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USS Lake Erie Ship MissleMost of us are aware that a US warship is currently stationed for an attempt to shoot down a damaged satellite. Military officials say the satellite is carrying highly toxic hydrazine rocket fuel that could be dangerous if it fell on a populated area.The ship behind the scenes is the USS Lake (CG-70.) She is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser in the United States Navy. She is named for the decisive USN victory in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. Lake Erie is a baseline 4 Ticonderoga class ship, with integrated AN/UYK-43/44 computers (in place of UYK-7 and UYK-20) and superset computer programs originally developed for the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. Lake Erie also has an improved UYS-20 data display system and various decision aids, as well as the SQS-53C sonar and the SQR-17 sonar data processor. In August 1998, as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, modifications were made aboard Lake Erie and Port Royal, which consisted of modifications to the Aegis weapons system on board Ticonderoga-class cruisers; a modification, known as linebacker, and which uses specialized computing and radar software and hardware to provide improved tracking and reporting capabilities, and when coupled with the SM-2 Block IVA, intercept Tactical Ballistic Missiles (TBM). Ballistic missile testing afforded Port Royal and other participants an opportunity to flex the capabilities of the current Aegis weapon system against a live ballistic missile target and gave a representation of how the modified system tracks and destroys TBMs. CNN tells us the mission was a success. They write: The first opportunity for the Navy to shoot down the satellite came about 10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. The plan included firing a missile from the USS Lake Erie in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii to destroy the satellite. “A network of land-, air-, sea- and space-based sensors confirms that the U.S. military intercepted a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite which was in its final orbits before entering the Earth’s atmosphere,” a Department of Defense statement said. Video of the launch: Tagged with → Share → Sign up for the gCaptain Newsletter! We will not share your email address with anybody for any reason
, Volume 75, Issue 2, pp 169-216 How Social Relations and Structures can Produce Happiness and Unhappiness: An International Comparative Analysis Rent the article at a discount Rent now * Final gross prices may vary according to local VAT. Get Access In this paper, subjective well being, as measured by survey questions on happiness and life satisfaction, is investigated from a sociological-comparative point of view. The central thesis is that happiness and satisfaction must be understood as the outcome of an interaction process between individual characteristics and aspirations on the one side, and social relations and macrosocial structures on the other side. A distinction is made between life satisfaction and happiness; the former is more seen as the outcome of an evaluation process including material and social aspirations and achievements, the latter as an outcome of positive experiences, particularly close personal relationships. The focus of this paper is on micro- and macrosocial conditions favouring or inhibiting the emergence of happiness and satisfaction. It is hypothesized that dense and good basic social relations, occupational involvement and success, sociocultural (religious and altruistic) orientations and participation are conducive to happiness and life satisfaction; the same should be true at the macrolevel for economic prosperity, relatively equal social structures, a well-established welfare state and political democracy. The latter conditions, however, should be more important for life satisfaction than for happiness. A comparative, multilevel regression analysis of happiness in 41 nations around the world is carried out (using the World Value Survey 1995–1997). Both our general assumption and most of the specific hypotheses could be confirmed. It turned very clearly that “happiness” and “life satisfaction” are two different concepts. It could be shown that microsocial embedding and sociocultural integration of a person are highly relevant for happiness. However, contrary to earlier studies, we find that macrosocial factors like the economic wealth of nation, the distribution of income, the extent of the welfare state and political freedom are also relevant, particularly for satisfaction. What counts most is the ability to cope with life, including subjective health and financial satisfaction, close social relations, and the economic perspectives for improvement in the future, both at the level of the individual and at that of the society. These abilities are certainly improved by favourable macrosocial conditions and institutions, such as a more equal income distribution, political democracy and a welfare state.
Take the 2-minute tour × What is the Comonad typeclass in Haskell? As in Comonad from Control.Comonad in the comonad package (explanations of any other packages that provide a Comonad typeclass are also welcome). I've vaguely heard about Comonad, but all I really know about it is that is provides extract :: w a -> a, sort of a parallel to Monad's return :: a -> m a. Bonus points for noting "real life" uses of Comonad in "real" code. share\|improve this question 1 Answer 1 up vote 43 down vote accepted These links may be helpful: 1. Evaluating cellular automata is comonadic. In particular, "whenever you see large datastructures pieced together from lots of small but similar computations there's a good chance that we're dealing with a comonad". 2. Sequences, streams, and segments 3. Comonads in everyday life share\|improve this answer +1 The first link was the one that really brought it together for me. – luqui Dec 8 '11 at 17:31 Link-only answer should at least contain a summary of the linked contents. Currently this answer isn't fit for being a good SO answer. Consider expanding it a bit, so that it can stand on its own without the linked articles. – Bakuriu Aug 28 '14 at 18:15 Your Answer
Photo: Featured Delaware Photo Phone Numbers Mobile Help Size Print Email Skip Navigation LinksDNREC : Climate Change : Climate Change Delaware's public health Climate Change Delaware's public health While it's easy to picture how sea level rise could devastate coastal property and wetlands, visualizing climate change impacts on human health might be more difficult at first. Difficult or not, however, these impacts are very real. Public health impacts from climate change in Delaware could include increased mortality from summer heat waves, increased incidents of asthma and other severe respiratory conditions, and increased potential for the transmission of vector- and water-borne infectious diseases. Heat Waves Heat waves are extremely dangerous to human health, and heat is often a direct cause of weather-related human death. For example, the 2003 European heat wave killed at least 21,000 people across five different countries (Epstein, 2005). The 1995 heat wave in Chicago caused an estimated 750 deaths (Semenza et al., 1996). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heat ranks among the top weather-related killers in the United States. Between 1999 and 2003, heat waves killed over 3,440 people—more than hurricanes, tornadoes, lighting and floods combined. This estimate is conservative, as many heat-related deaths in the U.S. are probably underreported. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicates that hot days, hot nights, and extreme heat waves are projected to increase over the coming years. The Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NCIA) also projects a dramatic increase in extremely hot days over the coming century for Northeast states, increasing the risk of heat-related illness (heat stress, heat exhaustion) and death from heat stroke, especially among vulnerable populations. For example, while Philadelphia has historically experienced on average two days per summer over 100 oF, the NCIA estimates this will increase to around 28 days by the end of the century. If continued global warming increases the intensity, extent, and duration of heat waves, summer heat-related mortality is certain to rise. Photo: NASA A new study by Kalkstein and Greene (2007) estimates that global warming will contribute to 162 additional deaths per year in the Philadelphia metropolitan area by mid-century. These estimates are quite disconcerting given Delaware’s close proximity. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that the average temperature in Dover, Del., has increased by 1.7 oF over the last century. Given the high probability of continued climate change over the next century, even in Delaware, it is likely that Delaware citizens’ health will be at risk from increased heat waves, especially in urban areas. Ground-level ozone is one of the major contributors to city smog, as seen in the picture above. According to the EPA, Delaware’s ground-level ozone concentrations exceed national standards throughout the state. Air Quality High temperatures and humidity levels increase the harmful effects of poor air quality, which already puts large numbers of people in the Northeast at risk from asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema (NCIA). According to Epstein (2005), the prevalence of asthma in the U.S. has quadrupled over the past two decades in part because of increased pollution levels, increased pollen and dust particles, and other climate-related factors. Air pollution from ground-level ozone also is a major concern for the Northeast, and increased temperatures from global warming could increase concentrations of ground-level ozone in the region. Moreover, if warmer climate causes increased use of air conditioners, air pollutants like NOx and SOx from power plants also will rise. Human health risks from poor air quality are a major concern in Delaware. According to the EPA, ground-level ozone concentrations exceed national standards throughout the state, with Wilmington and the northern part of Delaware classified as “severe” nonattainment areas for ozone. Ozone reduces lung function, aggravates asthma, and induces respiratory inflammation. According to the NCIA, the Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland area, which includes Delaware’s New Castle County, ranks 10th among the nation’s 25 most ozone-polluted metropolitan areas. Thus, warmer temperatures from climate change will continue to put Delaware citizens’ health at risk. Infectious Disease Warmer temperatures across the United States are projected to extend the habitat and range of microbes and the insects that carry infectious disease. Although vector-borne diseases cause comparatively few deaths, warmer temperatures and increased precipitation events could increase the public health risk in Delaware. For example, mosquitoes flourish in parts of Delaware, and can carry malaria, equine encephalitis, or West Nile Virus. Research shows that warm summer conditions, especially in conjunction with heavy rain events, stimulate mosquito breeding and biting. Lyme disease already occurs in Delaware, and Deer Tick populations that carry the disease could increase as global warming causes temperatures to rise. Warmer surface waters also could contribute to increased intensity and duration of harmful algal blooms, which can harm aquatic habitat, damage shellfish nurseries and can be toxic to humans. Without control efforts, mosquitos breed almost anywhere permanent or temporary standing water is found. A DNREC Mosquito Control Section technician sprays insecticides above to help thwart mosquito reproduction. site map \| about this site \| contact us \| translate \|
Read JEREMIAH - THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. of Beacon Lights of History‚ Volume II, free online book, by John Lord, on ReadCentral.com. ABOUT 629-580 B.C. Jeremiah is a study to those who would know the history of the latter days of the Jewish monarchy, before it finally succumbed to the Babylonian conqueror. He was a sad and isolated man, who uttered his prophetic warnings to a perverse and scornful generation; persecuted because he was truthful, yet not entirely neglected or disregarded, since he was consulted in great national dangers by the monarchs with whom he was contemporary. So important were his utterances, it is matter of great satisfaction that they were committed to writing, for the benefit of future generations, not of Jews only, but of the Gentiles, on account of the fundamental truths contained in them. Next to Isaiah, Jeremiah was the most prominent of the prophets who were commissioned to declare the will and judgments of Jehovah on a degenerate and backsliding people. He was a preacher of righteousness, as well as a prophet of impending woes. As a reformer he was unsuccessful, since the Hebrew nation was incorrigibly joined to its idols. His public career extended over a period of forty years. He was neither popular with the people, nor a favorite of kings and princes; the nation was against him and the times were against him. He exasperated alike the priests, the nobles, and the populace by his rebukes. As a prophet he had no honor in his native place. He uniformly opposed the current of popular prejudices, and denounced every form of selfishness and superstition; but all his protests and rebukes were in vain. There were very few to encourage him or comfort him. Like Noah, he was alone amidst universal derision and scorn, so that he was sad beyond measure, more filled with grief than with indignation. Jeremiah was not bold and stern, like Elijah, but retiring, plaintive, mournful, tender. As he surveyed the downward descent of Judah, which nothing apparently could arrest, he exclaimed: “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the daughter of my people!” Is it possible for language to express a deeper despondency, or a more tender grief? Pathos and unselfishness are blended with his despair. It is not for himself that he is overwhelmed with gloom, but for the sins of the people. It is because the people would not hear, would not consider, and would persist in their folly and wickedness, that grief pierces his soul. He weeps for them, as Christ wept over Jerusalem. Yet at times he is stung into bitter imprecations, he becomes fierce and impatient; and then again he rises over the gloom which envelops him, in the conviction that there will be a new covenant between God and man, after the punishment for sin shall have been inflicted. But his prevailing feelings are grief and despair, since he has no hopes of national reform. So he predicts woes and calamities at no distant day, which are to be so overwhelming that his soul is crushed in the anticipation of them. He cannot laugh, he cannot rejoice, he cannot sing, he cannot eat and drink like other men. He seeks solitude; he longs for the desert; he abstains from marriage, he is ascetic in all his ways; he sits alone and keeps silence, and communes only with his God; and when forced into the streets and courts of the city, it is only with the faint hope that he may find an honest man. No persons command his respect save the Arabian Rechabites, who have the austere habits of the wilderness, like those of the early Syrian monks. Yet his gloom is different from theirs: they seek to avert divine wrath for their own sins; he sees this wrath about to descend for the sins of others, and overwhelm the whole nation in misery and shame. Jeremiah was born in the little ecclesiastical town of Anathoth, about three miles from Jerusalem, and was the son of a priest. We do not know the exact year of his birth, but he was a very young man when he received his divine commission as a prophet, about six hundred and twenty-seven years before Christ. Josiah had then been on the throne of Judah twelve years. The kingdom was apparently prosperous, and was unmolested by external enemies. For seventy-five years Assyria had given but little trouble, and Egypt was occupied with the siege of Ashdod, which had been going on for twenty-nine years, so strong was that Philistine city. But in the absence of external dangers corruption, following wealth, was making fearful strides among the people, and impiety was nearly universal. Every one was bent on pleasure or gain, and prophet and priest were worldly and deceitful. From the time when Jeremiah was first called to the prophetic office until the fall of Jerusalem there was an unbroken series of national misfortunes, gradually darkening into utter ruin and exile. He may have shrunk from the perils and mortifications which attended him for forty years, as his nature was sensitive and tender; but during this long ministry he was incessant in his labors, lifting up his voice in the courts of the Temple, in the palace of the king, in prison, in private houses, in the country around Jerusalem. The burden of his utterances was a denunciation of idolatry, and a lamentation over its consequences. “My people, saith Jehovah, have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out for themselves underground cisterns, full of rents, that can hold no water.... Behold, O Judah! thou shalt be brought to shame by thy new alliance with Egypt, as thou wast in the past by thy old alliance with Assyria.” In this denunciation by the prophet we see that he mingled in political affairs, and opposed the alliance which Judah made with Egypt, which ever proved a broken reed. Egypt was a vain support against the new power that was rising on the Euphrates, carrying all before it, even to the destruction of Nineveh, and was threatening Damascus and Tyre as well as Jerusalem. The power which Judah had now to fear was Babylon, not Assyria. If any alliance was to be formed, it was better to conciliate Babylon than Egypt. Roused by the earnest eloquence of Jeremiah, and of those of the group of earnest followers of Jehovah who stood with him, Huldah the prophetess, Shallum her husband, keeper of the royal wardrobe, Hilkiah the high-priest, and Shaphan the scribe, or secretary, the youthful king Josiah, in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was himself but twenty-six years old, set about reforms, which the nobles and priests bitterly opposed. Idolatry had been the fashionable religion for nearly seventy years, and the Law was nearly forgotten. The corruption of the priesthood and of the great body of the prophets kept pace with the degeneracy of the people. The Temple was dilapidated, and its gold and bronze decorations had been despoiled. The king undertook a thorough repair of the great Sanctuary, and during its progress a discovery was made by the high-priest Hilkiah of a copy of the Law, hidden amid the rubbish of one of the cells or chambers of the Temple. It is generally supposed to have been the Book of Deuteronomy. When it was lost, and how, it is not easy to ascertain, probably during the reign of some one of the idolatrous kings. It seems to have been entirely forgotten, a proof of the general apostasy of the nation. But the discovery of the book was hailed by Josiah as a very important event; and its effect was to give a renewed impetus to his reforms, and a renewed study of patriarchal history. He forthwith assembled the leading men of the nation, prophets, priests, Levites, nobles, and heads of tribes. He read to them the details of the ancient covenant, and solemnly declared his purpose to keep the commandments and statutes of Jehovah as laid down in the precious book. The assembled elders and priests gave their eager concurrence to the act of the king, and Judah once more, outwardly at least, became the people of God. Nor can it be questioned that the renewed study of the Law, as brought about by Josiah, produced a great influence on the future of the Hebrew nation, especially in the renunciation of idolatry. Yet this reform, great as it was, did not prevent the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of the leading people among the Hebrews to the land of the Chaldeans, whence Abraham their great progenitor had emigrated. Josiah, who was thoroughly aroused by “the words of the book,” and its denunciations of the wrath of Jehovah upon the people if they should forsake his ways, in spite of the secret opposition of the nobles and priests, zealously pursued the work of reform. The “high places,” on which were heathen altars, were levelled with the ground; the images of the gods were overthrown; the Temple was purified, and the abominations which had disgraced it were removed. His reforms extended even to the scattered population of Samaria whom the Assyrians had spared, and all the buildings connected with the worship of Baal and Astaroth at Bethel were destroyed. Their very stones were broken in pieces, under the eyes of Josiah himself. The skeletons of the pagan priests were dragged from their burial places and burned. An elaborate celebration of the feast of the Passover followed soon after the discovery of the copy of the Law, whether confined to Deuteronomy or including other additional writings ascribed to Moses, we know not. This great Passover was the leading internal event of the reign of Josiah. Having “taken away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel,” even as the earlier keepers of the Law cleansed their premises, especially of all remains of leaven, the symbol of corruption, the king commanded a celebration of the feast of deliverance. Priests and Levites were sent throughout the country to instruct the people in the preparations demanded for the Passover. The sacred ark, hidden during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, was restored to its old place in the Temple, where it remained until the Temple was destroyed. On the approach of the festival, which was to be held with unusual solemnities, great multitudes from all parts of Palestine assembled at Jerusalem, and three thousand bullocks and thirty thousand lambs were provided by the king for the seven days’ feast which followed the Passover. The princes also added eight hundred oxen and seven thousand six hundred small cattle as a gift to priests and people. After the priests in their white robes, with bare feet and uncovered heads, and the Levites at their side according to the king’s commandment, had “killed the passover” and “sprinkled the blood from their hands,” each Levite having first washed himself in the Temple laver, the part of the animal required for the burnt-offering was laid on the altar flames, and the remainder was cooked by the Levites for the people, either baked, roasted, or boiled. And this continued for seven days; during all the while the services of the Temple choir were conducted by the singers, chanting the psalms of David and of Asaph. Such a Passover had not been held since the days of Samuel. No king, not even David or Solomon, had celebrated the festival on so grand a scale. The minutest details of the requirements of the Law were attended to. The festival proclaimed the full restoration of the worship of Jehovah, and kindled enthusiasm for his service. So great was this event that Ezekiel dates the opening of his prophecies from it. “It seems probable that we have in the eighty-fifth psalm a relic of this great solemnity.... Its tone is sad amidst all the great public rejoicings; it bewails the stubborn ungodliness of the people as a whole.” After the great Passover, which took place in the year 622, when Josiah was twenty-six years of age, little is said of the pious king, who reigned twelve years after this memorable event. One of the best, though not one of the wisest, kings of Judah, he did his best to eradicate every trace of idolatry; but the hearts of the people responded faintly to his efforts. Reform was only outward and superficial, an illustration of the inability even of an absolute monarch to remove evils to which the people cling in their hearts. To the eyes of Jeremiah, there was no hope while the hearts of the people were unchanged. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” he mournfully exclaims. “Much less can those who are accustomed to do evil learn to do well.” He had no illusions; he saw the true state of affairs, and was not misled by mere outward and enforced reforms, which partook of the nature of religious persecution, and irritated the people rather than led to a true religious life among them. There was nothing left to him but to declare woes and approaching calamities, to which the people were insensible. They mocked and reviled him. His lofty position secured him a hearing, but he preached to stones. The people believed nothing but lies; many were indifferent and some were secretly hostile, and he must have been pained and disappointed in view of the incompleteness of his work through the secret opposition of the popular leaders. Josiah was the most virtuous monarch of Judah. It was a great public misfortune that his life was cut short prematurely at the age of thirty-eight, and in consequence of his own imprudence. He undertook to oppose the encroachments of Necho II, king of Egypt, an able, warlike, and enterprising monarch, distinguished for his naval expeditions, whose ships doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to Egypt in safety, after a three years’ voyage. Necho was not so successful in digging a canal across the Isthmus of Suez, in which enterprise one hundred and twenty thousand men perished from hunger, fatigue, and disease. But his great aim was to extend his empire to the limits reached by Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks. The great Assyrian empire was then breaking up, and Nineveh was about to fall before the Babylonians; so he seized the opportunity to invade Syria, a province of the Assyrian empire. He must of course pass through Palestine, the great highway between Egypt and the East. Josiah opposed his enterprise, fearing that if the Egyptian king conquered Syria, he himself would become the vassal of Egypt. Jeremiah earnestly endeavored to dissuade his sovereign from embarking in so doubtful a war; even Necho tried to convince him through his envoys that he made war on Nineveh, not on Jerusalem, invoking as most intensely earnest men did in those days of tremendous impulse the sacred name of Deity as his authentication. Said he: “What have I to do with thee, thou King of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.” But nothing could induce Josiah to give up his warlike enterprise. He had the piety of Saint Louis, and also his patriotic and chivalric heroism. He marched his forces to the plain of Esdraelon, the great battle field where Rameses II. had triumphed over the Hittites centuries before. The battle was fought at Megiddo. Although Josiah took the precaution to disguise himself, he was mortally wounded by the Egyptian archers, and was driven back in his splendid chariot toward Jerusalem, which he did not live to reach. The lamentations for this brave and pious monarch remind us of the universal grief of the Hebrew nation on the death of Samuel. He was buried in a tomb which he had prepared for himself, amid universal mourning. A funeral oration was composed by Jeremiah, or rather an elegy, afterward sung by the nation on the anniversary of the battle. Nor did the nation ever forget a king so virtuous in his life and so zealous for the Law. Long after the return from captivity the singers of Israel sang his praises, and popular veneration for him increased with the lapse of time; for in virtues and piety, and uninterrupted zeal for Jehovah, Josiah never had an equal among the kings of Judah. The services of this good king were long remembered. To him may be traced the unyielding devotion of the Jews, after the Captivity, for the rites and forms and ceremonies which are found in the books of the Law. The legalisms of the Scribes may be traced to him. He reigned but twelve years after his great reformation, not long enough to root out the heathenism which had prevailed unchecked for nearly seventy years. With him perished the hopes of the kingdom. After his death the decline was rapid. A great reaction set in, and faction was accompanied with violence. The heathen party triumphed over the orthodox party. The passions which had been suppressed since the death of Manasseh burst out with all the frenzy and savage hatred which have ever marked the Jews in their religious contentions, and these were unrestrained by the four kings who succeeded Josiah. The people were devoured by religious animosities, and split up into hostile factions. Had the nation been united, it is possible that later it might have successfully resisted the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah gave vent to his despairing sentiments, and held out no hope. When Elijah had appealed to the people to choose between Jehovah and Baal, he was successful, because they were then undecided and wavering in their belief, and it required only an evidence of superior power to bring them back to their allegiance. But when Jeremiah appeared, idolatry was the popular religion. It had become so firmly established by a succession of wicked kings, added to the universal degeneracy, that even Josiah could work but a temporary reform. Hence the voice of Jeremiah was drowned. Even the prophets of his day had become men of the world. They fawned on the rich and powerful whose favor they sought, and prophesied “smooth things” to them. They were the optimists of a decaying nation and a godless, pleasure-seeking generation. They were to Jerusalem what the Sophists were to Athens when Demosthenes thundered his disregarded warnings. There were, indeed, a few prophets left who labored for the truth; but their words fell on listless ears. Nor could the priests arrest the ruin, for they were as corrupt as the people. The most learned among them were zealous only for the letter of the law, and fostered among the people a hypocritical formalism. True religious life had departed; and the noble Jeremiah, the only great statesman as well as prophet who remained, saw his influence progressively declining, until at last he was utterly disregarded. Yet he maintained his dignity, and fearlessly declared his message. In the meantime the triumphant Necho, after the defeat and dispersion of Josiah’s army, pursued his way toward Damascus, which he at once overpowered. From thence he invaded Assyria, and stripped Nineveh of its most fertile provinces. The capital itself was besieged by Nabopolassar and Cyaxares the Mede, and Necho was left for a time in possession of his newly-acquired dominion. Josiah was succeeded by his son Shallum, who assumed the crown under the name of Jehoaz, which event it seems gave umbrage to the king of Egypt. So he despatched an army to Jerusalem, which yielded at once, and King Jehoaz was sent as a captive to the banks of the Nile. His elder brother Eliakim was appointed king in his place, under the name of Jehoiakim, who thus became the vassal of Necho. He was a young man of twenty-five, self-indulgent, proud, despotic, and extravagant. There could be no more impressive comment on the infatuation and folly of the times than the embellishment of Jerusalem with palaces and public buildings, with the view to imitate the glory of Solomon. In everything the king differed from his father Josiah, especially in his treatment of Jeremiah, whom he would have killed. He headed the movement to restore paganism; altars were erected on every hill to heathen deities, so that there were more gods in Judah than there were towns. Even the sacred animals of Egypt were worshipped in the dark chambers beneath the Temple. In the most sacred places of the Temple itself idolatrous priests worshipped the rising sun, and the obscene rites of Phoenician idolatry were performed in private houses. The decline in morals kept pace with the decline of spiritual religion. There was no vice which was not rampant throughout the land, adultery, oppression of foreigners, venality in judges, falsehood, dishonesty in trade, usury, cruelty to debtors, robbery and murder, the loosing of the ties of kindred, general suspicion of neighbors, all the crimes enumerated by the Apostle Paul among the Romans. Judah in reality had become an idolatrous nation like Tyre and Syria and Egypt, with only here and there a witness to the truth, like Jeremiah, the prophetess Huldah, and Baruch the scribe. This relapse into heathenism filled the soul of Jeremiah with grief and indignation, but gave to him a courage foreign to his timid and shrinking nature. In the presence of the king, the princes, and priests he was defiant, immovable, and fearless, uttering his solemn warnings from day to day with noble fidelity. All classes turned against him; the nobles were furious at his exposure of their license and robberies, the priests hated him for his denunciation of hypocrisy, and the people for his gloomy prophecies that the Temple should be destroyed, Jerusalem reduced to ashes, and they themselves led into captivity. Not only were crime and idolatry rampant, but the death of Josiah was followed by droughts and famine. In vain were the prayers of Jeremiah to avert calamity. Jehovah replied to him: “Pray not for this people! Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; though they offer sacrifice I have no pleasure in them, but will consume them by the sword, by famine, and pestilence.” Jeremiah piteously gives way to despairing lamentations. “Hast thou, O Lord, utterly rejected Judah? Is thy soul tired of Zion? Why hast thou smitten us so that there is no healing for us?” Jehovah replies: “If Moses and Samuel stood pleading before me, my soul could not be toward this people. I appoint four destroyers, the sword to slay, the dogs to tear and fight over the corpse, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field; for who will have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? Thou hast rejected me. I am weary of relenting. I will scatter them as with a broad winnowing-shovel, as men scatter the chaff on the threshing-floor.” Such, amid general depravity and derision, were some of the utterances of the prophet, during the reign of Jehoiakim. Among other evils which he denounced was the neglect of the Sabbath, so faithfully observed in earlier and better times. At the gates of the city he cried aloud against the general profanation of the sacred day, which instead of being a day of rest was the busiest day of the week, when the city was like a great fair and holiday. On this day the people of the neighboring villages brought for sale their figs and grapes and wine and vegetables; on this day the wine-presses were trodden in the country, and the harvest was carried to the threshing-floors. The preacher made himself especially odious for his rebuke for the violation of the Sabbath. “Come,” said his enemies to the crowd, “let us lay a plot against him; let us smite him with the tongue by reporting his words to the king, and bearing false witness against him.” On this renewed persecution the prophet does not as usual give way to lamentation, but hurls his malédictions. “O Jehovah! give thou their sons to hunger, deliver them to the sword; let their wives be made childless and widows; let their strong men be given over to death, and their young men be smitten with the sword.” And to consummate, as it were, his threats of divine punishment so soon to be visited on the degenerate city, Jeremiah is directed to buy an earthenware bottle, such as was used by the peasants to hold their drinking-water, and to summon the elders and priests of Jerusalem to the southwestern corner of the city, and to throw before their feet the bottle and shiver it in pieces, as a significant symbol of the approaching fall of the city, to be destroyed as utterly as the shattered jar. “And I will empty out in the dust, says Jehovah, the counsels of Judah and Jerusalem, as this water is now poured from the bottle. And I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those that seek their lives; and I will give their corpses for meat to the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth; and I will make this city an astonishment and a scoffing. Every one that passes by it will be astonished and hiss at its misfortunes. Even so will I shatter this people and this city, as this bottle, which cannot be made whole again, has been shattered.” Nor was Jeremiah contented to utter these fearful malédictions to the priests and elders; he made his way to the Temple, and taking his stand among the people, he reiterated, amid a storm of hisses, mockeries, and threats, what he had just declared to a smaller audience in reference to Jerusalem. Such an appalling announcement of calamities, and in such strong and plain language, must have transported his hearers with fear or with wrath. He was either the ambassador of Heaven, before whose voice the people in the time of Elijah would have quaked with unutterable anguish, or a madman who was no longer to be endured. We have no record of any prophet or any preacher who ever used language so terrible or so daring. Even Luther never hurled such malédictions on the church which he called the “scarlet mother.” Jeremiah uttered no vague generalities, but brought the matter home with awful directness. Among his auditors was Pashur, the chief governor of the Temple, and a priest by birth. He at once ordered the Temple police to seize the bold and outspoken prophet, who was forthwith punished for his plain speaking by the bastinado, and then hurried bleeding to the stocks, into which his head and feet and hands were rudely thrust, to spend the night amid the jeers of the crowd and the cold dews of the season. In the morning he was set free, his enemies thinking that he now would hold his tongue; but Jeremiah, so far from keeping silence, renewed his threats of divine vengeance. “For thus saith Jehovah, I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and slay them with the sword.” And then turning to Pashur, before the astonished attendants, he exclaimed: “And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thy house, will be dragged off into captivity; and thou wilt come to Babylon, and thou wilt die and be buried there, thou and all thy partisans to whom thou hast prophesied lies.” We observe in these angry words of Jeremiah great directness and great minuteness, so that his meaning could not be mistaken; also that the instrument of punishment on the degenerate and godless city was to be the king of Babylon, a new power from whom Judah as yet had received no harm. The old enemies of the Hebrews were the Assyrians and Egyptians, not the Babylonians and Mèdes. Whatever may have been the malignant animosity of Pashur, he was evidently afraid to molest the awful prophet and preacher any further, for Jeremiah was no insignificant person at Jerusalem. He was not only recognized as a prophet of Jehovah, but he had been the friend and counsellor of King Josiah, and was the leading statesman of the day in the ranks of the opposition. But distinguished as he was, his voice was disregarded, and he was probably looked upon as an old croaker, whose gloomy views had no reason to sustain them. Was not Jerusalem strong in her defences, and impregnable in the eyes of the people; and was she not regarded as under the special protection of the Deity? Suppose some austere priest say such a man as the Abbe Lacordaire had risen from the pulpit of Notre Dame or the Madeleine, a year before the battle of Sedan, and announced to the fashionable congregation assembled to hear his eloquence, and among them the ministers of Louis Napoleon, that in a short time Paris would be surrounded by conquering armies, and would endure all the horrors of a siege, and that the famine would be so great that the city would surrender and be at the entire mercy of the conquerors, would he have been believed? Would not the people have regarded him as a madman, great as was his eloquence, or as the most gloomy of pessimists, for whom they would have felt contempt or bitter wrath? And had he added to his predictions of ruin, utterly inconceivable by the giddy, pleasure-seeking, atheistic people, the most scathing denunciations of the prevailing sins of that godless city, all the more powerful because they were true, addressed to all classes alike, positive, direct, bold, without favor and without fear, would they not have been stirred to violence, and subjected him to any chastisement in their power? If Socrates, by provoking questions and fearless irony, drove the Athenians to such wrath that they took his life, even when everybody knew that he was the greatest and best man at Athens, how much more savage and malignant must have been the narrow-minded Jews when Jeremiah laid bare to them their sins and the impotency of their gods, and the certainty of retribution! Yet vehement, or direct, or plain as were Jeremiah’s denunciations to the idol-worshippers of Jerusalem in the seventh century before it was finally destroyed by Titus, he was no more severe than when Jesus denounced the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees, no more mournful than when he lamented over the approaching ruin of the Temple. Therefore they sought to kill him, as the princes and priests of Judah would have sacrificed the greatest prophet that had appeared since Elisha, the greatest statesman since Samuel, the greatest poet since David, if Isaiah alone be excepted. No wonder he was driven to a state of despondency and grief that reminds us of Job upon his ash-heap. “Cursed be the day,” he exclaims, in his lonely chamber, “on which I was born! Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born to thee, making him very glad! Why did I come forth from the womb that my days might be spent in shame?” A great and good man may be urged by the sense of duty to declare truths which he knows will lead to martyrdom; but no martyr was ever insensible to suffering or shame. All the glories of his future crown cannot sweeten the bitterness of the cup he is compelled to drain; even the greatest of martyrs prayed in his agony that the cup might pass from him. How could a man help being sad and even bitter, if ever so exalted in soul, when he saw that his warnings were utterly disregarded, and that no mortal influence or power could avert the doom he was compelled to pronounce as an ambassador of God? And when in addition to his grief as a patriot he was unjustly made to suffer reproach, scourgings, imprisonment, and probable death, how can we wonder that his patience was exhausted? He felt as if a burning fire consumed his very bones, and he could refrain no longer. He cried aloud in the intensity of his grief and pain, and Jehovah, in whom he trusted, appeared to him as a mighty champion and an everlasting support. Jeremiah at this time, during the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim, the period of the most active part of his ministry, was about forty-five years of age. Great events were then taking place. Nineveh was besieged by one of its former generals, Nabopolassar, now king of Babylon. The siege lasted two years, and the city fell in the year 606 B.C., when Jehoiakim had been about four years on the throne. The fall of this great capital enabled the son of the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar, to advance against Necho, the king of Egypt, who had taken Carchemish about three years before. Near that ancient capital of the Hittites, on the banks of the Euphrates, one of the most important battles of antiquity was fought, and Necho, whose armies a few years before had so successfully invaded the Assyrian empire, was forced to retreat to Egypt. The battle of Carchemish put an end to Egyptian conquests in the East, and enabled the young sovereign of Babylonia to attain a power and elevation such as no Oriental monarch had ever before enjoyed. Babylon became the centre of a new empire, which embraced the countries that had bowed down to the Assyrian yoke. Nebuchadnezzar in the pride of victory now meditated the conquest of Egypt, and must needs pass through Palestine. But Jehoiakim was a vassal of Egypt, and had probably furnished troops for Necho at the fatal battle of Carchemish. Of course the Babylonian monarch would invade Judah on his way to Egypt, and punish its king, whom he could only look upon as an enemy. It was then that Jeremiah, sad and desponding over the fate of Jerusalem, which he knew was doomed, committed his precious utterances to writing by the assistance of his friend and companion Baruch. He had lately been living in retirement, feeling that his message was delivered; possibly he feared that the king would put him to death as he had the prophet Urijah. But he wished to make one more attempt to call the people to repentance, as the only way to escape impending calamities; and he prevailed upon his secretary to read the scroll, containing all his verbal utterances, to the assembled people in the Temple, who, in view of their political dangers, were celebrating a solemn fast. The priests and people alike, clad in black hair-cloth mantles, with ashes on their heads, lay prostrate on the ground, and by numerous sacrifices hoped to propitiate the Deity. But not by sacrifices and fasts were they to be saved from Nebuchadnezzar’s army, as Jeremiah had foretold years before. The recital by Baruch of the calamities he had predicted made a profound impression on the crowd. A young man, awed by what he had heard, hastened to the hall in which the princes were assembled, and told them what had been read from the prophet’s scroll. They in their turn were alarmed, and commanded Baruch to read the contents to them also. So intense was the excitement that the matter was laid before the king, who ordered the roll to be read to him: he would hear the words that Jeremiah had caused to be written down. But scarcely had the reading of the roll begun before he flew into a violent rage, and seizing the manuscript he cut it to pieces with the scribe’s knife, and burned it upon a brazier of coals. Orders were instantly given to arrest both Jeremiah and Baruch; but they had been warned and fled, and the place of their concealment could not be found. Jehoiakim thus rejected the last offer of mercy with scorn and anger, although many of his officers were filled with fear. His heart was hardened, like that of Pharaoh before Moses. Jeremiah having learned the fate of the roll, dictated its contents anew to his faithful secretary, and a second roll was preserved, not, however, without contriving to send to the king this awful message. “Thus saith Jehovah of thee Jehoiakim: He shall have no son to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body will be cast out to lie in the heat by day and the frost by night; and no one shall raise a lament for him when he dies. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn out of Jerusalem, and cast down from its gates.” No wonder that we lose sight of Jeremiah during the remainder of the reign of Jehoiakim; it was not safe for him to appear anywhere in public. For a time his voice was not heard; yet his predictions had such weight that the king dared not defy Nebuchadnezzar when he demanded the submission of Jerusalem. He was forced to become the vassal of the king of Babylonia, and furnish a contingent to his army. But this vassalage bore heavily on the arrogant soul of Jehoiakim, and he seized the first occasion to rebel, especially as Necho promised him protection. This rebellion was suicidal and fatal, since Babylon was the stronger power. Nebuchadnezzar, after the three years of forced submission, appeared before the gates of Jerusalem with an irresistible army. There was no resistance, as resistance was folly. Jehoiakim was put in chains, and avoided being carried captive to Babylon only by the most abject submission to the conqueror. All that was valuable in the Temple and the palaces was seized as spoil. Jerusalem was spared for a while; and in the mean time Jehoiakim died, and so intensely was he hated and despised that no dirge was sung over his remains, while his dishonored body was thrown outside the walls of his capital like that of a dead ass, as Jeremiah had foretold. On his death, B.C. 598, after a reign of eight years, his son Jehoiachin, at the age of eighteen, ascended his nominal throne. He also, like his father, followed the lead of the heathen party. The bitterness of the Babylonian rule, united with the intrigues of Egypt, led to a fresh revolt, and Jerusalem was invested by a powerful Chaldean army. Jeremiah now appears again upon the stage, but only to reaffirm the calamities which impended over his nation, all of which he traced to the decay of religion and morality. The mission and the work of the Jews were to keep alive the worship of the One God amid universal idolatry. Outside of this, they were nothing as a nation. They numbered only four or five millions of people, and lived in a country not much larger than one of the northern counties of England and smaller than the state of New Hampshire or Vermont; they gave no impulse to art or science. Yet as the guardians of the central theme of the only true religion and of the sacred literature of the Bible, their history is an important link in the world’s history. Take away the only thing which made them an object of divine favor, and they were of no more account than Hittites, or Moabites, or Philistines. The chosen people had become idolatrous like the surrounding nations, hopelessly degenerate and wicked, and they were to receive a dreadful chastisement as the only way by which they would return to the One God, and thus act their appointed part in the great drama of humanity. Jeremiah predicted this chastisement. The chosen people were to suffer a seventy years’ captivity, and then city and Temple were to be destroyed. But Jeremiah, sad as he was over the fate of his nation, and terribly severe as he was in his denunciations of the national sins, knew that his people would repent by the river of Babylon, and be finally restored to their old inheritance. Yet nothing could avert their punishment. In less than three months after Jehoiachin became king of Judah, its capital was unconditionally surrendered to the Chaldean hosts, since resistance was vain. No pity was shown to the rebels, though the king and nobles had appeared before Nebuchadnezzar with every mark and emblem of humiliation and submission. The king and his court and his wives, and all the principal people of the nation, were sent to Babylon as captives and slaves. The prompt capitulation saved the city for a time from complete destruction; but its glory was turned to shame and grief. All that was of any value in the Temple and city was carried to the banks of the Euphrates, nearly one hundred and fifty years after Samaria had fallen from a protracted siege, and its inhabitants finally dispersed among the nations that were subject to Nineveh. One would suppose that after so great a calamity the few remaining people in Jerusalem and in the desolate villages of Judah would have given no further molestation to their powerful and triumphant enemies. The land was exhausted; the towns were stripped of their fighting population, and only the shadow of a kingdom remained. Instead of appointing a governor from his own court over the conquered province, Nebuchadnezzar gave the government into the hands of Mattaniah, the third son of Josiah, a youth of twenty, changing his name to Zedekiah. He was for a time faithful to his allegiance, and took much pains to quiet the mind of the powerful sovereign who ruled the Eastern world, and even made a journey to Babylon to pay his homage. He was a weak prince, however, alternately swayed by the different parties, those that counselled resistance to Babylon, and those, like Jeremiah, that advised submission. This long-headed statesman saw clearly that rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, flushed with victory, and with the whole Eastern world at his feet, was absurd; but that the time would come when Babylon in turn should be humbled, and then the captive Hebrews would probably return to their own land, made wiser by their captivity of seventy years. The other party, leagued with Moabites, Tyrians, Egyptians, and other nations, thought themselves strong enough to break their allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar; and bitter were the contentions of these parties. Jeremiah had great influence with the king, who was weak rather than wicked, and had his counsels been consistently followed, Jerusalem would probably have been spared, and the Temple would, have remained. He preferred vassalage to utter ruin. With Babylon pressing on one side and Egypt on the other, both great monarchies, vassalage to one or the other of these powers was inevitable. Indeed, vassalage had been the unhappy condition of Judah since the death of Josiah. Of the two powers Jeremiah preferred the Chaldean rule, and persistently advised submission to it, as the only way to save Jerusalem from utter destruction. Unfortunately Zedekiah temporized; he courted all parties in turn, and listened to the schemes of rebellion, for all the nations of Palestine were either conquered or invaded by the Chaldeans, and wished to shake off the yoke. Nebuchadnezzar lost faith in Zedekiah; and being irritated by his intrigues, he resolved to attack Jerusalem while he was conducting the siege of Tyre and fighting with Egypt, a rival power. Jerusalem was in his way. It was a small city, but it gave him annoyance, and he resolved to crush it. It was to him what Tyre became to Alexander in his conquests. It lay between him and Egypt, and might be dangerous by its alliances. It was a strong citadel which he had unwisely spared, but determined to spare no longer. The suspicions of the king of Babylonia were probably increased by the disaffection of the Jewish exiles themselves, who believed in the overthrow of Nebuchadnezzar and their own speedy return to their native hills. A joint embassy was sent from Edom, from Moab, the Ammonites, and the kings of Tyre and Sidon, to Jerusalem, with the hope that Zedekiah would unite with them in shaking off the Babylonian yoke; and these intrigues were encouraged by Egypt. Jeremiah, who foresaw the consequences of all this, earnestly protested. And to make his protest more forcible, he procured a number of common ox-yokes, and having put one on his own neck while the embassy was in the city, he sent one to each of the envoys, with the following message to their masters: “Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel. I have made the earth and man and the beasts on the face of the earth by my great power, and I give it to whom I see fit. And now I have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, till the time of his own land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him their servant. And the nation and people that will not serve him, and that does not give its own neck to the yoke, that nation I will punish with sword, famine, and pestilence, till I have consumed them by his hand.” A similar message he sent to Zedekiah and the princes who seemed to have influenced him. “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, and ye shall live. Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. They prophesy a lie to you.” The same message in substance he sent to the priests and people, urging them not to listen to the voice of the false prophets, who based their opinions on the anticipated interference of God to save Jerusalem from destruction; for that destruction would surely come if its people did not serve the king of Babylonia until the appointed time should come, when Babylon itself should fall into the hands of enemies more powerful than itself, even the Mèdes and Persians. Jeremiah, thus brought into direct opposition to the false prophets, was exposed to their bitterest wrath. But he was undaunted, although alone, and thus boldly addressed Hananiah, one of their leaders and himself a priest: “Hear the words that I speak in your ears. Not I alone, but all the prophets who have been before me, have prophesied long ago war, captivity, and pestilence, while you prophesy peace.” On this, Hananiah snatched the ox-yoke from the neck of Jeremiah, and broke it, saying, “Thus saith Jehovah, Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the neck of all nations within two years.” Jeremiah in reply said to this false prophet that he had broken a wooden yoke only to prepare an iron one for the people; for thus saith Jehovah: “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they shall serve the king of Babylon.... And further, hear this, O Hananiah! Jehovah has not sent thee, but thou makest this people trust in a lie; therefore thou shalt die this very year, because thou hast spoken rebellion against Jehovah.” In two months the lying prophet was dead. Zedekiah, now awe-struck by the death of his counsellor, made up his mind to resist the Egyptian party and remain true to Nebuchadnezzar, and resolved to send an embassy to Babylon to vindicate himself from any suspicion of disloyalty; and further, he sought to win the favor of Jeremiah by a special gift to the Temple of a set of silver vessels to replace the golden ones that had been carried to Babylon. Jeremiah entered into his views, and sent with the embassy a letter to the exiles to warn them of the hopelessness of their cause. It was not well received, and created great excitement and indignation, since it seemed to exhort them to settle down contentedly in their slavery. The words of Jeremiah were, however, indorsed by the prophet Ezekiel, and he addressed the exiles from the place where he lived in Chaldaea, confirming the destruction which Jeremiah prophesied to unwilling ears. “Behold the day! See, it comes! The fierceness of Chaldaea has shot up into a rod to punish the wickedness of the people of Judah. Nothing shall remain of them. The time is come! Forge the chains to lead off the people captive. Destruction comes; calamity will follow calamity!” Meanwhile, in spite of all these warnings from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, things were passing at Jerusalem from bad to worse, until Nebuchadnezzar resolved on taking final vengeance on a rebellious city and people that refused to look on things as they were. Never was there a more infatuated people. One would suppose that a city already decimated, and its principal people already in bondage in Babylon, would not dare to resist the mightiest monarch who ever reigned in the East before the time of Cyrus. But “whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.” Every preparation was made to defend the city. The general of Nebuchadnezzar with a great force surrounded it, and erected towers against the walls. But so strong were the fortifications that the inhabitants were able to stand a siege of eighteen months. At the end of this time they were driven to desperation, and fought with the energy of despair. They could resist battering rams, but they could not resist famine and pestilence. After dreadful sufferings, the besieged found the soldiers of Chaldaea within their Temple, a breach in the walls having been made, and the stubborn city was taken by assault. The few who were spared were carried away captive to Babylon with what spoil could be found, and the Temple and the walls were levelled to the ground. The predictions of the prophets were fulfilled, the holy city was a heap of desolation. Zedekiah, with his wives and children, had escaped through a passage made in the wall, at a corner of the city which the Chaldeans had not been able to invest, and made his way toward Jericho, but was overtaken and carried in chains to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar was encamped. As he had broken a solemn oath to remain faithful, a severe judgment was pronounced upon him. His courtiers and his sons were executed in his sight, his own eyes were put out, and then he was taken to Babylon, where he was made to work like a slave in a mill. Thus ended the dynasty of David, in the year 588 B.C., about the time that Draco gave laws to Athens, and Tarquinius Priscus was king of Rome. As for Jeremiah, during the siege of the city he fell into the power of the nobles, who beat him and imprisoned him in a dungeon. The king was not able to release him, so low had the royal power sunk in that disastrous age; but he secretly befriended him, and asked his counsel. The princes insisted on his removal to a place where no succor could reach him, and he was cast into a deep well from which the water was dried up, having at the bottom only slime and mud. From this pit of misery he was rescued by one of the royal guards, and once again he had a secret interview with Zedekiah, and remained secluded in the palace until the city fell. He was spared by the conqueror in view of his fidelity and his earnest efforts to prevent the rebellion, and perhaps also for his lofty character, the last of the great statesmen of Judah and the most distinguished man of the city. Nebuchadnezzar gave him the choice, to accompany him to Babylon with the promise of high favor at his court, or remain at home among the few that were not deemed of sufficient importance to carry away. Jeremiah preferred to remain amid the ruins of his country; for although Jerusalem was destroyed, the mountains and valleys remained, and the humble classes the peasants were left to cultivate the neglected vineyards and cornfields. From Mizpeh, the city which he had selected as his last resting-place, Jeremiah was carried into Egypt, and his subsequent history is unknown. According to tradition he was stoned to death by his fellow-exiles in Egypt. He died as he had lived, a martyr for the truth, but left behind a great name and fame. None of the prophets was more venerated in after-ages. And no one more than he resembled, in his sufferings and life, that greater Prophet and Sage who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, that the world through him might be saved.
dill, Old World annual or biennial plant (Anethum graveolens) of the family Umbelliferae (parsley family), cultivated since at least since 400 B.C. The pungent, aromatic leaves and seeds are used for pickling and for flavoring sauces, salads, and soups. Dill water (a carminative) and oil of dill are made from the seeds. Dill was formerly used in charms against witchcraft. Dill is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Apiales, family Umbelliferae. Fennel-like annual or biennial herb (Anethum graveolens) of the parsley family or its dried ripe fruit (seeds) and leafy tops, which are used to season foods. Native to Mediterranean countries and southeastern Europe, dill is now widely cultivated in Europe, India, and North America. The entire plant is aromatic. Particularly in eastern Europe and Scandinavia, the small stems and immature umbels are used for flavouring foods. Dill has a warm, slightly sharp flavour. Learn more about dill with a free trial on Britannica.com. It grows to 1 inch, with slender stems and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves long. The ultimate leaf divisions are broad, slightly broader than the similar leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than broad, but harder in texture. The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels diameter. The seeds are long and thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface. Origins and history Dill originated in Eastern Europe. Zohary and Hopf remark that "wild and weedy types of dill are widespread in the Mediterranean basin and in West Asia." In Semitic languages it is known by the name of Shubit. The Talmud requires that tithes shall be paid on the seeds, leaves, and stem of dill. The Bible states that the Pharisees were in the habit of paying dill as tithe; Jesus is said to have rebuked them for tithing dill but omitting mercy. In the northeastern U.S. and adjoining parts of Canada, the seed of dill is sometimes known as "meeting-seed". This expression originates with the Puritans and Quakers, who would give their children dill seeds to chew during long church meetings, due to dill's mild hunger-suppressant qualities. In some English-speaking countries, it is sometimes called Dillby. In some Asian local languages it is called as "Shepu" or "Sowa". In Kannada it is called Sapseege soppu (ಸಪ್ಪಸೀಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು). The term dill weed (dillweed), to refer to a person, is sometimes used as a euphemism in the United States and Canada for more vulgar terms of contempt. In Vietnam, dill is named "thì là". There exists a fable in which God accidentally names the plant "it is" (thì là). In Vietnam, dill is the important herb in the dish cha ca. Dill seed is used as a spice, with a flavor somewhat similar to caraway, but also resembling that of fresh or dried dill weed. Dill seeds were traditionally used to soothe the stomach after meals. External links Search another word or see dillon Dictionary \| Thesaurus \|Spanish Copyright © 2015 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved. • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 Russia Simulates Invasion of Poland Written by Russian militaryIn September 1939, the Red Army of the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the pretense that the Polish government could no longer protect Ukrainians and Belarusians living in eastern Poland. Now it has been revealed that Russia has, in essence, marked the 70th anniversary of that infamous event with “war games” simulating a future invasion of Poland. In 1939, the Molotov-Robbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union paved the way for the two totalitarian regimes to divide Poland between them. After Germany had invaded and seized a portion of Poland, Stalin’s Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, declared, A situation has arisen in Poland which demands of the Soviet Government especial concern for the security of its State. Poland has become a fertile field for any accidental and unexpected contingency that may create a menace for the Soviet Union... Nor can it be demanded of the Soviet Government that it remain indifferent to the fate of its Blood Brothers, the Ukrainians and White Russians inhabiting Poland, who even formerly were nations without rights and who now have been utterly abandoned to their fate. The Soviet Government deems it its sacred duty to extend the hand of assistance to its brother Ukrainians and White Russians inhabiting Poland. Now, thousands of Russian and Belarusian troops have carried out “war games” in which Poland was the hypothetical aggressor. According to a report at Telegraph.co.uk: Poland, which has strained relations with both countries, was cast as the "potential aggressor." The documents state the exercises, code-named "West," were officially classified as "defensive" but many of the operations appeared to have an offensive nature. The operation also involved the simulated suppression of an uprising by a national minority in Belarus — the country has a significant Polish population which has a strained relationship with authoritarian government of Belarus. The U.S. government has repeatedly claimed that the proposed “missile shield” for Eastern Europe is intended to protect the region from a hypothetical attack from Iran, and denied that the shield was intended as part of a defense against future Russian aggression.However, the recent Russian/Belarusian “war games” are simply the latest sign that events are continuing to spiral toward increased tension in Eastern Europe. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, American troops remain in Europe, NATO and the European Union have expanded to include much of the former Warsaw Pact, and Russia is returning to an increasingly hostile footing. The implicit threat from Russia drew an understandably anxious reaction from Poland. As reported by Telegraph.co.uk: What are the implications of such growing tensions for American foreign policy? The United States did not send countless thousands of troops to Europe to counter a “19th-century agenda” but to confront totalitarian ideologies that threatened the interests of the United States. As tensions continue to grow in Eastern Europe, the burden of America’s elected representatives is to weigh what best serves the security and interests of the United States, and to question whether a “19th-century agenda” should drive American foreign policy, or whether a large and wealthy European Union may finally be told to see to its own security and interests. Photo: AP Images
Skip to content Lung Disease & Respiratory Health Center Font Size Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - Overview What are the symptoms? continued... The incubation period—the time from when a person is first exposed to SARS until symptoms appear—is usually 3 to 7 days but may be as long as 10 days. Experts believe a person can spread the illness to others only while he or she has symptoms. As a precaution, though, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people who have SARS stay home, except for doctor visits, until 10 days after their symptoms have gone away. If you think you may have SARS, be sure to call your doctor before you go in to get checked. The doctor will need to make sure you do not infect other people. How is SARS diagnosed? Your doctor may suspect SARS if you have a fever and you either have traveled to a SARS-affected area or have in the past 10 days been around a person who has SARS. Your doctor may order several tests to find out the cause of your symptoms. A chest X-ray may be done if you are short of breath or coughing. A blood sample, sputum sample, or nasal swab may be done to detect bacteria or viruses. Your doctor may suspect that you have SARS if tests rule out any other cause for your symptoms, especially if you had contact with someone who has SARS or you traveled to an area experiencing a SARS outbreak. In this case, blood tests may be done to detect substances in your blood (antibodies) that form to fight the SARS virus. You will need at least two tests for antibodies done on separate days to confirm an infection. You also may have tests to detect the genetic material (RNA) of the SARS virus. RNA testing is not available everywhere. How is it treated? Severe cases of SARS often require a hospital stay, especially if breathing problems develop. You will be placed in isolation to prevent passing the disease to others. Various medicines—including corticosteroids and the antiviral medicine ribavirin—have been used to treat SARS. But no medicine is known to cure the illness. Doctors continue to search for an effective treatment. One early study showed that the antiviral medicine interferon alfacon-1, taken along with corticosteroids, may help in the treatment of SARS by increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood.3 Next Article: Today on WebMD man coughing You may not even know you have it. blood clot Signs of this potentially fatal complication. man coughing When a cold becomes bronchitis. human lungs Causes behind painful breathing, fluid buildup. chest x-ray Bronchitis Overview Copd Myth Fact Quiz Energy Boosting Foods Pollen counts, treatment tips, and more. It's nothing to sneeze at. Loading ... Sending your email... This feature is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. woman coughing Lung xray and caduceus WebMD Special Sections
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the management title. For the computer control software, see Supervisory program. For the title of an elected official, see County board of supervisors. A supervisor, foreman, foreperson, boss, overseer, cell coach, facilitator, or area coordinator is a manager in a position of trust in business.[1] The US Bureau of Census has four hundred titles under the supervisor classification. An employee is a supervisor if he has the power and authority to do the following actions (according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour): 1. Give instructions and/or orders to subordinates. 2. Be held responsible for the work and actions of other employees. As a member of management, a supervisor's main job is more concerned with orchestrating and controlling work rather than performing it directly. Supervisors are uniquely positioned through direct daily employee contact to respond to employee needs, problems, and satisfaction. Supervisors are the direct link between management and the work force and can be most effective in developing job training, safety attitudes, safe working methods and identifying unsafe acts and conditions. Supervisors should tend to visualize problems and opportunities in terms of their particular areas of concentration. But to climb the management hierarchy, they must eventually broaden their base and become competent in related specialized areas. Finally, there is a difference in the kinds of decisions made. Because they are in direct contact with operative employees, supervisors must interpret, apply, and make meaningful the directives and requirements laid down by their own managers. "Doing" can take up to 70% of the time - (this varies according to the type of supervisory job - the doing involves the actual work of the department as well as the planning, controlling, scheduling, organizing, leading, etc.). [2] Supervisors often do not require any formal education on how they are to perform their duties but are most often given on-the-job training or attend company sponsored courses. Many employers have supervisor handbooks that need to be followed. Supervisors must be aware of their legal responsibilities to ensure that their employees work safely and that the workplace that they are responsible for meets government standards. In academia, a supervisor is a senior scientist or scholar who, along with their own responsibilities, aids and guides a postgraduate research student, or undergraduate student, in their research project; offering both moral support and scientific insight and guidance. The term is used in several countries for the doctoral advisor of a graduate student. In colloquial British English "gaffer" means a foreman, and is used as a synonym for "boss". In the UK, the term also commonly refers to sports coaches (football, rugby, etc.). The term is also sometimes used colloquially to refer to an old man, an elderly rustic. The word is probably a shortening of "godfather", with "ga" from association with "grandfather". The female equivalent, "gammer", came to refer colloquially to an old lady or to a gossip.[3] The use of gaffer in this way can be seen, for example, in J.R.R. Tolkien's character Gaffer Gamgee. In 16th century English a "gaffer" was a man who was the head of any organized group of labourers. In 16th and 17th century rural England it was used as a title slightly inferior to "Master", similar to "Goodman", and was not confined to elderly men. The chorus of a famous Australian shearer's song, The Backblocks' Shearer (also known as Widgegoeera Joe), written by W. Tully at Nimidgee, NSW (c.1900), refers to a gaffer: Hurrah, me boys, my shears are set, I feel both fit and well; Tomorrow you’ll find me at my pen When the gaffer rings the bell. With Hayden's patent thumb guards fixed And both my blades pulled back; Tomorrow I go with my sardine blow For a century or the sack! First-line supervisors[edit] I-O psychology research on first-line supervisors suggests that supervisors with the most productive work groups have the following qualities: See also[edit] 1. ^ supervisor. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved July 13, 2010. 2. ^ Miller, Patricia (1988). Powerful Leadership Skills for Women. p. 86. 3. ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th Edition, OUP 1964 Schultz & Schultz, Duane (2010). Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 169–170. ISBN 0-205-68358-4. External links[edit]
Thymus serpyllum From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about a species of thyme plant. For a discussion of culinary and medicinal uses of thyme, see Thyme. "Creeping Thyme" and "Wild Thyme" redirect here. In some places, these names refer to Thymus praecox Thymus serpyllum Thymus serpyllum1.jpg Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Eudicots (unranked): Asterids Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Genus: Thymus Species: T. serpyllum Binomial name Thymus serpyllum Thymus serpyllum, known by the common names of Breckland thyme,[3] wild thyme or creeping thyme, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to most of Europe and North Africa. It is a low, usually prostrate subshrub growing to 2 cm (1 in) tall with creeping stems up to 10 cm (4 in) long. The oval evergreen leaves are 3–8 mm long. The strongly scented flowers are either lilac, pink-purple, magenta, or a rare white, all 4–6 mm long and produced in clusters. The hardy plant tolerates some pedestrian traffic and produces odors ranging from heavily herbal to lightly lemon, depending on the variety. Wild thyme is a creeping dwarf evergreen shrub with woody stems and a taproot. It forms matlike plants that root from the nodes of the squarish, limp stems. The leaves are in opposite pairs, nearly stalkless, with linear elliptic round-tipped blades and untoothed margins. The plant sends up erect flowering shoots in summer. The usually pink or mauve flowers have a tube-like calyx and an irregular straight-tubed, hairy corolla. The upper petal is notched and the lower one is larger than the two lateral petals and has three flattened lobes which form a lip. Each flower has four projecting stamens and two fused carpels. The fruit is a dry, four-chambered schizocarp.[4] Distribution and habitat[edit] Wild thyme is native to the palearctic zone of Europe and Asia. It is a plant of thin soils and can be found growing on sandy-soiled heaths, rocky outcrops, hills, banks, roadsides and riverside sand banks. Wild thyme is one of the plants on which the large blue butterfly larvae feed and it is also attractive to bees.[4] Creeping and mounding variants of T. serpyllum are used as border plants and ground cover around gardens and stone paths. It may also be used to replace a bluegrass lawn to xeriscape low to moderate foot traffic areas due to its tolerance for low water and poor soils.[5][6][7] Numerous cultivars have been produced, of which 'Pink Chintz' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[8] A miniature creeping form is 'Elfin'.[9] Other Uses[edit] For culinary and medicinal uses, see the main article on Thyme. 1. ^ Linnaeus. Sp. Pl. 590 1753. 3. ^ Schauer, Thomas (1978). A Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe, Collins, London, p. 184. ISBN 0-00-219257-8. 4. ^ a b "Breckland Thyme: Thymus serpyllum". NatureGate. Retrieved 2013-12-13. 5. ^ Fine Gardening Magazine, 6. ^ Planting and Maintiaining a Thyme Lawn, 7. ^ Creating Practical Turf Areas, 8. ^ "RHS Plant Selector - Thymus serpyllum 'Pink Chintz'". Retrieved 6 June 2013. 9. ^ Gardening Know How External links[edit]
Fire Crews Battle Blaze At Mt. Olivet Cemetery Fire Crews Battle Blaze At Mt. Olivet Cemetery • Mt. Olivet Cemetery 01/25/15 10:17:49 PM Weather Alert CODE YELLOW: Snow Accumulation Possible Weather Alert Radar WZTV - Search Results Mosquito Bite Myths Mosquitoes are annoying, and no one wants to get bitten, but avoiding them is a pretty good idea because they also can carry serious diseases. So its important to separate the facts from beliefs that are just plain wrong. One common myth is that all mosquitoes bite humans. According to the centers for disease control and prevention, there are over three thousand species of mosquitoes. Different ones feed on either plant nectar, reptiles, birds or mammals. Of those species that bite humans, experts say, only the females go for the blood they are seeking protein for egg production. Another commonly held belief is that mosquitoes are attracted to certain foods, colors or blood types. The truth is that these factors generally dont make a difference. Lastly, its a myth that the U.S. is free of mosquito-borne diseases. Dengue Fever, yellow fever, chikungunya, malaria and the west Nile virus are real threats. If you are going to be outdoors, use insect repellant on your exposed skin and clothing. Look for ingredients recommended by the CDC or EPA. Wear long sleeves, pants and socks, empty standing water around your home. Support your local county or city mosquito control programs and lastly limit outdoor activities between dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active. Copyright 2014 CNN. All rights reserved. NEWS: iPhone/iPad \| Android WEATHER: iPhone \| iPad \| Android MORNING: iPhone/iPad \| Android
Why ACL Injuries Are More Common in Women Bookmark and Share The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an especially delicate piece of hardware. The ligament, which runs through the center of the knee and ensures that the thigh tracks properly with the shin bones, is highly susceptible to rips and tears. ACLs attached to female knees are particularly prone to injury. Robert Marx, M.D., a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, notes that women are approximately two to six times more likely to tear the ACL than men. That’s why, despite the fact that fewer women are active in high-risk sports such as soccer, basketball and hockey, they account for half of the 200,000 ACL surgeries performed in the U.S. each year. Dr. Marx also points out that it’s not just female team players who put their ACLs in harm’s way. “Any activity that involves sudden stops, jumping and pivoting ups the chances of ACL injury,” he states. “Skiing, boot camps and kickboxing classes can all lead to ACL injuries.” So why are women getting the shaft? There are several reasons. For one, women have wider hips, which places greater pressure on the inside of the knee. Marx says that some research indicates that estrogen and other female hormones may create a laxity, or looseness, in the joints that renders their knees less stable. Many women also love high heels, much to the detriment of the ACL. High heels throw the body into a forward position creating undue pressure on the knees and forcing the ACL to work overtime. Now for the good news. Trashing your ACL is not inevitable even if you’re a woman who’s super active in a high-risk activity. One American Journal of Sports Medicine study found that performing a regular regimen of knee exercises that bolster the knee’s strength, stability and biomechanics of the joint reduced ACL injuries in women by more than 40 percent. Ready to protect your precious knees? This four-move “healthy knee” program is taken from Marx’s new book, “The ACL Solution: Prevention and Recovery for Sports’ Most Devastating Knee Injury.” Do one to three sets of each exercise, eight to 15 repetitions per set. Use it as a warm up to any workout at least three times a week and despite your gender, your benders will be ready to rock. One Leg Balance According to Marx, balance exercises such as this One Leg Squat move teach you to avoid dropping your knees inward, which exacerbates the angle between the knee and the hip, placing the ACL at greater risk. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and hands on your hips. Lift left foot off the floor a few inches and balance all of your weight on your leg. Slowly bend right knee down two to three inches, taking care to keep the knee facing forward. Don’t allow the knee to shoot out past your toes or drop inward. Hold the bottom point of the movement briefly, then return to the start. Switch legs to complete the set. To make it harder, Marx suggest closing your eyes as you squat or do the move in your bare feet while standing on carpet. Plank Marx says that strengthening all of the support muscles of the knees, hips and core helps the knee remain in a stable and safe position as you move, especially when you stop short or suddenly change direction. Kneel on the floor, then straighten your legs and lift them up off the floor so that you are balanced on forearms and toes. Clasp hands together. Align spine and pull abs in so lower back does not sag and the butt does not stick up. Hold this position for 10 to 60 seconds. Focus on keeping the core tight and the torso straight the entire time. Plyo Jumps Quick jumps and hops are known as plyometrics. Marx says moves like these side-to-side plyo jumps build explosive strength and train the knee to land properly—both skills that reduce the chances of sudden trauma to the ACL. Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, hands on hips or out to sides for balance. Shift weight onto right leg and lift left foot off the floor. Push off the right leg and jump a stride-length to the left. Land softly and quietly on the ball of your left foot, slightly bending the knee and hips to absorb the impact. Immediately jump back to the right. Continue jumping side to side to complete the set. Cut-and-Run Running drills are an essential part of any knee health program because they train the knee to move properly during activities that involve a lot of stop-and-go, twists and turns. This Cut-and-Run drill is especially useful for cultivating good biomechanics. Jog four to five steps then plant your right foot to make a hard “cut,” changing direction and accelerating so that you are now running 90 degrees form your original direction. Run 4 to 5 steps before slowing down, cutting and changing direction again. As you cut, power the movement from your hips and concentrate on keeping knees over toes and avoid dropping your knees inward. Maintain a strong core and good posture throughout. Visit Non-Surgical Orthopaedics, P.C. for more information about ACL rehabilitation and prevention. Leave a comment
Take the 2-minute tour × Possible Duplicate: Is it really that wrong not using setters and getters? Why use getters and setters? I have been always wondering why are people using getters/setters in PHP instead of using public properties? From another question, I've copied this code: class MyClass { private $firstField; private $secondField; public function __get($property) { if (property_exists($this, $property)) { return $this->$property; public function __set($property, $value) { if (property_exists($this, $property)) { $this->$property = $value; return $this; I see no difference between this and using public fields. Well, I know it may help us to validate data in both getter and setter, but the example above just doesn't fit it share\|improve this question marked as duplicate by Oliver Charlesworth, Amadan, Nanne, webbiedave, Tim Cooper Apr 9 '12 at 17:55 @genesis +1. I never use 'em either. That's what a __construct is for! – ƊŗęДdϝul Ȼʘɗɇ May 7 '13 at 3:05 2 Answers 2 up vote 7 down vote accepted Getters and setters are used in order to prevent code outwith the class from accessing implementation details. Maybe today some piece of data is just a string, but tomorrow it has be created by joining two other strings together and also keeping a count of the number of times the string is retrieved (OK, contrived example). The point is that by forcing access to your class to go through methods, you're free to change how your class does things without impacting other code. Public properties don't give you that guarantee. On the flip side, if all you want to do is hold data, then public properties are fine, but I think that's a special case. share\|improve this answer Oh, so the main reason is that you can start validating the value before setting without changing it on all occurences of setting the property? – genesis Apr 9 '12 at 16:00 Yeah, that's another good reason. Validation code in one place is a Very Good Thing. – Rory Hunter Apr 9 '12 at 17:10 With getters and setters you get the control over the properties of a class. Look like this example: class User public function $name; public function __construct($name) public function setName($name ) if (!preg_match('/^[A-Za-z0-9_\s]+$/')) { throw new UnexpectedValueException(sprintf('The name %s is not valid, a name should only contain letters, numbers, spaces and _', $name); $this->name = $name; $foo = new User('Foo'); // valid $foo->name = 'Foo$%^&$#'; // ahh, not valid, but because of the public property why can do this If you make the property protected, or private, this can't be done and you can have control over what is in the property. share\|improve this answer Hmm, this doesn't fit my example code - you actually have new setter for each property. I don't. But I get what you mean – genesis Apr 9 '12 at 16:01 @genesis Yes. I never use the magic setters/getters. A reason why the magic methods is useful is if you want to store the items in one property in the class, for instance in a Registery or Service Container. – Wouter J Apr 9 '12 at 16:56 Example of the above comment: snipplr.com/view/64458/a-simple-registery – Wouter J Apr 9 '12 at 17:05
HomeSNAISWGNAKnowledge BaseDataTechnical CooperationPublications 1993 SNA Update Information - Outlay Clarification description In relation to SNA glossary, there is a confusion on the definition of a term, "outlay". This term is shown in 1968 SNA as "income and outlay a/c", and also is used in 93 SNA. It might be used for the opposite concept of income. That is, outflow of income. That term confuses with expenditure, at first time, which means outflow of money in exchange for goods and service. In SNA 93(4.104 b), there appears the explanation of "final outlay". It includes 1) expenditures on collective services, and 2) expenditure on individual services, and 3) transfers to other units. It does exclude capital expenditure, however, include transfers. It seems to be really a new term from these explanation. It may be explained in a more detail in SNA to avoid the confusion with "expenditure". This term is, also, not enlisted on the "93 SNA Glossary" published at OECD. AEG papers:Papers not yet available AEG summaries:Papers not yet available Navigation Options Back to Clarifications See all AEG recommendations for selected clarification *See all country comments for selected clarification About \| Sitemap \| Contact Us Copyright © United Nations, 2015
Glasgow, United Kingdom - Few confrontations in the history of modern Britain come close to the industrial dispute that gripped England, Scotland and Wales in March 1984. Fracturing communities, pitting workers against the forces of law and order and even causing lives to be lost, the bitter clash became one of the greatest trade union struggles since the British General Strike of 1926. That struggle was the British miners' strike and today marks 30 years since the head of Britain's Coal Board, Ian MacGregor, announced plans to cut production - the equivalent of 20 pits or 20,000 jobs - leading to a year-long walkout that would see British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) President Arthur Scargill come to blows and change the face of Great Britain forever. "It was the longest industrial dispute in Britain in the 20th century and directly involved roughly 120,000-130,000 workers from March 1984 onwards," Dr Jim Phillips, a senior lecturer of economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, told Al Jazeera. "It might be seen as pivotal in the sense of Britain's economic trajectory - moving out of an industrial economy into a more service, finance, and capital-related economy. Some of the 150 or so pits that operated in 1984 were, in narrow economic terms, loss-making and so required some degree of cross subsidy from more financially viable pits to remain in operation… The coal industry was also losing business during the recession of the early 1980s." Change under Thatcher Yet, just a decade before the strike coal mining had appeared to be a booming industry in the UK. The so-called Plan for Coal, a tripartite agreement endorsed by the Labour government, the National Coal Board and the mining unions, had been agreed just two years after the February 1972 miners' strike, which saw Britons subjected to power blackouts. Output targets were set at 135 million tonnes by 1985 and 170-200 million tonnes by 2000. Yet, as Thatcher's Conservative Party swept to power in 1979, change was in the air. I personally made the decision that we stood up to fight. And, I still think today that that was the right decision. -Chris Kitchen, general secretary of National Union of Mineworkers Thatcher had avoided a miners' strike in 1981 by backing down because coal stocks were low - but she was unwilling to buttress what she considered a dying industry for long. After crushing the Labour Party in the 1983 general election, she knew a walkout was inevitable - and within a week of MacGregor's announcement more than half the country's miners had taken strike action. "I started in the industry in 1982 when I was 16 and was told by the personnel manager that I had a good job for life if I looked after it," Chris Kitchen, the current general secretary of NUM, tells Al Jazeera of his mining days in West Yorkshire, northern England. "I was a trade union member from day one - not really politicised - but always supported the union… In 1984, when we went on strike, I didn't know very much about Arthur Scargill - because I only knew my own branch officials - but in the meetings we attended and through the information we were given it seemed feasible to me that we had two choices: that we either rolled over and let them destroy us or we stood up to fight. I personally made the decision that we stood up to fight. And, I still think today that that was the right decision." Was the strike necessary? Yet, many commentators still contend that Scargill's move to strike was fatally flawed by his unwillingness to ballot his members on industrial action. This, say some, not only lost NUM the support of other unions - but crucially meant that Scargill's movement lacked political legitimacy. Kitchen, for one, disagrees. "The ballot wasn't an issue, it was a smoke screen," says the veteran trade unionist. "It is irrelevant whether there was a ballot or not, it is whether it was right or wrong. If it's right, you don't need a ballot to justify it. And, the strike action was right so the ballot argument was irrelevant." When we were going out onto the picket lines we had the crazy situation where other striking miners were calling us scabs. - Chris Craven, former coal miner But, as miners across England - as well as Scotland and Wales - abandoned their pits and began to picket, miners in Nottinghamshire, in the English Midlands, did not. Without a national ballot, Nottinghamshire's miners refused to follow the actions of their colleagues and instead set up their own breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). Yet, for a small number of Nottinghamshire's mineworkers, strike action was viewed as necessary. One such miner was Chris Craven, who, rejecting the stance taken by his fellow workers not to strike, found himself in a somewhat perilous position. "When the miners' strike kicked off, I was one of the very few miners from the Nottinghamshire area who went out on strike," Craven, then a 21-year-old, recalls to Al Jazeera. "I, along with a few hundred others, was in a really funny situation. Obviously, we had the issue that a lot of people from our own villages were going back to work, but when we were going out onto the picket lines we had the crazy situation where other striking miners were calling us scabs (the disparaging term for non-strikers) just because we were from Nottinghamshire." Alex Bennett was a 37-year-old mining leader in Midlothian, Scotland, when the strike broke out. He recalls how the thorny issue of non-striking miners pervaded both his own mining community and others across Britain. "They were scabs and are still classed as scabs," says Bennett, now a Labour Party councillor in Midlothian. "There were some of them who went back to work (during the strike) because they were against the union, some who formed the UDM, but others who just went back because of pure hardship - and I've got no resentment against them." When the striking miners returned to work in March 1985, they did so dejected and defeated. The intervening year had seen more than 11,000 arrests and more than 8,000 people charged, mostly for breach of the peace, including Bennett. Worse still, there had been 11 deaths, of those a taxi driver who was killed as he took a non-striking miner to work in Wales. On the political front, Thatcher's decision to face down Scargill's NUM had led to a humiliating and lasting defeat for the miners and a political triumph for Britain's premier and her ruling Conservatives. Industrial decline Today, the strike's legacy can be seen across Britain. Where there was 170 operating coal pits dotted across the British landscape in 1984, now only three remain. NUM, once a powerhouse union of more than 200,000 members, has less than 2,000 today. When cabinet papers, released earlier this year under Britain's 30-year rule, appeared to vindicate Scargill's long-held belief that Thatcher's Conservative government had a secret "hit list" of 75 pits earmarked for closure and not just the 20 that had been discussed publicly, the outrage from many exposed a lingering bitterness. Yet, while the likes of Kitchen continue to give their lives to Britain's now decimated mining industry, for many ex-miners like Craven, time has moved on. "When you were in the mining community it was a really pleasant community," says Craven, whose redundancy from the mining industry in 1993 saw him find work as a scuba diving instructor before becoming owner of Water Babies, a UK-based business franchise that he now runs with his wife. "But, you have to move on, and I'm of the opinion that what's done is done and you can't dwell on the past. You could - but it would just take you down with it." Follow Alasdair Soussi on Twitter: @AlasdairSoussi
Do You Have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a Sexual Dysfunction? Send me more information about Boston Medical Group Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that more than two percent of the U.S. population suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD. OCD sufferers are victims of irrational and intrusive thoughts or obsessions that accumulate in their mind over time. Disturbing thoughts that revolve around cleanliness, danger or extreme and irrational worry frequently preoccupy the obsessive-impulsive personality. OCD suffers compulsively perform rituals that they believe if not performed will result in terrible consequences. Common rituals involve counting numbers, hand wringing, repeatedly turning on and off light switches, opening and closing doors and the repetition of words or phrases. The causes of OCD aren’t completely understood, but studies point to a biological component in which the brain’s chemistry has been altered or from a lack of serotonin production in the brain. Researchers believe that OCD may stem from behavior-related habits learned over time or during childhood. Since sex carries so much emotional, moral and physical importance, it easily becomes a magnet for obsessions in people with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. OCD is often called the “disease of doubt” and for many of its sufferers, the disease can wreck havoc on their sex life. Studies show that up to 50% of all OCD patients report some type of sexual dysfunction. OCD causes many different forms of sexual dysfunction and can even cause someone to avoid sex altogether. Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder have an unwarranted fear of contamination. This irrational fear may lead someone to avoid sex because they are afraid of coming into contact with a diseased or unclean person or they fear ingesting or coming into contact another person’s bodily fluids. OCD is also known to cause a decrease in sex drive. Studies show that women with OCD are more sexually non-sensual, avoidant and anorgasmic. The anxiety associated with obsessive disorder can detract from erotic stimuli and impair sexual arousal. Studies have shown that up to 37% of men with OCD have some type of erectile dysfunction or are impotent. Reports show that these problems occur most frequently in male patients between 45 and 54 years old. Women with OCD frequently report a reduction in vaginal lubrication and clitoral blood flow. Dyspareunia, a medical or psychological disorder in which women experience severe pain while having sexual intercourse, occurs more frequently in women with an obsessive-compulsive personality. In addition to problems with arousal and desire, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder also affects orgasmic function in both males and females. Negative emotions, including anxiety or fear of failing to meet a partner’s expectations, represent one of the most common causes of premature ejaculation, or PE, in men. Sexual performance anxiety can greatly reduce a man’s ejaculation control, resulting in them reaching orgasm before their sex partner or even within seconds of penetration. After repeated short sexual encounters, the OCD sufferer may become more and more anxious before a sexual encounter. This anxiety can work to exacerbate their premature ejaculation problems and may even be the beginning phases of impotence. Erectile dysfunction can also be caused by many of the OCD medications used to treat the disease. Reduced libido, erectile dysfunction and inability to reach orgasm are common side effects associated with OCD medications. This places the patient in a double bind, because the same medication that is used to treat their anxiety also causes sexual dysfunction. Obsessive compulsion can also result in powerful sexual obsessions. Although many people have rational concerns about their physical attractiveness, potency, or the faithfulness of their sexual partner, OCD sufferers may obsess over these issues in an extreme way, which can lead to an inability to perform sexually. Obsessive compulsion can also lead to paralyzing preoccupation with homosexuality, unfaithfulness, deviant behaviors, pedophilia and AIDS. Someone with OCD may be so preoccupied with catching AIDS that they may not be able to sexually perform or they will avoid sex completely. Other suffers may inappropriately fear that a waning feeling for their heterosexual lover may be the result of unfulfilled homosexual desires. OCD suffers also frequently believe that their significant other is cheating on them, which can lead to a strained relationship. Many people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder avoid getting proper medical or psychological treatment because, although many have the insight to see that their obsessions are false, the obsessions still feel completely real to them. Once a sufferer decides to get treatment, there are many medications or behavioral practices available to help the patient overcome this debilitating disease. For those who suffer from sexual dysfunction caused by either OCD or OCD medications, there are a wide variety of treatments for erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and many female-specific sexual disorders.
Programming XML in Java, Part 1 Create Java apps with SAX appeal So, you understand (more or less) how you would represent your data in XML, and you're interested in using XML to solve many of your data-management problems. Yet you're not sure how to use XML with your Java programs. TEXTBOX: TEXTBOX_HEAD: Programming XML in Java: Read the whole series! This article is a follow-up to my introductory article, "XML for the absolute beginner", in the April 1999 issue of JavaWorld (see the Resources section below for the URL). That article described XML; I will now build on that description and show in detail how to create an application that uses the Simple API for Java (SAX), a lightweight and powerful standard Java API for processing XML. The example code used here uses the SAX API to read an XML file and create a useful structure of objects. By the time you've finished this article, you'll be ready to create your own XML-based applications. The virtue of laziness Larry Wall, mad genius creator of Perl (the second-greatest programming language in existence), has stated that laziness is one of the "three great virtues" of a programmer (the other two being impatience and hubris). Laziness is a virtue because a lazy programmer will go to almost any length to avoid work, even going so far as creating general, reusable programming frameworks that can be used repeatedly. Creating such frameworks entails a great deal of work, but the time saved on future assignments more than makes up for the initial effort invested. The best frameworks let programmers do amazing things with little or no work -- and that's why laziness is virtuous. XML is an enabling technology for the virtuous (lazy) programmer. A basic XML parser does a great deal of work for the programmer, recognizing tokens, translating encoded characters, enforcing rules on XML file structure, checking the validity of some data values, and making calls to application-specific code, where appropriate. In fact, early standardization, combined with a fiercely competitive marketplace, has produced scores of freely available implementations of standard XML parsers in many languages, including C, C++, Tcl, Perl, Python, and, of course, Java. The SAX API is one of the simplest and most lightweight interfaces for handling XML. In this article, I'll use IBM's XML4J implementation of SAX, but since the API is standardized, your application could substitute any package that implements SAX. SAX is an event-based API, operating on the callback principle. An application programmer will typically create a SAX Parser object, and pass it both input XML and a document handler, which receives callbacks for SAX events. The SAX Parser converts its input into a stream of events corresponding to structural features of the input, such as XML tags or blocks of text. As each event occurs, it is passed to the appropriate method of a programmer-defined document handler, which implements the callback interface org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler. The methods in this handler class perform the application-specific functionality during the parse. For example, imagine that a SAX parser receives a document containing the tiny XML document shown in Listing 1 below. (See Resources for the XML file.) <LINE>Had 'em.</LINE> Listing 1. XML representing a short poem When the SAX parser encounters the <POEM> tag, it calls the user-defined DocumentHandler.startElement() with the string POEM as an argument. You implement the startElement() method to do whatever the application is meant to do when a POEM begins. The stream of events and resulting calls for the piece of XML above appears in Table 1 below. Table 1. The sequence of callbacks SAX produces while parsing Listing 1 Item encounteredParser callback {Beginning of document}startDocument() <POEM> startElement("POEM", {AttributeList}) "\n"characters("<POEM>\n...", 6, 1) <AUTHOR>startElement("AUTHOR", {AttributeList}) "Ogden Nash"characters("<POEM>\n...", 15, 10) </AUTHOR> endElement("AUTHOR") "\n"characters("<POEM>\n...", 34, 1) <TITLE> startElement("TITLE", {AttributeList}) "Fleas"characters("<POEM>\n...", 42, 5) </TITLE> endElement("TITLE") "\n"characters("<POEM>\n...", 55, 1) <LINE> startElement("LINE", {AttributeList}) "Adam"characters("<POEM>\n...", 62, 4) </LINE> endElement("LINE") "Had 'em."characters("<POEM>\n...", 67, 8) </LINE> endElement("LINE") "\n"characters("<POEM>\n...", 82, 1) </POEM> endElement("POEM") {End of document}endDocument() You create a class that implements DocumentHandler to respond to events that occur in the SAX parser. These events aren't Java events as you may know them from the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). They are conditions the SAX parser detects as it parses, such as the start of a document or the occurrence of a closing tag in the input stream. As each of these conditions (or events) occurs, SAX calls the method corresponding to the condition in its DocumentHandler. So, the key to writing programs that process XML with SAX is to figure out what the DocumentHandler should do in response to a stream of method callbacks from SAX. The SAX parser takes care of all the mechanics of identifying tags, substituting entity values, and so on, leaving you free to concentrate on the application-specific functionality that uses the data encoded in the XML. Table 1 shows only events associated with elements and characters. SAX also includes facilities for handling other structural features of XML files, such as entities and processing instructions, but these are beyond the scope of this article. The astute reader will notice that an XML document can be represented as a tree of typed objects, and that the order of the stream of events presented to the DocumentHandler corresponds to an in-order, depth-first traversal of the document tree. (It isn't essential to understand this point, but the concept of an XML document as a tree data structure is useful in more sophisticated types of document processing, which will be covered in later articles in this series.) The key to understanding how to use SAX is understanding the DocumentHandler interface, which I will discuss next. Customize the parser with org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler Since the DocumentHandler interface is so central to processing XML with SAX, it's worthwhile to understand what the methods in the interface do. I'll cover the essential methods in this section, and skip those that deal with more advanced topics. Remember, DocumentHandler is an interface, so the methods I'm describing are methods that you will implement to handle application-specific functionality whenever the corresponding event occurs. Document initialization and cleanup For each document parsed, the SAX XML parser calls the DocumentHandler interface methods startDocument() (called before processing begins) and endDocument() (called after processing is complete). You can use these methods to initialize your DocumentHandler to prepare it for receiving events and to clean up or produce output after parsing is complete. endDocument() is particularly interesting, since it's only called if an input document has been successfully parsed. If the Parser generates a fatal error, it simply aborts the event stream and stops parsing, and endDocument() is never called. Processing tags The SAX parser calls startElement() whenever it encounters an open tag, and endElement() whenever it encounters a close tag. These methods often contain the code that does the majority of the work while parsing an XML file. startElement()'s first argument is a string, which is the tag name of the element encountered. The second argument is an object of type AttributeList, an interface defined in package org.xml.sax that provides sequential or random access to element attributes by name. (You've undoubtedly seen attributes before in HTML; in the line <TABLE BORDER="1">, BORDER is an attribute whose value is "1"). Since Listing 1 includes no attributes, they don't appear in Table 1. You'll see examples of attributes in the sample application later in this article. Since SAX doesn't provide any information about the context of the elements it encounters (that <AUTHOR> appears inside <POEM> in Listing 1 above, for example), it is up to you to supply that information. Application programmers often use stacks in startElement() and endElement(), pushing objects onto a stack when an element starts, and popping them off of the stack when the element ends. Process blocks of text The characters() method indicates character content in the XML document -- characters that don't appear inside an XML tag, in other words. This method's signature is a bit odd. The first argument is an array of bytes, the second is an index into that array indicating the first character of the range to be processed, and the third argument is the length of the character range. It might seem that an easier API would have simply passed a String object containing the data, but characters() was defined in this way for efficiency reasons. The parser has no way of knowing whether or not you're going to use the characters, so as the parser parses its input buffer, it passes a reference to the buffer and the indices of the string it is viewing, trusting that you will construct your own String if you want one. It's a bit more work, but it lets you decide whether or not to incur the overhead of String construction for content pieces in an XML file. The characters() method handles both regular text content and content inside CDATA sections, which are used to prevent blocks of literal text from being parsed by an XML parser. Other methods There are three other methods in the DocumentHandler interface: ignorableWhitespace(), processingInstruction(), and setDocumentLocator(). ignorableWhitespace() reports occurrences of white space, and is usually unused in nonvalidating SAX parsers (such as the one we're using for this article); processingInstruction() handles most things within <? and ?> delimiters; and setDocumentLocator() is optionally implemented by SAX parsers to give you access to the locations of SAX events in the original input stream. You can read up on these methods by following the links on the SAX interfaces in Resources. Implementing all of the methods in an interface can be tedious if you're only interested in the behavior of one or two of them. The SAX package includes a class called HandlerBase that basically does nothing, but can help you take advantage of just one or two of these methods. Let's examine this class in more detail. HandlerBase: A do-nothing class Often, you're only interested in implementing one or two methods in an interface, and want the other methods to simply do nothing. The class org.xml.sax.HandlerBase simplifies the implementation of the DocumentHandler interface by implementing all of the interface's methods with do-nothing bodies. Then, instead of implementing DocumentHandler, you can subclass HandlerBase, and only override the methods that interest you. For example, say you wanted to write a program that just printed the title of any XML-formatted poem (like TitleFinder in Listing 1). You could define a new DocumentHandler, like the one in Listing 2 below, that subclasses HandlerBase, and only overrides the methods you need. (See Resources for an HTML file of TitleFinder.) 012 /** 013 * SAX DocumentHandler class that prints the contents of "TITLE" element 014 * of an input document. 015 / 016 public class TitleFinder extends HandlerBase { 017 boolean _isTitle = false; 018 public TitleFinder() { 019 super(); 020 } 021 /* 022 * Print any text found inside a <TITLE> element. 023 / 024 public void characters(char[] chars, int iStart, int iLen) { 025 if (_isTitle) { 026 String sTitle = new String(chars, iStart, iLen); 027 System.out.println("Title: " + sTitle); 028 } 029 } 030 /* 031 * Mark title element end. 032 / 033 public void endElement(String element) { 034 if (element.equals("TITLE")) { 035 _isTitle = false; 036 } 037 } 038 /* 039 * Find contents of titles 040 / 041 public static void main(String args[]) { 042 TitleFinder titleFinder = new TitleFinder(); 043 try { 044 Parser parser = ParserFactory.makeParser(""); 045 parser.setDocumentHandler(titleFinder); 046 parser.parse(new InputSource(args[0])); 047 } catch (Exception ex) { 048 ; // OK, so sometimes laziness isn't* a virtue. 049 } 050 } 051 /** 052 * Mark title element start 053 */ 054 public void startElement(String element, AttributeList attrlist) { 055 if (element.equals("TITLE")) { 056 _isTitle = true; 057 } 058 } Listing 2. TitleFinder: A DocumentHandler derived from HandlerBase that prints TITLEs This class's operation is very simple. The characters() method prints character content if it's inside a <TITLE>. The private boolean field _isTitle keeps track of whether the parser is in the process of parsing a <TITLE>. The startElement() method sets _isTitle to true when a <TITLE> is encountered, and endElement() sets it to false when </TITLE> is encountered. To extract <TITLE> content from <POEM> XML, simply create a <Parser> (I'll show you how to do this in the sample code below), call the Parser's setDocumentHandler() method with an instance of TitleFinder, and tell the Parser to parse XML. The parser will print anything it finds inside a <TITLE> tag. The TitleFinder class only overrides three methods: characters(), startElement(), and endElement(). The other methods of the DocumentHandler are implemented by the HandlerBase superclass, and those methods do precisely nothing -- just what you would have done if you'd implemented the interface yourself. A convenience class like HandlerBase isn't necessary, but it simplifies the writing of handlers because you don't need to spend a lot of time writing idle methods. As an aside, sometimes in Sun documentation you'll see javadocs with method descriptions like "deny knowledge of child nodes." Such a description has nothing to do with paternity suits or Mission: Impossible; instead, it is a dead giveaway that you're looking at a do-nothing convenience class. Such classes often have the words Base, Support, or Adapter in their names. A convenience class like HandlerBase does the job, but still isn't quite smart enough. It doesn't limit you to a <TITLE> element inside a <POEM>; it would print the titles of HTML files, too, for example. And any tags inside a <TITLE>, such as <B> tags for bolding, would be lost. Since SAX is a simplified interface, it's left up to the application developer to handle things like tag context. Now you've seen a useless, simple example of SAX. Let's get into something more functional and interesting: an XML language for specifying AWT menus. An applied example: AWT menus as XML Recently I needed to write a menu system for a Java program I was developing. Writing menus in Java 1.1 is really quite easy. The top-level object in a menu structure is either a MenuBar or a PopupMenu object. A MenuBar contains sub-Menu objects, while PopupMenu and Menu objects can contain Menus, MenuItems, and CheckboxMenuItems. Typically, objects of this type are constructed manually in Java code, and built into a menu tree via calls to the add() methods of the parent object. Listing 3 shows the Java code that creates the menu shown in Figure 1. MenuBar menubarTop = new MenuBar(); Menu menuFile = new Menu("File"); Menu menuEdit = new Menu("Edit"); menuFile.add(new MenuItem("Open")); menuFile.add(new MenuItem("Close")); menuFile.add(new MenuItem("And so on...")); menuEdit.add(new MenuItem("Cut")); menuEdit.add(new MenuItem("Paste")); menuEdit.add(new MenuItem("Delete")); Frame frame = new Frame("ManualMenuDemo"); frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { Listing 3. Creating a simple menu Figure 1 below shows the simple menu that was handcoded in Java from Listing 3. Figure 1. The resulting menu of Listing 3 (below) Simple enough, right? Well, not for me. Remember, I'm a lazy programmer, and I don't like having to write all of this code to create these menus. And I haven't even begun to write all of the ActionListener and ItemListener classes I need to actually make these menus operate. No, I want something easier. I'd much rather have a menu specification language that lets me specify the menu structurally, and notifies my program through a single interface when user events occur. I also want to be able to reconfigure my menus without having to rewrite any code. I want to create menu structures for naive or expert users simply by changing the menu specification, and possibly rename the menu items without changing any code. I want lots of functionality, and I don't want to have to work for it. Since I'm lazy, I'll choose an off-the-shelf SAX XML parser to do my work for me. I'll specify the file format as an XML file. Then I'll create a class called SaxMenuLoader that uses a SAX XML parser to create menu structures defined by XML, stores the menus in a Hashtable, and then returns the menus when I ask for them by name. This SaxMenuLoader will also listen for ActionEvents and ItemEvents from the menu items it creates, and will call appropriate handler methods to handle the actions. Once I've written this SaxMenuLoader, all I need to do in the future is create a SaxMenuLoader instance and tell it to load my XML menu specification; then I can ask it by name for the MenuBars and PopupMenus defined in the XML. (Well, I'll also have to write and name the handlers, but that's application functionality. This system can't do everything for me. Yet.) Menu XML For this example, I've created a little language I'll call Menu XML. Depending on your application, you may want to implement a standard XML dialect, defined in a document type definition (DTD) by a standards organization or some other group. In this case, I'm just using XML for controlling the configuration of my application, so I don't care if the XML is standardized. I'll introduce Menu XML with an example, which appears in Listing 4. (See Resources for an HTML file for Menu XML.) 001 <?xml version="1.0"?> 003 <Menus> 005 <!-- The menu bar at the top of the frame --> 006 <MenuBar NAME="TopMenu"> 008 <Menu NAME="File" HANDLER="FileHandler"> 009 <MenuItem NAME="FileOpen" LABEL="Open..."/> 010 <MenuItem NAME="FileSave" LABEL="Save"/> 011 <MenuItem NAME="FileSaveAs" LABEL="Save As..."/> 012 <MenuItem NAME="FileExit" LABEL="Exit"/> 013 </Menu> 015 <Menu NAME="Edit" HANDLER="EditHandler"> 016 <MenuItem NAME="EditUndo" LABEL="Undo"/> 017 <MenuItem NAME="EditCut" LABEL="Cut"/> 018 <MenuItem NAME="EditPaste" LABEL="Paste"/> 019 <MenuItem NAME="EditDelete" LABEL="Delete"/> 020 <CheckboxMenuItem NAME="EditReadOnly" LABEL="Disable Button 1"021 HANDLER="Button1Enabler"/> 022 </Menu> 024 <Menu NAME="Help" HANDLER="HelpHandler"> 025 <MenuItem NAME="HelpAbout" LABEL="About"/> 026 <MenuItem NAME="HelpTutorial" LABEL="Tutorial"/> 027 </Menu> 029 </MenuBar> 031 <PopupMenu NAME="Pop1" HANDLER="PopupHandler"> 032 <Menu NAME="Sub Menu 1" HANDLER="SubMenu1Handler"> 033 <MenuItem NAME="Item 1" COMMAND="Item One"/> 034 <MenuItem NAME="Item 2" COMMAND="Item Two"/> 035 </Menu> 036 <MenuItem NAME="Item 3" COMMAND="Item Three"/> 037 <MenuItem NAME="Item 4" COMMAND="Item Four"/> 038 <MenuItem NAME="Item 5" COMMAND="Item Five"039 HANDLER="com.javaworld.feb2000.sax.DynamicMenuItemHandler"/> 040 </PopupMenu> 042 </Menus> Listing 4. Sample Menu XML to be processed by sample code This language has just a few tags and attributes: • <Menus>: This is the document element for this language. The <menus> tag simply groups all of the menus below it. • <MenuBar NAME="name">: The <MenuBar> tag defines a new java.awt.MenuBar object. When parsing is completed, the menu bar will be accessible by the given name. • <PopupMenu NAME="name">: The <PopupMenu> tag defines a new java.awt.PopupMenu object. When parsing is completed, the popup menu will be accessible by the given name. • <MenuItem NAME="name" [LABEL="label"] [COMMAND="command"]>: This tag defines a java.awt.MenuItem. The item's label defaults to its name, but can be set with the LABEL attribute. The default actionCommand for the item is also the item's name, but may be set with the COMMAND attribute. • <CheckboxMenuItem NAME="name" [LABEL="label"] [COMMAND="command"]>: This tag defines a java.awt.CheckboxMenuItem. It's just like a MenuItem, except that the menu item checks and unchecks when selected, instead of executing an action. Any of these tags may optionally take an attribute HANDLER="handlerName", which indicates the name of the handler for that object and all of its children (unless one of its children overrides the current handler by defining its own handler). The handler name indicates what object and method are to be called when the menu item is activated. The mechanism for associated handler names with their handler objects is explained in the implementation discussion below. The containment relationship among the tags directly reflects the containment relationship of the resulting objects. So, for example, the PopupMenu called Pop1 defined in Listing 4, line 31, contains a single Menu and three MenuItems. As the SaxMenuLoader class parses the XML file, it creates appropriate Java menu objects and connects them to reflect the XML structure. Let's look at the code for SaxMenuLoader. Load Menu XML with SAX: The SaxMenuLoader class The following is a list of SaxMenuLoader's responsibilities: • Parses the Menu XML file using a SAX parser. • Builds the menu tree. • Acts as a repository for the MenuBar and PopupMenu items defined in the Menu XML. • Maintains a repository of event handler objects that are called when the user selects menu items. An event handler object is any object that implements interface MenuItemHandler, defined by this package to unify action and item events from menu items. Any object that implements this interface can receive events from MenuItems defined in Menu XML. (I'll cover the MenuItemHandler in more detail shortly.) • Acts as an ActionListener and ItemListener for all menu items. • Dispatches ActionEvents and ItemEvents to the appropriate handlers for the menu items. Use SaxMenuLoader The MenuDemo class takes two arguments: the name of the Menu XML file to parse, and the name of the MenuBar to place in the application. MenuDemo.main() simply creates a MenuDemo instance, and calls that instance's runDemo() method. The method MenuDemo.runDemo(), shown in Listing 5, demonstrates how to use the SaxMenuLoader in use. (See Resources for an HTML file of SaxMenuLoader and MenuDemo.) 094 public void runDemo(String[] args) { 095 SaxMenuLoader sml = new SaxMenuLoader(); 097 // Bind names of handlers to the MenuItemHandlers they represent 098 sml.registerMenuItemHandler("FileHandler", this); 099 sml.registerMenuItemHandler("EditHandler", this); 100 sml.registerMenuItemHandler("HelpHandler", this); 101 sml.registerMenuItemHandler("PopupHandler", this); 102 sml.registerMenuItemHandler("SubMenu1Handler", this); 103 sml.registerMenuItemHandler("Button1Enabler", this); 105 // Parse the file 106 sml.loadMenus(args[0]); 108 // If menu load succeeded, show the menu in a frame 109 MenuBar menubarTop = sml.menubarFind(args[1]); 110 if (menubarTop != null) { 111 Frame frame = new Frame("Menu demo 1"); 112 frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { 113 public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { 114 System.exit(0); 115 } 116 }); 117 frame.setMenuBar(menubarTop); 118 _b1 = new Button("Button"); 119 _b1.addMouseListener(new MenuPopper(_b1, sml, "Pop1")); 120 frame.add(_b1); 121 frame.pack(); 123 } else { 124 System.out.println(args[1] + ": no such menu"); 125 } 126 } Listing 5. Using the SaxMenuLoader in the MenuDemo class In Listing 5, line 95 creates the SaxMenuLoader. Then, lines 98 through 103 register the MenuDemo instance (this) as the MenuItemHandler for all of the handler names referenced in the Menu XML file. Since MenuDemo implements MenuItemHandler, it can receive callbacks from the menu items created in the Menu XML. These registrations are what associate the symbolic menu item handler names with the application objects that actually do the work. Line 106 tells the SaxMenuLoader to load the file, and line 109 gets the menu named MenuTop from the SaxMenuLoader. The rest of the code is straightforward AWT, except for line 119, which uses a MenuPopper object to associate a Button object with a pop-up menu. MenuPopper is a convenience class I wrote that looks up a named pop-up menu from a given SaxMenuLoader, and associates the pop-up menu with the given AWT component. A MenuPopper is also a MouseListener, so that when the user clicks the center or left mouse button on the MenuPopper's component, the MenuPopper shows the pop-up menu on top of that component. This is all the code necessary to get menus from a Menu XML file. You might have noticed that this is about as many lines of code as it took to create a small menu manually. But this technique provides much more power. You can reconfigure the menus without recompiling or redistributing any class files. What's more, you can extend the application with new menu items and handlers for those items without recompiling. (I'll discuss how to dynamically extend a running application with dynamic menu item handlers in the "Dynamic Menu Item Handlers" section later in the article.) From now on, creating extensible application menus is a lazy person's job! So far, I've shown you how to use the SaxMenuLoader. Now let's take a look at how it works. Parse the XML with SAX You'll remember that an object that implements DocumentHandler can receive events from a SAX parser. Well, the SaxMenuLoader has a SAX parser and it also implements DocumentHandler, so it can receive events from that parser. SaxMenuLoader's loadMenus() method is overloaded for multiple types of inputs (File, InputStream, and so forth), but all eventually call the method shown in Listing 6. 279 public void loadMenus(Reader reader_) { 280 if (_parser == null) 281 return; 282 _parser.setDocumentHandler(this); 283 try { 284 _parser.parse(new InputSource(reader_)); 285 } catch (SAXException ex) { 286 System.out.println("Parse error: " + ex.getMessage()); 287 } catch (Exception ex) { 288 System.err.println("SaxMenuFactory.loadMenus(): " + ex.getClass().getName() + 289 ex.getMessage()); 290 ex.printStackTrace(); 291 } 292 } Listing 6. loadMenus() uses a SAX parser to parse menus There's not much to this method -- it simply sets the parser's DocumentHandler to this, calls the parser's parse() method, and handles any exceptions. How could this possibly build a menu? The answer is in the implementation of DocumentHandler. Since SaxMenuLoader implements DocumentHandler, all of the menu-building functionality (which is specific to this application) occurs in the DocumentHandler implementation methods -- primarily in startElement(). Listing 7 shows the implementation of startElement() that creates the MenuBar, PopupMenu, Menu, MenuItem, and CheckboxMenuItem objects and associates them with one another. As the parser parses the XML, it calls SaxMenuLoader.startElement() each time it encounters an opening XML tag, passing the tag name and the list of attributes for the tag. startElement() simply calls an appropriate protected method within SaxMenuLoader based on the tag name. 445 public void startElement(String sName_, AttributeList attrs_) { 447 // Anything may override handler for its context 448 String sHandler = attrs_.getValue("HANDLER"); 449 pushMenuItemHandler(sHandler); 451 // If "menubar", we're building a MenuBar 452 if (sName_.equals("MenuBar")) { 453 defineMenuBar(attrs_); 454 } 456 // If "popupMenu", we're building a PopupMenu 457 else if (sName_.equals("PopupMenu")) { 458 definePopupMenu(attrs_); 459 } 461 // If "menu", then create a menu. 462 else if (sName_.equals("Menu")) { 463 defineMenu(attrs_); 464 } 466 else if (sName_.equals("MenuItem")) { 467 defineMenuItem(attrs_); 468 } 470 else if (sName_.equals("CheckboxMenuItem")) { 471 defineCheckboxMenuItem(attrs_); 472 } 473 } Listing 7. SaxMenuLoader.startElement() This method does one additional thing: as noted above, any tag in Menu XML can include an optional HANDLER name, which defines the handler for all items that element contains. For example, line 8 of Listing 4 defines FileHandler as the name of the handler to call when any item in the File menu is selected. startElement() implements this functionality in lines 448 and 449 by detecting the HANDLER attribute on any tag and calling pushMenuItemHandler, which pushes the named MenuItemHandler onto a stack maintained by the SaxMenuLoader. Therefore, whatever is on top of the MenuItemHandler stack is always the appropriate handler for any item to be created. startElement() always pushes a handler (unless none has ever been specified); when an element doesn't specify a HANDLER, pushMenuItemHandler pushes another copy of whatever is on top of the stack. Later, endElement() always pops a handler off of the stack if it can, so the balance between stack pushes and pops is always maintained. The methods called by startElement do the actual work of creating the menu tree. I'll cover those next. Create the Menu tree Listing 8 shows defineMenuBar, which is called when startElement receives a MenuBar element. 154 protected void defineMenuBar(AttributeList attrs_) { 155 String sMenuName = attrs_.getValue("NAME"); 156 _menubarCurrent = new MenuBar(); 157 if (sMenuName != null) { 158 _menubarCurrent.setName(sMenuName); 159 } 160 register(_menubarCurrent); 161 } 190 protected void definePopupMenu(AttributeList attrs_) { 191 String sMenuName = attrs_.getValue("NAME"); 192 _popupmenuCurrent = new PopupMenu(); 193 if (sMenuName != null) { 194 _popupmenuCurrent.setName(sMenuName); 195 } 196 register(_popupmenuCurrent); 197 } Listing 8. defineMenuBar() and definePopupMenu() As you can see, defineMenuBar() does very little: it simply creates a new MenuBar, assigns it a name if one is provided, and then registers it. The register() method simply stores the MenuBar in a protected hash table, so that you can retrieve it by name using the method menuBarFind() (as in Listing 5, line 109). definePopupMenu() works just like defineMenuBar(), except it creates a PopupMenu object and registers it so that popupmenuFind() can return the new PopupMenu by name. The private static fields _menubarCurrent and _popupmenuCurrent contain a reference to the current MenuBar or PopupMenu being built, to which subsequent menus or menu items are added. Listing 9 shows the definition of a new Menu object. 052 protected void add(Menu menu_) { 053 Menu menuCurrent = menuCurrent(); 054 if (menuCurrent != null) { 055 menuCurrent.add(menu_); 056 } else { 057 if (_menubarCurrent != null) { 058 _menubarCurrent.add(menu_); 059 } 060 if (_popupmenuCurrent != null) { 061 _popupmenuCurrent.add(menu_); 062 } 063 } 064 } 130 protected void defineMenu(AttributeList attrs_) { 131 String sMenuName = attrs_.getValue("NAME"); 133 Menu menuNew = new Menu(sMenuName); 134 if (sMenuName != null) { 135 menuNew.setName(sMenuName); 136 } else { 137 sMenuName = menuNew.getName(); 138 } 139 System.out.print("Created menu " + sMenuName); 141 // Add to current context and make new menu the current menu to build 142 add(menuNew); 143 pushMenu(menuNew); 144 } Listing 9. add(Menu) and defineMenu() defineMenu() is only slightly more complicated than defineMenuBar(), because the menu being created is added to whatever is currently being built, whether that is a MenuBar, a PopupMenu, or another Menu. The defineMenu() method creates a new Menu object, sets its name, and then calls add(Menu), which adds the given Menu either to the top menu of the menu stack (a private field), the current MenuBar, or the PopupMenu under construction. After adding the new Menu to the appropriate parent, defineMenu() pushes the new menu onto the menu stack. Anything contained inside the current menu in the XML file will be added to the current menu at the top of the stack, so the resulting menu structure reflects the XML structure. endElement() always calls popMenu() when it receives a <Menu> tag, so the top of the stack always refers to the menu currently under construction. These stacks are necessary because, as stated before, SAX doesn't keep track of tag context; that's part of the application-specific functionality that SAX leaves up to you. MenuItem and CheckboxMenuItems are created by the code shown in Listing 10, and work in a fashion very similar to defineMenu(). 104 protected void defineCheckboxMenuItem(AttributeList attrs_) { 106 // Get attributes 107 String sItemName = attrs_.getValue("NAME"); 108 String sItemLabel = attrs_.getValue("LABEL"); 110 // Create new item 111 CheckboxMenuItem miNew = new CheckboxMenuItem(sItemName); 113 if (sItemName != null) { 114 miNew.setName(sItemName); 115 } else { 116 sItemName = miNew.getName(); 117 } 119 // Set menu attributes 120 if (sItemLabel != null) { 121 miNew.setLabel(sItemLabel); 122 } else { 123 miNew.setLabel(sItemName); 124 } 126 // Add menu item to whatever's currently being built 127 add(miNew); 128 miNew.addItemListener(this); 129 } 155 protected void defineMenuItem(AttributeList attrs_) { 157 // Get attributes 158 String sItemName = attrs_.getValue("NAME"); 159 String sItemLabel = attrs_.getValue("LABEL"); 161 // Create new item 162 MenuItem miNew = new MenuItem(sItemName); 163 if (sItemName != null) { 164 miNew.setName(sItemName); 165 } else { 166 sItemName = miNew.getName(); 167 } 169 // Set menu attributes 170 if (sItemLabel != null) { 171 miNew.setLabel(sItemLabel); 172 } else { 173 miNew.setLabel(sItemName); 174 } 176 // Add menu item to whatever's currently being built 177 add(miNew); 178 miNew.addActionListener(this); 179 } Listing 10. defineMenuItem() and defineCheckboxMenuItem() Both of these methods create an object of the appropriate type (MenuItem or CheckboxMenuItem), set the new object's name and label, and add() the object to whatever is on top of the menu stack (or to the PopupMenu under construction -- MenuItems can't be added to MenuBars). The only real difference between the two is that a MenuItem notifies ActionListeners of user actions, and a CheckboxMenuItem notifies ItemListeners. In either case, the SaxMenuLoader instance itself is listening for the item events, so that it can dispatch them to the appropriate MenuItemHandler when the ActionEvent or ItemEvent occurs. When the parser successfully completes parsing, the MenuItemHandler stack and the Menu stack will both be empty, and the hash tables will hold all of the the MenuBar and PopupMenu objects, indexed by their names. You can ask for MenuBars and PopupMenus by name, since they're built and waiting to be requested. Let's now turn our attention to the runtime behavior of these menus. SaxMenuLoader menus at runtime I've described how menus are created when the menu is parsed, but how do menus actually appear in an application? You'll recall that the top-level menu bar comes from the SaxMenuLoader, when you fetch it by name from the SaxMenuLoader (if you don't recall, see Listing 5 and the following discussion). When the user selects a menu item, all of that menu item's listeners are notified of the selection, right? Well, Listing 10 above shows that it is the SaxMenuLoader itself that is listening for these events. A menu item selected by a user notifies the SaxMenuLoader by calling its actionPerformed() or itemStateChanged() method (depending on whether the item was a regular or checkbox menu item). Listing 11 shows actionPerformed() and itemStateChanged() of SaxMenuLoader. 038 public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { 039 Object oSource = e.getSource(); 040 if (oSource instanceof MenuItem) { 041 MenuItem mi = (MenuItem) oSource; 042 MenuItemHandler mih = menuitemhandlerFind(mi); 043 if (mih != null) { 044 mih.itemActivated(mi, e, mi.getActionCommand()); 045 } 046 } 047 } 203 public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) { 204 Object oSource = e.getSource(); 205 if (oSource instanceof MenuItem) { 206 MenuItem mi = (MenuItem) oSource; 207 MenuItemHandler mih = menuitemhandlerFind(mi); 208 if (mih != null) { 209 if (e.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED) { 210 mih.itemSelected(mi, e, mi.getActionCommand()); 211 } else { 212 mih.itemDeselected(mi, e, mi.getActionCommand()); 213 } 214 } 215 } 216 } Listing 11. actionPerformed() and itemStateChanged() receive notification from menu items actionPerformed() gets the source object that caused the action; if that action was a MenuItem, it looks up that item's handler and calls the handler's itemActivated() method. itemStateChanged() is similar, except that it calls the handler's itemSelected() or itemDeselected() methods, depending on the state change indicated by the ItemEvent passed in. Notice that in both cases, menuitemHandlerFind() is used to find a handler for the menu item. Remember that you register the menu item handlers with the SaxMenuLoader (Listing 5, lines 098 through 103). But reexamine for a moment Listing 4, lines 038 through 039: Instead of a registered handler name, the value of the attribute HANDLER is a class name. This is how I implemented menu item handlers that are loaded at runtime, so that menus can be extended without recompiling the application. Dynamic menu item handlers Just a few lines of code allow a Menu XML file to specify any Java class name as a MenuItemHandler (assuming that the class is accessible and indeed implements that interface). Listing 12 shows how to do this. 340 protected MenuItemHandler menuitemhandlerFind(String sName_) { 341 if (sName_ == null) 342 return null; 343 MenuItemHandler mih = (MenuItemHandler) _htMenuItemHandlers.get(sName_); 345 // Not registered. See if it's a class name, and if it is, create an 346 // instance of that class and register it. 347 if (mih == null) { 348 try { 349 Class classOfHandler = Class.forName(sName_); 350 MenuItemHandler newHandler = (MenuItemHandler)classOfHandler.newInstance(); 351 registerMenuItemHandler(sName_, newHandler); 352 mih = newHandler; 353 } catch (Exception ex) { 354 System.err.println("Couldn't find menu item handler '" + sName_ + 355 ": no such registered handler, and couldn't create"); 356 System.err.println(sName_ + ": " + ex.getClass().getName() + ": " + ex.getMessage()); 357 } 358 } 359 return mih; 360 } ... 406 protected void pushMenuItemHandler(String sName_) { 407 MenuItemHandler l = menuitemhandlerFind(sName_); 408 if (l == null) 409 l = menuitemhandlerCurrent(); 410 pushMenuItemHandler(l); 411 } Listing 12. Implementation of dynamic item handlers Remember that each time SaxMenuLoader encounters a HANDLER attribute, it calls pushMenuItemHandler (see Listing 7). Listing 12 (lines 406 through 411) shows that pushMenuItemHandler(String) uses menuitemhandlerFind(String) to look up the handler by name. menuitemhandlerFind(String) tries to find the item handler in the protected _htMenuItemHandlers hash table. If no such handler is registered, it assumes the name of the handler is a class name. It tries to load the class whose name is the handler name; if it succeeds, it creates an instance of that class. menuitemhandlerFind(String) returns the resulting handler, which was either found in the hash table or loaded on the fly. The Menu XML package now provides a flexible, easy facility for defining the menus of an application, and extending them without recompiling. I can add items to the menu at will, and define handlers for those new menu items that are dynamically loaded at runtime. Menus are now easy! SAX is a powerful tool for simple XML processing. With a little headwork, it's easy to create applications that take advantage of XML's extensibility, flexibility, and standardization. In this article, you've seen how SAX works, and have been introduced to a useful example of XML in action. In the next article in this series, I'll show how to use a validating SAX parser, which detects errors in the input XML by checking its structure against a grammar called a document type definition (DTD). I'll also present a special DocumentHandler class called LAX (the Lazy API for XML), which makes writing document handler classes a piece of cake. Tune in next month! Mark Johnson works in Ft. Collins, Colo., as a designer and developer for Velocity by day, and as a JavaWorld columnist by night -- very late at night. Learn more about this topic • Download the source files for this article in one of the following formats: Join the discussion Be the first to comment on this article. Our Commenting Policies
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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Spahic Omer Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design International Islamic University Malaysia Introducing the Muslim market in Madinah Since production and trade are two key elements for the development of a city, transformations that the city-state of Madinah underwent show that the markets of Madinah both conceptually and spatially had been affected too following the Hijrah. At first, the Muslims used to avail themselves of the existing markets most of which have been controlled by the Jews. In these markets the blasphemous and perverse Jews perpetrated many errant practices, so the Muslims gradually developed a strong aversion to doing business there. And so a new market controlled by the Muslim community was shortly set up. What kind of inconveniences the Muslims had to swallow in the existing Jewish markets could be discerned from two incidents. Firstly, in the aftermath of the battle of Badr, the Prophet (pbuh) went to the market of one of the Jewish tribes, Banu Qaynuqa’ – it was the most recognized and most widely used market in Madinah – hoping that reflecting on the miracle of Badr, in which a small Muslim army emphatically defeated the Makkans, might bring a change of heart in them. However, they snubbed the Prophet (pbuh) haughtily telling him: “O Muhammad, do not be deluded by that encounter, for it was against men who had no knowledge of war, and so thou didst get the better of them. But by God, if we make war on thee, thou shalt know that we are the men to be feared.”[1] The second incident is that in the same market-place a Muslim woman, who had come to sell or exchange some goods, was grossly insulted by one of the Jewish goldsmiths. A Jew and a Muslim man, a Helper who came to the woman’s rescue, have been killed as a result. This brought things to a climax and the Banu Qaynuqa’ tribe had to be banished from Madinah.[2] After selecting the site of the new market, the Prophet (pbuh) said to the Muslims: “This is your market, it is not to be narrowed (by acquiring and building, for instance) and no tax is to be collected from it.”[3] The system of occupying the market space followed the pattern of occupying the mosque space: he who came first to a space occupied it, and it remained his until he wanted to leave.[4] The Prophet (pbuh) has said about mosques that they belong to everybody and that reserving certain places for certain people - like a camel which fixes its place - is not acceptable.[5] So unwavering was the Prophet (pbuh) about observing the instituted rules and regulations pertaining to the market that he once asked that an illegally erected tent in it be burned. A man from the Banu Harithah clan had earlier erected it and had been selling dates in it.[6] The existence of the new market powered with the new tawhidic vision quickly necessitated the establishment of a new institution called al-Hisbah, the center of attention of which was the maintenance of law, order and fair trading in the market. In other words, its focus was enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil (al-amr bi al-ma’ruf wa al-nahy ‘an al-munkar). The Prophet (pbuh) used to go occasionally to the market to look for himself into what was going on there and correct the actions of errant traders, thus setting a precedent that was followed for a long time by subsequent Muslim caliphs and governors. The market was positioned roughly on the northwest side of the Prophet’s mosque, not too far from it. A number of houses stood between the market and the mosque complex. The market was approximately five hundred meters long and more than one hundred meters wide.[7] When the first site for the market was selected a section thereof belonged to Ka’b b. al-Ashraf - one of the most perfidious and high-ranking Jews in Madinah. No sooner had the site been chosen and a tent put up, than Ka’b arrived and contemptibly cut the tent ropes. The Prophet (pbuh) calmly remarked: “Surely, we shall reposition it to a place which will frustrate him more.”[8] Some of the land needed for the market also belonged to the Banu Sa’idah clan, but they wittingly renounced it giving it to the Prophet (pbuh) and the community.[9] The market was large enough to comfortably accommodate everything expected from a city market. It was in fact bigger than what was needed at that juncture. It was yet another manifestation of the Prophet’s visionary disposition, as Madinah was expanding at a fast pace in almost every regard, and the surrounding tribes and communities were increasingly spawning their interest to be on familiar terms with what was then considered as a rising wonder. The significance of the market location Thanks to the Madinah topography, the market was situated in close proximity to the “natural main entrance” to the city, also located on the northwest side.[10] Irrespective of the direction from which individuals or caravans might have approached the city, they would customarily use that entrance. Its strategic location, rich and diverse commodity supply, and its reputation as a “clean”, conducive and fair place for doing business, made the market alluring to whosoever entered Madinah for whatever motive or whosoever was even remotely keen on trade. The Jewish markets were thus significantly reduced in importance and with them the Jews as a community and their overall standing in the region. Indeed, this was an important psychological victory for the Muslims, which proved of the essence in the impending broader conflict between the two sides and which at the end resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from the city. If one were to examine the overall economic situation in Madinah on the eve of the advent of Islam, and in which the Jews had the upper hand over the Arabs, one could easily grasp the significance of the said Muslim triumph over the Jews. In his introduction to the commentary of the Qur’anic chapter al-Hashr, Abul A’la al-Maududi furnishes us with a comprehensive account concerning the subject in question: “Economically they (the Jews) were much stronger than the Arabs. Since they had emigrated from more civilized and culturally advanced countries of Palestine and Syria, they knew many such arts as were unknown to the Arabs; they also enjoyed trade relations with the outside world. Hence, they had captured the business of importing grain in Yathrib and the upper Hijaz and exporting dried dates to other countries. Poultry farming and fishing also were mostly under their control. They were good at cloth weaving too. They had also set up wine shops here and there, where they sold wine which they imported from Syria. The Banu Qaynuqa’ generally practiced crafts such as that of the goldsmith, blacksmith and vessel maker. In all these occupations, trade and business these Jews earned exorbitant profits, but their chief occupation was money lending in which they had ensnared the Arabs of the surrounding areas. More particularly the chiefs and elders of the Arab tribes who were given to a life of pomp, bragging and boasting on the strength of borrowed money were deeply indebted to them. They lent money on high rates of interest and then would charge compound interest, which one could hardly clear off once one was involved in it. Thus, they had rendered the Arabs economically hollow, but it had naturally induced a deep rooted hatred among the common Arabs against the Jews.”[11] The market was neither too close to nor too far from the Prophet’s mosque complex. Its location was ideal under the circumstances and was pregnant with a few crucial implications for the spatial organization of future Islamic cities. Since Madinah was yet to become purely Islamic in terms of its citizenry, it was inappropriate to position the market too distant from the mosque complex, because the latter in its capacity as a community center and a personification of the Islamic cause, had been established to radiate by means of its form and function the rays of the magnificent Islamic struggle, serving in that way as an inexhaustible and efficient means of da’wah islamiyyah (propagation of Islam). Since it was a busy place offering access to everybody, including the Jews, hypocrites and polytheists, the market was set to be affected someway by the general ambiance generated by the mosque and its wide-ranging activities. Of course, the nearer was one to the complex, the stronger the impact one could come into contact with; nonetheless, though it was separated from the mosque by some houses, yet the market in reality was by no means too far to be influenced by the extraordinary mosque complex dynamism. Furthermore, being separated from the mosque by some houses proved no less strategic for the market, given that those houses – chiefly such as were built by the Migrants – in a way accounted for an extension of the mosque complex. In fact, they accounted for a sector of another larger complex, i.e., the genuine Islamic neighborhood, which was encompassing the mosque complex. In an Islamic settlement - it could be safely asserted - the houses which surround the principal mosque not only draw benefits from the latter’s facilities, but also complement it in fulfilling the divine purpose, in that the house institution, owing to its outstanding role in the society, also stands in its own way as an epitome of Islamic culture and civilization. As a result, those non-Muslims who would come to the Madinah market were enabled to enjoy - involuntarily though - a great deal of contact with the religion of Islam as embodied in the daily practices of its followers, and as the sole driving force behind their cultural and civilizational accomplishments, even though it as a set of beliefs and rituals failed initially to appeal to them. Indeed, this was an excellent opportunity to gradually lead some people towards softening their position on Islam and Muslims, and even towards an out-and-out change in their standpoint, for such people did not frequent the places of worship, nor did they feel every time disposed to listening to the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions who have been trying hard to sway them with their preaching. Having the market near the mosque complex also meant facilitating the chore of commanding good and prohibiting evil in it. Some people may have been asked by the Prophet (pbuh) to do so on either a regular or a temporary basis, yet many a mosque-bound individual would be regularly passing through the market for no other purpose except discharging the duty of joining together in the mutual enjoining of Truth, and of patience and constancy, as well as the duty of helping one another in righteousness and piety and not in sin and rancor. What’s more, in determining the market location, both traders and buyers were given a chance to every so often visit the mosque a moment or two not only for their daily prayers, but also for any other looked-for-aims that could be fulfilled under the mosque roof. Such being the case, their attitudes and working culture could be influenced and enhanced by the pervading aura so effortlessly experienced in the mosque, as well as in the attitudes and manners of those patronizing it. That the market was not so far-flung from the Prophet’s mosque and that it was located in close proximity to the axis leading to the most strategic spot, the ‘main entrance’ to Madinah, may be corroborated by an incident in which the Muslims are said to have been performing the Friday prayer (Jumu’ah) with the Prophet (pbuh) in the mosque. When the Prophet (pbuh) was delivering his sermon (khutbah), a commercial caravan from Syria came to the city. Although the Muslims were in the mosque attending the prayer, yet the news of the caravan’s arrival easily reached them; they may have even caught a glimpse of it, as the area between the mosque and market was not densely populated, especially during the early years. Thereupon, they, except twelve persons, went to the caravan leaving the Prophet (pbuh) standing. And so the following verse was revealed: “But when they see some bargain or some pastime, they disperse headlong to it, and leave thee standing. Say: ‘That which Allah has is better than any pastime or bargain! And Allah is the Best to provide (for all needs).’” (al-Jum’ah 11) The Prophet (pbuh) revealed afterward: “By Him in whose hand is my soul, had you all followed each other from the mosque with nobody remaining in it, a torrent of fire flaring through the valley would have befallen you.”[12] Judging the incident by the astonishing reaction of a majority of the Muslims – those most intimate with the Prophet (pbuh) like Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, ignored the caravan and stayed in the mosque - it appears as though it took place not long after the Hijrah when many people submitted their wills to Allah – be He exalted - but Faith was yet to fully penetrate and conquer their hearts. Also, it was a time when a code of ethics as to the conduct during the Jumu’ah prayer and towards the mosque on the whole was yet to be completed. It should be also noted here that for sometime the Prophet (pbuh) used to pray the Jumu’ah prayer in such a way that he always performed the prayer first and then delivered the sermon - something like what he always did with the two ‘Id prayers. However, after a period, the sequence was reversed. Ibn Kathir opined that the said incident likely occurred during the first period, that is to say, when the sermon used to be delivered after the prayer.[13] By the same token, it was timely then for the market to be at a distance from the mosque rather than adjacent to it, since the market was receptive to trading all lawful goods, irrespective of their character, quantity, origin and odor. Even camels and livestock were traded there. Besides, there still existed numerous Arab ancient traditions in the market some of which were objectionable but the Prophet (pbuh) was yet to disallow them. Postponing temporarily the admonishment of certain abhorred practices in the market was favored because the revelation of Islam was a gradual and meticulous process, which lasted about 23 years (13 in Makkah and 10 in Madinah), providing instructions, responses and answers to various dilemmas and developments that the community was going through, so that the heart of the Prophet (pbuh) and the hearts of his followers could be calmed, strengthened and galvanized. The subject of gradually imposing a comprehensive code of ethics for the market users and operators thus resembled and was consistent with the imposition of a majority of the precepts of Islam. The misdemeanors committed in the market for the most part were related to noise, communication, cleanliness and neatness. Hence, the market with its multifarious bustling life was rather unfit to abut the mosque complex. Had it been so, it would have appeared something of an oddity whenever juxtaposed with the character of the on-going pursuits within the complex domain. The efficiency, serenity and required reverence of the mosque would likewise have been at times seriously affected. Activities in the market Due to its size, position and role, the market of Madinah was a lively and fascinating place. Diverse crafts and industries operated in it. There were butchers, blacksmiths, skin tanners, carpenters, perfumers, tailors, weavers, moneychangers, as well as the sellers of a variety of articles, such as food, grain, water, milk, fruits, vegetable, baskets, vessels, utensils, swords, bows, arrows, firewood, articles for home, articles made of gold and silver, a range of clothes and textiles including silk, etc. Camels, horses and sheep, plus all the items associated with domestic animals, were also traded in the market. There were many porters who worked either for some charitable purposes or to secure sustenance for themselves.[14] Not only the citizens of Madinah - including the Jews and those Arabs who were yet to embrace Islam - could be found trading in the market but also some foreign traders. In a hadith, a companion Ka’b b. Malik narrates how he met in the market of Madinah a Christian farmer from Syria who came to sell his grain.[15] So familiar have the Muslims been with various crafts and industries that the Prophet (pbuh) occasionally made use of some of them when teaching his companions in parables. It is understood that if parables were to attain their projected results, they have to be expounded in a language easily comprehended by listeners. The Prophet (pbuh) thus once said: “The example of a good companion (who sits with you) in comparison with a bad one, is like that of the musk seller and the blacksmith’s bellows; from the first you would either buy musk or enjoy its good smell while the bellows would either burn your clothes or your house, or you get a bad nasty smell thereof.”[16] Umar b. al-Khattab once said that if he were to be a trader someday, he would choose nothing over the perfumes business, because even if he failed to make profit from it he would at least enjoy the odor of his merchandise longer.[17] It should be observed, however, that as a form of spiritual lessons the parables employed by the Qur’an and the Prophet (pbuh) in agricultural terms are far more abundant and repetitive than those in relation to commerce; hence, agriculture by and large played a more prominent role in the economic life of Madinah. However, trading was not the only preoccupation of those who would frequent the market. Some people used to come to the market for discharging the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil (al-amr bi al-ma’ruf wa al-nahy ‘an al-munkar) because markets in general - more than many other places indeed - represent a fertile ground for committing many unsolicited deeds. If left unchecked, a number of vices could gain a foothold in markets, proliferating then in ways that could painfully affect other societal establishments. Against the background of this markets’ trademark only will it be appropriate to view a hadith wherein the Prophet (pbuh) has stated that while mosques (regardless of their sizes and locations) are the dearest sites to Allah - be He exalted - the markets are most loathed (if their position and role are misused or altered).[18] Allah says in the Qur’an: “As for those who sell the faith they owe to Allah and their own solemn plighted word for a small price, they shall have no portion in the Hearafter: nor will Allah (deign) to speak to them or look at them on the Day of Judgment, nor will He cleanse them (of sin): they shall have a grievous Chastisement.” (Alu ‘Imran 77) This verse was revealed after a man had displayed some goods in the market swearing by Allah that he had been offered so much for that – that which was not offered – and he said so only to cheat a Muslim.[19] In the market, the Prophet (pbuh) also executed the men of the Jewish tribe Banu Qurayzah because they had been conspiring with the Makkans who together with their confederates laid a protracted siege around Madinah during the critical battle of the Khandaq in the fifth year following the Hijrah. Trenches were dug beforehand in the market and in them, the execution took place.[20] With regard to the obligation of commanding good and prohibiting evil in the market, the Prophet (pbuh) himself was an example that the companions enthusiastically strove to emulate. One day, on coming across a man who was attempting to cheat his customers by selling some food that seemed outwardly nice-looking, but on the inside quite bad, the Prophet (pbuh) told the man that deficiencies in goods ought to be made public. He then made that famed statement of his that whosoever cheats Muslims, he does not belong to him, i.e., to the Prophet (pbuh), or to them, i.e., to Muslims.[21] Even when going elsewhere, the Prophet (pbuh) would at times deliberately pass through the market for the same propose, like in the case of going to a people to mark out and help build a mosque for them.[22] Abdullah b. Umar narrated that a man was often cheated in buying. The Prophet (pbuh) said to him: “When you buy something, say (to the seller): ‘No cheating.” The man used to say it thenceforward.[23] The Prophet (pbuh) also said: “The trustworthy and honest Muslim trader will be with martyrs on the Day of Judgment.”[24] A man called al-Tufayl b. Ubayy b. Ka’b one morning visited Abdullah b. Umar and went out with him to the market. When they were out, Abdullah b. Umar did not pass by anyone selling poor merchandise or selling commodities or a needy person or anyone but that he greeted them. When asked why he would go in the morning to the market if he did not want to do what people normally do in it, Abdullah b. Umar replied that he was doing so only for the sake of greeting. “We greet whoever we meet”, said Abdullah b. Umar.[25] Although this occurrence happened – in all likelihood - after the death of the Prophet (pbuh), yet it attests to a significant legacy bequeathed by the Prophet (pbuh), which his companions tried hard to safeguard and uphold. This being the case, it should be furthermore remarked that among the Prophet’s companions Abdullah b. ‘Umar looked at the actions of the Prophet (pbuh) more than anybody else humbly imitating his deeds in every matter to the finest details. Since he lived a long blessed life loyally adhering to the Prophet’s way of life (Sunnah), many people besought God: “O Allah, save Ibn Umar as long as I live so that I can follow him. I don’t know anyone still adhering to the early traditions except him.”[26] As a result of this amazing attitude of the first generation of the Muslims towards the concepts of marketplace, business and work in general, Allah depicts them in the Qur’an as: “…men whom neither trade nor sale can divert from the remembrance of Allah, nor from regular Prayer, nor from paying Zakah; their (only) fear is for the Day when hearts and eyes will be turned about.” (al-Nur 37) Business activities outside the market Some crafts and businesses were performed in some private houses as well, albeit on a smaller scale. Perhaps one of the most attention-grabbing instances is the house of the Prophet’s son, Ibrahim’s, foster-family: Umm Sayf, the foster-mother, and Abu Sayf, the foster-father, who was a blacksmith. The house of Abu Sayf was in one of the Madinah suburbs. One day the Prophet (pbuh) went to see Ibrahim. He was accompanied by his servant Anas b. Malik. When they reached the house, they found Aby Sayf blowing fire with the help of blacksmith’s bellows and the house was filled with smoke.[27] Some women were very active and productive at home. They performed various household duties. Some jobs that they did could even bring additional income to the family. According to a hadith, a woman brought to the Prophet (pbuh) a woven cloak with an edging. She told the Prophet (pbuh): “I have woven it with my own hands and I have brought it so that you may wear it.” The Prophet (pbuh) accepted it, and at that time he was in need of it.[28] Many women were busy spinning (gazl), i.e., making thread by drawing out and twisting wool or cotton, in their houses. Spinning was deemed as a woman’s favorite pastime which could give pleasure to the soul and at the same time show Satan the door.[29] Every now and then, some women would perform spinning even in the Prophet’s mosque. They continued to do so until the caliphate of Umar b. al-Khattab when he put an end to this custom.[30] How productive and hard-working the women of Madinah were can be surmised from the following two accounts. Firstly, the Prophet’s daughter Fatimah, the wife of Ali b. Abi Talib, went one day to her father’s house complaining about the bad effect of the stone hand-mill on her hand. She wanted to ask the Prophet (pbuh) to provide her, if he could, a servant. At the time of Fatimah’s visit, the Prophet (pbuh) was not around, so she spoke to A’ishah, the Prophet’s wife. No sooner had the Prophet (pbuh) returned home and had been told of his daughter’s request, he paid a visit to her. He told Fatimah and her husband Ali: “Shall I direct you to something better than what you have requested? When you go to bed say ‘Subhan Allah’ thirty three times, ‘Alhamdulillah’ thirty three times, and ‘Allahu Akbar’ thirty four times, for that is better for you than a servant.” Ali b. Abi Talib had said that he never failed to recite this ever since.[31] Secondly, Abu Bakr’s daughter, Asma, said that when she got married with al-Zubayr, they had neither land nor wealth nor slave. She grazed his horse, provided fodder to it and looked after it, and ground dates for his camel. Besides this, she grazed the camel, made arrangements for providing it with water and patched up the leather bucket and kneaded the flour. She was not good in baking the bread, so her female neighbors used to do it for her. Asma continued: “I was carrying on my head the stones of the dates from the land of al-Zubayr which the Prophet (pbuh) had endowed him and it was at a distance of two miles from Madinah.” Sometime later, Asma’s father, Abu Bakr, sent a female servant to her who took upon herself the responsibility of looking after the horse, thus partly relieving Asma of her burden.[32] Moreover, there existed some small vendors operating at different spots in the city where no harm could be inflicted on anybody. In this case, both the operators and their customers had to respect the rights of thoroughfare users. Such businesses on average were small in nature and catered to certain immediate daily needs of the people. It is reported in a hadith that a destitute man came one day to Asma, Abu Bakr’s daughter, and al-Zubayr’s wife, asking for permission to set up a business under the shadow of her house. Wondering why of so many places in Madinah he chose to start the business right next to her house, Asma asked the man to come back when al-Zubayr, who was absent then, returned so that the decision could be made. When al-Zubayr returned, the man came and he was granted the request. Asma said that the man eventually earned so much that they even sold their slave-girl to him.[33] The Prophet (pbuh) explicitly prohibited conducting trade inside his mosque,[34] but did not outside it.[35] Several instances of trading activities on a very limited scale outside the mosque during the Prophet’s era have been reported. On account of this, certain markets and even industries abutting the mosque, specifically such as were with tolerable visual, auditory, aromatic and kinetic consequences for every day city life, have been before long introduced to the morphology of the Islamic city, i.e., they constituted part of the city’s midpoint. Other markets and industries, some of which were bound to cause a kind of serious disruption or nuisance to either individuals or institutions, remained customarily situated on the city’s periphery. The extent of their remoteness from the city principal mosque and the residential area surrounding it varied depending on a number of issues, such as the geography of an area, the compactness of residential areas and the availability of space, the vitality and function of the mosque complex, the dynamism and richness of markets activities, the overall socio-political and economic condition of an area, etc. [1] Lings Martin (Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din), Muhammad, (Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen, 1983), p. 161. [2] Ibid., p. 161. Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1985), vol. 4 p. 4.. [3] Ibn Majah,Sunan Ibn Majah, Kitab al-Tijarat, Hadith No. 2224. [4] Uthman Muhammad ‘Abd al-Sattar, al-Madinah al-Islamiyyah, (Kuwait: ‘Alam al-Ma’rifah, 1988), p. 253. [5] Abu Dawud, Sunan Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Salah, Hadith No. 861. [6] Al-Samahudi, Wafa’ al-Wafa, (Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1997), vol. 2 p. 749. [7] Badr ‘Abd al-Basit, al-Tarikh al-Shamil li al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, (Madinah, n.pp, 1993), vol. 1 p. 236. [8] Ibid., vol. 1 p. 236. [9] Ibid., vol. 1 p. 236. [10] Abd al-‘Aziz Abdullah b. Idris, Mujtama’ al-Madinah fi ‘Ahd al-Rasul, (Riyadh: Jami’ah al-Malik Su’ud, 1992), p. 209. [11]Abul A’la al-Maududi, The Meaning of the Qur’an, vol. 14 p. 101. [12]Mukhtasar Tafsir Ibn Kathir, vol. 3 p. 501. [13] Ibid., vol. 3 p. 502. [14] Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Zakah, Hadith No. 497. [15] Ibid., Kitab al-Magazi, Hadith No. 702. [16] Ibid., Kitab al-Buyu’, Hadith No. 314. [17] Al-Kattani, al-Taratib al-Idariyyah, vol. 2. 32. [18] Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Salah, Hadith No. 1416. [19] Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Buyu’, Hadith No. 1946. [20] Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, vol. 4 p. 126. The punishment given to Banu Qurayzah was proportionate to their crime. They conspired with the invading enemy against the Muslims during the terrifying battle of the Ditch (Khandaq) when the very existence of Islam and the Muslims was put in jeopardy, in spite of all the peace and collaboration treaties that existed between the Muslims and the Jews. [21] Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Iman, Hadith No. 147. [22] Al-Kattani, al-Taratib al-Idariyyah, vol. 2 p. 76. [23] Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Istiqrad wa Ada’ al-Duyun…Hadith No. 597. [24] Ibn Majah, Sunan Ibn Majah, Kitab al-Tijarat, Hadith No. 2130. [25] Malik b. Anas, al-Muwatta’, Book 53, No. 53.3.6. [26] Khalid Khalid Muhammad, Men Around the Messenger, p. 79. [27] Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Fada’il, Hadith No. 5733. [28] Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Jana’iz, Hadith No. 367. [29] Al-Kattani, al-Taratib al-Idariyyah, vol. 2. p. 120. [30] Ibid., vol. 2 p. 120. [31] Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Nafaqat, Hadith No. 274, 275. [32] Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Salam, Hadith No. 5417, 5418. [33] Ibid., Kitab al-Salam, Hadith No. 5418. [34] Abu Dawud, Sunan Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Salah, Hadith No. 1074. [35]Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 3, Book 47, Hadith No. 782. Add comment Security code
A Timeline of Vladimir Putin’s Excuses and Evasions Regarding Russia’s Actions in Ukraine The World How It Works Sept. 5 2014 1:37 PM Sorry, Did We Invade Your Country? Me? Agressive? Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images On Friday, a temporary cease-fire between Ukraine and the rebels went into effect. Minutes later, journalists received an email from the rebels referring to themselves as “Novorossiya” urging them to attend a press conference in Moscow explaining why Ukraine is breaking the cease-fire. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, issued a statement on why NATO is a threat to the peace process. Putin is a master of the art of changing the conversation. It takes a lot of skill to turn Russia’s support for Bashar al-Assad into a defense of international law. Or to justify the arrest of dissident rock musicians as a crackdown on anti-Semitism. But Russia’s escalating military involvement in Ukraine has provided an opportunity for Putin and his allies to elevate their excuses and obfuscations to a sort of art. Some highlights: Feb. 26: Putin orders military drills near the Ukrainian border under the pretext of protecting the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea. Feb. 28: Russia invades Crimea … sort of. With masked gunmen seizing key military installations throughout the region, Moscow denies launching a military offensive in the region. Meanwhile, Russian parliament considers a law that would make it easier for Russia to add to its territory, just in case a foreign country happens to “not have effective sovereign state authority” for some reason. March 1: The upper house of Russian parliament approves the use of military force in Ukraine. This is justified by a member of the parliament as a measure to “protect the Crimean population from lawlessness and violence.” March 18: After a referendum in which 96.7 percent of Crimeans voted to become part of Russia—remaining part of Ukraine wasn’t an option on the ballot—Russia annexes the territory. "In our hearts, we know Crimea has always been an inalienable part of Russia," says Putin. April 6: Pro-Russian rebels seize government buildings in the Eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv. (They are taken back over by Ukrainian forces two days later.) Russia says its presence during military exercises on the border not far from the pro-Russian rallies was in keeping with international norms. The Ukrainian government says it believes Russia is funding the rebels, a claim Russia denies. April 14: Putin and President Obama speak on the phone. The Russian leader, who continues to deny playing any role in supporting the rebels, urges his American counterpart to exert pressure on Ukraine to stop it from using force. April 15: Putin tells German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Ukraine is on the brink of civil war, and that this is a problem created by Kiev. April 17: Putin finally admits that Russian troops were in Crimea, and adds that he hopes he does not need to use his Duma-given right to send Russian troops to eastern Ukraine (or, as he is now calling it, Novorossiya, or “New Russia”). April 19: In April, “little green men”—masked fighters believed to be Russian special forces—begin appearing in Eastern Ukraine. Russia denies any connection. April 23: Russia warns it will respond if its interests are attacked in Ukraine. April 24: Putin warns that use of Ukrainian troops within Ukraine’s own territory will have consequences. April 28: Russia condemns sanctions and assures the U.S. it will not invade Ukraine. May 2: Russia blames Ukraine for the demise of the Geneva Peace Plan, an agreement that included “demobilizing militias, vacating seized government buildings, and establishing a political dialogue that could lead to more autonomy for Ukraine's regions.” But then, Russia never admitted any role in the separatists’ actions, and thus could take no responsibility for their adherence to the plan. May 6: Russia rules out new Geneva talks and says that there's no point because Ukraine wasn't following the peace plan anyway. May 7: Russia says its troops have been pulled back from the border. The White House says there’s no evidence of this. May 19: Russia again says it is withdrawing its troops, this time because their spring training has come to an end. May 31: Ramzan Kadyrov, president of the Russian republic of Chechnya, denies sending Chechen fighters to Ukraine but says some may have gone “voluntarily.” June 19: Two weeks after Petro Poroshenko becomes president of Ukraine, NATO says Russian troops are back on the border. No they aren't, says Russia. July 13: Russia says Ukraine killed a Russian civilian by throwing a shell over the border. Ukraine denies this. Russia threatens airstrikes against Ukraine as Ukraine says Russian military vehicles were attempting to cross its border. July 17: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is shot down over Eastern Ukraine. It is widely believed that pro-Russian rebels are responsible, and that they were supplied with Buk surface-to-air launchers by Russia. Russia says responsibility lies with the country whose airspace the plane was flying through, and that this wouldn’t have happened had Kiev not resumed "its military campaign" in Eastern Ukraine. The Russian media also suggests a number of explanations for the incident, including that it was the Urkainian military attempting to shoot down Vladimir Putin’s plane; that it was shot down to hide the truth about HIV; that Israel was somehow involved; and that it was the Illuminati. Aug. 6: Russia bans food imports from the European Union, the U.S., and other countries that pushed through sanctions against Moscow on account of its involvement in Ukraine. The food bans led to skyrocketing food prices for Russian consumers. “This retaliation wasn't easy for us,” explained Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “We were forced into it.” Aug. 11: Russian truck convoys enter Eastern Ukraine. Russia claims the trucks are carrying much needed aid to the region, though Kiev and Western governments view it as a deliberate provocation. Aug. 22: NATO says Russian troops have entered Ukraine. Despite satellite and photographic evidence, Russia denies it. Aug. 26: After Ukraine captures a group of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil, the Russian military says they were there “by accident.” Aug. 28: A separatist rebel leader says Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine but are doing so on their vacation. This might be amusing if it weren’t for the body count. According to the United Nations, at least 1,200 people were killed in the fighting in Ukraine between mid-July and mid-August. But then, Ukraine and the West are probably to blame for that. Emily Tamkin is an M.Phil. candidate in Russian and East European studies at Oxford. Follow her on Twitter.
29 Ocak 2015 Perşembe When I studied at Harvard, my mentor was David McClelland, a motivation expert. He proposed three main motivators. I think of each as a different path to activating the brain’s reward centers and increasing our drive and persistence: Motivator 1: the need for power—in the sense of influencing or impacting other people. McClelland distinguished between two kinds of power. One is selfish, ego-centered power, without caring whether the impact is good or bad—the kind of power displayed by narcissists, for example. The other is a socially beneficial power, where you take pleasure in influencing people for the better or for the common good. Motivator 2: the need to affiliate—taking pleasure in being with people. Those high in this motive are motivated by the sheer pleasure of doing things together with people they like. When we’re working toward a common goal, they find energy in how good we’ll all feel when we reach that goal. Great team members may also be driven by this motive. Motivator 3: the need for achievement —reaching toward a meaningful goal. Those high in this motive love to keep score, to get feedback on performance, whether this means hitting their numbers or raising millions for a charity. They strive to improve—they’re relentless learners. No matter how good they are today, they try to do even better.
get into Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary Jump to: navigation, search get into (third-person singular simple present gets into, present participle getting into, simple past got into, past participle gotten into or got into) 1. To move into an object, such that one ends up inside it. She got into the car. 2. To reach into an object. The small child got into everything. 3. To become involved in a discussion or issue. He got into politics. 4. To enter an unfavourable state. How did we get into such a mess? 5. To make behave uncharacteristically. I don't know what's gotten into that child.
Take the 2-minute tour × Found the following in my notes, but I am unable to make sense of it: Primitive type wrapper classes implement caching for a limited number of values. This guarantees that a limited number of deeply equal wrapper objects are also shallowly equal: If o1.equals( o2 ) then o1 == o2. For example, new Integer( 0 ) == new Integer( 0 ). In general this does not always work. For example, new Integer( 666 ) == new Integer( 666 ) may not hold. The reason for caching is that it saves memory. In general caching works for “small” primitive values. I don't understand what is meant by this, or what the difference is between a deep (.equals()) and shallow(==) equals. I know in practice, .equals must be used to objects and == for Integral values, but the actual reasoning for this alludes me. I assume by the names that shallow maybe just checks that both the values are of the same type and name, which deep checks that both variables point to the same object? I don't see how the caching would come into play here though, or why it would be useful. share\|improve this question Well, your notes are completely wrong. new Integer( 0 ) == new Integer( 0 ) will never, ever, ever be true, nor will new Integer( 666 ) == new Integer( 666 ). I suggest you ask your professor for clarification on what he meant, because if he expects this on an exam, he knows little about Java. – Mark Peters Apr 18 '11 at 13:32 5 Answers 5 When you do == you are comparing the references for equality. This means you're saying "is the address in memory the same for both Objects?" When you do .equals() you are comparing the Objects themselves for equality. This means you're saying "do these two Objects consider themselves equal?" The example that was given was poor. The only caching done for these numbers that's mandated by the JLS is the .valueOf() method. The constructor is not cached. Furthermore, the JLS only specifies the minimum you must cache [-128:127]. JVM implementations may cache more if they so choose. This means Integer.valueOf(500) == Integer.valueOf(500) may be false on some machines, but true on others. class biziclop { public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println(new Integer(500) == new Integer(500)); System.out.println(Integer.valueOf(500) == Integer.valueOf(500)); Results in: C:\Documents and Settings\glow\My Documents>java biziclop C:\Documents and Settings\glow\My Documents> See a more detailed answer here (the comments are a gem!): Why do people still use primitive types in Java? share\|improve this answer First off: new Integer(0) == new Integer(0) will never evaluate to true, as new always creates a new object, sidestepping any autoboxing-caching mechanism that might exist. What you probably heard about was autoboxing (i.e. automatic conversion of primitive values to their respective wrapper classes when necessary). Autoboxing uses a mechanism that's also accessible using the wrapper classes valueOf() methods. In other words: auto-boxing an int to an Integer works pretty much the same as calling Integer.valueOf(int). Integer.valueOf(0) == Integer.valueOf(0) will evaluate to true, because common values (i.e. values with a low absolute value) are cached. You'll get the same Integer object when you call valueOf(0) twice in a row. This is not necessarily true with higher values (such as 666 in your example). share\|improve this answer Well, actually shallow/deep dissection is different from ==/equal dissection: 1. == compares for object identity, that is you checking whether operands are the same in fact (holding the same area of memory), whereas equals compares for object equivalence, that is "logical" value of two, possibly not identical objects, is the same. If for two objects a == b then it's true that a.equals(b) // if a != null , but opposite isn't true in all cases. 2. shallow/deep distinction makes sense only for equals comparison. Shallow means that you compare only immediate contents of two objects to find whether they "equal" in your sense, whereas deep means that you compare contents of your objects recursively until all you need to compare is primitive fields. If you define equals method of your objects as sequence of calls to equals on instance fields of these objects, you use deep comparison. If you define equals using == operator to compare compound types, such as Strings, then you use shallow comparison -- and that's incorrect in Java. Morale of all of this is that you must never use == to compare two compound objects, unless you consider them equal only if they are the same. share\|improve this answer What you say is true, but it looks as though the lecturer was using "shallow" to mean reference identity, and "deep" to mean equivalence. The logic is certainly sound. – Ernest Friedman-Hill Apr 18 '11 at 15:31 equals() tests whether two objects are essentially the same, but it can return true for two distinct objects; i.e., two different paper clips are "equals". "==" for reference types tests whether two references refer to the same object -- i.e., a paper clip is == only to itself. == tests identity, which equals tests equivalence. You could have two distinct Integer objects with a 0 in them (they are equals()); caching means saving objects and reusing them when possible. share\|improve this answer What you call "shallow equal" is identity: two references (i.e. objects) are identical if they are the very same instances. If you know what pointers are in other languages, you can compare identity to pointer equality. What you call "deep equal" is equality: two objects a and b are equal if a.equals(b) returns true (and hopefully vice versa). The correctness of equality strongly depends on the way the equals method is implemented. See the Javadoc of the Object class for more details. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
When 1 in 88 is Really 1 in 29 States where ADDM data was collected for the year 2008 - reported March 29, 2012. Looking at the table above and comparing that with the map of ADDM sites, we can see that of the ten states that have the highest rates of autism, according to the IDEA’s data, only one (Pennsylvania) was even looked at by The CDC. Well, maybe we should cut The CDC a break. After all, the table above shows the autism rate for the 2009-2010 school year and the ADDM data was gathered in 2008. This graph is from 2008-2009 school year… admittedly still too close to the 2008 data collection for The CDC to plan. Somewhere I have the graphs from earlier years, but for now I’m just going to have to go on record as saying that in general, the states where the autism rate tends to be highest (according to IDEA) are states that are north of The Mason Dixon Line. There are several possible reasons for this… northern states get less sunlight proportionately, so people who live in the north get less vitamin D. Northern states also have much higher concentrations of heavy metals in the environment from coal mining and coal burning power plants. This is important because it’s not just the mercury and aluminum in the vaccines that causes autism. Vaccines contain free glutamic acid, which destroys glutathione. Couple that with pediatrician’s advice to “take Tylenol” (which also destroys glutathione) and you have a child whose system is not able to detoxify. When a child is not able to detoxify and he or she lives in parts of the country where there are high levels of heavy metals (and other types of pollution), you get higher rates of autism. The metals and other toxins in vaccines are doing a lot of damage… but even without the metals in the vaccines, the fact that glutathione is depleted by the free glutamic acid in them means that even if you got rid of all of the mercury and aluminum, vaccines would still cause the neuro-immune-gastrointestinal problems known as “autism.” And just as we can see from the graphs of Texas (below), the damage will be more pervasive in areas where there are lots of environmental toxins. It’s not just vaccines and it’s not just (other) environmental toxins… it’s BOTH. I should clarify that the northern states are certainly not the only places where there are high levels of pollution – and there are plenty of heavy metals in many of the southern states as well. Texas, for example, has an abundance of pollution, including that which comes from coal and oil. To see how environmental pollution correlates with the autism rate, please look at the next graph: Comparison of Autism Rates in Texas Schools with Pollution in Texas Counties. Okay, so I guess my question is… Why is The CDC not looking at this? Why do they continue to act like they have no idea what is causing the autism epidemic? Here’s a clue… To read more about mercury poisoning and autism, please visit Safeminds (after you finish here, of course). If The CDC actually started gathering data for their autism prevalence reports from places where vast numbers of children are being poisoned by environmental mercury because they cannot detoxify and are continually exposed to it, more and more people would become aware that what we call “autism” IS mercury poisoning. The CDC cannot allow that to happen, so once again, true to form, they refuse to study the children who got sick and they refuse to study the connection between vaccines, environmental toxins, and “autism.” Back to the numbers… After the 1 in 88 number was announced, I did a little bit of chicken scratch in an effort to determine what might be a closer estimate of the rate of autism. Here is what I came up with: I told you it was chicken scratch... I’ll break it down… The CDC reported that their “new” numbers represent a 78% increase over the previous number of 1 in 150. Remember, 1 in 150 comes from data regarding children who were 8 years old in 2002. The 1 in 88 number is regarding 8 year olds and the data was gathered in 2008. The children were born in 1994 and 2000, respectively. So to calculate the yearly rate of increase, I divided 78% by six, for an estimated annual increase of 13%. According to The CDC, the rate among 8 year-olds in 2008 was 1 in 88. Calculating the yearly increase (13%) yields the following estimates of the autism rate for 8 year-olds: • 1 in 78 (2009) • 1 in 69 (2010) • 1 in 61 (2011) The current number (2012) for 8 year-old children diagnosed with autism is estimated to be 1 in 54. To get an idea of the current incidence, including those younger children who have already been diagnosed but are not counted by The CDC because they are not yet 8 years old, I extrapolated out five years at the same 13% rate of increase. Estimated rate of autism among children who are currently (2012) between 3 and 5 years of age. Estimated rates of autism among U.S. children in 2012: • 7 year olds – 1 in 48 • 6 year olds – 1 in 42 • 5 year olds – 1 in 37 • 4 year olds – 1 in 33 • 3 year olds – 1 in 29 Extrapolating out for the next ten years at the same 13% yearly increase, the predicted rate of autism among 3 year-olds… • 2013 = 1 in 26 • 2014 = 1 in 23 • 2015 = 1 in 20 • 2016 = 1 in 18 • 2017 = 1 in 16 • 2018 = 1 in 14 • 2019 = 1 in 12 • 2020 = 1 in 11 • 2021 = 1 in 10 • 2022 = 1 in 9 Sobering. Isn’t it? Think about this when The CDC tells you there’s no need to panic…. The Cost of Autism: In 2006, the cost of caring for a person with autism over the lifespan was estimated to be about $3.2 Million. And the costs of caring for all persons with autism in the United States was estimated at $35 Billion per year. In mid-March, Autism Speaks released the results of research funded by that organization, indicating that the yearly cost of caring for Americans with autism has tripled since 2006, with an annual cost of $126 Billion. Interestingly, the report from Autism Speaks puts the cost spent per person at $2.3 Million over the lifespan, reflecting a decrease of more than half a million dollars per person when compared with results from 2006. It is not clear why the cost per person has come down… From what I have been hearing from many of my friends who are parents of children who carry an autism diagnosis, I believe the lower estimates of the cost of lifetime care may be related to the fact that more and more children are being denied the early intervention services they so desperately need. As funding for programs is cut, so are the services for children with autism. If you don’t provide funding for services, the overall cost per person comes down. The fact that the annual rate spent providing for all persons with autism has tripled is an indication that we do indeed have an epidemic on our hands. We are spending $600,000 less per person, but the bottom line has tripled? Tell me how that makes sense if it’s not time to panic? One Last Thought… As you ponder the thought of 1 in 9 children with autism by the year 2022, consider this: As high as the autism rate is among the general population, it is even higher among children of military personnel. And, if you are a child with autism and your parents happen to be in the military, you are even less likely than your non-military peers to receive early intervention services, which means you are more likely to have a poorer outcome over the long run. Now think about this… Historically, children of military personnel are six times more likely to enlist or be commissioned into military service. In my own family, my husband served 24 years. His brother served 22 years. Their father served 20 years. Between the three of them, they served 66 years in the United States’ military. That legacy stops with my children. They are not fit to serve in the military. They can’t pass the physical. • Vaccine manufacturers are protected from liability, which results in zero motivation for them to make safe or effective products. • The reason vaccine manufacturers continue to be protected from liability is because, in the extremely remote possibility that we may face a biological weapons attack, “we will need their vaccines… it’s a matter of national security.” • Because of their faulty products being forced on our children, within the next 20-30 years, there will be virtually no young people in America who are fit for military service. To quote one of my favorite musical artists… Isn’t it ironic? Add a comment »26 comments to this article 1. With drone technology the powers that be won’t need as many military people in the ranks . . . we also won’t need as many farmers or law enforcement. Gives some credence to the depopulation theory behind modern vaccines, no? The government knows it cannot sustain all these people at the current rate of spending and consuming. But just keep calling me a conspiracy theorist. • This is the point! our children are collateral damage of some evil people that wants to play “god” or think they are in a very insane way, kind like a sociopath would, and select who lives and who should not! and no, you are not conspiring…I think you know what you are saying very much. 2. I suspect the most likely reason for geographic differences in the incidence of identified autism is differences in teacher quality and quality of healthcare. If schools and pediatricians are not screening for autism, they are more likely to miss cases. A major weakness of the data collection method noted above is that it only counts identified cases, while failure to identify autism in a timely manner has been a challenge in our healthcare system. 3. WOW, finally I can’t believe the numbers. I also have a son now 20yrs old. And its easy to see there something very wrong, very wrong. In 1991 I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and it stayed that way until 2 and a half years old. You know the rest of my story already. Thank You for this information. 4. EXCELLENT REPORT BY THE WAY!!! thank you very much for your hard work. 5. Wow! Very sobering, indeed. Well the only saving grace is what SFM said above about drones fighting future military battles. My autistic son will never be physically able to serve in the military, but he can sure as hell steer them drones or any other computer related gizmo a heck of a lot better than any neurotypical. Maybe this is the governement’s plan after all. 6. While I totally agree with the great toxicity of mercury and other toxic elements like As, Cd, Pb ecc. on nervous system because the large scientific literature supporting these theory, I cannot agree with the theory of glutathione depletion by paracetamol if the recommended dose is administered. Someone has showed it? Are there human/animal experiments supporting this theory? I talk about normal dose of paracetamol. • Unfortunately, there are no tests to show this. No one has tested a “safe dose” or the safety or efficacy of any of the current vaccines. 7. If you go by the Korean study, it’s more like 1 in 25 already. 8. Each coal fired Plant expels about 48 tons of Mercury each year, and there are about 1200 of these plants in the USA… I live on the west coast in Washington and there is only one plant and we get no contaminates from it …but all the fish in the streams on the Peninsula of Wn are contaminated with Mercury… I think it comes from China across the Pacific ocean. When they vaccinate the kids it puts more mercury in our kids systems and they just don’t have a chance to expel all those heavy metals. We have to figure out how to contain Mercury that is spewed across this country…and that is to make those coal fired plants to contain all heavy metals or shut them down. We have to get more renewable energy put in place to take up the slack from all those destructive coal fired plants. If you want to save your child from this problem…just stop vaccinating you kids. as most of those vaccines are useless and just weaken the immune system. There is a product that will remove Mercury and all heavy metals from the body…and it is MMS read about it on this website http://www.jimhumble.biz I have been taking it for 5 years and I don’t get sick anymore, and I’m 79 yrs old now. Just check it out for your own safty. 9. wow I am so shocked by what I’ve just read! it’ll be a zombie nation in the future, all doped up on drugs. it freightens me. 10. When I was younger I saw baby toys being recalled for small traces of lead in the paint. These toys were made in china. I have always entertained the possibility that china is “giving our children autism.” When the majority of our young men have autism, who will be left to defend the country? It’s just a thought, but it is very scary to think of our society when autism becomes typical. 11. And if people think the unemployment situation is bad today? We will not have the resources to take care of those children. The problem was that autism was differentiated from mental retardation because no famous person wanted anyone to know they had a retarded child. What we do know is that alcohol is the leading cause of mental retardation in the western hemisphere. In Milwaukee they can no longer grade children on the scale of A through F. They have gone to what amounts to pass/fail. We also have a vast portion of our state where the deer have Chronic wasting disease. I can tell you that the beef is not as good in Wisconsin as other states, it tastes rancid by comparison. 12. Mercury poisoning and autism? You are right on that one!!! I recognized that in Grade School right off the bat that that Vax was bad! I have not had a flu shot in 28 years!!! And where do they say the flue always originates from? Communist China! And who makes those Vaccines, if you have ever worked in Corporate America you realize quite quickly that it is populated with mean people. That is also a sign of brain damage to the area of the hippocampus. Alzheimers patients are like that! The hippocampus goes and so does your humanity! 13. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-T-Z/USA–Nuclear-Power/#.Ukgzvj_ZWSo Could there be a link between States that have nuclear power and those that do not? Also in terms of the direction ground water flows in relation to those plants? In Waukesha County Wisconsin the ground water is poisoned with Radium and no one knows where it came from, isn’t that responsible State Government? 14. My son’s high school teacher says half of his class meet all of the criteria for mild to severe Autism but missed screening and diagnosis. I know some of these children and agree. This is not just my child’s class but all of the teachers she knows talk about it in their classes as well. The numbers are not even accurate. 15. I didn’t go through all the comments here but I wanted to point out to the author: One thing within the military that you didn’t address that may also play a role in your theories, Any military member just gets lined up and injected with whatever the new vaccine is. My husband is a gulf war vet and said they never told him what he was getting. He served during the Gulf war, as this was the beginning of the chemical war threats, he was sure he got something for that. Could it have changed his genetics enough so that like yourself his children could have been effected. Thank Goodness our four have been spared, as I was a follower until they forced me to get a flu shot to keep my job. However, his brother also a vet during that same time, has two children and one is on the spectrum. • And possibly higher levels of environmental toxins on base, too? Like ammunition etc. • I absolutely agree. Our son has autism and I have always blamed the vaccines his father received in the army. He was in the Gulf War also. 16. what about the statistics in other parts of the world? can we eliminate of the causes by looking else? • After the IOM recommended thimerosal be removed from infant and childhood vaccines, the manufacturers did not stop making them; they just sold them to other countries. China bought up a lot of U.S. made vaccines containing thimerosal and the result was 1 million new cases of autism the following year. Neil Z. Miller has conducted and published a study using regression analysis to explore the association between vaccines administered (number and timing) and infant mortality rate in developed countries. The results indicate the more vaccines given, the higher the mortality rate. 17. I heard a theory recently that maybe it’s got something to do with parents waiting longer and longer to start having children. I know women are always conscious that their eggs can get “old” – but men are told they don’t need to worry because they are always generating “new” sperm over their lifetime, but it makes me wonder – the sperm may be “new” but the body that is generating it is 50+ (not to mention exposed to how many environmental toxins over that lifespan). • I think your last comment is the key to that study. Longer life on a toxic planet means more exposures and more alterations in DNA to be passed to offspring. 18. Why is Vermont so low in 2008 and then way at the top in 2009. Were they not collecting numbers. 19. I love your articles. Thank you for your work. One other issue I would encourage readers to consider is the impact of vaccines will play on the NT’s children of the 90’s future children. They may have escaped an autism diagnosis but I hate to think of what is to come. World changer. 20. As a mother of an autistic 3 year old boy, I agree with you 100%. Leave a Reply Copyright © 2012 VaxTruth Inc. · All Rights Reserved %d bloggers like this:
Step 8: Pinhole Photography They developed as negatives and then I scanned them into the computer and inverted the colors in Photoshop. The exposures were quite long but I was very pleased with the amount of detail. I also tried doing a solarography photo. If you do not know what it is google it. It's a very cool technique to take color photos with black and white film without the need of developing it. Anyways thank you for looking at the process of my project. I hope you guys liked it. If you have any questions leave them in the comments down below. Remove these adsRemove these ads by Signing Up These photographs are stunning! Just wondering what film you used? I'm a complete film photography novice but can see you haven't used standard 35mm film, like most DIY matchbox pinhole cameras call for. What have you used and where could I get something similar? jlsunris5 months ago I don't get it. How does this take pictures? styjDesign (author) jlsunris5 months ago It's just a very veryyyy simple version of a camera pretty much. Im not too good at explaining but if your interested this link explains it pretty well. Nice, I've thought about doing paper negative for a while, do you have an estimated ISO equivalent for the paper or do you just wing it and the paper is forgiving enough with the exposure? Was that solargraph undeveloped or did you still develop after the 2 week exposure? Thanks styjDesign (author) mattthegamer4635 months ago Well about the ISO at the time I remember I found a few websites and apps that calculated it for you pretty nicely. You tell it the size of the pinhole you have and how far the pinholes from the film and it calculated F-stop of F280. However although most of these sites and apps tell me I would then need exposures of couples hours I just ignored them and kinda winged it by choosing brighter environments. and for the solargraph no i didn't need to develop it. The sun develops the film into weird pink and green colors and then all one has to do is scan it into the computer and invert the colors. My turned out pretty bad because those two weeks happened to be very cloudy. But if you google solargraphy there are some very beautiful results.
Last name: Caldwell © Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2015 Surname Scroll PayPal Acceptance Mark Surname Scroll adam caldwell What etnicity are most caldwells today as current year 2013 This is of Scottish porigin, although with close ties to English. It orginates from the Coldwell clan, who lived by a cold well. They in turn lived with the Britians of Strathclyde. This is a name is Scottish origin, not English Walt Caldwell I am a Caldwell. My branch of the family is Irish in origin. That said the article is correct. It is Anglo Saxon. The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes that invaded Britain and ruled from roughly 400 AD until the Norman conquest, (who spoke french). In modrern German "kalte well" would be "cold well" or "cold spring". My German professor in college expounded one time that often times the "lte" would become "d" in English and "k" a hard "c". Many German words have English cognates, example German "hund" has the same meaning as English "hand". Even the name "England" is short hand for "Land of the Angles". Considering that the English and the Normans invaded and settled Scotland and Ireland it would not be surprising to find Caldwell / Coldwell appearing in those places as do many other English names. Scotland has no claim to exclusivity nor does my Irish brood of the same name. Caldwell is not celtic in origin. Its meaning is well agreed upon which firmly places it Germanic in origin (Anglo Saxon).
Related topics Google-backed birds brace for launch This evening the first four satellites of the O3b satellite constellation are slated to launch from French Guiana, to provide connectivity to the three billion humans lacking a Google+ account. The four satellites are atop a Soyuz rocket, ready for launch at 19.53 UK time, and are headed for a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) in order to provide satellite connectivity without the latency of GEO birds. From September they will be joined by another four, with a view to commercial services launching in November. Not that many of us will be able to benefit from O3b as the satellites are in an equatorial orbit and only have a 45-degree reach, but as the majority of the Other 3 Billion (O3b, geddit?) live near the equator, that's not a problem. O3b won't be selling direct; the idea is to provide backhaul to local mobile networks and ISPs who don't live near enough to the coasts, where fibre might be an option. Coverage Map Satellite broadband is getting more useful these days. Spot beams mean that downlinks aren't spread right across the footprint and allow the same frequency to serve multiple receivers, but O3b also addresses the latency problem which usually afflicts satellite systems. Those systems use Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) which allows a satellite to hover above one spot on the earth, allowing a directional dish to communicate very efficiently. Unfortunately GEO only exists at an altitude of 35,786km, which introduces a latency of around half a second. That gets multiplied up in the packet/acknowledge architecture of TCP, not to mention the query/response required by most internet protocols, resulting in lacklustre performance. O3b addresses this by using an MEO orbit - only 8,062km from sea level - cutting latency down to a shade over 100ms. The project argues that this will result in a better experience and better engagement, though it's not without cost. Geostationary satellites can cover huge areas and need only point in one direction, while O3b needs at least five (and will be using eight) - and they'll have to constantly redirect their spot beams as they arc across the sky. The plan was announced back in 2008, and is being funded by Liberty Global, North Bridge Venture and the secretive Allen & Company, as well as Google and various others. That's important, as 3Ob isn't another attempt by Google to slurp user data, or something driven by first world guilt: it's a project intended to make money from developing markets, while helping them to develop. It will be likely be a decade before we know if the $1.3bn investment the partners have already spent pays off. O3b isn't publishing its financial data or predictions, but this evening we'll know if the first four satellites made it into space, which will be a fine start. ® Sponsored: 10 ways wire data helps conquer IT complexity
New pope revives question: What is a 'Latino?' ROME, Italy (AP) - Pope Francis is being hailed as the "first Latino pope." He's a native Spanish speaker born and raised in the South American nation of Argentina. But for some Latinos in the United States, there's a catch: The pope's parents were born in Italy. This European heritage is reviving debate in the United States about what makes someone Latino. There's no doubt that Pope Francis is Latin American. And he's certainly an inspiration to Spanish-speaking Catholics around the world. Yet in some eyes, that does not mean "Latino." powered by Disqus Copyright © 2002-2015 - Designed by Gray Digital Media - Powered by Clickability 199754381 - Gray Television, Inc.
DNA Technology genetic genes gene sequence DNA technology has revolutionized modern science. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), or an organism's genetic material—inherited from one generation to the next—holds many clues that have unlocked some of the mysteries behind human behavior, disease, evolution, and aging. As technological advances lead to a better understanding of DNA, new DNA-based technologies will emerge. Recent advances in DNA technology including cloning, PCR, recombinant DNA technology, DNA fingerprinting, gene therapy, DNA microarray technology, and DNA profiling have already begun to shape medicine, forensic sciences, environmental sciences, and national security. In 1956, the structure and composition of DNA was elucidated and confirmed previous studies more than a decade earlier demonstrating DNA is the genetic material that is passed down from one generation to the next. A novel tool called PCR (polymerase chain reaction) was developed not long after DNA was descovered. PCR represents one of the most significant discoveries or inventions in DNA technology and it lead to a 1993 Nobel Prize award for American born Kary Mullis (1949–). PCR is the amplification of a specific sequence of DNA so that it can be analyzed by scientists. Amplification is important, particularly when it is necessary to analyze a small sequence of DNA in quantities that are large enough to perform other molecular analyses such as DNA sequencing. Not long after PCR technology was developed, genetic engineering of DNA through recombinant DNA technology quickly became possible. Recombinant DNA is DNA that has been altered using bacterial derived enzymes called restriction endonucleases that act like scissors to cut DNA. The pattern that is cut can be matched to a pattern cut by the same enzymes from a different DNA sequence. The sticky ends that are created bind to each other and a DNA sequence can therefore be inserted into another DNA sequence. Restriction endonucleases are also important in genetic fingerprinting. In this case, enzymes that recognize specific DNA sequences can produce fragments of DNA by cutting different parts of a long strand of DNA. If there are differences in the sequence due to inherited variation—meaning that there are extra DNA or specific sequences altered such that the restriction enzymes no longer recognize the site, variable patterns can be produced. If these patterns are used to compare two different people, they will have a different fragment pattern or fingerprint. Genetic fingerprinting can be used to test for paternity. In forensics, genetic fingerprinting can be used to identify a criminal based on whether their unique DNA sequence matches to DNA extracted from a crime scene. This technology can also allow researchers to produce genetic maps of chromosomes based on these restriction enzyme fingerprints. Becasue there are many different enzymes, many different fingerprints can be ascertained. Recombinant DNA technology can also be applied to splicing genes into molecular devices that can transport these genes to various cellular destinations. This technique, also called gene therapy, has been used to deliver corrected genes into individuals that have defective genes that cause disease. Gene splicing has also been applied to the environment as well. Various bacteria have been genetically modified to produce proteins that break down harmful chemical contaminants such as DDT. Currently, scientists are investigating the application of this technology to produce genetically engineered plants and crops that can produce substances that kill insects. Similarly, fruits can be engineered to have genes that produce proteins that slow the ripening process in an effort to extend their shelf life. DNA microarray technology, also known as the DNA chip, is the latest in nanotechnology that allows researchers the have ability to study the genome in a high throughput manner. It can be used for gene expression profiling which gives scientists insights into what genes are being up or down-regulated. Various genetic profiles can be determined in order to estimate cancer risk or to identify markers that may be associated with disease. It has the ability only to detect changes in gene expression that are large enough to be detected above a baseline level. Therefore, it does not detect subtle changes in gene expression that might cause disease or play a role in the development of disease. It can also be used for genotyping, although clinical diagnostic genotyping using microarray technology is still being investigated. Genes from other species can also be used to add new traits to a particular organism. For example, bacteria, mice, and plants have all had luminescent (light glowing) genes from jelly fish added to their genomes. Another reason for adding genes to a foreign organism is to manufacture various nutritional or pharmaceutical products. Some cows have been modified so that they can produce human insulin or vitamins in their milk in bulk. Pigs have been modified to overcome a number of transplantation problems so that some limited transplantation of organs can be carried out from pigs to humans, also called xenotransplation. DNA technology is a relatively new area of research with enormous controversy. It will likely continue to be a large part of public debate and have an impact on every aspect of medical diagnostics, therapeutics, forensics, and genetic profiling. Nussbaum, Robert L., Roderick R. McInnes, and Huntington F. Willard. Genetics in Medicine. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2001. Rimoin, David L., Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics. London; New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2002. Bryan Cobb —The smallest living units of the body which together form tissues. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) —The genetic material in a cell. —Deoxyribonucleic acid; the genetic material in a cell. —A discrete unit of inheritance, represented by a portion of DNA located on a chromosome. The gene is a code for the production of a specific kind of protein or RNA molecule, and therefore for a specific inherited characteristic. —The complete set of genes an organism carries. —Macromolecules made up of long sequences of amino acids. Recombinant DNA —DNA that is cut using specific enzymes so that a gene or DNA sequence can be inserted. DNA Vaccine [next] [back] DNA Synthesis User Comments Hide my email completely instead? Cancel or Vote down Vote up almost 4 years ago Vote down Vote up almost 4 years ago DNA Technology Vote down Vote up over 3 years ago Dear sir I am doing knowledge discovery process about the performance of a good teacher,can DNA Finger Printing will exhibit this quality.Related Gene,the production of a specific kind of protein or RNA molecule, and therefore for a specific inherited characteristic. Read more: DNA Technology - Genetic, Genes, Gene, Sequence, Produce, and Specific http://science.jrank.org/pages/2134/DNA-Technology.html#ixzz1LAUC1IV9 Vote down Vote up almost 2 years ago no one cares to wht you havbe to say Vote down Vote up over 2 years ago This is Cheyenne from Pongee, our brand is “ Pegasus”. Pongee is one of the leading professional manufacturer specialized in researching and developing in field of signal processing and auto identification products in Taiwan, especially focus on Locks, Access Control and Time & Attendance systems. 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Take the 2-minute tour × When I query select distinct Name from Emp; Emp Table ID Name 1 Sam 2 Tom 3 Sam does this query return first distinct name(with ID=1) from duplicate names or last distinct name(with ID=3) How the distinct keyword actually works in this context? share\|improve this question Which rdbms you are using? – Praveen Prasannan Sep 3 '13 at 10:03 Does it matter if it returns 'Sam' or 'Sam'? Can you tell the difference? – ypercube Sep 3 '13 at 10:05 It neither returns "the first row" nor the "last row". It returns the distinct values of the name column. It doesn't matter to which row they belong. – a_horse_with_no_name Sep 3 '13 at 10:07 @PraveenPrasannan I'm not asking about specific database. – Athaher Sirnaik Sep 3 '13 at 10:19 @AthaherSirnaik a_horse_with_no_name has already answered that. It will return the value 'Sam' and no "record". Whether it retrieves that value from "row 1" or "row 100000" or from an index depends on many things. I think you are asking the wrong question. Are you interested in how the various DBMS will find all these values and how efficiently they do it? Or how to optimize such a query? – ypercube Sep 3 '13 at 10:25 1 Answer 1 I think there's a misunderstanding here: Your query does not return the records, only the distinct column values. Which, in your example, are 'Sam' and 'Tom'. They have no particular order which can safely be expected. It may be the natural order, or the order in which they are processed on the database (completely depending on the database implementation), or semi-random (such as iterating over items in a set). The order may also vary depending on whether the result was retreived from the data or from the cache. If you want a particular order, then specify it as order criterium: select distinct Name from Emp order by Name asc If you want the distinct values and the first record containing it, use group by: select min(ID), Name from Emp group by Name share\|improve this answer 'safely' was meant. Fixed the typo. – Peter Walser Sep 3 '13 at 11:49 Your Answer
Don’t fear the fsync! As the Eat My Data presentation points out very clearly, the only safe way according that POSIX allows for requesting data written to a particular file descriptor be safely stored on stable storage is via the fsync() call. Linux’s close(2) man page makes this point very clearly: A successful close does not guarantee that the data has been successfully saved to disk, as the kernel defers writes. It is not common for a file system to flush the buffers when the stream is closed. If you need to be sure that the data is physically stored use fsync(2). Why don’t application programmers follow these sage words? These three reasons are most often given as excuses: 1. (Perceived) performance problems with fsync() 2. The application only needs atomicity, but not durability 3. The fsync() causing the hard drive to spin up unnecessarily in laptop_mode Let’s examine each of these excuses one at a time, to see how valid they really are. (Perceived) performance problems with fsync() Most of the bad publicity with fsync() originated with the now infamous problem with Firefox 3.0 that showed up about a year ago in May, 2008. What happened with Firefox 3.0 was that the primary user interface thread called the sqllite library each time the user clicked on a link to go to a new page. The sqllite library called fsync(), which in ext3’s data=ordered mode, caused a large, visible latency which was visible to the user if there was a large file copy happening by another process. Nearly all of the reported delays was a few seconds, which would be expected; normally there isn’t that much dirty data that needs to be flushed out on a Linux system, even if it is even very busy. For example, consier the example of a laptop downloading an .iso image from a local file server; if the laptop has the exclusive link of a 100 megabit/second ethernet link, and the server has the .iso file in cache, or has a nice fast RAID array so it is not the bottleneck, then in the best case, the laptop will be able to download data at the rate of 10-12 MB/second. Assuming the default 5 second commit interval, that means that in the worst case, there will be at most 60 megabytes which must be written out before the commit can proceed. A reasonably modern 7200 rpm laptop drive can write between 60 and 70 MB/second. (The Seagate Momentus 7200.4 laptop drive is reported to be able to deliver 85-104 MB/second, but I can’t find it for sale anywhere for love or money.) In this example, an fsync() will trigger a commit and might need to take a second while the download is going on; perhaps half a second if you have a really fast 7200 rpm drive, and maybe 2-3 seconds if you have a slow 5400 rpm drive. (Jump to Sidebar: What about those 30 second fsync reports?) Obviously, you can create workloads that aren’t bottlenecked on the maximum ethernet download speed, or the speed of reading from a local disk drive; for example, “dd if=/dev/zero of=big-zero-file” will create a very large number of dirty pages that must be written to the hard drive at the next commit or fsync() call. It’s important to remember though, fsync() doesn’t create any extra I/O (although it may remove some optimization opportunities to avoid double writes); fsync() just pushes around when the I/O gets done, and whether it gets done synchronously or asynchronously. If you create a large number of pages that need to be flushed to disk, sooner or later it will have a significant and unfortunate effect on your system’s performance. Fsync() might make things more visible, but if the fsync() is done off the main UI thread, the fact that fsync() triggers a commit won’t actually disturb other processes doing normal I/O; in ext3 and ext4, we start a new transaction to take care of new file system operations while the committing transction completes. The final observation I’ll make is that part of the problem is that Firefox as an application wants to make a huge number of updates to state files and was concerned about not losing that information even in the face of a crash. Every application writer should be asking themselves whether this sort of thing is really necessary. For example, doing some quick measurements using ext4, I determined that Firefox was responsible for 2.54 megabytes written to the disk for each web page visited by the user (and this doesn’t include writes to the Firefox cache; I symlinked the cache directory to a tmpfs directory mounted on /tmp to reduce the write load to my SSD). So these 2.54 megabytes is just for Firefox’s cookie cache and Places database to maintain its “Awesome bar”. Is that really worth it? If you visit 400 web pages in a day, that’s 1GB of writes to your SSD, and if you write more than 20GB/day, the Intel SSD will enable its “write endurance management feature” which slows down the performance of the drive. In light of that, exactly how important is it to update those darned sqllite databases after every web click? What if Firefox saved a list of URL’s that has been visited, and only updated every 30 or 60 minutes, instead? Is it really that every last web page that you browse be saved if the system crashes? An fsync() call every 15, 30, or 60 minutes, done by a thread which doesn’t block the application’s UI, would have never been noticed and would have not started the firestorm on Firefox’s bugzilla #421482. Very often, after a little thinking, a small change in the application is all that’s necessary for to really optimize the application’s fsync() usage. (Skip over the sidebar — if you’ve already read it). Sidebar: What about those 30 second fsync reports? If you read through the Firefox’s bugzilla entry, you’ll find reports of fsync delays of 30 seconds or more. That tale has grown in the retelling, and I’ve seen some hyperbolic claims of five minute delays. Where did that come from? Well, if you look that those claims, you’ll find they were using a very read-heavy workload, and/or they were using the ionice command to set a real-time I/O priority. For example, something like “ionice -c 1 -n 0 tar cvf /dev/null big-directory”. This will cause some significant delays, first of all because “ionice -c 1″ causes the process to have a real-time I/O priority, such that any I/O requests issued by that process will be serviced before all others. Secondly, even without the real-time I/O priority, the I/O scheduler naturally prioritizes reads as higher priority than writes because normally processes are waiting for reads to complete, but writes are normally asynchronous. This is not at all realistic workload, and it is even more laughable that some people thought this might be an accurate representation of the I/O workload of a kernel compile. These folks had never tried the experiment, or measured how much I/O goes on during a kernel compile. If you try it, you’ll find that a kernel compile sucks up a lot of CPU, and doesn’t actually do that much I/O. (In fact, that’s why an SSD only speeds up a kernel compile by about 20% or so, and that’s in a completely cold cache case. If the commonly used include files are already in the system’s page cache, the performance improvement of the SSD is much less.) Jump back to reading Performance problems with fsync. The atomicity not durability argument One argument that has commonly been made on the various comment streams is that when replacing a file by writing a new file and the renaming “” to “file”, most applications don’t need a guarantee that new contents of the file are committed to stable store at a certain point in time; only that either the new or the old contents of the file will be present on the disk. So the argument is essentially that the sequence: • fd = open(“”, O_WRONLY); • write(fd, buf, bufsize); • fsync(fd); • close(fd); • rename(“”, “foo”); … is too expensive, since it provides “atomicity and durability”, when in fact all the application needed was “atomicity” (i.e., either the new or the old contents of foo should be present after a crash), but not durability (i.e., the application doesn’t need to need the new version of foo now, but rather at some intermediate time in the future when it’s convenient for the OS). This argument is flawed for two reasons. First of all, the squence above exactly provides desired “atomicity without durability”. It doesn’t guarantee which version of the file will appear in the event of an unexpected crash; if the application needs a guarantee that the new version of the file will be present after a crash, it’s necessary to fsync the containing directory. Secondly, as we discussed above, fsync() really isn’t that expensive, even in the case of ext3′ and data=ordered; remember, fsync() doesn’t create extra I/O’s, although it may introduce latency as the application waits for some of the pending I/O’s to complete. If the application doesn’t care about exactly when the new contents of the file will be committed to stable store, the simplest thing to do is to execute the above sequence (open-write-fsync-close-rename) in a separate, asynchronous thread. And if the complaint is that this is too complicated, it’s not hard to put this in a library. For example, there is currently discussion on the gtk-devel-list on adding the fsync() call to g_file_set_contents(). Maybe if someone asks nicely, the glib developers will add an asynchronous version of this function which runs g_file_set_contents() in a separate thread. Voila! Avoiding hard drive spin-ups with laptop_mode Finally, as Nathaniel Smith said in Comment #111 of of my previous post: The problem is that I don’t, really, want to turn off fsync’s, because I like my data. What I want to do is to spin up the drive as little as possible while maintaining data consistency. Really what I want is a knob that says “I’m willing to lose up to minutes of work, but no more”. We even have that knob (laptop mode and all that), but it only works in simple cases. This is a reasonable concern, and the way to fix this is to enhance laptop_mode in the Linux kernel. Bart Samwel, the author and maintainer of laptop_mode, actually discussed this idea with me last month at FOSDEM. Laptop_mode already adjusts /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs and /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs based on the configuration parameter MAX_LOST_WORK_SECONDS, and it also adjusts the file system commit time (for ext3; it needs to be taught to do the same thing for ext4, which is a simple patch) to MAX_LOST_WORK_SECONDS as well. All that is necessary is a kernel patch to allow laptop_mode to disable fsync() calls, since the kernel knows that it is in laptop_mode, and it notices that the disk has spun up, it will sync out everything to disk, since once the energy has been spent to spin up the hard drive, we might as well write everything in memory that needs to be written out right away. Hence, a patch which allows fsync() calls to be disabled while in laptop_mode should do pretty much everything Nate has asked. I need to check to see if laptop_mode does this already, but if it doesn’t force a file system commit when it detects that the hard drive has been spun up, it should obviously do this as well. (In addition to having a way to globally disable fsync()’s, it may also be useful to have a way to selectively disable fsync()’s on a per-process basis, or on the flip side, exempt some process from a global fsync-disable flag. This may be useful if there are some system daemons that really do want to wake up the hard drive — and once the hard drive is spinning, naturally everything else that needs to pushed out to stable store should be immediately written.) With this relatively minor change to the kernel’s support of laptop_mode, it should be possible to achieve the result that Nate desires, without needing force applications to worry about this issue; applications should be able to just simply use fsync() without fear. As we’ve seen, the reasons most people think fsync() should be avoided really don’t hold water. The fsync() call really is your friend, and it’s really not the villain that some have made it out to be. If used intelligently, it can provide your application with a portable way of assuring that your data has been safely written to stable store, without causing a user-visible latency in your application. The problem is getting people to not fear fsync(), understand fsync(), and then learning the techniques to use fsync() optimally. So just as there has been a Don’t fear the penguin campaign, maybe we also need to have a “Don’t fear the fsync()” campaign. All we need is a friendly mascot and logo for a “Don’t fear the fsync()” campaign. Anybody want to propose an image? We can make some T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers… 234 thoughts on “Don’t fear the fsync! 1. The idea of calling fsync(2) after the original file descriptor has been closed only works if “_POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO is defined” (to quote from the opengroup man page: Otherwise (!_POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO) the operation: fsync group-but-not-me-readable The file created on success cannot be opened for either read or write by the script. While this may seem obscure it is an extreme variant of the standard shell script multi-process locking technique. In that technique the strict sequencing of file creation (of a lock file) and file writing (of to-be-updated file) is essential. The shell script programmer can do the classic sync;sync;sync trick, but in my experience these scripts do not. I suspect shell programmers and C programmers alike have always assumed implicitly that close(2) behaves like an ANSI-C sequence point with respect to other open(2) and close(2) operations. This may be wrong, but it is a dangerous assumption to violate particularly as the violation is only detectable under a hard system crash. 2. Entertaining. The Blog Code deleted a middle part of my previous post. After “Otherwise (!_POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO) the operation:” should have been a line about executing an fsync on a read-only file “foo”. Unfortunately I expressed this with shell input redirection – presumably the character in question is not permitted… I need to rewrite the whole thing, the previous comment makes no sense as is. 3. > It means that a shell script programmer needs to run a helper program, that calls fsync(2), just like it needs to do anything that isn’t implemented by the shell itself. I know much easier and cheaper way to fix all these problems in all scripts and/or programs written in any language by any programmer. 4. @201, @202: John, The blog entries supports a limited HTML subset. So if you want to use an angle bracket, you need to quote it, html-style, i.e., “>” and “<”. All modern systems support fsync, and so they define _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO. The “fsync() only works if _POSIX_SYNCHORNIZED_IO” statement in the standard was necessary two decades ago, when there were ancient Unix systems that didn’t support fsync(). The same is true for being able to stop a program using control-Z; Posix Job Control was not guaranteed, and on ancient AT&T System V unix systems, control-Z didn’t work because neither POSIX nor BSD job control existed on those systems. But to say that programmers can’t count on fsync() because it’s an optional part of the specification is to misunderstand the historical context. Once upon a time it was optional; these days, no modern system would stand a chance in the marketplace if it didn’t implement that “optional” part of the spec. And indeed, all modern systems do support fsync(). Also, ANSI-C doesn’t define open() and close(). It does define fopen() and fclose(), but it is unspecified what happens if the system crashes. All talk of “sequence points” only makes sense in the context of the fact that standard I/O is buffered, and until a stdio FILE handle is flushed out via fflush() or fclose(), another process won’t see it. But ANSI-C is very careful not to say what happens if the system crashes. The concept of what happens on a file handle flush and what happens when the system crashes are quite different. 5. Indeed I would expect all the systems that support ext4 to also support fsync(2), and to define _POSIX_FSYNC, but I was talking about support for _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO, which, if implemented, modifies the POSIX fsync behavior. The functionality is optional, according to the Open Group man page it was added in issue 6 which is dated 2004, whereas fsync was added in issue 3. As for the comparison with _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL, well, to quote the document “_POSIX_JOB_CONTROL shall have a value greater than zero” – somewhat different from “the system may support one or more options…” Still, it may be reasonable to say that every implementation that supports ext4 also supports SIO – I don’t know. SIO makes the whole discussion moot because an app being written to use SIO and will be using OPEN(foo,O_DSYNC/O_SYNC/O_RSYNC) which, I believe, obviates any need to use fsync(2). My point about synchronization points was intended to clarify by analogy – I naively assumed everyone understood the role of synchronization points in the C language. Well, I was wrong… They’re nothing to do with the library. They exist in the language to allow compiler implementators to arbitrarily order operations between sequence points without invalidating compiler users expectations that operations happen in strict order. The deleted part of my post would have made this clearer. I raised the point that the suggested shell sequence of an fsync on a new file descriptor rather than the one originally used to write the data is not the same, both because of the potential absence of _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO and because it may be impossible to open a file descriptor on the file in question. For example: umask 757 echo “secret” >foo fsync <foo fails because “foo” is not readable by the shell script. Yes, I know that there are ways round this because the script has its fingers on the fildes and need not release this, but consider the example where the file is created within a subprocess. The problem is complicated by the variety of techniques shell and application programmers use to effect inter-process synchronization throught the file system. Another example is a semphor file – the file might disappear before the process that creates it can synchronize it. I think you will see that this is more serious because there is now some unsynchronizable data in the kernel surrounded by synchronizable but still reorderable directory updates. Having said all that, though, I think these questions are moot – app and shell programmers aren’t going to rewrite all their code because of ext4. Anyway, the scenario is that of a hard system crash in the middle of a critical operaton. As the Open Group says validating behavior in these cases is almost impossible. The chance of anyone changing anything is minimal; system administrators will simply be expected to clear up the mess as they always have. Wait: are you saying that delaying for a second to flush a couple disk blocks isn’t a long time? For that little data, a second is an eternity. > The atomicity not durability argument This is a strawman. You gave an incorrect sequence of code, explained how incorrect it was, and then concluded that the argument was flawed. There’s nothing wrong with the argument, just your code. A correct atomic-rename in Linux includes an fsync() on the directory. > Secondly, as we discussed above, fsync() really isn’t that expensive, It’s very expensive, even ignoring full-second delays. Compare sqlite performance with and without fsync: without fsync you can do a thousand transactions a second or more, but with safe synchronization you’re lucky to do 80. It both completely kills write buffering, and completely serializes the application with disk access. I’m baffled that anyone would argue against the atomicity-without-durability “argument”. It’s an important, obvious case. 7. You’re downloading a file from the web, which Firefox does by creating the file “foo.iso” which is initially created as a zero-length file, but it then creates the file “foo.iso.part” where the file is actually downloaded, and then when once the download complete, Firefox renames “foo.iso.part” to “foo.iso”. The file foo.iso isn’t precious; in the case of a system crash, we can always download it again from the web. Just because you’ve downloaded a file once doesn’t mean it can be re-downloaded. I just got a tarball of Nine Inch Nails songs from their website through a one-time download link. That tarball /is/ precious. So now… what is a good example of a call to rename() that shouldn’t have an implicit barrier? 8. Hi Ted, I am often concerned with the problem of unnecessarily spinning up hard drives in laptop_mode, since under some circumstances firefox is doing crazy FS commits out of nowhere: my vmstat shows 64K/s of ‘bo’ with an untouched firefox session, whose death makes the world quiet. But I (to some extent) don’t want to lose the commit guarantee. So my question is: if this “ignore fsync” thing is to be implemented in laptop_mode, how would it change the semantic? I mean when the kernel spits out all data that’s been chunked for the past, say 6, minutes, will the fsyncs still constrain the order of writes? BTW is the fsync on ext3 fixed? Rumors had it that it syncs the entire fs instead of the file descriptor (I know that’s still in line with POSIX specs though) 9. Ted, I want to compliment you on the patience, open-mindedness, and tact that you’ve shown here regarding this issue. Next time I want to show someone how developers should interact with their community, particularly in the face of heated disagreement, I’ll point to this blog. I can be very patient and polite, but I’m not sure I have anywhere near the patience you have shown with this issue, as the discussions and flames have dragged on and on. Thank you for being the fantastic Linux contributor and positive role model that you have been all these years! It’s not just “a couple of disk blocks”. Depending on the filesystem, the device, etc, it could easily involve physically spinning up disks and flushing hardware IO buffers, touching parent-directory inodes, etc. I’m somewhat perturbed by your sqlite performance comment. Either you’re intending to use sqlite for persistent data (in which case you need it flushed so that a power outage or yanked drive cable doesn’t corrupt the data) or else if you’re just using it to use sql/relational semantics to manage data, why not have sqlite use an in-memory database instead? A generally safe rule (and not just in linux): All bets are off when you’re using buffered I/O, except that your data is generally consistent after a buffer/io flush. If someone writes a filesystem with different behavior, it will generally underperform for someone’s usage profile AND applications written expecting its behavior will behave very oddly elsewhere. For example, it is surprising how badly many modern GUI applications behave on an ext2 filesystem, or for that matter a filesystem with sector size != 512 bytes (or when other common-but-not-universal-truth assumptions are violated) No, you don’t need it flushed. All you need is a guarantee that certain operations will be committed to disk in a particular order. The only reason many applications flush to disk to accomplish this is because that’s the only means available to do so. Write barriers are one approach to get ordering without blocking. 12. As others have pointed out: The firefox issue on its own is rather dumb. The forced fsync aren’t so slow on ext4, but they spin up disks even in laptop mode, and firefox itself is still laggy. An easy work around is to rsync a “safe” ~/.mozilla to /dev/shm (or other tmpfs) and run it from there. If firefox exits gracefully, rsync it back. If not, then you revert to the previous safe version. (I have a script, but won’t post it here; the details are obvious to anyone with a little scripting experience.) I wish the firefox developers would design their data I/O in a more robust and less braindead way overall. This sort of technique (work in memory, revert if bad) is obvious on its face. 13. @ads, I agree Firefox developers need to re-think, but I’m not sure how your suggestion of /dev/shm helps. If Firefox crashes I want to get it back just as it was when it crashed, including those half a dozen new tabs I’ve opened that I wouldn’t be able to re-find again easily from this morning’s email/RSS reading. The reason Firefox is making lots of effort to keep saving the current state is that users, including me, would find it very annoying if it restored itself as it was half an hour ago. 14. @Ralph, For any system (firefox or otherwise), if you say “we MUST preserve the complete state every few seconds”, then we are back to fsync every few seconds, and the whole argument runs back to the beginning w.r.t. laptop-mode, slow fsyncs on certain systems, et cetera. I personally can’t imagine how a few tabs can be so important, but to each his own. Maybe an eventual solution is to migrate /home to a log-based FS (say, nilfs2, now in 2.6.30) which internally does all this “snapshotting” as part of normal operations. Alternatively, one could write a userland library which does this for configuration files. Really, this means “open config files in append mode, and use a re-playable format”. 15. The problem with Firefox is that it accesses the disk _constantly_. I’m not as concerned about the disk activity when you’re actually DOING something. But Firefox accesses the disk even when you’re doing NOTHING. This prevents my Mac from sleeping, for instance. 16. @ads, I think Firefox needs to distinguish between protecting the user from Firefox crashing, and the OS crashing. The former can be common depending on version, plugins, etc. The latter a lot more unusual with Linux. As long as FF has handed the data to the OS then I don’t mind if it doesn’t reach the platters for a while; the OS can keep it in RAM for a bit if it, and the user, prefers. 17. Having a stable OS doesn’t mean your laptop battery won’t fail, or that the dog won’t yank the plug. There’s a similar issue using Vim on a busy system. Writing a file can block the editor for several seconds, because it–correctly–uses a usual safe write sequence (a different one, since it’s overwriting the whole file). With write barriers, it could get safe writes without blocking, so I wouldn’t have to wait for several seconds, breaking my train of thought, as Vim freezes up on fsync. So now SQLite is braindead and unrobust. Right. 18. > So now SQLite is braindead and unrobust. Right. I’d argue that SQLite is (when correctly configured) quite smart and robust. However, I’d also argue that it is not the correct tool for the job the Firefox developers had in mind. It is, however, quite simple to use and that apparently makes it the best choice for the task. Part of the problem here is that everyone seems to assume that there is only one valid kind of problem, and that only the solutions that trade other things to maximize capability for that kind of problem are valid ones. Another problem is that plenty of app developers seem willing to assume that the product will always run on Linux (by which they really mean “Always run on a linux box using a given filesystem, configured in a given way”). Many of them also seem to assume that “Linux” (see above) should return the favor by becoming perfectly optimal for their task at the expense of every other problemspace that might potentially ALSO be using the Linux kernel and libraries. It is frustrating to watch someone take a perfectly good electric drill, use it as a hammer, complain vociferously that it’s awkward and far too complex for the job, and proceed to re-engineer it permanently into a bad hammer. Some of us occasionally need to drill holes or install drywall, and would really have liked to use the drill as a drill. 19. I’ve used SQLite extensively. It’s absolutely a correct–and in my experience, the best–tool for this task. Adding an fbarrier()-like API would not inherently make anything less suitable for any other task. It might in practice, because implementing it may be difficult and cause internal design changes that could have adverse effects; but there’s nothing inherent about it that would do that. Right now, we have a drill, and the hammer hasn’t been invented. The only means we have available to bang nails (safely write files) is to hit them with a drill (call fsync). There are no hammers (fbarrier). 20. Consider the case of NFS, or SSHFS, or any random not-an-ssd flash filesystem. Or ext2 on an older kernel (there are still environments that prefer kernel 2.0.current because of resource limits or new regressions). No matter what nice tools you have on a preferred filesystem, you cannot assume that your application is running in such an environment. I accept that an fbarrier() api would be convenient and would substantially improve things for many usage profiles. But, what is the fallback strategy when running in an environment where the fbarrier() api is missing, ineffective, or where the api knows it cannot provide the expected guarantees? Merely having the fbarrier execute flush and sync type operations will result in worse behavior, because the app writer just blindly called fbarrier considering that it would do the right thing. I generally find that hiding complexity from the developer is a bad thing. It leads to him being unaware of what the machine is actually doing, and often leads to wildly inaccurate assumptions about performance and safety. From #16 above (I think) > If we are peppering our code with fsync’s, even if it doesn’t hurt “that much”, we are violating the abstraction that says the kernel is supposed to take care of buffering, caching, and writing things out to disk in a sane way. The problem is that the kernel cannot know what each developer means by “a sane way”, and kernel behavior that is correct for one usage case is totally wrong for another. The behavior that is correct for a high load webserver is almost certainly wrong for a critical log path, and neither behavior is really quite right for a responsive medium-importance gui app. Adapting the kernel and libs to assume any one of these jobs is going to break more things than it fixes. This suggests to me that the expected kernel abstraction has gotten a little too abstract. Perhaps what is truly needed is to document correct recipes for all the different intended-behavior cases then make sure the kernel doesn’t suddenly regress any of the expected behaviors. It seems to me that a lot of people are counting on behavior that may or may not be in but that certainly are NOT in ext2. When something other than their favorite assumed fs behaves differently, they go around crying “Bug!”. I agree that there is a bug, but perhaps we disagree as to which code contains it ;) 21. Linux isn’t a lowest-common-denominator kernel that doesn’t do anything not already possible on other platforms. Developers do the best they can manage on each platform; that’s just part of porting. (If the kernel can’t implement fbarrier() for a particular scenario, it should return an error. In practice, it would probably need to take an array of fds, and it should be possible to tell in advance whether fbarrier() will work with a particular set of FDs, to select an appropriate writing strategy. Anyhow, we’re not here to design an API that will probably never be implemented, but none of this is very difficult to define sensibly.) 22. @6: Regarding “Ubuntu Jaunty and Firefox 11 beta kernels”: I knew Firefox was getting bloated, but that’s a bit excessive… :P 23. I know the thread is less than fresh, even so it looks the right place for me to make the suggestion that’s been reasserting itself every time I browse for an ssd; Firefox is not the only drive hog, I’ve heard that the gnome desktop, particularly at startup, is quite a hog too; then there are files such as .xsession-errors that I’ve seen growing to 120GB+ particularly when reading kde’s full message list The way it looks to me, therefore, is that it’s time to recognize that ssd is a new hardware paradigm, leading to a need to rethink the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard / the way mount works; what I’m thinking is that it should be possible to mount 2 devices at one place, for instance /home could link to a hard drive partition as well as the ssd; Then it would be up to apps / the user [in the case of /home] / the distro / sudo [more generally] to give the filesystem a hint whether a cache is a ‘heavy write’ cache needing a hard drive location rather than an ssd providing there is one; The actual distinction could be managed in a filesystem bit flag – looks simplest providing all potential filesystems support it – alternatively in the filesystem hierarchy itself, as for instance two root mountpoints /heavy , /regular – plus symlinks from /regular/home/.mozilla to /heavy/home/.mozilla for instance – that were somehow usually transparent, that possibly the kernel would somehow manage; allowing /tmp as a 3rd alternative for ‘very heavy'; would people even think that would be possible? 24. Mark, On the system level, this is the distinction between /usr (static) and /var (changes at runtime). For more detailed purposes, this has existed for some time as “mount –bind” in simple cases or using unionfs in complex cases. 25. Hmmm… the fsync-on-replace is actually not my usecase. My usecase is the fsync-on-create-to-mark complete case. And I could swear not only NTFS but also ext3 was vulnerable to 0-byte files without fsync(). Did that change? @222: actually NFS is a pretty good fielsystem for file-name based transactions since it has a commit on close semantic. If you close a written file it has to be stable, so you can rename it safely. try {FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(tmp); BufferedOutputStream bos = new BOS(fos); finally { bos.close(); } @192: there is actually HortnetQ a JMS Implementation which uses a lazy sleep on AIO. However I havent looked at the implementation details yet, they claim performance gain (they have the side effect problem, that the transaction has to be stable before they can acknowledge the message externally). 26. I realize this is an old thread, but I’ll throw my 1/2 cent in. For unimportant (doesn’t need to be written to disk at all costs) data, just use sync() (that’s a real function, right? There should be a non-forced sync for such data, imho). For important (needs to be written to disk at all costs) data, use fsync(). What’s wrong with this? Comments are closed.
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System Failure The chemical revolution has ushered in a world of changes. Many of them, it's becoming clear, are in our bodies. Advertise on In all other respects--the most relevant being diet--the two groups lived essentially identical lives; in addition, they shared a common gene pool. They appeared to Guillette, therefore, to offer a unique chance to measure the developmental differences between groups of children who seemed to vary only in their exposure to pesticides. Her research scheme was straightforward: She adapted a series of motor and cognitive tests into simple games the children could play, including hopping, ball catching, and picture drawing. She assumed that any differences between the two groups would be subtle. Instead, she recalls, "I was shocked. I couldn't believe what was happening." The lowland children had much greater difficulty catching a ball or dropping a raisin into a bottle cap--both tests of hand-eye coordination. They showed less physical stamina too. But the most striking difference came when they were asked to draw pictures of a person. Though it could take years of research to nail down precisely how the lowland children might have been harmed, it appeared likely they had suffered some kind of brain damage. Guillette based her working hypothesis--that pesticide exposure might be the cause--on her familiarity with an extensive body of animal research that had already proven that some pesticides and chemically related compounds interfere with test animals' endocrine (hormonal) systems. In both animals and humans, this system plays a critical role in nearly every aspect of development of a growing fetus--including proper formation and function of the brain and reproductive organs--and is also crucial for normal adult bodily function. In fact, Guillette's Yaqui Valley findings bolstered not only her own hypothesis, but the growing notion within the scientific community of the damage that may be caused by a class of compounds scientists call "endocrine disruptors," or EDs. These include a much broader range of chemicals than are found in pesticides, and can not only harm developing animal embryos and fetuses in dramatic ways, but can have similar impacts on human fetuses, growing children, and even adults. In the years since World War II, a veritable chemical revolution has swept the globe. Scientists in commercial and academic laboratories have synthesized some 75,000 new compounds--some 15,000 of which are currently under investigation as potential endocrine disruptors. Relatively few of these chemicals, suspected EDs or not, have received exhaustive study and testing, even as a great many have found practical applications in industrial processes and consumer products--including such presumably benign items as dental sealants, plastic toys, and plastic intravenous bags. They have, in short, become ubiquitous throughout the developed and developing worlds--meaning that it isn't just children in remote Mexican valleys exposed to pesticides banned in the United States who are at risk from these chemicals' untested and unintended effects. Theo Colborn, a toxicologist at the World Wildlife Fund, is widely credited with consolidating research on EDs and prodding her fellow scientists toward consensus about the damage these chemicals cause in animals, and perhaps in people (Mother Jones, March/April 1998). She has been influential in promoting her view that those most at risk from EDs are not adults, nor their young offspring, but developing embryos and fetuses. The pathway of exposure is a straightforward one: "The mother,"she says, "shares with her [fetus] the chemicals she has in her blood." Starting shortly after a sperm cell enters an egg cell, hormones, first from the mother, and later from glands of the developing fetus, are critical to development of the reproductive system, brain, skeletal system, and other organs and body parts. Hormones function as biochemical messengers. Exceedingly tiny amounts--just a few molecules--will dock themselves on cellular landing sites called receptors. There, like tiny keys fitting into tiny locks, hormone molecules will trigger powerful bodily changes. The work of hormones in a developing organism is an exquisitely calibrated biological dance. Laboratory and field studies are also demonstrating linksbetween endocrine disruptors and a variety of other developmental problems in people. Some of the earliest clues came from late-1980s research at Wayne State University in Detroit, suggesting that children whose mothers were heavy eaters of PCB-contaminated Lake Michigan fish were born with sub-par memory function, demonstrating deficiencies both in infancy and in a second round of testing at age four. The most recent follow-up report, in 1996, continued to note problems in the children, who were by then 11 years old. "The most highly exposed children,"wrote scientists Joseph and Sandra Jacobson, "were three times as likely [as a control group] to have low average IQ scores, and twice as likely to be at least two years behind in reading comprehension." Members of the SUNY-Oswego team also fed a group of lab rats the same Lake Ontario salmon that the human mothers had consumed, and compared them with rats that were fed clean salmon. The offspring of the experimental rat group showed problems that echoed the ones found in the human children. "They were hyperreactive to minor negative events,"says Darvill, "like a shift in a food reward from a large reward to a small." A powerful clue to just how these compounds might have done their harm has begun to emerge. Medical science has long known that a severe deficiency in the thyroid hormone thyroxin can lead to congenital myxedema--a type of mental retardation once known as cretinism. And scientists have also known that even moderate thyroxin deficiency, caused by disease or dysfunction, can lead to motor and hearing problems in both lab animals and children. More recently, in a series of experiments at the Environmental Protection Agency's Health Effects Laboratory, a team of scientists showed that small doses of PCBs given to pregnant rats led to lower thyroxin levels and subtle, but detectable, hearing problems in their newborn. According to the study, the link was rock solid: Injecting the rat "pups"with thyroxin got rid of the hearing problem. If PCBs are also found to reduce thyroxin levels in people--and given that lowered thyroxin is a known cause of human neurological problems--scientists will have identified at least one key pathway by which PCBs can harm developing fetuses. Even as research on learning and behavioral problems among children has emerged, scientists worldwide have begun to raise new concerns about the potential link between endocrine disruptors and damage to the human--particularly male--reproductive system. But, she says, these sperm problems are an ominous "red flag"for male reproductive health in general: Even as sperm counts have apparently declined, rates of testicular cancer have soared, doubling in the United States alone between 1973 and 1994. Meanwhile, rates of a condition in newborns called hypospadias doubled in the United States between 1968 and 1993, according to a 1997 report by the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control. Hypospadias is a form of incomplete sexual differentiation in which the opening to the urethra appears somewhere on the genitals other than at the tip of the penis--in the worst case, as far away as the scrotum. "Nobody can doubt that there's a clear increase in [these conditions], and that it's strongly associated with poor-quality sperm,"concurs Danish reproductive researcher Niels Skakkebaek. "We know,"he adds, "that when we give rats and mice estrogen in pregnancy we see damage to the testes of their sons. That leaves us with a strong hypothesis that giving chemicals that behave like estrogen to a fetusÉleads to a higher rate of reproductive health problems later on." "This is one of the key pieces that will help us deal with this problem,"says Gina Solomon, a physician who sat on the committee on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Congress did not appropriate enough money, notes Solomon with evident dissatisfaction, but she adds, "I can't say it's all Congress' fault. The EPA and the Clinton administration didn't even request adequate funding." But while the lowland children's drawings looked more like people than they had before, the foothill kids were drawing far more elaborate and detailed images. And the lowland youngsters were still showing some motor problems, particularly with balance. "Some of these changes might seem minute, but at the very least we're seeing reduced potential,"Guillette says.
Champion: Can't stand the winter? Blame Indonesia, says Britain A woman wades through a flooded street, in A woman wades through a flooded street, in Datchet, England, Monday, Feb. 10, 2014. Photo Credit: AP / Sang Tan advertisement \| advertise on newsday The United States is freezing and Britain is flooded. Clearly, Indonesia is at fault. That, in any case, is my layman's interpretation of a report this week from Britain's meteorological agency, the Met Office. It makes fascinating, if nerdy, reading that can be boiled down to a few basic conclusions: -- The extended, extreme weather on both sides of the Atlantic is connected in a kind of butterfly effect that began in the Pacific and ended in Europe. -- Persistent rains over Indonesia and a pressure system in the Pacific bent the Asian-Pacific jet stream north, which forced cold polar air south and dumped snow and sub-zero temperatures on the U.S. As the polar air spreads south and east to the Atlantic, it has bumped into warmer tropical air, creating a "temperature gradient" that generates storms. -- At the same time, a band of fast winds that blow high in the atmosphere over the equator happened to flip direction, from east-west to west-east, something it does about every 14 months in a process called "quasi-biennial oscillation." This has had the effect of super-charging the Atlantic Jet Stream, which starts over North America and acts as a conveyor belt to carry storms across to Ireland and Britain. Because this jet stream has been 30 percent stronger than usual this winter, and had some big storms to carry, it has dumped a lot of very powerful rain storms at its destination. Or, in the words of the Met Office report: "These extreme weather events on both sides of the Atlantic were embedded in a persistent pattern of perturbations to the upper tropospheric jet stream." advertisement \| advertise on newsday -- The net effect is that southern England was doused with about 15 inches of rain over December and January, the most since accurate records began in 1910, and probably the wettest period in 248 years. No one storm was the worst on record, but they kept happening (and still are), saturating the ground so that every new rainfall brings instant floods. The Somerset levels of South West England are now a big lake, where 65 million tons of water are being pumped away at a rate of 3 million tons per day (only it keeps raining, so the pumping must continue). Along the Thames valley, quaint villages are under water. The railroad connecting London to the South West has been knocked out. People are getting around in canoes and dinghies. More rain is expected this week. -- This may or may not be due to climate change. It rains so much in Britain, and its weather patterns are so variable, that it's impossible to prove a pattern or root cause. Yet an abundance of rain is exactly what climate change models predict for this part of the world. Britons don't blame Indonesia, they blame the government. Farmers are angry, for example, that the rivers of the Somerset levels, which are below sea level, weren't dredged. The Environment Agency says that's because of austerity - they wanted to dredge the rivers, but couldn't because of budget cuts. The Minister for Communities, Eric Pickles, blamed the Environment Agency for giving bad advice: "We thought they we were dealing with experts." People in need of sandbags blame the military for not supplying them. Environmentalists blame planners and developers for building in flood plains. The isolationist U.K. Independence Party blames spending on foreign aid, saying it should be used for flood defenses instead. Yet Brits should probably be thankful that the biggest rainfall in more than two centuries isn't causing more damage. A similar but shorter storm in 1953, according to the Met Office report, left 307 dead and 24,000 properties under water. More than 160,000 acres of land were flooded as well. In the December and January storms, no one was killed. Only 1,400 properties and 17,000 acres were flooded. [In recent days, however, Britain has taken a turn for the worse. A gravely ill 7-year-old boy died when he couldn't get to a hospital. The number of flooded homes, meanwhile, has risen to about 5,000.] "Given the overall volume of runoff, the amount of property flooding at the national scale was relatively modest," the Met Office report said. The difference is the result of defenses built since 1953, including the world's largest flood gate, the Thames Barrier, which protects London. Coastal barriers have been strengthened, too, which made a big difference when 52-foot waves struck in December. Chris Smith, the much-pilloried chairman of the Environment Agency, said in an article in the Guardian that his agency's defenses had saved 1.3 million homes from flooding. advertisement \| advertise on newsday Still, it looks like he'll take the fall. Prodded into a rare press conference yesterday, Prime Minister David Cameron refused to endorse Smith, other than to say it wasn't "time for resignations" - yet. Marc Champion is a Bloomberg View editorial board member. You also may be interested in:
Disney Tech Controls And Talks To Everyday Objects With Touch Touché makes anything imaginable responsive to various levels of tactile feedback. How you control touchscreen devices like smartphones could very soon be how you control everyday objects, even liquids. The screen on a touchscreen device turns ‘on’ and ‘off’ with capacitive sensing technology; touchscreens are coated with a conductor that carries an electrical signal, when touched, the electrical signal changes and the screen responds. Capacitive sensing is binary- a touchscreen knows if it has been touched (and responds) or if it hasn’t been touched (and doesn’t respond), but a touchscreen doesn’t know how it has been touched. What if a touchscreen could know how it had been touched? Could different types of touch on a touchscreen elicit different responses? It’s a reality researchers at Disney Research in Pittsburgh, PA are exploring after creating a new type of touch sensor, Touché. Touché uses a similar type of capacitive sensing currently found in touchscreens, but instead of only being able to detect ‘touch’ or ‘no touch,’ Touché can easily determine multiple types of touch, which can then signal different responses: Everyday objects, once connected to a sensor controller, become multi-responsive touch devices- sit on a sofa and the TV turns on, recline in the sofa, and the lights dim. Close a door with one finger on the doorknob, and a message displays on the door, ‘back in 5 minutes,’ close a door with two fingers on a doorknob, and a message displays on the door, ‘gone for the day’ while the door locks. Aquarium touch zones that allow visitors to touch sea animals with one finger could sound an alarm when the water senses a hand is fully submerged. Chris Harrison, a collaborator on the project from Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, on the potential of Touché: Watch the Disney researchers explain Touché: Disney Research
(Page 2 of 2) Henry And Clara's Cruel Fate Thomas Mallon's Fictional Account Of The Other Victims At Ford's Theatre August 21, 1994\|By Reviewed by Theodore Pappas, managing editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture and editor of "The Martin Luther King, Jr., Plagiarism Story" Lincoln, of course, died hours later, but in actuality three other lives were lost that night. Mary Lincoln never emotionally recovered from the shooting, wore nothing but widow's black for the next 17 years and lived in and out of mental institutions both in Illinois and in Europe until her death in 1882. Clara's chances for a peaceful marriage also perished that evening, for the tragedy only aggravated Henry's precarious mental state. Victimized by this accidental role in history, Henry would forever be known as the man at Ford's Theatre who failed to save Lincoln's life. Like the vultures and scavengers of the news media today, on each anniversary of that bloody Good Friday reporters swarmed Henry with questions about the assassination-never letting his grief and guilt subside. He heard snickers in every comment, saw sneers in every glance. "I understand his distress," wrote Clara in a letter. While in Europe, "in every hotel we're in, as soon as people get wind of our presence, we feel ourselves become objects of morbid scrutiny.... Whenever we were in the dining room, we began to feel like zoo animals. Henry ... imagines that the whispering is more pointed and malicious than it can possibly be." Henry and Clara were married in 1867 and had three children, one of whom was ironically born on Feb. 12, Lincoln's birthday, and even became a Republican congressman from Illinois. Henry's reclusiveness and instability, however, never abated. He could not hold a job, grew intolerable to be around, took to boozing and gambling and occasionally whore- mongering, and eventually uprooted the family and relocated to Germany. Here Henry devolved fully into a world of delusion and insanity, passing the days reading recondite history, reenacting the Civil War and obsessively reliving that night at Ford's Theatre. Convinced that Clara had been a Desdemona-unfaithful in their marriage and on the night of the assassination by paying more attention to the Lincolns than to his own medical state-Henry shot and stabbed her to death in a boarding house in Hanover on Christmas Eve morning of 1883 and then turned the knife on himself. For the third time in his life, he survived his wounds, and for the second time the name Henry Rathbone was associated with murder and became fodder for newshounds, guttersnipes and socialites alike. He lived the rest of his days in Germany, at the Hildesheim Asylum for the Criminally Insane, and died there in 1911. Regarding Mallon's take on the denouement-Henry's shocking confession right before he kills Clara-this awaits the reader of this riveting tale. "Henry and Clara" is Mallon's most polished gem to date, and as such it demonstrates not only his mastery of prose and plot but also his ability to serve faithfully two deities at once-in this case, the gods of both history and literature. The only disappointing feature of this book is that the very brief "Author's Notes and Acknowledgments" section explains little of the exhaustive research and obsession with historical detail that went into this book. The reader wanting to know more about this genre and its philosophical underpinnings-from Sir Walter Scott to Georg Lukacs-or simply more about the facts and fiction of this story would do well to consult Mallon's fine essay "Writing Historical Fiction" in the autumn 1992 issue of the American Scholar. And if Mallon's audience cares neither for his philosophy nor for his fiction, it can always wait for the movie. A television miniseries based on "Henry and Clara" is already in the works.
The Dragon's Trail The Biography of Raphael's Masterpiece The Dragon's Trail • Touchstone \| • 304 pages \| • ISBN 9781416539605 \| • April 2007 Reading Group Guide Discussion Questions 1. Who was Raphael at the time Duke Guidobaldo de Montofeltro commissioned him? Who was Raphael as he grew older? How would you characterize him right before his death? Compare and contrast Raphael to other artists of his time in terms of age, ability, drive, commissions, longevity of work, and so on. 2. Why would Duke Guidobaldo de Montofeltro commission Raphael to create a work for such an important purpose when Raphael was so young and the Duke had so many other artists from whom to choose? How do you feel about the choices Raphael made in the creation of the painting -- color, theme, symbol usage, and so forth? 3. Did King Henry VII like the painting? Did he "appreciate" it aesthetically? What was King Henry the VII like -- As a king? As a man? 4. How did the painting happen to end up in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke? What did the Earl think of the work? Why would he give it to King Charles I in exchange for a book of Holbein drawings? 5. What made King Charles I want the painting upon seeing it hanging in the Earl's collection? How would you characterize King Charles I? Were his motives for wanting the painting independent of his aesthetic interest in the piece? 6. When the painting later resurfaced in the private gallery of "the third richest man in France," how do we learn it got there? Why did that collector have an interest in the piece? Where did h see more About the Author Joanna Pitman
9 Great Inventions that come from ... Connecticut? Image credit: It happens to everyone. One minute you're exchanging pleasantries with a perfect stranger; the next minute they're up in your face talking trash about Connecticut. Well, you don't have to take it anymore. History buff, and friend of the Floss, Streeter Seidell expands on why Connecticut might just be the most ingenious state in the Union. 1. The State that gave us the Cotton Gin Depending on how you look at it, the cotton gin was one of the best or one of the worst inventions in American history. In 1794 Eli Whitney, a Yale man, patented a device to separate cotton from its seeds and set up a factory in New Haven. Inadvertently, Whitney's invention breathed new life into the slave trade simply because of how effective it was. More cotton being processed required more slaves to pick it, unfortunately. Not content to be remembered for one thing, Whitney went on to popularize the idea of interchangeable parts, which he then used to manufacture guns. As such, Whitney was both the cause of (ongoing southern slavery) and solution to (through the North's manufacturing superiority) the Civil War. 2. The Colt .45 Revolver a.colt.jpgOne doesn't normally think of a tiny New England state as the birthplace of the gun that tamed the West, but Samuel Colt, inventor of the Peacemaker, was indeed a born and bred Connecticutian. Colt's Manufacturing Company was and is based in Hartford, CT, the state capital. Of Colt's famous gun someone once said, "Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal." And they couldn't have been more correct. For better or worse, Colt's revolver was easy to use, effective and powerful, making all men equally deadly. A bigger, more powerful .45, the Whitneyville Walker Colt was produced specifically for the Texas Rangers. Only 168 are known to exist and can fetch around $100,000 at auction. Talk about some serious bang for your buck"¦ 3. The Can Opener a.canopener.jpgWe've all heard that juicy tidbit about how the can had been around for fifty years before someone invented the can opener (true!). And that someone was none other than Connecticut's own Ezra Warner. Warner, a Waterbury, CT. native, created what PBS calls an "intimidating" contraption featuring a bayonet and sickle to open cans in 1858 (canned food debuted in 1810). The bayonet would hold the can in place while the sickle would saw around the edge. The whole process was pretty primitive but it sure beat the earlier method of opening can, which involved a hammer and a chisel. Despite the obvious improvement over the hammer/chisel arrangement, Warner's can opener was not for novices; grocers would open cans at the store before shoppers took them home. 4. The Portable Typewriter a.portable typewriters.jpg George C. Blickensderfer may have a funny name but what he invented was all business... literally. After moving to Stamford, CT. from Erie, PA. Blickensderfer put his fertile mind to creating some competition for the Remington desk typewriter, the standard of the day. At the 1893 World's Fair, he unveiled his challenge to Remington, the Model 1. He also brought along a scaled down version of the Model 1 called the Model 5, which featured far fewer parts and was intended to a less wealthy market. It was the Model 5 "“ lightweight, portable and cheap "“ that took off and just like that, Blickensderfer had invented the portable typewriter (or "˜5 pound secretary,' as it was called). Remington, Corona and other typewriter manufacturers would eventually drive Blickensderfer out of business after they wised up and produced their own portable machines, but Blickensderfer will forever be known as the man who gave legs to the typed word. He'll also be known as the man with the funniest last name in this article. 5. The Submarine Picture 3.png Like with most inventions executed before the Internet, there are competing claims to the invention of the submarine. What isn't being challenged is the fact that Saybrook, CT native David Bushnell's Turtle saw action during the Revolutionary War, which seems to give it a leg up credibility-wise. In 1776 a man trained by Bushnell, Ezra Lee, piloted the Turtle into New York Harbor and attempted to attach a bomb to the hull of The Eagle, a British Warship anchored in the bay. The plan didn't work and, later, the Turtle was sunk by the British while in transit. Perhaps even stranger though is what happened to Bushnell. After the war was over and he had blown his fortune on failed business ventures, Bushnell started calling himself Dr. Bush, moved to Georgia and got a job teaching at a local school. Nobody in Georgia ever had any idea that their kindly teacher was the man responsible for submarine warfare until after his death in 1824. 6. The Nuclear Submarine Wait a minute, didn't I just write about how Connecticut is responsible for the submarine? What's the big difference between a regular submarine and a nuclear submarine? Quite a bit, it turns out. As The Historic Naval Ships Association points out, before the U.S.S. Nautilus hit the water in 1954 submarines were really submersibles; boats that could go underwater but not for very long. The Nautilus, built in Groton, CT. by the Electric Boat Company and running on nuclear power, could stay underwater for months at a time because it created its own power. Part publicity stunt, part "˜hope you're watching, Russia,' the Nautilus even took a trip under the North Pole ice. All of these facts have been drilled into the heads of bored Connecticut middle schoolers being forced to visit the docked ship on class trips. 7. The Frisbee a.frisbee.gifThe stoners hippy athletes of our country owe a great debt of gratitude to Connecticut for giving them half of the name of their very own sport: Ultimate Frisbee. While throwing a disc through the air is nothing new (see: ancient Greece), calling it a Frisbee certainly is and the coining of such a term deals with three major players: Yale University, the Frisbie Pie Company and Wham-O toys. Bridgeport, Connecticut's Frisbie Pie Company had been supplying the hungry students of Yale University with pie for many years. At some point during those years, a student discovered that the empty pie tins made for great throwing. Thus, the "˜Frisbie' was born on Yale's campus. Meanwhile, Wham-O toys had acquired the rights to a plastic flying disc called a Pluto Platter from an inventor (and UFO enthusiast) named Walter Fredrick Morrison. Looking for a more appealing name, the execs at Wham-O heard about the Connecticut colloquialism and registered the trademark "Frisbee." 8. Vulcanized Rubber a.vulc.jpgConnecticut native (and descendent of a founder of the New Haven colony) Charles Goodyear is one of the state's most famous native sons. The man responsible for vulcanized rubber - you know, the kind we use in everything - spent most of his adult life destitute and his business acumen was less than enviable but, as Goodyear's story shows, it's hard to keep a good man down. Goodyear spent years experimenting with raw rubber before working out the process for making it a marketable product. After he had worked out the vulcanization process, he lobbied for replacing practically everything with rubber: his clothing, his flatware, even his business card. Goodyear, clearly, liked rubber and luckily, so did everyone else. He died in debt "“ like he had spent most of his life "“ but his tireless experiments and refinements have given us one of our most versatile and useful products. Also, it makes me smile in the sickest way when I think about how rarely a guy named Goodyear actually had one. 9. Sports on Cable"¦All The Time Many American males have wasted spent countless hours plopped in front of the TV watching SportsCenter. They have Connecticut to thank for that. ESPN, the brainchild of Bill Rasmussen, was founded and continues to operate out of Bristol, CT. Rassmussen was originally searching for a way to put UConn Huskie basketball on local Connecticut cable when he found out that for the same price he could throw the signal to the entire country. ESPN (originally just SPN) started off by broadcasting whatever sports footage they could get their hands on but found its first real hit with college basketball. The benefits were mutual and partly because of ESPN coverage, college basketball grew into the cultural giant it is today. EPSN, as we all know, has grown to become the name in sports television and no longer needs to broadcast slow pitch softball or demolition derbies, instead focusing more on the major professional sports: football, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf and, yes, hockey...still. And to think, it all started in the little city of Bristol in the little state of Connecticut. More from mental_floss... February 18, 2008 - 6:37am submit to reddit
Difference Between Church and Chapel Church vs Chapel In some dictionaries, the word church has been described as originated from the Greek ecclesia that means an assembly that has been called together. Looking from a physical angle, both church and chapel are entities that are used to offer prayers. A church is a building containing a chapel that is considered the holiest room in the building, and has gotten an exalted status not accorded to other rooms in the church. A chapel is reserved for revered activities such as prayers, sermons, singing of hymns, and so on. Other rooms in the church are used for congregations and school classrooms, and other casual activities not related to worship. Sometimes, chapel is also used to hold funerals and choirs. Inside a church, chapel is the solitary place of worship. On the other hand, a church is often used to refer to a denomination as when a spokesperson of the church says that the stand of the church on homosexuality or abortion is so and so. However, and it is rather strange that the word chapel does not find a mention in the Bible while the word church has been used a few times. In any case, a church is more than merely being a building. This particular passage from Bible is enough to justify this contention that the church is the body of Jesus. The testament refers to church as the body of Christ. What is the difference between Church and Chapel? • Chapel is defined as a place of Christian worship while many believe church to be such a place. • In reality, a chapel is a sacred room in the church that is used to offer prayers and many other sacred activities. • Chapel does not find a mention in the bible though church does, where it has been described as the body of the Christ.
Dental Implants look and feel like natural teeth A dental implant is a biocompatible, man-made substitute for missing tooth roots. It is usually made of a space-age alloy of titanium. Implants come in various shapes and sizes, chosen to best fit your mouth and jaw. Most are cylinders placed into bone and allowed to heal undisturbed while bone heals around them, locking them in like an anchor. After a few months, the implants are used as a foundation for replacing the missing teeth. Dental implants restore lost chewing ability, improve appearance, end embarrassment, and give real self-confidence to patients who need them. Implants replace one, many, or all of your teeth. They are a real breakthrough.
• Winter light on the Fairweather Range Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve Alaska Bear Distribution and Genetics jumping brown bear Glacier Bay can be a difficult place to get to! The deep fjords, islands, and mountains which characterize Southeast Alaska were shaped by a mixture of geological processes and dramatic glacial periods of advance and retreat. From the Little Ice Age until 260 years ago Glacier Bay was largely covered in ice. Since then the glaciers have receded at an unprecedented rate, exposing a new bay and a freshly sculpted land. Mammals colonized Glacier Bay as the glaciers receded. Migrating bears arrived in the new land looking for sources of food, including early successional species such as willow catkins, soapberry, alpine sweet vetch (bear root), and field oxytrope (locoweed). The glaciated mountainous landscape and wide fjords of this unique bay have geographically influenced the colonization of the bay by bears by acting as barriers and directing the flow of migration. Glacier Bay also has a wide spectrum of rapidly varying habitat, ranging from moonscape glacial outwash to rich old growth forest. bear head Gustavus Bear Population Study How many bears utilize the area in and around Gustavus, Alaska? brown bear Brown Bear Genetics Study Discovering the history of Glacier Bay's bear populations black bear Glacier Bay Bear Distribution Study Where the wild things (black and brown bears) are... brown bear and cubs Brown bears grazing in Queen Inlet Did You Know?
Stories tagged efficiency Here’s my impression of the future: Example: drinking potato chip water. NREL's membraine: There's so much science in his head it's projecting colorfully out into the air as a graph. NREL's membraine: There's so much science in his head it's projecting colorfully out into the air as a graph.Courtesy NREL You’re worried about the future again, aren’t you? You’re afraid that everything will taste like cardboard, and that most people will be robots, and that the robots will be too cool to hang with you, and that our trips to the bathroom with be confusing and abrasive, and something about bats, and that you will be hot all the time, even in your own homes. And I wish I could tell you otherwise. But I can’t. I just don’t know enough about the future. Except on that last point—it looks like air conditioning may yet be an option in a necessarily energy efficient future. Air conditioning can use up a lot of energy. An air conditioning unit typically cools air by blowing it over a coiled metal tube full of a cold refrigerant chemical. The refrigerant absorbs heat from the air in your house, and then it passes through a compressor, which squishes the refrigerant down, making it hot so that it releases heat outside your house. And then the refrigerant expands, and cycles back into the cool tube. (Here’s the explanation with some illustrations.) Other cooling systems rely on evaporation. So called “swamp coolers” pull hot, dry air from outside, and blow it over water (or through wet fabric pads). The water evaporates to pull heat out of the air, so what is blown into your house is cool, humid air. Swamp coolers are more efficient, but they only work in very dry environments. And then there’s another way to control your indoor climate: desiccant cooling. A lot of what makes warm air uncomfortable is the amount of moisture it can contain. Normal AC units remove moisture from the air, but they use a lot of energy in doing it. Another way is to use chemicals called desiccants. Desiccants suck up water. The little packs of “silica gel” crystals you might find in a new pair of shoes are full of desiccants. Blowing humid air over desiccants will result in the chemicals sucking the moisture out of the air, making it more comfortable. Figuring out how to use the desiccants has been a challenge, however; desiccant chemicals can be corrosive to building materials, so they, and any dripping water, need to be contained. With this in mind, US government researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have developed a membrane for desiccant cooling systems that allows the water vapor in humid air to pass through it one way, but does not allow the liquid water removed from the air to pass back. The researchers claim that this air conditioning process is up to 90% more energy efficient than standard AC. Every so often, the desiccant chemicals need to be “recharged” by heating them up so they release the trapped water (outside), a job that can be done by electric heating elements, or with a solar thermal collector. The University of Minnesota used a desiccant cooling system for their entry into the Solar Decathlon competition. Their system didn’t rely on a membrane—rather, humid air was pumped up through a drum of liquid desiccant—but they did recharge the desiccant using heat from solar thermal panels (which are basically big, flat, black boxes that collect heat from sunlight). It’s reassuring to know that in the future, even as we’re covered in flesh eating bacteria, and spam advertisements for Spam are being beamed directly into our brains, we’ll at least be able to relax in pleasantly dry, cool air, without worrying too much about the energy we’re using to do it. Old refrigerators guzzle energy: Newer refrigerators use 75% less energy Old refrigerators guzzle energy: Newer refrigerators use 75% less energyCourtesy Rich Anderson More efficient refrigerators have a huge impact Refrigerators today are bigger than in the 70s but use 75% less energy. This happened because of stricter energy efficiency standards. Efficiency standards can save more energy than current wind, solar, and geothermal energy sources combined! United Nations summit on climate change This week at the United Nations' summit on climate change, U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary, Steven Chu, unveiled a $350-million investment plan to bring to the developing world everything from efficient refrigerators to solar lanterns. Climate REDI Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI) is a $350-million investment by major economies, including $85 million from the U.S., to bring everything from efficient refrigerators to solar lanterns to the developing world. "The energy savings from refrigerators is greater than all U.S. renewable energy generation—all the wind, solar thermal and solar photovoltaics—just the refrigerators," Chu said in a speech announcing the initiative, noting the refrigerators also cost less. "Energy efficiency is truly a case where you can have your cake and eat it too. [But] it was driven by standards; it didn't happen on its own." Learn more about the UN energy-efficiency initiative Source: Scientific American U.S. Unveils a $350-Million Energy-Efficiency Initiative at Copenhagen My Geo Metro: 47 miles per gallon My Geo Metro: 47 miles per gallonCourtesy Art Oglesby Guess the answer to this word problem before doing the math. • Car A (a compact) gets 34 mpg • Car B (a hybrid) gets 54 mpg • Car C (an S.U.V.) gets 18 mpg • Car D (a sedan) gets 28 mpg Which would save more gasoline? • (a)replacing Car A with Car B • (b)replacing Car C with Car D • (c)both would save the same Can you do the math? I drive my car about 10,000 miles each year. One way to look at this problem would be to calculate how many gallons of gas each of the four cars would use to go 10,000 miles. Can you do the math? If gas costs $4 per gallon what is the cost for each car to go the 10,000 miles? Show me your answers in the comments I will do the math for my Geo Metro as an example. It now has over 100,000 miles on it. Until recently it got 50 miles per gallon. Two gallons would take me 100 miles, 20 gallons would take 1000 miles. 100,000 miles would take 2000 gallons. With $4 gas that 2000 gallons would cost $8000. Save the world's gas I once owned a Ford pickup truck. If it got 20 mpg and if I drove it 100,000 miles I would need 5000 gallons which would cost me $20,000. By replacing my pickup with the Metro I use less than half the gas and save over $1000 a year. I used to commute to work and put on 30,000 miles per year. That figures out to a $36,000 saving over 10 years. John Kanzius discovered that salt water when bombarded with radio waves burns. You can learn more and see salt water burn in this video(You Tube). A British design firm, Sheppard Robson, has unveiled a plan for a new house that produces zero emissions, making it carbon neutral. Their home is the first design to meet the highest level of energy efficiency set by the UK government for some new laws that go into effect in 2016. The Science Museum of Minnesota has its own Zero Emissions Building right here by the Mississippi River, Science House. Next time your in our Big Backyard, make sure the check it out. Is that a contradiction in terms? Approximately 330 million tons of garbage filled landfills in the United States last year alone, according to Solid Waste Digest, a trade publication for the waste industry. However, remarkably, the capacity of these landfills has been increasing even though very few new dumps are being built. How is this possible? It turns out that landfill managers have been using methods that allow them to pack more trash into a landfill then what was previously thought possible. Some landfills pile tons of dirt on top of sections of their dumps and then six months later scrape the dirt aside. Like stomping your foot into the waste bin to make more room, this system works to create 30 to 40 more feet of depth — more space for more trash. Other methods to increase landfill capacity include blowing water and air into the dumps to quicken decomposition and therefore reducing the size of buried garbage. Or, they are using other methods, such as giant 59-ton compacting machines, to bury trash more tightly. The good news here is that this efficiency will help to reduce the need for new landfills. The bad news is, again, the United States produces 330 million tons of garbage a year! New York City produces so much garbage that it exports 25,000 tons of trash every day to other states and other cities. So, while I think this new efficiency is great, I also think that we (you and I) still play a significant role in reducing the amount of trash put into landfills. Reduce, reuse, recycle!
In North America, the term libertarian means what everywhere else is called a Classical Liberal. This is a person who essentially pushes for the rights of big business at any cost. The Libertarian party was, not surprisingly, started by the billionaire Koch brothers. Two key unspoken tenets of North American libertarianism: companies should never be regulated because the Little Guy must fend for himself, and companies should be free to pollute at will. This is a true and accurate description of North American libertarians attitudes although they always try to appear virtuous and intellectual. They are neither. In their effort to appear intelligent, libertarians is argue that in a free market (which has never existed) everything is fair. Not so. In any country that doesn't protect the little guy, big companies can pummel them into submission, particularly in the courts but also when the little guy is a shareholder or employee or a voter. Corporations power lets them get away with almost anything. Even economist Adam Smith would have rejected corporatism, because he believed companies should always be small. billionaire Koch brothers by Zacky August 29, 2005 71 more definitions Top Definition I became Libertarian once I fully understood the Constitution. by B-Dogg October 17, 2003 by Our Fallen Republic January 12, 2004 Clint Eastwood is a libertarian. by KP January 14, 2004 by libertarian delusion January 07, 2009 -Children working in factories and mines -Corporate monopolies -Workplaces where death is likely -Low, low wages -Typical libertarian by Captain Funktabulous September 18, 2008 The Dark Lord Cthulhu Prince of Darkness Michael Badnarik Ayn Rand ^ each and every one a proud Libertarian by JustAHumbleMan March 28, 2007 In theory, one who believes in limited Government only to protect our liberties. Libertarians should be allowed to do as they please, so long as it doesn't conflict with the liberties of others. In practice, modern libertarians feel they should be able to do whatever they want. Liberties of any who disagree are often hypocritically cast aside with fallacious excuses to rationalize the libertarian's actions. This especially applies to the realm of capitalism. In an economy with finite resources, limited government ensures capitalists can act with impunity & the rights of individuals, doing as they please, & perpetuating few wealthy & many poor. The adoption of libertarianism is often not due to a refined comprehension of the constitution, but rather, parental indoctrination. Many opinion-based beliefs of such libertarians include: all rich earned it w/ hard work & will, all poor have only themselves to blame, no one's entitled to anything (not even healthcare), & success & failure are b&w. To them, sociological advantages & disadvantages are nonexistent; all people have to work equally hard to attain & retain wealth. Being born mostly into high-income families, they're accustomed to security & resources. They have little concept of hardship. Psychologically, they ascribe notions of hardship to experiences most people of lower socioeconomic strata know to be frivolous (feeling entitled to great gain, wealth they're accustomed to, but with objectively disproportionate effort). Person: "Did you hear about Brenda? She had to get chemo. She grew up very poor, so she has student loan debt from getting her Master's deree. She works hard and makes good money, 50k a year, but they're not paid off. And she pays for her own insurance. They said they'd only cover 75% of her chemo. So she'll be in major debt. Wish we had universal health." Libertarian of 2011: "Why? So we could all be sick and dying like in Canada, Uk and France? No thanks! It's all her own fault. Not the cancer, but her finances. She'd be ok if she weren't a lazy bum. She'd have better insurance if she shopped around like me. I pay $50/month into some magic, shitty HSA through same company as her and I think they'll cover 100% of anything. Makes no sense, but I swear it's true. And she should have gotten a better job like me. My dad didn't just give me the job because he's the CEO. I had to work my butt off through 4 grueling years of college. She should also start a side business, invest in stocks and bonds, and a bunch of other stuff I can only easily do because I was always wealthy." by ShootThemByProxy April 03, 2011 Free Daily Email Emails are sent from We'll never spam you.
Edit Article One Methods:To add color and to improve the grip 1. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 1.jpg 2. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 2.jpg 3. 3 • You can use fewer or more coins, but remember to use the same number of coins for each ball! If you use sand, weigh it, and use the same amount for each ball. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 3Bullet1.jpg • Start with fewer coins and add more as necessary; they are easier to put in than to take out. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 3Bullet2.jpg • The balls may be filled with sand, rice, or any inert granular material as an alternative to pennies. If you use sand, you may want to seal the slit in the ball with electrical tape or hot-glue. To add color and to improve the grip 1. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 4.jpg 2. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 5.jpg Stretch and pull the balloon over the ball. 3. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 6.jpg 4. Make Juggling Balls from Tennis Balls Step 7.jpg Repeat for the other two balls. • There you go, colorful and cheap! • And they make music (jingle). • And they have a good grip to them. • And they stay put when you drop them. We could really use your help! Can you tell us about overlay text? overlay text how to put text on pictures Can you tell us about muscle spasms? muscle spasms how to treat muscle spasms Can you tell us about love letters? love letters how to sign a love letter Can you tell us about how to choose a good Xbox gamertag Thanks for helping! Please tell us everything you know about Provide Details. Don't say: Eat more fats. This shows how the balls can be filled with rice. Things You'll Need • 3 old tennis balls • A sharp knife • A bag of small round balloons or colorful electrical tape Article Info Featured Article Categories: Featured Articles \| Juggling Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 21,660 times. Did this article help you? Yes No an Author! Write an Article
What does the speed of light have to do with the relationship between mass and energy, as seen in Einstein's Theory of Relativity? Speed of light appears the same to everyone and that nothing could be faster than light. Energy is used to accelerate a particle. Semantic Tags: Special relativity Faster-than-light travel Interstellar travel Speed of light Albert Einstein Introduction to general relativity Human Interest Physics Relativity Tachyons Faster-than-light Light Mass Technology Internet Environment energy Related Websites: Terms of service \| About
Russians in Estonia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Russians in Estonia Total population 320,000 (est.) (24% of total population) Regions with significant populations Tallinn, Ida-Viru County The population of Russians in Estonia is estimated at 320,000. Most Russians live in Estonia's capital city Tallinn and the major northeastern cities of Narva and Kohtla-Järve. Some areas in eastern Estonia near Lake Peipus have a centuries-long history of settlement by Russians, including the Old Believers' communities. Early contacts[edit] The Estonian name for Russians vene, venelane derives from an old Germanic loan veneð referring to the Wends, speakers of a Slavic language who lived on the southern coast of Baltic sea.[1][2] Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kievan Rus' raided Tarbatu (Tartu) in 1030, burning down the Ugaunian stronghold.[3] The Kievan foothold Yuryev, built on the ashes, survived until 1061 when the Kievans were driven out by the local tribe.[4] A medieval proto-Russian settlement was in Kuremäe, Vironia. The Orthodox community in the area built a church in the 16th century and in 1891 the Pühtitsa Convent was created on its site.[5] Proto-Russian cultural influence had its mark on Estonian language, with a number of words such as "turg" (trade) and "rist" (cross) adopted from East Slavic.[6] In 1217, an allied Ugaunian-Novgorodian army defended the Ugaunian stronghold of Otepää from the German knights. Novgorodian prince Vyachko died in 1224 with all his druzhina defending the fortress of Tarbatu together with his Ugaunian and Sackalian allies against the Livonian Order led by Albert of Riga. Orthodox churches and small communities of proto-Russian merchants and craftsmen remained in Livonian towns as did close trade links with the Novgorod Republic and the Pskov and Polotsk principalities. In 1481, Ivan III of Russia laid siege to the castle of Fellin (Viljandi) and briefly captured several towns in eastern Livonia in response to a previous attack on Pskov. Between 1558 and 1582, Ivan IV of Russia captured much of mainland Livonia in the midst of the Livonian War but eventually the Russians were driven out by Lithuanian-Polish and Swedish armies. Tsar Alexis I of Russia once again captured towns in eastern Livonia, including Dorpat (Tartu) and Nyslott (Vasknarva) between 1656 and 1661, but had to yield his conquests to Sweden. 17th century to 1940[edit] A Russian Old Believer village with a church on Piirissaar. The beginning of continuous Russian settlement in what is now Estonia dates back to the late 17th century when several thousand Russian Old Believers, escaping religious persecution in Russia, settled in areas then a part of the Swedish empire near the western coast of Lake Peipus.[7] In the 17th century after the Great Northern War the territories of Estonia divided between the Governorate of Estonia and Livonia became part of the Russian Empire but maintained local autonomy and were administered independently by the local Baltic German nobility through a feudal Regional Council (German: Landtag).[8] The second period of influx of Russians followed the Imperial Russian conquest of the northern Baltic region, including Estonia, from Sweden in 1700–1721. Under Russian rule, power in the region remained primarily in the hands of the Baltic German nobility, but a limited number of administrative jobs was gradually taken over by Russians, who settled in Reval (Tallinn) and other major towns. A relatively larger number of ethnic Russian workers settled in Tallinn and Narva during the period of rapid industrial development at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. After the First World War, the share of ethnic Russians in the population of independent Estonia was 7.3%.[9] About half of these were indigenous Russians living in Ivangorod, the Estonian Ingria and the Petseri County, which were added to Estonia territory according to the 1920 Peace Treaty of Tartu, but were transferred to the Russian SFSR in 1945. In the aftermath of World War I Estonia became an independent republic where the Russians, comprising 8 percent of the total population among other ethnic minorities, established Cultural Self-Governments according to the 1925 Estonian Law on Cultural Autonomy.[10] The state was tolerant of the Russian Orthodox Church and became a home to many Russian émigrés after the Russian October Revolution in 1917.[11] World War II and the Estonian SSR[edit] The majority of the pre-war Russian population in Estonia lived in border areas that were ceded to the Russian SFSR in 1945. After the Soviet incorporation of Estonia in 1940,[12][13] repression of ethnic Estonians followed. According to Sergei Isakov, almost all societies, newspapers, organizations of ethnic Estonians were closed in 1940 and their activists persecuted.[14] The country remained annexed to the Soviet Union until 1991. During the era the government initiated a population transfer. Thousands of citizens were deported to inhospitable areas and various Russophone populations were relocated to Estonia. Between 1945–1991 the Russian population in Estonia grew from about 23,000 to 475,000 people and the total Slavic population to 551,000, becoming 35% of the total population.[15] In 1939 ethnic Russians comprised 8% of the population, however, following the annexation of about 2,000 km2 (772 sq mi) of land to the Russian SFSR in January 1945, including Ivangorod (then the eastern suburb of Narva) and the Petseri County, Estonia lost most of its inter-war ethnic Russian population.[16] Most of the present-day Russians are migrants from the recent settlement, and their descendants. Following the terms of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union occupied and illegally annexed the Baltic States in 1940. The authorities carried out repressions against many prominent ethnic Russians activists and White emigres in Estonia.[17] Many Russians were arrested and executed by different Soviet war tribunals in 1940–1941.[18] After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the Baltics quickly fell under German control. Many Russians, especially Communist party members who had arrived in the area with the initial occupation and annexation, retreated; those who fell into the German hands were treated harshly, many were executed. After the war, Narva's inhabitants previously evacuated by the Germans were for the most part not permitted to return and were replaced by refugees and workers administratively mobilized from western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.[19] By 1989, ethnic Russians made up 30.3% of the population in Estonia.[20] During the Singing Revolution, the Intermovement, International Movement of the Workers of the ESSR, organised the indigenous Russian resistance to the independence movement and purported to represent the ethnic Russians and other Russophones in Estonia.[21] Current situation[edit] Today most Russians live in Tallinn and the major northeastern cities of Narva, Kohtla-Järve, Jõhvi, and Sillamäe. The rural areas are populated almost entirely by ethnic Estonians, except for Lake Peipus coast, which has a long history of Old Believers' communities. The restored republic recognised the pre-occupation citizens or descended from such (including the long-term Russian settlers from earlier influxes, such as Lake Peipus coast and the 10,000 residents of the Petseri County)[22] The Citizenship Act provides relatively liberal requirements for naturalisation of those people who had arrived in the country after 1940,[23] the majority of whom were ethnic Russians. Knowledge of Estonian language, Constitution and a pledge of loyalty to Estonia were set as the conditions.[24] The government offers free preparation courses for the examination on the Constitution and the Citizenship Act, and reimburses up to 380 euros for language studies.[25] Under the law, residents without citizenship may not elect the Riigikogu (the national parliament) nor the European Parliament, but are eligible to vote in the municipal elections.[26] Between 1992 and 2007 about 147,000 people acquired citizenship, bringing the proportion of stateless residents from 32% down to about 8 percent.[26] In late 2014 an amendment to the Law was proposed that would give Estonian citizenship to children of parents neither of which have Estonian citizenship, provided the parents have been living in Estonia for at least 5 years.[27] Language requirements[edit] The perceived difficulty of the language tests became a point of international contention, as the government of the Russian Federation and a number of human rights organizations objected on the grounds that they made it hard for many Russians who had not learned the language to gain the citizenship in the short term. As a result, the tests were altered somewhat, due to which the number of stateless persons steadily decreased. According to Estonian officials, in 1992, 32% of residents lacked any form of citizenship. In May 2009, the Population register reported that 7.6% of residents have undefined citizenship and 8.4% have foreign citizenship, mostly Russian.[28] As the Russian Federation was recognized as the successor state to the Soviet Union, all former USSR citizens qualified for natural-born citizenship of Russia, available upon mere request, as provided by the law "On the RSFSR Citizenship" in force up to end of 2000.[29] By county[edit] County Russians Percent Ida-Viru 106,508 72.8% Harju 173,878 31.3% Tartu 18,362 12.2% Valga 3607 12.2% Lääne-Viru 5624 9.6% Pärnu 6539 8.0% Lääne 1912 8.0% Jõgeva 2147 7.0% Rapla 1313 3.8% Põlva 1006 3.7% Võru 1125 3.4% Viljandi 1255 2.7% Järva 801 2.7% Saare 296 1.0% Hiiu 58 0.7% Total 324,431 25.2%[30] Notable Russians from Estonia[edit] Noteworthy modern Russians who at some point lived in Estonia include: See also[edit] 1. ^ Campbell, Lyle (2004). Historical Linguistics. MIT Press. p. 418. ISBN 0-262-53267-0. 2. ^ Bojtár, Endre (1999). Foreword to the Past. Central European University Press. p. 88. ISBN 9789639116429. 3. ^ A short overview of the history of Tartu 4. ^ Miljan, Toivo. Historical Dictionary of Estonia 5. ^ Pühtitsa (Pyhtitsa) Dormition Convent 6. ^ Kahk J., Palamets H., Vahtre S. Eesti NSV ajaloost. Lisamaterjali VII-VIII klassi NSV Liidu ajaloo kursuse juurde. 7. trükk. Tallinn: Valgus, 1974 7. ^ Frucht, Richard (2005). Eastern Europe. ABC-CLIO. p. 65. ISBN 1-57607-800-0. 9. ^ Kalev Katus [1] Miksike 10. ^ Suksi, Markku (198). Autonomy. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 253. 13. ^ Черниченко С. В. Об «оккупации» Прибалтики и нарушении прав русскоязычного населения «Международная жизнь», август 2004 г.(Russian) 15. ^ Chinn, Jeff; Robert John Kaiser (1996). Russians as the new minority. Westview Press. p. 97. ISBN 0-8133-2248-0. 16. ^ Smith, David (2001). Estonia: independence and European integration. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-415-26728-1. 17. ^ С.Г.Исаков Очерки истории русской культуры в Эстонии. Таллинн, 2005, с. 394—395. 18. ^ Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity. 19. ^ Batt, Judy; Kataryna Wolczuk (2002). Region, state, and identity in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-7146-5243-6. 20. ^ Population by Nationality 21. ^ Valerie Bunce, Steven Watts (2005). "Managing Diversity and Sustaining Democracy: Ethnofederal versus Unitary States in the Postcommunist World". In Philip G. Roeder, Donald Rothchild. Sustainable peace: power and democracy after civil wars. Cornell University Press. p. 151. 22. ^ "Estonian passport holders at risk". The Baltic Times. May 21, 2008. Retrieved 27 December 2011. 23. ^ Ludwikowski, Rett R. (1996). Constitution-making in the region of former Soviet dominance. Duke University Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-8223-1802-6. 24. ^ Citizenship Act of Estonia (English translation) 25. ^ Government to develop activities to decrease the number of non-citizens 26. ^ a b Puddington, Arch; Aili Piano; Camille Eiss; Tyler Roylance; Freedom House (2007). "Estonia". Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Published by Rowman & Littlefield. p. 248. ISBN 0-7425-5897-5. 27. ^ "Riigikogu asub arutama kodakondsuse andmise lihtsustamist" (in Estonian). Retrieved 24 November 2014. 28. ^ Estonia: Citizenship 29. ^ The Policy of Immigration and Naturalization in Russia: Present State and Prospects, by Sergei Gradirovsky et al. 30. ^ "Population by sex, ethnic nationality and County, 1 January". Statistics Estonia. 2013-01-01. Retrieved 2014-03-28. External links[edit]
Talk:Brodmann area 22 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Taskforce icon Removed material (too detailed)[edit] A experiment was taken in early 2000 involving the left side of six men and women’s brains who died within 18-24 hours. What was revealed was that neuron clusters from each side of the brain was similar in size; however, they found that the distance between the clusters on the left side were about 20 percent farther apart, and had more fiber connections among the cells, also it had a more complex cellular structure. Researchers believe this is why that part of the brain (Brodmann’s area 22) is active in processing language. Assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Jeffrey Hutsler, said "This study clearly shows that an area associated with speech processing differ from the same area on the other side of the brain.
Share this story Close X Switch to Desktop Site At the Top and Bottom Of the World in Photos Photographer Galen Rowell takes on the planet's remotest, harshest environments About these ads By Galen Rowell University of California Press Rudolf the reindeer lives at the North Pole. After that, distinctions between the top of the world and the bottom are less explicit. The most likely mental image of the polar regions, which make up about 15 percent of the planet's land area, is of frigid, undifferentiated wastelands. Award-winning wildlife photographer Galen Rowell dispels this common notion in a series of thoughtful photographs and informative word pictures. The first section of his book juxtaposes photographs of the Arctic and Antarctic, producing many educational surprises. For example, a small ice spur seems to tower above the snowy Arctic terrain, while the large sun-streaked dome of the United States' Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is eclipsed in a crater-like basin of ice and snow. Rowell omits buildings from his northern views because they cannot be permanently erected in the Arctic. The North Pole is located in the center of an ocean, amid pack ice that drifts at more than one mile per hour. But the South Pole is located 9,300 feet inland, in the middle of a continent surrounded by oceans. Antarctica's thick ice sheets give it the world's highest mean elevation. Here glacial ice moves at a sedate 30 feet per year, allowing permanent buildings to be constructed. Rowell refers to the Far North as America's Serengeti, and shows caribou running through a lush summer meadow. Cut off from the evolution of mammals that eventually populated the north, Antarctica has no warm-blooded land animals. Correspondingly, Rowell pictures chinstrap penguins on an iceberg near the world's largest rookery, Zavadovsky Island. Page: 1 \| 2 Follow Stories Like This Get the Monitor stories you care about delivered to your inbox.
What color is a giraffe's tongue? A giraffe's tongue appears black, blue or even purple, and has a pink base and back. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation suggests that the front of the giraffe's tongue is darker in color to protect it from sunburn from prolonged exposure while eating. The prehensile tongue of an adult giraffe is anywhere from 18 to 21 inches long and is employed to feed on a variety of high-hanging plants. Along with thick saliva, the robust papillae of the tongue help protect the giraffe from the vicious defensive thorns of the Acacia species leaves on which it feeds, and the tongue is dexterous enough to help sort the tasty leaves from the thorns. Q&A Related to "What color is a giraffe's tongue?" Very long, slightly bluish purple with bristly hairs for eating around acacia thorns. A giraffe's tongue is 18 to 20 inches long and blue-black. People think the color blue gray, it almost looks black. A giraffe's tongue is blue-black. Its dark to protect it from the rays of the sun which would burn it otherwise.
Baylor > Lariat Archives > News Point of View: Beautiful day should be defined by actions, not weather Nov. 4, 2010 By Caty Hirst City Editor I woke up yesterday, groggily rolled out of bed and peeked out the window only to find, to my great despair, that it was cloudy, rainy and it just looked cold. You know it is going to be cold when it looks cold and there isn't any snow on the ground. I promptly rolled back into bed and set my alarm for 30 minutes later, determined to sleep through the grossness outside my cozy bed. Sadly my 30-minute snooze did not take as long as I would have hoped, and I was forced to get out of bed and dash to the bathroom to get ready. Still, I left the house in sweatpants and a warm fleece, focused on maintaining as much comfort as possible. I dragged through my day, tired and not particularly sad, but not particularly happy either. It didn't take me long to blame my listless mood on the weather. The weather was gross, I was in a gross mood--it seemed like a logical correlation to me. So I decided to look up how much weather affects mood, and while there is scientific evidence to show that weather can affect mood, it does not affect it overly much. According to an article by, "the rain can be guilty by association, but not causation." For example, a study done by the American Psychological Association said that there is a difference between daily weather and seasonal weather. Daily weather variations, such as Tuesday being wet and cold, have little to no scientific effect on people's mood. Seasonal weather changes, however, can have a greater impact on mood. Seasonal weather changes have been known to produce Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), in which a person suffers from winter and fall depression, primarily due to a lack of sunlight, although these cases are few and far between. So basically, assuming I'm not suffering from seasonal depression, blaming the weather for my bad mood is bunk. Total, complete baloney. Which left me floundering for a minute. What could possibly be the source of my bad mood if not the weather? While the weather may not have a scientific effect on my mood, I can choose to let the weather, or other events during the day, transform positive emotions into negative emotions, according to Likewise, we can choose to transform negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Some suggestions for transferring emotions include listening to uplifting music, stress management, getting exercise and even looking at pictures from your vacation. In an effort to determine how helpful these tips were, I quickly logged on to Facebook to look at beautiful spring break pictures, where I was frolicking in the sunshine. I listed to the best music on my iPod, "Days like These" by Natalie Grant. And even though I didn't have time to go out and run the Bear Trail, simply making the effort to be happy made it just a little bit easier to ignore the weather outside and helped me stop the weather from ruining what should be a perfectly beautiful day. Did you jump in a puddle in rain boots? Did you skip through the rain to one of your classes? Did you bundle up in scarves and gloves, not just because you are cold, but because they are colorful and fun? Because beautiful days should not defined by the rain or the snow, the sun or the clouds. A beautiful day should be defined by what you do. Caty Hirst is a senior journalism major from Caddo, Okla., and the city editor for The Lariat.
A Vietcong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath Test \| Mid-Book Test - Medium Truong Nhu Tang Buy the A Vietcong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath Lesson Plans Name: _________________________ Period: ___________________ Multiple Choice Questions 1. What group was Tang named as president of at the age of forty-three? (a) Young People's Association of South Vietnam. (b) The Youth Movement. (c) The Vanguard Youth. (d) Ho Chi Minh's Youth. 2. What religion was Ngo Dinh Diem connected with? (a) Judaism. (b) Catholicism. (c) Buddhism. (d) Confucianism. 3. What was Thanh Nghi famous for writing? (a) A communist manifesto. (b) A history of South Vietnam. (c) A novel based on Vietnamese struggles. (d) A French-Vietnamese dictionary. 4. Why were the Montagnards' village populations forced by Diem's troops out of the mountains and into the valleys, separating them from their ancestral lands and graves? (a) To gain control of the guerrilla troops. (b) To relocate populations into more modern, better housing for their own good. (c) Diem wanted the villagers to recognize his power. (d) To make the tribespeople more accessible to government control. 5. What did Tang's pregnant wife do when both fathers demanded the couple return home? (a) She persuaded Tang to return home with her. (b) She aborted her baby and stayed in France. (c) She returned home alone. (d) She stayed with her husband in France. Short Answer Questions 1. When a revolution in Saigon took place in 1945, which group did Tang join? 2. What term does Truong Nhu Tang use to describe his childhood? 3. When Tang was arrested in Chapter 10, what was he accused of? 4. By the end of 1958, who were basically the only people who supported Diem's regime? 5. What did Tang do when he was drafted by the Bao Dai government? Short Essay Questions 1. What was it about Ba Tra, one of Tang's support personnel in the Young People's Association, that disturbed Tang? 2. Why was Tang needed back home in 1955 more than ever in Chapter 4? 3. Why did the South Vietnamese secret police want to get prisoners to admit to being members of the Communist Party? 4. What caused Tran Back Dang to lose acceptance and blight his career with the COSVN? 5. When was it decided by the newly appointed NLF Provisional Committee to establish a committee for the Saigon/Cholon/Giadinh zone? 6. What compromise was reached for Vietnam in May of 1954? 7. Why did the imminent signing of a negotiation agreement in Paris fill Tang and the nationalist forces with hope and excitement? 8. What impressed Tang so much when he discovered what Ho Chi Minh was through while he met with Tang and a fellow student for tea? 9. When Tang visited Budapest in Chapter 20, what might be said to have been the motives of the Budapest government while they treated Tang to a visitor's tour and comforts? 10. What became of Tang's two brothers, both of whom had stayed in Saigon throughout the war? (see the answer keys) This section contains 1,111 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) A Vietcong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath from BookRags. (c)2015 BookRags, Inc. All rights reserved.
From Conservapedia Jump to: navigation, search Courage is the virtue of persevering in a good course of action despite one's fears • "... when you have the courage to stand up for what is right, it gives other people courage, and if they know they are not going to be standing alone, when they see you standing up, others will take courage and join you."[2] See Also Personal tools
reproductive system reproductive system In the Human Female In the human female reproductive system, ova are produced in the ovaries, two small organs set in the pelvic cavity below and to either side of the navel. The ovaries also secrete, in cyclic fashion, the hormones estrogen and progesterone (see menstruation). After an ovum matures, it passes into the uterine tube, or fallopian tube. If sperm are present as a result of sexual intercourse or artificial insemination, fertilization occurs within the tube. The ovum, either fertilized or unfertilized, then passes down the fallopian tube, aided by cilia in the tube, and into the womb, or uterus, a pear-shaped organ specialized for development of a fertilized egg. An inner uterine layer of tissue, the endometrium, undergoes cyclic changes as a result of the changing levels of the hormones secreted by the ovaries. The endometrium is thickest during the part of the menstrual cycle in which a fertilized ovum would be expected to enter the uterus and is thinnest just after menstruation. If no fertilized egg is present toward the end of the cycle, the thickened endometrium degenerates and sloughs off and menstruation occurs; if a fertilized egg is present it becomes embedded in the endometrium about a week after fertilization. The developing embryo produces trophoblastic cells and these, along with cells from the endometrium, form the placenta, the organ in which gas, food, and waste exchange between mother and embryo takes place. The embryo also forms the amniotic sac within which it develops. The lower end of the uterus is called the cervix. The vagina, a passage connecting the uterus with the external genitals, receives the penis and the sperm ejaculated from it during sexual intercourse. It also serves as an exit passageway for menstrual blood and for the baby during birth. The external genitals, or vulva, include the clitoris, erectile tissue that responds to sexual stimulation, and the labia, which are composed of elongated folds of skin. After birth the infant is fed with milk from the breasts, or mammary glands, which are also sometimes considered part of the reproductive system. In the Human Male Human Reproductive Disorders Disorders that may affect the proper functioning of the reproductive system include abnormal hormone secretion, sexually transmitted diseases, and the presence of cancerous tissue in the region. Such problems frequently affect fertility and may complicate pregnancy. See infertility. See also fertility drug; in vitro fertilization. Organs of the human reproductive system. In a male, the scrotum, a pouch of skin, is divided into elipsis Organ system by which humans reproduce. In females, the ovaries sit near the openings of the fallopian tubes, which carry eggs from the ovaries to the uterus. The cervix extends from the lower end of the uterus into the vagina, whose opening, as well as that of the urethra (see urinary system), is covered by four folds of skin (the labia); the clitoris, a small erectile organ, is located where the labia join in front. The activity of the ovaries and uterus goes through a monthly cycle of changes (see menstruation) throughout the reproductive years except during pregnancy and nursing. In males, the testes lie in a sac of skin (the scrotum). A long duct (the vas deferens) leads from each testis and carries sperm to the ejaculatory ducts in the prostate gland; these join the urethra, which continues through the penis. In the urethra, sperm mixes with secretions from the seminal vesicles, prostate gland, and Cowper gland to form semen. In early embryos, the reproductive systems are undetermined. By birth the organs appropriate to each sex have typically developed but are not functioning. They continue to grow, and at puberty their activity increases and maturation occurs, enabling sexual reproduction. Learn more about reproductive system, human with a free trial on The female reproductive system contains two main parts: the uterus, which act as the receptacle for the male's sperm, and the ovaries, which produce the female's egg cells. These parts are internal; the vagina meets the external organs at the vulva, which includes the labia, clitoris and urethra. The vagina is attached to the uterus through the cervix, while the uterus is attached to the ovaries via the Fallopian tubes. At certain intervals, the ovaries release an ovum, which passes through the Fallopian tube into the uterus. After ovulation, the ovum is captured by the oviduct, after traveling down the oviduct to the uterus, occasionally being fertilized on its way by an incoming sperm, leading to pregnancy and the eventual birth of a new human being. See also Search another word or see reproductive systemon Dictionary \| Thesaurus \|Spanish Copyright © 2015, LLC. All rights reserved. • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
A science blog with Eric Berger Can an invisibility cloak protect our vulnerable coasts? Light is a wave. So are ocean waves. Might a similar technology therefore apply to the sea? And therefore might we be able to protect oil rigs and potentially even islands? Maybe. New Scientist is reporting on a new paper in Physical Review Letters that suggests this may be the case. From the article: The researchers have built a prototype 10 centimeters across for testing in a wave tank. Concentric rings of rigid pillars form a labyrinth of radial and concentric corridors. It may look like waves could pass easily along the radial corridors to the cloak’s center. But they interact with the pillars, producing forces that pull water along the concentric corridors instead. “Basically, the cloak behaves like a whirlpool,” says Sebastian Guenneau at the University of Liverpool, UK. “The further you go into the whirlpool, the faster you rotate.” The spinning rate increases close to the cloak’s centre where the concentric corridors are narrower, making the forces greater, he explains. As the water whizzes around the cloak, the waves are flung out again along the radial corridors. “If you imagine water entering the cloak from the north, some leaves the cloak to the east, and some leaves to the west, but most is thrown out at the south,” says Guenneau. This is a nice analogy for the same way metamaterials work with light. But is it practical? I have a hard time seeing such structures practicably being built around deep water oil platforms. It also seems impractical for any decent sized stretch of coastline. But it’s a most intriguing idea and offers some insight into how metamaterials really work. Categories: Hurricanes, Physics Eric Berger 7 Responses 1. InTheKnow says: Would it have to be a separate structure from an offshore platform? How big does it need to be to be effective? How deep does it need to be – does it need to just influence/disrupt surface tension? 2. Fred says: This is going to sound stupid, but the cloak of invisibility. What would happen if you dropped a nuclear bomb in the middle of a hurricane? 3. ludwig says: Very intriguing, but I have a better use for this. Could we build one around Katy to deflect the stupid questions regarding potential hurricane damage that endlessly emanated from there? In all seriousness, thank you for all that you do during hurricane season. If the entire city thanked you, one person at a time, you still would not receive enough gratitude. 4. Rorschach says: I’m curious if all of that radial motion would act to erode the coastline and act as a hazard to swimming and navigation. 5. woodNfish says: How many rigs were damaged by the hurricane? I did not read of any. 6. Eric Berger says: Some 29 took serious damage. 7. Jim says: I am concerned about the wave speeds in the middle of the cloak. They seem to be moving faster than one would hope. With some modification this could act as a lens concentrating the force of the wave.
Winter time (Czechoslovakia) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Facsimile of the original issue of the Czechoslovak public journal with the act 212/1946 Sb. and the government ordinance 213/1946 Sb. Winter time is the practice of shifting the clock back (compared to the standard time) during winter months. It is the opposite compensation to daylight saving time (summer time). However, while summer time is widely applied, application of winter time was very rare, maybe unique in history. Winter time was applied in Czechoslovakia by the government ordinance no. 213/1946 Sb. from 1 December 1946 (3:00→2:00) to 23 February 1947 (2:00→3:00), authorized by the act 212/1946 Sb., o zimním čase ("about the winter time"). This simple two-paragraph act, approved on 21 November 1946 and announced on 27 November 1946, authorised the government to implement winter time by ordinance at any time.[1] The government gave as the main reason for this provision the fact that power plants had approximately 10% lack of capacity in peak hours (7–8 and 16–20) and winter time should help to spread the load out.[2] The act was never canceled and it theoretically authorises the government in the successor Czech Republic, as well as in the Slovak Republic, which adopted Czechoslovak law, to implement winter time again at any time. However, the experiment has never been repeated.[3] This application of winter time is considered to be unique in the world. However, the Soviet Union used two levels of summer time (+1, +2) during World War II.[4] 1. ^ Sbírka zákonů a nařízení republiky Československé, částka 92/1946, year 1946, batch 92, page 140 in the year, page 1289 globally, issued on 27th November 1946: 212: Zákon ze dne 21. listopadu 1946 o zimním čase, Národní shromáždění republiky Československé 213: Vládní nařízení ze dne 27. listopadu 1946 o zavedení zimního času v období 1946/1947, Vláda republiky Československé 2. ^ Government proposal of the Winter Time Act and the reason report, Ústavodárné Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, tisk č. 239, 15 November 1946 3. ^ Kdy začíná a končí letní čas, history of the time adaptation in Czech lands, Kalendář Běda 4. ^ Tereza Kušová: Letní čas vymyslel Angličan, zaveden byl ve Švédsku, Rusko ho ruší a Česko se několik desetiletí přizpůsobuje,, 14 April 2011
Read full entry Clematis vitalba Clematis vitalba - MHNT Clematis vitalba (also known as Old man's beard and Traveller's Joy) is a shrub of the Ranunculaceae family. Clematis vitalba is a climbing shrub with branched, grooved stems, deciduous leaves, and scented greeny-white flowers with fluffy underlying sepals. The many fruits formed in each inflorescence have long silky appendages which, seen together, give the characteristic appearance of Old Man's beard. The grooves along the stems of C. vitalba can easily be felt when handling the plant. This species is eaten by the larvae of a wide range of moths. This includes many species which are reliant on it as their sole foodplant; including Small Emerald, Small Waved Umber and Haworth's Pug. C. vitalba has a preference for base rich alkaline soils and moist climate with warm summers United Kingdom[edit] In the UK it is a native plant and is common throughout England south of a line from the River Mersey and the River Humber. It also commonly occurs in southern, Eastern and northern Wales. Outside of these areas it is widely planted and occurs as far north as the southern highlands of Scotland.[1] Due to its disseminatory reproductive system, vitality, and climbing behavior, Clematis vitalba is an invasive plant in most places, including many in which it is native. Some new tree plantations can be suffocated by a thick layer of Clematis vitalba, if not checked. [2] New Zealand In New Zealand it is declared an "unwanted organism" and is listed in the National Pest Plant Accord. It cannot be sold, propagated or distributed. It is a potential threat to native plants since it grows vigorously and forms a canopy which smothers all other plants and has no natural controlling organisms in New Zealand. New Zealand native species of Clematis have smooth stems and can easily be differentiated from C. vitalba by touch. Clematis vitalba was used to make rope during the Stone Age in Switzerland.[3] In Slovenia, the stems of the plant were used for weaving baskets for onions and also for binding crops.[4] It was particularly useful for binding sheaves of grain because mice do not gnaw on it.[5] It is also widely considered in the medical community to be an effective cure for stress and nerves.[citation needed] Close-up of a flower 1. ^ New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora 2. ^ Invasive Species Compendium. "Clematis vitalba". Retrieved October 2011. 3. ^ Johnson, Magnus. 2001. The genus Clematis. Södertälje: Magnus Johnsons Plantskola AB, p. 37. 4. ^ Petauer, Tomaž. 1993. Leksikon rastlinskih bogastev. Ljubljana: Tehniška založba Slovenije, p. 139. 5. ^ Kržan, Vanja. 2010. "Mi pa oznanjamo Kristusa, križanega (1 Kor 1,23)." Zaveza 42 (25 February). (Slovene) Source: Wikipedia Belongs to 0 communities This taxon hasn't been featured in any communities yet. Learn more about Communities
Portfolio Theory Modern portfolio theory (MPT)—or portfolio theory—was introduced by Harry Markowitz with his paper “Portfolio Selection,” which appeared in the 1952 Journal of Finance. Thirty-eight years later, he shared a Nobel Prize with Merton Miller and William Sharpe for what has become a broad theory for portfolio selection. If we treat single-period returns for various securities as random variables, we can assign them expected valuesstandard deviations and correlations. Based on these, we can calculate the expected return and volatility of any portfolio constructed with those securities. We may treat volatility and expected return as proxy’s for risk and reward. Out of the entire universe of possible portfolios, certain ones will optimally balance risk and reward. These comprise what Markowitz called an efficient frontier of portfolios. An investor should select a portfolio that lies on the efficient frontier. James Tobin (1958) expanded on Markowitz’s work by adding a risk-free asset to the analysis. This made it possible to leverage or deleverage portfolios on the efficient frontier. This lead to the notions of a super-efficient portfolio and the capital market line. Through leverage, portfolios on the capital market line are able to outperform portfolio on the efficient frontier. Sharpe (1964) formalized the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). This makes strong assumptions that lead to interesting conclusions. Not only does the market portfolio sit on the efficient frontier, but it is actually Tobin’s super-efficient portfolio. According to CAPM, all investors should hold the market portfolio, leveraged or de-leveraged with positions in the risk-free asset. CAPM also introduced beta and relates an asset’s expected return to its beta. Portfolio theory provides a context for understanding the interactions of systematic risk and reward. It has shaped how institutional portfolios are managed and motivated the use of passive investment techniques. The mathematics of portfolio theory is used in financial risk management and was a theoretical precursor for today’s value-at-risk measures. • Markowitz, Harry M. (1952). Portfolio selection, Journal of Finance, 7 (1), 77-91. Comments are closed. Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes
Home / Articles / Special Sections / Rental Guide / Being an eco-friendly college student . . . . . . . Thursday, August 30,2012 Being an eco-friendly college student Many of today's college students are socially conscious, fully aware their choices affect not only themselves, but those around them as well. One of the more popular causes among young people is the go green movement. Many of today's college students have learned about the environment since they first entered school, and the goal of living a more eco-conscious lifestyle is a cause that resonates with students on college campuses across the country. Though it's not always easy to be eco-conscious in a dormitory, there are ways today's college students can live greener lives on campus: 1 Wash clothes in cold water. Few college students enjoy doing laundry, but even this tedious task can be done in a way that's considerate of the environment. Instead of using hot water to wash your clothes, wash them in cold water, which requires significantly less energy to clean clothes. 2 Protect your appliances and the environment at the same time. Today's students have more gadgets than ever before. Cellular phones, mp3 players, tablets, laptop computers, flatscreen televisions and video game consoles might make life more enjoyable, but they also consume a substantial amount of energy, even when not in use. An LCD or LED television that is plugged in, for example, is consuming energy even if it's not turned on. This is known as phantom power. Instead of plugging televisions and other devices directly into a wall outlet, plug them into a surge protector power strip that can be turned off when you leave your room. This not only protects the devices should a power outage occur, but it also means they won't be consuming energy while not in use. 3 Freshen your room up naturally. College residences, especially dorm rooms, have a reputation for being somewhat musty. Instead of relying on chemical air, choose an all-natural alternative that won't release harmful chemicals into the air each time you spray your room. And don't overlook houseplants as a way to freshen the air and add to your room's aesthetic appeal. 4 Choose lights wisely. Many dorm rooms are poorly lit, and students know to bring their own lamps to help them make the most of late-night study sessions. When shopping for a lamp for your room, choose one that's compatible with compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs. CFLs consume significantly less energy, last far longer than traditional light bulbs and illuminate rooms just as effectively. 5 Buy a water filter. While those mini refrigerators might not be as big as Mom and Dad's, they might be able to fit a smaller water filter, saving you money on costly bottled water and reducing your reliance on plastic water bottles. If the refrigerator is less than accommodating, attach a water filter to the sink in your room or kitchen and drink straight from the tap. 6 Learn to make your own coffee. Late night study sessions and late hours spent having fun with friends makes coffee a precious commodity on many a college campus. Students who want to reduce their carbon footprint, and save a little money along the way, can learn to make their own coffee instead of visiting the local coffee shop each morning and buying another coffee served up in a styrofoam cup. Purchase a reusable travel mug you can bring along to class and encourage your roommates to do the same. • Currently 3.5/5 Stars. • 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
Definitions for empiricalɛmˈpɪr ɪ kəl This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word empirical Princeton's WordNet 1. empirical, empiric(adj) derived from experiment and observation rather than theory 2. empiric, empirical(adj) relying on medical quackery "empiric treatment" 1. empirical(Adjective) Pertaining to or based on experience. 2. empirical(Adjective) Pertaining to, derived from, or testable by observations made using the physical senses or using instruments which extend the senses. 3. empirical(Adjective) Verifiable by means of scientific experimentation. Webster Dictionary 1. Empirical(adj) 2. Empirical(adj) 1. Empirical evidence Empirical evidence is a source of knowledge acquired by means of observation or experimentation. The term comes from the Greek word for experience, ἐμπειρία. Empirical evidence is information that justifies a belief in the truth or falsity of a claim. In the empiricist view, one can claim to have knowledge only when one has a true belief based on empirical evidence. This stands in contrast to the rationalist view under which reason or reflection alone is considered to be evidence for the truth or falsity of some propositions. The senses are the primary source of empirical evidence. Although other sources of evidence, such as memory and the testimony of others, ultimately trace back to some sensory experience, they are considered to be secondary, or indirect. In another sense, empirical evidence may be synonymous with the outcome of an experiment. In this sense, an empirical result is a unified confirmation. In this context, the term semi-empirical is used for qualifying theoretical methods which use in part basic axioms or postulated scientific laws and experimental results. British National Corpus 1. Adjectives Frequency Rank popularity for the word 'empirical' in Adjectives Frequency: #755 Find a translation for the empirical definition in other languages: Select another language: Discuss these empirical definitions with the community: Word of the Day Please enter your email address: Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography: "empirical." STANDS4 LLC, 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015. <>. Are we missing a good definition for empirical? The Web's Largest Resource for Definitions & Translations A Member Of The STANDS4 Network Nearby & related entries: Alternative searches for empirical:
E. Coli contamination a hidden danger in the Virgin River To help eliminate one source of the problem, a pit toilet was installed in the summer of 2011 at the trailhead of the Narrows, Dickey said, on BLM land where people start their trek into the park. "There was fecal matter and toilet paper behind every shrub, bush and tree at the spot," she said, with people relieving themselves prior to reaching the river. "We are happy to say the toilet has been well used." Tyce Palmer, resource coordinator for the southwest area of the Utah Association of Conservation Districts, has been working with local land owners and state and federal agencies to help mitigate the contamination problem. "It's a complex watershed, in a pretty steep and narrow remote area," he said. "There might be some cows in there in places where we can do better management on." Palmer said he was in the area recently and found a cabin with an outhouse that had been erected right over an irrigation ditch, its contents eventually flowing to the river. "There's definitely a lot of issues up there, not just the old cow," he said. Dickey said the E. coli levels have been so high they exceed what the state can test for, which earned the river a spot on its watch list for human interaction. The good news, both Dickey and Sharrow said, is that after Deep Creek meets up with the Virgin River, the contamination is diluted, but some E. coli persists at the park's Temple of the Sinawava. Both water watchers know the fix won't be an easy one because of the diverse group of interests involved. Sharrow said he's not in the business of telling cattle ranchers how to manage their animals, but he wants to fix the problem. "It is a remote area. It is not an ideal place to change irrigation practices. You don't have electricity," he said. "You don't have someone living there being able to run and operate the system all the time. It is going to take some time and some creativity to come up with a solution." Email: [email protected] Twitter: amyjoi16 Get The Deseret News Everywhere
Paintings that reveal earth’s ancient pollution levels! London, March 26: Imagine colours of a painting that can tell the environment information in earth’s past atmosphere in places centuries ago when instrumental measurements were not available? A team of Greek and German researchers has shown that the colours of sunsets painted by famous artists can be used to estimate pollution levels in the earth’s past atmosphere. “JMW Turner was one of the artists who painted the stunning sunsets during that time. Now, scientists are using his, and other great masters’ paintings to retrieve information on the composition of the past atmosphere,” explained Christos Zerefos, a professor of atmospheric physics at Academy of Athens in Greece.
The Ecologist More articles about Related Articles The Arctic shipping boom - a bonanza for invasive exotic species Natasha Geiling / Smithsonian 27th June 2014 Invasive species are always cause for apprehension - a Pandora's Box, because no one really knows how they'll impact a particular ecosystem until it's too late. On September 27, 2013, the Nordic Orion, a commercial bulk carrier owned by the Copenhagen-based shipping company Nordic Bulk Carriers became the first bulk carrier to cross the Northwest Passage - a route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans above Canada. It arrived off the coast of Greenland after departing from Vancouver, BC, ten days earlier. The ship was loaded with British Columbian coal, and was able to haul 25% more than it could have carried if it had been forced to take the Panama Canal, where ships have to sail higher in the water and carry less. But the ships are carrying more than just cargo But cargo isn't the only thing that they're transporting: some marine biologists worry that ships carting cargo through the Arctic's newly opened waterways are introducing invasive species to the area - and bringing invasive species to some of America's most important ports. For centuries, explorers have been searching for a Northwest Passage - a route connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic. The search for the Northwest Passage was the entire basis for Lewis and Clark's famed expedition. And they weren't the first, nor the last, to go looking for it. The melting Arctic opens new shipping routes In the past 30 years, the Arctic has warmed more than any other region on Earth. Over that same 30-year period, according to satellite images, Arctic ice cover has declined by 30% in September, the month that marks the end of the summer melt season. Arctic ice loss is a problem for global warming, because it creates a kind of warming feedback loop-less ice means more dark water exposed, which means more sunlight absorbed by the water, which in turn leads to more warming. What Arctic melting isn't bad news for, however, is the shipping industry, where 90% of all goods are moved via carriers. Until recently, ships that wanted to travel between oceans had two primary paths-the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, both located in warm, tropical latitudes. It's a fast-growing business So are people just using the Arctic for shipping? "A lot of those [natural resources] are submarine, and as the surface ice dissipates, ships can get in there and explore and drill", explains Whitman Miller, a research scientist and assistant director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's Marine Invasions Research Lab. Along with his collegue Gregory Ruiz, Miller also wrote a commentary about invasive species and the Arctic published in Nature Climate Change. "There's also mining", he says. "Greenland, for example, as its ice is melting, is opening up some of the land for mining of rare earth metals, which are really important for a lot of consumer electronics." "All of these things mean invasive species - organisms are going to be moving with these ships", warns Miller. The threat of invasive species Shipping containers and bulk carriers currently contribute significantly to the spread of invasive species - it's something that has been irking marine biologists for a long time. Shipping is already the primary way that invasive marine species become introduced - contributing to 69% of species introductions to marine areas. And it's only going to get worse But Miller and Ruiz worry that Arctic shipping - both through the Arctic and from the Arctic - could make this statistic even worse. "What's happening now is that ships move between oceans by going through Panama or Suez, but that means ships from higher latitudes have to divert south into tropical and subtropical waters, so if you are a cold water species, you're not likely to do well in those warm waters", Miller explains. Once the genie is out of the bottle ... There aren't many invasive species from the Arctic that are known, but one that is, the red king crab, has already wreaked havoc on Norway's waters. A ferocious predator, the red king crab hasn't had much trouble asserting near total dominance over species unfamiliar with it. "You never know when the next red king crab is going to be in your ballast tank", Miller warns. A twofold danger - economic, and ecological "You could have a real breakdown in terms of [the ecosystems] structure and their function, and in some cases, the diversity and abundance of native species", Miller explains. But invasive species do more than threaten the ecology of the Arctic - they can threaten the global economy. Many invasive species, like mussels, can damage infrastructure, such as cooling and water pipes. Seaports are vital to both the United States and the global economy - ports in the Western hemisphere handle 7.8 billion tons of cargo each year and generate nearly $8.6 trillion of total economic activity, according to the American Association of Port Authorities. If invasive species are able to disrupt the infrastructure of an American port - from pipes to boats - it could mean damages for the American economy. Arctic ecosystems are also at risk In recent years, due to fracking technology, the United States has gone from being an importer of fuel to an exporter, which means that American ports will be hosting more foreign ships in the coming years - and that means more potential for invasive species to be dispersed. What can be done to minimize these risks? Obviously one big picture way to stop the spread of invasive species in and around the Arctic is to slow the rate at which the Arctic ice is melting - that means slowing, and decreasing, the rate at which we emit common air pollutants like soot and smog, as well as seriously curbing our carbon emissions over the long-haul. Realistically, implementing these measures will take serious political and individual action - and in the short term, as long as Arctic ice is melting and allowing ships to pass through, shipping companies will look to those Arctic routes as a way of saving time and money. One step, Miller explains, could be a wider implementation of open water ballast exchange, which has been mandatory in the United States for the past ten years. A need for regulation The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is also looking into creating standards for the total amount of organisms a ship can discharge in its ballast water, sort of like current standards with smokestacks and pollution - if a ship's ballast water exceeds whatever limit is imposed, they must treat that water before releasing it. As long as the Arctic continues to grow - via shipping, infrastructure and even tourism - Miller and Ruiz argue that it's in the world's best interest to give serious thought to limiting the spread of invasive species. "I think, probably more important than trying to pinpoint individual species, is the notion that there's going to be such a mixing of the biota in a way that's never occurred before", Miller notes. "That's something that we need to give thought to." Natasha Geiling is an online reporter for Smithsonian magazine. Follow: . This article was originally published on Smithsonian magazine. Previous Articles... 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Volume VII. Descriptive: Narrative. 1904. Narrative Poems: VII. France Hervé Riel Robert Browning (1812–1889) ON the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, Did the English fight the French—woe to France! And the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue, Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue, Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance, 5 With the English fleet in view. ’T was the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase; First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Damfreville; Close on him fled, great and small, Twenty-two good ships in all; 10 And they signalled to the place, “Help the winners of a race! Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick; or, quicker still, Here ’s the English can and will!” Then the pilots of the place put out brisk, and leaped on board; 15 “Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass?” laughed they: Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored, Shall the ‘Formidable,’ here with her twelve-and-eighty guns, Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow way, Trust to enter where ’t is ticklish for a craft of twenty tons, 20 And with flow at full beside? Now ’t is slackest ebb of tide. Reach the mooring? Rather say, While rock stands, or water runs, Not a ship will leave the bay!” 25 Then was called a council straight: Brief and bitter the debate. “Here ’s the English at our heels: would you have them take in tow All that ’s left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow; For a prize to Plymouth Sound? 30 Better run the ships aground!” (Ended Damfreville his speech.) “Not a minute more to wait! Let the captains all and each Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach! 35 France must undergo her fate!” “Give the word!” But no such word Was ever spoke or heard: For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck, amid all these,— A captain? a lieutenant? a mate,—first, second, third? 40 No such man of mark, and meet With his betters to compete! But a simple Breton sailor, pressed by Tourville for the fleet, A poor coasting-pilot, he,—Hervé Riel, the Croisickese. And “What mockery or malice have we here?” cried Hervé Riel. 45 “Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards, fools, or rogues? Talk to me of rocks and shoals?—me, who took the soundings, tell On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell, ’Twixt the offering here and Grève, where the river disembogues? Are you bought for English gold? Is it love the lying ’s for? 50 Morn and eve, night and day, Have I piloted your bay, Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. Burn the fleet, and ruin France? That were worse than fifty Hogues! Sirs, then know I speak the truth! Sirs, believe me, there ’s a way! 55 Only let me lead the line, Have the biggest ship to steer, Get this ‘Formidable’ clear, Make the others follow mine, And I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know well, 60 Right to Solidor past Grève, And there lay them safe and sound; And if one ship misbehave, —Keel so much as grate the ground, Why, I’ve nothing but my life; here’s my head!” cries Hervé Riel. 65 Not a minute more to wait. “Steer us in, then, small and great! Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron!” cried its chief. Captains, give the sailor place! He is admiral, in brief. 70 Still the north wind, by God’s grace. See the noble fellow’s face, As the big ship, with a bound, Clears the entry like a hound, Keeps the passage, as its inch of way were the wide sea’s profound! 75 See, safe through shoal and rock, How they follow in a flock; Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the ground, Not a spar that comes to grief! The peril, see, is past! 80 All are harbored to the last! And, just as Hervé Riel hollas “Anchor!” sure as fate, Up the English come,—too late! So the storm subsides to calm; They see the green trees wave 85 On the heights o’erlooking Grève; Hearts that bled are stanched with balm. “Just our rupture to enhance, Let the English rake the bay, Gnash their teeth, and glare askance 90 As they cannonade away! ’Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on her Rance!” How hope succeeds despair on each captain’s countenance! Out burst all with one accord, “This is paradise for hell! 95 Let France, let France’s king, Thank the man that did the thing!” What a shout, and all one word, “Hervé Riel!” As he stepped in front once more; 100 Not a symptom of surprise In the frank blue Breton eyes,— Just the same man as before. Then said Damfreville, “My friend, I must speak out at the end, 105 Though I find the speaking hard; Praise is deeper than the lips: You have saved the king his ships; You must name your own reward. Faith, our sun was near eclipse! 110 Demand whate’er you will, France remains your debtor still. Ask to heart’s content, and have! or my name’s not Damfreville.” Then a beam of fun outbroke On the bearded mouth that spoke, 115 As the honest heart laughed through Those frank eyes of Breton blue: “Since I needs must say my say, Since on board the duty’s done, And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but a run?— 120 Since ’t is ask and have, I may; Since the others go ashore,— Come! A good whole holiday! Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore!” That he asked, and that he got,—nothing more. 125 Name and deed alike are lost; Not a pillar nor a post In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell; Not a head in white and black On a single fishing-smack 130 In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack All that France saved from the fight whence England bore the bell. Go to Paris; rank on rank Search the heroes flung pell-mell On the Louvre, face and flank; 135 You shall look long enough ere you come to Hervé Riel. So, for better and for worse, Hervé Riel, accept my verse! In my verse, Hervé Riel, do thou once more Save the squadron, honor France, love thy wife the Belle Aurore! 140
Go Down Topic: Flow Sensor: How to get quantity rather than rate (Read 3067 times) previous topic - next topic The below code is from Seeedstudio as an example on how to read the current flow rate of the sensor. Would it be easy to change this so that instead of getting a flow rate, it actually meters out a specific amount of water? So if I have a long PulseCount, is will let me know when that many pulses have occurred. Code: [Select] // reading liquid flow rate using Seeeduino and Water Flow Sensor from Seeedstudio.com // Code adapted by Charles Gantt from PC Fan RPM code written by Crenn @thebestcasescenario.com // http:/themakersworkbench.com http://thebestcasescenario.com http://seeedstudio.com volatile int NbTopsFan; //measuring the rising edges of the signal int Calc; int hallsensor = 2; //The pin location of the sensor void rpm () //This is the function that the interupt calls NbTopsFan++; //This function measures the rising and falling edge of the hall effect sensors signal // The setup() method runs once, when the sketch starts void setup() // pinMode(hallsensor, INPUT); //initializes digital pin 2 as an input Serial.begin(9600); //This is the setup function where the serial port is attachInterrupt(0, rpm, RISING); //and the interrupt is attached // the loop() method runs over and over again, // as long as the Arduino has power void loop () NbTopsFan = 0; //Set NbTops to 0 ready for calculations sei(); //Enables interrupts delay (1000); //Wait 1 second cli(); //Disable interrupts Calc = (NbTopsFan * 60 / 7.5); //(Pulse frequency x 60) / 7.5Q, = flow rate in L/hour Serial.print (Calc, DEC); //Prints the number calculated above Serial.print (" L/hour\r\n"); //Prints "L/hour" and returns a new line Preferable without adding delay to my code, or at least with the option of checking to see if any input has come from my keypad... Get rid of the delay in your loop, and don't reset your counter - just let your ISR keep adding it up, to get total quantity flowed. No performance loss. Actually you need to keep track of two measurements on rate based and one time based, if you need know the total amount of material that has flowed over time. One is the specific flow rate at any given time it's measured and the other measurement is the flow totalizer the integrates the flow rate over time. It's not as simple as it might first appear. Total flow amount (a quantity) is equal to flow (a rate of flow) over a specified time span. The difficulty is if the flow rate can or does change rather then always being a fixed rate, hence the need to do a integration calculation and periodically reset the flow, as in total gallons per day, etc. If flow rate is a constant then you just need to keep track of time passed from start and keep a running total quantity flowed sense start. Not a flowsensor but I had a similar thing with KWH, wrote article on the playground that is easily converted to a flowsensor. See - http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/EEM12L-32AKWhMonitoring Rob Tillaart (Please do not PM for private consultancy) I should have been more specific. I don't need to know anything about the RATE. All I need to do is know how much water flows (how many pulses) If it's just a few lines, would someone be able to show me a simple counter sketch that would count the number of pulses? I was hoping it'd be just a few simple lines to count the pulses until I get to a specificied pulse count. I'm new at this. Feb 06, 2011, 12:05 am Last Edit: Feb 06, 2011, 12:08 am by retrolefty Reason: 1 Here is something you can play with. It compiles but I haven't tested it, it's just for concept. Code: [Select] // flow pulse counter // Uses pin 2 interupt to measure flow of material signal input // retrolefty 2/5/11 volatile unsigned long isrCounter; unsigned long pulseCount; unsigned long stopCount = 100000; void setup() { Serial.println ("Flow counter starting"); // signal initalization done attachInterrupt(0, countP, RISING); } // End of setup void loop() { long pulseCount = isrCounter; Serial.print("Flow pulses = "); Serial.print(" "); if (pulseCount > stopCount) // issue a stop command here for the pump // some kind of digitalWrite(pumpPin, LOW); Serial.println("Pump stopped after "); Serial.println(" pulses"); while(true) {} // endless loop here to stop program } // end of loop void countP() THANKS! I was just reading about the attachInterrupt function, and wondering if it could do something for me... So do I understand it right: attachInterrupt(0, countP, RISING) ...the external interrupt(0) is on pin 2 on the Uno, so my sensor is connected there. ...countP is the code that will run when RISING occures. This is perfect! This does exactly what I'm needing! Thanks again. So do I understand it right: attachInterrupt(0, countP, RISING) You got it, and you are welcome. Go Up Please enter a valid email to subscribe Confirm your email address We need to confirm your email address. Thank you for subscribing! via Egeo 16 Torino, 10131
A new experiment to search for hypothetical particles known as sterile neutrinos has been given the green light by scientists at the CERN particle-physics laboratory near Geneva. The SFr 200m (£140m) Search for Hidden Particles experiment (SHiP) would be built at CERN and start up a decade from now. The lab's member states will, however, need to approve the project before construction. Predicted by certain extensions of the Standard Model, sterile neutrinos – if they exist – would interact extremely weakly, if at all, with ordinary matter. However, sterile neutrinos would transform into and out of standard neutrinos, revealing themselves via a greater- or lesser-than-expected rate of oscillation between the different types, or "flavours", of neutrinos. Physicists working on the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico between 1993 and 1998 saw some evidence for such a transformation, but other experiments have failed to see a similar signal. There are other plans to look for these hypothetical particles, but these experiments would focus on light sterile neutrinos with masses of less than one electronvolt. SHiP, in contrast, would seek more massive sterile neutrinos known as heavy neutral leptons. Weighing a few gigaelectronvolts, such particles would, very occasionally, decay into ordinary matter. According to SHiP spokesman Andrey Golutvin of CERN, their existence, unlike that of their lighter counterparts, could explain the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe and the nature of dark matter. "Finding a light sterile neutrino would be a Nobel prize discovery, but it wouldn't solve the problems of the Standard Model," he claims. Specific signature SHiP would involve building a new target and detector to exploit the high-intensity proton beam produced by CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Incoming protons would strike a tungsten-molybdenum target, generating mesons containing charm quarks that would decay to produce standard neutrinos, which might, in turn, oscillate into heavy sterile neutrinos. After passing through a magnetic shield to deflect muons and other unwanted particles generated in the target, the sterile neutrinos would then enter a 50 m-long vacuum chamber. If they decay, they would leave a specific signature: two oppositely charged tracks emerging from a vertex, plus a well-defined mass for the decaying particle. The SHiP design was endorsed by CERN's SPS and PS experiments Committee (SPSC) at a meeting held on 19 and 20 January. The committee said it was "impressed" by the collaboration's response to earlier requests to modify the experiment's design and schedule, and recommended that the group now prepare a comprehensive design report. Golutvin says that this report, which will require testing detector prototypes, should be ready in time for the EU's next strategic review of particle physics in 2019. If the experiment is approved by CERN Council, he says it should start taking data when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) emerges from its third long shutdown in 2026. Complementary approach William Louis, a physicist at Los Alamos who worked on the LSND, says that it is important to have a "wide variety" of sterile-neutrino experiments to "probe different mass scales". He believes that SHiP would complement experiments in the US and Japan that are also studying heavy sterile neutrinos. Patrick Huber of Virginia Tech in the US points out that scientists have very little idea about the mass of hypothetical sterile neutrinos and, by searching for these and other particles over previously unchartered masses and interaction strengths, he believes SHiP will provide "a very nice complementary approach to the LHC". However, Luca Stanco of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Padua argues that SHiP will probe a relatively small region of "parameter space" that does not justify the experiment's considerable price tag. He says that the idea of a heavy sterile neutrino is "intriguing and appeals to many theoreticians", but adds wryly that "theoreticians were pretty much sure about supersymmetry too".
UI Food Science Expert: Eggs, Chickens in Iowa Salmonella Scare Can Be Eaten August 25, 2010 The Iowa farms whose eggs have been recalled in a Salmonella outbreak aren't saying yet what will become of their hens, but it's possible they'll wind up becoming meat for soup or other products. Food safety experts like Bruce Chassy of the University of Illinois say there's no reason for the eggs or the meat not to be eaten as long as they're thoroughly cooked to kill any Salmonella bacteria. The farms say they're already sending the eggs to be pasteurized and sold as a liquid product. Pasteurization should kill most if not all of the Salmonella. Wright County Egg Farms and Hillandale Farms are the two Iowa egg producers that have recalled more than a half-billion eggs. Both companies say they're waiting to hear from the Food and Drug Administration before deciding what, if anything, to do with their hens. Story source: AP
Turmoil in the world of Islam Published Jun 14, 2014, 1:58 pm IST Updated Jan 10, 2016, 8:38 am IST After the multiple unrests in the middle east, question arises when will the region settle down Picture for representational purpose only (Photo: AFP) Picture for representational purpose only (Photo: AFP) The wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, the campaigns of terror in Nigeria, the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Xinjiang, all together accounting for most of the turmoil spanning the globe are centered in the Islamic world. One would not be far off the mark if one suggests that the world faces its greatest crisis due to this turmoil. Islam is the world’s second-largest religion after Christianity. According to a 2010 study, Islam has 1.62 billion adherents, making up over 23 per cent of the world population. Islam is the predominant religion in West Asia, in Sahel, in the Horn of Africa and northern Africa, and in some parts of Asia. Large communities of Muslims are also found in China, the Balkans, and Russia. Other parts of the world too host large Muslim immigrant communities; in western Europe, for instance, Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity, where it represents six per cent of the total population. There 49 Muslim-majority countries. Around 62 per cent of the world’s Muslims live in South and Southeast Asia, with over 1 billion adherents. The largest Muslim country is Indonesia, home to 12.7 per cent of the world’s Muslims, followed by Pakistan (11.0 per cent), India (10.9 per cent), and Bangladesh (9.2 per cent). About 20 per cent of Muslims live in Arab countries. In West Asia, the non-Arab countries of Turkey and Iran are the largest Muslim-majority countries; in Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the most populous Muslim communities. The Islamic crescent is a wide arc from Pakistan in the east to Morocco in the west. There are four broad socio-cultural and two deep sectarian divides that characterise the region. The second-biggest country in the world that Muhammad created, Pakistan, and the current epicentre of the jihadi terror that has been unleashed on the rest of the world is the only South Asian country in this tumultuous world. The other broad region consist of the Turkic countries of Central Asia and Turkey itself, then the Arab countries and Iran — all by itself. The other major divide, and this is a horizontal one, is the Shia/Sunni divide. There are far more Muslims in all in other regions such as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, North Africa, but it is the Islamic crescent that is the motherland of the theological and political anger that keeps the Islamic world in continuous tumult and angry with the world. This area, excluding Pakistan and Afghanistan, is also known as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in government dovecotes world over. The population of Western Asia is over 300 million. The most populous countries in the region are Iran and Turkey, each with around 75 million people, followed by Iraq with around 32 million people. The major languages are Arabic, which is an official language in 14 regional countries, followed by Turkish, and Persian. The economy of Western Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth. Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world’s oil reserves and around 40 per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves are located in the region. Islam began as an Arab religion and all its folklore and mythology is set in the deserts of Arabia. It is this subscription to a uniquely regional dogma that gives the Arab world its dominant influence on the bigger world of Sunni Islam. Sunnis are a majority in most Muslim communities in Southeast Asia, China, South Asia, Africa, most of the Arab world, and among Muslims in the United States (of which 85-90 per cent are Sunnis). Shia’s make up the majority of the Muslim population in Iran (around 90-95 per cent), Azerbaijan (around 85 per cent), Iraq (around 60-65 per cent) and Bahrain (around 65 per cent). Minority Shia communities are also found in Yemen, around 30 per cent of the Muslim population (mostly of the Zaydi sect), and about 10-15 per cent of Turkey are of the Alevi sect. The Shia constitute around 20 per cent of Kuwait, 45-55 per cent of the Muslim population in Lebanon, 10 per cent of Saudi Arabia, 15 per cent of Syria, and 10-15 per cent of Pakistan. Around 10-15 per cent of Afghanistan, less than five per cent of the Muslims in Nigeria, and around 3 per cent of population of Tajikistan are Shia. Iran challenges this supremacy being the largest Shia country in the world, the home of Shia theology study and with a comparable oil wealth. While the Arab countries, with the possible exception of Egypt, have all been relatively poor and backward till the oil boom of the early 1970s, Iran has traditionally been a more westernised and developed region in WANA. The Shia/Sunni divide almost equally divides WANA in terms of numbers, because there are sizeable Shia populations in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Lebanon and more importantly in the scattered Palestinian communities in the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon. The Shia/Sunni competition that has its roots in the succession struggles after the death of its founder Muhammad is now exacerbated by a competitive militancy over Israel and its political patron — the US. Iran has sought to extend its influence in the largely Sunni Arab world by espousing a more trenchant anti-Israeli and anti-American activism. It seems to have served it well so far and has given it much influence in neighbouring countries. Shia’s control Iraq and the Alawites control Syria. The Iranian supported Hezbollah commands good support in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Henry Kissinger once said in the context of Israel that it was not possible to have war without Syria just as it was not possible to have peace without it. Syria is now not in a position to make war let alone be at peace. It would seem that Kissinger’s postulate now applies to Iran. Needless to say this vast area is a cauldron of passions and the most Byzantine politics. With the exception of Turkey, which now has a well-settled democratic system in place, none of these West Asian countries can qualify to be a democracy in the known sense of the term. After the so-called Arab Spring many new governments sprang up in deference to the wishes of the people who took to the street. Tunisia and Egypt have had transitions to slightly more freely elected governments, but stability eludes them. Libya has lapsed into disorder and Iraq has its traditional deep divides more exacerbated. The big question is how will this region settle down? (This is the first part of a two-part series) The writer held senior positions in government and industry and is a policy analyst studying economics and security issues. He also specialises on the Chinese economy.
Google Mapping Swine Flu Epidemic By Michael Hickins \| Posted 2009-04-26 Google is mapping outbreaks of the swine flu, one of the many ways that the company is organizing all the world's information. Google already has a well-known service that tracks searches for flu symptoms that helps public health officials predict where outbreaks of the normal influenza virus will occur. At last count, the swine flu has killed 81 people in Mexico and infected at least 20 in the United States, with no fatalities to this point. The federal government has also declared a public emergency and recommended planning for school closures. The possible pandemic has even impacted the White House directly because President Obama met with renown archaeologist Felipe Solis, who has since died of swine flu-like symptoms, during his visit to Mexico last week; officials said Obama tested negative for the swine flu. The recent outbreak is not reflected in Google's traditional flu tracking chart because it is still statistically insignificant, but during flu season the service has proved itself as much as two weeks faster than the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in identifying potential flu outbreaks. While the CDC tracks information provided by health care providers, Google tracks Web searches for words pertaining to the flu and a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the [CDC] and found that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States... By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza. Google gets a lot of grief for failing to live up to its creed to "do no evil," but if you really want to see the face of evil, check out this article on the techniques used by Smithfield Farms in raising (or torturing) pigs. By the way, that's not a gratuitous dig at the pernicious techniques used by Smithfield Farms (for which they received one of the largest fines ever handed down by the EPA); a Mexican subsidiary of Smithfield Farms has been linked to the recent swine flu epidemic. Rocket Fuel
Chilean city demolishes historic cable car The "ascensores" are the trademark of Valparaiso and an essential mode of public transportation up the city's iconic hills. Hillside cable cars are an iconic part of the Chilean port city of Valparaiso. The cars clatter up and down the fabled the city's fabled hills. In 2003, Valparaiso was designated a World Heritage site. But all that history couldn't save the "Las Canas" cable car, which was demolished last week, reports the Valparaiso Times. Luis Parot, Valparaiso’s municipal operations director, told El Mercurio the demolition occurred because the "ascensor" posed a danger for pedestrians. “Its walls have been unstable since the earthquake in February 2010,” he said. “If someone would have been hurt, it would have been the city’s fault.” Of Valparaiso’s 30 original cable stations set up over a century ago, just five are currently functioning: For the portenos, as Valparaiso residents are known, the cable cars are an essential mode of public transportation — the fastest, cheapest and most agreeable way to travel between the steep hills that are home to more than 90 percent of the city’s 300,000 residents, and the flatland, where its commerce, services and public transportation are located. … The grounded cars represent more than disappointed tourists and wounded civic pride — they also raise questions about the difference the UNESCO designation really made to the city and its residents. Follow Stephanie on Twitter: @stephaniegarlow
Apple Hydrogen Fuel Cell Battery Plans Revealed 12/25/2011 10:33 am ET \| Updated Dec 27, 2011 Apple is planning to make devices powered by hydrogen fuel cells, according to patent applications published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The plans could create computers and phones with weeks-long battery power. It would also make the devices lighter and less bulky. According to the Telegraph, hydrogen fuel cells work by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water and electrical energy. This technology is already being explored for cars and the military. "Our country's continuing reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable governments in the Middle East, and has also exposed our coastlines and our citizens to the associated hazards of offshore drilling," reads the patent application. "These problems have led to an increasing awareness and desire on the part of consumers to promote and use renewable energy sources." This won't come as much of a surprise to those who follow Apple closely. The company has filed several other patent applications for similar technology, as reported by Apple Insider in October. Check out a diagram of the system, courtesy of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For more exciting Apple concepts, take a look at the most intriguing patents the company has filed. 9 Coolest Apple Patents(CLONED) Suggest a correction
Paralegal Job Description paralegal job description Paralegals have one of the most versatile, exciting and challenging roles in the field of law, outside of being a trial lawyer. Paralegals take on many of the roles played by lawyers, including preparing cases for court, researching the most valid arguments, reviewing case facts, identifying the relevant laws, and ensuring all other relevant information is considered in a case. Thus, many paralegals continue building their experience to become higher-level legal professionals, including lawyers. (See: Advancing from Paralegal to Attorney) Some of the tasks paralegals perform include: • Investigating case facts • Reviewing previous studies and judicial decisions • Reporting discoveries to attorneys • Building arguments for court • Draft agreements and contracts What Don’t Paralegals Do? Unlike lawyers, paralegals do not provide what is considered the services of law, such as legal advice or opinions, directly to the public. Although they do have a level of law expertise obtained through specialized paralegal training, they are not required to pass the bar exam, making them ineligible to provide direct legal consultation. Along with this, paralegals do not present information in court unless permitted to do so by their employers. With experience and continued training, though, paralegals can advance to these responsibilities. Here you can find more information about where paralegals work, see typical paralegal salaries, and determine whether a paralegal career is right for you.
Model of polysialylation in vitroAn enzyme treatment which could neutralize the effects of lethal chemicals responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people across the world has been developed by experts at the University of Sheffield. Organophosphorus agents (OP) are used as pesticides in developing countries and acute poisoning is common because of insufficient control, poor storage, ready availability, and inadequate education amongst farmers. It is estimated about 200,000 people die each year across the world from OP poisoning, through occupational exposure, unintentional use and misuse, mostly in developing countries like India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and through deliberate terrorist activities. OPs include compounds like Tabun, which was developed in 1936 by German scientists during World War II, Sarin, Soman, Cyclosarin, VX, and VR. Using a modified human enzyme, scientist Professor Mike Blackburn from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology collaborated in a consultancy role with Professor Alexander Gabibov of the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute, Moscow, and Professor Patrick Masson of the Département de Toxicologie, Centre de Recherches du Service de Santé des Armées, to create a “bioscavenger” which was found to protect mice against the nerve agent VR and showed no lasting effects. In studies performed at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Pushchino, Russia, a total of eight mice were treated with the new enzyme after being subjected to enough of the VR agent to kill several of the animals—about 63 mg per kg—and all survived. Professor Blackburn said: “This current publication describes a novel method to generate a bioscavenger for the Russian VR organophosphorus agent with the key property of being long-acting in the bloodstream. “That has been achieved by a combination of chemical surface modification (polysialylation) and biotechnology of production (through the use of an in vitro CHO-based expression system employing genes encoding butyrylcholinesterase and a proline-rich peptide under special promoter control). Chemical polysialylation of human recombinant butyrylcholinesterase delivers a long-acting bioscavenger for nerve agents in vivo Source: University of Sheffield
Sacred Texts Christianity Early Church Fathers Index Previous Next Chapter II.—Education, Training, Conduct, and Wisdom of the Great John Chrysostom; his Promotion to the See; Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, becomes his Confirmed Opponent. Nectarius died about this period, 1582 and lengthened debates were held on the ordination of a successor. They all voted for different individuals, and it seemed impossible for all to unite on one, and the time passed heavily. There was, however, at Antioch on the Orontes, a certain presbyter named John, a man of noble birth and of exemplary life, and possessed of such wonderful powers of eloquence and persuasion that he was declared by the sophist, Libanius the Syrian, to surpass all the orators of the age. When this sophist was on his death-bed he was asked by his friends who should take his place. “It would have been John,” replied he, “had not the Christians taken him from us.” Many of those who heard the discourses of John in the church were thereby excited to the love of virtue and to the reception of his own religious sentiments. 1583 For by living a divine life he imparted zeal from his own virtues to his hearers. He produced convictions similar to his own, because he did not enforce them by rhetorical art and strength, but expounded the sacred books with truth and sincerity. For a word which is ornamented by deeds customarily shows itself as worthy of belief; but without these the speaker appears as an impostor and a traitor to his own words, even though he teach earnestly. Approbation in both regards was due to John. He devoted himself to a prudent course of life and to a severe public career, while he also used a clear diction, united with brilliance in speech. His natural abilities were excellent, and he improved them by studying under the best masters. He learned rhetoric from Libanius, and philosophy from Andragathius. When it was expected that he would embrace the legal profession and take part in the career of an advocate, he determined to exercise himself in the sacred books and to practice philosophy according to the law of the Church. He had as teachers of this philosophy, Carterius and Diodorus, two celebrated presidents of ascetic institutions. Diodorus was afterwards the governor of the church of Tarsus, and, I have been informed, left many books of his own writings in which he explained the significance of the sacred words and avoided allegory. John did not receive the instructions of these men by himself, but persuaded Theodore and Maximus, who had been his companions under the instruction of Libanius, to accompany him. Maximus afterwards became bishop of Seleucia, in Isauria; and Theodore, bishop of Mompsuestia, in Cilicia. Theodore was well conversant with the sacred books and with the rest of the discipline of rhetoricians and philosophers. After studying the ecclesiastical laws, and frequenting the society of holy men, he was filled with admiration of the ascetic mode of life and condemned city life. He did not persevere in the same purpose, but after changing it, he was drawn to his former course of life; and, to justify his conduct, cited many examples from ancient history, with which he was well acquainted, and went back into the city. On hearing that he was engaged in business and intent on marriage, John composed an epistle, 1584 more divine in language and thought than the mind of man could produce, and sent it to him. Upon reading it, he repented and immediately gave up his possessions, renounced his intention of marrying, and was saved by the advice of John, and returned to the philosophic career. This seems to me a p. 400 remarkable instance of the power of John’s eloquence; for he readily forced conviction on the mind of one who was himself habituated to persuade and convince others. By the same eloquence, John attracted the admiration of the people; while he strenuously convicted sinners even in the churches, and antagonized with boldness all acts of injustice, as if they had been perpetrated against himself. This boldness pleased the people, but grieved the wealthy and the powerful, who were guilty of most of the vices which he denounced. Being, then, held in such high estimation by those who knew him by experience, and by those who were acquainted with him through the reports of others, John was adjudged worthy, in word and in deed, by all the subjects of the Roman Empire, to be the bishop of the church of Constantinople. The clergy and people were unanimous in electing him; their choice was approved by the emperor, who also sent the embassy which should conduct him; and, to confer greater solemnity on his ordination, a council was convened. Not long after the letter of the emperor reached Asterius, the general of the East; he sent to desire John to repair to him, as if he had need of him. On his arrival, he at once made him get into his chariot, and conveyed him with dispatch to a military station, Pagras so-called, where he delivered him to the officers whom the emperor had sent in quest of him. Asterius acted very prudently in sending for John before the citizens of Antioch knew what was about to occur; for they would probably have excited a sedition, and have inflicted injury on others, or subjected themselves to acts of violence, rather than have suffered John to be taken from them. When John had arrived at Constantinople, and when the priests were assembled together, Theophilus opposed his ordination; and proposed as a candidate in his stead, a presbyter of his church named Isidore, who took charge of strangers and of the poor at Alexandria. I have been informed by persons who were acquainted with Isidore, that from his youth upwards he practiced the philosophic virtues, near Scetis. Others say that he had gained the friendship of Theophilus by being a participant and a familiar in a very perilous undertaking. For it is reported that during the war against Maximus, Theophilus intrusted Isidore with gifts and letters respectively addressed to the emperor and to the tyrant, and sent him to Rome, desiring him to remain there until the termination of the war, when he was to deliver the gifts, with the letters, to him, who might prove the victor. Isidore acted according to his instructions, but the artifice was detected; and, fearful of being arrested, he fled to Alexandria. Theophilus from that period evinced much attachment towards him, and, with a view of recompensing his services, strove to raise him to the bishopric of Constantinople. But whether there was really any truth in this report, or whether Theophilus desired to ordain this man because of his excellence, it is certain that he eventually yielded to those who decided for John. 1585 He feared Eutropius, who was artfully eager for this ordination. Eutropius then presided over the imperial house, and they say he threatened Theophilus, that unless he would vote with the other bishops, he would have to defend himself against those who desired to accuse him; for many written accusations against him were at that time before the council. Pallad. Dialog. de vita Chrys. 5, 6; Soc. vi. 2, 3; Theodoret, H. E. v. 27. Soz. works his material for the most part independently. Some of the disciples of Libanius, who had the habit of attending the public instructions of John in the church, were converted by him to the faith of Christ. Chrys. ad Theodorum lapsum, xlvii. 1. Migne. Soc. also attests to the presence of Theophilus at the ordination of John. vi. 2; Pallad. Dialog. 5. Next: Rapid Promotion of John to the Bishopric, and more Vehement Grappling with its Affairs. He re-establishes Discipline in the Churches everywhere. By sending an Embassy to Rome, he abolished the Hostility to Flavian.
A dyssomnia is a disorder of getting to sleep or staying asleep or of excessive sleepiness. The person typically experiences changes in the amount and/or timing of sleep, and how restful it is. The dyssomnias are disorders of sleep or wakefulness, in contrast to parasomnias, which are about the sleep/wake transition. Dyssomnias include extrinsic (caused by factors outside the body), intrinsic (caused by factors inside the body), and circadian-rhythm sleep disorders. When people say they have sleeping problems, they usually are referring to one or more dyssomnia. Restless legs syndrome Periodic limb movement disorder Toxin-Induced Sleep Disorder Kleine-Levin syndrome Altitude insomnia Insomnia due to substance use/abuse Sleep-onset association disorder Nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia Limit-setting sleep disorder Circadian-rhythm sleep disorders Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome Advanced Sleep-Phase Syndrome Jet lag - Time Zone Shfit Syndrome Free-running disorder Shift Work Sleep Disorder Irregular Sleep Wake Rhythm Disorder Familial Advanced Sleep-Phase Syndrome The Sleepdex book is now available on Amazon.com. Click here
Strange Spinning Star Discovered by Volunteers Chris and Helen Colvin of Iowa donated spare computer time to the Einstein@Home project, which recently discovered a new pulsar. Credit: Chris Colvin A network of volunteers donating spare computer time has helped discover a strange pulsing star in deep space. A German man and a couple from Iowa are credited with the find ? the first deep-space discovery by Einstein@Home, a project in which 250,000 people from 192 different countries allow their personal computers to work on scientific problems in the background. "The collective computing power of all these computers around the world is actually substantially greater than the largest supercomputers that are built," said Bruce Allen, leader of the Einstein@Home project and director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany, during a Thursday press conference. "It's both practical and inspiring." Strange pulsar in space The newly discovered star is called a pulsar - a very dense star that spins around, projecting a thin beam of light that sweeps in a circle like a lighthouse. Every time that beam passes over Earth, we see a pulse of light, hence the name pulsar. "The run-of-the-mill, typical pulsar spins about once per second and is highly magnetized," said James M. Cordes, Cornell University professor of astronomy and chair of research team. "The pulsar that was found was among the more [quickly] spinning ones, but it also has a low magnetic field." The special pulsar, called PSR J2007+2722, rotates 41 times per second. While most stars that spin so fast are part of binary pairs of two stars, this one sits alone without a companion. The scientists think that it may have originated as half of a binary, but the second star may have exploded in a supernova that disrupted the pair and sent it off in another direction. Astronomy by home computer The original observations used to find the pulsar were gathered at the Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope in Puerto Rico. After some preprocessing, the observations were split up into chunks and distributed to volunteers around the world participating in the Einstein@Home project. The computers that discovered the pulsar's signal belonged to Helen and Chris Colvin of Ames, Iowa, and Daniel Gebhardt of Musikinformatik, Germany. The Colvins both work as information technology professionals, and Gebhardt is a systems administrator for the music department of Universit?t Mainz. The three each said they were excited to be part of Einstein@Home's first big discovery. "The [software] program itself doesn't indicate anything special about the data when it processes it," Helen Colvin said. "We found out from a letter from Dr. Allen. We got the letter and realized something big was happening." Other similar distributed computing projects include SETI@Home, which uses donated computer time to search for signals from extraterrestrials, as well as the Rosetta@home project, which aims to discover protein structures. "This is a thrilling moment for Einstein@Home and our volunteers," Allen said. "It proves that public participation can discover new things in our universe. I hope it inspires more people to join us to help find other secrets hidden in the data." The finding was reported in the August 13 issue of the journal Science. • Top 10 Star Mysteries • The Strangest Things in Space • Video: Pulsars: Death and Rebirth
This is a good article. Click here for more information. Forensic anthropology From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Forensic archaeology) Jump to: navigation, search Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of anthropology and its various subfields, including forensic archaeology and forensic taphonomy,[1] in a legal setting. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification of deceased individuals whose remains are decomposed, burned, mutilated or otherwise unrecognizable, as might happen in a plane crash. Forensic anthropologists are also instrumental to the investigation and documentation of genocide and mass graves. Along with forensic pathologists, forensic dentists, and homicide investigators, forensic anthropologists commonly testify in court as expert witnesses. Using physical markers present on a skeleton, a forensic anthropologist can potentially determine a victim's age, sex, stature, and ancestry. In addition to identifying physical characteristics of the individual, forensic anthropologists can use skeletal abnormalities to potentially determine cause of death, past trauma such as broken bones or medical procedures, as well as diseases such as bone cancer. The methods used to identity a person from a skeleton relies on the past contributions of various anthropologists and the study of human skeletal differences. Through the collection of thousands of specimens and the analysis of differences within a population, estimations can be made based on physical characteristics. Through these, a set of remains can potentially be identified. The field of forensic anthropology grew during the twentieth century into a fully recognized forensic specialty involving trained anthropologists as well as numerous research institutions gathering data on decomposition and the effects it can have on the skeleton. Modern uses[edit] Exhumed bodies of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide in a mass grave found in 2007. Today, forensic anthropology is a well established discipline within the forensic field. Anthropologists are called upon to investigate remains and to help identify individuals from bones when other physical characteristics which could be used to identify a body no longer exist. Forensic anthropologists work in conjunction with forensic pathologists to identify remains based on their skeletal characteristics. If the victim is not found for a lengthy period of time or has been eaten by scavengers, flesh markers used for identification would be destroyed, making normal identification difficult if not impossible. Forensic anthropologists can provide physical characteristics of the person to input into missing person databases such as that of the National Crime Information Center in the US[2] or INTERPOL's yellow notice database.[3] In addition to these duties, forensic anthropologists often assist in the investigation of war crimes and mass fatality investigations. Anthropologists have been tasked with helping to identify victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks[4] as well as plane crashes such as the Arrow Air Flight 1285 disaster[5] and the USAir Flight 427 disaster where the flesh had been vaporized or so badly mangled that normal identification was impossible.[6] Anthropologists have also helped identify victims of genocide in countries around the world, often long after the actual event. War crimes anthropologists have helped investigate include the Rwandan Genocide[7] and the Srebrenica Genocide.[8] Organizations such as the Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe, the British Association for Forensic Anthropology, and the American Society of Forensic Anthropologists continue to provide guidelines for the improvement of forensic anthropology and the development of standards within the discipline. Early history[edit] Earnest Hooton, one of the pioneers in the field of physical anthropology. The use of anthropology in the forensic investigation of remains grew out of the recognition of anthropology as a distinct scientific discipline and the growth of physical anthropology. The field of anthropology began in the United States and struggled to obtain recognition as a legitimate science during the early years of the twentieth century.[9] Earnest Hooton pioneered the field of physical anthropology and became the first physical anthropologist to hold a full-time teaching position in the United States.[10] He was an organizing committee member of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists along with its founder Aleš Hrdlička. Hooton's students created some of the first doctoral programs in physical anthropology during the early 20th century.[11] In addition to physical anthropology, Hooton was a proponent of criminal anthropology.[12] Now considered a pseudoscience, criminal anthropologists believed that phrenology and physiognomy could link a person's behavior to specific physical characteristics. The use of criminal anthropology to try to explain certain criminal behaviors arose out of the eugenics movement, popular at the time.[13] It is because of these ideas that skeletal differences were measured in earnest eventually leading to the development of anthropometry and the Bertillon method of skeletal measurement by Alphonse Bertillon. The study of this information helped shape anthropologists' understanding of the human skeleton and the multiple skeletal differences that can occur. Another prominent early anthropologist, Thomas Wingate Todd, was primarily responsible for the creation of the first large collection of human skeletons in 1912. In total, Todd acquired 3,300 human skulls and skeletons, 600 anthropoid skulls and skeletons, and 3,000 mammalian skulls and skeletons.[13] Todd's contributions to the field of anthropology remain in use in the modern era and include various studies regarding suture closures on the skull and timing of teeth eruption in the mandible. Todd also developed age estimates based on physical characteristics of the pubic symphysis. Though the standards have been updated, these estimates are still used by forensic anthropologists to narrow down an age range of skeletonized remains.[14] These early pioneers legitimized the field of anthropology, but it was not until the 1940s, with the help of Todd's student, Wilton M. Krogman, that forensic anthropology gained recognition as a legitimate subdiscipline. The growth of forensic anthropology[edit] During the 1940s, Krogman was the first anthropologist to actively publicize anthropologists' potential forensic value, going as far as placing advertisements in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin informing agencies of the ability of anthropologists to assist in the identification of skeletal remains. This period saw the first official use of anthropologists by federal agencies including the FBI. During the 1950s, the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps employed forensic anthropologists in the identification of war casualties during the Korean War.[12] It was at this time that forensic anthropology officially began. The sudden influx of available skeletons for anthropologists to study, whose identities were eventually confirmed, allowed for the creation of more accurate formulas for the identification of sex, age,[15] and stature[16] based solely on skeletal characteristics. These formulas, developed in the 1940s and refined by war, are still in use by modern forensic anthropologists. The professionalization of the field began soon after, during the 1950s and 1960s. This move coincided with the replacement of coroners with medical examiners in many locations around the country.[12] It was during this time that the field of forensic anthropology gained recognition as a separate field within the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the first forensic anthropology research facility and body farm was opened by William M. Bass.[17] Public attention and interest in forensic anthropology began to increase around this time as forensic anthropologists started working on more high-profile cases. One of the major cases of the era involved anthropologist Charles Merbs who helped identify the victims murdered by Ed Gein.[18] One of the main tools forensic anthropologists use in the identification of remains is their knowledge of osteology and the various differences that occur within the human skeleton. During the course of an investigation, anthropologists are often tasked with helping to determinate an individual's sex, stature, age, and ancestry. To do this, anthropologists must be aware of how the human skeleton can differ between individuals. Determination of sex[edit] Depending on which bones are present, sex can be determined by looking for distinctive sexual dimorphisms. When available, the pelvis is extremely useful in the determination of sex and when properly examined can achieve sex determination with a great level of accuracy.[19] The examination of the pubic arch and the location of the sacrum can help determine sex. Female pelvis. Note wide pubic arch and shorter, pushed back sacrum Male pelvis. Note narrow pubic arch and longer sacrum. However, the pelvis is not always present, so forensic anthropologists must be aware of other areas on the skeleton that have distinct characteristics between sexes. The skull also contains multiple markers that can be used to determine sex. Specific markers on the skull include the temporal line, the eye sockets, the supraorbital ridge,[20] as well as the nuchal lines, and the mastoid process.[21] In general, male skulls tend to be larger and thicker than female skulls, and to have more pronounced ridges.[22] It is important for forensic anthropologists to take into account all available markers in the determination of sex due to the differences that can occur between individuals of the same sex. For example, it is possible that a female may have a slightly more narrow than normal pubic arch. It is for this reason that anthropologists usually classify sex as one of five possibilities: male, may be male, indeterminate, may be female, or female.[23] In addition, forensic anthropologists are generally unable to make a sex determination unless the individual was an adult at the time of death. The sexual dimorphisms present in the skeleton begin to occur during puberty and are not fully pronounced until after sexual maturation.[24] Determination of stature[edit] The determination of stature by anthropologists is based off a series of formulas that have been developed over time by the examination of multiple different skeletons from a multitude of different regions and backgrounds. Stature is given as a range of possible values, in centimeters, and typically computed by measuring the bones of the leg. The three bones that are used are the femur, the tibia, and the fibula.[25] In addition to the leg bones, the bones of the arm, the humerus, ulna, and radius can be used.[26] The formulas that are used to determine stature rely on various information regarding the individual. Sex, ancestry, and age should be determined before attempting to ascertain height, if possible. This is due to the differences that occur between populations, sexes, and age groups.[27] By knowing all the variables associated with height, a more accurate estimate can be made. For example, a male formula for stature estimation using the femur is 2.32 × femur length + 65.53 ± 3.94 cm. A female of the same ancestry would use the formula, 2.47 × femur length + 54.10 ± 3.72 cm.[28] It is also important to note an individual's approximate age when determining stature. This is due to the shrinkage of the skeleton that naturally occurs as a person ages. After age 30, a person loses approximately one centimeter of their height every decade.[25] Determination of age[edit] The determination of an individual's age by anthropologists depends on whether or not the individual was an adult or a child. The determination of the age of children, under the age of 21, is usually performed by examining the teeth.[29] When teeth are not available, children can be aged based on which growth plates are sealed. The tibia plate seals around age 16 or 17 in girls and around 18 or 19 in boys. The clavicle is the last bone to complete growth and the plate is sealed around age 25.[30] In addition, if a complete skeleton is available anthropologists can count the number of bones. While adults have 206 bones, the bones of a child have not yet fused resulting in a much higher number. The aging of adult skeletons is not as straightforward as aging a child's skeleton as the skeleton changes little once adulthood is reached.[31] One possible way to estimate the age of an adult skeleton is to look at bone osteons under a microscope. New osteons are constantly formed by bone marrow even after the bones stop growing. Younger adults have fewer and larger osteons while older adults have smaller and more osteon fragments.[30] Another potential method for determining the age of an adult skeleton is to look for arthritis indicators on the bones. Arthritis will cause noticeable rounding of the bones.[32] The degree of rounding from arthritis coupled with the size and number of osteons can help an anthropologist narrow down a potential age range for the individual. Determination of ancestry[edit] The determination of an individual's ancestry is typically grouped into three historical groups, Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid. However, the use of these classifications is becoming much harder as the rate of interracial marriages increases and markers become less defined.[33] By measuring distances between landmarks on the skull as well as the size and shape of specific bones anthropologists can use a series of equations to estimate ancestry. Typically, the maxilla is used to help anthropologists determine an individual's ancestry due to the three basic shapes, hyperbolic, parabolic, and rounded, belonging to the three historical ancestries, Negroid, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid respectively.[34] In addition to the maxilla, the zygomatic arch and the nasal opening have been used to narrow down possible ancestry.[35] A program called FORDISC has been created that will calculate the most likely ancestry using complex mathematical formulas.[36] This program is continually updated with new information from known individuals to maintain a database of current populations and their respective measurements. Other markers[edit] Anthropologists are also able to see other markers present on the bones. Past fractures will be evident by the presence of bone remodeling. The examination of any fractures on the bones can potentially help determine cause of death as well by determining if a fracture occurred ante-mortem (before death), peri-mortem (at the time of death), or post-mortem (after death). Ante-mortem fractures will show signs of healing while peri- and post-mortem fractures will not. Peri-mortem fractures will usually appear clean while post-mortem breaks will appear brittle.[37] Diseases such as bone cancer might be present in bone marrow samples and can help narrow down the list of possible identifications. Forensic archaeology[edit] Forensic archaeologists employ their knowledge of proper excavation techniques to ensure that remains are recovered in a controlled and forensically acceptable manner.[38] When remains are found partially or completely buried the proper excavation of the remains will ensure that any evidence present on the bones will remain intact. The difference between forensic archaeologists and forensic anthropologists is that where forensic anthropologists are trained specifically in human osteology and recovery of human remains, forensic archaeologists specialize more broadly in the processes of search and discovery.[39] In addition to remains, archaeologists are trained to look for objects contained in and around the excavation area. These objects can include anything from wedding rings to potentially probative evidence such as cigarette butts or shoe prints.[40] Their training extends further to observing context, association and significance of objects in a crime scene and drawing conclusions that may be useful for locating a victim or suspect.[41] A forensic archaeologist must also be able to utilize a degree of creativity and adaptability during times when crime scenes can not be excavated using traditional archaeological techniques. For example, one particular case study was conducted on the search and recovery of the remains of a missing girl who was found in a septic tank underground. This instance required unique methods unlike those of a typical archeological excavation in order to exhume and preserve the contents of the tank.[39] Forensic archaeologists are involved within three main areas. Assisting with crime scene research, investigation, and recovery of evidence and/or skeletal remains is only one aspect. Processing scenes of mass fatality or incidents of terrorism (i.e. homicide, mass graves and war crimes, and other violations of human rights) is a branch of work that forensic archaeologists are involved with as well.[39] Forensic archaeologists can help determine potential grave sites that might have been overlooked. Differences in the soil can help forensic archaeologists locate these sites. During the burial of a body, a small mound of soil will form from the filling of the grave. The loose soil and increasing nutrients from the decomposing body encourages different kinds of plant growth than surrounding areas. Typically, grave sites will have looser, darker, more organic soil than areas around it.[42] The search for additional grave sites can be useful during the investigation of genocide and mass graves to search for additional burial locations. One other implement to the career of a forensic archaeologist is teaching and research. Educating law enforcement, crime scene technicians and investigators, as well as undergraduate and graduate students is a critical part of a forensic archaeologist’s career in order to spread knowledge of proper excavation techniques to other forensic personnel and to increase awareness of the field in general. Crime scene evidence in the past has been compromised due to improper excavation and recovery by untrained personnel. Forensic anthropologists are then unable to provide meaningful analyses on retrieved skeletal remains due to damage or contamination.[43] Research conducted to improve archaeological field methods, particularly to advance nondestructive methods of search and recovery are also important for the advancement and recognition of the field. There is an ethical component that must be considered. The capability to uncover information about victims of war crimes or homicide may present a conflict in cases that involve competing interests. Forensic archaeologists are often contracted to assist with the processing of mass graves by larger organisations that have motives related to exposure and prosecution rather than providing peace of mind to families and communities. These projects are at times opposed by smaller, human rights groups who wish to avoid overshadowing memories of the individuals with their violent manner(s) of death. In cases like these, forensic archaeologists must practice caution and recognize the implications behind their work and the information they uncover.[44] Forensic taphonomy[edit] The examination of remains can help build a peri and post-mortem profile of the individual. The examination of skeletal remains often takes into account environmental factors that affect decomposition. Forensic taphonomy is the study of these postmortem changes to human remains caused by soil, water, and the interaction with plants, insects, and other animals.[45] In order to study these effects, body farms have been set up by multiple universities. Students and faculty study various environmental effects on the decomposition of donated cadavers. At these locations, cadavers are placed in various situations and their rate of decomposition along with any other factors related to the decomposition process are studied. Potential research projects can include whether black plastic causes decomposition to occur faster than clear plastic or the effects freezing can have on a dumped body.[46] Forensic taphonomy is divided into two separate sections, biotaphonomy and geotaphonomy. Biotaphonomy is the study of how the environment affects the decomposition of the body. Specifically it is the examination of biological remains in order to ascertain how decomposition or destruction occurred.[47] This can include factors such as animal scavenging, climate, as well as the size and age of the individual at the time of death. Biotaphonomy must also take into account common mortuary services such as embalming and their effects on decomposition.[48] Geotaphonomy is the examination of how the decomposition of the body affects the environment. Geotaphonomy examinations can include how the soil was disturbed, pH alteration of the surrounding area, and either the acceleration or deceleration of plant growth around the body.[47] By examining these characteristics, examiners can begin to piece together a timeline of the events during and after death. This can potentially help determine the time since death, whether or not trauma on the skeleton was a result of peri or post-mortem activity, as well as if scattered remains were the result of scavengers or a deliberate attempt to conceal the remains by an assailant.[48] Forensic Anthropology Lab at the National Museum of National History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Individuals looking to become forensic anthropologists first obtain a bachelor's degree in anthropology from an accredited university. During their studies they should focus on physical anthropology as well as osteology. In addition it is recommended that individuals take courses in a wide range of sciences such as biology, chemistry, anatomy, and genetics.[49] Once undergraduate education is completed the individual should proceed to graduate level courses. Typically, forensic anthropologists obtain doctorates in physical anthropology and have completed coursework in osteology, forensics, and archaeology. It is also recommended that individuals looking to pursue a forensic anthropology profession get experience in dissection usually through a gross anatomy class as well as useful internships with investigative agencies or practicing anthropologists.[1] Once educational requirements are complete one can become certified by the forensic anthropology society in the region. This can include the IALM exam given by the Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe[50] or the certification exam given by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.[51] Typically, most forensic anthropologists perform forensic casework on a part-time basis, however there are individuals who work in the field full-time usually with federal or international agencies. Forensic anthropologists are usually employed in academia either at a university or a research facility.[52] Like other forensic fields, forensic anthropologists are held to a high level of ethical standards due to their work in the legal system. Individuals who purposefully misrepresent themselves or any piece of evidence can be sanctioned, fined, or imprisoned by the appropriate authorities depending on the severity of the violation. Individuals who fail to disclose any conflict of interests or who fail to report all of their findings, regardless of what they may be, can face disciplinary actions.[53] It is important that forensic anthropologists remain impartial during the course of an investigation. Any perceived bias during an investigation could hamper efforts in court to bring the responsible parties to justice.[54] In addition to the evidentiary guidelines forensic anthropologists should always keep in mind that the remains they are working with were once a person. If possible, local customs regarding dealing with the dead should be observed and all remains should be treated with respect and dignity. Notable forensic anthropologists[edit] Name Notable for Ref Sue Black Founding member of the British Association for Human Identification. [55] Karen Ramey Burns Worked in the investigation of genocides as well as the identification of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina. [56] Michael Finnegan Worked on the identification of Jesse James. [57] Richard Jantz Co-developer of FORDISC. [58] Ellis R. Kerley Worked on the identification of Josef Mengele as well as the victims of the Jonestown mass suicide. [59] William R. Maples Worked on the identification of Czar Nicholas II and other members of the Romanov family as well as the examination of President Zachary Taylor's remains for arsenic poisoning. [60] Fredy Peccerelli Founder and director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation. [61] Kathy Reichs Inspiration for Temperance "Bones" Brennan of the television show Bones. Also the author of 19 books to date. Most on the subject of forensic anthropology. [62] Clyde Snow Worked on the identification of King Tutankhamun and the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing as well as the investigation into the murder of John F. Kennedy. [63] Mildred Trotter Created statistical formulas for the calculation of stature based on human long bones through the examination of Korean War casualties. [64] Kewal Krishan Advancement of forensic anthropology in India. [65] See also[edit] 1. ^ a b Nawrocki, Stephen P. (June 27, 2006). "An Outline Of Forensic Anthropology" (PDF). Retrieved August 21, 2015. 2. ^ "National Crime Information Center: NCIC Files". FBI. Retrieved September 27, 2015. 3. ^ "Notices". INTERPOL. Retrieved September 27, 2015. 4. ^ McShane, Larry (July 19, 2014). "Forensic pathologist details grim work helping identify bodies after 9/11 in new book". Daily News. Retrieved August 18, 2015. 5. ^ Hinkes, MJ (July 1989). "The role of forensic anthropology in mass disaster resolution". PubMed. Retrieved August 18, 2015. 6. ^ "College Professor Gets the Call to Examine Plane Crashes and Crime Scenes". PoliceOne. July 28, 2002. Retrieved August 18, 2015. 7. ^ Nuwer, Rachel (November 18, 2013). "Reading Bones to Identify Genocide Victims". The New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2015. 8. ^ Elson, Rachel (May 9, 2004). "Piecing together the victims of genocide / Forensic anthropologist identifies remains, but questions about their deaths remain". SFGate. Retrieved August 18, 2015. 9. ^ Stewart, T. D. (1979). "In the Uses of Anthropology". Forensic Anthropology (American Anthropological Association). Special Publication (11): 169–183. 10. ^ Shapiro, H. L. (1954). "Earnest Albert Hooton 1887-1954". American Anthropologist 56: 1081–1084. doi:10.1525/aa.1954.56.6.02a00090. 11. ^ Spencer, Frank (1981). "The Rise of Academic Physical Anthropology in the United States (1880-1980)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 56: 353–364. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330560407. 12. ^ a b c Snow, Clyde Collins (1982). "Forensic Anthropology". Annual Review of Anthropology 11: 97–131. doi:10.1146/ 13. ^ a b Cobb, W. Montague (1959). "Thomas Wingate Todd, M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.S. (Eng.), 1885-1938". Journal of the National Medical Association 51 (3): 233–246. PMC 2641291. PMID 13655086. 14. ^ Buikstra, Jane E.; Ubelaker, Douglas H. (1991). "Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains". Arkansas Archaeology Survey Research Series (Arkansas Archaeological Survey) 44. 15. ^ McKern, T. W.; Stewart, T. D. (1957), Skeletal Age Changes in Young American Males (PDF) (Technical Report EP-45), Headquarters, Quartermaster Research and Developmental Command 16. ^ Trotter, M.; Gleser, G.C. (1952). "Estimation of Stature from Long Bones of American Whites and Negroes". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 10: 463–514. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330100407. 17. ^ Buikstra, Jane E.; King, Jason L.; Nystrom, Kenneth (2003). "Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology in the American Anthropologist: Rare but Exquisite Gems". American Anthropologist 105 (1): 38–52. doi:10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.38. 18. ^ Golda, Stephanie (2010). "A Look at the History of Forensic Anthropology: Tracing My Academic Genealogy". Journal of Contemporary Anthropology 1 (1). 19. ^ "Identification Of Skeletal Remains" (PDF). November 5, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 20. ^ "4 Ways to Determine Sex (When All You Have is a Skull". Forensic Outreach. October 8, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 21. ^ Hawks, John (November 15, 2011). "Determining sex from the cranium". Retrieved August 19, 2015. 22. ^ "Differences Between Male Skull and Female Skull". September 24, 2008. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 23. ^ "how do archaeologists determine the sex of a skeleton". marshtide. April 27, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 24. ^ "Male or Female". Smithsonian National Museum of National History. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 25. ^ a b "Biological Profile / Stature" (PDF). Simon Fraser University. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 26. ^ Mall, G. (March 1, 2001). "Sex determination and estimation of stature from the long bones of the arm". PubMed. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 27. ^ Hawks, John (September 6, 2011). "Predicting stature from bone measurements". Retrieved August 19, 2015. 28. ^ Garwin, April (2006). "Stature". Retrieved August 19, 2015. 29. ^ "Skeletons are good age markers because teeth and bones mature at fairly predictable rates" (PDF). Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 30. ^ a b "Young or Old?". Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 31. ^ "Quick Tips: How To Estimate The Chronological Age Of A Human Skeleton — The Basics". All Things AAFS!. August 20, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 32. ^ "Skeletons as Forensic Evidence". Retrieved August 20, 2015. 33. ^ "Anthropological Views". National Institute of Health. June 5, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 34. ^ "Analysis of Skeletal Remains". Westport Public Schools. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 35. ^ "Activity: Can You Identify Ancestry?" (PDF). Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 36. ^ "Ancestry, Race, and Forensic Anthropology". Observation Deck. March 31, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 37. ^ Smith, Ashley C. (December 10, 2010). "Distinguishing Between Antemortem, Perimortem, and Postmortem Trauma". Retrieved August 20, 2015. 38. ^ "Forensic Archaeology". Chicora Foundation. Retrieved August 21, 2015. 39. ^ a b c Schultz, Dupras (2008). "The Contribution of Forensic Archaeology to Homicide Investigations". Homicide Studies 12: 399–413. doi:10.1177/1088767908324430. 40. ^ Nawrocki, Stephen P. (June 27, 2006). "An Outline Of Forensic Archeology" (PDF). Retrieved August 21, 2015. 41. ^ Sigler-Eisenberg (1985). "Forensic Research: Expanding the Concept of Applied Archaeology". American Antiquity. 42. ^ "Forensic Archaeology". Simon Fraser University. Retrieved August 21, 2015. 43. ^ Haglund, William (2001). "Archaeology and Forensic Death Investigations". Historical Archaeology. 44. ^ Steele, Caroline (2008-08-20). "Archaeology and the Forensic Investigation of Recent Mass Graves: Ethical Issues for a New Practice of Archaeology". Archaeologies 4 (3): 414–428. doi:10.1007/s11759-008-9080-x. ISSN 1555-8622. 45. ^ Pokines, James; Symes, Steven A. Manual of Forensic Taphonomy. CRC Press. ISBN 9781439878415. 46. ^ Killgrove, Kristina (June 10, 2015). "These 6 'Body Farms' Help Forensic Anthropologists Learn To Solve Crimes". Retrieved August 20, 2015. 47. ^ a b "Forensic taphonomy". December 8, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2015. 48. ^ a b Nawrocki, Stephen P. (June 27, 2006). "An Outline Of Forensic Taphonomy" (PDF). Retrieved August 20, 2015. 49. ^ Hall, Shane. "Education Required for Forensic Anthropology". Retrieved August 21, 2015. 50. ^ "FASE/IALM Certification". Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe. Retrieved August 21, 2015. 51. ^ "Certification Examination General Guidelines" (PDF). American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Retrieved August 21, 2015. 52. ^ "ABFA - American Board of Forensic Anthropology". Retrieved August 21, 2015. 53. ^ "Code of Ethics and Conduct" (PDF). Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology. June 1, 2010. Retrieved August 21, 2015. 54. ^ "Code of Ethics and Conduct" (PDF). American Board of Forensic Anthropology. 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2015. 55. ^ "About Us". British Association for Human Identification. Retrieved September 28, 2015. 56. ^ Shearer, Lee (January 13, 2012). "Forensic anthropologist Burns dies, a former Athens resident". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 57. ^ Hrenchir, Tim (April 26, 1999). "Scientist who confirmed grave of Jesse James to speak". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 58. ^ Jantz, R.L.; Ousley, S.D. (2005). "FORDISC 3.1 Personal Computer Forensic Discriminant Functions". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 59. ^ Burkhart, Ford (September 12, 1998). "Ellis R. Kerley Is Dead at 74; A Forensic Sherlock Holmes". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 60. ^ Herszenhorn, David M. (March 1, 1997). "William R. Maples, 59, Dies; Anthropologist of Big Crimes". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 61. ^ "Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 62. ^ Moredock, Janet. "Kathy Reichs". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 28, 2015. 63. ^ McFadden, Robert (May 16, 2014). "Clyde Snow, Sleuth Who Read Bones From King Tut's to Kennedy's, Dies at 86". Retrieved September 28, 2015. 64. ^ Byers, Steven N. (2011). Introduction to forensic anthropology (4th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education. p. 490. ISBN 978-0205790128. Retrieved 10 September 2015. 65. ^ "PU Prof, student's study accepted by US forensic sciences academy". Hindustan Times. February 9, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2016. External links[edit]
Colour vision Deep Down Under Prawns in Space Photo Albums Site Map Sensory Neurobiology Group Formerly Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre Queensland Brain Institute Professor Justin Marshall Our principle aim is to understand how other animals perceive their environment. As arrogant humans we tend to assume we are the pinnacle of evolution, however, certainly in sensory terms this is far from true. By taking an approach to sensory systems that is based around ecology but also includes physiology, anatomy, behaviour and neural integration, we hope to decode signals and their intention in the animal kingdom. One of the animal groups we work on is the stomatopods (mantis shrimps), which are reef-dwelling crustaceans with the world's most complex colour vision system. These lowly crustaceans possess four times as many colour receptors as humans, four of which sample the ultraviolet (UV) region of the spectrum, light that we cannot see. The way in which UV and other colours are used by a variety of animal communication systems is a major component of our work. At the other end of the scale, cephalopods such as cuttlefish, squid and octopus possess only a single photoreceptor type and are almost certainly colour blind. This makes their remarkable camouflage abilities even more astonishing but cephalopods along with several other marine creatures have specialised in polarisation vision. Understanding polarisation sensitivity in the marine environment is another aim of the lab. As well as invertebrates, reef fish, elasmobranchs (the sharks and rays) and freshwater fish such as lungfish and cichlids form focal animal assemblages for study as do non marine animals such as parrots, birds of paradise and lizards. In all these groups our interest returns to trying to interpret the way they see their environment. The environmentally extreme habitat of the deep oceans also catches the attention of some of our work and here sensory systems other than vision, vision and bioluminescence are of interest. Finally, through studying the colour of animal habitat, it has become apparent that humans are changing the colour of the world. Two projects, CoralWatch and Prawns in Space attempt to safeguard the beauty of our planet for the future. In one case we seek to change the world and the way we live, in the other to change the way we view the world and both are based on 'asking' animals how they would do it. This field of study has become known as biomimetics and acknowledges the power of evolution to guide design principles and ideas. Some of our key questions are: Why are reef fish and parrots so brightly coloured? How can these groups afford to apparently be so obvious while others invest in camouflage? Are some animals, which appear obvious to our eyes, well camouflaged for the eyes of other animals? Why are some fish striped horizontally and others striped vertically? What happens to coral after it bleaches? What are the functions of polarisation vision? What are double cones for? What animals live in the deep sea off Australia? Potential postgraduate research 1. Colour vision: what do double cones do? 2. Visual behaviour in stomatopods 3. Electrophysiology and neuroarchitecture of the stomatopod eye 4. Colour changes in reef fish 5. The nature of colour signals Last updated: April 2010 by Kylie Greig Sensory Neurobiolgy Group Queensland Brain Institute University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland 4072 Australia
What does UC mean in General? This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand UC in the Computing field in general and in the General terminology in particular. Ubiquitous Computing Computing » General Find a translation for UC in other languages: Select another language: What does UC mean? Ubiquitous computing Ubiquitous computing is an advanced computing concept where computing is made to appear everywhere and anywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format. A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms - laptop, tablets, terminals, phones, etc. The underlying technologies to support ubiquitous computing include Internet, advanced middleware, operating system, mobile code, sensors, microprocessors, new I/O, new user interfaces, networks, mobile protocols, location and positioning, new materials, etc. This new paradigm is also described as pervasive computing, ambient intelligence, or, more recently, everyware, where each term emphasizes slightly different aspects. When primarily concerning the objects involved, it is also physical computing, the Internet of Things, haptic computing, and things that think. Rather than propose a single definition for ubiquitous computing and for these related terms, a taxonomy of properties for ubiquitous computing has been proposed, from which different kinds or flavors of ubiquitous systems and applications can be described. see more on Definitions.net» Discuss this UC abbreviation with the community: Use the citation below to add this abbreviation to your bibliography: "UC." Abbreviations.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2016. Web. 30 Jul 2016. <http://www.abbreviations.com/term/112168>.
Friday January 18, 2013 Tina Dupuy In August 1925, The New York Times estimated 50,000 -- 60,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched in a parade in our nation’s capital. It was a huge public display of the once-secret group. H.L. Mencken called it "a full mile of Klansmen and their ladies." The man sitting in the White House, Calvin Coolidge, was a member of the Klan. The president before him, Warren Harding, was also a noted Klansman. The fraternity preaching pure "100 percent Americanism" (anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, anti-non-white) boasted of five million members -- nearly 15 percent of the population in the 1920s. They were in positions of power. They were everywhere. And here they were marching for hours around the National Mall. If you asked an American living at that time what they thought about the Klan, they would have thought of it as "the way things were." Having a clandestine Klan standing strong for the interests of Anglo-Saxons and terrorizing minorities was a normal part of living in Jim Crow America, and why would something that widespread ever be any different? Today the Klan has maybe 5,000 members according to their own reporting, and they’re considered a hate group. They’re fringe on a very mainstream day. The point is: Things change. Goliaths fall. It happens. We think of people in the past as having foresight to the future. This way we can, with authority, say what the Founding Fathers would have thought about things like traffic lights. But people living through history (also known as the present) often have a status quo bias. What’s going on right now is it. This is how it is. And this is how we’ve viewed the death grip of the NRA on our politics. "Members of Congress have ranked the NRA as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country several years in a row," brags the NRA’s Wikipedia page citing a 1999 Fortune article. And because whatever gets repeated enough in the Beltway becomes common wisdom: You can’t do anything about the flood of guns on our streets because the NRA is the most powerful lobby in America -- ever! Any talk about gun control has been a nonstarter. Remember Bob Costas in the beginning of December talking about guns during Sunday football in the wake of an NFL player’s murder/suicide? He was raked over the coals. It was inappropriate! How dare he soil the sanctity of sports night with his dirty pinko agenda! Then a week later there was Sandy Hook. Twenty first-graders were slaughtered by a gun enthusiast’s arsenal (who was also killed by the same means). The usual voices denouncing any cries for action on gun safety were quickly drowned out by a steady hum of Americans who are tired of weapon manufacturers dominating the debate. On January 9, the two year anniversary of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, the Tucson Police Department held a gun buyback program. Arizona has some of the most liberal gun laws in the nation. It also (as par for the course) ranks among the highest gun deaths per capita. The NRA said destroying those 206 guns turned in was illegal and threatened to sue to stop it. They said the police department would have to sell those firearms according to what they interpreted as the law. The National Rifle Association opposes just the voluntary act of getting guns off the street? This is not a group championing individual freedom. This is weapon fetishization. The NRA wants the Tucson PD to effectively sell guns to the public. President Obama who, contrary to Internet message boards, has expanded gun rights while in office, came out with an comprehensive reform package including: ending the suspension of gun violence research; universal background checks; a ban on high capacity magazines; and appointing a full-time permanent director to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). All things the majority of Americans agree with. The president also incorporated what the NRA called their "meaningful contribution" which was looking at violent video games (some of which are produced by the NRA), armed guards in schools and looking at the mentally ill as potential spree killers. But the NRA doesnt want to work with the president. They denounced the announcement before hearing it. The NRA wants to advocate for the absolute unchecked rights of gun manufacturers as they march over to the fringe. Goliaths fall.
© 2016 Shmoop University, Inc. All rights reserved. Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart Chapter Fourteen Quotes How we cite the quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph) Quote 1 Uchendu warns Okonkwo of willfully displeasing the dead. As spirits, they seem to have some power to influence fate and could, if insulted, bring about destruction on a wide, generational scale. Quote 2 When the rain finally came, it was in large, solid drops of frozen water which the people called “the nuts of the water of heaven.” They were hard and painful on the body as they fell, yet young people ran about happily picking up the cold nuts and throwing them into their mouths to melt. The earth quickly came to life and the birds in the forest fluttered around and chirped merrily. A vague scent of life and green vegetation was diffused in the air. As the rain began to fall more soberly and in smaller liquid drops, children sought for shelter, and all were happy, refreshed and thankful. (14.4-6) The Umuofia people are at the mercy of nature; they depend on the timely arrival of the rains for their crops. Here, the earth is characterized as an entity separate from the sky. The earth, too, depends on the sky’s providence to renew her life every rainy season. Quote 3 They sat in a big circle on the ground and the bride sat in the center with a hen in her right hand. Uchendu sat by her, holding the ancestral staff of the family. All the other men stood outside the circle, watching. Their wives watched also. It was evening and the sun was setting. Uchendu’s eldest daughter, Njide, asked the questions. “Remember that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at childbirth, she began. How many men have lain with you since my brother first expressed the desire to marry you?” “None,” she answered simply. “Answer truthfully,” urged the other women. “None?” asked Njide. “None,” she answered. “Swear on this staff of my fathers,” said Uchendu. “I swear,” said the bride. Uchendu took the hen from her, slit its throat with a sharp knife and allowed some of the blood to fall on his ancestral staff. From that day Anikwu took the young bride to his hut and she became his wife. The daughters of the family did not return to their homes immediately but spent two or three days with their kinsmen. (14.12-22) The public confession ceremony for the bride shows how deeply the Umuofia value truth and purity in its women. The implication here is that Anikwu would not value his wife as much had she not been virgin upon their marriage. The sacrifice of a hen somehow seems to seal the bride’s words as a vow and consecrate the marriage. People who Shmooped this also Shmooped...
Compare and Contrast Leadership Theories Only available on StudyMode • Download(s): 1806 • Published: March 20, 2011 Open Document Text Preview From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. Definitions more inclusive of followers have also emerged. Alan Keith of Genentech states that, "Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen." According to Ken "SKC" Ogbonnia, "effective leadership is the ability to successfully integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or societal goals." The following sections discuss several important aspects of leadership including a description of what leadership is and a description of several popular theories and styles of leadership. This article also discusses topics such as the role of emotions and vision, as well as leadership effectiveness and performance, leadership in different contexts, how it may differ from related concepts (i.e., management), and some critiques of leadership as generally conceived. \|Contents \| \|[hide] \| \|1 Theories \| \|1.1 Early history \| \|1.2 Rise of alternative theories \| \|1.3 Reemergence of trait theory \| \|1.4 Attribute pattern approach \| \|1.5 Behavioral and style theories \| \|1.6 Situational and contingency theories \| \|1.7 Functional theory \| \|1.8 Transactional and transformational theories \| \|1.9 Emotions \| \|1.10 Neo-emergent theory \| \|2 Styles \| \|2.1 Autocratic or authoritarian style \| \|2.2 Participative or democratic style \| \|2.3 Laissez-faire or free rein style \| \|2.4 Narcissistic leadership \| \|2.5 Toxic leadership \| \|3 Performance \| \|4 Contexts \| \|4.1 Organizations \| \|4.2 Management \| \|4.3 Group leadership \| \|4.4 Primates \| \|5 Historical views \| \|6 Action oriented environments... tracking img
Experimental "Gene Switch" increases lifespan with no ill effects By experimentally switching genes off or on at specific stages in an animal’s lifecycle, UCSF scientists have discovered that vigor and lifespan can be significantly extended with no side effects. Many researchers believe that increasing lifespan will dampen reproduction. But the new study of the tiny roundworm commonly known as C. elegans shows that silencing a key gene only in adulthood increases longevity with no effect on reproduction. The focus of the research is a set of genes that control a hormonal pathway. Since the same or a similar pathway is found in many organisms including humans, the results offer the tantalizing prospect of safely and effectively extending the human lifespan as well. The research is published in the October 25 issue of the journal SCIENCE. Many experiments in different organisms have supported the evolutionary principle that everything comes at a price - that tweaking hormone levels to boost lifespan will inevitably cause abnormal reproduction. But in the new study, UCSF scientists report for the first time that the hormonal pathways controlling reproduction and longevity act independently and can be decoupled. Typically, to study a gene’s effect, researchers knock out the gene’s activity permanently. But the scientists were able to use a new technique to turn genes off at different times and thereby learn that the genes had different effects at different stages in the life of the worm. They were also able to turn the “off” genes “on” again to further probe the timing of their influence. The UCSF scientists studied a now well-known gene called daf-2. In previously research they showed that partially disabling the gene doubles the worm’s lifespan. The gene encodes a receptor for insulin as well as for a hormone called insulin-like growth factor. The same or related hormone pathways have since been shown to affect lifespan in fruit flies and mice, and therefore are likely to control lifespan in humans as well. The gene also affects reproduction, but the new research shows that the gene acts at different stages in the lifecycle to control reproduction and lifespan, so the two effects can be decoupled, said Cynthia Kenyon, PhD, the Herbert Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF and senior author on the SCIENCE paper. “A lot of evolutionary biologists predicted that you couldn’t lengthen lifespan with out inhibiting reproduction,” Kenyon said. “But that’s not true. These worms live much longer than normal and they reproduce perfectly normally. They look great, they’re vigorous. These animals are having their cake and eating it too.” “As we uncover more about how these and related genes function we hope to learn how youthfulness and longevity can be extended in humans without any side effects as well.” Kenyon made international news in 1993 when she discovered that blocking daf-2 activity in C. elegans —more formally, Caenorhadtis elegans—doubled the normal two-week life of the worms. Their added weeks were not spent as doddering old worms, either. “You could look at them under the microscope and see that they were lively and youthful,” Kenyon said. In the new experiments, Kenyon and her colleagues used a fairly new technique that allowed them to silence daf-2 or a second gene, daf-16, either just after the worms had emerged from eggs, or as young adults. All genes are made of DNA, but protein-making instructions are sent out of the nucleus in the form of a related molecule, RNA. The technique can partially disable, or “knock down” any given RNA sequence - and hence any given gene - simply by introducing double stranded RNA that matches it. The two strands separate when cleaved by an enzyme called Dicer, and one of the strands hybridizes with the animal’s own RNA, leading to its degradation. Perhaps evolved as a viral strategy to attack and disable hosts, RNA interference, or RNAi as it is called, can be used to knock down the activity of any gene at any time in the life of an organism. Kenyon’s team engineered bacteria to produce double-stranded RNA corresponding to one of the worm’s genes, and then allowed the worms to feed on the bacteria. In some experiments, they used RNAi to partially disable daf-2 activity; in others, they inhibited a gene called daf-16, which Kenyon’s group had previously determined acts “downstream” of daf-2 in the pathway to extend lifespan. They discovered that if daf-2 activity is knocked down just after the worms have hatched, the worms live about twice as long as normal and are more resistant to stress, but their reproduction is delayed. However, if daf-2 is allowed to function normally until young adulthood, and then is knocked down, the worms are long-lived, stress-resistant and reproduce normally - the best of all possible worlds. Previous research by Kenyon and others had shown that inhibiting daf-2 activity in C. elegans, or related genes in insulin-like pathways in other organisms, was a two-edged sword. The animals gained longer lives but their reproduction was suppressed. It now appears that these findings - consistent as they were with evolutionary theory - are the result of using too crude a tool—turning the gene off throughout the life of the organisms. By refining the experimental switch, Kenyon’s group discovered that daf-2 is involved in both the lifespan pathway and the reproduction pathway, but that the two act independently. “It is very exciting to find the two pathways are not inextricably connected,” Kenyon said. “This means that by understanding the timing of their activity, we may be able to gain the benefits - longevity - without the drawbacks.” A decade of research on aging and related processes has shown that daf-2 gene activity shuts down when the worm’s food source is scarce or environmental conditions are otherwise not ripe for reproduction. Under these conditions, juvenile worms go into a state of suspended animation, known as the dauer, and reproduction is delayed until food is restored and they come out of this phase. But the new study shows that if the gene is not inhibited until the organism already is a young adult, the worms gain increased longevity without experiencing a dauer stage or compromised reproduction. The researchers were able to refine their scrutiny of the gene’s effect even more by exploiting the Dicer enzyme required in the RNAi process. They were able to turn off the “off” switch of RNAi - using it against itself to turn genes back on. Dicer normally acts to cut up the double-stranded RNAi into small pieces that bind to the host’s RNA. But Kenyon’s group realized they could introduce double stranded RNA corresponding to the Dicer gene as well and inhibit RNAi itself. When they did this, the effectiveness of RNAi was reduced, and the worm’s RNAi-silenced genes were turned back on. By knocking down daf-2 during early life stages, but restoring it in adults, they were able to show that the worms gained no increased lifespan protection, and that therefore the gene’s life extension powers act only in the adult. Kenyon and UCSF have applied for a patent for the use of the Dicer gene to turn off RNAi, which may be therapeutically useful. Genes could be turned off when their activity causes disease, but turned back on when the suppression is no longer needed. The team found that daf-2-deficient worms are both longer-lived and resistant to oxidative stress - damage to cells caused by charged, oxygen-bearing molecules. This supports the view that vulnerability to oxidative stress is a key—if not the key—cause of aging, the researchers state. Oxidative damage disrupts normal cellular function and leads to cell death. Many people take antioxidant supplements in a strategy—still unproven—to stave off the aging effects of oxidative damage. Lead author on the paper is Andrew Dillin, PhD, now an assistant professor in molecular and cell biology at the Salk Institute, who participated on the research while a postdoctoral scientist in Kenyon’s UCSF laboratory. Co-author is Douglas K. Crawford, a graduate student in Kenyon’s lab. The research is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Human body temperature From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "98.6" redirects here. For other uses, see 98.6 (disambiguation). Normal human body temperature, also known as normothermia or euthermia, is a narrow temperature band indicating optimal health and thermoregulation. Individual body temperature depends upon the age, sex, health, and reproductive status of the subject, the place in the body at which the measurement is made, the time of day, the subject's state of consciousness (waking or sleeping), activity level, and emotional state. Despite these factors, typical values are well established: oral (under the tongue): 36.8±0.4 °C (98.2±0.72 °F),[7] internal (rectal, vaginal): 37.0 °C (98.6 °F).[7] A rectal or vaginal measurement taken directly inside the body cavity is typically slightly higher than oral measurement, and oral measurement is somewhat higher than skin measurement. Other places, such as under the arm or in the ear, produce different typical temperatures.[7] While some people think of these averages as representing normal or ideal measurements, a wide range of temperatures has been found in healthy people.[4] The body temperature of a healthy person varies during the day by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) with lower temperatures in the morning and higher temperatures in the late afternoon and evening, as the body's needs and activities change.[7] Other circumstances also affect the body's temperature. The core body temperature of an individual tends to have the lowest value in the second half of the sleep cycle; the lowest point, called the nadir, is one of the primary markers for circadian rhythms. The body temperature also changes when a person is hungry, sleepy, sick, or cold. Human body temperature is of interest in medical practice, human reproduction, and athletics. Methods of measurement[edit] A medical thermometer showing a temperature reading of 38.7 °C • In the anus (rectal temperature) • In the mouth (oral temperature) • Under the arm (axillary temperature) • In the ear (tympanic temperature) • In the vagina (vaginal temperature) • In the bladder • On the skin of the forehead over the temporal artery The normal human body temperature is often stated as 36.5–37.5 °C (97.7–99.5 °F).[10] In adults a review of the literature has found a wider range of 33.2–38.2 °C (91.8–100.8 °F) for normal temperatures, depending on the gender and location measured.[11] Natural rhythms[edit] Body temperature normally fluctuates over the day, with the lowest levels around 4 a.m. and the highest in the late afternoon, between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. (assuming the person sleeps at night and stays awake during the day).[7][9] Therefore, an oral temperature of 37.3 °C (99.1 °F) would, strictly speaking, be a normal, healthy temperature in the afternoon but not in the early morning.[7] An individual's body temperature typically changes by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) between its highest and lowest points each day.[7][9] Temperature also varies with the change of seasons during each year. This pattern is called a circannual rhythm.[12] Studies of seasonal variations have produced inconsistent results. People living in different climates may have different seasonal patterns. Increased physical fitness increases the amount of daily variation in temperature.[12] With increased age, both average body temperature and the amount of daily variability in the body temperature tend to decrease.[12] Elderly patients may have a decreased ability to generate body heat during a fever, so even a somewhat elevated temperature can indicate a serious underlying cause in geriatrics. Measurement methods[edit] Temperature by measurement technique[13] Method Women Men Tympanic 35.7–37.5 °C (96.3–99.5 °F) 35.5–37.5 °C (95.9–99.5 °F) • Temperature in the anus (rectum/rectal), vagina, or in the ear (otic) is about 37.5 °C (99.5 °F)[14] • Temperature in the mouth (oral) is about 36.8 °C (98.2 °F)[9] • Temperature under the arm (axillary) is about 36.5 °C (97.7 °F)[14] Generally, oral, rectal, gut, and core body temperatures, although slightly different, are well-correlated, with oral temperature being the lowest of the four. Oral temperatures are generally about 0.4 °C (0.7 °F) lower than rectal temperatures.[7] Oral temperatures are influenced by drinking, chewing, smoking, and breathing with the mouth open. Cold drinks or food reduce oral temperatures; hot drinks, hot food, chewing, and smoking raise oral temperatures.[8] Axillary (armpit), tympanic (ear), and other skin-based temperatures correlate relatively poorly with core body temperature.[12] Tympanic measurements run higher than rectal and core body measurements, and axillary temperatures run lower.[12] The body uses the skin as a tool to increase or decrease core body temperature, which affects the temperature of the skin. Skin-based temperatures are more variable than other measurement sites.[12] The peak daily temperature for axillary measurements lags about three hours behind the rest of the body.[12] Skin temperatures are also more influenced by outside factors, such as clothing and air temperature. Each measurement method also has different normal ranges depending on sex. Variations due to outside factors[edit] Temperature is increased after eating or drinking anything with calories. Caloric restriction, as for a weight-loss diet, decreases overall body temperature.[8] Drinking alcohol decreases the amount of daily change, slightly lowering daytime temperatures and noticeably raising nighttime temperatures.[8] Wearing more clothing slows daily temperature changes and raises body temperature.[8] Similarly, sleeping with an electric blanket raises the body temperature at night.[8] Sleep disturbances also affect temperatures. Normally, body temperature drops significantly at a person's normal bedtime and throughout the night. Short-term sleep deprivation produces a higher temperature at night than normal, but long-term sleep deprivation appears to reduce temperatures.[8] Insomnia and poor sleep quality are associated with smaller and later drops in body temperature.[8] Similarly, waking up unusually early, sleeping in, jet lag and changes to shift work schedules may affect body temperature.[8] Specific temperature concepts[edit] Main article: Fever An early morning temperature higher than 37.2 °C (99.0 °F) or a late afternoon temperature higher than 37.7 °C (99.9 °F) is normally considered a fever, assuming that the temperature is elevated due to a change in the hypothalamus's setpoint.[7] Lower thresholds are sometimes appropriate for elderly people.[7] The normal daily temperature variation is typically 0.5 °C (0.90 °F), but can be greater among people recovering from a fever.[7] Main article: Hyperthermia Main article: Hypothermia Basal body temperature[edit] Core temperature[edit] Core temperature, also called core body temperature, is the operating temperature of an organism, specifically in deep structures of the body such as the liver, in comparison to temperatures of peripheral tissues. Core temperature is normally maintained within a narrow range so that essential enzymatic reactions can occur. Significant core temperature elevation (hyperthermia) or depression (hypothermia) that is prolonged for more than a brief period of time is incompatible with human life. Until recently, direct measurement of core body temperature required surgical insertion of a probe, so a variety of indirect methods have commonly been used. The rectal or vaginal temperature is generally considered to give the most accurate assessment of core body temperature, particularly in hypothermia. In the early 2000s, ingestible thermistors in capsule form were produced, allowing the temperature inside the digestive tract to be transmitted to an external receiver; one study found that these were comparable in accuracy to rectal temperature measurement.[16] Human temperature variation effects[edit] • 40 °C (104.0 °F) – Fainting, dehydration, weakness, vomiting, headache and dizziness may occur as well as profuse sweating. Starts to be life-threatening. • 38 °C (100.4 °F) – (this is classed as hyperthermia if not caused by a fever) Feeling hot, sweating, feeling thirsty, feeling very uncomfortable, slightly hungry. If this is caused by fever, there may also be chills. • 37 °C (98.6 °F) – Normal internal body temperature (which varies between about 36.12–37.8 °C (97.02–100.04 °F)) • 36 °C (97 °F) – Feeling cold, mild to moderate shivering (body temperature may drop this low during sleep). May be a normal body temperature. • 34 °C (93 °F) – Severe shivering, loss of movement of fingers, blueness and confusion. Some behavioural changes may take place. • 32 °C (90 °F) – (Medical emergency) Hallucinations, delirium, complete confusion, extreme sleepiness that is progressively becoming comatose. Shivering is absent (subject may even think they are hot). Reflex may be absent or very slight. • 31 °C (88 °F) – Comatose, very rarely conscious. No or slight reflexes. Very shallow breathing and slow heart rate. Possibility of serious heart rhythm problems. • 28 °C (82 °F) – Severe heart rhythm disturbances are likely and breathing may stop at any time. Patient may appear to be dead. • 24–26 °C (75–79 °F) or less – Death usually occurs due to irregular heart beat or respiratory arrest; however, some patients have been known to survive with body temperatures as low as 14.2 °C (57.5 °F).[17] 3. ^ a b Axelrod YK, Diringer MN (May 2008). "Temperature management in acute neurologic disorders". Neurol. Clin. 26 (2): 585–603, xi. doi:10.1016/j.ncl.2008.02.005. PMID 18514828. 4. ^ a b c Laupland KB (July 2009). "Fever in the critically ill medical patient". Crit. Care Med. 37 (7 Suppl): S273–8. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181aa6117. PMID 19535958. 5. ^ Manson's Tropical Diseases: Expert Consult. Saunders. 2008. p. 1229. ISBN 978-1-4160-4470-3. 7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k ed. Dan L. Longo ... Eds. of previous eds.: T.R. Harrison (2011). Harrison's principles of internal medicine. (18th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-07-174889-6. 8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kelly GS (March 2007). "Body temperature variability (Part 2): masking influences of body temperature variability and a review of body temperature variability in disease". Altern Med Rev 12 (1): 49–62. PMID 17397267. open access publication - free to read 9. ^ a b c d Mackowiak, P. A.; S. S. Wasserman; M. M. Levine (1992-09-23). "A critical appraisal of 98.6 degrees F, the upper limit of the normal body temperature, and other legacies of Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich". JAMA 268 (12): 1578–1580. doi:10.1001/jama.1992.03490120092034. PMID 1302471. Retrieved 2007-08-22. 11. ^ Sund-Levander M, Forsberg C, Wahren LK (June 2002). "Normal oral, rectal, tympanic and axillary body temperature in adult men and women: a systematic literature review". Scand J Caring Sci 16 (2): 122–8. doi:10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00069.x. PMID 12000664. 12. ^ a b c d e f g h Kelly G (December 2006). "Body temperature variability (Part 1): a review of the history of body temperature and its variability due to site selection, biological rhythms, fitness, and aging". Altern Med Rev 11 (4): 278–93. PMID 17176167. open access publication - free to read 13. ^ Sund-Levander M, Forsberg C, Wahren LK (2002). "Normal oral, rectal, tympanic and axillary body temperature in adult men and women: a systematic literature review". Scand J Caring Sci 16 (2): 122–8. doi:10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00069.x. PMID 12000664. 14. ^ a b Elert, Glenn (2005). "Temperature of a Healthy Human (Body Temperature)". The Physics Factbook. Retrieved 2007-08-22. 15. ^ Dodd SR, Lancaster GA, Craig JV, Smyth RL, Williamson PR (April 2006). "In a systematic review, infrared ear thermometry for fever diagnosis in children finds poor sensitivity". J Clin Epidemiol 59 (4): 354–7. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2005.10.004. PMID 16549256. 16. ^ J.E. McKenzie, D.W. Osgood, Validation of a new telemetric core temperature monitor, Journal of Thermal Biology, Volume 29, Issues 7–8, October–December 2004, Pages 605–611, ISSN 0306-4565, doi 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2004.08.020. 17. ^ Excerpt: Humans, Body Extremes. Guinness World Records. 2004. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
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Page semi-protected From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Hebrew: יהודים‎‎ (Yehudim) Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 063.jpg Total population 14-14.5 million[1] Regions with significant populations Israel 6,354,100[2] United States 5,300,000–6,800,000[3][4] France 467,500[3] Canada 386,000[3] United Kingdom 290,000[3] Russia 183,000[3] Argentina 181,000[3] Germany 117,500[3] Australia 112,800[3] Brazil 94,500[3] South Africa 69,800[3] Ukraine 60,000[3] Hungary 47,700[3] Mexico 40,000[3] Netherlands 29,900[3] Belgium 29,800[3] Italy 27,600[3] Switzerland 18,900[3] Chile 18,400[3] Rest of the world 218,100[3] Historical languages: Sacred languages: Related ethnic groups Samaritans,[6] Druze, other Levantines,[6][7][8][9] Arabs,[6][10] Assyrians[6][9] The Jews (/dʒuːz/;[11] Hebrew: יְהוּדִים ISO 259-3 Yehudim, Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group[12] originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East.[13][14] Jewish ethnicity, nationhood and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation,[15][16][17] while its observance varies from strict observance to complete nonobservance. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE,[10] in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel.[18] The Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El,[19] somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE (Late Bronze Age).[20][21] The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population,[22] consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, and the Kingdom of Judah. Some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as 'Hebrews'.[23] Though few sources in the Bible mention the exilic periods in detail,[24] the experience of diaspora life, from the Ancient Egyptian rule over the Levant, to Assyrian Captivity and Exile, to Babylonian Captivity and Exile, to Seleucid Imperial rule, to the Roman occupation, and the historical relations between Israelites and their homeland, became a major feature of Jewish history, identity and memory.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II,[35] but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered[36][37] during the Holocaust. Since then the population has slowly risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank,[3] or less than 0.2% of the total world population (roughly one in every 514 people).[38] According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel (6.2 million), and 40% in the United States (5.7 million), with most of the remainder living in Europe (1.4 million) and Canada (0.4 million).[3] These numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household.[39] The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure. In addition to issues with census methodology, disputes among proponents of halakhic, secular, political, and ancestral identification factors regarding who is a Jew may affect the figure considerably depending on the source.[40] Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and Basic Laws. Its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it.[41] Despite their small percentage of the world's population, Jews have significantly influenced and contributed to human progress in many fields, including philosophy,[42] ethics,[43] literature, business, fine arts and architecture, music, theatre[44] and cinema, medicine,[45][46] as well as science and technology, both historically and in modern times. Name and etymology Main articles: Jew (word) and Ioudaios The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced [jehuˈdi], with the stress on the final syllable, in Israeli Hebrew, in its basic form.[49] The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio (sg.); ג׳ודיוס, Djudios (pl.); Yiddish: ייִד Yid (sg.); ייִדן, Yidn (pl.). The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., يَهُودِيّ yahūdī (sg.), al-yahūd (pl.), and بَنُو اِسرَائِيل banū isrāʼīl in Arabic, "Jude" in German, "judeu" in Portuguese, "juif" in French, "jøde" in Danish and Norwegian, "judío" in Spanish, "jood" in Dutch, etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew, e.g., in Italian (Ebreo), in Persian ("Ebri/Ebrani" (Persian: عبری/عبرانی‎‎)) and Russian (Еврей, Yevrey).[50] The German word "Jude" is pronounced [ˈjuːdə], the corresponding adjective "jüdisch" [ˈjyːdɪʃ] (Jewish) is the origin of the word "Yiddish".[51] (See Jewish ethnonyms for a full overview.) Map of Canaan According to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Jewish ancestry is traced back to the Biblical patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Biblical matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, who lived in Canaan around the 18th century BCE. Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacob's son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs' descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, after which the Israelites conquered Canaan.[citation needed] Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story,[53] with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites' inspiring national myth narrative. The Israelites and their culture, according to the modern archaeological account, did not overtake the region by force, but instead branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatristic — and later monotheistic — religion centered on Yahweh,[54][55][56] one of the Ancient Canaanite deities. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of cultic practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group, setting them apart from other Canaanites. The Canaanites themselves are archeologically attested in the Middle Bronze Age,[57] while the Hebrew language is the last extant member of the Canaanite languages. In the Iron Age I period (1200–1000 BCE) Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature.[citation needed] Although the Israelites were divided into Twelve Tribes, the Jews (being one offshoot of the Israelites, another being the Samaritans) are traditionally said to descend mostly from the Israelite tribes of Judah (from where the Jews derive their ethnonym) and Benjamin, and partially from the tribe of Levi, who had together formed the ancient Kingdom of Judah,[58] and the remnants of the northern Kingdom of Israel who migrated to the Kingdom of Judah and assimilated after the 720s BCE, when the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[59] Israelites enjoyed political independence twice in ancient history, first during the periods of the Biblical judges followed by the United Monarchy.[disputed ] After the fall of the United Monarchy the land was divided into Israel and Judah. The term Jew originated from the Roman "Judean" and denoted someone from the southern kingdom of Judah.[60] The shift of ethnonym from "Israelites" to "Jews" (inhabitant of Judah), although not contained in the Torah, is made explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE),[61] a book in the Ketuvim, the third section of the Jewish Tanakh. In 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar II, King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple, and deported the most prominent citizens of Judah.[62] In 586 BC, Judah itself ceased to be an independent kingdom, and its remaining Jews were left stateless. The Babylonian exile ended in 539 BCE when the Achaemenid Empire conquered Babylon and Cyrus the Great allowed the exiled Jews to return to Yehud and rebuild their Temple. The Second Temple was completed in 515 BCE. Yehud province was a peaceful part of the Achaemenid Empire until the fall of the Empire in c. 333 BCE to Alexander the Great. Jews were also politically independent during the Hasmonean dynasty spanning from 140 to 37 BCE and to some degree under the Herodian dynasty from 37 BCE to 6 CE. Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, most Jews have lived in diaspora.[63] As an ethnic minority in every country in which they live (except Israel), they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that has fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.[citation needed] Genetic studies on Jews show that most Jews worldwide bear a common genetic heritage which originates in the Middle East, and that they bear their strongest resemblance to the peoples of the Fertile Crescent.[64][65][66] The genetic composition of different Jewish groups shows that Jews share a common genetic pool dating back 4,000 years, as a marker of their common ancestral origin. Despite their long-term separation, Jews maintained a common culture, tradition, and language.[67] Main article: Judaism The Jewish people and the religion of Judaism are strongly interrelated. Converts to Judaism typically have a status within the Jewish ethnos equal to those born into it.[68] Conversion is not encouraged by mainstream Judaism, and is considered a difficult task. A significant portion of conversions are undertaken by children of mixed marriages, or by would-be or current spouses of Jews.[69] The Hebrew Bible, a religious interpretation of the traditions and early national history of the Jews, established the first of the Abrahamic religions, which are now practiced by 54% of the world. Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life,"[70] which has made drawing a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish identity rather difficult. Throughout history, in eras and places as diverse as the ancient Hellenic world,[71] in Europe before and after The Age of Enlightenment (see Haskalah),[72] in Islamic Spain and Portugal,[73] in North Africa and the Middle East,[73] India,[74] China,[75] or the contemporary United States[76] and Israel,[77] cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews or specific communities of Jews with their surroundings, others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to from the religion itself. This phenomenon has led to considerably different Jewish cultures unique to their own communities.[78] Babylon and Rome After the destruction of the Second Temple Judaism lost much of its sectarian nature. Nevertheless, a significant Hellenized Diaspora remained, centered in Alexandria, at the time the largest urban Jewish community in the world. Hellenism was a force not just in the Diaspora but also in the Land of Israel over a long period of time. Generally, scholars view Rabbinic Judaism as having been meaningfully influenced by Hellenism.[citation needed] Without a Temple, Greek speaking Jews no longer looked to Jerusalem in the way they had before. Judaism separated into a linguistically Greek and a Hebrew / Aramaic sphere.[79]: 8–11 The theology and religious texts of each community were distinctively different.[79]: 11–13 Hellenized Judaism never developed yeshivas to study the Oral Law. Rabbinic Judaism (centered in the Land of Israel and Babylon) almost entirely ignores the Hellenized Diaspora in its writings.[79]: 13–14 Hellenized Judaism eventually disappeared as its practitioners assimilated into Greco-Roman culture, leaving a strong Rabbinic eastern Diaspora with large centers of learning in Babylon.[79]: 14–16 By the first century, the Jewish community in Babylonia, to which Jews migrated after the Babylonian conquest as well as after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, already held a speedily growing[80] population of an estimated one million Jews, which increased to an estimated two million[81] between the years 200 CE and 500 CE, both by natural growth and by immigration of more Jews from the Land of Israel, making up about one-sixth of the world Jewish population at that era.[81] The 13th-century author Bar Hebraeus gave a figure of 6,944,000 Jews in the Roman world Salo Wittmayer Baron considered the figure convincing.[82] The figure of seven million within and one million outside the Roman world in the mid-first century became widely accepted, including by Louis Feldman. However, contemporary scholars now accept that Bar Hebraeus based his figure on a census of total Roman citizens. The figure of 6,944,000 being recorded in Eusebius' Chronicon.[83][84] Louis Feldman, previously an active supporter of the figure, now states that he and Baron were mistaken.[85]: 185 Feldman's views on active Jewish missionizing have also changed. While viewing classical Judaism as being receptive to converts, especially from the second century BCE through the first century CE, he points to a lack of either missionizing tracts or records of the names of rabbis who sought converts, as evidence for the lack of active Jewish missionizing.[85]: 205–206 Feldman maintains that conversion to Judaism was common and the Jewish population was large both within the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora.[85]: 183–203, 206 Other historians believe that conversion during the Roman era was limited in number and did not account for much of the Jewish population growth, due to various factors such as the illegality of male conversion to Judaism in the Roman world from the mid-second century. Another factor that made conversion difficult in the Roman world was the halakhic requirement of circumcision, a requirement that proselytizing Christianity quickly dropped. The Fiscus Judaicus, a tax imposed on Jews in 70 CE and relaxed to exclude Christians in 96 CE, also limited Judaism's appeal.[86] Who is a Jew? Main articles: Who is a Jew? and Jewish identity Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity,[12] a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used.[87][88] Generally, in modern secular usage Jews include three groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion.[89] According to historian Shaye J. D. Cohen, the status of the offspring of mixed marriages was determined patrilineally in the Bible. He brings two likely explanations for the change in Mishnaic times: first, the Mishnah may have been applying the same logic to mixed marriages as it had applied to other mixtures (Kil'ayim). Thus, a mixed marriage is forbidden as is the union of a horse and a donkey, and in both unions the offspring are judged matrilineally.[93] Second, the Tannaim may have been influenced by Roman law, which dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the mother.[93] Ethnic divisions Jews are often identified as belonging to one of two major groups: the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. Ashkenazim, or "Germanics" (Ashkenaz meaning "Germany" in Hebrew), are so named denoting their German Jewish cultural and geographical origins, while Sephardim, or "Hispanics" (Sefarad meaning "Spain/Hispania" or "Iberia" in Hebrew), are so named denoting their Spanish/Portuguese Jewish cultural and geographic origins. The more common term in Israel for many of those broadly called Sephardim, is Mizrahim (lit. "Easterners", Mizrach being "East" in Hebrew), that is, in reference to the diverse collection of Middle Eastern and North African Jews who are often, as a group, referred to collectively as Sephardim (together with Sephardim proper) for liturgical reasons, although Mizrahi Jewish groups and Sephardi Jews proper are ethnically distinct.[95] Yemenite Jew blows shofar, 1947 Main article: Jewish languages A page from Elia Levita's (right to left) Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary (1542) contains a list of nations, including an entry for Jew: Hebrew: יְהוּדִי‎‎, Yiddish: יוּד‎, German: Jud, Latin: Iudaeus Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue"), the language in which most of the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century BCE, Aramaic, a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea.[99] By the 3rd century BCE, some Jews of the diaspora were speaking Greek.[100] Others, such as in the Jewish communities of Babylonia, were speaking Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Babylonian Talmud. These languages were also used by the Jews of Israel at that time.[citation needed] Despite efforts to revive Hebrew as the national language of the Jewish people, knowledge of the language is not commonly possessed by Jews worldwide and English has emerged as the lingua franca of the Jewish diaspora.[103][104][105][106][107] Although many Jews once had sufficient knowledge of Hebrew to study the classic literature, and Jewish languages like Yiddish and Ladino were commonly used as recently as the early 20th century, most Jews lack such knowledge today and English has by and large superseded most Jewish vernaculars. The three most commonly spoken languages among Jews today are Hebrew, English, and Russian. Some Romance languages, particularly French and Spanish, are also widely used.[5] Yiddish has been spoken by more Jews in history than any other language,[108] but it is far less used today following the Holocaust and the adoption of Modern Hebrew by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. In some places, the mother language of the Jewish community differs from that of the general population or the dominant group. For example, in Quebec, the Ashkenazic majority has adopted English, while the Sephardic minority uses French as its primary language.[109][110][111][112] Similarly, South African Jews adopted English rather than Afrikaans.[113] Due to both Czarist and Soviet policies,[114][115] Russian has superseded Yiddish as the language of Russian Jews, but these policies have also affected neighboring communities.[116] Today, Russian is the first language for many Jewish communities in a number of Post-Soviet states, such as Ukraine[117][118][119][120] and Uzbekistan,[121] as well as for Ashkenazic Jews in Azerbaijan,[122] Georgia,[123] and Tajikistan.[124][125] Although communities in North Africa today are small and dwindling, Jews there had shifted from a multilingual group to a monolingual one (or nearly so), speaking French in Algeria,[126] Morocco,[122] and the city of Tunis,[127][128] while most North Africans continue to use Arabic as their mother tongue.[citation needed] Genetic studies Y DNA studies tend to imply a small number of founders in an old population whose members parted and followed different migration paths.[129] In most Jewish populations, these male line ancestors appear to have been mainly Middle Eastern. For example, Ashkenazi Jews share more common paternal lineages with other Jewish and Middle Eastern groups than with non-Jewish populations in areas where Jews lived in Eastern Europe, Germany and the French Rhine Valley. This is consistent with Jewish traditions in placing most Jewish paternal origins in the region of the Middle East.[130][131] Conversely, the maternal lineages of Jewish populations, studied by looking at mitochondrial DNA, are generally more heterogeneous.[132] Scholars such as Harry Ostrer and Raphael Falk believe this indicates that many Jewish males found new mates from European and other communities in the places where they migrated in the diaspora after fleeing ancient Israel.[133] In contrast, Behar has found evidence that about 40% of Ashkenazi Jews originate maternally from just four female founders, who were of Middle Eastern origin. The populations of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish communities "showed no evidence for a narrow founder effect."[132] Subsequent studies carried out by Feder et al. confirmed the large portion of non-local maternal origin among Ashkenazi Jews. Reflecting on their findings related to the maternal origin of Ashkenazi Jews, the authors conclude "Clearly, the differences between Jews and non-Jews are far larger than those observed among the Jewish communities. Hence, differences between the Jewish communities can be overlooked when non-Jews are included in the comparisons."[134][135][136] Studies of autosomal DNA, which look at the entire DNA mixture, have become increasingly important as the technology develops. They show that Jewish populations have tended to form relatively closely related groups in independent communities, with most in a community sharing significant ancestry in common.[137] For Jewish populations of the diaspora, the genetic composition of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jewish populations show a predominant amount of shared Middle Eastern ancestry. According to Behar, the most parsimonious explanation for this shared Middle Eastern ancestry is that it is "consistent with the historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant" and "the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout the Old World".[138] North African, Italian and others of Iberian origin show variable frequencies of admixture with non-Jewish historical host populations among the maternal lines. In the case of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (in particular Moroccan Jews), who are closely related, the source of non-Jewish admixture is mainly southern European, while Mizrahi Jews show evidence of admixture with other Middle Eastern populations and Sub-Saharan Africans. Behar et al. have remarked on an especially close relationship of Ashkenazi Jews and modern Italians.[138][139][140] Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to Arabs.[141] The studies also show that the Sephardic Bnei Anusim (descendants of the "anusim" forced converts to Catholicism) of Iberia (estimated at about 19.8% of modern Iberia) and Ibero-America (estimated at least 10% of modern Ibero-America) have Sephardic Jewish origins within the last few centuries, while the Bene Israel and Cochin Jews of India, Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and a portion of the Lemba people of Southern Africa, despite more closely resembling the local populations of their native countries, also have some more remote ancient Jewish descent.[142][143][144][136] Further information: Jewish population by country Population centers According to the 2007 estimates of The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the world's Jewish population is 13.2 million.[146] cites figures ranging from 12 to 18 million.[147] These statistics incorporate both practicing Jews affiliated with synagogues and the Jewish community, and approximately 4.5 million unaffiliated and secular Jews.[citation needed] According to Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer of the Jewish population, in 2015 there were about 6.3 million Jews in Israel, 5.7 million in the United States, and 2.3 million in the rest of the world.[148] Main article: Israeli Jews Israel, the Jewish nation-state, is the only country in which Jews make up a majority of the citizens.[149] Israel was established as an independent democratic and Jewish state on May 14, 1948.[150] Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset,[151] as of 2016, 14 members of the Knesset are Arab citizens of Israel (not including the Druze), most representing Arab political parties. One of Israel's Supreme Court judges is also an Arab citizen of Israel.[152] Diaspora (outside Israel) Main article: Jewish diaspora Outside Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia, there are significant Jewish populations in Australia (112,500) and South Africa (70,000).[35] There is also a 7,500-strong community in New Zealand.[citation needed] Demographic changes War and persecution Main article: Persecution of Jews The Jewish people and Judaism have experienced various persecutions throughout Jewish history. During Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages the Roman Empire (in its later phases known as the Byzantine Empire) repeatedly repressed the Jewish population, first by ejecting them from their homelands during the pagan Roman era and later by officially establishing them as second-class citizens during the Christian Roman era.[179][180] The Roman Emperor Nero sends Vespasian with an army to destroy the Jews, 69 CE Later in medieval Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews by Christians occurred, notably during the Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were massacred—and a series of expulsions from the Kingdom of England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain and Portugal after the Reconquista (the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula), where both unbaptized Sephardic Jews and the ruling Muslim Moors were expelled.[182][183] Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religions and administer their internal affairs, but they were subject to certain conditions.[185] They had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to the Islamic state.[185] Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims.[186] Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The one described by Bernard Lewis as "most degrading"[187] was the requirement of distinctive clothing, not found in the Quran or hadith but invented in early medieval Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic.[187] On the other hand, Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession.[188] Notable exceptions include the massacre of Jews and forcible conversion of some Jews by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus in the 12th century,[189] as well as in Islamic Persia,[190] and the forced confinement of Moroccan Jews to walled quarters known as mellahs beginning from the 15th century and especially in the early 19th century.[191] In modern times, it has become commonplace for standard antisemitic themes to be conflated with anti-Zionist publications and pronouncements of Islamic movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Turkish Refah Partisi."[192] Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. The history of antisemitism includes the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews;[182] the Spanish Inquisition (led by Tomás de Torquemada) and the Portuguese Inquisition, with their persecution and autos-da-fé against the New Christians and Marrano Jews;[193] the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in Ukraine;[194] the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars;[195] as well as expulsions from Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled.[183] According to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19.8% of the modern Iberian population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry,[196] indicating that the number of conversos may have been much higher than originally thought.[197][198] The persecution reached a peak in Nazi Germany's Final Solution, which led to the Holocaust and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews.[199] Of the world's 15 million Jews in 1939, more than a third were killed in the Holocaust.[200][201] The Holocaust—the state-led systematic persecution and genocide of European Jews (and certain communities of North African Jews in European controlled North Africa) and other minority groups of Europe during World War II by Germany and its collaborators remains the most notable modern-day persecution of Jews.[202] The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II.[203] Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease.[204] Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in Eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.[205] Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers.[206] Virtually every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."[207] Jews fleeing pogroms, 1882 Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled from both their original homeland, the Land of Israel, and many of the areas in which they have settled. This experience as refugees has shaped Jewish identity and religious practice in many ways, and is thus a major element of Jewish history.[208] The incomplete list of major and other noteworthy migrations that follows includes numerous instances of expulsion or departure under duress: A man praying at the Western Wall Israel is the only country with a Jewish population that is consistently growing through natural population growth, although the Jewish populations of other countries, in Europe and North America, have recently increased through immigration. In the Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining or steady, but Orthodox and Haredi Jewish communities, whose members often shun birth control for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth.[231] Main article: Jewish leadership Notable individuals Main article: Lists of Jews See also 1. ^ 14.3 million (core Jewish population) to 17,4 million (including non-Jews who have a Jewish parent), according to: 14–14.5 million according to: 2. ^ Population, by Population Group (PDF) (Report). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2016. 3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u DellaPergola, Sergio (2015). World Jewish Population, 2015 (Report). Berman Jewish DataBank. Retrieved 4 May 2016. 11. ^ Jespersen, Otto (2013). A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles : Volume 1, Sounds and Spellings. City: Routledge. p. 384. ISBN 1135663513. 12. ^ a b 18. ^ "Facts About Israel: History". GxMSDev. 19. ^ Kenton L. Sparks,Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel: Prolegomena to the Study of Ethnic Sentiments and Their Expression in the Hebrew Bible, Eisenbrauns, 1998 pp.95ff.p.108.:'The probable use of the "Israel" by the people of Israel can reasonably imply two things: both a common cultural identity and a shared devotion to the god El.' 21. ^ Thomas L. Thompson, Early History of the Israelite People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources, BRILL, 2000 pp.275-276:'They are rather a very specific group among the population of Palestine which bears a name that occurs here for the first time that at a much later stage in Palestine's history bears a substantially different signification.' 22. ^ John Day,[In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel,] Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005 pp.47.5p.48:'In this sense, the emergence of ancient Israel is viewed not as the cause of the demise of Canaanite culture but as its upshot'. 23. ^ Day,pp.31-33,p.57.n.33. 24. ^ Rainer Albertz, Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E., Society of Biblical Lit, 2003 pp.45ff:'Since the exilic era constitutes a gaping hole in the historical narrative of the Bible, historical reconstruction of this era faces almost insurmountable difficulties. Like the premonarchic period and the late Persian period, the exilic period, though set in the bright light of Ancient Near Eastern history, remains historically obscure. Since there are very few Israelite sources, the only recourse is to try to cast some light on this darkness from the history of the surrounding empires under whose dominion Israel came in this period.' 25. ^ Marvin Perry (1 January 2012). Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume I: To 1789. Cengage Learning. p. 87. ISBN 1-111-83720-1. 26. ^ Botticini, Maristella and Zvi Eckstein. "From Farmers to Merchants, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of History." p. 18-19. August 2006. Accessed 21 November, 2015. "The death toll of the Great Revolt against the Roman empire amounted to about 600,000 Jews, whereas the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 caused the death of about 500,000 Jews. Massacres account for roughly 40 percent of the decrease of the Jewish population in Palestine. Moreover, some Jews migrated to Babylon after these revolts because of the worse economic conditions. After accounting for massacres and migrations, there is an additional 30 to 40 percent of the decrease in the Jewish population in Palestine (about 1—1.3 million Jews) to be explained" (p. 19). 27. ^ Boyarin, Daniel, and Jonathan Boyarin. 2003. Diaspora: Generation and the Ground of Jewish Diaspora. p. 714 " is crucial to recognize that the Jewish conception of the Land of Israel is similar to the discourse of the Land of many (if not nearly all) "indigenous" peoples of the world. Somehow the Jews have managed to retain a sense of being rooted somewhere in the world through twenty centuries of exile from that someplace (organic metaphors are not out of place in this discourse, for they are used within the tradition itself). It is profoundly disturbing to hear Jewish attachment to the Land decried as regressive in the same discursive situations in which the attachment of native Americans or Australians to their particular rocks, trees, and deserts is celebrated as an organic connection to the Earth that "we" have lost" p. 714. 28. ^ Cohen, Robin. 1997. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. p. 24 London: UCL Press. "...although the word Babylon often connotes captivity and oppression, a rereading of the Babylonian period of exile can thus be shown to demonstrate the development of a new creative energy in a challenging, pluralistic context outside the natal homeland. When the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in AD 70, it was Babylon that remained as the nerve- and brain-centre for Jewish life and thought...the crushing of the revolt of the Judaeans against the Romans and the destruction of the Second Temple by the Roman general Titus in AD 70 precisely confirmed the catastrophic tradition. Once again, Jews had been unable to sustain a national homeland and were scattered to the far corners of the world" (p. 24). 29. ^ Johnson, Paul A History of the Jews "The Bar Kochba Revolt," (HarperPerennial, 1987) pp. 158-161.: Paul Johnson analyzes Cassius Dio's Roman History: Epitome of Book LXIX para. 13-14 (Dio's passage cited separately) among other sources: "Even if Dio's figures are somewhat exaggerated, the casualties amongst the population and the destruction inflicted on the country would have been considerable. According to Jerome, many Jews were also sold into slavery, so many, indeed, that the price of Jewish slaves at the slave market in Hebron sank drastically to a level no greater than that for a horse. The economic structure of the country was largely destroyed. The entire spiritual and economic life of the Palestinian Jews moved to Galilee. Jerusalem was now turned into a Roman colony with the official name Colonia Aelia Capitolina (Aelia after Hadrian's family name: P. Aelius Hadrianus; Capitolina after Jupiter Capitolinus). The Jews were forbidden on pain of death to set foot in the new Roman city. Aelia thus became a completely pagan city, no doubt with the corresponding public buildings and temples...We certain that a statue of Hadrian was erected in the centre of Aelia, and this was tantamount in itself to a desecration of Jewish Jerusalem." p. 159. 31. ^ Safran, William. 2005. The Jewish Diaspora in a Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. Israel Studies 10 (1): 36.[dead link] "...diaspora referred to a very specific case—that of the exile of the Jews from the Holy Land and their dispersal throughout several parts of the globe. Diaspora [ galut] connoted deracination, legal disabilities, oppression, and an often painful adjustment to a hostland whose hospitality was unreliable and ephemeral. It also connoted the existence on foreign soil of an expatriate community that considered its presence to be transitory. Meanwhile, it developed a set of institutions, social patterns, and ethnonational and/or religious sym- bols that held it together. These included the language, religion, values, social norms, and narratives of the homeland. Gradually, this community adjusted to the hostland environment and became itself a center of cultural creation. All the while, however, it continued to cultivate the idea of return to the homeland." (p. 36). 32. ^ Sheffer, Gabriel. 2005. Is the Jewish Diaspora Unique? Reflections on the Diaspora's Current Situation. Israel Studies 10 (1): p. 3-4. "...the Jewish nation, which from its very earliest days believed and claimed that it was the "chosen people," and hence unique. This attitude has further been buttressed by the equally traditional view, which is held not only by the Jews themselves, about the exceptional historical age of this diaspora, its singular traumatic experiences its singular ability to survive pogroms, exiles, and Holocaust, as well as its "special relations" with its ancient homeland, culminating in 1948 with the nation-state that the Jewish nation has established there... First, like many other members of established diasporas, the vast majority of Jews no longer regard themselves as being in Galut [exile] in their host countries.7 Perceptually, as well as actually, Jews permanently reside in host countries of their own free will, as a result of inertia, or as a result of problematic conditions prevailing in other hostlands, or in Israel. It means that the basic perception of many Jews about their existential situation in their hostlands has changed. Consequently, there is both a much greater self- and collective-legitimatization to refrain from making serious plans concerning "return" or actually "making Aliyah" [to emigrate, or "go up"] to Israel. This is one of the results of their wider, yet still rather problematic and sometimes painful acceptance by the societies and political systems in their host countries. It means that they, and to an extent their hosts, do not regard Jewish life within the framework of diasporic formations in these hostlands as something that they should be ashamed of, hide from others, or alter by returning to the old homeland" (p. 4). 33. ^ Davies, William David; Finkelstein, Louis; Katz, Steven T. (1984-01-01). The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521772488. Although Dio's figure of 985 as the number of villages destroyed during the war seems hypberbolic, all Judaean villages, without exception, excavated thus far were razed following the Bar Kochba Revolt. This evidence supports the impression of total regional destruction following the war. Historical sources note the vast number of captives sold into slavery in Palestine and shipped abroad." ... "The Judaean Jewish community never recovered from the Bar Kochba war. In its wake, Jews no longer formed the majority in Palestine, and the Jewish center moved to the Galilee. Jews were also subjected to a series of religious edicts promulgated by Hadrian that were designed to uproot the nationalistic elements with the Judaean Jewish community, these proclamations remained in effect until Hadrian's death in 138. An additional, more lasting punitive measure taken by the Romans involved expunging Judaea from the provincial name, changing it from Provincia Judaea to Provincia Syria Palestina. Although such name changes occurred elsewhere, never before or after was a nation's name expunged as the result of rebellion. 34. ^ Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Exclusive Inclusivity: Identity Conflicts Between the Exiles and the People who Remained (6th-5th Centuries BCE), A&C Black, 2013 p.xv n.3:'it is argued that biblical texts of the Neo-Babylonian and the early Persian periods show a fierce adversarial relationship(s) between the Judean groups. We find no expressions of sympathy to the deported community for its dislocation, no empathic expressions towards the People Who Remained under Babylonian subjugation in Judah. The opposite is apparent: hostile, denigrating, and denunciating language characterizes the relationships between resident and exiled Judeans throughout the sixth and fifth centuries.' (p.xvii) 36. ^ "Holocaust \| Basic questions about the Holocaust". Retrieved 2015-11-10. 37. ^ "The Holocaust - World War II -". Retrieved 2015-11-10. 42. ^ "Maimonides - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Retrieved 26 August 2015. 44. ^ "Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy". DC Theatre Scene. 45. ^ Roni Caryn Rabin Exhibition Traces the emergence of Jews as medical innovators, The New York Times (May 14, 2012). Accessed August 16, 2015. 48. ^ "Jew", Oxford English Dictionary. 52. ^ "Jew". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Archived from the original on August 5, 2011. Retrieved 2012-04-02. 54. ^ Tubb, 1998. pg-13-14 57. ^ Jonathan M Golden,Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction, OUP USA, 2009 pp.3-4. 58. ^ Judah: Hebrew Tribe, Encyclopædia Britannica 59. ^ Broshi, Maguen (2001). Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 1-84127-201-9. 60. ^ Julia Phillips Berger, Sue Parker Gerson (2006). Teaching Jewish History. Behrman House, Inc. p. 41. ISBN 9780867051834. 62. ^ The Hebrews: A Learning Module from Washington State University, © Richard Hooker, reprinted by permission by the Jewish Virtual Library under The Babylonian Exile 63. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 82. 70. ^ Neusner (1991) p. 64 73. ^ a b Sharot (1997), pp. 29–30. 74. ^ Sharot (1997), pp. 42–3. 75. ^ Sharot (1997), p. 42. 79. ^ a b c d Mark Avrum Ehrlich, ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851098736. 81. ^ a b [Dr. Solomon Gryazel, "History of the Jews – From the destruction of Judah in 586 BC to the preset Arab Israeli conflict", p. 137] 82. ^ Salo Wittmayer Baron (1937). A Social and Religious History of the Jews, by Salo Wittmayer Baron ... Volume 1 of A Social and Religious History of the Jews. Columbia University Press. p. 132. 83. ^ Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities. Routledge. London and New york. 2002. pp. 90, 94, 104–105. ISBN 9780203446348. 84. ^ Leonard Victor Rutgers (1998). The Hidden Heritage of Diaspora Judaism: Volume 20 of Contributions to biblical exegesis and theology. Peeters Publishers. p. 202. ISBN 9789042906662. 85. ^ a b c Louis H. Feldman (2006). Judaism And Hellenism Reconsidered. BRILL. 91. ^ "What is the source of the law that a child is Jewish only if its mother is Jewish?". Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-09. 92. ^ Dosick (2007), pp. 56–7. 94. ^ Dosick (2007), p. 60. 95. ^ Dosick (2007), p. 59. 98. ^ Dosick (2007), p. 61. 100. ^ Feldman (2006), p. 54. 102. ^ "Israel and the United States: Friends, Partners, Allies" (PDF). Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 13, 2011. Retrieved 2012-04-02. 105. ^ Elana Shohamy (2010). Negotiating Language Policy in Schools: Educators as Policymakers. Routledge. p. 185. ISBN 9781135146214. This priority given to English is related to the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and the current status of English as a lingua franca for Jews worldwide. 106. ^ Elan Ezrachi (2012). Dynamic Belonging: Contemporary Jewish Collective Identities. Bergahn Books. p. 214. ISBN 9780857452580. As Stephen P. Cohen observes: 'English is the language of Jewish universal discourse.' 107. ^ "Jewish Languages — How Do We Talk To Each Other?". Jewish Agency. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-05. Only a minority of the Jewish people today can actually speak Hebrew. In order for a Jew from one country to talk to another who speaks a different language, it is more common to use English than Hebrew. 111. ^ Edna Aizenberg (2012). Contemporary Sephardic Identity in the Americas: An Interdisciplinary Approach. p. xxii. ISBN 9780815651659. 112. ^ Gerald Tulchinsky (2008). Canada's Jews: A People's Journey. pp. 447–49. ISBN 9780802093868. 113. ^ Jessica Piombo (2009-08-03). Institutions, Ethnicity, and Political Mobilization in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 51. ISBN 9780230623828. 114. ^ Andrew Noble Koss (dissertation) (2010). "World War I and the Remaking of Jewish Vilna, 1914–1918". Stanford University: 30–31. 115. ^ Paul Wexler (2006). "Chapter 38: Evaluating Soviet Yiddish Language Policy Between 1917–1950". Jewish and Non-Jewish Creators of "Jewish Languages". Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 780. ISBN 9783447054041. 118. ^ Subtelny, O. (2009). Ukraine: A History, 4th Edition. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. ISBN 978-1-4426-9728-7. Retrieved 2015-03-12. 119. ^ Congress, E.P.; Gonzalez, M.J. (2005). Multicultural Perspectives in Working with Families. Springer Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8261-3146-1. Retrieved 2015-03-12. 120. ^ Anshel Pfeffer (March 14, 2014). "The Jews who said 'no' to Putin". Haaretz. Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. 122. ^ a b Moshe Ma'oz (2011). Muslim Attitudes towards Jews and Israel. pp. 135, 160. ISBN 9781845195274. 123. ^ Yaakov Kleiman (2004). DNA & Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews. Devora Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 9781930143890. The community is divided between 'native' Georgian Jews and Russian-speaking Ashkenazim who began migrating there at the beginning of the 19th century, and especially during World War II. 126. ^ Gafaiti, Hafid (2009-07-01). Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. p. 234. ISBN 0803224656. 127. ^ Gottreich, Emily Benichou; Schroeter, Daniel J (2011-07-01). Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa. pp. 258, 270. ISBN 0253001463. 128. ^ "Tunisia \| JDC". Retrieved 2015-03-12. 130. ^ Nebel Almut; Filon Dvora; Brinkmann Bernd; Majumder Partha P.; Faerman Marina; Oppenheim Ariella (2001). "The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East". The American Journal of Human Genetics 69 (5): 1095–112. doi:10.1086/324070. PMC 1274378. PMID 11573163. 131. ^ Molecular Photofitting: Predicting Ancestry and Phenotype Using DNA by Tony Nick Frudakis P:383 [3] 132. ^ a b Behar DM, Metspalu E, Kivisild T; et al. (2008). MacAulay, Vincent, ed. "Counting the Founders: The Matrilineal Genetic Ancestry of the Jewish Diaspora". PLoS ONE 3 (4): e2062. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.2062B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002062. PMC 2323359. PMID 18446216. 133. ^ Lewontin, Richard (6 December 2012). "Is There a Jewish Gene?". New York Review of Books. 139. ^ Zoossmann-Diskin, Avshalom (2010). "The Origin of Eastern European Jews Revealed by Autosomal, Sex Chromosomal and mtDNA Polymorphisms". Biol Direct 5 (57): 57. doi:10.1186/1745-6150-5-57. PMC 2964539. PMID 20925954. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. 141. ^ PubMed 11573163 145. ^ "Jewish population in the world and in Israel" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 147. ^ "Judaism, continued...". Retrieved 26 August 2015. 148. ^ "The Jewish people in 2050: 2 very different scenarios". ynet. 159. ^ Goldstein (1995) p. 24 161. ^ Gartner (2001), p. 213. 172. ^ Edinger, Bernard (December 15, 2005). "Chinese Jews: Reverence for Ancestors". Shavei Israel. Archived from the original on October 3, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-02. 173. ^ Elazar (2003), p. 434. 174. ^ "NJPS: Defining and Calculating Intermarriage". Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved 2012-04-02. 185. ^ a b Lewis (1984), pp. 10, 20 186. ^ Lewis (1987), p. 9, 27 187. ^ a b Lewis (1999), p.131 191. ^ Lewis (1984), p. 28. 193. ^ Johnson (1987), pp. 226–9. 194. ^ Johnson (1987), pp. 259–60. 195. ^ a b Johnson (1987), pp. 364–5. 199. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 512. 203. ^ Johnson (1987), pp. 484–8. 204. ^ Johnson (1987), pp. 490–2. 206. ^ Johnson (1987), pp. 493–8. 208. ^ de Lange (2002), pp. 41–3. 209. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 10. 210. ^ Hirsch, Emil G.; Seligsohn, Max; Bacher, Wilhelm (1901–1906). "NIMROD". In Singer, Isidore; et al. Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. 211. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 30. 212. ^ a b Daniel L. Smith-Christopher,The Religion of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile , Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015 pp.30ff. 213. ^ Baruch Halpern, in Jerrold S. Cooper, Glenn M. Schwartz (eds.), The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference, Eisenbrauns, 1996 p.311. 214. ^ Megan Bishop Moore, Brad E. Kelle, Biblical History and Israel S Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2011 p.307. 215. ^ Sarah J. Dille, Mixing Metaphors: God as Mother and Father in Deutero-Isaiah, A&C Black, 2004 p.81 217. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 147. 218. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 163. 219. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 177. 220. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 231. 221. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 460. 225. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 306. 226. ^ Johnson (1987), p. 370. 232. ^ Kaplan (2003), p. 301. Further reading External links
List of birds of the Bahamas From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This is a list of the bird species recorded in the Bahamas. The avifauna of the Bahamas include a total of 324 species, of which five are endemic, eleven have been introduced by humans and 153 are rare or accidental. Two species listed are extirpated in the Bahamas and are not included in the species count. Ten species are globally threatened. This list's taxonomic treatment (designation and sequence of orders, families and species) and nomenclature (common and scientific names) follow the conventions of The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 5th edition. The family accounts at the beginning of each heading reflect this taxonomy, as do the species counts found in each family account. Introduced and accidental species are included in the total counts for the Bahamas. The following tags have been used to highlight several categories, but not all species fall into one of these categories. Those that do not are commonly occurring native species. • (A) Accidental - a species that rarely or accidentally occurs in the Bahamas • (E) Endemic - a species endemic to the Bahamas • (I) Introduced - a species introduced to the Bahamas as a consequence, direct or indirect, of human actions • (Ex) Extirpated - a species that no longer occurs in the Bahamas although populations exist elsewhere Order: Podicipediformes Family: Podicipedidae Grebes are small to medium-large freshwater diving birds. They have lobed toes and are excellent swimmers and divers. However, they have their feet placed far back on the body, making them quite ungainly on land. Shearwaters and petrels[edit] Order: Procellariiformes Family: Procellariidae The procellariids are the main group of medium-sized "true petrels", characterised by united nostrils with medium septum and a long outer functional primary. Storm petrels[edit] Order: Procellariiformes Family: Hydrobatidae Order: Phaethontiformes Family: Phaethontidae Boobies and gannets[edit] Order: Suliformes Family: Sulidae The sulids comprise the gannets and boobies. Both groups are medium to large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish. Order: Suliformes Family: Phalacrocoracidae Phalacrocoracidae is a family of medium to large coastal, fish-eating seabirds that includes cormorants and shags. Plumage colouration varies, with the majority having mainly dark plumage, some species being black-and-white and a few being colourful. Order: Suliformes Family: Anhingidae Darters are often called "snake-birds" because of their long thin neck, which gives a snake-like appearance when they swim with their bodies submerged. The males have black and dark-brown plumage, an erectile crest on the nape and a larger bill than the female. The females have much paler plumage especially on the neck and underparts. The darters have completely webbed feet and their legs are short and set far back on the body. Their plumage is somewhat permeable, like that of cormorants, and they spread their wings to dry after diving. Order: Suliformes Family: Fregatidae Frigatebirds are large seabirds usually found over tropical oceans. They are large, black-and-white or completely black, with long wings and deeply forked tails. The males have coloured inflatable throat pouches. They do not swim or walk and cannot take off from a flat surface. Having the largest wingspan-to-body-weight ratio of any bird, they are essentially aerial, able to stay aloft for more than a week. Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Pelecanidae Bitterns, herons and egrets[edit] Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Ardeidae The family Ardeidae contains the bitterns, herons and egrets. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns tend to be shorter necked and more wary. Members of Ardeidae fly with their necks retracted, unlike other long-necked birds such as storks, ibises and spoonbills. Ibises and spoonbills[edit] Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Threskiornithidae Order: Ciconiiformes Family: Ciconiidae Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked, wading birds with long, stout bills. Storks are mute, but bill-clattering is an important mode of communication at the nest. Their nests can be large and may be reused for many years. Many species are migratory. Order: Phoenicopteriformes Family: Phoenicopteridae Flamingos are gregarious wading birds, usually 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 m) tall, found in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Flamingos filter-feed on shellfish and algae. Their oddly shaped beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they consume and, uniquely, are used upside-down. Ducks, geese and swans[edit] Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae Anatidae includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl, such as geese and swans. These birds are adapted to an aquatic existence with webbed feet, flattened bills, and feathers that are excellent at shedding water due to an oily coating. New World vultures[edit] Order: Cathartiformes Family: Cathartidae Order: Accipitriformes Family: Pandionidae The Pandionidae family contains only one species, the osprey. The osprey is a medium-large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution. Hawks, kites and eagles[edit] Order: Accipitriformes Family: Accipitridae Caracaras and falcons[edit] Order: Falconiformes Family: Falconidae Falconidae is a family of diurnal birds of prey. They differ from hawks, eagles and kites in that they kill with their beaks instead of their talons. New World quails[edit] Order: Galliformes Family: Odontophoridae Pheasants and partridges[edit] Order: Galliformes Family: Phasianidae The Phasianidae are a family of terrestrial birds which consists of quails, partridges, snowcocks, francolins, spurfowls, tragopans, monals, pheasants, peafowls and jungle fowls. In general, they are plump (although they vary in size) and have broad, relatively short wings. Order: Gruiformes Family: Aramidae The limpkin resembles a large rail. It has drab-brown plumage and a greyer head and neck. Rails, crakes, gallinules and coots[edit] Order: Gruiformes Family: Rallidae Order: Charadriiformes Family: Haematopodidae Avocets and stilts[edit] Order: Charadriiformes Family: Recurvirostridae Order: Charadriiformes Family: Burhinidae The thick-knees are a group of largely tropical waders in the family Burhinidae. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone, with some species also breeding in temperate Europe and Australia. They are medium to large waders with strong black or yellow-black bills, large yellow eyes and cryptic plumage. Despite being classed as waders, most species have a preference for arid or semi-arid habitats. Plovers and lapwings[edit] Order: Charadriiformes Family: Charadriidae The family Charadriidae includes the plovers, dotterels and lapwings. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short, thick necks and long, usually pointed, wings. They are found in open country worldwide, mostly in habitats near water. Sandpipers and allies[edit] Order: Charadriiformes Family: Scolopacidae Scolopacidae is a large diverse family of small to medium-sized shorebirds including the sandpipers, curlews, godwits, shanks, tattlers, woodcocks, snipes, dowitchers and phalaropes. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Variation in length of legs and bills enables multiple species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food. There are 89 species worldwide and 24 species which occur in the Bahamas. Skuas and jaegers[edit] Order: Charadriiformes Family: Stercorariidae Gulls, terns and skimmers[edit] Order: Charadriiformes Family: Laridae Laridae is a family of medium to large seabirds and includes gulls, kittiwakes, terns and skimmers. They are typically grey or white, often with black markings on the head or wings. They have longish bills and webbed feet. Terns are a group of generally medium to large seabirds typically with grey or white plumage, often with black markings on the head. Most terns hunt fish by diving but some pick insects off the surface of fresh water. Terns are generally long-lived birds, with several species known to live in excess of 30 years. Skimmers are a small family of tropical tern-like birds. They have an elongated lower mandible which they use to feed by flying low over the water surface and skimming the water for small fish. Auks, murres and puffins[edit] Order: Charadriiformes Family: Alcidae Alcids are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits, however they are not related to the penguins and differ in being able to fly. Auks live on the open sea, only deliberately coming ashore to nest. Pigeons and doves[edit] Order: Columbiformes Family: Columbidae Parrots, macaws and allies[edit] Order: Psittaciformes Family: Psittacidae Parrots are small to large birds with a characteristic curved beak. Their upper mandibles have slight mobility in the joint with the skull and they have a generally erect stance. All parrots are zygodactyl, having the four toes on each foot placed two at the front and two to the back. Cuckoos and anis[edit] Order: Cuculiformes Family: Cuculidae The family Cuculidae includes cuckoos, roadrunners and anis. These birds are of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. The Old World cuckoos are brood parasites. Barn owls[edit] Order: Strigiformes Family: Tytonidae Typical owls[edit] Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae The typical owls are small to large solitary nocturnal birds of prey. They have large forward-facing eyes and ears, a hawk-like beak and a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk. Order: Caprimulgiformes Family: Caprimulgidae Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal birds that usually nest on the ground. They have long wings, short legs and very short bills. Most have small feet, of little use for walking, and long pointed wings. Their soft plumage is camouflaged to resemble bark or leaves. Order: Apodiformes Family: Apodidae Swifts are small birds which spend the majority of their lives flying. These birds have very short legs and never settle voluntarily on the ground, perching instead only on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long swept-back wings which resemble a crescent or boomerang. Order: Trochiliformes Family: Trochilidae Hummingbirds are small birds capable of hovering in mid-air due to the rapid flapping of their wings. They are the only birds that can fly backwards. One species, Brace's emerald was endemic but is now extinct Order: Coraciiformes Family: Alcedinidae Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long, pointed bills, short legs and stubby tails. Woodpeckers and allies[edit] Order: Piciformes Family: Picidae Tyrant flycatchers[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Tyrannidae Swallows and martins[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Hirundinidae The family Hirundinidae is adapted to aerial feeding. They have a slender streamlined body, long pointed wings and a short bill with a wide gape. The feet are adapted to perching rather than walking, and the front toes are partially joined at the base. Wagtails and pipits[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Motacillidae Order: Passeriformes Family: Regulidae The kinglets, also called crests, are a small group of birds often included in the Old World warblers, but frequently given family status because they also resemble the titmice. Order: Passeriformes Family: Bombycillidae The waxwings are a group of birds with soft silky plumage and unique red tips to some of the wing feathers. In the Bohemian and cedar waxwings, these tips look like sealing wax and give the group its name. These are arboreal birds of northern forests. They live on insects in summer and berries in winter. Order: Passeriformes Family: Troglodytidae The wrens are mainly small and inconspicuous except for their loud songs. These birds have short wings and thin down-turned bills. Several species often hold their tails upright. All are insectivorous. Mockingbirds and thrashers[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Mimidae The mimids are a family of passerine birds that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers and the New World catbirds. These birds are notable for their vocalizations, especially their ability to mimic a wide variety of birds and other sounds heard outdoors. Their colouring tends towards dull-greys and browns . Thrushes and allies[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Turdidae Order: Passeriformes Family: Polioptilidae These dainty birds resemble Old World warblers in their build and habits, moving restlessly through the foliage seeking insects. The gnatcatchers and gnatwrens are mainly soft bluish grey in colour and have the typical insectivore's long sharp bill. They are birds of fairly open woodland or scrub, which nest in bushes or trees. Old World flycatchers[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Muscicapidae Old World flycatchers are a large group of small passerine birds native to the Old World. They are mainly small arboreal insectivores. The appearance of these birds is highly varied, but they mostly have weak songs and harsh calls. Order: Passeriformes Family: Sittidae Order: Passeriformes Family: Laniidae Crows, jays, ravens and magpies[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae The family Corvidae includes crows, ravens, jays, choughs, magpies, treepies, nutcrackers and ground jays. Corvids are above average in size among the Passeriformes, and some of the larger species show high levels of intelligence. Order: Passeriformes Family: Sturnidae Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds. Their flight is strong and direct and they are very gregarious. Their preferred habitat is fairly open country. They eat insects and fruit. Plumage is typically dark with a metallic sheen. Order: Passeriformes Family: Vireonidae The vireos are a group of small to medium-sized passerine birds restricted to the New World. They are typically greenish in colour and resemble wood warblers apart from their heavier bills. Longspurs and snow buntings[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Calcariidae The Calcariidae are a group of passerine birds that have been traditionally grouped with the Emberizeridae (New World sparrows), but differ in a number of respects and are usually found in open grassy areas. New World warblers[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Parulidae Order: Passeriformes Family: Coerebidae The bananaquit is a small passerine bird. It has a slender, curved bill, adapted to taking nectar from flowers. It is the only member of the genus Coereba and is normally placed within the family Coerebidae, although there is uncertainty whether that placement is correct. Order: Passeriformes Family: Thraupidae Sparrows, seedeaters and allies[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Emberizidae Saltators, cardinals and allies[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Cardinalidae The cardinals are a family of robust, seed-eating birds with strong bills. They are typically associated with open woodland. The sexes usually have distinct plumages. Troupials and allies[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Icteridae The icterids are a group of small to medium-sized, often colourful, passerine birds restricted to the New World and include the grackles, New World blackbirds and New World orioles. Most species have black as the predominant plumage colour, often enlivened by yellow, orange or red. Siskins, crossbills and allies[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Fringillidae Finches are seed-eating passerine birds, that are small to moderately large and have a strong beak, usually conical and in some species very large. All have twelve tail feathers and nine primaries. These birds have a bouncing flight with alternating bouts of flapping and gliding on closed wings, and most sing well. Old World sparrows[edit] Order: Passeriformes Family: Passeridae Sparrows are small passerine birds. In general, sparrows tend to be small, plump, brown or grey birds with short tails and short powerful beaks. Sparrows are seed eaters, but they also consume small insects. See also[edit] 1. ^ Hayes, William K.; Robert X. Barry; Zeko McKenzie; Patricia Barry (2004). "Grand Bahama’s Brown-headed Nuthatch: A Distinct and Endangered Species" (PDF). Bahamas Journal of Science 12 (1): 21–28.
Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop Forgot your password? Science Technology How the Ancient Egyptians (Should Have) Built the Pyramids 202 How the Ancient Egyptians (Should Have) Built the Pyramids Comments Filter: • by fermion ( 181285 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2014 @03:31PM (#47759577) Homepage Journal Nice Explaination: Lots of beer and bread Not so Nice:Whips and violence Some of the confusion seems to come from an unwillingness to accept that humans can be very self absorbed and mean. While some form of simple machinery must have been used, the basic resource for the pyramids was an expendable supply of labor. People tend to accept harder or more dangerous work if that is the life they know. We saw that recently in coal mining disaster where many people died because the owners did not have a practice of clearing the mine between shift changes. It increases profits and make coal cheaper, but is a huge risk to the workers. Raising the pyramids was probably not different. • String Theorists (Score:5, Insightful) by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2014 @04:40PM (#47760139) Journal Well, this method comes from physicists. Clearly string theorists since, according to the summary, it creates a "dodecadron" cross-section. So having a cross-section somewhere between a 2D dodecagon and a 3D dodecahedron it clearly relies on converting the block into some multi-dimensional object with a strangely dimensioned cross-section. • by careysub ( 976506 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2014 @05:04PM (#47760329) Did you read this article you linked to? It refutes this theory: The key failing of the cradle and the (actually extremely similar) pole theory is that it does not explain how they moved the far larger slabs that were not square blocks. Also we have actual evidence of their methods - dragging on sledges. We have sledges, sledge tracks, and pictures of giant statues being dragged on sledges. They took the time to draw us a diagram, and people still look for other answers.
October 24, 2011 Cadence As a Running Tool by: Grant Robison October 2011 For more information log onto: 1 comment: 1. Mr. Robison writes, "Basically, when you take 180 steps in a minute it is difficult to heel strike, which fundamentally contributes to many running injuries." I would submit that heel striking has not been proven to contribute to running injuries any more than midfoot striking or forefoot striking have. While Mr. Robison, a 1500 meter specialist, may well have run more miles using a forefoot strike than most of us, and more faster miles than most of us, that could very well be the reason that he feels that heel striking is the "wrong" (my wording) way to run. If he were to run a half or full marathon at a 9 or 10 minute mile pace--something more like what the "average" runner might do--he might very well adopt a heel-striking landing himself. Consider: all world-class 100 meter dash runners land on the forefoot, almost all world-class 10,000 meter runners land on the forefoot, some world-class marathon runners land on the forefoot, almost no world-class 100 mile runners land on the forefoot, no world-class 6-day runners land on the forefoot. The way you land is a function of your speed. We could all run 50 meters with a forefoot landing: it would probably feel natural. Very few of us could run a marathon with a forefoot landing: it would probably feel forced. It is generally agreed that landing under the Center of Gravity (I have coined the term "CoG Running,") is probably the best place to land, and it is generally agreed that a stride rate of about 180 steps per minute is probably the most efficient stride rate. Beyond that, there is not a consensus. The take home lesson: if you've been injury-free, you're probably doing it the right way for your body.
How Gold Can Help Stabilize The Balance Sheets Of Central Banks \| Includes: GDX, GDXJ, GLD by: Investment Biker Since the onset of the crisis, the world's monetary authorities have been forced to ditch their inherent conservatism and embrace extreme measures on an unprecedented scale to stave off financial and economic collapse. Central banks have repeatedly been called on to step in, providing exceptional levels of support to the financial system, when governments have been unable or unwilling to act. Along the way, central bankers - traditionally seen as a reserved and cerebral bunch - have assumed the role of fire fighting saviors. Central banks across the developed countries have deployed their balance sheets in unprecedented ways. Total debt levels in the developed countries remain at elevated levels, post the credit bubble burst in 2008 leading to deflation risk. Consumers, banks and governments are trying to deleverage as debt has overwhelmed the economy's debt-servicing capacity. This mounting government debt poses a painful choice for developed countries that would lead to slower growth as record levels of borrowing curtail economic activity. (click to enlarge)Click to enlarge During debt crisis, bad debt ends in the books of central bank through Quantitative Easing. Many consider purchase of bad debt by central bank as the ultimate solution, as central bank is bestowed with the power to print unlimited amount of money into the system. Post credit crisis, there has been a great swap of debt from the private to the public sector, with consumers and corporates in the US reducing debt while the public sector has taken on more leverage. Click to enlarge Central bank can create only excess liquidity and not wealth In the initial stages, the losses eat into the equity and accumulated profits. Any losses beyond this absorption capacity lead to inflation. The fiscal deficits of the developed countries are monetized by the central banks. Countries running deficits for longer periods of time would face lengthier monetization process, which leads to explosion of their balance sheet, finally resulting in inflation. Governments whose debt is monetized by central bank with insufficient asset base leads to hyper inflation. The entire process of monetizing government debt takes place in the name of stimulating the economy, new jobs and weaker currency that would keep borrowing rates low. Now let us look into what happens when bad debt exceeds the loss-absorption capacity? In the event of extreme losses, central bank would be unable to withdraw the excess liquidity created during its asset-purchase programs. The quantity of amount it cannot withdraw due to a lack of assets determines the amount of inflation that will follow. There are 3 ways for central banks to withdraw excess liquidity which has its own drawbacks. 1. Sell assets Wholesale selling of assets could depress their price 2. Issuing bills Need for high interest rate to induce banks to park funds 3. Increase minimum reserve requirements Holding more reserves could prove costly Click to enlarge Quasi-bankrupt government coupled with debt monetization by its central bank without sufficient assets could lead to hyperinflation. Currently the balance sheet of major central banks remains bloated. Click to enlarge Only a Central with large net wealth and sufficient asset base could stop hyperinflation. However, if the government is broke as well, it cannot recapitalize the central bank. Now let us look for alternative ways to create new wealth for balancing the central bank's assets and liabilities and avoid that dreadful choice? According to an recent article by Caesar Lack of UBS It turns out that there is - by revaluing gold. Both the US and Europe own significant gold reserves. Contrary to that of all other commodities, the price of gold is primarily determined not by industrial demand or mining costs but by investors. Gold is worth as much as investors believe it is. If central banks can succeed in convincing investors that the value of gold is greater than today's prices, then it is, and new net wealth has been created. It turns out they can. One can always weaken one's own currency against another currency, and gold can be considered a currency. SNB proved the same last year when it weakened the Swiss franc by declaring its intention to sell unlimited amounts of Swiss francs. The process which the central bank has to follow is: • Set a minimum price for gold. • Declare that the central bank would buy unlimited amounts of it at that minimum price. • Central banks have the privilege of printing money at will and can never run out of their own currency to buy the gold. This factor adds to its credibility. • If the public does not believe in the sustainability of the new price and sells its gold, the central bank purchases all gold offered at the minimum price by printing money, until it has weakened its currency to such a degree that the gold price rises above the minimum threshold. According to the article, the new minimum gold price must be set such that the revaluation gains balance the combined assets and liabilities of the government, the financial system, and the central bank. The following sensitivity chart gives the factor by which gold prices have to rise for stabilizing the balance sheet. Assume a country gold reserve holding at 5% of GDP and its central bank with a negative net worth at 25% of GDP. This implies that gold prices have to rise by a factor of 25 to bring the balance sheet into balance. Initially, buying gold by printing new money will be inflationary and weaken the currency further. However, once the new equilibrium gold price is exceeded, the currency can be stabilized. The central bank is solvent again and can stabilize its currency by reducing excess liquidity and raising rates. Note that only central banks of large currency areas, such as the ECB or the US Fed, can revalue gold. If a small central bank tried to do so, it would devalue its own currency rather than revalue gold, and thus inflame inflation in its currency area. Investment Implications: Readers can refer to my previous article "3 Reasons To Be Bullish On Gold", where I have written about why Gold is gaining importance as a reserve asset and a FX hedge against global currency war. Investors can get exposure to gold using the following ETFs: SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEARCA:GLD), Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) and Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDXJ)
Web Results Sharks are a group of fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on ..... Unlike bony fish, sharks do not have gas-filled swim bladders for buoyancy. ..... Species that... How do white sharks sleep? - Marine Dynamics Shark sleeping patterns have puzzled scientists for many years. All sharks extract oxygen from the water with their gills, and to do this water must move over and ... How Do Sharks Swim While Asleep? In response to a question about whether or not sharks sleep and, if they do, how do they swim while unconscious, I wrote: Sleep is one of the last bastions of ... How Do Sharks Sleep? Get The Fascinating Facts Here! Jan 19, 2016 ... ... sharks sleep? Do they have to swim constantly to stay alive? ... Sharks do not experience sleep the same way humans do. Some can't sleep ... www.ask.com/youtube?q=Do Sharks Sleep?&v=_fnjgF9K_YE Mar 18, 2011 ... 2 White Tip Sharks hanging out in a cave while a cleaner wrasse does its job! Who knew sharks could just sit? Do sharks sleep at night? \| Reference.com Sharks rest in an approximation of what is termed sleep in land animals, though they do it with their eyes open. However, some sharks are nocturnal, which ... Sharks - Sleep For this reason, it was supposed for a long time that sharks did not, in fact, sleep. However, sharks need to rest at some stage and different species accomplish ... Shark Sleeping - Will a shark drown if it stops moving ... - Animals See if shark sleeping is a myth or a reality. ... In a study of lemon sharks, which switch between breathing methods, juveniles ... Do feral cats spread disease? How do sharks sleep? \| Reference.com Do Sharks Sleep? « Dutch Shark Society Jan 9, 2014 ... Humans love to crash on the coach every day, but sharks don't. Some sharks, like the pelagic species, just have to keep swimming. For them ... Sharks do not sleep like humans do, however they do appear to have restful periods. More Info Do Sharks Sleep? - Marine Life - About.com Nov 30, 2015 ... Despite all the research on sharks over the years, shark sleep is still somewhat of a mystery. Learn the latest thoughts on whether sharks sleep. How Do Sharks Sleep? Do They Dream? - Huffington Post Jul 7, 2015 ... Sharks and their sleeping habits are still very much a mystery, mainly because of the challenge of monitoring sharks for a 24-hour period, ... Do Sharks Sleep? Dec 30, 2014 ... How Do Sharks Sleep. Sharks are the terrors of the seas to some but the most graceful and amazing creatures to others. No matter what your ...
The Sirens of Titan Test \| Mid-Book Test - Medium Buy The Sirens of Titan Lesson Plans Name: _________________________ Period: ___________________ Multiple Choice Questions 1. During what time period do the events in the story take place? (a) World War I. (b) The Invasion Years. (c) The Nightmare Ages. (d) The Great Depression. 2. Since witnessing the last materialization, what has Malachi done? (a) Sold his holdings in Galactic Spacecraft. (b) Named Beatrice to the Galactic Spacecraft's Board of Directors. (c) Purchased a ticket for a space flight. (d) Purchased the controlling share in Galactic Spacecraft. 3. What company made the furniture in Fern's office? (a) Glassworks. (b) American Builders. (c) American Leviation. (d) Angles Away. 4. Where do the materializations take place? (a) At an estate in Newport, Rhode Island. (b) In an old church in Plymouth, Massachusetts. (c) In the City of Phoebe on the planet Mars. (d) At an abandoned school in Providence, Rhode Island. 5. Who is Unk's company commander? (a) Captain Arnold Burch. (b) Captain Jonah Ramsfield. (c) Captain Jonah Burch. (d) Captain Arnold Ramsfield. Short Answer Questions 1. Who is nicknamed Skip? 2. What unique talent does Rumfoord display? 3. What does Unk mutter out loud as he sees his vision while cleaning his rifle? 4. When would Noel sell the shares of the company he was currently invested in? 5. How many months are in the Martian calendar year? Short Essay Questions 1. Why is Malachi flying his own helicopter as he approaches the headquarters building? 2. As Unk's unit is marching through Phoebe, why does Unk drop the grenade and leave his unit? 3. What is United Hotcake? 4. When Malachi's helicopter is landing on the corporation's headquarters building, what does the helicopter remind those on the ground of? Why? 5. What are goofballs and what is their purpose? 6. When Malachi greets Winston during the materialization, Malachi experiences an unfamiliar feeling and starts to feel panicky. Why? 7. After talking with Boaz in the barracks, Unk passes out. Why? 8. When Beatrice and Winston are together in Skip's Museum, why is Beatrice upset with Winston? 9. As "Cheers in the Wirehouse" opens, the reader learns that Malachi Constant is using the name Jonah K. Rowley. Why? 10. Who is Martin Koradubian? (see the answer keys) This section contains 645 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) Buy The Sirens of Titan Lesson Plans The Sirens of Titan from BookRags. (c)2016 BookRags, Inc. All rights reserved. Follow Us on Facebook
GM crops Genetically modified organisms pose no greater risk than those farmed in a conventional way, the European Commission’s chief scientific advisor has said. Anne Glover said there was no evidence GMs had any impact on human, environmental or animal health and said science around the technology had to play a stronger role in European policymaking. Urging a less precautionary approach to GMs, she said the technology needed be explored further as a way to address the challenges of producing more food while using fewer resources such as land, energy and water. “I would be confident in saying that there is no more risk in eating GMO food than eating conventionally farmed food,” Professor Glover told EurActiv website. “If we are using land to produce biofuels, we are not producing food and that that means we have to intensify food production.” Professor Glover, who was Scotland’s chief scientific advisor before joining the commission in January, said public and political discomfort around GMs in the 1980s and 1990s was a “generation ago”. While the precautionary principle towards GMs was appropriate when applied properly, the challenges the world now faced were completely different and warranted a fresh look at the science around the technology, she added. “I think we could really get somewhere in Europe if, when evidence is used partially, there were an obligation on people to say why they have rejected evidence,” said Prof Glover. “The evidence with which I work is independent, it does not change according to political philosophy. And that should give people a lot of confidence.” She added: “We should not somehow tie our hands behind our back in such a way that we will be so precautionary that we wait for everyone else to use our knowledge before we use it.” “That would be my worry, because knowledge is an international currency and we are among the slowest in taking advantage of the knowledge we create and that cannot be right.” More on this topic See our page on GM crops
Freedom: A History of US Webisode 9. Segment 4 Rich As Rockerfeller Where did the great tycoons of the Gilded Age get all their money? Carnegie's came from steel. For others, like the Vanderbilts, it was the railroads. For still others, it was oil. In 1858, a small-time prospector named Edwin Drake sank a hole into the ground near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Black slime—oil—soon filled the hole. When the news got out, people raced for the hills and gullies of western Pennsylvania. Before long that state was a wild place—a little like California in the gold rush a decade earlier. One day, a quiet young bookkeeper was sent to this disorganized area to see what was going on. "Is oil worth investing in?" His employers had sent him to find out. "No," he told them, and then went on to invest in it himself and to become one of the most successful businessmen the world has known. His name was John Davison Rockefeller. See It Now - John D. Rockefeller Some say John D. Rockefeller was the greatest capitalist who ever lived. Others say he almost destroyed capitalism for everyone else. One thing is certain. He soon brought order to that disorderly oil business. In 1863—he was twenty-four—he and a partner bought a small refinery. With his efficient methods, it grew large. Rockefeller began buying competitors. If you have raw material to sell, two costs are important: the cost of the oil and the cost of transporting it to buyers. Because he was such a powerful oilman, Rockefeller could get the railroads to give him special prices to ship his oil. Actually what they did was give him back half of what he paid for transportation. And part of what others paid as well. They were called kickbacks, and they weren't fair to his competitors. Soon he had put most of them out of business. His company, Standard Oil See It Now - Standard Oil Refinery, became spectacularly rich. John D. saw his competitors as buds to be nipped. "The American Beauty Rose can be produced in all its splendor only by sacrificing the early buds that grow up around it," he said. Rockefeller wasn't very popular with most Americans. Often he behaved as if he were a king. Crusading journalists called him a "robber baron." Check The Source - "The Lords of Industry": A Critique by Henry Demarest Lloyd But there were two sides to Rockefeller, and they were both exemplified right beside his bed. That was where he kept his safe, filled with money. But on top of that safe was his Bible. The Bible inspired him to be generous. He gave away vast sums. He once said, Hear It Now - John D. Rockefeller "I believe power to make money is a gift from God. I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money, and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience." For the last forty years of his long life, Rockefeller spent much of his time giving away his money. Always orderly and precise, he gave away precisely half of his fortune—half a billion dollars—which went to create the University of Chicago See It Now - University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and a foundation that exists just to give money to worthwhile causes. learn more at: © 2002 Picture History and Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Thirteen/WNET PBS
Opiod Overview Review Published on lecture om opoids 1 Comment • Be the first to like this No Downloads Total views On SlideShare From Embeds Number of Embeds Embeds 0 No embeds No notes for slide Opiod Overview Review 1. 1. Morphine 2. 2. Brand Names <ul><li>Astramorph TM PF; Duramorph TM ; Infumorph TM ; Kadian TM ; MS Contin TM ; MSIR TM ; Oramorph SR TM ; RMS TM ; Roxanol TM ; Roxanol Rescudose TM ; Roxanol TM </li></ul><ul><li>Epimorph TM (Canada); Morphine-HP TM (Canada); MST-Continus TM (Mexico); MS-IR TM (Canada); Statex TM (Canada) </li></ul> 3. 3. <ul><li>Morphine is a highly potent opiate analgesic drug and is the principal active agent in opium and the prototypical opiate. </li></ul><ul><li>Like other opioids , e.g. Diamorphine ( heroin ), morphine acts directly on the central nervous system (CNS) to relieve pain, and at synapses of the nucleus accumbens in particular. </li></ul><ul><li>Morphine is highly addictive when compared to other substances, and tolerance and physical and psychological dependences develop very rapidly. </li></ul> 4. 4. Administration of Morphine <ul><li>Parenterally as subcutaneous , intravenous , or epidural injections. When injected, particularly intravenously, morphine produces an intense contraction sensation in the muscles due to histamine release and also produces a very intense 'rush' which is mediated by several different receptors in the CNS . The military sometimes issues morphine loaded in an autoinjector . </li></ul> 5. 5. Administration <ul><li>Orally, it comes as an elixir , concentrated solution , powder (for compounding) or in tablet form. Morphine is rarely supplied in suppository form. Due to its poor oral bioavailability , oral morphine is only one-sixth to one-third of the potency of parenteral morphine. Morphine is available in extended release capsules for chronic administration, as well as immediate-release formulations. </li></ul> 6. 6. Side Effects <ul><li>Morphine has many side effects. The most dangerous is respiratory depression. With higher doses or in frail patients, the respiratory rate decreases, the patient becomes increasingly sedated, and the pupils very small. </li></ul><ul><li>Common side effects are nausea and vomiting due to a central action of morphine stimulating one of the centres in the brain concerned with vomiting called the chemotactic trigger zone. </li></ul> 7. 7. Side Effects <ul><li>Other central nervous system side effects of morphine are cough suppression, sedation, and dependence leading to addiction. </li></ul><ul><li>Morphine also has an effect on the muscle of the bowel and urinary tract, causing the sphincter to contract and reduce the peristalsis (the wavelike movements of the bowel muscle that propel its contents forwards). This results in a delayed emptying of the stomach, constipa tion, and may also lead to urinary retention. </li></ul> 8. 8. Side Effects <ul><li>Morphine can also cause histamine release, which causes itching of the skin and nose and a mild flushing of the skin. </li></ul> 9. 9. How do opioid analgesics work? <ul><li>http://www.thirteen.org/closetohome/animation/opi-anim2-main.html </li></ul><ul><li>http: //thebrain . mcgill .ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_m/i_03_m_par/i_03_m_par_heroine.html#drogues </li></ul>There are three known types of receptors for opioid analgesics:  ,  , and  . 10. 10. The  receptor seems to be the major opioid target <ul><li>Activation of the μ receptor by an agonist such as morphine causes analgesia , sedation, reduced blood pressure, itching, nausea, euphoria, decreased respiration, miosis (constricted pupils) and decreased bowel motility often leading to constipation. </li></ul><ul><li>Some of these effects, such as sedation, euphoria and decreased respiration, tend to disappear with continued use as tolerance develops. Analgesia, miosis and reduced bowel motility tend to persist; little tolerance develops to these effects. </li></ul> 11. 11. The  receptor <ul><li>Tolerance develops to different effects at different rates largely because these effects are caused by activation of different μ-receptor subtypes. </li></ul><ul><li>Stimulation of μ 1 -receptors blocks pain while stimulation of μ 2 -receptor causes respiratory depression and constipation. </li></ul> 12. 12. Overview: Opioid Receptors <ul><li>Opioid receptors are a group of G-protein coupled receptors with opioids as ligands . The endogenous opioids are dynorphins , enkephalins and endorphins . The opioid receptors are ~40% identical to somatostatin receptors (SSTRs). </li></ul> 13. 13. Overview: Opioid Receptors <ul><li>δ -Opioid receptor activation produces analgesia . Some research suggests that they may also be related to seizures . The endogenous ligands for the δ receptor are the enkephalins . Until quite recently, there were few pharmacological tools for the study of δ receptors. As a consequence, our understanding of their function is much more limited than those of the other opioid receptors.Recent work indicates that exogenous ligands which activate the delta receptors mimic the phenomenon known as 'ischemic preconditioning'. Experimentally, if short periods of transient ischemia (restriction in the blood supply) are induced the downstream tissues are robustly protected if permanent interruption of the blood supply is then effected.Opiates and opioids with delta activity mimic this effect. In the rat model introduction of delta active ligands results in significant cardioprotection. </li></ul> 14. 14. Overview: Opioid Receptors <ul><li>κ -Opioid receptors are also involved with analgesia , but activation also produces marked nausea and dysphoria (sadness, irritability, anxiety) </li></ul> 15. 15. Heroin 16. 16. Codeine 17. 17. Uses of Codeine <ul><li>Approved indications for codeine include: </li></ul><ul><li>･ Cough , though its efficacy in low dose over the counter formulations has been disputed. </li></ul><ul><li>Diarrhea </li></ul><ul><li>Moderate to severe pain ･ Irritable bowel syndrome </li></ul><ul><li>Codeine is sometimes marketed in combination preparations with paracetamol (acetaminophen) as co-codamol (best known in North America as Tylenol 3), with aspirin as co-codaprin or with ibuprofen . These combinations provide greater pain relief than either agent (drug synergy; see synergy ). </li></ul> 18. 18. Codeine <ul><li>Codeine is considered a prodrug , since it is metabolised in vivo to the principal active analgesic agent morphine . It is, however, less potent than morphine since only about 10% of the codeine is converted. It also has a correspondingly lower dependence -liability than morphine. </li></ul><ul><li>The conversion of codeine to morphine occurs in the liver and is catalysed by the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP2D6 . Approximately 6 ﾐ 1 0% of the Caucasian population have poorly functional CYP2D6 and codeine is virtually ineffective for analgesia in these patients (Rossi, 2004). </li></ul> 19. 19. Hydrogenation of morphine’s C=C produced dihydromorphine Dihydromorphine is slightly stronger than morphine as an analgesic with a nearly identical side-effect profile, and is a somewhat more active euphoriant -- therefore making it theoretically a bit superior in alleviating suffering -- and perhaps in a way subjectively closer to that of morphine than hydromorphone, other morphine derivatives, the codeine-based series, or the synthetics. Like metopon, dihydromorphine may be less addictive overall and have better bioavailability after oral administration than morphine. The onset of action is more rapid than morphine and it also tends to have a longer duration of action, generally 4-7 hours. 20. 20. However, this led to a cmpd with improved activity Hydromorphone is a drug developed in Germany in the 1920s and introduced to the mass market beginning in 1926. It is used to relieve moderate to severe pain and severe, painful dry coughing. Hydromorphone is known by the trade names Hydal , Sophidone , Hydrostat , and most famously, "Dilaudid ｨ " , though an extended-release version called Palladone ｨ SR was available for a short time in the United States before being voluntarily withdrawn from the market after an FDA advisory released in July 2005 warned of a high overdose potential when taken with alcohol; it is still available in the United Kingdom as of March 2007. Another extended-release version called Hydromorph Contin ｨ , manufactured as controlled release capsules, continues to be produced and distributed in Canada by Purdue Pharma Inc. in Pickering, Ontario. 21. 21. Hydromorphone <ul><li>Hydromorphone is becoming more popular in the treatment of chronic pain in many countries, and it is used as a substitute for heroin and morphine where these two drugs are not marketed on account of hydromorphone's superior solubility and speed of onset and less troublesome side effect and dependence liability profile as compared to morphine and heroin. Many chronic pain patients find that hydromorphone has a spectrum of actions which suit them just as well as morphine, and better than synthetics like methadone or levorphanol in alleviating suffering , as contrasted with simple pain of equal objective intensity. </li></ul> 22. 22. Similar synthetic manipulations make hydrocodone more potent than codeine Hydrocodone or dihydrocodeinone (marketed as Vicodin , Anexsia , Dicodid , Hycodan , Hycomine , Lorcet , Lortab (or Loritab ), Norco , Novahistex , Hydroco , Tussionex , Vicoprofen , Xodol ) is a semi-synthetic opioid derived from two of the naturally occurring opiates , codeine and thebaine . Hydrocodone is an orally active narcotic analgesic and antitussive . Sales and production of this drug have increased significantly in recent years, as have diversion and illicit use. Hydrocodone is commonly available in tablet, capsule and syrup form. 23. 23. Oxycodone 24. 24. Oxycodone <ul><li>Oxycodone is a potent and potentially addictive opioid analgesic medication synthesized from thebaine . Its name is derived from codeine - the chemical structures are very similar, differing only in that the hydrogen on the codeine is oxidised to a hydroxyl group, hence 'oxy' and the hydroxyl group from the codeine becomes a ketone group, hence 'oxycodone.' </li></ul> 25. 25. Oxycodone: Brand Names <ul><li>It is effective orally and is marketed in combination with aspirin ( Percodan , Endodan , Roxiprin ) or paracetamol / acetaminophen ( Percocet , Endocet , Roxicet , Tylox ) for the relief of pain . More recently, ibuprofen has been added to oxycodone ( Combunox ). </li></ul><ul><li>It is also sold in a sustained-release form by Purdue Pharma under the trade name OxyContin as well as generic equivalents, and instant-release forms Endone , OxyIR , OxyNorm , Percolone , OxyFAST , and Roxicodone . </li></ul> 26. 26. Oxycodone: Uses <ul><li>Percocet tablets (Oxycodone with acetaminophen ) are routinely prescribed for post-operative pain control. Oxycodone is also used in treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain. When used at recommended doses for any period of time it provides effective pain control with manageable side effects . Both immediate release oxycodone (OxyNorm in the UK) and sustained-release oxycodone (OxyContin in the UK) are prescribed for pain due to cancer more than for any other condition. </li></ul> 27. 27. Oxycodone: Recreational Use <ul><li>The introduction of OxyContin in 1995 resulted in increasing patterns of abuse. Unlike Percocet, whose potential for abuse is limited by the presence of paracetamol , OxyContin contains only oxycodone and inert filler. Abusers simply crush the tablets, then either ingest the resulting powder orally, intranasally, via intravenous , intramuscular or subcutaneous injection (by dissolving the powder), or rectally to achieve rapid absorption into the bloodstream. </li></ul> 28. 28. Oxycodone: Recreational Use <ul><li>Injection of OxyContin is particularly dangerous since it contains binders which enable the time release of the drug. Often mistaken as the time release, the outside coating of the pill is merely used as a color code for different dosage amounts. The vast majority of OxyContin-related deaths are attributed to ingesting substantial quantities of oxycodone in combination with another depressant of the central nervous system such as alcohol or benzodiazepines . </li></ul> 29. 29. Oxymorphone 30. 30. Oxymorphone <ul><li>Oxymorphone ( Opana , Numorphan ) or 14-Hydroxydihydro morphinone is a powerful semi-synthetic opioid analgesic that is derived from thebaine , and is approximately 6-8 times more potent than morphine . Clinically, it is administered as its hydrochloride salt via injection, or suppository ; typically in dosages of 1 mg (injected) to 5 mg (suppository). Endo Pharmaceuticals markets oxymorphone in the United States as Opana and Opana ER . Opana is available as 5 mg and 10 mg tablets; Opana ER, an extended-release form of oxymorphone, is available as tablets in strengths of 5 mg, 10 mg, and 20 mg. As with other opioids , oxymorphone can cause physical dependency , and may be abused . </li></ul> 31. 31. Thebaine Thebaine (paramorphine) is an opiate alkaloid . A minor constituent of opium , thebaine is chemically similar to both morphine and codeine , but produces stimulatory, with strychnine-like convulsions, rather than depressant effects. Thebaine is not used therapeutically, but is converted industrially into a variety of compounds including oxycodone , oxymorphone , nalbuphine , naloxone , naltrexone , buprenorphine and etorphine . It is controlled in Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act as well as under international law. Thebaine is listed as a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in the United Kingdom . 33. 33. Still more potent antagonists can be made by incorporating the same structural changes used to make morphine a more potent analgesic Naloxone is a drug used to counter the effects of opioid overdose , for example heroin or morphine overdose. Naloxone is specifically used to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. It is marketed under various trademarks including Narcan , Nalone , and Narcanti , and has sometimes been mistakenly called "naltrexate." It is not to be confused with Naltrexone , another opioid receptor antagonist with qualitatively different effects. 34. 34. Naltrexone <ul><li>Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist used primarily in the management of alcohol dependence and opioid dependence. It is marketed in generic form as its hydrochloride salt , naltrexone hydrochloride , and was formerly marketed using the trade name Revia . In some countries, an extended-release formulation is marketed under the trade name Vivitrol . It should not be confused with naloxone , which is used in emergency cases of overdose rather than for longer term dependence control. </li></ul>
A Washington Post article today reports that letting the Bush tax cuts expire would nearly close the fiscal gap. This static logic misses two key dynamic aspects of the economy: (1) the political incentives that higher taxes bring about, and (2) the economic incentives of such policy. 1. Political Incentives. With higher revenues initially coming in from higher taxes, there would be a stronger political incentive to increase spending. That is, taxpayers have no guarantee that their higher tax payments would actually go to deficit reduction. If history is any lesson, it is more than likely that Congress would lever up on the higher tax revenues, expanding the government even more with borrowed funds. The net result: Deficits would remain, but now there would be an even higher level of overall debt. 2. Economic Incentives. Why is there a call to put a tax on carbon? Because some believe that we should use less carbon. If the tax works and people use less carbon, what happens to the revenue from a carbon tax? It decreases. Similarly, if you place higher taxes on labor and capital income, you get less labor and capital income. Therefore, the dynamic revenues from the higher tax rates would actually be less than expected. Furthermore, the economic harm from discouraging the very activities that contribute to the growth of the economy (i.e., create income by using our resources to produce, save, invest, and innovate) would put the economy on a slower growth path that would weaken the U.S.’s competitive position in the global economy. It is critical that the government implement policies that take account of the way incentives— and therefore decisions—change. In a dynamic economy, these small decision changes create feedback effects that can snowball and change the growth path of the entire economy. A slower growing economy hurts everyone, as the recent economic recession so detrimentally demonstrated. Unfortunately under the new tax policy, this slower growth would no longer be considered recessionary; we and our children would view it as “normal,” never realizing all the growth opportunities that would have led to higher incomes, more job opportunities, and new goods and services to enjoy. In an ever-changing and adapting economy, these are the opportunity costs that should be considered.
Monday, December 29, 2008 How Much Is 700 Billion? After How Much Is a Million?, my book about big numbers, appeared in 1985, I quickly discovered what everyone really wanted to know: “How much is a million dollars?” It gave me the idea for my second book, If You Made a Million. Now everyone is thinking about the federal bailout of 700 billion dollars, aka $700,000,000,000 – with an extra 30 billion thrown in, or not, for good measure. So, how much is 700 billion dollars? Let’s start by counting the way the characters count in On Beyond a Million (yet another book I wrote with “million” in the title). In that book, the characters count not by ones the whole way (or they’d never get beyond a million) but by ones to ten, by tens to a hundred, by hundreds to a thousand, and so on. Mathematicians would say they are counting by “powers of ten,” but in the book I call it “Power Counting.” Let’s just quickly “power-count” our way from one to one million: 1 (one) 10 (ten) 100 (one hundred) 1,000 (one thousand) 10,000 (ten thousand) 100,000 (one hundred thousand) 1,000,000 (one million) Did you notice that one million is three steps of power-counting past one thousand? Each step multiplies by 10, so one million is three of those, or 10 X 10 X 10, or one thousand times bigger than one thousand. One million is one thousand thousand. Let’s go on: 10,000,000 (ten million) 100,000,000 (one hundred million) 1,000,000,000 (one billion) One billion is three steps past one million, or one thousand times one million. Just as one million is a thousand thousand, one billion is a thousand million. (In some countries, including Great Britain, they call it “one thousand million” instead of a “billion.”) Let’s do one more round: 10,000,000,000 (ten billion) 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) One trillion is one thousand billion. Did you notice one hundred billion in bold? We’re going back to it. Take seven of those and what have you got? Seven hundred billion. In dollars, it’s the bail-out. One heck of a lot of money. Oh, we could figure out how high 700 billion kids or 700 billion one-dollar bills would stack if we were inclined to stack them, or how many homes it could build or heat, and so forth. . . but let’s not. Instead, let’s try to understand the magnitude of this giant pot of cash by taking a step back from big money to very small money: one cent. Would you rather have a penny that gets doubled every day for a month (let’s say a 30 day month)… or would you rather have a million dollars in cash today, but not another cent for the rest of the month? Maybe you’ve heard this one before but no matter. I’ve told it dozens of times, and it still amazes me that doubling the pennies gives a pay-off of over $5 million in pennies on the 30th day (not to mention all the pennies accumulated from the other days)! Don’t just believe me -- do the math. It’s not hard, especially if you round off along the way. So, when you put one cent through 29 rounds of doubling it gets really big, really fast. That’s the power of doubling. (There have been some fine picture books based on this mathematical principle, including One Grain of Rice and The King’s Chessboard.) But what happens every step of the way when we put a zero after a number, when we “power count”? We aren’t doubling; we’re multiplying by ten. I don’t know of any verb for that, so I have invented one: decktuple. (Please use it widely.) If you thought doubling was powerful, think of decktupling – power to the max! My favorite way to see the difference between big numbers and appreciate their magnitude is to think of seconds. One million seconds is about eleven and a half days. One billion seconds is -- take a guess before you read on – about 32 years. And one trillion seconds is about 32,000 years. So the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion is like the difference between 11.5 days, 32 years and 32,000 years! I like to say that I have a pretty good idea of what I’ll be doing a million seconds from now. . . I have no idea of what I’ll be doing a billion seconds from now. . . but I have an excellent idea of what I will be doing a trillion seconds from now. And what about 700 billion? That’s seven-tenths, or 70%, of the way to a trillion. In seconds it would be 22,400 years. I am writing this on December 28, 2008 at about 9pm. If instead of dollars we talked about seconds and I started clocking them right now, I would get to a million on Jan. 9th at about 9am . . . I would get to a billion early in the year 2040 . . . and I (or someone, I hope) would get to 700 billion in the year 24000 (not 2400 but 24000!), give or take a few hundred years. Does this help explain the size of the bailout. Or does it just boggle your mind? Both are good. The Book Chook said... It helped and it boggled, both! Thanks for this excellent explanation, David. Katie said... I've requested "If You Made a Million" from the library to feature as a review on my blog in the coming weeks as part of National Financial Awareness month. It looks like a great book! Callista said... I've read If you Made a Million and it was VERY interesting. I find children's non-fiction very fun to read. I learn so much and it's just the basics, not all that extra stuff. Then if I want to know more I can look up adult nonfiction of the subject. HP 2600 toner said... I read the book How Much is a Million, and it's a very good book. The approach to numbers and counting is brilliant.I'm interested of reading the second book: If You Made a Million.The explanation is very good indeed.I love the analogy of the money to times in second, it causes me look at it in a different perspective. I also find very interesting taking a step back from big money to very small money: one cent. It makes me appreciate the cent/penny and preventive me to despise their Mr. Kinder said... It boggles. Really. 2400 is too far in the future to really imagine, but 24,000 boggles me completely. What's that? 12 times longer than the time when JC was walking around Bethlehem?
Pipeline Permitting Delays In North Dakota The story of North Dakota's flaring and crude by rail problems in one image: Natural gas flares from an oil well as an oil truck passes a site where a new pipeline is being laid. Emily Guerin North Dakota oil producers were supposed to cut natural gas flaring by 74 percent as of October 1. It is not likely that they have met that deadline - but we won't know until January when production figures are released. October 1 was the first deadline for oil companies to get serious about curbing flaring, the process of burning off the natural gas that comes up from oil wells. There's a lot of gas in the oil here, and not enough pipelines (or pipelines that are big enough) in the ground to capture all that gas and take it it to a processing plant. So the companies burn it off, essentially wasting more than $1 billion worth of gas each year. In June, regulators here passed new rules giving oil companies 90 days to reduce flaring. Starting October 1, companies can't flare more than 26 percent of the natural gas they produce. If they don't meet the standard, they can't produce as much oil. But outside forces could make it hard for companies to meet that goal, as Ernest Scheyder reports for Reuters. The main reason, according to Reuters interviews and reviews of regulations, is simple: a Byzantine web of state and federal agencies who must sign off on new pipelines. Too few pipelines and a lack of plant capacity to prepare gas for transport means North Dakota flares enough natural gas in one month to heat more than 160,000 homes for a year. The pipelines are caught between state officials whose top energy policy goal is to cut flaring, and federal agencies, which weigh historical and ecological issues, including protection of habitats for rare plants and animals. The federal holdups are "a major disappointment," said Lynn Helms, head of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources. "It will make it harder to meet that 74-percent goal." All federal agencies have to sign off on any new pipelines that cross their land. For companies looking to build pipelines out of North Dakota, that often means getting approval from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and Army Corps of Engineers. There's also the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) Nation, which is smack in the middle of the Bakken oil field, and, of course, neighboring states like Minnesota and South Dakota. Of course, that's not just an issue for pipeline companies. As Leigh Paterson reported, big wind projects in Wyoming also need a handful of approvals from private and public entities. In North Dakota, the delays aren't confined to natural gas pipelines. Pipelines that would carry oil are also running into setbacks, as James MacPherson of the AP reports. Enbridge is trying to build the 612-mile pipeline to carry 225,000 barrels of oil a day through northern Minnesota to a hub in Wisconsin. The pipeline was expected to be ready in early 2016, but because of a "longer than expected permitting process" in Minnesota, it likely won't be in until 2017, Enbridge spokeswoman Katie Haarsager said. The lack of pipelines is a big reason why so much oil moves by rail from North Dakota to the rest of the country. These permitting delays create another issue, in addition to flaring: more oil moves by rail, causing concerns for people around the country who live near railroad tracks.
BBC Home Explore the BBC Last Updated: Thursday April 02 2009 04:44 GMT Free consoles to help weight loss Adam playing on a Nintendo Wii Can a Wii keep you fit? Adam finds out Kids are always being told that playing video games means they're not getting enough exercise, but imagine experts telling you the opposite. That's what's happening in Nottingham, where some families are getting games consoles to help them lose weight. Adam logged in to find out more. "Researchers in Nottingham are giving Nintendo Wiis to 20 families who have problems with their weight to see if the games consoles can improve their health. The scientists at Nottingham Trent University found out that playing the boxing game a few times in a day used up as much energy as going for a brisk walk. They carried out experiments by putting masks on children's faces - and mine! They measure the amount of air you breathe in and the amount of carbon dioxide gas you breathe out while you're playing the console. Uses up energy It felt quite weird, but after six minutes of hard gaming the computer showed I had used up more energy than if I had been playing a game sitting down and not moving. You have to play really active games and put in a lot of effort to get any benefit, and they don't recommend that you give up real exercise. Dr Chris Bussell from Nottingham Trent University told me: "You've got to swing your arms for the tennis shots, you've got to punch for the boxing. You have to use it properly rather than just flicking your wrists." Now the Department of Health in Nottinghamshire is trying the next part of the experiment, where they will give Wiis to overweight families for 12 weeks to see if they do more exercise. NOT free Wiis Obesity could be caused by people playing computer games too much, and so the government reckon they should try to use them to help people be more active. They say it's just an experiment and that they're definitely not handing out free Wiis."
What You Absolutely Need to Know About Money (Part 7) – Shah Gilani – Money Morning By the start of the 1960s, banking in America was in a state of flux. Boundaries were being blurred – especially those separating “commercial banks” and “investment banks” under Depression-era Glass-Steagall parameters. The banking landscape was shifting. In fact, it was about to go volcanic. The Truman Administration had championed the break-up of bank cartel arrangements, whereby a powerful coterie of commercial-bank bond underwriters controlled how corporations financed debt and who got to distribute bond offerings. Subsequent regulatory changes (requiring bidding for underwriting assignments) broke up the “Gentleman Bankers Code,” which had been code for cartel. A more competitive landscape drove banks to expand. Branch banking spread through shopping malls and onto prime locations on America’s Main Streets. The hunt for deposits was on. And it got ugly fast… Commercial banks needed more and more deposits to supply funds to rapidly growing corporations. And they wanted to make small business and consumer loans, wherever they could. Intense banking competition was driving down lending profitability. At the same time, corporations were self-financing themselves through retained earnings and increasingly turning to insurance companies with whom they could directly place their bonds. Commercial banks were losing their predominant position as providers of capital… while investment banks were growing rapidly. The investment banks, with insignificant amounts of their own capital, were raising equity capital for corporations and trading blocks of stock accumulating in pension plans, which were mushrooming as a result of 1950s tax law changes and collective bargaining victories by labor unions. Commercial banks had to grow rapidly to offset declining profit margins in the lending business. And they had to figure out how to compete with more aggressive and more profitable investment banks, as well as their institutional investor clients, who were rapidly becoming suppliers of capital. So they did. Under Glass-Steagall, commercial banks were allowed to deal and trade in U.S. Treasury securities, municipal bonds (which were considered safe by virtue of issuers’ taxing authority), and foreign exchange. Historically, banks didn’t so much trade foreign currencies as they did manage exchanging one currency for another in the spot market and on a “forward” basis. This service, which banks had a monopoly over, facilitated borrowing clients, who were increasingly U.S. multinational corporations, overseas corporations, and foreign governments in need of currency exchange services. They weren’t supposed to underwrite equity issues, distribute them or trade in them. But they did. Commercial banks set up trust departments and, in some cases, controlled separate trust banks. The old Bankers Trust, backed by J.P. Morgan’s interests, was a prime example. Trust departments were “entrusted” with safeguarding client assets. That included equity securities. As securities trading increased, for reasons about to become apparent, banks blatantly circumvented Glass-Steagall prohibitions and actively facilitated trading. Two seminal events in the 1960s paved a one-way path from traditional banking to casino banking. First, in 1961, George Moore and Walter Wriston of First National City bank brilliantly sidestepped regulatory prohibitions against banks paying interest to depositors. Their brainchild was the “negotiable certificate of deposit,” simply referred to as CDs. By structuring a deposit as at least a 30-day “loan” to the bank, interest could be paid to the lender. The word “negotiable” was the magic ticket. Depositors’ CDs and the “liabilities” (deposits) they represented could be traded. The invention spawned a world-wide hunt for deposits, as banks could raise money virtually anywhere and compete for “hot money” by offering competitive interest rates. Excess deposits – those that banks couldn’t lend out and those that exceeded regulatory reserve requirements – were traded to other banks in the overnight federal funds (bank to bank) market. The transition from primarily managing assets (loans) to liabilities (deposits) was almost instantaneous. Trading floors were built and staffed to speculate on interest rate products. Those instruments, CDs, Treasuries, municipal bonds, and foreign exchange, were all interest rate-based. With the ability to aggressively attract depositor capital – to be used as trading capital – commercial banks embarked upon a hugely profitable new business… The business of speculation. Now here’s the second thing that changed. Commercial banks traditionally offered mergers and acquisition advice, usually as a free service to their bond underwriting clients. But not for long. Investment banks in the 1960s went on the offensive. To generate mergers and acquisitions fees, they actively put corporations in play. Soliciting takeovers from prospective clients was part of the new mantra of “conglomeratization.” Putting corporations into play had become easy. Large blocks of stock were spread among trust banks, held directly by pension plans and in the hands of institutional investors. Investment banks had access to these blocks of securities through their relationships with their institutional clients, as well as having access to stock residing at brokerage affiliates. Commercial banks had access to blocks of stock through their trust departments and brokerage operations they were setting up through the bank holding companies they manufactured to hold commercial bank businesses and separate brokerage businesses that commercial banks, on their own, weren’t allowed to operate. Because blocks of stock were held for individuals by their pension managers, the institutional managers got to vote the shares in their safekeeping. M&A bankers used their institutional relationships to maneuver voting blocks of stock to their advantage in the new war games. Seeing their corporate clients under attack and recognizing the pull investment banks were having over fee-paying corporate giants, commercial banks recast their M&A bankers as swashbuckling, fee-generating do-gooders. Which, of course, they weren’t. M&A bankers rode roughshod over and corralled thousands of American corporations in the Go-Go 60s – for increasingly larger and larger fees. More than 25,000 businesses were merged, acquired, or “vanished” in the 1960s. Commercial M&A bankers and investment bankers had forever been transformed into commando-bankers, acting like generals on the ever-widening casino floor. And this was only the beginning of “transactional banking.” Events in the 1970s would act like an accelerant, igniting a fire under bankers that would further their power and lead to the implosion of a tiny shopping mall bank in Oklahoma. That “off the radar” event, in a matter of days, led to the failure of a single money-center bank. Its losses were greater than all the failed banks in the Depression, combined. Only, it didn’t fail. It was the bank that directly led to the American banking doctrine of too-big-to-fail. And you know what happened next… Related Articles and News:
Greenpeace’s view on ‘Chemtrails’ Posted by G.Thompson — 13 March 2015 at 4:30pm - Comments All rights reserved. Credit: greenpeace On balance, we think probably not. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ‘chemtrail’ as – A visible trail left in the sky by an aircraft and believed by some to consist of chemical or biological agents released as part of a covert operation, rather than the condensed water of a vapour trail. Wikipedia says – Greenpeace have not seen sufficient evidence to justify further investigation into whether this is a real problem. As far as we are concerned, chemtrails are an urban myth - a conspiracy theory with no conspiracy. We are aware of various vaguely similar but confirmed phenomena: Carbon emissions – aviation is the fastest growing source of carbon emissions, and the fact these emissions are produced at altitude increases their impact upon the climate. For this reason we believe aviation growth needs to be constrained to keep us within ‘safe’ emission limits. This is a particular problem in the UK, where we fly more than any other country in the world, and yet are still told that we urgently need more runways. CO2 is invisible, and emitted as an unavoidable side-effect of burning kerosene. Cloud seeding – emitting silver iodide or other chemicals into clouds causes the water vapour held in those clouds to condense around the silver iodide into rain, and fall to the ground. This can be used to encourage rain, by seeding the clouds over a site which needs more water, or to discourage rain by seeding clouds before they reach a site where people want dry weather. The most famous example of cloud seeding was during the Beijing Olympics, where it was used to prevent rain over the Olympic sites. This process would be carried out by rockets, as in Beijing, or light aircraft, not by passenger jets, and it is not particularly common. Geoengineering – Geoengineering is the science of deliberately altering the global climate and is currently almost entirely theoretical. All geoengineering techniques are regarded as potentially hazardous, as they can only work by having very large impacts on how our atmosphere functions, with the possible risks being equally large. There are many different techniques proposed, some of which could include aircraft emitting substances to block sunlight from reaching the earth. The very few techniques which have had some limited, localised testing do not utilise aircraft. If the chemtrail conspiracy is real, then it is not a geoengineering project, as it has had no discernible impact on the climate. HAARP – the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program was an ionospheric research programme conducted by various dodgy outfits connected to the US and UK military. God knows what it was intended to do, but it closed last year. It may have been something worth worrying about, but it doesn’t seem to have utilised large numbers of aircraft, and did not receive the level of funding that would be required to do so on the scale of the alleged chemtrail conspiracy. None of these phenomena explain visible vapour trails from commercial passenger jets. Fortunately, there is an explanation. The visible trails are contrails (short for ‘condensation trails’) and they consist of water vapour condensed due to the temperature differential created by the pressure differential between the upper and lower surfaces of the wings, the wing tips, or engines. If you would like to communicate with Greenpeace about one or more of the confirmed phenomena described above, please avoid using the term ‘chemtrails’ as it may cause confusion. Greenpeace has been sent an enormous number of pictures and videos of vapour trails, all of which look like normal contrails behaving exactly like normal contrails - to us, at least. We have also been sent lots of links to websites and blogs claiming to expose the chemtrail conspiracy. The evidence on these blogs tends to consist of pictures and videos of vapour trails, all of which look exactly like normal contrails etc. What we would require, in order to consider researching this alleged conspiracy, would be one of two things. Either clear statements from appropriate experts such as professors of atmospheric physics, fluid dynamics or aeronautical engineering, explaining how they determined that these apparent contrails are not in fact contrails but chemtrails, or, alternatively, clear statements from aviation workers detailing their experiences fitting, refilling and operating the systems used to disperse the chemicals from the planes. As there are literally millions of people working in the aviation industry around the world, many of whom are fairly low-paid, the chances of them keeping something like this quiet are fairly minimal, if it’s really happening. If you would like to communicate with Greenpeace about chemtrails, as described in the OED or Wikipedia, please wait until you have what we would regard as evidence – statements from either properly qualified academics or appropriately experienced aviation workers supporting your concerns. Please do not assume that a YouTube video or blog which convinced you will convince us. We’ve already seen them, and we weren’t convinced. Please do not think that accusing us of being part of the ‘chemtrail conspiracy’ will change our minds. We’re constantly accused by governments and security services of being in the pay of other governments and security services. It hasn’t changed the way we work and is unlikely to do so in the future. Greenpeace require a reliable evidence base before campaigning on any issue. So far, we haven’t seen any evidence supporting the chemtrails hypothesis. Follow Greenpeace UK
An African American baby beats the odds Black women are 1 1/2 times as likely as white women to give birth prematurely, and their babies are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday. Researchers once blamed a lack of prenatal care for the disparity; but now, research shows that the explanation is much more complex, rooted in the years before the women even get pregnant. This photo gallery is featured in these articles:

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