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Capital and oldest city of the kingdom of Navarra, Spain. Next to Tudela, it possessed the most important Jewish community. The Jewry was situated in the Navarreria, the oldest quarter of the city. When Navarra came under the guardianship of Philip the Fair, and the Pamplonians refused to pay him homage, the Jewry was destroyed by the French troops, the houses were plundered, and many Jews were killed (1277). In 1280, upon the complaint of the Jews, the city was directed to restore to them the confiscated propertiesand to assign to them other ground for building purposes. In 1319 the city council, in conjunction with the bishop, to whom the Jews were tributary, had resolved, in compliance with the wish of King Charles I., to rebuild the Jewry; but this was not done until 1336. The new Jewry was near the Puente de la Magdalena, and was surrounded with strong walls to guard it against invasion. In the Jewry was the Alcaceria, where the Jews carried on considerable traffic in silk goods, while in a separate street were stores in which they sold jewelry, shoes, etc. Some of the Jews were artisans, and were employed by the royal court; others practised medicine. The physician Samuel, in recognition of his services as surgeon to the English knight Thomas Trivet, was presented by King Charles in 1389 with several houses situated in the Jewry and which had formerly been in the possession of Bonafos and his son Sento, two jugglers. In 1433 the physician Maestre Jacob Aboazar, who had his house near the Great Synagogue, accompanied the queen on a journey abroad. Contemporary with him was the physician Juce (Joseph). In 1375 the Jews of Pamplona numbered about 220 families, and paid a yearly tax of 2,592 pounds to the king alone. They had, as in Estella and Tudela, their independent magistracy, consisting of two presidents and twenty representatives. Gradually the taxes became so burdensome that they could no longer be borne. In 1407 King Charles III. issued an order that the movable property of the Jews should be sold at auction, and the most notable members placed under arrest, unless they paid the tax due to him. To escape these frequent vexations many of the Jews resolved to emigrate; and a part of the Jewry was thus left uninhabited. No sooner had Leonora ascended the throne as coregent (1469) than she issued an order to the city magistrate to require the Jews to repair the dilapidated houses. The policy of Ferdinand and Isabella triumphed in the Cortes of Pamplona in 1496. Two years later the Jews were expelled from Navarra. Many emigrated; and those who were unable to leave the city embraced Christianity. Ḥayyim Galipapa was rabbi of Pamplona in the fourteenth century; and the scholar Samuel b. Moses Abbas was a resident of the city. - Kayserling, Gesch. der Juden in Spanien, i. 34, 43. 73, 93, 105 et seq.; - Rios, Hist. ii. 452, iii. 200; - Jacobs, Sources, s.v. Pamplona.

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Middle East History & Politics

Most exercise-related injuries have the same basic cause - the overstressing of muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and other tissue. With sufficient precautions and care, risks can be minimized. Warming up slowly and cooling down properly can help prevent many stress injuries. To be effective, your warm-up and cool-down exercises should use the same muscles as your main exercise. For example, if you jog, begin by walking for several minutes, then jog slowly, before breaking into a full stride. Do this before and after your regular exercise. Every athlete should include a 15-minute warm up and cool down program as part of the workout. This will increase flexibility, reduce muscle soreness, and improve overall performance. Other good principles to follow during exercise are: know your body's limitations and warning signals; drink plenty of water; and never combine heavy eating with heavy exercising. For more information on the benefits of warming up and cooling down, consult a physician.

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Health and Wellness Tips

Textbook Page 16 Workbook 1-2 Pages 25 - 26 Enable full screen by clicking the button in the bottom right corner. Description: The next several sections teach some of the most common objects in the home which are also some of the most commonly spoken words. This video begins the "home" series by teaching the names of the rooms themselves. You can use "The House Song" to reinforce what is being taught in these videos.

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Literacy and Reading Activities

While Blackboard is the dominant commercial learning management (LMS) for the creation and management of online courses, one of its main competitors is Moodle. Moodle is a free, open source LMS for creating and managing online courses that is currently in use from the classroom level to the university level. It can be used for completely online courses or to augment classroom instruction. While it has forums and wikis to create communities around courses, it can also be used with assignments and quizzes to teach in a more traditional format. How widespread is Moodle used in education? Currently, there are 51,900 registered and validated Moodle sites hosting some 2.7 million courses for 30 million users in 206 countries worldwide. It was designed to promote the use of a social constructivist model wherein “groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels.” Moodle doesn’t have to be used with this pedagogical model, but its orientation is towards the community-based development structure (here, learning) of the Web. Connexions“Connexions is an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web.” It is not simply a Web site that hosts textbooks, articles, and courses. A non-profit run by “Most textbooks are a mass of information in linear format: one topic follows after another. However, our brains are not linear - we learn by making connections between new concepts and things we already know. Connexions mimics this by breaking down content into smaller chunks, called modules, that can be linked together and arranged in different ways. This lets students see the relationships both within and between topics and helps demonstrate that knowledge is naturally interconnected, not isolated into separate classes or books.” Connexions identifies itself as part of the open education movement and as inspired by the open source software movement. Their modules, be they a textbook, an article, or a course, are open education resources, which are “teaching and learning materials that are free to use and also re-use in new ways around the world.” Connexions sees itself as part of both a global and a grassroots community. Currently, 500,000+ unique visitors a month visit their Web site. MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) MIT OCW is the result of MIT’s desire to use the Internet to pursue its mission of advancing knowledge and educating students. Announced in 2001 and launched in 2002, MIT OCW has now published 1,890 courses online for free use. OCW is a “Web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.” These courses are educational resources and do not lead to course credit, certificates or degrees, nor do they involve contact with faculty. MIT OCW’s largest group of its one million monthly visits are self-learners though students and teachers are larger subgroups of what is a global audience. It is a major gift of knowledge to the open education movement from one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions. There are many other open education resources to explore, for example, the Open Education Resources Commons or even iTunes U, You Tube, or TeacherTube. The commercial sector undoubtedly has much to offer education, but the open education movement will continue to bring its own change just as Linux and Firefox continue to do so today. What experience have you had with educational tools and resources on the Web? Contact us and share your experiences. Return to previous page No Comments for this article at this time.

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Child-Focused Learning Techniques

Autism and the Recovery Act Service in the Field: National Health Service Corps (NHSC) The NHSC is a network of primary health care professionals working in underserved communities across the country. To support their service, the Recovery Act allocated funding to the NHSC to provide more than 4,000 clinicians with financial support in the form of loan repayment. One NHSC loan repayor receiving Recovery Act funds has become involved in treatment/support of ASD patients. Andrea Kinlen, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist working in McPherson, Kansas, is working with patients and families to provide testing and therapy services for ASD patients. As Dr. Kinlen continued to spend time with patients, learning about their struggles and telling them they weren’t alone, an idea for a local support group emerged. Encouraged by the support of her supervisor and funding provided by a partial community grant, Dr. Kinlen engaged the families she counseled, other clinics, and local schools. As families came together, they were able to share stories and discuss challenges. Although the ages of the children and levels of severity vary, members of the group have found much common ground. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of complex neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by social impairments; communication difficulties; and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior. These characteristics can range in impact from mild to significantly disabling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that an average of 1 in 110 children in the United States has ASD. Symptoms usually begin to appear before age three and can cause delays or problems that continue through adulthood. Early detection of ASD and intervention can greatly increase a child’s ability to learn new skills and improve overall quality of life. The cost of ASD to affected people, their families, and society is enormous. Children with ASD have a wide range of healthcare and services needs, and their families typically lose income, often as a result of one parent leaving the workforce in order to care for and meet his or her child’s special health and educational needs. A great majority of adults with ASD struggle with ongoing and mostly unmet needs for employment, housing, services, and supports. Lifetime costs to care for an individual with ASD have been estimated to be $3.2 million. With funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been able to accelerate work in promising areas of ASD research.* National Institutes of Health (NIH) NIH invested $122 million in Recovery Act funds for groundbreaking research on ASD that otherwise would not have been possible, in areas such as screening, early detection, potential interventions and therapeutics, and in revealing the precise causes and mechanisms underlying this disorder (which are still largely unknown). Research area highlights include: - Aiding Diagnosis: A two-site study at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is adapting the interview tool that is the current gold standard for diagnosing ASD into a brief parent interview that can be done over the telephone. This new tool may help reduce screening costs, which could mean that more children are able to be screened, and that screening could occur earlier in a child’s life, leading to starting treatments sooner for the child. Additionally, reduced costs would help researchers to quickly identify potential participants for ASD studies. As part of the research process, study investigators performed free ASD screenings in Ohio and Michigan to test their changes to the interview tool. These screenings have reached children from many families for whom a screening might otherwise have been too costly to afford. Read more. - Addressing Disparities: Investigators at Florida State University are exploring the significant racial and ethnic minority disparities that exist in the early diagnosis of ASD, often delaying minority access to beneficial early interventions and services. The results of this research will lead to culturally sensitive screening and evaluation methods that may decrease the age at which all children with ASD are diagnosed. Read more. - Possible Causes: Although the exact causes of ASD are still unknown, research suggests an interaction between environmental factors and genetic predisposition. A number of Recovery Act-funded studies are using advanced DNA sequencing technology that allows for quick study of many genes at a time, while others are focusing on a variety of other potential causes. For example, one study at the University of California-Davis is exploring the role of infection during pregnancy on raising the risk of ASD in a mouse model. Research suggests that a mother’s immune response to infection may affect levels of immune molecules in the fetal brain, impacting brain development and possibly contributing to ASD. Read more. - Improving Interactions: Most children with ASD seem to have no reaction to other people or may respond atypically to others’ emotions. Such behavior can isolate children with ASD from their peers. NIH awarded a Challenge grant to support the development and testing of a new computer-assisted program at the University of California, San Diego to train children with ASD how to respond to others’ facial expressions (for example, widening one’s eyes, wrinkling one’s nose, etc.), and how to produce facial expressions conveying particular emotions to others. Read more. - Potential Therapeutics: In another study, researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine will determine whether a certain hormone improves social cognition in adults with ASD—a potentially new treatment for social impairment linked to ASD. There has been little headway in the development of pharmacological treatments for social impairment, and it is widely acknowledged that such treatments are needed as an alternative or addition to behavioral interventions. Read more. - Skill Development: Employment can provide greater independence to people with ASD, but symptoms of the disorder often pose major social and communication barriers. In response to this issue, researchers at Do2Learn.com developed the free JobTIPS website. JobTIPS presents job-seeking resources to youth with ASD, and also provides detailed explanations of how to behave in specific situations, such as what to say and not say to a potential employer, and how to disclose their diagnosis. Two autism research centers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Emory University, Atlanta, will help evaluate the effectiveness of JobTIPS in helping teens and young adults with ASD to learn new job-related skills and apply them in real world situations. Read more. Read more about NIH’s Recovery Act-funded investments in ASD and learn how these investments are moving science forward sooner than anticipated in addressing some of the most significant challenges to understanding and treating ASD. Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) AHRQ is using $1.4 million in Recovery Act funding for research that seeks to provide patients, clinicians, and others with evidence-based information to make informed decisions about health care—including research on ASD intervention strategies: - Communicating ASD Treatments: There is no cure and no consensus regarding which intervention strategy is most effective for treating ASD. Given the complexity of ASD and associated therapies, it is clear that teachers, clinicians, and families need guidance in selecting appropriate treatments. AHRQ-funded research is developing, implementing, and evaluating strategies for disseminating information online about treatments for autism and ASD to over 16,000 individuals in important clinician, parent and teacher audiences. This novel approach will accelerate the translation of new scientific evidence on ASD therapeutics into practice and decision-making in families, the education system, the health care system, and public policy. Read more. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders - Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, United States, 2006. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summaries. December 2009;58(10):1-20. Montes G, Halterman JS. Association of childhood autism spectrum disorders and loss of family income. Pediatrics. April 2008;121(4):e821-6. Ganz ML. The lifetime distribution of the incremental societal costs of autism. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. April 2007;161(4):343–9. *Projects cited in this report are examples of Recovery Act funding being applied to autism, not a comprehensive listing of Recovery Act-funded projects.

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Autism and Related Conditions

As one year shifts into the next, it is worthwhile to look at two artists who use non-permanence and change as their medium. It may seem strange to make an artwork knowing it may only last a few hours, but that's exactly what happens when you create art on the beach. And we're not talking sandcastles. Jim Denevan and Andres Amador are just two artists who use sand as their palette and canvas. Their large scale earth works, so large they are only visible from afar, hark back to the sixties tradition of land art, zen meditation and even crop circles, but with a contemporary twist. Andres Amador's Playa Paintings, ranging from 100 to several thousand feet, were all made by raking sand on the beaches around California. "The beach renews itself and there is no clean up involved", he says of his methods. Some have environmental messages, like the Biohazard and Warning signs he made following the oil spill of 2007. Surfer (and founder of the "Outstanding in the Field" moveable feasts) Jim Denevan has created over 600 drawings in the sand, using sticks and garden tools. He has also exhibited at PS1 MOMA and Headlands Center for the Arts. He recently made the world's largest freehand drawing on a dry lake in Nevada, walking for eight days to draw the 3 mile pattern. Although their art is as temporary as the winds or tides, for both Amador and Denevan it is this fleeting moment that motivates them. So sign up to their newsletters to find out about the next sand action, or it will be gone before you know it. Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (7 images)

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Global Cultural Heritage

Acer griseum (Paperbark Maple) is a species of maple native to central China, in the provinces of Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Sichuan, at altitudes of 1,500–2,000 m. It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree, reaching 6-9 m (20-30 ft) tall, 5-6 m (15-25 ft) wide, with a trunk up to 70 cm (2 ft) in diameter. The bark is smooth, shiny orange-red, peeling in thin, papery layers; it may become fissured in old trees. The shoots are densely downy at first, this wearing off by the second or third year and the bark exfoliating by the third or fourth year. The leaves are compound, with a 2–4 cm petiole with three leaflets, each 3-10 cm long and 2-6 cm broad, dark green above, bright glaucous blue-green beneath, with several blunt teeth on the margins. Paperbark Maple is widely grown as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It is admired for its decorative exfoliating bark, translucent pieces of which often stay attached to the branches until worn away. It also has spectacular autumn foliage which can include red, orange and pink tones. In the world of trees, Acer griseum is a small species, generally growing to around 12m in height. But what it lacks in stature, it more than makes up for in beauty. Its copper-red bark ensures that it is easy to identify, even in winter, as does its technique of bark renewal. As the old sheaves of bark die, they peel themselves off revealing the young, smooth bark beneath. This self-exfoliation, although unusual, is not unique and also occurs in several species of birch. At the turn of the 20th century, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew sent a young botanist by the name of Ernest Henry Wilson to China. As well as looking into the effect the charcoal industry was having on the forests, Wilson was also asked by his financier, the Veitch Nursery, to find interesting plants. The plan was to find the handkerchief tree Davidia involucrata which had been described, but never collected. Eventually, Wilson found the location where the tree was last seen only to find a tree stump and a newly-erected hut built from its timber! Over the next decade or so, 'Chinese' Wilson, as he was to become known, brought back more than 1,000 garden plants - more than any other collector. This eventually included the handkerchief tree, the regal lily Lilium regale and also the Paperbark Maple Acer griseum.

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Plant Descriptions and Care

Miriam has four children, although she has given birth six times. Two infants unfortunately died within days of birth. However, her most recent birth was different in that Miriam and her female relatives had learned from the local female community health worker (CHW) about the importance of keeping the baby warm. An old custom of washing a newborn soon after birth is being discounted with the knowledge that infants were becoming sick. Instead, a baby should be gently dried with a towel and placed next to the mother's skin. Washing should wait until later. "Until I received training about the care of newborn babies, I followed our old customs. I did not realize how important it is to keep the baby warm after birth," said a CHW. "Embracing a newborn against the mother's warm skin is so simple, and the mothers like it, too." With nearly nine out of 10 births in Afghanistan still occurring in the home, USAID is training local health workers in essential maternal and newborn care. They then teach pregnant mothers and their families the simple but important actions they can take to preserve the lives of newborns. Although general health has improved since 2002, Afghanistan remains a country with some of the poorest health indicators worldwide. Afghanistan has one of the highest mortality rates of any nation: about one in five children die before the age of five. Approximately 80 percent of women in rural Afghanistan give birth outside a health facility without a skilled birth provider. Consequently, teaching basic newborn care along with other basic health skills to community care providers is a vital part of the Ministry of Public Health's national strategy. Together, USAID and the Afghan Ministry of Health are helping save the lives of babies born in rural homes by ensuring that local health workers know the key newborn care skills to share with pregnant mothers and their families. Families can be more confident and better prepared for their babies' births. Last updated: June 05, 2012

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Health Initiatives

Sign up for our newsletter Gardening in the Rainy Zone. Lilium 'White Stargazer' Sunset zones: All. USDA zones: 3-10. Heat zones: 8-1. Height: 30-35 inches (76-88 cm). Star-shaped, white petals recurved at the tips. Humus rich, slightly acidic, moist, well-drained soil. In spring, when lilies are at the spear stage of growth (like asparagus), fertilize with a complete organic fertilizer. Do not feed again for the rest of the year; excessive fertilizing can promote disease and soft growth. As soon as the foliage dies back, dig bulbs and remove scales, bulbils and offsets from bulb; immediately replant. Remove dried stems only after foliage dies back. Rainy Side Notes Lilium 'White Stargazer' is the most popular of the white upright lilies and used by many for forcing. In fact, Peter Schenk bred it with forcing and the cut flower trade in mind. However, L. 'Siberia' and L. 'Jan de Graaf', two other upright whites, are not far behind in popularity. Like most Oriental lilies, white stargazer lily is deliciously fragrant. Cut flowers when the first flower is first opening. The flower lasts from 5-9 days in the vase. Pull the pollen sacks off when the flower opens to keep pollen from staining linens beneath the vase. If pollen should get on clothes or linens, let it dry before wiping it off. If wiped when wet, the pollen will stain. To grow lilies well, mulch with composted manures or compost and shredded bark to keep the roots cool while adding humus to the soil. Article: Oriental Lilies for the Summer Garden: Photographed in author's garden.

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Plant Descriptions and Care

In a study led by UCSF team an existence of relationship between asthma and composition of bacterial species, which are present in bronchial airways was revealed. This finding could suggest new treatment or even potential cures for the common inflammatory disease. Using new detection methods, researchers learned that the diversity of microbes inside the respiratory tract is far vaster than previously suspected - creating a complex and inter-connected microbial neighborhood that appears to be associated with asthma, and akin to what has also been found in inflammatory bowel disease, vaginitis, periodontitis, and possibly even obesity. "People thought that asthma was caused by inhalation of allergens but this study shows that it may be more complicated than that - asthma may involve colonization of the airways by multiple bacteria," said study co-author Homer Boushey, MD, a UCSF professor of medicine in the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In their three-year pilot project, the scientists collected samples from the airway linings of 65 adults with mild to moderate asthma and 10 healthy subjects. Then, using a tool that can identify approximately 8,500 distinct groups of bacteria in a single assay, the scientists profiled the organisms present in each sample to look for relationships between bacterial community composition and clinical characteristics of the patients' asthma.The researchers found that bronchial airway samples from asthmatic patients contained far more bacteria than samples from healthy patients. The scientists also found greater bacterial diversity in the asthmatic patients who had the most hyper-responsive or sensitive airways (a feature of asthma). The study has been published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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Allergy and Infection Information

Here are 15 ways kids can benefit from learning meditation techniques: 1. Meditation practice develops strength of character, as the child learns about virtuous living by thinking over the qualities of each virtue. 2. Meditation can help a child learn to think for themselves, and determine a best course of action by reflecting on possible solutions. 3. If the child is being raised in a particular religion, the quiet time of meditation is a chance to reflect on the spiritual lesson for the day. 4. Meditation is a positive activity that can be an example to a child's friends of a way to handle stress and work out problems. 5. Meditation feels good because a calm mind and relaxed body generate feelings of harmony. 6. As kids grow up and meditation deepens feelings of joy awaken within, and can be shared in daily living through caring actions, making meditation a win-win activity. 7. Learning even, regular breathing gives instant stress relief on a moment's notice. The regular even breathing is a bridge that ties body to mind; when breathing is made regular it calms the physical body. 8. Following the sequence within a meditation develops memory and the ability to concentrate, which carries over into school work. 9. Longer meditations give the body and mind time to deeply relax and center. 10. I found in teaching, that active or hyperactive kids moving in rhythm with the group, such as in walking meditation, derive a calming effect. 11. Meditation is non-competitive, and each can participate within the limits of their own ability, with adaptations if needed, or by working with a partner. 12. Meditation can be done individually or in a group setting and it does not need a special place to practice. 13. Beginning meditation practice in childhood sets up a lifetime habit for a way to handle stress, and as the child matures spiritual qualities can be added to meditate upon, such as kindness, loving, honesty, compassion. 14. Developing the discipline to sit still for meditation carries over into learning how to sit and concentrate to work out a problem or do school work. 15. Meditation feeds self-esteem: when in control of body and mind the youngster finds confidence to handle any situation competently. For offline reading God Speaks through the Holy Spirit More than 100 spiritual relationship topics with a reflective meditation to bring you into personal contact with the Holy Spirit. Uplifting to the goal of meditation, communion with our Creator, Sustainer. 198 pages. Meditation for all Kids Sitting, walking, dance and group circle meditations, along with positive affirmations, verses and benefits of meditation for kids of all ages and abilities in a 100 page book with illustrations. Article by Susan Helene Kramer

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Mindfulness and Well-being

Self-Reliance in a Power Outage People do not usually think of a power outage in the same light as an earthquake. However, when the power is out for a long period of time, citizen requests for fire, police, medical, and other public services will begin to mount. At some point, the increased demand for services could result in delayed response times. For this reason, every citizen should learn to be self-reliant in an emergency. And even though power outages may only last a few hours, individuals and organizations should be prepared to be without assistance for 72 hours or longer. To assist individuals prepare for an emergency, the City of San Mateo, State of California, American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company have provided information on what to do during a power outage or other emergency. - Check Circuit Breakers. If your power goes out, check your home's circuit breakers or fuses first. Your power could be out because a circuit has tripped or a fuse has blown. - Report Electrical Outages. See if the lights in your neighborhood are off. Contact the local electric utility to report an outage. - Power Lines. If you can see any power lines on the ground, stay at least 10 feet away from them as electricity might still be flowing through the lines. - Sensitive Appliances. Protect appliances from possible power surges when electricity is restored. Unplug appliances and computers, if possible, and turn off non-essential lights. - Keep Food Cold. Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to help prevent food spoilage. Refrigerated foods should remain safe to eat for four hours. Food in a closed freezer can stay frozen for up to two days. If in doubt, throw it out. - Dry Ice. Add dry or block ice to the freezer to help keep food frozen. Never add dry ice with your bare hands or place directly on top of food. - Water. Discontinue non-essential water usage. Do not drink cloudy or dirty water. Don't be alarmed if chlorine level is higher than normal. Notify water officials of low or no water pressure. - Stay Cool. During hot days, stay cool indoors and drink plenty of fluids. - Check on Neighbors. Check on elderly or medically dependent neighbors. - Life Support Equipment. If someone in your household uses life support equipment, make arrangements for a back-up power supply. - Generators. Establish independent, short-term power supplies such as generators or battery-operated devices. If you own a generator, never plug it into any electric outlet in your home. Instead, plug appliances directly into the generator. - Monitor Radio and Television. Monitor battery operated radio or television for current information on the outage. - Telephones. A telephone that does not depend on electricity. Cordless phones will not function during an outage. - Garage Doors. Know how to manually release and open any electric doors, like garage doors. - Security Gates. Find out the steps needed to take to open and close security gates. - House Numbers. Ensure house numbers are readily visible from the street for emergency response. - Anticipate Traffic Delays. Intersections should be treated as four-way stops when traffic lights are out. Anticipate long traffic delays in areas where the power is out.

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Oil and Environmental Safety

What Is It? A meniscus is a disk-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber inside a joint. Each knee has one lateral meniscus under the outer knob of the thighbone and one medial meniscus under the inner knob of the thighbone. Each meniscus acts as a natural cushion between the thighbone (femur) and shinbone (tibia). The two cushions prevent excess wear and tear inside the knee joint by keeping the ends of the two bones from rubbing together. Each meniscus also absorbs much of the shock of jumps and landings and helps to distribute joint fluid evenly to lubricate and nourish the knee. In the United States, a torn meniscus is the most common reason for knee surgery. The symptoms of a torn meniscus can include: - Knee pain, usually on one side of your knee - Tenderness at the side of the joint - Knee swelling within the first 12 hours after injury - A "locked" knee that can't be bent - A knee that catches during movement, or can't be fully straightened - A click, pop or grinding inside your knee when you move it - A knee that buckles, gives way or feels generally weak Your doctor will inspect both your knees to compare your injured knee with your uninjured one. He or she will check your injured knee for signs of swelling, tenderness and fluid inside the knee joint. If your knee is not locked, the doctor will bend your injured knee and check for clicks, snaps and "catches" within the joint. Your doctor also will evaluate your knee's range of motion and will maneuver your knee to see whether your meniscus is sensitive to pressure. For example, in the "McMurray test," the doctor bends the leg at the knee, and then rotates it inward or outward while straightening it. If you feel pain during this test or if there is a "click" sound as your leg rotates, there is a good chance that your meniscus is torn. If the results of your exam suggest you have a torn meniscus, you may need more tests, including: - Knee X-rays to check for bone injuries, including fracture, that can cause symptoms similar to a torn meniscus - A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan or computed tomography (CT) scan -- Nine out of 10 times, a torn meniscus will show up on one of these tests. - Arthroscopy (camera-guided surgery) to look inside the knee joint and examine the meniscus -- When arthroscopy is used for diagnosis, the problem can often be treated during the same surgery. If you have arthroscopic surgery to treat your torn meniscus and your job involves sedentary work (mostly sitting), you may be able to return to work one to two weeks after surgery, with full recovery in about four to eight weeks. If you are an athlete or your job requires a lot of physical activity, it may take three to four months after surgery before you feel like you have as much function in your knee as you require. Although it's hard to prevent accidental knee injuries, you may be able to reduce your risks by: - Warming up and stretching before participating in athletic activities - Exercising to strengthen the muscles around your knee - Avoiding sudden increases in the intensity of your training program - Wearing comfortable, supportive shoes that fit your feet and your sport - Wearing appropriate protective gear during activities, including athletic activities, in which knee injuries are common (especially if you've had knee injuries before). There are several options for treating a torn meniscus: - Nonsurgical. This may include a temporary knee brace and rehabilitation to keep the knee muscles strong while the knee is not bearing as much weight. This approach is most effective for small tears (5 millimeters or less) near the edge of the meniscus, where healing is usually good, or for people who are not good candidates for surgery. - Surgery to repair the tear. If the tear is large (1 to 2 centimeters), but it involves a part of the meniscus where there is enough blood supply for healing, the doctor may be able to repair it with stitches. - Surgery to remove part of the meniscus (partial meniscectomy). If the tear involves part of the meniscus where healing is poor, the surgeon may trim away ragged edges along the tear to allow the joint to move smoothly. - Surgery to remove the entire meniscus (total meniscectomy). This option is used for tears that cannot be treated any other way. Doctors try to avoid this, because it leaves the knee without a meniscus and greatly increases the wear on the ends of the femur and tibia. In the long run, this also increases the risk of osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease) in the knee. If you need surgery to correct a torn meniscus, it usually can be done using arthroscopy (camera-guided surgery) as a same-day procedure. After the procedure, you will begin physical therapy to help strengthen your knee muscles, reduce pain and swelling, and return the knee's full range of motion. When To Call a Professional Call your doctor to schedule an evaluation whenever an injured knee: - Locks, catches or can't be fully extended - Becomes very painful or swollen - Makes a click, pop or grinding sound when you move it, especially if associated with pain - Buckles, gives way or feels generally weak In most cases, the outlook is very good. If your torn meniscus has been repaired surgically or partially removed, you probably will be able to resume your normal athletic activities once you've finished physical therapy. According to long-term studies, most people who have had a meniscus repaired feel very satisfied with the results of their surgery, even 10 or 11 years after the procedure. However, some people with meniscus injuries eventually develop arthritis in the injured knee. Typically, arthritis develops many years after the injury. The highest risk is among those who've had a part or all of the meniscus removed, because significant injuries requiring this surgery often damage the joint but also because these surgeries take away some or all of the cushioning effect of the meniscus. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases National Insitutes of Health 1 AMS Circle Bethesda, MD 20892-3675 National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC) 8201 Corporate Dr. Landover, MD 20785 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine 6300 North River Road Rosemont, IL 60018 National Athletic Trainers' Association 2952 Stemmons Freeway Dallas, TX 75247 American Physical Therapy Association 1111 North Fairfax St. Alexandria, VA 22314-1488

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Bone and Joint Conditions

On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States. George Washington wrote the following on the eve of his inauguration: It is said that every man has his portion of ambition. I may have mine, I suppose, as well as the rest, but if I know my own heart, my ambition would not lead me into public life; my only ambition is to do my duty in this world as well as I am capable of performing it, and to merit the good opinion of all good men. We are so lucky, so very lucky, to have had this man in our “canon”. There’s as always, so much to say. One of the thing that strikes me about him is that he never wanted to seem like he was jostling for power or position. George Washington had many wonderful qualities and abilities – but it was this distaste for public life that I believe made him truly great. He went out of his way to let everyone know how unworthy he felt, how he hoped their trust in him was warranted, that he was eager to finally go home and live the life of a private man… But on this day in history, April 30, there was to be no private man anymore. His people had chosen him, and while Mount Vernon continued to call to him, he knew he must accept. David McCullough describes, in his book on John Adams, inauguration day: On the day of his inauguration, Thursday, April 30 1789, Washington rode to Federal Hall in a canary-yellow carriage pulled by six white horses and followed by a long column of New York militia in full dress. The air was sharp, the sun shone brightly, and with all work stopped in the city, the crowds along his route were the largest ever seen. It was as if all New York had turned out and more besides. “Many persons in the crowd,” reported the Gazette of the United States “were heard to say they should now die contented � nothing being wanted to complete their happiness � but the sight of the savior of his country.” In the Senate Chamber were gathered the members of both houses of Congress, the Vice President, and sundry officials and diplomatic agents, all of whom rose when Washington made his entrance, looking solemn and stately. His hair powdered, he wore a dress sword, white silk stockings, shoes with silver buckles, and a suit of the same brown Hartford broadcloth that Adams, too, was wearing for the occasion. They might have been dressed as twins, except that Washington’s metal buttons had eagles on them. It was Adams who formally welcomed the General and escorted him to the dais. For an awkward moment Adams appeared to be in some difficulty, as though he had forgotten what he was supposed to say. then, addressing Washington, he declared that the Senate and House of Representatives were ready to attend him for the oath of office as required by the Constitution. Washington said he was ready. Adams bowed and led the way to the outer balcony, in full view of the throng in the streets. People were cheering and waving from below, and from windows and rooftops as far as the eye could see. Washington bowed once, then a second time. Fourteen years earlier, it had been Adams who called on the Continental Congress to make the tall Virginian commander-in-chief of the army. Now he stood at Washington’s side as Washington, his right hand on the Bible, repeated the oath of office as read by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, who had also been a member of the Continental Congress. In a low voice Washington solemnly swore to execute the office of the President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Then, as not specified in the Constitution, he added, “So help me God”, and kissed the Bible, thereby establishing his own first presidential tradition. “It is done,” Livingston said, and, turning to the crowd, cried out, “Long live George Washington, President of the United States.” The following is George Washington’s first inaugural address. What I sense in these words is what I sense in so many of the original documents of that time, written by the main players: they were embarking on a grand and hopeful experiment. They were entering uncharted waters. And they all seem determined (each in their different ways, with their different views) to make the most of the opportunity, to seize the day. No decision was unimportant, everything had meaning … and what I also sense in this inaugural address is that Washington knew that he wasn’t only talking to the people present, but he was also talking to us. The future generations. They all knew that they were being watched, carefully, by those who would come after. The only thing required of a President on his inauguration day, in those early early days, was that he take the oath of Office. Washington, in composing an address, to the people who put their faith in him, set the precedent. Every president since then has followed his example. George Washington’s first inaugural address: Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years–a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated. Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President “to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted. To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend. William Maclay, a senator from Pennsylvania, kept a daily journal – highly detailed, and rather cynical, about the Senate sessions of the first Congress. He describes the first inauguration in vivid detail: 30th April, Thursday.–This is a great, important day. Goddess of etiquette, assist me while I describe it. The Senate stood adjourned to half after eleven o’clock. About ten dressed in my best clothes; went for Mr. Morris’ lodgings, but met his son, who told me that his father would not be in town until Saturday. Turned into the Hall. The crowd already great. The Senate met. The Vice-President rose in the most solemn manner. This son of Adam seemed impressed with deeper gravity, yet what shall I think of him? He often, in the midst of his most important airs–I believe when tie is at loss for expressions (and this he often is, wrapped up, I suppose, in the contemplation of his own importance)– suffers an unmeaning kind of vacant laugh to escape him. This was the case to-day, and really to me bore the air of ridiculing the farce he was acting. “Gentlemen, I wish for the direction of the Senate. The President will, I suppose, addressthe Congress. How shall I behave? How shall we receive it? Shall it be standing or sitting?” Here followed a considerable deal of talk from him which I could make nothing of. Mr. Lee began with the House of Commons (as is usual with him), then the House of Lords, then the King, and then back again. The result of his information was, that the Lords sat and the Commons stood on the delivery of the King’s speech. Mr. Izard got up and told how often he had been in the Houses of Parliament. He said a great deal of what he had seen there. [He] made, however, this sagacious discovery, that the Commons stood because they had no. seats to sit on, being arrived at the bar of the House of Lords. It was discovered after some time that the King sat, too, and had his robes and crown on. Mr. Adams got up again and said he had been very often indeed at the Parliament on those occasions, but there always was such a crowd, and ladies along, that for his part he could not say how it was. Mr. Carrol got up to declare that he thought it of no consequence how it was in Great Britain; they were no rule to us, etc. But all at once the Secretary, who had been out, whispered to the Chair that the Clerk from the Representatives was at the door with a communication. Gentlemen of the Senate, how shall he be received? A silly kind of resolution of the committee on that business had been laid on the table some days ago. The amount of it was that each House should communicate to the other what and how they chose; it concluded, however, something in this way: That everything should be done with all the propriety that was proper. The question was, Shall this be adopted, that we may know how to receive the Clerk? It was objected [that] this will throw no light on the subject; it will leave you where you are. Mr. Lee brought the House of Commons before us again. He reprobated the rule; declared that the Clerk should not come within the bar of file House; that the proper mode was for the Sergeant-at-Arms, with the mace on his shoulder, to meet the Clerk at the door and receive his communication; we are not, however, provided for this ceremonious way of doing business, having neither mace nor sergeant nor Masters in Chancery, who carry down bills from the English Lords. Mr. Izard got up and labored unintelligibly to show the great distinction between a communication and a delivery of a thing, but he was not minded. Mr. Elsworth showed plainly enough that if the Clerk was not permitted to deliver the communication, the Speaker might as well send it inclosed. Repeated accounts came [that] the Speaker and Representatives were at the door. Confusion ensued; the members left their seats. Mr. Read rose and called the attention of the Senate to the neglect that had been shown Mr. Thompson, late Secretary. Mr. Lee rose to answer him, but I could not hear one word he said. The Speaker was introduced, followed by the Representatives. Here we sat an hour and ten minutes before the President arrived–this delay was owing to Lee, Izard, and Dalton, who had stayed with us while the Speaker came in, instead of going to attend the President. The President advanced between the Senate and Representatives, bowing to each. He was placed in the chair by the Vice-President; the Senate with their president on the right, the Speaker and the Representatives on his left. The Vice-President rose and addressed a short sentence to him. The import of it was that he should now take the oath of office as President. He seemed to have forgot half what he was to say, for he made a dead pause and stood for some time, to appearance, in a vacant mood. He finished with a formal bow, and the President was conducted out of the middle window into the gallery, and the oath was administered by the Chancellor. Notice that the business done was communicated to the crowd by proclamation, etc., who gave three cheers, and repeated it on the President’s bowing to them. As the company returned into the Senate chamber, the President took the chair and the Senators and Representatives their seats. He rose, and all arose also and addressed them. This great man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to read, though it must be supposed he had often read it before. He put part of the fingers of his left hand into the side of what I think the tailors call the fall of the breeches, changing the paper into his left hand. After some time he then did the same with some of the fingers of his right hand. When he came to the words all the world, he made a flourish with his right hand, which left rather an ungainly impression. I sincerely, for my part, wished all set ceremony in the hands of the dancing-masters, and that this first of men had read off his address in the plainest manner, without ever taking his eyes from the paper, for I felt hurt that he was not first in everything. He was dressed in deep brown, with metal buttons, with an eagle on them, white stockings, a bag, and sword. From the hall there was a grand procession to Saint Paul’s Church, where prayers were said by the Bishop. The procession was well conducted and without accident, as far as I have heard. The militia were all under arms, lined the street near the church, made a good figure, and behaved well. The Senate returned to their chamber after service, formed, and took up the address. Our Vice-President called it his most gracious speech. I can not approve of this. A committee was appointed on it–Johnson, Carrol, Patterson. Adjourned. In the evening there were grand fireworks. The Spanish Ambassador’s house was adorned with transparent paintings; the French Minister’s house was illuminated, and had some transparent pieces; the Hall was grandly illuminated, and after all this the people went to bed. I have such a deep fondness for John Adams, with all his airs and self-importance and vanity. I just love the guy, what can I say. He’s so feckin’ human. The description of Washington’s awkwardness makes me want to cry: He rose, and all arose also and addressed them. This great man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to read, though it must be supposed he had often read it before. He put part of the fingers of his left hand into the side of what I think the tailors call the fall of the breeches, changing the paper into his left hand. After some time he then did the same with some of the fingers of his right hand. When he came to the words all the world, he made a flourish with his right hand, which left rather an ungainly impression. I sincerely, for my part, wished all set ceremony in the hands of the dancing-masters, and that this first of men had read off his address in the plainest manner, without ever taking his eyes from the paper, for I felt hurt that he was not first in everything. He was dressed in deep brown, with metal buttons, with an eagle on them, white stockings, a bag, and sword. God. Good God. But what really moves me is that after the address, they all walked in procession, led by George Washington, to St. Paul’s Church, for a service. St. Paul’s Church. (Read that article … it’s a well-known story, of course, but it always bears repeating.) St. Paul’s has always had meaning for us here in New York, because of its long history, but now … it has more meaning than ever. I can’t even think about St. Paul’s without feeling tears come to my eyes. So to think … that that special church, that church that became symbolic (not just to us here, but to people all over the country) of hope, or survival, of healing … would be the place where George Washington prayed for guidance after being sworn in as the first President… I mean, honestly. I don’t even know what else to say about it. April 30, 1789 … the day this new nation embarked on its unknown and exciting course, with George Washington at the helm. Here is an image of the first page of this inaugural address, in Washington’s own hand.

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Historical Events and Figures

Rabbi Victor Caro J.D. Levy Home J.D. Levy Clothing Store Rabbi Issac Moses Some history of Quincy’s Jewish Community Quincy’s first permanent Jewish resident was Abraham Jonas, an English-born Jew, who prior to his arrival in 1838 had lived in Cincinnati with other members of the Jonas family, had moved to Williamstown, KY where he was merchant and representative in the Kentucky state legislature, and where he had been the Grand Master of Kentucky Lodge of Masons in 1832. Why Jonas uprooted his family and came to the wilds of Illinois remains unclear. Beginning as a carriage, chair, window, and paint merchant, Jonas quickly plunged into local Masonic and political affairs. In 1840 he was elected the first Grand Master of the Illinois Masonic Lodge and in 1841 he was elected to his only term in the Illinois legislature as a member of the Whig Party. Jonas has characterized as quick in perception, a brilliant debater, and a formidable opponent. It was during this one term that he met Abraham Lincoln and their political friendship was solidified. Historians have said that Jonas was Lincoln’s closest Jewish friend, and it was Jonas who helped propel Lincoln’s candidacy for President. Two of Jonas’s brothers, Samuel and Edward, followed him to Quincy at the end of 1840 or early 1841. These three English Jews quickly blended into the small town, with Samuel becoming one of the founders of the Quincy Public Library. Abraham studied law and was admitted to the bar. His activities on behalf of the Whig Party resulted in his appointment as Postmaster of Quincy in 1849. At about the same time the first wave of German born Jews began to settle in Quincy. Several had been peddlers and decided to settle down in Quincy. Men like David Hermann who arrived in 1846 and Moses Jacobs in 1847 became successful merchants. When recalling those early years, Moses Jacobs noted that by 1849 there were enough Jews to conduct high holiday services on an annual basis, usually in someone’s home. By 1851 the little community had collected enough funds to allow Edward Jonas to purchase a parcel of land overlooking the Mississippi River for a cemetery. By 1852 it was reported that “the Israelites of Quincy had commenced a congregational organization, by electing a Schochet…” When Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise made a one day stop in Quincy on July 16, 1856, he noted that “there are about 40 souls of the Jewish persuasion hailing from Germany, Poland and England. They do a flourishing business.” He also wrote that they would have a nice little congregation if they could overcome their business jealousy. By the end of that year, those jealousies had been set aside as 26 families founded K. K. B’nai Abraham, and one year later Reverend Israel Worenski became their spiritual leader as Chazzan and Schochet. The congregation met in the third floor of the Jonas building at the southeast corner of Fifth and Hampshire, across from the town square. This “traditional” congregation grew as more Jews settled in Quincy because of its economic prospects. By 1859 Moses Jacobs reported that there were thirty members, or about 100 residents of all ages. Regular Sabbath services were led by the Chazzan, and the congregation supported the services of a Schochet. Until this point there is nothing to show that Jews faced any kind of discrimination, and the onset of the Civil War acted to further integrate Jews into the life of the community. Lincoln appointed Jonas to the position of Postmaster, Jewish men enlisted in the military, and several of Quincy’s Jewish women helped to found and to activate the Needle Pickets to assist families of Union soldiers. However, there were stirrings of secession within the Jewish community. When the congregation met in 1861 to elect a Chazzan and lecturer, and a Schochet, Mohel, and Shamus, eight members, mostly Bavarians, threatened to leave. Differences were set aside and Nathan Hainsfurther, a resident of Winchester, Illinois, who attended high holiday services in 1861, said, “None of the greater congregations of the country could offer any more to the devout mind than is the case here. The place of worship is a nice hall supplied with everything necessary to a synagogue, and was very well attended.” One year later the members of B’nai Abraham had collected enough funds to begin the process of building their own house of worship. Such a place was found across from Jefferson Square. Edward Jonas solicited more funds through the newspaper The Occident in which he noted 45 paying members comprising two hundred persons, a Chazzan and teacher, and “a location in a beautiful city of 20,000 on the banks of the Mississippi which offers a peaceful and prosperous home.” The rift in the congregation had not healed and on October 18, 1864, seventeen members held a meeting in their place of worship to elect officers and establish a new congregation. These “reformers” wanted to break from the old ways and establish a congregation that reflected the American way. This congregation called itself K.K. B’nai Sholom, and by 1866 it was renting an old Baptist Church as its home. Meanwhile, just prior to the high holidays in 1866, B’nai Abraham dedicated its synagogue. Designed to hold 200 persons, the sanctuary was 18 feet high, with seats on both sides of a central aisle, one for men and the other for women. The building was lit with gas and handsomely carpeted. The dedication was service was attended by both Jews and Gentiles, but noticeably absent were members of B’nai Sholom. Perhaps in an attempt to placate the secessionists, B’nai Abraham in 1868 introduced an organ and choir into its services. But B’nai Sholom was already planning its own synagogue on Ninth Street between Broadway and Spring. None other than Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise dedicated the cornerstone on July 18, 1869. Just prior to this, in May 1869, B’nai Abraham suffered a mortal blow, when fire damaged its wooden synagogue. When Temple B’nai Sholom was dedicated on September 8, 1870, it literally towered over B’nai Abraham. Costing $25,000, this red brick structure followed a neo-Byzantine style of architecture, dominated by six story high Moorish towers. At nine stories in height, this building was easily recognizable in the Quincy skyline. Some traditionalists had left B’nai Abraham to become charter members of B’nai Sholom. Reasonable individuals began to conduct behind the scenes negotiations, but it took Rabbi Adolph Ollendorf of B’nai Abraham to effect a merger. He gradually introduced reforms in B’nai Abraham and his eloquent speeches probably spurred the members to bring about a merger of the two congregations. On July 29, 1872, the two congregations passed resolutions of merger. The following Friday evening the first joint Shabbat service was held at B’nai Sholom, with the final Shabbat day service at B’nai Abraham the next day. Herman Hirsch wrote that "Peace, harmony and good will now exists among the members of the united congregations…for in union lies strength….” This moment was the apex of Jewish life in Quincy. Social and economic forces in the wider country were having an effect. Quincy’s river traffic gave way to the railroad, Quincy’s was no longer a frontier community, and Quincy’s younger generation of Jews sought to make their fortunes and find their spouses elsewhere. Orthodox Judaism as a mode of worship for Quincy’s Jews had been cast aside in favor of Reform. The size of the Jewish community inexorably declined, and Rabbi Elias Eppstein, Quincy’s rabbi in the 1890s thought that the community was on the verge of death. But Congregation B’nai Sholom has survived, now numbering approximately 65 members, and its building, although changed in appearance, remain the second oldest continuously used synagogue west of the Allegheny Mountains and the oldest in Illinois. Web Services by Media Development

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Ancient Civilizations History

XML and Java Servlets With recent introduction of new APIs and tools for the Java Server Pages (JSP) environment, marrying XML data to Java-based services and applications is easier than ever before. The September 17 release of the JavaServer Pages 1.2 specification ( - The new specification includes better mechanisms for accessing and describing XML data than earlier versions. - Standard JSP tag libraries support XML based data more efficiently and effectively. - Lots of third-party JSP tag libraries are popping up that know about all kinds of XML applications and services. - Better message handling facilities are integrated into the JSP environment, not coincidentally based on XML and the Simple Object Access Protocol, aka SOAP. Tag libraries permit collections of custom, XML-like tags to be defined and used in Java servlets constructed to invoke such libraries. In other words, a tag library defines a set of Java classes for the custom JSP actions that the tag library supports. Invoking the tag library imports custom processing and actions into the Java environment so a Java runtime environment like JRun 3.0 will know what to do with such tags as they're recognized. Tag libraries are usually packaged as Java archives in JAR files to make custom tag functions available to developers as they create content, and to Java runtime environments and tools as they encounter and react to such custom tags. The great thing about JSP and Java servlets is that they run on the server side, and can therefore control their environments to a large extent. This makes it possible to grab and interpret XML-based data on the server, and to transform it into plain-vanilla HTML, XHTML, or other formats (PDF, plain text, rich text files, and so forth) for delivery to Web clients. This helps sidestep the kinds of horrible compatibility issues that dynamic content can cause on the user agent side of a Web or other Internet service connection by keeping custom activities entirely on the server side, where they can be carefully implemented, tested, monitored, and controlled without necessarily being exposed to users. I find it very interesting that what works for effective delivery of XML data in general works equally well as a technique for combining Java and XML to supports all kinds of powerful, dynamic applications and services. For more information on this great topic, please consult: - Sun's Java Server Pages home (http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/) - Westy Rockwell's article on "JSP Tag Libraries" at www.informit.com (search on JSP or the entire title for this and lots of other useful references) - Visit jakarta.apache.org to examine a substantial collection of custom JSP tag libraries. - www.orionserver.com offers a nice JSP tutorial and another good collection of JSP tag libraries as well. - Bill Brogden's excellent book Java Developer's Guide to Servlets and JSP does a nice job of introducing servlets and JSP, and covering tag libraries as well. Have questions, comments, or feedback about this or other XML-related topics? Please e-mail me at email@example.com; I'm always glad to hear from my readers! Ed Tittel is a principal at LANWrights, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of LeapIt.com. LANWrights offers training, writing, and consulting services on Internet, networking, and Web topics (including XML and XHTML), plus various IT certifications (Microsoft, Sun/Java, and Prosoft/CIW). This was first published in December 2001

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GNU Project Tools

The American Meteorological Society ) promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric Atmospheric sciences is an umbrella term for the study of the atmosphere, its processes, the effects other systems have on the atmosphere, and the effects of the atmosphere on these other systems. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather... and related oceanic Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean... and hydrologic sciences Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability... and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership of more than 14,000 professionals, professors, students, and weather enthusiasts. Some members have attained the designation "Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM)", many of whom have expertise in the applied meteorology discipline of atmospheric dispersion modeling Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that solve the mathematical equations and algorithms which simulate the pollutant dispersion... . To the general public, however, the AMS is best known for its "Seal of Approval" to television and radio meteorologists. The AMS publishes nine atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic journals (in print and online), issues position statements on scientific topics that fall within the scope of their expertise, sponsors more than 12 conferences annually, and offers numerous programs and services. There is also an extensive network of local chapters. The AMS headquarters are located at Boston, Massachusetts. It was built by the famous Boston architect Charles Bulfinch Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession.... , as the third Harrison Gray Otis House There are three houses named the Harrison Gray Otis House in Boston, Massachusetts. All were built by noted American architect Charles Bulfinch for the same man, Harrison Gray Otis.-First Harrison Gray Otis House:... in 1806 and was purchased and renovated by the AMS in 1958, with staff moving into the building in 1960. The AMS also maintains an office in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... , at 1120 G Street NW. Seal of Approval The AMS Seal of Approval program was established in 1957 as a means of recognizing television and radio weather forecasters who display informative, well-communicated, and scientifically-sound weather broadcast presentations. The awarding of a Seal of Approval is based on a demonstration tape submitted by the applicant to six members of a review panel after paying an application fee. Although a formal degree in meteorology is not a requirement to obtain the original Seal of Approval, the minimal requirements of meteorological courses including hydrology, basic meteorology & thermodynamic meteorology including at least 20 core college credits must have been taken first before applying (ensuring that the forecaster has at least a minimal required education in the field). There is no minimum amount of experience required, but previous experience in weather forecasting and broadcasting is suggested before applying. It is worthy to note that many broadcasters who have obtained the Seal of Approval do in fact have formal degrees in Meteorology or related sciences and/or certifications from accredited University programs. Upon meeting the core requirements, having the seal, and working in the field for 3 years that broadcaster may then be referred to as a Meteorologist in the broadcast community. As of February 2007, more than 1,600 Seals of Approval have been granted, of which more than 700 are considered "active." Seals become inactive when a sealholder's membership renewal and annual seal fees are not paid. The original Seal of Approval program will be phased out at the end of 2008. Current applicants may either apply for the original Seal of Approval or the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) Seal until December 31, 2008. After that date, only the CBM Seal will be offered. Current sealholders retain the right to use their seal in 2009 and onward, but new applications for the original Seal of Approval will not be accepted after December 31, 2008. Note: The NWA Seal of Approval is issued by the National Weather Association The National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities... and is independent of the AMS. Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) Seal The original Seal of Approval program was revamped in January 2005 with the introduction of the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, or CBM, Seal. This seal introduced a 100-question multiple choice closed-book examination as part of the evaluation process. The questions on the exam cover many aspects of the science of meteorology, forecasting, and related principles. Applicants must answer at least 75 of the questions correctly before being awarded the CBM Seal. Persons who obtained or applied for the original Seal of Approval before December 31, 2004 and were not rejected are eligible for an upgrade of their Seal of Approval to the CBM Seal upon the successful completion of the CBM exam and payment of applicable fees. Upgrading from the original Seal of Approval is not required. New applicants for the CBM Seal must pay the application fee, pass the exam, and then submit demonstration tapes to the review board before being considered for the CBM Seal. While original sealholders do not have to have a degree in meteorology or a related field of study to be upgraded, brand new applicants for the CBM seal must have a degree in meteorology or a related field of study to be considered. In order to keep either the CBM Seal or the original Seal of Approval, sealholders must pay all annual dues and show proof of completing certain professional development programs every five years (such as educational presentations at schools, involvement in local AMS chapter events, attendance at weather conferences, and other activities of the like). As of February 2007, nearly 200 CBM seals have been awarded to broadcast weather forecasters, either upgraded from the original Seal of Approval or granted to new applicants. American Meteorological Society offers several awards in the fields of meteorology and oceanography. Atmospheric Research Awards Committee - The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society. It is presented to individual scientists, who receive a medal... - The Jule G. Charney Award - The Verner E. Suomi Award - The Remote Sensing Prize - The Clarence Leroy Meisinger - The Henry G. Houghton Oceanographic Research Awards Committee - The Sverdrup Gold Medal Sverdrup Gold Medal Award - is the American Meteorological Society's award granted to researchers who make outstanding contributions to the scientific knowledge of interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere.-Recipients:... - The Henry Stommel Research Award The Henry Stommel Research Award is awarded by the American Meteorological Society to researchers in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of the dynamics and physics of the ocean. The award is in the form of a medallion and was named for Henry... - The Verner E. Suomi - The Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award The American Meteorological Society publishes the following scientific journals: - Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.The official organ of the society, it is devoted to editorials, topical reports to members, articles, professional and membership news, conference announcements, programs and... - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences The Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society... - Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology The Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.... - Journal of Physical Oceanography Journal of Physical Oceanography is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society . It was established in January 1971 and is available on the web since 1996... - Monthly Weather Review The Monthly Weather Review is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.Topics covered by the journal include research related to analysis and prediction of observed and modeled circulations of the atmosphere, including technique development, data assimilation, model... - Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology The Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology is a scientific publication by the American Meteorological Society.The journal includes papers describing the instrumentation and methodology used in atmospheric and oceanic research including computational techniques, methods for data acquisition,... - Weather and Forecasting Weather and Forecasting is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.Articles on forecasting and analysis techniques, forecast verification studies, and case studies useful to forecasters... - Journal of Climate The Journal of Climate is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society.The journal publishes articles on climate research, in particular those concerned with large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability, changes in the climate system , and climate simulation and... - Journal of Hydrometeorology The Journal of Hydrometeorology is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers the modeling, observing, and forecasting of processes related to water and energy fluxes and storage terms, including interactions with the boundary layer and lower atmosphere, and... - Weather, Climate, and Society (new journal, to start 2009) - Earth Interactions Earth Interactions is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Association of American Geographers.... - Meteorological Monographs Meteorological Monographs is a publication of the American Meteorological Society.The AMS Monograph Series has two parts, historical and meteorological... The American Meteorological Society produces the following scientific databases: - Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts As a means of promoting "the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications", the AMS periodically publishes policy statements on issues related to its competence on subjects such as drought A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region... Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon... and acid deposition Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen... In 2003, the AMS issued the position statement Climate Change Research: Issues for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences - Human activities have become a major source of environmental change. Of great urgency are the climate consequences of the increasing atmospheric abundance of greenhouse gases... Because greenhouse gases continue to increase, we are, in effect, conducting a global climate experiment, neither planned nor controlled, the results of which may present unprecedented challenges to our wisdom and foresight as well as have significant impacts on our natural and societal systems. - The Maury Project (a comprehensive national program of teacher enhancement based on studies of the physical foundations of oceanography)

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Climate and Weather Events

An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 farmworkers between the ages of 14 and 16 might be affected by proposed changes to child labor laws. Stricter regulations bring new training requirements Producers could soon lose a share of their farmworkers or be subject to big fines if one of those workers sustains a serious injury, or dies, in a farm accident. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is now poring over the more than 3,000 comments it received on its proposed changes to the Hazardous Occupations Orders for Agricultural Employment. The changes will affect hired farmworkers between the ages of 14 and 16 regardless of their immigration status. Children working on farms owned or operated by their parents will continue to be exempt from the orders. While no one knows for sure exactly how many young workers would be affected by the changes, the Department of Labor estimates that between 50,000 and 60,000 hired farmworkers are between the ages of 14 and 16. The most important of the proposed child labor changes—the first in more than three decades—that crop producers need to be aware of include: - The tractor-safety certification training required for these workers to be able to operate tractors and other farm machinery would be increased from 20 hours to 90 hours. Children enrolled in the program, however, could work and operate farm machinery while taking the training. - The height at which these children could work would be lowered from the current 20' to 6'. - They would be banned from working in grain elevators. - They would not be allowed to use electronic devices such as iPods or cell phones while operating a motor vehicle such as a tractor (GPS is an exception). - Tractors operated by these workers would need to have rollover protection and a proper seat belt. "Farmers have big concerns about some of the proposed changes," says Craig Lang, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and a fifth-generation dairy producer from Brooklyn, Iowa. A lot of kids work for neighbors, and there are certain things parents would like their kids to be able to do when they reach age 14 or 15—including running a tractor and other farm machinery, Lang says. The proposed change that Lang and others have the biggest objection to is the extended requirement for tractor-safety certification. "There’s no realistic way to financially support the expanded training," says Bob Aherin, an ag engineer specializing in farm safety at the University of Illinois. "There are very few Extension programs that would have the capacity to offer the coursework. It would be great if we could get young people to go through a 90-hour training, but I just don’t see it happening." The height restriction is also an issue. "Farmers view this as another intrusion of government into the private lives of citizens," Lang says. "Parents should be able to determine whether it is safe for their child to work for a neighbor and at what height. When does the intrusion of government stop and allow good parenting to take over?" Greg Rinehart farms 900 acres near Boone, Iowa, with the help of his 10 children. He’s concerned that kids across the country—particularly those in locations far from city centers—will lose out on the opportunity to work on farms if the proposed rules go into effect. "Kids learn great work ethics on farms," Rinehart says. "They learn the value of hard work, work skills and life lessons. We don’t want to limit kids’ exposure to farms and farm work." The penalty could reach $100,000, the maximum allowed by law, for employers who knowingly violate the orders and employ an untrained child worker in a hazardous job who sustains serious dismemberment or dies. "Minor violations could result in a warning," says Michael Hancock, assistant administrator for policy at the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. "The secretary of labor really believes in these regulations. To expect a final ruling in 2012 is not too ambitious. This is a life and death issue for children." According to study conducted by the General Accounting Office, 4% of all working youth during the 1990s were employed in agriculture, but they experienced more than 40% of the youth occupational fatalities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that agricultural workers ages 15 to 17 have a risk of dying that’s 4.4 times greater than the average 15- to 17-year-old worker. The greatest risk of death comes from tractor rollovers. - January 2012

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Agricultural Research and Innovations

For people living with diabetes, maintaining optimal blood glucose control takes knowledge, dedication, support — and money. According to a study published in the December 2008 issue of the journal Diabetes Care, people recently diagnosed with diabetes spend, on average, $4,174 more each year on medical costs than people who don’t have diabetes — a gap that increases substantially each year following the initial diagnosis. In our current economic climate, when people are losing their savings, jobs, homes, and health insurance, people living with diabetes can face major health problems if they don’t have enough money to take care of their condition. And how can people with diabetes come up with the money for doctors’ visits, medicines, insulin, monitoring supplies, an insulin pump, and pump supplies when they are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, make car payments, and afford their rising grocery bills? The good news is that there is help available — help that many people, including doctors and social workers, are not always aware of. Through a variety of sources, including nonprofit organizations, government programs, discount pharmacies, and direct services from manufacturers, taking care of your diabetes is possible even when your bank account is nearly empty. That said, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to finding what you need; it all depends on your financial situation. It will take a good deal of time, persistence, and self-advocacy to locate the programs that will help you. Having a computer with Internet access will make your search faster and easier, but you can also find the help you need through phone calls and perhaps a visit to your local Health and Human Services office, whose location can be found in the “government” section of your local phone book. This article leads you through a variety of resources currently available to help people with diabetes afford health care, medicine, and supplies. In the last decade, as the number of Americans living without health insurance has increased to an estimated 47 million people, a number of nonprofit agencies have been created to help people find insurance or health care or to afford medical supplies without insurance. Some of these nonprofits are specifically aimed at people with diabetes. The Foundation for Health Coverage Education (FHCE) is an excellent place to begin for anyone who is uninsured, has recently lost benefits, or is struggling to afford insurance premiums. FHCE is an organization that employs trained specialists to help people discover what public and private programs they are eligible for and what their most affordable options are — all for free. By taking a five-question eligibility quiz on their Web site, www.coverageforall.org, you can see all of the programs for which you may qualify in your state. You can then call FHCE’s help line, (800) 234-1317, to discuss your options with a real person. “Many people will be eligible for two or three programs and not know it,” says FHCE President Ankeny Minoux. For example, in some states, a person who is self-employed may qualify for a group small-business insurance plan, which can be much more affordable than buying into the state’s high-risk insurance pool. These are the kinds of tips that can make all the difference for someone whose budget is tight. FHCE has provided over 536,000 people with such guidance in the last five years. iPump was founded in 2006 by Lahle Wolfe, a single mother of four who has diabetes, as do two of her children. iPump has shipped supplies to more than 6,000 people with diabetes in its two years of operation, providing critical materials to more than 30 free clinics throughout the United States that were turning away people with diabetes because they lacked basic monitoring supplies and syringes. The group has also provided assistance to get more than 20 people on insulin pumps and plans to do the same for at least 10 more people during the first half of this year. Wolfe was inspired to start iPump by her own life experience. “As a single mom to four children, who had insurance, I still could not pay all our diabetes-related medical bills. I had to quit college, sell our home, and move across the country to get on a state insurance program because I had exhausted COBRA benefits,” she recalls. “But our premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses were still more than $25,000 a year — more than my entire income. I often had to choose between food, my own diabetes supplies, and my daughter’s diabetes care.” (The other child had not yet developed diabetes.) “No family should have to go through what we did.” To apply for help through iPump, visit its Web site, www.ipump.org. iPump accepts donations of all unexpired diabetes and pump supplies and it relies on monetary donations to distribute them: It costs about $700 to place a donated pump with a new client. Donations can be sent to iPump.org, Inc., 2250 Alyssum Avenue, Upland, California, 91784. A number of other nonprofit organizations can help with prescription medicines, diabetes supplies, and health care. They include the following: - The Partnership for Prescription Assistance has a Web site, www.pparx.org, and phone service, (888) 477-2669, both of which offer access to hundreds of assistance programs for the uninsured. - The Charles Ray III Diabetes Association, Inc., provides blood glucose meters, strips, and other supplies to those who can’t afford to pay for them. To apply for assistance, log on to www.charlesray.g12.com. - The Patient Advocate Foundation Co-Pay Relief Program assists people who have chronic illnesses — including diabetes — and are fully insured but who struggle to afford their insurance co-payments. To apply for assistance, go to www.copays.org or call (866) 512-3861. - NeedyMeds (www.needymeds.org) is a nonprofit Web site that offers free, anonymous advice to anyone who cannot afford needed medicine or health care. The Web site helps visitors find both low-cost medicine programs and disease-based assistance programs. Local charitable organizations, including the Lions Club International, Rotary Club, Elks Club, Kiwanis Club, and Shriners, can provide assistance with medical supplies or help with fund-raising for medical expenses. However, local chapters offer different kinds of help, so you should look up your local chapter and contact it directly or check with your local Health and Human Services office for more information. Health care was one of the hottest topics in the 2008 Presidential election, and it remains to be seen how the new administration will change our current health-care system. At this time, most Americans rely on employer-sponsored health insurance or purchase private policies. However, there are a number of government-sponsored programs that can benefit people with diabetes. Medicare is a government health insurance program for people ages 65 and over as well as younger people with serious health problems such as kidney failure. Part A of Medicare covers hospital stays and is provided at no cost to those who qualify. Part B covers doctor visits outside of hospitals and requires paying a monthly premium. Medicare Advantage Plans, also called Part C, are health insurance plans that are approved by Medicare but run by private companies. They are available to anyone enrolled in Parts A and B. These plans tend to offer more benefits at a greater cost; details vary from state to state. Parts A, B, and C now cover blood glucose meters, test strips, lancets, insulin pumps and supplies, therapeutic shoes, glaucoma screenings, flu and pneumonia vaccines, and counseling by registered dietitians and certified diabetes educators under certain conditions. Part D provides prescription drug benefits. This three-year-old program is run by private insurance companies, so the cost and benefits of plans vary. However, all Part D plans “leave a huge ‘doughnut hole’ that requires patients to pay several thousand dollars a year,” says Dr. Richard Grant, an endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of a 2006 study published in Diabetes Care, which reported that nearly 15% of people with diabetes say they have trouble affording their prescriptions. “The trend we reported on in the study has certainly continued to worsen. With the tumbling economy, joblessness, home foreclosures, etc., people are under severe financial pressures.” Because of this gap in drug coverage, some people on Medicare will still need to find help from other sources (such as the nonprofits listed above) to help pay for their diabetes supplies or drugs. For Medicare eligibility information, call the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at (800) 633-4227, or visit www.medicare.gov. People who have Medicare for a disability and are still struggling to make their co-payments on prescriptions may be eligible for extra benefits through Social Security, which can be applied for at www.socialsecurity.gov or by calling (800) 772-1213. Medicaid is a medical assistance program sponsored by both the federal government and state governments, and administered by each state; coverage varies by state. Eligibility is based on income level and several other criteria. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are low-income parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Medicaid recipients may qualify for full or partial coverage of certain types of diabetes medicines and blood glucose meters and strips. CHIP is the Children’s Health Insurance Program provided by each state. It is for children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private health insurance. For information, call (877) 543-7669, or visit www.insurekidsnow.gov. The VA (Department of Veteran Affairs) runs hospitals and clinics for veterans who meet eligibility requirements based on income. To find out more about VA health benefits, call (800) 827-1000 or visit www.va.gov. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) requires certain medical facilities to offer free or discounted care to people who meet low-income eligibility requirements (called the Hill-Burton program). For a directory of locations, call (800) 400-2742 or visit www.hrsa.gov/hillburton. HRSA also supports many local health centers specifically aimed at people who are struggling financially. Centers vary greatly from region to region. A major challenge of community-run health centers is that they are often understaffed and can have a waiting list to see a doctor. It may take several attempts to reach someone on the phone to schedule an appointment. While it may be possible to see the same doctor each time you visit a clinic, at many centers this is not guaranteed. As a patient using a community health center, you may need to share your medical history each time you see a new doctor. If you are willing to be a self-advocate and to be persistent about scheduling and showing up for your medical appointments, using the services of a community-run center can be an excellent way to get the medical care you need despite a tough financial situation. To find an HRSA health center in your area, visit www.hrsa.gov/help. Manufacturers and pharmacies Diabetes medicines can be expensive, particularly for people with Type 2 diabetes — who often need to take multiple drugs — or for anyone with diabetes who also takes medicine to treat conditions such as heart or kidney disease or high blood pressure. Fortunately, a number of manufacturers have programs that offer free or low-cost medicines and supplies to those in need. These companies include the following: A longer listing of manufacturers that offer assistance, compiled by the American Diabetes Association, can be found at www.diabetes.org/advocacy-and-legalresources/healthcare/insurance.jsp. It is a good idea to ask your doctor to prescribe the generic form of any medicine you take, if there is one, and to look for discount pharmacies. A very helpful Web site, www.pharmacychecker.com, lets you compare prices of insulin and other medicines at different online pharmacies. Many people also find that shopping at Wal-Mart pharmacy gives significant savings because of its $4 prescription program and its low-priced ReliOn blood glucose test strips and supplies. Another fairly new Web site, www.slashdrugcosts.org, offers free advice to people who are seeking ways to lower the cost of their medicines. It is a library of information, offered by a concerned citizen group, about ways to afford medicines without having to lower your income to be eligible for Medicaid or other assistance programs. Finally, Together Rx is a public service program created and sponsored by some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. It provides a free prescription-savings card for eligible residents of the United States and Puerto Rico who have no other prescription drug coverage. To apply, go to www.togetherrxaccess.com. (See “Resources Listed In Text” for a list of all the resources mentioned in this article.) Don’t go it alone If you are struggling financially, finding the assistance you need to take care of your diabetes will require time, patience, and persistence. But as you can see from this article, there are many possible resources to help you get through hard economic times. You can also reach out to your doctor, diabetes educator, or social worker, as well as friends and family members, to get the support you need. In nearly all cases, there is a way to get the health care you need to stay well with diabetes.

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Diabetes Management and Awareness

eso0842 — Science Release Beta Pictoris planet finally imaged? 21 November 2008 A team of French astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered an object located very close to the star Beta Pictoris, and which apparently lies inside its disc. With a projected distance from the star of only 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, this object is most likely the giant planet suspected from the peculiar shape of the disc and the previously observed infall of comets onto the star. It would then be the first image of a planet that is as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun. The hot star Beta Pictoris is one of the best-known examples of stars surrounded by a dusty 'debris' disc. Debris discs are composed of dust resulting from collisions among larger bodies like planetary embryos or asteroids. They are a bigger version of the zodiacal dust in our Solar System. Its disc was the first to be imaged — as early as 1984 — and remains the best-studied system. Earlier observations showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and infalling comets onto the star. "These are indirect, but tell-tale signs that strongly suggest the presence of a massive planet lying between 5 and 10 times the mean Earth-Sun distance from its host star," says team leader Anne-Marie Lagrange. "However, probing the very inner region of the disc, so close to the glowing star, is a most challenging task." In 2003, the French team used the NAOS-CONICA instrument (or NACO ), mounted on one of the 8.2 m Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), to benefit from both the high image quality provided by the Adaptive Optics system at infrared wavelengths and the good dynamics offered by the detector, in order to study the immediate surroundings of Beta Pictoris. Recently, a member of the team re-analysed the data in a different way to seek the trace of a companion to the star. Infrared wavelengths are indeed very well suited for such searches. "For this, the real challenge is to identify and subtract as accurately as possible the bright stellar halo," explains Lagrange. "We were able to achieve this after a precise and drastic selection of the best images recorded during our observations." The strategy proved very rewarding, as the astronomers were able to discern a feeble, point-like glow well inside the star's halo. To eliminate the possibility that this was an artefact and not a real object, a battery of tests was conducted and several members of the team, using three different methods, did the analysis independently, always with the same success. Moreover, the companion was also discovered in other data sets, further strengthening the team's conclusion: the companion is real. "Our observations point to the presence of a giant planet, about 8 times as massive as Jupiter and with a projected distance from its star of about 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, which is about the distance of Saturn in our Solar System ," says Lagrange. "We cannot yet rule out definitively, however, that the candidate companion could be a foreground or background object," cautions co-worker Gael Chauvin. "To eliminate this very small possibility, we will need to make new observations that confirm the nature of the discovery." The team also dug into the archives of the Hubble Space Telescope but couldn't see anything, "while most possible foreground or background objects would have been detected", remarks another team member, David Ehrenreich. The fact that the candidate companion lies in the plane of the disc also strongly implies that it is bound to the star and its proto-planetary disc. "Moreover, the candidate companion has exactly the mass and distance from its host star needed to explain all the disc's properties. This is clearly another nail in the coffin of the false alarm hypothesis," adds Lagrange. When confirmed, this candidate companion will be the closest planet from its star ever imaged. In particular, it will be located well inside the orbits of the outer planets of the Solar System. Several other planetary candidates have indeed been imaged, but they are all located further away from their host star: if located in the Solar System, they would lie close or beyond the orbit of the farthest planet, Neptune. The formation processes of these distant planets are likely to be quite different from those in our Solar System and in Beta Pictoris. "Direct imaging of extrasolar planets is necessary to test the various models of formation and evolution of planetary systems. But such observations are only beginning. Limited today to giant planets around young stars, they will in the future extend to the detection of cooler and older planets, with the forthcoming instruments on the VLT and on the next generation of optical telescopes," concludes team member Daniel Rouan. Only 12 million years old, the 'baby star' Beta Pictoris is located about 70 light-years away towards the constellation Pictor (the Painter). NACO is one of the instruments on ESO's VLT that make use of Adaptive Optics (AO). Such systems work by means of a computer-controlled deformable mirror that counteracts the image distortion induced by atmospheric turbulence (see e.g. ESO Press Release 25/01). The astronomers can only see the projected separation between the star and the planet (that is, the separation projected on the plane of the sky). "A probable giant planet imaged in the β Pictoris disk. VLT/NACO Deep L-band imaging", by A.-M. Lagrange et al., 2008, Letter to the Editor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. (a PDF file can be downloaded here) The team is composed of A.-M. Lagrange, G. Chauvin, D. Ehrenreich, and D. Mouillet (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire de Grenoble, France), D. Gratadour, G. Rousset, D. Rouan and E. Gendron (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, France), T. Fusco, and L. Mugnier (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales, Chatillon, France), F. Allard (Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, France), and the NAOS Consortium. Tel: +33 4 7651 4203 Tel: +33 4 7663 5803 Tel: +33 1 4507 7715 Tel: +49 89 3200 6222 Tel: +56 2 463 3123 About the Release |Legacy ID:||PR 42/08| |Facility:||Very Large Telescope|

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Space Exploration and Astronomy

Cheating, Plagiarism, and Academic Dishonesty Students must be honest and responsible in the completion of their academic work. While parents are encouraged to assist and guide their children, they must allow their children to do their own work. Students must refrain from: - Copying another student's work or homework - Plagiarism (submitting another's work as one's own) Teachers who suspect that a student may have been academically dishonest will report their concern to the Administration. Consequences may range from receiving a zero (no credit) on the assignment to required withdrawal from school.

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Child-Focused Learning Techniques

Party Affiliation: Republican - He injured his knee trying to tackle eventual Olympic and NFL great Jim Thorpe during Army football's 27-6 loss to Carlisle in 1912. He never played again. - Dwight Eisenhower was the only president to serve in both world wars, and was promoted to five-star general in the midst of World War II. - Health was not Ike’s middle name (David was, though). He was a chainsmoker, had between two and seven heart attacks, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, and died of cardiac arrest in 1969 at the age of 79. Click image to view the full poster - He championed and signed the bill authorizing the Interstate Highway System, making your soul-searching cross-country roadtrip possible. - His mother, a pacifist, cried when he enrolled in West Point. But his 1915 graduating class became known as the “class the stars fell on”, producing 59 generals. - In response to the panic over Russia’s Sputnik satellite, the Eisenhower administration oversaw the creation of NASA in October, 1958.

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Historical Events and Figures

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index] Breathing Apparatus in Tyrannosaurines The subject of various breathing apparati in extant animals as applied to dinosaurs is interesting, because there are obvious alternate systems which may be applied, and I think Ruben et al. 1999 did not confront this. Am hoping to get the article today, so bear my unread comment on that. Otherwise, there are apparently various breathing systems employed by modern animals, including: hepatic: liver is pushed into lungs to force expelling of breath. -- employed by crocs and lizards(?). continuous circulation: lungs are rigid, air is forced in and out by powered airsacs manipulated by movement of muscle compression. -- employed by birds. diaphragmatic: lungs are flexible and are compressed by movement of ribs, and expelled by reactive movement of diaphragm. -- employed by mammals and snakes(?). grastralic: gastralia compress internal organs to force flexible lungs to expell. -- ? I am unsure how turtles do it, but they seem to have had rigid lungs and ribs and would have to rely on other forces to breathe. Ruben et al. suggest that the first (hepatic) was employed by crocs and theropods, but what about those dinosaurs that lacked a mobile pubis or any other way of compressing the liver? Take it this way: tyrannosaurs have rigid backs, the pubis could not induce the position of the liver, and the back could not squeeze down to force the lungs to move; the gastralia or a continuous ventilation are the only other proposed breathing mechanisms through which it can "pump" it's lungs (as well as whatever turtles employ). The hepatic system doesn't work for tyrannosaurs, and unless I'm mistaken, it wouldn't for other rigid-backed dinosaurs. - Often, it is the man who is brought down the path to the end who does not see his own steps. - Jaime A. Headden Qilong, the website, at: DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

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Reptile and Amphibian Information

Humans are strange, thrill-seeking creatures. We crave not just a thrill, but something so terrifying that we think, if only for a moment, that we might not actually survive. For those of us not ready for base jumping in wing suits, roller coasters can fulfill that excitement lust. And the amusement park fixtures may never have existed if not for something decidedly unthrilling (though important!): coal mining. In the early 19th century, a coal company operator in Pennsylvania named Josiah White decided to allow the locals a ride on the mine's trains after hours. The trip was an intense 9-mile dive down a mountain, and people loved it. Mules carried the cars back up once they reached the bottom. Several years later, White invented roller coaster's first big innovation: the thing that makes that distinctive click while they climb. To help meet increasing coal demand, White expanded his operation by building a 664-foot vertical track climbing up a nearby mountain. The steep slope meant an increased risk that cars could lose their grip and slide backwards. So White added a third rail in the middle along with cars equipped with ratchets that engaged with the middle track to prevent backsliding. Trolley companies jumped into the amusement game at the close of the 19th century, adding small parks at the end of their lines. One notable trolley terminal at Coney Island brought roller coaster culture into the mainstream with rapid-fire coaster innovation. A 600-foot, gravity-powered, switchback railway going an astonishing six (!!!) mph, was such a success that its inventor, La Marcus Thompson, recouped the $1,600 bucks he spent on building the ride in just six weeks. Another inventor turned the typically linear tracks into a loop. Yet another in 1885 kicked his ride off with a powered hoist that yanked cars up to the top of a hill before letting them go. Just 10 years later, Coney Island introduced the vertical loop to the roller coaster design cannon with the Flip-Flap Railway. The 25-foot inversion was physically uncomfortable to say the least, and it only operated for a few years. Then, in 1901, a coaster with a more gentle oval design mitigated the G-forces. Side note: the lap bar had not yet entered the scene. During the upside down parts, G-forces and handles on the side of the cars were the only things holding riders in. Higher speeds, thankfully, brought better safety precautions-something absolutely necessary when whipping around at 150 mph without even a helmet. (Did you know there is a roller coaster in Abu Dhabi that goes 150mph?!) Flying forward at even half that clip will make your body feel like a twisted slinky, thanks to G Forces in three directions. But here's the thing: engineers have gotten really good at fine-tuning these G-forces to your benefit. A 5-G force makes a 100-pound person feel like she weighs 500 pounds. Kent Bachmann, the director of design and engineering for Hersheypark in Pennsylvania, says they stop short of 5Gs, "because some people black out—but we flirt with it." Your body will register 5Gs at anything over 200 milliseconds, but if you hit 5Gs for a fraction of a second less than that, your body wont feel it. That dipping in and out of such intensity is all baked into the design. Alleviating some of that force is important, too, and elements like banked turns take the pressure off. Sudden acceleration, change in direction, and the feeling of weightlessness also add to the thrill. Wooden roller coasters rely in part on that out of control feeling you get while speeding around the track. Older models were decidedly jolty, but more precise construction, thanks to better computer-powered design tools, allow modern "woodies" an experience reminiscent of coasters past, but without the residual head ache. That particular out of control feeling comes from the materials. "Wood grows and shrinks with the weather, and the distance between the rails changes over time," says Evan Souliere, a design engineer at Great Coasters. "With steel, you're in constant contact with the track; with wood, you're not." It may feel like you're going to fly off the track, but the design ensures you won't. Wooden coaster tracks look like an upside down, inward pointing pair of Ls. On the top of the track, there's a strip of steel that the trains ride on. Just inside that, 90 degrees from the road wheel, is a guide track. A smaller set of wheels runs on this surface facing outward, stopping the cars from moving side to side. A third set of wheels runs on the underside of the track, pointing upwards, keeping the train from going airborne. Because there is movement in the wood, not all the wheels touch all the time-which is what makes us want to pee our pants as they lose contact with the seat. Steel coasters can take you higher, faster, and offer more upside down time, but they still rely on sensory trickery. Hersheypark's new $25 million "Skyrush" coaster carries riders over an existing wooden looped ride, taking them what seems like arms reach of other park goers. They've also stripped the 75 mph ride of upper body armor, leaving you free to throw your arms up unencumbered. There's a seat belt and lap bar combo that will keep you safe, but the feeling that perhaps you won't be makes the ride, which opens this summer, that much more terrifying. Who knows, maybe humans would have invented roller coasters even without coal mining. Even in 15th-century Russia, long before the 100 mph-plus, 4G scream machines we have today, folks got their thrills by schlepping wooden toboggans up 70-foot hills to slide down an ice slope at 50-miles-per-hour. The man-made hills were called "flying mountains," and they sound quite terrifying, not to mention very dangerous—but also, of course, tantalizingly fun.

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Buildings and Materials

C. Mackenzie Brown, Professor of Religion at Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200; e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org. Avataric evolutionism is the idea that ancient Hindu myths of Vishnu's ten incarnations foreshadowed Darwinian evolution. In a previous essay I examined the late nineteenth-century origins of the theory in the works of Keshub Chunder Sen and Madame Blavatsky. Here I consider two major figures in the history of avataric evolutionism in the early twentieth century, N. B. Pavgee, a Marathi Brahmin deeply involved in the question of Aryan origins, and Aurobindo Ghose, political activist turned mystic. Pavgee, unlike Keshub, used avataric evolutionism in expounding his nationalistic goals for an independent India. His rationale was bolstered by the idea that India was the fountainhead of all science and civilization. Aurobindo saw in avataric evolutionism a possible key to understanding the involution and evolution of the supreme spirit in the realm of matter as taught in traditional Vedanta. This material-spiritual evolution represented for Aurobindo the necessary knowledge for the true liberation of India, transcending purely political independence. Such knowledge he also saw as the means for the spiritual liberation of the whole of humankind. The processes of involution and evolution he claimed were not in conflict with modern science, and Western evolutionary thinking seems to have inspired many of his own evolutionary reflections, even though in the end he rejected the Darwinian transmutation of species. I conclude with an overview and assessment of recent, post-colonial Hindu assimilations of avataric evolutionism.

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India Cultural Highlights

Dust off Morocco and fires in Portugal Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC Saharan Desert dust (tan pixels) was spreading northwestward over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco on September 13, 2003. In this scene, the Canary Islands are visible in the lower left corner while the western tip of the Iberian Peninsula can be seen in the upper right. A thick plume of gray smoke is streaming westward from a large forest fire that had been burning in Portugal since the previous week. This true-color image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aboard NASA's Aqua satellite.

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Climate and Weather Events

Click here to visit the Ignatius Critical Editions website Written in the sixth century, The Consolation of Philosophy was one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages. Boethius composed the masterpiece while imprisoned and awaiting the death sentence for treason. The Christian author had served as a high-ranking government official before falling out of favor with Roman Emperor Theodoric, an Arian. In the Consolation, Boethius explores the true end of life-knowledge of God-through a conversation with Lady Philosophy. Part prose, part poetry, the work combines Greek philosophy and Christian faith to formulate answers to some of life's most difficult and enduring questions. About the Editor/Translator: Scott Goins, Ph.D., is Professor of Classics and Director of the Honors College at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Florida State University and has published writings on several authors including Virgil and Boethius. Barbara H. Wyman, M.A., M.F.A., teaches English and Latin at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Besides Boethius, she has published writings on George Herbert, Hopkins, and others

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Literary Analysis and History

There are times when I want to create an ad hoc network to share files or a network connection. Here are the steps to create an ad hoc network in Windows 7. - Click on Start (Windows icon) and type wireless. Click on Manage wireless networks. - Click on Add to add a network. - Click on Create an ad hoc network. - Click on Next. - Enter a name for your network and configure the security options. Click on Next when you are done. [Update: 3/21/2009] If you are interested in setting up an ad hoc network with encryption, please see this post. [Update: 8/17/2010] Please see my latest post about setting an ad hoc network to share an internet connection.

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Networking and Data Transmission

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the very same day, February 12, 1809, a fateful day for the world. That their births mean so much to so many 200 years later reflects far more than their amazing life accomplishments. With its love of Great Men, history has turned each into a symbol of a major inflection point in the development of Western Civilization, marking the emergence of the Modern in our world. Lincoln symbolizes the final collapse of slavery as an acceptable practice of Christian people. Darwin symbolizes the final collapse of the traditional Christian explanation of how the world works. These historic changes in worldviews originated centuries before their birthday. Neither Lincoln nor Darwin was a major agent of the change. But each was fated to drive the final nail. Neither Lincoln’s presidency nor Darwin’s writings completed the change, but each turned the tide, making it forever impossible to slip permanently backward. It is ironic that Lincoln symbolizes vindication of the Christian concept of the dignity of the individual person, with God-given rights, whereas Darwin symbolizes the Modern concept of a remote God uncaring about the lives of individual persons. The triumph of Divinely justified abolition was concurrent with the legitimizing of belief that God, even if God exists, is irrelevant to life as we know it. Darwin Fish vs. Jesus Fish Several years ago, I was driving home from work, a bit too lost in my thoughts. I had to brake violently to avoid rear-ending a car stopped at an intersection in my California town. As I recovered my wits and studied the rear-end of the car I nearly smashed, I saw for the first time the Darwin fish – the “Jesus fish” with Darwin’s name instead and little feet underneath, like the familiar figure of a fish sprouting feet to become an amphibian. I laughed! And I continued to laugh as I saw more of these Darwin fish on the rear ends of cars around town. It is a university town, where you expect such clever, irreverent humor. Over time, I saw the growing bumper battle between the Darwin fish and the Jesus fish, with ever more clever designs, culminating in the Darwin fish opening wide to eat the Jesus fish! I became concerned. Too many people are taking this battle seriously, seeing Darwin as displacing Jesus. This was not the reaction of an offended Christian or shock at such public display of intolerance. I was reacting to the name Darwin coming to symbolize so much other than the man or even his work. The Darwin fish proposes an equivalence between Darwin and Jesus. Darwin the prophet of modernity, Darwin the symbol of Ultimate Truth, Darwin an object of “religious” reverence. This struck me as profound misrepresentation of who was Charles Darwin and what he himself stood for. This was not science versus religion or science versus Christianity but Science as a religion competing with Christianity as a religion. I knew Charles the person would have been appalled. A Visit to Down House Two years ago, I spent a March day at Down House, Charles’s home for forty years. No other single house is more closely associated with the work of a great man. It was a weekday, so I nearly had the place to myself. Charles Darwin and his wife Emma and his children and his servants and his experiments and his village came alive in my mind. I prowled the family rooms, furnished almost as they were 150 years ago, imagining I could hear Emma playing the piano in the parlor. I stood for an hour in his study, just watching Charles in my mind as he worked with total concentration yet smiled when his children came noisily rushing in to find scissors for their project. I returned a few minutes later to imagine Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker sitting with Charles in rapt conversation. I stood by the dining table to watch Charles holding court as local magistrate to settle disputes among his fellow villagers. Then I saw him alone at the table carefully reconciling the accounts of the Friendly Club he helped start so that local laborers could save for their future needs. I had tea at the kitchen table, where Charles once played a hand of whist for the cook while she tended the stove. I walked the Sandwalk round and round five times as a snow squall swept through the stand of old trees Charles had planted then changed abruptly to pale Kentish sunshine over the fields that once belonged to the neighbor, Sir John Lubbock. On the Sandwalk, I thought for the first time in years about that near-accident in my own town and then about the meaning of the “Darwin fish.” In Defense of Charles the Person I am a friend of Charles the person and therefore feel obliged to defend his good name. Not that I knew him in person! My great, great grandfather was born in England the same year as Charles. But I know Charles a great deal better than I know my own ancestor. His voyage on the Beagle inspired me to travel the world, too. His evolutionary theory structured my worldview in university and to this day. To me, however, Charles is more than a voyage and a theory. Charles is a life-long friend – not a mentor or a teacher or a hero or an icon – a personal friend – like the fantasy friend of a child, I suppose – with passions and aversions, strengths and weaknesses, to which I relate my own. He is a person with whom I can sympathize but also criticize. He puzzles yet inspires me. He makes me smile, and he is exasperating. We agree, and we disagree. We walk together in silence. He speaks, I listen. He is a personal friend, no less than my deceased father, who is gone, yet with me. It is a person-to-person connection. In short, I like Charles Darwin a great deal. I know him too well to sit by while the modern world enthrones him as its demi-god. Nor can I idly allow him to be branded the Anti-Christ. To Understand Charles the Person The Darwin name will be taken in vain regardless of how hard we try to set the record straight, but those of us who honor intellectual honesty and historical accuracy should have ready access to the real man and what were most likely his true views on the issues that are now so controversial. Surely this better understanding only improves the debate. We also owe this much to such a remarkable, decent and likeable man. You might ask what more there is to know about Charles Darwin. Surely his life and work are among the best chronicled of any historic figure. What can be added to the numerous biographies based on volumes of personal letters, notebooks, manuscripts, and of course, his many books? Nonetheless, lots more is being written now, because today is February 12, 2009, the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth. The world is celebrating as it would for no other scientist, because Darwin has become the patron saint of the secular worldview that needs no god for explanation of past, present and future. The commemoration will be the occasion for new assaults in the ongoing culture war between evolution and creationism, more generally between secular and religious worldviews. There will be lectures and symposia, sermons and articles, popular books and television specials revisiting and interpreting the life, times and writings of this iconic figure of the modern (and post-modern) world. Whether the authors are triumphant or defiant in their attitude toward Charles Darwin, the naturalist of H.M.S. Beagle and author of On the Origin of Species will overshadow Charles Darwin the remarkably likeable countryman of Shropshire and Kent, the loyal friend of leading intellectuals around the world, the loving, playful father of accomplished children, and especially the devoted husband of Emma Wedgwood. The influence of Emma on the career and thinking of Charles goes well beyond her famous roles as hostess and lady of Down House, guardian of his health and spirits, and worrier for his eternal soul as his worldview evolved toward its irretrievable break from Anglican orthodoxy. She was a devout believer, but as a thoughtful Unitarian, not a rote Anglican. She was the sophisticated daughter and granddaughter of great industrialists. She had done the Grand Tour and learned the languages and music of the Continent (in contrast, Charles visited Europe only once, a brief visit to Paris, before his famous voyage, after which he never left England again). She was keenly interested in the politics and current events of the day. And she was Charles’s best friend. An Online Book Project As I stood in the parlor of Down House, it occurred to me that Emma and Charles were a couple worthy of a Jane Austen novel. As I did my five turns around the Sandwalk, I started an ambition to achieve a novelist’s level of sympathy with this historic couple, if only to better understand Charles. What Charles and Emma wrote about their own personal views gives only partial insight. Each had personal biases welling up from assumptions, of which even they were mostly unaware. As we all are, Charles and Emma were children of their time and all that led up to that time. Therefore, to properly interpret what they were thinking and feeling, we have to explore the history and philosophy and culture and society that influenced their thinking and feeling. A daunting task indeed! In July of last year (2008), I launched DarwinWatch on which I am posting a series of essays and book reviews I am writing as I read and think on this task. Someday I plan to meld these into a book, which I may title Walking Fish: Charles and Emma Darwin on the Question of God. There is no way to know how successful this project might be, but you may find my effort interesting to monitor on occasion. I welcome your comments. Copyright 2009 by Chris Dunford. May be quoted in part or in full only with attribution to Chris Dunford (www.darwinwatch.wordpress.com)

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Conservation and Biodiversity Efforts

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have found environmentally and economically sound uses for the byproducts of biofuel production. Animal scientist William Dozier, formerly with the ARS Poultry Research Unit in Mississippi State, Miss., has been working with colleagues at the ARS Swine Odor and Manure Management Research Unit in Ames, Iowa, and Iowa State University (ISU) to find ways to supplement animal diets with glycerin. Glycerin, a biofuel byproduct, contains energy-providing nutrients for animals. Dozier and ISU colleague Kristjan Bregendahl evaluated the use of glycerin supplements in poultry feed. Dozier primarily dealt with broilers, which are chickens raised specifically for meat production, and gave glycerin-supplemented poultry feed to broilers that were 7 to 45 days old. Dozier evaluated the apparent metabolizable energy (AME) intake—a standard measure of energy—for the study group and for a control group that ate a standard diet. The youngest chicks, aged 7 to 10 days, showed a higher AME intake than the control group. However, the two groups showed no significant differences in the amount of feed they consumed, body weight, or the amount of energy lost in feces and urine (energy excretion). The second group of broilers, aged 21 to 24 days old, that consumed glycerin feed supplements showed no difference in body weight, energy excretion, and AME. However, their feed intake and the amount of energy provided by the diet intake (gross energy) increased when glycerin supplementation increased. The oldest broilers, aged 42 to 45 days old, showed increases in feed consumption, gross energy, and AME. Dozier notes that from a nutritional standpoint, this technology can serve as an alternative dietary energy source that could result in lower feed costs. Swine and poultry producers are very interested in supplementing livestock feed with glycerin, in part because the corn grain and soybeans that used to be fed to livestock are now being used for biofuel production. This way, the crops can be used for both biofuels and for livestock feed.

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Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs

To be sustainable, old cities need new, smarter infrastructures, says HP Labs sustainability visionary Chandrakant Patel Since arriving at HP Labs in 1991, HP Fellow and director of HP’s Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab Chandrakant Patel has worked to make IT systems more energy efficient. His early research in microprocessor system design led Patel to pioneer the concept of ‘smart data centers’ – data centers in which compute, power and cooling resources are provisioned based on the need. He now extends his vision of energy efficiency beyond the data center to what he calls ‘City 2.0.’ As nations look to rebuild their aging infrastructures and at the same time take on the challenge of global climate change, Patel argues that resource usage needs to be at the heart of their thinking. And, we must take a fundamental perspective in examining “available energy” in building and operating the infrastructure. Only if we use fewer resources to both build and run our infrastructures, he says, will we create cities that can thrive for generations to come. And we can only build in that way, he suggests, if we seamlessly integrate IT into the physical infrastructure to provision the resources – power, water, waste, etc - at city scale based on the need Chandrakant Patel recently described his vision of building City 2.0, enabled by a Sustainable IT Ecosystem. So you started out by addressing energy use in the data center? That’s right. When we created the Thermal Technology Research Program at HP Labs in the early 90s, our industry was not addressing power and cooling in the data center at all. But we thought the data center should be looked at as a system. And if you look at it that way, there are three key components to the data center: computing, power, and cooling. We felt all of these should be provisioned based on need. Just as you dedicate the right computing instrument to the workload, you supply the power and cooling on an as-needed basis. You use sensors and controls, so that when workload comes in, you decide what kind of workload it is and give it the right level of compute, power, and cooling. What kind of impact does this have on energy use? Well, we built a “smart” data center in Palo Alto and a large data center in Southern India as a proof of concept. In the data center in Southern India, we used 7,500 sensors to record the temperature of its various parts, which feed back to a system that automatically controls all the air conditioners. In addition to saving 40% in energy used by the cooling system, the fine grained sensing allowed us to dynamically place workloads and shut machines down that are not being used. Furthermore, with 7500 sensors polling every few seconds, we are able to mine sensor data to detect “anomalies” so we can extend the life of large scale physical systems such as compressors in the cooling plant. This type of sensing and control is critical for large scale physical installations. One wouldn’t run a house without a thermostat, so why should one run a multi-megawatt data center without fine grained measurement and control? A ceiling fan in a house uses a few hundred watts, and it has a knob so one can change its speed based on the need. The blowers in air handling units inside a data center use10 kilowatts, and are often running at full speed all the time regardless of the data center’s needs! How do you apply this kind of approach over the entire IT ecosystem? First, you need to ask: what is the ecosystem? The world has billions of service-oriented client devices, like our laptops and handhelds. Then it has thousands of data centers, and thousands of print factories. That’s the ecosystem. Then you need to ask if that ecosystem is as energy efficient as it can be. To do that we take a life cycle approach. We look at the energy it takes to build and operate IT products over their life-cycle. If you do that, you can see that you might design, build and operate them in completely different ways – through appropriate choice of energy conversion means and appropriate choice of materials - ultimately leading to least energy, least material designs. Indeed, we believe that taking such an “end to end” view in design and management is required to reduce the cost of IT services that will enable the billions to use IT ecosystem to meet their needs. Can you give an example? Take a laptop as an example. How much energy is required to build a laptop - to extract the material, to manufacture it, operate it and ultimately reclaim it? Using Joules of available energy consumed as the currency, one can examine the supply chain and design the laptop with appropriate choice of materials to minimize the consumption of available energy. Such a technique also allows one to examine the carbon emission across a product life cycle. This type of proactive approach is good for the environment and good for business. Good for business because, in our opinion, such an approach will lead to lowest-cost products and services. Is there an impact on IT services too? Absolutely. Today, I can reserve train tickets online for rail travel in India from my home in the US. But most of the 700 million people in India must take a motorized rickshaw to the train station, and spend half a day, to get the ticket. They can ill afford to spend the time. Couldn't we give them appropriately priced IT services so they can do it online? That's what Web 2.0 is about for me -- meeting the fundamental needs of a society. Furthermore, these kinds of services would reduce congestion and reduce consumption of available energy. We can ask - and we need to ask - the same kinds of questions when we are talking about bringing people all kinds of resources more effectively. How do you get the information you need to make decisions based on energy used over the life of a product? Firstly, at design time, the IT ecosystem enables us to create a tool for analysis based on scientific principles rather than anecdotes and rules of thumb. Secondly, the IT ecosystem provides us the ability to avail energy and material data for lifecycle analysis in design phase e.g. the available energy used in extracting Aluminum from Bauxite. Next, during operation, you use sensors and controls to manage your resources. Take traffic flow in a city. All you need to manage it is a backbone, the sensors, the data center and a panel where you can collect all that information and manage it. With that we can manage the flow so that available energy is being provisioned based on the need. You can do the same with electricity, water, waste, etc. Thus, you are using the IT ecosystem to have a net positive impact by deconstructing conventional business models – you're creating a sustainable ecosystem using IT. Is that what you mean by the City 2.0 ? Yes. We started the Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab at HP Labs because we wanted to integrate the IT ecosystem into the next generation of cities - what I've called City 2.0. If you had to build a city all over again, how would you build it? Are you going to just build a city with more roads, more bridges? Or are you going to use the IT ecosystem so that more people can use less of those physical resources more effectively? Wouldn't you think it would be better if a data center was there, and it managed all the resources? Wouldn't it be better to harvest the rain that falls in the area and have a lot of local reservoirs? Wouldn't it be good to have a local power grid instead of bringing power from somewhere else? Those are the kinds of questions that we are wrestling with. How can HP contribute to building the City 2.0? HP has the breadth and the depth – the billions of service-oriented client devices, the thousands of data centers and the thousands of print factories. HP covers all aspects of the IT ecosystem. And we have a great history in measurement, communication, and computation. What I’d like to see us do is leverage the past to create the future. A future where we address the fundamental needs of society by right provisioning the resources so that future generations can have the same quality of life as we do. The US and many other countries are in recession. Building the City 2.0 is an expensive proposition, so why is it worth doing? First of all, I think building a smart infrastructure could revitalize our economy by providing businesses with the opportunity to apply their new technologies for solving age-old problems like water distribution and energy management. And secondly, if governments around the world are going to spend on infrastructure, we probably want to do it in a smart way: not just building things for the sake of building them. We can - and should - do it in a planned, sustainable way where we also create new, high-paying and long-lasting jobs. More information about HP Labs is available at: www.hpl.hp.com/about/ please sign in to rate this article

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Buildings and Materials

A group of researchers have developed a way to identify pirated movies by reducing the original to a signature genetic code. The system can match even videos that have been altered or had their colors changed to the source, an area where many video piracy mechanisms fall short. Drs. Alex and Michael Bronstein and Professor Ron Kimmel have come up with a way to isolate a certain subset of data from video files that serves an analogous role to a fingerprint at a crime scene. While the creators haven't published research on this exact project in order to guard the proprietary technology, it works by applying a series of grids over the film to reduce it to a series of numbers. Once the film has been systematically reduced, copyright holders can take the "DNA signature" of the video and scan sites that host pirated videos for it. According to the three researchers, the signature should be able to find correct matches even if the videos' borders have been changed, commercials have been added, or scenes have been edited out, which is a capability that sites that patrol for piracy, like YouTube, currently lack. There are no details on the limitations of the system, such as video length, style, or quality. "We have a fully working prototype and have established a company that commercializes it," Dr. Bronstein told Ars. While the website is no more revealing about how the video DNA matching works, Bronstein adds that they've already had a few companies interested in licensing the technology.

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Technology and AI Trends

In De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, Tacitus describes and praises the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general. It covers briefly the people and geography of Britain, where Agricola was stationed. - Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset. - Translation: Because they didn't know better, they called it 'civilization,' when it was part of their slavery. - Book 1, paragraph 21. - Longer variant: Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude. - Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. - Translation: To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. Oxford Revised Translation (at Project Gutenberg) - Translation: They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace. — translation Loeb Classical Library edition - Translation: To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace. — translation by William Peterson - More colloquially: They rob, kill and plunder all under the deceiving name of Roman Rule. They make a desert and call it peace. - At the end of chapter 30. - This is a speech by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus addressing assembled warriors about Rome's insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain's sentiment can be contrasted to "peace given to the world" which was frequently inscribed on Roman medals. The last part solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (they make a desert, and call it peace) is often quoted alone. Lord Byron for instance uses the phrase (in English) as follows, - Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace. - Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos (1813), Canto 2, stanza 20. - Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! - Et maiores vestros et posteros cogitate. - Translation: Think of your forefathers and posterity. - Chapter 32. - It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured. - Chapter 42; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). - Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis. - Translation: Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death. - Chapter 45. - The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For in former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us,is seldom entered by a sail from our world. - Chapter 2 - They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, was formerly discovered on the same spot, and that certain monuments and tombs with Greek inscriptions, still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia. - Chapter 3. - On the whole,one would say that their strength is in their infantry, which fights along with the cavalry; admirably adapted to the action of the latter is the swiftness of certain foot soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their country, and stationed in front of the line. - Chapter 6. - To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter. - Chapter 6. - Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. - Chapter 9. - Quanquam severa illic matrimonia - Translation: However the marriage is there severe. - Start of chapter 18. - This is in the sense that the matrimonial bond was strictly observed by the Germanic peoples, this being compared favorably against licentiousness in Rome. Tacitus appears to hold the fairly strict monogamy (with some exceptions among nobles who marry again) between Germanic husbands and wives, and the chastity among the unmarried to be worthy of the highest praise. (Ch. 18). - …ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonae leges. - Translation: …good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere. - End of chapter 19. - No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted. - Chapter 19. - Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others. - Chapter 35. - Their shields are black, their bodies dyed. They choose dark nights for battle, and, by the dread and gloomy aspect of their death-like host, strike terror into the foe, who can never confront their strange and almost infernal appearance. - Chapter 43. - All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open. - Chapter 46 (last text line). - It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks. - Book I, 1. - He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did. - Book II, 80. - Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line. - Book I, 39. - Some might consider him as too fond of fame; for the desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion. - Book IV, 6. - Deos fortioribus adesse. - Translation: The gods are on the side of the stronger. - Book IV, 17. - Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges. - Translation: The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government. - Variant: The more corrupt the state, the more laws. - Original Quote: And now bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt. - Book III, 27. - Conspicuous by his absence. - Book III, 76; Lord John Russell, alluding to an expression used by him ("Conspicuous by his absence") in his address to the electors of the city of London, said, "It is not an original expression of mine, but is taken from one of the greatest historians of antiquity". - The images of twenty of the most illustrious families—the Manlii, the Quinctii, and other names of equal splendour—were carried before it [the bier of Junia]. Those of Brutus and Cassius were not displayed; but for that very reason they shone with pre-eminent lustre. - Book III, 76. - He had talents equal to business, and aspired no higher. - Book VI, 39. - He upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, "with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising". - Book VI, 52, referring to Tiberius. - What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent. - Book XI, 24. - So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity. - Variant: So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity. - Book III, 19. - The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise. - A popular rendering of: “nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus adversa” - Variant: "but desire of escape, foe to all great enterprises, held him back." This of Subrius Flavus’ passing thought of assassinating Nero while the emperor sang on stage. - Book XV, 50. Quotes about Tacitus - Abuse, if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated you will be thought to have deserved it. - Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals. - Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

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Ancient Historical Figures

'sheaves' by steven banken at biesbosch national park in the netherlands, the act of cutting reed and willow shoots and bundling them just before winter is an annual event, making it a natural area for supply material. instead of letting the brush just decay, dutch designer steven banken's reintroduces these sheaves into nature as furniture pieces, whereby he has developed a simple stainless steel metal clamping bracket to hold bunches of the raw material together, forming bench seating, that is modifiable in length depending on how the reeds are cut. this gives the dried plant new life, a minimal intervention that brings the reeds back into the environment as outdoor seating in the summer. simple metal brackets are used to hold the raw material together one of today's biesbosch reed cutters (left) and shots of the excessive growth of the plant at the national park

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Plant Descriptions and Care

What Is It? Vitiligo consists of white patches of skin that are caused by the loss of melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color. Melanin is produced by special cells called melanocytes, which are destroyed in people who have vitiligo. Experts are still working out the details to understand why this disease occurs, but evidence strongly suggests that vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder, in which the body's immune system mistakenly targets and injures these specific cells within your own body. Vitiligo can cause minor changes or extensive changes in the skin. In some people, it may be hardly noticeable, while in others it is obvious. In dark-skinned people the vitiligo patches are obvious since they contrast with normal skin. Light-skinned people may have fewer cosmetic concerns, but patches without pigment can become obvious in the summer because unaffected skin tans but vitiligo skin does not tan. Vitiligo occurs in about 1% to 2% of the population. Approximately 30% of people with vitiligo have a family history of the condition. About half of people with vitiligo start showing symptoms before age 20. People with vitiligo have an increased risk of developing certain diseases, such as hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid), hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid), type 1 diabetes , Addison's disease (a disease that causes a decrease in the function of the adrenal gland) and pernicious anemia (vitamin B12 deficiency). Also, people with these conditions have an increased risk of developing vitiligo. These medical conditions are all problems that involve the immune system attacking cells in the body. Vitiligo causes patches of white skin that are often symmetrical (even), with dark or red borders. The patches can occur anywhere, but the areas most commonly affected are the backs of the hands, the face, and areas that have skin folds, such as the armpits and genitals. Body openings, such as the lips, eyes, nipples and anus are also common areas for vitiligo, as are areas that have been sunburned. Vitiligo can occur in bursts, so that sizeable areas of skin may rapidly lose their pigment during the beginning stages of the condition, yet then these whitened skin patches may abruptly stop expanding for months or years. Vitiligo causes a pattern of skin changes that usually can be recognized easily by a doctor. If the skin changes are in a pattern that suggests other conditions, your doctor might recommend a biopsy of the skin to be certain about your diagnosis. In a biopsy, a small piece of skin is removed and examined in a laboratory. A biopsy usually is not needed to diagnose vitiligo. In 1 out of every 5 to 10 people, some or all of the pigment eventually returns on its own and the white patches disappear. For most people, however, the whitened skin patches last and grow larger if vitiligo is not treated. Vitiligo is a lifelong condition. There is no way to prevent vitiligo. Vitiligo can be treated if it causes emotional or social distress. The goals of treatment are to minimize the contrast in color between your normal skin and skin patches that have lost pigment. If you are light-skinned, part of your treatment may be to protect your normal skin from tanning by using sunscreens with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15. You can try to get normal skin color to return in the areas affected by vitiligo with treatment called repigmentation therapy, which can take several forms: - Topical treatments are helpful in most people. These are applied directly to the skin. Steroid creams or ointments are applied once a day for up to several months. These medications are not always effective, and they can thin the skin with continued use. Other medicines that may be helpful include tacrolimus (Protopic) and pimecrolimus (Elidel), but these medicines are used with caution because of a possible link between these drugs and skin cancer or lymphoma. - Ultraviolet B light treatment is effective for treating vitiligo in at least half of all patients. Ultraviolet light can be provided by a hand-held light box for smaller areas of skin. People who have many areas of skin involved can be treated by putting on goggles and standing inside a closet-sized light box for several minutes. The treatment must be repeated often, usually for three times a week and for at least six months. Side effects, which should be discussed thoroughly with your dermatologist, include itching, pain and sunburn as well as increased risk of skin cancers. - Psoralen plus ultraviolet A light treatment (commonly called PUVA) causes slightly more pronounced side effects than ultraviolet B light therapy, but it is another effective way to treat vitiligo. Like UVB treatment, this therapy helps at least half of all patients. Psoralens are drugs that cause skin to darken when they react with ultraviolet A light. They can be applied as a cream or taken as pills. After the psoralen medicine is used, you are exposed to ultraviolet light. PUVA treatment is not for pregnant women, women who are breastfeeding or children younger than 10. There is also an increased risk of skin cancers. - Oral medicines that suppress your immune system can halt vitiligo skin changes and in many cases can allow normal pigment to return. For people who have large skin areas involved, oral steroids sometimes are used instead of steroids applied to the skin. This treatment is seldom used because of potential side effects of oral steroids. - For people with severe vitiligo, depigmentation can remove the color from normal skin, making all of the skin the same white color. This treatment is rarely used because the skin without pigment is very vulnerable to damage from sun exposure. A bleaching solution is applied daily for up to 12 months. It may be 2 or 3 months before you see any effects. About 95% of people will be depigmented within 12 months, and must then meticulously avoid sun exposure. Side effects can occur in up to 50% of those treated, and include skin redness, dryness, itching and burning, especially on the face. - Skin grafting removes normal skin from less visible areas and uses this skin to replace white areas in places where the person has the most cosmetic concerns. Skin grafting is used only in a very small number of people with vitiligo. When to Call a Professional If you notice that patches of skin appear white, contact your doctor for an examination. Treatment may be most helpful if it can be started when only a small area of skin is affected. It is very important to wear sunscreen to protect the areas affected by vitiligo, since these areas are especially at risk for sunburn and for skin cancers. For most people with vitiligo, this condition slowly worsens without treatment or needs continued treatment. American Academy of Dermatology P.O. Box 4014 Schaumburg, IL 60168-4014

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Skin Health and Disorders

Jan. 22, 2008 Norwegian and Swiss biologists have made a startling discovery about the relationship between organisms that most people have never heard of. The Tree of Life must be re-drawn, textbooks need to be changed, and the discovery may also have significant impact on the development of medicines. The discovery by Norwegian and Swiss researchers has gained attention from biologists worldwide. The findings come from the largest ever genetic comparison of higher life forms on the planet. Of 5000 genes examined, researchers identified 123 common genes from all known groups of organisms; these common genes have been studied more closely. Lost a Branch “The results were pretty astounding. All non-bacterial life on Earth—called eukaryotic life— can now be divided into four main groups instead of the five groups that we have been working with up to now,” says Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, an associate professor from the University of Oslo’s Department of Biology who has also worked with the Department of Zoology and Animal Biology and the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. The Tree of Life (see illustration) has, through the discovery that the two formerly separated branches share a similar evolutionary history, lost one of its branches, and this will both improve and simplify quite a bit of scientific work in the future. “Kinship says a lot about shared traits. Our findings can be important in many fields, such as in the study of the development of life and in the manufacture of new medicines” says Shalchian-Tabrizi in an interview with the University of Oslo’s research magazine Apollon. “Our knowledge of organisms and the development of medicines are often based on comparative studies across species. It is, therefore, essential that we know the relationships between the largest groups in the great diversity of eukaryotes,” he adds. The research group has, for example, found that brown algae and silica algae, and groups of single cell organisms like the malaria parasite, marine foraminifera, and the green sun animalcule (acanthocystis turfacea) actually belong to the same group. Previously, these species were thought to be completely unrelated. “The work that we published in the August edition of PLoS One means that the description of the Tree of Life must be revised in new textbooks,” says Professor Kjetill S. Jakobsen from the University of Oslo’s Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES). He is also a member of the Microbial Evolution Research Group (MERG), led by Shalchian-Tabrizi, at the Department of Biology. MERG is one of 16 groups that the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences believes may have the potential to develop into new Centres of Excellence. The New Branch All life on Earth can be divided into two essentially different life forms—eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The eukaryotes gather their genetic material in a nucleus, while the prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) have their genetic material floating freely in the cell. Eukaryotic organisms—such as humans—can, as a result of the new findings, be divided into the following four categories: - Plants (green and red algae, and plants) - Opisthokonts (amoebas, fungi, and all animals—including humans) - Excavates (free-living organisms and parasites) - SAR (the new main group, an abbreviation of Stramenophiles, Alveolates, and Rhizaria, the names of some of its members) “The SAR group has to some extent been identified earlier, but we could not know if it was a correct observation because we lacked statistical data. To get that data, we first had to reconstruct the entire eukaryote tree with the help of these 123 genes. Chromalveolates and rhizaria were clearly separate groups until we published our results,” says Shalchian-Tabrizi. “To make the picture a little less clear, one branch of chromalveolates is still in no man’s land. It may be that these also belong to SAR, but we will require additional genes and genomes to study this. We have set our sights on doing that in the course of the next few years,” he adds. “The Tree of Life tells the story of life on Earth, and our research can say something about how quickly life developed. Our discovery suggests that there were fewer big “events” than we have previously assumed in the development of higher life forms. The more we know about the branches on the Tree of Life, the more we can find out about life’s Big Bang, the beginning of life on Earth,” says Shalchian-Tabrizi. Three billion years ago, there was only bacteria and Archaea. Eukaryotic life, which comprises all multi-celled organisms, developed in the sea—probably between 1.2 and 1.6 billion years ago. It was not before about 500 million years ago that the first creatures crept onto land. “By digging down into the historical layers with the help of phylogenetic reconstruction, where we can find out about kinship between organisms at the genetic level and we can find answers to questions about how new traits developed. We are working, in a matter of speaking, with genetic archaeology. In this manner, we can also discover the cause of the Earth’s biological diversity,” says Jakobsen. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above. Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Conservation and Biodiversity Efforts

In 1765, the first census in Puerto Rico was conducted. It produced a count of 44,833 inhabitants, with 5,037 of those black slaves. Details about the free population were not specified in the count. The number of black slaves rose to 51,265 in 1846, one of the last counts before the abolition of slavery. The census of 1765 began a rich history of census taking. Under Spanish rule, the population was counted 13 times. A year after the United States invasion, the first census under U.S. command was conducted under the supervision of the United States Department of War. This census determined that at the end of the 19th century the island population was 953,243 inhabitants. Beginning in 1910, Puerto Rico was included in the United States Census and since then the Census Bureau, under the United States Commerce Department, on the first of April in years ending in zero, has provided official figures on the number of residents. Under United States rule, 11 censuses have been conducted. Reaching a level of one million inhabitants took more than 130 years, but the population rose to two million in less than fifty years. Passing three million was an even faster process, taking about four decades. It is expected that the 2010 census will show the Puerto Rico population stabilized around four million, which would imply that reaching the fourth million occurred in less than thirty years. Autor: gf Ana L. Dávila Román Published: September 20, 2010.

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Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation

Erythritol is a sweetener made from sugar alcohols, manufactured to provide a low-calorie substitute for sugar trade, so it is a good alternative when used to sweeten foods without consuming many calories. However, erythritol may also have certain health problems it is better to know before deciding on a sweetener which on the market. What is erythritol? Erythritol is obtained from the fermentation of the natural enzymes contained in the corn and wheat. Because it is a sweetener that the body becomes very slowly glucose, intake not entail risks of alterations in blood sugar, which in turn makes it an artificial sweeteners preferred by diabetics and can not eat sugar. Negative effects of erythritol But not everything is beneficial, and erythritol can also cause some health problems. Mainly its laxative reaction, which causes bloating and diarrhea. While the negative effects depends on the individual and their metabolism, we can say as a general rule that the symptoms you mentioned are more likely in cases of high consumption of the sweetener and infant bodies. It is therefore advisable to pay attention to the recommended amount in each package, and not exceeded in proportion. At the beginning of the article you were saying that erythritol has a much lower level of calories than conventional sugar and other sweeteners, but this does not mean that it lacks them altogether. It is estimated that each grain of erythritol may contain about 2.6 calories, so this information should also be considered for consumption because of an improperly made, in addition to affecting overall health, can cause weight problems or ruin your diet. Erythritol and trans fats You will also have to consider the other components that accompany a commercial sweetener erythritol. This is due to erythritol does not provide the same taste as sugar, so the companies add to the product other ingredients, like trans fat to improve taste and bring a touch sweeter. This entails that, although we will be consuming less calories than traditional sugar, on the other side will be increasing our intake of fat, with its known harmful effects on the body. It is best that you inspect each product carefully and read carefully the nutritional tables. Those sweeteners that contain Trans fats, should be discarded immediately, because this single ingredient decompensation other benefits that could have the erythritol. Enjoy this article? You might also like

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Healthy Eating and Obesity Strategies

Small Planet Around Kepler -37 NASA's Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun. The planets are located in a system called Kepler-37, about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra (the general direction of the star Vega). The smallest planet, Kepler-37b, is slightly larger than our moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. It is smaller than Mercury, which made its detection a significant challenge. The moon-size planet and its two companion planets were found by scientists with NASA's Kepler mission to find Earth-sized planets in or near the habitable zone, the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet. However, while the star in Kepler-37 may be similar to our sun, the system appears quite unlike the solar system in which we live. Kepler-37 is a yellow dwarf, G-type star just like ours. Astronomers think Kepler-37b does not have an atmosphere and cannot support life as we know it. The tiny planet almost certainly is rocky in composition. Kepler-37c, the closer neighboring planet, is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring almost three-quarters the size of Earth. Kepler-37d, the farther planet, is twice the size of Earth. The artist's concept image depicts the new planet dubbed Kepler-37b. The planet is slightly larger than our moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. Kepler-37b orbits its host star every 13 days at less than one-third the distance Mercury is to the sun. The estimated surface temperature of this smoldering planet, at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Kelvin), would melt the zinc in a penny. The first exoplanets found to orbit a other stars were giants. As technologies have advanced, smaller and smaller planets have been found, and Kepler has shown even Earth-size exoplanets are common. "Even Kepler can only detect such a tiny world around the brightest stars it observes," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The fact we've discovered tiny Kepler-37b suggests such little planets are common, and more planetary wonders await as we continue to gather and analyze additional data." There are a lot of stars and even more planets. Kepler-37's host star belongs to the same class as our sun, although it is slightly cooler and smaller. All three planets orbit the star at less than the distance Mercury is to the sun, suggesting they are very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-37c and Kepler-37d, orbit every 21 days and 40 days, respectively. A fairly crowded inner space near the host star. "We uncovered a planet smaller than any in our solar system orbiting one of the few stars that is both bright and quiet, where signal detection was possible," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in Sonoma, Calif., and lead author of the new study published in the journal Nature. "This discovery shows close-in planets can be smaller, as well as much larger, than planets orbiting our sun." The research team used data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars every 30 minutes. When a planet candidate transits, or passes, in front of the star from the spacecraft's vantage point, a percentage of light from the star is blocked. This causes a dip in the brightness of the starlight that reveals the transiting planet's size relative to its star. The size of the star must be known in order to measure the planet's size accurately. To learn more about the properties of the star Kepler-37, scientists examined sound waves generated by the boiling motion beneath the surface of the star. They probed the interior structure of Kepler-37's star just as geologists use seismic waves generated by earthquakes to probe the interior structure of Earth. The science is called asteroseismology. Asteroseismology also known as stellar seismology is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star. These oscillations provide information about the otherwise unobservable interiors of stars in a manner similar to how seismologists study the interior of Earth and other solid planets through the use of earthquake oscillations The sound waves travel into the star and bring information back up to the surface. The waves cause oscillations that Kepler observes as a rapid flickering of the star's brightness. Like bells in a steeple, small stars ring at high tones while larger stars boom in lower tones. The barely discernible, high-frequency oscillations in the brightness of small stars are the most difficult to measure. This is why most objects previously subjected to asteroseismic analysis are larger than the sun. With the very high precision of the Kepler instrument, astronomers have reached a new milestone. The star Kepler-37, with a radius just three-quarters of the sun, now is the smallest bell in the asteroseismology steeple. The radius of the star is known to 3 percent accuracy, which translates to exceptional accuracy in the planet's size. For further information see Kepler b. Artist Concept image NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.

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Space Exploration and Astronomy

Bob Seay of WGBH News and James David Jacobs of Classical New England consider the odd history and captivating power of Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait. To hear a performance of Lincoln Portrait with the United States Marine Band, conductor Col. Michael J. Colburn, and narrator Brian Stokes Mitchell, click on "Listen" above. |Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons| Written in 1942, Lincoln Portrait, by Aaron Copland, is a rare musical tribute to an American President. It played an inspirational role when it was written, during the dark, early days of World War II. But it continued to inspire over the decades, with countless notable narrators giving voice to the words by Abraham Lincoln that Copland chose for his tribute. Those words, though, were chosen from within a surprising cultural context, as Bob Seay explains: If Lincoln's words express the highest ideals of American democracy, Copland's music expresses the diversity of sources that have combined to create an American music and culture, as James David Jacobs writes: |Aaron Copland (source: AP)| It’s hard in 2012 to appreciate just how original Copland’s Lincoln Portrait was in 1942. There had been other works that combined spoken text with orchestra, but the combination of serious public statement and serious artistic statement, with ceremony, history, and politics coexisting with music, was, and remains, rare. The music Copland wrote isn’t mere backdrop for the words, the narrator not even speaking until the piece is about half over. That music tells a story, a story of both an individual life and of a nation. It’s also a story of diverse musical influences, reflecting the diverse musical strands that have come together to create an American music. The beginning of the work is typical Copland, with woodwinds uttering soft three-note mottoes in intervals of fourths and fifths. That serenity, however, is answered by unsettling chords. It’s not unlike Ives’s The Unanswered Question and its dialogue between a stark, angular statement and its muddled response. There are also subtle references to the music of Native Americans, engaged in what could be considered Lincoln’s other, less celebrated civil war. The dance-like tone of this section can be considered a sort of analogue to the scherzo in Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, representing both the joys and adventures of the individual heroic figure and the energy and the spirit of the nation and its people. The strands come together, and the music reverts to the unsettled atmosphere of the work’s beginning. Then, just as we’ve almost forgotten about the speaker, he or she begins to speak. It’s too important, Copland seems to be saying, to hide behind the cloak of artistic license, of interpretation and ambiguity. No, the meaning of this music must be spelled out, and when we hear the words of Lincoln we know why. Copland has done us a service by providing a frame in which we can ponder these words, which turn out to be as relevant to today’s struggles as they were in the 1860s. The questions posed by the cultural conflicts illustrated in the differing strands of music are still being asked today. Lincoln and Copland seem to have some things in common. Both pulled off radical, even revolutionary accomplishments while being regarded as accessible and populist. Both took the ideas of acknowledged radicals and made them palatable for a general audience. Both took their roles in the mainstream as serious, important missions, aimed at bringing wildly divergent philosophical camps together. And both were criticized by those selfsame radicals and branded as sellouts or traitors. Beyond all that, they occupy similar places in our culture: the historical significance of each has been subject to regular cycles of reassessment, a process that began during each man’s own lifetime. Lincoln Portrait gives us the chance to consider them together, with all the resonance each man’s life and work have for us today. - James David Jacobs READ MORE AND HEAR LINCOLN PORTRAIT ON-DEMAND Comment on This Article News updates from WGBH

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Historical Events and Figures

Doctors, medical organizations and the government can claim that healthy population medical screenings for various cancers are of value even if the screening test turns out negative. Of course, the value also depends on how many true positive cases of cancer are turned up and whether early detection plays any role in the overall cure of the cancer. What these medical groups don’t tell the public, because often those advising don’t really know, is what is the frequency of false positive results (detecting a “cancer” when there really is none present)and the harm produced as part of further testing or removal of what was thought to be a cancer but was not. An advance in the knowledge regarding the frequency of false positives picked up in population screening tests and the subsequent harm is now available as an article “Cumulative Incidence of False-Positive Results in Repeated, Multimodal Cancer Screening” by Jennifer Miller Croswell, M.D. and a host of others published in the Annals of Family Medicine You must read the entire article to fully understand how the data was obtained and its significance, but to get started, here is the Abstract of the article. PURPOSE Multiple cancer screening tests have been advocated for the general population; however, clinicians and patients are not always well-informed of screening burdens. We sought to determine the cumulative risk of a false-positive screening result and the resulting risk of a diagnostic procedure for an individual participating in a multimodal cancer screening program. METHODS Data were analyzed from the intervention arm of the ongoing Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, a randomized controlled trial to determine the effects of prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancer screening on disease-specific mortality. The 68,436 participants, aged 55 to 74 years, were randomized to screening or usual care. Women received serial serum tests to detect cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), transvaginal sonograms, posteroanterior-view chest radiographs, and flexible sigmoidoscopies. Men received serial chest radiographs, flexible sigmoidoscopies, digital rectal examinations, and serum prostate-specific antigen tests. Fourteen screening examinations for each sex were possible during the 3-year screening period. RESULTS After 14 tests, the cumulative risk of having at least 1 false-positive screening test is 60.4% (95% CI, 59.8%–61.0%) for men, and 48.8% (95% CI, 48.1%–49.4%) for women. The cumulative risk after 14 tests of undergoing an invasive diagnostic procedure prompted by a false-positive test is 28.5% (CI, 27.8%–29.3%) for men and 22.1% (95% CI, 21.4%–22.7%) for women. CONCLUSIONS For an individual in a multimodal cancer screening trial, the risk of a false-positive finding is about 50% or greater by the 14th test. Physicians should educate patients about the likelihood of false positives and resulting diagnostic interventions when counseling about cancer screening. With more and more publicity regarding healthy population cancer screening, particularly regarding its importance and value in early cancer detection and with more commercial patient requested imaging tests, there has been some concerns in the literature about all this. Specifically there are issues involving the safety of the screening test itself (for example, if X-ray procedures are used) or invasive screening exams (such as sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy). There is also concern about the results of the screening. Are there a large number of false positives as outcome of the screening which lead to additional testing or more invasive procedures with their own risks? In addition, do these false positives lead to unnecessary financial costs of medical care? Is there a benefit for early detection in terms of cancer cure which trumps all the costs and harms which healthy population screening can develop? Answers to these questions within the education the public receives about the need for screening is essential if the public is to accept the screening under ethically and legally appropriate informed consent. The question for doctors, medical organizations and the government is “do we really know and understand what we are advising the public?” ..Maurice. Graphic: "False Results" created by me using ArtRage and Picasa 3.

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Medical Topics

Is it possible to multiply the frequency of a digital signal using digital components alone, and at the same time, preserve the duty cycle? I could finally come across the circuit below: it doubles ... I'm trying to scope out what frequencies different common analog signals are. The DPScope design specs provides a list of common lower (sub 1 MHz) frequencies (copied below). audio (20 kHz) ... I have a clock that is running at 25.175MHz I want to run that signal through some basic logic gates from the 74HC series. I have looked on the datasheet for the 74HC08 (AND Gate), I can't seem to ... Important note: You are not helping me do my homework. This is for a competition for engineering students, that encourages you to "use your network" ;) I've got this pattern for a frequency divider ...

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Digital Signal Processing Topics

COMMON SENSE DEFINED If we’re going to think about common sense I guess we first need to look for a definition. One dictionary’s definition is: common sense: (kòm¹en sèns) noun: Native good judgment. [Translation of Latin sênsus commúnis, common feelings of humanity.] I get from the reference “native” that a little common sense comes from experience and a little may be given to each of us by God. When I was a child, after getting caught for something I had done, I lost count of the times my grand-mother said, “Sometimes you don’t show the common sense God gave a jackass!” So, from an early age I was informed that God did give us some kind of sense that is supposed to be “native” to our being and that even jackasses have some of this gift. Once a person reaches an age where conscious thought actually occurs, we continue to show signs of a common sense that apparently comes from God. For example, testing has proven that all children have an inborn fear of heights. Without anyone actually receiving lessons, common sense tells a child that if they fall or jump from a high place, they’re only going to fly straight to the bottom and that, most likely, they will only get to do it once. Then there’s common sense learned from experience. As a child growing up in Florida, I once chased down, and caught in my hand, a rather large, brown spider. Notice I said “once”. Fortunately for me the lesson was only painful and not deadly. No one had ever told me that spiders would bite. However, from that point forward, without ANY outside instruction, I was always aware that anything and everything “might” bite. Viola! …. Another seed of common sense had just been planted to hopefully keep at least one fool from early disaster. Unfortunately, this aspect of developing common sense can be somewhat painful, and takes longer with some than others. It does not take much common sense for most of us to know that running into a brick wall full force will be an uncomfortable and unrewarding experience. I have a wonderful daughter, who for some unknown reason, when she was young, insisted on experiencing many of life’s challenges, first-hand, in an equally similar manner with the usual predictable results. ZOOM! SPLAT! OUCH! More than once, she got her nose bloodied, before her common sense finally began to start showing itself. I don’t know just how much common sense God actually decided to give the jackass, or if the jackass tried, could he ever improve his station in life beyond being a politician; but I hope and pray that now, as an older adult, I have developed that which the Lord did choose to give me, plus what I have learned the hard way, to a level of being able to help my children and even grand-children, “fine tune” their own common sense, while experiencing fewer bloody noses.

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Assistive Technology in Education

Key: "S:" = Show Synset (semantic) relations, "W:" = Show Word (lexical) relations Display options for sense: (gloss) "an example sentence" - S: (n) fire (the event of something burning (often destructive)) "they lost everything in the fire" - S: (n) fire, firing (the act of firing weapons or artillery at an enemy) "hold your fire until you can see the whites of their eyes"; "they retreated in the face of withering enemy fire" - S: (n) fire, flame, flaming (the process of combustion of inflammable materials producing heat and light and (often) smoke) "fire was one of our ancestors' first discoveries" - S: (n) fire (a fireplace in which a relatively small fire is burning) "they sat by the fire and talked" - S: (n) fire (once thought to be one of four elements composing the universe (Empedocles)) - S: (n) ardor, ardour, fervor, fervour, fervency, fire, fervidness (feelings of great warmth and intensity) "he spoke with great ardor" - S: (n) fire (fuel that is burning and is used as a means for cooking) "put the kettle on the fire"; "barbecue over an open fire" - S: (n) fire (a severe trial) "he went through fire and damnation" - S: (n) fire, attack, flak, flack, blast (intense adverse criticism) "Clinton directed his fire at the Republican Party"; "the government has come under attack"; "don't give me any flak" - S: (v) open fire, fire (start firing a weapon) - S: (v) fire, discharge (cause to go off) "fire a gun"; "fire a bullet" - S: (v) fire (bake in a kiln so as to harden) "fire pottery" - S: (v) displace, fire, give notice, can, dismiss, give the axe, send away, sack, force out, give the sack, terminate (terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position) "The boss fired his secretary today"; "The company terminated 25% of its workers" - S: (v) fire, discharge, go off (go off or discharge) "The gun fired" - S: (v) fire (drive out or away by or as if by fire) "The soldiers were fired"; "Surrender fires the cold skepticism" - S: (v) arouse, elicit, enkindle, kindle, evoke, fire, raise, provoke (call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)) "arouse pity"; "raise a smile"; "evoke sympathy" - S: (v) burn, fire, burn down (destroy by fire) "They burned the house and his diaries" - S: (v) fuel, fire (provide with fuel) "Oil fires the furnace" - S: (v) fire (generate an electrical impulse) "the neurons fired fast" - S: (v) fire, flame up (become ignited) "The furnace wouldn't fire" - S: (v) fire, light, ignite (start or maintain a fire in) "fire the furnace"

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Finance Education

U.S. Virgin Islands are often referred as 'America's Paradise'. Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix - the three main islands that constitute U.S. Virgin Islands - are surrounded by North Atlantic Ocean on the north and Caribbean Sea on the south. They form Virgin Islands archipelago together with British Virgin Islands, which lie on their west. The islands are popular for their sea, surf, sand and sun and are important tourist attractions of America. Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the islands in 1493. They were held by European colonial powers such as Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France and Denmark-Norway one after the other. The Islands were purchased by the United States from Denmark in 1917. Saint Thomas is the busiest and the most cosmopolitan of U.S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie in Saint Thomas is the Caribbeans' most popular cruise ship hub. Saint Thomas pampers its visitors with a wide choice of beaches, each having its own specialty. Magens Bay, St. Thomas' most visited beach, has calm waters and is ideal for swimming and children. Water sports opportunities include boating and kayaking. Palm tree-lined beach of Lindberg Bay is picturesque and is perfect for relaxing. There are facilities for a range of water sports. Coki Point is an excellent beach for snorkeling. Saint Thomas is also a shoppers' paradise. One can have bird's eye view of the U.S. Virgin Island from St. Thomas Skyride, a cable car system. Saint John is the smallest of U.S. Virgin Islands, but has the best beaches. Trunk Bay is a picturesque beach famous for its white sand and beautiful water. The beach is a popular snorkeling spot. Honeymoon Bay, featuring white sand and crystal clear water, is a quieter beach compared to Trunk Bay. Hawknest Beach, Great Cruz Bay, Maho Bay and Salomon Beach are just some of the other beaches that Saint John offers. The island, of which a large part is covered by Virgin Islands National Park, has spectacular landscape with lush mountains and beautiful beaches. One can get a peek into Saint John's history and heritage by visiting ruins of sugar plantation sites and rock carvings. Saint Croix is the largest of three main U.S. Virgin islands. This island is known for its historical sites, rainforest, beaches and hills. There are plantation villages of yesteryears and other sites related with with the plantation agriculture, which made Saint Croix a major sugar producing island. Colonial architecture coexists with modern buildings across towns of the islands. Palm-lined sunny beaches of Saint Croix present unmatched beauty. Protestant Cay, Mermaid Beach and Shoy's are some of the popular beaches of this island.

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Native American Studies

This patient support community is for discussions relating to general health issues, adolescents, babies, child health, eating disorders, fitness, immunizations and vaccines, infectious diseases, and senior health. In October, 2010 I was told by my doctor that I had a vitamin d deficiency. My level was 13. My hair was falling out, I was having a lot of back pain, trouble sleeping at night, and I was experiencing memory and concentration problems among other things. Since then I have been taking prescription strength vitamin d at 100,000 IU's per week. I've been on this high dosage for nine months. At one point my level vitamin d level went up to 32. However, they just tested me again (July 26, 2011) and my level has dropped to 26. My doctor now wants me to double my dose to 200,000 UI's for the next three months. Can you tell me why my levels are not going up, and if I should be asking for more blood work? If I need more blood work, what should I request? Any information that you can provide me with will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance. Did your doctor administer a 25-hydroxyvitamin test to determine if you have optimal levels of Vitamin D in your blood? In order to get the proper amount of Vitamin D your body requires, you need to be able to find a healthy balance of sunlight, but still reduce your risk of skin cancer, particularly Melanoma. Wear sunscreen every time you are in the sun and keep your sun exposure to 20 minutes at a time. Low vitamin D levels occur because of less intake of vitamin D, less exposure to sunlight or as side effects of some diseases. Toxic substances, harmful chemicals, side effects of certain medicines can also give rise to such condition that the level of vitamin D goes down the normal level. It is a rare occurrence that the vitamin D levels is low because of some hereditary diseases. Following are some of the causes for low levels of vitamin D. Lack of Exposure to Sunlight The layer under the skin produces vitamin D using sunlight. People of certain geographical locations like those in the northern hemisphere have living conditions such that their exposure to sunlight is minimum. Aged people and small babies often do not get enough exposure to sunlight. Aging skin of elderly people needs more time to prepare vitamin D. People with the condition of lupus are sensitive towards sunlight. So, they are advised not to stay out under direct sunlight for a long time. Under all these conditions, the factors responsible for low vitamin D, is absence of sunlight. There are very few food substances that contain naturally occurring vitamin D. Some of the food items that provide us vitamin D are beef liver, fleshy part of the fish, egg yolk, fish oils and cheese. Therefore, vegetarians are more prone to low vitamin D levels. Another very important element that is usually overlooked by conventional doctors is that you need to take magnesium to get the vitamin D to work properly. Usually, just a normal amount of magnesium is all that is required to get the vitamin D to synthesize properly. I strongly recommend going to the Vitamin D Council's website to find more information about the magnesium and other supplement connection to vitamin D absorption. Yes, there were other minerals mentioned, but magnesium seems to be the most important one. I urge you to also sign up for their newsletters. Vitamin D deficiency is not funny, because it can kill. It almost killed me. Mine was only 8 when I started out. In addition to that last post. The amount your are stating you are taking is it really that high or did you mean 1,000 or 2,000 IU? That is an incredibly high amount and seems out fo the ball park. Our experience is that we were low but not as low as you are we were around 20 to 30. The recommended daily intake is about 2,000 I.U. but you have to test your blood a few times to get it right and it takes some months for the level to go up. So I tend to absorb it well and only need 1,000 I.U. to get the Vit D to be normal but I was tested every 3 months until the level was at the right amount. My husband has to take 4,000 I.U. in order to be normal. Yes sunlight does help but you need to get out there (with sunscreen on) and it didn't go up for me after walking an hour a day in the sun. So, it depend on your diet and ability to absorb. As the last post said you need magnesium to help. The Content on this Site is presented in a summary fashion, and is intended to be used for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as medical advice or a diagnosis of any health or fitness problem, condition or disease; or a recommendation for a specific test, doctor, care provider, procedure, treatment plan, product, or course of action. Med Help International, Inc. is not a medical or healthcare provider and your use of this Site does not create a doctor / patient relationship. We disclaim all responsibility for the professional qualifications and licensing of, and services provided by, any physician or other health providers posting on or otherwise referred to on this Site and/or any Third Party Site. Never disregard the medical advice of your physician or health professional, or delay in seeking such advice, because of something you read on this Site. We offer this Site AS IS and without any warranties. By using this Site you agree to the following Terms and Conditions. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately.

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Vitamin and Nutrient Health

In 1929, the wild financial speculation of the Roaring Twenties came to a sudden halt in October when the stock market began to slide. Banker's Committee Stops Panic of '29 Worries spread through the economic community about the passing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Tariffs had always been a point of contention among Americans, even spurring South Carolina to threaten secession over the Tariff Act of 1828. Producers such as farmers and manufacturers called for protective tariffs while merchants and consumers demanded low prices. The American economy soared while post-war Europe rebuilt in the '20s, and the Tariff Act of 1922 skimmed valuable revenue from the nation's income that would otherwise have been needed as taxes. The country barely noticed, and the economy surged forward as new technological luxuries became available as well as new disposable income. Meanwhile, however, the nation faced an increasingly difficult drought while food prices continued to drop during Europe's recovery. Farmers were stretched thinner and thinner, prompting calls for protective agricultural tariffs and cheaper manufactured goods. In his 1928 presidential campaign, Herbert Hoover promised just that, and as the legislature met in 1929, talks on a new tariff began. Led by Senator Reed Smoot (R-Utah) and Representative Willis C. Hawley (R-Oregon), the bill quickly became more than Hoover and the farmers had bargained for as rates would increase to a level exceeding 1828 for industrial products as well as agricultural. A new story by Jeff ProvineThe revenue would be a great boon, but it unnerved economists, who wondered if it could kill the economic growth already slowing by a dipping real estate market. The weakened nerves shifted from economists to investors, who took the heated debate in the Senate as a clue that times may become rough and decided to get out of the stock market while they could. Prices had skyrocketed over the course of the '20s as the middle class blossomed and minor investors came into being. Another hallmark of the '20s, credit, enabled people to buy stock on margin, borrowing money they could invest at what they hoped would be a higher percentage. The idea of a "money-making machine" spread, and August of 1929 showed more than $8.5 billion in loans, more than all of the money in circulation in the United States. The market peaked on September 3 at 381.17 and then began a downward correction. At the rebound in late October, panicked selling began. On October 24, what became known as "Black Thursday", the market fell more than ten percent. On Friday, it did the same, and the initial outlook for the next week was dire. Amid the early selling in October, financiers noted that a crash was coming and met on October 24 while the market plummeted. The heads of firms and banks such as Chase, Morgan, and the National City Bank of New York collaborated and finally placed vice-president of the New York Stock Exchange Richard Whitney in charge of stopping the disaster. Forty-one-year-old Whitney was a successful financier with an American family dating back to 1630 and numerous connections in the banking world who had purchased a seat on the NYSE Board of Governors only two years after starting his own firm. Whitney's initial strategy was to replicate the cure for the Panic of 1907: purchasing large amounts of valuable stock above market price, starting with the "blue chip" favorite U.S. Steel, the world's first billion-dollar corporation. On his way to make the purchase, however, Whitney bumped into a junior who was analyzing the banking futures based on the increase of failing mortgages from failing farms and a weakening real estate market. He suggested that the problems of the new market were caused from the bottom-up, and a top-down solution would only put off the inevitable. Instead of his ostentatious show of purchasing to show the public money was still to be had, Whitney decided to use the massive banking resources behind him to support the falling. He made key purchases late on the 24th, and then his staff worked through the night determining what stocks were needlessly inflated, what were solid, and what could be salvaged (perhaps even at a profit). Stocks continued to tumble that Friday, but by Monday thanks to word-of-mouth and glowing press from newspapers and the new radio broadcasts, Tuesday ended with a slight upturn in the market of .02 percent. Numerically unimportant, the recovery of public support was the key success. With the initial battle won, Whitney spearheaded a plan to salvage the rest of the crisis as real estate continued to fall and banks (which were quickly running out of funds as they seized more and more of the market) would soon have piles of worthless mortgaged homes and farms. Banks organized themselves around the Federal Reserve, founded in 1913 after a series of smaller panics and determined rules that would keep banks afloat. Further money came from lucrative deals with the wealthiest men in the country such as John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and the Mellons of Pittsburgh. Businesses managed to continue work despite down-turning sales through loans, though the unemployment rate did increase from 3 to 5 percent over the winter. The final matter was the question of international trade. As the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act continued in the Senate, economists predicted retaliatory tariffs from other countries to kill American exports, but Washington turned a deaf ear. Whitney decided to protect his investments in propping up the economy by investing with campaign contributions. Democrats took the majority as the Republicans fell to Whitney's use of the press to blame the woes of the economy on Congressional "airheads". Representative Hawley himself lost his seat in the House, which he had held since 1907, to Democrat William Delzell. President Hoover, a millionaire businessman before entering politics, noted the shift, but remained quiet and dutifully vetoed the new tariff. By 1931, it became steadily obvious that America had shifted to an oligarchy. The banks propped up the market and were propped up themselves by a handful of millionaires. If Rockefeller wanted, he could single-handedly pull his money and collapse the whole of the American nation. Whitney took greater power as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose new role controlled indirectly everything of economic and political worth. As the Thirties dragged on, the havoc of the Dust Bowl made food prices increase while simultaneously weakening the farming class, and Whitney gained further power by ousting Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Hyde and installing his own man as a condition for Hoover's reelection in '32. Chairman Whitney would "rule" the United States, wielding public relations power and charisma to give Americans a strong sense of national emergency and patriotism during times like the Japanese War in '35 (which secured new markets in East Asia) and the European Expedition in '39. He employed the Red Scare to keep down ideas of insurrection and used the FBI as a secret police, but his ultimate power would be that, at any point, he could tamper with interest rates or stock and property value, and the country would spiral into rampant unemployment and depression, dragging the rest of the world with it.

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Historical Events and Figures

Silica fume is a highly pozzolanic material that is used to enhance mechanical and durability properties of concrete. It may be added directly to concrete as an individual ingredient or in a blend of portland cement and silica fume. Interest in the use of silica fume resulted from the strict enforcement of air-pollution measures designed to stop release of the material into the atmosphere. Initial use of silica fume in concrete was mostly for cement replacement,along with water-reducing admixtures. Eventually,the availability of high-range water-reducing admixtures(superplasticizers) allowed new possibilities for the use of silica fume to produce high levels of performance. * Reduces concrete permeability * Increases concrete strength * Improves resistance to corrosion

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Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

What is a Mediator?: Heavy court caseloads and rising legal costs have prompted many people to settle their legal disputes outside the courtroom through a process known as alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Mediators, also known as arbitrators and conciliators, guide the ADR process and help resolve conflicts between disputing parties. Job Duties of Mediators: Mediators facilitate negotiation and settlement between disputing parties by providing direction and encouragement, working collaboratively with the parties and finding creative ways to reach a mutual solution. Specific duties vary widely depending upon practice setting but may include facilitating discussion and controlling the direction of negotiations; preparing court reports, social case histories, correspondence and other documents; implementing legislative enactments and court rules relating to a case; and keeping abreast of current trends, rules and legislation. Although many mediators are lawyers and former judges, non-lawyers from all backgrounds are entering the profession. To date, no formal licensing or certification process exists in the U.S. for mediators. Training for mediators is available through independent mediation programs, national and local mediation membership organizations, and postsecondary schools, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Colleges and universities in the United States are beginning to offer advanced degrees in dispute resolution and conflict management. Superior communication, negotiation, problem-solving, analytical and conflict resolution skills are essential. Mediators must have the ability to maintain confidences, exercise sound judgment and discretion, work collaboratively with others and foster effective working relationships with clients, courts, judicial staff, community agencies and the general public. In addition to a high level of competence, successful mediators are intuitive and able to help meet their clients’ emotional needs. Neutrality, honesty, creativity and patience are also crucial to the mediator’s role. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, earnings for mediators range from $28,090 to $102,202 per year with median annual wages estimated at $49,490. Hourly rates range from a low of $13.50 to a high of $49.05 with a median hourly wage estimated at $23.80. Most mediators are employed by the state and local government, schools and universities, legal service providers, insurance carriers and corporations. As individuals and businesses seek to avoid the delays, publicity and high costs inherent in litigation, alternative dispute resolution is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to lawsuits. As a result, mediators are expected to experience above average growth in employment. The American Arbitration Association and the American Bar Association Section for Dispute Resolution provide a wealth of information relating to the dispute resolution field.Mediate.com maintains a list of international, national and state conflict resolution organizations.

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Criminal Justice and Law

Cannibalism: The Ancient Taboo in Modern Times Sexual cannibalism is considered to be a psychosexual disorder, which involves a person sexualizing the consumption of another person's flesh. This does not necessarily suggest that the cannibal achieves sexual gratification only in the act of consuming human flesh, but also may release sexual frustration or pent up anger. Sexual cannibalism is considered to be a form of sexual sadism and is often associated with the act of necrophilia (sex with corpses). There have been several high profile cases, which have involved sexual cannibalism, including that of Andrei Chikatilo, Edward Gein, Albert Fish, Armin Mewes and Jeffrey Dahmer. During the 1920's Americans were confronted with the horrors of Albert Fish who was said to have raped, murdered and eaten a number of children. Fish was a sexual cannibal in the truest sense of the term and claimed to have experienced enormous sexual pleasure when he imagined eating a person or when he actually indulged his fantasies. Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer, was responsible for the murders of scores of young boys and girls. During most of his life, Chikalito suffered from impotency and was only able to achieve sexual gratification from the torture and murder of other people. He would often mutilate and then consume the flesh of his victims, including the breasts, genitalia and internal sex organs, as well as other body parts. It is possible that he also achieved sexual gratification when cannibalizing. Chikatilo claimed that he was disgusted by the "loose morals" of many of his victims, who served as painful reminders of his own sexual incompetence. Moira Martingale writes in Cannibal Killers that many of the murders Chikatilo committed came after viewing sexually explicit or violent videos. Edward Gein, a farmer from Plainfield, Wisconsin was as believed to have killed at least three people including his brother, a bar keeper named Mary Hogan and the owner of the local hardware store, Bernice Worden. In 1957, police searched Gein's home and found the body of Worden along with the remains of over fifteen other women. A majority of the remains found at the crime scene were robbed from a nearby cemetery. Gein was believed to have had sexual contact with the corpses. He was also an admitted transvestite, who found delight in dismembering the bodies and peeling away the skin of the corpses so that he could wear them around the house. Gein was known to have cannibalized some of the bodies, including Worden's whose heart was in a pan on the stove at the time police conducted their search of the house. Whether Gein sexualized the consumption of his victims was unclear. However, there was a strong relationship between his necrophilia and cannibalistic behavior. Intriguingly, some people that claim to be cannibals have admitted to feeling a sense of euphoria and/or intense sexual stimulation when consuming human flesh. In an article written by Clara Bruce titled Chew On This: You're What's for Dinner, anthropophagists compared eating human flesh with having an orgasm. The experience was further believed to cause an out-of-body-experience causing effects comparable to taking mescaline. According to Lesley Hensel, author of Cannibalism as a Sexual Disorder, eating human flesh can cause an increase in levels of vitamin A and amino acids, which can cause a chemical effect on the blood and in the brain. This chemical reaction could possibly lead to the altered states that some cannibals have claimed to have experienced. However, this theory has not been substantiated by scientific evidence. In Fascination with Cannibalism has Sexual Roots, Josh Cannon writes about psychologist Steven Scher and his team who conducted one of the only known studies on sex and cannibalism at Eastern Illinois University in 2002. The study surveyed several groups of people who were asked questions pertaining to cannibalism and sexual interests. The results of the study found that people were more likely to eat someone that they were sexually attracted to than not. This suggests that there might be a significant sexual component in the practice of cannibalism.

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Gender Equality Initiatives

BP still has to pay the government for that little slip-up that happened last year. The Clean Water Act imposes punitive damages for any act of pollution carried out in US waters, with fines proportional to the magnitude of the environmental impact. For oil spills, damages are calculated according to the amount of hydrocarbons leaked into the water column. The Macondo well hemorrhaged oil for 89 days. That’s a whole lotta fine dollaz. Damages look set to total between $5.4 and $21 billion dollars, depending government’s final estimate of oil spilled. But Congress has to decide how that money gets spent – and thankfully, the House and Senate are trying to move quickly to pass the bill. The fine money is tentatively set to be divided amongst five areas: - 35 percent would be divided equally among the five Gulf states for economic and ecological recovery activities along the coast. - 30 percent would be dedicated to the development and implementation of a comprehensive restoration plan. A new Gulf Coast Restoration Council — made up of representatives from all five states — would dictate the scope of that plan. - 30 percent would be disbursed by the council to Gulf Coast states, with the allocation dictated in part by spill impact. - 5 percent would go to a new long-term science and fisheries endowment and to a Gulf Coast research, science and technology program. Last October, President Barack Obama established the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force to come up with a plan to not only restore ecosystems damaged by the spill but also to repair decades of past damage done by efforts to reengineer the Mississippi River and expand oil and gas drilling in gulf marshes. The task force, made up of senior federal officials and representatives from the five Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, held a series of public meetings over the past year and sought input from a wide range of scientists. The result is a set of sweeping but relatively general recommendations aimed at bolstering both the science and the political support needed to tackle some highly complex restoration challenges. It sets out four major goals—restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, replenishing and protecting living coastal and marine resources, and enhancing community resilience—along with 19 “major actions” needed to accomplish the goals. The need for better science gets plenty of ink—including calls for more comprehensive gulf monitoring and data-collection systems. But the report also notes that “the dire state of many elements of the Gulf ecosystem cannot wait for scientific certainty and demand immediate action.” To avoid delays, the panel proposes an “adaptive management” process of “learning by doing, wherein flexibility is built into projects, and actions can be changed based on” new science and progress toward goals.

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Oil and Environmental Safety

- Definition of syncopation in the Online Dictionary. Meaning of syncopation. Pronunciation of syncopation. Translations of syncopation. syncopation synonyms, syncopation antonyms. Information about syncopation in the free online English. — “syncopation - definition of syncopation by the Free Online”, - Also, if the musician suddenly does not play anything on beat 1, that would also be syncopation. Playing a note ever-so-slightly before or after a beat is another form of syncopation because this produces an unexpected accent. — “Syncopation - Definition”, - Syncopation. In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter (pulse) In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some. — “Syncopation”, - Syncopation definition, a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats. See more. — “Syncopation | Define Syncopation at ”, - Syncopations can happen anywhere: in the melody, the bass line, the rhythm section, the chordal accompaniment. Ragtime, for example, would hardly be ragtime without the jaunty syncopations in the melody set against the steady unsyncopated bass. — “Syncopation”, - Syncopation Software is a leading provider of decision support software tools including decision ***ysis software, risk ***ysis Founded as a spin-off from a first-tier consulting organization, Syncopation develops products that go beyond the basics to give you exceptional insight into real-world. — “DPL Decision Tree & Business Risk ***ysis Software”, - More simply, syncopation is a general term for a disturbance or interruption of the Syncopation is used in many musical styles, and is fundamental in black-influenced styles. — “Syncopation - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”, - (Click to enlarge) syncopation from Mozart's Symphony no. 25 syncopation n. Music . A shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a. — “syncopation: Definition from ”, - Welcome to ! Practicing Smart • Musical Theory • Musical Syncopation • Improvising on the Piano • Laurel Webster. Copyright2010 Loraine & Chris Plante. All Rights Reserved. website design by C. — “Musical Syncopation”, - Syncopation.TV is the means by which we exhibit, ***yze and discuss the fascinating world of music across genre, cultural, age and national boundaries. This is the place where you can further explore music and the men and women dedicated to this art and craft. — “Syncopation.TV - Home”, syncopation.tv - Syncopation ( pronounced SINK-o-PAY-shun) is hearing the beat when you don't expect to. When notes begin before or after a strong beat, you have syncopation. Listen to this rhythm in Example 1. The notes fall on the beats. This is not syncopation. Now listen to Example 2. — “Syncopation”, empire.k12.ca.us - I've been testing out Syncopation using the new iTunes release from Apple and have found Syncopation 2.2 to be fully compatible with iTunes 10. Syncopation has been thoroughly tested on Snow Leopard, and I'm happy to say that no compatibility issues have been found. — “Sonzea - Home”, - In music the word syncopation has a very specific meaning. Actually, the main syncopation in cha-cha happens on beat two (usually the first part of a rock step), I'll explain why shortly. — “Syncopation in dance and music”, - on | off. enter. — “Syncopation Official Web Site”, - For other uses of the same name, see Syncopation (disambiguation). In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter (pulse). — “Syncopation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”, - Syncopation is a musical process that involves adding an unexpected element to the basic beat of a musical composition. At times, the syncopation adds more beats, while at other times it delays or changes the sense of a particular beat in the line of rhythm. — “What Is Syncopation?”, - Dynamic Syncopation music profile on Yahoo! Music. Find lyrics, free streaming MP3s, music videos and photos of Dynamic Syncopation on Yahoo! Music. — “Dynamic Syncopation on Yahoo! Music”, - Syncopation Makes It Move. Introduction. Syncopation is the wonderful effect which is created when notes which are supposed to fall in a certain place surprise the ear and fall somewhere else. When the accent falls off the beat, or if there is silence on the beat, then syncopation occurs. — “Music Concepts Online: Syncopation Lecture”, neiu.edu - Syncopation. Syncopation is a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm. Syncopation shifts this emphasis, or, to put it another way, it places the accent on the wrong syllable. — “Syncopation: Excerpts from The NPR Classical Music Companion”, kennedy- - syncopation in a folk context, check out the examples below. In this example, there is a syncopated melody over a simple quarter-note bass part, which. — “Syncopation”, - Syncopation is used in many musical styles, including classical music, but it is fundamental in such styles as reggae, ragtime, rap, jump blues, jazz and often in dubstep. In the form of a back beat, syncopation is used in virtually all contemporary popular music. — “Syncopation - New World Encyclopedia”, - The Elite Syncopation quintet has been touring the United States from coast to coast for over a decade, Elite Syncopation tours nationally, giving dozens of concerts a year, both locally in Connecticut and throughout the rest of the country. Click here for booking information. — “Elite Syncopation: Who We Are”, related images for syncopation - Divine Syncopation Body Being Neighbor and Conscience - Mara Galeazzi - Divine Syncopation Being detail - Home | Browse | About Previous - Avoid playing these exercises by ear or by simply following the rhythmical sense Look carefully at your notes and follow the peculiar division of time Observe the syncopation Emphasize the time well Notice the change in the position of the hand also the fingering - SYNCOPATION2 1 jpg t=1227738298 - carefully at your notes and follow the peculiar division of time Observe the syncopation Emphasize the time well Notice the change in the position of the hand also the fingering - Divine Syncopation Body detail - Syncopation Semale jpg - ROOM VIEWS FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY MAY NOT BE TO SCALE - SYNCOPATION4 jpg t=1227738273 - html 24 Jul 2008 17 55 thumbs 04 Dec 2007 03 59 Syncopation2 jpg 25 Jun 2007 17 21 136k JAZZ TRUMPET II jpg 25 Jun 2007 17 21 140k - PARTITURA 4 4 BODHRAN - technique syncopation003B gif - SYNCOPATION2 jpg t=1227738243 - PARTITURA 4 4 BODHRAN - SYNCOPATION3 jpg t=1227738257 - After sufficient discussion has taken place a verdict can then be passed based on a majority vote Band Syncopation Genre Vocal Jazz Website - I ll make it easy for y all - I ve been struggling to figure out an efficient way to share music with other people in my household for a while now Until now my solution has been to copy files on to Time Capsule so that - SYNCOPATION1 1 jpg t=1227738314 - Syncopation Screen - Syncopation Mixed media on 140 Arches Watercolor Paper 5 5 x 7 5 Click here for larger image $100 - box cover costume jewelry rusty metal objects plastic doll s eye embossed wall paper 1962 dictionary text reproduction 1864 newspaper and acrylic paint Closer view of figure Left side of box - LRendezvous jpg 25 Jun 2007 17 21 140k Le Jongleur jpg 25 Jun 2007 17 21 141k Syncopation1 jpg 25 Jun 2007 17 21 141k Claire de Lune jpg 25 Jun 2007 17 21 141k - Pobrań 1 Powiększ obrazek - seemed that the paint work was peeling near the first window at the bow end just on the gunnel It seemed to be a to large area to be cruising damage and the primer coat seemed to be exposed Regards - 100 Schick Hybriden Syncopation 1999 1645 17 Temptress 1997 622 3 - This is what it took back in the day when Russ first gained the Syncopation Broach - Syncopation Fresh Start - PARTITURA 4 4 BODHRAN - 183 X - Paragon s Syncopation Jenna Breeder Owner Handler Mary Fedders - BANJO BANJO BANJO PLECTRUM BANJOS TENOR BANJOS BANJO BOOKS BANJO LESSONS BANJO CHORDS BANJO SONGS related videos for syncopation - Syncopated Rhythm Linedance - But Not For Me - Syncopation iTunes: Syncopation vocal jazz quartet performs "But Not For Me" in Boston, Massachusetts, March 30, 2009. Aubrey Logan, Lee Abe, David Thorne Scott, and Christine Fawson perform. - Drum Online - Bass drum syncopation Clip from the forthcoming 'Drum Online - Drum tuition vol 1' dvd. Matt Parker demonstrates quarter note grooves incoporating bass drum syncopation. - Syncopation + Improvisation Just playing around using some syncopated grooves and fills. - Aces of Syncopation - His Eye is on the Sparrow Aces of Syncopation (Netherlands) featuring MACHTELD CAMBRIDGE AND BROOKS TEGLER Robert Veen,sax; Paul Habraken, sousaphone; Johan Lammers, banjo, Harry Kanters, piano; special guests: Brooks Tegler, drums and Machteld Cambridge, vocals. Recorded by (Thanks!) at: Gospelservice Jazzweekend Berg en op Zoom, May 18-2008 Aces of Syncopation - Netherlands - 12/8ths African Drum Beats With Syncopated Ride Cymbals : 12/8ths African Drum Beats With Syncopated Cymbals: Part 1 Learn to play 12/8ths African drum patterns with syncopated ride cymbal patterns and conga off the beat or on the beat. Free video drum lessons featuring a professional drummer and drum teacher! - Elite Syncopations - Scott Joplin Another piece by Scott Joplin I like to play! - English Country Garden-syncopated piano cover Dan's interpretation of the childhood classic "In an English Country Garden" with syncopation. - Mirrwatnga used E yidaki | Adam Marrilaga | slow syncopation Jonathon Mirrwatnga made this yidaki, a very rustic and simple-looking instrument. But give it a blow and you'll be surprised that it punches above its weight. Quite extraordinary considering its modest size and shape, and that it has been 'bandaged' in parts with duct tape... I like the slow syncopation that Adam Laga plays on this yirdaki especially the first few seconds: dith-du, ditj-du, ditj-du-drong-ditj-du, ditj-du, du-du-ditj-du-du... This instrument is for sale for those who are interested in yidaki of the highest cultural integrity. It isn't the prettiest thing but it is the real deal: .au - Dynamic Syncopation & Massinfluence - 2 Tha Left from Xen Cuts. - Chuck Rainey (examples of his syncopation) My rendition of his trademark bouncy feel from "Coalition" he made with Cornell Dupree, Eric Gayle, Richard Tee and I think, Bernard Purdie. This style of syncopation became the theme for Carol Kaye bass books - Hal Galper Master Class - Rhythm and Syncopation and please check out Hal's Trio recording, E Pluribus Unum - Live in Seattle http And: From a clinic at the University of Colorado in Boulder, April 2, 2010 - Lee Ritenour - Sweet Syncopation From the album First Course - Julianne Johnson with syncopation For use with the Beyond Bum-Ditty lesson. Julianne Johnson played slowly twice and then at speed, using the syncopation discussed in the lesson. The original lesson has two parts: Part 1: Part 2: --Cathy Moore - Tango Lesson: Syncopated Snake Walk + Sustained Volcada Homer and Cristina Ladas perform a didactic demo at the end of an argentine tango class. - Elite Syncopations by Scott Joplin Ben Washburn, age 15, playing Elite Syncopations by Scott Joplin. This is the second Scott Joplin piece I have learned on the piano. - Dynamic Syncopation - No Qualms Various Artists : "Ninja Cuts Vol. 3 - Funkungfusion" - Hugo and Fritz Kreisler Syncopation Hugo Kreisler on cello, Fritz Kreisler on violin, and Charlton Keith on piano playing Fritz Kreisler's "Syncopation" - Life Syncopation - Jazztronik Life Syncopation by Jazztronik from the album Love Tribe (2007) - Dynamic Syncopation - The Plan Ninja Tunes - Dynamic Syncopation - The Plan music video. - Fritz Kreisler: Syncopation This is Fritz Kreisler´s own (and very rare) arrangement of "Syncopation", originally for violin and piano. Recorded 02/2010. Piano tro: MusicA Tre: Ernst Ueckerman, piano; Stephan Knies, violin; Birgit Boehme, cello. More info about MusicA Tre at - Dynamic Syncopation - Veteran's Leg Dynamic Syncopation - Veteran's Leg Dynamism (1999) Ninja Tune - Syncopation Emphasizing the offbeat and the unexpected weak beats can be more fun than most realize. This video also builds upon the concept of independence between the offbeat bass drum and the on beat snare with the ride/hihat hand... - Scott Joplin-Elite Syncopation A Rag Time Piano solo - Billy Ocean - Syncopation - 1984 - How Music Works: Rhythm - Accent & Syncopation "Humans are naturally musical." In this segment of Howard Goodall's 2006 documentary, a major exponent of why we enjoy music is explained in very clear and concise points. He traces the roots of syncopation back to Africa, long before the West could grasp the concept, and explains the evolution of the shifting of accents in Western music using Philip Glass's "Akhenaten" vs. Handel's "Zadok the Priest" to illustrate. - West Coast Swing Ladies Syncopations ! West Coast Swing Ladies Syncopations & Variations with Laurie Schwimmer! - Syncopation - It's Jazzy - Dynamic Syncopation - The Essence Dynamic Syncopation - The Essence from Dynanism - Dynamic Syncopation - The Plan (feat. Juice Aleem) Dynamism '1999 - West Coast Swing Syncopations That Sizzle Michael Kiehm & Janelle Walton. - Both Sides Now- Syncopation Syncopation performs "Both Sides Now" at Spookappella at TCAN. Aubrey Logan, Christine Fawson, David Scott, Tsunenori "Lee" Abe - Modern Blues Harmonica - syncopation 1 (Gussow.089) Jungle rhythms, bathtub gin, and white girls gone bad: harpist Adam Gussow evokes the origins of "sinful syncopation," using ***ogies from stock car racing, and shows you how to "advance the spark" to boost the horsepower on your own harp playing. Blues Harmonica Secrets Revealed! DVD - Dynamic syncopation ft. yeshua da poED - the essence dropped 1999 on ninja tune produced by dynamic syncopation - Syncopation - Anna Piotrowski Syncopation by Fritz Kreisler performed by Anna Piotrowski at the 2008 Preludio Kreisler Concert, Ithaca NY - Reggae rhythm guitar lesson pt3 syncopation Reggae strumming guitar lesson pt3 I use No, No, No by Dawn Penn to show reggae rhythm on the guitar. I play a G&L tribute asat special electric guitar. The chords I use are mainly Am and D and I slide down to the C and to G Free MP3's of my stuff at http - Syncopation by Fritz Kreisler - Free Guitar Lessons: Country Blues Fingerpicking : All About Syncopation & Blues Fingerpicking Learn about syncopation as you learn how to fingerpick the blues on the guitar, from a professional guitar player in this free video music lesson. Expert: Amanda Claire Bio: Amanda Claire is a leather artist currently living in Austin, Texas, where she specializes on custom pieces that blend traditional technique with modern designs. Filmmaker: MAKE | MEDIA - syncopation.wmv In answer to a Banjohangout thread, I use a guitar and a banjo to discuss the syncopation of a melody - Acid house from 1958 ... Tom dissevelt & Kid Baltan ( Dick Raaijmakers ) syncopation In 1958, Philips tried to make "popular" electronic music. For a couple of years "room 306" of the Philips laboratory in Eindhoven was allowed to make records like this. It did not catch on. You could say they were 30 years ahead of their time... klassieke muziek remix twitter about syncopation Blogs & Forum blogs and forums about syncopation “Syncopation November 14, 2008. In Knitting, My designs | 1 comment. Bet you didn't think I'd actually get this done today, did you. Pattern: Syncopation, of my own devising. Model: Rowanspun DK. Yup, this yarn is discontinued. I have it on good authority” — Syncopation | Fiber Dreams, “Guitar Noize is a guitar blog focussing on guitar news, crazy guitar designs, Syncopation experiment” — Syncopation experiment, “Forum Intro. Greeley Central Drumline Forum. http://syncopation.aimoo. and Exercises. Schedules. Sectionals >> Go to Greeley Central Drumline Forum. Similar Forums” — Greeley Central Drumline Forum - Aimoo, “Myspace profile for Syncopation. Find friends, share photos, keep in touch with classmates, and meet new people on Myspace” — Syncopation on Myspace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures, — Pandora FAQ, “Before starting to explain what musical syncopation is, it is response, or trackback from your own site. Posted in Music by Mickys-Blog No Comments Yet. Leave a Comment” — What is Musical Syncopation And How Does It Work?, “Syncopation. Saturday, 27 October 2007. If you are Pagan and have a blog, then we would To join Syncopation's Pagan Blog List: You must display one of the buttons which are on” “Songwriting and Music Forum > Community Blog > Songstuff Stuff > syncopation. off. Subscribe to Songstuff Our resident drumming expert Tom Hoffman introduces Syncopation and discusses why it is so important for drummers” — Songwriting and Music Forum -> Songstuff Stuff, “Submitted by syncopation on Thu, 03/29/2007 - 9:43pm. Related topics: Submitted by syncopation on Thu, 03/29/2007 - 5:31pm. Related topics: love. poem. poetry” — syncopation's blog | The Icarus Project,

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Music Themes and Theory

Commemorations for Kiahk 15 This day marks the departure of St. Gregory, the Patriarch of the Armenians who was a martyr, without bloodshed (A Confessor). This saint, as it was mentioned on the 19th day of the Coptic month of Tute, was tortured by Tiridates, the Armenian king, in the year 272 A.D. for disobeying the king and refusing to worship the idols. The king cast the saint into an empty pit where he lived for 15 years, during which God took care of him. Near the pit lived an old widow, who saw, in a vision, someone telling her to make bread regularly and cast it into this pit. She continued to do so for 15 years. Because of the length of time, no one in his congregation knew if he was alive or dead. When the king killed Arbsima, the virgin, and all the virgins who were with her, he also ordered that their bodies be cast away on the mountains. Later on he regretted what he did for he wanted to marry Arbsima. When the king's family and close advisers saw how he grieved for killing St. Arbsima, they advised him to go out for hunting to recreate himself. While he was riding his horse the Devil jumped on him and cast him on the ground. King Tiridates became possessed with an evil spirit and assumed the appearance and manners of a wild boar, to an extent that no one was able to go near him safely. Many of the people of his kingdom had the same fate. Great fear and crying was heard all over the palace and the kingdom as a result of what had happened to the king and many others as a result of what the king did to the virgins. The king's sister saw a vision on three consecutive nights. A man was telling her that unless she brought St. Gregory out of the pit, the King would not be saved nor would be cured. The people were surprised, since they believed that he was dead. They went to the pit and dropped a rope and called his name. When the saint moved the rope, they knew that he was still alive, they asked him to tie the rope around him and they pulled him out. The people took the Saint with great honor to the palace. They asked him to heal the king of his sickness. The Saint asked him if he would go back to his evil deeds. When the king expressed no intention of going back to his evil works, the saint prayed for him, and the evil spirit departed from him. His personality and his mind were restored, but he was not completely cured. The nails of his hands and feet remained like those of a boar as a punishment and as a reminder to him of what he was and in order for him not to go back to his evil works. The saint inquired about the whereabouts of the bodies of the virgins. He went and found them undecayed and he placed them in an honorable place. St. Gregory cured all who were sick and cast out many devils. The king and his people believed. He taught and baptized them. He built many churches, ordained bishops and priests for them and he instituted laws for them to follow. When he completed his strife, he departed in peace. His prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.

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Ancient Civilizations History

In the era of Facebook and Twitter, it's clear we love talking about ourselves—indeed, the topic makes up 40% of our everyday conversation. Now scientists can explain why: Doing so stimulates the brain the same way sex, food, and cash do. Researchers scanned subjects' brains and found that parts linked to those pleasures lit up when subjects chatted about themselves. Researchers also offered study subjects up to 4 cents per question to talk about topics other than themselves, like President Obama. Turns out "people were even willing to forgo money in order to talk about themselves," says a researcher. Subjects would part with 17% to 25% of the potential cash for an opportunity for self-disclosure, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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Psychological Topics and Issues

Israel was born as a sanctuary for a people banished from their homeland, harassed in exile and ultimately subjected to mass murder. But there is more than one population here that meets this description. For, the Jewish state is home to another dispersed, insular and tradition-bound nation that has suffered through the trauma of exile and one of the most devastating genocides of modern times. Some 1.5 million Circassians were killed in the Caucasian War of the mid-to-late 19th century, and another million — fully 90% of the population — were deported from their land in the Caucasus Mountains. Today, roughly 4,000 Circassians live in Israel, where they constitute the country’s only Sunni Muslim community that sends each of its sons to the military. Read post on Arty Semite blog about Israeli museums’ spotlight on Circassians. “We’ve traditionally been friends with both Jews and Arabs, even when they were fighting among themselves,” said Zoher Thawcho, the 39-year-old co-founder of the Circassian Heritage Center in Kfar Kama. “We don’t see everything Israel does as holy, nor what the Arab states or Palestinians do…. It’s not as if we say, ‘From now on we’re with you, so we’re enemies of the other.’” Most Circassians (sur-CASH-ins) took refuge in the lands of the Ottoman Empire. Today, 2 million of the world’s 7 million Circassians live in Turkey, with another 120,000 in Syria and 100,000 in Jordan. Circassians were Christian for 1,000 years, but from the 16th to the 19th century became Islamized under the influence of Crimean Tatars and Ottoman Turks. In Israel, the community is spread across two villages in the green hills of the Galilee: Kfar Kama — 13 miles southwest of Tiberias, population 3,000; and Rehaniya — nine miles north of Safed, population 1,000. In the 16th century, the Circassians also founded Abu Ghosh, now a famous restaurant town located west of Jerusalem, but their progeny long ago adopted the Arabic language and culture of their surroundings. “Circassians are like a prism that shows just how polarized Israeli society is,” said Chen Bram, an anthropologist who is currently working as a professor at the University of Florida. “It’s as if someone who doesn’t fit into the category of either Jew or Arab is from another planet. They’re neither here nor there. “In terms of their day-to-day lives, both politically and ideologically, they’re closer to Jewish society. But in recent years, on the margins, there has also been more identification with their Islamic identity. I attribute that to a reaction to various racist remarks that have been thrown their way.”

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Middle East History & Politics

Severe dyslexia is caused by disorientation, which for dyslexic people means that they have an innacurate perception of the words. That is, they might see the letters of the words jumbled around in all sorts of different ways. There is no way that a dyslexic person who suffers from this sort of disorientation can ever remember a word, because the word seems different every time they look at it. There is no single pattern of difficulty that affects all dyslexic people. A dyslexic person might have any of the following problems: - She might see some letters as backwards or upside down; - She might not be able to tell the difference between letters that look similar in shape such as o and e and c ; - She might not be able to tell the difference between letters that have similar shape but different orientation, such as b and p and d and q ; - The letters might look all jumbled up and out of order; - The letters and words might look all bunched together; - The letters of some words might appear completely backwards, such as the word bird looking like drib - The letters and words might look o.k., but the dyslexic person might get a severe headache or feel sick to her stomach every time she tries to read; - She might see the letters o.k., but not be able to sound out words -- that is, not be able to connect the letters to the sounds they make and understand them; - She might be able to connect the letters and sound out words, but not recognize words she has seen before, no matter how many times she has seen them -- each time she would have to start fresh; - She might be able to read the words o.k. but not be able to make sense of or remember what she reads, so that she finds herself coming back to read the same passage over and over again. The dyslexic people might see the letters of the words jumbled around in all sorts of different ways.

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Disabilities and Special Needs

Talking to Your Doctor About Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) You have a unique medical history. Therefore, it is essential to talk with your doctor about your personal risk factors and/or experience with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). By talking openly and regularly with your doctor, you can take an active role in your care. Here are some tips that will make it easier for you to talk to your doctor: - Bring someone else with you. It helps to have another person hear what is said and think of questions to ask. - Write out your questions ahead of time, so you don't forget them. - Write down the answers you get, and make sure you understand what you are hearing. Ask for clarification, if necessary. - Don't be afraid to ask your questions or ask where you can find more information about what you are discussing. You have a right to know. - Tell your doctor about your constant worry and tension, or any other signs of GAD, such as aches and pains for no reason, or trouble sleeping. - Tell your doctor if these problems keep you from doing everyday things and living your life. - Ask for a checkup to check for other illnesses. - Ask your doctor if he or she has helped other people with GAD. Special training helps doctors treat people with GAD. If your doctor doesn't have special training, ask for the name of a doctor or counselor who does. - What treatment options are available for GAD? If your doctor prescribes medicine, ask: - How long will it take to work? - What benefits can I expect? - What side effects should I watch for? - Can you recommend a counselor who treats people with GAD? If you decide to try counseling, interview counselors and find one with whom you feel comfortable discussing your problems. You should ask the counselor about: - His training and experience in treating anxiety disorders - His basic approach to treatment - The length of treatment - The length and frequency of treatment sessions - What health insurance is accepted - Fee schedules and sliding scale fees to accompany various financial circumstances Ask your doctor or counselor about lifestyle changes that could help you reduce your anxiety and stress symptoms. Examples may include: - Caffeine and alcohol use - Getting adequate sleep - Relaxation and stress management techniques - What are my chances of recovering from GAD with treatment? Without treatment? - Will I have a recurrence of GAD and related conditions? What can I do to prevent these? Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Anxiety Disorders Association of America website. Available at: . Accessed October 29, 2008. Generalized anxiety disorder. National Institute of Mental Health website. Available at: . Update June 2008. Accessed October 29, 2008. Hahn RK, Reist C, et al. Psychiatry. Laguna Hills, CA: Current Clinical Strategies Publishing; 2006. Last reviewed September 2012 by Rimas Lukas, MD Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.

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Mental Health Disorders

- Historic Sites The Winter Soldiers, December 1973 | Volume 25, Issue 1 That was the end of the campaigning in 1776. Washington went into winter quarters and waited for a spring that would bring new hardships. Most of his soldiers went home, to be replaced by unpromising recruits. But now, for the rest of the war, there would be among these green men a leavening of veterans who had seen Hessians surrender and British regulars run from a pitched battle and who would not forget the sight. As Ketchum writes, “The Americans’ revolution survived—survived in some mysterious way that no one could quite fathom—in no small part because of what George Washington and his soldiers achieved against all the odds that nature and a vastly superior military force could pit against them. … Because of their accomplishments, the waning days of 1776 were not the end of everything, but a new beginning.” The Winter Soldiers is the story of the men who brought about that new beginning; it is a story that cannot be told too often and has rarely been told so well.

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Historical Narratives and Artifacts

|Paradise in Peril: Chilkoot's Brown Bears| by Lincoln Larson March 10, 2004 : The Chilkoot Brown Bear Project I uttered the habitual salutation as I began the trek down from my isolated research cabin to the banks of Southeast Alaskaís Chilkoot River. Although I saw no evidence of recent bear activity through the light of my headlamp, I had no intention of startling a 700-pound sow with cubs in the predawn of that cold, rainy September day. At 5:00 AM, I was the only human being walking along the river. As I approached my observation post, I heard splashing nearby. Straining my eyes in the darkness, I struggled to find the source of the commotion. Through my binoculars, I could just a make out the silhouette of a subadult grizzly devouring salmon carcasses on the riverís far bank, 60 meters away. At that distance, I was in no danger. Suddenly I froze. A large, dark form shot into my field of view, no more than 10 meters away. Even in the dark, I immediately recognized the shape of a large female brown bear. As I slowly and quietly backed away, two cubs ran up the bank and onto the road where I was standing. I managed to move behind the trunk of a spruce tree. My trembling fingers clutched the cannister of bear spray fastened to my beltóa last resort in case of a grizzly charge. The bears were obviously aware of my presence, but upwind, and in the dark, they were unable to locate my exact position. After over a minute of intense sniffing and scanning, the large sow eventually decided to saunter off downriver. The cubs bounded off behind her, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I had emerged unscathed and transformed after my closest grizzly encounter while working on the Chilkoot Brown Bear Project. Chilkoot Study Area Inquisitive Subadult Bear : Studying the Chilkoot Bears The Chilkoot River flows about one mile out of Chilkoot Lake and into Lutak Sound, 10 miles north of Haines, Alaska. Every year, four different species of salmon (pink, sockeye, chum and coho) return to the river to spawn. The largest run occurs in September, when over 100,000 pinks and sockeyes (see note below) enter the icy waters to breed. The abundance of salmon attracts many predators to the Chilkoot each fall, including bald eagles and grizzly bears. Hundreds of fishermen and tourists also follow the salmon upstream to capitalize on the extraordinary angling and wildlife-viewing opportunities. This unique situation, a wild Alaskan River with easy road access, raises multiple conservation issues centered on the preservation of Chilkootís grizzly bears. Taking advantage of the ideal setting, the Brown Bear Project focuses on bear foraging ecology and habitat use patterns in relation to the riverís human activity. For two months beginning in mid-August, the research team observed and recorded bear and human behavior along the river corridor. We were stationed at designated points along the river for three-hour shifts at sunrise and sunset (mixed with the occasional midday observation). Though spectators avoided the river on cold, rainy days, adverse weather conditions did not deter the bears or the researchers. We logged many hours huddled in freezing rain, inspired by the rapture of field biology and our majestic surroundings. The observation posts were concealed and did not obstruct bear access routes to the river. As a result, both tourists and bruins were rarely aware of our presence. Using video cameras, binoculars, and tape recorders, we documented human and bear activity throughout the three-hour periods. From August to October, we viewed 16 different bears (not counting cubs) foraging along the Chilkoot River. Each of these bears was either an adult female (some with litters of up to four cubs) or a subadult (age 2-3 years). The large males presumably stayed deeper in the mountains, farther from the threats posed by hunters and civilization. During the project, I became very familiar with all the individual bears and their idiosyncrasies. The grizzlies displayed a variety of different fishing techniques. While many of the subadults ran, jumped, and futilely flailed at fish in the swiftly moving water, the older bears had clearly refined their skills. One mother preferred snorkeling for salmon, another opted to wait patiently before plunging on unfortunate passersby, and another had mastered a herding technique, chasing fish into pools with no outlets. The cubs enthusiastically attempted to imitate their mothersí tactics, but experienced little success. They often left the water and frolicked on the riverbanks, anxiously awaiting the delivery of their next meal. As the season progressed, the bears began to consume fish carcasses at a higher rate. Live fish offer a richer energy content but, with hibernation looming, bears desperate to pack on the pounds seemed to prefer quantity instead of quality. Individual bears developed certain routines that made their spatial and temporal habitat use patterns very predictable. One adult female emerged from the same spot in the forest at exactly the same time (virtually down to the minute) for five consecutive days, constantly fishing the same segment of the river. With many bears in a relatively small area (up to seven bears were sometimes visible along a 100 meter stretch of river), confrontations and chases between grizzlies unwilling to share fishing spots often occurred. Sows with cubs dominated the riverís feeding hierarchy, and smaller subadults were frequently forced to retreat. All the bears faced one common obstacle, however: human disturbances. NOTE: Fish counts are conducted at the Weir, a man-made structure composed of a series of closely-spaced bars designed to block fish movement upstream while permitting the free flow of water. A few bars are lifted several times a day, creating a small opening through which fish can pass. Fish & Game Officials count the salmon as they swim by. After spawning, the salmon die and their bodies float downstream. Bears often congregate at the Weir early in the morning to pick the fish carcasses off the bars. Fishing Along the Chilkoot Subadult Feeding on Carcasses : The Impacts of Human Activity Evidence indicates that human activity greatly influences brown bear activity. Bears were most active in the extreme early morning and late evening, corresponding to the minimum in angler and vehicle densities. Bears in more remote locations, such as Alaskaís Katmai National Park, prefer to fish during the daylight hours when live fish capture rates are much higher. The Chilkoot grizzlies, however, choose to forage in the dark to eliminate human disturbances. With humans in the vicinity, the bears experienced decreased fishing success and often resorted to eating fish carcasses while maintaining constant vigilance. In some instances, vehicle traffic along the road was so heavy that bears were denied access to the river. Sows with cubs generally showed less tolerance for humans, possibly due to the recent shootings of several young bears that some members of the local community perceived as threats. In most cases, these cubs discovered garbage that had not been properly disposed, and they began to associate humans with food. Food-conditioned bears are reluctant to exploit the valuable salmon resource of the river, electing to scavenge trash cans and fishermenís coolers in search of an easier meal. As people from around the world flock to the Chilkoot River each fall to witness the amazing bear-feeding spectacle, the number and intensity of bear-human interactions will continue to grow. Men and bears are capable of coexistence, but the volatile situation along the Chilkoot demonstrates that proper management techniques are necessary to ensure a relationship beneficial to both species. We must give the animals some space in order to encourage and appreciate their natural behavior. As my experience with the Chilkoot brown bears confirms, the common perception of grizzlies as menacing monsters and man-killers is completely unwarranted. While the bears certainly offer an imposing, commanding presence, they are generally benign, intelligent creatures that should be revered, not feared. The Chilkoot River System provides an excellent case study for wildlife management techniques around Alaskaís salmon streams. If we can understand the effects of human habitat use and recreation in this river ecosystem, we can begin to develop strategies for protecting bears in other areas. Special thanks to Lori and Anthony Crupi, founder and director of the Chilkoot Brown Bear Project. About the author: Lincoln Larson is a recent graduate of Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) and an aspiring field biologist.

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Fossil Discoveries and Insights

I love the fall and how the leaves change from deep greens to reds and orange and gold. This natural riot of color takes place wherever there are trees with leaves and there’s almost no place better to watch the leaves change than in the Northeast. This part of the four-seasoned ritual of life attracts tourists from far and wide and tugs at me to make a special trip to our home in the mountains there. And this reminds me every year about the natural changes that are a constant in our lives. Ever wonder why and how the leaves change colors? • As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter. The trees will begin to rest and live off the food they stored during the summer. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along - we didn’t them in the summer because they were covered up by the green chlorophyll. The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves to turn this glucose into a red color. It’s the combination of all these things that makes the beautiful fall colors we enjoy each year. Ever hear of Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life series? In 1840 he did this series of paintings that represent an allegory of the four stages, or seasons, of human life: • In childhood, the infant glides from a dark cave into a rich, green landscape. • As a youth, the boy takes control of the boat and aims for a shining castle in the sky. • In manhood, the adult relies on prayer and religious faith to sustain him through rough waters and a threatening landscape. • Finally, the man becomes old and the angel guides him to heaven across the waters of eternity. In each painting, accompanied by a guardian angel, the voyager rides the boat on the River of Life. The landscape, corresponding to the seasons of the year, plays a major role in telling the story. And in those paintings you can clearly see the leaves changing colors in the season (manhood) that represents the fall of the voyager’s life. So what’s this mean to you and me? Things change! Always! Life is full of changes and most of us are creatures of habit. And because we don’t know what’s next, we tend to cling to what we already have and know and are comfortable with. We reminisce about and cherish the past because it’s familiar, it’s already happened and we know how the movie ends. And while that’s generally true, it’s the half of the story that we tend to recognize. The other half is that the things we learn from the past should continually be updating our knowledge of life, and how to process the new things we see and experience, and how to better understand the meaning of who and what we are – that’s the harder part of the story to accept. With each passing season, and the changes that occur, we need to grow and become wiser. And that wisdom should create the stuff we need to constantly be better, to do the things we’re called upon to do each day better, and to help those around us to become better. But you won’t learn anything or get better if you’re not open to the changes – natural or man-made – that occur every day. I wish you could join me here at our camp to look across the lake at the beauty that is unfolding. The scene is constant; the colors let me know that time is marching on. On the one hand I could worry that the seasons of my life are marching on, or, on the other, I could be challenged by the things I’ve learned this year that will help me to be wiser and more thoughtful in the future. One stunts natural growth; the other invigorates a sense of wonder about the world around us and the endless possibilities that potentially exist. The choice is ours. And while these leaves will begin to fade and fall soon, the inspiration that they trigger should last a lifetime. That’s the voyage of life, and I’m sure glad to be on it! My message this week is about being inspired to dream about improving our lives: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -C.S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (1898 – 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Ireland. Got any new dreams today? Not the ones you try to remember and think about when you wake, but the kind that have you excited to try something really new. Everyone can dream, but not everyone has the curiosity, energy, courage and stamina to try to attempt and achieve their dreams. Most want things to be smooth and easy, with no surprises or challenges that can potentially make you look silly. Fact is, without those challenges or knowing how to recover from looking silly you’ll never get to experience what it is to learn from trying something new. You can tell the ones who are into this – the twinkle in their eye, the bounce in their step, the way they carry themselves. If that’s you, and you’ll know if it is, then set another goal today, dream another dream today and make a pledge to be creative and innovative today. Go ahead – you’re never too old! Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:24 AM Friday, September 23, 2011 “Everyone wants to be true to something, and we’re true to you” - that’s the marketing tagline for Jet Blue’s travel rewards program. I know because it kept scrolling across the little screen on the back of the seat in front of me when I recently flew across country. It’s okay in the context of what they’re trying to promote, but it also might apply to more than just loyalty programs. And it may be that because people naturally want to be ‘true blue’ to so many things, it becomes overused and almost trite. That’s too bad. Because being ‘true blue’ can be a good thing. First: ever wonder where the term ‘true blue’ comes from? • Loyal and unwavering in one's opinions or support for a cause or product. • 'True blue' is supposed to derive from the blue cloth that was made at Coventry, England in the late middle-ages. The town's dyers had a reputation for producing material that didn't fade with washing, i.e. it remained 'fast' or 'true'. The phrase 'as true as Coventry blue' originated then and is still used (in Coventry at least). • True Blue is an old naval/sailing term meaning honest and loyal to a unit or cause. • And dictionaries say that true blue refers to “people of inflexible integrity or fidelity”. And second: does ‘true blue’ really mean anything in this era of fast food and slick advertising? There are lots of loyalty programs – hotels, airlines, slot clubs, retail stores, pop food brands, credit cards, clothing, wine, restaurants, movie theaters, travel sites, theme parks, computer games and countless more – and they all try to get you to stick with them by rewarding you in all kinds of ways: points, miles, free gifts, shows, food and on and on. But it seems a bit contrived, as if there’s some Oz-like character behind a curtain trying to entice you with these awards (read: bribes). Imagine if this kind of thing were done with going to school or work, singing in a choir, participating in some community event, volunteering your time to some worthy cause, remaining friends or staying in a relationship… doesn’t seem as appropriate in those, does it? Think of someone or something you really like: do you really and truly like them or it, or do you need to be bribed with rewards to feel that way. Of course you don’t. So why do the airlines and hotels and all those other things we purchase have to bribe us like them? But – there are companies out there that do understand what it takes to win your loyalty: • Southwest Airlines was one of the first companies that made having fun and using common sense part of their strategy for success. Singing the safety jingle, devising a different boarding routine and setting the record for on-time departures set them apart and won over customers. They got it! • Zappos doesn’t give you anything extra to make you want to come back – they believe that great service plus free shipping and returns will do that. Everyone said that nobody would buy shoes online – wrong. Zappos gets it! • Apple wins and keeps their customer’s loyalty by incubating and introducing cool new ideas and products all the time. And they’re just about the biggest and most successful and most admired company on the planet. They get it! But for every Southwest Airlines-type great experience there are hundreds of others that under perform and underwhelm. So they sign you up and hope that rewarding your loyalty overcomes the other things they do that destroys your loyalty. Seems to me they just don’t get it? Jet Blue says they give you more leg room – that’s true if you pay extra for those few rows that have it. How come they just don’t make eye contact and smile more? How come they can’t get the bags to the conveyor in less than 30 minutes (which may not seem like much to them but after a cross country flight an extra 30 minutes is painful). How come they don’t get it? I want to join their loyalty program so I can get another trip with them like I want to have my teeth drilled. And then they spend so much time and energy trying to give you that free round trip ticket if you apply for their credit card – you know, the one that has annual fees and high interest rates. How come they don’t get it? Why can’t they just treat me like a loyal and valued customer, like someone they genuinely like and appreciate, like they’d like to be treated if they had to fly on someone else’s airline. Seems to me they just don’t get it. Most of the good things in life are rooted in quality, trust and respect. People you work with and for, family that you live with and love, things you do for fun and relaxation, games you gladly play with others, friendships you’re lucky enough to have, clubs you join and actively participate in, activities you sign up for – they’re all based on the simple premise that things that are good are that way because they are genuinely good and fun and worthwhile. And that’s why you stick with them loyally. But all these other kinds of loyalty programs are contrived. And yet we sign up for them like they’re free and worthwhile. They’re not free – we pay for the increased costs of these rewards. And they’re not worthwhile - we’re treated poorly by those who have the attitude that the cheap rewards they give are enough to overcome the thoughtless and robotic service they go through the motions of providing. Next time someone asks if I’ve signed up for their loyalty program I’m going to give them a tip: treat me nicely, treat me fairly, treat me respectfully, act like you really do care, thank me like you really mean it and treat me like you really do want me as a customer – and I’ll come back as often as I can or need to, willingly and freely. When are all these marketing geniuses going to wake up? When are they going to be ‘true blue’ to the Golden Rule? My message this week is about how excellence can lead to greatness: ”If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” -Thomas J. Watson Thomas John Watson, Sr. (1874 – 1956) was president of International Business Machines (IBM) and oversaw that company's growth into a global force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's distinctive management style and corporate culture, and turned the company into a highly-effective selling organization. He was called the world's greatest salesman. Do you want to achieve excellence? Some people don’t – they’re content to work alongside others, doing just enough to get by and satisfy their basic needs, content to have a few toys, take life easy and not make waves. But is that what you want – would that be enough for you? If not, then you’ve got to decide right now to start going farther, looking to help others, caring more, trying harder, and being more of what you can be today. You’ve got to take it to the next level – in commitment, in energy, in enthusiasm, in being a role model, in paying closer attention to details, in always striving to do and be all that you’re capable of. As of this second, you’ve got to quit doing less-than-excellent work. That’s how YOU can achieve excellence - (note: the emphasis is on YOU)! at 5:34 AM Friday, September 16, 2011 Where were you on 9/11? For most of us the answers are permanently etched in our minds. Like the attack on Pearl Harbor and VE Day for our parents, or the moment John Kennedy was shot or Armstrong set foot on the moon for the baby boomers, 9/11 has become one of the iconic moments in time for all who were alive then. I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, who told me and how I felt the day Kennedy was killed; and like most people I was watching on our little black and white TV when Ruby shot Oswald the next day. I remember my teacher bringing me into the assembly hall to watch when Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. There have been literally trillions of moments in my life, but these iconic ones stand out, frozen in time and in my mind. And then there was 9/11. In these weekly blogs I try to write about things that catch my attention. These stories tend to take on meanings beyond the specific incidents I mention, meanings that relate to life’s larger issues and that can possibly teach us something. But this one goes way beyond any of the moments and incidents that caught my attention - 9/11 caught the attention of everyone on the planet. There aren’t many things that reach that level, things that stop time, that leave indelible memories about where we were and who we were with, that immediately bring back visceral feelings and emotions of a long ago but clearly remembered moment in time. 9/11 does all of those things and more. My wife and I were in NYC: preparing to get on the George Washington Bridge to go into Manhattan when the first plane hit; coming to a complete stop on the road and in our lives; watching in fear and confusion as the second plane hit; staring in horror as first one and then the other building fell; hearing about the other plane crashes in Washington and Pennsylvania; staying glued to the radio and then the television while the world stood still. We drove away from the City that day in fear and confusion – trying to get as far away as possible and to make sense of how and why this happened. As we drove we came upon a rise in the road where all the cars were stopped; people were standing beside their cars and looking back in the direction we came from, so we stopped too. In the distance there was smoke where the towers so recently stood; nobody was talking; everyone was crying. We eventually made it to our home in the Adirondack Mountains, safe and overwhelmed by the fear and confusion that enveloped the world as we knew it. I can see and feel that day now as if were yesterday. I guess that’s what an iconic moment is: something we remember – clearly and forever. And now, in what seems like no time at all, ten years have passed and the memorial to those killed has been unveiled. The reading of the names this past Sunday stopped and stunned us all over again. The tolling of the bells in New York, Washington and Shanksville brought us back to that moment in time. The sight of the grieving families and friends as they touched and etched the names of their fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters, relatives and friends brought us together now as we were back then. The pettiness and partisanship that dominates the news was pushed aside for just a moment as we all stood in solemn and shared tribute to something that transcended all the comparatively meaningless stuff that normally seeks to grab our attention. As sad as the memories are, the togetherness helps us get through the memories now like it did when this terrible tragedy first happened. Why can’t we make that feeling last? A man named Al DiLascia from Chicopee, Mass. wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times this week that summed this up: For one brief moment on September 11, 2011, time seemed to stand still. People sought family members and recognized the importance of family. Acts of charity were plentiful. There was an assessment of life and what is really important. Places of worship were full. People unashamedly prayed. For one brief moment... Let’s try to remember – not just the events that make up these iconic moments, but what they really mean, and what’s really important. Don’t let a day pass that you don’t tell those you love how much you care and to show it in thoughtful and meaningful ways, to touch the people and things that are most important to you, to reach out and give to those in need, and to quietly count and give thanks for all the blessings that are in your life. Do whatever you have to do to make the meaning of your iconic moments last! My message this week is about being loyal to the people and things that are important in your life: “Loyalty is something you give regardless of what you get back, and in giving loyalty, you're getting more loyalty; and out of loyalty flow other great qualities.” Colonel Charles Edward ("Chuck") Jones (1952 – 2001) was a United States Air Force officer, a computer programmer, and an astronaut in the USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program. He was killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the first World Trade Center building at 8:46am. All of the great values we read and write about seem to be interconnected, and loyalty may be the one at the hub of them all. Think of the people and things you’re loyal to, and then note the other great qualities that come from that loyalty. Friendship, success, pride, humility, professionalism, integrity, team spirit and passion are a few that immediately come to mind. These are the qualities and values that you hope to find in others, and certainly they’re the ones to which you should always aspire. But to get loyalty you need to give it, and that means you must be true to your work and family and friends, forgiving in your nature, humble in your approach to others, sincere in your dealings with all, and understanding in the complex and competitive world that we live in. Look for ways to give loyalty today without attaching any strings for reciprocity. And don’t be surprised if you then start to get loyalty and all the other great qualities flowing back to you in return. Stay well. And please say a prayer for these heroes and all the others in your life who’ve passed. at 6:20 AM Friday, September 9, 2011 Vacation homes in the Adirondacks are commonly referred to as camps – my family is fortunate to have one and, as you know from some of my previous blogs, we’ve spent a lot of time there this year. These are not to be confused with day and overnight camps that parents send their kids to. This is about the second kind of camp. I went to an overnight camp as a kid and loved it, but that’s a story for another time. This tale begins at Camp Nazareth (that’s the name of the overnight camp at the end of our lake). Its run by the local Catholic Diocese which has had little success in recent years attracting enough kids. More often than not, this wonderful facility – it can hold up to 300 kids at any one time - is terribly under used. Fortunately, it seems that they’ve now discovered ways to attract alternate users like family reunions, corporate retreats and, just this past week, a high school crew team (Google “rowing sport” to learn more about this sport on Wikipedia). And that crew team caught our attention. Our family’s camp (we call it “The Point”) is on the water and we can easily see when anyone is on the lake. While sitting on our dock one morning we were surprised to see this crew team go by. If you’ve never seen a crew team before, they operate in long narrow boats (like large kayaks) that are referred to as “sculls” – these are two to eight-person boats that are rowed by that many team members, each of whom operates one oar. In this case, there were two eight-person sculls (one with all men and the other all women) that were practicing. Mind you, this is not an everyday sight – there are a few motorboats and a lot of canoes and kayaks on our lake, so the sight of these two sculls was a bit of a surprise. Alongside these two sculls was a small motorboat in which sat the coach who had a megaphone and was giving instructions and commands. On the first day of what appeared to be one of their initial practice sessions, these two sculls were having what was obviously some beginner’s training. And here’s another key bit of information: the team has to row in very close order for the boat to move along smoothly. If any of the rowers is out of synch (even a little) the boat can very easily (and visibly) miss a beat. And if any of those misses are overly pronounced the boats can stop altogether or even capsize. So at the beginning of this training the coach definitely wanted to take it slow. As the week progressed, however, the boats began to move more smoothly, and over time they got smoother and faster. And since the object of crew is to beat the competition, smooth and fast is definitely better. In order to get smoother and faster, the individual team members all have to practice at learning not only how to improve their own skills but also how to be in better synch with all the other members of their team. In crew, as in so many other aspects of life, both are critical (as in one without the other is not worth much). As we watched this unfold before us, we started to reflect on how the basic lessons being learned out on the lake apply to just about everything we do in life (and here I need to confess that my wife realized this before I did). Being effective and functional at anything – playing with friends on the school yard, getting along as a family, working with colleagues, participating on a sports team, singing in a choir, building something with others, participating in community events – really is about learning how to improve your own skills while also performing in concert with others. Learning anything alone is one thing, learning it together and then interacting with others is a whole different thing. The key to life is learning both, because one without the other is really not worth much. And here was a live metaphor for this right on the lake in front of us – and just like that my whole professional life flashed before me as I watched this training unfold. Each of these young athletes was working hard to learn how to be the best they could be, they and their team mates were learning how to interact with each other more effectively, the coaches were seeing the results of their hard work and practice, and those of us on the sidelines were rewarded by seeing how things can and should work when effective instructions, practice and coaching all come together. We don’t often get to see things so clearly, or watch how the rituals of cause and effect play out so clearly. Simply put: this was a real lesson about life. And, in part because of where we were, and also because of what we saw and then realized, we were again moved to exclaim “that’s the Point! My message this week is about finding things you can be passionate about, because they define who and what you are. “I know that I have found fulfillment. I have an object in life, a task ... a passion.” Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant (1804 – 1876), best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist and memoirist. Have you found fulfillment? Not just a momentary or fleeting sense of accomplishment, but a lasting and on-going feeling that “this is it”. We all do lots of little and mostly disconnected things – chores, work, hobbies – and these achieve short-term goals or complete individual assignments. But every now and then one big thing comes along that is more about defining our style or purpose, and these make us who and what we are. Now it could be a car or a job – those certainly say a lot about you. But to find fulfillment – to know that something is really about the “you” that is truly you – that’s a real find. And that’s the kind of thing that passion is truly built upon. Something you love deeply, that you can’t stop thinking about, that you can’t wait to get up and do each day, and that you truly care more about than almost anything else. That’s the kind of passion that is truly a treasure – and that’s the kind of object in life that you want to be on the lookout for – today and every day. That’s the Point! at 5:14 AM Friday, September 2, 2011 Last week was something else – an earthquake and a hurricane and tornados and sunshine and hot and cold… I'm having trouble remembering where I am. I grew up in upstate New York and experienced four distinct seasons each year – but there were no earthquakes or tornados. I later moved to Nevada for nearly a quarter century and experienced dry heat – but there were never any hurricanes or tornados. I then moved to the beaches of California where the sun shines 300+ days a year, the temperature rarely gets above 75 and earthquakes and wild fires are a nuisance – but there are no tornados or hurricanes. And now I’m back in New York (city and upstate) and just about everything but wild fires have hit here in the past 8 months. What’s going on? I didn’t own a winter coat – and the record snow falls and cold last winter drove me to Land’s End with a singleness of purpose. I didn’t own boots or an umbrella, and the wet snow and rains taught me a lot about what it means to stay dry. I’m used to driving wherever I want to go and not having a car here to help navigate through the varying weather patterns has made me a fan of the Weather Channel. I never thought about the weather, never worried about what I’d wear or looked at the skies for clues to what’s coming, and now that the weather changes in the blink of an eye I am obsessed with meteorology. But last week, depending where you were in the path of all this weather, meteorologists either got it right, mostly right, or wrong. Hey – they’re human so maybe we shouldn’t hold them to such a high standard as always being right. I mean, is anybody always right? Maybe we should take what they say and apply some old fashioned lore to this inexact science – such as: Red sky at night, sailor's delight, Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. When the wind is blowing in the North No fisherman should set forth, When the wind is blowing in the East, 'Tis not fit for man nor beast, When the wind is blowing in the South It brings the food over the fish's mouth, When the wind is blowing in the West, That is when the fishing's best! When halo rings the moon or sun, rain's approaching on the run. When windows won't open, and the salt clogs the shaker, The weather will favor the umbrella maker! No weather is ill, if the wind be still. When sounds travel far and wide, A stormy day will betide. If clouds move against the wind, rain will follow. A coming storm your shooting corns presage, And aches will throb, your hollow tooth will rage. I wouldn’t normally be thinking about these things, but all this crazy weather has me spooked. Is it global warming or just the fact that weather seems unpredictable? Were the winters way more intense when we were kids, or did it just seem that way because we were kids? Can weather really be predicted correctly all the time by these meteorologists, or should we take what they say with a “grain of salt”? Or should we rely more on our own common sense as aided by some of these old fashioned sayings? Here in New York last week the mayor and the meteorologists got it wrong – but not by much. The winds blew and the rains fell and, though there was less flooding and damage than predicted here, they made damn sure we were prepared by scaring the daylights out of us with their dire warnings. Now some people are complaining because they scared us; but those same people complained when they didn’t scare us before last winter’s massive snow storm, or that they didn’t scare others enough before Katrina. Fact is, lots of people are never happy, especially if they’re inconvenienced. But potentially saving lives is better than trying to apologize for not saving lives: isn’t that what ‘better safe than sorry’ is all about? Maybe we expect too much from the elected officials who we don’t really like or trust anyways (especially when they are inconveniencing us). I guess they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. I’ve even read some editorials about how this should make us either for or against big government. Come on, it was just a storm. And even though lots of people got flooded out, and there was lots of damage to homes and fields and trees and power lines, and lots of high water and wind, I’m relieved because it was less than predicted here on my street. I’m really sad for those to whom it was as much or more than predicted. And even though I don’t blame anyone, I sure as hell would like to know what all this crazy weather means, and whether a red sky at night really does mean a sailor’s delight? My message this week is about loyalty, and whether we need to think about how loyal we are to others and how loyal we need to be to ourselves: “Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.” -Mark Twain Mark Twain achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Loyalty can be both good and bad. People often remain loyal long after the reason for doing so has ended. If the reason you became loyal has petrified then you need to re-examine your motives and goals; you need to break free when the times demand it and it’s the right thing to do. Loyalty should be given to the best ideas, the highest principles, the most ethical leaders, the greatest challenges, and to the most extraordinary opportunities. But sometimes we remain loyal just because we are afraid to appear disloyal or we’re afraid to re-examine that loyalty. This conflict can be a Catch 22, or it can be a moment of re-commitment and rebirth. And just like a plant that’s been sitting for a long time, it’s a good idea to re-pot our beliefs to make sure that our roots continue to grow deeper and stronger. So look at your loyalties today and make sure they’re where they should be. Stay warm, dry and well! at 5:36 AM

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Agriculture and Horticulture Knowledge

The founders explicitly rejected direct democracy — in which citizens vote on every issue — in favor of representative democracy. The idea was that legislators would convene at a safe remove from voters and, thus insulated from the din of narrow interests and widespread but ephemeral passions, do what was in the long-term interest of their constituents and of the nation. Now information technology has stripped away the insulation that physical distance provided back when information couldn’t travel faster than a horse.Yes, one wonders what the Framers might have thought of free speech. February 3, 2010 Says Robert Wright:

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Historical Events and Figures

In Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God John piper shows us the intricate continuity between the Christian faith and intellectual development. Focusing on the life of the mind helps us to know God better, love him more, and care for the world around us in thoughtful ways. While we must value the experiential an emotional elements of our faith, the intellectual aspects are far too often neglected and as Piper says in this book, we also need to practice careful thinking about God. Piper contends that "thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God." So how are we to maintain a healthy balance of mind and heart, thinking and feeling? Piper urges us to think for the glory of God. He demonstrates from Scripture that glorifying God with our minds and hearts is not either-or, but both-and. Thinking carefully about God fuels passion and affections for God. Likewise, Christ-exalting emotion leads to disciplined thinking.

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Christianity and Religion

Christine Duncan, MD Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects as many as 100,000 Americans, and a comprehensive understanding of SCD is essential for pediatric and adult hematologists. This common disease will be explored in depth in an Education Program Session today at 7:30 a.m. and again at 2:00 p.m. in rooms 393-396 of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The session is designed for all hematologists who treat patients with sickle cell syndromes, including general adult and pediatric hematologists and those who practice in tertiary care centers. Gene therapy offers promise as a curative therapy for SCD but is not yet a reality. Stem cell transplantation has successfully cured many severely affected patients, but it is limited by the availability of donors and by transplant-related toxicity. As a result, we are still searching for effective and tolerable alternative therapies for this common disease. In today’s session, Drs. Kenneth Ataga of the University of North Carolina and Russell Ware of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will review existing and innovative therapies for SCD. Dr. Ataga will describe treatments aimed at decreasing sickle hemoglobin polymerization directly, and therapies that target aspects of sickle cell pathobiology other than hemoglobin (e.g., vascular adhesion or cellular hydration). Dr. Ware will then examine the use of hydroxyurea in SCD, a treatment widely used by clinicians since landmark clinical trial results were reported in the 1990s. While hydroxyurea cannot be considered a novel therapy, it is receiving increased attention, and there is renewed enthusiasm for the drug. The 2008 NIH consensus statement regarding the use of hydroxyurea in patients with SCD cites strong evidence for the efficacy of the drug in adult patients and compelling data for its use in children. The NIH consensus statement that examined the use of hydroxyurea also addressed the need for patients with SCD to have a primary health care provider. The statement suggests that providers either specialize in the care of patients with SCD or maintain contact with a hematologist with expertise in SCD. This recommendation highlights the often overlapping arenas of SCD management and primary care, which Dr. Joshua Field from Washington University, St. Louis, will emphasize in his discussion of two commonly co-exisiting conditions that have complex interactions: SCD and asthma. As Dr. Field explains, "We do not fully understand if these are two separate disease processes or if the asthma is a manifestation of sickle cell disease. The diagnosis and treatment of patients with sickle cell and airway disease is not straightforward. The same rules used to diagnose a patient with asthma in the general population may not apply to a child with sickle cell disease. Sickle cell comorbidities may make it harder to diagnose and to treat a patient with asthma and SCD." Dr. Duncan indicated no relevant conflicts of interest. back to top

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Art. XXIX.—The Older Gravels of North Canterbury. [Read before the New Zealand Institute, at Christchurch, 4th—8th February, 1919; received by Editor, 24th February, 1919; issued separately, 16th July, 1919.] |General Description of the District where the Beds are best developed||269| |Description of Typical Localities||270| |Grey River, East Branch||270| |Grey River, West Branch||273| |Okuku River and Mairaki Downs||274| |Kowai River, North Branch||274| |Kowai River, South Branch||274| |Lower Warpara Gorge||278| |Other Canterbury Localities||279| |General Conclusions as to the Origin and Age of the Beds, and Relation to the Gravels of the Canterbury Plains||280| Widely distributed along the base of the Southern Alps lies a series of unfossiliferous sedimentary beds, consisting for the most part of well-stratified gravels, sands, and clays, with occasional lignite, whose position has hitherto been somewhat doubtful. Haast (1879, p. 316, and map, p. 370) included them in his Pareora formation, and mentioned the occurrence of lignite-beds (p. 318) in the “Moeraki” Downs, at the mouth of the Waipara River, and in the Broken River basin, but hardly mentions the locality where they attain their maximum development—viz., the Mount Grey Downs and the vicinity of the two branches of the Kowai River. Hutton (1885, p. 211) considered them as equivalent to the Wanganui system of the North Island, but remarked that they were difficult to distinguish from the upper gravels of the Pareora system. Park (1910, p. 252) considered them older fluvio-glacial drifts. Thomson (1917, p. 411) refers to them more fully, but is extremely doubtful whether they shall be assigned to his Notocene or Notopleistocene set of deposits. Owing to the practical absence of fossils it is difficult to determine their position accurately, but they nevertheless represent an interesting series, and the following account is intended to bring out their chief features. In addition to the difficulty noted by Hutton, there is the additional one that in their lithological content as well as to some extent the conditions under which they were laid down they resemble the beds that overlie them, and this makes it at times impossible to separate them from subsequent gravel and sandy beds. General Description of the District Where the Beds Are Best Developed. The chief area where they are developed lies to the south-east and south of Mount Grey, between the Waipara and Okuku Rivers, but they attain their greatest development in the basins of the Southern Kowai and the Grey Rivers. Important outliers also occur to the west of the Okuku, on the lower slopes of Mount Thomas, and south of the Ashley River, where they form the Mairaki Downs (= Moeraki Downs of Haast). The beds form a kind of frontal apron to the higher greywacke hills, such as Mount Grey and Mount Karetu; but still they rise in places to well over 1,000 ft. above sea-level. The downs country has been dissected to some extent, and on the front facing south-east consequent streams have cut deep narrow channels, with high precipitous banks, whereas in the north-eastern portion the tributaries forming the Northern Kowai tend to develop valleys along the strike. The same is also true of the east branch of the Grey. The character of the drainage points to recent and rapid uplift, perhaps in agreement with that of which there is distinct evidence on the coast farther north (McKay, 1877, p. 177; Hutton, 1877, p. 55; Speight, 1918, p. 99). On the sides of the steep banks, especially those running with the dip, numerous good sections are exposed; and it will be best at this stage to give a more detailed description of typical sections, preferably those illustrating the relationship between the underlying Tertiary beds and the overlying gravels. Although the beds are typically developed in the basin of the Kowai River, and I have selected the name of that locality as the one most appropriate to designate the series, yet the most instructive sections are to be seen in the basin of the Grey River, and these will therefore be taken first. Descriptions of Typical Localities. Grey River, East Branch. The eastern or chief branch of the Grey River rises in the country between Mounts Grey and Karetu, flows south therefrom in a deep wooded gorge, and then gradually turns to the south-west and follows along the north-western edge of the Mount Grey Downs till it enters on the plains and joins the Okuku River in the neighbourhood of White Rock Station. The first part of its course has been cut in greywacke, but on leaving the higher country it crosses the marginal fringe of Tertiary sedimentaries at an angle of about 45° with their strike, so that when the stream runs in the direction of the dip the cross-section of its channel is narrow and trench-like, but when it runs along the strike the valley opens out somewhat, with dip slopes bordering the stream on its north-western side and steep scarp slopes on its south-eastern side. The latter are in places very bold and precipitous, and show clear-cut sections. Especially is this the case at the Horseshoe Cliff, about a mile below the gorge, where the north-western slope of the downs has been scored by a deep washout, and the strata are clearly exposed for 500 ft. In the lower part of the river-gorge there is a most interesting occurrence of the lower members of the Cretaceo-Tertiary series, analogous to that seen in the Waipara and Weka Pass sections. These beds when followed along the strike run in the direction of the greywacke mass of Mount Grey; and unless they turn round on approaching it, as they do on the north-east slope of the mountain, the junction between the two sets of beds will in all probability be a fault contact. To the west of the gorge, however, the junction between the two sets of beds is a normal unconformity. The following is a description of the beds here exposed, the sequence being in ascending order:— Greyish sands and sandy shales, glauconitic, concretionary in places, and stained with sulphur; succeeded by light-coloured argillaceous and slightly glauconitic sands—all striking north-east and dipping south-east at 45°. Greenish glauconitic sand passing up into glauconitic limestone, the glauconitic material being disposed in irregular patches and lenses, giving the rock a somewhat streaky appearance; it is also full of worm-borings filled with glauconitic material. This passes up into Amuri limestone, 25 ft. thick, with less glauconite than 2. The passage beds between this and the lower bed consist of fragments of Amuri limestone in a greensand matrix, the limestone finally taking on the facies of the typical Amuri stone, being white and jointed into quadrangular blocks. The strike is as before, but the dip is less, being about 30°. Glauconitic limestone, 20 ft. thick, comparable with the Weka Pass stone as it approaches a shore-line (Speight and Wild, 1918, p. 77), but passing up into a more sandy facies. Marl, slightly sandy, with concretionary layers and rounded concretions. This is the stratigraphical equivalent of the “grey marl” in the Weka Pass district. It has the same strike and dip as the limestone, and its thickness is about 70 ft. Thus far the sequence is quite clear and conformable, but for a time the exposures are obscured and the relations to the underlying beds are not plain. Just below the gorge there is a well-marked bed, striking north-north-east, with slightly flatter dip than the limestone, and containing numerous specimens of Ostrea ingens. Farther down-stream, but higher in the series, is a sandy conglomerate followed by sands with broken shells. These pass up into sands with a layer of oyster and other shell fragments, and then follow the beds of the Kowai series. These are first exposed at the mouth of the gorge, just above the site of the old sawmill. They consist of sands and sandy gravels containing shell-fragments and showing intraformational unconformities, but no clear evidence, given by sections, of an unconformity between the Kowai series and the lower Tertiaries. Almost everywhere in the case of gravels resting on sands or other finer detrital beds the upper surface of the latter has suffered some erosion, but in no case in this branch of the Grey does this, in my opinion, amount to sufficient to be considered a major unconformity. On the next bluff down-stream, and higher in the sequence, the beds exposed consist of greenish-grey sands (weathering light-brown) and sandy gravels, with sandy carbonaceous shales and impure lignite. These are capped unconformably by terrace-gravels belonging to the early history of the Grey River. This sequence is repeated on the next bluff, but the gravel beds of the Kowai series become more important, one very heavy band of gravel near the top of the cliff being divided into two parts by a layer of carbonaceous shale. In the bed of the river, at the base of this cliff, is a section which shows an unconformable junction between a greenish sand and an overlying bed of gravel. After a careful consideration of the circumstances of this case I have come to the conclusion that it must be considered only as an intraformational unconformity, due to the erosion of the bed of sand by marine currents in the interval between its deposition and that of the succeeding layer of gravel. These beds strike north-east, and dip south-east at an angle of 20°. As the sections are followed down-stream their character does not change except that the gravels become increasingly important, a feature that is well exemplified at the Horseshoe Cliff, on the face of which gravels greatly predominate, some layers being from 50 ft. to 70 ft. in thickness. Well-defined sandy layers also occur. The regular stratification of the beds towards the base of the cliff points to their having been deposited in shallow water in close proximity to a shore-line, and not on a land-surface; but at the higher levels the stratification becomes more indistinct and the pebbles become coarser and more subangular in shape, so it is almost certain that the closing beds of the series were laid down on a land-surface. The presence of lignite in the lower beds clearly indicates estuarine or deltaic conditions. It should be noted that on the high banks of the Grey River there is a still more recent series of gravels belonging to the history of the stream. They are similar in lithological features to the gravels of the Kowai series, but they are neither so well stratified nor so well cemented. They are undoubtedly river and not sea deposits. Where contacts can be seen they are easily differentiated, but elsewhere, especially on the lower slopes of the downs, it is difficult to separate them from the upper members of the lower set of beds, which were also laid down on a land-surface. Grey River, West Branch. The general stratigraphy of the beds in the basin of the western branch of the Grey River is similar to that in the eastern. The following is a general description of the strata exposed above the greywacke as disclosed on the sides of the gorge of the stream:— Sands and greensands. Limestone, full of bryozoan remains, but only a few feet thick in the gorge of the stream, thickening, however, to the east and to the west. There is a marked difference in the features of this limestone as compared with that in the eastern branch, and as they are in apparent continuity it might be assumed that the stone in the western branch represents a shallower-water facies. I am by no means certain that this is the true explanation, and the question of the identity as regards their stratigraphical position must be reserved for further investigation. Marls, greenish in colour, with rounded concretions and concretionary bands, passing up into greyish sands with fragmentary fossil shells. In the river these beds strike E. 25° S. and dip south at an angle of 30°, but they have suffered some deformation, and the strike changes to north-east on the ridge between the two branches of the Grey, and also as the beds are traced round to White Rock and the Okuku River. The upper surface of the sands was distinctly eroded before the next bed was laid down. This consists of a heavy band of cemented gravel. The following beds are then encountered, in ascending order:— Gravel bed just referred to. Sandy clays and gravels. Sandy clay and carbonaceous shale, repeatedly alternating. One bed of shale is from 12 in. to 18 in. thick. Sandy gravel, well cemented with iron oxide. Greenish-grey sands, sandy shales, and gravels, rapidly alternating, totalling over 200 ft. in thickness, the strike gradually becoming east-north-east, and the dip flattening out from 30° to 10°. Gravels, sandy and with occasional thin layers of sandy clay, lying flat or with slight dip to the south-east. These are at least 500 ft. thick, and are well exposed on the ridge between the western Grey and the stream near the White Rock Station. The section in this river thus shows that there is a distinct series in which gravels are the dominant beds lying unconformably on marine Tertiaries. It should be noted that in the western branch there are no gravel beds below the unconformity. Either they have never been deposited or they have been removed by erosion. There is a strong suggestion from the eastern branch that gravel beds are present among the higher members of the underlying marine series, so that their presence cannot be taken as decided evidence that beds containing gravels in this locality necessarily belong to the Kowai series. Okuku River and Mairaki Downs. Similar gravels occur on the banks of the Okuku, especially on the western side, where they form low hills fringing the base of Mount Thomas, and stretching westward towards the Garry River and Glentui. Towards the Ashley they are masked by more-recent gravels, but they reappear on the south bank of the river, forming the Mairaki Downs. The strata here consist of thick sandy gravels, sandy clays, and occasional layers of carbonaceous shale. Opposite the mouth of the Garry they strike north-east and dip north-west at an angle of 20°, forming the south-eastern wing of a syncline which is developed farther west, while farther east, towards Rangiora, the structure is anticlinal. The country directly between the Mairaki and Mount Grey Downs is probably a syncline, but the surface is completely masked by recent gravels and clays belonging to the Ashley and Okuku Rivers and to the lower course of the Grey and Makerikeri Rivers, the latter draining a considerable area on the south-western flank of the Mount Grey Downs. Kowai River, North Branch. An excellent idea of the structure and general features of the northern part of the downs area can be obtained by examination of the high banks of the North Kowai, and especially of a tributary which rises in Mount Brown itself and flows in a south-easterly direction across the strike of the beds, thus exposing all the members of the series present in this locality. The following is a general description of the beds encountered, starting with the Mount Brown beds and following up to the highest members of the series:— At the contact with the upper members of the Mount Brown series the latter consist of sands, and marine gravels with shells, striking north-east and dipping south-east at an angle of 10°. The Mount Brown beds are here capped unconformably with sandy gravels containing rounded and sub-angular greywacke pebbles, and belonging in all probability to the high-level terrace-gravels of the present Kowai River. Lower down sands, sandy clays, and sandy gravels dipping south-east at very low angles are exposed on the banks of the stream and in the deep gullies on the northern side. There is certainly a disagreement in dip between these beds and the underlying Mount Brown beds, suggesting an unconformity, but nowhere could I see an actual contact in order to determine this point precisely. The slight escarpment of the downs which faces Mount Brown at this point is determined by the presence of the gravel beds which occur at this horizon. It is noteworthy that there is an entire absence of the gravel beds with broken-shell layers which cover the Mount Brown beds in the vicinity of Weka Pass, a point which increases the probability that the beds forming the downs rest on the Mount Brown beds unconformably. Farther down-stream the beds lie almost flat, with an east-south-east strike and a dip to the north-north-east at very low angles (less than 5°). On a high bluff a series of well-stratified sands and sandy gravels is exposed. Near the base of the cliff, under a sandy bed cemented in its lower part with iron oxide, lies a narrow band of sandy carbonaceous shale, 6 in. to 8 in. thick, containing pieces of lignified wood, and passing down into sandy clay with interstratified irregular lenses of lignite. Under these lie sands and sandy gravels, and then bluish-green and brown sands. A little below this the strike swings round to north-north-east, with an easterly dip, and in a narrow gully on the south side of the stream an interesting section is exposed. Here both the bluish-green sands and the sandy gravels have been eroded, and on the eroded surface have been deposited sands and sandy gravels containing fragments of the lower beds. A similar occurrence is to be observed on the face of a cliff in the main stream, the lower beds dipping 10° and the upper lying flat across them. A thin layer of broken-shell fragments was observed high up on the face of the cliff in an inaccessible position. Higher in the series are rapidly alternating sands and fine sandy gravels, in layers down to 1 in. in thickness, and these are succeeded by sands, sandy-gravel beds, and bluish-grey and brown sands, the former with broken-shell layers. In the gravels are numerous fragments of limestone, which must have been derived from a surface of the Amuri limestone exposed to decided erosion. The fragments are generally less than 2 in. in length, but are sometimes longer, and are usually flattened like beach shingle. There is no doubt as to the interstratification of these beds in the series under consideration, as the same feature was observed in a deep gully to the north of the stream in its proper stratigraphical position. The presence of these fragments is positive proof of the presence of an unconformity between these beds and the Amuri limestone, and supports the stratigraphical evidence from the Grey River. In the bluish-green sands there are occasional shell-fragments. For some distance below this spot there are no clear sections, but sand is probably the major constituent of the beds. At the junction with the Kowai River, however, there are high cliffs on the northern side, where the strata are clearly visible for half a mile. The lowest beds exposed in this locality are sands with interstratified gravels, in which limestone-fragments form a most important constituent. The beds with the limestone-fragments are at least 50 ft. thick, and may be thicker. Higher up the limestone constituent gets less and less, and the pebbles are entirely of greywacke. No other included material, such as fragments of Mount Brown limestone, was noted at this spot, which might indicate the date of the break between the Amuri limestone beds and those under consideration. It is possible that these gravel beds are unconformable to the greenish marine sands, since for some distance no exposures are visible which enable their relations to be precisely determined, and there is evidence from other parts of the area that these upper gravels are unconformable to greenish sands—e.g., in the Grey River (see p. 272) and also in No. 2 Creek (see p. 276). These gravel beds are fairly well stratified, with occasional beds of sandy clay and thin carbonaceous shales, their total thickness being about 1,000 ft., and the whole thickness of the series from the junction of the Mount Brown beds upward being about 1,500 ft., though this may include two series—viz., the Motunau and the Kowai series. The course of the main stream above its junction with the tributary follows almost along the strike of the beds, so that the structure is not so well displayed. The beds exposed consist of marine sands, which are remarkably current-bedded, and loose and cemented sandy gravels with numerous fossils similar to the beds exposed in the Lower Waipara Gorge. The highest bed of this series exposed in the valley of the stream consists of greenish sandy clay, which weathers a light brown, and contains fossil shells. Its upper surface has been distinctly eroded, and on it rests a heavy layer of cemented gravel, and following this are sandy clays and gravel beds dipping south-east at angles of 10°. These beds pass upward into the gravel beds exposed on the cliffs of the river below the junction with the tributary. In the tributary mentioned above I could find no indication of an eroded surface analogous to that in the main stream, and so it may be an unconformity of local character similar to those recorded elsewhere, but it may indicate a decided unconformity between the Motunau and the Kowai series. It is owing to the typical development of these gravels and the beds associated with them in the Kowai River, not only in this locality but in the south branch as well, that I have called them the Kowai series. It is possible, however, that the lower part of this group of beds may be equivalent to the upper part of the Motunau series, and subsequent investigation may show the term to be unnecessary. In No. 2 Creek, a southern tributary of the North Kowai, there is a very important section. Just below the high bluff on the north side, about four miles above the junction, the stream has exposed the following beds:— Greenish sands, becoming more clayey in the upper portions and passing up into sandy shale. Lignite, very impure, 10 in. thick, striking east-north-east and dipping north-north-west at 5°. Argillaceous sands, decidedly clayey above the coal but becoming more sandy and greenish in colour higher up. The thickness exposed is about 6 ft., but it is eroded, and sandy gravels rest on it unconformably. An eroded surface appears just below this in the bed of the stream, with an angular mass of green sandy clay embedded in the gravel. In close proximity to the erosion surface there is another section showing the same features, but with only 3 ft. of bed 3 interposed between the coal and the gravels. Just over the dividing-ridge between this and the South Kowai River there are high cliffs, facing south, composed of similar beds, with gravels more strongly developed in the higher levels, and dipping south at angles about 5°. Thus an anticlinal axis runs east-north-east along the ridge in close proximity to the road which runs along the crest. Just at the point where the stream turns after leaving the steeper slopes of Mount Grey, and assumes a north-easterly course, coal and associated beds are exposed in its actual channel and in the bank of a small gully on the southern side. They consist of— Greenish sands, passing up into sandy clays. Clays succeeded by greenish sandy clays. Gravels, mixed with sand, cemented with iron oxide. Greenish sandy clays. These beds strike north-east, and dip north-west at an angle of 5°. When followed up-stream there is an alternation of sands and gravels, apparently conformable to the beds just enumerated, exposed in the slips on the river-banks; but the dip becomes steeper till, on the face of a high bluff below the bush, it reaches 20°. Here are alternating sandy clays and gravels, the former greenish-yellow in colour, which are capped unconformably by somewhat irregular sands and gravels, lying almost horizontally across the denuded edges of the lower set. The upper series evidently forms the distinct ridge which leads down-stream past the point where the undoubted unconformity described above was observed. Similar beds are observed in places on the banks of the stream higher up, but the covering of bush and soil is too complete to attempt a correlation with those lower down. Owing to this covering it is likewise impossible to say whether the junction between the greywackes of Mount Grey is a simple unconformity or a fault contact. Kowai River, South Branch. The high banks of this river rise in places to a height of 500 ft. above its bed, frequently with precipitous faces, and thus excellent sections are exposed. The strata are also folded into gentle anticlines and synclines, so that in the cores of the former the lower beds are exposed. They consist of the following in ascending order:— Sands with concretionary layers, with broken-shell beds in the lower part, at least 80 ft. thick. Green sandy clays and gravel beds, the latter finer in grain and thicker in the lower part, and cemented with iron oxide. At higher levels there are rapidly alternating gravel and sandy beds, the former composed of subangular pebbles, which point to deposit either on a land-surface or on a shore-line in close proximity to the source of supply. No limestone pebbles were seen in these beds. In places they exhibit intraformational unconformities, such as one would expect when rapid changes in the conditions of deposit take place, especially when the change is from a sand to a gravel, and vice versa. The gravel beds frequently form steep cliffs; and their hard bands determine the dividing-ridges between the tributary streams running into the main river, especially on the south side, and they also determine an important reach of the river itself, although its direction is primarily across the strike, and therefore of consequent character. A specially good section is to be seen where the river makes a right-angle turn, and changes from the subsequent to the consequent direction. The beds are here bent up into a rather sharp anticline with a north-east strike and a dip to the north-west at an angle of 50°. On the seaward side of the anticlinal axis the dip is much less, the angle being about 10°, the succession being similar. But farther down-stream the strike swings round till it is north-north-east, then north-north-west, and finally north-west, following for a time the direction of the main river. This allows the lower members of the series to be exposed again in the bed and banks of the river. They consist here of sands and sandy clays, greenish-blue in colour and weathering brown, containing fossils, some of the sands with concretionary layers and associated with thin gravel beds. The shells consist of Siphonalia, Glycymeris, and Ostrea, but in a fragmentary condition. Farther down-stream the greenish-blue beds are still exposed, but the strike gradually becomes north-east with a dip to the south-east, and gravel beds form the greater part of the high bluffs which face the river on the north above the Mount Grey Station. Opposite the right-angle turn of the river referred to above, and immediately to the west of the axis of the anticline, there is distinct evidence of the presence of an unconformity between the gravels just referred to and a higher series. The beds here consist of sands and sandy gravels which are lithologically indistinguishable from the higher members of the lower series. On a bluff facing the river the beds in contact with the gravels of the lower series are exposed lying across their denuded edges at low angles, and immediately to the north-west they show a reversal of dip and are inclined to the south-east at angles of from 5° to 7°. This dip is in agreement with that which can be observed in sections in the upper basin of the Southern Kowai, and notably to the south of the anticline which runs to the south-east of No. 2 Creek and parallel with it. Thus there is evidence of an unconformity in the Southern Kowai in close proximity to that in the No. 2 Creek in the drainage area of the Northern Kowai. It will be noted that the lowest members of the series present in the two branches of the Kowai consist of sandy beds with marine fossils, whereas these do not appear with certainty in the Grey River. The gravel beds are, however, equally developed in each area. This difference is perhaps of no special stratigraphical importance, since the gravel beds in both areas are undoubtedly marine, and in the Grey area conditions may not have been favourable for the preservation of fossil remains. As far as I can see at present, there is no evidence of a major unconformity between the gravel beds and the lower marine beds, although minor, intraformational unconformities undoubtedly exist. There is, however, distinct evidence of a discordance at a higher level in the Kowai series between beds of similar lithological character both above and below the unconformity, but not such a discordance as necessitates the higher beds being placed in another distinct series. The whole area and its vicinity no doubt experienced a fairly rapid elevation, probably of a differential character, so that erosion went on in one part of the area while deposition was continuous in an adjacent part. If subsequent deposition over the denuded area then ensued this special stratigraphical feature can be satisfactorily explained. In Fox's Creek, the next stream south of the Kowai, there is an excellent section of the gravels forming the great mass of the downs area. This stream rises in the centre of the area and flows east, being bounded on the north for the middle part of its course by precipitous banks, in places up to 500 ft. in height above the stream. The beds here exposed consist of sandy gravels, sands, and sandy clays, with occasional thin, discontinuous layers of sandy carbonaceous shale. The sands are frequently blue-green in colour, and without fossils as far as I could see. In this part of the course of the stream the beds lie flat, with a slight dip to the north, but on the eastern margin of the downs the dip increases to 10° and its direction becomes south-east. In the adjacent valleys to the north and south there are similar beds with similar dip. Lower Waipara Gorge. Just where the river crosses the western end of the Limestone Range, beds of the Motunau series are exposed, consisting of marine sands, sandy clays, and sandy gravels frequently cemented with calcareous material and containing numerous fossil shells (Speight, 1912 and 1914). They are involved in anticlines and synclines, and sometimes dip at steep angles—as high as 55° to 60°. They do not contain, as far as my observation goes, any limestone-fragments such as might have been shed from the Weka Pass or Amuri limestone beds, and this suggests that they are not unconformable to the beds containing those limestones, a conclusion which is supported by general stratigraphical evidence. These Motunau beds are capped unconformably by gravels containing numerous fragments of limestone, and from their lack of distinct stratification it may be concluded that they are high-level terrace-gravels of more recent date. Similar gravels occur on the downs just east of the Amberley—Waipara Railway, covering a considerable extent of country, as they are occasionally exposed in the sides of deep washouts and cap the cliffs cut by the river in making its gorge. Along the north bank of the river below the Teviotdale Bridge there is also a series of Motunau beds, consisting of sands, sandy clays, and gravels, some of which are very fine and smooth and are evidently of marine origin. These beds contain fossil shells at various levels, which point to the age being Mio-Pliocene or Pliocene (Speight, 1914). On the south bank of the river the beds are much obscured by slip-material and vegetation, so that in no place is the contact clearly displayed. On the terrace near the mouth of the river the following section is exposed:— Yellowish sands, exposed at river-level and for 6 ft. upwards. Sandy lignite, with well-marked woody structure and containing crystals of gypsum in stellate and columnar groups, 4 ft. in thickness. Sandy clay (fireclay?), with occasional pieces of bituminized wood. Lignite, full of bituminized wood, 6–8 in. Sand and sandy clay, with pieces of wood, 4 ft. Gravel, 6 ft. Farther up-stream the lignite-beds are exposed in similar stratigraphical position, succeeded by yellowish clays and sandy gravels, and at one place there is an exposure under the lignite of well-stratified and rounded marine shingle. These beds all strike east-south-east and dip west-south-west at very flat angles, and it is impossible to tell on stratigraphical grounds whether the gravels overlying the lignites are conformable or not, or whether they belong to the Kowai series or to recent terrace-gravels. The locality furnishes evidence of the ease with which conformity may be simulated under certain circumstances. If level beds are planed by the sea, and no irregularity left on their being depressed and covered with a veneer of sediments, apparent conformity may occur over considerable distances, and especially will this be the case if the beds in contact are of a sandy or gravelly nature. A suggestion of unconformity is given in this case by the presence in the lowest layer of gravel of large pebbles, up to 8 in. in diameter, and more or less subangular, indicating strong currents on a land-surface or on a sea-bottom in close proximity to land, and that the beds were deposited under conditions entirely dissimilar from those obtaining when the better-rounded gravels were laid down. Other Canterbury Localities. There are other localities in this part of the South Island where similar gravels occur, among which may be cited the Isolated Hills in the Culverden Basin; the cliffs at Gore Bay, where well-cemented gravels are involved in a syncline; the western side of the Trelissick Basin, specially in the Hog's Back Creek; between the Pudding Stone and the North Ashburton River; and in South Canterbury between the Tengawai and Pareora Rivers. It is probable, too, that the deeper gravels encountered in the bore at Chertsey belong to this series, the indications of petroleum coming from plant-remains which elsewhere have formed lignite.* Just below the Rakaia Gorge, where great thickness of gravels has been exposed, there is an underlying set of beds which are more strongly oxidized than the covering strata, and they may perhaps be assigned to a series older than the prevailing shingle beds of the plains. Although this criterion is perhaps an unsatisfactory one on which to base a determination of relative age, yet it has been applied in Switzerland in order to differentiate the gravels of the older glacial series of that region. General Conclusions as to the Origin and Age of the Beds, and Relation to the Gravels of the Canterbury Plains. The materials of which these gravels are composed have been derived almost entirely from original greywackes. No limestone was noted among them except in the case of the beds in the North Kowai. Occasional pebbles of basalt also occur, such as might have been derived from areas where such rocks are known to exist. A siliceous sandstone, white in colour and forming rounded masses, which could not be traced to its source, also occurs freely in the gravels of the Mount Grey district. These are perhaps masses of sandstone which have been loosely cemented by processes analogous to those which have formed the sarsen stones, or “Chinamen,” as they are called by miners, of the schist areas of Central Otago. The subangular nature of the pebbles shows that the greywacke land must have been in close proximity to the area of deposit. The absence of large pebbles suggests that it was of moderate relief, though it might have been the outlying portion of a more elevated tract. The gravels contain, however, no suggestion of a glacial or fluvio-glacial origin; they are just such gravels as might have been brought down by the present Ashley or Waipara Rivers, which have no connection with glaciers. The origin of the limestone constituent can be traced exactly, as exposures of limestone of similar nature occur within a short distance of the area where they have been deposited; but these limestone pebbles occur low down in the series and disappear at higher levels, so that the uppermost beds must have been derived from areas where limestone does not exist. Although the lower members of the series are undoubtedly marine, the upper members were in all probability deposited under estuarine conditions or actually on a land-surface. The determination of the age of the Kowai series is a matter of some difficulty. The unconformity in the Grey River shows that it is certainly post-Miocene, and in the Lower Waipara Gorge beds occur under the gravels with a fossil content which shows them to be upper Pliocene (Speight, 1914, p. 300)—that is, beds which form the upper part of the Motunau series. Therefore we may reasonably infer that the Kowai series is either upper Pliocene, if no unconformity exists between two sets of beds, or Pleistocene, if an unconformity is demonstrable. The Pliocene beds of the lower Waipara are perhaps the uppermost beds of a conformable Cretaceo-Tertiary series. [Footnote] * Pieces of carbonized bark have recently been obtained from a depth of 1,900 ft. in this bore. Therefore if an unconformity can be proved between the Kowai series and any member of the lower series it will be unconformable to all. As the presence of included fragments of limestone in the gravel beds of the Kowai demonstrates the existence of a clear unconformity between the gravels and the limestones, and the undoubted erosion-surface in the Grey River demonstrates the presence of one at a higher level still, we may therefore infer that the gravels of the Kowai series must be of Pleistocene age. If, however, the Cretaceo-Tertiary series is broken up eventually into subordinate unconformable elements, then this argument fails, and the matter will depend on the relation of the Kowai series to the fossiliferous marine beds of the lower Waipara and the Northern Kowai, as being the highest beds on which the Kowai series undoubtedly rests. The relation of the two sets of beds is somewhat obscure, though, judging from the evidence in the latter locality, probably unconformable. Therefore all that can be definitely stated is that the Kowai series overlies undoubted upper Pliocene beds and must be of a later age, and is most probably Pleistocene. This must be earlier than the gravels forming the Canterbury Plains, for these have suffered no deformation by folding movements, whereas the gravels of the Kowai series are at times folded somewhat acutely. They would therefore antedate the last period of glaciation to which the region had been subjected. A point which bears on the conformity of the Tertiary sequence should be noted—viz., that in neither of the two branches of the Grey River are the typical Mount Brown beds developed, thus suggesting an unconformity between the Motunau series, or the Kowai series, and the Mount Brown beds in case the absence is due to erosion, or between the Mount Brown beds and the “grey marls” in case the overlying beds, together with the Mount Brown beds, are part of a conformable series. As there appears to be no evidence of unconformity between the Mount Brown beds and the “grey marls” in the typical locality, whereas there is some evidence of an unconformity between the Motunau series and the Mount Brown beds, it seems more likely that the absence of the Mount Brown facies in the Grey River is due to erosion of these beds after deposition. This, however, is a point which requires further investigation. Haast, J. von, 1879. Geology of Canterbury and Westland. Hutton, F. W., 1877. Rep. Geol. Explor. during 1873–74, pp. 27–58. — 1885. Sketch of the Geology of New Zealand, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. 41, pp. 191–220. McKay, A., 1877. Rep. Geol. Explor. during 1874–76, pp. 172–84. Park, J., 1910. The Geology of New Zealand, Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchurch. Speight, R., 1912. A Preliminary Account of the Lower Waipara Gorge, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 44, pp. 221–33. — 1914. Additions to the List of Fossils from the Lower Waipara, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 46, p. 300. — 1918. Structural and Glacial Features of the Hurunui Valley, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 50, pp. 93–105. Speight, R., and Wild, L. J., 1918. The Stratigraphical Relationship of the Weka Pass Stone and the Amuri Limestone, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 50, pp. 65–93. Thomson, J. A., 1917. Diastrophic and other Considerations in Classification and Correlation, and the Existence of Minor Diastrophic Districts in the Notocene, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 49, pp. 397–413.

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Researchers in Britain have developed a drug they say could revolutionize the effectiveness of radiation on cancer. Radiotherapy is used to destroy cancer cells by zapping their DNA, thus disrupting their ability to function and reproduce. But like other cells in the body, cancer cells have a sort of DNA repair kit that can minimize these effects. The new drug disables the DNA repair process and allows radiotherapy to target tumors with “deadly accuracy.” From Newcastle University: New drug could help target cancer cells with deadly accuracy A new drug that could revolutionise the impact of radiotherapy on cancer and make treatment much more effective, has been developed by Cancer Research UK scientists at Newcastle University. The drug, developed by the charity’s clinical unit at the University, has been designed to destroy the protection enjoyed by cancer cells. Radiotherapy kills cancer cells by causing damage to DNA. But the DNA damage repair kit ? the body’s Sir Lancelot which is present in all cells ? rides to the rescue of the beleaguered cells and can get in the way of effective treatment. The new drug will, in turn, disable the DNA repair process and allow radiotherapy to target tumours with deadly accuracy, according to research leader Professor Hilary Calvert, speaking at Cancer Research UK’s first annual conference in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Professor Calvert explains: ‘Our DNA is damaged all the time during life’s daily routine. One cell sustains about 30,000 incidents of DNA damage every day through the oxygen and chemicals circulating in the body. Therefore the DNA damage repair process is invaluable and keeps us from dissolving into a blob of jelly.’ But the downside of this is that the DNA repair kit also comes to the rescue of cancer cells when they are under attack. This has led scientists to search for a weapon to prevent the repair kit from working on tumours. The most promising prospect in the armoury is a class of drugs known as PARP inhibitors which block the action of DNA repair enzymes called PARPs*. In pre-clinical studies researchers have found that these drugs are highly effective at sensitising cancer cells to radiotherapy. Professor Calvert says that one of the problems with radiotherapy ? which is the most common way of treating cancer apart from surgery ? is that the dose needed to kill large tumours is often too toxic to be sustained by the body. ‘We have been trying to find something to make tumours more sensitive to radiotherapy. And we hope the PARP inhibitor will prove an effective radiosensitizer which would be a huge benefit to cancer patients. ‘Clinical trials of radiosensitizers have always posed a particularly difficult problem of design because we have to ensure that they are not increasing any side effects to normal tissue,’ he says. ‘Many of the side-effects of radiotherapy are very late and can occur many months or years after the original treatment.’ Professor Robert Souhami, Director of Clinical Research for Cancer Research UK, says: ‘The development and production of the PARP inhibitors mean we have a potentially very exciting new approach to cancer treatment. ‘But there is still much work to be done. We hope clinical trials will start soon but these would take several years to complete before any drug could be licensed for general use.’

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Forgetfulness: Knowing when to Ask for Help Maria has been a teacher for 35 years. Teaching fills her life and gives her a sense of accomplishment, but recently she has begun to forget details and has become more and more disorganized. At first, she laughed it off, but her memory problems have worsened. Her family and friends have been sympathetic but are not sure what to do. Parents and school administrators are worried about Maria's performance in the classroom. The principal has suggested she see a doctor. Maria is angry with herself and frustrated, and she wonders whether these problems are signs of Alzheimer's disease or just forgetfulness that comes with getting older. Many people worry about becoming forgetful. They think forgetfulness is the first sign of Alzheimer's disease. Over the past few years, scientists have learned a lot about memory and why some kinds of memory problems are serious but others are not. Age-related changes in memory Forgetfulness can be a normal part of aging. As people get older, changes occur in all parts of the body, including the brain. As a result, some people may notice that it takes longer to learn new things, they don't remember information as well as they did, or they lose things like their glasses. These usually are signs of mild forgetfulness, not serious memory problems. Some older adults also find that they don't do as well as younger people on complex memory or learning tests. Scientists have found, though, that given enough time, healthy older people can do as well as younger people do on these tests. In fact, as they age, healthy adults usually improve in areas of mental ability such as vocabulary. Keeping your memory sharp People with some forgetfulness can use a variety of techniques that may help them stay healthy and maintain their memory and mental skills. Here are some tips that can help: Other causes of memory loss Some memory problems are related to health issues that may be treatable. For example, medication side effects, vitamin B12 deficiency, chronic alcoholism, tumors or infections in the brain, or blood clots in the brain can cause memory loss or possibly dementia (see more on dementia, below). Some thyroid, kidney, or liver disorders also can lead to memory loss. A doctor should treat serious medical conditions like these as soon as possible. Emotional problems, such as stress, anxiety, or depression, can make a person more forgetful and can be mistaken for dementia. For instance, someone who has recently retired or who is coping with the death of a spouse, relative, or friend may feel sad, lonely, worried, or bored. Trying to deal with these life changes leaves some people confused or forgetful. The confusion and forgetfulness caused by emotions usually are temporary and go away when the feelings fade. The emotional problems can be eased by supportive friends and family, but if these feelings last for a long time, it is important to get help from a doctor or counselor. Treatment may include counseling, medication, or both. More serious memory problems For some older people, memory problems are a sign of a serious problem, such as mild cognitive impairment or dementia. People who are worried about memory problems should see a doctor. The doctor might conduct or order a thorough physical and mental health evaluation to reach a diagnosis. Often, these evaluations are conducted by a neurologist, a physician who specializes in problems related to the brain and central nervous system. A complete medical exam for memory loss should review the person's medical history, including the use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines, diet, past medical problems, and general health. A correct diagnosis depends on accurate details, so in addition to talking with the patient, the doctor might ask a family member, caregiver, or close friend for information. Blood and urine tests can help the doctor find the cause of the memory problems or dementia. The doctor also might do tests for memory loss and test the person's problem-solving and language abilities. A computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan may help rule out some causes of the memory problems. Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Some people with memory problems have a condition called amnestic mild cognitive impairment, or amnestic MCI. People with this condition have more memory problems than normal for people their age, but their symptoms are not as severe as those of Alzheimer's disease, and they are able to carry out their normal daily activities. Signs of MCI include misplacing things often, forgetting to go to important events and appointments, and having trouble coming up with desired words. Family and friends may notice memory lapses, and the person with MCI may worry about losing his or her memory. These worries may prompt the person to see a doctor for diagnosis. Researchers have found that more people with MCI than those without it go on to develop Alzheimer's within a certain timeframe. However, not everyone who has MCI develops AD. Studies are underway to learn why some people with MCI progress to AD and others do not. There currently is no standard treatment for MCI. Typically, the doctor will regularly monitor and test a person diagnosed with MCI to detect any changes in memory and thinking skills over time. There are no medications approved for use for MCI. Dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking, memory, and reasoning skills to such an extent that it seriously affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities. Dementia is not a disease itself but a group of symptoms caused by certain diseases or conditions such as AD. People with dementia lose their mental abilities at different rates. Symptoms may include: Two of the most common forms of dementia in older people are Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. These types of dementia cannot be cured at present. In Alzheimer's disease, changes to nerve cells in certain parts of the brain result in the death of a large number of cells. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease begin slowly and worsen steadily as damage to nerve cells spreads throughout the brain. As time goes by, forgetfulness gives way to serious problems with thinking, judgment, recognizing family and friends, and the ability to perform daily activities like driving a car or handling money. Eventually, the person needs total care. In vascular dementia, a series of strokes or changes in the brain's blood supply leads to the death of brain tissue. Symptoms of vascular dementia can vary but usually begin suddenly, depending on where in the brain the strokes occurred and how severe they were. The person's memory, language, reasoning, and coordination may be affected. Mood and personality changes are common as well. It's not possible to reverse damage already caused by a stroke, so it's very important to get medical care right away if someone has signs of a stroke. It's also important to take steps to prevent further strokes, which worsen vascular dementia symptoms. Some people have both Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. Treatment for dementia A person with dementia should be under a doctor's care. The doctor might be a neurologist, family doctor, internist, geriatrician, or psychiatrist. He or she can treat the patient's physical and behavioral problems (such as aggression, agitation, or wandering) and answer the many questions that the person or family may have. People with dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease may be treated with medications. Four medications are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Alzheimer's disease. Donepezil (Aricept®), rivastigmine (Exelon®), and galantamine (Razadyne®) are used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (donepezil has been approved to treat severe Alzheimer's disease as well). Memantine (Namenda®) is used to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. These drugs may help maintain thinking, memory, and speaking skills, and may lessen certain behavioral problems for a few months to a few years in some people. However, they dont stop Alzheimer's disease from progressing. Studies are underway to investigate medications to slow cognitive decline and to prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease. People with vascular dementia should take steps to prevent further strokes. These steps include controlling high blood pressure, monitoring and treating high blood cholesterol and diabetes, and not smoking. Studies are underway to develop medicines to reduce the severity of memory and thinking problems that come with vascular dementia. Other studies are looking at the effects of drugs to relieve certain symptoms of this type of dementia. Family members and friends can help people in the early stages of dementia to continue their daily routines, physical activities, and social contacts. People with dementia should be kept up-to-date about the details of their lives, such as the time of day, where they live, and what is happening at home or in the world. Memory aids may help. Some families find that a big calendar, a list of daily plans, notes about simple safety measures, and written directions describing how to use common household items are useful aids. What you can do If you're concerned that you or someone you know has a serious memory problem, talk with your doctor. He or she may be able to diagnose the problem or refer you to a specialist in neurology or geriatric psychiatry. Health care professionals who specialize in Alzheimer's can recommend ways to manage the problem or suggest treatment or services that might help. More information is available from the organizations listed below. People with Alzheimer's disease, MCI, or a family history of Alzheimer's disease, and healthy people with no memory problems and no family history of Alzheimer's disease may be able to take part in clinical trials. Participating in clinical trials is an effective way to help in the fight against Alzheimers. To find out more about clinical trials, call the Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center toll-free at 1-800-438-4380 or visit the ADEAR Center website at www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers. More information is available at www.ClinicalTrials.gov. For more information Here are some helpful resources: Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center P.O. Box 8250 Silver Spring, MD 20907-8250 The National Institute on Aging's ADEAR Center offers information and publications in English and Spanish for families, caregivers and professionals on diagnosis, treatment, patient care, caregiver needs, long-term care, education and training, and research related to Alzheimer's disease. 225 North Michigan Avenue, Floor 17 Chicago, IL 60601-7633 National Library of Medicine For more information on health and aging, contact: Visit NIHSeniorHealth (www.nihseniorhealth.gov), a senior-friendly website from the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine. This website has health information for older adults. Special features make it simple to use. For example, you can click on a button to have the text read out loud or to make the type larger. National Institute on Aging National Institutes of Health U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Page last updated March 29, 2010

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Brain Health and Memory

|Skip Navigation Links| |Exit Print View| |Oracle Solaris Administration: ZFS File Systems Oracle Solaris 11 Information Library| This chapter provides step-by-step instructions on setting up a basic Oracle Solaris ZFS configuration. By the end of this chapter, you will have a basic understanding of how the ZFS commands work, and should be able to create a basic pool and file systems. This chapter does not provide a comprehensive overview and refers to later chapters for more detailed information. The following sections are provided in this chapter:

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GNU Project Tools

Machu Picchu, Peru Everything about Machu Picchu makes you marvel that it ever came to exist. The lost city of the Incas is built on a saddle-shaped ridge slung between two giant peaks. Near-vertical slopes drop away on either side, down to a massive bend in the Urubamba River. What could have motivated the Incas to undertake such a construction at this remote location in the Andean cordillera? Machu Picchu, built over 700 years ago and hidden by jungle since the 16th century, was rediscovered in 1911. It consists of about 200 buildings, which include dwellings and temples, a central plaza and a royal palace, all flanked by terraces for farming. The stone for the buildings was mined from a quarry and shaped using bronze tools, then smoothed with sand in order to fit tightly together. No mortar was used in the construction. Even after many centuries of wear and tear, the precision is amazing; It would be impossible to slide a piece of paper between many of the blocks. Machu Picchu is notable for the way that existing rock features were incorporated into the design. Inevitably the craftsmanship on sacred buildings is the finest. For spectacular views, make the steep climb up to Wayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu. Alternatively, climb to the top of the less crowded Machu Picchu peak, which catches the first rays of the rising sun. Both mountains overlook the entire site, down to the river below, which puts the Incas· great achievement of construction into perspective. The Incas worshipped the sun god Inti, so the summer solstice was the most important day in their calendar, and the Temple of the Sun their most important building. In fact, all their temples and sacred sites were designed to mark solar and astrological events. A stone, Intihuatana ('Hitching Post of the Sun'), is the focus of a major religious site where a ritual was performed, in the shortening days before the winter solstice, to prevent the sun disappearing. Similar stones were at other Inca sites, but were damaged or destroyed by Spanish conquistadores. The one at Machu Picchu survived because the site was never discovered. The population of Machu Picchu is believed to have numbered over a thousand, and the people were so distant from other settlements that they would have produced much of their own food. This accounts for the intricately terraced fields, which have survived remarkably intact thanks to the care and skill that went into their construction. Maize and potatoes were grown, and advanced irrigation techniques were used to ensure that rainwater didn't just run off down the hill to the Urubamba River far below. No-one knows for sure why Machu Picchu was built. Some surmise that it was a royal or religious retreat for one of the Inca rulers. Certainly its remote location and altitude of nearly 2500 metres would seem to rule out any trade or military function. Whatever its use, the obvious effort that went into its construction indicates that it was considered important and held in high regard by those who created it. All trips to Machu Picchu begin and end in Cuzco. The train journey from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, the town in the river valley below the ruins, takes four hours. Buses go to and from the town to the ruins from 6 am until 5.30 pm. The trains from Cuzco arrive mid-morning and leave late in the afternoon, so the least crowded times at the

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Global Cultural Heritage

Prizes and Celebrations in Brazil UNESCO Brasilia Office usually promotes national events in partnership with various organizations to celebrate the International Days, Years and Decades proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in order to mark important aspects of human life and history. The Office and its partners also promote national or international prizes in the areas of UNESCO mandate. List of Prizes, Celebrations and Campaigns Originally called MERCOSUR Prize for Young Researchers, the Award was created by the Specialized Meeting on Science and Technology of MERCOSUR - RECyT in 1998. Since the 2004 Call, the Award has had the partnership of UNESCO and has changed its title to MERCOSUR Science and Technology Award, comprising two categories: “Young Researchers”, up to 35 years old, and “Integration”, for a team of researchers with no limit of age, involving at least two member countries. The annual context is organized by UNESCO in Brazil and partnerships in celebration of the World Science Day for Peace and Development, established by the United Nations in 2001 and celebrated every year on November 10. Each year, the context has an specific theme. All secondary education students in Brazil can participate in the context by sending their written works and/or drawings on the theme. 09.04.12 UNESCO International Prizes UNESCO promotes international prizes to reward international outstanding efforts made in the themes of UNESCO's mandate: Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, Communication and Information, and Peace. 09.04.12 United Nations International Days The United Nations General Assembly designates a number of "International Days" to mark important aspects of human life and history. UNESCO, in particular, observes the following: 09.04.12 United Nations International Years UNESCO participates in the celebration of the following International Years proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations: 09.04.12 United Nations International Decades UNESCO participates in the celebration of the following International Decades proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations: UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, has designated the Brazilian Dominican friar Frei Betto as laureate of the 2013 UNESCO/José Martí Prize for his exceptional contribution to building a universal culture of peace, social justice and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. UNESCO Brasilia Office Director, Lucien Muñoz, sent a letter to the Brazilian Dominican friar, Frei Betto, congratulating him for receiving the José Martí 2013 Award for his decisive contribution to a culture of peace, justice and respect to human rights in Latin America.

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India Cultural Highlights

Undated (WXOW) - In 2009, the US Preventative Task force recommended against breast cancer screening for women aged 40 to 49. It said the risks outweigh the small potential benefit in younger women, but a new study in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" says these women would benefit from screening the latest turn in the see-saw debate over detecting breast cancer. The study says screening is helpful for women with a two-fold increase in such risk factors as: having dense breasts, a family history of breast cancer and having had hormone replacement therapy. The authors acknowledge that false positives can cause needless procedures and increased anxiety, but they say false positives can be reduced by focusing on high-risk patients and using regular instead of digital mammogram's. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WXOW. All Rights Reserved. Persons with disabilities who need assistance with issues relating to the content of this station's public inspection file should contact Administrative Assistant Theresa Wopat at 507-895-9969. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, at 888-835-5322 (TTY) or at email@example.com.

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Medical Topics

Portrait of Katherine Parr, Queen of England (1512-1548) English School, Late Sixteenth Century “As the famous rhyme suggests, Katherine Parr’s record as the last of Henry VIII’s six wives was unique. She survived.” Oil on panel 21¼ x 15¾ inches, 54 x 40 cm Possibly William Bryant, sale at Edward Foster’s, London, 15th May 1823 as ‘Holbein’ Archibald Alexander Leslie Melville, 13th Earl of Leven and 12th Earl of Melville by whom sold, Robinson and Fisher, 29th November 1934 lot 107, as ‘Holbein’ Anon sale Christies London 9th June 1944, Lot 14 1967 J Gold Coll. Anon Sale Sothebys London 11th July 1983 (lot 37) English Private Collection Katherine Parr, by Susan E. James (London 1999) p 421 fig 30, as showing the Queen c. 1546; Ian Tyers, Dendrochronoligical Survey, 2005; Inscribed at top, Catharina Regina Uxor Henrici VIII As the famous rhyme suggests, Katherine Parr’s record as the last of Henry VIII’s six wives was unique. She survived. Though Anne of Cleves, the sad ‘Flanders Mare’ unable to arouse England’s most insatiable monarch, lived on until 1557 it is only Katherine who was neither divorced, beheaded, or died. She was by any standards a remarkable woman: beautiful enough to marry the King of England, despite having neither royal nor court background; shrewd enough to remain his Queen, despite court plots and an attempt on her life; and courageous enough to sustain the Protestant cause, despite Henry’s latent sympathies for the Roman faith. She was Regent of England during Henry’s invasion of France in 1544. And with her publication of religious works such as Prayers or Meditations in 1545, she became not only the first English Queen to publish a work of prose, but the first woman to do so in the sixteenth century. Katherine became Queen of England in July 1543. Henry was her third husband, but, on this occasion, not her first choice. She had instead fallen in love with the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour, and was understandably wary of Henry’s past form when it came to marital relations. Five wives had failed – what chance did a sixth have of success? Nonetheless, to turn down the King’s offer of marriage was unthinkable. Katherine, a deeply devout woman, determined that if she was to be Queen, she would be Queen with a purpose. That purpose was to further the cause of the Protestant Reformation. In doing so Katherine, literally, risked her life. Never afraid to exercise her sharp mind, Katherine had become accustomed to discussing religion with Henry VIII. Though this was at first welcomed by the King, the conservative factions of court and church were terrified of any radical words whispered into the Royal ear - that after all was how Anne Boleyn had first led Henry towards Lutheranism. To conservatives like Bishop Gardiner and Chancellor Wriothesley the answer seemed obvious – Katherine should meet the same fate as Anne. At first, Henry, increasingly irascible from ulcerated legs, indicated that Katherine’s days were numbered. An arrest warrant was drawn up, and, amid rumours of ‘a new queen’, arrest could only have been followed by death. But Katherine succeeded in persuading Henry of her good faith and innocent naivety. “Is it even so, Sweetheart?”, said the King, “Then perfect friends we are now again…”[i] Thus did Tudor Royalty kiss and make up. Katherine’s victory checked any conservative renaissance in the final years of the King’s reign. From now all eyes turned to the future (Protestant) reign of Edward VI. Here, Katherine appears to have been less successful, and for once followed her heart rather than her head. With ill-considered haste, she took Thomas Seymour as her lover within weeks of Henry’s death in 1547, and married him just months later. In doing so she lost any chance she may have had in exercising power during Edward’s minority. And yet, perhaps her final and most enduring success was yet to come, for in helping to restore the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession she had extended the Tudor dynasty by half a century. Katherine died after giving birth to a daughter in 1548. The iconography of Katherine Parr is of particular interest. It is ironic that so few portraits of the Queen appear to survive, given that she was the foremost patron of portraiture in mid-Tudor England. There are several reasons why the Queen liked portraiture, not least because she evidently liked art. But perhaps the most intriguing reason may lie in Henry VIII’s habit (undoubtedly annoying to Catherine) of repeatedly portraying himself with Jane Seymour. Was Katherine’s jealousy manifested in art? Was her decision to commission the first full-length portraits of Elizabeth and Mary as Princesses, part of her desire to elevate them from illegitimate bastards to heirs of the English crown? Whatever the reasons, her legacy to the advancement of English portraiture cannot be doubted. There are five recorded certainly known portraits of Katherine Parr that survive. The first is a miniature formerly in the collection of Horace Walpole (now at Sudeley Castle), which is probably by Lucas Hornebolt. The second and third, in the National Portrait Gallery, are a full-length (once erroneously called Lady Jane Grey) by Master John, and a half-length by an unknown artist. A fourth (Lambeth Palace) shows a young Katherine in the 1530s. And now the present example represents a fifth, and shows the Queen towards the end of her life. And yet, Katherine’s own records show that she commissioned at least more than a dozen portraits of herself; “give me one of your small pictures”, her fourth husband Thomas Seymour wrote, “if ye have any left…”[ii] The contrast between Katherine’s commissions and those extant portraits gives a useful indication of how little survives from the sixteenth century – in this case less than a third. The Queen’s chamber accounts show that John Bettes the Elder painted up to seven miniatures – none survive – and nor apparently do any other miniatures by Hornebolt, aside from the possible Sudeley example. Records also show that Katherine was painted by Hans Eworth, the Dutch artist considered the closest thing to Holbein’s heir[iii]. Such patronage was an indication of Katherine’s desire to support the new, for Eworth had only arrived in England c.1543. His earliest known work is dated 1549. The almost enamel-like flesh tones and bright colouring of the cheeks in this portrait, together with the distinctive modeling of the eyes, may suggest that the artist of this picture was influenced in some way by Eworth’s now lost original. The accomplished handling of the detail in Katherine’s out-turned collar, and the delicate portrayal of her hair, is also reminiscent of Eworth’s Mary Neville, Lady Dacre (National Gallery of Canada). That the jewelry Katherine wears in this portrait is similar to that recorded in her inventories, not to mention the intelligent depiction of Katherine’s slight physique, further suggests that it is based on a contemporary ad vivum example.

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Historical and Genealogical Records

Margaret Woodrow Wilson, the daughter of President at the time Thomas Woodrow Wilson, singing the U.S. national anthem “Star Spangled Banner” in 1915. After her mother’s death in 1914 Margaret served as the First Lady of the United States until her father’s second marriage in 1915. She would go on to make several recordings around 1918. In 1938 she travelled to the ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, India where she chose to stay for the rest of her life. She was later known in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as ‘Nistha’ (Sanskrit for “sincerity”). In 1942, she and the scholar Joseph Campbell edited the English translation of the classical work on the Hindu mystic, Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda, which was published in 1942. She was to die two years later, 6 years after entering the ashram, of a kidney infection aged 57. (Wikipedia) The lyrics of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay 200 years ago this year in the War of 1812. The image above shows the U.S. flag flying above Fort McHenry in 1914. (Wikipedia) Internet Archive Link Please note while this recording is in the public domain in the Eurozone, it may not be in other jurisdictions (e.g. the US). Please check its status in your jurisdiction before re-using. HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Make a one off Donation SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER Sign up to get our free fortnightly newsletter which shall deliver direct to your inbox the latest brand new article and a digest of the most recent collection items. Simply add your details to the form below and click the link you receive via email to confirm your subscription!

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Historical Events and Figures

Life in our towns in the Middle Ages is the main subject of our work. We want to look at it from all points of views, like: history, music, clothing food, law, traditions, markets, churches, building houses, medicine..... - Subjects: Art, Cross Curricular, Design and Technology, Foreign Languages, Geography, History, Media Education, Music, Special Needs Education - Languages: DE - EN - Pupil's age: 7 - 16 - Tools to be used: Audio conference, Chat, e-mail, Forum, Other software (Powerpoint, video, pictures and drawings), Video conference, Web publishing - Aims: The aim of this project is to get to know the history of the Middle Ages in the hometown, area,... read more - Work process: Life, traditions, music, food, markets, clothes, building houses, churches, law, medicine in the Middle Ages in my town, area, country. Each... read more - Expected results: Historical competence about the Middle Ages beginning in the home town, area, country and learning about the same historical time... read more

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Historical and Art Topics

Requests: If you need specific information on this remedy - e.g. a proving or a case info on toxicology or whatsoever, please post a message in the Request area www.homeovision.org/forum/ so that all users may contribute. The opium poppy is indigenous to Asia Minor, and awareness of the euphoriant effect of some part of the poppy plant is implicit in the Sumerian records of 4000 BC. Clear accounts exist of its use in the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. Paracelsus was aware of its usefulness and prepared the first tincture of opium, called laudanum, subsequently simplified by Sydenham. Friedrich Sertürner (1783-1841) isolated morphine from opium and demonstrated for the first time that a single purified chemical substance could account for the pharmacological effects of a natural product. Sertürner, a reluctant apprentice to a pharmacist in Prussia, was disturbed by the variable potency of available opium preparations and set out to purify and standardize it. Working at a time when neither experimental pharmacology nor the chemistr of natural products were recognized fields of endeavor, Sertürner succeeded in isolating morphine from opium. Using a bioassay in dogs, he established that morphine, as he named the alkaline substance, was the somnifacient principle in opium. His early reports 1803 were either rejected by editors or ignored after publication. He eventually tested his purified preparation on himself and 3 friends, administering 3 doses of 30mg in 45 minutes and observing vomiting, flush, and near coma. This work was finally published in 1817 and attracted the interest of the influential French chemist Gay-Lussac. The work of Sertürner influenced Pelletier and Caventou, and in the same year other pure principles from plant sources were successfully isolated. The addicting properties of opium have also been important in its history. In China, opium was used only in the treatment of dysentery until the mid-1700s. The English, Portuguese, and Dutch built up a large trade supplying opium to China, and addiction had become so much of a problem by the early 1800s, that the Chinese government acted to bar the importation of opium and reduce the amount of opium-smoking. These acts precipitated a 3-year war terminated by the treaty of Nanking 1842, which gave England Hong-Kong, opened 5 ports to English traders, and specifically authorized continued trade in opium. The risk of addiction was probably underestimated in the West for some time thereafter. Opium and morphine were widely prescribed and easily available in many patent medicines. Misuse was common until about 1920, but the predominant pattern was one of oral use. Since the laws were changed at that time, the number of people involved has become comparatively small but the narcotic is injected. Morphine and other naturally occurring narcotics are isolated from opium. Opium is collected from only one variety of poppy, Papaver somniferum. A few days after the petals fall, the unripe, still succulent seed pod is lighthly incised. A day later the sticky brown gum that has collected is scraped from the surface of the pod. As much as 25% of this crude opium may be made up ofalkaloids. The content of morphine varies from 9 to 14% and is adjusted to 10% in the standardized preparations. The legal production of opium is regulated by the United Nations. India, Turkey, and Russia are the largest producers of opium from which morphine and other alkaloids are isolated. Morphine is used as such, however, a larger amount is converted chemically into codeine, which occurs in opium in amounts insufficient to meet the needs of medicine. The illegal production of opium is huge. The large amounts of opium still used in the Orient are produced mostly in Southeast Asia. For many years, the illegal heroin that reached the USA originated as opium in Turkey. Mexican opium is now the primary source of heroin, with smaller contributions from the Orient and Iran.

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Alcohol and Drug Addiction

In my line of work, I get asked the question a lot “What exactly IS a gifted child?” There are a lot of misconceptions and misdiagnoses surrounding this issue. I like to refer to the following two lists that I’ve adapted from College Planning for Gifted Students: Choosing And Getting into the Right College by Sandra Berger, who articulates the myths and truths of this topic very well. Some common myths about gifted children: - They are all high achievers and super smart. - They do not need help and are self-contained. - They have fewer problems because they are superior to others mentally. - The future of a gifted student is guaranteed to go well and they will succeed at anything they try. - They are disciplined and self disciplined. - They develop socially and emotionally at the same rate as their intellect. - They are outcasts and loners. - Their greatest asset is their smarts. - The gifted student's family always champions and supports them completely. - They need to be leaders for others and assume that position as part of their lives. - They are naturally creative and do not need much instruction. - They are well behaved and role models. Some truths about gifted children: - They are often perfectionists who see their academic achievements in direct correlation to their self-esteem. - They can place unreal expectations on themselves to do well and feel personally responsible as failures if they don’t reach those expectations. - Their chronological age, social, physical, emotional, and intellectual development may all be at different levels at any given time. - Some of them are "mappers" (sequential learners), while others are "leapers" (spatial learners). - They may always be steps ahead of their classmates and peers, causing them to grow bored within the school setting. - They are problem solvers and sometimes have trouble being in the academic environment where curriculum is so structured and predictable. - They often think abstractly, which oftentimes makes studying and test taking difficult for them even though they may know the material. Dr. Dan Peters, Ph.D., is co-founder of the Summit Center (http://summitcenter.us/), which provides psychological and educational assessments and counseling for children and adolescents, specializing in the gifted, creative, and twice-exceptional.

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Assistive Technology in Education

Issued in Shanghai, February 28, 1972 President Richard Nixon of the United States of America visited the People's Republic of China at the invitation of Premier Chou En-lai of the People's Republic of China from February 21 to February 28, 1972. Accompanying the President were Mrs. Nixon, U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers, Assistant to the President Dr. Henry Kissinger, and other American officials. President Nixon met with Chairman Mao Tsetung of the Communist Party of China on February 21. The two leaders had a serious and frank exchange of views on Sino-U.S. relations and world affairs. During the visit, extensive, earnest and frank discussions were held between President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai on the normalization of relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, as well as on other matters of interest to both sides. In addition, Secretary of State William Rogers and Foreign Minister Chi Peng-fei held talks in the same spirit. President Nixon and his party visited Peking and viewed cultural, industrial and agricultural sites, and they also toured Hangchow and Shanghai where, continuing discussions with Chinese leaders, they viewed similar places of interest. The leaders of the People's Republic of China and the United States of America found it beneficial to have this opportunity, after so many years without contact, to present candidly to one another their views on a variety of issues. They reviewed the international situation in which important changes and great upheavals are taking place and expounded their respective positions and attitudes. The Chinese side stated: Wherever there is oppression there is resistance. Countries want independence, nations want liberation and the people want revolution-this has become the irresistible trend of history. All nations, big or small, should be equal; big nations should not bully the small and strong nations should not bully the weak. China will never be a superpower and it opposes hegemony and power politics of any kind. The Chinese side stated that it firmly supports the struggles of all the oppressed people and nations for freedom and liberation and that the people of all countries have the right to choose their social systems according to their own wishes and the right to safeguard the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of their own countries and oppose foreign aggression, interference, control and subversion. All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries. The Chinese side expressed its firm support to the peoples of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia in their efforts for the attainment of their goal and its firm support to the seven-point proposal of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam and the elaboration of February this year on the two key problems in the proposal, and to the Joint Declaration of the Summit Conference of the Indochinese Peoples. It firmly supports the eight-point program for the peaceful unification of Korea put forward by the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on April 12, 1971, and the stand for the abolition of the "U.N. Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea". It firmly opposes the revival and outward expansion of Japanese militarism and firmly supports the Japanese people's desire to build an independent, democratic, peaceful and neutral Japan. It firmly maintains that India and Pakistan should, in accordance with the United Nations resolutions on the India-Pakistan question, immediately withdraw all their forces to their respective territories and to their own sides of the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir and firmly supports the Pakistan Government and people in their struggle to preserve their independence and sovereignty and the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their struggle for the right of self-determination. The U.S. side stated: Peace in Asia and peace in the world requires efforts both to reduce immediate tensions and to eliminate the basic causes of conflict. The United States will work for a just and secure peace; just, because it fulfills the aspirations of peoples and nations for freedom and progress; secure, because it removes the danger of foreign aggression. The United States supports individual freedom and social progress for all the peoples of the world, free of outside pressure or intervention. The United States believes that the effort to reduce tensions is served by improving communication between countries that have different ideologies so as to lessen the risks of confrontation through accident, miscalculation or misunderstanding. Countries should treat each other with mutual respect and be willing to compete peacefully, letting performance be the ultimate judge. No country should claim infallibility and each country should be prepared to reexamine its own attitudes for the common good. The United States stressed that the peoples of Indochina should be allowed to determine their destiny without outside intervention; its constant primary objective has been a negotiated solution; the eight-point proposal put forward by the Republic of Viet Nam and the United States on January 27, 1972 represents a basis for the attainment of that objective; in the absence of a negotiated settlement, the United States envisages the ultimate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the region consistent with the aim of self-determination for each country of Indochina. The United States will maintain its close ties with and support for the Republic of Korea; the United States will support efforts of the Republic of Korea to seek a relaxation of tension and increased communication in the Korean peninsula. The United States places the highest value on its friendly relations with Japan; it will continue to develop the existing close bonds. Consistent with the United Nations Security Council Resolution of December 21, 1971, the United States favors the continuation of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and the withdrawal of all military forces to within their own territories and to their own sides of the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir; the United States supports the right of the peoples of South Asia to shape their own future in peace, free of military threat, and without having the area become the subject of great power rivalry. There are essential differences between China and the United States in their social systems and foreign policies. However, the two sides agreed that countries, regardless of their social systems, should conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, non-aggression against other states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. International disputes should be settled on this basis, without resorting to the use or threat of force. The United States and the People's Republic of China are prepared to apply these principles to their mutual relations. With these principles of international relations in mind the two sides stated that: --progress toward the normalization of relations between China and the United States is in the interests of all countries; --both wish to reduce the danger of international military conflict; --neither should seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region and each is opposed to efforts by any other country or group of countries to establish such hegemony; and --neither is prepared to negotiate on behalf of any third party or to enter into agreements or understandings with the other directed at other states. Both sides are of the view that it would be against the interests of the peoples of the world for any major country to collude with another against other countries, or for major countries to divide up the world into spheres of interest. The two sides reviewed the long-standing serious disputes between China and the United States. The Chinese side reaffirmed its position: The Taiwan question is the crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations between China and the United States; the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government of China; Taiwan is a province of China which has long been returned to the motherland; the liberation of Taiwan is China's internal affair in which no other country has the right to interfere; and all U.S. forces and military installations must be withdrawn from Taiwan. The Chinese Government firmly opposes any activities which aim at the creation of "one China, one Taiwan" "one China two governments", "two Chinas", an "independent Taiwan" or advocate that "the status of Taiwan remains to be determined". The U.S. side declared: The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. With this prospect in mind, it affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan. In the meantime, it will progressively reduce its forces and military installations on Taiwan as the tension in the area diminishes. The two sides agreed that it is desirable to broaden the understanding between the two peoples. To this end, they discussed specific areas in such fields as science, technology, culture, sports and journalism, in which people-to-people contacts and exchanges would be mutually beneficial. Each side undertakes to facilitate the further development of such contacts and exchanges. Both sides view bilateral trade as another area from which mutual benefit can be derived, and agreed that economic relations based on equality and mutual benefit are in the interest of the peoples of the two countries. They agree to facilitate the progressive development of trade between their two countries. The two sides agreed that they will stay in contact through various channels, including the sending of a senior U.S. representative to Peking from time to time for concrete consultations to further the normalization of relations between the two countries and continue to exchange views on issues of common interest. The two sides expressed the hope that the gains achieved during this visit would open up new prospects for the relations between the two countries. They believe that the normalization of relations between the two countries is not only in the interest of the Chinese and American peoples but also contributes to the relaxation of tension in Asia and the world. President Nixon, Mrs. Nixon and the American party expressed their appreciation for the gracious hospitality shown them by the Government and people of the People's Republic of China.

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East Asian Culture

const void * memchr ( const void * ptr, int value, size_t num ); void * memchr ( void * ptr, int value, size_t num ); Locate character in block of memory Searches within the first num bytes of the block of memory pointed by ptr for the first occurrence of value (interpreted as an unsigned char), and returns a pointer to it. Both value and each of the bytes checked on the the ptr array are interpreted as unsigned char for the comparison. - Pointer to the block of memory where the search is performed. - Value to be located. The value is passed as an int, but the function performs a byte per byte search using the unsigned char conversion of this value. - Number of bytes to be analyzed. sizet is an unsigned integral type. A pointer to the first occurrence of value in the block of memory pointed by ptr. If the value is not found, the function returns a null pointer. In C, this function is only declared as: void * memchr ( const void *, int, size_t ); instead of the two overloaded versions provided in C++. /* memchr example */ int main () char * pch; char str = "Example string"; pch = (char*) memchr (str, 'p', strlen(str)); printf ("'p' found at position %d.\n", pch-str+1); printf ("'p' not found.\n"); - Compare two blocks of memory (function - Locate first occurrence of character in string (function - Locate last occurrence of character in string (function

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GNU Project Tools

The aim of the project - which is in the style of a Wikipedia - is to make the large volume of information that exists on children's rights more accessible, to highlight persistent violations and inspire collective action. Much of the information in the new Wiki is already available on the CRIN website but might not be easily retrieveable. See the Wiki here: http://wiki.crin.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page We are launching the Wiki with an initial batch of 41 country pages, with more to follow. They are: Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, Grenada, Guatemala, Japan, Lao, PDR, Macedonia, former Yugoslav Republic of, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Yemen The Wiki is a web-based, multi-lingual and interactive project - this means we need your input to ensure the pages are kept up to date. Find out how to contribute below. Please note that this project is still being tested, if you have comments or suggestions, please email them to email@example.com. Why are we doing this? The purpose of making all information about children's rights available in one place is to build a clearer picture of some of the repeated violations of children's rights in a given country. The eventual goal will be to try to match these violations with possible avenues of redress. We have found that few children's rights advocates are aware of or make use of the full range of opportunities within the UN and regional human rights mechanisms to pursue children's rights advocacy. Yet many of the bodies which are not specifically child rights-focused, such as the UN Special Procedures and the Universal Periodic Review, also issue recommendations on children's rights. The Wiki therefore brings together all recommendations and decisions on children's rights made by these bodies, including courts, to make it easy for advocates to make the most of all available options. What is in the Wiki? Each country has its own homepage with the following sections: In addition, the Wiki contains state-by-state information on ratifications of international human rights treaties, communications/ complaints mechanisms and inquiry procedures. On the Wiki, read: Our eventual aim is to make all information about children's rights available in English as well as the official language of the country concerned. Parts of the Wiki which exist in other languages are currently linked to from the English version. If you are planning to translate any sections of the Wiki into your language or are available to volunteer your time to help with this, please contact CRIN at firstname.lastname@example.org

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Gender Equality Initiatives

About How to Draw Elephant: Learning how to draw an elephant is fun, but it can also help kids develop many important skills. These skills, eye-hand coordination, color concepts, picture and number comprehension, form the foundation for early learning success. Enjoy this free, printable how to draw an elephant page! Use of our How to Draw Elephant page: Our how to draw an elephant may be used only for your personal, non-commercial use. Parents, teachers, churches and recognized nonprofit organizations may print or copy multiple how to draw an elephant pages for use at home or in the classroom.

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Childrens Educational Activities

UK hydrogen cars are coming - if you can fill up LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's hydrogen fuel cell car fleet may hit top gear within five years, but only if there is enough investment in filling stations, the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Association (UK HFCA) told Reuters on Friday. Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity, with heat and water being the only by-products, with a number of car makers including Toyota, Ford, and Hyundai, pushing to commercialize the low-carbon hybrid fuel cell vehicle by 2015. "Somewhere around 2015 to 2017 we'll be over threshold and I think we'll see a larger and growing fleet," HFC chairman Dennis Hayter said. "It's all aligned with the rollout of the infrastructure. In order to get to a semi-ubiquitous availability of hydrogen, then yes, you're talking may billions of pounds, but it doesn't have to come at once." Hayter said fuel cell cars only take minutes to refill with a range of around 250 miles range. Plug-in electric vehicles take hours to recharge with a range of around 100 miles. Existing petrol filling stations could be converted, with hydrogen companies possibly leasing some of the pumps, while current hydrogen production capacity is seen as adequate for the next decade. "You may find there's a deal to be made between the hydrogen gas and petroleum companies. Things are happening in the background and gradually a network is starting to appear," Hayter said. "At present, the majority of hydrogen is derived from reforming of natural gas for industrial purposes such as refining and in chemicals. "The quantities currently used and likely to be needed for transport in the next five to 10 years would still be minimal alongside hydrogen consumed for industrial use." For the long term estimates of hydrogen costs, Hayter believes it will be competitive with petrol, or cheaper. Using U.S. hydrogen prices of $8 a kilogram, it would cost around $32 to fill up fuel cell car with a 250 mile range, he said. "It's not comparing apples with apples, but if they're the long term costs, then it could be significantly cheaper but it depends on the fuel duty," Hayter added. The UK HFCA is calling for hydrogen not to be taxed as a transport fuel, as petrol is, to help incentivize uptake. Britain has around 30 hydrogen fuel vehicles, mostly buses and taxi in London, with two filling stations in the city and another four expected by 2012, the UK HFCA said. Seen as a way to decarbonise the transport sector, Britain's former Labour government planned to subsidise low-carbon vehicle purchases from 2011, with a grant worth up to 5,000 pounds ($7,584). (Editing by William Hardy) - Tweet this - Share this - Digg this

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Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

Acidosis is a condition in which there is excessive acid in the body fluids. It is the opposite of alkalosis (a condition in which there is excessive base in the body fluids). Causes, incidence, and risk factors: The kidneys and lungs maintain the balance (proper pH level) of chemicals called acids and bases in the body. Acidosis occurs when acid builds up or when bicarbonate (a base) is lost. Acidosis is classified as either respiratory acidosis or metabolic acidosis . Respiratory acidosis develops when there is too much carbon dioxide (an acid) in the body. This type of acidosis is usually caused by a decreased ability to remove carbon dioxide from the body through effective breathing. Other names for respiratory acidosis are hypercapnic acidosis and carbon dioxide acidosis. Causes of respiratory acidosis include: - Chest deformities, such as kyphosis - Chest injuries - Chest muscle weakness - Chronic lung disease - Overuse of sedative drugs Metabolic acidosis develops when too much acid is produced or when the kidneys cannot remove enough acid from the body. There are several types of metabolic acidosis: Diabetic acidosis (also called diabetic ketoacidosis and DKA) develops when substances called ketone bodies (which are acidic) build up during uncontrolled diabetes . - Hyperchloremic acidosis results from excessive loss of sodium bicarbonate from the body, as can happen with severe diarrhea. Lactic acidosis is a buildup of lactic acid . This can be caused by: - Exercising vigorously for a very long time - Liver failure - Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) - Medications such as salicylates - Prolonged lack of oxygen from shock, heart failure, or severe anemia Other causes of metabolic acidosis include: Signs and tests: - Arterial or venous blood gas analysis - Serum electrolytes - Urine pH An arterial blood gas analysis or serum electrolytes test, such as a basic metabolic panel, will confirm that acidosis is present and indicate whether it is metabolic acidosis or respiratory acidosis. Other tests may be needed to determine the cause of the acidosis. Treatment depends on the cause. See the specific types of acidosis. Acidosis can be dangerous if untreated. Many cases respond well to treatment. See the specific types of acidosis. Calling your health care provider: Although there are several types of acidosis, all will cause symptoms that require treatment by your health care provider. Prevention depends on the cause of the acidosis. Normally, people with healthy kidneys and lungs do not experience significant acidosis. Seifter JL. Acid-base disorders. In: Goldman L, Ausiello D, eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 119. |Review Date: 11/15/2009| Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc. The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- A.D.A.M., Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

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Medical Topics

[Sex. Syst.—Monoecia, Polyandria. Gen. Char—See ante, p. 318. Sp. Char.—Leaves obovate, oblong; obliquely divided into obtuse lobes; segments, oblong entire; cup hemispherical, tuberculated; acorn ovoid, oblong; fruit in pairs. This tree is less elevated than the Q. tinctoria. It forms, however, a larger and more regularly-expanded head, with numerous horizontal branches. The trunk and branches have a whitish hue, hence the name White Oak. The leaves are of a silvery appearance, with a hoary under surface. The young leaves are covered with a fine silky down. The bark is rough externally, of a light colour; the effete epidermis being arranged in flat layers On drying, the internal layer becomes brown. It breaks with a stringy fracture. The odour is decided and tan-like; taste astringent and bitter. This bark is used in tanning. For medicinal purposes it is preferred to the black oak. DECOCTUM QUERCUS ALBAE, U. S.; Decoction of White Oak Bark.—(Take of White Oak Bark, bruised, an ounce: Water a pint and a half. Boil down to a pint and strain.)—Used as the Decoctum Quercus, p. 320.] The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Vol. II, 3th American ed., was written by Jonathan Pereira in 1853.

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Plant Descriptions and Care

|NEWSRoom | Source: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center| Older Adults May Need More Vitamin D to Prevent Mobility Difficulties Older adults who don’t get enough vitamin D—either from diet, supplements or sun exposure—may be at increased risk of developing mobility limitations and disability, according to new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “This is one of the first studies to look at the association of vitamin D and the onset of new mobility limitations or disability in older adults,” said lead author Denise Houston, PhD, RD, a nutrition epidemiologist in the Wake Forest Baptist Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Houston researches vitamin D and its effects on physical function. The study, published online in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, analyzed the association between vitamin D and onset of mobility limitation and disability over six years of follow-up using data from the National Institute on Aging’s Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. Mobility limitation and disability are defined as any difficulty or inability to walk several blocks or climb a flight of stairs, respectively. Of the 3,075 community-dwelling black and white men and women aged 70-79 who were enrolled, data from 2,099 participants was used for this study. Eligible participants reported no difficulty walking one-fourth mile, climbing 10 steps, or performing basic, daily living activities, and were free of life-threatening illness. Vitamin D levels were measured in the blood at the beginning of the study. Occurrence of mobility limitation and disability during follow-up was assessed during annual clinic visits alternating with telephone interviews every six months over six years. “We observed about a 30% increased risk of mobility limitations for those older adults who had low levels of vitamin D, and almost a two-fold higher risk of mobility disability,” Houston said. Houston said vitamin D plays an important role in muscle function, so it is plausible that low levels of the vitamin could result in the onset of decreased lower muscle strength and physical performance. Vitamin D may also indirectly affect physical function as low vitamin D levels have also been associated with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and lung disease—conditions that are frequent causes of decline in physical function. Houston said people get vitamin D when it is naturally produced in the skin by sun exposure, by eating foods with vitamin D, such as fortified milk, juice and cereals, and by taking vitamin D supplements. “About one-third of older adults have low vitamin D levels,” she said. “It’s difficult to get enough vitamin D through diet alone and older adults, who may not spend much time outdoors, may need to take a vitamin D supplement.” Current recommendations call for people over age 70 to get 800 International Units of vitamin D daily in their diet or supplements. Houston pointed out that current dietary recommendations are based solely on vitamin D’s effects on bone health. “Higher amounts of vitamin D may be needed for the preservation of muscle strength and physical function as well as other health conditions,” she said. “However, clinical trials are needed to determine whether increasing vitamin D levels through diet or supplements has an effect on physical function.” This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging; National Institute on Aging contracts N01-AG-6-2101, N01-AG-6-2103, and No1-AG-6-2106; National Institute on Aging grants R01 AG028050, R01 AG029364 and K01 AG030506 (to DKH); National Institute of Nursing Research grant R01 NR012459; and the Wake Forest University Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (P30 AG021332). Co-authors include: Janet A. Tooze, PhD, Gary G. Schwartz, PhD, Jeff D. Williamson, MD, Stephen B Kritchevsky, PhD, Rebecca H. Neiberg, PhD and M. Kyla Shea, PhD, all of Wake Forest Baptist; Dorothy B. Hausman, PhD, and Mary Ann Johnson, PhD, University of Georgia, Athens; Jane A. Cauley, PhD, University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Doug C. Bauer, MD, University of California, San Francisco; and Tamara B. Harris, MD, National Institute on Aging. |Short Link: http://www.news-line.com/?s212392| comments powered by Disqus

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Vitamin and Nutrient Health

The National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall opened in September 2004. Fifteen years in the making, it is the first national museum in the country dedicated exclusively to Native Americans. The five-story, 250,000-square-foot, curvilinear building is clad in a golden-colored Kasota limestone that is designed to evoke natural rock formations that have been shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The museum is set in a 4.25-acre site and is surrounded by simulated wetlands. The museum's east-facing entrance, its prism window and its 120-foot-high space for contemporary Native performances are direct results of extensive consultations with Native peoples. The museum's architect and project designer is the Canadian Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot); its design architects are GBQC Architects of Philadelphia and architect Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee/Choctaw). Disagreements during construction led to Cardinal being removed from the project, but the building retains his original design intent, and his continued input enabled its completion. The museum's project architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and SmithGroup of Washington, D.C., in association with Lou Weller (Caddo), the Native American Design Collaborative, and Polshek Partnership Architects of New York City; Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi) and Donna House (Navajo/Oneida) also served as design consultants. The landscape architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and EDAW Inc., of Alexandria, Virginia.

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Native American Studies

The doctrine of purgatory is revealed through certain scriptural texts which speak of a burning fire – cf. 1 Cor 3:15, 1 Pet 1:7. Though there are certainly other passages of the Bible which can be drawn upon (e.g. Job praying for his dead children, the Judas Maccabeus praying for the dead), the Tradition of the Church has principally relied upon the passages referring to fire – this is especially noticeable in the declarations of Florence and Trent. Hence, we come to a very important question: If the Church discovered the doctrine of purgatory through meditating upon the scriptural images of a purifying fire, ought we to hold that there is material fire in purgatory? With the help of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the great Thomistic theologian Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, we may succeed in shedding some light upon this question. Not a clear teaching of the Church That there is fire in purgatory is not a clear teaching of the Church – Garrigou-Lagrange considers it a sententia probabilissima (the most probable doctrine), but not a defined teaching of the Church. He notes that the Council of Florence did not condemn the Greek schismatics who denied the existence of fire in purgatory, though it does favor the common Latin opinion affirming the presence of material fire there. On the other hand, it is important to mention that the Church has not rejected the possibility of material fire in purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1030-1032) refers to the fire and flames of purgatory twice, never indicating that these flames are metaphorical. Thus, the Church seems to feel bound to at least allow for the possibility of a strictly literal interpretation of the purifying fire and uses the language of fire and of flames without any hint that this is meant metaphorically. How can a disembodied soul suffer from material flames? Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, following St. Thomas Aquinas, affirms that it is possible for spiritual beings to “suffer” from material flames – this is called the pain of sense. It is a clear doctrine of the Church that the souls in purgatory undergo the pain of sense, at least spiritually – even if there are no physical flames in purgatory, the souls there suffer in their spiritual senses. The chief pain of purgatory is the delay of the beatific vision, but in addition to this there also the pain of sense. A disembodied soul cannot suffer from material flames in the same way a body or even an embodied soul can suffer from them. The separated spirit suffers insofar as it is bound to the material flames and hindered from acting as it would and where it would. There is a certain humiliation inflicted upon the soul since it is made to depend upon a material creature (i.e. the fire). A loose analogy is seen in a paralyzed person who cannot act as they would. Are there material flames in purgatory? Here we will cite the words of the venerable father Garrigou-Lagrange: “After long discussions and wide historical researches on this particular point, it seems wise to conclude with St. Robert Bellarmine and Suarez as follows, ‘Although the existence of fire in purgatory is less certain than that of fire in hell, the doctrine which admits a real fire in purgatory must be classified as a sentential probabilissima. Hence the contrary opinion is improbable.’ “This view rests on seven reasons: first, the consent of scholastic theologians. Second, the authority of St. Gregory the Great (Dial. 4, 39). Third, the authority of St. Augustine. Forth, the concordant testimonies of St. Cyprian, St. Basil, St. Caesarius, of the liturgy, which begs refreshment of these souls. Fifth, the unanimous decision of the Latin fathers at the Council of Florence. Sixth, the very probable foundation found in 1 Corinthians 3:15. Seventh, particular revelations, for example those of St. Catherine of Ricci. She suffered forty days to deliver a soul from purgatory. A novice, touching her hand, said, ‘But, my mother, you are burning.’ ‘Yes, my daughter,’ she replied, ‘this fire is not seen, but it consumes like a burning fever.’” (from Life Everlasting) Throughout the next couple of weeks, I will post on several additional questions regarding the nature of purgatory. Let us all pray for the Poor Souls during the next month!

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Bible Study and Lessons

January 10th, 2004 01:15 AM Yeah, arbitrary precision is very confusing. I've tried to make my own like that with huge string allocations (acturally char arrays) and compare numbers one by one. I don't know what happened to it, but I probably never completed it anyways. And that recursive function looks really....recursive. I don't see any code to exit out of the loop, IE it will continue to call it self over and over until the program finally kills the heap/stack or something. I don't quite know what it is... Also, even if it wasn't a static, it would still always be zero (if you managed to get an answer out of it since it loops forever). Why? Since there is no checking to see if X is less than or equal to 1. Without that it would multiply it by 0 when x = 0, and thus the answers would be cleared. Well the only reason I can acturally comment on it is because I have my C book here with an example of a recursive function to calculate factorials... heh. Sadly I don't think I'm *allowed* to post the code up. Sorry. The next best thing - Using Linked Lists of Integers to store the factorial of 1000... http://www.codeguru.com/algorithms/factorial.shtml I don't happen to think that the code there is easily understandable though... January 10th, 2004 01:32 AM Tim_axe, sorry to be pedantic, but if you look at his code, x would never be zero, that wasn't the issue. The fact is that it is pointless even having the x if you set total to 0 at the start because total will never increase, and that's even if you ignore that there is no way to exit the recursion. Also, because total is a local variable and you are not sending it as an argument, total would have died at the beginning of each recursion in any case. A slightly more functional function, if still not very good would be: Please note that even that code is completely useless :P I just felt like correcting the other code (too tired to check who it was that posted it, and I can't see just now anyway :P) void genFactorial(int x, int t) int total = t; // you probably wouldn't even need total now void main(void) // yes, I know it isn't totally correct Oh god that makes me look sad. Tim_axe, I'm sorry. I realise what you are saying now (couldn't really see it properly, my contact lenses are fscked atm). I left what I said in incase someone already had seen it so that you know I was apologising [/edit] January 10th, 2004 04:07 AM Don't worry about it gothic_type, I can see where I sort of rambled on in my post and just messed up what I was trying to point out. I'll work off of your code since it has the basic framework and I want to save typing... *Opens up DevC++* *Finds C Programming Book* *Returns to Open Window* Okay, this following code compiles, and works fine for me. If not, please debug it yourself. :P Also, don't give it an integer bigger than 14. It will crash or mess up something (Integer Overflow). Same goes for letters, and decimal numbers. Integers only... Enjoy. Also, it won't do your 100 or whatnot. Only up to 14... Check the link in my previous post to find code for bigger numbers. I haven't tried it myself... using namespace std; unsigned int genFactorial(unsigned int x); cout<<"Blah. Give me an Integer or I'll crash: "; cout<<"\nI think that is: "<<genFactorial(fact)<<endl; cout<<"If that's wrong, it's 42!"<<endl; unsigned int genFactorial(unsigned int x) x *= genFactorial(x-1); January 10th, 2004 08:33 AM Tim_axe, nice prog; appears to work correctly (despite the fact that I attempted to get gcc to compile it to begin with which made it unhappy ) Now all we need to do is edit the program so that it can do 100, but still using integers :P. BTW -- Tim_axe, I think we must be the only people sad enough to have kept on posting to this topic...I think everyone else bailed :P January 12th, 2004 07:27 PM well you guys are using recursion, which isnt going to be good when you are computing 100 because you will run out of space in RAM. Support your right to arm bears. ^^This was the first video game which i played on an old win3.1 box January 12th, 2004 10:26 PM White_Eskimo, the only reason I (and I think Tim_axe as well) was using recursion was because Striek had suggested it. His code was really messed up, so I was trying to "fix" it while also attempting to point out the multiplying by zero error. Anyhow. Since no-one else really suggested/posted another method, at least it's something. :P January 13th, 2004 12:31 AM Well I guess we could continue it... Anyone else want to help out? So we can scrap the recursion idea because the program would eventually run out of heap/stack or something on really big numbers... But as to how will we use integers to store numbers that are over 32bits long... We might have to borrow from the code @ http://www.codeguru.com/algorithms/factorial.shtml by somehow adopting use of linked lists of integers. Although the code there already uses it to compute factorials... So, I guess it would be like this (insert really bad program outline here): Use types in number, ie 60. Allocate 59/60/61 integers (array), put numbers 60 to 1 in them. (we will somehow multiply them later on, which is what factorials do) Then we can allocate some more integers, say 1000 to be safe for now, and set each element to 0. This will hold our output, with each integer holding a single digit. 1000 here would mean we can store a 1000 digit answer for a factorial. My guess is that is the factorial of 150 or so? We then multiply the last two integers from the first array, ie with values 60 and 59. Store this result, ie 3540, in a temporary integer. We then seperate it into thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones, etc., and put it into the answer in those respective places in the answer array. This gets messy. We seperate the next integer into ones and tens, and then somehow multiply the answer array and this next integer, ie 58, and deal with carrying over numbers to keep a single digit to the answer. Move that into the answer, and repeat that process. The link does that somewhere, but with linked lists instead of arrays of integers. This technique could work well up until getting the factorial of about 65537, since 65537 * 65536 is a number over 32bits, the largest we could hold in an unsigned integer / long value on a normal 32bit PC... (first multiplacation step) It is sort of reinventing the wheel I guess since there is already code to do it. I could probably work on it when I'm not studying for finals this week. Hopefully we can figure this one out, lol. January 13th, 2004 04:55 PM Wow. I looked at that "algorithm"...I couldn't even have begun to think about coding that (mainly because I've never learned about linked lists and I don't know as much as I should about c++). January 14th, 2004 03:38 AM I tried to come up with my own code and it is useless. I can't get it to carry numbers over right and multiply them together the way I need to. It ended up using only the first unsigned long in the array of about 1000 of them. Anyways, I read through the comments of that tutorial, and came across this one. Man the person (Krishna Kumar Khatri) is good... Saves me from ripping out anymore of hair trying to get my own version to work. January 14th, 2004 03:47 PM lol. That code's still too confusing for me to understand without reading it over a couple of times :P. If you could somehow devise a way to multiply parts 1 to n in an array to output them without having to store them in a variable, then I've got a program that solves this problem. But I guess that was the whole problem in the first place :P Anyhow. I'm just annoyed that I couldn't think up a solution myself

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a programme established by the US government in 1947 to give economic help to Europe after World War II. It was named after George C. Marshall, who was the US Secretary of State. Thousands of millions of dollars were provided for rebuilding cities, roads, industries etc Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Dictionary pictures of the day Do you know what each of these is called? Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

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A/Prof. Dirk Van Helden |Work Phone||(02) 4921 5623| |Fax||(02) 4921 7406| Principal Research Fellow School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy The University of Newcastle, Australia |Office||MS405, Medical Sciences| Investigations are being made on cellular rhythms including those in lymphatics, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, heart and specific mood-associated brain nuclei. We have discovered a new mechanism that it is driven by intracellular Ca2+ stores that allow groups of cells to self pace and hence become rhythmic. We are now exploring the relevance of this mechanism in a range of tissues. We are also interested in specific proteins involved in the pacemaker mechanism including inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors, ryanodine receptors, store operated calcium channels and TRP family proteins. These studies may influence future therapies to control lymphedema, digestive disorders, heart arrhythmias and brain mood states. We also have a recent patent relating to use of a topical ointment as a first aid treatment against snakebite. This was a surprising outcome that arose from studies investigating whether snake venoms enhance lymphatic pumping and hence accelerate their own delivery. Our preliminary trials indicate topical application of the ointment slows lymphatic transport by some 350% with no obvious adverse effects. The cream will be of particular use for bites to the torso where pressure bandaging is ineffective. It may also be useful as a first aid treatment against bites from other venomous creatures. - PhD, University of New South Wales - Bachelor of Engineering, University of New South Wales - Cellular physiologist - gastrointestinal physiology - heart pacemaking - smooth muscle Lymphatic and gastric pacemaking: Pacemaking in the lymphatic and gastric systems are the basis for our discovery of store pacemaking and calcium phase waves. We are now unravelling the finer details of these mechanisms. Importantly, as for all good research, there can often be unexpected yet important serendipitous outcomes. One in case is that this work has led to development of a first aid treatment against bites from venomous animals whose venoms transit the lymphatic system and we have a patent application on this finding under review. Heart pacemaking: Traditionally, this has been considered to operate through a clock in the cell surface membrane of pacemaker cells. However, recent evidence from our pilot and modelling studies and from the work of others indicates a significant role of calcium stores. This introduces the possibility that the heart pacemaker model is only part of the story and that pacemaking involves an intracellular clock (i.e. store pacemaking). We are investigating this hypothesis, which if upheld will change the text book model for heart pacemaking and help change present understanding of specific heart disorders and their treatment. (National Health and Medical Research Program Grant -NHMRC PG Cardiac Pacemaking, 2007-2009). Brain rhythms: Brain rhythms function in most areas of the brain and while fundamental to life and our psyche remain poorly understood. We are testing the hypothesis that specific rhythms in the Locus Coeruleus, a brain stem nucleus known to be associated with mood states, are generated by store pacemaking. Evidence that the rhythms are generated by store pacemaking could provide a new framework for interpreting drug action in the treatment of mood disorders such as Bipolar Disorder, as all three main drug classes used in its treatment have the common mode action of inhibiting calcium stores. (Australian Research Council Discovery Program Grant Investigation of a Brain Rhythm 2005-2007). Uterine pacemaking: Astonishingly, there is still no clear understanding of the pacemaker mechanism that initiates and times uterine contractions. Pilot studies we have undertaken suggest this to be mediated by store pacemaking. Proof for this hypothesis would herald a mechanistic description for uterine contractions and may provide new insight into associated dysfunctions such as premature birth. (NHMRC PG Rhythmicity and synchronicity in uterine smooth muscle, 2007-2009). Fields of Research |020599||Optical Physics Not Elsewhere Classified||50| |110399||Clinical Sciences Not Elsewhere Classified||30| |111699||Medical Physiology Not Elsewhere Classified||20| Centres and Groups Body relevant to professional practice. - Faculty member - Cardiovascular Physiology/Circulation of 'Faculty of 1000 Biology' - member of council - Australian Physiological society - Chair, Research Committee - HMRI Cardiovascular Group - Member of Editorial Board 2001-2005 - the British Journal of Pharmacology - Member - The British Journal of Pharmacology - member - Australian Physiological Society |01/01/2001 - 01/12/2011| NHMRC Senior Research Fellow University of Newcastle (Australia) |01/01/1990 - 01/12/2000| Senior Brawn Fellowship University of Newcastle (Australia) Hunter Medical Research Institute (Australia) 2004 Hunter Medical Research Institute Sparke Helmore/ NBN Award for Research Excellence from a field of ~350 scientists in the University and Area Health Sectors Gordon conference, United Kingdom (Conference Presentation - non published.) Department of physiology University of Western Australia, Australia (External Reviewer - Departments.) Research policy (e.g. Archetect of the Brawn Fellowship Scheme at the University of Newcastle) Honours and Postgraduate students - Cellular Physiology

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Part 2 - Those Who Are Unable to See the Fact of Creation The theory of evolution is a philosophy and a conception of the world that produces false hypotheses, assumptions and imaginary scenarios in order to explain the existence and origin of life in terms of mere coincidences. the roots of this philosophy go back as far as antiquity and ancient Greece. All atheist philosophies that deny creation, directly or indirectly embrace and defend the idea of evolution. the same condition today applies to all the ideologies and systems that are antagonistic to religion. The evolutionary notion has been cloaked in a scientific disguise for the last century and a half in order to justify itself. Though put forward as a supposedly scientific theory during the mid-19th century, the theory, despite all the best efforts of its advocates, has not so far been verified by any scientific finding or experiment. Indeed, the "very science" on which the theory depends so greatly has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate repeatedly that the theory has no merit in reality. Laboratory experiments and probabilistic calculations have definitely made it clear that the amino acids from which life arises cannot have been formed by chance. the cell, which supposedly emerged by chance under primitive and uncontrolled terrestrial conditions according to evolutionists, still cannot be synthesised even in the most sophisticated, high-tech laboratories of the 20th century. Not a single "transitional form", creatures which are supposed to show the gradual evolution of advanced organisms from more primitive ones as neo-Darwinist theory claims, has ever been found anywhere in the world despite the most diligent and prolonged search in the fossil record. In their attempts to gather evidence for evolution, evolutionists have unwittingly proven by their own efforts that evolution cannot have happened at all! The person who originally put forward the theory of evolution, essentially in the form that it is defended today, was an amateur English biologist by the name of Charles Robert Darwin. Darwin first published his ideas in a book entitled the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. Darwin claimed in his book that all living beings had a common ancestor and that they evolved from one another by means of natural selection. Those that best adapted to the habitat transferred their traits to subsequent generations, and by accumulating over great epochs, these advantageous qualities transformed individuals into totally different species from their ancestors. the human being was thus the most developed product of the mechanism of natural selection. in short, the origin of one species was another species. Darwin's fanciful ideas were seized upon and promoted by certain ideological and political circles and the theory became very popular. the main reason was that the level of knowledge of those days was not yet sufficient to reveal that Darwin's imaginary scenarios were false. When Darwin put forward his assumptions, the disciplines of genetics, microbiology, and biochemistry did not yet exist. If they had, Darwin might easily have recognised that his theory was totally unscientific and thus would not have attempted to advance such meaningless claims: the information determining species already exists in the genes and it is impossible for natural selection to produce new species by altering genes. While the echoes of Darwin's book reverberated, an Austrian botanist by the name of Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance in 1865. Although little known before the end of the century, Mendel's discovery gained great importance in the early 1900s with the birth of the science of genetics. Some time later, the structures of genes and chromosomes were discovered. the discovery, in the 1950s, of the DNA molecule, which incorporates genetic information, threw the theory of evolution into a great crisis, because the origin of the immense amount of information in DNA could not possibly be explained by coincidental happenings. Besides all these scientific developments, no transitional forms, which were supposed to show the gradual evolution of living organisms from primitive to advanced species, have ever been found despite years of search. These developments ought to have resulted in Darwin's theory being banished to the dustbin of history. However, it was not, because certain circles insisted on revising, renewing, and elevating the theory to a scientific platform. These efforts gain meaning only if we realise that behind the theory lie ideological intentions rather than scientific concerns. Nevertheless, some circles that believed in the necessity of upholding a theory that had reached an impasse soon set up a new model. the name of this new model was neo-Darwinism. According to this theory, species evolved as a result of mutations, minor changes in their genes, and the fittest ones survived through the mechanism of natural selection. When, however, it was proved that the mechanisms proposed by neo-Darwinism were invalid and minor changes were not sufficient for the formation of living beings, evolutionists went on to look for new models. They came up with a new claim called "punctuated equilibrium" that rests on no rational or scientific grounds. This model held that living beings suddenly evolved into another species without any transitional forms. in other words, species with no evolutionary "ancestors" suddenly appeared. This was a way of describing creation, though evolutionists would be loath to admit this. They tried to cover it up with incomprehensible scenarios. for instance, they said that the first bird in history could all of a sudden inexplicably have popped out of a reptile egg. the same theory also held that carnivorous land-dwelling animals could have turned into giant whales, having undergone a sudden and comprehensive transformation. These claims, totally contradicting all the rules of genetics, biophysics, and biochemistry are as scientific as fairy-tales of frogs turning into princes! Nevertheless, being distressed by the crisis that the neo-Darwinist assertion was in, some evolutionist paleontologists embraced this theory, which has the distinction of being even more bizarre than neo-Darwinism itself. The sole purpose of this model was to provide an explanation for the gaps in the fossil record that the neo-Darwinist model could not explain. However, it is hardly rational to attempt to explain the gap in the fossil record of the evolution of birds with a claim that "a bird popped all of a sudden out of a reptile egg", because, by the evolutionists' own admission, the evolution of a species to another species requires a great and advantageous change in genetic information. However, no mutation whatsoever improves the genetic information or adds new information to it. Mutations only derange genetic information. Thus, the "gross mutations" imagined by the punctuated equilibrium model, would only cause "gross", that is "great", reductions and impairments in the genetic information. The theory of punctuated equilibrium was obviously merely a product of the imagination. Despite this evident truth, the advocates of evolution did not hesitate to honour this theory. the fact that the model of evolution proposed by Darwin could not be proved by the fossil record forced them to do so. Darwin claimed that species underwent a gradual change, which necessitated the existence of half-bird/half-reptile or half-fish/half-reptile freaks. However, not even one of these "transitional forms" was found despite the extensive studies of evolutionists and the hundreds of thousands of fossils that were unearthed. Evolutionists seized upon the model of punctuated equilibrium with the hope of concealing this great fossil fiasco. As we have stated before, it was very evident that this theory is a fantasy, so it very soon consumed itself. the model of punctuated equilibrium was never put forward as a consistent model, but rather used as an escape in cases that plainly did not fit the model of gradual evolution. Since evolutionists today realise that complex organs such as eyes, wings, lungs, brain and others explicitly refute the model of gradual evolution, in these particular points they are compelled to take shelter in the fantastic interpretations of the model of punctuated equilibrium. Is there any Fossil Record to Verify the Theory of Evolution? The theory of evolution argues that the evolution of a species into another species takes place gradually, step-by-step over millions of years. the logical inference drawn from such a claim is that monstrous living organisms called "transitional forms" should have lived during these periods of transformation. Since evolutionists allege that all living things evolved from each other step-by-step, the number and variety of these transitional forms should have been in the millions. If such creatures had really lived, then we should see their remains everywhere. in fact, if this thesis is correct, the number of intermediate transitional forms should be even greater than the number of animal species alive today and their fossilised remains should be abundant all over the world. Since Darwin, evolutionists have been searching for fossils and the result has been for them a crushing disappointment. Nowhere in the world – neither on land nor in the depths of the sea – has any intermediate transitional form between any two species ever been uncovered. Darwin himself was quite aware of the absence of such transitional forms. It was his greatest hope that they would be found in the future. Despite his hopefulness, he saw that the biggest stumbling block to his theory was the missing transitional forms. This is why, in his book the Origin of Species, he wrote: Darwin was right to be worried. the problem bothered other evolutionists as well. A famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this embarrassing fact: The gaps in the fossil record cannot be explained away by the wishful thinking that not enough fossils have yet been unearthed and that these missing fossils will one day be found. Another evolutionist paleontologist, T. Neville George, explains the reason: Life Emerged on Earth Suddenly and in Complex Forms When terrestrial strata and the fossil record are examined, it is seen that living organisms appeared simultaneously. the oldest stratum of the earth in which fossils of living creatures have been found is that of the "Cambrian", which has an estimated age of 530-520 million years. Living creatures that are found in the strata belonging to the Cambrian period emerged in the fossil record all of a sudden without any pre-existing ancestors. the vast mosaic of living organisms, made up of such great numbers of complex creatures, emerged so suddenly that this miraculous event is referred to as the "Cambrian Explosion" in scientific literature. Most of the organisms found in this stratum have highly advanced organs like eyes, or systems seen in organisms with a highly advanced organisation such as gills, circulatory systems, and so on. There is no sign in the fossil record to indicate that these organisms had any ancestors. Richard Monestarsky, the editor of Earth Sciences magazine, states about the sudden emergence of living species: Not being able to find answers to the question of how earth came to overflow with thousands of different animal species, evolutionists posit an imaginary period of 20 million years before the Cambrian Period to explain how life originated and "the unknown happened". This period is called the "evolutionary gap". No evidence for it has ever been found and the concept is still conveniently nebulous and undefined even today. In 1984, numerous complex invertebrates were unearthed in Chengjiang, set in the central Yunnan plateau in the high country of southwest China. Among them were trilobites, now extinct, but no less complex in structure than any modern invertebrate. The Swedish evolutionist paleontologist, Stefan Bengston, explains the situation as follows: The sudden appearance of these complex living beings with no predecessors is no less baffling (and embarrassing) for evolutionists today than it was for Darwin 135 years ago. in nearly a century and a half, they have advanced not one step beyond the point that stymied Darwin. As may be seen, the fossil record indicates that living things did not evolve from primitive to advanced forms, but instead emerged all of a sudden and in a perfect state. the absence of the transitional forms is not peculiar to the Cambrian period. Not a single transitional form verifying the alleged evolutionary "progression" of vertebrates – from fish to amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals – has ever been found. Every living species appears instantaneously and in its current form, perfect and complete, in the fossil record. In other words, living beings did not come into existence through evolution. They were created. Deceptions in Drawings The fossil record is the principal source for those who seek evidence for the theory of evolution. When inspected carefully and without prejudice, the fossil record refutes the theory of evolution rather than supporting it. Nevertheless, misleading interpretations of fossils by evolutionists and their prejudiced representation to the public have given many people the impression that the fossil record indeed supports the theory of evolution. The susceptibility of some findings in the fossil record to all kinds of interpretations is what best serves the evolutionists' purposes. the fossils unearthed are most of the time unsatisfactory for reliable identification. They usually consist of scattered, incomplete bone fragments. for this reason, it is very easy to distort the available data and to use it as desired. Not surprisingly, the reconstructions (drawings and models) made by evolutionists based on such fossil remains are prepared entirely speculatively in order to confirm evolutionary theses. Since people are readily affected by visual information, these imaginary reconstructed models are employed to convince them that the reconstructed creatures really existed in the past. Evolutionist researchers draw human-like imaginary creatures, usually setting out from a single tooth, or a mandible fragment or a humerus, and present them to the public in a sensational manner as if they were links in human evolution. These drawings have played a great role in the establishment of the image of "primitive men" in the minds of many people. These studies based on bone remains can only reveal very general characteristics of the creature concerned. the distinctive details are present in the soft tissues that quickly vanish with time. with the soft tissues speculatively interpreted, everything becomes possible within the boundaries of the imagination of the reconstruction's producer. Earnst A. Hooten from Harvard University explains the situation like this: Studies Made to Fabricate False Fossils Unable to find valid evidence in the fossil record for the theory of evolution, some evolutionists have ventured to manufacture their own. These efforts, which have even been included in encyclopaedias under the heading "evolution forgeries", are the most telling indication that the theory of evolution is an ideology and a philosophy that evolutionists are hard put to defend. Two of the most egregious and notorious of these forgeries are described below. Charles Dawson, a well-known doctor and amateur paleoanthropologist, came forth with a claim that he had found a jawbone and a cranial fragment in a pit in the area of Piltdown, England, in 1912. Although the skull was human-like, the jawbone was distinctly simian. These specimens were christened the "Piltdown Man". Alleged to be 500 thousand years old, they were displayed as absolute proofs of human evolution. for more than 40 years, many scientific articles were written on the "Piltdown Man", many interpretations and drawings were made and the fossil was presented as crucial evidence of human evolution. In 1949, scientists examined the fossil once more and concluded that the "fossil" was a deliberate forgery consisting of a human skull and the jawbone of an orang-utan. Using the fluorine dating method, investigators discovered that the skull was only a few thousand years old. the teeth in the jawbone, which belonged to an orang-utan, had been artificially worn down and the "primitive" tools that had conveniently accompanied the fossils were crude forgeries that had been sharpened with steel implements. in the detailed analysis completed by Oakley, Weiner and Clark, they revealed this forgery to the public in 1953. the skull belonged to a 500-year-old man, and the mandibular bone belonged to a recently deceased ape! the teeth were thereafter specially arranged in an array and added to the jaw and the joints were filed in order to make them resemble that of a man. Then all these pieces were stained with potassium dichromate to give them a dated appearance. (These stains disappeared when dipped in acid.) Le Gros Clark, who was a member of the team that disclosed the forgery, could not hide his astonishment: In 1922, Henry Fairfield Osborn, the director of the American Museum of Natural History, declared that he had found a molar tooth fossil in western Nebraska near Snake Brook belonging to the Pliocene period. This tooth allegedly bore the common characteristics of both man and ape. Deep scientific arguments began in which some interpreted this tooth to be that of Pithecanthropus erectus while others claimed it was closer to that of modern human beings. This fossil, which aroused extensive debate, was popularly named "Nebraska Man". It was also immediately given a "scientific name": "Hesperopithecus Haroldcooki". Many authorities gave Osborn their support. Based on this single tooth, reconstructions of Nebraska Man's head and body were drawn. Moreover, Nebraska Man was even pictured with a whole family. In 1927, other parts of the skeleton were also found. According to these newly discovered pieces, the tooth belonged neither to a man nor to an ape. It was realised that it belonged to an extinct species of wild American pig called Prosthennops. Did Men and Apes Come from a Common Ancestor? According to the claims of the theory of evolution, men and modern apes have common ancestors. These creatures evolved in time and some of them became the apes of today, while another group that followed another branch of evolution became the men of today. Evolutionists call the so-called first common ancestors of men and apes "Australopithecus" which means "South African ape". Australopithecus, nothing but an old ape species that has become extinct, has various types. Some of them are robust, while others are small and slight. Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as "Homo", that is "man". According to the evolutionist claim, the living beings in the Homo series are more developed than Australopithecus, and not very much different from modern man. the modern man of our day, Homo sapiens, is said to have formed at the latest stage of the evolution of this species. The fact of the matter is that the beings called Australopithecus in this imaginary scenario fabricated by evolutionists really are apes that became extinct, and the beings in the Homo series are members of various human races that lived in the past and then disappeared. Evolutionists arranged various ape and human fossils in an order from the smallest to the biggest in order to form a "human evolution" scheme. Research, however, has demonstrated that these fossils by no means imply an evolutionary process and some of these alleged ancestors of man were real apes whereas some of them were real humans. Now, let us have a look at Australopithecus, which represents to evolutionists the first stage of the scheme of human evolution. Australopithecus: Extinct Apes Evolutionists claim that Australopithecus are the most primitive ancestors of modern men. These are an old species with a head and skull structure similar to that of modern apes, yet with a smaller cranial capacity. According to the claims of evolutionists, these creatures have a very important feature that authenticates them as the ancestors of men: bipedalism. The movements of apes and men are completely different. Human beings are the only living creatures that move freely about on two feet. Some other animals do have a limited ability to move in this way, but those that do have bent skeletons. According to evolutionists, these living beings called Australopithecus had the ability to walk in a bent rather than an upright posture like human beings. Even this limited bipedal stride was sufficient to encourage evolutionists to project onto these creatures that they were the ancestors of man. However, the first evidence refuting the allegations of evolutionists that Australopithecus were bipedal came from evolutionists themselves. Detailed studies made on Australopithecus fossils forced even evolutionists to admit that these looked "too" ape-like. Having conducted detailed anatomical research on Australopithecus fossils in the mid-1970s, Charles E. Oxnard likened the skeletal structure of Australopithecus to that of modern orang-utans: What really embarrassed evolutionists was the discovery that Australopithecus could not have walked on two feet and with a bent posture. It would have been physically very ineffective for Australopithecus, allegedly bipedal but with a bent stride, to move about in such a way because of the enormous energy demands it would have entailed. By means of computer simulations conducted in 1996, the English paleoanthropologist Robin Crompton also demonstrated that such a "compound" stride was impossible. Crompton reached the following conclusion: a living being can walk either upright or on all fours. A type of in-between stride cannot be sustained for long periods because of the extreme energy consumption. This means that Australopithecus could not have been both bipedal and have a bent walking posture. Probably the most important study demonstrating that Australopithecus could not have been bipedal came in 1994 from the research anatomist Fred Spoor and his team in the Department of Human Anatomy and Cellular Biology at the University of Liverpool, England. This group conducted studies on the bipedalism of fossilised living beings. Their research investigated the involuntary balance mechanism found in the cochlea of the ear, and the findings showed conclusively that Australopithecus could not have been bipedal. This precluded any claims that Australopithecus was human-like. The Homo Series: Real Human Beings The next step in the imaginary human evolution is "Homo", that is, the human series. These living beings are humans who are no different from modern men, yet who have some racial differences. Seeking to exaggerate these differences, evolutionists represent these people not as a "race" of modern man but as a different "species". However, as we will soon see, the people in the Homo series are nothing but ordinary human racial types. According to the fanciful scheme of evolutionists, the internal imaginary evolution of the Homo species is as follows: First Homo erectus, then Homo sapiens archaic and Neanderthal Man, later Cro-Magnon Man and finally modern man. Despite the claims of evolutionists to the contrary, all the "species" we have enumerated above are nothing but genuine human beings. Let us first examine Homo erectus, who evolutionists refer to as the most primitive human species. The most striking evidence showing that Homo erectus is not a "primitive" species is the fossil of "Turkana Boy", one of the oldest Homo erectus remains. It is estimated that the fossil was of a 12-year-old boy, who would have been 1.83 meters tall in his adolescence. the upright skeletal structure of the fossil is no different from that of modern man. Its tall and slender skeletal structure totally complies with that of the people living in tropical regions in our day. This fossil is one of the most important pieces of evidence that Homo erectus is simply another specimen of the modern human race. Evolutionist paleontologist Richard Leakey compares Homo erectus and modern man as follows: Leakey means to say that the difference between Homo erectus and us is no more than the difference between Negroes and Eskimos. the cranial features of Homo erectus resulted from their manner of feeding, and genetic emigration and from their not assimilating with other human races for a lengthy period. Another strong piece of evidence that Homo erectus is not a "primitive" species is that fossils of this species have been unearthed aged twenty-seven thousand years and even thirteen thousand years. According to an article published in Time – which is not a scientific periodical, but nevertheless had a sweeping effect on the world of science – Homo erectus fossils aged twenty-seven thousand years were found on the island of Java. in the Kow swamp in Australia, some thirteen thousand year-old fossils were found that bore Homo Sapiens-Homo Erectus characteristics. All these fossils demonstrate that Homo erectus continued living up to times very close to our day and were nothing but a human race that has since been buried in history. Archaic Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal Man Archaic Homo sapiens is the immediate forerunner of contemporary man in the imaginary evolutionary scheme. in fact, evolutionists do not have much to say about these men, as there are only minor differences between them and modern men. Some researchers even state that representatives of this race are still living today, and point to the Aborigines in Australia as an example. Like Homo sapiens, the Aborigines also have thick protruding eyebrows, an inward-inclined mandibular structure, and a slightly smaller cranial volume. Moreover, significant discoveries have been made hinting that such people lived in Hungary and in some villages in Italy until not very long ago. Evolutionists point to human fossils unearthed in the Neander valley of Holland which have been named Neanderthal Man. Many contemporary researchers define Neanderthal Man as a sub-species of modern man and call it "Homo sapiens neandertalensis". It is definite that this race lived together with modern humans, at the same time and in the same areas. the findings testify that Neanderthals buried their dead, fashioned musical instruments, and had cultural affinities with the Homo sapiens sapiens living during the same period. Entirely modern skulls and skeletal structures of Neanderthal fossils are not open to any speculation. A prominent authority on the subject, Erik Trinkaus from New Mexico University writes: In fact, Neanderthals even had some "evolutionary" advantages over modern men. the cranial capacity of Neanderthals was larger than that of the modern man and they were more robust and muscular than we are. Trinkaus adds: "One of the most characteristic features of the Neanderthals is the exaggerated massiveness of their trunk and limb bones. All of the preserved bones suggest a strength seldom attained by modern humans. Furthermore, not only is this robustness present among the adult males, as one might expect, but it is also evident in the adult females, adolescents, and even children." To put it precisely, Neanderthals are a particular human race that assimilated with other races in time. All of these factors show that the scenario of "human evolution" fabricated by evolutionists is a figment of their imaginations, and that men have always been men and apes always apes. Can Life Result from Coincidences as Revolution Argues? The theory of evolution holds that life started with a cell that formed by chance under primitive earth conditions. Let us therefore examine the composition of the cell with simple comparisons in order to show how irrational it is to ascribe the existence of the cell – a structure which still maintains its mystery in many respects, even at a time when we are about to set foot in the 21st century – to natural phenomena and coincidences. With all its operational systems, systems of communication, transportation and management, a cell is no less complex than any city. It contains power stations producing the energy consumed by the cell, factories manufacturing the enzymes and hormones essential for life, a databank where all necessary information about all products to be produced is recorded, complex transportation systems and pipelines for carrying raw materials and products from one place to another, advanced laboratories and refineries for breaking down imported raw materials into their usable parts, and specialised cell membrane proteins for the control of incoming and outgoing materials. These constitute only a small part of this incredibly complex system. Far from being formed under primitive earth conditions, the cell, which in its composition and mechanisms is so complex, cannot be synthesised in even the most sophisticated laboratories of our day. Even with the use of amino acids, the building blocks of the cell, it is not possible to produce so much as a single organelle of the cell, such as mitochondria or ribosome, much less a whole cell. the first cell claimed to have been produced by evolutionary coincidence is as much a figment of the imagination and a product of fantasy as the unicorn. Proteins Challenge Coincidence And it is not just the cell that cannot be produced: the formation, under natural conditions, of even a single protein of the thousands of complex protein molecules making up a cell is impossible. Proteins are giant molecules consisting of amino acids arranged in a particular sequence in certain quantities and structures. These molecules constitute the building blocks of a living cell. the simplest is composed of 50 amino acids; but there are some proteins that are composed of thousands of amino acids. the absence, addition, or replacement of a single amino acid in the structure of a protein in living cells, each of which has a particular function, causes the protein to become a useless molecular heap. Incapable of demonstrating the "accidental formation" of amino acids, the theory of evolution founders on the point of the formation of proteins. We can easily demonstrate, with simple probability calculations anybody can understand, that the functional structure of proteins can by no means come about by chance. There are twenty different amino acids. If we consider that an average-sized protein molecule is composed of 288 amino acids, there are 10300 different combinations of acids. of all of these possible sequences, only "one" forms the desired protein molecule. the other amino-acid chains are either completely useless or else potentially harmful to living things. in other words, the probability of the coincidental formation of only one protein molecule cited above is "1 in 10300". the probability of this "1" occurring out of an "astronomical" number consisting of 1 followed by 300 zeros is for all practical purposes zero; it is impossible. Furthermore, a protein molecule of 288 amino acids is rather a modest one compared with some giant protein molecules consisting of thousands of amino acids. When we apply similar probability calculations to these giant protein molecules, we see that even the word "impossible" becomes inadequate. If the coincidental formation of even one of these proteins is impossible, it is billions of times more impossible for approximately one million of those proteins to come together by chance in an organised fashion and make up a complete human cell. Moreover, a cell is not merely a collection of proteins. in addition to proteins, cells also include nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, and many other chemicals such as electrolytes, all of which are arranged harmoniously and with design in specific proportions, both in terms of structure and function. Each functions as a building block or component in various organelles. As we have seen, evolution is unable to explain the formation of even a single protein out of the millions in the cell, let alone explain the cell. Prof. Dr. Ali Demirsoy, one of the foremost authorities of evolutionist thought in Turkey, in his book Kalitim ve Evrim (Inheritance and Evolution), discusses the probability of the accidental formation of Cytochrome-C, one of the essential enzymes for life: After these lines, Demirsoy admits that this probability, which he accepted just because it was "more appropriate to the goals of science", is unrealistic: The correct sequence of proper amino acids is simply not enough for the formation of one of the protein molecules present in living things. Besides this, each of the twenty different types of amino acid present in the composition of proteins must be left-handed. Chemically, there are two different types of amino acids called "left-handed" and "right-handed". the difference between them is the mirror-symmetry between their three dimensional structures, which is similar to that of a person's right and left hands. Amino acids of either of these two types are found in equal numbers in nature and they can bond perfectly well with one another. Yet, research uncovers an astonishing fact: all proteins present in the structure of living things are made up of left-handed amino acids. Even a single right-handed amino acid attached to the structure of a protein renders it useless. Let us for an instant suppose that life came into existence by chance as evolutionists claim. in this case, the right and left-handed amino acids that were generated by chance should be present in nature in roughly equal amounts. the question of how proteins can pick out only left-handed amino acids, and how not even a single right-handed amino acid becomes involved in the life process is something that still confounds evolutionists. in the Britannica Science Encyclopaedia, an ardent defender of evolution, the authors indicate that the amino acids of all living organisms on earth and the building blocks of complex polymers such as proteins have the same left-handed asymmetry. They add that this is tantamount to tossing a coin a million times and always getting heads. in the same encyclopaedia, they state that it is not possible to understand why molecules become left-handed or right-handed and that this choice is fascinatingly related to the source of life on earth.13 It is not enough for amino acids to be arranged in the correct numbers, sequences, and in the required three-dimensional structures. the formation of a protein also requires that amino acid molecules with more than one arm be linked to each other only through certain arms. Such a bond is called a "peptide bond". Amino acids can make different bonds with each other; but proteins comprise those and only those amino acids that join together by "peptide" bonds. Research has shown that only 50 % of amino acids, combining at random, combine with a peptide bond and that the rest combine with different bonds that are not present in proteins. to function properly, each amino acid making up a protein must join with other amino acids with a peptide bond, as it has only to be chosen from among the left-handed ones. Unquestionably, there is no control mechanism to select and leave out the right-handed amino acids and personally make sure that each amino acid makes a peptide bond with the other. Under these circumstances, the probabilities of an average protein molecule comprising five hundred amino acids arranging itself in the correct quantities and in sequence, in addition to the probabilities of all of the amino acids it contains being only left-handed and combining using only peptide bonds are as follows: As you can see above, the probability of the formation of a protein molecule comprising five hundred amino acids is "1" divided by a number formed by placing 950 zeros after a 1, a number incomprehensible to the human mind. This is only a probability on paper. Practically, such a possibility has "0" chance of realisation. in mathematics, a probability smaller than 1 over 1050 is statistically considered to have a "0" probability of realisation. While the improbability of the formation of a protein molecule made up of five hundred amino acids reaches such an extent, we can further proceed to push the limits of the mind to higher levels of improbability. in the "haemoglobin" molecule, a vital protein, there are five hundred and seventy-four amino acids, which is a much larger number than that of the amino acids making up the protein mentioned above. Now consider this: in only one out of the billions of red blood cells in your body, there are "280,000,000" (280 million) haemoglobin molecules. the supposed age of the earth is not sufficient to afford the formation of even a single protein, let alone a red blood cell, by the method of "trial and error". the conclusion from all this is that evolution falls into a terrible abyss of improbability right at the stage of the formation of a single protein. Looking for Answers to the Generation of Life Well aware of the terrible odds against the possibility of life forming by chance, evolutionists were unable to provide a rational explanation for their beliefs, so they set about looking for ways to demonstrate that the odds were not so unfavourable. They designed a number of laboratory experiments to address the question of how life could generate itself from non-living matter. the best known and most respected of these experiments is the one known as the "Miller Experiment" or "Urey-Miller Experiment", which was conducted by the American researcher Stanley Miller in 1953. With the purpose of proving that amino acids could have come into existence by accident, Miller created an atmosphere in his laboratory that he assumed would have existed on primordial earth (but which later proved to be unrealistic) and he set to work. the mixture he used for this primordial atmosphere was composed of ammonia, methane, hydrogen, and water vapour. Miller knew that methane, ammonia, water vapour and hydrogen would not react with each other under natural conditions. He was aware that he had to inject energy into the mixture to start a reaction. He suggested that this energy could have come from lightning flashes in the primordial atmosphere and, relying on this supposition, he used an artificial electricity discharge in his experiments. Miller boiled this gas mixture at 100 0C for a week, and, in addition, he introduced an electric current into the chamber. At the end of the week, Miller analysed the chemicals that had been formed in the chamber and observed that three of the twenty amino acids, which constitute the basic elements of proteins, had been synthesised. This experiment aroused great excitement among evolutionists and they promoted it as an outstanding success. Encouraged by the thought that this experiment definitely verified their theory, evolutionists immediately produced new scenarios. Miller had supposedly proved that amino acids could form by themselves. Relying on this, they hurriedly hypothesised the following stages. According to their scenario, amino acids had later by accident united in the proper sequences to form proteins. Some of these accidentally formed proteins placed themselves in cell membrane-like structures, which "somehow" came into existence and formed a primitive cell. the cells united in time and formed living organisms. the greatest mainstay of the scenario was Miller's experiment. However, Miller's experiment was nothing but make-believe, and has since been proven invalid in many respects. The Invalidity of Miller's Experiment Nearly half a century has passed since Miller conducted his experiment. Although it has been shown to be invalid in many respects, evolutionists still advance Miller and his results as absolute proof that life could have formed spontaneously from non-living matter. When we assess Miller's experiment critically, without the bias and subjectivity of evolutionist thinking, however, it is evident that the situation is not as rosy as evolutionists would have us think. Miller set for himself the goal of proving that amino acids could form by themselves in earth's primitive conditions. Some amino acids were produced, but the conduct of the experiment conflicts with his goal in many ways, as we shall now see. F Miller isolated the amino acids from the environment as soon as they were formed, by using a mechanism called a "cold trap". Had he not done so, the conditions of the environment in which the amino acids formed would immediately have destroyed the molecules. It is quite meaningless to suppose that some conscious mechanism of this sort was integral to earth's primordial conditions, which involved ultraviolet radiation, thunderbolts, various chemicals, and a high percentage of free oxygen. Without such a mechanism, any amino acid that did manage to form would immediately have been destroyed. F the primordial atmospheric environment that Miller attempted to simulate in his experiment was not realistic. Nitrogen and carbon dioxide would have been constituents of the primordial atmosphere, but Miller disregarded this and used methane and ammonia instead. Why? Why were evolutionists insistent on the point that the primitive atmosphere contained high amounts of methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), and water vapour (H2O)? the answer is simple: without ammonia, it is impossible to synthesise an amino acid. Kevin McKean talks about this in an article published in Discover magazine: After a long period of silence, Miller himself also confessed that the atmospheric environment he used in his experiment was not realistic. F Another important point invalidating Miller's experiment is that there was enough oxygen to destroy all the amino acids in the atmosphere at the time when evolutionists thought that amino acids formed. This oxygen concentration would definitely have hindered the formation of amino acids. This situation completely negates Miller's experiment, in which he totally neglected oxygen. If he had used oxygen in the experiment, methane would have decomposed into carbon dioxide and water, and ammonia would have decomposed into nitrogen and water. On the other hand, since no ozone layer yet existed, no organic molecule could possibly have lived on earth because it was entirely unprotected against intense ultraviolet rays. F in addition to a few amino acids essential for life, Miller's experiment also produced many organic acids with characteristics that are quite detrimental to the structures and functions of living things. If he had not isolated the amino acids and had left them in the same environment with these chemicals, their destruction or transformation into different compounds through chemical reactions would have been unavoidable. Moreover, a large number of right-handed amino acids also formed. the existence of these amino acids alone refuted the theory, even within its own reasoning, because right-handed amino acids are unable to function in the composition of living organisms and render proteins useless when they are involved in their composition. To conclude, the circumstances in which amino acids formed in Miller's experiment were not suitable for life forms to come into being. the medium in which they formed was an acidic mixture that destroyed and oxidised any useful molecules that might have been obtained. Evolutionists themselves actually refute the theory of evolution, as they are often wont to do, by advancing this experiment as "proof". If the experiment proves anything, it is that amino acids can only be produced in a controlled laboratory environment where all the necessary conditions have been specifically and consciously designed. That is, the experiment shows that what brings life (even the "near-life" of amino acids) into being cannot be unconscious chance, but rather conscious will – in a word, Creation. This is why every stage of Creation is a sign proving to us the existence and might of Allah. The Miraculous Molecule: DNA The theory of evolution has been unable to provide a coherent explanation for the existence of the molecules that are the basis of the cell. Furthermore, developments in the science of genetics and the discovery of the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) have produced brand-new problems for the theory of evolution. In 1955, the work of two scientists on DNA, James Watson and Francis Crick, launched a new era in biology. Many scientists directed their attention to the science of genetics. Today, after years of research, scientists have, largely, mapped the structure of DNA. Here, we need to give some very basic information on the structure and function of DNA: The molecule called DNA, which exists in the nucleus of each of the 100 trillion cells in our body, contains the complete construction plan of the human body. Information regarding all the characteristics of a person, from the physical appearance to the structure of the inner organs, is recorded in DNA by means of a special coding system. the information in DNA is coded within the sequence of four special bases that make up this molecule. These bases are specified as A, T, G, and C according to the initial letters of their names. All the structural differences among people depend on the variations in the sequence of these bases. There are approximately 3.5 billion nucleotides, that is, 3.5 billion letters in a DNA molecule. The DNA data pertaining to a particular organ or protein is included in special components called "genes". for instance, information about the eye exists in a series of special genes, whereas information about the heart exists in quite another series of genes. the cell produces proteins by using the information in all of these genes. Amino acids that constitute the structure of the protein are defined by the sequential arrangement of three nucleotides in the DNA. At this point, an important detail deserves attention. An error in the sequence of nucleotides making up a gene renders the gene completely useless. When we consider that there are 200 thousand genes in the human body, it becomes more evident how impossible it is for the millions of nucleotides making up these genes to form by accident in the right sequence. An evolutionist biologist, Frank Salisbury, comments on this impossibility by saying: The number 41000 is equivalent to 10600. We obtain this number by adding 600 zeros to 1. As 10 with 11 zeros indicates a trillion, a figure with 600 zeros is indeed a number that is difficult to grasp. Evolutionist Prof. Ali Demirsoy was forced to make the following admission on this issue: In addition to all these improbabilities, DNA can barely be involved in a reaction because of its double-chained spiral shape. This also makes it impossible to think that it can be the basis of life. Moreover, while DNA can replicate only with the help of some enzymes that are actually proteins, the synthesis of these enzymes can be realised only by the information coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, either they have to exist at the same time for replication, or one of them has had to be "created" before the other. American microbiologist Jacobson comments on the subject: The quotation above was written two years after the disclosure of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick. Despite all the developments in science, this problem remains unsolved for evolutionists. to sum up, the need for DNA in reproduction, the necessity of the presence of some proteins for reproduction, and the requirement to produce these proteins according to the information in the DNA entirely demolish evolutionist theses. Two German scientists, Junker and Scherer, explained that the synthesis of each of the molecules required for chemical evolution, necessitates distinct conditions, and that the probability of the compounding of these materials having theoretically very different acquirement methods is zero: In short, the theory of evolution is unable to prove any of the evolutionary stages that allegedly occur at the molecular level. To summarise what we have said so far, neither amino acids nor their products, the proteins making up the cells of living beings, could ever be produced in any so-called "primitive atmosphere" environment. Moreover, factors such as the incredibly complex structure of proteins, their right-hand, left-hand features, and the difficulties in the formation of peptide bonds are just parts of the reason why they will never be produced in any future experiment either. Even if we suppose for a moment that proteins somehow did form accidentally, that would still have no meaning, for proteins are nothing at all on their own: they cannot themselves reproduce. Protein synthesis is only possible with the information coded in DNA and RNA molecules. Without DNA and RNA, it is impossible for a protein to reproduce. the specific sequence of the twenty different amino acids encoded in DNA determines the structure of each protein in the body. However, as has been made abundantly clear by all those who have studied these molecules, it is impossible for DNA and RNA to form by chance. The Fact of Creation With the collapse of the theory of evolution in every field, prominent names in the discipline of microbiology today admit the fact of creation and have begun to defend the view that everything is created by a conscious Creator as part of an exalted creation. This is already a fact that people cannot disregard. Scientists who can approach their work with an open mind have developed a view called "intelligent design". Michael J. Behe, one of the foremost of these scientists, states that he accepts the absolute being of the Creator and describes the impasse of those who deny this fact: The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cell – to investigate life at the molecular level – is a loud, clear, piercing cry of "design!" the result is so unambiguous and so significant that it must be ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science. This triumph of science should evoke cries of "Eureka" from ten thousand throats. But, no bottles have been uncorked, no hands clapped. Instead, a curious, embarrassed silence surrounds the stark complexity of the cell. When the subject comes up in public, feet start to shuffle, and breathing gets a bit laboured. in private people are a bit more relaxed; many explicitly admit the obvious but then stare at the ground, shake their heads, and let it go like that. Why does the scientific community not greedily embrace its startling discovery? Why is the observation of design handled with intellectual gloves? the dilemma is that while one side of the elephant is labelled intelligent design, the other side must be labelled God.19 Today, many people are not even aware that they are in a position of accepting a body of fallacy as truth in the name of science, instead of believing in Allah. Those who do not find the sentence "Allah created you from nothing" scientific enough can believe that the first living being came into being by thunderbolts striking a "primordial soup" billions of years ago. As we have described elsewhere in this book, the balances in nature are so delicate and so numerous that it is entirely irrational to claim that they developed "by chance". No matter how much those who cannot set themselves free from this irrationality may strive, the signs of Allah in the heavens and the earth are completely obvious and they are undeniable. Allah is the Creator of the heavens, the earth and all that is in between. The signs of His being have encompassed the entire universe. 1. Charles Darwin, the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, London: Senate Press, 1995, p. 134. 2. Derek A. Ager. "The Nature of the Fossil Record." Proceedings of the British Geological Association, vol. 87, no. 2, (1976), p. 133. 3. T.N. George, "Fossils in Evolutionary Perspective", Science Progress, vol.48, (January 1960), p.1-3 4. Richard Monestarsky, Mysteries of the Orient, Discover, April 1993, p.40. 5. Stefan Bengston, Nature 345:765 (1990). 6. Earnest A. Hooton, Up From the Ape, New York: McMillan, 1931, p.332. 7. Stephen Jay Gould, Smith Woodward's Folly, New Scientist, 5 April, 1979, p. 44. 8. Charles E. Oxnard, the Place of Australopithecines in Human Evolution: Grounds for Doubt, Nature, No. 258, p. 389. 9. Richard Leakey, the Making of Mankind, London: Sphere Books, 1981, p. 116 10. Eric Trinkaus, Hard Times Among the Neanderthals, Natural History, No. 87, December 1978, p. 10, R.L. Holoway, "The Neanderthal Brain: What was Primitive?", American Journal of Physical Anthrophology Supplement, No. 12, 1991, p. 94 11. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim (Inheritance and Evolution), Ankara: Meteksan Yayinlari 1984, p. 61 12. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim (Inheritance and Evolution), Ankara: Meteksan Yayinlari 1984, p. 61 13. Fabbri Britannica Science Encyclopaedia, Vol. 2, No. 22, p. 519 14. Kevin McKean, Bilim ve Teknik, No. 189, p. 7 15. Frank B. Salisbury, "Doubts about the Modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution", American Biology Teacher, September 1971, p. 336. 16. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim (Inheritance and Evolution), Ankara: Meteksan Publishing Co., 1984, p. 39. 17. Homer Jacobson, "Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life", American Scientist, January, 1955, p.121. 18. Reinhard Junker & Siegfried Scherer, "Entstehung Gesiche Der Lebewesen", Weyel, 1986, p. 89. 19. Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box, New York: Free Press, 1996, pp. 232-233.

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Conservation and Biodiversity Efforts

With Abby off at school, it is a chance to work on learning more with Kenzie. She knows all her letters, and we have been working on mastering her sounds. We’ll be doing the activity I’m showing you today with every letter of the alphabet. You may have seen my tutorial on sewing a reversible bag. Today I decided to put the bag to use. I had some punch out letters and attached them to the bag with tape so it would just be a temporary addition. Next, we wandered around the house looking for A words to put in our bag. We found an apple, alligator, ambulance, airplane, apron. As we walked around, we kept on making the two A sounds. We took our bag to the chalkboard, emptied it out and wrote down all of our words. Then, I had Kenzie locate and trace the A’s in the words. Finally, she was able to write the letter A on her own. In case you are wondering, she is 3 1/2. It is a great preschool or kindergarten activity.

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Literacy and Reading Activities

As an extended service of _____________________________________________, you will receive fact sheets to help you learn how to investigate, select and use waste minimization opportunities for your industry. Reducing or eliminating hazardous substances is an important business decision. When you use hazardous chemicals in your processes, you are not just making a one-time purchase of the material, you are also paying for: These costs add up, and finding alternatives to these substances should be a priority. Alternatives are available and often out-perform old process equipment and chemicals. Proper storage and disposal Permits Protecting worker health submitting required reports training employees How can auto body repair shops' pollution prevention efforts help industrial laundries? Often small amounts of hazardous materials are left in industrial shop towels and wipes after use. The wipes are usually not treated as hazardous waste and are often cleaned by industrial laundries for re-use. Wipes and towels from auto body repair shops often contain cleaners, oils, solvents and paints composed of hazardous materials. These chemicals are transferred to the industrial laundry's wastewater during washing. Auto body repair shops' efforts to reduce the amount of hazardous substances they use and discard in wipes will reduce the pollutant load in the laundries' wastewater. Pollution prevention efforts to substitute less hazardous cleaners, oils, solvents and paints will benefit both auto body shops and industrial laundries. The pollution prevention ideas in this fact sheet may help you lessen the overall impact of your facility on the environment as well as potentially reduce operating costs. Identify and Use Less Hazardous Paints and CoatingsWHO TO CALL FOR HELP Less toxic paints and coatings mean less hazardous materials left on shop towels and wipes. - Consider using paints and coatings with less hazardous ingredients. Identify and Use Less Hazardous Solvents and Cleaners Less hazardous cleaners mean less hazardous materials left on shop towels and wipes. - Consider using cleaners and solvents with a lower volatile organic compound (VOC) content. - Consider using water-based or citrus-based dillmonine cleaner in place of solvents. Reduce the Amount of Solvents and Cleaners Used Employees often have ideas on how to use less solvents. Check with them. - Use a spray bottle or plunger can to deliver solvents where they're needed. - Don't dip shop towels or wipes into open solvent containers. - Reduce the size of the shop towel or wipe. You'll reduce the amount of solvent used at the same time. - Consider reusing shop towels or wipes for repetitive tasks. - Keep used wipes and towels in closed containers between uses. - Limit the amount of solvent available for use each day. Spray Gun Cleaning Tips - Consider developing a multiple stage cleaning process with a soak stage using partially spent solvent. - Keep spray guns in proper working condition. This minimizes cleaning effort and solvent use. - Immerse only the spray gun tip when cleaning. Recover Solvents and Cleaners from Towels and Wipes Before They Are Sent to the Laundry. Recovery methods include: - Gravity Drain - Hand Wringing - Automatic wringing - Centrifuging--explosion proof - VOC stripping using steam - Use a liner (mesh type bag) in the used towel/wipe collection container to keep the wipes above any free liquid in the bottom of the container - Don't put towels or wipes with free liquid into the collection container--wring them out first - Recovered solvents may be reused - Share Material Safety Data Sheets for materials used in your shop with your launderer - Collect, store and transport used shop towels and wipes to the laundry facility in closed containers - Don't use shop towels or wipes to clean up spills of hazardous materials or to dispose of excess materials - Sort shop towels or wipes according to the types of materials they may contain For Free, Non-Regulatory Assistance and Referrals, contact PPRC. Produced by the Northwest Partnership for Environmental Technology Education for the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center, 513 First Ave. West, Seattle, WA 98119 phone: 206-352-2050, fax: 206-352-2049, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org, WWW address: http://www.pprc.org

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Industrial Chemical Hazards

Glossary of Generalized Anxiety Disoder Terms Definition of hedonic treadmill Definition of learned helplessness Description of norepinephrine Description of serotonin Definition of manic episode. Major Depressive Episode Definition of major depressive episode Definition of negative reinforcement Definition of substance abuse Definition of substance dependence Definition of panic attack and how it is related to generalized anxiety disorder Definition and description of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder) Definition of social phobia and how it can be related to GAD Definition of agoraphobia and how it can be related to GAD. Definition of specific phobia and the various subtypes. definition of mood disorder Description of depression Discussion of psychotherapy related to generalized anxiety disorder definition of an anxiety disorder

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Mental Health Disorders

Patient data is more accessible than ever thanks to patient and provider mobile connectivity. Data protection and patient ID verification have become critical parts of health care infrastructure. Providers want to identify their patients as quickly as possible, if they’re in need of emergency treatment, but they also need to ensure the data they're reading is accurate and secure. Read this guide to understand how different health care patient ID verification technologies and trends, including single sign-on, data breach protection and response, and more, have affected and will continue to shape the health IT industry. Table of contents: Identification numbers or codes can be used to authenticate doctors and verify the accuracy of patient data. Hospitals also use IDs to control what information doctors can access through the use of their mobile devices. Read more to see other ways in which IDs are currently used in health care facilities. Single sign-on in health care Single sign-on technology enables doctors and patients more convenient access to their information by giving them one login name and password that grants them access to various processes. Read how else single sign-on is used to protect and grant access to critical data. Patient info data breaches Instances of compromised or stolen data are preventable through patient and physician education. However, there have been examples of data breaches in which patient information has been exposed, including a notable breach at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Future patient ID options and regulations A national system consisting of a unique patient ID for every American has been a stated goal of some health care personnel. This is one possible option for secure patient identification in the future. There are other areas, like cloud and mobile devices, that are changing the way that health care IDs will be used.

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Healthcare and Nursing Topics

Words Are Powerful Speech -- the ability to convey ideas and feelings through words -- is unique to human beings. It can be a tremendous blessing, but it's also ripe for abuse. The words our children choose to use in expressing themselves help create their personal window on the world. Positive forms of expression can help our children grow into positive, optimistic people who view the world around them with generous and hopeful eyes. Negative forms of expression, such as defamatory, mean-spirited speech, will cultivate in them a negative, cynical view of the world. Speech That Is Evil It's easy to fall prey to a destructive pattern of speaking badly about others and gossiping -- to the point where it becomes a recreational activity! In order to enjoy the many people in our lives, we have to stop verbalizing the negativity and focus on their positive virtues. This takes a lot of effort but is essential in raising happy children. If we're always finding fault, we will naturally be dissatisfied, disappointed and displeased, and so will be our children. Raising happy children requires us to impart to our offspring the ability to look at everything positively --situations, places and material objects. Most important of all is how they view people. Torah calls "evil language" anything negative, even if it's true. The Hebrew term for speaking badly of others is called lashon hara, literally "evil language." Interestingly, the Torah calls "evil language" anything negative, even if it's true. (Slander -- malicious, false information is called motzi shem ra, literally "giving another a bad name.") In sharp contrast to the Western adage about sticks and stones not hurting, Judaism looks very gravely upon misuse of speech. Our tradition teaches that lashon hara can destroy many lives, even unintentionally, in one fell swoop: - the person speaking, - the person spoken about, - and the person spoken to. Let's look at why. - The person speaking: Although you briefly become the center of attention when you dish out a juicy piece of gossip, in the long run people start mistrusting you. "Gee, I wonder what she says about me when I'm not around." People don't trust gossips and will avoid confiding in you. In the end, you're killing your own reputation. Furthermore, because you are misusing the gift of speech that God gave you, you are also lessened in His eyes. - The person spoken about: The person under discussion is, of course, being killed in everyone's eyes. Whether the information is true or false, it is hard to take back defamatory words already spoken and undo the character assassination already committed. That person's reputation is forever blemished. - The person spoken to: Interestingly enough, this is the person who is the most culpable, even though s/he is seemingly the innocent one. All s/he did was listen! But the Talmud says that listening to lashon hara is even worse than speaking it; the person had the power to stop it and didn't. Now the transgression is complete. Exceptions to the Rule Of course, there are times we are all owed to speak share negative information about others; in fact, there are times it is an obligation to do so. For example - when a friend is about to be become financially involved with a person we know to be unethical, or seriously dating a person we know to be abusive or otherwise unsuitable. Or when a child has information that will prevent harm from occurring. Beware of the excuses children and adults often use for speaking lashon hara: - "But it's true!" Lashon hara specifically refers to sharing derogatory information when it is true. Spreading vicious lies is far worse! - "If she were here I would say it to her face." Maybe you would, and maybe you wouldn't. In any case, it is still forbidden. - "Everyone knows about it." Does this justify you adding fuel to the fire? Even if it is on the front page of the newspaper, you are still forbidden to speak about it. Teaching our children to avoid speaking lashon hara takes a concerted effort. Experiment with the following tools: - Teach by example. Showing children that it's a priority for you is perhaps the most important lesson. Don't let them hear your gossiping with your friends or relatives. Don't let them hear you laughing at other people's expense. Even better than "don't let them hear you" is not doing it -- whether they're in earshot or not. - Discuss the importance of avoiding lashon hara. Help your children identify what is and isn't proper speech. Talk about how improper speech can hurt others and how it hurts the person speaking lashon hara. There are a number of excellent Jewish books that can help you. - Discourage "tattling." When your kids come to "tell on" someone, tell them you aren't interested in reports of someone else's bad behavior, but that you're available if they need help or advice. - Get in the habit of not using names. There's no need for you to know the names of problem students at school unless you'll have a direct role in addressing the issue. Focus the discussion on your child's feelings, worries and concerns. If he or she needs protection that requires your intervention, tell him or her that it is proper to tell you the name of the offending child. - Don't fall into the trap of casual lashon hara. At dinner and at other family times, bring books to the table to discuss or talk about current events. When you discuss what happened in each person's day, focus on what they learned that day and how they felt. Show your children that there are more interesting things to talk about than other people's poor behavior. - Give positive reinforcement. Be sure to commend your kids when they manage to tell you about school or neighborhood problems without mentioning who was involved. Let them know that you're proud of them - and that God is too. - Reminders! Tape a reminder to the telephone: "No Lashon Hara!" Put up signs on the fridge and in other prominent locations around the house. - Study it. Read a small section of the laws of lashon hara each day during dinner or at your Shabbat table. Encourage discussion and examples.

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Bible Study and Lessons

Gasoline prices have increased rapidly during the past several years, pushed up mainly by the sharply rising price of oil. A gallon of gasoline in the US rose from $1.50 in 2002 to $2 in 2004 to $2.50 in 2006 to over $4 at present. Gasoline prices almost trebled during these 6 years compared to very little change in nominal gas prices during the prior fifteen years. The US federal tax on gasoline has remained at 18.4 cents per gallon during this period of rapid growth in gasoline prices, while state excise taxes add another 21.5 cents per gallon. In addition, many local governments levy additional sales and other taxes on gasoline. Gasoline taxes have not risen much as the price of gasoline exploded upward. The price of gasoline is much lower than in other rich countries mainly because American taxes are far smaller. For example, gasoline taxes in Germany and the United Kingdom amount to about $3 per gallon. Some economists and environmentalists have called for large increases in federal, state, and local taxes to make them more comparable to gasoline taxes in other countries. Others want these taxes to rise by enough so that at least they would have kept pace with the sharply rising pre-tax fuel prices. At the same time two presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, proposed a temporary repeal during this summer of the federal tax in order to give consumers a little relief from the higher gas prices. We discuss the optimal tax on gasoline, and how the sharp increase in gas prices affected its magnitude. Taxes on gasoline are a way to induce consumers to incorporate the "external" damages to others into their decision of how much to drive and where to drive. These externalities include the effects of driving on local and global pollution, such as the contribution to global warming from the carbon emitted into the atmosphere by burnt gasoline. One other important externality is the contribution of additional driving to road congestion that slows the driving speeds of everyone and increases the time it takes to go a given distance. Others include automobile accidents that injure drivers and pedestrians, and the effect of using additional gasoline on the degree of dependence on imported oil from the Middle East and other not very stable parts of the world. A careful 2007 study by authors from Resources for the Future evaluates the magnitudes of all these externalities from driving in the US (see Harrington, Parry, and Walls, "Automobile Externalities and Policies", Journal of Economic Literature, 2007, pp 374-400). They estimate the total external costs of driving at 228 cents per gallon of gas used, or at 10.9 cents per mile driven, with the typical car owned by American drivers. Their breakdown of this total among different sources is interesting and a little surprising. They attribute only 6 cents of the total external cost to the effects of gasoline consumption on global warming through the emission of carbon into the atmosphere from the burning of gasoline, and 12 cents from the increased dependency on imported oil. Perhaps their estimate of only 6 cents per gallon is a large underestimate of the harmful effects of gasoline use on global warming. Yet even if we treble their estimate, that only raises total costs of gasoline use due to the effects on global warming by 12 cents per gallon. That still leaves the vast majority of the external costs of driving to other factors. They figure that local pollution effects amount to 42 cents per gallon, which makes these costs much more important than even the trebled cost of global warming. According to their estimates, still more important costs are those due to congestion and accidents, since these are 105 cents and 63 cents per gallon, respectively. Their figure for the cost of traffic accidents is likely too high –as the authors' recognize- because it includes the cost in damages to property and person of single vehicle accidents, as when a car hits a tree. Presumably, single vehicle accidents are not true externalities because drivers and their passengers would consider their possibility and internalize them into their driving decisions. Moreover, the large effect of drunk driving on the likelihood of accidents should be treated separately from a gasoline tax by directly punishing drunk drivers rather than punishing also sober drivers who are far less likely to get into accidents. On the surface, these calculations suggest that American taxes on gasoline, totaling across all levels of government to about 45 cents per gallon, are much too low. However, the federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon is almost exactly equal to their figure of 18 cents per gallon as the external costs of global warming and oil dependency. To be sure, a trebled estimate for global warming would bring theirs up to 30 cents per gallon. However, the federal government also taxes driving through its mandated fuel efficiency standards for cars, although this is an inefficient way to tax driving since it taxes the type of car rather than driving. Still, the overall level of federal taxes does not fall much short, if at all, from the adjusted estimate of 30 cents per gallon of damages due to the effects of gasoline use on global warming and oil dependency. Any shortfall in taxes would be at the state and local levels in combating externalities due to local pollution effects, and to auto accidents and congestion on mainly local roads. Here too, however, the discrepancy between actual and optimal gasoline taxes is far smaller than it may seem, and not only because single vehicle accidents are included in their estimate of the cost of car accidents, and accidents due to drunk driving should be discouraged through punishments to drunk drivers. One important reason is that congestion should be reduced not by general gasoline taxes, but by special congestion taxes- as used in London and a few other cities- that vary in amount with degree of congestion (see our discussion of congestion taxes on February 12, 2006). Congestion taxes are a far more efficient way to reduce congestion than are general taxes on gasoline that apply also when congestion is slight. In addition and often overlooked, the sharp rise in pre-tax gasoline prices has partly accomplished the local pollution and auto accident goals that would be achieved by higher gas taxes. For higher prices have cut driving, just as taxes would, and will cut driving further in the future as consumers continue to adjust the amount and time of their driving to gasoline that costs more than $4 a gallon. Reduced driving will lower pollution and auto accidents by reducing the number of cars on the road during any time period, especially during heavily traveled times when pollution and accidents are more common. The effects of high gas prices in reducing congestion, local pollution, and accident externalities could be substantial. These authors estimate the size of local driving externalities, aside from congestion costs, at 105 cents per gallon. Even after the sharp run up in gas prices, this may still exceed the 28 cents per gallon of actual state and local taxes, but the gap probably is small. It surely is a lot smaller than it was before gas prices exploded on the back of the climb in the cost of oil. In effect, by reducing driving, higher gasoline prices have already done much of the work in reducing externalities that bigger gas taxes would have done when prices were lower.

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Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

HAD Edmund Cartwright thought for one moment of the hardship and misery he was about to unleash on a vulnerable section of society, he would never have sat down to invent the power loom. Cartwright (1743-1823) was a Church of England minister, with a clergyman's love for his fellow man, so he would have been mortified to watch the long, agonising death throes of the hand-loom weaving industry that his invention caused. The 18th century was full of men who excelled in several different fields at the same time, but if anyone deserved the description of polymath, it was Cartwright. Born into a landed family in Marnham, Nottinghamshire, he was one of three brothers who all became nationally famous. John, born in 1740, would be one of Britain's best-known radical politicians while George, the eldest (born 1739) followed his army career by becoming a fur trapper and explorer in Canada. He earned the sobriquet of “Labrador Cartwright,” and was the first man to bring Eskimos to Britain – a family of five accompanied him back after one voyage and became favourites at Court. Edmund was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and University College, Oxford. He became a fellow of Magdalen College and while there, made a name for himself as a literary critic and a poet. His mythical poem Armine and Elvira ran to several editions and was described by Sir Walter Scott as “a “very beautiful piece.”Cartwright was marked down for the church and in 1772 he was appointed curate of Brampton, near Wakefield, moving, seven years later, to become vicar of Goadby Marwood in Leicestershire. It was here that his ingenuity first surfaced. Attending the sickbed of a young boy who was dying from putrid fever, or typhus, he spotted a tub of yeast in the room. Recalling an old tradition that rotting meat suspended over yeast would become pure and sweet again, he dosed the youngster with it – and cured him. He treated several other parishioners in the same way and with the same result, and the treatment was widely adopted by 18th-century medics. Still, Cartwright might have settled for rural obscurity in his rectory had it not been for a chance holiday encounter. THIS was Cartwright's first attempt at loom building - before he had seen how others did it. So, how did a man of the cloth become a man who made cloth? Cartwright tells the story of his invention in his own words, in an interview later in life with a representative of the Encyclopædia Britannica: “HAPPENING to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784, I fell in company with some gentlemen of Manchester, when th conversation turned on Arkwright's spinning machinery. One of the company observed that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected and so much cotton spun that hands would never be found to weave it. "To this I replied that Arkwright must then set his wits to work to invent a weaving mill.

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Historical and Art Topics

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friend problems, relationship problems or work difficulties. Physical symptoms can include fatigue, fidgeting, headaches, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, bouts of difficulty breathing, difficulty concentrating, trembling, twitching, irritability, agitation, sweating, restlessness, insomnia, hot flashes, rashes, and an inability to fully control the anxiety. These symptoms must be consistent and on-going, persisting at least 6 months, for a formal diagnosis of GAD to be introduced. Generalized anxiety disorder is estimated to occur in 5% of the general population. Women are generally more affected than men . Page 1 of 2 Dating Advice For Men

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Mental Health Disorders

Like butterflies? Enjoy birds? Garden with Vermont plants. Native plants can help turn your yard into a wonderful wildlife preserve. They provide butterflies, birds and bees the habitat and food they need to survive and reproduce, in turn supporting other forms of wildlife that get energy directly from plants or by eating something that has already eaten a plant. When land is converted to lawn or planted with non-native plants imported from Europe or Asia, native insects have a hard time finding something to eat because they are adapted to use particular plant species for food, lay eggs and hide from predators. Insect diversity and populations drop significantly when native plant species disappear - gardens with native plants have three times as many insect species and 35 times as much insect biomass as those with non-natives. Smaller populations means insects are not fulfilling the critical role they play in an ecosystem's food web. Here are a few things you can do to create a wildlife and insect haven in your yard: Plant native perennials, shrubs and trees. They offer birds the best variety and most abundant source of seasonal seeds, fruits and insects. Click here for a list of native Vermont plants and the insects they support. Replace lawns with woodlands, meadows, native gardens and shrubs. Reduce the need for labor-intensive, gas-consuming lawn care by planting low-maintenance, native vegetation. Provide pollinators a range of species that bloom throughout the season. Perennial beds do not include the seasonal variety that bees and other pollinators need. Include late-blooming native asters, goldenrods and sunflowers in your borders and meadows. Whenever possible, leave leaf litter alone. Many insects overwinter in leaf litter, so leaving it on the ground allows many species of moths and butterflies to make it through Vermont’s long winters. For example, leaf litter frequently contains moth eggs, so those moths cannot survive if leaf litter is bagged and sent to the landfill. Maintain naturally "messy" areas - leave woody debris alone. Many bees live alone or in colonies in twigs, stumps, dead branches or wood, and some birds nest on the ground and forage in leaf litter for insects.

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Invasive Species Management

Please Note: By clicking a link to any resource listed on this page, you will be leaving the KidsHealth site. Sickle Cell Disease Association of America This group provides education, advocacy, and other initiatives to promote awareness of and support for sickle cell disease programs. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) NINDS offers research information related to neurological disorders. United Cerebral Palsy This organization provides information about cerebral palsy (CP) as well as new research and therapies. National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY) NICHCY is the national information and referral center that provides information on disabilities and disability-related issues for families, educators, and other professionals.

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Public Health Resources

Take any point P inside an equilateral triangle. Draw PA, PB and PC from P perpendicular to the sides of the triangle where A, B and C are points on the sides. Prove that PA + PB + PC is a constant. Can you decide whether two lines are perpendicular or not? Can you do this without drawing them? The centre of the larger circle is at the midpoint of one side of an equilateral triangle and the circle touches the other two sides of the triangle. A smaller circle touches the larger circle and. . . . X is a moveable point on the hypotenuse, and P and Q are the feet of the perpendiculars from X to the sides of a right angled triangle. What position of X makes the length of PQ a minimum? The circumcentres of four triangles are joined to form a quadrilateral. What do you notice about this quadrilateral as the dynamic image changes? Can you prove your conjecture? It is impossible to trisect an angle using only ruler and compasses but it can be done using a carpenter's square. Find the area of the shaded region created by the two overlapping triangles in terms of a and b? Position the lines so that they are perpendicular to each other. What can you say about the equations of perpendicular lines? ABCD is a square. P is the midpoint of AB and is joined to C. A line from D perpendicular to PC meets the line at the point Q. Prove AQ = AD. At the time of writing the hour and minute hands of my clock are at right angles. How long will it be before they are at right angles

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Math Learning Resources