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Religious practice is an important part of the Nepalese way of life. Two main religions are dominant in Nepal: Hinduism and Buddhism. Hindu worship different deities as god. Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva are three major Gods, but each has a complex tapestry of manifestations and incarnations. Each deity also has a vehicle, called Bahaan in Sanskrit and Nepali. Bahaan is often seen kneeling faithfully outside the shrine.
Buddhism is the second major religion in Nepal. Shakyamuni Buddha, who was born in Nepal around 6th century BC, is the founder of Buddhist Philosophy. The great Buddhist Stupas of Swoyambhu and Bauddha in the Kathmandu Valley are among the oldest and most beautiful worship sites in Nepal. Nepali, like Hindi, is written in the Devnagari script. It is Nepal's national language, apart from being the lingua franca of the country's divergent communities that speak mutually unintelligible language and dialects. English is also widely spoken and understood in urban areas. In Tourism sector people speak English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and other foreign languages.
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What Diseases Can Make Your Hair Fall Out?
Close-up of a brush with lost hair on it, on white background
lupus hair loss treatmentAll over the world, millions of people of all genders suffer from different forms of hair loss for one reason or another. In some instances, people are simply more genetically prone to losing their hair; however, hair loss isn’t always a genetic byproduct. Sometimes, it could indicate that a deeper and more pressing medical issue, illness, or condition is at play. Here are just nine of the diseases that are known to either directly or indirectly cause hair loss.
9 Diseases and Medical Conditions that Can Cause Hair Loss
Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)
ASD is a temporary psychological disorder that’s akin to and can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) if it’s not properly treated in a timely manner. The onset of ASD occurs primarily when a patient experiences an incredibly traumatic event such as the sudden death of a loved one, a threat to their life, or a serious near-death accident or experience. The emotional and physical turmoil caused by these types of events can be incredibly difficult—almost impossible—for a lot of people to overcome. As a coping mechanism, some people could develop trichotillomania, which is the compulsive urge to pull out one’s own hair. However, the body also reacts internally by causing most hair follicles to prematurely enter their resting stage so that no new hairs can grow for an indeterminate period of time as old hairs continue to fall out at a swift pace.
Lichen Planus
Lichen planus is a serious skin condition with many variations, the cause of which is generally unknown. Symptoms include: red bumps, scarring, and inflammation typically around the wrists and ankles. Lichen planopilaris is the variation of lichen planus that’s situated on or around the scalp, and it’s directly linked to permanent hair loss from overactive inflammation that suffocates the hair follicles. Sometimes, it can be hard to distinguish this disease from lupus erythematosus because inflammation doesn’t always occur and, aside from that, the symptoms are almost identical.
Lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly produces antibodies that attack both healthy native and destructive foreign cells in the body, including hair follicles. Lupus disproportionately plagues women of African, Asian, and Hispanic descent more than people of any other ethnic background. There is no known cause nor is there a cure, but if detected early, it’s highly manageable and treatable.
Thyroid Problems
There are two types of thyroid problems that can lead to hair loss: hyper-thyroidism (overactive thyroid) and hypo-thyroidism (underactive thyroid). The thyroid regulates hormone levels throughout the body. On average, people naturally lose about 100 strands of hair per day which means that an overactive or underactive thyroid can only exacerbate and speed up the rate of hair loss. A common form of hypo-thyroidism is called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, which is an autoimmune disorder that severely inflames the thyroid gland and prevents it from functioning normally.
Low Testosterone
Testosterone is an important hormone that largely exists in men and only minimally in women. The main purpose of testosterone is to promote healthy bone development, proportionately distribute fat throughout the body, produce sperm, and increase the libido. Low testosterone is a condition that causes the body to produce insufficient levels of testosterone so that it’s unable to perform these functions to its full capacity. As people age, their bodies tend to produce less and less testosterone (about one percent less every year). Some people’s testosterone levels deplete much more rapidly than normal, and this can lead to hair loss as they age.
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that can affect sexually active people of any age. It develops from a form of bacteria called Treponema pallidum and is only spread through direct contact with an infected area—typically small sore called a chancre—or infected bodily fluids. Sores can appear either inside a person’s mouth, on their rectum, or on their genitals. Syphilis has four stages: primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary. Each stage entails its own unique set of symptoms, although in most cases, symptoms might not appear for a very long time. Hair loss and patchiness typically occurs during the secondary stage. However, with early detection and proper treatment, syphilis is highly treatable and eventually your hair will grow back.
There are three forms of the tropical disease known as Leishmaniasis that are each caused by various strains of the Leishmania parasite: cutaneous leishmaniasis, visceral leishmaniasis, and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. The Leishmania parasite is found in infected sand flies in various African countries and the only way to contract the disease is if you’re bitten by one. One of the many symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis—the most fatal form of the disease—is either patchy or thinning hair or even total hair loss. This includes all forms of body hair, not just the scalp.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)
HIV is a strong virus that progressively attacks and weakens the immune system into submission. If left untreated, it can eventually develop into AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). HIV doesn’t directly cause hair loss, but one of the symptoms is telogen effluvium—a condition that prematurely halts the growth of new hair strands by sending hair follicles into an indefinite resting stage. Existing hair strands continue to fall out as they normally would, but new hairs aren’t being produced fast enough (or at all) to replace them.
Crohn’s Disease
Hair loss is one of many symptoms associated with Crohn’s Disease. The illness inflames the bowels, thus blocking the gastrointestinal system from properly being able to digest food and absorb vital nutrients and vitamins that the body needs to function normally. Hence, hair follicles are severely deprived of essential vitamins and nutrients that are instrumental to healthy hair regeneration and they enter into a resting stage. When the disease is taken under control and in remission, though, normal hair growth can commence.
The Canadian Institute of Hair and Scalp Specialists has over 30 years of extensive experience in helping patients achieve their hair loss goals through various treatments based on different health conditions. We’re one of the top hair rejuvenation clinics in Canada and we take great pride in helping our clients regain their confidence. For a complimentary consultation, please call us at (905) 272-0190 or toll-free at 1-800-563-3836.
by Ken Robson
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What is a sebaceous cyst?
A cyst usually is a slow-growing lump that can move easily under the skin. The term “sebaceous cyst” refers to either an epidermoid cyst, which originates from the skin, or a pilar cyst, which comes from hair follicles.
These cysts are closed sacs that can be found under the skin of the entire body (except the palms of the hands and soles of the feet). A foul odor may be noticed from the overlying skin.
What are the symptoms of sebaceous cysts?
What causes sebaceous cysts?
How are sebaceous cysts diagnosed?
Usually, a doctor can diagnose sebaceous cysts with a simple examination of the skin. In some cases, the doctor will perform a biopsy to rule out other skin growths.
How are sebaceous cysts treated?
In most cases, sebaceous cysts can be ignored, as they usually are not dangerous. If a small cyst becomes inflamed, a doctor can inject it with a steroid drug to reduce swelling. A doctor may drain a cyst that is large, tender, or inflamed. Larger cysts may need to be removed if they cause hair loss on the scalp or interfere with clothing.
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What is zinc?
One of the most common elements in the earth’s crust, zinc is found in the air, soil, and water and is present in all foods. Used since ancient Egyptian times to enhance wound healing, zinc is a mineral that is necessary for the functioning of enzymes and plays a vital role in many biological processes, including the production of cells that help keep the body healthy.
Why is zinc necessary?
Zinc helps maintain optimum immune function and boosts immunity, and creates new cells which allows healthy collagen production and wound healing. It is also a component of key enzymes that help preserve vision and protect against age-related vision loss, including macular degeneration. Zinc further plays a role in carbohydrate and protein metabolism, and may be beneficial as a supplement for people with severe diarrhea, sickle cell anemia, gastric ulcers, and acne. In addition, zinc is vital for normal fetal development and the maturation of sperm.
What are the signs of a zinc deficiency?
Signs of zinc deficiency include hair loss, weight loss, delayed wound healing, chronic infection, and rough skin or rashes. Symptoms include poor appetite, depression and mental lethargy.
How much, and what kind, does an adult need?
Dr. Weil recommends adults take 15 mg of zinc supplements daily, or up to 30 mg daily for vegetarians or for those who don’t eat many foods of animal origin.
How much zinc does a child need?
According to the National Institutes for Health, infants 7 months – 3 years should get 3 mg daily; children 4 – 8 years, 5 mg; 9 – 13 years, 8 mg; males 14 years and older 11 mg; females 14 -18, 9 mg; pregnant females 14 -18, 13 mg; and pregnant females 19 and older, 11 mg.
Which food with zinc are the best to eat?
Animal foods such as beef, eggs, and oysters (cooked) are a rich source of zinc. The best plant sources are legumes (dried beans, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, lentils, peas, and whole soy products), pumpkin seeds, whole grains and nuts.
Are there any risks associated with too much zinc?
High doses of zinc or zinc supplements can actually decrease immunity, interfere with the absorption of copper, leading to copper deficiency, and increase the risk of anemia. Excessive amounts of zinc can also cause nausea, headaches, lethargy, irritability, stomach irritation, and vomiting.
Are there any other special considerations?
• Zinc can cause stomach upset, occasionally resulting in nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea – take zinc with food to help lessen this risk.
• The following may interfere with or decrease, zinc absorption: high calcium intake, some vegetarian diets, caffeine, alcoholism, oral penicillin, diuretics, and dairy and bran products.
• Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may reduce zinc excretion.
• Copper can be depleted when taking zinc supplements, so consider taking supplemental copper in a zinc-to-copper ratio of 10 to 1.
Are you getting the supplements you need?
Share Dr. Weil's expertise with your friends & family
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Achieving Heart Wellness through Proper Habits
Healthy living depends on the habits that we have developed in our life. Our habits can either be good or bad for our bodies and little do we know a lot of the things that we love doing could be quite detrimental to our health. Some of our habits like drinking a lot of soft drinks, eating a lot of junk food like chips all while lounging on the couch can actually be bad for our body. You are basically storing lots of unnecessary stuff in your body and not getting much activity to get rid of it. We at Healthy Hearts Club recommend you develop the right habits in order to have a healthy heart.
Heart Tinctures
heart maintenance
The problem with these unhealthy habits is that they tend to be quite tempting and hard to break. After all, being lazy all day with soda and a lot of chips can sound like a good time for anyone while the idea of going to the gym and working out can be exhausting for many. But if the goal is to live a heart healthy lifestyle, it is important to start living healthier and developing good habits which can help improve your healthy and the condition of your heart.
In order to live a heart healthy lifestyle one must develop habits that are beneficial to the health of your heart. Before you start with finding new habits it is important to understand that developing a habit doesn’t happen in a span of a few days. It takes at least a month of effort and dedication to develop new habits and adapt a heart healthy lifestyle.
So what are the heart healthy habits that you should develop? Well we at Healthy Hearts Club recommend that you develop habits that help you get more physical activity as well as habits on healthier eating.
To help get you more active you can start out by making it a habit to take a walk everyday for around half an hour. You can do this early in the morning before you start your day or on your commute back home. By walking for thirty minutes your heart rate will increase giving your heart a good exercise as it pumps more blood through your body. You can also consider going to the gym for a more intense workout and to tone your body as well. But if you don’t have time for the gym, going for a walk or jog will do.
While you are getting yourself more active it is also important to make it a habit to eat healthier so that you can supply your body with the nutrients it needs especially since you are increasing your physical activity. You should make sure that your meals contain a lot of vegetables. It is important to stay away from saturated and trans fats and consume for unsaturated fats since this type of fat is what benefits your heart.
In addition to eating healthier you should also make it a point to consume healthy heart supplements in order to really equip your heart with everything that it needs to stay healthy.
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[ih-reys] /ɪˈreɪs/
verb (used with object), erased, erasing.
to rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, etc.; efface.
to eliminate completely:
She couldn’t erase the tragic scene from her memory.
to obliterate (material recorded on magnetic tape or a magnetic disk):
She erased the message.
to obliterate recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk):
He accidentally erased the tape.
Computers. to remove (data) from computer storage.
Slang. to murder:
The gang had to erase him before he informed on them.
verb (used without object), erased, erasing.
to give way to effacement readily or easily.
to obliterate characters, letters, markings, etc., from something.
to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)
(transitive) to destroy all traces of; remove completely: time erases grief
to remove (a recording) from (magnetic tape)
(transitive) (computing) to replace (data) on a storage device with characters representing an absence of data
c.1600, from Latin erasus, past participle of eradere “scrape out, scrape off, shave,” from ex- “out” (see ex-) + radere “to scrape” (see raze). Of magnetic tape, from 1945. Related: Erased; erasing.
To kill; rub out (1940s+)
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[nohnz] /noʊnz/ noun, Ecclesiastical. 1. the fifth of the seven canonical hours, or the service for it, originally fixed for the ninth hour of the day (or 3 p.m.). [nohnz] /noʊnz/ noun, (used with a singular or plural verb) 1. (in the ancient Roman calendar) the ninth day before the ides, both days included: the […]
• Non-escalating
[es-kuh-leyt] /ˈɛs kəˌleɪt/ verb (used with or without object), escalated, escalating. 1. to increase in intensity, magnitude, etc.: to escalate a war; a time when prices escalate. 2. to raise, lower, rise, or descend on or as if on an . /ˈɛskəˌleɪt/ verb 1. to increase or be increased in extent, intensity, or magnitude: to […]
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[nuhn-soh-prit-ee, -prit-ee] /ˈnʌn soʊˈprɪt i, -ˌprɪt i/ noun, plural none-so-pretties. 1. .
• Nonessential
[non-uh-sen-shuh l] /ˌnɒn əˈsɛn ʃəl/ adjective 1. not ; not necessary: Nonessential use of gasoline was forbidden during the war. noun 2. a nonessential thing or person. /ˌnɒnɪˈsɛnʃəl/ adjective 1. not essential; not necessary 2. (biochem) (of an amino acid in a particular organism) able to be synthesized from other substances noun 3. a nonessential […]
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Saturday, July 18, 2009
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How Insulin Resistance Makes Us Fat
How is insulin related to gaining fat? There is a complex and important relationship between food, blood sugar, insulin, and fat. Insulin helps the body transform food into energy. It helps to regulate blood sugar levels. It also helps to store fat. Insulin is a powerful yet hidden fat-building hormone, which is the answer to why we keep getting fatter on low-fat, high carbohydrate diets.
High insulin levels inhibit the use of body fat for energy in the body. The researchers found in their studies that high levels of insulin can block stress hormones known as catecholamines, which normally cause the release of cellular energy. Adrenaline is the best known example of a catecholamine.
Insulin and Fat Storage
After you eat, digest, and absorb carbohydrate foods, your blood glucose (blood sugar) level normally rises. The pancreas responds by releasing insulin, which then transports glucose into your body cells where it can be used as energy. If you have more glucose in your body than your cells need, insulin takes extra blood glucose and transports it into fat storage. Blood sugar then returns to normal. This step is important because having abnormally high levels of blood glucose is called diabetes.
High Level of Insulin = High Level of Storage
Eat lots of food all day long and you will insure high insulin levels. Another way to insure high insulin levels is to eat foods like candy and simple carbs. This increases your blood sugar level quickly and as a response, you body releases a large volume of insulin. Then it is time to store that food as body fat.
So, insulin’s main job is to regulate blood glucose and insulin also signals fat storage. This creates some pros and cons when it comes to insulin levels: not enough insulin to regulate high blood sugar levels would result in diabetes, but high insulin levels on a frequent basis will make you fat.
In seeking the real weight-loss solution, the question we asked was simple: “If high insulin levels make you fat, then would lower insulin levels make you thin?” The answer is yes. Overweight and obesity is seen in the vast majority of those with insulin resistance and Type II diabetes due to the chronic storage of fat in the body.
Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body does not efficiently use insulin, so your pancreas has to make a lot more insulin to regulate blood glucose. If you have insulin resistance and eat foods high in carbohydrates, up to five times more insulin than normal is needed to bring your blood glucose back down to healthy levels. In fact, some people with insulin resistance produce so much insulin that their blood sugar levels dive way below normal. This low blood sugar condition is called hypoglycemia.
Insulin resistance can lead to diabetes later in life. More about Insulin Resistance in our next post.
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by Dr. Jim Tresner
What is a Mason? Simple answer: a man who belongs to the Fraternity of Freemasonry; the largest and oldest organization for men in the world, outside of religious organizations. But there is much more.303800609_eb8b7fdsga6d40
A Mason is a member of a Lodge, or local group of Freemasons. He may also belong to other Masonic organizations, but to be a Mason he must belong and continue to belong to a local Lodge or Blue Lodge (two names for the same thing).
To become a member, he has been through at least one of three stages of initiation. To be a full Master Mason, he must have been through all three.
The Degrees, or stages of membership are Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft {Fellow of the Craft} and Master Mason. Each Degree is based on ancient traditions and ceremonies which have the purpose of transforming the person into a thinking, autonomous, adult male—in control of himself and aware of his abilities and limitations.
This growth and development is the primary purpose of Freemasonry. Charity is not a purpose. The many charities which care for children with disabilities; fund research into eye disease, diabetes, mental health, and Altzheimer’s disease; care for the elderly; support education and much more are an effect of that growth and development. Mutual benefit is not a purpose. It is an effect of men who share a common goal and understanding, and have agreed that a Brother is entitled to any help they can reasonably give.
Essentially, a Mason is a man understands that he is not a “finished product.”
He understand that he has a responsibility to continue to grow, to develop, and to become more thoughtful, more compassionate, more in touch with his own spiritual nature and with the world around him. And he chooses to use Freemasonry as a path toward that growth.
The best answer to the question was given by the Rev. Joseph Fort Newton, a Baptist Minister who was one of the best-known and most powerful religious voices of the first part of the 20th Century.
When is a man a Mason?
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Positve and negative effects of life events
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Page 1 Controlled Coursework Health and Social Care Selin Kavlak 11B Objective: Explain how at least two of the life events in the case study could potentially effect the development and care needs of the following; Joe, Cathy, Jane, Sarah and Michael. Every individual experiences different events throughout their life that either has a positive or negative effect on their physical, intellectual, social and emotional well being. The following piece of work will be based on a life event case study, showcasing the different events that happen to individual and how this affects them and their needs. Joe Out of Joe's life, the most influencing life event that occurred to him was his wife's death at first. Losing a loved one may cause great emotional problems, although it was slightly expected due to old age, a death of a close and loved one effects this person negatively rather than positively. Joe would now have to adjust to a new life without the existence of his partner, coming to terms with living alone; dealing with children alone; facing an empty bed; brief anger towards 'God' and partner on why she left him to cope alone; guilt for not being able to fulfill things he wished to do with her; and managing finances independently. ...read more.
life, she may also decide to take counseling to discuss whether she wants a divorce, to overcome the stressful situation in long term. Her physical health care needs may consist of having to avoid stress, plenty of rest and sleep. Jane Jane experiences an expected life event; she leaves her parents and home, due to start University quite far away. This causes her to become homesick and miss her family and home, however positively she will have gained freedom to do new things without the observance of her parents, giving her the chance to increase her independence and handle situations alone, the excitement of meeting new people and new opportunities. However, negatively she may have to adapt to a new life, the fear of not knowing anyone may cause social withdrawal, financial worries, learning to live alone and create new daily living routines, meeting the wrong group of people causing her to engage in negative behaviors as such. Page 3 Controlled Coursework Health and Social Care Selin Kavlak 11B Her unexpected event is that is pregnant after a binge drinking session. This unexpected experience may affect her negative emotionally, causing stress about whether to keep the baby - if she is how will she cope with university, fear, resentment, frustration, then intellectually she would be confused - wondering how to cope with motherhood or whether to make an adoption plan. ...read more.
Michaels needs might consist of physically; food and drink to maintain energy when he starts school. His shock and stress would have made him tired, or the school activities could have worn him out. Emotionally, he would need the feeling of safety provided for him, he was used to a safe environment with his family the sudden change for him should be made adaptable for him. Intellectually, he would need motivation - school gives a lot of new things to learn, he would need the push and belief of knowing he could cope. Michael also would need to be welcomed by other peers, to get on with others and be involved in group activities. As for moving houses, especially in a different country, the parents play a major role in helping Michael adapt to the idea and area. The parents will have to support Michael emotionally. He needs to be explained and assured of things such as his toys are being put in boxes so they can be taken to the new home, otherwise Michael may worry about his toys, a form of comfort being taken away. The parents also should support them with true positive ideas of the new area, and new house, but still keeping old furniture to make him feel secure and comfortable to where they will be living. ...read more.
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On the whole Elizabeth will benefit physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially from the positive factors in her life. Factors that Negatively Affect my Clients Health & Well- Being Inadequate Diet Elizabeth never eats breakfast and frequently snacks throughout the day.
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Study raises doubts about antidepressant use
A new study suggests that the majority of patients with depression may not benefit from taking antidepressant drugs.
Researchers from the University of Hull reviewed data from a number of trials involving the drugs Prozac (fluoxetine), Seroxat (paroxetine), Effexor (venlafaxine) and Serzone (nefazodone).
They concluded that the drugs may only be of benefit in patients with very severe depression.
However, the drugs' manufacturers have downplayed the findings, pointing out that other reports have shown them to be effective.
Prozac manufacturer Eli Lilly issued a statement saying: 'Extensive scientific and medical experience has demonstrated that Prozac is an effective antidepressant.
'Since its discovery in 1972, fluoxetine has become one of the world's most-studied medicines. More than 40 million people suffering from depression have been treated with fluoxetine in over 100 countries around the world.'
Experts have also cautioned that patients on antidepressants should not stop taking their medication in light of the latest research.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said: 'These results are focused on clinical effectiveness rather than health risks.
'It is important that people should not stop taking the antidepressants immediately, as doing so could lead to severe rebound depression.'
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Wild weather from southern to northern New England on Monday brought a rash of severe-thunderstorm warnings, at least one confirmed tornado, and damage to trees and buildings in several towns.
Here in southern Maine, a storm that moved through Hollis, Standish and Limington caused quite a bit of tree damage. This storm did have rotation on the radar, and a tornado warning was issued as it moved through the area.
In the aftermath, a team from the National Weather Service will go into the area on Tuesday or Wednesday and survey the damage. These folks are trained to evaluate how the damage occurred to confirm if it was a tornado or a downburst. They will also be able to let us know how strong the winds were and, if it was a tornado, how long it lasted, how wide it was and its exact path.
Tornadoes are not common in Maine, but they aren’t rare either. We tend to get small tornadoes that don’t last very long and are not very wide. Unlike the tornadoes in the Midwest, which can be a mile wide at the most severe, those in Maine are significantly smaller.
History shows there have been tornadoes in Portland. Back in 1752, according to David Ludlum’s The Country Journal New England Weather Book, a tornado on Aug. 12 blew down houses and barns. In the late 1920s there were water spouts on Sebago Lake, perhaps similar to what was seen Monday. Back in 1958, a tornado that was up to 400 yards wide tore a path 20 miles long and uprooted trees in the Allagash section of Maine.
The inland sections of Maine are much more likely to see severe thunderstorms and therefore possible tornadoes. This is because the coastline has the influence of the ocean and storms tend to fall apart as they move to the coast.
You can find my weather updates @growingwisdom on Twitter.
After the one tornado warning Tuesday afternoon, no more tornado warnings or watches were issued.
As of mid-evening the final batch of severe weather was pushing into the Waterville, Skowhegan areas and this line will now move further north and east as it weakens overnight.
The rest of this week looks much more tranquil and although there will likely be more storms this summer. Let’s hope they are not as severe as our outbreaks in the past two days.
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background image
Tech Note #35: How Encryption and Digital Signatures Work
1999 Bionic Buffalo Corporation; All Rights Reserved.
19 May 1999
8 of 10
Political Considerations
It doesn’t take long to find that encryption is a highly controversial subject, restricted in
many ways by laws and regulations. There is a conflict between the need for individual
liberty and economic freedom, and a desire for governments to monitor their own
citizens and the military and industrial activities of competitors.
Governments have at times encouraged the use of systems, which allow the
governments themselves to decrypt traffic, which is another way of saying the systems
are insecure. Even large vendors such as IBM have admittedly added secret mechanisms
(known as trap doors) into commercial software, to allow U.S. Government decryption
of message traffic.
Because of the large quantity of rumour and disinformation about these matters, it is
important to trust no one completely. Once again, public scrutiny is the most significant
single indicator of how trustworthy a system might be
. If the algorithm hasn’t been widely
studied, and the source code isn’t available, don’t believe it.
Just because the encryption program itself can be studied, is not sufficient reason to
believe it is secure. An operating system, for example, or a virus, can intercept key
strokes input to an application, rendering any cryptosystem unsafe. Open systems, such
as FreeBSD and Linux, which are built by the user from the sources, are considered the
most secure platforms.
Because of export or import restrictions, the use of a foreign implementation (which has
no problems with export) or a domestic implementation (which has no problems with
import) might be preferred.
Commercial Factors
Some cryptosystems are patented, and the patents are not equally valid in all
jurisdictions. For example, RSA is patented in the United States, but can be used freely
in other countries. On the other hand, IDEA (a symmetric key system) is patented in
Switzerland, but can be used freely in the United States.
Needless to say, the use of a patented system may entail royalties or other expenses,
which would not apply to a system free of such restrictions.
There is also a considerable amount of lobbying by patent holders to include their
algorithms into public standards, since it increases their revenue. The owners of the
RSA patent have successfully worked to incorporate the RSA algorithm into various
formal standards, making its use required for compliance.
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Common Health Hazards and Toxins for Small Mammals
Hedgehog in Hand
Don't let exotic pets wander your home without supervision — they could get into all kinds of trouble. Instead, monitor them whenever they're out of their cages.
When people hear about commonly kept small mammal pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, hedgehogs, ferrets, rats, hamsters and gerbils, they don’t usually think of them being at high risk for getting into trouble in the home. However, if you own one of these pets, there are certain home hazards you should be aware of. These little creatures are clever, curious and very capable of getting into things that they shouldn’t.
1. Electric cords are so much fun to chew!
Wires commonly contain heavy metals like zinc and are oh-so-tempting to gnaw on. Small mammals that chew on and ingest wires commonly develop zinc poisoning, which can lead to gastrointestinal (GI) upset, blood disturbances and even death. Some wires also contain copper, which can be lethal as well. Electrical cords can be a chewy treat for small mammals when they find them running along baseboards on the floor or when they are sitting on furniture near electrical plugs. When chewed on, live electrical wires can also cause electrocution and instant death or, at the least, severe oral burns. So whenever your little buddy is “cage free,” he or she must be monitored at all times. If you have these small pets, all wires and cords must be safely secured so your pet cannot access them. Wires can be enclosed in PVC piping and whenever possible, plugged into higher outlets.
2. Lead can be so tasty!
Many construction materials used in homes, especially older homes, including paint, linoleum and dry wall, may contain lead. These materials are commonly used to build walls and floors — places easily accessed by free-roaming small mammal pets. Baseboards, floor edges and other places where small mammals can hide and chew endlessly without being noticed can be deadly for them if the items they chew on contain lead. Lead causes nerve damage, severe GI problems, anemia and even death. Keep pets away from chipping paint and other potentially lead-containing substances, as even a few bites of these materials can be deadly for smaller pets.
3. Not so terrific treats
Several items marketed as treats for small mammals, such as yogurt drops, seed sticks, raisins and other inappropriate foods, are not really meant to be fed to them. These items contain high levels of sugar and fat that most of these pets’ GI systems are not built to handle. Consumption of these so-called treats can lead to significant GI disruption and, in some cases, death. The rule of thumb is that herbivores, such as guinea pigs, chinchillas and rabbits, should not eat excessive sugar, as found in raisins and yogurt drops, or excess fat, as found in seed-based treats. Small amounts of fresh vegetables, such as carrots, are appropriate treats for these pets. Ferrets, who are carnivorous, and hedgehogs, who are insectivores (insect-eaters), are better offered high-protein treats, such as low-salt deli meat for ferrets, and high-protein cat food or mealworms for hedgehogs. Occasional treats can be delicious and fun to feed; just use them judiciously.
4. Extreme temperatures are extremely dangerous
Most small mammal pets live very comfortably at temperatures that are comfortable to us. However, some small mammals are sensitive to very high or very low temperatures. For example, chinchillas and rabbits have thick coats and cannot sweat. They can get overheated at temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and can die. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, are subject to a condition called torpor when it gets cold. At temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, they enter a state of hibernation. Their heart rate drops, their metabolism slows and they become more susceptible to illness and ultimately to death if they remain at that temperature. Therefore, it is critical that small mammals, depending on the species, are kept within their optimal temperature ranges to flourish and stay healthy. Consult your veterinarian to learn how to keep your particular pet safe and comfortable.
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William Gouge,
A Short History
Of the Bank of North America.
It is a common opinion that the Bank of North America rendered essential service during our revolutionary struggle – that, without it, the achievement of independence would have been difficult, if not impossible. Assertions to this effect have been made with so much confidence that we once believed them to be well-founded; but on examination we find–
First. That the capture of Cornwallis, which is described by historians as the closing scene of the Revolutionary War, took place on the 9th of October, 1781, and that the Bank did not go into operation till January 7th, 1782.
Secondly. That the whole amount of expenditures of the U.S. Government in the year 1782, was only three million six hundred thousand dollars, and in 1783 only three million two hundred thousand dollars. Large loans were negotiated in Europe in these years; "and such a conviction of the necessities of public supplies generally took place through the States, that considerable sums were obtained by a tax on polls and real estates." –P. Webster
Thirdly. The whole amount subscribed by individuals to the Bank did not, as appears from the concurrent testimony of Mr. Robert Morris and Mr. Gouverneur Morris, exceed 70,000 dollars.
Fourthly. From statements made by Mr. Robert Morris, in public debate in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, in the year 1786, it appears that the advances made by the Bank to the Government, above the amount of silver money actually paid in by the Government, never did exceed 165,000 dollars, and for a part of the time did not amount to 50,000 dollars.[13]
The reader, on duly considering these facts, will probably be convinced that the services rendered by the Bank of North America, during our revolutionary struggle, have been grossly exaggerated.
From the beginning of the year 1780, till the close of the war, hard money was very plenty. This "was occasioned by large sums, by various means, coming from the English army at New York, and spreading through the States; also by large sums remitted by France to their army and navy here; also by large importations of hard money from the Havanna and other places abroad; so that hard money was never more plenty nor more easily collected than at that time." In a note to an essay of later date, Mr. Webster says, "the States were really overrun with abundance of cash: the French and English armies, our foreign loans, Havanna trade &c., had filled the country with money."
"It has been asked," says Lord Sheffield, "what has become of the money which we have sent during the war to America ? Some is come back – a considerable part is the circulating cash within our lines. Many British subjects in New York have very large sums in their possession. The Dutch and Germans, whose number is not inconsiderable, have hoarded up – and it is believed considerable sums are concealed.
"France sent (not included in the debt) above 600,000 pounds sterling in specie to America, being obliged to send cash."[14]
The operations of the war caused such a drain of specie from Europe, that the Bank of England was brought into jeopardy, and the Caisse d'Escompte at Paris actually suspended payment in 1783: and such a flux of specie into the United States, that, as Mr. Webster observes, "hard money was never more plenty or more easily collected."
Such being the state of the money market, it is difficult to believe that the Government might not, if the Bank had not been established, have obtained a loan of 50,000 to 165,000 dollars from some other source. It does not appear that the Bank ever made advances to the Government, except on the best security. For at least 80,000 dollars of the amount, the State of Pennsylvania was guarantee. For the residue of the amount, the Government might have pledged the proceeds of the taxes, or bills on Europe: and on the same security, it is probable, individuals would have made the advances, especially as money was so abundant, and the news of peace confidently expected.
The truth is, that the project of establishing a Bank in Philadelphia had been conceived by Mr. Robert Morris, before the commencement of the war, as appears from his own declaration:[15] and he had entered into negociations in Europe with a view to effect this object. But a project for a Bank about the year 1763, had been vigorously opposed on the ground that it would give a few men a monopoly of trade: and it is probable that Mr. Robert Morris's project would have encountered severe opposition, if it had not been brought forward as a fiscal measure, and at a time when neither the Legislature nor the people could give it that consideration it deserved.
He submitted his plan to Congress in May, 1780, and on the 26th of the same month it was approved by that body. "Yet," he says, "until the month of September or October following, there were not more subscriptions in the whole, than amounted to about 70,000 dollars. During the time, one of his most Christian Majesty's frigates arrived at Boston, and brought a remittance in specie of about 470,000 dollars. The sum was brought to Philadelphia and deposited in the vaults of the Bank. I determined from the moment of its arrival, to subscribe on behalf of the United States, for those shares in the Bank which remained vacant: but such was the amount of the public expenditures, that notwithstanding the utmost care and caution to keep this money, nearly one-half of the sum was exhausted before the institution could be organized. In November, 1781, the president and directors of the Bank were elected: they obtained a charter of incorporation from Congress – and opened the Bank for transacting business in January, 1782. I subscribed the sum then remaining in the treasury, being about 254,000 dollars, into the Bank stock, per account of the United States, which became thereby the principal stockholder."[16]
As is remarked by Mr. Gouverneur Morris, the sum subscribed by Government may be said to have been paid in with one hand, and borrowed with the other, leaving the Bank but 70,000 dollars at most for its proper operations. On this amount it undertook to make advances to the Government and to individuals; but as the experience of the evils of continental money was fresh in the minds of the people, some difficulty was encountered in giving currency to the notes of the Bank. To remove this "prejudice" the gentlemen who were interested in the institution, were, as we have learned from undoubted private authority, in the practice of requesting people from the country and laboring men about town, to go to the Bank and get silver in exchange for notes. When they went on this errand of neighborly kindness, as they thought it, they found a display of silver on the counter, and men employed in raising boxes containing silver, or supposed to contain silver, from the cellar into the Banking room, or lowering then from the Banking room into the cellar. By contrivances like these, the Bank obtained the reputation of possessing immense wealth; but its hollowness was several times nearly made apparent, especially on one occasion, when one of the co-partners withdrew a deposit of some five or six thousand dollars, when the whole specie stock of the Bank did not probably exceed twenty thousand.
By these means, and by the assistance of the United States Government, the notes of the Bank became current; and so profitable was the business that the early dividends were at the rate of from 12 to 16 per cent. per annum. This naturally created a desire in others to share in so very lucrative a trade. A project was therefrom formed for establishing a second Bank, to be called the Bank of Pennsylvania. This, they who were interested in the Bank of North America strenuously opposed, fearing the effect of a rival institution in Philadelphia. To prevent its being established, they opened their books for additional subscriptions; but not without murmuring loudly at the hardship of receiving new partners.[17]
In the year 1784, the Bank did a very extensive business; and by the beginning of 1785, the effects of its operations began to be very apparent. They are such as Banking has always produced – a temporary plentifulness of money, followed by great scarcity, usury, ruin to the many, riches to the few. These effects were ably set forth in petitions to the Assembly, from the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and those of the counties of Chester and Bucks, presented on the 21st and 23d of March, praying for a repeal of the charter of the Bank. Those petitions were referred to a committee, who in a report of the 25th of the same month, fully sustained the allegations of the petitioners, and recommended a repeal of the charter. This recommendation was carried into effect, at the ensuing session, on the 13th of September, 1785.
Thus we find that the first Bank established in this country produced so much evil, that its charter was taken from it in less than four years after it had commenced operations.
The Bank, however, claiming the right of prosecuting its business under the act of Congress, continued its operations, though on a more moderate scale. In 1786, an attempt was made by its friends to obtain a renewal of the charter from the State of Pennsylvania, but it was successfully opposed by Wm. Findlay of Westmoreland, Mr. Smilie of the same county, and other leading democrats. It is difficult, however, for the people long to withstand the efforts of a powerful monied interest: and it being pleaded, with some show of reason, that the forms of the Constitution had not been properly regarded in taking away the charter, and many persons fearing a return of the old paper money system, the Bank was re-incorporated on the 17th of March, 1787, with limited powers, and for fourteen years. By successive acts of the Legislature, it has been continued in existence to the present day.
Minutes of the Assembly [of Pennsylvania], March 21, 1785. Petitions from a considerable number of the inhabitants of Chester County were read, representing that the Bank established at Philadelphia has fatal effects upon the community; that while men are enabled, by means of the Bank, to receive nearly three times the rate of common interest, and, at the same time, to receive their money at very short warning, whenever they have occasion for it, it will be impossible for the husbandman and the mechanic to borrow on the former terms of legal interest and distant payment of the principal; that the best security will not enable the person to borrow; that experience clearly demonstrates the mischievous consequences of this institution to the fair trader; that impostors have been enabled to support themselves in a fictitious credit, by means of a temporary punctuality at the Bank, until they have drawn in their honest neighbors to trust them with their property, or pledge their credit as securities, and have been finally involved in ruin and distress; that they have repeatedly seen the stopping of discounts at the Bank operate on the trading part of the community, with a degree of violence scarcely inferior to that of the stagnation of the blood in the human body, hurrying the wretched merchant who hath debts to pay into the hands of griping usurers; that the Directors of the Bank may give such preferences in trade, by advances of money, to their particular favorites, as to destroy the equality which ought to prevail in a commercial country; that paper money has often proved beneficial to the State, but the Bank forbids it, and the people must acquiesce: therefore, in order to restore public confidence and private security, they pray that a bill may be brought in and passed into a law for repealing the law for incorporating the Bank.
March 28.– The report of the committee, read March 25, on the petitions from the counties of Chester and Berks, and the city of Philadelphia and its vicinity, praying the Act of Assembly whereby the Bank was established at Philadelphia, may be repealed, was read a second time as follows, viz:
The committee to whom were referred the petitions concerning the Bank established at Philadelphia, and who were instructed to inquire whether the said Bank be compatible with the public safety, and that equality which ought always to prevail between the individuals of a republic, beg leave to report, that it is the opinion of this committee, that the said Bank, as at present established, is in every view incompatible with the public safety; that in the present state of our trade, the said Bank has a direct tendency to banish a great part of the specie from the country, so as to produce a scarcity of money, and to collect into the hands of the stockholders of the said Bank almost the whole of the money which remains amongst us. That the accumulation of enormous wealth in the hands of a society who claim perpetual duration, will necessarily produce a degree of influence and power; which cannot be entrusted in the hands of any set of men whatsoever, without endangering the public safety. That the said Bank in its corporate capacity, is empowered to hold estates to the amount of ten mil lions of dollars, and by the tenor of the present charter is to exist forever, without being obliged to yield any emolument to the Government, or to be at all dependent upon it. That the great profits of the Bank, which will daily increase as money grows scarcer, and which already far exceed the profits of European Banks, have tempted foreigners to vest their money in this Bank, and thus to draw from us large sums of interest.
That foreigners will doubtless be more and more induced to become stockholders, until the time may arrive when this enormous engine of power may become subject to foreign influence; this country may be agitated with the politics of European courts, and the good people of America reduced once more to a state of subordination, and dependence upon some one or other of the European Powers. That at best, if it were even confined to the hands of Americans, it would be totally destructive of that equality which ought to prevail in a republic. We have nothing in our free and equal Government capable of balancing the influence the Bank must create: and we see nothing which, in the course of a few years, can prevent the directors of the Bank from governing Pennsylvania. Already we have felt its influence directly interfering in the measures of the Legislature. Already the House of Assembly, the representatives of the people, have been threatened that the credit of our paper currency will be blasted by the Bank; and if this growing evil continues, we fear the time is not very distant when the Bank will be able to dictate to the Legislature, what laws to pass and what to forbear.
Your committee therefore beg leave further to report the following resolution to be adopted by the House, viz:
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to bring in a bill to repeal the Act of Assembly, passed the first day of April 1782, entitled, "An Act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of North America;" and also to repeal one other Act of Assembly, passed the 18th of March 1782, entitled, "An Act for preventing and punishing the counterfeiting of the common seal, Bank bills, and Bank notes of the President, Directors, and Company, of the Bank of North America, and for the other purposes therein mentioned."
The opinion the Legislature of 1786 had of grants to corporations, may be judged of by the following extract from a speech by Mr. Smilie.
"There are charters so sacred that they cannot be revoked. But there is a material distinction between charters, and the opinions of many have been very wrong on that head. When once an error is taken up, men go on a long time in delusion. There are many things which we now consider as absurd, which were formerly venerated, for want of being properly considered. The doctrine of hereditary right, which is now held odious, was once deemed sacred. There is a strong reason why persons from Europe are so highly prejudiced in favor of charters. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Europe was in the lowest state of vassalage – the people were in some measure rooted to the soil, and sold with it. While affairs were in that situation, the kings and powerful barons granted charters of incorporation to towns and cities, thereby exempting them from the common vassalage of the state, and bestowing on them particular immunities; thus giving them political existence. These charters were sacred, because they secured to the persons on whom they were bestowed their natural rights and privileges. But, there are, sir, charters of a very different nature. And here it is necessary to fix the point of distinction. Charters are rendered sacred, not because they are given by the Assembly or by the Parliament, but by the objects for which they are given. If a charter is given in favor of a monopoly, whereby the natural and legal rights of mankind are invaded, to benefit certain individuals, it would be a dangerous doctrine to hold that it cannot be annulled. All the natural rights of the people, as far as is consistent with the welfare of mankind, are secured by the Constitution. All charters granting exclusive rights, are a monopoly on the great charter of mankind."
Mr. Lollar said, "the House which granted it (the charter) entertained no idea of its being for a perpetuity, or of its being out of the power of the Assembly to alter or new-model it, as they might see fit." In support of this, Mr. Lollar quoted the minutes of that House, where it appeared that a clause had been introduced as a rider to the bill, for the purpose of empowering the Assembly that should sit in 1789, to alter or amend the charter as might be necessary. This was rejected by twenty-seven to twenty-four, and the express reason assigned for the rejection was, that the charter of the Bank must necessarily be always in the power of the House.
"What is all this to us?" said Mr. Morris in reply. "Are we to regulate our conduct by the private opinions of former members of Assembly?"
The friends of the Bank maintained, that the Legislature had no power over a charter once granted, and that the courts of law alone had power to declare a charter forfeited. There are traces of a Bank in Virginia, previous to the establishment of the Bank of North America, but we have not been able to learn any thing satisfactory concerning its character
From the statements of Mr. Robert Morris, the accounts of the Government with the Bank were as follows:
April 2d, –– 1782 –– 252,918 –– 300,000 –– 47,082
July –– 1782 –– 252,918 –– 400,000 –– 147,082
October –– 1782 –– 253,394 –– 400,000 –– 146,606
January –– 1783 –– 53,394 –– 100,000 –– 46,606
April –– 1783 –– 53,394 –– 100,000 –– 46,606
July –– 1783 –– 129,800 –– 129,800
October –– 1783 –– 164,781 –– 164,781
January 1st. 1784, the debt was discharged.
The last column shows the amount in which the Government was in debt to the Bank, at the different periods mentioned.
14 Observations on the Commerce of the American States. June 21st 1783.
15 Carey's "Debates and Proceedings of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the memorials praying a repeal or suspension of the law annulling the charter of the Bank." Philadelphia 1786.
16 It may be made a question, whether the whole of the original capital of the Bank was not advanced by Government. Thomas Paine says, in one of his tracts, it is well known "that the Bank originated in another Bank called the Bank of Pennsylvania, which was formed in the spring of 1780. On the 17th of June, it was resolved to open a security subscription to the amount of 300,000 pounds Pennsylvania currency, in real money, the subscribers to execute bonds for file amount of their subscription, and to form a Bank for supplying the army." He afterwards speaks of some of these subscriptions being transferred to the Bank of North America.
From the journals of Congress, it appears that the Board of Treasury was directed to deposite in this Pennsylvania Bond-Bank, "bills of exchange, in favor of the directors thereof, on the Ministers of the United anted States in Europe, or any of them, and in such sums as shall be thought convenient, but not to exceed in the whole £150,000 sterling."
Were the 70,000 dollars which were subscribed by individuals to the Bank of North America, paid in bonds or in money ? Was a part of the 470,000 dollars received by the French frigate, used in redeeming some of these bonds: and was it in this way subscriptions were transferred from the old Bond Bank to the Bank of North America: or were the 70,000 dollars paid in by individuals without any trafficking with Government ? These questions are, perhaps, rather curious than useful: but our knowledge of the contrivances for forming Bank stock in our own day, makes us desire to see an explanation of the 70,000 dollars subscription by individuals.
17 The following is an extract from a pamphlet, published in 1785, entitled an "Address to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the abolition of the Bank Charter."
"After the peace, when the advantages of the Bank had been felt, and the property of the stock had become secure, an opposition was raised by some of the same persons who are now the opposers, but on grounds somewhat different. For then, instead of considering the Bank as pernicious, it was considered to be so highly beneficial that they must needs have two. They did indeed complain of the old Bank. But for what ? Not because the capital was so large as to threaten general ruin: but because the directors would not open a subscription to make it larger. And what was the modest request of that day? Why, truly, such an extension of the capital as might enable those who had waited for events in perfect ease and safety, to enjoy the same advantages with those who had borne the burden, and run the risk of the contest. It was, indeed, a hard case that many worthy gentlemen who would not have given a shilling to save the State, should be obliged to pay either $500 for a share in Bank which had cost but four, or to lend their money on bond and mortgage to the farmers of Pennsylvania. A very hard case. And so loudly did they complain of it, that at last many sensible members of Assembly were prevailed on to believe it would be a good thing to have two Banks. Two shops to go to, for that was the fashionable phrase. And they were the more easily led into this opinion, because it was laid down by some in high stations, for whose sentiments they had acquired a habitual respect.
"The consequence of the noise made at the time, must be well remembered. The Assembly were plagued with long arguments on both sides which might have been spared, and then, all at once, the thing was hushed up and accommodated. Because, such of the promoters of the new Bank as had money, found out their new friends had none. Because they all found out the scheme did not promise so much either of security or profit, as was imagined. And because they had not too much confidence in each other, being (like Nebuchadnezar's image) composed of discordant materials. They agreed, therefore, to abandon their project, on certain conditions acceded to by the old Bank, one of which was to extend the subscription, and this it is which has converted all the surplus money of the State into Bank stock. For otherwise, let the price of a share have risen ever so high, nay, had it gone to 4000 instead of 400 dollars, not one penny would have been added to the Bank capital. But in proportion as stock rose, the dividends would have been less valuable.
"It is notorious that if the Directors had not been under compulsion, they would not have extended the subscriptions beyond the first 400,000 dollars. It is notorious that any addition to the number of shares lessens the value of each."
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The 1930?s: The Good Times and The Bad Times
The decade of the 1930?s can be characterized in two parts: The Great Depression, and the restoration of the American economy. America had been completely destroyed due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It was up to the government and people of the 1930?s to "mend" America?s wounds. One man stood up to this challenge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He promised to fix the American economy, provide jobs, and help the needy. During The Great Depression, the crime rate had risen to an all new high. J. Edgar Hoover helped to create the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As America was restored, culture grew quickly. Dance clubs, new music styles, glamour girls, movies and sports were all popular forms of entertainment in the 1930?s. From January 1st, 1930 to December 31st 1939, American was in a process of healing it?s economic wounds.
The stock market panic preceded an economic depression that not only spread over the United States but in the early 1930s became worldwide. In the United States, despite the optimistic statements of President Herbert Hoover (president during the crash) and his secretary of the treasury, Andrew W. Mellon, that business was "fundamentally sound" and that a new era of prosperity was just about to begin, many factories closed, unemployment steadily increased, banks failed in growing numbers, and the prices of commodities steadily fell. The administration began to take steps to combat the crisis. Among the measures taken were the granting of emergency appropriations for farm relief and public works, modification of the rules of the Federal Reserve System to make it easier for people in business and farming to obtain credit, and the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), with assets of $2 billion, to make emergency loans to industries, railroads, insurance co!
mpanies, and banks. Nevertheless, the economic depression steadily worsened during the remainder of the Hoover administration. Hoover?s plans were not working well. By 1932 hundreds of banks had failed, hundreds of mills and factories had closed, mortgages on farms and houses were being foreclosed in large numbers, and more than 10 million workers were unemployed. The presidential campaign of 1932, in which the Democratic candidate was Franklin D. Roosevelt, was waged on the issues of Prohibition and the economic crisis. The Democratic platform called for outright repeal of the 18th Amendment and promised a "new deal" in economic and social matters to bring about recovery from the depression. The Republicans did not call for outright repeal of the amendment. In regard to the depression, they warned against the danger to business and the national finances if the social and economic philosophies of the Democrats were substituted for the sound and conservative ideas of the Hoover!
administration. The Democrats won an overwhelming success in the election, carrying all but six states.
Almost immediately after taking office, Roosevelt called on Congress to convene and began what would be known as the Hundred Days, which lasted until June 16, 1933. On March 6 Roosevelt called a nationwide bank holiday, and on March 9 Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act, which provided for federal bank inspections. In the summer of 1933, the Glass-Steagle Act set much more stringent rules for banks and provided insurance for depositors through the newly formed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). These acts helped to restore popular confidence in the wake of widespread bank failures. Two acts, one in 1933 and one in 1934, mandated detailed regulations for the securities market, enforced by the new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Several bills provided mortgage relief for farmers and homeowners and offered loan guarantees for home purchasers through the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration which was headed !
The most important legislation of 1933 involved the major economic sectors. As a climax to a decade of wrangling, Congress in 1933 enacted a complex new
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Solar Now
Updated on January 24, 2008
Solar to replace carbon
The earth and inhabitants are no longer sustainable under the present energy system. Never mind politics, and never mind global warming. Just look around you. More cars, More buildings and parking lots, freeways and more people. Waste is everywhere, clogging and causing expensive disease control and cleanup. Plastic bags kill scarce fauna, and flora too, probably.
This places huge demands on everything and everybody. Millions of tons of waste go into the sky and return as rain, which washes back into lakes, streams, and oceans. Fish die. Birds that eat the fish die and insects grow out of control and vector diseases through aquatic and direct animal and human contact. No one dares talk about doing something about the population expolosion. The result is a constant carbon insult to the planet's eco system.
Cancer and new diseases like skin eating bacteria are more common. Pathogens usually dormant are now infecting food supplies. Diseases wipe out herds of cattle, hogs and sheep formerly destined for the dinner table.
So it doesn't matter what it is called, I first heard the term global warming, at university in 1982. The class was entitled, Environmental Administration, by Professsor Caldwell, who predicted everything that would happen to the environment by the year 2000. Sadly, he was all too correct.
In future articles I will explore how countries are gearing up to change dependence from carbon energy systems to renewable and clean energy systems. Solar, wind, geothermal, so called clean burning gas, and even food, such as corn, are considered. There is serious consideration about using grass and soy beans to drive engines even though a professor at Berkley has pointed out it would take all the foilage in the world to replace a year of gasoline usage.
Solar energy is a solution for mass uses of energy. It has gotten much cheaper and attractive as cells are built right into the roof. In some areas excess electricity is sold to the power company. New systems that store energy to be used later are in use. Soon the government in the US will give tax credits similar to drivers of Humvees, to solar users. Other countries like Germany and China are developing solar in a big way.
The notion of burning a food supply is silly, wasteful, and burns as much carbon to develop it as the oil it is supposed to replace. Not to mention the cost of transporting it, pipelines, trucks, and railcars. Cars have to be modified. Distribution points are not yet placed in necessary quantity. The cost of farming, fertilizers, pest control and damage from chemicals to the environment will be staggering. It is a boondoggle, designed to manage and funnel large sums of cash into the hands of a few wealthy and political astute.
There will be answsers because there is no choice. There isn't much time to work on the problems before oil runs out or the planet simply breaks down,once and for all. The sun could provide in a day enough energy to fuel all the needs of mankind for the next 500,000 years. Little has been done in research on solar energy and how to capture it efficiently. Surely there is a way.
Clean Solar to replace oil
This refinery is neither refined nor appealing as its carbon waste products blot out the beauty of creation.
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solarshingles 8 years ago from london
You are so right about use of endless and free solar power, solarcaptain! Every single hour our planet Earth receives enough solar power to power absolutely all world's power needs! Yet, we rather burn oil, coal, gas and nuclear and rapidly destroy our wonderful planet and most life forms, including a human... And that is not enough. We rather pay record energy prices (read oil, gas) for all that destruction and for the destruction of our basic economy, as well. Oil lobby is ultra greedy Power lobby, which totally control world politics and financial system, including the White House and the Pentagon...
Solar Power, wind power, geothermal and hydrogen economy is our near future.
• solarcaptain profile image
mike king 8 years ago from california
amigo mio
I didn't get my blog out but here's the scoop and it's going to burn big oil bad!
This guy from MIT, a scientist, has come up with a way to solve the problem of nighttime, as in no sun has been major drawback for solar, but he has solved it and it's going to make solar cheap.
He's figured out that he can capture enough sun through electrolysis(which of course, isn't new except for this application and may be the revolutionary technology everyone has been waiting for. In most, if not all cases, solar will be very competitive, and more so if hooked up to the grid. Now, we can get into promoting solar as a cheaper alternative--but the oil boys and the red neck right aren't going to take it lying down, so watch for dirty tricks, phony stats, like they used with global warming. It is sick what is happening with the oceans and everywhere.I just figured when it got intolerable enough and the natural disasters started getting worse, (like they haven't already), then the people will start making some noise. It may already be too late, look at all the cancers, the future is tenuous for our kids, I remember when the planet was still clean and people still cared. Oh well I could go on. But more later, my friend Oh Oh..hah GM is still claiming the people may not go for energy efficient cars! Ya bring back the queens of the road cause we are just so happy with $4.00 gas--har har-their highly touted VOLT has no means of propulsion (Blush). Well the boys in the front office wanted to wait and see what the public wanted..WE WANT CHEAP TRANSPORTATION..uh get it? And we ain't bailing you out, either! Remember the "k" car? I drove a Toyota, even then.
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Heat transfer question
1. Sep 14, 2007 #1
this question was posed by someone on a computer forum and is probably easy for some of you, so here goes :
imagine water in an open container which is perfectly insulated on the sides and bottom. the water is stationary and heat is being added from the top (assume that the surroundings above the water are at a much higher temperature than the water itself). eventually, will the complete mass of water reach a higher equilibrium temperature? if so, what mechanism of heat transfer causes this to happen?
2. jcsd
3. Sep 14, 2007 #2
Thats wrong on many levels. First of all, the 'mass' of water wont reach one temperature, there will be a temperature gradient across the water. Second, the water will reach an equilibrium temperature. That temperature wont be higher than the source temperature, or heat would flow back into the surroundings. This is all done by conduction and convection.
4. Sep 14, 2007 #3
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You may want to reread the problem statement. The container is insulated on the bottom and sides, no heat loss implies that the water temperature will stabilize at the same temp as the air.
The mechanism is conduction.
5. Sep 14, 2007 #4
i guess my initial post was a little ambiguous. when i said "higher equilibrium temperature", i meant higher than the original water temperature before heat addition, i didn't mean higher than the ambient.
why will there be convection? from my limited knowledge, convection is a result of varying densities, however since heat is added from the top, the colder denser fluid stays at the bottom and lighter warm fluid stays at the top.
will there still be a gradient when time equals infinity or will the entire mass of water be the same temperature as the surroundings?
i'm asking because i don't know, so correct me wherever i'm wrong.
6. Sep 14, 2007 #5
Right, the top surface of the water will be at the same temperature as the air; however, the sides wont. The sides will be at room temperature, because its a perfect insulator. You will have a thermal gradient in the water, and hence convection inside the water. Conduction at the top water/air interface.
7. Sep 14, 2007 #6
I think the sides will be at the same temperature of the water.
And you forgot radiation and absotions of this radiation in/of the water. ( and reflection and absortion of the radiation at the sides and bottom of the container )
And if the container is open the water will evaporate.
8. Sep 14, 2007 #7
Radiation will be negligible compared to everything else alvaros. Maybe 1% in magnitude or less. If the water at the insulator interface were the same temperature as the heated interface, there would be a temperature jump from room temperature to air temperature at that boundary, and hence an infinte slope jump. This makes no physical sense.
9. Sep 14, 2007 #8
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Is this a practial question of a gedanken experiment?
In a real experiment you could simply use a thermos bottle with an insulation vacuum as the container. In this case the inner sides of the container will be, to a very good approximation, at the same temperature as the water and the outer sides the temperature of the room.
So in a real experiment the "dynamics" would be almost complettely governed by the flux of energy at the surface.
10. Sep 14, 2007 #9
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Trying to define what you mean by "the temperature of a perfect insulator" is more about philosophy than engineering. And it does't really matter, because if it's a perfect insulator there is no heat flow whatever its temperature is.
Re the "temperature jump" between the air and the water, it does make sense in terms of a kinetic theory model. The average KE of the the gas molecules can be different from the average KE of the water molecules, therefore the temperatures at the interface can be different - though different temperatures are not in equilibrium of course. If the temperatures at the interface were the same (on a practical size scale), Newton's law of convective cooling wouldn't make any sense.
11. Sep 17, 2007 #10
Can you explain that some more Aleph? It seems to me that a jump in temperature at the boundary would mean an infinite dT/dx. The only way to make delta(E) zero at the boundary is if k=0. This seems shady to me as you would have 0*infinity, which is not really zero mathematically since its indeterminate.
Even if it was a really *REALLY* good material with k=10^-23, made from unobtanium, the fact that dT/dx is infinite would make the delta(E) blow up.
I can only see the solution making any sense if the boundaries are at room temperature and the top surface is at the source temperature. That temperature difference at each face would cause convection due to the different densities.
12. Sep 18, 2007 #11
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With convection, there is flow in the fluids. Think of hot solid object in cold air. The air molecules get heated by colliding with the surface and rebounding with higher energy. It doesn't follow that each individual molecule heats up the same temp of the solid in just one collision, and even if it did it would cool down when it collided with another colder air molecule. The *average* temperature of the air, very close to the surface, is less than the surface temperature of the solid.
That's what Newton's Law of Cooling says: across the interface, heat flux Q = h(T_1-T_0) where h is the heat transfer coefficient. H which depends on the surface finish, the flow configuration, and various nondimensional fluid parameters like Reynolds and Prandtl numbers.
This is different from conduction within a solid (or between two solids in contact) where the atoms only vibrate, they don't move around on a global scale. For solid conduction agree with you, the temperature gradient has to be finite and the temperature distribution has to be continuous. At least, that's true for the "classical" model of heat flow - at the atomic scale, considering the temperature (or KE) of individual particles is a different story.
For a solid that is an absolutely perfect insulator (K = 0, not 10^-23) then the diffusion/conduction equation just says dT/dt = 0 at every point. So there can (conceptually) be any temperature distribution you like in the solid, and it never changes. There's no reason why dT/dx has to be continuous because dT/dx doesn't come into the equation (or it's multiplied by 0, if you prefer). That's what I meant by saying the concept of "temperature in a perfect insulator" is not very well defined (or useful).
But of course there is no such thing as a perfect insulator.
The question of what happens in convection between a perfect insulator and a fluid is another "what is 0/0" type question I think. There can't be any finite amount of heat flux going into or out of the solid, because the heat can't go anywhere inside the solid. I think all you can really say is dT/dn is zero at the boundary of the fluid (where n is the normal vector) and the temperature in the fluid can be whatever it wants to be. There can be heat transfer along the surface, inside the fluid, so it doesn't mean the fluid temp has to be constant over the whole boundary.
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1. Heat Transfer Question (Replies: 4)
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Quartz resonator
1. Aug 17, 2008 #1
when reading about the main differences between crystal resonators, oscillators and filters theres not much difference in operation, except that filters seem to have the crystal resonators and capacitors and resistors, And resonators seem to oscillate when the proper frequency is applied, And oscillators oscillate when a voltage is applied but also have amplifiers and feedbacks to the crystal. So my main question is why do you need a crystal filter with capacitors to properly filter when you can use a quartz resonator to filter to the specific frequency? Is it for the narrow bandwidth?
2. jcsd
3. Aug 18, 2008 #2
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I haven't seen crystals or resonators use much in filters, but I suppose there are some special applications where they could be used. Most filters I'm familiar with are RLC passive filters, or RC active filters (with opamps or other amplifier stages).
Crystals have higher Qs than ceramic resonators, so they start up slower in oscillator circuits, but have better frequency accuracy. Ceramic resonators have lower Qs, so they start up faster in oscillator circuits, but have worse frequency accuracy and drift. Oscillator circuits using either crystals or ceramic resonators will have a gain feedback element, to create an instability at the resonant frequency of the crystal or resonator, where the combination oscillates stably at the desired frequency.
Does that help, or do you have follow-up questions?
4. Aug 19, 2008 #3
so if I wanted to select a certain frequency from a signal, and the start up time didn't matter, I could use a simple crystal resonator set at the desired frequency as a filter. Without any other electronic components.
5. Aug 19, 2008 #4
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I don't think it's that simple.
Oscillator basics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator
Crystal Filter mentioned in 2.4.1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_filter
Crystal Filter Building Blocks from Fox: http://www.foxonline.com/pdfs/filters.pdf
Ah, finally -- the best google search term is "monolithic crystal filter" (whew!) Here's a tutorial:
6. Aug 20, 2008 #5
Startup time applies to crystal oscillators, not to filters.
The low power crystals used in watches have very long startup times.
7. Aug 23, 2008 #6
okay so on the page on monolithic filters it mentions a typical crystal filter that includes capcitors resistors and crystal oscillators. But doesn't mention the exact reason it needs those other electrical components. But I do know that typical crystal filters use several crystals. So are the other components there to basically direct the signal through the other crystals and to get rid of the unwanted frequencies. Also with the monolithic filter they usually are cut a certain way to get the desired frequency. So do they need external components to operate in an electronic circuit.
8. Aug 25, 2008 #7
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Chances are you will need some sort of external circuitry for just about any filter.
Just what any internal components might be doing depends on the specific device.
There are SAW (surface acoustic wave) filters also.
These are not cut to a frequency, but depend on antenna like structures deposited on the substrate surface.
9. Sep 23, 2008 #8
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Creigh Deeds on Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Creigh Deeds talks about mountaintop removal coal mining. Recorded on March 13, 2009 at a bloggers' dinner in Arlington, Virginia.
By the way, "mountaintop removal mining" and "strip mining" are not synonomous. From Wikipedia, here are the five main forms of surface mining and brief descriptions of each:
1. Strip mining: "the practice of mining a seam of mineral by first removing a long strip of overlying soil and rock (the overburden)...only practical when the ore body to be excavated is relatively near the surface."
2. Open-pit mining: "a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from their removal from an open pit or borrow."
3. Mountaintop removal mining: "a destructive form of coal mining that uses three million pounds of explosives per day [1] to blast 600 to 800 feet (240 m) off the top of densely forested Appalachian mountains. The mining waste or "overburden" is dumped by large trucks into mountain streams."
4. Dredging: "a method often used to bring up underwater mineral deposits."
5. Highwall mining: "another form of surface mining that evolved from auger mining."
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Dec 04
Top 10 Questions and Answers on Atkins Diet
1. What is Atkins Diet?
There are two types of carbohydrates:
Simple carbohydrates (also called “sugars” on food package labels): glucose, fructose and galactose are referred to as monosaccharides. Lactose, sucrose and maltose are called disaccharides (they contain two monosaccharides).
Complex carbohydrates (“starches”), made up of chains of glucose molecules, which is simply a way plants store glucose.
3. What are proteins and where can they be found?
Protein can be found in both animal and vegetable foods. Most animal sources (meat, milk, eggs) provide “complete protein”: they contain all of the essential amino acids.
Some vegetable sources contain quite a bit of protein –things like nuts, beans, soybeans, etc. are all high in protein.
4. What are fats and where can they be found?
There are two kinds of fats: saturated and unsaturated.
So you count these carbs. They are the ones that matter. To figure out the net carb count of a food item, you need to identify the carbs that don’t have a high impact — those from fiber and sugar alcohol, and subtract that total from the overall carb count
Just regulate your blood sugar levels (from carbohydrates) and you’ll be able to better regulate your appetite… and your weight.
What you should do is restrict carbohydrate consumption, specially starchy foods such as bread, rice, corn etc…, except for what they consider as “good carbohydrates” such as high fiber vegetables (broccoli etc…)
6 . What else does the human body need?
Mainly vitamins and minerals. These can be found in various foods, fruits, etc..It seems the “Standard Western Diet” is deficient in vitamins and minerals. This has led to the creation of vitamin and mineral supplements.
7. Is Atkins diet efficient?
8. What about the “fat makes you fat” theory?
“Some folks have been so inculcated with the simplistic “fat makes you fat” theory that they just cannot believe a diet high in fat can lead to a loss of bodyfat.
The fact is, high fat diets can result in spectacular fat loss – as long as carbohydrate intake is kept low. Eat a diet that is high in both fat and carbohydrate and your bodyfat percentages will head north real quick! “
One of the fiercest opponents of Atkins diet, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) President Neal Barnard, M.D, said that the diet proponents “push dieters to avoid healthy foods, like rice, beans, and pasta, while ignoring the risks of high-cholesterol, high-fat meat and cheese. The idea that cholesterol and saturated fat don’t matter is a dangerous myth.”
Here is Anthony Colpo’s take on the CHD issue:
10. Are there any other health risks?
In additon to CHD – coronary heart disease – Atkins diet has also been blamed for a number of other “atrocities”, such as: colon cancer, impaired kidney function, osteoporosis, complications of diabetes, and to cap it all: constipation, headache, bad breath, muscle cramps, diarrhea, general weakness.
Kidney disease: “Bodybuilders and strength athletes have been consuming high-protein diets for decades. Given the widespread global participation in these activities, if the claims of kidney damage were true, by now there would be an enormous number of case studies of ex-bodybuilders and strength athletes afflicted with kidney disease,” which is obviously not the case.
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The Nemean lion is a monster that is best known for being one of the beasts fought by Hercules as one of his twelve labors. The Nemean Lion is one of the children of the faded Titaness of the moon, Selene, and Zeus, which she bore on request of Hera and fell from the moon so the latter could send it after Hercules. It is also said to have been the son of Echidna and Typhon or the offspring of Orthus and the Chimera.
In Greek mythology, the slaying of the Nemean Lion was a task given to Hercules by his cousin King Eurystheus. After hearing his description of the lion, he was able to confront it, and did not use any weapons at first; instead he strangled it to death. When he tried to cut its skin, his knife shattered, and eventually Athena told Hercules to use the lion's claws to skin it.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The Lightning Thief
While Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood were on the train to Denver, Percy looked out the window and saw a huge lion. He thought that was weird since there are no native lions in the United States, but eventually forgot about it.
The Nemean Lion was later depicted being defeated by Hercules during a firework display at Camp Half-Blood.
The Titan's Curse
The lion was sent by Luke Castellan and the General at the National Air and Space Museum to stop the group of questing Hunters, demigods, and one Satyr. It battled with Percy, who recognized the monster from the time he saw one from the train during the quest to find Zeus' Master Bolt. The monster was incredibly hard to defeat because of its bulletproof and sword-proof pelt. Zoë Nightshade and Bianca di Angelo shot arrows at it from above, but they broke harmlessly against his pelt, while Percy and Thalia were too afraid to get in close and attack with their sword and spear respectively. Percy however came up with and idea and grabbed a few packets of astronaut food from the gift shop and tossed it into the lion's mouth when he roared. When the lion bellowed in disgust, Zoë fired arrows into the Nemean Lion's only unprotected surface, its mouth. The lion dissolved except for its pelt. The pelt was offered to Percy by Zoë because it was his plan that made it possible for them to defeat the monster. When Percy was about to offer the pelt to Poseidon, Zoë asked Percy why he is going to offer the pelt, Percy said he is not Hercules, that seemed made Zoë surprised. The pelt was later offered to Poseidon so the Ophiotaurus could make it to Camp Half-Blood safely.
The Nemean Lion is most famous for its metallic gold fur, which is impervious to damage and acts as a natural armor capable of deflecting celestial bronze weapons[1], Thalia's lightning[2], gunfire[3], and even the manticore's poisonous spines[4] without harm. Only the Lion's own claws and teeth can penetrate its fur, which is how Hercules skinned it in the original myths. Despite this, there are ways to bypass the Lion's protective fur; its eyes and the inside of its mouth are vulnerable to attack when open[5], and while its fur protects its skeleton and organs from breakage and rupture, Hercules was still able to asphyxiate it by constricting its windpipe.
Spoil of War
Main article: Nemean Lion's Pelt
The Lion's spoil of war was its pelt. Percy Jackson receives this when he defeats it, as did Hercules upon completing his First Labor. When worn, it still has the same abilities of it being immune to all forms of damage. The pelt is worn around the wearer's shoulders like a cape, with the beast's scalp serving as a hood[6], but due to the effects of the Mist, it resembles a full-length golden brown duster to humans[7].
Percy describes the Nemean Lion as being "the size of a pick-up truck", with shiny silvery claws, fangs that gleam like stainless steel, and thick, glittering, metallic gold fur[8].
• The Nemean Lion terrorized the kingdom of Nemea, hence its name.
• Its spoil of war is mentioned in The Mark of Athena.
1. The Titan's Curse, page 141
2. The Titan's Curse, page 143
3. The Titan's Curse, page 169
4. The Titan's Curse, page 235
5. The Titan's Curse, pages 143-145
6. The Titan's Curse, page 157
7. The Titan's Curse, page 146
8. The Titan's Curse, page 140
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Jul 17, 2010
Intel Demonstrates Special-Purpose Real-Time AES Hardware Accelerator.
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithms have become the favored choice for manufacturers of any sort of storage solution, especially external and portable ones. As such, it makes sense that hardware makers would look for the most efficient and capable chips and circuits when creating their respective devices. Knowing this, Intel put together a special-purpose hardware accelerator that can process such data both very quickly and very efficiently.
Application-targeted accelerators (ATAs), also known as special purpose accelerators, have become a sort of new trend in the design of microprocessors. Granted, general-purpose CPUs can execute a wide range of operations, but they don't exactly do it as efficiently, power-wise, as the former. This also means that their functionality often exceeds that which is required by a device or another. This is why the Santa Clara, California-based company chose to develop this new chip.
X-bit Labs reports that, at Research@Intel Day, Intel researchers demonstrated a special-purpose, reconfigurable and energy-efficient accelerator that operates at up to 53 Gb/s and on just 125 mW of power. It is intended for real-time encryption and decryption of media content in 45nm high-K/Metal-gate CMOS technology. These benefits are quite noteworthy, considering that AES is one of the most compute-intensive block ciphers on high-performance tera-scale microprocessor platforms.
The chip is only a prototype, for now, but boasts reconfigurable arithmetic logic and data-path circuits that had no trouble performing AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256 within the aforementioned speed and energy use parameters. Not only that, but near-threshold voltage optimized circuits enable performance to scale over a voltage from 1.1V to 320 mV. This was possible thanks to so-called near-threshold voltage optimized circuits. Furthermore, a performance of 2.4 Gb/s was attained by means of an all-digital variation-tolerant true random number generator design. It is unknown when this chip will start showing up in actual products.
SOURCE: xbitlabs
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emperor penguin
Also found in: Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to emperor penguin: king penguin
• noun
Synonyms for emperor penguin
the largest penguin
References in periodicals archive ?
At nearly four feet tall, the Emperor penguin is Antarctica's largest seabird and thanks to films like "March of the Penguins" and "Happy Feet," it's also one of the continent's most iconic.
It is a little known fact that part of the expedition's aims were to collect Emperor penguin eggs from a rookery at Cape Crozier in the Antarctic.
TANABE, Japan - A newborn emperor penguin was unveiled to the public Thursday at an animal park in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, the only facility in Japan that has succeeded in breeding such birds, the park operator said.
In the real world although Emperor penguins are right at the top of the food chain there are some species that will forage on Emperor penguins.
Visitors watch an emperor penguin nicknamed "Happy Feet" at the Wellington Zoo June 25, 2011.
Canberra mathematician Anthony Dekker has written a picture book about a male emperor penguin caring for an egg for ten weeks until it hatches.
This book, a 'Junior Information Book' award winner in the TES, tells the life cycle of the emperor penguin through the device of a storytelling voice.
During the winter in Antarctica, when the temperature can reach 40 below zero, the mother emperor penguin lays one egg.
I learned that the largest penguin is the emperor penguin, emperor penguins have 40,000 penguins in a colony, and they slide on their bellies.
Camera crews follow wildlife in the Arctic and Antarctic, including whales feeding and an emperor penguin colony.
Take it all in all, I do not believe anybody on earth has a worse time than an Emperor penguin," wrote Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a global adventurer and a survivor of Captain Robert F.
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King George IV of England was king for only ten years until his death in 1830, but he made a lasting impression. So much so that some have dubbed him England’s worst king. Georgie Broad explains why…
Upon the death of King George IV of England in 1830, The Times newspaper said of him “there never was an individual less regretted by his fellow creatures than the deceased king”. Hardly very complimentary, but it was a truth that was felt by the majority of English citizens during his reign and echoed by many historians today. Throughout his tempestuous and turbulent reign, George IV earned a great many enemies and was the butt of many libelous jibes and quips. But just how devastating was his rule, and should he really go down in history as one of the most dismal monarchs in British history?
Mistresses and Marriage
George’s life was not terribly rich in good relationships. He had a strained and poor relationship with his father, King George III, and these rocky relations carried on throughout his life. Even his “extra-curricular” interactions with his mistresses were dysfunctional, and they earned him a lot of unwanted attention. George IV’s father strove to cultivate an era of, as Dr. Steve Parissien puts it, “sexual respectability”, and to reinforce more traditional family values throughout the late 1700s and early 1800s. George IV was able to almost totally subvert his father’s moralistic hard work all by himself… With a little help from his litany of mistresses…
George IV acquired his first mistress at the humble age of seventeen, and was secretly (and illegally) married to one Mrs. Fitzherbert, a staunch Roman Catholic, before he married his wife Caroline of Brunswick. Through these various trysts with other women, George IV ended up fathering a considerable number of children. George did not always keep his mistresses under the radar, and allegedly connected with actresses and members of the aristocracy. This string of affairs led to something of an uncertain and tacky image of the king being created, one that did not sit well with a great many English people at the time. It also stood in stark contrast to the ideals that his father lay out before him.
After much persuasion, and due to the fact he desperately wanted to settle his debts, George married his cousin Caroline of Brunswick in 1795; however the marriage was a train wreck from its beginning to its rather prompt end after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte. George may have had problems, but he wasn’t the only one. Caroline rarely washed, was unfit, and so physically repulsive that George turned to copious amounts of alcohol to cope with the idea of marrying her. He was so drunk on their wedding night that he collapsed and remained in that temporary resting place until the next morning. These bad feelings about Caroline were not just confined to the king. Parliament and government disliked her too – to the extent that they offered her £50,000 to stay out of the country, which she hastily ignored before settling in London. Even so, when she was accused of having affairs, she was popular enough with various civilians that they greeted her and her carriage upon its arrival at the House of Lords.
So it seems then that among the dignitaries the marriage was not very popular, although the English people sat a little more on the fence. Alas for George, his problems didn’t confine themselves solely to the women in his life.
A cartoon of George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, reflecting popular opinion of the couple.
Regency and Rule
George IV did not walk right into his kingship. When his father was overcome by a recurrent illness, George IV stepped into the position of Prince Regent, something that allowed him rule of the country… in theory. During his regency and rule, George remained fairly disengaged with politics, instead preferring to leave such proceedings to governors and ministers. In doing so, the new ruler was taking a much less active role in government and the ruling of the country than his father before him. This once again proved quite a jarring difference between the new ruler and his father throughout the minds of the English people, and contributed to a social malaise in the country. In terms of representation throughout the United Kingdom, George IV visited Ireland and Scotland on state visits for the first time in many years. This of course promoted a sense of unity among the United Kingdom; however, in England, George IV was still leaving a lot to be desired.
Instead of looking toward the ruling of the country, George turned his attention to matters of style and culture, echoes of which can still be found in architecture today. Despite the fact that the majority of citizens disliked George IV’s reckless spending, his extravagant coronation was popular throughout the country, and helped him on his reign-long development of the more dramatic, theatrical and pageant-like side of monarchy that we can still see in the international aristocracy today. But his careless and excessive spending did not always strike such a chord in the nation…
The regal and wonderful coronation of George IV.
The regal and wonderful coronation of George IV.
Drinking, Debt and Dining
The aforementioned debt that drove George to marry Caroline was beyond extensive. Before he became king, his debts reached heights of £630,000 in 1795, which equates to around £55,111,000 today, according to Michael De La Noy in his Pocket Biography of the King. Although various grants were available to help George IV out of his debts, the situation did little to ameliorate his public image. He instead created an image of a lavish and wasteful big spender to add to his womanizing ways, which often left the English public cold, especially due to the less than plentiful economic position of the country at the time.
One of the main things that George liked to spend his money on was drink and good food, a trend that persisted for the entirety of his reign. Toward the end of his rule, his health deteriorated so badly that he didn’t like to make many, if any, public appearances due to the public reactions to his weight though. Not only did these health problems lead to a rapid and irreversible deterioration in George IV’s public image, but it also had severe repercussions on his health. With the litany of health problems that dogged the latter years of the monarch’s life, from gout to suspected mental instability, the king didn’t so much as go out with a royal and regal bang, but instead something of an underwhelming fizzle.
A famous caricature by James Gillray showing George IV in his later, less flattering years
Nowadays, we often praise and venerate Georgian style, from clothes to architecture and customs; however the monarch who created many of these trends has gone down in history as one of the worst that Britain has known. Positive reviews can be found of George IV, for example those of the Duke of Wellington, crediting him as “the most accomplished man of his age”, although you need to look through a lot of negative reactions first, including another from the Duke of Wellington detailing how George IV was in fact “the worst man he ever fell in with his whole life”. Contradictory, critical and downright cruel most of the time, accounts from during and many years after the reign of George IV have perpetuated an image of a useless, lazy, and unfit king; being petulant, easily swayed and irresponsible to boot. In that light, we must re-examine George IV and ask ourselves: is it fair to go as far as dubbing him the worst King of England?
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The world’s most famous bridges may not be the longest bridges,tallest bridges or highest bridges but they are the most recognizable bridges in the world by far. Man has been using architecture to bridge the gaps between physical obstacles for the purpose of providing an easy passage. Most of these bridges are also regarded as landmarks and are a vital part of the infrastructures of regions around the world. Some have even become city icons because of their influence and engineering wonder.
This circular reinforced concrete bridge of Uruguay’s Atlantic coast is a different kind of bridge that is nice looking. The precast superstructure was completed with on-site concreting the upper slab. This Laguna Garzon Bridge is a bridge famous for its complete circular shape. This bridge is located in Garzon, Uruguay and the designer is renowned Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly. The strategy of this circular shape is to force drivers to slow down their driving and allows for pedestrian access along the one-way circular route.
Share this amazing design video with your friends and on Facebook.
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Alief, Belief and C-lief
17. Tamar Gendler’s concept of ‘Alief’
‘Alief’ is a word concocted by Tamar Gendler for our low-level (subconscious) beliefs. She provides one particularly striking example of alief in action. Since 2007, people have been able to visit the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon, a horseshoe-shaped viewing platform that extends over the edge of the canyon, with a 4000-foot drop below. What’s more:
1. The sides are made of toughened glass, and
2. The floor is made of toughened glass!
It takes many people quite some willpower to walk on it. Even though they believe the walkway to be strong enough and not a risk, their lower-level ‘aliefs’ are screaming ‘don’t go there!’ Some people just freeze, unable to move forward or back. But there are some people who find themselves in the same situation in far less extreme situations. Their aliefs and beliefs are in competition but their beliefs are unable to override their aliefs.
18. Marvin Minsky’s ‘B-Brain’
A significant inspiration for Rodney Brook’s ‘fast, cheap and out of control’ robots came from the work of Marvin Minsky. In the very accessible book ‘The Society of Mind’, Minsky builds up a picture of intelligence from the interaction of lots of simple ‘agents’ – hence the term ‘Society of Mind’ (For Minsky, ‘mind’ is just what the brain does). One of the 270 essays in the book is about ‘B-brains’.
Imagine a brain that consists of two parts, A and B. What he calls the ‘A-brain’ has inputs and outputs connected up to the real world. This can react to events in the real world; it ‘thinks’ in the real world. The ‘B-brain’, by contrast, has no direct connections to the real world; it only has connections into the A-brain. It ‘thinks’ in the domain of the A-brain – the A-brain is the B-brain’s world! The B-brain’s job is to ‘correct’ behaviour in the A-brain, without any actual `understanding’ of the A-brain’s thinking. For example, if it finds the A-brain is stuck repeatedly trying to solve a problem in the same way, it might give it a jolt to get it to try something different. The B-brain is providing the organism with the freedom to avoid getting stuck in the A-brain’s mental ruts. The B-brain notion is obviously similar to that of ‘free won’t’: The B-brain is monitoring the A-brain and able to intervene (‘veto’) when it thinks it is appropriate.
Minsky splits the mind into 6 ‘levels of reflection’, similar to the (arbitrarily chosen) 5 levels shown in Figure 3 in Part II of the talk. Minsky’s levels are:
1. instinctive reactions
2. learned reactions
3. deliberative thinking
4. reflective reactions
5. self-reflective reactions
6. self-conscious reactions
Higher levels add to the intelligence of the overall mind but in themselves are not necessarily more complex. We have traditionally underestimated the complexity of the ‘base’ animal behaviour of being engaged in the environment and overestimated our higher-level reasoning capabilities. Unlike Minsky’s examples, a particular part of my ‘free won’t’ argument is that the higher levels can be more complex (and hence slower) than the lower-level functions and it is this variation in response times of the different levels that provide us with freedom at different timescales.
As far as I know, Gendler’s notion of alief and belief has made no connection with Minsky’s A- and B-brains. But there is an obvious parallel to be made here. The A-brain has aliefs; the B-brain has beliefs.
At the end of Minsky’s essay, he makes the obvious speculation that the B-brain could also have a higher-level monitor – ‘the C-brain’.
19. C-lief: Free-Won’tifying Ourselves
Recap: The basic concept of ‘Free Won’t’ from an evolutionary perspective is to gain an extra layer of ‘thinking’ hardware. This extra layer is typically larger than the existing layers but, as a consequence, slower. It’s ‘output’ action may override those of the lower levels but, because it is slower, this may be seen as the ‘exercise of a veto’.
Can we create a ‘thinking layer’ higher than that in our brains? Obviously, evolution works on a very large timeframe, much greater than our lifespans. But can we ‘free-won’t-ify’ ourselves? If we crudely map our unconcious aliefs to Minsky’s A-brain and our conscious beliefs to Minsky’s B-brain, what might the C-brain be? And what are its ‘C-liefs’? (If Tamar Gendler can concoct new words in the English language then so can I! ‘C-lief’ and ‘free-won’t-ify’ are deliberatively ungainly terms but are created only half in jest.)
I previously talked about building an extra layer of intelligence around ourselves in ‘The Extension of Mind’ which covered the ‘Extended Mind’ thesis of Andy Clark. This thesis was particularly persuasive about restoring the faculties of the disabled – external eyes for the blind; external memory for those with Alzheimers. But, unlike higher levels of Free Won’t, there is no veto here. It is still a conscious choice to use these extensions rather than having external objects overriding our actions. This is ‘Intelligence Amplification’ (and ‘Action Amplification’) rather than an extension of intelligence (and therefore, freedom).
Examples where machines can veto our actions are rare and are confined to safety mechanisms that prevent us from doing things, for example:
• Automatic braking systems now being introduced into new cars.
• Anti-stall technology on airliners. A pilot might pull back the stick in an emergency but the autopilot overrides the climb in order to prevent a stall.
Such safety mechanisms can lead to ‘automation complacency’ on the part of the driver/pilot – a willingness to disregard the need for attention or take risks, which then relies on the (non-perfect) ability of the machine to get us out of trouble.
An everyday example of machines interrupting our action is peoples’ enslavement to their mobile phones – they must answer if it rings. But it is also another example of our willingness to give up control to machines.
An alternative take on the C-brain is to equate it with society (‘C’ for Community?). We can view the ‘collective thoughts’ of society organization (a company, a family, a society, society as a whole?) as an additional layer. We may tend to think of an organization (particularly, companies) as being one where high-level commands emanate from the CEO and trickle down through the organization. But such a top-down organization where most action originated from on-high would be a stifling bureaucracy (one where the CEO was a sort of homunculus of the organization, and sole bearer of responsibility). A more dynamic company (and more typical in my experience) would be one organized on bottom-up ‘free won’t’ principles: the low levels of the organizations are `empowered’ to make their own decisions but occasionally there is a need for higher levels to step in and veto actions. Senior management are largely involved after the event, operating generally in a reactive manner. But this isn’t really an example of ‘free-won’tification’ in the sense of building a higher level on top of a single brain. It is extending intelligence by creating a ‘Society of Minds’ rather than a (Minskian) ‘Society of Mind’ [SUR].
20. An Alternative ‘Conscious Will’
What is the point I am trying to make with these ideas of aliefs and C-brains? It is that our conscious beliefs are in competition with both higher and lower level forces. From our standpoint, action is a consequence of:
• ‘UNC’: unconscious aliefs,
• ‘CON’: conscious beliefs and
• ‘SUP’: super-conscious C-liefs.
as shown in Figure 5. Actions resulting from our conscious consideration are in a battle of wills with our subconscious and the rest of society. Note: ‘super-conscious’ here just means ‘above consciousness’. I’m not making any claims here to higher levels of consciousness.
Competing Wills
Figure 5: Alief, Belief and C-lief: a Battle of Wills
Note that ideas at one level can move to another:
• Our brains have enormous plasticity. Beliefs can seep into our aliefs: the conscious learning of a new skill eventually becomes instinctive after enough practice.
• Similarly, C-liefs can seep into beliefs: we can become indoctrinated by society.
Those who are unable to override their aliefs (the strength of will of their aliefs are stronger than that of their beliefs) will not be able to walk the Grand Canyon Skywalk or perform other ‘mind over matter’ personal victories. Similarly, those who are unable to use the strength of will of their beliefs to override the strength of will of society will find themselves powerless. It would seem natural to call this strength of will of beliefs ‘conscious will’: that will that arises at a conscious level (‘CW’ in the figure) as opposed to unconscious (‘UW’) or superconscious (‘SW’).
Wegner’s term ‘conscious will’ [WEG] is good for its emphasis on consciousness and may be a good account of our experience, but it does not seem to involve ‘will’ – a force or mental strength, in the way that ‘conscious will’ as presented above does.
[This is the end of Part IV. Follow the link at the top of this blog entry for the next part.]
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The Monty Hall “Paradox” isn’t actually logical paradox. It’s counterintuitive probability.
Game shows and casinos deliberately rig the probabilities to ensure the house wins. Sometimes, they rely on ignorance as did the gameshow Let’s Make a Deal.
The game went like this. Behind closed doors, there are two goats and one car. They let the player pick on of the doors.
The host of the show then opens one of the doors to reveal a goat (he always reveals a goat). The host asks the player if he wants to switch doors or stay with his original guess.
Would you Stay or Switch?
This is where cognitive bias kicks in. Many people on the game show stuck with their original choice even though this was irrational.
Think about it this way. On the first turn, you have a 1/3 chance of picking the door with the car and a 2/3 chance of picking a goat. This is obvious so far.
After the host opens the door and shows the goat, people make a mistake calculating their odds. They believe they have two choices – a goat or a car, with a 1/2 chance of each. This is what the host wants you to think.
There are still three doors and the results of the first turn must be considered. The past cannot be ignored in the second turn. You update your past estimate based on new data.
Remember, you had a 2/3 chance of picking the wrong door in the first turn. There are still three doors, but one option is now closed. You have two choices between three doors. So update your probability for the second turn.
If you stay, you have a 1/3 chance of picking the car and a 2/3 chance of picking the goat.
If you switch, you have a 2/3 chance of picking a car and 1/3 chance of picking the goat.
If that isn’t clear yet, think about it.
Every so often MIT nerds go to Las Vegas and make a fortune off of card games like Blackjack. The games are not rigged, like slot machines, so a good mind can count the cards and update his probabilities and beat the house.
Isn’t Probability fun? Too often, we fail to properly update our probability estimates. You can’t ignore the past and you can’t select which data to pay attention to. This is a superficial example, sure, but this shows a real problem with the way we are used to thinking.
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Understanding the "Da Vinci Code"
Posted: July 10, 2006 by piusranson in Uncategorized
**Have you read the book ? or watch the movie?**
Some fiction and mistakes in the book!
^^Dan brown calls it the DA VINCI CODE. Leonardo Da Vinci is known as Leonardo. He had the da Vinci behind is because his hometown was called VINCI. Leonardo da Vinci is suppose to be ” Leonardo of Vinci. So its quite ridiculous to call the book “da Vinci code”.
1. Is tt mary magdalene who sits at the right of Jesus at the Last supper painting as stated in the book?
The person who was on the right of jesus was St. John. In olden times, Young men had rosy cheeks and long hair and always mistaken for a women.
2. In the book, Robert Langdon was described as a Harvard university professor of symbology, so whats symbology?
Unfortunately, the fact is, there is no field of study in Harvard with symbology.
3. Langdon says the MONA LISA is really religious, being an anagram of the pagan god Amon and his consort Isis.
This is brown’s failure to even check the encyclopedia before make false claims. Leonardo never called the painting the “Mona Lisa”. He called it the ” La Gioconda”. The title mona lisa comes from Giorgio Vasari’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci, published thirty one yrs after his death.
** Brown make use of real life items and characters and create a new story abt them to attract readers.
Please ask me if you have doubts on anything on the da vinci code.
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Ibrahim Al Haq wrote “Hard Look: Incest as Taboo” at the-underground.ca...
The mere sound of the word ‘incest’ invokes emotions of repulsion and disgust.
Among some, yes. I prefer the term consanguinamory when talking about consensual relationships and not abuse.
Defined as the consensual sexual or romantic relationship between family members and close relatives, incest has become one of the biggest social taboos human beings have developed over time.
There have been many rules (customs, laws) about sex and relationships over the years, but there is a general move towards recognizing that consenting adults should be free to be together how they want.
Incest is a social taboo because of how it challenges the morals of what counts as right and wrong, as well as the genetic disorders that occur through inbreeding depression.
People like to cite Discredited Argument #18 , but that isn’t the origin of laws against consanguinamory.
Uniquely, incest is taboo across all cultures throughout the world although there are some variances on the extent of socially acceptable forms of incest.
It’s not true that every culture has had a taboo on all sexual, romantic, or spousal relationships between close relatives. In some places, it has been reserved for royalty. The reality is, these relationships have always existed in all cultures.
“To me, I believe it is wrong because you grew up with these people and you see them in all stages of life so they know you so well,” explains Kent Lang, a first-year computer science student.
That doesn’t follow.
Greek mythology mentions the infamous case of Oedipus who killed his father so he could marry his mother.
If I recall correctly, he wasn’t aware of what he’d done until he was informed at the end of the story.
European monarchs often engaged in marriages between first cousins when no other suitable suitors could be found. In Ancient Egypt, pharaohs married siblings in hopes to strengthen the line of succession for future generations.
Yes, and don’t forget Hawaii.
“It’s a trust that can be exploited,” says Marilyn Yogarajah, a first-year political science student. “Abuse of power can come into play especially with relationships between older family members with a younger family member.”
Ah, yes. Discredited Argument #20
Incest also challenges the institutions of marriage and love that has been established in our society for centuries.
How so? We’re not told. Allowing more people to marry the lover(s) they want to marry doesn’t challenge marriage or love, it honors those things.
Representation of incestuous relationships like that of Game of Thrones does not depict incest in a healthy and positive light. Rather, it works to create a negative image. Maybe that can also shed some light on why incest has failed in terms of tolerance.
It would be great to have more positive portrayals.
Perhaps the best way to reduce this social taboo is to show more positive incestuous relationships in media, literature and even in today’s society.
That would be one way, yes.
It is time that our laws and culture fully supported the rights of consenting adults to share love, sex, residence, and marriage, without prosecution, bullying, or discrimination. That’s one reason why full marriage equality is so important.
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Lorenz Attractor
As Professor Edward Lorenz died of Cancer on Wednesday, I thought it would only be fitting that today's article be about the Lorenz Attractor which is one of the earliest (if not the first) example of chaos theory. Chaotic systems are those in which a very small change can have a drastic impact on the outcome of the system over time. The butterfly effect is probably the best known example of this. Essentially, a butterfly flapping it's wings can as a result alter the weather weeks in the future. This happens because the extremely small change in the weather pattern can slowly be amplified over time. This is also the reason why we are so poor at predicting the weather.
Professor Lorenz discovered this fact in the early sixties when he was trying to develop a computer model of the weather. Back then computers were not that powerful so the professor simplified the model so that it consisted of three differential equations:
• dx/dt = 10(y - x)
• dy/dt = xz + 28x - y
• dz/dt = xy - (8/3)z
When running these equations, Professor Lorenz found that if he tried to pick up the equations from where he left them in an earlier run that the outputs were not the same. After verifying that the computer was in fact working properly and that there were not any bugs in his program, he isolated the problem down to the precision in which he was entering the information. He was only entering the data to 3 decimal places where as the computer was keeping the data up to 6 decimal places. Did I mention that this was the sixties and that the computer was primitive?
The result of this is the discovery of Strange Attractors. Other forms of chaos, such as fractals and the Mandelbrot set, have since been discovered and have been used in the generation of some of the most incredible graphics and animations. There are a number of open source programs that can plot these equations for you and there are certainly many books on the subject. I personally feel that it is more fun to write your own generator, but then I like programming and find the programming aspects as much fun (if not more fun) as looking at the results.
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From a western point of view, in attempting to understand and embrace the qualities and traditions of worth from other cultures, there are certain limitations. If we are to be sincere in our motivation and respectful in our application of any traditions of other cultures we must also be accurate in our understanding of their meaning.
Western students of Yoga are at present happily embracing much of the philosophies and ideologies attributed to Hindu and Buddhist faiths. Many are enriched by their extended knowledge and understanding that will help them in striving for excellence in their lives, their actions and their behaviour.
The general decline in western attention to these core values and even a resistance to them, allows others who wish for better, to be excused for their eager appetite to improve our own behavior that alongside others, is seen to be boorish and crude. Habits can be very different. For instance …In western countries is the warm handshake by which we demonstrate our trust and measure the sincerity of the other. The eastern person, in adapting to this custom of the west finds the physical contact breaks his own code that calls for him to place his hands together, to show sincerity, and by a subtle head gesture to demonstrate his respect. Continuing with this example, there are some westerners who are comfortable in following the traditional Yoga greeting, as some businessmen in contact with the west will adjust to the handshake. We are only called upon to be sincere in our social habits.
In the meantime, our interest to understand the terms that are new to us and inevitably focus as we pursue our study of Yoga, we will seek to comprehend the importance of the term Dharma. Scholars will understand that there are differences of interpretation attributed to Hindu and Buddhist systems but generally it is the first that is associated with classical yoga teachings.
The word is simply ‘Dharma’ but it takes many words to explain the complexity that lies within it. Firstly we consider righteousness, moral integrity, self discipline, dutiful responsibility to others, and following natural law. Within it, Dharma also represents a lifestyle with its keynote being a life of goodness, constructive work, compassion and brotherhood. It is also representative of a prescribed pattern that is like a blueprint within us, an outline or ultimate divine plan and purpose traced out for us to complete through our own efforts in this life in fulfilling our own highest capacity and potential and in working to become that person… our spiritual self-image. Dharma implies that we accept our fate and destiny. As we become conscious of this ‘blueprint’, then inspired by it, we willingly construct our lives accordingly.
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No Free Lunch: the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Why is it easier to mess up your bedroom than to make it tidy? Why does a warm cup of tea cool off in your living room?
Why doesn't a 500-calorie cheeseburger you've eaten turn into 500 calories of you? These examples reflect one of the fundamental
laws of nature: the second law of thermodynamics. In this course students will learn about this most important of laws with hands-on
experiments in the laboratory using physical and biological systems. We will design our experiments, make predictions, carry out the
experiments, and analyze our results. An understanding of this law has implications for our own personal behavior, the behavior
of our society, and the behavior of our species.
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Anovulation Information and Treatment
Beautiful PregnancyThe reason for a woman who is not ovulating or the non-releasing of the egg from the ovaries is known as anovulation. A lot of women go through this phase once or regularly when they do not ovulate. Most of the time the menstrual bleeding does not take place, however if it does, it happens for the reason known as “breakthrough bleeding” which happens due to low estrogen. Many women assume this bleeding to be the process of ovulation.
What Causes Anovulation?
There are quite a lot of reasons to know why a woman is not ovulating regularly. If you consult a doctor, he/she would prescribe certain drugs that will cause ovulation. A woman who is not experiencing any bleeding at least once in a month will not be able to notice that she does not ovulate unless she is monitoring her basal body temperature. The chart would appear to be very irregular with either the temperature shooting up constantly or no temperature rise notification in it at all.
There are various reasons for anovulation. Some of them include:
1. Breastfeeding
2. Pre-menopause
3. Illnesses
4. Stresses
5. Coming off the pill
6. Hormones like Depo-Provera
7. Traveling
8. Vigorous Exercise
9. Extreme weight loss or weight gain
10. Other medical conditions – like pituitary gland problems and polycystic ovarian disease.
Anovulation and Getting Pregnant
Anovulation could be very discouraging when you are planning to conceive. However, you should not worry about it as there is help available. If you notice that you are not ovulating, you should consult your doctor. There will be a chain of tests undertaken to recognize your levels of hormones and a few drugs will be prescribed for fertility and ovulation.
What Medicines Are Prescribed to Treat Anovulation?
The widely prescribed drug is Clomid or Pergonal. These drugs are prescribed with small doses initially to offer a chance to your body to ovulate and then the doses increase in anticipation of the ovulation. Quite a few women will surely ovulate after taking these drugs. However, Clomid is only prescribed when the origins of infertility are unknown.
If there is no regular menstrual cycle, the drug Provera, or something similar to it is prescribed to encourage menstruation. Just the once ovulation occurs, the doctor can then better inform you if there is any additional help required.
What Natural Ways Can Encourage Ovulation?
There are a lot of natural herbs that can also bring about ovulation. That is the reason why we recommend you to meet your doctor first and take their advice. Vitex provides help to control the estrogen and progesterone hormones which helps in ovulation. You should check the bottle to know the dosages. Vitex should not be taken if you are already prescribed Clomid.
You can try to increase your chances of conception by 50% by drinking tea. To lengthen the leuteal phase and fertility, a dose of 25 mg – 100 mg of vitamin B6 can help. Consumption of evening Primrose oil before the expected ovulation can help in the production of the white cervical fluid, which is known as the most fertile fluid.
There is no need to worry about anovulation as it is not a major reason for infertility. Science and technology have moved to greater heights and things can be done to help nature. Anyway, first of all you should begin with charting your basal body temperature and seeing your doctor.
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Interpretation is when nonviolent actors assist the media by explaining nonviolence, nonviolent events, and nonviolent social movements. Nonviolent actors must interpret their actions to the media, by explaining exactly what happened and its significance so that the chances of public sympathy with the goals of the nonviolent movement are increased. For example, without the interpretation of nonviolent advocates the media claimed that the Philippine People Power movement was in a “category all by itself,” when clearly it was connected to and an outgrowth of Gandhi, King, and previous movements around the world. More recently, when Serbia’s Otpor Uprising overthrew the notorious dictator Slobodan Milošević, the New York Times reported “a mob descended on Belgrade.” This report was published despite a campaign that took months of careful planning and strategic organizing, including a well-organized nonviolent moment.
For nonviolence to spread, the nonviolent participants must find ways to have the media describe how nonviolence actually works, or risk having their successes and their work misunderstood, overlooked, misrepresented, and marginalized. Interpretation leads to greater understanding, appreciation, and proper evaluation of nonviolence.
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Behaviour Change
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
How Did Voldemort Do It?
Have you ever wondered how Bellatrix Lestrange and the other Death Eaters became so enamoured with Voldemort? I mean sure, they were probably somewhat unhinged and may have even been pure evil, but what lead Malfoy, Crabbe, McNair, and Barty Crouch Jr to don scary masks and kill people? They knew society frowned upon it (hence the cloaks and masks) but how did Tom convince them to kill, torture and maim people anyway? Probably not by advertising free hugs…
Lord Voldemort used a fair few persuasive techniques (other than the Imperious Curse, of course). The most notable technique he employed was the ingroup/outgroup technique, in which he created in groups of wizards against muggles. Within the wizard ingroup, he created more circles of in-groups: purebloods vs half-bloods and muggle-borns, death eaters vs everyone else. Within the ingroup/outgroup technique, Voldemort intertwined similarity and the power of authority pressure to get people to do his bidding.
The ingroup/outgroup technique is responsible for innumerable instances of persuasion. So, how does it work? A meta-analysis by Bettencourt, Dorr, Charlton and Hume (2001) investigated the effect of high or low status on in-group/outgroup biases. In Voldemort’s case, the high status group would be pure-bloods, and the low status group would be half-bloods or muggle-borns. The meta-analysis showed that members of high status groups showed stronger biases: they viewed the in group to which they belonged as more positive and the corresponding outgroup significantly more negatively. Low status groups showed the same biases, but to a weaker degree. I.e. the muggle-borns and half-bloods were less biased against the pure-bloods than were the pure-bloods against the muggle-borns and half-bloods (the pure-bloods were meaner). The study also shows that members of high status groups (the pure-bloods) identify better and more easily with other members of their group than members of low-status groups do (the half-bloods and muggle-borns).
The table above shows the effect of perceived vs real status differences, and the effect that these have on ingroup/outgroup biases both between and within groups.
Voldemort was able to successful persuade people to kill each other, to terrify other people into killing each other, and to hunt a 17 year old boy mercilessly because of how well he convinced people of the ingroup/outgroup divide. Both groups identified with either their high or low status, and that created a shift in the perception of power and strength; instead members of both groups realising they were as powerful as each other, the high status groups believed they were more powerful, a more legitimate authority. Their conviction in such beliefs allowed for the ingroup/outgroup divide to grow stronger and to start insidiously convincing the low status group (muggle-borns, half-bloods) that they had less power to yield, making them more vulnerable to persecution.
Status differences and in-group bias: A meta-analytic examination of the effects of status stability, status legitimacy, and group permeability (2001). Bettencourt, B. Ann; Charlton, Kelly; Dorr, Nancy; Hume, Deborah L. Psychological Bulletin 12, 4 520-542.
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The histories of Egypt and Nubia
Nubia and Egypt shared a common culture and border. Ancient Nubia was a commercial center for Central and Southern Africa. The name Nubia is derived from the Egyptian word "nub", meaning gold. Nubia was a golden city trading in gold, ebony, ivory, exotic , copper and precious metals.The ancient civilization of Nubia has long been forgotten by Europeans and Africans.
Time chart
The histories of Egypt and Nubia are so intertwined that an Egyptian time chart will clarify the development of Nubia.
Nubia - The Kingdom of Kush
The first Egyptian reference to Nubia appears in 1971 B.C. - 1928 B.C.. The early Egyptians referred to this area as the Kingdom of Kush. It was not until the crusaders of the Middle Ages that the word Nubia was used. The capital of Nubia was Kerma, then Napata and finally Meroe. These cities were commercial centers connecting Southern and Northern African commerce. Kerma hosted massive brick buildings which were devoted to commerce and the arts.
The history of the Kingdom of Kush, as this monarchy is usually called, is traditionally divided up into two main periods, named after the two cities that, in turn, served as the royal capital. The earlier phase of the kingdom (ca. 900-ca. 295 b.c.) is termed the Napatan Period, because the Nubian kings at this time rule d from Napata, a site located close to the Fourth Cataract. The later Meroitic Period (ca. 295 b.c.-a.d. 320) is named for its capital site of Meroe (pronounced Mer-oh-way), located south of the Fifth Cataract.
The Egyptians contested Nubia for control of Lower Nubia (Northern) and plotted to control Upper Nubia. The government of Nubia had supported the Hyskos in the Hyskos invasion of Egypt. The era of the New Kingdom had ushered in a time of Egyptian conquest and revenge. The Egyptian rulers sent an army into Nubia (1580 B.C), destroying the capital of the Kush Kingdom. The Egyptians founded a new capital at Napata (near the Fourth Cataract) and built a temple to their God - Amon. The Kingdom of Kush became an Egyptian colony. In the years that followed, Egypt fell into chaos. History has no record of the events of the next four hundred years. In the eighth century B.C., a Nubian dynasty dedicated to conquest raised an army and attacked Egypt. In 712 B.C., an African dynasty ruled both Egypt and Nubia. The Nubian Pharaohs followed Egyptian traditionalism and restored the rites and traditions of the old religion.
The destruction of the Nubian capital Kerma lead to the establishment of Napata as the center of Nubian life. The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II built a temple of Amon at the base of the mountain Jebel Barkal, which was located in Napata. Egyptian priests came to worship at this site and the area became the second most important site in Egyptian religious worship (after Karnak). The mountaintop formation of Jebel Barkal contains an outcropping resembling the head of a cobra. The cobra was the symbol of Egyptian royalty. The Nubian rulers of Kush believed this was a sign from the God Amon of their right to the Egyptian throne. In 760 B.C., the Nubian King Kashta seized control of Lower (northern) Nubia from the Egyptians. He united Lower and Upper Nubia, conquered Upper (southern Egypt) and called himself Son of Ra of Upper and Lower Egypt. Kashta founded the Nubian Pharaohs of the 25th dynasty. In 730 B.C., Piye conquered Lower Egypt (northern Egypt). The Kush Empire extended 1,200 miles from the Mediterranean to Khartoum and beyond. Piye's sister became the high priestess in the Temple of Amon at Karnak. Piye was the first to build pyramids in Kush. Piye crowned himself Pharaoh and waged war against Libya.
In 716 B.C., Shabako (Piye's uncle) succeeded Piye. Shabako moved his capital to the city of Memphis. He loved to build pyramids and as a result, Nubia had more pyramids than Egypt. Shabako believed he was the restorer of the Egyptian traditions and the ancient glories.
In 690 B.C., Shabitko, the son of Piye, ascended to the throne. Shabitko sent arms to Judah in defiance of an Assyrian military threat. In 674 B.C., the Assyrian's invaded Egypt. The Nubian's were pushed back into Nubia proper. King Tanutamani was the last Nubian King to attempt to re-take Egypt. By 656 B.C., Nubian dominance of Egypt was at an end. The Nubian Empire had lasted less than a century. In 593 B.C., the names of the Nubian Pharaohs were erased from Egyptian monuments. In 591 B.C., Napata (the Nubian capital) was sacked. Meroe became the third Nubian capital.
The Nubian Kings would forever believe themselves the rightful rulers of Egypt. They would forever be addressed as rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Meroe was the third capital of Nubia. It is situated between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts. The Nubian culture, a mix of Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Southern Africa influences, would last for a thousand years. The Nubian Egyptian religion now included Black Gods. Alexander the Great invaded Egypt and established the Ptolemies Pharaohs. The Meroitic (Nubian) and Ptolemies (Greek-Egyptians) co-existed and thrived. In 30 B.C., Octavius Caesar defeated Cleopatra's army. Egypt became a Roman colony. The Roman's sent a legion, under the command of General Petronius (24 B.C. - 21 B.C.), to subdue Nubia and seize control of the gold trade. The Nubian army, led by Queen Amanirenas, smashed the Roman forces at Aswan, Philae, and Elephantine. The African army had stood against the most powerful state in the ancient world - Imperial Rome. This was Africa's finest hour. The Roman military had been stalemated and Nubia was divided into Lower Nubia (Roman) and Upper Nubia (Meroitic).
Meroitic history is filled with powerful Queen mothers. Women ruled with the same authority as men. The Meroitic alphabet has never been deciphered due to the lack of a translation key or Rosetta stone. The Nubians so disliked their Roman neighbors that a bust of Caesar Augustus was buried beneath a doorway to a temple. In this way, all who entered would step on his head. By A.D. 300-350, Meroe was abandoned due to environmental pollution. Meroe suffered the fate of an over industrialized nation. The smelting industry had poisoned the soil. Trees had been cut down and the resulting erosion had washed away the topsoil. The land was unable to grow the crops necessary to feed the population. A new kingdom of Axium became Africa's commercial center. In A.D. 350, the Christian King Ezana of Axium had defeated Meroitic forces.
Archeological findings have shown that the founding of Kerma dates back to 5,000 B.C.. The Nubian Empire pre-dates Egyptian civilization and its lifespan outlasted Egypt, Greece and Rome combined. The African army had defeated both Egyptian, Greek and Roman enemies. At the height of its power, Nubia was the center of the ancient world. The Kingdom of Kush, with its alphabet, commerce and architectural triumphs was the equal of its ancient world counterparts. In the modern world, the memory of this once great empire would fade into history.
Upper and Lower Egypt are united.
Pharaohs are absolute rulers.
The pyramids are built.
-2250 B.C
Monarchy weakened and feudal princes' wage internal wars.
-2000 B.C
The leadership of Thebes unifies Egypt
Tombs and Temples are built.
-1780 B.C
A northeastern peoples, the Hyskos invade Egypt.
-1660 B.C
Thebes and Memphis are centers of power.
Imperial age of conquest from Syria to the Sudan.
Ramses I, II and III were warrior Pharaohs.
Kerma, the capital of Nubia destroyed.
-1100 B.C
Egypt falls into chaos.
Nubian dynasty appears devoted to the Egyptian Gods.
Pharaohs are absolute rulers
Nubians conquer Egypt.
Assyrians destroy Thebes 663 B.C.
KERMA The oldest city in Africa, founded 5000 B.C.
First capital of Nubia.
The city covered 62 acres and housed a temple, palace, commercial center and over 200 homes.
Sacked by the Egyptians.
NAPATA The second capital of Nubia.
A sacred center devoted to the Egyptian Gods. The temple founded at Jebal Barkal, a sacred mountain, became the source of Nubian claims to the Egyptian throne. The Kings of Nubia invaded Egypt and established the 25th dynasty. They were the masters of the world. The Nubian Empire encompassed Syria in the north to Nubia in the south. The Nubian Kings supported the state of Israel in its struggle against the Assyrians.
Captured by an Egyptian and Greek assault in 591 B.C.
MEROE The third capital of Nubia.
Assyrian invaders had toppled the last of the Nubian Pharaohs. The Nubian dynasty would continue for another one thousand years. The Nubian culture at Meroe combined Egyptian and Southern African traditions. The Nubian written language (believed non-existent by Europeans) has never been translated.
Sacked by the Egyptians.
Rulers of Kush
00 Awawa
00 Nedjeh
0 Alara
1 Kashta
2 Piye
3 Shabaqo
4 Shebitqo
5 Taharqo
6 Tanwetamani
7 Atlanersa
8 Senkamanisken
9 Anlamani
10 Aspelta
11 Aramatelqo
12 Malonaqeñ
13 Analma'aye
14 Amani-nataki-lebte
15 Karkamani
16 Amaniastabarqo
17 Si'aspiqo
18 Nasakhma
19 Malowiebamani
20 Talakhamani
21 Irike-Amannote
22 Baskakeren
23 Harsiyotef
24 Unknown King
25 Akhratañ
26 Amanibakhi
27 Nastaseñ
28 Aktisanes
29 Aryamani
30 Kash...
31 Irike-Piye-qo
32 Sabrakamani
33 Arkamaniqo
34 Amanislo
35 Amanitekha
36 Shesep-ankh-n-amani
37 Arnekhamani
38 Arqamani
39 Adikhalamani
40 [...]mr[...]
41 Unknown King
42 Q Shanakdakheto
43 Tañyidamani
44 Naqyerinsan
45 Unknown King
46 Unknown King
47 Aqrakamani
48 Teriteqas
49 Q Amanirenas
49a Akinidad
50 Q Amanishakheto
51 Q Nawidemak
52 Amanikhabale
53a Natakamani
53b Q Amanitore
54 Shorakaror
55 Amanitaraqide
56 Aryesebokhe
57 King or Queen
58 Queen
59 Amanitenmomide
60 Q Amanikhatashan
61 Tarekenidal
62 Amanikhareqerem
63 Ariteñyesbokhe
64 Amanikhedolo
65 Takideamani
66 Mashadakhel
67 Teqorideamani
68 Maloqorebar
69 Tamelordeamani
70 Yesbokheamani
71 [...]k[...]
72 [.]p[...]niñ
73 Q Pat[.]rapeamani
74 Q Amanipilade
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Libraries, immigrants, and digital literacy
Immigrants to the US generally come with some skills and resources, but not necessarily everything they need to succeed here. For example, many arrive with limited or no facility in the English language. Many also lack adequate computer skills needed to get and perform jobs. Libraries offer both language instruction and computer instruction, but helping patrons with limited English learn digital literacy presents new challenges In the days when most immigrants arrived by ocean, they arrived in major ports and tended to stay there. If very many of a particular group of immigrants left the port of entry, they usually … Continue reading
Why good writing matters
Many people don’t like to write. That especially applies to students and the seemingly unending number of papers they have to churn out. What’s the point? You write something only one person (the teacher) will ever see. And then you get it back with all kinds of markings pointing out spelling errors, grammatical errors, and other mistakes. It’s especially galling when it’s not even a paper for English class! Why good writing can seem useless I have certainly written lots of papers. As a sometime instructor at the college and graduate school level, I have assigned and graded lots of … Continue reading
Libraries and adult literacy
America has a problem with adult literacy. Too many adults read so poorly they can barely function. American libraries, therefore, are working to contribute new and innovative continuing education to boost adult literacy. Consider the following statistics: 5-6 year olds have a vocabulary of 2,500 to 5,000 words. Disadvantaged students in the first grade have approximately half the vocabulary of advantaged students. The educational outlook for 25-40% of American children is imperiled because of their inability to read well enough, easily enough, or quickly enough. Over a span of 15 years, more than 10 million American students reached 12th grade … Continue reading
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Hemp has gotten a bad rap over the years. It wasn’t that long ago that this plant was widely used in our society for making fabric, building supplies, and paper. As a matter of fact, the original Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
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Of course, this was all before industrial hemp growth and cultivation became illegal. What many people do not know is that hemp is different from recreational or medicinal marijuana. The hemp plant is non-psychoactive, meaning it will not get you high, which begs the question: Why is it even illegal in the first place?
These plants are and have been illegal for quite some time, and the only people who are allowed to grow it have to do so under very tight regulations.
Recently, College Humor went ahead and made a pretty comical video that neatly summed up exactly how Hemp and Marijuana both became illegal. You can view that here.
1. Hemp and Recreational/Medicinal Marijuana DO Come From the Same Plant
While all derived from the same plant, Cannabis Sativa L, hemp, and recreational marijuana are still vastly different products. Marijuana contains high levels of THC, the active component that gets you high, while hemp is cultivated to contain little-to-no THC. The marijuana plants grown to produce the flowering buds we find on the street or in dispensaries contain, on average, around 12% THC. By comparison, hemp plants contains less than 1%. Currently in the United States, the cannabis plant is considered to be industrial hemp if it contains less than 0.3% THC.
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2. It Is Legal to Transport Hemp in the U.S.
Within the U.S. it is only legal to bring hemp across state lines in its processed form. Included in this are products containing hemp like skin lotions, granola bars, etc. Hemp is also used to make a number of popular CBD products, and you can find these in most states. CBD is the non-psychoactive active component of the hemp plant, and it has a number of potentially healing properties. This makes hemp products ideal for those who can’t access medicinal marijuana or for those who want the health benefits without the high, such as children.
3. Researching Hemp Is a Waste of Time
Just because we have already researched the properties of this plant doesn’t mean that we should stop there. There is always more to be discovered, and when something has the potential to be life-changing, to drastically improve someone’s quality of life, it definitely deserves to be given a second, third, and even fourth look.
4. Hemp Can Save the World
Being such a bold statement, most consider this claim false. However, hemp can be used to make food, clothing, shelter, fuel, and medicine, and considering how scarce such resources are becoming, and how unsustainably they are being produced, we should be exploring every avenue possible. The hemp plant can help accommodate many of our basic needs, and for this reason alone we should be utilizing it much more than we are right now.
5. Hemp Can Only Be Used to Make Textiles
Believe it or not, hemp has been being cultivated for nearly 10,000 years. Many believe this plant to be the first agricultural crop, as many ancient civilizations used the plant to make clothing, rope, and boat sails. Although textiles are a wonderful use for the hemp plant, this only scratches the surface of what this plant is capable of. The hemp plant contains protein- and magnesium-rich seeds that are a great addition to any diet. The plant can also be used to make fuel, biodegradable plastics, building blocks for construction, and cosmetic products. This list goes on.
6. Consuming Hemp Will Cause a Positive Drug Test
If you are concerned about a drug test at work, you do not have to worry that hemp seeds or CBD will show up. These tests look specifically for THC, and if you are consuming government approved products — those containing less than 0.3% THC — then you will be fine. Unless you are going out of your way to have an all-hemp diet, and consuming tons of it, you have nothing to worry about.
7. The Hemp Plant Is Male, Marijuana Female
Because these two products come from the same species of plant, as mentioned above, they have the potential to be either male or female. THC content is determined, not by gender, but by how the plant has been bred and engineered over time. Hemp is not given the opportunity to mature; it grows quickly and is cut down much earlier than its cousin marijuana, which is allowed to fully mature.
8. Cultivation of Industrial Hemp Is Legal
Surprisingly, this is incorrect. The growth and cultivation of industrial hemp is only legal in accordance with agricultural pilot programs allowed to study the growth, cultivation, and marketing of industrial hemp, and in certain states only.
Collective Evolution has a very large collection of articles relating to the medicinal properties, nutritional benefits, and various other uses of the hemp plant. To access these articles, click HERE.
Are there some other common misconceptions that you can think of about the hemp plant? Let us know.
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osteoporosis and balance
Who is at risk?
Can you answer YES to any of these question?
1. Have your periods stopped?
2. Does your diet lack Calcium or Vitamin D?
3. Do you have an inactive lifestyle?
4. Do you use steroids, thyroid or anti-seizure medications?
5. Do you have a thin or small frame?
6. Do you have a family history of osteoporosis?
7. Are you of Caucasian or Asian descent?
8. Do you smoke or drink alcohol excessively?
If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, you may be at risk for developing osteoporosis or osteopenia (low bone density).
What is osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis is the most prevalent of the bone diseases that affect Americans. One out of every two women and one in eight men will have an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. 28 million Americans have either osteoporosis or osteopenia, which increases risk of fracture, pain and significant loss of function and quality of life. A woman's risk of hip fracture is greater than her risk of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer.
Osteoporosis is the thinning of bone tissue resulting in loss of bone density. Bone is living tissue that is continually being broken down as well as replaced with new bone. Osteoporosis occurs when bone is lost faster than it can be replaced.
As bones become more fragile, they are more likely to break. Osteoporosis is a silent disease because it can progress without symptoms or pain until a bone breaks. Severe compromise of bone density is found in younger populations due to poor nutrition, increased carbonated beverage intake, amenorrhea (absence of periods), eating disorders or excessive exercise. The simultaneous conditions of eating disorders, amenorrhea and excessive exercise are called The Female Triad and can result in profound risk in bone density in women throughout the lifespan.
The main factors which contribute to osteoporosis are:
• Faster rate of bone loss after menopause or amenorrhea
• Poor bone growth during childhood and adolescence resulting in lower peak bone mass
• Bone loss due to eating disorders, medications or diseases.
Benefits of Exercise
Research has shown that specific weight bearing or resistance exercises can:
• Improve bone density and lower risk of fracture
• Decrease pain
• Improve posture by decreasing or slowing the progression of thoracic kyphosis (rounding of upper spine giving a stooped appearance)
• Improve balance and coordination
• Decrease risk of falling
• Increase mobility
Your Bone Health
CorePhysio knowledgeable clinical staff assesses your individual needs and medical history to design a customized treatment program to optimize your bone health. Your therapist will evaluate:
• Postural alignment
• Overall musculoskeletal system
• Body mechanics (the way you move in your daily tasks)
• Balance
Based on evaluation findings, we will design an exercise program designed especially for you. You will learn how to safely perform your exercises and how to minimize your risk of fractures during daily activities.
Finally, if you participate in a gym or community exercise program such as Tai Chi or yoga, you will be given guidance that will help you avoid potential injury or risk of fracture. If you have difficulty with balance, you will be educated in methods to reduce your risk of falling as well as exercises to improve your balance.
Vertigo and Balance Rehabilitation
Dizziness and imbalance account for 5 to 10 percent of all doctors visits. Interpreting the term dizzy can be difficult because patients use this term to describe various sensations such as vertigo, lightheadedness and disequilibrium.
Vestibular pathology is one disorder that can be the source of dizziness and imbalance. Both central and peripheral disorders can produce decreased visual stabilization, gait dysfunction, and decreased postural and trunk stabilization.
Vestibular System Disorders:
• Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo
• Vestibular Neuritis
• Meniere's Disease
• Endoymphatic Hydrops
• Bilateral Vestibular Disorders
• And more...
Vestibular disorder symptoms can result in functional impairments and increased risk for falls!
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
BPPV is the most common cause of vertigo. Otoconia floating in the endoltmph create a pressure or suction resulting in symptoms of vertigo.
The patient's primary complaint is of brief periods of vertigo with rapid changes in head position. The episode lasts thirty seconds to two minutes. Recurrences can persist for years.
Physical therapy treatment is quick and effective for these patients. Treatment is dependent on the location of the loose otoconia and the patient's abilities.
Why Physical Therapy?
When a loss of paresis occurs in one vestibular nerve, the resting firing rate of the damaged ear does not match the normal ear. Although the vestibular system has little ability to repair itself, it can compensate for the mismatched signals being sent from the damaged and normal ears.
Physical therapy is designed to provide small, controlled movements and activities that promote dizziness and imbalance. Physical therapy is effective because treatment is customized to each patient based on their level of dysfunction. With symptom provocation, the patient develops compensatory strategies which resolve symptoms.
Vestibular Neuritis
This disorder is the second most common cause of vertigo. Symptoms manifest from a viral infection that can precede onset by two weeks. The infection results in unilateral vestibular paresis.
The patient's primary complaint is prolonged severe rotational vertigo which worsens with head movement. This symptom can be very disabling and may be accompanied by nausea, nystagmus and imbalance. Neuritis usually affects those from 30 to 60 years of age.
Symptoms can resolve in 2-3 days, however; two out of three patients do not resolve spontaneously and need vestibular rehabilitation to compensate for a unilateral weakness. A weakness of as little as 1-2 percent can cause symptoms in some individuals.
Groomer, G.L. (2002).
Vestibular Rehabilitation: A comprehensive clinical approach for positive functional outcomes. Kent, WA: North American Seminars, Inc.
Herdman, S.J. (2000).
Vestibular Rehabilitation (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.
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Chapter 5
The prophetic knowledge and practice have mainly reached the ummah through the Companions (rta), so they acquire a marked priority over the rest of the ummah. It is only the Prophet’s (sws) Companions (rta) through whom the rest of the people of the world have acquired the entire corupus of the religion of God. Their status and privilege is not shared by anyone coming after them. They alone are the enchanting flowers of the ummah. The Qur’ān itself awards them with such a high station. In fact, the importance the muḥaddithūn attached to them cannot be debated over even in the absence of the textual proofs of the fact.
5.1 Testimony of the Qur’ān
God Almighty says that the Companions (rta) are the advance party of the ummah and the witnesses to God in this world:
And similarly we have made you a middle nation so that you may be witnesses over the people and the Messenger becomes a witness over you. (Q 2:143)
This verse throws light on two important facts. First, God has put the responsibility of communicating and disseminating His religion on the Prophet (sws). He decreed that the Companions (rta) are responsible for this task after the death of the Prophet (sws). This was their clear and concrete responsibility. It was not an optional religious act they could perform or leave aside on choice. Second, the high status and superiority the Companions (rta) enjoy within the ummah owes itself to the fact that they are shu‘adā’ lillāhi ’alannās fī al-arḍ (God’s witnesses over the people on this earth). It means that they inherited the prophetic knowledge and practice and stood witnesses to it before the world.
5.2 Testimony of Aḥādīth
The status of the Companions (rta), in the sight of the Prophet (sws), has been preserved in the ḥadīth literature. It is clearly mentioned in many prophetic traditions. I quote the following narrative from al-Kifāyah fī ‘ilm al riwāyah. Ibn ‘Abbās (rta) reports that the Prophet (sws) said:
Whatever has been given to you in the Book of God is obligatory for you. There is no valid excuse for anyone to abandon the Qur’ānic edicts. If the issue facing you is not dealt with in the Book of God, then you have to follow my practice. If you find that there is no such practice of mine to guide you then you should follow what my Companions tell you for my Companions are like stars in the sky; whoever of them you take as a guide, you shall be rightly guided.[1]
This shows that the Companions (rta) are the people who have transmitted the Sunnah of the Prophet (sws) to the world and they themselves are the beacon of light. They are the medium through which the knowledge and practice of the Prophet (sws) has been handed down to the rest of the world. The basis of their exalted status, as the Prophet (sws) pointed out, is that they are the source of guidance for the world.
5.3 Muḥaddithūn’s Viewpoint
In view of this extraordinary importance of the Companions (rta), the muḥaddithūn decided that the principles of character and cognitive analysis of the narrators will not be applied to them. In this regard, the muḥaddithūn adopted the guiding principle that all the Companions (rta), without any exception, are reliable. They are above customary analysis in this regard. While deciding whether a narrative ascribed to the Prophet (sws) is reliable and acceptable, an expert has to scrutinize the characters of all narrators in its chain of transmission. Their good and bad have to be vigorously analyzed. It is only after a thorough investigation that a narrative they report is accepted or rejected. Contrarily, the Companions (rta) shall not be subjected to such an investigation.
Once this principle applied to the practice of the transmission of the prophetic aḥādīth is accepted, it leads to the question of the definition of a ṣaḥābī (Companion of the Prophet). Who is a ṣaḥābī? Would a person who has merely seen the Prophet (sws) and has not enjoyed his company for a considerable time merit to be called a ṣaḥābī? Would such a person be exempted from the principles of jarḥ wa ta‘dīl (the act of affirming or disaffirming the narrators as reliable transmitters)? Would he be considered a beacon of guidance? The muḥaddithūn have, quite naturally, differed over this issue and three distinct groups of them emerged:
5.3.1 The First Group
The view of the first group as represented by ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Umar (rta) follows:
I have observed that scholars hold that every adult Muslim who met the Prophet (sws), even for a moment, while he understood the religion and found it pleasing can be called a ṣaḥābī. However, I believe that the Companions (rta) can be divided into different categories according to taqaddum fī al-islām.[2]
By taqaddum fī al-islām, ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Umar (rta) means that all the Companions (rta) are not equal; they are of different religious status and should be put in different categories. Some are of a very high religious status others are in the middle whilst some others hold a low status.
5.3.2 The Second Group
The view of the second group of the scholars in this regard has been represented by Sa‘īd b. al-Musayyab as follows:
We do not consider someone a ṣaḥābī (Companion) unless he has remained in the company of the Prophet (sws) for a year or two and has fought with him a couple of ghazwahs.[3]
5.3.3 The Third Group
Khaṭīb has recorded the opinion of another scholar. His view represents the third group in this regard. This view, by its nature, criticizes the previous views and points out the true picture of the matter. This view follows:
The lexicographers unanimously hold that the word ṣaḥābī is a derivation of the root Ṣ Ḥ B. The meaning of the word does not hinge upon the duration of the company. It can equally be applied to company of a very short as well as a long duration. As for the lexicon, the word applies to any such person as blessed with the company of the Prophet (sws), no matter how long. However, it is a known reality that it is customary among the Muslims to refer to a person as a ṣaḥābī who has been in the company of the Prophet (sws) for a long time and has been meeting him continuously. Customarily, this word is not used for someone who had a short meeting with the Prophet (sws), or walked along with him a few steps or heard him say something. This entails that we restrict the application of the word to those only who can appropriately be called ṣaḥābī. Still, however, the aḥādīth transmitted by reliable and trustworthy individuals (among the first generation) shall be accepted even though the narrator has not been blessed with a longer company of the Prophet (sws) and has heard him only once.[4]
The first part of the assertion is quite weak. The scholar holds that the duration of the company has no bearing on the meaning of the word ṣaḥābī whatsoever. We know that if somebody accidently happens to confront someone, neither of them is called a companion of the other. Similarly, it is not applied to a person who walks a few steps with us. The word, by its nature, implies company of a longer duration. However, the second part of the statement is very strong. It proves that the great scholars of the past considered the duration of the company of a man before declaring him a ṣaḥābī of the Propeht (sws). Besides, he must have rendered services in the cause of the religion. If we consider this fact in our definition of the term ṣaḥābī we come to know that the decision of the muḥaddithūn regarding the exemption of the Companions (rta) from jarḥ wa ta‘dīl is justified.
5.4 Ṣaḥābiyyah According to the Qur’ān
We have learnt that the muḥaddithūn would not subject the Companions (rta) to jarḥ wa ta‘dīl. They invoked certain Qur’ānic verses which praise the Companions (rta) of the Prophet (sws). Such verses refer to and praise only those individuals who embraced the religion first of all and stood with the Prophet (sws) in good and bad times. They spent their wealth in the cause of the religion of God and fought the enemies of God in the holy wars bravely. These verses do not refer to those who happened to have seen the Prophet (sws) accidently. While exposing the evil of the hypocrites from among the Bedouin people, the Qur’ān has clearly stated that they had not enjoyed the company of the Prophet (sws) in spite of the fact that they had seen him and vehemently professed belief in him.
An inductive survey of the Qur’ānic verses dealing with the Companions (rta) and their virtues is imperative in this study. We have to ascertain whether the Almighty gives any importance to merely and accidentally seeing the Prophet (sws). We have to see whether it is their long company, help and support that raises their status over the rest of the ummah. It may be their endeavours to seek knowledge and get training from the Prophet (sws) that holds the primary importance in this regard. In the foregoing pages I have referred to a verse from Sūrah al-Baqarah (Q 2). It can prove to be a decisive verdict in this regard. The verse tells us that the real significance, the Companions (rta) draw, is grounded in that they received and transmitted the knowledge and practice of the Prophet (sws); they obtained, taught and preached it. This, however, is not possible without relatively long company, full commitment and sincere devotion.
Another relevant verse discusses the devoted Companions (rta) who pledged to give their lives at the prophetic call to jihād, even though they were hundreds of miles away from their homes, were not properly armed and were direly exposed to the enemy.
God became pleased with the believers when they were pledging allegiance to you under the tree. God knew the state of their hearts. And God sent down on their hearts tranquillity and He decreed for them a victory in the near future. (Q 48:18)
This theme has again been repeated in Sūrah al-Tawbah (Q 9) in the following words:
Those of the Emigrants and the Helpers who have outreached others and have embraced Islam first of all and the ones who have beautifully followed their example, God is pleased with them all while they are pleased with God. (Q 9:100)
These qualities of the Companions (rta) of the Prophet (sws) have been mentioned in the following verses of Sūrah al-Ḥashr (Q 59):
[This is specifically] for those of the needy Emigrants who have been forced to abandon their homes and assets while they were helping the Messenger of God, seeking God’s blessings and His pleasure. Such are the real upholders of truth. Those who are already settled in their abodes and are maintaining their faith love those who migrate to them. They do not feel unease at heart for whatever is given to them (the Emigrants). They (the Helpers) prefer them (the Emigrants) over themselves even when they themselves are in need. (Q 59:8-9)
If we carefully ponder over these verses, we learn that they not only establish veracity and justness of the Companions (rta) but also award them an exalted status, both in this and the next world. This quality cannot be shared with them by any other group of people from among the ummah. The Qur’ān does not state that this status is granted to them because they happened to have seen the Prophet (sws). Contrarily, their blessed status draws on their outreaching others in accepting the faith. They migrated from their homeland, abandoned their assets and wealth for the cause of Islam and risked their lives in fighting for the cause of God. They sacrificed everything they possessed in helping God’s religion and His Messenger. The helpers too participated in this noble cause by sharing their homes and wealth with the Emigrants.
If we keep the above discussion in mind, we can justly claim that the soundest view regarding the position of those who happened to have seen the Prophet (sws) is the one that has been ascribed to ‘Ᾱṣim Aḥwal:
‘Abd Allāh b. Sarjis has seen the Prophet (sws). However, he is not a Companion of him.[5]
According to ‘Ᾱṣim, one does not become a ṣaḥābī by merely seeing the Prophet (sws). Ṣaḥābiyyat does not hinge upon one’s accidental meeting with the Prophet (sws). Thus, about the position of those who merely saw the Prophet (sws), we can, at best, adopt the following careful view ascribed to Shu‘bah:
Jundub b. Sufyān came to meet the Prophet (sws) and you can say, if you insist, that he has been blessed with the ṣuḥbah (company) of the Prophet (sws).[6]
Some other scholars express the true status and position of a person who accidently or rarely met the Prophet (sws) as follows: kāna lahū ru’yah [he saw the Prophet (sws)].
5.5 Conclusion
I believe that the opportunity to have seen the Prophet (sws) is a great blessing of God. However, the Qur’ān has not attached any importance to this fact alone. According to the Qur’ān, the high status of the Companions (rta) of the Prophet (sws), is due to their services to the religion, valour and bravery they showed in defending, upholding and preaching the religion and helping the Messenger of God (sws). The Companions (rta) are categorized and grouped by analyzing the degree and extent of their services to the religion and the Messenger (sws). If it is only seeing the Prophet (sws) that makes somebody his Companion (rta) then the deserters in the battles of Aḥzāb and Tabūk and the hypocrites of Madīnah and those from among the Bedouin, and those who established Masjid-i Ḍarār are no less deserving of this status. These people not only saw the Prophet (sws) but also fought some of the battles with him. They have been spending in the way of God though hypocritically. Yet, the way the Qur’ān condemns their behaviour and rejects their faith is not unclear to anyone, the details of which can be found in Sūrah al-Munāfiqūn (Q 63), al-Tawbah (Q 9) and al-Anfāl (Q 8). As far as the transmission of aḥādīth is concerned, we accept narrators from all the groups and categories of the Companions (rta) of the Prophet (sws). Still, however, in the exercise of interpreting aḥādīth we may only consider the views, wordings and analysis of the narratives of those Companions who are most prominent and famous for their understanding of the words of the Prophet (sws). For example, Abū Bakr (rta), ‘Umar (rta), ‘Uthmān (rta), ‘Alī (rta), ‘Ᾱ’ishah (rta), Abū Dardā’ (rta), Mu‘ādh b. Jabal (rta), ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Umar (rta), and ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Abbās (rta) etc. It is extremely important for the students of the ḥadīth literature to appreciate who are more knowledgeable and experts in the ḥadīth literature among the first generation of the believers.
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Home > Wisconsin > States
Wisconsin State Flag
State of Wisconsin
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Wisconsin State collage of images.
How well do you think you know Wisconsin state? If you think you might need help, then all the answers can be found somewhere on this website. Once you think you are ready then proceed to the quiz below, and good luck.
Wisconsin State Trivia Blitz
1. What is the capital city of Wisconsin State?
2. What is the Wisconsin State flower?
Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja linariaefolia)
Wood Violet (Viola papilionacea)
3. What is the Wisconsin State nickname?
The Equality State
The Badger State
4. What is the Wisconsin State bird?
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
5. What is the Wisconsin State insect?
Honey Bee
© TheUS50.com
How did you do? Use the scale below to grade your Wisconsin State knowledge:
A = 100%
B = 80%
C = 60%
D = 40%
F = 20%
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Why Did the Pope Keep Quiet About Hitler?
How much did the Catholic Church hierarchy know about Hitler’s oppression of the Jews as it was happening? And why didn’t it speak up? With the opening of the Vatican archives from the pre-World War II years, we can finally explore these heated questions — and German historian Hubert Wolf has dug through the files to find damning evidence that Pope Pius XII, known to critics as "Hitler’s pope," made a conscious decision to pass on the issue, leaving it up to his bishops in Germany to protect the Jews and Catholics who were being persecuted. Even when directly confronted with the growing enormity of the situation, as in this story of a German bishop who didstand up for his morals, the pope avoided public action.*
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India considers historic rewrite
Allies of the new Congress government call for revisions of school textbooks currently oriented toward Hindu values.
In the past five years, Indian schoolchildren of all faiths have learned quite a bit about the culture of the Hindu majority.
With the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party in charge, history textbooks were rewritten to extol the virtues of Indian kings like Shivaji and the Mauriyan and Vijayanagar empires. Hindu values were openly promoted in school, and ancient subjects like Hindu astrology, Ayurvedic medicine, and even the system of mental calculations known as Vedic mathematics were taught alongside more modern subjects such as astronomy, chemistry, and accounting.
Last week, the allies of the newly elected Congress government, the Communist Party of India, called for yet another rewrite of Indian history, this time with a broader view of India's many cultures instead of focusing on the religion of the majority.
The root of this historical conflict runs deep into the very definition of India itself. Is India essentially a secular country, where many religions and cultures coexist and blend? Or is India a nation formed on Hindu values, where non-Hindu religions must conform to Hindu values and traditions? It is this core question has unwittingly turned Indian schoolrooms into a cultural battleground.
"If these academics did things in a quiet manner, it would be better so that you don't arouse latent emotions," says Dipankar Gupta, an anthropologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "Most people in India believe in what the RSS (a militant pro-Hindu group) wanted to put into the textbooks, so if you say that is wrong, it wouldn't go down so well."
"From an educational point of view, it's pointless" to change textbooks in the middle of the year, Mr. Gupta adds. "Students basically learn these things to pass the exams. They won't be confused by a change in curriculum," he says, and they won't bother thinking much about it after the exams, either.
But most historians welcome these changes - indeed some change was almost inevitable. The BJP-promoted textbooks were full of factual errors, according to a panel of historians, and they diminished the impact of nearly a millennium of Islamic and British conquerors.
"The old textbooks were full of errors of fact, which children don't deserve to be made to read," says Barun De, a historian from the Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies in Calcutta, who wrote a scathing report of the BJP's textbooks in 2000. "No government ideology should be imposed on children."
What Mr. De and other historians found in the BJP's textbooks was a narrative that relied heavily on "traditional thought and mythology up to the first millennium, and then the second millennium was a retrogression and a perversion because of foreign conquests from the West."
While he has no desire to diminish the merits of Indian history before the arrival of Western conquerors, he adds, "I would like to see a multiplex character of India to be represented, as it used to be in our history. But that multiplicity was whittled down and the Hindu side emphasized. This is an attempt to bring in chauvinism, and one of the more fundamentalist elements of religion."
Not so, says Devenanda Swarup, a former professor of history at Delhi University. Mr. Swarup says that it is the Congress Party that is taking an ideological view of history, promoting a Marxist view that diminishes the importance of India's founding culture, Hinduism.
"This is an exercise which may launch a struggle for the national ethos of the country, and Marxist ideology, which has been outdated, cannot withstand it," says Swarup. "Every country tries to inculcate its values to children, a spirit of patriotism, a concept of unity, and higher moral values. But these people," he says, speaking of left-leaning historians, "they want to talk about the struggle of revolution."
Unless the Congress bucks the pressure of its Communist allies, Swarup warns, "there is a possibility of this becoming a major campaign of struggle." The leftist academics "have no following, their whole influence is the news media. All organized forces will participate, from parents, from students, from different groups that are dedicated to the Indian nation."
Meanwhile, the new government is sending mixed signals on whether it wants to take on this fight so early in its reign. Communist Party officials, who support the Congress government within parliament but are not members of the governing coalition, are pushing for immediate removal of BJP-sponsored textbooks. But Congress government spokesman Salman Khursheed told journalists last week that the Congress Party is working on a different time frame.
"If the Left agrees with some of the steps we take, that's wonderful," he told the Kerala-based magazine The Week. "But it should be remembered that we are believers, while they are not. Our ideal is Mahatma Gandhi, who was into religion; theirs is Karl Marx."
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Skookumchuck Hot Springs Earthcache
Hidden : 9/20/2005
In British Columbia, Canada
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Skookumchuck Hot Springs, also known as St. Agnes Well Hot Springs, are set in beautiful natural surroundings next to the Harrison River, southeast of Pemberton and Lillooet Lake.
There is a private campground, shelters, and soaking tubs available to the public. The undeveloped hot springs are situated on private property, but permission to enjoy the springs is generously granted by the Tretheway family. The Skookumchuck Hot Springs are open year, and can be busy on summer weekends as St. Agnes Well is a popular weekend destination for Vancouver residents. Early morning is normally the best time for a good soak. The Skookumchuck Hot Springs are located about 35 miles (56 km) south of the community of Mount Currie, on the original Cariboo Wagon Road. From the logging road that parallels the Lillooet River, turn west at the BC Hydro tower 682. This narrow gravel road leads to the campsite and the hot springs. The road is very rough, with very large potholes. Access is difficult in winter due to the heavy snow conditions. The coordinates will take you to the hot springs and pool.
The Nature of Hot Springs
Where does the spring water come from? Most of the rain and snow that falls on the slopes of a mountain ends up in rivers and streams. Some of it, however, filters down through the cracks and pores in the earths surface, pulled by gravity to depths of up to three kilometres below the surface. It is this water which later returns to the surface in our hot springs.
Why is it warm? As it seeps into the ground, the water becomes hotter and hotter as it descends. The source of the heat is from the rocks which are hot due to magma residing a few kilometers below the surface. When the water gets hot enough it boils, and the resulting pressure forces it upward, just like the water in a coffee percolator. The speed at which the water rises, and the degree to which it mixes with cold ground water, causes the resulting hot springs to have different temperatures.
Why does it smell? As the water heats up, it dissolves minerals in the surrounding rock. When these dissolved minerals break down, they release hydrogen sulphide gas, which smells like rotten eggs. Pyrite and gypsum are two common sulphur-bearing minerals dissolved in the Banff and Miette hot springs. This is probably the most common occurrence. However, some hot springs are odourless such as the Radium Hot Springs due to the type of rock in that area.
What is tufa? As the hot springs water bubbles from its underground source onto the surface, it begins to drop the load of minerals (precipitating) it gained on its travels through the ground. One of the common minerals is calcium carbonate which hardens into a porous grey/brown rock called tufa when it precipitates onto the surface and is usually seen around each hot spring.
As of November 18, 2006 to log this Earthcache:
You must post some unique bit of information regarding the site that you learn while there. Taking a water temperature measurement of the hot spring or pool is acceptable. Other possible information could be the size of the hotspring or the water flow rate. I'll leave it up to each cacher to decide what to post to show that they have learned something. I will monitor logs for appropriate information. Posting a photo is not required but appreciated. Unfortunately, any log that does not meet the requirements will be deleted. Thanks for visiting an Earthcache!
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Mathematical Induction
1. Jun 17, 2008 #1
Prove that S1, S2, S3 are true statements
S1=1= (2(1)-1) = 1^2 True
S2=1+3 = (2(3)-1) = 5 which cannot= to the sum of our first 2 integers, which will make it false!!!
S3=1+3+5 = (2(5)-1) = 3^2 True
The problem is with S2 the book gave me an answer of 4=4 which is 2^2!!!
It also shows a different formula (n-1) = n^2
In my understanding of The mathematical induction a formula is usually given to prove an x number of integers, all those integers being proven true does not mean will be the same to all integers from the sequence. Thats when K+1 substitution comes in.
Can someone help me i know is a simple mistake but i cant just see why s2 is coming that way!!!!
2. jcsd
3. Jun 17, 2008 #2
User Avatar
Homework Helper
the (2n-1) gives the nth term.
So the second term is 2(2)-1=3 (as seen in the series)
and so S2=1+3=4 (LHS)
and S2=2^2 (RHS)
LHS=RHS so it's true
4. Jun 17, 2008 #3
User Avatar
Homework Helper
That's an odd "proof" of induction. You've verified it for S1, S2, S3, but these are just particular instances of the problem you're purportedly trying to prove by induction, not the general "k+1" case.
5. Jun 19, 2008 #4
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Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
I don't believe he is claiming that as a "proof". He was asserting that the statement was not true. It is true, of course, he simply did not understand what the formula said:
No, the statement does NOT say 1+ 3= 2(3)- 1, it says 1+ 3= 1+ (2(2)-1)= 2^2. It is the last integer that is "2n- 1", not the sum.
In fact, your statement about S3 is incorrect: 1+ 3+ 5= 1+ [2(2)- 1]+ [2(3)-1]= 3^2 is what it says.
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The Os Coccygis
IN: The principles and practice of obstetric medicine and surgery
1847. The fourth American edition, from the enlarged and revised London edition. Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia
Francis H Ramsbotham
The London Hospital
coccyx and sacrum
The os coccygis (d) appears like a continuation of, or an appurtenance to, the sacrum; but is of much importance in obstetrical study. It was denominated coccyx from its resemblance to the beak of the cuckoo. It is therefore, as the name would imply, in shape hooked and pyramidal: the base is placed upwards, the apex below. The bone is divided into three, and sometimes four, distinct portions, which play upon each other by separate joints. Externally it is convex and irregular, concave and smooth within, and terminates in a tapering point, which is bent forwards in the ordinary state of the parts to support the lower end of the rectum.
The coccygeal joints are of great value in the process of labour. Their mobility much facilitates the exit of the head, by enlarging the outlet of the pelvis in the antero-posterior direction. The increase of space thus gained amounts to an inch or more; for the point of the bone may be bent backwards to a line continuous with the sacrum, or even beyond, so as to form an angle outwards.
Occasionally indeed, the coccyx becomes anchylosed to the sacrum, and its own joints also are destroyed by a deposition of osseous matter between the separate pieces, so that their mobility is lost, and the bone becomes, as it were, a portion of the sacrum itself. Such a consolidation must offer a considerable impediment to the expulsion of the head, by contracting the pelvic outlet: and this, though a rare, is therefore another cause of lingering labour. It is most usually met with in women bearing a first child late in life, and those who have been accustomed to sit through the principal part of the day, as is the case with milliners.
When the coccyx is in this state, it will sometimes break in labour: this may happen as well during a strong, unaided uterine contraction, as under the employment of instruments. The occurrence of such an accident may be known, perhaps, by the attendant being sensible of the part having given way, while his hand was employed protecting the perineum: and perhaps by his hearing the noise peculiar to bones when fractured. I have seen three cases in which the bone broke, or the anchylosed joint gave way; in none of these did any permanent injury ensue. There was some pain and inconvenience for a time, but eventually re-union was effected, and the distress occasioned was inconsiderable. The best mode of treating such a mischance would be to keep the patient in a state of perfect rest, to interdict her lying on her back, to prevent, if possible, any external pressure on the part, and to keep the bowels moderately open. On the one hand, the frequent evacuation of the rectum, by causing almost constant movement of the fractured portions one upon the other, would interfere with ossific union: and, again, if the lower bowels became filled with hardened faeces, then expulsion would probably disturb whatever degree of reparation might have been procured. Thus, both extremes of immoderate action and excessive constipation must be avoided. In the management of the patient, not only should our object be directed towards obtaining a consolidation of the separated ends, but we should also endeavour to preserve the coccyx, as nearly as we can, in a continuous line with the sacrum; for it is evident, that if the junction take place while the point of that bone is directed greatly forwards, the size of the pelvic outlet will he lessened in the same degree; and in any subsequent labour a proportionate difficulty will necessarily exist. The coccyx is called vernacularly the huckle or knuckle and sometimes the whistle-bone.
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Monday, December 13, 2010
Ions Are Everywhere!
Nature's Recipe
Lamb & Rice Recipe
Cuts in Gravy
Ionic Compounds:
1. calcium carbonate
2. potassium chloride
3. zinc oxide
4. copper sulfate
a)copper (I) sulfate:
b)copper (II) sulfate:
5. manganous oxide
6. calcium iodate
7. sodium selenite
8. salt
9. ferrous sulfate
10. water
Here is a link to my partner's, Cate, blog:
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Chem Mid-Term Reveiw
2.The following length measurements were taken by students using several different measuring devices. Find the average of the measurements. Make sure that your answer has the correct number of sig figs. 10.05 cm, 10.1 cm,9.741cm, 10.6 cm, 10.5 cm. If the actual length were known to be 10.00, what would the percent error be?(Again be mindful of sig figs).
10.05 + 10.1 + 9.741 + 10.6 + 10.9 = 50.991 = 51.0
51.0 / 5 = 10. 2
(A.V. - E.V.) / A.V. x 100
(10 - 10.2) / 10 x 100
.2 / 10 x 100
.02 x 100
*** To find the percent error the parenthesis should really be absolute value bars.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Physical and Chemical Properties
The household item I selected to experiment on was a marshmallow. Marshmallows seemed like an interesting choose, how would a common household react with common household items/ activities. Well after doing all of the experiments I found out that marshmallows are tougher than they appear. I noticed that it was much faster for physical changes to take place and those tended to give more conclusive results of what happened and why. But the chemical changes were much more dramatic. Using my chemistry knowledge I was able to conclude simple things like what change was made(chemical or physical), what was the change, was there a reaction, what kind of reaction?
Stretch- Stretching out the marshmallow changed the dimensions from 3 by 3 cm to 4 by 4 cm. Proving that the marshmallow is malleable.
Freeze- After freezing the marshmallow for 30 minutes the only physical change was that it became harder, more ridged and smoother.
Boil- placing the marshmallow in 2 cups of boiling water it dissolved in matter of seconds, changing the color of the water to a murky white. The marshmallow changed state from a solid to a liquid.
Cut-No chemical changes took place I cut the marshmallow in half, changing the appearance of it and the dimensions of it.
Hammer-By hammering the marshmallow I completely flattened it out changing the size of it, it went from 3 by 3 cm to 5 by 5 cm. Again the marshmallow is malleable the marshmallow is malleable.
Cutting the marshmallow Dissolving the marshmallow in water
Hairspray- The marshmallow did not react chemically with the hairspray as I expected it to, I thought that the chemicals in the hairspray would burn through the marshmallow. The harispray created physical changes with the marshmallow, making the marshmallow slimy. Using the hairspray is a lack of a chemical change and the hairspray did the exact opposite of what i thought it would do.
Gasoline- The marshmallow did react with the gasoline, the gasoline changed the odor of the marshmallow from none to a quite strong smell of gasoline.
Muriatic Acid(pool cleaner)- After 10 minutes in 4 tablespoons of acid the marshmallow was completely dissolved, you could tell there was a chemical change because after dissolving the marshmallow in the acid, the acid heated up.
Fire- A classic thing to do with a marshmallow...burn it. Setting fire to the marshmallow burns it, producing heat indicating a chemical change.
Drain Opener- The marshmallow dissolved in the in the drain opener and when it did the drain opener heated up, showing that a chemical change occurred
Marshmallow while in acid Marshmallow after burning
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Posts Tagged ‘supporting paragraphs’
How to Write the Body of an Essay
Write an essay to express feelings, thought and opinions on a given subject. An essay should include three main parts: an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Presenting an essay in a structured format can most successfully convey your thoughts on a subject. Use the tips below for writing the body of the essay.
1. Make the body a sufficient length. For a short essay, 1 paragraph may be sufficient. A standard essay or theme paper written for junior high or high school should be five total paragraphs, having 3 supporting paragraphs in the body.
2. Support the thesis statement made in the introduction with each body paragraph. Each paragraph should provide supporting evidence and justification of the thesis statement, or what the paper is about. Use facts, evidence and examples. This should take up at least 3 sentences of the body paragraph.
3. Write each paragraph as a stand-alone paragraph. This means that while the paragraph supports the thesis, it should also be complete thought in and of itself. It should be a sub-topic within the main topic.
4. Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence clearly stating what the paragraph will be about. Follow up with at least three sentences using evidence to support the topic sentence.
5. Make each paragraph a sufficient length. Each paragraph should have at least 4 sentences, 1 topic sentence and at least 3 supporting sentences. Do make sure every word counts, however. If an essay needs extra words for length, it is probably not a relevant subject to write an essay on.
Search terms:
• The supporting paragraphs in a research essay are built on:
• supporting paragraphs
• On what are the supporting paragraphs in a research essay built?
• short essay tips
• short essay length
Essay Writing Tips – 7 Easy Steps
Writing essays, books, articles, content and research papers can sometimes appears to be beyond our powers. Certainly, organization and persistence are the keys in the technique of writing. In what comes, there are 7 tips for writing an essay:
1. Split the different pieces of the procedure related with the writing: inquiry, inspiration, organising ideas, writing, and editing.
2. Make a list. Simply hint down idioms, keywords, definitions, questions, images and some which associates to the theme (the main essay theme). And then take in large themes the ideas that may be associated.
3. Make an essay body template: title, beginning sentence, background, statement of scope, thesis instruction, development of ideas, and closing. Each the supporting paragraphs of the important body essential have a hard organization, namely: theme sentence, manifest, comment, and closing sentence. Essays accept a lot of functions, but the common structure is the equal.
4. Process the individual parts: write the main body firstly, then the introduction, the title and the closing. And build these parts: apply always concrete and clear examples to reason on your thesis.
5. Edit and clear up the paragraphs. Observe the analytical linkage between the paragraphs and apply suitable transitional formulates. Opening words specified “as a matter of fact”, “Equally import”, “All things considered”… are an “another plus” as they show a knowledge of the well-written language. In a word, the essay must current smoothly.
6. Check the coherence or the sense of the development, verifying if the thesis statement is working as a unifying spark.
7. Revise for grammatic and writing faults.
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Find the word definition
a. (obsolete form of true English) alt. (obsolete form of true English)
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Trew \Trew\, Trewe \Trewe\, a. True. [Obs.]
Usage examples of "trew".
Drustan launched into a diatribe with a burr so thick she could scarcely understand a word he was saying, and Drustan of the trews began yelling back, and then Silvan poked his nose out of the castle to observe the fracas.
Kalchan hitched at his trews and grinned, showing yellowed teeth, and followed her into the kitchen.
This was a foot in a half-boot of very flexible black leather, laced tight to the ankle and calf, much worn and patched, not much larger than his own, attached to a leg in rusty black trews with worn places along the hem.
His linen trews, patched as well, were under his woolen trews, which for a change, had been darned except for the seat which sported a huge patch made from an old canvas tent.
The legs of his equally patched trews were folded under at the knee, as Deek had implied.
The boy threw a set of trews and a knitted tunic at Skif who caught them.
Deek, taking the lead, and pulling napkins out of his trews the way a conjure mage at a fair pulled kerchiefs out of his hand.
His own clothing went into one of the tubs with laundry in it, and she handed him the plain trews, socks, and shirt he brought with him, leaving him to clothe himself as she turned back to her work.
Herald in the dark gray leather tunic and tight trews with something like accusation.
With a stifled sigh, Skif picked out smallclothes, a shirt, tunic, trews, and stockings, debated between the boots and the shoes and finally decided on the latter as probably being more comfortable, With an eye long used to assessing fabric, he decided that the trews and tunic must be a linen canvas, the shirt was of a finer linen, the boots of a heavier canvas with leather soles and wooden heels.
Skif would have been willing to bet anything he had that the trews and shirt this Herald wore were silk.
John was dressed no better than Edward III, in sopping trews and muddy boots.
The result of this was that when Bella pulled the pair of buttery soft leather trews up her legs, she immediately felt sinfully daring and sexy.
The wool wrapping was a mantle, its lining brown plush, and folded neatly inside were a fine brocade shirt, velvet trews, and knitted gloves.
Cray suddenly felt dirty in his shirt and trews, his worn boots, and he wondered at the enormous effort of scrubbing and polishing that must be expended in the keeping of Ringforge.
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Thursday, 29 November 2012
Following today's debate about press freedom, where Cameron rejected the proposal by the Leveson Inquiry to oversee the new independent press regulator, as opposed to Miliband and Clegg who supported it, I have decided to write a short blog on the history of censorship.
platoWhilst books and other pieces of literature have been destroyed as an act of war throughout recorded history, one of the earliest acts of censorship for the 'supposed' common good of the people occurred in 339 BC, with the execution of Socrates. Socrates was a philosopher and teacher in ancient Greece, and was charged with corrupting the youth of Athens by teaching against the Greek religion. Plato, one of Socrates students, became an advocate against censorship, following his teacher's death.
In China, 213 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Haung ordered the burning of all books, except ones that dealt with agriculture, medicine or prophecy. In the ancient Roman Empire, censorship became an official duty, and is where the word 'censor' was first introduced. An official was given the title of censor, and existed from 443 to 22 BC.
Indoctrination of documents to 'make them more Christian' may have happened as early as AD 325. In 1559 the Roman Catholic Church published a list of books that were banned for their 'ideologically dangerous' content. In 1542 the Church issued a decree that no book could be published without it's permission. In 1563, Charles IX of Frances borrowed the idea and ordered that no book could be published without special permission from the King. Other rulers throughout Europe soon followed suit, banning all materials they deemed dangerous and threatening to the morals of society.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe, commonly known as the Age of Enlightenment, saw more freedom in the laws that governed censorship as people began to become more and more aware of human rights. Sweden was the first country to officially abolish censorship in 1766, and in 1790 amendments were made to the United States Constitution.
However censorship soon appeared again in the form of banning of “inappropriate” books by public librarians and teachers, in order to supposedly protect the innocence of children. In 1683 the University of Oxford's library was completely destroyed, under the orders of the King of England. In the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany burning libraries became common practice. From 1917 to the end of the 1980s, Russia and the other socialist republics included within the Soviet Union were governed under a strict rule of censorship enforced by a central censorship office, commonly known as Glavlit
Under the Nazi regime of 1933 to 1945, Germany also experienced a period of strict censorship where all media, public events, and even private communications were censored by the government, primarily by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda. An example of this is the massive burning of over 20,000 offensive books in 1933, where Goebbels declared, “From these ashes will rise the phoenix of the new spirit”.
Prior to the beginning of World War II, tens of thousands of books written by Jewish authors, communists, or any other author unsympathetic to the Nazi regime were thrown into the flames as a means of destroying critical viewpoints. As World War II commenced and the German stronghold spread throughout the European continent, censorship was also implemented in the occupied nations. All national newspapers, radios, and publishers were taken over or shut down completely upon the Nazis' arrival, and listening to foreign radio or reading illegal newspapers could be punishable by death. Despite the strict censorship, however, the illegal press continued to flourish in many occupied nations, making a firm stand against the brainwashing that Nazi censorship desired.
Censorship was also a key weapon used by the Apartheid regime of South Africa, which governed the nation from 1950 to 1994.
iran protest
Modern-day censorship in Iran has aroused a number of protests and public demonstrations, with many protesters expressing anger at the government's policies through graffiti
Even nowadays, censorship still occurs in one form or another throughout every country in the world. In Iran, the Supreme National Security Council has explicitly banned discussion in the media of any topics that might allow citizens to discover failures and abuses of the government. Attacks against journalists also continue to occur in many other countries throughout the world, and nearly half of the world’s population still lacks an independent press.In China, since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the internet is still officially censored by the government.
I hope this has enlightened you to the fight against censorship through time, and made you appreciate the fact that you can read this blog post, not because an official in the government decided you could, but because you want to!
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
A tipping point in the fight against slavery?
I recently read an interesting article about slavery, which truly shocked me. There are more people in slavery today, then in any other time in history. In the US, there are more slaves then homicides. There is an estimated 27 million people in slavery today, double the number of people taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade. About 12.5 million men, women and children were taken from Africa and shipped to America and the Caribbean from the C.16th, until slave trade was banned in 1807.
Not all slaves were from Africa. Slavery existed among some Native American groups and in some Asian countries, and Europeans were sometimes enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. Russian serfdom is also a variety of slavery. In 1861 when they were emancipated, there were more than 22 million serfs. Slaves were also common in the ancient world - the Greeks, Romans and, Egyptians all held slaves.
Slavery nowadays exists in many forms, from labour and sex trafficking to debt bondage where people are forced to work off small loads. The British Empire outlawed slavery in 1833, but it never really went away, emerging in different forms such as child labour. In the early 1840s, the British declared that slavery in India was over as part of the 'kindness' of British rule, but actually, the definitions were just changed - people were called labourers or servants rather than slaves. Obama recently said about slavery "It's the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker," he said. "The man, lured here with the promise of a job, his documents then taken, and forced to work endless hours in a kitchen. The teenage girl, beaten, forced to walk the streets."
An average slave today costs around $90 (£56) according to a charity, Free the Slaves. In 1850 a slave cost the equivalent of £25,000 in today's money. In the 18th Century, metal bracelets called manilas were brought to West Africa. They were used to barter for slaves and are now only worth around £5 each.
It is now estimated that in 30 years time, slavery could be completely eradicated from society, with the help of governmental and non-governmental organisations and their dedicated work. However it will cost around £6.8bn to get everyone out of slavery and keep them "slave proof".
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Important dates in November's History
As we near the end of the month, and get closer and closer to Christmas (yay!) I thought I would brighten your November with some interesting dates of events that happened on November, as well as why November is actually called November, a question I bet you've never asked yourself before.
November is the penultimate month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, which is used throughout most of the world. The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar in 1582, because the Julian Calendar had an error; it added a leap year every four years with no exceptions, adding about eleven extra minutes to the calendar annually. This made the seasons get out of track, and so a Neapolitan doctor named Aloysiuis Lilius suggested a new calendar should be implemented. This new calendar was made official by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named on February 24, 1582.
November is called November because it stems from the Latin word novem, meaning 'nine'. As I am currently studying Nazi Germany at school, its seems appropriate to mention a few hugely important dates that occurred in November, many of which occurred during the Nazi regime and WWII.
On the night of November 9th and 10th, 1938, the windows in all of the Jewish stores in Germany and Austria were smashed and merchandise was thrown into the street. Over 300 Synagogues were burnt to the ground, and hundreds of the thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The name given by the Nazis to this destruction is Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass.
Another date which you ought to know is November 9th 1918 when the German Kaiser was forced to abdicate and the German government was taken over by the SPD (Social Democrats). Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the Social Democrats, was subsequently installed as the first president of the new Republic, which became known as the Weimar Republic because a German Constitution, modelled after the American Constitution, was written by the Social Democrats in the city of Weimar.
After World War II ended, German was divided into East and West Germany; the eastern half was Communist. The city of Berlin, which was in Eastern Germany, was divided into zones and the Berlin wall separated the American zone and the Communist Soviet zone. It was on November 9, 1989 that the wall came down and Germany was once again united.
The Armistice which ended World War I was signed by Matthias Erzberger, a representative of the Ebert government, on November 11, 1918, an event which is now celebrated in America as Veterans Day. This holiday was formerly called Armistice Day. The Nazis would later call the Social Democrats “the November criminals” and characterize the signing of the Armistice as a “stab in the back” for the German people. For the next 20 years, a controversy would rage between the liberal left and the Nazis over whether or not the German army had been defeated on the battlefield, a claim which Hitler called the "Big Lie".
The final important event in German history that I am going to tell you about also happened on November 9, 1923 was that Hitler’s attempt to overthrow the German government was stopped. On the evening of November 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler announced the start of “the people’s revolution” in the Bürgerbräukeller, a Munich beer hall. Hitler and his supporters then marched through the streets of Munich in an attempt to seize power. This unsuccessful revolution became known as Hitler’s Beer-hall Putsch. The next day, on November 9th, Hitler and two thousand of his followers were stopped by the Munich police on Residenzstrasse in front of the Feldherrenhalle; four policemen and 16 of Hitler’s supporters were killed in the fighting. Hitler fled from the scene, but was later arrested and imprisoned at Landsberg am Lech after a trial in which he was convicted of treason.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Hanging chads and Obama's victory in Florida
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Remembrance Day
So, as I'm sure most of you will already know, Sunday 11th November was Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy or Armistice Day). Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to honour the members of the armed forces who have fought for us to live the lives we do.
It was specifically dedicated by King George V, by the suggested of Edward George Honey, on 7th November 1919 as a day of remembrance for the soldiers killed in WWI. Honey also established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.
The 11th November at 11am signifies the end of WWI, which ended on that date in 1918. Hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, according to the Armistice, signed by representatives of twenty seven different countries. ("At the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 a.m.) World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar symbol of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
However since then Remembrance Day is used as a day of respect for all soldiers who have lost their lives in battle for our country, from WWI and WWII to the more recent fighting in Afghanistan.
Although the two minutes of silence are observed on 11th November, in the UK it is Remembrance Sunday where the ceremonies at local war memorials are held. The start and end of the silence are often marked by the firing of an artillery piece. The first two minute silence in London (11th November 1919) was reported in the Manchester Guardian on 12th November 1919:
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Congratulates to Obama on winning the Presidential Election! However now he has secured the role, Obama has a long and difficult road ahead of him. I have collected a nice list of the four main problems the president faces, which are;
1. A still-struggling economy
Unemployment remains at 7.9%, and hiring is too slow to adsorb the millions on unemployed Americans. Economic growth is down to only 2%, and the US is slowly crawling out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
2. The fiscal cliff and budget deficit
On the 1st January a volley of tax-rises and spending cuts will hit nearly every American in the USA, and could potentially cause devastation to the already weak economy, unless Congress takes action to cancel them.
3. Iran
Iran is another source of headache for the president, ensuring stability in Iraq and promoting a solution to the Israel/Palestine situation, fighting terrorism, ensuring open access to energy and preventing a nuclear war are also all on Obama's to-do list. The US remains determined to prevent Iran gaining a nuclear weapon, however Iran maintains its nuclear program is solely peaceful and its leaders refuse to back down.
4. Medicare costs
In 2011, Medicare provided healthcare to 48.7m Americans. However, Medicare, the enormous government healthcare program for over-65s and disabled Americans, is projected soon to run out of money. Medicare's hospital insurance program is currently projected to run out of money in 2024. The doctor visit and prescription drug programs, which have an unlimited pot of money, will rise to 3.4% of GDP in 2035 from 2% last year.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
A short history of elections
Today sees the end of months worth of debates, tours, TV appearances, rallys and campaigning by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, who are both battling it out to be President of the United States.
Have you ever wondered why election day is always a Tuesday?
Even though America's voter turnout is among the lowest in developed democracies and more than a quarter of people who do not vote claim they are too busy, efforts to move elections to weekends have failed. The Tuesday after the first Monday in November was set as presidential election day in 1845. In the mid-19th Century, the US was an agrarian nation and it took a lot of time for farmers travel to the nearest polling station on horse back or in a horse-driven cart. Saturday was a workday on the farm, travel on Sunday was out, and Wednesday was a market day. That left Tuesday.
Another interesting fact I recently came across is that the US state of Nevada allows voters to mark "None of these candidates" on the ballot. The option has been on the ballot since 1976 and plenty of voters have used it. In 2010 after a particularly tight campaign for a US Senate seat, 2.25% of voters chose "None" rather than pick Democrat Harry Reid or Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Reid won.
Did you know that the candidate who loses the election can still win the White House? Four times in American history, the candidate with fewer votes has wound up with the presidency. This is because the winner of the presidential election needs to capture a majority of electoral votes, which are apportioned to the states by population and for the most part awarded in winner-take-all state contests. Most recently, in 2000 George Bush won half a million votes fewer than Al Gore but took 271 electoral votes for the victory.
And one final funny fact which you probably didn't know before is that in North Dakota, you can vote without registering to vote. Although it was of the first states to adopt voter registration in the 19th Century, North Dakota abolished it in 1951. Voters must be US citizens over the age of 18 who have lived in the state for at least 30 days, and must provide identification, but they do not need to register. Who knew?
Here is an excellent web page on the history of close elections that is worth taking a look at;
I hope tonight many of you will be staying up to watch the election tonight along with me, and good luck to both Obama and Romney!
Monday, 5 November 2012
All about Guy Fawkes!
Happy 5th of November! Today is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night and Firework Night, an annual commemoration of when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested on the 5th November 1605, whilst guarding explosives his fellow plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords.
Celebrating the fact that King James I survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires all over London, and months later the Observance of 5th November Act was passed, to mark the day as an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.
The English, among other talents, are adept at nurturing their grudges. This explains the prolonged hatred of Guy Fawkes; over four hundred years after Fawkes was caught, tortured and executed for his role in the scheme the British are still celebrating his death. One of the ironies of Fawkes' legacy is that he was actually a late addition to the Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes was born a Protestant in 1570, fought in the Spanish army in the Netherlands in 1593, and at around the same time converted to Catholicism. The founders of the Gunpowder Plot brought Fawkes in to the plot because they thought his military background and anonymity would be helpful.
Things didn't go according to plan. The plotters started trying to gain more and more followers, and as the story goes, one of the men to whom they reached out for support alerted his brother-in-law, a lord, not to attend Parliament on 5th November.The building was searched, and Fawkes was caught along with his stockpile of gunpowder. Tortured on the rack, he revealed the names of his co-conspirators. Some of them were killed while resisting arrest; others, including Fawkes, pled not guilty and went to trial, where they were convicted of high treason. In January, 1606, the remaining conspirators were hung, drawn and quartered. Parliament immediately established Nov. 5 as a day of celebration.
In recent years, Fawkes' legacy has become less well known, to my disappointment Whilst children all over the country have spent the last week setting off fireworks and dancing around bonfires, I wonder how many of them actually know why we celebrate Guy Fawkes Day every year. However Fawkes has provided the inspiration for the tile character in the Wachowski brothers' V for Vendetta, in which a masked crusader embarks on a terrorist campaign against a totalitarian British dystopia. Fawkes also proved an effective fundraising rally for U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul, who made more than $4 million on the holiday in 2007 from a website commemorating Fawkes.
An interesting fact which I did not know before researching this topic is that guards will also perform an annual search tonight —more for tradition than precaution— of the Houses of Parliament to ensure no would-be Fawkes is trying to replicate the Gunpowder Plot. Though the celebrations and rituals are mostly symbolic nowadays, Guy Fawkes Day is still a great way to spend some time with family and friends and enjoy the fireworks, bonfires and food.
Friday, 2 November 2012
Skyfall and the history of James Bond
Today I watched Skyfall, the latest installment in the James Bond franchise. Whilst I have never been a huge Bond fan, I must admit it was a fantastic film, and got me thinking about the history of Bond. Bond was created by Ian Fleming in 1953, and is based on Fleming's experience during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II.
The NID was established in 1882, originally responsible for fleet mobilization, war plans and foreign intelligence collection. However in 1900 another division was added; dealing with strategy and defence during war. Two years later the NID grew again, to take control of trade, port and coastal defence. Since then the NID has played a huge role in British history, taking some of the responsibility for Britain's success in both WWI and WWII. Members of the 30th Assault Unit in WWII, which Fleming belonged to, are inspirations for the creation of 007 spy, Bond.
So I guess in a way we have the NID and Fleming's work during WWII to thank for the birth of James Bond.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
It's a blog. About history.
Hello, I'm Amelia Sinclair, a 16 year old girl from North London who goes to Haberdasher's Askes School for Girls and is passionate about history. I have recently decided to write down all my history-related thoughts, in the form of a blog. I was inspired to start my blog by fact that I recently discovered (upon research) that there are very few accessible blogs for teenagers interested in History, such as myself. Whilst sifting through Google looking for interesting history websites, I was slightly annoyed that there weren't more nice handy blogs that had already done all the sifting for me.
I spent a couple of days wondering around trying to come up with an amusing and witty blog title. But eventually I gave into the cliche and named it after one of all time favorite films; 'History Boys'. (If you haven't watched it then you definitely need to).
I am currently studying Nazi Germany and the History of Medicine through time, however I'll be writing posts about pretty much anything that interests me and catches my eye.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
~~~ Love and Death in the Year 1347 ~~~ The World of Guillaume de Machaut ~~~~~
In 1347, the Black Plague hit Europe. Guillaume de Machaut, the most famous poet and composer of his time, was 47 years old. Boccaccio would write in the Decameron how he and some friends escaped the plague by retreating to a house in the country. Machaut had been working for the recently deceased King John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, and he remained there during the plague times, preparing manuscripts of his work, in demand by the royalty and nobility of all Europe.
Machaut was the foremost proponent of a new and startling form of music, known as Ars Nova, the New Art. It was the first real phase of that revolutionary musical technique that originated in Europe and eventually spread throughout the world: Harmony.
Previously in Europe, and in all other musics of the world before they were influenced by European music, there was either only the melody played in unison with, perhaps, percussion, or there might be a single note played underneath throughout the whole song, like the drone note of the bagpipes. Classical Indian music still follows this second form. But in the 1200s century composers started to experiment with singing more than one note at a time, although at first perhaps only as simple parallel voices or other naive forms of harmony. In the 1300s, for the first time, composers began to create elaborate, organized compositions with two or more voices singing different lines carefully designed to complement each other: Counterpoint.
Looked at another way, vertically, this results in a series of shifting chords. The effects on human emotions of the way that these chords are chosen and put together in a musical composition has been refined over the centuries to the system that we use today, in every song you hear, everywhere. And Guillaume de Machaut was the first major proponent of the earliest form of this technique.
Machaut was also equally famous as a poet, and the genre he worked in was Courtly Love. In addition, musically he started off at the end of the period of Troubadors and Trouveres, who sang in the older tradition accompanyed only perhaps by a drone note and percussion, and who had sung tales of courtly love for centuries in the banquet halls of the kings of Europe.
Courly Love, of course, is that tradition of forbidden love of a courtier for a lady who really should be out of his reach, such as the wife of his lord. The fact that this would utterly subvert the social order of the time and place the life of the lover in mortal peril gave it an illicit thrill that made it the most popular theme of popular art for centuries. The love of Lancelot and Guinevere and the destruction that this wrought for the court of King Arthur is these days the most famous story remembered from this tradition.
Machaut was a tuneful composer who entertains the popular ear. He also composed one of the first set-piece masses, as the Ars Nova technique began to be used in church music. Pope John XXII wrote annoyed letters asking what the hell was up with all the extra notes.
Machaut was the most famous artist of his time. His face is recognizable in a number of portraits (that isn't him above), and Chaucer, a generation or two later, treasured his expensive copy of Machaut's works.
When he was past middle age, it seems, he was still so famous that he lived a life much like a modern superstar. A beautiful young woman wanted so much to have the ultimate accolade, a love song addressed to her written by the most famous poet and songwriter of Europe, that she became his mistress. Machaut was plenty pleased until one day he got wind of the unflattering accounts of his lovemaking that the young lady was amusing her friends with.
Dame, je sui cilz qui weil endurer
vostre voloir, tant com porray durer
My Lady, I am the one who wants to endure your will.
and for as long as I may live
mais ne cuit pas que longuement l'endure
sans mort avoir quant vous m'estes si dure
but I do not believe that I will endure it for long
without dying, since you are so harsh to me
que vous voles qu'ensus de vous me traie.
sans plus veioir la tres grant biaute vraie
that you want me to withdraw far away from you.
without seeing any longer the very great beauty
de vo gent corps qui tant a de valour
que vous estes des bonnes la millour
of your lovely body, which has so much worth.
for you are of all good ladies the best
Las! einsi ay de ma mort exemplaire.
Mais la doleur qu'il me convendra traire
Alas! Thus I have the model of my death.
But the pain which I must endure
douce seroit, se un tel espoir avoie
qu'avant ma mort par vo gre vous revoie.
will be sweet, if I have such an expectation
that before I die I see you again, by your leave
Dame, et se ja mes cuers riens entreprent
dont mes corps ait honneur n'avancement
My Lady, if ever my heart should undertake anything
of which I may have the honour and profit
de vous venra, com lonteins que vous soie.
car ja sans vous que j'aim tres loyaument
ne sans Amours emprendre nel saroie
you will be the inspiration, however far away you be.
for never without you, who I love very loyally.
nor without Love, could this be undertaken
1. thank you for opening up this page of history for me, tv.
I learn so much from you, and so easily too!
2. I hope this is not some attempt to remake me in someone else's image
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How to Calculate Percentage Error
By Jennifer Spirko; Updated April 24, 2017
Percentage error helps express the accuracy of your calculations.
Errors such as faulty instruments, premises or observations can arise from several causes in math and science. Determining the percentage of error can express how precise your calculations have been. You need to know two variables: the estimated or predicted value and the known or observed value. Subtract the former from the latter, then divide the result by the known value and convert that figure into a percentage. In this formula, Y1 represents the estimated value and Y2, the known value: [ (Y1-Y2) /Y2 ] x 100 percent.
Applying the Formula
The University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy’s lab manual provides a historical example of percentage of error: Ole Romer’s calculation of the speed of light. Romer estimated light speed as 220,000 kilometers per second, although the actual constant is much higher, 299,800 kilometers per second. Using the formula above, you may subtract Romer’s estimate from the actual value to get 79,800; dividing that result into the actual value gives the result .26618, which equates to 26.618 percent. More mundane applications of the formula might be predicting high temperatures for a week, then comparing this prediction to the actual, observed temperatures. Social scientists and marketers may also use the formula; for instance, you might predict that 5,000 people attend a public event, then compare that to the 4,550 people who actually attended. The percentage error in this case would be minus-9 percent.
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There are 4 fundamental factors why nutrition is important for athletes:• As an energy source• For building lean muscle mass• To achieve ideal physique composition• To aid in staying healthy and reducing injuries.
It’s much better to consume monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. This includes vegetable oils and fats found in fish, nuts, and avocados.
Protein is critical for football players due to the fact it helps to build and repair muscle, helps the muscles contract and relax, builds ligaments and tendons that hold muscles and support bone, and assists with recovery by preventing muscle breakdown. Protein is also required for building hormones like insulin that regulate blood sugar and also the thyroid for metabolism, for supporting the immune system, and for regulating the digestion of food. Without adequate dietary protein, you run the threat of injury, illness, or just feeling run down. Protein also provides energy in occasions of extreme want when carbohydrate stores are depleted. This occurs when your total calorie expenditure is greater than your consumption and/or when your body is healing after injury.
What are carbohydrates? Carbohydrates are composed of three elements: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are created through a process known as photosynthesis in which water, absorbed by plant’s roots, donates hydrogen and oxygen. Carbon dioxide gas absorbed in leaves donates carbon and oxygen. Water and carbon dioxide combine to yield the major energy source for the physique known as glucose.
While for some athletes, talent can overcome less-than-ideal dietary composition for some time, it tends to catch up with everyone eventually. The danger for weight issues, injury, illness, and cramping are greater for those who do not meet and maintain adequate intake and stores. Energy from the proper fuel also translates to staying strong throughout the entire season, which is what every coach wants to see, especially if the team has a playoff run.
But before we get into several of the specifics behind fueling for football, it is important to 1st realize the basics. On the field, you’ll want to know the best way to catch the ball just before you’ll be able to understand to run hitches, slants, curls, and post routes. In this chapter, we’ll explain overall nutritional game plans for athletes, which will prepare you for understanding how it becomes specialized for certain positions and occasions of the year.
But not all carbs are created equal. One type is simple carbohydrates, which are broken down by the body quickly, and found in processed and refined sugars such as candy, table sugar,tiffany blue nike free 3.0 v4 womens blue white silver sneakers, syrups, and soft drinks. No a lot more than 10 percent of your calories should come from simple sugars since they are lower in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients (which help your body to use fuel, stay fit, recover faster and reduce the danger for injury and illness) than complex carbohydrates.
Another crucial thing to know about protein is that you will need it in small amounts throughout the day, especially if you are trying to enhance muscle mass. A lot of busy athletes make the mistake of consuming all their protein at dinner, snacking on easy-to-grab and low-protein foods at other times of the day. It’s critical to make sure protein is a part of breakfast, lunch, and snack foods, too, since it helps to prevent muscle breakdown and promote muscle building. It also helps keep you feeling fuller than if you just had carbohydrate-based meals and snacks alone.
Complex carbs are our heroes. They take longer to break down and have far more nutrients, such as fiber and vitamins. Fiber is important because it slows down the passage of food through the digestional tract as well as the release of sugar into the bloodstream. That leads to better blood sugar control and much more even energy levels, as well as regularity of stools. For those athletes who want to lose weight, fiber provides a feeling of fullness. It also has a cholesterol lowering effect, for long-term health. Fiber is found in whole grain bread and cereals, fruits and vegetables, beans, oats, nuts (almonds, pistachios and others with the woody shell), popcorn,tropical twist nike free, brown rice,http://www.leweb11.com/blog/tiffany-blue-nike-free-runs.html, potato skins, corn, and peas.
Food as Energy
Fewer Fats
By Lisa Dorfman
When athletes don’t have enough carb stores in their bodies, they have glycogen depletion. The consequences are feeling flat, an inability to build muscle, and even depression. Ongoing depletion can also lead to overtraining syndrome.
Overall, you can find three types of nutrients that give the body calories-carbohydrates, protein, and fat. These energy-giving nutrients can be found in varying amounts in foods. Essential nutrients that also help the physique to use energy, but do not have calories, are refe
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Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Mountain pass temperatures...
Question of the day:
Why are there two temperatures listed for Stevens Pass? Where are they taken at? I can see 1-2 degree difference in them but sometimes there is 5 or more degrees difference.
There are three temperatures displayed on all of the mountain pass pages. The temp in the yellow "Pass Report" box next to the picture of whatever pass you're looking at is what is radioed in to our various Traffic Management Centers from the thermometer on the maintenance supervisor's pickup. That's the air temperature in the shade on the roadside wherever he or she is when they call in the pass report and set the traction restrictions, if any. As a result, the location could vary a mile or more from the summit, depending on the pavement conditions the supervisor has encountered as he/she makes the assessment. That's a call that takes place every 4 hours from November through March. It means that at 1 p.m., you're looking at a temperature that is an hour old. Below the camera image is a blue box labeled "Current Weather". A road weather information station provides that data every few minutes to the web page. The thermometers measure the air temperature and the pavement temperature at the summit of the passes. These are also subject to the influences of any permanent location - sunshine - a bird perching on a sensor or even a vehicle stopped on top of the pavement sensor.
Yesterday, for example, Stevens showed a temperature of 37 for the noon pass report, but by 1 p.m., the current weather box showed an air temperature of 48 and a pavement (surface) temperature of 53. A half hour later, when the sun went back behind the clouds, the temps had dropped to 47 and 51, respectively.
The Blewett pass page showed a similar pattern - 42 degrees in the pass report box and in the current weather box, 52 - air, 42 - surface at 1 p.m.
I checked Snoqualmie, Satus, etc. and Loup Loup (37-37-37) was the only one that showed all three matching, and then only for about fifteen minutes.
You might think we ought to eliminate the temp in the pass report box to eliminate confusion - and we would except that the info in the yellow box is what also appears on several other of our web pages, the 5-1-1 phone system and Highway Advisory Radio's, and NOAA's web site which is what Associated Press uses to provide its member's "news". All of those systems are automated and when conditions do change rapidly, forcing us to change the traction restrictions sooner than the standard "every four hour" schedule, then all of those change, too. It really wouldn't make much sense to update the mountain pass reports every 3 to 10 minutes because the temperature changed a degree or two - and if someone is looking at the pass pages, between the picture, the pass report and the current information, they ought to be able to decide if they want to go or not.
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Results for: Plains-zebra
How do zebras die?
Most zebras normally die because of old age. Once they have reproduced and grown old they die. They can also die with a lack of food. As zebras live in the savanna and its (MORE)
What is an extinct zebra?
The Quagga is an extinct animal that lived in Africa and is much like the zebra but only has stripes on its hindquarters. Another animal similar too the Quagga is an Okapi and (MORE)
How do zebras attract female zebras?
The do the same as horses they do every trick they know of like kicking with the back of there legs as high as they can to show of what they can do, really they do every thing (MORE)
In Biology
How have zebras adapted?
Zebras have adapted by - Stripes to camouflage them in long elephant grass Strong teeth to chew the tough grass Big ears to keep the heat out Thin fur to keep c (MORE)
In Zebras
How tall can zebras get?
About 4 to 5 feet at the shoulder (12 to 15 hands.) There are, however, different breeds of zebras, like the Grevy's zebra which is larger than the more common Grant zebra.
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Why is the zebra endangered?
Because of habitat distruction, pollution, and poaching. Zebras are large, wild horses and live in Africa. The Grevy's zebra is the largest horse in the world, so it wou (MORE)
How do zebras sleep?
Zebras usually sleep or doze standing up during the day; some may be brave enough to lay down for a few minutes or so for some real deep REM sleep. Usually some of the her (MORE)
In Zebras
Is the zebra a ruminant?
No. A zebra has the same digestive system as a horse, donkey or rabbit, which are called pseudo-ruminants or hind-gut fermentors. They ferment their digesta in their huge cecu (MORE)
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List of Types of Tropical Flowers
Tropical flowers are native to parts of South America, west Africa, and Indonesia. Of course, Hawai'i, India and China are big contributors to the tropical plant world as well. Most tropicals are endemic to the rainforest but there are those that thrive on beaches as well. Tropical flowers are usually highly scented and well-adapted to certain niches within their native habitats.
Orchids are the quintessential tropical flower and are very easy to grow. The Cattleya orchid is probably the easiest orchid for the first-time grower. Orchids need plenty of light, but not direct sunlight when they are in bloom. They also require warm temperatures (75 to 80 degrees F in the daytime) and as much humidity as you can give them. Orchids, members of the largest flowering plant family in the world, are native to tropical America and Asia.
The gardenia, a member of the coffee family, is a flowering shrub native to many tropical regions, mainly tropical Africa. The flowers are highly scented white blooms. The gardenia is a challenging plant to grow outside of the tropics as it must have bright, indirect light and high levels of humidity.
If you've ever received a Hawai'ian lei it was probably strung from the flower of the plumeria tree. The plumeria, or frangipani as it is sometimes called, is a highly scented tropical flower that blooms in shades of pink, yellow and white. Plumeria grows well in the milder climates in the United States as long as it is brought indoors in the winter.
Keywords: types of tropical flowers, flowers from the tropics, hawaiian flowers
About this Author
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How to Choose a Tomato Plant
Choosing the right type of tomatoes for your garden is important if you want to successfully grow these plants. There are many factors to keep in mind. They include your available garden space, the length of your summer and the amount of time you can dedicate to your tomatoes. You can either plant seeds or purchase seedlings from a garden center.
Step 1
Decide whether you will plant in a garden bed or a container. Choose dwarf or container varieties such as Small Fry for container gardens. Choose a variety with small fruit, such as Tiny Tim, for hanging baskets.
Step 2
Determine the type of support system you will use in a traditional garden bed. You can stake both determinate and indeterminate tomato plants, but cages are best for determinate plants. Determinate tomatoes are bushy and grow only about 4 feet high, while indeterminate tomatoes are more vinelike and grow 6 feet or higher.
Step 3
Pick a variety that grows well in your area. Call your county or university extension office for advice on tomato plants that are suited to your climate and offer disease resistance to common pests in your area. Buy seedlings from local suppliers, as these are more likely to thrive in your region.
Step 4
Decide whether you want a hybrid or heirloom tomato. Choose a heirloom or open-pollinated tomato if you want to save seed from the plants, but be aware that these may not produce as many fruits or may not offer adequate disease-resistance. Choose a hybrid if you have no desire to save the seeds and want a plant that offers specific benefits, such as high disease resistance or high yield.
Step 5
Read the plant labels for the days-to-harvest information. Choose varieties with a short maturation time, such as Early Cascade, if you have short summers. Choose longer-season plants, such as Fantastic, if you have a long summer and mild fall.
Step 6
Plant tomatoes that produce fruit that matches your desired use. Some varieties are better for canning, while others are best eaten fresh. Dona, for example, is usually grown for canning or salsa-making, while Brandywine tomatoes are best eaten raw.
• Washington State Extension: Tomato Varieties
Keywords: choosing a tomato plant, tomato varieties, growing tomatoes
About this Author
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Types and uses of industrial mixer
An industrial mixer is a huge machine that is used in mixing different types of industrial materials like cosmetics, construction, dye, pharmaceuticals, paint and cement. The machine is also used in food industries, beverages and water treatment plants. There are so many consumers who utilize the machine from a global perspective. Industrial mixers such as cement mixers can be found in different varieties in the market that includes wave mixing, agitator mixing, sluicing mixing and wave mixing.
Among all these mixers, the most popular form of industrial mixer is the agitator mixer. This type of mixer is mostly used in liquid processing industries because it is easy to get, portable, cost effective and it is used for different purposes. Apart from that there are different types of agitator machines in the market. There are other types of industrial mixers such as vibration mixers, ultrasonic, screw, conical and planetary. Mixers which have paddle shaped feet and fixed arms are referred as paddle mixers. There are industrial mixers that are ribbon shaped known as ribbon mixers.
An industrial mixer uses drums, kneaders, agitators and tumblers. There are other mixers which use twin rotor, a single rotor and a rotor stator. There are various types of tumblers and drums in the market. Examples of them include horizontal drums, double tumblers and twin shell tumblers. Most of the drum mixers have been made using folding impellers that help the mixer to fit to the closed drums. They are usually opened when the machine is turned on.
Businesses which are supplying users with different types of uniform mixtures should do what they can to avoid any splitting from taking place. Used mixers are becoming popular in the market, despite the saving that, the business is going to make. Before purchasing an industrial mixer, there are factors, which you have to consider. The first factor to consider, is the type of work that, you will be using the mixer to do the work and for how long you planning to use it. Used industrial mixers are cheap, but they require a lot of maintenance. Therefore, if you are planning to use the mixer daily, a used one is not good for you because it is not going to be effective. It will also cost you a lot of money when it comes to maintenance.
Another factor, to consider is where you are going to be purchasing the mixer. If you are buying it from a good dealer, you will be guaranteed that, it is going to operate properly for some months and years depending on how you are going to be using it. If you want to purchase a good used mixer, it is good to purchase the machine from a reputable dealer. This will prevent disappointments and using a lot of money when it comes to maintenance.
The last factor to keep in mind before purchasing a mixer is safety. Most industrial mixers cause a lot of accidents and injuries in the workplace. Most of these accidents are caused by the operators because of careless mistakes and errors, it is important to make sure that, the industrial mixers which you purchase are safe.
By | 2013-05-28T10:27:30+00:00 May 28th, 2013|Articles|Comments Off on Types and uses of industrial mixer
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What is magnesium?
Magnesium is a dietary supplement that may have benefits for muscle and bone health, carbohydrate metabolism, and many other body functions.
Magnesium, a common mineral in the human body, is involved in hundreds of body reactions, from muscle health to metabolism.*
What are the dietary sources of magnesium?
Magnesium is found in many foods. It is especially abundant in whole grains, nuts and seeds, and leafy green vegetables, such as spinach. Meat, dairy foods and mineral water also contain fairly high amounts of magnesium.
Should I consider taking a magnesium dietary supplement?
Research suggests that many Americans don't get enough magnesium in their diets. If you take a water pill (diuretic) or have diabetes, your magnesium level can be low. You may also be at risk if you have a condition that affects your body's ability to absorb nutrients, such as celiac disease.
Low magnesium can contribute to fatigue and muscle weakness.* Low magnesium can also worsen existing health issues, such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.*
How can a magnesium supplement affect my health?
Supplemental magnesium can support your health in several ways:
• Promotes energy production*
• Supports optimal muscle function*
• Supports bone health*
• Supports heart and lung function*
• Promotes carbohydrate metabolism*
• Provides support for muscle soreness and fatigue by helping decrease lactic acid accumulation during exertion*
• Helps maintain bowel regularity*
Dec. 09, 2016
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Counting Teeth: Could this be an Indicator of Longevity?
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If you’re planning to enjoy longevity, it helps if you still have your own teeth. Poor dental health is as life shortening as smoking.
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There is a connection between a healthy mouth and a healthy body. Poor oral health can make you susceptible to other health issues including heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and dementia.
A new study looking into tooth loss and mortality revealed the number of teeth we have is connected to life expectancy, showing the more teeth we have, the longer we can expect to live. A UK survey conducted 40 years ago revealed that 37% of people had none of their natural teeth, with a life expectancy of 73 years. Today, that same survey shows that 6% have none of their natural teeth, with a life expectancy of 81 years, whereas those with a full set of teeth at 74 years can expect to reach their hundredth birthday.
Those who have lost between 1 and 5 teeth by the age of 65 years were more likely to suffer from diabetes, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, severely limiting their life expectancy. Studies show that tooth loss is connected to stress during a person’s lifetime. It can be due to smoking or a poor oral health routine, but it can also be a sign of poor quality within areas of a person’s lifestyle, suggesting a likelihood of other health issues.
Gum disease, or periodontitis, is an inflammatory disease affecting the tissues that surround and support the teeth. This can be prevented through good oral hygiene. If you don’t clean your teeth properly, plaque will be left behind between the teeth and along the gum line and this can lead to gingivitis (gum inflammation). If you suspect you have this, visit your dentist – a Cardiff dentist such as can get it checked out.
Brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste is very important, as are regular visits to your dentist. Pay more attention to what is going on in your mouth as it may give vital signals of other impending health issues. A healthy diet is equally important, so cut down on sugary foods and drinks, as these can contribute to tooth decay. Think healthy living and healthy teeth before you eat and drink.
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Baltimore & Black Lives Matter by Dominique Christina
(Not) Making Sense of Ferguson
Read Will Falk’s entire article at Deep Green Resistance Southwest Coalition
Derrick Jensen’s Resistance Radio on youtube and archive page
Operation Ghetto Storm: police killings of blacks in the US
Saba Malik on Resistance Radio
Download mp3
Browse all of Derrick Jensen’s Resistance Radio interviews.
Exploring Racism
Racism is one of the most effective tools of oppressive power. The concept of ‘race’ was created in the 1700’s by European scientists, who mostly based their practice on skulls. They went to the Caucasus Mountains, in western Asia/SE Europe (modern Chechnya) and measured skulls from this region, and compared them with other skulls from around the world. They found that skulls from the Caucasus region were larger, and decided that Caucasian people must be more intelligent than the other races: Negroid, Mongoloid, Malay, and American (Indigenous).This classification was explicitly and implicitly stratified – white people were at the top, with the most intelligence and virtue, and black people were at the bottom – this helped justify chattel slavery. Asian people were treated as the “next best” race after white, and so on. This hierarchy still exists, and is still manipulated for political purposes. For example, after the 9/11 WTC bombings, Arabic or Middle Eastern people went from being relatively high on this hierarchy to being the lowest of the low.
This “science” was used to denigrate people of color and justify the colonialism, land theft, and slavery flourishing in this period of expanding capital.
Understand: race was created. There is no such thing as race, scientifically. Genetically speaking, an Inuit person may have more genes in common with a Bushman from southern Africa than with an American Indian or Sami person.
The definition of race that is often used in anti-racism organizing is this:
Race is a specious classification of human beings created at a certain point in history by Europeans who came to be called white, which assigns human worth and social status using “white” as the model of humanity and the height of human achievement for the purpose of establishing and maintaining privilege and power.
Note: the word “specious” means “false but appearing to be true.”
This does not mean that race is not a social reality. It is a powerful idea that has been ingrained in us for 300-400 years, and it doesn’t just disappear because it’s based on a lie. Race has powerful and deadly consequences in the real world.
Everyone raised in this culture is exposed to race prejudice from a young age. It is practically impossible not to assimilate some of the racist stereotypes played out in this culture – an issue that plays out in many of us that is called internalized racism. At some level or another, all of us have internalized the lessons of race prejudice. Only by looking at these prejudices head on, analyzing what is behind them, addressing the role of power and hierarchy implicit in the race system, and working to dismantle this system at both personal and societal levels can we move forward.
Are You a 'Good White Person?'
Having been raised in a culture predicated on racism and vilification of the “other”, we have all internalized a racist perspective. Relationships across lines of difference often fall prey to power dynamics reinforced by this perspective. The proliferation of “good white people” has not made the situation any better. In fact, as argued in this blog post, they may have made it worse.
Excerpted from an article at
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Explore BrainMass
How Modern Tools Help IS Overcome Disadvantages
Discuss how some modern tools such as CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering), techniques such as JAD (Joint Application Development), and new methodologies (such as extreme programming) help IS organizations overcome the disadvantages of the traditional SDLC methodology. If you have had experiences with any of these, please share.
Please include references.
Solution Preview
Software Development Lifecycle is followed by different website and software developers around the world. SDLC can help them address the specific needs of users. However due to time constraints, developers come together to create the workflow instead of going through user requirements. In this way they can create a good workflow and choose a preferred language. Another reason on why SDLC is not followed by developers is that it can lead to deviation from the real purpose of creating the software. The traditional software development approaches are considered cumbersome and bureaucratic and hence not liked by many.
CASE is a tool that assists in all phases of the SDLC. It provides modeling and development tools that provide certain design methodologies for users to follow. For example, Oracle Designer suite is a CASE tool that allows users to follow the SDLC methodology along with ...
Solution Summary
The solution discusses how modern technology tools help IS overcome disadvantages of traditional SDLC methodology.
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, Volume 49, Issue 3, pp 284–290
The Roots and Routes of Michael Jackson’s Global Identity
Culture and Society
DOI: 10.1007/s12115-012-9550-z
Cite this article as:
Martin, S.J. Soc (2012) 49: 284. doi:10.1007/s12115-012-9550-z
In 2011, the realm of American popular culture experienced a jolt when an American icon decided to go global. In DC Comics issue #900, Superman renounced his US citizenship. A stalwart of “the American way,” Superman decided that his mission for justice should encompass people and phenomena beyond the territorial boundaries of the U.S. after feeling morally compelled to support non-violent protesters in Iran. The repercussions of Superman’s actions created complications for US foreign policy, and forced the aegis of American heroism to officially differentiate his stance from that of the US government. Yet while Superman continues to see the world as increasingly interconnected and strives to become a global citizen, DC Comics publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio insist that Superman remains committed to his American base. After all, Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, grew up in the heart of Americana.
It is not only fictional icons who represent some facet of “all-American” identity who have become cosmopolitan subjects in our ever more connected world, but real ones as well. While few have taken the drastic step of renouncing their US citizenship, American icons such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey have been influenced by the global circulation of their products as well as their persons.1 Yet, although the frequency with which people and media increasingly cross borders reveals that transnationalism constitutes a deep-rooted and striking feature of American identity (Appadurai 1996; Grewal 2005), national identity remains a prevalent frame as a social reality and an object of analysis for its specific formations and expressions (Bernal 2004), complicated as it is by race, class, and gender.
Like Superman, Michael Jackson is an American icon who went global. His ability to fuse together West African, African American, and Anglo–European musical influences as well as choreography styles from the American inner city, Fred Astaire, and French mime Marcel Marceau lent Jackson’s craft a broadly inclusive appeal. From Sweden to South Korea, footage from Jackson’s world tours shows fans cheering, chanting, weeping, and fainting as he performed, despite controversies surrounding him. His geographic mobility developed his transnational perspective; at many stops on his world tours he would also visit hospitals and orphanages to which he donated money, gifts, and resources. In 1992 he established the Heal the World foundation which airlifted 46 tons of supplies to war-torn Sarajevo. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Jackson donated an estimated $300 million to charity in his lifetime. Of his philanthropy Jackson commented, “I just couldn’t see myself not being touched by the things I have seen, like that village in China, and the things I have seen in Africa and Russia and Germany and Israel” (Shmuley 2009, 138). These experiences shaped his messages in songs such as “Heal the World,” “They Don’t Care About Us,” and “Earth Song” (see also Vogel 2011). Since his 2009 death, fans have commemorated Jackson by erecting statues of him in England, China, Russia and India.
However, Jackson was an American icon and it was his status in the U.S. that launched his global iconicity. Indeed, the day after Jackson died, the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C. called for a moment of silence for the American pop star. Yet what are the precise contours and components of Jackson’s American iconicity? And how do we understand the nuances of his racial identity as an African American in relation to his iconicity (cf. Hollander 2010)? His African American identity was undoubtedly shaped by the history of slavery which he referred to in his autobiography (Moonwalk), and referenced in his lyrics and visual imagery.
Yet while Jackson acknowledged his ancestors’ experiences of slavery in the U.S., he also emerged from the African Diaspora’s forced migration, and thus was always already transnational. The transatlantic African slave trade entailed an estimated 12 to 20 million West Africans forced into slavery and shipped to South, Central, and North America (Horne 2007, 2). In Black Atlantic, Paul Gilroy argues that identity should be understood from a transnational and intercultural perspective, beyond the stricture of the nation-state (Gilroy 1993, 19). He therefore claims that it is not sufficient to analyze the geographical “roots” of black identity; scholars must also attend to identity’s “routes,” and the “interplay” that exists between the two (Gilroy 1993, 19). Routes, as much if not more than roots, allow us to see identity as “a process of movement and mediation” (Gilroy 1993, 19). The workings of social categories such as gender and class also shift through routes. Grasping the “politics of identity” (Appadurai 1996, 44) yields a broader anthropological understanding of the transnational flows of ideas, objects, and practices, and the fluidity of society.
I take up Gilroy’s call to examine the interplay of Jackson’s roots/routes and in doing so, show the ways in which his American iconicity was founded upon his multi-dimensional American identity, and fueled his global iconicity. I contend that untangling Jackson’s American iconicity—specifically, what he reflected and represented of American identity—helps us understand the roots and resilience of his global iconicity. To do so, I first examine how his charismatic presence is invoked in central arenas of contemporary American life such as Presidential ceremonies, sports, and the military. These arenas are also highly masculinized spaces, and Jackson’s diverse gender performances and multi-faceted persona help de-essentialize the heteronormative masculinities reinforced in such institutions. I then discuss how Jackson both critiqued and celebrated the US’s complex racial histories in his work, particularly his lyrics. I conclude by tracing a trajectory of his transnational appeal—leading up to his iconicity in China—and how that was reinforced by his American identity.
Identity and Iconicity in American Life
Michael Jackson reflects and represents currents of diversity of American identity. Seen in the 1970s as emblematic of post-Civil Rights equality (Dyson 1993), he catapulted from the status of working-class child performer to multi-millionaire music publisher. Jackson, who broke records in the American music industry with his Grammy award-winning 1982 album “Thriller,” achieved unprecedented “crossover” success in American and global popular culture. The weighty notion of “crossover”—in this case the complicated movement from securing black audiences to white ones—had been a musical and business tactic of Motown. Motown was the Detroit-based record label which launched a 10 year-old Michael Jackson and his brothers to a series of number one hits as the Jackson Five. The Jackson Five’s success, helmed by young Michael, was seen as helping the Jackson family achieve the “American Dream” of upward mobility based on industriousness.
Yet the lived reality of the “American Dream” bred some disquieting dynamics, particularly for Michael Jackson. After all, “the American dream was a discourse of both whiteness and racism” (Grewal 2005, 7), a discourse made apparent at various junctures, such as in 1980 when the leading music publication, Rolling Stone, refused to put Jackson on its cover for his album “Off the Wall”. This refusal prompted Jackson to accuse the publication of racism. As bell hooks notes, white-owned media outlets “have recognized that control over images is central to the maintenance of any system of racial domination” (hooks 1992, 2). The legacy of this discourse of racism also resonates in considering what Michael Eric Dyson refers to as the "seeming de-Africanization" of Jackson's cosmetic surgeries amid the oppressive Eurocentric ideals and standards of a mostly white entertainment industry (Dyson 1993, 48). Given the larger structural issues of racial discrimination that permeate all sectors of American entertainment and help drive actors and singers of Asian, Jewish, Latino, African, and other ethnic backgrounds to surgically alter their eyelids, noses, cheekbones, and various body parts (see Martin 2012), Jackson cannot be entirely faulted for following the industry logic (which rests upon a broader cultural logic) of conforming to a Eurocentric norm in order to attain commercial success in a predominantly white industry. As for the lightening of Jackson’s skin that Dyson also refers to, the Los Angeles County Coroner has since confirmed in his autopsy report that Jackson suffered from vitiligo, a disorder which causes uneven losses of pigmentation. Jackson is believed to have undergone a complete depigmentation treatment which lightened his skin in a uniform manner. Members of his family and entourage have spoken publicly since his death that Jackson chose this treatment—a not uncommon one for people who suffer from vitiligo—for the aesthetic purposes of evening out “blotches,” as he himself described the effects of the disorder to Oprah Winfrey in a 1993 televised interview. Importantly, while Jackson’s skin treatment engendered suspicion and sensationalism from the media, he also challenged received notions about commensurability between skin color and racial identity, using his body as a way to de-stabilize perceptions about essentialism.
The ‘King’ and the State
While Jackson’s celebrity is easy to dismiss for those “not enamored of popular culture” (Hollander 2010, 147), for decades Jackson has been a charismatic force, able to “engage passions and dominate minds” (Geertz 1983, 121) and as such, merits closer attention. As I argue, Jackson has punctuated numerous seminal events in American life, particularly as the US rode the crest of its hegemonic, “superpower” status at the end of the Cold War. In his exposition on the Weberian notion of charisma, Clifford Geertz explores the “symbolics of power” by examining how charismatic individuals situate themselves at “the animating centers of society”—dominant societal institutions and hubs of innovation—through spectacular forms that consecrate their power (Geertz 1983, 122–124). Through their involvement with politics, the arts, religion (and, I would add, media and technology), charismatic figures confirm their personal stakes in the prevailing cultural narratives by championing or challenging them (Geertz 1983, 146). Jackson did both through his music and in other public arenas throughout his life, as discussed below.
Jackson’s pivotal presence and invocation in central domains of American life—the arts, politics, sports, and the military—attest to his charismatic persona. After the phenomenal success of the albums “Thriller” and “Bad,” Jackson virtually became a cultural ambassador for the U.S. According to Gerald L. Campbell, the former Senior Advisor to the United States Information Agency for the promotion of public diplomacy, surveys taken by the Voice of America during the 1980s placed Michael Jackson as the highest ranking pop artist for listeners in the former Soviet bloc, with more than 50% approval ratings (Campbell 2009). While Jackson’s world tours were sponsored by Pepsi-Cola and not the U.S. government (as the “jazz diplomacy” tours had been during the Cold War),2 Jackson’s music and life narrative were upheld at home and abroad as compelling evidence of the ascendancy of American individualism, entrepreneurialism, multiculturalism, and consumer capitalism.
One of the most visible institutions of American society at which Jackson was invoked and instantiated was the seat of American political power: the U.S. Presidency. Jackson was invited to the White House multiple times to receive awards from various U.S. presidents and promote administrative causes and celebrations. The most notable accolade Jackson received was the Presidential Humanitarian Award in 1984 from President Reagan. At the White House ceremony to receive the award from President and Nancy Reagan, Jackson outshone the First Lady by appearing in a military uniform adorned with a selection of sequins and sparkle more commonly seen on women’s ball gowns at White House galas. His glitzy choice of attire that nevertheless hinted at militancy (a subtly ironic gesture towards “Black Power”?) contrasted with Reagan’s traditional, dark business suit. Jackson posed a sartorial challenge that reveals “the existence of black men whose creative agency has enabled them to subvert norms and develop ways of thinking about masculinity that challenge patriarchy” (hooks 1992, 89)—particularly white patriarchy at its geopolitical center.
Jackson was awarded by Reagan for his anti-drug and anti-drinking stance by the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving, an initiative that, incidentally, stemmed from Reagan’s broader “War on Drugs”. Notably, the “War on Drugs” has been criticized for its racial profiling of drug offenders and is thus known by many as the “War on Blacks” (Nunn 2002), showing how Jackson, a black male, was strategically deployed by the Reagan administration as the “exception” who conformed to the socially conservative values of the administration. Thus, this event illustrates how Jackson spectacularly contested and conformed to cultural narratives about (black) masculinity at the “animating center of society”.
Under the next Republican administration of President George Bush, Sr., Jackson was awarded two more accolades. Yet in 1992, Jackson was invited to perform at Democratic President Clinton’s televised inauguration ceremony, reflecting how, despite the shift in administration from conservative Republican to populist Democrat, Jackson’s iconicity remained a spectacular component of American Presidential power. At this ceremony, Jackson delivered a heartfelt plea for the incoming Clinton administration to devote more attention and resources to finding a cure to the AIDS epidemic (which the previous socially conservative Republican administrations had not adequately funded or promoted).3 That Jackson was forced to proclaim his heterosexuality in media interviews at that time yet opted to publicly plead with the incoming U.S. President to allocate resources to a disease that was heavily associated with homosexuality illustrates the diversity of his subject position within America, and his committment to social issues. Jackson’s affiliations with multiple U.S. Presidential administrations also make manifest the gravitas of his accomplishments for the U.S., and the ways in which the popular and the political instrumentalize the other.
Professional sports are another popular and highly profit-driven masculinized domain in American society, and Jackson played an unprecedented role in that arena as well. The National Football League championship, (or Superbowl, as it is called) is arguably the single most important sporting event in America and watched by millions, with advertisers competing for commercial spots (as of February 4, 2011, Forbes noted on its website that for the 2011 Superbowl, advertisers paid $3 million for a 30 second spot). In 1993, for the XXVII Superbowl, Jackson performed for the entire half-time show. In another precedent, due to Jackson’s iconic status, the Nielson ratings for his show were higher than those for the game itself, and his performance become the highest rated halftime show ever. The content of his performance is also noteworthy: at a sports event which celebrates displays of athleticized aggression and hyper-masculinity, Jackson staged an elaborate performance of his humanitarian anthem, “Heal the World”. Singing about love and healing amid a sea of youngsters and striking poses in an all-embracing manner was a stark contrast to the sight of muscular men in protective gear tackling one another. Jackson offers an alternative masculinity in this bastion of heteromasculinity with his long, flowing hair and lithe dancer’s body.
The American military is also an arena in which Jackson has been invoked and instrumentalized, albeit posthumously. As reported in on May 6, 2011, Jackson’s hit “Thriller” was performed by a U.S. military band when President Obama met with the U.S. Navy SEALs to congratulate them on their raid that killed the leader of Al Qaida, Osama Bin Laden. While Jackson’s song played in the background, the SEALs were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by President Obama. News reports do not offer an explanation as to why Jackson’s song was used to narrate this moment in America’s “War on Terror,” although “Thriller”’s lyrics do refer to furtive activity in the night amid the specter of death, a scenario eerily similar to the nighttime raid and disposal of Bin Laden. Perhaps the military band or White House officials who selected the song felt that President Obama and Jackson are two black men who have played differing yet prominent roles in maintaining American’s image on the international stage. As with the hyper-masculinity of the Superbowl, Jackson’s alterity is intriguing to consider here. Known for his penchant for glittery military attire which he would sometimes combine with long hair, Jackson’s invocation here hints at the diverse representations of masculinity possibly lurking within the enforced uniformity of the military.
American Roots in Jackson’s Music
I turn now to an example of how Jackson’s music reflected and represented American identity, and how his African American identity found expression in his music. Before Jackson’s song and music video “Black or White” for the 1991 Dangerous album challenged the notion of bounded racial categories (see Chin 2011; Martin 2010), Jackson had already broached the topic of racial exclusions in 1982’s “Thriller” album. In “The Girl is Mine,” which I consider to be among his most under-appreciated and critically un-examined songs he penned, Jackson advanced a powerful racial and sexual claim softened by sugary lyrics and arrangements. “The Girl is Mine”—a duet he performed with Paul McCartney—is a subtle yet salient challenge to any lingering legacy of anti-miscegenation laws in the U.S., which were only fully ruled unconstitutional as late as 1967, a mere 15 years earlier. In the duet, Jackson and McCartney vie over a woman, both claiming ownership over her. Although Jackson’s lyrics never make explicit the woman’s ethnicity, what was interpreted by many listeners (especially by numerous radio stations in the U.S. which refused to play the song) is that a black man and a white man are fighting over a white woman.
In taking up that assumption, we can see how deceptively radical this song was; Jackson was sending a firm message about transcending racial limits. The chorus revolves around these two lines: “The Girl Is Mine/The Doggone Girl Is Mine”. Although the song was panned by many critics as being trivial and by some fans as a token appeal to white pop audiences, Jackson is challenging received notions about racial categories and constraints, and doing so with no less an illustrious white musician than a former Beatle. The language of patriarchal ownership in the song—“The Girl is Mine”—is problematic, and the voiceless “girl” is a common figure upon which white men and men of color have historically staged their unequal encounters. Yet Jackson’s joyous tone deflects any substantive message of sexism or misogyny as is commonly heard in other genres such as rock, punk, or hip hop.
Jackson squarely diffuses racial tensions in the song through his choice of lyrics. What brought the song ridicule yet rescued its radical message from mainstream condemnation was Jackson’s cunning use of the sappy vernacular “doggone” in the lyric “The Doggone Girl Is Mine”. “Doggone” is actually a euphemism for “God damn”. By summoning up a curse yet easing its impact, Jackson adroitly gestures at the stakes of inter-racial dating, and how they differ between him and a white man, foregrounded as they are against a history of anxieties and violence over inter-racial dating and miscegenation. Jackson’s first lyric, in fact, carefully suggests that the girl exists solely in his dreamland: “Every night she walks right in my dreams…”. By staging the (presumed) bi-racial encounter as a possible fantasy, he gently lures the listener in. In the “rap” at the end of the song, Jackson further downplays any threat of racial tensions. After McCartney declares, “Michael, we're not going to fight about this, okay?” Jackson responds, “Paul, I think I told you, I'm a lover not a fighter,” positioning himself as a harmless romantic—a pacifist as opposed to a militant (black) male. Jackson’s delivery in the song also tempers anxiety: his vocals are breathy and playful as he coos about “his” girl. Yet Jackson manages to convey an earnest devotion to his girl whereas McCartney’s delivery comes off as relatively unconcerned, signaling his unquestioned white male privilege.
Jackson and McCartney’s competition over the eponymous girl would also serve as a precursor to a financial and artistic battle not divorced from racial undercurrents or Jackson’s roots. In the early 1980s, McCartney had mentioned to Jackson the wisdom of owning music copyrights and licensing songs as a profitable source of income, an avenue for an artist to seize control in a corporate media environment. A few years later, many of McCartney’s hits that he wrote with fellow Beatle John Lennon would become available for ownership in what was known as the ATV catalog. In 1984 Jackson began to negotiate to buy the ATV music publishing catalog against McCartney, who was not pleased about his friend’s bidding. In 1985 Jackson’s bid of $47.5 million for the ATV catalog was accepted, and he then owned the publisher’s rights to McCartney’s and Lennon’s songs (in 1995 Jackson would merge with Sony Corp to become Sony/ATV). Since music publishers collect royalties every time songs are licensed and used, a few years later Jackson licensed several Beatles songs for advertisements. This move further alienated McCartney who felt that his music should not be used to sell commercial items such as Nike products. Yet for all the unpaid and unacknowledged black labor that went into the success of the plantation economy of the American south, and for the nearly century-long appropriation of black music by white artists (see George 1989, 8; Neal 1998, 7), Jackson—whose family roots in the U.S. were enmeshed in slavery, and who had studied black artists exploited by the white music establishment—dealt a challenge to white male privilege and ownership by owning the rights to the catalog which would grow to include Elvis’ hits as well. Jackson’s purchase of the catalog and subsequent commercialization of some of the Beatles songs was also the kind of aggressive business move that would be lauded by the likes of Donald Trump (a friend of Jackson’s, incidentally) and other white, cutthroat American tycoons in the aggressive business world of the 1980s, as dramatized in the 1987 film “Wall Street”. In fact, Jackson embodied the kind of entrepreneur that American society continues to valorize, as evident in reality television shows such as “The Apprentice”. At the same time, Jackson would increasingly become involved in humanitarian issues around the world in the 1990s, and this was reflected in the lyrics and imagery of his songs and music videos.
The Roots and Routes of a Global Icon
At the height of his popularity in the U.S., Jackson became involved in what would be the start of a commitment to philanthropy around the world. In 1985 he co-wrote “We Are the World” for United Support of Artists for Africa which sold 30 million singles with the proceeds designated for famine relief in Africa, the continent from which Jackson’s ancestors originated. While dedicated to his “roots,” Jackson was about to embark on his transformative “routes” via his world tours. Jackson, in fact, was mentored by another African American whose views Gilroy claims were shaped by his travels overseas: Quincy Jones. Gilroy notes the artistic and personal growth of the jazz performer and composer through his tours of Europe and the Middle East for America’s jazz diplomacy mission during the Cold War (Gilroy 1993, 18). Incidentally, it was Jones who would eventually produce Jackson’s arguably most iconic solo albums: “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” and “Bad”. Through visiting hospitals and orphanages in locations as diverse as Romania and the Philippines, Jackson learned firsthand of the effects of poverty and social inequality outside of the U.S. and donated money, resources, and gifts. In 1993, he performed two concerts in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to 100,000 people each. The concert promoter remembers that Jackson invited people from the poorest areas to spend a day at a local amusement park with him and told Billboard magazine on July 11, 2009, “He displayed great concern for everything in the country, with poverty” (Cobo 2009).
As Gilroy claims, black artists have been impacted by their routes—temporary or permanent relocation or exile–with the result that “these figures who begin as African–Americans…are then changed into something else which evades those specific labels and with them all fixed notions of nationality and national identity” (Gilroy 1993, 19, italics added). Transformation, therefore, is a striking element of the transnational experience—on the scale of both the personal and the collective. As a result of the accumulation of these world tours (for instance, his 1987 Bad World Tour lasted 16 months and covered 15 countries, playing to over 4 million people), Jackson addressed issues of poverty, racism, social justice, and environmental degradation on a global scale in the music and imagery of songs such as “They Don’t Care About Us” and “Earth Song” in his 1995 HIStory album. In doing so, Jackson followed in the spirit of the internationalist Paul Robeson. Robeson was a black American singer who was also an actor, intellectual, and activist, and who came to be defined by his “routes” in his travels through the Soviet Union and Wales as well as his “roots”.
The following is a striking example of how Jackson’s “roots” and “routes” intersected and how his American identity informed his global iconicity. For his 1995 song “They Don’t Care About Us,” a song about marginalized people the world over, Jackson filmed two music videos, one of them in Brazil. Brazil, according to historian Gerald Horne, was one of “the two great slave empires of the 19th century” alongside the U.S. (Horne 2007, 1); by 1850, an estimated 4.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped to Brazil (Horne 2007, 2.) A poignant reflection of Jackson’s commitment to his American and African roots via his routes, one of the locations chosen for the Brazilian music video was Pelourinho, in the city of Salvador. From the 1600s to the 1800s, Salvador was a destination for the sale of slaves from Africa, and Pelourinho (which means “pillory”) is the site where African slaves were whipped, tortured, sold, and even died (Ramos 2010, 69). Pelourinho is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jackson also used Brazil’s famous black drumming group Olodum in his video, and their red, yellow, green and black clothing reflect their African heritage to which they pay tribute in their drumming (Ramos 2010, 69). In the video, Jackson dances in the place where African slaves were once denied their freedom, their lives; his is an artistic act of reverence and reclamation. His performance is accompanied by the members of Olodum, whose colors Jackson also wears to signify his advocacy for their stance. Jackson grew up a member of a community legally, politically, and socio-economically marginalized in the U.S. for several centuries and who were in exile, and the imprint of that layered history never left his artistic expression even as he undertook his individual journeys. This is apparent from the lyrics of “The Girl is Mine” to his filming at the site of one of the destination points for the African slave trade in Brazil. Thus Jackson’s complex identity bolstered not only his American iconicity but his global one as well.
Made in China
In conclusion, I want to mention my observations from when I attended the unveiling of Michael Jackson’s statue at the Sculpture Park of Guangzhou, in Guangdong province of China during a research trip. On January 1, 2011, in the capital city of the Guangdong province of China, the Guangzhou-based Michael Jackson fan club unveiled a bronze sculpture of Jackson for which they had raised 158,000 yuan (US$23,000.). His arms outstretched, Jackson stands in an inclusive pose from his Superbowl performance, connecting his place in American sports history to China. When I spoke with the fans, some of them told me that they did not see Jackson as purely American; rather, they saw him as a global symbol. Nevertheless, Jackson was the first American pop star whose music and dancing were allowed to be shown on TV in China in the 1980s when China was opening up, and he sold America—and continues to—in much the same way that MacDonalds and Coca Cola have. For fans I interviewed who remember the 1980s–90s, he is synonymous with American pop culture and consumer capitalism. For the younger fans, Jackson represents the epitome of American entrepreneurship and humanitarianism; this comes at a time when China, in the process of privatizing, has heard Bill Gates and Warren Buffett speak about the need for philanthropy. These fans commented that they enjoyed watching footage of Jackson visit hospitals and orphanages on Youku (China’s version of YouTube) because they appreciated his sincerity.
Michael Jackson remains a global icon, yet his place in seminal events and institutions in American life mean that he will always be inextricably linked with America. Undeniably, his experiences there helped shape him, much as Kansas left its imprimatur on Superman, another American icon whose vision transcended the nation. In the meantime, pleased with the sculpture’s popularity, a contingent of Chinese government officials, artists, and businesspeople have sent a replica of Jackson’s sculpture to the U.S.—to Kansas, in fact—as part of a China-U.S. cultural exchange program. Thus, the U.S. will receive its first sculpture of its icon from China, an example of how iconicity—and identity—is as much about movement as it is about moorings.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiated a Global Development Program and Oprah Winfrey opened an academy for girls in South Africa.
Jazz diplomacy was the term for U.S. President Eisenhower’s cultural exchange policy of sending American jazz musicians to perform for Communist and neutral audiences around the world during the Cold War from 1954 to 1968 (Davenport 2009). Facilitated by the U.S. Information Service, the purpose of jazz diplomacy was to promote U.S. democracy overseas and counter Soviet claims of America as racist and segregationist (since most of the jazz diplomats were African American or racially integrated bands).
Interestingly, Jackson’s national popularity peaked at a time when neoliberalism became a trenchant feature of the U.S. With its emphasis on free markets, neoliberalism entailed the de-regulation and privatization of much of the economy (Harvey 2005, 65). “Cutbacks in state welfare and infrastructural expenditures diminished the quality of life for many” (Harvey 2005, 88). Thus some gestures of social support were left to the whims and partialities of wealthy individuals. Jackson was one of the celebrities who felt compelled to offer medical-related donations for those who lacked access to the resources needed to “help themselves”.
Copyright information
© Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2012
Authors and Affiliations
1. 1.Social Sciences Research Network - Anthropology, School of Social SciencesUniversity of California, IrvineIrvineUSA
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Ground Game
These are the real ‘greatest witch hunts’ in political history
American politician Joseph McCarthy in 1954.
Getty Images
American politician Joseph McCarthy in 1954.
It. Just. Didn’t. Stop.
There was a bombshell political crisis coming from the White House nearly every day this week. President Trump reportedly asked James Comey to pledge his loyalty over dinner. Trump casually told Russian officials highly classified information passed along by Israel. Comey wrote a detailed memo about a Trump meeting during which the president asked him to drop an investigation into his former national security adviser.
By Wednesday evening, the Department of Justice had hired a special counsel to investigate potential ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.
So it was perhaps not surprising on Thursday morning, when Trump tweeted, “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”
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Trump has not proven himself a student of history. He’s made incorrect statements about former president Andrew Jackson and social reformer Frederick Douglass, as well as taken credit for inventing the term “priming the pump” (it’s at least a century old).
And, as US Representative Seth Moulton noted in his response to Trump’s “witch hunt” proclamation on Twitter, those in Massachusetts know a thing or two about witch hunts.
“As the Representative of Salem, MA, I can confirm that this is false,” tweeted Moulton, a Democrat.
He has a good point. Consider also these past political witch hunts, and judge for yourself if they are greater than the investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia:
In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy put to practice the definition of witch hunts: He made accusations about people, damning them without evidence and forcing the accused to prove they weren’t guilty. For McCarthy it was about, as he put it, rooting out secret communist sympathizers from all aspects of American life.
In the end, the witch hunt of McCarthyism died when there was a lack of evidence to justify the large-scale effort. Fellow members of McCarthy’s Republican Party viewed his efforts as more damaging than helpful to anti-communism.
As the US Army’s chief counsel, Joseph Nye Welch, said in defense of a National Lawyers Guild member, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
There is something ironic about Trump complaining to be the victim of the “single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history.” After all, he perpetrated one of the biggest witch hunts in recent US history over former president Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
The implication, of course, is that Obama would be an illegitimate president if he was born outside the United States. The accusation reinforced the notion kept alive by mostly far-right conservatives that Obama wasn’t like most Americans and therefore had a suspect political agenda. The unfounded claim had been around for a few years before Trump brought the conspiracy theory to television news.
When Trump hopped on his helicopter to New Hampshire to explore a run for president in 2011, Obama released his birth certificate. The matter died down for the most part, until Trump brought it up again during his 2016 bid.
Finally, in a much-hyped press conference, Trump said these long-awaited words: “President Barack Obama was born in the United States.”
Et tu, Brute?
Trump’s tweet referred only to witch hunts of US politicians. But the greatest political witch hunt in history happened in 44 B.C. — the assassination of Julius Caesar.
A group of senators conspired to allege Caesar wanted to do away with the Roman Senate and have absolute power. While there were tensions between Caesar and the Senate, there was also no evidence of his desired power grab.
The conspirators eventually killed Caesar over the allegations. Even his longtime friend, Marcus Brutus, played a role in his death (Caesar’s last words were purportedly, “Et tu, Brute,” “Even you, Brutus?”).
Historically, Caesar’s murder is seen as the catalyst of the fall of the Roman Empire. So while Caesar predates US history by more than 11 centuries, this witch hunt puts Trump’s newly appointed special prosecutor in perspective.
‘I’m not a witch.’
Focus for a minute on the literal — not the figurative — “witch hunt.” In this sense of the word, there is no way that Trump can top what happened to Christine O’Donnell, a GOP candidate for US Senate in Delaware in 2010.
O’Donnell was accused of actually being a witch.
During her campaign, late night host Bill Maher unearthed a decade-old clip of O’Donnell from his HBO show, during which she says that she has “dabbled into witchcraft.”
In response, O’Donnell ran one of the most memorable political advertisements of all time.
“I am not a witch,” she says straight to camera. “I’m nothing you’ve heard. I’m you.”
She lost that election.
But it didin’t end there. Years later, the Federal Election Commission accused her of improper campaign spending. She said the allegations were unfounded, and called them — wait for it — a “witch hunt.”
James Pindell can be reached at
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What is a Pure breed represented by?
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Technical definition of pure breed is when two individuals of idential gentotype are mated to prooduce an offspring of the same genoptype. The practice is likely to be true for producing commercially profitable animals, the breeds that are more popular as pets or perhaps farm animals for human consumption.
Please let me know if you are looking for pure breed in animals or plants, then I can explain more.
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History of Superabsorbents - CHINAFLOC
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History of Superabsorbents
2015-07-01 09:12:15
SAP, super absorbent polymer,Potassium Polyacrylate
Superabsorbent polymers were first introduced by Union Carbide in the mid 60's. They were first developed in the 70's to grow plants in the desert. However, they were used very little by commercial growers due to their relatively high cost in comparison to their swell capacity.
In the early 80's, superabsorbents began to be widely developed for the baby diaper market (hundred of millions of pounds). This led to newer, higher swell polymers, some with long lasting life that were suitable for agriculture.
Polymers like Water-Keep have been recommended by various Cooperative Extension Services as a beneficial soil amendment. The fine powders have also been used by nurseries for bare root dipping. Now, a growing use has been seen in nursery container mix, landscaping (especially golf courses), vegetable and flower gardens and orchards.
Superabsorbents like Water-Keep are compatible with any type of living plant, annuals, perennials, ornamental trees and shrubs, bulbs, vegetable and turf. 1 million pounds will be used in 2003 for these applications. Skype:frank99886600
Water-keep can fulfill the needs of farmers, nursery growers and golf course landscaping professionals who require a soil amendment which would outperform conventional potting soils and organic amendments relative to their water holding, releasing and water saving capacity.
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History Of Veal
History of Veal
In one of the oldest civilizations, about 2500 BC, the Sumerians are documented to have penned up and subdued the wild cattle that roamed the plains of Mesopotamia. .
Among the Sumerians, veal was a luxury, often consumed by those who could afford to lose a work (milk or draft) animal, in order to satisfy their taste buds.
Wealthy nobles and priests of ancient Sumeria and Babylonia ate veal and drank wine at elaborate banquets, portrayed in great detail on mosaics and bas-relief sculptures. Cattle, otherwise, worked until they became too old and were eventually killed for beef.
Biblical References to Veal
There are many biblical references to the enjoyment and use of young calves.
When God came to inform the patriach of the Jewish people, Abraham, that he would have a son, Abraham ran to the herd and selected a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant who hurried to prepare it. …and they did eat. Genesis 18:7 and 18:8.
According to Exodus 32 of the Old Testament, the Jewish people created a golden calf despite being prohibited directed by God from praying to false idols.
In the New Testament, feasting on the fatted calf conveyed an air of luxurious indulgence meant to mark a momentous occasion. In the story of the return of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), veal was served.
The New Testament also tells us that veal was served at The Wedding Feast (Matthew 22), confirming its importance as a long-standing tradition for matrimonial celebrations.
Veal in European History
The taste for the tender meat of young animals was passed on to the Romans, who gourmandizing reached the point where the Emperor Alexander Severus (222-235AD) had to issue a decree forbidding the slaughter of young calves, since the breeding stock was being deprived.
Veal mentions appear in the history books over the centuries and among them some debates are still raging about who is credited with introducing veal and certain recipes.
A question exists as to who really created Wiener Schnitzel. While the Viennese (from Austria) are credited with this classic veal dish, the Milanese (from Italy) claim that as far back as 1134, when a banquet was given for the canon of Milan’s ancient Church of Sant’ Ambrogio, the menu included “lombolos cum panitio,” breaded veal scallops.
The Italians are also sometimes reported to have introduced veal into France via Catherine de’ Medici, the Italian-born Queen of France who reined from 1533 to 1589. It appears that Catherine did like veal, which was natural for anyone who came from Florence where veal was considered so luxurious that it was decreed if veal was served at a wedding dinner, no other meat could appear on the same menu. While Catherine did bring many Italian artists, poets, musicians, and dancing masters to France, historians counter that several veal recipes were located in France at least a century and a half (late 1300’a) prior to Catherine ascending to the French throne.
In England, two fifteenth-century cookbooks offer recipes for veal dishes; and one for a veal pasty appeared in The Forme of Cury, the date is 1378.
During the mid-1700’s, veal was immortalized by the Jean-Baptiste Oudry, in his still life oil on canvas painting entitled Veal depicted a Quarter of Veal along with wine and fruit.
The famous French writer and philosopher, Voltaire, used an offer of veal stock instead of traditional fatty sauces, called gravy, to entice his friend to come and visit him, during the mid-1700’s. Voltaire wrote to his friend Saint-Lambert, “Come to Ciety [where Voltaire was living] where Madame du Chatelet [his cook] will not let you be poisoned. There is not a spoonful of gravy in her cooking: everything is made with blond de veau [obtained by boiling veal shanks in water with carrots, onions, celery and a chicken carcass. We will live one hundred years and you will never die.” [Voltaire did live to be 84.]
Veal USA
Information on the U.S. Milk-Fed Veal, recipes, nutrition, and more!
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Importance’s of Departmentation
The major importance of the departmentation is along following lines.
1. Advantages of Specialisation. Probably the most important single principle in an analysis of the classical approach to organisational design is specialisation of work. This principle affects everyone every day. The basic advantage of the specialisation lies in terms of efficiency with which the work is performed because a person focuses his attention on a narrow aspect of the work and he gets mastery over that aspect. Naturally this results into performing the work more efficiency. Thus if the managerial function is conceived as a set of activities facilitating the work of the organisation, these activities can be carried out more efficiently and effectively through the division of work leading to a specialisation of managerial function.
2. Fixation of responsibility. Departmentation helps in fixing the responsibility and consequently accountability for the results. Responsibility can be discharged properly when it is clear, precise, and definite. Through departmentation, the work is divided into small units where it can be defined precisely and responsibility can be fixed accurately. The manager concerned to whom responsibility is given can be delegated corresponding authority. When both responsibility and authority are clearly specified, a manager knows what exactly he has to do in the organisation. This helps the manager to become more effective.
3. Development of Managers. Departmentation helps in the development of managers. Development is possible because of two factors. First, the managers focus their attention on some specific problems which provides them effective on-the-job training. Second, managerial need for further training can be identified easily because the managers’ role is prescribed and training can provide them opportunity to work better in their area of specialisation. Thus need for training and its methods can be easily identified.
4. Facility in Appraisal. Managerial performance can be measured when the area of activities can be specified and standards in respect of these can be fixed. Departmentation provides helps in both these areas. When a broader function is divided into small segments and a particular segment is assigned to each manager, the area to be appraised is clearly known; the factors affecting the performance can be pointed out more easily. Similarly, standards for performance can be fixed easily because factors affecting the work performance can be known clearly. Thus performance appraisal will be more objective when departments have been created.
5. Feeling of Autonomy. Departmentation provides motivation by developing feeling of autonomy to the extent possible. Normally departments are created in the organisation with certain degree of autonomy and freedom. The manager in charge of a department can take independent decisions within the overall framework of the organisation. Thus he enjoys satisfaction of being important to the organisation. This feeling itself is a source of better performance among managers.
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Geography of Venice
A look into the geography of Venice and its islands, transportation within the lagoon, and how floods affect the Venetian historic center.
As a city, Venice occupies an exceptional location in a lagoon on the Adriatic Sea.
Throughout the centuries, the Venetians have built their place by driving piles of oak and alder in the sandy soil, and on top of these foundations, they built houses and palaces, struggling against the continual movement of the tides.
In addition to the historic center (plus Giudecca), major islands within the lagoon include:
Lido, Murano, Burano, Torcello, San Michele (Island City Cemetery), San Erasmo, Mazzorbo, The Vignola Certosa San Francesco del Deserto, San Giacomo in Paludo, San Servolo, and San Lazzaro degli Armeni.
The city is crossed by a total of 177 canals (the largest of which is the Grand Canal), 455 bridges (usually arched to allow boats), over 118 islands.
Venice’s historic center is divided into six districts or ‘sestieri’:
• San Marco, Cannaregio and Castello on the left bank of the Grand Canal, and
• Santa Croce, San Polo and Dorsoduro on the other side.
In terms of city center, the district of San Marco and its St. Mark’s Basilica are considered the heart of the city.
Of the geography of Venice districts, Castello covers the entire south-eastern part of Venice, with its name linked to the presence of a legendary castle which was there.
The Cannaregio district, meanwhile, occupies the area between Rialto Bridge and the railway station.
Its name comes from the straight channel that traverse the district. On the other side, Santa Croce and San Polo are named after two churches, the first of which has been destroyed, the other not.
Dorsoduro’s name, meanwhile, is due to the altitude of sestiere, which is higher than the others.
Consequently, during episodes of “acqua alta” (high water levels), it is less frequently flooded.
The historic center is entirely pedestrianized, canals, including the main one, Grand Canal ending at the Giudecca Canal and the lagoon around the city, acting as routes for the various boats that are the means of public transport.
Venice is a unique city where one moves almost exclusively on foot, but there are also water taxis – small motorized boats carrying eight to ten people – and gondolas – small & light rowing boats.
Other, larger boats, are intended primarily for commercial transportation.
Geography of Venice Italy
PHOTO: Satellite picture of the geography of Venice.
The location of city center of the Venice in the Geography of Venice and its lagoon is such, that most of the transport of persons and goods is by water.
The location is also why the city, in the twenty-first century, remains the only large city to be free of cars and trucks to this day.
One of the traditional ways of transportation is by the Venetian gondola, although they are primarily used by tourists or for special occasions (ceremonies, weddings and funerals), with a cost of the gondola rides one of the reasons behind its limited usage.
Nowadays, Venice has only about 425 gondolas left in use.
Local Venetians mainly use water buses, called vaporetti, managed by ACTV, for traveling the islands within the main channels, and traghetti, which are gondolas with two rowers, allowing pedestrians to cross the Grand Canal on a few places without bridges.
In fact, for the Geography of Venice, sea and the lagoon remained the only existing means of transport in Venice until the nineteenth century, and the construction of a railway bridge.
When that link was taken into use in 1846, it allowed train connections to Venice-Santa Lucia train station, built in 1860, from rest of the European continent.
Quickly after inauguration, the station became a popular terminus for travelers from European capitals, as it leads right up to the heart of the city, close to the Grand Canal.
Later, in 1933, a road link, the Liberty Bridge (Ponte della Liberta), was also established, leading to a large parking lot on within an artificial island of Tronchetto, on the northern outskirts of Venice.
In terms of air traffic, Venice is served by the airport of Venice – Marco Polo, named in honor of the city’s most famous historical citizen.
The airport is located on the edge of the lagoon, but within the continent. To get from the airport to the historical center, you must either take rental car, a bus, taxi, water taxi, or a water bus.
The buildings of Venice are constructed on wooden pillars, which are exposed to the tides, especially between autumn and early spring.
Geography of Venice includes that the city is, in fact, periodically flooded, by what Venetians call ‘acqua alta’.
There are several things explaining this natural phenomenon, including tides caused by moons gravity, effect of sirocco winds from Africa, preventing the lagoon from emptying, with high tides succeeding each other.
Acqua Alta conditions have always existed, but is in recent decades, the floods have become more severe under the combined influence of several causes of climate and human activity.
The consequences of these floods are important in the daily lives of people, who must leave the lower levels of houses and use elevated walkways to move.
Important consequences also include the deterioration of monuments and habitats that follows from the harmful products to the stone and brick.
Today, the accurate measuring of Venice’s subsidence has not been established, and its evolution is still a controversial subject.
The latest initiative, launched by a consortium of Italian industrialists, is to build 78 movable gates within three passes of the lagoon to protect the city.
During normal tide, these gates / drawbridges are filled with water and submerged.
When tides are greater than one meter, an injection of compressed air evacuates the water, allowing the gates to stop the water inflow and close the passage, separating the lagoon from the sea.
This project, called MOSE, began in 2003 and the work is expected to continue until 2014.
MOSE is controversial especially given its costs and doubts among scientists on the efficiency of this system would have, perhaps being useful for onlye very high tides.
The project, in addition, will not solve the other major problem of the city, waves in the lagoon.
Apart from floods, Venice has a climate that is a rather humid all year long, with very moist summers. Winters are cold, on the other hand, with frost and fog in January.
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Arm Yourself Against Conficker
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There's been a lot of talk lately about the Conficker worm, a computer trojan also known as Kido or Downadup. Computer hacking has gone way beyond what was presented in films such as War Games and Hacker. Originally, it was just for sport; however that has all changed in about the last five to ten years. The new trend is creating botnets, networks of computers infected with a virus that can be remotely controlled by black hat hackers or script kiddies. (A script kiddie is a non-technical person using pre-packaged tools to hack and control systems. A black hat is a hacker who breaks into systems for malicious purposes. White hats are hackers who test security systems from vulnerabilities) Huge sums of money can be made, even from hacking into home computers. They can skim credit card information when you make purchases, get online banking login info to break into your account, and get personal information to steal your identity. Botnets can collect this information en mass or are used to send out large volumes of spam emails or to replicate and spread the original virus.
What makes Conficker such a problem is it's ability to update itself. It is estimated that it has already infected 9 million machines, up from just 3 million a week ago according to F-Secure. Not only does it spread through infected websites but also over USB sticks and local area networks. It logs into a series of domains to check for updates, meaning that the worm can thwart attempts to remove it. On April 1st, 2009, it is estimated that all 9 million of these machines will begin phoning home and it is the expected date in which its creators will activate the botnet. The problem is so severe that Microsoft has actually put a $250,000 bounty on the head of its creator.
So how's at risk and how can you stop a Conficker infection, or any other virus? Anybody who uses a Windows based computer are at risk. Mac and Linux users are safe from Conficker. If you are a Windows user, the only way to be 100% secure from viruses and malware is to disconect your modem/LAN from the wall and never attached any peripherals to your system. This is obviously impractical so you'll be wise to keep your computer locked up like Fort Knox instead. Here's some tips for all users to improve system security.
1. Update your OS to the latest service pack
Service packs are major software updates for operating systems. They include cumulative security patches and sometimes offer new features. Your system should have the latest pack. If your an XP user, you should be running Service Pack 3. Vista users should have Service Pack 1. You can find out by right clicking the Computer icon on the desktop and selecting properties. It will provide you with system info. Mac users running Leopard should have OS X 10.5.6 installed, which you can check by opening the Apple menu and selecting "About this Mac". Service packs are updated through your system's update program.
2. Fully update everything else
Besides service packs, make sure your OS is up to date as far as everything else is concerned, especially with the latest security patches. Once again this can be done through the update menu. For power users, I recommend turning off automatic updates, instead letting it tell you what updates are available. It lets you pick and choose. For everyone else, just enable automatic updates. Web browsers should be updated to the latest version in particular as well as any other programs that connect to the internet. You should be running Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 3.
3. Use a good anti-virus program
There are a lot of choices available. Symantec and McAfee are what most people use but these programs tend to be bloated and require a lot of system resources to run. Free anti-virus software is usually much lighter and often just as good or better than commercial counterparts. A lot of enterprise anti-virus companies such as AVG and Avast provide free home versions of their software. You should also get anti-spyware software. Windows Defender is a good enough free program for Windows users that offers background protection. Many other free alternatives such as Ad-Aware require manual scans.
4. Turn on your firewall
The built in firewall through Windows and Mac OS X are fine. Make sure it's turned on. For added security, you can set it to stealth mode meaning other computers cannot even see you online unless you access them first.
5. Don't visit unsavory websites
A lot of "free" porn sites, P2P channels, and pirated software portals are infested with malware. While legitimate sites can become infected, the vast majority comes from the more unsavory websites. Just stay away from these.
Current Generation TV Top Gaming Console Round-Up
By Mike on 2:11 pm
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A lot of people out there are unsure about which gaming system they should purchase. Let's examine the practical pros and cons all four major gaming rigs so you can make an unbiased decision of which one to buy.
Gaming PC
-Games will typically have superior graphics and sound to console counterparts and games can be played at much higher resolutions than 720p, which is what most console games are limited to.
-Keyboard and Mouse offers superior gameplay, especially in First Person Shooters
-System can be tailored to specific needs and budgets and can have more advanced features than consoles, such as Wireless N networking and built in DVRs.
-System can be used for a large variety of things other than gaming and watching multimedia, such as enhanced web browsing, office work, AV content creation and editing, etc.
-System can be easily upgraded as needed to remain cutting edge.
-Huge variety of both free and pay downloadable content. Games can be user modded. Large variety of full retail games can be downloaded through services such as Steam.
-More connectivity options for audio, video, and networking
-More online play options including both free and pay services
-Can also be adopted as a mobile platform through laptops and LAN Boxes.
-The most expensive gaming option. To stay top of the line, you will need to replace major components such as the GPU and CPU annually to biennially, in contrast to consoles that have a stable 5 to 10 year life span. Cost of these upgrades can range from a couple hundred bucks to thousands of dollars.
-Fewer exclusive game titles, fewer high quality games. PC is plagued with a high amount of shovelware.
-Strict Digital Rights Management schemes limit how games can be used and who can play them. DRM is known to cause problems with some systems and cannot be removed even if game is.
-PC games are known to have a lot more bugs and glitches than console games.
-Games are typically not available for rental.
-All games require mandatory hard drive installs yet most still require the disc to be in the drive during gameplay.
-Windows Vista is not an ideal gaming platform. Too many performance tradeoffs due to its "jack of all trades" nature, thus requiring significantly more computing power.
-Hardware reliability can be hit and miss. Needs a lot of maintenance compared to stand alone consoles.
Microsoft Xbox 360
-Large game library including a huge variety of high quality exclusive titles
-XBL is widely considered to be one of the best online gaming experiences around
-Huge amount of downloadable games and DLC through XBL
-Games can be installed to the hard drive for disc-free play
-Full 1080p HD output through HDMI with excellent graphics and game performance
-Cheapest console of the current generation at $199 for the base Arcade model
-Three year warranty
-Netflix video streaming service for Americans
-Backwards compatible with Xbox games
-Easy media streaming through Windows Media Player and Vista Media Center
-High hardware failure rates including Red Ring of Death, disc scratching, and HDMI chipset failures. Noisy. Mostly a problem with older systems.
-Lacks built in wifi and gigabit LAN
-Lacks optical HD video disc playback
-Online service requires mandatory monthly fee
-Below average media playback capabilities
-Region locked
-Optional hard drive upgrades and wireless adaptor hugely over priced
Sony Playstation 3
-Most technically advanced and futureproof system. Reliable & quiet hardware.
-Built in Blu-ray playback and excellent media capabilities. Widely considered to be one of the best BD-Live players on the market.
-Full 1080p HD with HDMI connector
-Built in Wifi and Gigabit LAN
-Free online play with advanced social networking features.
-Larger number of high rated exclusive tiles than other systems
-Not region locked meaning games from Japan and Europe will work in North American systems, and vice versa. Gives access to region specific titles such as popular JRPGs.
-Internal hard drive easily upgradeable with any off the shelf 2.5'' SATA drive.
-Motion control system
-Connectivity with Playstation Portable
-Most expensive current generation system after PC; starting at $399
-New models lack backwards compatibility with PS2 games and lack flash reader
-Controller batteries can't be swapped and can't be charged with some USB chargers
-Playstation Store neglected; a limited amount of downloadable titles and DLC. A lot of shovelware is on the store.
-Fewer exclusive titles than other systems
-Few games that are family friendly or appeal to casual gamers
-Motion controls aren't widely adopted
Nintendo Wii
-Advanced motion control system allows players to become physically active participants in the game.
-Huge library of family friendly titles and hit Nintendo classic series. Easily accessible to casual and non-gamers.
-Relatively low cost at $270
-Virtual Console allows download and play of retro titles from NES, SNES, N64 Genesis, & PC Engine, and NeoGeo systems. WiiWare exclusive downloadable games
-Backwards compatible with Gamecube games
-Built in Wifi
-Connectivity with Nintendo DS
-Reliable hardware
-Free online play
-Largest amount of shovelware titles compared to other systems and the lowest number of high rated exclusives. Lacks more "hardcore" titles.
-Does not output games in high definition, no HDMI connectivity
-Lack of hard drive and has limited storage space for downloadable games
-Online gaming system clunky and limited. Uses long "friend codes" rather than the simple Facebook style friend requests used with other systems
-Limited media playback capability. Cannot even play DVDs.
-Relatively poor value when comparing features per dollar
Sims 3 To Be DRM-Free
By Mike on 4:31 pm
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It turns out that casual gamers aren't as easily accepting of abuse and have forced EA to backtrack on their increasingly intrusive DRM-schemes. For the Sims 3, EA plans to go back to disc based copy protection schemes involving serial numbers. Rod Humble noted that "the game will have disc-based copy protection — there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed. We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future."
By the sounds of it, EA has given SecuROM the complete boot for it's largest franchise after the fiasco involved with Will Wright's other recent venture Spore. This doesn't mean that they're going to give up DRM for good though but it's certainly a step in the right direction. All SecuROM has done is give the company a bad name and harrass legitimate users, while doing little to reign in actual piracy. Hopefully this means a move to more sensible IP protection in the gaming industry.
Source: The Register
Italian Pizza Gets Automated - Take that Japan!
By Mike on 1:57 pm
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This really has nothing to do with home electronics or video games but it is tech and I am in awe of it's greatness. Claudio Torghele has invented a type of vending machine that makes ready to order pizza in just three minutes, complete with your choice of topping. The "Let's Pizza" machine will make an entire pizza from scratch for just a few Euros, even mixing the dough so none of that frozen crap here. An infrared oven system developed by the University of Bologna cooks the pizza in under three minutes. One pizza costs four Euros and while the article didn't say, it's presumable personal sized. Not bad considering you can easily spend that on lunch at fast food places like Subway. Four toppings are currently offered: cheese, ham, bacon, and a fresh vegetable mix. Torghele in conjunction with Unilever plans to market the "Let's Pizza" in the rest of Europe as well as in the United States. Toppings will vary depending on local tastes. It's low cost, open 24-hours, it does everything but deliver.
Pizza purists though are saying the machine will devalue the Italian classic, which they say has to be cooked slowly with only the finest ingredients. Well, it's not as if Pizza Hut, the McPizza, Domino's, and Boston Pizza haven't already devalued the dish. Pizza was invented in 1889 in Naples to honour the newly unified Italy. The original toppings were tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and basil to mimic the flag of the new country. There will always be a market for true gourmet pizza but lets face facts, the Let's Pizza can't be any worse than the frozen or major chain pizzeria varieties. I just want to know when I can order one of these machines for my house.
Source: National Post
Game in the Clouds, Kill Your Bandwidth
By Mike on 5:48 pm
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Imagine being able to play video games from any laptop, any TV, and desktop PC or Mac. Ok, you can already do that but imagine doing that without having to buy expensive gaming hardware. A new gaming service called OnLive was introduced today at GDC 09. The service is similar to Steam except the games are never stored locally on your computer but are rather played on a gaming server. Essentially, your computer acts as just a display and controller. A special box is also being made available to allow you to use the service through your TV. The box will have an HDMI port and USB ports. Major titles are expected to be available on the service and OnLive is promising they will be released simultaneously with their retail counterparts. The system interfaces with your broadband connection and the company promises those with 5mbps connections will be able to play the games at the full 720p resolution the system allows. You will be able to buy games but also rent them as well, similar to how rentals work through iTunes. There will be a monthly system access fee and games will be extra. Free content such as demos will be made available.
This really isn't anything new. Back in the 1990s, Sega had the Sega Channel for the Genesis, which was a similar service. It's an interesting concept but I'm skeptical. First and foremost, such a service is going to kill your bandwidth. Most ISPs have moved to enforcing download caps. For example, I'm limited to 60gb/mo. Streaming that kind of uncompressed HD video is going to eat those caps up. Secondly, I worry about a future in gaming where the gamer doesn't actually own anything. I've brought this up a lot before but I just feel more comfortable having something tangible. For example, if the service were to go bust, you'd loose all the games you bought. This would also potentially kill the game retail market, the resale market of used titles, and retro gaming. It's not as good an idea as it sounds.
Qualcomm/Zeebo Unveil "Fourth Console"
By Mike on 10:31 am
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Tech giant Qualcomm and startup Zeebo unveiled what they're dubbing as the "fourth console" at GDC 09 yesterday. The companies are hoping to tap into the so called developing market by making an affordable console while at the same time curtailing software piracy. The system, simply named Zeebo, is set to launch in Brazil next week for the retail price of $200 USD. It will be released in Eastern Europe, Mexico, and India in 2010 and will be made available in China in 2011. The system is about the size of a Wii. It is equipped with a 528MHz ARM 11 processor, the same used in many mobile phones, and a Qualcomm Adreno 130 IGP. The system includes 1GB internal NAND flash memory (enough for 50 games), 128MB of DDR SDRAM, a gamepad, three USB 2.0 ports, and an SD slot. Max screen resolution is 640x480. Graphics are said to be somewhere in between the PS1 and PS2, or in other words the same quality as PSP and Nintendo DS games.
The Zeebo is the first console to completely do away with discs, or any other type of removable media for that matter. It is 3G equipped allowing for wireless downloads of games. Content will only be offered through the system's proprietary ZeeboNet servers. 15 games will be made available on launch with 30 more being offered within 90 days after. Each game will retail for $12. This is being done to lure gamers away from the lucrative black market, which sells pirated games for contemporary consoles for just $10 a piece. Downloads are all pre-paid just as they are on PSN, Wii, and XBL. Games will only work with the users unique console ID and their account. Expect this DRM scheme to be cracked pretty quickly. The system will launch with four embedded games: FIFA 09, Need for Speed Carbon, Brain Challenge, and Prey Evil. Major game publishers Namco, THQ, Capcom, EA, Activision, and ID Software have latched onto the console.
Older consoles have traditionally preformed quite well in developing markets. The Sega Mastersystem for example sold well in Brazil right up until the late 90s. In these countries, contemporary consoles from the big three are often too costly, even for middle class individuals with comparable incomes to North Americans. A Wii for example costs the equivalent of $1000 USD in Argentina. The system is a good idea but I can't imagine it selling too well. The pirates will just lower their prices and the lure of being able to play the games "the rich" are playing is too much. Systems similar in concept have failed in the past. I also dislike the idea of doing away with removable media completely. I know that's the way the winds are blowing but I just feel uncomfortable with someone having that amount of control over my investments.
Source: The Register
Want An Unlocked iPhone? That Will Be $600 Please
By Mike on 10:20 am
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I've normally countered complaints about Apple's high prices by saying that the high quality and durability of their products is the reasoning for this. However, I must say that they've taken the price thing a bit too far this time. American telecom giant AT&T is going to start offering no-contract iPhones starting in April 2009. So basically, you can now get your phone without having to sign up for those stupid three year contracts. The catch, you'd better be ready to fork out a lot of dough. The 8gb model will sell for $599 and the 16gb model will sell for $699 USD. Think that's expensive? UK retailer is selling SIM-card free iPhones at £550 and £600 for the 8gb and 16gb models respectively. Once converted to Canadian currency, that's nearly $1000 for an iPhone; and I thought the guy at T-Booth was BSing me when he told me that's how much it was worth while pushing the usual extended warranty garbage.
Considering the iPhone is just an iPod Touch with a cell phone and GPS chip inside, I can't imagine those two components alone could more than double the price. Maybe $399 tops for the 8gb model and even that's pushing it. You do pay more for the luxury of being contract free but this is just a blatant ripoff.
Source: CNET, The Register
iPod Buds DRM-Free
By Mike on 7:40 pm
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There was a rumour going around that Apple's new buds for the Shuffle G3 contained an authentication chip that would essentially limit the device to only Apple approved accessories. The rumour appeared on several credible tech sites such as CNET and EFF. I never took this rumour seriously until I was looking through iFixIt's disassembly of the Shuffle again. They took apart the new buds and revealed the shocking truth............... there is no authentication chip. Some other pictures of the board clearly show a chip. However, the chip in question is most likely just a controller for the buttons on the buds. It's a pretty standard piece of electronics and it's quite obvious what it's for to anybody with any electronic knowledge. The report originally appeared on iPod site iLounge and Boing Boing Gadgets but spread across the Internet like wildfire. iLounge took a strong stance against the supposed DRM chip.
They even took the opportunity to take a swipe at Apple stating that they were abusing journalists and forcing them to post only favourable reviews of their products.
Sounds like iLouge has a vendetta against Apple. It sure got the Electronics Frontier Foundation riled up enough, with them praising iLounge for their efforts to stop DRM. I'm a fan of what the EFF does but they really dropped the ball on this one, along with a lot of other tech sites. Apple has confirmed that there is no authentication chip for accessories in the Suffle G3 or any other iPod. Accessory makers Monster Cable and V-Moda confirmed this. One of the problems with the Internet is that it's so easy for false stories like this to spread. As usual, nothing to see here, move along people.
Source: EFF, BoingBoing Gadgets, PC Magazine, Gizmodo
Top 10 Gaming Disasters
By Mike on 6:00 pm
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Another top ten list for today, this time we look back at gaming's greatest failures. First of all, this list doesn't deal with bad games but with everything else that makes gaming possible, or impossible. What is a failure in gaming? Well, it's something so bad that nobody ever wants to make that mistake again. So right there we can throw out stuff like the and the Sega CD, as these two systems did influence later, better designs. No, it has to be something so awful that you just have to ask yourself "what the hell were they thinking?!"
10. Xbox 360
The argument over Xbox 360 vs PS3 has been going on for a while now. While Xbox fans have valiantly defend their console's honour, it's hard even for them to ignore that it had some problems. Namely the dreaded three red rings of death. The original Xbox 360 used two very hot running processors and the designers failed to give them adequate cooling. Also, Microsoft had switched to new ROHS (restriction on hazardous substances) compliant tin solder instead of lead. While tin isn't toxic, unlike lead, it melts at a lower temperature than lead does. Tin also has other issues when compared to lead. While lead is a malleable metal, tin is brittle. It can also whisker, causing hair like crystals on the surface which can short out electrical contacts. The Xbox's design flaws created a perfect storm that made high failure rates inevitable. As the console began to overheat due to inadequate cooling, the solder became soft & brittle, causing the processors to become unseated and break electrical contact. Once this happened, the system was basically toast and had to be replaced. (The famous "towel trick" remelts the solder in hopes of reseating the processor, but it's not fool proof) Failure rates for the first generation of 360s were pegged between 16% and 33%, the majority of which were caused by the Red Ring of Death and most short into the system's life. For consumer electronics, failure rates in this situation should be no more than 1%. The RRoD proved to be a PR nightmare for the company. It was the reason why I chose to go for a PS3 instead; well that and I couldn't find any Wiis for sale. Microsoft was eventually forced to admit there was a problem and increased the warranty for the system to three years instead of the usual one. The company has since reduced the transistor sizes of both processors down from 90nm to 65nm for their new Jasper models. Smaller transistor sizes allows processors to run more efficiently. The new systems now run cooler, largely eliminating the problem. Moral of the story, if you're thinking of buying a 360, make sure it's a Jasper.
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9. The Save Checkpoint
This is one of those things that can be done right, or really wrong: the saving checkpoint. That is, certain specific spots in a game that you use to save your progress. A lot of games have this, such as Okami. However, in that title, save points where everywhere and you could never loose your saves unless you deliberately deleted them. One of the most notorious examples of a bad saving checkpoint system that I can think of was Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Save points were few and far between by using the owl statues. However, the statues were only good once. If you restarted the game and didn't save again, you lost the previous save and were sent back to the beginning of the three day cycle instead of the last statue you visited. Sure, you kept your progress when you last used the Ocarina of Time to send yourself back but anything in between would be lost. I just want to know why I can't just save anywhere at any time. There's nothing worse than being interrupted then having to rush around looking for the save point so you can go do more important things. I hate having to backtrack in games because of this.
8. Games for Windows & Windows Vista
Seeing the PC gaming market was faltering, Microsoft decided to launch it's Games for Windows campaign, which sought to market PC games in the same way console titles were. To get the badge, games had to meet certain compatibility requirements. They had to be easy to install, run on Windows Vista, run on 64-bit Vista, support widescreen resolutions, support parental controls, launch from Vista's media centre, and support the Xbox 360 wired controller. It was a good idea but it failed to reach it's intention of revitalizing the PC as a legitimate gaming platform and boost Vista sales. To add to the problem, Windows Vista was not an ideal operating system for gaming. It was slow and failed to properly support older titles due to backwards compatibility issues with DirectX 9 and earlier. If a pre-Vista game worked on XP, there was no guarantee it would work on the newer OS despite the nuts and bolts of the two operating systems essentially being the same. DirectX 10, which Microsoft said could not be implemented in XP, offered dubious graphical improvements at best. Many gamers chose to keep using XP instead of upgrading. Sales of Vista have been more driven by new consumer PC sales than anything else, as opposed to system builders and people upgrading.
7. CD-in-Drive Requirement for PC Titles
For most PC titles, the CD or DVD has to be in the optical drive before you can play the game. I just want to know why this is. Originally it was meant as a form of copy protection but now it's become obsolete due to intrusive DRM schemes and online connectivity. It's just irritating to still have to put the disc in the drive every time despite the fact that all game data is stored on the hard disk. Take Sam & Max Seasons 1 & 2 for example. If I play the downloadable versions, I just have to be connected to my Telltale account to play them. However, to play the DVD version, the disc has to be in the drive. Why? I already have a Telltale account, why can't they just treat it like the downloadable version. This is just asinine in this day and age, especially if you're a laptop gamer. There is a huge double standard between downloadable and boxed copies. The former seem to get all the perks while people who buy the latter get screwed.
6. Phillips CD-I
When Sega released the Sega CD, it was one of the first consoles to store data on a compact disc rather than cartridges. CDs had several advantages over conventional carts. They could store up to 700mb of data compared to the 16mb cartridges were limited to at the time, and could be produced at significantly lower costs. CDs could also hold full motion video and high resolution audio. The only downside was long load times. The CD-I was one of the first stand alone CD based console, created by compact disc pioneer Phillips. It was developed as a joint venture with Nintendo who was looking to produce a CD add-on for the SNES. Sony was also working with Nintendo on the same project, which eventually culminated in the Playstation. The CD-I didn't do as well. The system was massive, the size of a typical VCR at the time. It was combined with an awful TV remote like wireless controller that was difficult to use. Most of the games available for it were similar to early point and click CD games that were being sold on the PC and Mac platforms. Many of them were educational. The CD-I did come out with some more conventional games though. Due to a contract agreement with Nintendo, Phillips was allowed to use the licenses for some Nintendo characters. The agreement continued even after Phillips pulled out of the SNES CD project. Slumping sales of the CD-I encouraged them to start taking advantage of this. The result was Hotel Mario and a series of Zelda titles known by fans of the series as the Unholy Triforce. The four of these games are considered to be the worst titles featuring Nintendo characters and are not considered to be part of cannon for their respective series. To give the CD-I credit, it was one of the first multi-media consoles. Aside from games, it could play back your audio CDs, karaoke discs, and Video CDs provided it was equipped with the optional MPEG1 decoder. Like all early CD based consoles, the load times for media were horrendously slow. The final nail in its coffin though was the price. It sold for $700 in 1991, which is over $1050 today. While the Sega CD sold a modest 6 million units, the CD-I only managed 500,000, less than the Virtual Boy! It was finally discontinued in 1998, though why Phillips kept it around that long is a mystery.
5. Virtual Boy
How do you wreck the Gameboy? Slap a second screen on it and rename it the DS. I'm joking, relax. Well, half joking as that's what Nintendo did with their greatest failure, the Virtual Boy. It was a goggle like apparatus with two LCD screens to give a stereoscopic 3D effect. It was made to bridge the gap between the SNES and N64. The games themselves were vary primitive compared to what the system was supposedly capable of, and few used the 3D effects to their full potential. It wasn't in colour either, instead opting for black on a blood red background. It gave numerous people headaches and seizures. Furthermore, though marketed as a portable, it was difficult to use. It was basically goggles on a stand with no head strap, forcing you to awkwardly lean on a table to use it. There was no way it could be used while travelling despite what Nintendo claimed. The controller was somewhat innovative, integrating two D-pads but it was just a total flop. Only 14 games were ever released for it in North America out of the 22 games ever made for it. Less than 800,000 Virtual Boys were sold worldwide. It was discontinued after only one year on the market. It proved that not everything Nintendo makes is gold.
4. Sega 32X
The 32X represents a seemingly good idea that was poorly executed. After all, PC gamers could upgrade their systems on the cheap, so why shouldn't console gamers have the same luxury. The 32X was made as a stop gap solution to extend the life of the Genesis by upgrading it to a 32-bit system. The mushroom shaped peripheral plugged into the Genesis cartridge slot but ran off its own power and required a special video bridge cable. Sega had insisted on using massive wall-wart AC adaptors; so if you had the Sega CD as well it would be impossible to plug all three into a normal powerbar, let alone a standard outlet. The games were touted as being 32-bit, but like the ill fated Atari Jaguar, they didn't look much better than regular 16-bit games. I've only played one 32X game, Knuckles Chaotix, and it looks pretty much identical to Sonic 3 and Sonic CD. To top it off, the add-on itself was expensive and the Sega Saturn was only a few months away. Most gamers knew it was better to just wait and so the 32X sold poorly. The Sega Neptune, a stand alone 32X was also made but never sold. Genesis does what Nintendon't... maybe that's not such a good thing.
3. Virtual Reality
Back in 1995, everybody thought the future of video games was donning a silly looking helmet and entering a ring where you played the game, as yourself. The first and last time I experienced VR was back in about 1995, shortly after Mississauga landmark Sega City Playdium opened. They had a couple of these simulators: a first person shooter and some hang gliding games. Naturally I tried the shooter but died pretty quickly. I must admit it was cool but maybe it was the novelty factor that wowed me more than anything else. I mean, how cool would it be to step onto the holodeck from Star Trek: TNG? A lot of R&D went into VR but it never really took off. When it first came out, we were told that it was what all gaming would look like in 10 years time. We're still using our hands though as if it were a baby's toy. VR failed for a lot of reasons. It was expensive, bulky, and required double the processing power to fuel the high resolution stereoscopic displays. It was also known to give some people headaches and seizures. Not something you want in a video game. The VR concept eventually fizzled out by the late 90s. In it's defense, it has seen extensive use as training aids for pilots and ship crews. VR simulators are still open to the public at places such as Air Combat Zone. However, these don't require the silly helmet and are not 3D, at least not in the sense VR was meant to be.
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2. Atari
Atari just has so many gaming blunders, I could fill this whole list with them. Their biggest mistake was way back in 1983, which eventually culminated in the crash of the video game industry, putting the "fad" on the back burner for two years before Nintendo saved it. Atari developed one of the best consoles of all time, the 2600. Unfortunately, they overestimated it's greatness when they produced more Pac-Man and ET cartridges than there were 2600s. It was assumed that these two blockbuster titles would drive sales of the system. Lesson #1 of of game marketing: Cartman Economics works, flooding the market does not. Unfortunately for Atari, the two games bombed and the compnay nearly bankrupted itself in the aftermath. Unsold ET cartridges were rumoured to have been unceremoniously buried in a New Mexico landfill for tax writeoff purposes. With the rise of home computers like the Commodore 64, interest in stand-alone consoles declined and the market for those kind of games collapsed.
It's unfair to blame Atari alone for the '83 Crash, but it wasn't their only failure. The ill fated 5200, which was the size of a VCR and had controllers that didn't work is another such example of an Atari flop. The last nail in the coffin was the Atari Jaguar, a 32-bit console masked as a 64-bit system. It wasn't much better than other 16/32-bit consoles at the time and had inferior graphics to the Playstation and N64, the latter of which was a true 64-bit system. Gamers quickly learned that once you hit 32-bit, the number of extra bits a chip has means little. (Current consoles still haven't reached the only limit of the 32-bit process, with is 4gb of RAM. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 have only 512mb. Both use 64-bit CPUs though.) The system failed to take away market share from Sega and Nintendo. Atari decided to pull out of consoles after that. More recently, Atari was embroiled in a scandal for using RIAA-like spy tactics to track down pirates.
1. Digital Rights Management
Piracy has always been a problem on PC games and it shot up as soon as people were able to easily burn CDs or transmit games over the Internet. DRM came about to prevent copying. If one single thing can be linked to the death of PC gaming, this is it. As time wore on, DRM went from simple CD keys and passwords to more intrusive piracy prevention methods. It began installing unremovable spyware on people's computers without their knowledge. Eventually limits were placed on how many times a game could be installed, on the same computer. The general public got their first real taste of what had been harassing hardcore gamers for years when Spore came out. It featured the most intrusive form of the SecuROM DRM scheme to date, restricting installs on the same system to three and making it impossible to deactivate copies. The general public didn't like it and Electronic Arts was sued for failing to disclose the restriction on the game's packaging or in the EULA. Ironically, these DRM schemes have done little to discourage the actual pirates. Spore became the most pirated game of 2008, with 1.7 million illegal downloads in it's first three months alone, a rate five times higher than the next title on the list. EA has since offered Spore DRM-free for legal download through Steam.
By Mike on 8:46 am
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This falls under the category of cool but creepy. In Japan, they have developed a realistic female robot who will be used as a robo-fashion model. The HRP-4C humanoid robot is designed to look like an average 20-something Japanese woman. She's about 5ft tall and is capable of displaying a range of facial expressions. She can also talk. The HRP-4C weighs in at 95lbs including batteries. If you have a filthy mind and were hoping for something anatomically correct, forget about it. Her body is made of molded plastic, which resembles Stormtrooper armour. The robot's movement is still pretty stiff, but then again what fashion model doesn't walk like they've got a pickle up their butt. The technology represents a quantum leap from past humanoid robots, such as Asimo. Movement is a lot more fluid. Here's a short video showing the robot.
She can display a range of facial expressions, from sassy to pleasant, to surprised.
The company hopes to sell the chassis for $200,000, sans the costly facial coverings. Japan has an anging population so there is a lot of interest in building robots that can assist seniors and the disabled in daily tasks. However, this robot design is mainly intended for the entertainment industry. I still prefer a real Japanese woman, they're more cuddly.
Oh, that's Aki Hoshino by the way. Naturally busty Japanese TV star and super model. She looks great for 32.
Source: CNET
Dell's Adamo vs Apple's Macbook Air
By Mike on 1:34 pm
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Thin and light seems to be in, with the netbook craze and the Macbook Air. Dell released it's Adamo today, and all the tech pundits are putting it forth as an Air killer. Well, maybe if the Air were castrated and got fat eating a bucket of ice cream after loosing it's manhood. Dell doesn't say how much it weighs but it does have the same screen size and foot print as the Air. It has a brushed aluminum chassis that comes in either silver ("pearl") or black ("onyx"). The hardware in the system is nothing to write home about. It features an Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 processor running at 1.2ghz. It uses only 10w of power so it should offer excellent battery life but will likely struggle with more demanding applications. The Adamo is also one of Dell's first systems to use DDR3. However, it only runs at 800mhz compared to the Air's 1066mhz. While DDR3 uses less power than DDR2 due to it's lower voltages, it also has higher latencies. It is likely the system would preform better had they used DDR2-800 instead, which is the speed non-overclocking DDR2 currently maxes out. DDR2 is also significantly cheaper than DDR3. The one advantage the Adamo has in terms of memory is upgradability. Apple rather stupidly soldered the RAM to the motherboard and provided no slots to upgrade the Air with additional memory. Lastly, Dell went for Intel's G45 chipset which uses the GMA HD4500 graphics processor with 256mb of shared RAM. It's underpowered compared to the Geforce 9400M, which is probably twice as fast. As for the rest, the Dell is about equal in terms of specs to the Air. It has no optical drive like the Air but it does have a gigabit ethernet port, which the Air does not. Screen resolution is the same in terms of megapixels though the Adamo uses a 16:9 aspect ration compared to the Air's more conventional 16:10. The Adamo's screen is therefore more ideal for displaying widescreen content. Battery life was not mentioned by Dell. It has a 40wH lithium-polymer pack compared to the 37wH in the Air. However, we can bet it will have equal or lower battery life than the Air. This is primarily because OS X has better power management features than Vista does. Lastly, the Adamo does feature a 128gb SSD as stock, while it costs an extra $500 to install it in the Air. The Adamo costs $1999 for the base model while their Air is $1799.
So lets recap to see what each has in favour over the other.
Dell Adamo
-Gigabit Ethernet
-Upgradable RAM
-SSD as stock
Apple Macbook Air
-1.6ghz CPU, 400mhz faster
-1.06ghz bus speed over 800mhz
-Faster graphics processor
-Faster 1.06ghz RAM
So as you can see, the Adamo fails to be a Macbook Air killer. It's more expensive and severely under powered for its price point.
Now forget about the Mac vs PC debate for a minute here. Both these systems weigh about 3lbs. They're being marketed as high end lifestyle systems. However, is this really worth it. Consider that companies such as Apple, Dell, and Sony sell quality systems with superior specs for as much as $1000 less; same screen size, same foot print, but only 1lb more. The problem with these ultra thin systems is that there are simply too many trade offs involved in slimming them down. Another thing worth asking is why is Dell releasing what I would classify as a luxury consumer novelty at a time when people aren't buying systems in that price range. They're too little for too much. My advice would be, if you need a really small and mobile computer, go with a good quality netbook. Dell's own Inspiron Mini would be a good choice, has up to a 12'' screen, weighs the same as the Adamo, will have better battery life than the Adamo, but is only a fraction of the cost. If you still want something with more power, go with the cheaper, slightly bulkier alternatives.
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection Mini Review
By Mike on 5:00 pm
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What Works
-40 games for $40
-Lots of great Genesis classics upscaled to HD
-Trophy and XBL Achievement Support
What Doesn't Work
-Nearly identical to compilation released just 3 years ago
-Unlockable content not in HD
-No online multiplayer
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Here's the complete list of games copied directly from Sega's website.
· Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
· Alien Storm
· Altered Beast
· Beyond Oasis
· Bonanza Bros.
· Columns
· Comix Zone
· Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head
· Dr. Robotnik's MBM
· Dynamite Headdy
· Ecco the Dolphin
· Ecco II: The Tides of Time
· Fatal Labyrinth
· Flicky
· Gain Ground
· Golden Axe I
· Golden Axe II
· Golden Axe III
· Kid Chameleon
· Phantasy Star II
· Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
· Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
· Ristar
· Shining in the Darkness
· Shining Force
· Shining Force 2
· Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
· Sonic 3D Blast
· Sonic and Knuckles
· Sonic Spinball
· Sonic the Hedgehog
· Sonic the Hedgehog 2
· Sonic the Hedgehog 3
· Streets of Rage
· Streets of Rage 2
· Streets of Rage 3
· Super Thunder Blade
· Vectorman
· Vectorman 2
· Golden Axe Warrior (SEGA Master System)
· Phantasy Star (SEGA Master System)
· Alien Syndrome (Arcade)
· Altered Beast (Arcade)
· Congo Bongo (Arcade)
· Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
· Shinobi (Arcade)
· Space Harrier (Arcade)
· Zaxxon (Arcade)
Is DLC Too Expensive?
By Mike on 6:35 pm
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There has been some recent controversy over Capcom preparing costly DLC for Resident Evil V, which will be available on release. Many gamers feel it is unfair to have new content so soon after release, that could have been on the game disc, for extra money. When it comes to gaming, my background is as a PC gamer. We've had DLC for a vary long time in the forms of user mods, most of which were free. Consoles have now shifted to offering payware downloadable content add-ons for games. This has been a landmark for consoles in that games are now expandable in a similar way PC games are. However, I cannot help but wonder whether consumers are getting nickle & dimed. I was browsing through this weeks Playstation Store updates and noticed car downloads for Burnout Paradise. Two cars were being sold for $4.99 each. To me, this seems awfully expensive when there are entire games being offered for as low as $6 on the store, such as Noby Noby Boy. Burnout is a pretty gross example of how expensive DLC can be. It's a ripoff to charge that kind of money for a single car, considering the entire game is only $40. Charging more than 10% of the game's value for a single, relatively minor add-on is a ripoff.
Another example of overcharging for DLC in my opinion are the LittleBigPlanet Sackboy costumes. These are basically skins but they want $1.99 for it. While a Toonie isn't a lot of money, consider a song off iTunes only costs $0.99. It's fair to say that a lot more goes into the production of a song track than it does for one animator to make a simple costume for a game character. Granted LBP add-ons are going to sell at a far lower volume but it's still a tad on the pricey side considering it does nothing to enhance or extend the gameplay experience. A fair price would be $0.99 per costume. This isn't just a Playstation problem either; given the price of Virtual Console titles on the Wii, which cost far more individually than they do in compilation packages.
The problem with DLC on console versus PC is one of basic economics. On PC, payware DLC providers have to compete with user created mods. This encourages them to pack more features into their mods to compete with what is essentially free. Flight Simulator payware add-ons tend to be expensive but they're tailored to fly identically to the real aircraft and tend to feature far more detail. On console, developers have a monopoly over DLC. No competition and they can charge more. It's still outrageous regardless of the circumstances, and it's why I refuse to buy it.
Update 03/15/09: After I published this, IGN posted an article on the same issue, but on Xbox Live. Definitely worth reading.
Top 10 Worst Games MMN Has Played
By Mike on 1:28 pm
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Ok, every gaming website has their top ten list of the best games they've ever played. Then in 2006, things changed when James "Angry Video Game Nerd" Rolfe became an Internet phenomenon. His character reviews some of the worst games of all time. So, in tribute to the AVGN, I thought I'd compile my own list of the worst games I've ever personally played.
10. Sonic 3D Blast (1996, Sega, Genesis/Mega Drive)
I actually liked this game when it first came out, but it hasn't aged well. Take all the things that make Sonic awesome, and get rid of them. Blast switched to an psudo-3D isometric view, was slow, and gameplay was clumsy. The basic premise was to rescue all the flickies from their robot prisons and return them to their dimension through power rings. I remember the most irritating part of this game for me when I first got it was it's lack of a save feature, which Sonic 3 and Sonic CD had introduced. It's Game Gear version was equally bad.
9. Echochrome (2008, Sony, PS3)
A real snoozer of a title that had you chasing "echos" in an MC Escher stylized environment. Tilt the screen to open new paths. No score, no time limits, no way of dying, no colours, no good music, no entertainment value. Echochrome is way too artsy and mind numbing for my tastes. It is just so unbelievably bland and pointless. I like to think of it as the Sinefeld of video games. It's a game about nothing that everybody seems to love but me.
8. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992, Sega, Game Gear)
Sonic 2 for the Genesis was a great game, Sonic 2 for the Game Gear was not. I think the problem was that it was just too freaking hard. I never had a Game Gear myself because quite frankly, it was a load of crap itself. I had a friend who had one with Sonic 2. I could never even make it past the first level boss. One hit and you're dead, there's no room for error. You have to dodge these silver death balls that seem to come from all over the place. Unless you've memorized the pattern and know exactly where to stand, you're in for some frustration. Even now, the only way I can beat it is by using an emulator with a save state function. I've never seen such a hard boss for the first level in a Sonic game. The second level introduced the infamous hang glider, which had awful controls. The later levels aren't so bad but the first too are just so brutal, it really sours you off continuing.
7. Virtual Bart (1994, Acclaim, Genesis/SNES)
I love the Simpsons, I grew up watching it and I still watch it even if the newer episodes aren't that good. Games based on the Simpsons have traditionally been quite poor but Virtual Bart is probably one of the worst I've played, though I haven't played many. It's a series of mini games, which seems like a good idea until you realize it has punishing difficulty and broken controls. The worst ones for me happen to be baby Bart, the Slaughterhouse (Krusty's pork cannery!) and the Mount Splashmore waterslide.
6. Haze (2008, Ubisoft, PS3)
A lot of hype went into this game. It was supposed to be the must have game for Playstation 3 in 2008, aside from MGS4. We were promised fantastic visuals and revolutionary new FPS gameplay. What we got was far from it. Graphics were blurry, gameplay was dull, and it didn't even run in HD! A classic overhyped title.
5. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006, Sega, PS3/Xbox 360)
Wow, what happened to you Sonic. You used to be rad, the blue blur, the most popular video game character in the world. Maybe it's time you hung up your red sneakers after your dismal transition to 3D. The 15th anniversary of Sonic turned out to be the worst game the hedgehog has ever graced. Not only do the newer titles not even resemble the Genesis classics, they just are a plain mess. Crippled by bad gameplay mechanics, Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 was practically unplayable. The original Sonic games were known and purposely designed for their ease of gameplay. Sonic Team has certainly lost their way. But hey, Sonic Unleashed was pretty good, once you take out the warehog scenes. Well, maybe not.
4. Iron Man (2008, Sega, Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/PS2/PC)
I reviewed this game here, and it stunk to high heaven. Plagued with poor controls and blurry, awful graphics. It was overly easy and downright dull. Not much else to say that's not in the review. The perfect example of a bad movie-based game.
3. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WW2 (2007, Ubisoft, PC)
A game so bad, Ubisoft actually gave up on trying to fix it. The game worked ok, but I had no sound. After installing every single patch, I still had no sound. While I could still play it, there's not much point if you can't hear anything. Oddly, sound did work for the intro movies. I have a Soundblaster X-FI XtremeMusic, which is a pretty common and modern gaming sound card that works fine with every other game I have. A lot of people reported all sorts of problems. Ubi eventually announced they had stopped trying to patch the numerous errors and left gamers out on their own.
2. Bioshock (2007, Take Two, PC)
The console versions of the hit Bioshock were not without their problems but the PC version just was a god awful mess. Unlike the #1 on the list, it was playable, sort of, but it sure put up a fight. I had the demo repeatedly BSOD on me right when the bathysphere enters the city, so I didn't get to enjoy any real gameplay. Those who bought the full retail version complained of similar problems. Bioshock was also one of the first PC games to include strict install limits through the controversial SecuROM DRM scheme. Electronic Arts would be sued for doing the same thing with Spore a year later.
1. Lock-On: Modern Air Combat (2003, Ubisoft, PC)
Here it is in all it's infamy, the worst flight simulator game I have ever played and probably the worst flight simulator in the history of the genre. I had heard a lot of negative things about it but when I saw it on sale at the store, I thought I might try it out. Some people did say it was good after all. Wow, what an absolute mess. Despite exceeding the recommended system requirements (not just the minimum), the game ran like a slideshow, even on low settings. This what back when I had my Athlon XP 2000+ and a Geforce 6600 128mb, where as the recommended system was an Athlon XP 1500+ and any 128mb card. Patches didn't solve the problem. LOMAC is the quintessential poorly coded game. It's good in concept but it was just unplayable. The cherry on top was the inclusion of the now infamous Starforce copy protection scheme which installed unremovable malware (rootkits) on people's systems and caused a lot of controversy back in 2005. For some reason, realistic modern combat simulators always seem to bomb.
Red Barron Arcade Review
By Mike on 9:44 pm
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Why aren't there any World War 1 flight simulators? I guess the slow speed doesn't really intrigue people. Red Barron Arcade is one of the first WWI themed games I've seen in a while. Now get ready for the shortest review ever... it does not belong on Playstation 3. Ok, I'm not going to leave my readers hanging like that. The original Red Barron, released almost 20 years ago, was a classic combat flight simulator. It is widely regarded as one of the best from the genre and one of the best games of all time. Red Barron Arcade, also published by Sierra, will likely not win such acclaim. It was developed by Stainless Games rather than Dynamix who made the original series. The game is also available on PC and was released just over a year ago, and didn't do so well. The first red flag PS3 gamers noticed was the numerous delays the PSN title suffered. Sierra kept pushing it back but gave no official notice as to why, or when it would actually hit the Store front. It was originally supposed to be released on September 18th, 2009 according to an IGN game preview article. However, it wasn't actually released until March 12th, 2009, six months later.
Gameplay is what you would expect from a title like this. Vary basic controls. This is another one of those flight games where the pitch controls are reversed, which really irritates me. Everybody knows that pulling back on the stick in a plane makes you go up. They have pushing forward as up, which is usually down. This can be very confusing, especially to those used to flight simulators that use conventional control schemes. Fortunately, the options menu lets you reverse the X axis on the left stick. Everything else is traditional. R2 is your machine gun trigger. You can also roll for evasive action using R1 and L1 but it seems pretty useless. Square will preform an Immleman, quickly reversing your flight direction. You also have secondary weapons and can perform a speed boost by tapping X. There is a boost meter so it's not umlimited. It recharges on its own. Triangle and Circle are your throttle controls. Power-ups are available that give you additional bombs or restore your health bar. Dogfighting is pretty good. You get the hectic feeling of a WW1 dogfight but the graphics can hamper the enjoyment of it. I'll get to that in a second. I only played the demo but I get the feeling I wouldn't see much more in the full version. There are quite a few to play from. It says there are 20 in total. You can only play as Germany in the demo but I would expect there are 10 planes on each side to choose from. Of course the Fokker DR1 is in there and is playable in the demo. It's also has Albatrosses, other Fokkers, and I noticed Sopwith Triplanes & Airco DH2s during the dogfights on the allied side.
The real problem with the game is the graphics. They're just absolutely horrible. The graphics in Red Barron are outdated by at least eight years. It really does look like a late 90s, early 2000s game. Even PSP games like Ace Combat X have better graphics. Ok, I know it's a downloadable title but take into consideration games like WipEout HD and Flower, which both retail for $9.99, the same price Red Barron Arcade does. They're graphical masterpieces, this is just a horrible pile of thrown together pieces. Polygon count on objects is quite low and textures look cheap. Draw distances are low. I didn't notice any issues with frame rates though. If there were frame rate problems, I think I'd pee my pants out of shock. Red Barron runs at 720p but due to it's graphical flaws, having HD is pretty useless. It's impossible to tell which planes are your allies and which are the enemies until you are right on top of them. Enemies are colour coded in the radar screen as red, while your allies are green. However they picked dark red and dark green, which almost look the same so you have to look hard to tell which is which. The AI is horrible, enemies will often crash into you without you even seeing, and they certainly don't do anything serious to try and avoid getting shot.
Well there you have it. To sum up Red Barron Arcade in two words: it sucks. It's a good concept and had Stainless Games put a little more effort into it, it could have been a classic PSN title. The end product though is just a jumbled mess of poor graphics, poor AI, and uninspiring gameplay. The entire game is only about 180mb in size, which tells a lot. If you're looking for a console arcade sim, I'd suggest picking up the Ace Combat games for the PS2 (avoid HAWX because it sucks too) or wait for Il-2: Birds of Prey to come out later this year. Red Barron Arcade is not worth the $9.99 they're charging for it.
What Works:
-Easy to pick up gameplay
-20 aircraft to choose from
What Doesn't Work
-Horribly outdated graphics
-Dumb AI
-Flight pitch controls reversed
-Overly simplistic at times
-Should have been a PSP title instead
Score: 4 out of 10
Apple Releases new iPod Shuffle, Where's the Beef... er Buttons?
By Mike on 3:31 pm
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Apple quietly pushed out a new iPod Shuffle onto the world this morning. This marks the third design change for their smallest and cheapest model in the iPod line. It's roughly the same size and shape as a disposable cigarette lighter. Apple claims it's smaller than a AA battery, measuring in at 1.8" tall x 0.7" wide x 0.3" thin. It weighs just over 10 grams. The case is made form anodized aluminum just like the new Mac models. It comes in either grey or black. Furthermore, the storage space has been beefed up to 4gb; double what the second generation model had. The player supports AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from the iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF audio formats. Apple Losseless was not a supported codec in the previous Shuffle models. Conspicuously missing are the controls for the player. It now has a simple tri-switch on top which switches playback from shuffle, loop, and stop/power off. The rest of the controls are still there but have been moved to the earbud wire. The most important addition is the new Voice Over feature, which tells you the name of the song or playlist currently being played. For battery life, Apple claims 12 hours, which is usually pretty accurate. The G3 Suffle costs $79 USD.
Already, pundits are divided over this new model. The Shuffle has always been one of Apple's best sounding MP3 players, and is certainly one of the smallest available. However, it does suffer from numerous drawbacks. It still lacks a display but the biggest problem with this one is where the controls are located. Since they're on Apple's earbuds, you're forced to use them. Many complain about the low audio quality of Apple's buds. I know I still haven't taken mine out of the box yet. Adding the controls on the buds means you can't swap them for better headphones, at least not until third-party manufacturers start selling compatible ones. I've never really been a huge fan of the iPod and really only got the iPhone because I wanted Internet connectivity and lossless playback. If you're willing to sacrifice some battery life, I'd go with the Creative ZEN Stone Plus. It's about the same size as the G2 Shuffle and has 2gb of storage. However, it features a display, audio recording, and FM radio. Creative's MP3 players have always had vary good audio quality too.
Source: Dailytech
Update: IFixIt has taken it apart already. As expected, there's not a heck of a lot to this thing. Everything is now controlled by a single chip containing the ARM CPU, a small amount of RAM, and 4gb of flash memory. This seems to be the direction Apple is going with it's products.
iPod Shuffle 3rd Generation First Look
Mac Mini Gutted
By Mike on 1:31 pm
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I showed you last week the tear down of the new iMac. The folks at IFixIt have done the same with the new Mini, and it's just as big a mess as it's bigger brother. To get inside, one still needs to use the infamous putty knife. Once inside, the system is pretty much identical to the new vanilla Macbooks. The components are identical, complete with DVD Superdrive and 2.5'' 120gb SATA hard drive. The Mini basically is just a laptop sans screen. Not much worth noting other than the processor is now soldered to the motherboard rather than socketed. This means you can't swap it out for a new one. For a company that professes itself to be "green", Apple sure doesn't make it easy to upgrade and thus extend the life of your Mac. Nothing else much to say other than it's neat to see for curiosity's sake.
Check out IFixIt's Guide to Tearing down the Mini
Kiwis Contemplate Jail Time for Aduts Who Buy M Rated Games for Minors
By Mike on 1:14 pm
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Could Canada be the last Commonwealth country left on Earth that hasn't gone totally insane? I know, that's very difficult to believe. Recently, both Australia and New Zealand have been cracking down hard on tech offenders, often for some downright silly things. While Oz is planning to put up it's own Great Firewall to block out "offensive" websites, the Kiwis think buying M-rates games for minors should be a criminal offense worthy of jail time.
According to Bill Hastings, a New Zealand government official, the law is already in place though is currently not enforced. The current penalty is a $10,000 fine or three years in prison. Assuming NZ uses the same legal system as Canada does, that would make it an indictable (capital for US readers) offense. Hastings wants to enforce jail time as a form of "shock value" to discourage others from committing the crime. ""They might think the offense is silly, but it ain't," Hastings told the Dominion Post. (As a side note, there's something unsettling about a government official using the term "ain't" during a press conference.) "That's what the law says, but... you're not going to have police officers in every bedroom... There would certainly be some shock value to prosecuting a parent who gives their under-18 child access to a restricted game. It would send out a message that the enforcement agency means business. I think the word 'game' can mislead people for sure. It's not checkers. For the first time in history, kids are more savvy with technology than parents... parents need to get up to speed on the digital divide. They need to look at what their kids are playing and doing," he added.
There seems to be a disturbingly illiberal trend occurring in British Commonwealth countries recently towards widespread censorship and surveillance. As I said, Canada seems to be one of the few exceptions where this is not happening. That's not to say it couldn't happen. Most would probably agree it's wrong to give your child an M rated game but is that really worth putting someone behind bars, or even such a steep fine? Of course not. There has also been talk of doing similar things within the United States but for the most part it's fallen on deaf ears. It's not the same thing as buying alcohol, smokes, or a Swank and giving it to a minor. What's next, jail time for parents who let their kids watch R rated movies? Huge fines if their kid stumbles on your old Playboys? Give me a break.
Source: PSU
Asus Adds Dual Core EeeBox
By Mike on 6:21 pm
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I must admit I like the Eee Box. I haven't had a chance to get my hands on one though but from what I've seen and heard, it's a nice little system. Asus is addressing concerns over its media capability by upgrading it to the Intel Atom 330, a dual-core 1.6ghz processor. It will also be equipped with Windows Vista, the first to do so in the Eee line. Another important improvement is the addition of an ATI Radeon 4350 discrete GPU with 256mb of RAM. This will allow it to run Vista as well as accelerate HD media. Previously, the Eee Box was equipped with the Intel GMA 950 IGP, which is considered too weak for modern computing. In addition to the GPU, the new Eee Box also gets HDMI connectivity. Lastly, it comes with 1gb DDR2 stock and up to 320gb of HDD space. The improvements make this little system ideal as a media server. The Eee Box still lacks an optical drive though, meaning you'll have to either use an external USB one or download media content off the internet or over LAN. The faster GPU should allow it to play Blu-ray movies with the appropriate external drive. There are no details regarding the price of this little system as of yet. Of course, you could always build your own dual core Atom 330 media system for under $500.
Source: The Register
Play Games, Frag Yourself Says UK Gov't
By Mike on 1:05 pm
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We all know that video games, along with AIDS and terrorism, are one of the major evils facing the modern world today. Or at least that's what people like Jack Thompson, Hilary Clinton, and now the UK government want you to believe. A new ad campaign seems to directly link gaming to early death. The ad is being funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK, in partnership with the government. It shows a young boy sitting with a glazed look on his face holding a Playstation 3 controller. The caption reads "Risk an Early Death, Just Do Nothing".
Obesity is a major cause of illness and death in our society today and most certainly gaming can be a contributing factor if it's done in excess. However, the ad unfairly addresses the root cause of the problem. You can still play video games and lead an active lifestyle. The key is moderation. Telling kids they're going to die if they play games is not likely to have any real, lasting effects in solving issues of a sedentary lifestyle. Rather, they should be encouraging kids to get more active and to have fun doing so. It is now also possible to combine gaming with exercise, such as Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution. For many children and teens, organized sports or working out at the gym just doesn't have much appeal. Blaming games is just a cop out by educators and parents who have failed to give their children proper exercise and outdoor play.
Source: The Register
Update 03/10/09: Sony is considering suing the ad's creators for trademark infringement over the PS3 controller featured in the ad.
Elite 360 Given the Axe
By Mike on 12:56 pm
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Reports are coming out that Microsoft is planning to discontinue the Xbox 360 Elite. Well, sort of. According to MS, they're going to stop taking orders of the Elite during Q2 and existing stocks will be sold off. Mind you, this is just the regular retail version. 360 Elites will continue to be made but instead will be sold as special limited edition game themed consoles, such as the Resident Evil Red 360.
The Elite is currently the most expensive console in the Xbox line, currently selling for $399. This puts it on par with the 80gb PS3. There isn't a lot separating the elite from the cheaper 360s at this point. Originally, it was the only one to offer HDMI connectivity and a beefy 120gb HDD. Now all 360 models feature HDMI and the Pro has a 60gb drive. Compared to the PS3, the Elite lacks optical HD video playback and built in wireless LAN. Therefore, it's getting difficult for Microsoft to justify the high cost. This is likely why it's going to be offered in limited edition bundles, while likely retaining it's current price.
Source: The Register
Flower Review
By Mike on 9:35 am
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There's a couple of things I learned from Flower. First of all, PSN games can rival or even exceed their more expensive boxed counterparts in technical accomplishment. Second, I should not keep my house plants caged in pots, as they yearn to live out in the wild. I tried setting them free but that didn't go so well. (lol) Flower by That Game Company is yet another game that falls under the "games as art" category. Video games as an intentional art form is really only a recent phenomenon. LucasArts gave birth the this concept in my opinion with their adventure games but art games only came into their own in probably the last five years. Okami being one of the more well known examples. This change is primarily due to contemporary gaming moving further away from being only the persuit of children and teens to a more adult focus. PSN seems to attract a lot of these art house titles, such as PixelJunk Eden, Echochrome, Tori-Emaki, and Noby Noby Boy. While Wii and Xbox 360 have latched on to retro and causal gaming through their respective stores, Sony has really captured a whole host of indie developers who previously found it prohibitively expensive to release their products to a wide audience. This shift is how you get the unique titles that I've mentioned above. When Flower was originally announced, a lot of people weren't really sure what to make of it, as is the case for many if not most indie titles. The premise was simple yet deceptively abstract. If a house plant could dream, what would it dream about?
In Flower, you pay as the wind, blowing a group of flower petals across the landscape. It uses arcade style flight controls and is one of the few PS3 games that uses SIXAXIS motion control exclusively instead of the analogue sticks. The PS3's motion sensing function is probably the most underutilized feature of the console and having it as the only control scheme has led to some notable disasters. Lair being the most infamous example. The problem with SIXAXIS in other games is that the controls feel sloppy and non-responsive. Naturally, I was leery of Flower because of the past reputation of motion control. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how well it works in this game. You pitch and roll the controller into what ever direction you want to go. The controls are responsive and feel tight; like you're controlling the game and not the other way around. The only other control in the game is the X button, which you hold down for the wind to blow. Release it and your petals will hover in place allowing you to look around with the camera, once again using the SIXAXIS.
There really isn't much to this game. The first three levels involve reviving dead patches of grass in a field. Flowers on the ground will have a halo around them. You need to fly through them to activate them all and revive the dead field. That's it. There's no score, no time limit, you can't die. That's not to say there aren't any challenges. In later levels, the environment will start to work against you. It's vary simple but this game seems to suck you in with it's vibrant colours and beautiful scenery. There are six levels in the game. The one major flaw with Flower is that it's way too short. I figure it can be beaten in about two hours tops. You can argue that a lot of games from the 2D era were that short, such as the original Sonic the Hedgehog. However, we've come to expect a little more from our titles. It's light on replay value though it does offer trophy support giving you some goals to strive for.
Flower is a technical masterpiece that really functions as a tech demo for the Playstation 3's power. In most games, grass just fades into the background, modelled by textures or simple psudo-3D graphics. That Game Company took it to the next level. In Flower, every individual blade of grass in the field is fully 3D rendered and reacts to you and the environment in the same way it would in real life; by bending and swaying in the wind. The fact that there are thousands of such blades in the level turns an everyday thing into something wondrous. Other 3D models, such as the windmills, are more simplistic. However, they don't have to be complicated. Environments are vary colourful and detailed. They give you a sense of calm and wonder while playing it. The audio is well suited for Flower, done in a new age, instrumental style. The audio is of the highest quality. The frame rates are silky smooth. The game runs at at least 1080i. No graphical anomalies were noticed.
Flower is an art house game, and thus isn't for everyone. I suppose you could draw similar parallels to my criticisms of Echochrome in that there really isn't much to the game and that the experience is short lived. Flower makes up for this though with it's technical achievement, colourful visuals, and unique controls; it is a sharp contrast against the bland Echochrome. I admit I was sceptical at first after I had read some of the reviews. I don't think any of us knew what to make of it. I think a demo would have been greatly appreciated. The only major flaw with Flower is that it's too short. Just six levels isn't enough. It's a common complaint among reveiwers and those who have played the game. Granted, that's not necessarily a bad thing as it signals that people want more. Hopefully, That Game Company will realize this and start publishing more substantial expansion packs. It would be a shame to leave this beautiful game as it is. Flower is a Playstation Network exclusive and can be purchased for $9.99. It weighs in at roughly 800mb.
What Works
-Beautiful graphics, individually modelled grass, and vibrant colours. A PS3 tech demo
-Finally a game where SIXAXIS controls work the way they should
-Easy to pick up and play
-Unique concept
What Doesn't Work
-Too short and lacks replayability
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Apple's iMac Still a Design Mess
By Mike on 11:46 am
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You can check out the whole disassembly process here.
PSP Going Retro? Maybe
By Mike on 11:42 am
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Aside from it's unique control scheme, one of the Wii's strongest features is its Virtual Console. Nintendo has compiled a list of classic games from systems like NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Master System, and TurboGrafx-16 that are available for download. This has renewed interest in retro gaming and has brought downloadable emulator into the legitimate realm. Sony has been a bit behind on bringing this kind of content to their systems. Some PSOne games are available but they are few and far between. With the company's renewed interest in it's portable PSP, Sony is talking about bringing third party retro content to the system. Retro games are ideal on a portable system since you're unteathered to the TV and they tend to be shorter and easier to pick up and play than more modern titles. Nothing has been confirmed as of yet but the idea sounds promising. I would expect we'll see a lot of arcade ports and console titles from people like Sega. It's unfortunate we can't play classic Nintendo titles on our PSPs (legally). Maybe Nintendo still has a chance of getting me to buy a DSi.
Source: Pocket Gamer
Gibson Guitar Hero Suit Tossed
By Mike on 6:22 pm
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Since when did law suits become a viable revenue stream for corporations? It's no wonder our courts are clogged. Seems every body and their brother is suing each other, sometimes for widely frivolous things. So is the case of instrument legend Gibson who sued Activision and several major retailers in March 2008 over the Guitar Hero controller. Gibson claimed that the controller infringed on US Patent 5,990,405, which covers "a system and method for generating and controlling a simulated musical concert experience." "Specifically, it details a head-mounted display that includes stereo speakers and is worn while playing an instrument along with a simulated concert" according to CNET.
The US District Court ruled that "as a general observation, no reasonable person of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would interpret the '405 Patent as covering interactive video games," stating that it only applied to devices with an analogue output. The court noted that Gibson's interpretation of the patent could apply from everything from "button of a DVD a pencil tapping a table" and that the case "border on the frivolous." The case was thrown out of court. The saga isn't over though. Still before the courts are Gibson's suit against Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart for selling the controller. Rock Band publisher MTV, Harmonix, and Electronic Arts are also under Gibson's legal corsairs. I must admit it's rather humourous seeing the entertainment industry sued for "IP theft", but what Gibson is doing is still an unethical business practice none the less.
Source: CNET
Apple Updates Mini, Confirms Rumours
By Mike on 12:09 pm
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Well, Apple has updated it's desktop line and has finally put new hardware in the Mini. Surprisingly, the rumours about the Mini seem to have been correct. The system does indeed feature five USB 2.0 ports, Firewire 800, and both a mini-displayport and mini-DVI. When stripped down to it's nuts and bolts, the hardware is identical to the new Macbooks; including a Geforce 9400M IGP, up to 4gb DDR3 1066, and either a 2.0ghz or 2.26ghz Core 2 Duo "Penryn". It also features 802.11n Wifi and a 120gb SATA HDD & DVD burner in the base model. It starts at $599.
The iMac has been upgraded. It comes with either a 20'' (1680x1050) screen or a 24'' (1920x1200) screen. Processors have been upgraded to either a 2.66ghz, 2.93ghz, or 3.0ghz Core 2 Duo "Penryn". All models support up to 8gb DDR3 1066 in SO-DIMM form factor. The 2.66ghz 20'' and 24'' use the Geforce 9400M while the faster 24'' models upgrade graphics to either a Geforce GT 120 256/512mb or Radeon 4850 512mb. Everything else is the same. The base model starts at $1199.
The Mac pro has been updated to feature Intel's new Xeon "Gainstown" processors, which are i7 based. The 8 core models feature either two 2.26GHz, 2.66GHz, or 2.93GHz processors while the four core model is speced at 2.66ghz or 2.93ghz. It uses up to 32gb of RAM for the 8-core model our 8gb for the quad core model using DDR3 1066 ECC memory. For graphics, there's either a Geforce GT 120 512mb or Radeon 4870 512mb card. The system is quite expensive at $2499. Even for professionsals, I'm not sure it's worth it given that it no longer offers professional graphics cards with the bundle.
The updates really contain no surprises. Apple has moved their platforms to NVIDIA chipsets as they did with the Macbook and all now support DDR3. Unfortunately, there are no blu-ray drives, professional graphics cards, or HDMI available for any of the systems. Apple needs to start adding these features to justify the high price of their systems in a recession.
End of the Line for Xbox 1
By Mike on 2:42 pm
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Microsoft has announced that they will no longer be servicing original Xbox models no longer covered by warranty. If the system is still covered by warranty, which is very unlikely at this point, Microsoft will still honour it but will either direct you to a third party repair centre or cajole you into upgrading to a 360.
The original Xbox was an excellent console, unlike its RRoD afflicted younger brother. Microsoft was quick to drop software support for the first big green, which ended in 2005. This in comparison to Sony who chose to continue supporting the Playstation 2, which is still in production as a low cost alternative and still has software being developed for it. The 360 is backwards compatible with most original Xbox titles.
Source: The Register
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We are All Scientists
What is this?
My friend Gus exclaimed this question once. We were excitedly discussing curiosity and the “purpose” of life. He concluded it simply: to answer that question. From the moment a human has consciousness, he is attempting to answer that question. Watch a baby. A toddler is better. The curiosity is so easy to spot!
Sadly, many people lose their curiosity. We can change that. I have a simple solution and it is simply to ask a question over and over…
What happens if…?
This question guides our life without our knowing. In social situations, we constantly test our ideas by talking. In other words, we are asking, “What happens if I say this?” If others respond nicely, then we will continue to talk about whatever it was we were talking about. This explains why kittens are all over the internet. Everyone loves kittens. However, this also explains why we avoid topics such as politics and religion because those can steer us into a heated debate.
We also use this question in personal situations, such as how much our body can withstand. Running the Bix 7 is an example. Many people see if they can beat their old time. So, they are asking, “What happens to my Bix 7 time if I train a little harder?” I set little challenges quite often, such as biking 45 miles to my Dad’s house — the farthest I’ve biked before was around 15 miles.
By asking the question repeatedly, we can get our curiosity back. And being curious is the first step to being a scientist. Great. You are a scientist. So, what do you create as a scientist?
Models – The Products of Science
Above is the model of the solar system (credit: Nassam Haramein). Scientists have continuously modified the model to better fit the collected data. We’ve gone from Earth-centered to Sun-centered, to Sun-moving models of the solar system in order for it to better reflect reality. Note the fact that it changed in order to better reflect reality.
We all have our own models of how the universe works. We begin developing our model at an early age. For example, we might conclude that rocks sink in water. Or, the closer we get to a heat source, the warmer we are. Also, we may learn to beware of strangers. But, do our models reflect reality?
Do rocks always sink? I was surprised to find a rock, which I believe is limestone, floating when I placed it in water. Not until the gaps filled with water did it sink.
Is the temperature higher every time we are closer to a heat source? Our winters occur when we are closest to the Sun — I live in the Northern Hemisphere.
Should we beware of strangers? I’m not sure on this one. I know I don’t pursue random conversations in part because of this piece of my model. Though, when I do talk to random people I have always come away alive and well.
We should spend time evaluating our models of reality. Like the model of the solar system has changed, our models will likely require changes to best reflect reality. The one good thing about being a scientists is that it is okay to be wrong as long as you correct your model!
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1. [ noun ] (zoology) an animal that produces gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes (spermatozoa)
Related terms: male animal dam hen
2. [ adjective ] (biology) being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces fertilizable gametes (ova) from which offspring develop
"a female heir" "female holly trees bear the berries"
Related terms: male androgynous biology pistillate egg-producing feminine sex
3. [ noun ] a person who belongs to the sex that can have babies
Synonyms: female_person
Related terms: male person woman female_child woman foster-sister foster_sister girl_wonder female_offspring female_body
4. [ adjective ] characteristic of or peculiar to a woman
Synonyms: distaff
"female sensitiveness" "female suffrage"
Related terms: feminine
5. [ adjective ] for or composed of women or girls
"the female lead in the play" "a female chorus"
Related terms: feminine
Similar spelling: Fenley
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Main Page
From Theoryland
Revision as of 10:49, 29 May 2017 by Kaminem64 (talk | contribs)
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Thoeryland is an attempt to gather all theories that could help expand our understanding about human behavior.
To learn how to format your wiki article, please visit this Formatting article.
Use Theory Template to add a new theory, if you could not find the theory from the list bellow.
What is theory?[edit]
Theories put phenomena into meaningful systems. A theory simplifies and explains a complex real-world phenomenon. A good theory not only describes the who, what, and where of a phenomenon being investigated, but also explains the how, when, and why it occurs (Whetten 1989). A theory is an explanation of relationships among concepts or events within a set of boundary conditions. The bellow figure is a diagram of the core components in this definition of a theory (Bacharach 1989). These components include terms (concepts, constructs, variables, or events), relationships among terms (propositions and hypothesis), assumptions (boundary conditions within which these relationships hold in time, space, and value contexts), and explanations (arguments that provide reasons for the expected relationships) (Van de Ven 2007).
Following Kaplan (1964), the meanings of the following terms are often distinguished by their levels of abstraction (Van de Ven 2007):
• Theoretical Concepts: An abstract term that is semantically defined by its association or usage with other terms that are not directly observable.
• For example, at the most abstract conceptual level an organization’s social structure might be defined as the formal (not informal) configuration of roles and authority relationships existing among participants within (not outside of) an organization. A role refers to the expected set of behaviors of a person occupying an organizational position, and authority refers to the formally prescribed power relationships among roles in an organization.
• Theoretical Constructs: A middle-range term that references constitutive components of a concept, but the component parts are not directly observable.
• For example, at a construct level, organizational social structure might be analytically separated into three components of authority relationships among roles: (1) centralization of decision making authority; (2) formalization of rules, policies, and procedures; and (3) complexity, or the number and interdependence of role relationships.
• Observable Variables or Events: An operational term that speciWes the activities or operations necessary to measure it.
• For example, at a concrete level, the formalization of rules (one construct of the social structure concept) might be observed by measuring the number and specificity of rules in job manuals for various role positions in the organization.
Concepts and Constructs[edit]
Basic Definitions[edit]
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A one-pound boat that could float 1,000 pounds
The material's made from an aerogel composed of the tiny nano-fibrils from the cellulose in plants, and has remarkable mechanical properties flexibility, as well as lightness. It's features of aerogels that enable insects such as water striders to walk on water, they say.
"These materials have really spectacular properties that could be used in practical ways," says Olli Ikkala of the Helsinki University of Technology.
Potential applications, he says, include cleaning up oil spills.
The material is not only highly buoyant, but can absorbing huge amounts of oil. It would float on the surface, absorbing the oil without sinking. Clean-up workers could then retrieve it and recover the oil.
Other possibilities include helping create such products as sensors for detecting environmental pollution, miniaturized military robots - and even children's toys and super-buoyant beach floats.
"It can be of great potential value in helping the world shift to materials that do not require petroleum for manufacture," Ikkala says.
"The use of wood-based cellulose does not influence the food supply or prices, like corn or other crops. We are really delighted to see how cellulose is moving beyond traditional applications, such as paper and textiles, and finding new high-tech applications."
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Public Wifi performance upped 700 percent
Their new software program, called WiFox, can be incorporated into existing networks, and acts as a 'traffic cop' for data. The more people are using it, the better it works.
WiFi users and the access point they're connected to have to send data back and forth via a single channel, meaning traffic can get clogged up. It's no good giving a permanently high priority to the access point, as users would then have trouble submitting their data requests.
WiFox, though, monitors the amount of traffic on a Wifi channel and grants an access point priority to send its data whenever it detects that the access point is developing a backlog of data.
But the amount of priority the access point is given depends on the size of the backlog.
The team tested the program on a real Wifi system in their lab, which can handle up to 45 users. And, they found, the more users on the system, the more it improved data throughput performance.
Improvements ranged from 400 percent with approximately 25 users to 700 percent when there were around 45 users. On average, the Wifi systemresponded four times faster than without WiFox.
"One of the nice things about this mechanism is that it can be packaged as a software update that can be incorporated into existing WiFi networks," says PhD student Arpit Gupta. "WiFox can be incorporated without overhauling a system."
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Good Stories from China: Return Precious Jade Intact to the State of Zhao
This story took place during the Warring States (771 – 221BC) where China was divided into seven major states, with the State of Qin being the strongest and the weakest being the State of Zhao.
The ruler of Zhao, Emperor Huiwen, acquired a piece of invaluable jade which was known as the Jade of He. Emperor Zhaoxiang of Qin heard the news and wanted to take the jade for himself. Being a stronger state, Qin sent an envoy to deliver a letter to the Emperor of Zhao, expressing his wish to exchange fifteen cities for the Jade of He.
This put the Emperor of Zhao in a dilemma. He feared that the Emperor of Qin might break his promise if he went through with the Qin Emperor's wishes. However, should he refuse the deal, the Emperor of Qin might invade his country. Minister Miu suggested to the Zhou Emperor that he should consult with Lin Xiangru, his personal adviser.
Lin Xiangru said to the Emperor of Zhao, “The State of Qin is strong while our state is weak, so I think it is very difficult for us to refuse the deal.” The Zhao Emperor replied, “What if the Emperor of Qin takes my jade but won't give me the cities in return?”
Lin replied immediately, “The State of Qin wants to exchange its cities for the jade. If we refuse, it is our fault. But on the contrary, if the Emperor of Qin receives the jade without giving us the cities, the fault lies with him. So, I think we'd better send the jade to the State of Qin.”
The Zhao Emperor said, “What you just said is reasonable. Then whom shall we send to the Qin Emperor as an envoy?” Without any hesitation, Lin replied, “Your Great Majesty, if you have no better person at your service, I would like to go. If the Emperor of Qin keeps his promise and gives the cities to our state, I will give the jade to him. If he breaks his promise, I will see to it that the jade be brought back to you intact.”
Then the Zhao Emperor sent Lin on a journey to the west towards the State of Qin.
Upon meeting the Qin Emperor, Lin presented the jade to him. The Emperor was extremely pleased and he showed the jade to his concubines and everyone around him, all of whom exclaimed their praises to His Majesty. Lin saw that the Qin Emperor had no intention of giving the State of Zhao fifteen cities in exchange. He straightened himself, walked to the Emperor and said, “The Jade of He is the rarest treasure in the world but it has a minor flaw. Let me show it to you,” and Qin Emperor returned the jade to Lin.
Taking the jade from the King's hand, Lin immediately took a few steps backward and stopped in front of a large column. Anger made his hair stand up straight and prepared himself for what he was to say.
He said to the Emperor, “Your Majesty sent a message to the Emperor of Zhao that you wish to have this jade. When the Zhao ministers heard this, they all worried that the State of Qin is greedy and wants to have the jade without giving us the cities in exchange. I thought that even ordinary people would not cheat in a mutual exchange, let alone a powerful state. In addition, we do not want to make Qin unhappy over a piece jade.”
He continued, “The Emperor of Zhao fasted for five days, and then asked me to present the jade to you. Why did he do this? He respects the power of your state. Now I am here, but you have received me without ritual and with arrogance. You took the jade to show off to others. I see you have no intention to give Zhao the cities in return, so I have decided to take the jade back. If Your Majesty forces me to give the jade to you then I will smash my head with the jade on this column and break it into pieces.” Having said this, he posed himself ready to smash his head on the jade. Fearing that Lin would break the jade into pieces, the Qin Emperor immediately had a map fetched and marked out fifteen cities in Qin for the Kingdom of Zhao. By this time, Lin saw through the Qin Emperor's facade. Lin made up an excuse and told the Qin Emperor that he would be engaged in fasting for five days to show his sincerity and respect for the jade and by then, could he give the jade to the Qin Emperor.
The Emperor of Qin saw he could not obtain the jade by force. In order to obtain the jade, he promised to fast for five days as well. Lin made good use of this chance and arranged a disguised subordinate to take the jade secretly back to Zhao.
Five days later, the Qin emperor learned that Lin had returned the jade to the State of Zhao. He was very angry but understood that killing him would result in no gain and would injure the relationship with Zhao. He treated Lin with a proper ritual and sent him back to Zhao. Upon returning, Lin Xiangru was promoted to serve in the Zhao court.
Later on, the Chinese colloquial phrase, “return the jade intact to the state of Zhao” (wan bi gui zhao) came to be used to refer to the act of returning something to its original owner safe and sound.
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Danziger & De Llano
We're standing by to help.
The history of the discovery, diagnosis, treatment, and causes of the cancer we now know as mesothelioma and associate with asbestos exposure, is long and filled with controversy. It has been a tricky type of cancer to figure out and today it remains a difficult type of cancer to diagnose and to treat. The history of mesothelioma includes its discovery as a unique type of cancer, its association with asbestos, and the history of regulating asbestos and making workplaces, schools, buildings, and ships safer for those people who might otherwise be exposed to the dangerous mineral.
Mesothelioma’s Discovery: The Early Years
Joseph Lieutaud, a French pathologic anatomist, is credited with being the first medical professional to refer to a tumor of the chest wall. He studied several thousand autopsies in the 1700s in France and found two cases of what he termed “pleural tumors.” In the 1800s, more cases of such tumors were discovered, but critics of the idea of a cancer of the pleura rejected many of these cases and insisted that the tumors were secondary, that a primary tumor must exist elsewhere in the body.
The first mention of peritoneal mesothelium occurred in 1854.This is the type of mesothelioma that first impacts the lining of the abdominal cavity. The discovery was made by a pathologist, von Rokitansky, who had previously discounted the idea of a cancer of the mesothelium. He called the peritoneal cancer that he discovered, colloid cancer, but later study deemed it likely that he had actually been describing the first known case of peritoneal mesothelioma.
Throughout the late 1800s and early twentieth century, a few more cases of mesothelioma were discovered and described in more detail by pathologists. The first use of the term mesothelioma occurred in 1920 as pathologists described a young man’s tumor as “primary mesothelioma of the pleura.” The name caught on, but other experts continued to fight against the idea that there could be a primary tumor of the pleura.
Mesothelioma and Asbestos
The first possible report of mesothelioma connected to asbestos was made in 1933 when a review of asbestosis cases determined that there were complications that included tumors. The reviewer, S. Roodhouse Gloyne, concluded that cancer in the pleura of one patient was not related to asbestosis, but in the light of modern evidence it seems that this might be the first described cases of mesothelioma in a patient known to have been exposed to asbestos.
Beginning in the 1940s, more cases were discovered of people with asbestosis developing malignant tumors. In an early study of asbestos workers in Germany, a pathologist reported on the autopsies of 29 individuals, two of whom showed signs of pleural malignancies. Twenty percent of the workers had some type of malignancy. This was one of the first studies to conclude that there was some connection between asbestos and cancer.
Several studies in the following years found more evidence of connections between asbestos, asbestosis, respiratory illness, cancer, and specifically cancer of the pleura. By the 1950s there were also cases that connected asbestos to peritoneal mesothelioma. In one patient, asbestos fibers were actually found within the peritoneal tumor.
Finally, in 1960, a paper now considered seminal was published: “Diffuse Pleural Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure in the Northwestern Cape Providence.” This study investigated 33 patients with mesothelioma, all of whom had been exposed to a certain type of asbestos mined in part of South Africa. Mesothelioma was rarely seen in any other part of the country, and so the researchers made a definitive conclusion that asbestos was related to mesothelioma of the pleura. The same year, another study was published that described a mesothelioma patient with known, long-term exposure to asbestos. He had asbestos fibers in the biopsy sample of his tumor, which strengthened the connection.
Asbestos and Mesothelioma in the United States
An important study of asbestos and its relationship to mesothelioma was published in the U.S. in 1964. A physician, Dr. Selikoff, reported on the results of studying over 1,000 Union Asbestos & Rubber Company factory workers from Patterson, New Jersey. Among other things, these workers produced asbestos insulation for the U.S. Navy.
Dr. Selikoff concluded that these workers had a mortality rate that was 25 percent higher than the average for similar demographics. The workers died from asbestosis, lung cancer, and other types of cancer. Several other studies and reports followed this one and further cemented the conclusion that asbestos exposure in U.S. workers contributed to cancer and to mesothelioma in particular.
By the early 1970s, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began to set and update standards for exposure to asbestos in the workplace. In 1971 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared that asbestos was a hazardous pollutant. Following this the agency instituted several bans of asbestos-containing products, largely in the construction industry. In 1989 the EPA instituted a ban that included nearly all products with asbestos, but this ban was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1991.
A Legal Milestone
In 1969, Borel vs. Fiberboard Paper Products Corporation was the first legal case to recognize that manufacturers of asbestos-containing products have a responsibility to warn workers of the risks of being exposed to asbestos. Borel developed asbestosis after years of working in shipyards with products made by the Fiberboard Paper Products Corporation. Four years later his victory over the company was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Over the next ten years, there would be over 16,000 liability and personal injury cases related to asbestos exposure.
In 1982, two major manufacturers of asbestos-containing products declared bankruptcy: the Union Asbestos & Rubber Company and Johns Manville. Both companies were facing numerous lawsuits over asbestos exposure, mesothelioma, and other asbestos illnesses. Over the next several years, nearly 50 other companies would go bankrupt for the same reason.
Treatment History
The treatment strategies used for mesothelioma have developed rapidly over the last 60 years. The surgical treatment of pleural tumors began in the 1940s when doctors began performing pneumonectomies to remove a lung or a part of a lung. In the 1960s, pleurectomies were performed and are still in use today to remove the pleural tissue. By the 1970s some doctors had tried an aggressive and risky type of surgery called extrapleural pneumonectomy, which removes all of a lung, all of the pleura from one side of the chest, part of the diaphragm, and lymph nodes.
Over the years of treating mesothelioma, there have also been developments in chemotherapy, with new drugs and combinations of drugs being discovered. The first uses of radiation to treat mesothelioma began in the 1950s. Today, multimodal treatment is the most common approach. This involves using one or more types of treatment to attack the cancer. Now, researchers are working on using nanoparticles to deliver genetic factors and chemotherapy drugs directly to mesothelioma tumors.
The history of mesothelioma and asbestos goes back several hundred years, but today our understanding of the disease and what causes it is still not perfectly clear. Researchers continue to study the connection between asbestos and cancer and how mesothelioma develops when there is no exposure to asbestos. They also continue to work on newer and better treatments in the fight against this terrible disease.
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Slippery Slope: Government Undermining of Civil Liberties
“Clematius, an utterly innocent man, was put to death without being allowed to open his mouth or speak.
After this act of wickedness, which, now that cruelty had been given free rein, aroused fears that it would be repeated in other cases, a number of people were found guilty and condemned through mere misty suspicion. Of these some were put to death; others suffered confiscation of their property and were driven into exile from their homes; left with no resource but complaints and tears they supported life on the charity of others, and when what had been a just constitutional government was transformed into a gloody despotism many rich and noble houses shut their doors. In the past savage emperors had often preserved the appearance of legality by preferring charges against their victims in the courts of law, but now even a counterfeit accusation was felt to be superfluous; as one mischief was heaped upon another whatever the implacable Caesar had resolved was immediately put into effect, as if it had all the force of a deliberate legal decision.“–Ammianus Marcellinus The Later Roman Empire (AD 453-378)(Tr. Walter Hamilton), London: Penguin Classics, 2004).
Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman military officer and historian, chronicled the decline of the superpower of his day.
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Dust, Donkeys and Delusion
The Myth of Simpson and his Donkey Exposed
Dust, Donkeys and Delusion examines and clinically debunks the myth that has grown up around Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, the so-called "Man with the Donkey", the quintessential Australian "hero" of Gallipoli. While the various elements of the Simpson myth have now become popularly accepted as "history", Dust, Donkeys and Delusionshows clearly, based on historical documents, both official and unofficial, that almost every word ever spoken or written about Simpson following his death is false.
There is no question that Simpson performed valuable work at Gallipoli using a donkey to transport lightly wounded men to medical facilities. However, claims made that Simpson "saved 300 men"; that he "ignored orders" that medical personnel were not to go out to recover wounded as it was too dangerous; that, in performing his self-appointed task he was a "deserter" who would probably have been court-martialled and shot had he been in the British Army; that he was an ill- behaved insubordinate with discipline problems; that he made "lightning dashes" into no man’s land to rescue wounded men under enemy fire; these and every other posthumous statement made about Simpson are examined in forensic detail, and found to be highly inaccurate. In particular, the book examines that part of the myth connected with the supposed "official recommendation" for a Victoria Cross for Simpson, a campaign that continues to this day.
Dust, Donkeys and Delusion does not criticise John Simpson Kirkpatrick himself, recognising that he bears no blame for the nonsensical myth that have grown up around him. The book is very much an attack on the myth and has been written to strip away the layers of half-truth, mistruth and untruth that have surrounded Simpson since the time of his death, revealing the man himself, while at the same time correcting the historical record. Dust, Donkeys and Delusion also seeks to rehabilitate the memory of other soldiers who served at Gallipoli, particularly Simpson’s fellow stretcher-bearers.
Soft cover, 416 pages.
Related Items
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2. Wartime magazine issue 77
3. Fighting to the finish: the Australian Army and the Vietnam War, 1968-1975
Fighting to the finish tells the story of the Australian Army in Vietnam during the period of Australias largest and mos…
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Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx)
Arabian oryx
You can find us opposite the meerkat enclosure close to Cafe Graze
Fast facts
Status Vulnerable
Size Head and body: 153-235cm. Tail length: 45-90cm
Weight 54-75kg, males tend to be bigger than females.
Gestation 8 months
Young 1
Life span Unknown in the wild, around 20 years in captivity.
What do I eat?
Arabian oryx are grazers and will eat different types of grasses, but they are also known to eat herbs, shrubs, buds, bulbs and roots. They will gain the moisture they need to survive from the plants they eat and can go for long periods without drinking, but will drink if water is available.
To stay cool and to avoid the heat from the sun, these antelope are mostly active early in the day and later in the evening, and can be seen resting in shade during the day.
They use their front hooves to make small ditches or depressions in the ground so they can lie in the cool sand; and to protect themselves from high winds they can rest close to shrubs and trees.
Where do I live?
Arabian oryx live in arid plains and sand dunes.
These antelope were once found in many areas across the Arabian Peninsula, including Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Sinai in Egypt. Sadly due to overhunting these animals were classed as Extinct in the Wild in 1972.
With the help of conservation efforts and reintroduction programmes, there are now populations of Arabian oryx found in areas of Oman, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Arabian oryx are social animals and can be seen in groups of around 10 individuals but they have also been seen in larger groups of up to 100! Most of these smaller groups consist of a male and females with their young. These antelope do not have a particular breeding season, as they can give birth at any time.
A female will have one calf at a time, and they are born with a brown coat with markings on their tail and knees. The young are weaned from their mother by 3½ to 4½ months and will look like the adults with their white colouring at around 6 months old.
Arabian oryx are mature and able to breed from 2½ to 3½ years old.
Due to their large size and horns adult Arabian oryx are rarely hunted by other animals. However oryx calves may be targeted by predators such as jackals.
These animals have faced many problems linked with hunting, for both food sport, and for live-capture for private collections. After World War II the populations of wild Arabian oryx were heavily hunted at a fast rate, as there was an increase in the use of firearms and motorised transport to hunt these animals. This led to the Arabian oryx becoming extinct in the wild by 1972, which is when the last wild recorded animal was hunted.
Some Arabian oryx were taken in to captivity during the 1960s, and a captive breeding programme was put in place to protect the species. This has since led to reintroduction programmes in Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel, and in 2008 it was estimated that populations of now wild Arabian oryx grew to around 1,100 animals. These antelope can still be found in animal collections worldwide and many are part of captive breeding programmes. Conservation efforts are still ongoing in the wild to protect the species for the future, and the reintroduction of the Arabian oryx is considered to be a great success story.
Did you know?
Arabian oryx are well adapted for life in the desert, as their white coat helps to reflect the rays from the sun and their hooves are splayed to prevent them sinking in to the sandy ground.
Both male and female Arabian oryx have long straight horns that can reach around 68cm long!
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the bare foot circumstance Vibram Womens shoes
Primitive guy I assume ran bare foot using the possibility of using some type of footwear such as wooden sandals or animal hide. Wondering how our ancestors ran and protected their foot before the running shoe, there is no doubt they endured immense hardships. Having said that given that its discovery, pretty handful of changes have been made to the humble running shoe. While the modern shoe could possibly have not changed a lot other than being more comfy to wear; it really is interesting to note that additional and extra research is being carried out in order to increase running performance.An interesting article was published in the "Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness" that carried out an experiment to understand how changes inside the mechanical characteristics from the foot as well as the shoe-earth interface affects
the spatio-temporal variables, ground pressure distribution and other parameters in bare foot running. The other aim of the research was to examine if the Vibram five fingers footwear could essentially mimic the effects of running bare foot or not. The result with the experiments showed that during shod conditions, the runners landed in extra plantar flexion in the ankle. The plantar flexion motion is often defined as something that increases the 90 degree between tibia and frontal part with the body. They researchers conclude that Vibram 5 fingers footwear are useful in mimicking the bare foot circumstance and deliver a particular level of protection towards the foot.References and more reading:Squadrone R, Gallozzi C. 2009. Biomechanical and physiological comparison of barefoot and two shod conditions in experienced barefoot runners. J Sports Med Phys Fitness.
Vibram Womens shoes
Vibram mens shoes
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Smoking isn't cool… It’s DEADLY!
Did You Know…About 400,000 people die each year from diseases caused by smoking?
-Smoking causes heart disease, lung cancer, and other serious health problems.
-Besides being deadly, smoking makes your clothes, hair, and breath stink; turns your teeth yellow; and is a real turn off.
-Smoking is expensive.
-Smoke can cause wheezing, coughing, colds, earaches, asthma attacks, pneumonia, bronchitis,and lung cancer in nonsmokers.
The earlier people start smoking, the harder it is for them to quit when they’re older. Two out of every three teens who use tobacco at age 18 become adult users.
Tobacco companies spend billons of dollars every year trying to get people hooked on cigarettes........Don’t let them fool you!
Life is beautiful...Enjoy!
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The Importance of Ergonomics
Ergonomic principles are used to make a workplace suitable for the employees. Making beneficial changes improves the safety and productivity, but what about occupations with variable conditions. According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, truck drivers top the list of professionals who lose the most time from work due to work-related injuries. The musculoskeletal injuries of the low back are the greatest concern. So what changes can be made to improve the conditions of long haul drivers?
Understanding the Full Occupation
The back breaking work of truck driving is not just in the long hours behind the wheel. To begin with truck drivers are exposed to continual vibration and bouncing, which can cause trauma not only to the muscles, tendons, joints, but the nerves of the entire musculoskeletal system. Add to this the loading and unloading of heavy items from the truck, and attaching and detaching the trailer and you have the prefect recipe for developing a work-related injury. Unfortunately, simply getting out of the cab can be problematic, as one of the most common causes of injuries to the upper extremities in truck drivers comes from slipping off the truck step and grabbing the handle bar to keep from falling.
Important Tips for Reducing the Chance of Injury:
1. During any work activity, people should be comfortable and assume a number of different postures and not remain in one position for an extended time. Muscles will fatigue and be more prone to injury when assuming a particular posture for to long. The best posture for a driver is an upright position where the lumbar is supported in a correct and comfortable curve. The head should be back over the shoulders and in a relaxed neutral state.
2. When performing tasks after prolonged sitting remember to stretch the muscles first. It will also be important to keep the joints either in their neutral posture or approximately halfway into the range of motion during the task. Working with your joints at the extremes of their ranges of motion for prolonged periods places abnormal stresses on them and can cause repetitive stress injuries.
3. When lifting from the floor, keep your back straight and lift with the legs. Do not bend over at the waist and lift with the muscles of the low back. Your body is more easily injured in this position. Keep the object being lifted close to your body. Keep your elbows flexed. Keep your head up and your neck straight as you lift.
4. Most importantly an assessment of your spinal health. This assessment will better enable the practitioner to begin to address any injuries that may already be affecting your health.
For Truckers, getting spinal care can mean the difference between staying comfortably on the road and being laid up in bed for days at a time with back pain and other injuries. Luckily, more chiropractors are setting up offices at truck stops across the country, which allows the 2.5 million long-haul truck drivers to get spinal treatment while they are on the road.
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Irradiating Minerals
All about irradiating Minerals
Cartoon of a Quartz Crystal being radiated
You’re getting my Aluminum Ions all Fired Up!!
Part of the fun of learning about minerals is learning the various ways that they are different. Soon someone becomes intrigued with “How” these changes are made, and experiments are attempted. This is the way that we learn. And there can be those who detest such experimentation, but this is the way that so much has been learned in the past.
There are few ways to get a quick resulting change in a mineral that exposing it to high doses of radiation. In nature, this would happen over years and years of time. But with modern technology, some irradiation projects can literally be accomplished over night.
I once talked to a collector of quartzes and natural glasses who got a night job working with someone who worked with an x-ray machine in a hospital. Now, I am not condoning abusing your job or misusing equipment, but his tenacity spoke of his strong desire to learn and see what was actually possible by way of radiation exposure.
The affect of light in revealing various minerals in certain formations was first suggested over half a century ago.
The affects of irradiation upon silica gel can effect various impurities or minerals within the substance. Many minerals have been observed to follow the same trends of silica gel. Brazilian agates and quartz both turn smokey when subjected to overnight irradiation because they both contain aluminium impurities in them.
The most reactive and sensitive to radiation is crystalline quartz. The ability to inject or introduce certain impurities into a substance truly alters the ability to manipulate color, and variance in a substance.
There are four main kinds of impurities that might be found in certain silicon agents.
1. A monovalent cationic impurity atom
2. A monovalent anion
3. Half an oxygen vacancy
4. A positive hole
The type of color that is revealed through irradiation depends upon what pre-existing defects that might already be present in the substance.
The study and knowledge required to be able to understand and even predict that types of minerals that can be introduced in the creation process of a mineral or quartz in order to have the desired resulting color is a remarkably intricate application.
These attempts at human intervention in the creation process of minerals should not be considered a forgery or an affront upon the abilities of nature, but rather a compliment of the abilities of nature to be able to create a more precise and more beautiful specimen.
I have always adhered to the belief that any of these experiments and achievements that are used to bring attention to and appreciation for rocks and minerals can only be viewed as a good thing.
When we are tempted to be put off by or offended by man’s desire to interfere or to arbitrate in the processes of nature we should see these attempt at imitate nature should be considered the purest form of compliment!
Treatment of Spodumene (Kunzite/Hiddenite)
Hiddenite is unaffected by irradiation but are made slightly lighter under UV; yellow or yellow-green are unchanged under Ra, or, if anything, made slightly lighter.
Studies have shown that X-rays make hiddenites slightly darker, whereas radium rays take on a slightly lighter color.
It has also been observed that hiddenites, when heated in oxygen, become pale gray but greener when heated in reducing atmospheres.
Kunzites, under X-ray turn green, fading quickly under light, and even more quickly when heated to 200° – 250° C (392° – 482° F);
they have been observed to go green under UV, and from colorless to green under X-rays.
Under radium,Californiakunzite changes from variably from pink to colorless to green, and finally, blue, when heated or exposed to sunlight, before returning to pink – although darker than previous.
Kunzites when pink bleached at 500° C (932° F) and exposed to radium turned green, however when heated to 200° C (392° F) or exposed to sunlight, the pink returned.
The last pink did not bleach at all after heating for 24 hrs. at 250° C (482° F).
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How to Create Icons
by eHow Computers Editor
Icons shown on a computer desktop or on the Internet can easily identify a program or a website. Create your own custom icons by using icon design software. You can use the program's tools to design the shape of your icon, or use images from a clip art library. Most of these software programs can be downloaded online.
Download a Windows- or Mac-compatible icon design program, such as Icon Composer, Microangelo or Photoshop. Open the program, then choose the size for the icon. Most icons are viewable in three pixel sizes-16x16, 32x32 and 48x48. The icon should be small enough so that you don't have ragged edges.
Pick the icon colors, which may vary in shades of red, orange, yellow, blue or green. Sketch your design idea on a separate sheet of paper if you want to produce an original icon. Make sure that the image relates to the concept of the webpage or computer program. Pick an image from the icon program's library if you prefer not to draw.
Return to the icon design program. Use the tools menu to draw the image on-screen, using the color palette options in Step 2. If you didn't sketch an image, edit the clip art that you chose. Go to the "File" menu to select the new image command, then import the clip art.
Go to the "Tools" menu, then scroll to "Add Drop Shadow." The shadow effect should be applied so that the icon does not appear transparent on the screen. Next, scale the icon down to a smaller, 8-bit image. From the icon design program, pick the tool button that represents the new image format, then from the dialog box create a 256-color version of the icon.
Save the image under the new format, then use the color palette to remove any jagged edges with a pencil tool or something similar from the "Tools" menu. In the design program, change the work area to white to see how the icon appears. Follow the steps to export the new icon, then save it as a JPEG, GIF or PNG file on your computer's desktop.
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Saturday, May 2, 2009
What's the question?
Level: Any Level
Purpose: review question forms previously studied in class
Option A for smaller classes ( up to 20 students)
Option B for larger classes
REMEMBER: its is important to simulate the game once before the real competition starts.
Option A)
Form two teams (three will also work, but two seems to add just the right amount of competitive tension).
1. Have two players--one from each team--come to the front. Style it like a game show if you like, with the students standing side-by-side. If you have access to bells or buzzers, it's even more fun.
2.Next, read an answer to a question and say, 'What's the question?' The fastest player to respond wins a point for her/his team. New contestants come to the front for a new round.
Option B)
If your class is too big for option A, make groups.
Ensure you have at least 4 teams of between 5 and 6 students.
1. Each group creates a list of possible answers. The teacher (of a student ) gives answers of group 1 to group 2, group 2 to group 3…clockwise
This way every group has a set of answers that was created by another group.
2. Nominate: 1 person in each group as the moderator
The moderator acts as the teacher: he/she reads the answer and the other 5 say/ write the possible questions
3. Set a time. When the teacher sees some groups have finshed, each group passes the set of answers to the next group, clockwise. Nominate a different student as moderator. Repeat as long as students are working
Source :
Submitted by: Tim
Adapted by Maria Zabala
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September 10, 2013
Rubber Rabbitbrush
Ericameria nauseosa
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
Quick ID
In general, rabbitbrush looks a bit like Big Basin Sage--a scrubby shrub with grayish-tinged, woolly leaves. Like sagebrush, it's found in dry, open plains or disturbed sites, and grows from 1 to 6 feet high. The leaves are linear and alternate on flexible stems. The yellow flowers bloom late (August-October), blanketing the plains and slopes with the type of brilliant display most flora exhausted months ago. Being in the Asteraceae family, each flower is actually a loose cluster of mini-blooms known as "disc flowers", like the ones in the eye of a sunflower or daisy. The "ray flowers" that we know as petals in other Asteraceae species are absent in rabbitbrush.
Found up to 10,000', from Canada to Mexico, east of the Pacific mountain system and stretching to the Great Plains. Look for it growing near dryland bunchgrasses and shrubs like Big Basin Sage (Artemesia tridentata), Basin Wildrye (Leymus cinereus), Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) and Bluebunch Wheatgrass (Pseudoregenaria spicata).
What's in a Name?
The genus name Ericameria is relatively new to rabbitbrush. I'll spare you the taxonomy rant this time, and just say that I learned this plant as Chrysothamnus, a "golden thicket". Makes sense, right? But now this lovely Latin name that I've been sneakily slipping into casual conversation and engraving on my garden signs is no more, and we have Ericameria in its place. Erica is Greek for the heath plant, whose leaves are said to resemble those of the rabbitbrush.
The "nauseous" root in the species name is in reference to the strong smell the plant gives off, rather than the idea that ingesting it will make you sick. In fact, the plant's thick latex has been used for centuries as a sort of chewing gum (hence the "Rubber" part). It provides shelter for and is eaten by rabbits and other small mammals.
In some southern parts of the country, Rabbitbrush is known almost exclusively as Chamisa, from the Spanish word for brush or kindling, and ultimately derived from the Latin chama (--> flamma--> "flame").
The presence of rabbitbrush, which often grows on very poor soils, is considered a useful indicator that land is eroded or overgrazed. It can be an important winter forage for antelope, mule deer and elk on depleted rangelands, but is sometimes reported to be toxic to livestock.
The plant has a few adaptations that allow it to thrive in arid, inhospitable places. It's tolerant to a wide range of soil types, alkalinity, salinity, cold and drought. The felt-like fuzz covering the stems (technically known as trichomes) acts as insulation and reduces water loss. The light gray stems also reflect more heat than dark green leaves would, keeping the shrubs cool as a cuke in the harsh summer sun of the open prairie.
Historically, rabbitbrush has been used to make yellow or green dye, and prepared as a tea to help coughs and colds. The flexible twigs are good for baskets, and the seeds can be ground and used much like cornmeal.
People have been looking for a way to use the natural latex found in the roots and inner bark to produce rubber since the 1930s, but haven't found a commercially viable way to extract it. There is currently an investigation underway by the University of Nevada, looking at the potential of rabbitbrush as a multi-use industrial crop for biomaterial and bioenergy applications. Here's the interesting project summary.
Wild Gardening
Plants need about 4' of space, and take about 4 years to mature. They tend to produce a million branches, generally arising from a common point and not overtaking neighbor plants. New plants sprout up from the roots and can be divided, and the seeds germinate easily.These plants thrive in poor soils, and overwatering or fertilizing can produce leggy, sprawling growth. If your rabbitbrush is getting a little wily from growing in moist, rich soil, go ahead and give it a heavy pruning in early spring. Trimming till the branches along the stems are about 6" will make for more compact, bushy growth the next season.
Being a late bloomer, rabbitbrush fills an important niche both as an ornamental perennial and a fall pollen source for bees, flies and butterflies. To see this plant in late fall, spilling over with brilliant color and buzzing with hundreds of hungry and deprived insects, is really incredible. It tolerates fussing-over, but seems to delight in neglect: no extra water, no soil amendments, no pruning or deadheading. The soft, pale branches complement the muted palette of a xeric landscape perfectly, and provide a safe haven for nesting birds and other small animals.
The rubber rabbitbrush planted here provides a strong structural element to this native thicket. In the foreground is green rabbitbrush (Ericameria viscidiflorus), which tends to be a more compact shrub with lush yellow blooms.
September 4, 2013
Western Yarrow
Western Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Quick ID
Yarrow forms a spreading carpet of soft, fern-like leaves that grow 3-5" long and have a little silvery tinge to them. The flower stalks can get to be 3' tall (shorter where it's shaded) and are topped with clusters of creamy white flowers. Leaves and flowers alike have a distinctive smell, kind of sharp and pungent.
At first glance, the flowers of the native White Spiraea (Spiraea betulifolia) look an awful lot like yarrow, but on closer observation they're pretty different. Spiraea flowers (on the right in the photo above) have long stamens that waggle out past the petals, and the leaves are broad and toothed.
Tansy, blech!
There are plenty of non-native yarrows grown and sold at nurseries. These are the yellow and pink-flowered varieties, and they have a strong tendency to be weedy in gardens. There is also an invasive weed called Common Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) that's often mistaken for yarrow. It looks similar, but only in the crudest sense. Tansy is a pretty plant, but, ahem, a HUGE pain in the ass, devastating to native plant communities, impossible to get rid of, etc etc. Don't grow it. Don't pick a bouquet and give it to your honey. I see you looking at it with those doe eyes. But it's so yellllowww...! Quit it. It's bad. Tell your neighbors.
Western yarrow is circumboreal, meaning it occurs all throughout the northern (boreal) latitudes of the globe, including every state and province in North America. You find it especially in the west and central parts of Montana, in habitats ranging from streambanks to open hillsides to wooded forests.
What's in a Name?
Everything about yarrow is steeped in rich history, and its name is no exception. The common name comes directly from the old Saxon word for the plant, gearwe. The genus Achillea honors the Greek hero Achilles of the Trojan wars, and hints at this plant's long importance as a medicinal herb. Achilles was taught of yarrow's healing properties by Chiron, his centaur tutor. Achilles had no need of it himself, of course, having been rendered invulnerable to wounds due to a good dunking in the river Styx as a baby. The only spot that remained vulnerable was the small place where his mother Thetis pinched his heel as she dipped him in the water, and this is where Apollo shot the arrow that was the death of him. (Turns out Apollo was also the one who taught Chiron all that good stuff about plant medicines! Hmmm...) Anyhow, during his life as a war hero, Achilles is said to have carried the yarrow plant with him into battle to heal his soldiers' wounds. The fresh leaves are indeed a clotting agent, and can be used to staunch nosebleeds and bloody scrapes. For this reason, yarrow has also been known in the past as bloodwort, sanguinary, soldier's woundwort, stanchweed and thousand seal. The name for this blood-clotting alkaloid is achilleine, which is still used in modern medicine to suppress menstruation.
The species name millefolium literally means a thousand leaves, and leads to another common name for yarrow, "milfoil". Also included in the long list of traditional names is death flower, eerie, bad man's plaything (!), old man's mustard, seven year's love, knyghten, snake's grass and devil's nettle.
Yarrow isn't considered a great grazing plant for domesticated or wild animals. It's one of those "they'll eat it if they have to" plants, which makes it good for landscaping where deer are a problem. Milk from cows that graze on yarrow is considered "disagreeable" tasting, and I can tell you from experience that honey from a yarrow patch tastes...really weird. Very strong. Disagreeable, you might say. In fact, the alkaloids, volatile oils and glycosides in yarrow are so apparent, so in your face, that some people just can't stand it. Late in the summer, when the white flower clusters are starting to brown, the smell coming off a yarrow stand is strong. "Literally smells like vomit," says a friend of mine. Whelp, says I. Smells like yarrow. You either love it or you hate it. For me, it's both at the same time.
Those same smelly chemicals are what has made yarrow such an illustrious plant for thousands of years. The medicinal properties go on and on. Besides being a blood coagulant, it's also reported to be a good anti-inflammatory chest-rub for colds, induces sweats to break a fever, eases toothaches and earaches, soothes burns, brightens your eyes and repels mosquitoes. I believe it. If you dig up a bit of yarrow, you'll see little pink tips on the roots. Chew on these. They taste like carrots and make your tongue go all numb and tingly. There are powerful chemicals at work in this plant. I've never seen anyone poisoned from it, but it could happen. Don't say I didn't warn you. I have seen it be irritating to some people's skin.
Wild Gardening
In many ways, yarrow is a wild gardener's dream. It's so easy to grow from seed. Just wait till the flower heads are brown, shake them off into a bag, and make sure they're good and dry so you don't get mold. The seeds don't even need cold stratification; you can just sprinkle them on any old soil and they'll grow like gangbusters. They also transplant like nobody's business. I've literally yanked yarrow out of my yard, thrown it onto a patch of roughed up ground, done a two second "cover up, smoosh down and water," and had a healthy new yarrow patch within a week.
Obviously, this plant is tenacious. In an irrigated yard, it will take over if you let it. Maybe that's a good thing! I'm letting a chunk of my lawn get taken over this summer. It's nice because you don't have to mow it (it's a wildflower!) but if you do, it's fine. Just nice soft ferny lawn. Never have to water or fertilize. But this tenacity also means that stray yarrow plants are constantly popping up in every other part of my yard. I'm semi-okay with it, because the foliage is nice and I don't have to feel bad about ruthlessly yanking it out when it's gone too far. And it will go too far. So if you want a tidy controlled environment where everybody follows the rules and steps in time, yarrow's probably not for you. If you want a crazy-easy native plant that needs next to nothing in terms of upkeep, look no further. In fact, if you don't irrigate at all (and live in a really dry climate like ours) yarrow will be much less of a pain. So really what you should maybe do is go native, quit watering, and embrace wholeheartedly the plants like these that thrive on neglect.
Also, make sure you like the smell before you plant a bunch. Some people don't.
The pollinators love it though! Prolific flowers, nice big landing pad for bees and butterflies, and a long bloom season. The seed heads look really nice if you don't cut them, too, and add great winter interest to your landscape. Oh, yarrow.
One More Thing...
I don't suppose I've mentioned, here on Flora montana, my great love of story songs and old folk ballads, but there, I've said it. Oh I love them, and an old Scottish standard, The Dowie Dens of Yarrow, just happens to be one of my favorites. Especially Ewan MacColl's version. So good.
July 25, 2013
Red Baneberry
Red Baneberry
Actaea rubra
Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)
Quick ID:
Look in rich, moist thickets and shaded forests for this striking, relatively uncommon plant. It can grow up to three feet high, with flowers appearing in early to mid-summer as fluffy clusters atop tall stalks. The white flowers have lots of antenna-like stamens that wave out past the small petals. Soon, the flowers fade and stalks of bright red berries take their place.
The species and subspecies of Actaea are closely related and not always easy to distinguish. There is a white baneberry (A. pachypoda), but the red baneberry species (A. rubra) sometimes bears white fruit as well. True white baneberries have thicker pedicels (flower-bearing stalks) than the "red" species. You can recognize Actaea berries by the little buttons on their ends. The white berries, with their pupil-like spots, have been used in the past as eyes for children's dolls, hence one of the common names for the plant, "Doll's Eyes". Kind of creepy looking, if you ask me.
Found through the northern temperate zones of North America and Eurasia. In Montana, it's most likely to be spotted in the southern and western parts of the state (see the USDA range map)
What's in a Name?
The family name Ranunculaceae comes from the Latin rana, frog, in reference to its members' affinity for wet places. Actaea is the Latin name for a generally strong-smelling plant. The Greek aktea is the word for the elderberry tree (Sambucus sp.), whose leaves the baneberry resembles. Rubra is a ubiquitous species name meaning "red". The common name "baneberry" refers to its toxicity--bane ultimately comes from the ancient root gwhen-, "to murder or wound".
You might also hear baneberry called red cohosh, necklaceweed or snakeberry.
All parts of this plant are poisonous, with the toxin protoanemonin most concentrated in the berries and roots. Symptoms include "the usual"--vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, stomach cramps--but the toxin ultimately acts on your heart, and can cause circulatory failure. So don't eat it! That said, people have been eating this plant for thousands of years. North American Indian tribes have used a decoction of the roots to treat rheumatism, coughs and colds, and to improve the appetite. It is said to increase milk production after childbirth, and decrease excessive menstrual bleeding. A poultice of chewed leaves was used to soothe wounds, and there are several references to it being ingested to soothe stomach pains caused from swallowing hair. (Huh?) But once again, unless you're a trained professional, please, don't eat it. Eating as few as two berries can cause severe pain, and a few more can mean respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Baneberry is not, however, poisonous to livestock. Sheep and horses will graze on it when there's not much else around, and elk will eat the foliage in the fall (Actaea foliage stays green late in the season, after most plants have withered in the frost). Birds like Grouse, Gray Catbird (seen here), and American Robins also relish the berries, as do mice, squirrels, chipmunks and voles.
Wild Gardening:
Despite its murderous name, baneberry makes an excellent woodland garden perennial. The foliage is lush, the flowers and fruit are highly ornamental, and it can take part to full shade. It provides cover for small mammals and will attract songbirds to your yard. Plants are not hard to find at nurseries, particularly those specializing in natives. If you do decide to try propagating from seed, remember that, like many wildflowers, they need a period of cold stratification before they'll germinate, and it might take two seasons to get them to sprout. Naturalize along with other moisture-loving species like twinberry, horsetail, thimbleberry, sedge, alder and aspen for a lush, verdant woodland garden.
July 8, 2013
Scrophulariaceae (The Figwort Family)
What's in a Name?
It's most often told that "penstemon" is from the Greek for five stamens, but the word may actually be derived from the Latin for "almost a thread (stamen)," in reference to it's sterile fifth "staminode". And while the new family, Plantaginacea (more on all this later...), is from Plantago (L. "plantain"), the Scrophulariaceae family has a much more interesting naming story.
Now, a word about names.
Am I allowed to love etymology and loathe taxonomy?
Meriwether Lewis' 1806 specimen
I remember when I started to learn botanical Latin; how the whole world opened up in a new way. I love the roots hidden in the names of plants, and the puzzles. In them, we can hear the real words of Pliny and Virgil and Theophrastus. Cornus. Acer. Betula. Salix. There's Greek and Latin, medieval history and ancient mythology. Calypso. Achillea. Hypericum. Traditional languages and foods and medicines. Poisons. Camassia. Lavandula. Apocynum. Many names are metaphorical, a poetic interpretation of the plant. Echinops. Pteris. Ipomoea. We learn their color, their parts, the way they hold themselves, where they come from and how they grow. The way they taste. Ranunculus. Sylvestris. Aquilegia. Saccharum. We learn who has stolen the botanist's heart. Aloysia. Luciliae. Many were named during the surge of scientific curiosity that marked the Age of Enlightenment, when botanical exploration was much more harrowing than it generally seems today. The explorers who "discovered" and documented and named these North American species often had epic, adventurous times doing so, and the tales of their expeditions are full of drama, danger and mystery. Charles Darwin and Lewis and Clark are famous for their discoveries, but there are tales to tell in all the lives of David Douglas, Thomas Nuttall, John Lindley, John Charles Fremont, William Baldwin, William Darlington, Frederick Pursh, Joseph Dalton Hooker, John Torrey, Archibald Menzies, John Bartram...and so many others. There's a lifetime of stories behind these plant names, and I tend to grow attached to them. They're part of my story too, of my growing and learning and exploring my own world.
I learned the Penstemon species when they were in the Scrophulariaceae family, as they have been for 150 years. For me, penstemon is the poster-child scroph, with its puckered, pouty lips. In my heart, this is where they belong, alongside the monkeyflowers and blue-eyed marys. But while the sport of taxonomy is full of mysteries and stories of its own, it's also a notorious pain in the ass. Full of unpronounceable, impossible to remember words that are always changing. For a word-romantic like myself it could be maddening, if not for this simple, secret coping mechanism: I just ignore it. It's very un-scientific of me, I know, and very stubborn. But as far as I'm concerned, penstemons are figworts and not plantains and in my heart of hearts, there they shall remain. Molecular phylogenies be damned.
Quick ID
There is a bit of variation in this genus, but the flowers are distinct. Most are shades of purple, some leaning more towards blue or pink (even red). White flowers are pretty common too, and there are a couple of yellow species. All have five petals, fused into a tube at the base and flared out into two upper and three lower lips at the ends. Inside the tube you'll find five stamens--one sterile (the staminode), the other four bearing anthers. The plants are usually anywhere from 3" to 30" tall, some woodier than others, with simple, opposite leaves growing in clusters near the base of flower stalks.
Penstemon is the largest genus of flowering plants in North America with over 270 species. Thirty-six of them are listed in Montana, with many of these designated as "species of concern" and only found in very localized areas. They are also commonly called beardtongues. Flowers in the genus Keckiella, found in the southwest, are also commonly known as penstemons or beardtongues, and are actually the progenitors of the Penstemon genus we have today. The ones I encounter most often in western Montana are Wilcox (P. wilcoxii), small blue (P. procerus) and fuzzytongue (P. eriantherus). They're easy to tell apart, although you might encounter plants that look very similar to each that are a different species entirely.
In general, Wilcox penstemon is the classic, tall, super showy blue-lipped flower that you see all over rocky slopes just about the time the larkspur are beginning to fade. They form basal rosettes of glabrous (hairless), narrow eye-shaped leaves, a couple inches long, that tend towards a reddish-purple edge. Flower stalks generally reach ~12-18", but can be over two feet tall if the plants have access to more water. The flowers are light-bluish to deep purple and are just stunning.
The small-flowered, somewhat woody Penstemon procerus is also common, with its stalks standing at attention. You'll find this one in wetter places like meadows and gullies. The plants and individual flowers are about 1/3 - 1/2 the size of the larger Wilcox variety, and tend to be darker shades of purple. The leaves are also much more narrow and lanceolate.
Fuzzytongue penstemon is a knockout--one of my all-time favorites. It's soft, small, and has a mesmerizing flower. The tube formed by the petals is cavernous and very mouthlike, with the four anther-bearing stamens curved like fishbones around the bearded tongue of the fifth sterile stamen. They grow in the toughest of conditions, on the driest, highest, windiest mountains. They're incredible.
Wild Gardening
Penstemon is a snap to grow and propagate, thriving in difficult soils, drought and heat. The many-seeded fruit capsules are easy to collect. When the capsules start to split open the seeds are ready; just cut off the stalks and collect them in paper bags. These plants need cool moist stratification to germinate, so either sow seeds outdoors in fall, or in pots that will be left outside for the winter. Once the leaves are up they transplant well, and are perfect rock garden specimen plants for an early summer show of color. And the bees adore them. I've spent many hours in my backyard watching the hubbub of activity around the Wilcox' penstemon in particular. On a sunny afternoon, you're guaranteed to find dozens of native bees happily dipping their heads into each purple tube for a sip of nectar.
For a ton more information on growing penstemon, check out Susan Greer's Native Penstemons in our Gardens. If you want to dig deeper, don't miss Myrna Jewett's really great article about growing shrubby beardtongues for rock gardens, with additional insight into the North American evolution of the Penstemon genus. In it, she points out that penstemons are shifting slightly toward being hummingbird-pollinated, with an interesting discussion on why that might be.
May 27, 2013
Arrowleaf Balsamroot
Arrowleaf Balsamroot
Balsamorhiza sagittata
Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Quick ID
In late spring, arrowleaf balsamroot covers open hillsides in an unmistakable blanket of golden, sunflower-like flowers. The fuzzy, silvery-green leaves can be 6" wide and over 12" long, arising from from the base of the plant in tufts like bunchgrasses. Flowers bloom May-July, and are borne singly on stalks that can get 3' tall.
Flowers like these are known as "composites" and are actually made up of two different types of inflorescence. Tiny tubular disc flowers cluster together to form the central eye, while the "petals" are actually a ring of ray flowers. Some species in the Asteraceae family have only ray flowers (like dandelion), some have only disc flowers (like rabbitbrush) and some have both together!
Native to western North America, you can find arrowleaf balsamroot growing in meadows, sagebrush steppe and conifer forest openings at low elevations (most commonly 3500-7000') as far east as the Dakotas, south to Arizona and north at least to BC and Alberta.
What's in a Name?
Nice and straightforward. The leaves are shaped like arrows. Sagittata comes from the Latin word for arrow, "sagitta". Balsamorhiza is named for the large woody taproot, which produces a thick sap that smells like balsam fir. "Balsam" basically indicates any nice-smelling plant, and rhiza is the Latin word for root.
Did you know that arrowleaf balsamroot, with its cheery flowers up to 4" wide, is our biggest wildflower here in Montana? And such an important species in western landscapes. Balsamroot is rich in protein, providing excellent graze for deer, elk, bighorn sheep and pronghorn. The nutritious oily seeds are important to birds and rodents, and the open-faced flowers are perfect for native pollinators. Every part of the balsamroot plant is edible, and has been used as food and medicine across its native range for thousands of years. The massive taproot, which can be eight feet deep and as wide as your hand, makes it especially well-equipped to withstand fire, grazing, weeds and drought. I love looking up at a hillside blooming in full force, picturing the massive roots drilling into the earth deeper than I am tall, opening tunnels for underground excavators, lending a foothold to the sloping soil, casting about for that fleeting sip of moisture. If I had x-ray eyes, I have a feeling I'd keep them trained downward.
Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery collected arrowleaf balsamroot near present-day Lincoln, MT, in July 1806. Their specimen sheets, prepared by the fascinating botanist Frederick Pursh, are still housed at the Lewis & Clark herbarium in Philadelphia.
Wild Gardening
As a tremendously showy, long-lived specimen plant that can withstand nature's brutality with the best of us, arrowleaf balsamroot should be a wild gardener's dream. This is not, however, a species for the weak-willed or fickle-hearted. Balsamroot requires steadfast determination and cooperation. The massive taproot makes transplanting nearly impossible. They can be grown from seed, but like many of our native wildflowers, they need to go through cold stratification. No worries though; this isn't as technical as it sounds.
My personal wild gardening strategy is based on equal parts logic and ease: just watch what the wildflowers are doing, and copy them. If the balsamroot at my elevation is dropping seed in mid-July, my own planting won't be far behind. I'll put extra seed down, figuring some will get carried off by insects and other critters, and many just won't take at all. The winter weather will naturally take care of the required cold stratification, and when temperatures warm up, the seeds will sprout when they're good and ready. I'll be patient, knowing that even in perfect conditions, it will take five years for my seedlings to flower. But when they do...ohhh baby. My happy little bees are bound to buzz right up and kiss me on the nose.
May 23, 2013
Wild House of Bees FAQs
Wild House of Bees
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What kind of bees live in a house like this?
A. NOT honeybees! These houses are for native solitary bees. There are thousands of species of bees native to North America. About 70% nest in tunnels dug in the ground, and the rest prefer hollow stemmed plants or other holes found in nature. The most common "cavity nesters" in Montana are mason bees (Osmia spp.), leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.), carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), yellow-faced or masked bees (Hylaeus spp.) and cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.) Many wild bees don't look like "typical" bees at all, but rather resemble ants, flies, hornets...or even little flying metallic robots!
Q. How do you get the honey out?
A. You don't! Native bees don't make honey. Instead, they provide pollen reserves to feed their young.
Q. Will my bee house attract wasps?
A. No! Aggressive paper wasps are no more likely to take up residence in your bee house than in any other cranny they find. They nest communally in paper combs, and won't move into your bee tubes. There are, however, native solitary wasps! Like our native bees, these wasps are non-aggressive and fascinating to observe. Read more...
Q. Do these bees sting?
A. Rarely. Without a hive or honey to defend, native bees are extremely docile. Many don't have stingers at all, and those that do will only sting if severely threatened. The stings are relatively painless...more like a mosquito bite than a bee sting, really. Even if you're allergic to honey bee stings, there's little cause for concern. There have been no recorded cases of people going into anaphylactic shock from native bee stings. Read more...
Q. Do I have to order bees?
A. You can, but it's not necessary. Unlike European honey bees, solitary bees occur naturally in the environment, and are actively searching for cavities to nest in. It might take a little while for the wild bees to find your nesting box, but once they do they'll come back year after year.
Q. How long will my bees live?
A. Native bees have a pretty short life span. Using mason bees as an example, the cycle goes like this: in the spring, as soon as temperatures are warm enough, females will emerge and start looking for flowering plants to collect pollen from. Back at the home tube, they'll stash a little pollen bundle along with a freshly laid egg, pack in some mud, and start again. Pollen, egg, mud...pollen, egg, mud...until the tube is full of about 8 cells. The two or three cells closest to the tube opening contain unfertilized eggs which will result in male bees, and the inner eggs will hatch females. Mama bee will continue filling up tubes until her life span is reached, around 6 weeks. When the eggs hatch, the bee larvae eat the little pollen reserve and spin a little cocoon to begin the metamorphosis process. The larvae pupate into young bees, which wait out the winter inside their nesting tube. In spring, as soon as temperatures are warm enough, the fresh crop of bees will emerge. Males come out first, mate with the females and die. And the whole cycle starts again!
Q. Do native bees compete with honey bees, or vice versa?
A. Yes and no. Yes, wild bees and honeybees are after the same resources; nectar and pollen. But in many ways, they go about gathering these resources very differently. Honeybees are great pollinators of farm crops. They bounce down field rows from one flower to the next, returning to a hive that can be conveniently moved anywhere in the country that has warm weather and a flowering crop. Commercial agriculture as we know it is entirely dependent on honeybees this way. But remember, honeybees are native to Europe. They didn't evolve alongside the plants that grow naturally here, and as such, are terrible pollinators of native plants. They can only operate in a narrow range of temperatures and dates, and aren't adapted to the myriad of flower shapes and sizes found in the wild. There are thousands of species of native bees, each born to fill a special little niche in nature. And in fact, native bees actually help honeybees become better pollinators themselves (read more on this UC Berkeley study).
The best way to ensure there's enough food for everybody is to grow a variety of bee-friendly plants that flower throughout the season.
Q. When should I hang my bee house up?
A. As soon as the weather warms up to the mid-50s, wild bees will be out foraging and looking for a place to nest. Around here that usually starts around March, and ideally your bee house should be up before then to provide a warm welcome!
Q. Does it need to hang in a special place?
A. Since bees can't fly when it's too cold, they like their nests to face the warm morning sun (south or east). But super duper hot midsummer sun could cook them, so a little shelter is nice. Maybe on a tree that lets in spring sunlight, and provides some shade when it leafs out in the summer. They should be about 5-10' off the ground, in a stable place that doesn't get too jostled around, and be near a source of mud and flowering plants. That said, you can hang your bee house pretty much anywhere! They're perfect for small yards or porches, in the city or country, in any type of ecosystem where they can find food. Providing a little more habitat for the bees can never hurt.
Q. What are they built out of?
A. I use a variety of recycled materials, depending on what's available. This is a great way to use misshapen, warped or otherwise "imperfect" reclaimed lumber that isn't fit for more precise building projects...the bees don't care about wonky angles or bent boards! I also try to find blue-stained lumber cut from trees killed by bark beetles. Might as well make something beautiful out of that ecological mess. Each house is coated with an inert mineral oil for a little extra protection from the weather. For the tubes, I try to use invasive species, making a nice combination project of weed eradication and pollinator conservation. I've experimented with Fuller's teasel, water hemlock, elderberry, sunflowers, milkweed, corn stalks, raspberry canes and some others.
Q. How long does a Wild House of Bees last?
A. With a little upkeep, you can use your Wild House of Bees for many, many years. Since the smell of varnish repels bees, the wooden frame is coated in non-toxic mineral oil to prevent rotting. If you wish, you can paint on a new coat every few years to keep the wood nice and sealed. You can find it at any drug store for pretty cheap. The only other thing that may need upkeep is the nesting tubes that fill in the frame. Replacing these tubes every few years will help discourage pests and parasites from taking up residence inside, and get rid of any tubes that begin to rot...they are, after all, just hollow plant stems and sticks! The back of your nesting box can be easily removed for cleaning out and replacing tubes. You can cut new ones of your own if you have a source, or order them here.
Q. I don't live in Montana...will it still work?
A. Absolutely! Wild bees are looking for nesting places all over the country and indeed, all over the world! The nesting tubes in the Wild House of Bees will attract the native species found in your area. Most of the info found here is specific to Montana but still applies to other areas. If you have any questions about wild beekeeping in a different region, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.
Q. Where can I buy one?
A. Each Wild House of Bees is made to order by hand, so no two are exactly alike. They generally measure 9-18" tall by 9-12" wide, with prices ranging from $25-80 + S&H, depending on work and materials involved. Custom orders are always welcome! Check out upcoming Events & Exhibitions, or visit Flora montana on Etsy to order one today.
Visit the An Introduction to Wild Bees for more information, or dig a little deeper with this compilation of Resources for the Wild Beekeeper. Good luck on your wild beekeeping adventure!
~Happy Bees, Happy World~
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
The History Of Silly Putty
The history of Silly Putty goes back to 1940 after the Japanese invaded the rubber-producing countries of the Far East and cut off the supply to the United States. With the subsequent hampering of war production, especially for tires, gas masks, rafts and boots, the government asked American industry to develop a synthetic rubber.
Here's where the story gets controversial, for there was more than one person who claimed the discovery of Silly Putty. Researchers for Dow Corning Company and General Electric Company both claimed discovery. The present manufacturer of Silly Putty, Crayola LLC, gives the credit to James Wright, a Scottish inventor that worked for General Electric in New Haven Connecticut in 1943.
The first Silly Putty was the result of the mixing of boric acid and silicone oil. Wright found that the material would stretch if slowly pulled, but break if pulled rapidly. Rolled into a ball it would bounce, would not mold and had a high melting point. Despite these properties, Wright determined the substance was not suited for use as a rubber substitute and he sent samples to other scientists that came to the same conclusion.
The story goes that some of the substance was obtained by an owner of a toy store, Ruth Fallgatter. She hired a marketing consultant, Peter Hodgson to market the bouncing putty and put it in here catalog. It out sold everything else in the catalog except for Crayola crayons, but Fallgetter did not continue to sell it. Hodgson saw its potential, and bought $147 worth of the substance. He named it Silly Putty, packed 1 ounce portions in plastic eggs that sold for a dollar each, and sold 250,000 of them in three days. But the new business almost went under in 1951 with the start of the Korean War, as silicone, a primary ingredient of Silly Putty, was rationed.
After the war, production resumed. It was originally marketed as an adult item, but by 1955 children became the primary customers. The first advertisement for Silly Putty was produced by Hodgson in 1957 and premiered on The Howdy Doody Show.
In1961 Silly Putty went world wide and became a hit in Europe and The Soviet Union. By the time Hodgson died in 1976, over 300 million eggs of Silly Putty had been sold and his business was worth $140 million, making it one of the most successful toys of the 20th Century. The following year Binney and Smith, the makers of Crayola crayons, bought the rights to it. By 1987, production of Silly Putty was in excess of 2 million eggs annually. So while the name may be 'silly', the profits generated by this toy that was created by accident certainly aren't!
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This page contains instructions for creating a character page.
A character page is a page that contains info specificly about a character within the series.
Character Page LayoutEdit
A character page is organized using the following layout:
• First Paragraph: The first paragraph contains the name of the character along with brief informaion that helps the reader identify who the character is. For example, the first paragraph on Count D's page identifies him as the owner of the pet shop.
• Appearance: The appearance section contains a description of the characters physical appearance. Any defining physical characteristics should be noted in this section
• Character: The character section contains a detailed description of a characters personality. In this section, notability is especially important (i.e. speculation and personal opinions do not belong here) and examples should be given when adding traits.
• History: The history section contains information regarding events that happen before the begining of Pet Shop of Horrors. For example, Chris Orcot's page would have the events which lead him to not speak described in the history section.
• Plot: The plot section describes the character actions within the story. For characters that appear in both Pet Shop of Horrors and New Pet Shop of Horrors, the plot section should contain two paragraphs.
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Engineered Leukosomes Prevent Inflammatory Response
Injection of nanoparticles into the body triggers an inflammatory response caused by blood components accumulating on their surface. Now, a team of nanomedicine and regenerative medicine scientists have described how specially-engineered nanoparticles (leukosomes) injected into mice can prevent the formation of a layer of biomolecules, called the protein corona, around their surface.
In a 2016 study, Ennio Tasciotti, Ph.D, senior author and director of the Center for Biomimetic Medicine at Houston Methodist Research Institute and team created these leukosomes and evaluated their ability to treat localized inflammation. Leukosomes are able to target inflamed tissues because their design mimics immune cell membranes.
Investigating Leukosomes
To provide more information on the properties of these leukosomes, the team decided to investigate their protein corona in vivo. Most of the insight previously gained into the protein corona was been obtained using in vitro experiments, which have been shown to only minimally reproduce in vivo phenomena.
Claudia Corbo, Roberto Molinaro, Francesca Taraballi, Naama E. Toledano Furman, Kelly A. Hartman, Michael B. Sherman, Enrica De Rosa, Dickson K. Kirui, Francesco Salvatore, and Ennio Tasciotti
Unveiling the in Vivo Protein Corona of Circulating Leukocyte-like Carriers
ACS Nano 2017 11 (3), 3262-3273 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b00376
Image: Circulating white blood cells, commonly known as leukocytes (large yellow clusters), lining an inflamed vessel wall along with leukosomes (small yellow speckles). Credit: Houston Methodist
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3. The Turbulence of 1968: RFK, MLK, Vietnam, LBJ
Lyndon Johnson won the 1964 Election in a landslide, and managed to get landmark legislation passed early in his term. Yet, by early 1968, the Vietnam War had become so unpopular that Johnson decided not to run for a second term as President. Four days after he shocked the country by pulling out of the race, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Two months later, Bobby Kennedy was gunned down, and the Democratic Party limped into their Chicago convention, where open rebellion and brutal suppression broke out. It was the Year that Everything Changed.
2. Did TV Invent the Rock Star?
On the second episode of the TV ROOM PODCAST, we notice that the phenomenon of the rock star came about just when the television was arriving en masse in American living rooms, and we wonder if this was mere coincidence or something more?
1. The Age of Television (1948-??)
On the very first episode of the TV ROOM podcast, we discuss: What exactly is the Age of Television? What are its origins? How did it change us? When will we know it’s over?
ROCKFORD FILES: “This Case Is Closed” S1 E6
Match Game 74, Episode 165
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A chip-sized, high-speed modulator developed by engineers at Tufts University may pave the way towards filling the "THz gap" that is limiting the development of new and more powerful devices that can transmit data at higher speeds.
Measurements show the modulation cutoff frequency of the new device exceeded 14GHz and has the potential to work above 1THz, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. By contrast, cellular networks occupy bands that are much lower on the spectrum where the amount of data that can be transmitted is limited.
The device works through the interaction of confined THz waves in a novel slot waveguide with tunable, two-dimensional electron gas, according to the researchers. The prototype device operated within the frequency band of 0.22-0.325THz, which was chosen because it corresponded to available experimental facilities. The researchers say the device would work within other bands as well.
Although there is significant interest in using the THz band of the electromagnetic spectrum, which would enable the wireless transmission of data at speeds significantly faster than conventional technology, the band has been underutilised in part because of a lack of compact, on-chip components, such as modulators, transmitters and receivers.
“This is a very promising device that can operate at terahertz frequencies, is miniaturised using mainstream semiconductor foundry, and is in the same form factor as current communication devices. It’s only one building block, but it could help to start filling the THz gap,” said Sameer Sonkusale, Ph.D., of Nano Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tufts University, and the paper’s corresponding author.
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Disclaimer for Shirley's Wellness Cafe
Our Drinking Water Quality is Compromised with Contaminants and Toxins
Tap water in 42 states is contaminated with more than 140 unregulated chemicals that lack safety standards, according to the Environmental Working Group's (EWG's) two-and-a-half year investigation of water suppliers' tests of the treated tap water served to communities across the country. In an analysis of more than 22 million tap water quality tests, most of which were required under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, EWG found that water suppliers across the U.S. detected 260 contaminants in water served to the public. One hundred forty-one (141) of these detected chemicals, more than half are unregulated; public health officials have not set safety standards for these chemicals, even though millions drink them every day. Researchers have also found potentially toxic trace elements in bottled water.
Vast Array of Drugs in Your Drinking Water
Alkaline Energized Toxin-free, Drinking Water. "A vast array of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. The presence of so many prescription drugs, and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health. In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky."
How do the drugs get into the water? People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue. And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public, have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.
Albert Schatz, Ph.D " - Fluoridation is the greatest fraud that has ever been perpetrated and it has been perpetrated on more people than any other fraud has." Professor Albert Schatz, Ph.D. (Microbiology), Discoverer of streptomycin and Nobel Prize Winner.
Joseph M. Price, MD - "Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. It is an insidious poison."
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Alkaline Energized Toxin-free, Drinking Water.A Suffolk County Study in the USA tested 88 bottled waters and what they found was horrifying. It was this study which discovered the cancer agent, benzene, in Perrier and caused it to be withdrawn, but they also found: Freon, kerosene, toluene, trichloroethylene, and xylene in a number of other bottled waters. The NRDC in the USA reported that one-third of bottled water products they tested were found to violate an enforceable state standard or exceed microbiological purity guidelines, or both, in at least one sample. Despite popular mis-perceptions (spawned primarily by advertising), bottled water is not regulated as strictly as tap water. In fact, unlike tap water, regulations allow bottled water to contain some contamination by E. coli or fecal coliform and don't require disinfection for cryptosporidium or giardia. And, as Consumer Reports tests discovered, unhealthy chemicals can migrate from plastic bottles into the water.
Sometimes Bottled water is Tap Water
Recycled Plastic bottles In spite of the springs, mountains, and other bucolic scenes depicted on labels, some bottled water is nothing more than tap water, NRDC and Consumer Reports have found. The Aquafina brand, for example, is drawn from the municipal water supplies of Detroit, Fresno, and other cities. Coke and Pepsi - the main producers of bottled water (under different brand names) also use tap, not spring water.
The most common plastic used in water bottle manufacturing is PET (polyethylene terephthalate), an environmentally unfriendly substance that actually requires 17.5 kilograms of water to produce only 1 kilogram of PET. In fact, more water is used to make PET bottles than is actually put into them. The production of the plastic also produces numerous byproducts that are extremely harmful to the environment. The Container Recycling Institute reported that 14 billion water bottles were sold in the U.S. in 2002, yet only 10 percent of these bottles were recycled - 90 percent ended up in the trash. That's an extra 12.6 billion plastic bottles for the landfills; bottles that contained water that was no more - and often less - healthy than tap water.
Purified water tends to be acidic and can only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons out of the body. Once this is accomplished, the continued drinking of purified water is a bad idea. People in Canada and the USA are consuming more bottled water than coffee, tea, apple juice or even milk. But are they being duped by misleading promises that bottled water is healthier, purer and fresher than tap water?
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Bottled water cost more than gasoline!
Bottled water is not necessarily any healthier than the water from your tap. In fact, roughly forty percent of bottled water begins as tap water, says the above referenced earth-policy.org. In addition, "Fossil fuels are also used in the packaging [and transporting] of water. The most commonly used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil. Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year."
Plastic Water Bottles a Health Threat
Studies discovered the cancer agents, benzene Freon, kerosene, toluene, trichloroethylene, and xylene in a number of bottled waters. Through relentless advertising, the Big-4 companies have turned bottled water into “America’s most affordable status symbol”. Using images that evoke ‘activity’, ‘health’, ‘relaxation’, ‘pureness’ and ‘replenishment’, the bottled water giants dupe consumers into buying something that largely exists in an imaginary environment. Industry slogans like ‘get hydrated or die’ expose internal corporation contradictions such as the fact that the same companies that sell dehydrating soft drinks are promoting bottled water as a solution to dehydration.
Bottled Water Antimony Concentrations Increased with Time
Bottled water exposed German researchers have found that the longer a bottle of water sits on a store shelf or in a household pantry, the higher the dose of antimony it contains. Amounts of this potentially toxic trace element were measured for 15 brands of Canadian bottled water and 48 European brands. Concentrations reached more than 100 times the average level of antimony in pristine groundwaters (2 parts per trillion).
However, the concentration was even higher after the bottles were left to sit at room temperature for six months. Antimony concentrations in the Canadian bottled waters increased by 19 percent, concentrations in the European brands increased by 90 percent. Most of the water tested was packaged in bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Antimony trioxide is used as a catalyst in the manufacture of PET. The different concentrations of antimony in the various brands might have been caused by differing temperatures, altered pHs, or exposure to sunlight.
Is bottled water healthier?
Call 323-522-4521 or 323-989-3372
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Demineralizing Effect On the Body by Reverse Osmosis Water
The "very clean waters" produced by reverse osmosis, (which also is use by most bottled companies) is called "hungry" or "death" water. It is so clean that nothing is left in it. The water is charged with positive ions instead of negative ions and is also acidic instead of alkaline. The water you drink is supposed to bring all nutrients to the destination and to flush out any free radicals.
Free radicals are basically poisoned waste products produced by smoking, drinking, inhaling polluted air and even by eating and exercising. Your body is like a car engine, every time you turn it on, it burns fuel to move your car, but by doing so produces smoke, which is poisoned.
f you take in this totally clean water then, instead of supplementing minerals to the body it does just the opposite - it takes them away. Can you see that? Can you see that if you would spill clean water over a dirty rock you would have some of the dirt being washed away with the clean water?
That is what happens with hungry (totally clean water) - except it does not take away the dirt but it depletes the body of minerals, calcium and anything else, as it passes trough the body: Everything except the free radicals because they are charged positively. This is also the case with the reverse osmosis water and the bottled water. As you know from school to positive magnets push each other away. So the solution is to drink water, which has a range of minus 250 to minus 800 mV with a PH in the range of 8.5 to 9.5.
Is chlorinated city tap water is completely safe?
Woman in shower with dangers of chlorine "Most people never give the dangers of chlorine a thought. After all, our elected public officials keep assuring us that chlorinated city tap water is completely safe for human consumption. Numerous scientific studies report that chlorinated tap water is a skin irritant and can be associated with rashes like eczema. "Chlorinated water contains chemical compounds called trihalomethanes which are carcinogens resulting from the combination of chlorine with compounds in water. For many years, researchers thought that the “exposure” came only when chlorine was ingested. But, current studies are showing that drinking the water is not the only risk. And is likely not even the most severe."
Call 323-522-4521 or 323-989-3372
Shirley's Wellness Cafe
Earth: Our Living Planet
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What's the difference between hits, page views and unique visitors?
If you use our Web statistics system to track visitors to your site, you'll see references to "hits", "pages viewed", "unique visitors", "authenticated visitors", "entry pages", "exit pages", "spiders" and "robots".
A hit is counted each time someone views a file on your Web site. A single Web page can be made up of many files. For example, if your main Web page is one HTML file, ten image files, a JavaScript file and a CSS stylesheet file, that would show as 13 hits when people view that page. If you're just interested in how many people are looking at your site, you probably don't care about hits. Each request counts as a "hit" regardless of whether it came from a person, a search engine, an RSS reader, or any other source.
Pages viewed is the number of HTML pages or scripts that your visitors have looked at. A "page" is a hit that isn't an image, JavaScript or CSS file and which wasn't loaded by a search engine robot.
A visit is one or more pages viewed by one person. If someone goes to your site and looks at five different pages, for example, that counts as a single visit. If they return the next day and view more pages, that’s a second visit.
Unique visitors is the approximate number of different people who visited your site. It includes human visitors, but usually excludes search engine robots and other automated systems. Visitors are tracked by the IP address of the computer the person is using. If the same IP address returns to view your site within the month, that will add to hits and pages, but won't increase the number of unique visitors. Note that the number of unique visitors is only a rough estimate: the IP address of some visitors could change between visits (depending on their type of network connection), and different visitors can sometimes appear to share the same IP address if they're behind a "proxy server" at a large company or ISP.
Authenticated visitors are people who visited a password protected directory on your Web site. If you don't have any password protected directories, you will have zero authenticated visitors.
A page is counted as an entry page if it's the first page viewed by a visitor. Similarly, an exit page is the last page viewed by that visitor. You can use this information to tell which pages people use to enter and leave your site.
Robots and Spiders are computers that examine the content of your Web site, rather than human viewers. For example, when Google examines your Web site to index the content, that will be shown as a robot or spider.
The countries shown by the statistics program are calculated by determining which ISP a visitor is using, then checking the country of that ISP.
The bandwidth listed is the amount of data transferred when visitors look at your site. Our page about bandwidth explains more.
The number of pages and hits in the Connect to site from section count links from other sites and exclude clicks on links within your own site. So if someone reaches your site as a result of a link on another site, then views two more pages on your site, that will show as one page in this section, not three.
How accurate are the statistics?
They're pretty good, but not perfect.
A visitor's IP address may change between visits, and some visitors go through "proxy servers" — computers at large ISPs such as AOL that can "cache" their own copy of your Web site files. For example, it's possible for two AOL users to view your Web site, but for AOL to show the second person a "cached" copy of what the first person saw without connecting to your site again. That would show as a single visit in the statistics.
In addition, the listings of what IP addresses belong to which ISP, and which country that ISP is in, can sometimes be inaccurate.
Because of potential problems like this, your Web site statistics (like all statistics) should be considered useful information that might not be accurate down to the last detail.
(We also have a page that describes why other statistics programs may show different results.)
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African Americans Recall 1960s Fight for Voting Rights
• Chris Simkins
Hundreds of African American demonstrators marched for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, 50 years ago.
As they crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge, they were attacked by state police officers.
The violent images outraged the nation, drawing national attention to the denial of voting rights for millions of African Americans.
“I had to go to the courthouse, stand in line, and vote," said civil rights activist Nims Gay.
Fifty years later, Gay returned to the Birmingham courthouse where he and other blacks had questioned white county officials who rejected their constitutional right to vote.
“Why do you think you are superior to me? Do you not realize from one blood all nations flow? Or is that something you do not understand? And that would irritate them. But I did not worry about irritating anybody. When you are right, you are right. When you are wrong, you are wrong," said Gay.
Following legal challenges blacks were allowed to vote. He says the fight was hard, but worth it.
“A voteless people are a hopeless people. The same thing goes today. I do not care if you are black, white, green or gray, if you cannot vote you are messing up," he said.
Retired teacher Jeanne Smiley was among the first African Americans allowed to vote in Montgomery, Alabama.
“A lot of people around Montgomery and surrounding areas, so many of them were really afraid to go and try to vote. But those of us that were able to vote, tried to vote and we tried to encourage others to go and vote," said Smiley.
“If you had a job just trying to register to vote was enough to get you fired. In addition to that they would even fire some of your relatives," said Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders.
Days after “Bloody Sunday” Hank Sanders joined civil rights leader Martin Luther King and thousands of others in a march to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery.
“The power of the vote seemed so powerful to those who had it . They did not want anybody else to have it and they were doing everything they could, they were using every mechanism at their disposal to stop the [black] vote," he said.
"The accomplishments that we made did not occur by themselves," said Civil rights lawyer Fred Gray.
Gray, who represented King, won a court ruling that allowed people to march from Selma to Montgomery.
"It is all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice," said President Lyndon Johnson.
Gray says less than five months later President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law.
“The voting rights was a key, because it opened the door for so many other things. Because if you get people to vote then you can elect individuals to office and these individuals who were elected to office held the power to appoint hundreds of other people to elected office," said Gray.
Back in Birmingham, Nims Gay sings the civil rights anthem that inspired him and so many others in their struggle.
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Adventure EV
Carb(on) Loading.
by on Nov.25, 2009, under Design, EV Land Rover
Let’s take a minute to look at some basic environmental ramifications of an EV conversion. Everyone wants to know what their carbon footprint is these days. Is an EV superior in this regard?
I’ve heard the argument by fans of oil that, “pluging in an EV just moves the emissions from the tailpipe to the powerplant.” The phrase is absolutely correct. All pollution generated by running an EV happens at the electricity generation plant. But not all methods of generating electricity produce the same amount of CO2. In the case of renewable generation sources such as solar or wind the “tailpipe” emissions from an EV are zero.
Power and communication lines in Bangkok, Thailand
Power and communication lines in Bangkok, Thailand
So if you’re charging your EV with your own PV (PhotoVoltaic solar panel) setup you aren’t contributing a whole lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. But most people don’t have their own little power plant at home. They rely on the electrical grid to charge up the batteries on their EVs. How much CO2 does that electricity generation really produce? How does it compare to burning petrol in a conventional car?
It’s hard to say without knowing the makeup of energy producing fuel sources in your area, because as we’ve seen with renewables, not every fuel produces the same amount of CO2 per kWh. Let’s look at the CO2 emission rates of various types of fuels when generating a common amount of energy, 100,000 BTU.
Electricity Generation CO2 Emissions by Fuel Type
Fuel Type Pounds of CO2 per 100,000 BTU
Coal 21.52 (avg)
Liquified Petroleum Gas 13.90
Natural Gas 11.71
PV (Solar Electric) 0
Wind 0
Nuclear 0
Hydroelectric 0
Data from the Department of Energy
Coal is the gross polluter while hydroelectric, PV, wind, and nuclear get a clean bill of health. Keep in mind that this is the CO2 rate for electricity generation.
The EPA estimates the amount of CO2 produced by burning a gallon of gasoline (petrol) in a car is 19.4 lbs/gallon of CO2, and a gallon contains 114,100 BTUs of energy.
To compare these figures with EV energy consumption and emissions we can convert kWH, the most common method of working with energy when talking about EVs, to BTUs; one kilowatt hour is equivalent to 3413 BTUs, so corrected that would be 33.40 kWh per 114,100 BTU or one gallon of gasoline (114100 / 3413 = 33.40).
Lots of numbers swimming around, but bear with me. I’m going to use my conservative projections for the Land Rover’s EV performance to see how it all relates. I’m projecting a 90 mile range @40mph if I were to deplete all the energy stored in my 32.77 kWh battery pack. The pack contains just under a gallon’s worth of energy so that equals 91.73 mpg ( (33.40 / 32.77)*90=91.73) when corrected to a full gallon.
Now let’s pick a fuel, the dirtiest fuel… coal. If 100% of my EV’s electrical generation were attributed to coal I’d generate 21.52 lbs of CO2 everytime I drove 91.74 miles (the distance equivalent to a gallon of petrol). That’s 0.235 lbs/mile of CO2.
When it had an ICE the Land Rover would get about 18 mpg @ 40mph. Remember, the EPA estimates 19.40 lbs of CO2 per gallon, so that works out to 1.078 lbs/mile of CO2 when burning petrol (19.40/18=1.078).
With the worst fuel source, coal, the EV is still 4.587 times (1.078/0.235=4.587) cleaner than its ICE counterpart when “burning” the dirtiest fuel. Keep in mind that the relationship between the ICE and EV would remain the same, more or less, regardless of the speed traveled or the type of vehicle, providing the comparison is between the EV and ICE versions of the same vehicle. This relationship is a reflection of the efficiency of the chassis and powertrain. If were to drive faster my mpg would go down in both the electric and the ICE. Compare a lighter, sleeker car and the EV version would benefit from the same attributes that the ICE version benefits from.
Cholla Coal Power Plant in Arizona
Cholla Coal Power Plant in Arizona
The reason the EV is more efficient is due to the efficiency of its drivetrain. ICE engines waste 70-80% of the energy they consume by generating heat, and any energy used to create heat doesn’t get translated into useful motion. Electric motors generate very little heat. Almost all the energy they consume is translated into rotational motion. The best brushless AC motors have efficiency ratings of around 98%. EVs are simply more efficient, therefore they go farther on less energy, and they generate less CO2.
In the Northeast, around 50% of the power generated is from Nuclear or Natural Gas, which emits 54% of the CO2 that coal does. Charging in the Northeast would make my EV Land Rover 849% cleaner in CO2 emissions compared to it’s ICE counterpart.
And it can only get better from there. If you live in Vermont, 79.7 percent of your power comes from nuclear generation, so your CO2 emissions would drop to… well, a very low number indeed.
And therein lies one of the beauties of the EV, it adapts very well. If you charge your EV from solar panels, you generate no CO2 emissions regardless of how far you drive. No matter what you do, an ICE car will always generate 19.40 lbs of CO2 per gallon of petrol.
And there are the numbers… One version of them, anyway.
See how your state generates its electricity in this handy Excel document:
1 Comment for this entry
• michael
The efficiency of the Electric Engine is so much better than the ICE!! And to think NO oil changes!!
One of the problems of the EV is of course the range.
Is it possible to have an onboard generator for those times you just can’t quite make it home? Hopefully it would be a backup only. Besides the weight of the generator, what are the limitations of a system like this? Is it possible to generate enough electricity to charge onboard batteries when they reach a certain discharged level?
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Detect cycles in a graph using DFS
In this post I'm going to talk how to detect if there is a cycle in a graph. Which means can there be more than one way of reaching any node from any other node in the graph. This is completely implemented using the DFS which I have already talked about in a previous blog post. So this will be short blog with only the basics.
In DFS we are using a stack data structure. At the same time we keep track of visited nodes to be ignored in case we find them later in the algorithms. This ignorance is the key point in detecting a cycle. DFS yields a tree out of the graph. Thus there cannot be cycles. Hence we ignore repeated nodes when we go deep through the neighbouring nodes of a graph.
Algorithm and Implementation
Let us consider the above directed graph. Starting from A in a typical DFS we move through nodes as follows.
since F is a terminal node we have again E at the node.
Now the stack becomes something like this
A->B->C->D (Pop out E and put D) and continuing
now we pop out C (Remember we shall mark what we pop as visited)
now we have
Bingo, we again pop out C which has already been discovered. Here we conclude that there is a cycle. What really means here is that we have a path to C from A B C E and we again reach C which makes the cycle. This is simple and operates in O(n) time, where n is the number of nodes.
Java implementation is as follows:
Feel free to visit the original repository of algorithms at:
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Marshall: Launching the Future of Science and Exploration
Image of space shuttle night launch in light of the full moon
From the roar of mighty rocket engines to extraordinary scientific discoveries about our world and our universe, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., stands at the forefront of the nation’s space exploration mission -- just as it has done for five decades.
The Marshall Center became NASA's first field center July 1, 1960. Today it supports the whole spectrum of the agency's crucial work: propulsion, engineering, science, space operations, and project and program management. With its talented, skilled and diverse work force; extensive practical experience; and state-of-the-art laboratories and test facilities, Marshall thrives at the intersection of science and exploration.
What do we seek to accomplish? The answer to that question hasn't changed in 50 years: discoveries that increase our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it; improve our ability to safely live and work in space; and deliver practical breakthroughs here on Earth that protect the planet and improve life for all humanity.
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Friday, December 7, 2007
A little more on QoS
In response to Lrac's question about how QoS works...
First a few relevant definitions from here and info provided by wikipedia:
Packet Delay or Latency: is the difference in time between when the signal is transmitted, and when it is received. Delay is typically broken down into two components, a fixed delay and a variable delay.
Packet Jitter: measures the variation in arrival rates between individual packets.
Packet Loss: is a measure of the number of packets from the original data stream that do not find their way to the destination.
Quality of Service, QoS is a subset of traffic/packet shaping that addresses Packet Jitter and the variable latency delay. Early approaches reserved fixed amounts of bandwidth for certain applications. Modern QoS enabled routers/layer 3 switches can prioritize their queues based on DSCP markings - a 6 bit designation in the IP header that tells the traffic type. They could just as easily base this on source or destination IP addresses. Similar layer 2 schemes can be used based on MAC addresses or VLANs. There are different scheduling algorithms and implementations, but the simple bottom line is that your time sensitive IP traffic can be prioritized. VoIP calls won't have the delay, and big downloads should still go about as fast.
I haven't gotten to programming QoS in IOS on Cisco systems. My friend said that the QoS configuration on his home router was straightforward. You simply give devices a priority. If it's anything like ACLs (access control lists) on routers, the device keeps track of all the MAC and IP addresses of devices that have connected to it. You would simply open the HTML based web configuration page and click on devices to prioritize - the Xbox and VoIP phone in my friends case. I'll post a mini review when I pick up my own QoS "gaming" home router.
More on packet shaping to follow.
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