educating girls, and making knowledge about and availability of birth control ubiquitous. By far the most important of these is increasing child survival. In communities where childhood death rates hover near one-third, most parents opt to significantly overshoot their desired family size. They will have replacement births, insurance births, lottery births — and the population soars. It’s counterintuitive, but eradicating smallpox and vaccine-preventable disease and stopping diarrheal diseases and malaria are the best family planning programs yet devised. More disease, especially affecting the poor, will raise infant and child mortality which, in turn, will raise the birth rate. With fewer childhood deaths, you get lower fertility rates — it’s really that straightforward."What about water shortages? Only 2.7 percent of the water on the planet is non-salty and usable for human consumption. Right now, one billion people have no clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. Dean Kamen has developed a water distiller that recovers 98 percent of the energy it uses and can produce 250 gallons of sterile water per day. The power source is a Stirling engine that really can burn almost anything, such as rice husks. Others have invented machines that process human wastes and turn them into electric power.
Energy? In sub-Saharan Africa, 70 percent of people live with no access to electricity – yet one square kilometer of land soaks up from the sun the energy equivalent of 1.5 million barrels of oil. Deploy enough photovoltaics, and Africa has a huge surplus of energy it can export to Europe. University of Michigan physicist Stephen Rand discovered a way of creating magnetic fields one hundred million times stronger than what the known, accepted “laws” of physics had previously predicted was possible. The result of this research will hopefully be a way of making photovoltaics without semiconductors, reducing the cost of solar energy by not one, but several orders of magnitude.
Global climate change? Diamandis and Kotler describe the SunShot Initiative by the U.S. Department of Energy
….now funded the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a $122 million multi-institution project being led by Caltech, Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. JCAP's goal is to develop light absorbers, catalysts, molecular linkers, and separation membranes-all the necessary components for faux photosynthesis. "We're designing an artificial photo-synthetic process," says Dr. Harry Atwater, director of the Caltech Center for Sustainable Energy Research and one of the project's lead scientists. "By 'artificial,' I mean there’s no living or organic component in the whole system. We're basically turning sunlight, water, and CO, into storable, transportable fuels — we call 'solar fuels — to address the other two-thirds of our energy consumption needs that normal photovoltaics miss." Not only will these solar fuels be able to power our cars and heat our buildings, Atwater believes that he can increase the efficiency of photo-synthesis tenfold, perhaps a hundredfold-meaning solar fuels could completely replace fossil fuels. "We're approaching a critical tipping point," he says. "It is very likely that, in thirty years, people will be saying to each other, 'Goodness gracious, why did we ever set fire to hydrocarbons to create heat and energy?’ “And what about the carbon we have already dumped into the atmosphere? Dr. David Keith at the University of Calgary has developed technology that actually removes CO2 from the air. Can the technology be scaled up to actually make a difference and undo the damage already done? With enough cheap energy, it probably can.
Technology is developing so fast, it is hard to keep up. I receive a newsletter on developments in photonics, and here’s a very small sample of recent news: November 23, 2013: Superconducting Detector Measures Single Photons
A new superconducting detector array that can measure the energy of individual photons is seen as a likely successor to CCDs [charge-coupled devices] and other semiconductor-based detectors for the visible and near-infrared regions, which are starting to hit performance limits.November 14, 2013: Seeing A Photon Without Absorbing It
"What we have made is essentially a hyperspectral video camera with no intrinsic noise," said Ben Mazin, assistant professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara, of the array that he and his team developed. "On a pixel-per-pixel basis, it's a quantum leap from semiconductor detectors; it's as big a leap going from film to semiconductors as it is going from semiconductors to these superconductors.
All current methods of detecting light share a common property: absorption and thus destruction of a photon. It has been a long-standing dream to be able to watch individual photons fly by without absorbing them. A team of scientists in the Quantum Dynamics Division of Prof. Gerhard Rempe at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics has now for the first time realized a device which leaves the photon untouched upon detection.November 13, 2013: Researchers rewrite entire genome, add healthy twist
In the experiment, the incoming photon is reflected off an optical resonator containing a single atom prepared in a superposition state. The reflection changes the superposition phase which is then measured to trace the photon. The new method opens up the perspective to dramatically increase the detection efficiency of single light quanta and has important implications for all experiments where photons are used to encode and communicate quantum information. The key elements in the experiment are a single rubidium atom and an optical cavity.
Scientists from Yale and Harvard have recoded the entire genome of an organism and improved a bacterium's ability to resist viruses, a dramatic demonstration of the potential of rewriting an organism's genetic code.October 23, 2013: Study Finds Natural Compound Can Be Used For 3-D Printing Of Medical Implants
Researchers from North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Laser Zentrum Hannover have discovered that a naturally-occurring compound can be incorporated into three-dimensional (3-D) printing processes to create medical implants out of non-toxic polymers. The compound is riboflavin, which is better known as vitamin B2....This last reminds me of one of the most exciting developments Kotler and Diamandis discuss: the work of tissue-engineer Anthony Atala at Wake Forest University Medical Center, who led a team that modified a desktop laser printer to print with each pass one layer of stem-cell based specific tissue cells and were able to “print” a mini-kidney in a few hours. They don’t write how long the mini-kidney survived in the lab, but did mention that the organ was secreting a urine-like substance.
The researchers in this study focused on a 3-D printing technique called two-photon polymerization, because this technique can be used to create small objects with detailed features – such as scaffolds for tissue engineering, microneedles or other implantable drug-delivery devices.
Two-photon polymerization is a 3-D printing technique for making small-scale solid structures from many types of photoreactive liquid precursors. The liquid precursors contain chemicals that react to light, turning the liquid into a solid polymer. By exposing the liquid precursor to targeted amounts of light, the technique allows users to “print” 3-D objects.
We are at a history-shattering point of transition, where resources and energy will not be scarce, and will never again be scarce. A truly golden age of economic prosperity and bounty is closer than most of us realize, but we are quite literally killing ourselves by clinging to ideologies that were hammered out when famine was the norm, cholera swept away millions, and the average human being could expect to live only somewhere between 30 and 40 years. . We will soon be at a point that we can give every person on the planet a decent standard of living. Not the wasteful sol of the contemporary USA, but enough that no person, anywhere, for any reason, need experience hunger or cold or deprivation But, we have rich pricks who have poured billions of dollars into promoting and propagating the idea that poor people deserve the hardships and indignities they suffer.
It already is seen as a “structural problem” that our industrial systems are now so productive and efficient, that they cannot be a source of good, steady, well-paid jobs for tens or millions of people. So we’re supposed to now accept that because of this marvelous advance in human know-how and capability, tens of millions of people who can no longer find a well-paying factory job have to settle for the marginal wages of Wal-Mart or McDonalds? I refer people to thereisnospoon on DailyKos a week ago, The glorious, dystopian future envisioned by our libertarian masters, attacking Tyler Cowen who wrote to welcome a possible future in which 15% of the population “succeeds” and the rest must learn to get by on what they are provided by whatever welfare system society devises.
We are at the point where everything we need can be produced by only 20 to 50% of the population, depending on what country and its stage of industrial / technological development. So, we need to develop an ideology in which “structural unemployment” is not accepted as an excuse for hundreds of millions — billions, really — of people being left in poverty. We need, in fact, an ideology which does not accept poverty under any excuse. We have the means at hand to eliminate poverty and privation. Will we allow some the “freedom to believe” in ideologies that prevent us from doing so? I ask in retort: what right has anyone to “trade” hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars when we have such a bright future to build, if only we summon the will to finance it? There have been a few already who have warned about a future in which the rich are able to use new technologies to genetically perfect themselves and their offspring, while the vast majority of the human race is subjugated by new ideologies that will consequently be developed to justify the rule by a small class of the wealthy bio-engineered to be “genetically superior.”
Which brings me to my criticisms of Diamandis and Kotler. I see three problems with their book. First, they are completely wedded to neo-liberal market solutions, and appear to have no desire to challenge, let alone change, the status quo in the industrialized west which is increasingly under the boot of, as Pope Francis recently said, the new tyranny of capitalism. Any economic system must be run to benefit the general welfare. This was well understood at the time of the American Revolution, but it is now lost knowledge. Did you know that the words “capitalism”, “capitalist” and “capitalistic” do not appear anywhere in The Federalist Papers, let alone the U.S. Constitution? (There is a website where you can search the text of these documents, and I’ve done the searches).
Rather than challenging the rise of the global corporatist state and its inverted totalitarianism of manufactured consent, Diamandis and Kotler promote the charity work done by what they call the technophilanthropists, the info-tech billionaires like Bill Gates, who are funding much of the work of deploying these new technologies in underdeveloped countries, and who are also approaching the charity work they do from a largely neo-liberal market perspective.
Second, Diamandis and Kotler simply do not comprehend how large and ugly are the problems of greed, economic rent, regulatory capture, and the grasping rich. For every technophilanthropist trying to do good, there is probably more than one Jamie Dimon or David / Charles Koch doing no good (i.e., evil, according to the definition by St. Augustine). Diamandis and Kotler simply are not attuned to the fact that a new oligarchy has arisen that is destroying democracy and representative government. As the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, William Dudley, recently shocked Wall Street in a speech, there is an
important problem evident within some large financial institutions—the apparent lack of respect for law, regulation and the public trust. There is evidence of deep-seated cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions.Finally, Diamandis and Kotler do not understand or simply did not discuss the problem, of who controls the creation and allocation of money and credit. The control of money and credit by a small clique of oligarchs, centered in Wall Street and the City of London, but including other centers such as the futures markets in Chicago, is the major obstacle to making forward progress against these existential problem. Simply put, our financial and monetary systems must be reorganized and reformed to serve the general welfare, instead of private gain.
An article in Scientific American two years ago projected a total cost of moving the world’s economies entirely off of fossil fuels at $100 trillion. There is enough solar energy hitting one square kilometer of desert in Africa to supply all the electricity needed - in all of Europe as well as Africa.
All we need to do is build the new industrial economies to harvest and harness this energy. The only things holding are back are old thinking in the Malthusian mold that denies the possibility of technological solutions; and the problem of paying for what we need to do. And to pay for what we need to do, we simply need to stop the speculators and usurers of Wall Street, the City of London, and the futures pits of Chicago, from misusing some $5 trillion in financing each and every day.
So, what future do you want to build? One in which we spend $100 trillion over the next decade or two to give everybody on the planet freedom from starvation, poverty, and illness? Or one in which financial elites are allowed to play games with $5 trillion every day? Do you want to build a future for which our children, and their children, will thank us, or curse us?


The results of collective US trials by Australian ag-tech development company Bio-Gene Technology (ASX: BGT) have confirmed the natural compound product Flavocide can control the Anopheles gambiae mosquito species which carries malaria and is increasingly resistant to commonly-used sprays.
Conducted at Purdue University’s world-leading entomology faculty which specialises in vector control, the trials showed that mosquitoes landing on a surface treated or coated with Flavocide were knocked down instantly.
Separate tarsal (foot) assay studies also helped identify compounds which may be effective for use in insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual sprays – widely considered the most effective means of controlling malaria mosquitoes.
At least 700 million insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed in Africa this millennium.
Bio-Gene chief executive officer Richard Jagger said the findings signify a potential breakthrough in future mosquito treatment.
“These results provide [us] with an opportunity to impact how the world manages the increasing threat of these vector borne diseases,” he said.
“We look forward to presenting these data to key stakeholders in the field of vector control globally in order to help bring this technology to market.”
Disease-carrying mosquitoes have proven to be increasingly resistant to synthetic pyrethroids – the insecticide class commonly used since the 1970s as a control mechanism.
Bio-Gene’s trials demonstrate Flavocide can be active against resistant populations of major species that carry diseases such as malaria, Zika virus and dengue fever.
Flavocide is an insecticide (a nature identical molecule) based on a natural compound found in Australia’s eucalypt trees, which is rapidly toxic to adult mosquitos through body or foot contact.
Its ingredients are believed to have a reduced impact on non-target species and is up to 5,000 times safer to bees by oral ingestion compared to other chemical products – notably neonicotinoids – which are generally associated with bee toxicity.
Mr Jagger said the product is among the next generation of insecticides developed to address global problems of insecticide resistance and toxicity.
According to World Health Organisation figures, more than half the world’s population is currently at risk from vector-borne diseases, while globally there are more than 200 million cases of malaria.
More than 400,000 people die from the disease every year, most of them children under the age of five.
Zika virus has been declared a global health emergency, and death due to dengue fever has increased by a multiple of 30 in the last 50 years.
In 2017, the organisation reported that collectively, mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and Zika cause over 700,000 deaths every year and are known to exacerbate poverty and prevent economic development.
The effectiveness of currently-used insecticides is diminishing due to mosquito resistance and Flavocide has been identified as a potential new product to address the issue.


The stages in the inflammatory response that follows a bacterial infection resulting from a cutaneous wound.
Click on “Labels” to view them, and on or to play/stop the animation.
When our skin is damaged, tissue lesions caused by a physical wound or a micro-organisms’ intrusion provoke an inflammatory response. This painful reaction allows sterilization of the wound, which…
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With the outbreak of the coronavirus, Special Olympics wants you to stay safe. Washing your hands properly is just one way to help do that.
In the Expert Tip video series, Special Olympics athletes share their know-how on a range of helpful and popular topics.
For Global Handwashing Day, October 15, Nyasha Derere, a Health Messenger from Special Olympics Zimbabwe, shared these video tips on proper hand washing techniques.
6 Steps of Washing Your Hands:
Step 1: Wet your hands under running water.
Step 2: Apply soap to your wet hands.
Step 3: Wash your hands for 20 seconds (don’t forget to scrub between your fingers, under your nails, and the tops of your hands).
Step 4: Rinse your hands well under the water.
Step 5: Dry your hands.
Step 6: Turn the water off with your paper towel.
For more information about the Coronavirus visit www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus.


Medieval knights had the benefit of suits of armor to protect them at work. We dress for success but our up-to-date fashion does not protect us from the slings & arrows we may encounter in our workday. Nor do uniforms: in fact, if you wear a uniform, you may find yourself the target of frustration and anger. The bus driver deals with short-tempered commuters. Service staff in the restaurant deal with demanding customers. Customers deal with other customers – the pushy ones confront the polite ones.
In every form of interaction, there is a chance of misunderstanding, unmet expectations, or disappointment. There are situations that try us and people who frustrate us. We can maintain our personal balance in dealing with the situations and people by empathizing with them.
Empathy is a skill, much like any other. It may also be called a talent. What kind of skill? It’s a social skill. Some people are naturals; others appear somewhat clueless and need to learn. Merriam-Webster defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this.”
“When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering,” says Matthieu Ricard (a French scientist, born 1946, who walked away from science in 1972 to devote his life to Buddhism.)
This example shows the wide sweep of empathy. Examples of empathy range from small gestures of everyday courtesy, to profound identification with a person or cause.
When we empathize with someone, we identify with that person. It’s different from sympathy. When we offer sympathy, we are separate. When we empathize, we are joined.
Regardless of where you work, you will come into contact with two categories of people: you co-workers and everyone else. You have an on-going relationship with your co-workers. You may have friendly connections with staff at the lunch counter, the coffee shop, your courier, the cleaning staff, suppliers, and your customers. Many people deal with customers in person, by phone, email, or all three.
Customer service reps get trained in how to respond to frustration, aggravation, and even insults. The language they use contains words of apology: “I’m sorry. I apologize.” They say, “I understand,” and “I would feel the same.” They offer support, reassurance, and solutions. It may be the 12th such problem they have encountered that day, but they communicate concern, and a willingness to help out.
Customer service reps know that concern is a key feature of service. They pay attention to the customer, show that they understand the issue, and offer solutions. What they are showing is empathy. You don’t have to agree. The essential element is to show that you are listening, and that you understand.
Empathy gets a lot of attention in today’s business world. Business leaders believe it is a valuable quality, which will improve the workplace, and as a result, help the business.
They are eager to climate of empathy in the workplace. One way of looking at it is, empathy opens doors that were previously shut tight. Empathy encourages communication; sparks creativity; and helps solve problems.
Empathy communicates respect and concern. Empathy requires time to pay attention to another person. Listening is one of the keys that unlock empathy. When you are with someone else, do you listen to them? What are your thoughts? Do you hear what they say, or are your thoughts on what to pick up for dinner, or which movie to order?
Empathy is the impetus for change. It is the force behind many non-profit organizations. With the growing sophistication of social media, we develop connections with people far away.
Empathy is based on knowledge – our awareness of another’s circumstances. Empathy can be a force for change on a small-scale or a large-scale social change. It enables an individual to form relationships. We now have the technology to form relationships with people thousands of miles away. We can see what they look like, and how they live. Our awareness of the reality of others’ lives is one thing. That’s knowledge. Our identification with them motivates us to act.
A brief search turns up many sites dedicated to making a difference, such as StartSomeGood, a crowd funding site “for non-profits, social entrepreneurs, and changemakers.” On this site, we learn “Empathy is so powerful that it can transform a faceless stranger, a statistic, into a unique individual with whom you now have a bond.” Corporations have their own initiatives, such as StartEmpathy at Ashoka’s Global Headquarters in Virginia. Crowd funding asks a little from many people. The combined efforts of many add up a significant resource.
Putting the spotlight on empathy marks a change in focus for workplace culture. Have you been told, “That’s business,” when you discussed a negative happening at work? It may have been that someone got the promotion you were expecting. Your company may be downsizing, or someone has been let go, seemingly for no reason. The for-profit business world has a reputation for paying attention only to the bottom line. Even non-profits, while they have high ideals, may not always carry their high ideals into their own workplaces.
People in the non-profit sector know how empathy helps them realize their goals of effecting change. It’s a powerful attribute. Even on a personal level, one individual can make a big difference. When many people join together, the effect can be earth-shaking.
Suppose you want to harness some of this power in your own life. If you are wondering about where you rate on the empathy scale, you can choose from many tests available online.
Another strategy is to watch empathy in action at your own workplace. Pay attention to how people interact. There may be one person who remembers everyone’s birthday. Someone else may cover for an absent employee on short notice. Watch not only what people do, but the reactions. Are there particular things that improve the morale of staff and the workplace climate? Do you have your own ideas of actions you could take?
You can practice to develop empathy. Social skills make relationships flow along smoothly. Much like learning to tip, or paying a compliment, at first, you may feel awkward. As you practice, you become more adept. Some people may be more empathetic, but you can learn, and you discover what feels natural for you.
There are ways to practice outside of work, and you may want to start get involved in a volunteer activity. The more opportunities you accept to encounter other people, learn bout them, and also learn about other cultures, the more you will develop your capacity for empathy. Empathy brings rewards, and in the business world, contributes to individual and group success.
There is a downside that must be recognized. We hear about work/life balance a lot. Bringing fun into the workplace and creating a climate of empathy are ways to create work/life balance. However, just as fun is not one person’s job at work, so too empathy can’t be one’s person’s response.
You may hear about a personal or work-related problem. You are not required to solve the problem on your own. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to contribute in some way to alleviate a problem. At one small office, one staff member lived in the vicinity of an explosion at a fuel depot. Staff members contributed as they could to helping out her and her family.
Being empathetic and compassionate are positive attributes: kindness, patience, and sensitivity bring positive benefits, but they can also sabotage your career. If you are in a helping profession, you run an even greater risk of feeling overwhelmed, either by the demands of your clients, you co-workers, or both. Here is where that suit of armor comes in handy!
If you are naturally empathetic, you risk taking on too much. Customer service reps hear problem after problem; complaint after complaint. They listen, but they also wear that suit of armor. They do hear insults. They do get abused. They are trained but they still need to protect themselves or their jobs would be impossible.
As a truly empathetic person, you must find a balance within yourself, or risk being burned out. Remember the reason why you are at work: your job. You have a job description. If you find you are really having difficulty, you can to back to your job description to help you set a boundary.
The powerful aspect of empathy plays a role, especially for an individual. For the empathetic person sees how effective he or she has been in dealing with tough people and tough situations. It can be difficult to stay back, or let other people handle things. If you are in this situation, you may feel you are losing by letting go. It can be a big change for you to step back, even if you need to do so to preserve you own health and well-being. Many people don’t know when to quit – they work too hard, and end up suffering, physically, mentally, or both. It’s the same with empathy. Empathy is good. Water is good too – but not if you have two feet of it in your basement.
When you are tuned in to others’ emotions, your own work can suffer. You may be distracted by people and situations that are not your concern. You may need to tune out, or turn the volume down, yet realize that you do not know how to do this. Your own feelings of concern for others blind you to your own needs. You may feel like helping, and at some point realize you have become the office “helper.” Here’s the reason why empathy is not just one person’s job: it’s too much for one person.
Empathy requires an action plan, the same as any other work-related initiative. If you are a business leader, and you want to climate of empathy in your workplace, realize that you need to provide support and resources. If these are not available, empathy can’t get established, and won’t play much of a role. It will remain a random, personal response, and it may be absent when it is needed most. People need to feel comfortable to respond appropriately in various situations. Those situations that require an empathetic response are often negative. It people are not prepared, and do not know how to respond, they may choose avoidance over empathy. This is not uncommon. “I just didn’t know what to say,” You hear. Or, “I didn’t know what to do.”
If you asked any supervisor, manager or leader what they wanted, they would say, “I want people to work together.” Some years ago a popular business buzzword was “synergy.”
It’s been awhile since we heard “synergy,” so we go back to Merriam-Webster. Synergy is “the increased effectiveness that results when two or more people or businesses work together.” That is exactly what we want! How do we get it? We’ve heard promoting empathy is one sure way.
It’s not entirely our fault we don’t empathize. At work, especially, many people are part-time, or on contract, or short-term, temporary workers. There may be few opportunities to interact with co-workers, or such interaction may have been discouraged. Also, when the society in general has a climate of loss – loss of jobs, loss of income, loss of skills, etc, people understandably focus on their own security. Factors in the workplace beyond make it difficult to empathize because we may not even know the people in the office.
A non-profit organization with many contract staff hired a consultant to conduct a survey of employee concerns, and then set-up a committee to work on specific projects. One project was an open house, which gave staff and board members an opportunity to work together promoting the organization and the work of its staff and volunteers. Securing funding was an on-going issue, and the open house gave the organization an opportunity to acknowledge the support of its funders. The same organization celebrated its 50th anniversary by publishing reflections from past presidents. Another initiative was to collect stories from members about their work, which were published in a series. The stories helped spread the word about the work of the organization, its members, and also created stronger bonds between staff and the members.
Your action plan for empathy at work—as with adding an element of fun to the workplace, creating a climate of empathy requires an understanding of the workplace culture, and choosing steps that will be acceptable to the staff. Make empathy visible. As with fun, staff needs to see empathy in action, and believe it is sincere, before they feel empowered to model this behavior.
For an individual, being empathetic helps built strong relationships. If you are not naturally empathetic, you can learn how to “turn it on.” If you are naturally empathetic, you may have to learn how to “turn it off.” Either way, you are learning how empathy can help contribute to your career success. You may still need that suit of armor, but it won’t have quite as many dents in it.


Many people don’t realize that there are specific time limits regarding federal criminal charges. The statute of limitations addresses the maximum amount of time that can elapse between the crime itself and the date on which the case against the defendant can be filed. Case don’t have to be finished within this time period; they only have to be started during it.
The purpose of the statute of limitations is to ensure that a person who is accused of a crime doesn’t have to devise a defense that might be challenging due to the length of time that passed since the crime. Evidence can be lost, witnesses can die, disappear or no longer clearly remember the event in question.
Multiple time limits
Not all federal crimes have the same statute of limitations. For the most part, prosecutors have five years to file criminal charges. Some notable exceptions include specific sex offenses, murder, any crime punishable by death and terrorism. These offenses don’t have a statute of limitations, so prosecutors are free to file days or even decades after the alleged crime is committed. Other exceptions also apply.
Below are some examples of statutory limitations:
- Eight years – nonviolent terrorism if the same crime with violence is without a time limit
- 10 years – immigration offenses, arson, crimes against financial institutions
- 20 years – theft of artwork
- 10 years to life of victim – cases involving sexual or physical abuse or kidnapping of a minor
Another exception occurs in time of war. If wartime fraud crimes occur, charges can be issued up to five years after the end of the war. While some clarifications have been made about this, it is unclear whether the clock only starts at the formal termination of war or at some other point.
Suspensions of the time limit
It is possible for the clock to stop periodically on the time limit for filing federal criminal charges. This is the case if there is DNA evidence that needs to be analyzed before a sexual abuse offense can be prosecuted. It can also stop if there is an accusation about asset concealment in a bankruptcy case. The same is true if some of the evidence needed for the case is held overseas. Some variations also exist for conspiracy charges, as well as cases involving fugitives.
No matter what type of federal charge you are facing or think you will face, you need to learn your defense options and determine what is in your best interests. Learning your rights, including those set forth by due process clauses, can be beneficial in these cases.


Using a combination of sophisticated equipment and theoretical methods, chemists pictured the square of the wave function of H2
Scientists have been imaging electron wave functions for decades. However, attempts to image the wave function of molecules have failed to date, because the interactions between multiple electrons hindered the process. Now, a team of chemists has used electron correlations – interactions between electrons that affect each other’s properties – to their advantage, and managed to directly image the square of the wave function of a hydrogen molecule.
‘There was simply no experimental approach to see the […] wave function directly,’ says Reinhard Dörner, a researcher at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and one of the lead authors of the paper. Dörner explains that serendipity played its part in this discovery. ‘[We] co-developed the technique that allows the detection a long time [ago], and used it for many other purposes.’
To picture the wave function of a hydrogen molecule the team first ionised it, then analysed what formed. The researchers then examined the angular distribution of the emitted electron – the probability distribution of which direction they fly off in. Then, they measured the kinetic energy of the remaining fragment (H2+). ‘After analysing the data of several experiments in different conditions, we managed to image the square of all the components of the wave function,’ explains Fernando Martín, a researcher at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain, who led the computational studies. ‘Then we just had to combine them to get the full picture.’
Computational researchers also encountered a happy coincidence. Martín says they were lucky to discover ‘a mathematical serendipity – the probability to ionise an electron with high energy photons coincides with the square of the Fourier transform of [its] wave function’. Nevertheless, ‘it took us more than seven years to achieve this’, Martín concludes.
Núria López, an expert in theoretical chemistry working at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain, says that ‘the present work sets out a robust pathway to improve our understanding of how [electron] correlation works’. She also believes it could pave the way for direct imaging of chemical reactions. ‘Probably photoreactions would come first, as these are closer to the setup employed,’ she says. López highlights the importance of harmonising experiments and theoretical work. ‘Simulations hold the key for understanding chemistry.’
This discovery could have further implications. Electron correlations are key to phenomena like superconductivity. If we could directly ‘see’ how electrons behave in these situations ‘it would probably allow us to solve the major riddle of high temperature superconductors’, concludes Dörner.
M Waitz et al, Nat. Commun., 2017, 8, 2266 (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02437-9)


Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most common pathogens to cause chorioretinitis (a posterior uveitis) in immunocompetent hosts. Immunocompetent adults with ocular toxoplasmosis can present with visual loss, especially if chorioretinitis affects the macular region. Floaters are often the presenting sign if chorioretinitis is extramacular. In addition, certain asymptomatic patients may have scarring noted on routine examination without evidence of active chorioretinitis.
Ocular disease can be due to acute infection or reactivation disease.
●Acute ocular disease – Acute ocular disease can be seen in adults and is also associated with congenital infection. It is estimated that in the United States, about 2 percent of Toxoplasma-infected people develop chorioretinitis, which may not be recognized in the acute phase but found later as a retinal scar. Children with congenital toxoplasmosis can develop retinochoroiditis associated with visual impairment.
●Reactivation disease – Those with reactivation disease are infected either in utero or postnatally. Patients with reactivation disease often have bilateral involvement, in comparison to adults with acute infection who typically present with unilateral ocular disease. Patients older than 40 years of age are at higher risk of recurrence than younger patients, and a relapsing and remitting course can develop after a prolonged disease-free interval. In immunocompetent hosts, reactivations are almost always chorioretinitis and not lymphadenopathy or febrile illness.
It is well established that T. gondii can be divided into different genotypes and that different genotypes differ in pathogenicity. This explains why acquired T. gondii infection in South and Central America has high rates of posterior uveitis compared with other geographic areas.
Diagnosing ocular disease — Ocular toxoplasmosis should be considered in a patient who presents with visual loss or floaters. The diagnosis of ocular disease is typically suggested by findings on ophthalmologic examination and supported by serologic testing and/or aqueous humor analysis.
●Exam findings – Findings on ophthalmologic examination usually include extensive iritis and vitritis, accompanied by whitish retinal lesions representing chorioretinitis. However, chorioretinitis and choroidal neovascularization may be masked by the vitreous inflammation and require angiography for detection.
●Serologic testing – Serologic testing to detect the presence of IgM and IgG antibodies should be performed to support the diagnosis of ocular toxoplasmosis.
●Aqueous humor analysis – Aqueous humor analysis (eg, polymerase chain reaction [PCR] or antibody testing), if available, can also be used to help diagnose intraocular disease if the diagnosis is unclear (eg, atypical exam findings and/or negative serology). The use of aqueous humor analysis was evaluated as a diagnostic method in 137 immunocompetent patients with posterior uveitis resulting from a suspected infectious etiology. Intraocular antibody production and PCR were used to test for a variety of pathogens including T. gondii, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and cytomegalovirus. Of the 37 patients with positive results, 75 percent had evidence of toxoplasma infection; most were diagnosed using measurements of intraocular antibody production.
Treatment — The decision to treat chorioretinitis depends upon several factors, including: the degree of inflammation; the patient’s visual acuity; and the size, location, and persistence of the lesion. The treatment of ocular disease should be done in conjunction with an ophthalmologist experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of chorioretinitis or uveitis.
Indications — Patients with evidence of inactive ocular toxoplasmosis do not require treatment. However, we suggest antimicrobial treatment (with or without adjunctive steroids) for patients with iritis, vitritis, or chorioretinitis if the lesions have one of the following characteristics :
●They are located within the vascular arcades
●They are adjacent to the optic disk
●They are larger than 2 optic disc diameters
●They have an atypical presentation
We also treat individuals infected in South or Central America with a more pathogenic strain of T. gondii.
Although most cases of active ocular toxoplasmosis resolve spontaneously over the course of four to eight weeks, limited data suggest that systemic antimicrobial therapy (with or without glucocorticoids) is associated with a reduction in active retinochoroiditis and/or improved vision. As an example, 149 patients with ocular toxoplasmosis were evaluated in a prospective multicenter study. Patients with central lesions were treated with one of three different antimicrobial regimens in combination with glucocorticoids, whereas those with peripheral lesions did not receive systemic therapy. Approximately half of the 35 patients treated with a pyrimethamine-containing regimen had a reduction in the size of the retinal inflammatory lesion compared with 20 percent (8 of 41) who did not receive systemic therapy.
Antimicrobial therapy for ocular disease — Ocular toxoplasmosis is treated with similar agents as those used for systemic disease. The duration depends upon the clinical response.
Preferred regimens — Our preferred regimen for nonpregnant adults with chorioretinitis is pyrimethamine (100 mg) plus sulfadiazine (2 grams) given as a single loading dose on the first day of treatment. This is followed by pyrimethamine (25 mg daily) plus sulfadiazine (500 mg four times daily) plus leucovorin (10 mg daily) for a minimum of six weeks.
If a pyrimethamine-containing regimen cannot be used, we administer trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX; 160 mg TMP/800 mg SMX) twice daily for six weeks. After the first six weeks, we then administer therapy with one double-strength tablet taken every other day for one year. This suppressive regimen has been found to reduce the risk of recurrent disease.
Alternative regimens — If a patient is intolerant to first-line regimens, we administer atovaquone (750 mg four times a day) in combination with pyrimethamine (100 mg loading dose followed by 25 mg daily) plus leucovorin (10 mg per day) for a minimum of six weeks. Atovaquone can be given alone if pyrimethamine is not tolerated or not available; however, it must be given for at least three months.
Azithromycin 500 mg daily for a minimum of six weeks is another option. This regimen has been shown to be effective, but resolution of findings is slower than with the pyrimethamine-sulfadiazine combination.
Intravitreal clindamycin (0.1 mg/0.1 mL) with one to three injections administered over a period of six weeks can also be used. The number of injections is based upon disease activity on examination. This regimen can be difficult for a nonretina specialist to perform.
Adjunctive glucocorticoids — We administer glucocorticoids to patients with significant vitreous inflammation and retinal vasculitis to help preserve vision. There are no definitive data to guide the best way to administer glucocorticoids.
●We typically initiate prednisone (40 mg once a day) three days after antimicrobial therapy has been started. We delay glucocorticoid therapy by three days to reduce the organism burden and minimize the likelihood that glucocorticoids will exacerbate the infection. This approach has been used in clinical trials evaluating different treatment regimens for ocular disease.
●We continue the 40 mg daily dose until the inflammation clears up in the eye, and the posterior pole and vitreous normalize, which can take a few weeks. After that, we taper the glucocorticoids (eg, prednisone 30 mg for one week, 20 mg for one week, 10 mg for two weeks, 5 mg for two weeks).
Frequency of follow-up — Patients on therapy require frequent ophthalmologic examinations to monitor the response to therapy. The frequency of follow-up depends upon the proximity of the lesion to the central vision. As an example, patients with central lesions should be seen at least once weekly.
Duration of treatment — Patients with ocular disease should be treated for a minimum of six weeks. Ocular findings that support treatment discontinuation include resolution of inflammation and retinitis. Lesion activity and cessation of vasculitis on fluorescein angiography are also useful to help if determine if treatment can be stopped.
The ultimate duration also depends upon the specific regimen. Certain agents (eg, TMP-SMX, atovaquone monotherapy) require a longer course of treatment than others.


Elections and VotingU.S. Information | International Information | Nongovernmental Sources | Resources in the Catalog | Related Topics
U.S. Government Information
- Census Bureau Voting and Registration Tables
This site contains detailed data on voting and registration by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
- Colorado Ballot Proposal Booklet (Blue Book) English, Spanish, and Audio
This provides access to the Blue Book Analysis of the statewide ballot initiatives in Colorado. It also provides information on getting an initiative on the ballot along with a listing of initiated and referred constitutional and statutory amendments since 1964.
- Colorado Secretary of State Elections Center provides certified election results, a directory of registered lobbyists, and campaign finance database.
- Election Assistance Committee (EAC)
EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with developing guidance to meet Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as audits the use of HAVA funds. In addition, they also collect and provide links and statistics for research into election administration.
- Election Statistics
"Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories. These documents, out of print for many years, have been collected and scanned in a format to make them once again available to researchers and students."
- Electoral College
This page from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides electoral college results from 1789, number of electoral college members by state and other information. In addition, the site provides citations to the relevant portions of the Constitution and federal law, a procedural guide for the Electoral College, and a list of frequently asked questions. As the states submit Certificates of Ascertainment and Certificates of Vote, NARA plans to post image copies of the documents. It is also providing links to official and unofficial counts from the individual states.
- Federal Election Commission (FEC) "In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections." The FEC web site includes:
- Campaign Finance Reports and Data
- Campaign Finance Law and Regulations
- National Mail Voter Registration Form
- Library of Congress Election Collection- Web Archives 2000-2008
This collection was developed for the U.S. Library of Congress by the Internet Archive, and Compaq Computer, is now being made available as an Internet library containing archived copies of election related Web sites. Covers elections from 2000-2008
- Secretaries of State and/or Directors of Elections
This Department of Defense page links to the department that handles elections for all fifty states.
- Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Better known as the Helsinki Commission. This Commission is an independent agency of the United States Government. Site includes narrative reports on key elections in European countries.
- Inter-Parliamentary Union includes links to known parliamentary web sites by country, documents, lists of members, and ParLine: a database about national legislatures which includes:
- General information on each of the Parliament's chambers
- Description of the electoral system
- Results of the most recent elections
- Information on the presidency of each chamber.
- Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights-Elections
This Elections page has a calendar of elections, as well as reports on monitoring projects undertaken by this group. It also has an election calendar, and results from monitored elections.
- United Nations Electoral Assistance Division
U.S. Information | International Information | Resources in the Catalog | Related Topics
- ACLU Congressional Scorecard
Voting records of the Congress on issues of interest to the ACLU.
- ACE Electoral Knowledge Network provides comprehensive information on elections throughout the world.
- American Presidency Project
- Presidential Candidates Debates: 1960 - provides text transcripts of the presidential debates from 1960 forward.
- Presidential Elections Data provides data on electoral and and popular votes of each presidential election from 1828 forward. Also includes a map showing how each state voted in every election.
- Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org)
This web site includes a race-by-race analysis of campaign contributions for the upcoming elections, congressional candidate profiles, and detailed analysis of major PAC contributions. The Personal Finance section includes copies of personal finance reports filed by the members of the House and Senate, the President, and selected presidential candidates.
- CQ MoneyLine
Search campaign finance donors and recipients by name, zip code, city, state, employer/occupation, and year.
- CQ Voting and Elections Collection CU
This database integrates a wealth of data, authoritative analyses, concise explanations, and historical material to help researchers investigate and understand voting and elections in America.
- EISA is a non-governmental organization that promotes credible elections and democratic governance in Africa.
- Elections Results Archive
Includes election results by country from Binghamton University's Center on Democratic Performance.
- Initiative and Referendum Institute
This institute, at the University of Southern California, traces initiatives and referendums in all fifty states.
- International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES)
- ElectionGuide is an election calendar of upcoming elections around the world
- International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Provides information on election laws, systems and administration in various countries. Has tabulations of this data such as voter turnout statistics.
- Latin American Election Statistics
This resource put together by the Latin Studies Librarian at University of California, San Diego provides "chronologies of elections since independence at the municipal, state, and federal levels and list sources of statistics for each election as identified."
- League of Conservation Voters Scorecards
This site rates House and Senate members on votes related to the environment.
- Money in State Politics
Follow the Money database "tracks contributions in all 50 states and makes this data easily searchable online."
- Project Vote Smart
This site provides information on candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings.
This site contains lists of heads of state and heads of government from the 1960's to the present. (Historic information is available for selected countries.) Also includes a monthly "chronicle" of events: cabinet changes, elections, and other information. Includes selected international organizations
- U.S. Congress Votes Database
This database (provided by the Washington Post) provides information of how each member of Congress has voted on bills since 1991. You can search by bill or Congress member. This site may require free registration.
- Voting America United States Politics, 1840-2008
This page has maps and data on federal elections from 1840-2008.
Resources in the Catalog
- The Library Catalog, Chinook
There are numerous secondary, federal, and international sources of information on welfare and welfare reform available in the collection.
Try these searches to see some of the resources in Chinook , the library catalog:
Electronic Resources Print and Electronic Resources election* and vot* election* and vot* voting rights voting rights campaign funds campaign funds election* and vot*
(government publications only)
election* and vot*
(government publications only)
The * can replace up to five characters.


As soon as temperatures warm up and the ground begins to thaw, mosquitos start to show up and lay their eggs. Typically drawn to standing water or damp areas, mosquitos are more prone to show up in shaded areas of your yard, or areas that do not dry out. Bird baths and other water features can also draw mosquitos, particularly if the water does not circulate.
According to the American Mosquito Control Association, homeowners can reduce mosquito bites by scheduling their activities to avoid the times of day when mosquitos are most active, which is typically early in the morning or at dusk. Here in North Carolina of course, we all know that as the temperatures climb, one of the best times to be outside enjoying your lawn is in the evening when the sun begins to set.
Other DIY solutions include using yellow “bug lights” outside, instead of incandescent lights that attract bugs, a fan to help repel mosquitos away from your deck area, or citronella candles or other candle producing smoke. The odds are, you have already tried many of these solutions to little or no avail.
Using pesticides to control mosquitos is effective. At Canopy Lawn Care, we guarantee the effectiveness of our mosquito treatments in the reduction of backyard mosquitos and their larvae. In fact, if our customers report seeing mosquitos after a treatment, we go back out and spray again at no charge because we are confident that it works. Of course, when it comes to mother nature…and neighborhoods or housing developments, there is really no guarantee that you will never see a mosquito. If you share a tree or shrub line with a neighbor and they are not treating their lawn for mosquitos, there is a chance you could still see some on occasion, but a professional mosquito treatment should drastically reduce the instance of mosquitos in your yard.
The pesticides that are used to treat mosquitos are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In fact, the EPA has regulated mosquito control since its inception. Mosquitoes feed on plant juices. When plants and foliage are sprayed in the yard, the mosquitoes ingest the applied solution and die.
Your yard will continue to be safe for kids and pets to spray following a mosquito treatment. We recommend waiting 30 minutes after the spray application to allow the solution to dry. If someone does come in contact with the solution, simply wash it off with soap and water. There’s no danger, but some people have been known to get a rash.
Would you like to learn more about our effective 9-treatment mosquito program? Fill out our fast, free quote form above or below this post today. We reply to most inquiries within 20 minutes or less and would be happy to answer any questions that you may have! Enjoy a mosquito-free summer!


Oldest Dog Turns Out to Be a Wolf
Some of the oldest known 'dogs' have just been determined to be wolves -- so who were the first actual dogs?
Remains of a supposed dog dating to 31,680 years ago actually belonged to a wolf, according to a new study that has canine experts completely rethinking the origin and ancestry of dogs.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, says that domestication of dogs happened during the Neolithic era (10,200 B.C.-2,000 B.C.) -- when people began to farm and form permanent settlements -- as opposed to the Paleolithic era (2.6 million years ago to 10,200 B.C.) , when humans and their early ancestors were hunter-gatherers.
"Previous research has claimed that dogs emerged in the Paleolithic but this claim is based on inaccurate analyses," lead author Abby Grace Drake told Discovery News. "We reanalyzed some of the fossil canids from the Paleolithic and show that they are, in fact, wolves."
"We did confirm that the Neolithic specimens Shamanka II (around 7,372 years old) and Ust'-Belaia (about 6,817 years old) are dogs, and therefore domestication took place by this time period or earlier," added Drake, who is an assistant professor of biology at Skidmore College.
Drake and colleagues Michael Coquerelle and Guillaume Colombeau used 3-D computer imaging to study the 31,680-year-old fossil found at Goyet Cave in Belgium, as well as a 13,905-year-old fossil unearthed at a site called Eliseevichi in Russia.
The researchers then compared these fossils, which were previously identified via caliper measurements as early dogs, to other ancient and modern dogs and wolves. Features such as the muzzle and eye sockets were determined to be more wolf than dog.
The findings as a whole indicate that dogs did not gradually evolve from a wolf-like ancestor over a long period of time. Instead, Drake and her team believe that domestication of dogs likely happened "quite quickly," and did not involve direct domestication of wolves.
"Wolves are far too dangerous to have around without adequate means of controlling them," Drake said. "It is more likely that the initial stages of domestication involved at least several generations of wolves breeding in proximity to humans, lured by the 'dumps' that were present near the first permanent human settlements."
Raymond Coppinger, a professor emeritus of biology at Hampshire College, calls into question dog domestication itself. He says that the words "domestic" and "domesticated" should not be confused.
"Domestic means living in the presence of people," he explained. "The English sparrow lives almost exclusively in the presence of people, (but) nobody thinks humans domesticated them. Why, if dogs live in the presence of people, should anybody assume that people domesticated them?"
Dog breeders, of course, have gone to great lengths to alter the appearance and even the behavior of dogs, but it could be, as Coppinger suggests, that the earliest dogs were more domestic than domesticated.
Coppinger agrees that dogs were not around before the Neolithic, but he challenges the long-held belief that wolves or wolf-like animals were the direct ancestors of dogs. His speculation comes after 30 years of raising and taming wolves, which he says is a "difficult process taking approximately 2,000 hours of arduous work."
"Why do we think it is the wolf that was the ancestor of dogs?" he said. "I have had pet coyotes, and there are hand-raised coyotes at Wolf Park in Indiana. There have been several studies done in Europe and Asia with hand-raised jackals, and famous cross-breeding experiments for 50 years with all the species of canids."
He thinks it is "all romance" that dogs evolved from a large wolf-like ancestor. It is more likely that dogs "evolved from a small member of the genus Canis," Coppinger said.
The precise identity of that critical ancestor, for now, remains a mystery, since the new study could negate prior research on the common ancestor of today's dogs and wolves. The exact date and place where dogs became domestic, or domesticated, also remains unknown.
New analysis suggests that remains of a supposed dog dating to 31,680 years ago actually belonged to a wolf, like this one.


By Catherine Nalule
21st February 2017
South Sudan is currently the source of Africa’s largest refugee crisis. Since the beginning of the civil war in 2013, over 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Why has there not been sufficient media coverage of this crisis?
Surely, the circulation of dead black bodies and warfare in Africa, is something the Western media has never failed to perpetuate. So why are so many people unaware of what is happening in South Sudan, and even more so, the severity of it?
Gaining its independence in July 2011, South Sudan is the world’s newest country. Before their succession, Sudan as a whole suffered civil wars lasting decades, most notably; 1955-72 and 1983-2005. With the latter civil war being a continuation of the former, it stands as the longest running civil conflict in history. Caused by political and ethnic tensions; the current civil war in South Sudan is not so different. In 2016, almost 350,000 people fled South Sudan into neighbouring Uganda alone. A total of 200,000 people fled Syria in the same year. Without demeaning one country’s refugee crisis for another, the crisis in Sudan is dire and must not be overlooked. Daily, an estimated 2,500 people from South Sudan are becoming refugees, often with stories of the turmoil. Perhaps by focusing on the more specific causes of the past civil wars in Sudan, we can gain a more profound understanding of the current crisis in South Sudan.
Political Manoeuvres: the War of the Educated
Ethnic tensions have remained the forefront for reasons behind the violence within the Sudanese region. At least for the civilians. However, J.H. Jok et al. write about this wave of realisation among ordinary citizens; that this new form of warfare has “transgressed all the ethical limits on violence.” In short, up until 1991 when the SPLA (Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army – the army of South Sudan) split, the conflict was less aggressively centred around patterns of cattle raiding. However, once SPLA-Nasir formed (the split faction of SPLA), there was an increase of militarisation in South Sudan. This cultivated a rise of military assaults; intentionally killing women, children and the elderly.
The SPLA-Nasir, led by Riek Machar (former Vice President of South Sudan), and SPLA, led by John Garang (former Vice President of Sudan and former President of South Sudan), had been fighting a proxy war. Aside from any ethnic, economic or religious tensions, the fighting that has been ongoing since the outbreak of the second civil war has been politically motivated, by the politicians themselves. Jok writes about former SPLA Dinka soldier who explained how political differences were confined to the educated elites. They struggled for political backing, so by converting Dinka / Nuer conflicts from the above tensions to a political conflict, was in interests of the politicians.
“Mixing political differences with economic competition, and emphasis to each group the danger presented by the other is the only way Riek and Garang can get us to fight their wars for them.”
Today, Riek leads the Nuer dominated SPLA/M-IO (Sudan People’s Liberation Army / Movement – In Opposition) after being dismissed as Vice President of South Sudan in 2013, following coup allegations by current President Salvar Kiir Myarditt.
As a Dinka, Myarditt’s decision to dismiss key figures of the ruling party, who were mostly Nuer, saw to an imbalance of representation and increase in retaliatory, targeted, ethnic attacks in villages. A repeat of past events, with rival politicians causing those loyal to them to wage war, has resulted in the displacement of over 1.5 million refugees.
Uganda has welcomed almost half a million refugees since the outbreak of violence in 2013. Built in just six months, Uganda boasts the largest single refugee settlement globally, the Bidi Bidi. However, it’s the rapid growth of this camp that depicts the severity of the conflict in South Sudan.
Ethnic Tensions or Ethnic Cleansing?
While the conflict has proven to be driven by political and (later) ethnic tensions, the growing number of refugees indicates that South Sudan may actually be facing a genocide. Displacement is targeted along ethnic lines. This is carried out through killings, abductions, rape, arson on homes and looting. By 2016, almost a quarter of South Sudan’s population had left their homes. A third of the country’s teachers have fled.
For a country that was only established six years ago, its crisis appears almost irrevocable. A lot more media attention is required to raise awareness of the region. While countries like Uganda are acting in accordance with their humanitarian duties, they don’t have the resources and capabilities to continue such an intake in the near future. The Bidi Bidi camp is now full, and another camp is already under construction in order to meet the pressing inflow of more refugees.
With neither international interest, nor adequate media coverage, one can go as far as to say that the brutality in South Sudan is being interpreted as permissible. The current feud between the political government and the armed opposition requires intervention from the international community. It has become unresolvable domestically. An entire race’s existence is at stake. Urgent help is needed as the number of refugees and deaths continues to multiply daily.