Datasets:

gair-prox

/

FineWeb-pro

like 22

Follow

GAIR-ProX 18

Benefits Of Fixed Exchange Rate Fixed exchange rate is a system where a nation’s government announces what its main currency is going to be worth and it also sets ups all guidelines of exchange. There are lots of gains from a fixed exchange system mainly because the government is in charge of regulating the performance of the currency. Discussed here are benefits of fixed exchange rate. 1. Reduces inflation Fixed exchange system helps in keeping inflation low and thus prevents the price of good from increasing rapidly, particularly during harsh monetary times. The main point is that when a nation is using the fixed exchange system, they require keeping inflation low so as to prevent the currency from falling below a specific target level. Conversely, in the floating exchange system, countries that experience high inflation merely devalue, and thus there is little anti-inflation restraint. 2. Lowers uncertainty A nation where the fixed exchange system is used enables companies to plan well ahead since they know the future prices and costs. This fact encourages more investment into the country since firms have better plans concerning the future. In contrast, if you experience quick appreciation in the other floating exchange system, this could make all exports uncompetitive. This would even drive you to bankruptcy because of the instability of the exchange system. 3. Removes automatic adjustments Fixed exchange systems do not automatically correct payments disequilibrium. Instead, such a system forces the government to undertake correction through increasing interest rates and reducing domestic demand. In consequence, this really restrains the domestic financial polices making sure that they do not focus on inflation and unemployment. In contrast, floating exchange systems liberates the domestic polices, while automatically devaluing the currency, so as to correct external imbalances. In conclusion, fixed exchange rate offers stability and may even enhance tourism as tourists visiting from other nations can budget beforehand as they know what their money will be worth.Benefits Of Fixed Exchange Rate

Spring seemed like the right time to share this project. Do you ever play the game where you see shapes in the clouds? You can incorporate that fun into this project. First, I want to share a favorite book with you. Sector 7 by David Wiesner (he also authored Tuesday) Sector 7 is the tale of a boy who gets an even more magical field trip than the one to the top of the Empire State Building -- he gets taken to the Cloud Dispatch Center for Sector 7 where they design and make all the clouds. It's a fun tale and beautifully illustrated. I had the boys pretend to work at Sector 7 and design their own clouds. - pencil and marker (optional) - school glue - blue tempera paint - shaving cream - a container First, prep the paper to look like a blueprint. I marked in from the edge a 1/2 inch to make a border around the paper. Inside the border I made a box. Mine was 1 inch tall by 4 inches wide. I added the words; Cloud form: (and when they designed it and named it we filled this in), Designer: (with their name). Remember to use all capital letters like they do in drafting. I also added Sector 7 to the top. At this point, I handed them over and later I decided to darken the lines with a marker. I would suggest doing it now because it will be easier. Now, mix up the cloud paint. It's basically the same as the snow paint if you did that project. We are going to mix approximately equal parts glue and shaving cream. First, add glue to your container. Add a small squirt of blue paint. And stir it together. Add the shaving cream and mix it all together. Make sure it is completely combined, but try not to stir too long, you want it to stay fluffy. Now, allow your kids to experiment with spoons and brushes to create their clouds. Will it look like a regular cloud? Is it a shape like an animal? Brushing makes it thin, and dabbing makes it puffy. When he or she is done, ask for the name of the cloud and add that to the blueprint. Gabe called his Cloud Form: 154. Malachi named his Cloud Form: Fusion. It does take awhile to dry, perhaps as long as overnight. But once it is dry it will stay puffed and have a velvety texture. It your child wanted to, he or she can go back in and draw measurement lines to show the dimensions. Take the blueprint thing as far as you want.

Gower, Humphrey (DNB00) GOWER, HUMPHREY, D.D. (1638-1711), master of St. John's College, Cambridge, son of Stanley Gower, successively rector of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire, and of Holy Trinity, Dorchester, and a member of the assembly of divines in 1643, was born at Brampton Bryan in 1638 and educated at St. Paul's and Dorchester schools, and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1658, was elected to a fellowship on 23 March 1658-9, and proceeded M.A. in 1662. Having taken holy orders, he was successively incumbent of Hammoon, Dorsetshire, to which living he was presented in April 1663, of Packlesham (1667-75), of Newton in the Isle of Ely (1675-7), and of Fen Ditton, to which he was collated on 4 July 1677. On 11 July 1679 he was appointed to the mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge, which he resigned for that of St. John's on 3 Dec. following, having in the meantime (1 Nov.) been appointed prebendary of Ely. He was vice-chancellor of the university in 1680-1, and in that capacity, on 18 Sept. 1681, he headed a deputation of dons which waited on the king at Newmarket. On the 17th he entertained Charles at dinner at St. John's, made him two Latin speeches, and gave him an English bible. There was much festivity both in town and university, and the conduits ran with wine. On 29 June 1688 Gower was appointed Lady Margaret's professor of divinity. In July 1693, twenty of the fellows of his college being nonjurors, a peremptory mandamus was issued against him requiring him to eject them. He refused on the ground that the mandamus should not have been made peremptory in the first instance. Steps were at once taken to indict him at the Cambridge assizes, but the grand jury threw out the bill. A mandamus nisi issued in the following October, but, the names of the nonjuring fellows having been omitted, Gower again refused to eject them, alleging that it did not appear who they were, and the court of king's bench declined to make the mandamus peremptory (Skinner, Rep. 360, 546, Modern Rep. iv. 233). No further proceedings seem to have been taken. Gower died at St. John's College on 27 March 1711, and was buried in the college chapel. By his will he left 500l. towards providing livings for the college, and a considerable estate at Thriplow, with a house for the use of the master, subject to a rent-charge of 20l. per annum towards maintaining two indigent scholars, sons of clergymen, educated either at Dorchester or St. Paul's School. He also left his books to the college library. Gower published: 1. 'A Discourse delivered in two Sermons in the Cathedral of Ely in September 1684,' Cambridge, 1685, 4to. 2. 'A Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall on Christmas Day, 1684,' London, 1685, 4to. He also wrote a biographical sketch of John Milner, the nonjuring vicar of Leeds, who died at St. John's College, Cambridge, on 16 Feb. 1702, which will be found in Thoresby's 'Vicaria Leodiensis,' p. 113.[Baker's Hist. of the College of St. John the Evangelist, ed. Mayor; Life of Ambrose Bonwicke, ed. Mayor; Gardiner's Admission Reg. of St. Paul's School; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.; Grad. Cant.; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, i. 127, 130, 446, iii. 144, 158-9, 191, 213.]

Jose Pichardo enrolled in a green-job training program at Sustainable South Bronx, a non-profit based in New York, after struggling to find construction work. Since completing the six-month program more than three years ago, he was hired to survey buildings to make them more energy efficient. “The whole world is pretty much going that way, becoming more energy efficient,” said Pichardo. “In the future, I’m really looking to get into geothermal and solar.” Just how many opportunities there are for mid and low-skilled workers, like Pichardo, to find work in the renewable energy field hinges on today’s election. President Barack Obama has pledged to create five million green jobs, while falling short of stated goals. Republican nominee Mitt Romney has said Obama’s “‘green energy’ agenda has been nothing short of a disaster.” “Opportunities for people who have had less education, less experience in the workforce, grow when there are pipelines into jobs through good training programs,” said Carol Zabin, a labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley. Still, some critics say green jobs, at all skill levels, have stunted growth in other areas of the labor market because of the industry’s dependence on state and federal funding. “When the government, through special favors, creates green jobs, it is actually taking resources away from other employment,” said Robert Bradley, chief executive officer of the Institute for Energy Research. “The problem is, you can’t see what you lost.” Green career prospects are also entangled with federal and state policies and whether lawmakers will reach a final deal to address the so-called fiscal cliff that includes funding for energy-related tax incentives. “Given this entanglement with policy, they are really susceptible to uncertainty,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “You have pending policy actions that will very much determine what the next few years look like,” in renewable energy.

This item displays what is displayed on the user's computer screen but can be manipulated with a digital pen and saved for later viewing. The interactive whiteboard uses touch detection for user input – e.g. scrolling, right mouse-click – in the same way normal PC input devices, such as a mouse or keyboard, detect input. A projector is used to display a computer's video output on the interactive whiteboard, which then acts as a large touch screen. The interactive whiteboard typically comes with four pens, which use digital ink and replace traditional whiteboard markers. Tablet computers are used primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, apps and web content. A tablet's size and weight fall between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The tablet is controlled by a multi-touch display and has a virtual onscreen keyboard. The tablet accesses the internet through WiFi and can easily be connected to a TV using S-VGA or HDMI using corresponding adaptor. This item provides a hard surface on which to write on that is displayed on the user's computer screen and can be saved digitally. Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications. Design professional layouts for print and digital publishing. Adobe® InDesign® CS4 software breaks down the barriers between online and offline publishing. Create compelling print layouts, immersive content for playback in the Adobe Flash® Player runtime, and interactive PDF documents. Additional licenses available through the helpdesk to be installed on instructor machines. Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing and image manipulation program. It can be used to create images, add to or edit existing photos and images. Users can rotate, crop, compress and save images in a variety of formats. Additional layer functionality allows users to preview different versions of an image before saving a final version. Photoshop can also be used to create web image galleries. Create dynamic flyers, posters, banners, and other promotional documents. Open-Sankoré is a free and open-source interactive whiteboard software compatible with any projector and pointing device.

If you stare long enough at the Queen’s face, you see that the Queen is a modernist project. To examine her we must start by divorcing the Queen from the Royal Family – most of all, from the previous Kings and Queens of England. Queen Elizabeth II, even though by her title she assumes the genealogy of her crown, the title and numeral of position, is a singular person with a conceptual quality distinct from other monarchs of the Empire. Only this Queen has been broadcast through the world at every moment of her life; only this Queen reigned through the post-war restructuring and all the events leading up to our present mode of life. The criticisms of Elizabeth II usually run the course of exposing that she is (1) a centre of actual physical power who controls army and state, even if only in moments of ratification, for this rubber-stamping could always be rejected, and thus she acts as final arbiter; (2) a mere mirror reflecting society, the pomp and majesty the lense of a corporate elite which knows no bounds and who must be checked (3) a last remaining fragment of a feudal society which has since expired. These three interpretations can all of course be well reabsorbed by the monarchists: (1) the centre of physical power is the exact check on the rampaging bourgeois elites that we wish to stop (the Lords are our saviour); (2) the Queen is a mirror of society but in all its grubbiness as well as is pomp – only the Queen can really reflect our social history; (3) this last remaining fragment is a ship in a stormy sea, battling against the abhorrent forces of modernity; all hail Prince Charles and his alliance with the humble lordship of the fields. What then does the Queen mean? She exists not as the representative of some aspect of a shared ideology which provides the source of power on which concept like ‘sovereign’ draw. To understand the kind of sovereignty invested in Queen Elizabeth II is not the same as asking what kind of sovereignty is exhibited in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or the World Trade Organisation. This is not a moment to reach for Hobbes and Locke. These are the explanatory notes emblems to those modes of power which we smell and feel in the batons on the street and the fences of fortress Europe. To equate the concept of the Queen to this kind of power is to delve into the minds of conspiracy theorists: the Queen simply is not an organiser of this capacity; the Royal Family in this regard is nothing but a land owner and, like all land owners, is entirely non-essential to the functioning of value and its processes. Instead the Queen is a valoriser. She continues to do this today, despite the trappings of bourgeois government – simply because the methods by which she exerts these processes of valorisation have nothing to do with feudal power, or at least no more or less than any other aspect of contemporary bourgeois society. The Queen is a modernist project, defended by he trappings of positivism. To show this, we need only turn to the family. How this could come to pass – that the cousins of the Queen could be essentially incarcerated due only to their mental handicap and the story make little difference to the nation’s perception of her – requires some history. In the 19th century the rise of capitalist modes of production gave rise to the institution, the parallel to the factory. While the factory housed those who could work, the institution housed those who could not. Some movements (often labelled progressive) compounded this with the working class educational movement, sometimes a hound of critique on the tailcoats of the capitalists, but more often a method by which the institution of those not in work could be turned into a factory of workers – ‘the Idiots could be trained’, pronounced the founder of Earlswood. The history weaves through a litany of laws on the Statute books the name of which we would rather forget: the Idiots Act of 1886, the Lunacy Act of 1890, the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act 1889. As a figure of one aspect of this movement, let’s take Sir Francis Galton, Charles Darwin’s cousin and author of ‘Hereditary Genius’. In 1907, he helped found the Eugenics Society, which spurned the creation of local associations across the UK in order to encourage ‘worthy’ couples to procreate and discourage the ‘unworthy’. The fledgling science of eugenics, commanded by the moralism of the Church, showed that the with the institutionalization and stratification of species also came the institutionalization of the family itself. In 1926, the same year that Queen Elizabeth was born and the country went on strike, the global outbreak of encephalitis lethargica (sleepy sickness) left many people with symptoms of catatonia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and speechlessness. The Mental Deficiency Act 1927 brought those affected by the disease into the doors of the Institutions, at the same time as taking the locks off those doors. Freedom, propagated as the great saviour, brought with it vastly increased numbers. Katherine was born in the same year as Elizabeth, and seems to have grown up with the rest of the family. Ger father died of pneumonia when she was 4. Nonetheless, we do not know what brought the Bowes-Lyon family to send her to Redbridge in 1941. Perhaps it was the war-time conditions. If this was the case, then it is not unfitting that the segregation of five members of the Royal Family (by the Royal Family) occurred while the roots of the welfare state were taking hold. Through the 1930s the professionalization of mental health care was part of a general movement which progressed towards the National Health Service; Beveridge’s provisions of 1942 included full unemployment, national insurance and a health service. Mental health, according to the post-war report ‘The Future Organization of the Psychiatric Services’ was to be brought in line with any other health department. ‘Care’ was the word of the day, and institutionalisation the method of choice in the new socialism. The socialism which built up the People’s Palace of the Southbank and which turned Katherine’s home into an NHS hospital in 1957 built itself around the Queen’s coronation in the 1950s. The hospitals were erected on the backs of a race-based labour exploitation pattern, through which the exploitation of the colonies was brought right back into the centre of things. Race-thought expands outwards as well as into the family itself. In 1987, the story of the Katherine and Nerissa was splashed on the front pages of the tabloids. Since then, the Queen has still not visited Katherine (despite being the patron of a whole host of charities for people with disabilities). The Royal Earlswood Hospital closed in 1997 (there have been claims that there were incidents of abuse there), and Katherine was moved to Ketwin House. Here there certainly were problems: complaints of bad practice, embezzlement and invasions of privacy. Ketwin House was consequentially closed in 2001, after which point Katherine was moved again, and still lives at an undisclosed home, still in Surrey. Earlswood and its redwood lined avenues is now divided into luxury flats. Flee the state The institution for the mentally handicapped takes it place alongside the prison, the asylum, the school, the barracks. Repressive, but also monumental. But what happens when the monument is hidden? This is not a story about the Queen’s secret, and nor can it be of Katherine’s experience. The antinomy of the Queen’s English and Katherine’s voicelessness is pronounced. Katherine is of course still an illusion; it is quite possible that she will never have a voice. This is not part of the juridification of the Queen, but her mechanism of maintaining the sense of fleeing from the state. For a body in the state, the greastest victory is to feel as if you have fled the state. There are a host of mechanisms for achieving this sensation. Celebrity is one of them: known by their first names, the whole point of the cinematic stars is that it’s difficult to imagine them with an ID card. Similarly the Queen. How could she even have a passport? But these sensations of having fled the state are exactly what the experience of the state has come to be. Could we suggest seriously, really, that the Queen has fled the state? With all its operations and mechanisms? Being on the outside of the state is the paradise. But the attempts to realise this ideal of exodus also carries with it the outward expending practices of segregation. Segregational modes of care the care of others have became costly. Legislation under New Labour become focussed on rights instead of needs (Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons’ Act). The recent Sayce report announced the closing of over half of the Remploy factories, meaning compulsory redundancy for 1,518 workers with disabilities. By 2013, the introduction of Personal Independence Payments will take the place of the Disability Living Allowance, explicitly to expel a fifth of claimants from the list. These policies are the direct effects of de-institutionalisation – but they clearly maintain with them still a technique of segregation. Historians of disability have noted this shift in the language and tactics of care from confinement to openness. We can see the outcome of this in the above policies – the Big Society, with all its thousands of laid off social workers, and its tough-love attitude. But the segregational care of the self must of course be reached at all costs. The root of disablism is not a hatred of the other, but this love of the self. The Queen is a loved-self, cared for not only by the public ceremonies, but also by an outwards identity constructed not only through a genealogy but also the physical barring of people who might undermine that identity. The Family stands not only as a unit of bourgeois society (a constructed but nonetheless very real economic unit), but also concurrently as a foundation of racialised thought. Pure, unstained, the Royal Family provide the radiant example of the post-war economic unit par excellence: suffering but victorious, beleaguered yet fortified. The tabloid scandals only add to the multitude of modernist phantoms which attack them and, by doing so, allow the hardened response its chance to operate. The silence in the face of the on-coming peril is no more than an exempla for the citizen: batten down the hatches, my subject, the modern will prevail.

Hilde A. Rinia, Rudy A. Demel, Jan P.J.M. van der Eerden and Ben de Kruijff Asymmetric bilayers of different phospholipid compositions have been prepared by the Langmuir-Blodgett (L-B) method, and imaged by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Such bilayers can function as a model for biological membranes. The first leaflet consisted of zwitterionic phospholipids phosphatidylcholine (PC) or phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). The second leaflet consisted of the anionic phospholipid phosphatidylglycerol (PG), in either the condensed or liquid phase or, for comparison, of PC. Different bilayers showed different morphology. In all bilayers defects in the form of holes were present. In some bilayers with a first leaflet consisting of PC, polygonal line-shaped defects were observed, whereas when the first leaflet consisted of PE, mainly round defects were seen. Not only the shape, but also the amount of defects varied, depending on the condition and the composition of the second leaflet. In most of the PG-containing systems the defects were surrounded by elevations, which reversibly disappeared in the presence of divalent cations. This is the first time that such elevations have been observed on phospholipid bilayers. We propose that they are induced by phospholipid exchange between the two leaflets around the defects, leading to the presence of negatively charged phospholipids in the first leaflet. Because the substrate is also negatively charged, the bilayer around the edges is repelled and lifted up. Since it was found that the elevations are indeed detached from the substrate, we refer to this effect as bilayer blistering. Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1963 kb) Biophysical Journal, Volume 98, Issue 11, 2 June 2010, Pages 2564-2573 Raquel F. Epand, Lee Maloy, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy and Richard M. Epand Five AHCAPs exhibiting a broad-spectrum of antimicrobial activity, were examined with regard to their action in lipid mixtures with two anionic lipids, PG and CL. We find that all of the peptides studied were capable of promoting the formation of crystalline phases of DMPG in mixtures of DMPG and CL, without prior incubation at low temperatures. This property is indicative of the ability of these peptides to cluster CL away from DMPG. In contrast, the well studied antimicrobial cationic peptide magainin 2 does not cluster anionic lipids. We ascribe the lower anionic lipid clustering ability of magainin to its low density of positive charges compared with the five other AHCAPs used in this work. The peptide MSI-1254 was particularly potent in segregating these two anionic lipids. Consequently, clusters enriched in DMPG appear in a lipid mixture with CL. These can rapidly form higher temperature crystalline phases because of the increased permeability of the bilayer caused by the AHCAPs. The polyaminoacids, poly-L-Lysine and poly-l-arginine are also very effective in causing this segregation. Thus, the clustering of anionic lipids by AHCAPs is not confined only to mixtures of anionic with zwitterionic lipids, but it extends to mixtures containing different anionic headgroups. The resulting effects, however, have different consequences to the biological activity. This finding broadens the scope for which an AHCAP agent will cluster lipids in a membrane. Abstract | Full Text | PDF (894 kb) Biophysical Journal, Volume 90, Issue 9, 1 May 2006, Pages 3165-3175 Chad Leidy, Lars Linderoth, Thomas L. Andresen, Ole G. Mouritsen, Kent Jørgensen and Günther H. Peters Secretory human phospholipase A2 type IIA (PLA2-IIA) catalyzes the hydrolysis of the sn-2 ester bond in glycerolipids to produce fatty acids and lysolipids. The enzyme is coupled to the inflammatory response, and its specificity toward anionic membrane interfaces suggests a role as a bactericidal agent. PLA2-IIA may also target perturbed native cell membranes that expose anionic lipids to the extracellular face. However, anionic lipid contents in native cells appear lower than the threshold levels necessary for activation. By using phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylglycerol model systems, we show that local enrichment of anionic lipids into fluid domains triggers PLA2-IIA activity. In addition, the compositional range of enzyme activity is shown to be related to the underlying lipid phase diagram. A comparison is done between PLA2-IIA and snake venom PLA2, which in contrast to PLA2-IIA hydrolyzes both anionic and zwitterionic membranes. In general, this work shows that PLA2-IIA activation can be accomplished through local enrichment of anionic lipids into domains, indicating a mechanism for PLA2-IIA to target perturbed native membranes with low global anionic lipid contents. The results also show that the underlying lipid phase diagram, which determines the lipid composition at a local level, can be used to predict PLA2-IIA activity. † Department of Life Sciences, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark ‡ Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark § Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Monomeric α-synuclein (αSN), which has no persistent structure in aqueous solution, is known to bind to anionic lipids with a resulting increase in α-helix structure. Here we show that at physiological pH and ionic strength, αSN incubated with different anionic lipid vesicles undergoes a marked increase in α-helical content at a temperature dictated either by the temperature of the lipid phase transition, or (in 1,2-DilauroylSN-Glycero-3-[Phospho-rac-(1-glycerol)] (DLPG), which is fluid down to 0°C) by an intrinsic cold denaturation that occurs around 10–20°C. This structure is subsequently lost in a thermal transition around 60°C. Remarkably, this phenomenon is only observed for vesicles >100 nm in diameter and is sensitive to lipid chain length, longer chain lengths, and larger vesicles giving more cooperative unfolding transitions and a greater degree of structure. For both vesicle size and chain length, a higher degree of compressibility or permeability in the lipid thermal transition region is associated with a higher degree of αSN folding. Furthermore, the degree of structural change is strongly reduced by an increase in ionic strength or a decrease in the amount of anionic lipid. A simple binding-and-folding model that includes the lipid phase transition, exclusive binding of αSN to the liquid disordered phase, the thermodynamics of unfolding, and the electrostatics of binding of αSN to lipids is able to reproduce the two thermal transitions as well as the effect of ionic strength and anionic lipid. Thus the nature of αSN's binding to phospholipid membranes is intimately tied to the lipids' physico-chemical properties.

Road rage, and web rage The growing power of the internet DRIVING a BMW sports car past unemployed workers waiting for work on street corners is a display of wealth and status that many among the ranks of China's urban poor would find galling enough. But imagine how they would feel if the wealthy driver, fuming after a brush with a tractor, ploughed into a group of people, causing death and injury. Just such an incident occurred last October outside a job centre in the depressed city of Harbin, about 1,000km (600 miles) north-east of Beijing. Two months later, the driver, Su Xiuwen, got only a suspended sentence for killing the tractor driver's wife and injuring 12 others. The court, oddly, was impressed by Miss Su's argument that she had little idea how to drive having obtained her licence illegally. China is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for BMWs, but the average urban resident of Harbin would take 100 years to earn enough to buy one. Miss Su's lawyer argued that the case would not have attracted such public interest if her client had been driving a cheaper brand. The ruling has triggered one of the biggest outpourings of internet rage ever seen in China. One of the country's most popular web portals, Sina.com, received some 200,000 postings on the subject in ten days, close to last year's reaction to the outbreak of the respiratory disease SARS. According to official figures, some 80m people are now regular internet users, nearly 35% more than in 2002. Many Chinese saw the verdict as proof that the judicial system is far too easily manipulated by the rich and powerful. Some official newspapers joined the furore. Southern Weekend said the public's response “reflected the almost complete loss of confidence in the judicial system among average citizens” and gave warning that there could be “serious” nationwide repercussions. Remarkably, the government appeared to buckle under the pressure, announcing in mid-January that the case would be re-examined. It has some reason to be worried. An official magazine, Oriental Outlook, said in December that last year saw a “flood” of petitions submitted by citizens to the central authorities complaining about official wrongdoing or judicial failings. It said the numbers of petitioners who made their way to Beijing was the biggest in 25 years, despite stringent efforts by many provincial governments to stop them. Li Xiguang, a journalism specialist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, says the government has decided to pay more attention to the internet. Many analysts believe that internet outcries last year shaped the government's response to other incidents, such as cellmates beating to death a student detained for failing to carry a residence permit, and the sentencing of a mafia boss in the north-east. The police were subsequently stripped of their power to detain those without permits, and the gangster's suspended death sentence was changed to execution. Mr Li sees a negative side to this internet populism. “Court decisions are so easily overthrown by chatroom comment, which represents only a segment of public opinion,” he says. “A democracy needs an independent judicial system.”

What is urine retention? Urine retention, or urinary retention, is a condition in which you are unable to voluntarily or completely empty your bladder. Your bladder is part of your urinary tract. Your urinary tract consists of your kidneys, two ureters (tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder), the bladder (an expandable organ that stores urine), and the urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the outside of your body). Bladder Problems Spotlight There are also many muscles and nerves that help your urinary tract function properly. Urinary retention can be caused by problems with your urinary tract itself or by problems with the muscles and nerves that help control your urinary tract. Urinary retention can be acute and arise suddenly, or it can be chronic and develop slowly with time. In chronic urinary retention, you are generally able to urinate, but you may have a variety of difficulties, such as starting and stopping, dribbling, frequent or urgent urination with little result, and a feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder. In contrast, acute urinary retention is the complete inability to urinate despite having a full bladder. Acute urinary retention is a life-threatening condition and should be treated as a medical emergency. Urine retention can affect both males and females of all ages. However, it occurs most often in men who are in their 50s and 60s, and the incidence increases with age. Men in this age group often suffer from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or enlargement of the prostate. The prostate surrounds the urethra and can obstruct or squeeze the urethra when it is enlarged, causing urinary retention. Other causes of urinary retention include infections, disorders of the bladder, injury or trauma, vaginal childbirth, side effects of certain medications, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and nerve damage. Treatment of urine retention depends of the type, severity and underlying cause of your condition. You can help minimize your symptoms and your risk of complications by following the treatment plan you and your healthcare professional design specifically for you. Acute urinary retention is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition. Seek immediate medical care (call 911) for serious symptoms, such as a sudden inability to urinate despite a full bladder, intense discomfort or pain in the abdomen or area above your pubic bone, and bloating in your lower abdomen or belly. Chronic urinary retention can lead to potentially serious complications and should be evaluated by your healthcare provider. Seek prompt medical care if you, or someone you are with, have symptoms of chronic urinary retention, such as frequent urination of small amounts of urine, weak stream of urine, or a feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder. What are the symptoms of urine retention? What causes urine retention? Urinary retention can be caused by problems with the urinary tract itself or by problems with the muscles and nerves that help your urinary tract function properly. Your urinary tract consists of your kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra.... Read more about urine retention causes How is urine retention treated?

Genus (plural, genera), a primary category of biological classification, is the first in the pair of names used worldwide to specify any particular organism. In the hierarchical order of the modern biological taxonomy or classification, the genus level lies below the family and above the species. A representative genus-species name for an organism is that of the human being biologically named and classified as Homo sapiens sapiens (Latin for "wise wise man"). The genus of humans then is Homo. Genus necessarily includes one or more species, which themselves are generally grouped so the species comprising a group exhibit similar characteristics (anatomy, physiology), or assumed evolutionary relatedness. Scientific or biological classification is the massive enterprise by which biologists group and categorize all extinct and living species of organisms. Modern biological taxonomy has its roots in the system of Carolus Linnaeus, who grouped species according to shared physical characteristics. Groupings have been revised since Linnaeus to reflect the Darwinian principle of common descent. Molecular systematics, which uses genomic DNA analysis, has driven many recent revisions and is likely to continue to do so. Scientific classifications are generally hierarchical in structure. Between family and species, other categories also are used sometimes, such as subfamily (above genus) and subgenus (below genus). Taxonomic use of genus A genus in one kingdom or domain is allowed to bear a name that is in use as a genus name or other taxon name in another kingdom. Although this is discouraged by both the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, there are some 5,000 such names that are in use in more than one kingdom. For instance, Anura is the name of the order of frogs, but also is used for the name of a genus of plants; Aotus is the genus of golden peas and night monkeys; Oenanthe is the genus of wheatears (a bird) and water dropworts (a plant); and Prunella is the genus of accentors (a bird) and self-heal (a plant). Obviously, within the same kingdom, one generic name can apply to only one genus. This explains why the platypus genus is named Ornithorhynchus—George Shaw named it Platypus in 1799, but the name Platypus had already been given to the pinhole borer beetle by Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst in 1793. Since beetles and platypuses are both members of the kingdom Animalia, the name Platypus could not be used for both. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach published the replacement name Ornithorhynchus in 1800. Homonyms are names with the same form but applying to different taxa. Synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. The boundaries between genera are historically subjective. However, with the advent of phylogenetics (the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms as gauged by genetic analysis; also called phylogenetic systematics), it is increasingly common for all taxonomic ranks (at least) below the class level, to be restricted to demonstrably monophyletic groupings, as has been the aim since the advent of evolutionary theory. A group is monophyletic (Greek: "of one race") if it consists of an inferred common ancestor and all its descendants. For example, all organisms in the genus Homo are inferred to have come from the same ancestral form in the family Hominidae, and no other descendants are known. Thus the genus Homo is monophyletic. (A taxonomic group that contains organisms but not their common ancestor is called polyphyletic, and a group that contains some but not all descendants of the most recent common ancestor is called paraphyletic.) Groves (2004) notes that "it is not possible to insist on monophyly at the specific level, but it is mandatory for the higher categories (genus, family, etc.)." In the better-researched groups like birds and mammals, most genera are clades already, with clade referring to a group of organisms comprising a single common ancestor and all its descendants; that is, a monophyletic group. Rules-of-thumb for delimiting a genus are outlined in Gill et al. (2005). According to these, a genus should fulfill three criteria to be descriptively useful: - monophyly - all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together; - reasonable compactness - a genus should not be expanded needlessly; and - distinctness - in regards of evolutionarily relevant criteria, i.e. ecology, morphology, or biogeography. Neither the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) or the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) require such criteria for establishing a genus; they rather cover the formalities of what makes a description valid. Therefore, there has been for long a vigorous debate about what criteria to consider relevant for generic distinctness. At present, most of the classifications based on phenetics—numerical taxonomy, an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, usually in morphology or other observable traits, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relation—are being gradually replaced by new ones based on cladistics. Phenetics was only of major relevance for a comparatively short time around the 1960s before it turned out to be unworkable. The three criteria given above are almost always fulfillable for a given clade. An example where at least one is violated, no matter the generic arrangement, is the dabbling ducks of the genus Anas, which are paraphyletic in regard to the extremely distinct moa-nalos (extinct flightless Hawaiian waterfowl). Considering the dabbling ducks as comprising a distinct genera (as is usually done) violates criterion one, including them in Anas violates criterion two and three, and splitting up Anas so that the mallard and the American black duck are in distinct genera violates criterion three. Each genus must have a designated type species. A type species is the nominal species that is the name-bearing type of a nominal genus (or subgenus). (The term "genotype" was once used for this but has been abandoned because the word has been co-opted for use in genetics, and is much better known in that context). Ideally, a type species best exemplifies the essential characteristics of the genus to which it belongs, but this is subjective and, ultimately, technically irrelevant, as it is not a requirement of the Code. The description of a genus is usually based primarily on its type species, modified and expanded by the features of other included species. The generic name is permanently associated with the name-bearing type of its type species. If the type species proves, upon closer examination, to be assignable to another pre-existing genus (a common occurrence), then all of the constituent species must be either moved into the pre-existing genus, or disassociated from the original type species and given a new generic name. The old generic name passes into synonymy, and is abandoned, unless there is a pressing need to make an exception (decided case-by-case, via petition to the ICZN or ICBN). A type genus is that genus from which the name of a family or subfamily is formed. As with type species, the type genus is not necessarily the most representative, but is usually the earliest described, largest, or best known genus. It is not uncommon for the name of a family to be based upon the name of a type genus that has passed into synonymy; the family name does not need to be changed in such a situation.

- "Of the interior." Here the phrase of the G.T. is again "en fra tere a mainte cite et castiaus." (See supra, Bk. I. ch. i. note 2.) There was still a large horse-trade from Kalhat in 1517, but the Portuguese compelled all to enter the port of Goa, where according to Andrea Corsali they had to pay a duty of 40 saraffi per head. If these ashrafis were pagodas, this would be about 15l. a head; if they were dinars, it would be more than 20l. The term is now commonly applied in Hindustan to the gold mohr. When you leave the City of Calatu, and go for 300 miles between north-west and north, you come to the city of Hormos; a great and noble city on the sea.[NOTE 1] It has a Melic, which is as much as to say a King, and he is under the Soldan of Kerman. There are a good many cities and towns belonging to Hormos, and the people are Saracens. The heat is tremendous, and on that account their houses are built with ventilators to catch the wind. These ventilators are placed on the side from which the wind comes, and they bring the wind down into the house to cool it. But for this the heat would be utterly unbearable. I shall say no more about these places, because I formerly told you in regular order all about this same city of Hormos, and about Kerman as well. But as we took one way to go, and another to come back, it was proper that we should bring you a second time to this point. Now, however, we will quit this part of the world, and tell you about Great Turkey. First, however, there is a point that I have omitted; to wit, that when you leave the City of Calatu and go between west and north-west, a distance of 500 miles, you come to the city of Kis.[NOTE 3] Of that, however, we shall say no more now, but pass it with this brief mention, and return to the subject of Great Turkey, of which you shall now NOTE 1. - The distance is very correct; and the bearing fairly so for the first time since we left Aden. I have tried in my map of Polo's Geography to realise what seems to have been his idea of the Arabian coast. NOTE 2. - These ventilators are a kind of masonry windsail, known as Bad-gir, or "wind-catchers," and in general use over Oman, Kerman, the province of Baghdad, Mekran, and Sind. A large and elaborate example, from Hommaire de Hell's work on Persia, is given in the cut above. Very particular accounts of these ventilators will be found in P. della Valle, and in the embassy of Don Garcias de Silva Figueroa. (Della Val. II. 333-335; Figueroa, Fr. Trans. 1667, p. 38; Ramus. I. 293 v.; Macd. Kinneir, p. 69.) A somewhat different arrangement for the same purpose is in use in Cairo, and gives a very peculiar character to the city when seen from a moderate height. ["The structures [at Gombroon] are all plain atop, only Ventoso's, or Funnels, for to let in the Air, the only thing requisite to living in this fiery Furnace with any comfort; wherefore no House is left without this contrivance; which shews gracefully at a distance on Board Ship, and makes the Town appear delightful enough to Beholders, giving at once a pleasing Spectacle to Strangers, and kind Refreshment to the Inhabitants; for they are not only elegantly Adorned without, but conveniently Adapted for every Apartment to receive the cool Wind within." (John Fryer, Nine Years' Travels, Lond., 1698, p. 222.)] inhabitants are white and of a pure race and eight Chinese feet tall. They wear under a Turban their hair loose partly hanging on their neck. Their dress consists of a foreign jacket and a light silk or cotton overcoat, with red leather shoes. They use gold and silver coins. Their food consists of wheaten bread, mutton, fish and dates; they do not eat rice. The country produces pearls and horses of a superior quality." - H.C.] The Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali, who was sent in 1553 to command the Ottoman fleet in the Persian Gulf, and has written an interesting account of his disastrous command and travels back to Constantinople from India, calls the Island Kais, or "the old Hormuz." This shows that the traditions of the origin of the island of Hormuz had grown dim. Kish had preceded Hormuz as the most prominent port of Indian trade, but old Hormuz, as we have seen (Bk. I. ch. xix.), was quite another place. (J. As. ser. i, tom. ix. 67.) Note. - A considerable number of the quasi-historical chapters in this section (which I have followed M. Pauthier in making into a Fourth Book) are the merest verbiage and repetition of narrative formulae without the slightest value. I have therefore thought it undesirable to print all at length, and have given merely the gist (marked thus <+>), or an extract, of such chapters.

Feeding the Five Thousand – or was it Three? Researchers Claim Most Crowd Estimations Are Unreliable The public should view crowd estimation with scepticism, say the authors of a study in Significance. You selected: Physics & Mathematics What would happen if you applied the data visualisation techniques of 2012 to data from the 1980s? John Wiley & Sons, Inc., today announced a continued increase in the proportion of its journal titles indexed in the Thomson ISI® 2011 Journal Citation Reports (JCR). A total of 1,156 Wiley titles (approximately 76%) were indexed, representing an increase of 5% from the 2010 JCR, and including 43 titles which have been indexed for the first time. Features contributions written by leading specialists from the global financial arena, this handbook provides a collection of original ideas on foreign exchange (FX) rates and equips readers with the relevant concepts and policies for working in today's international economic climate. Wiley is pleased to announce publication of a new major reference work, the Wiley Encyclopedia of Composites, 5 Volume Set, 2nd Edition Usain Bolt can achieve faster running times with no extra effort on his part or improvement to his fitness, according to a study published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Cambridge Professor of Mathematical Sciences John D. Barrow illustrates how, based on concrete mathematical evidence, Bolt can cut his world record from 9.58 seconds to 9.45. Announcing Advanced Optical Materials: The new journal section from Wiley-VCH’s Advanced Materials collection Wiley-VCH, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, announced the launch of Advanced Optical Materials, the new section in Advanced Materials collection, publishing high-impact papers on all aspects of light-matter interactions. Wiley-Blackwell today announced a partnership with the Society of Actuaries to publish six prestigious publications in the field of actuarial science beginning in 2012. Potentially key fingerprint evidence is currently not being considered due to shortcomings in the way it is reported, according to a report published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Researchers involved in the study have devised a statistical model to enable the weight of fingerprint evidence to be quantified, paving the way for its full inclusion in the criminal identification process. The production of ethanol from lignocellulose-rich materials such as wood residues, waste paper, used cardboard and straw cannot yet be achieved at the same efficiency and cost as from corn starch. A cost comparison has concluded that using lignocellulose materials is unlikely to be competitive with starch until 2020 at the earliest. The study, published in the international journal Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, did identify many opportunities for reducing costs and improving income within the lignocellulose-to-ethanol process, and provides insight into the priority areas that must be addressed in coming years. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (NYSE:JWa) (NYSE:JWb), is pleased to learn that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 with one half to Professor Saul Perlmutter and the other half to Professors Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess. Victor Technology announces licensing agreement with Wiley for “For Dummies®” branded Personal Financial Calculator Victor Technology announces today an agreement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc., to manufacture and distribute the Personal Financial Calculator For Dummies. The new product is designed to help people take charge of their personal finances. Space Exploration For Dummies® Guides Students and “Armchair Astronauts” through Astronomy, Rocket Science, and Planetary Geology Space Exploration For Dummies® takes readers through the evolution of space exploration -- from the birth of the Space Shuttle to the creation of the Mir Space Station to successes and failures in Mars exploration. Mind Games: 31 Days to Rediscover Your Brain (March 2011 U.S.) is a collection of practical and entertaining thought experiments that while stimulating the mind, can also be used as a vehicle for investigating the complexities of thought, feeling, and awareness. Introducing the Definitive Resource on Operations Research and Management Science An international team of scientists studying remnants of an asteroid that crashed into the Nubian Desert in October 2008 discovered it contained at least 10 different types of meteorites, Meteoritics and Planetary Science reports In the Significance paper Press, based in the departments of Computer Science and Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, takes a thorough mathematical and statistical view of the process that underlies racial profiling, and concludes that some forms of racial profiling may even result in a smaller chance of detaining a terrorist than carefully conducted standard sampling. Wiley is proud to publish the landmark reference on the science and technology of flight, in print and online formats. In two landmark studies published today in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis (DTA), UK and Swiss research teams reveal two techniques proven to identify dissolved cocaine in bottles of wine or rum. The details behind every one of the concepts at the heart of Hawking's explanation - string theory, particle physics, relativity, extra dimension, parallel universes, the big bang, and so on - are covered in this easy-to-read guide.

SL Psychology/Cognition and modeling Social Learning Theory Social Learning Theory is learning through the medium of a social context. It's overall premise is that people learn from one and other through such tools as observational learning, imitation, and modeling. There are 4 overall principles to social learning: 1. People learn by observation of others, being that a subject observes anothers behavior and witnesses that behavior's outcome. 2. Learning may or may not result in a behavarial change. Social theorists say people may learn through observation alone, but of their execution of the task may not demonstrate learned behavior. 3. Cognition plays an important role, overall humans have shown that awareness and expectation of certain outcome severely influences behavior. 4. The social learning theory can be seen as a link between behaviorist learning theories and cognitive learning theories. Albert Bandura and Modeling Bandura's experiments dealing with the concept of modeling revolves aroud his work with Bobo dolls. He displayed a video to Pre-age children where an adult beat up on a doll, called it mean names, and displayed hostile behavior. For the next step, Bandura split the children into groups, and each group watched a video with a different outcome for the aggressive behavior. One video showed the adult being rewarded for his behavior, the second the subject being punished, and the third video showed no consequences. He then studied the differences between how male children and female children reacted to this video in regard to whether they imitated the observed behavior or not. In conclusion, males in all cases imitated the observed adults behavior more so than females. The results support that the children who watched the video in which the person was rewarded for his actions repeated the behaviors more so than when the person was punished or did not receive either a punishment or reward. Overall this experiment supports Bandura's theory that people learn by observing others.

Chinese Giant in 1870 Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey Wasserstrom wrote in Time: “ Chinese cultural tradition features regional and ethnic variations of sufficient breadth to support dozens of doctoral theses. We need to think about China, with its mutually unintelligible languages — not merely dialects — as more equivalent to a continent than a country. Asians, Africans, Europeans and Americans both South and North shouldn't find it hard to appreciate that a continent-size country might have a culture that is more complex than outsiders imagine or populist nationalists imply.” [Source: Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Time, January 1 2011] About half of all Chinese now live in urban areas (compared to 76 percent in the U.S.); the population is only growing at the rate of 0.6 percent a year (compared to -.2 percent in Britain and 3.0 percent in Kenya); and the average life expectancy is 70 for men and 74 for women. Genetic studies of 28 of China's 56 ethnic groups, published by the Chinese Human Genome Diversity Project in 2000, indicate that the first Chinese descended from Africans who migrated along the Indian Ocean and made their way to China via Southeast Asia. Nearly all Chinese have black hair and brown eyes. One elderly Chinese man told Newsweek, "We all have black hair and yellow skin. Not like you Americans, with rice and wheat all mixed up with other grains." See Chinese People and DNA About 90 percent of Chinese have flat faces, flat noses and shovel shaped teeth. About 95 percent of all Chinese are lactase deficient. This means they have problems digesting milk products. Horizon is China's top polling and market research firm. Good Websites and Sources: Chinese Personality book on PDF file ihome.ust.hk Book: Understanding the Chinese Personality mellenpress.com ; Chinese Personality and Work personality.cn ; Negotiating and Building Relationships with Chinese by Sidney Rittenberg cic.sfu.ca ; Understanding Chinese Business Culture legacee.com ; Status of Chinese People Blog chinaview.wordpress.com ; Chinese Human Genome Diversity Project www.pnas.org ; Difference Between Chinese and Japanese, a Blog Report socyberty.com ; Opinions on Asian Fetish colorq.org ; Wikipedia article on the Mongoloid Race Wikipedia ; Chinese Personality Constructs highwire.org ; Old Chinese jokes China Vista ; Essay on Humor, China and Japan aboutjapan.japansociety.org Links in this Website: CHINESE PEOPLE Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE PEOPLE AND DNA Factsanddetails.com/China ;CHINESE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS Factsanddetails.com/China ; REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE SOCIETY, CONFUCIANISM, CROWDS AND VILLAGES Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE SOCIETY AND COMMUNISM Factsanddetails.com/China ; CLASSIC CHINESE LITERATURE Factsanddetails.com/China ; MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE Factsanddetails.com/China ; MODERN CHINESE WRITERS Factsanddetails.com/China ; RELIGION, FOLK BELIEFS AND DEATH ( Main Page, Click Religion) Factsanddetails.com/China JAPANESE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPANESE SOCIETY Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; Han Diversity and Unity The differences among regional and linguistic subgroups of Han Chinese are at least as great as those among many European nationalities. Han Chinese speak seven or eight mutually unintelligible dialects, each of which has many local subdialects. Cultural differences (cuisine, costume, and custom) are equally great. Modern Chinese history provides many examples of conflict, up to the level of small-scale regional wars, between linguistic and regional groups. [Source: Library of Congress] Han Chinese “Such diversities, however, have not generated exclusive loyalties, and distinctions in religion or political affiliation have not reinforced regional differences. Rather, there has been a consistent tendency in Chinese thought and practice to downplay intra-Han distinctions, which are regarded as minor and superficial. What all Han share is more significant than the ways in which they differ. In conceptual terms, the boundary between Han and non-Han is absolute and sharp, while boundaries between subsets of Han are subject to continual shifts, are dictated by local conditions, and do not produce the isolation inherent in relations between Han and minority groups. [Ibid] “Han ethnic unity is the result of two ancient and culturally central Chinese institutions, one of which is the written language. Chinese is written with ideographs (sometimes called characters) that represent meanings rather than sounds, and so written Chinese does not reflect the speech of its author. The disjunction between written and spoken Chinese means that a newspaper published in Beijing can be read in Shanghai or Guangzhou, although the residents of the three cities would not understand each other's speech. It also means that there can be no specifically Cantonese (Guangzhou dialect) or Hunanese literature because the local speech of a region cannot be directly or easily represented in writing. (It is possible to add local color to fiction, cite colloquialisms, or transcribe folk songs, but it is not commonly done.) Therefore, local languages have not become a focus for regional selfconsciousness or nationalism. Educated Chinese tend to regard the written ideographs as primary, and they regard the seven or eight spoken Han Chinese dialects as simply variant ways of pronouncing the same ideographs. This is linguistically inaccurate, but the attitude has significant political and social consequences. The uniform written language in 1987 continued to be a powerful force for Han unity. [Ibid] “The other major force contributing to Han ethnic unity has been the centralized imperial state. The ethnic group takes its name from the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220). Although the imperial government never directly controlled the villages, it did have a strong influence on popular values and culture. The average peasant could not read and was not familiar with the details of state administration or national geography, but he was aware of belonging to a group of subcontinental scope. Being Han, even for illiterate peasants, has meant conscious identification with a glorious history and a state of immense proportions. Peasant folklore and folk religion assumed that the imperial state, with an emperor and an administrative bureaucracy, was the normal order of society. In the imperial period, the highest prestige went to scholar-officials, and every schoolboy had the possibility, at least theoretically, of passing the civil service examinations and becoming an official. [Ibid] “The prestige of the state and its popular identification with the highest values of Chinese civilization were not accidents; they were the final result of a centuries-long program of indoctrination and education directed by the Confucian scholar-officials. Traditional Chinese society can be distinguished from other premodern civilizations to the extent that the state, rather than organized religious groups or ethnic segments of society, was able to appropriate the symbols of wisdom, morality, and the common good. The legacy for modern Chinese society has been a strong centralized government that has the right to impose its values on the population and against which there is no legitimate right of dissent or secession. [Ibid] Han Chinese and Minorities The Han Chinese—the ethnic group that embraces Mandarin-, Shanghai- and Cantonese-speaking Chinese—make up 92 percent of the population of China, which adds up to over one billion people. The Han Chinese hail from China's Northeast Plain and the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys. Today they are scattered all over the country and many non-Han Chinese feel that their homelands are being overrun by them. Most of the population of Taiwan and Singapore and most of the Chinese found elsewhere in the world are Han Chinese. The Han Chinese created present day China in many cases by conquering territory and overpowering local tribes by sheer numbers through mass migrations. Tribal kingdoms in Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan have a long history of battling the Han Chinese for control of their homelands. Some of these were driven by the Han Chinese from fertile valleys into the hills and mountains where they now live. The remainder of China's population is comprised of 55 other ethnic groups. Although they make up only 8 percent of the population, these ethnic minorities still add up to 91 million people, which is a larger population than all but ten countries in the world. These minorities occupy 64 percent of China's land, much of it remote and sparsely populated. Many minorities live in compact communities at the upper reaches of large rivers and in border regions. Much of the land they occupy, such as Xinjiang, is rich in minerals, oil and other resources. There are 18 ethnic groups with over a million people. They include Tibetans, Mongolians, Uygurs, Zhuang, Manchus and Koreans. The smallest ethnic, the Lhoba, has only about 2,300 members. Many of the ethnic groups still dress in traditional clothes and some of them have some very unusual customs. Cultural Diversity Within the Han The peoples identified as Han comprise 91 percent of the population, from Beijing in the north to Canton in the south, and include the Hakka, Fujianese, Cantonese and others. These Han are thought to be united by a common history, culture and written language; differences in language, dress, diet and customs are regarded as minor. An active, state-sponsored program assists the official minority cultures and promotes their economic development (with mixed results). [Source: By Dru C. Gladney, Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2009, Dru Gladney is president of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College] Cultural diversity within the Han has not been officially recognized because of a deep (and well-founded) fear of the country breaking up into feuding kingdoms, as happened in the 1910s and 1920s. China has historically been divided along north-south lines, into Five Kingdoms, Warring States or local satrapies, as often as it has been united. Indeed, China as it currently exists, including large pieces of territory occupied by Mongols, Turkic peoples, Tibetans, etc., is three times as large as it was under the last Chinese dynasty, the Ming, which fell in 1644. A strong, centralizing government (whether of foreign or internal origin) has often tried to impose ritualistic, linguistic, economic and political uniformity throughout its borders. “ [Ibid] The supposedly homogenous Han speak eight mutually unintelligible languages (Mandarin, Wu, Yue, Xiang, Hakka, Gan, Southern Min and Northern Min). Even these subgroups show marked linguistic and cultural diversity. In the Yue language family, for example, Cantonese speakers are barely intelligible to Taishan speakers, and the Southern Min dialects of Quanzhou, Changzhou and Xiamen are equally difficult to communicate across. The Chinese linguist Y. R. Chao has shown that the mutual unintelligibility of, say, Cantonese and Mandarin is as great as that of Dutch and English or French and Italian. Mandarin was imposed as the national language early in the 20th century and has become the lingua franca, but, like Swahili in Africa, it must often be learned in school and is rarely used in everyday life across much of China. “ [Ibid] Interestingly, most...southern groups traditionally regarded themselves not as Han but as Tang, descendants of the great Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) and its southern bases. Most Chinatowns in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia are inhabited by descendants of Chinese immigrants from the mainly Tang areas of southern China. The next decade may see the resurgence of Tang nationalism in southern China in opposition to northern Han nationalism, especially as economic wealth in the south eclipses that of the north. Some have postulated that the heavy coverage by the state-sponsored media of the riots in Xinjiang, as opposed to the news blackout in Tibet, was a deliberate effort to stimulate Han Chinese nationalism and antiminority ethnic sentiment, in an effort to bring the majority population together during a period of economic and social instability. “ [Ibid] Tall and Chubby Chinese Bao Xishun The average height of the Chinese male is 5 foot 6 inches. But Chinese are getting taller. The average Chinese child in six centimeters, or around two inches, taller and three kilograms or seven pounds heavier than 30 years ago according to the Chinese Health Ministry. The increases have largely been attributed to improved health and nutrition. There are now many Chinese over six feet tall and some over seven feet (See Yao Ming and Basketball). Tallness in China seems to be a good example of the saying if you are one in a million in China there are a thousand others just like you. When foreigners visit Beijing they often surprised by how large the people are there. One sports agent told Sports Illustrated, "If foreigners think the Chinese people aren't big, it's because for years they've seen only people from Guangzhou or Hong Kong. It’s true that south of the Yangtze River most people are short. There they say to big guys—they call them 'long guys'—'You’re wasting clothes!' But people north of the Yangtze can be very big." For a while a 2.36-meter-tall Chinese man named Bao Xishun was listed as the world’s tallest man. In March 2007, at the age of 56, he married a woman half his age and half his height. According to the Guinness Book of Records the world’s tallest man in 2007 was a 2.57-meter-tall Ukranian named Leonid Stadnik. According to the Guinness Book of Records the tallest woman ever was Zeng Jinlian of Yuijang village. She died in 1982 and was 8-feet-1ľinches tall. She began to grow abnormally at the age of four months and was over five feet when she was four. Her feet measured 14 inches. Until recently most Chinese males were “hard and thin.” Now many urban dwellers have “boss bellies.” Northern Chinese Versus Southern Chinese People from northern and southern China are physically and genetically different from one another. Head shape, body size and susceptibility to disease vary greatly between the north and south. People from Beijing and northern China are often heavier and taller and have broader shoulders, lighter skin, smaller eyes and more pointed noses than Southerners. They favor noodles over rice, have the blood of horsemen from Manchuria and Mongolia, and are regarded as "imperious, quarrelsome, rather aloof, political, proud, and less ostentatious and flashy with their money than Southerners.” Beijingers often saw goodbye to one another with an expression that is translated as "Take it slow." People from Shanghai, Canton and southern China are generally smaller, thinner, browner, and have rounder eyes and more rounded noses than Northerners. They favor rice over noodles, looks more like Vietnamese, Filipinos and Southeast Asians and are regarded as "talkative, friendly, complacent, sloppy, commercial-minded and materialistic." The dividing line between Northerners and Southerners is the Yangtze River. In the 19th century one man from northern China wrote: "The Cantonese...are a course set of people...Before the times of Han and Tang, this country was quite wild and wasted, and these people have sprung forth unconnected, unsettled vagabonds that wandered here from the north." Assimilation and Minorities in China Over the centuries a great many peoples who were originally not Chinese have been assimilated into Chinese society. Entry into Han society has not demanded religious conversion or formal initiation. It has depended on command of the Chinese written language and evidence of adherence to Chinese values and customs. For the most part, what has distinguished those groups that have been assimilated from those that have not has been the suitability of their environment for Han agriculture. People living in areas where Chinese-style agriculture is feasible have either been displaced or assimilated. The consequence is that most of China's minorities inhabit extensive tracts of land unsuited for Han-style agriculture; they are not usually found as long-term inhabitants of Chinese cities or in close proximity to most Han villages. Those living on steppes, near desert oases, or in high mountains, and dependent on pastoral nomadism or shifting cultivation, have retained their ethnic distinctiveness outside Han society. The sharpest ethnic boundary has been between the Han and the steppe pastoralists, a boundary sharpened by centuries of conflict and cycles of conquest and subjugation. Reminders of these differences are the absence of dairy products from the otherwise extensive repertoire of Han cuisine and the distaste most Chinese feel for such typical steppe specialties as tea laced with butter. [Source: Library of Congress] “Official policy recognizes the multiethnic nature of the Chinese state, within which all "nationalities" are formally equal. On the one hand, it is not state policy to force the assimilation of minority nationalities, and such nonpolitical expressions of ethnicity as native costumes and folk dances are encouraged. On the other hand, China's government is a highly centralized one that recognizes no legitimate limits to its authority, and minority peoples in far western Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region, for example, are considered Chinese citizens just as much as Han farmers on the outskirts of Beijing are. [Ibid] “Official attitudes toward minority peoples are inconsistent, if not contradictory. Since 1949 policies toward minorities have fluctuated between tolerance and coercive attempts to impose Han standards. Tolerant periods have been marked by subsidized material benefits intended to win loyalty, while coercive periods such as the Cultural Revolution have attempted to eradicate "superstition" and to overthrow insufficiently radical or insufficiently nationalistic local leaders. [Ibid] “What has not varied has been the assumption that it is the central government that decides what is best for minority peoples and that national citizenship takes precedence over ethnic identity. In fact, minority nationality is a legal status in China. The government reserves for itself the right to determine whether or not a group is a minority nationality, and the list has been revised several times since the 1950s. Most Han Chinese have no contact with members of minority groups. But in areas such as the Tibet or Xinjiang autonomous regions, where large numbers of Han have settled since the assertion of Chinese central government authority over them in the 1950s, there is clearly some ethnic tension. The tension stems from Han dominance over such previously independent or semi-autonomous peoples as the Tibetans and Uygurs, from Cultural Revolution attacks on religious observances, and from Han disdain for and lack of sensitivity to minority cultures. In the autonomous areas the ethnic groups appear to lead largely separate lives. [Ibid] Melting Pot China? Dongxiang child Dru C. Gladney, Wall Street Journal, “Indeed, one might even say it has become popular to be ‘ethnic’ in today’s China. Mongolian hot pot, Muslim noodle and Korean barbecue restaurants proliferate in every city, while minority clothing, artistic motifs and cultural styles adorn Chinese private homes. In Beijing, one of the most popular restaurants is the Tibetan chain Makye-ame. There, the nouveau riche of Beijing eat exotic foods such as yak kabobs served by beautiful waitresses in Tibetan clothing during Tibetan music and dance performances.” [Source: By Dru C. Gladney, Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2009, Dru Gladney is president of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College] “With the dramatic economic explosion in South China, southerners and others have begun to assert cultural and political differences. Whereas comedians used to make fun of southern ways and accents, southerners (especially Shanghainese) now scorn northerners for their lack of sophistication and business acumen. As any Mandarin-speaking Beijing resident will tell you, bargaining for vegetables or cellular telephones in Guangzhou or Shanghai markets is becoming more difficult for them due to growing pride in the local languages: Non-native speakers always pay a higher price. Rising self-awareness among the Cantonese is paralleled by the reassertion of identity among the Hakka, the southern Fujianese Min, the Swatow and other peoples now empowered by economic success and embittered by age-old restraints from the north. “ [Ibid] “To support their policies the he Chinese have argued they are justly proud of the ethnic diversity of China. Why should nationality be defined by language or ethnicity? If Tibetans should be allowed to break away from China, why not the Welsh from Britain, the Basques from Spain, the Kurds from Turkey, or the Kashmiris from India?” [Source:Ian Buruma, The Guardian, April 10, 2009] Melting Pot China, And the Potential for Trouble Hani girl “China’s very economic vitality has the potential to fuel ethnic and linguistic division, rather than further integrating the country,” Dru C. Gladney, Wall Street Journal. “As southern and coastal areas get richer, much of central, northern and northwestern China hasn’t kept up, increasing competition and contributing to age-old resentments across ethnic, linguistic and cultural lines. Uneven distribution of wealth has fueled deep resentment in the poorer, often ethnic regions of China. “ [Ibid] “The result of all these changes is that China is becoming increasingly de-centered. This is a fearsome prospect for those holding the reins in Beijing and perhaps was a factor in the decisions to crack down on the June 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, keep a tight rein on the Olympics and respond swiftly and harshly to riots in Tibet and Xinjiang. Last year the government admitted to more than 100,000 mass incidents of civil unrest. “ [Ibid] “A China weakened by internal strife, inflation, uneven economic growth or the struggle for political succession could become further divided along cultural and linguistic lines. China’s threats will most likely come from civil unrest, and perhaps internal ethnic unrest from within the so-called Han majority. We should recall that it was a southerner, born and educated abroad, who led the revolution that ended China’s last dynasty. When that empire fell, competing warlords—often supported by foreign powers—fought for turf. Woeser on the Chinese Attitude Towards Minorities in China In March 2012 Tibetan poet and activist Tsering Woeser wrote in Foreign Policy: For the Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of China's population, there is an expression engraved in their history books: "Whoever is not among us must be of a different heart." Originally, these words were not frightening. Over the years, though, the sentiments they express have created an atmosphere of raw violence. Minorities stand in the way of the grand unity of China's different peoples; they must be Sinicized or extinguished. The ethnic minorities who live in China, the Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians, and others, understand that this view of ethnic minorities is actually quite widespread, that it is the mainstream, that they receive little empathy from the majority. But even some Chinese dissidents and human rights defenders have double standards when dealing with ethnic minorities. In their view, democracy, human rights, freedom, and other values in China apply only to Han Chinese. When it comes to ethnic minorities, they say, "So sorry, you cannot bask in these rays." Although they consider themselves the victims of autocratic rule, they are still not aware that to ethnic minorities they themselves are the embodiment of autocracy, that they themselves are doing harm. Minorities Theme Parks in China Ethnic theme parks are increasingly becoming a popular form of entertainment for middle-class Han, w come to experience what they consider the most exotic elements of their vast nation. There is no comprehensive count of these Disneyland-like parks, but people in the industry say the number is growing, as are visitors. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, February 23, 2010] The parks are money-making ventures. But scholars say they also serve a political purpose — to reinforce the idea that the Chinese nation encompasses 55 fixed ethnic minorities and their territories, all ruled by the Han...The companies running the parks are generally Han-owned, say industry workers. “ [Ibid] “They’re one piece in the puzzle of the larger project of how China wants to represent itself as a multiethnic state,’ Thomas S. Mullaney, a historian at Stanford University who studies China’s ethnic taxonomy, told the New York Times. ‘Theend goal is political, which is territorial unity. Parks like that, even if they’re kitschy, kind of like Legoland, they still play and occupy a political position.” [Ibid] The most famous park, the Nationalities Park in Beijing, is a combination of museum and fairground. Ethnic workers from across China dress up in their native costumes for mostly Han tourists. (For a while, English signs there read Racist Park, an unfortunate translation of the Chinese name.) In some parks, Han workers dress up as natives — a practice given legitimacy by the government when Han children marched out in the costumes of the 55 minorities during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics. “ [Ibid] See Tibet, Xinjiang You’ll Never be Chinese: Why I'm Leaving the Country I Loved Mark Kitto wrote in Prospect Magazine, “You’ll never become Chinese, no matter how hard you try, or want to, or think you ought to. I wanted to be Chinese, once. I don’t mean I wanted to wear a silk jacket and cotton slippers, or a Mao suit and cap and dye my hair black and proclaim that blowing your nose in a handkerchief is disgusting. I wanted China to be the place where I made a career and lived my life. For the past 16 years it has been precisely that. But now I will be leaving. [Source: Mark Kitto, Prospect Magazine, August 8, 2012] I won’t be rushing back either. I have fallen out of love, woken from my China Dream. “But China is an economic miracle: record number of people lifted out of poverty in record time… year on year ten per cent growth… exports… imports… infrastructure… investment…saved the world during the 2008 financial crisis…” The superlatives roll on. We all know them, roughly. [Ibid] Don’t you think, with all the growth and infrastructure, the material wealth, let alone saving the world like some kind of financial whizz James Bond, that China would be a happier and healthier country? At least better than the country emerging from decades of stultifying state control that I met and fell in love with in 1986 when I first came here as a student? I don’t think it is. [Ibid] When I returned to China in 1996, to begin the life and career I had long dreamed about, I found the familiar air of optimism, but there was a subtle difference: a distinct whiff of commerce in place of community. The excitement was more like the eager anticipation I felt once I had signed a deal (I began my China career as a metals trader), sure that I was going to bank a profit, rather than the thrill that something truly big was about to happen. A deal had been struck. Deng had promised the Chinese people material wealth they hadn’t known for centuries on the condition that they never again asked for political change. The Party said: “Trust us and everything will be all right.” Twenty years later, everything is not all right. I must stress that this indictment has nothing to do with the trajectory of my own China career, which went from metal trading to building a multi-million dollar magazine publishing business that was seized by the government in 2004, followed by retreat to this mountain hideaway of Moganshan where my Chinese wife and I have built a small business centred on a coffee shop and three guesthouses, which in turn has given me enough anecdotes and gossip to fill half a page of Prospect every month for several years. That our current business could suffer the same fate as my magazines if the local government decides not to renew our short-term leases (for which we have to beg every three years) does, however, contribute to my decision not to remain in China. [Ibid] During the course of my magazine business, my state-owned competitor (enemy is more accurate) told me in private that they studied every issue I produced so they could learn from me. They appreciated my contribution to Chinese media. They proceeded to do everything in their power to destroy me. In Moganshan our local government masters send messages of private thanks for my contribution to the resurrection of the village as a tourist destination, but also clearly state that I am an exception to their unwritten rule that foreigners (who originally built the village in the early 1900s) are not welcome back to live in it, and are only allowed to stay for weekends. But this article is not personal. I want to give you my opinion of the state of China, based on my time living here, in the three biggest cities and one tiny rural community, and explain why I am leaving it. [Ibid] Fear of violent revolution or domestic upheaval, with a significant proportion of that violence sure to be directed at foreigners, is not the main reason I am leaving China, though I shan’t deny it is one of them. Apart from what I hope is a justifiable human desire to be part of a community and no longer be treated as an outsider, to run my own business in a regulated environment and not live in fear of it being taken away from me, and not to concern myself unduly that the air my family breathes and the food we eat is doing us physical harm, there is one overriding reason I must leave China. I want to give my children a decent education. [Ibid] I have also encountered hundreds of well-rounded, wise Chinese people with a modern world view, people who could, and would willingly, help their motherland face the issues that are growing into state-shaking problems. It is unlikely they will be given the chance. I fear for some of them who might ask for it, just as my classmates and I feared for our Chinese friends while we took our final exams at SOAS in 1989. I read about Ai Weiwei, Chen Guangchen and Liu Xiaobo on Weibo, the closely monitored Chinese equivalent of Twitter and Facebook, where a post only has to be up for a few minutes to go viral. My wife had never heard of them until she started using the site. The censors will never completely master it. (The day my wife began reading Weibo was also the day she told me she had overcome her concerns about leaving China for the UK.) There are tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of mainland Chinese who “follow” such people too, and there must be countless more like them in person, trying in their small way to make China a better place. One day they will prevail. That’ll be a good time to become Chinese. It might even be possible. Image Sources: 1) Wiki Commons; 2) Nolls China website http://www.paulnoll.com/China/index.html ; 3) Bao Xishun blog Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications. © 2008 Jeffrey Hays Last updated December 2012

The purpose of the study by Drogset et al. was to compare the long-term results of three different operative techniques for treatment of ruptures of the anterior cruciate ligament: acute primary repair, acute repair augmented with a synthetic ligament-augmentation device, and acute repair augmented with autologous bone-patellar tendon-bone graft. This was the third report in a series of patients who were randomized equally to one of three treatment groups1,2. The authors report on an original 150 patients following rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, of which twenty-one patients (14%) were lost to follow-up and an additional fourteen patients had follow-up by phone interview only. This left a total of 115 (77%) of the 150 original patients with complete follow-up data. Of the remaining 115 patients, twelve patients underwent revision of the anterior cruciate ligament repair or contralateral primary anterior cruciate ligament repair, leaving a total of 103 patients (69% of the original cohort) for comparison study (thirty-three who had primary repair, thirty-four who had repair with a ligament augmentation device, and thirty-six who had repair with a bone-patellar tendon-bone graft). Group 1 underwent primary anterior cruciate ligament repair. Primary repair was performed through a medial arthrotomy with loop sutures placed through the remnants of the anterior cruciate ligament and then through drill holes in the tibia and the femur and tied over the bone-bridge. The sutures were tied with the knee in 30° of flexion while tension was applied manually. Group 2 received anterior cruciate ligament repair with a ligament augmentation device. After a primary repair was performed, the ligament augmentation device was passed through a 4-mm tunnel in the tibia to the over-the-top position on the femur. The ligament augmentation device was secured to the periosteum of the anteromedial aspect of the tibia with six to eight interrupted nonabsorbable sutures and, with the knee flexed to 30°, to the lateral femoral condyle with a "belt-buckle staple technique." Group 3 underwent anterior cruciate ligament repair with bone-patellar tendon-bone graft autograft augmentation. A central-third bone-patellar tendon-bone graft autograft was harvested and placed through a 10-mm tunnel in the tibia placed 5 mm anterior and medial to the center of the tibial insertion of the anterior cruciate ligament. An inside-out technique was used to pass a Steinmann pin into the femoral insertion of the anterior cruciate ligament, and the femoral hole was overdrilled to 10 mm after a notchplasty was performed. The graft was secured (with the knee in 30° of flexion) on the tibia and the femur with interference screws and backed up with sutures tied over screw and washer at both sites. The remnants of the anterior cruciate ligament were then sutured to the autograft. The method of postoperative rehabilitation was quite conservative, with a long leg cast worn for two weeks and then a brace worn for six additional weeks; weightbearing was prohibited for the entire eight weeks. The findings consisted of a 24.5%, 9.5%, and 2.4% revision rate in the acute primary repair, the acute repair with the ligament augmentation device, and the acute repair with the bone-patellar tendon-bone graft groups, respectively, at sixteen years. The rate of revision was ten times higher in the primary repair group compared with the bone-patellar tendon-bone graft group, although no statistical difference was found in the prevalence of revisions between the primary repair group and the ligament augmentation device group or between the ligament augmentation device group and the bone-patellar tendon-bone graft group. Subjective knee function was rated as fair or poor in 15% of the primary repair group, 17.6% of the ligament augmentation device group, and 2.7% of the bone-patellar tendon-bone graft group. At sixteen years, 30% of the primary repair, 27% of the ligament augmentation device, and 23% of the bone-patellar tendon-bone graft patients had an extension deficit of >5°. However, all but two of the patients achieved full flexion (total degrees of flexion not given). A 2+ or 3+ result on the pivot shift test was found in 18% of the primary repair group and 17% of the ligament augmentation device group, while only 6% of the bone-patellar tendon-bone graft group demonstrated more than a 1+ pivot shift at sixteen years. The mean anterior laxity, as measured with the KT-1000 arthrometer, was 1.9 mm, 2.3 mm, and 1.4 mm for the respective groups at sixteen years, none of which showed statistical significance. Side-to-side difference was also not significant among the treatment groups. An important finding of this study was the prevalence of osteoarthritis at sixteen years in these knees. Osteoarthritis developed in 10.6% of the involved knees compared with 3.5% of the contralateral knees, which was statistically significant. The strengths of this study include its long-term follow-up of patients following anterior cruciate ligament surgery. It also uses well-known objective diagnostic tools, such as KT-1000, Tegner, and Lysholm scores, for comparison. In addition, subjective but not blinded evaluation was performed with use of current methods such as the Lachman, pivot-shift, and range-of-motion tests. This study confirms statistically why procedures such as primary suture repair of the anterior cruciate ligament and anterior cruciate ligament repair with a ligament augmentation device are not currently performed for ruptures of the anterior cruciate ligament. The weaknesses of this study include comparison of procedures and techniques which are not currently performed during anterior cruciate ligament surgery. The rehabilitation protocol used in this study is quite conservative, and the range of motion achieved in this study is not acceptable by current standards. While it is difficult to maintain a 100% follow-up rate at sixteen years, the rate of return for patients in this study was under 70%. Also, the number of patients in each group seemed to be inconsistent throughout the analysis. Perhaps with the current techniques of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, we would hope to see a lower prevalence of subsequent osteoarthritis, but additional long-term studies will need to be performed to determine this. Surprisingly, the laxity values that were measured in this study revealed that some knees became tighter with time rather than undergoing loosening with time. This has not been found in other studies. The current state of anterior cruciate ligament surgery is in flux. There has been more emphasis on anatomical anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction as we have refocused on the results of older literature that have shown the two different functional bundles of the anterior cruciate ligament3. By recreating the anatomy of the anterior cruciate ligament, it is hoped that we can not only improve the stability of the knee both rotationally and sagittally but also reduce the risk of the development of osteoarthritis in the reconstructed knee. We currently perform anatomic double-bundle anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction for these specific reasons4. Early results have shown improved motion, stability, and return to sports; however, long-term results, such as those reported by Drogset et al., will need to be studied.

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine reported that the results of the extracranial stereotactic radioablation Phase I study for non-small cell lung cancer led the group to continue with the second phase of the clinical trial. The initial phase tested the toxicity of increasingly large doses of radiation precisely focused on the lung tumor. Enrollment in the trial began in February 2000 and 37 patients participated. Researchers report that surprisingly high doses of radiation were tolerated and 87 percent of patients had positive tumor response. Only six patients had local recurrence of cancer, all treated at the lower dose levels used at the onset of the trial. Local recurrence has not been observed to date at the highest levels. Patients enrolled in the Phase I study had to have stage I non-small cell lung cancer that was medically inoperable because of extenuating health problems. Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 80 percent of all lung cancers and is the leading cause of cancer-related fatalities in the United States. In the U.S., 170,000 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year and there are 157,000 deaths caused by the disease. "Lung cancer patients frequently have other health problems such as emphysema or heart disease that makes them a bad risk for the standard surgical therapy for their disease," said Robert Timmerman, M.D., associate professor of radiation oncology and the principal author of the article. Using a painless, minimally invasive therapy, Timmerman and his IU colleagues used 3-D imaging and stereotactic body mapping to precisely target the tumor down to a millimeter so that healthy tissue was spared the intensity of the photon radiation. Stereotactic mapping utilizes a specially designed, lightweigh

Not long ago, the Obama Administration raised the federal fuel efficiency standards, known as CAFE, to an average 35.5 mpg by 2016. Yesterday, they announced the CAFE were being raised again to historically high levels. For model year 2025, the average fuel economy for cars and light-duty trucks will be set at 54.5 mpg. This will mean a nearly doubling of fuel efficiency compared to cars that are on the road today. The new policy was issued by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They claim it will reduce US oil consumption by 12 billion barrels and save over $1.7 trillion at the pump over the life of the program. "These fuel standards represent the single most important step we've ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," said President Obama. "This historic agreement builds on the progress we've already made to save families money at the pump and cut our oil consumption. By the middle of the next decade our cars will get nearly 55 miles per gallon, almost double what they get today. It'll strengthen our nation’s energy security, it's good for middle class families and it will help create an economy built to last." The new standards will encourage and perhaps require innovation and additional investment in advanced technologies for the auto industry. Many of these technologies are already available, such as plug-in hybrids and continuous variable transmission. It is likely that by 2025, electric cars may be the dominant vehicle being sold. The DOT national Highway Traffic Safety Administration and EPA developed the new CAFE standard in conjunction with automakers, the United Auto Workers, consumer advocates, environmental and energy experts, state governments, and the public at large. Thirteen of the largest automakers, responsible for the sale of 90 percent of vehicles sold in America, have already pledged their support. The alignment of federal and state standards for fuel efficiency has created the regulatory certainty that is required to make significant investments into clean innovative technologies. Government analysts predict that the higher fuel efficiency will save $8,000 over the life of each vehicle. The savings will be comparable with lowering the price of gasoline by approximately $1 per gallon. They claim the new standards will also dramatically cut the import of foreign oil by 2 million barrels per day by 2025. This is roughly equivalent to half the oil we currently import from OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia each day.

The ABCs of Math HOW IT WORKS The ABCs of Math is an interdisciplinary program that develops children’s skills in reading and writing, increases their understanding of basic math concepts, allows for creativity, encourages cooperation, and improves skills in applications of technology. The program begins with a genre study in picture books in a reading workshop. Mini-lessons include analysis of structure, author’s craft, how illustration supports text, and the different sub-types of picture books, including counting and ABC books. The children learn that these books run the gamut from very primary in look and content to quite sophisticated. With the picture book baskets categorized, the study is extended to a subset, and interest is piqued by such works as Twizzlers, A Book of Percentages, Sir Cumference and the First Round Table, Domino Math, Math Course, and the like. After reading several of these and having partnership conversations, the children think about how the author has infused math learning into the text. The look at the cover and blurb and use KidPix to design book jackets for the volumes they have read. Working in partnerships at one of the five classroom computers, they create a cover and, when all children have had their turns, compile the covers into a slide show. One book, G is for Google by David Schwartz, is of particular interest. An ABC book in an adult format, this text amuses and excites students because of its humorous way of defining math concepts. Using it as a mentor text, they create a book of their own, The ABCs of Math. They refer to the classroom word wall and make an A-to-Z list of math words. Partnerships are assigned research topics and they scour math texts for material that will help them clearly explain their selected words. Finally, they compose the text and are ready to publish. Using PowerPoint, they design slides, with each containing a letter, the word, the accompanying explanation, and appropriate graphics and visual and auditory effects. Finally, the slides are combined and The ABCs of Math is done. Both slide shows are installed into lab computers and in grade three and four classrooms for use as resources for students and teachers. This program can be used in large or small groups in the classroom or in the computer lab. It is best used in grades three through six and at all functional levels. It addresses the needs of all learners via different modalities such as talk, writing, and using computers to achieve the desired outcomes.

South Florida a fit area, or so 'data' tells us Miami and the South Florida metro region ranked as the 10th fittest among American's largest metropolitan areas, according to a new program and report released from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in partnership with the WellPoint Foundation. According to the release (I took out some of the adjectives): The ACSM American Fitness Index (AFI) inaugural data report, "Health and Community Fitness Status of 16 Large Metropolitan Areas," is a snapshot of the state of health and fitness in America's 15 most populous metropolitan areas, plus greater Indianapolis. The AFI data report breaks down several data components related to health and fitness, including an evaluation of community-level data, and offers strengths and weaknesses of each city. In addition to a data report, the AFI is designed to improve health, fitness and quality of life in the United States by promoting physical activity. ACSM contends that researching and understanding the scope of the problem is the first step toward developing programs, initiatives and policies to increase physical activity. The data evaluated for this report will help identify each metropolitan area's strengths and weaknesses. The South Florida Metro area achieved a score of 235, based on figures related to healthy lifestyles and physical activity. San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area achieved the top ranking in the AFI data report with a score of 403. While 75.3 percent of Miami area residents reported to exercise in the last 30 days, only 45.5 percent reported to exercise regularly at least at moderate intensity. Only 20.9 percent of its citizens are considered obese and 27.2 percent of its residents eat five or more fruits and vegetables per day. The region ranked 13th in community and environmental indicators. The metropolitan rankings included in the report are: Rank MSA Name (Nickname) Score 1. San Francisco, Calif. (Bay Area) 403 2. Seattle, Wa. (Seattle Metro) 401 3. Boston, Mass. (Greater Boston) 370 4. Washington D.C. (Washington Metro) 369 5. Atlanta, Ga. (Metro Atlanta) 285 6. Philadelphia, Pa. (Delaware Valley) 268 7. Chicago, Ill. (Chicagoland) 267 8. Dallas, Texas (Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex) 261 9. New York City (Tri-State Region) 260 10. Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (South Florida Metro) 235 11. Phoenix, Ariz. (Valley of the Sun) 233 12. Indianapolis, Ind. (Greater Indianapolis) 231 13. Houston, Texas (Greater Houston) 209 14. Los Angeles, Calif. (Greater Los Angeles) 208 15. Riverside, Calif. (Inland Empire) n/a 16. Detroit, Mich. (Detroit Metro) 149 "We have a public health problem in the United States that must be addressed," said Don Torok, Ph.D., FACSM, associate dean at Florida Atlantic University. "Americans are simply not getting enough physical activity and that is contributing to the rise of chronic health issues and the increasing costs of health care. Miami and all of South Florida Metro isn't immune to this problem. The American Fitness Index, developed by a panel of experts, can help put our community on the right track by providing benchmarks to measure the success of our efforts." An ACSM research team from the Indiana University School of Family Medicine collected and analyzed the data gleaned from U.S. Census data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and other existing research data in order to give a scientific, accurate snapshot of the health and fitness status at a metropolitan level. "The ACSM American Fitness Index™ is more than a list of cities and their rankings," said AFI Advisory Board Chair Walt Thompson, Ph.D., FACSM, Georgia State University, during the program's launch at the Indiana Convention Center. "This report issues a call to action to improve the overall health, fitness and quality of life in the United States." Thompson continued by outlining how the data was collected, analyzed, and how ACSM and its members can lend their expertise in sports medicine and exercise science to promote a more physically active society. One highlighted initiative is "Building a Healthier Chicago," led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). James M. Galloway, M.D., FACP, FACC, FAHA, assistant surgeon general and HHS regional health administrator, discussed how the Chicago-based program and AFI partnership is helping Chicago, which finished seventh in the rankings, to improve the level of fitness of its residents. "The new initiative is designed to build a healthier Chicago by focusing on the reduction of obesity through physical activity and healthful eating, as well as high blood pressure prevention, detection and control," Galloway said. "Our methods and strategies are designed to reach all of the city's diverse populations through awareness, education and action." Six of the 10 leading causes of death in Chicago are attributable to a chronic disease, with heart disease, cancer, and stroke topping the list. Each of these can be mitigated by people's daily choices. Poor nutrition and lack of exercise are two of the major three leading causes of these diseases (tobacco is the third) and both of these factors are very closely linked to the ever-increasing epidemic of obesity in the U.S. "Last year, affiliated health plans of WellPoint, Inc., the parent company of the WellPoint Foundation, implemented a State Health Index as another way to help improve the health of our communities," said Wesley Wong, M.D., M.M.M., medical director and member of the AFI Advisory Board. "Through such programs, we are able to identify risk areas based on U.S. Centers for Disease Control data and then develop partnerships with local organizations promoting local programs designed to reduce areas of concern. By supporting ACSM's initiative, we will be able to further our efforts across the country and have a larger impact on the health of our communities." The data examined fall into three categories: 1) health status indicators; 2) community and environmental indicators; and 3) the number of health care providers. Visit the online newsroom at for a complete list of the data components. With this data, cities can compare their health status and fitness attributes to other cities. Additionally, the cities can use materials, resources and connections associated with the program to help their city improve its health, fitness and quality of life. Sixteen large metropolitan areas were included in the pilot phase of the program. Visit the online newsroom at for a list of the MSAs included, counties represented and data. Future revision of the AFI data report will likely be expanded to the 50 largest metropolitan cities in the United States.

Naticksqw, the hereditary chief or sachem of the Natick Praying Indians, is planning to honor the historic links between African Americans and her tribe. (Photo courtesy of Chief Caring Hands) When warfare broke out between colonists and tribes threatened by encroachments on their land, the Praying Indians supported their Christian brethren. That didn’t save them in the last gasps of the bloody King Philip’s War from being rounded up and sent to an internment camp on wind-swept Deer Island in Boston Harbor, with little food or fuel to sustain them during the bitter cold winter of 1675. Their ranks decimated, the survivors returned with the help of Eliot, “The Apostle to the Indians,” to live in their villages, with the largest settlement located in Natick. In spite of their treatment, Praying Indians continued to support the colonists. The first martyr to American liberty was Crispus Attucks, the son of a Natick Praying Indian mother and a free black man, who fell to British musket fire at the Boston Massacre in 1770. More than 20 Natick Praying Indians served under the command of George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Every year, Natick Praying Indians participate in the annual Faneuil Hall commemoration of the Boston Massacre by the Boston Equal Rights League, the civil rights organization founded by pioneering black journalist William Monroe Trotter. Naticksqw, the hereditary chief or sachem of the Natick Praying Indians, brings singers and drummers from her 60-member tribe to the March 5 ceremony to honor Attucks and the link to Boston’s African American community. “Our peoples are joined by suffering but also by hope,” said Chief Caring Hands. “We need to preserve the links that tie us together.” More than history joins the Native American and black communities. Intermarriage between Indians and African Americans was common over the centuries. Some, like Naticksqw, have Portuguese and other European forebears as well as the blood of Africa flowing in their veins. The chief, a 60-year-old grandmother with an unlined face and an unruffled bearing, lives in Stoughton, or, as she calls it, Ponkapoag, one of the original 14 Praying Indian settlements. She cares for the spiritual and physical needs of her tribe, who live throughout the Boston area, and speaks frequently to school and civic groups to teach the hidden and living history of Native Americans. While many U.S. tribes receive assistance from the federal government, the Natick Praying Indians have not sought federal recognition nor do they plan to. “We don’t need it,” she says. “We know who we are.” The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes of Massachusetts both won federal recognition after decades of battling Washington bureaucracy. While receiving federal benefits, they are also involved in strategies to receive casino licenses, which Naticksqw says doesn’t interest her tribe. “As a Praying Indian following the tenets of Yeshua of Nazareth, there is no room for a casino because we believe it violates His teachings,” says the chief, fingering a crucifix around her neck. “I’m not saying it’s wrong for traditional tribes to go after casinos. They have found the buffalo that cannot be shot from the train and I have to honor my brothers and sister.” Competing claims over the true heirs of the legacy of the Praying Indians have caused tensions at times between Naticksqw’s tribe and the Wampanoags on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, but the most visible controversy involving Chief Caring Hands came in the 2007 fight over the Natick Public Schools’ “Redmen” mascot. In a dramatic public address before the Natick School Committee, she implored the town to abandon the mascot, describing how it offended descendants of those the town thought it honored with the symbol of the fighting chief. In spite of objections that such a move would be an unnecessary surrender to political correctness, her moving personal story carried the day. The school board voted 4-3 to retire the Redmen. The town teams now take to the field as the Red and the Blue. “I simply stood up and told the truth,” she said. “They listened.” Events coming up this month provide an unusual opportunity to learn more about the history and the living culture of the Natick Praying Indians. “Song on the Wind,” a musical drama marking the 375th anniversary of Concord’s founding, covers the first 50 years of the town’s history, with a focus on contacts between the pioneering settlers and the Praying Indians who welcomed them. The musical runs from Sept. 10 to Sept. 19 at the Emerson Umbrella for the Arts theater in Concord. The chief calls the musical narrative, the result of careful research of the history of cooperation and conflict between settlers and natives, “a story held mute too long.” On Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, the Natick Praying Indians will hold their annual powwow at Cochituate State Park on the Natick/Wayland line from noon to 5 p.m. Events will include storytelling, dancing, drumming and face-painting. Native vendors will offer food and crafts to visitors during the free admission weekend.

The British Geological Survey's Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project (Johnson et al., 2005) started to systematically collect soils as part of its UK regional geochemical mapping programme in the late 1980s. Between 1986–1988, over the Chalk of the Yorkshire Wolds, where there was no or poor drainage yielding very few stream sediments, soil samples (standard depth 30–40 cm, i.e. deep soils) were collected from 502 sites at a density of one site per km2 (BGS, 1996). Similarly, between 1988–1990 in some lowland areas of Lancashire, Cheshire and parts of north-east Wales, 2064 soil sites were sampled (standard depth 30–40 cm, i.e. deep soils) at a density of 1 site per 2 km2 in areas where the low-order drainage was sparse (BGS, 1997). Further soil samples collected from eastern parts of Wales are described in BGS (2000). Since the 1990s soil samples have become part of the systematic geochemical mapping of the UK both in rural and urban areas at sampling densities of 1 site per 2 km2 and 4 sites per km2, respectively. A standard sampling methodology has been established and is described by Johnson (2005) and summarised below. Topsoils (5–20 cm) and deep soils (35–50 cm) are routinely collected from every site though generally only the topsoils are analysed for some 50 elements by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRFS). Some geochemical images of a selected number of elements are available in the electronic atlas of central and eastern England. A summary map of the soil sample sites from England, Scotland and Wales — G-BASE soil sample sites map). Northern Ireland was systematically sampled using G-BASE methodology (see Smyth, 2007) as part of the Tellus Project 2004–2007. As a result of the Tellus Project, Northern Ireland has the most comprehensive coverage of regional soil geochemical mapping of any nation of the UK and preparation of a geochemical atlas of the Tellus soil data (Northern Ireland) is in progress. On-going rural sample continues in England around the perimeter of Greater London as part of the London Earth Project and in Scotland as part of the Clyde Basin Urban Super Project (CUSP). During the London Earth Project an additional sample of surface soil (0–2 cm) was collected from the majority of sites though this sample has not been routinely analysed. From an environmental perspective, the geochemical mapping of urban areas using soils as a sampling medium has become a priority, as exemplified by the London Earth Project. The urban work is described by Fordyce et al. (2005) and more recently by Flight and Scheib (2011). Urban geochemistry reports based on soil samples can be accessed from G-BASE urban geochemistry. By the end of 2010 the following urban areas have been sampled: England — Corby, Coventry, Derby, Doncaster, Hull, Ipswich, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Manchester, Mansfield, Northampton, Nottingham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Wolverhampton and York; Wales — Cardiff and Swansea; and Scotland - Glasgow. Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland were sampled as part of the Tellus Project. |Soils are collected using a Dutch auger taking 5 subsamples at the corners and centre of a 20 m square. A topsoil (5 to 20 cm) and a deeper sample (35 to 50 cm) are taken at each site. Samples are collected from alternate 1 km grid squares though in urban areas sampling density is increased to four samples every km2. Samples are collected in KraftTM paper bags||The deeper soil samples are dried then sieved to -2 mm and are only routinely analysed in areas where drainage is absent. The topsoil samples are dried and sieved to 2 mm and pulverised in agate ball mills then pelletised for XRFS analyses of a wide range of trace and major elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Bi, Br, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, Hf, I, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Nd, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Y, Zn and Zr). Loss-on-ignition (450ºC) and pH is also routinely measured.| BGS data are protected by NERC copyright, Tellus data are protected by Crown Copyright. BGS. 1996. Regional geochemistry of north-east England. Keyworth, Nottingham. British Geological Survey. ISBN 0 85272 255 9. BGS. 1997. Regional geochemistry of parts of north-west England and North Wales . Keyworth, Nottingham. British Geological Survey. ISBN 0 85272 307 5. BGS. 2000. Regional geochemistry of Wales and part of west-central England: stream sediment and soil. Keyworth, Nottingham. British Geological Survey. ISBN 0 85272 378 4. Flight, D M A, and Scheib, A J. 2011. Soil Geochemical Baselines in UK Urban centres: The G-BASE Project. Chapter 13, 186-206. In: Mapping the Chemical Environment of Urban Areas. Johnson C C, Demetriades, A, Locutura, J. and Ottesen, R T. (Eds.). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, UK.Fordyce, F M, Brown, S E, Ander, E L, Rawlins, B G, O'Donnell, K E, Lister, T R, Breward, N, and Johnson, C C. 2005. GSUE: urban geochemical mapping in Great Britain. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis, 5 (4), 325-336. Johnson, C C. 2005. 2005 G-BASE field procedures manual. British Geological Survey, 65pp. (IR/05/097) (Unpublished). Johnson, C C, Breward, N, Ander, E L, and Ault, L. 2005. G-BASE: Baseline geochemical mapping of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis, 5 (4), 347-357. Smyth, D. 2007. Methods used in the Tellus Geochemical Mapping of Northern Ireland. British Geological Survey Open Report OR/07/022.

History of ICADP The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty was founded in 1976 by Mary Alice Rankin following the reinstatement of the death penalty in the state of Illinois. The death penalty was previously invalidated in the US in 1972 by the Supreme Court in the case Furman v Georgia as the use of the death penalty was deemed too arbitrary, which made it a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Since its inception, ICADP has worked to educate people about the problems with the death penalty: the problem of innocence, the high cost of the death penalty, and the harm the capital punishment system does to victims' families, among others. ICADP has built a strong coalition including the Illinois Bar Association, the ACLU, Amnesty International, the Catholic Conference, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the League of Women Voters, and other organizations. Over the years, ICADP has developed strong grassroots support and a comprehensive legislative strategy which, together, ultimately led to the repeal of the death penalty in Illinois. In March, 2011, after a two-year intensive campaign, ICADP successfully abolished the death penalty in the state and reallocated the funds left over in the capital litigation fund to law enforcement training and services to murder victim family members. The win caused Illinois to become the sixteenth state in the nation to repeal the death penalty, and the fourth to do so within the last five years. Illinois’ success is a testament to the current national trend toward abolition and is a model for other states still working to achieve abolition. To ensure this national momentum continues, it is imperative that Illinois does not re-introduce the death penalty. ICADP’s work is not finished. Recently members of the Illinois legislature have introduced bills in the General Assembly to reinstate the death penalty in Illinois. ICADP is now focused on fighting off these reinstatement efforts and maintaining a death penalty free state in the years to come.

A new era of semiconductor microelectronics could soon be opened up by a technique that has been developed by scientists at the IBM Research Division for manipulating individual atoms of silicon. Using a scanning tunnelling microscope, the scientists have successfully removed both individual and clusters of silicon atoms from a surface, and subsequently deposited them at a predetermined site. According to IBM, the new technique opens up the possibility of constructing electronic circuits out of individual components that may be as little as one atom or molecule in width. Last year, physicists at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, successfully used a scanning tunnelling microscope to move individual atoms of xenon gas around on a surface with such precision that they were able to write their company's name. The latest results, published in the 12 July issue of Science, indicates that it is also possible to use the ...

Early in 1943, Allied forces were massing along the coast of North Africa, preparing to make a push across the Mediterranean. They'd settled on strategically important Sicily as a target... but they needed to convince the Germans that they were aiming somewhere else. How did they do it? With a great deal of imagination, and the dead body of an unfortunate Welsh laborer who'd died from eating rat poison. "The idea, very simply, was to get a dead body, equip the dead body with false papers, and then drop it somewhere the Germans would find it," historian Ben Macintyre tells NPR's Guy Raz. Macintyre is the author of the new book, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory. "It was probably the most elaborate, certainly one of the oddest, and certainly one of the most successful deception operations ever undertaken," Macintyre says. And if it sounds more than a little bit like something out of a spy thriller, well, that's because it was. The idea for Operation Mincemeat came originally from Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Before he devoted his life to Agent 007, Fleming worked as an assistant to the head of British Naval Intelligence. And Fleming admitted freely that he'd lifted the idea of a dead body carrying false papers from a detective novel he'd once read. "That's why I love this story," Macintyre says. "It starts in fiction, and in a way it really is a case of somebody just imagining their way into reality." Fleming's idea was part of a larger list he'd helped write of methods for confusing an enemy at sea. And with the Allied invasion of Sicily looming, British intelligence officers seized on it as the best way of persuading the Germans to look elsewhere. But in order for the deception to work, they needed a dead body. "They'd assumed that this would be very easy in the midst of the bloodiest war that's ever been fought," says Macintyre. "But actually finding the right sort of dead body was proving particularly difficult, because the body had to look as if it had died in an air crash. That was the center of the ruse. The body would be floated ashore at a particular point, wearing a life jacket, but it had to look as if it had died at sea." Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu, the two intelligence officers responsible for Operation Mincemeat, eventually found a suitable body — an unfortunate, homeless Welsh laborer named Glyndwr Michael, who had died from eating rat poison in an abandoned London warehouse. "This poor chap, Glyndwr Michael, was placed literally on ice in a morgue while Cholmondeley and Montagu, like a pair of novelists, set out to create an entirely new personality for him," Macintyre says. "They turned him into William Martin of the Royal Marines." And it was an elaborate creation: the fictitious Major Martin was equipped with ticket stubs, keys, a religious medal, letters from an imaginary father and fiancee, and unpaid bills. Cholmondeley and Montagu thought that the more convincing his personal story was, the more likely the Germans would be to believe the ruse. And along with the personal items, he carried carefully faked letters hinting that the Allies were planning to invade Greece and Sardinia, not Sicily. The Germans fell for it. "Major Martin" was picked up by a fisherman on April 30th, 1943, off the coast of Huelva, Spain. British intelligence knew that Spain, while neutral, had Axis sympathies. They hoped that Martin and his faked documents would eventually fall into German hands, which is exactly what happened. In the end, Hitler moved entire divisions away from Sicily to guard against attacks on Greece and Sardinia — attacks that never came. Instead, the Allies stormed through Sicily, meeting only minimal resistance, and Hitler was forced to call off assaults on the Eastern Front in order to reinforce Italy. "And from that moment on," says Macintyre, "the German army was on the back foot on the Eastern Front. ... In terms of the general choreography of the war, this was an absolutely critical dance."

Modest Interest in 2008 Campaign News Democratic Candidates Better Known, Even Among Republicans Summary of Findings The 2008 presidential campaign began much earlier than usual, but public interest in the campaign is at most only modestly higher than in previous campaigns. While Democrats are following the campaign more closely than at the same stage in previous primary contests, Republicans are no more engaged than in the past, resulting in a sizable partisan gap in campaign interest. The Republicans’ disengagement, if not disillusionment, with the campaign is borne out by the fact that many more Republicans are able to recall unprompted the names of Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama than can name Rudy Giuliani and other leading GOP candidates. Public familiarity with the leading Democratic candidates is extraordinarily high compared with candidates in past campaigns. Clinton and Obama have become household names to substantial majorities of Americans. By contrast, the Republican candidates as a group are about as well known as previous GOP candidates, while Giuliani is less well known than past Republican frontrunners. Overall, 81% can name a Democratic candidate unprompted, with 78% volunteering Clinton’s name and 62% Obama’s. By contrast, 59% could name any Republican candidate. Giuliani is the best known Republican candidate, with 45% of the public naming him. Even among Republicans, Clinton and Obama are much more visible than Giuliani or any other GOP presidential candidate. When asked to name any Democratic presidential candidate, 79% of Republicans named Clinton and 60% mentioned Obama. Asked for the name of a GOP candidate, 57% of Republicans named Giuliani. No other Republican candidate was mentioned by even half of Republicans. Notably, the current GOP candidates as a group are about as well known as past Republican candidates, among Republicans and the public generally. At a comparable point in the 2000 campaign, the last time there was a contest for the GOP nomination, 63% could name a Republican candidate, which is on par with the current measure (59%). But the leading Democrats are far better known than their predecessors. At this point in the 2004 election cycle, just 41% of the public could name a Democratic candidate, compared with 81% currently. John Kerry and Howard Dean received the most mentions in the fall of 2003 (19% each); that compares with 78% for Clinton and 60% for Obama. Pew’s weekly News Interest Index finds that since the beginning of September, 20% of the public, on average, has followed campaign news very closely, while 52% have followed it very or fairly closely. Interest was nearly as great at this point in the 2000 campaign, the last time that both parties had competitive contests for presidential nominations (52% now vs. 49% then). While campaign interest has fluctuated from week to week, overall interest in the fall (September to mid-October) is no higher than it was during the first three months of this year (52% very/fairly closely from January-March). As was the case earlier this year, fewer Republicans than Democrats say they are following news about the campaign. Since the beginning of September, 62% of Democrats, on average, have followed campaign news very or fairly closely; that compares with 52% of Republicans and 47% of independents. At this stage in the 2000 campaign, Republicans were somewhat more likely than Democrats to say they were following campaign news. Nearly six-in-ten Republicans (57%) and 51% of Democrats said they followed news about the candidates very or fairly closely. At that time, independents lagged well behind members of both parties in campaign news interest (42% very/fairly closely). Independents are more interested in the current campaign, and now are nearly as attentive as Republicans to news about the candidates (47% vs. 52%). The news interest survey also finds that, with the first primary elections still at least a month away, the public continues to express campaign fatigue. Two-thirds (66%) describe the campaign as “too long,” up from 59% in April. A substantial though smaller majority (55%) describes the campaign as “dull” rather than interesting. The public’s overall evaluations of press coverage of the campaign are largely negative: 53% say the coverage has been only fair or poor while 41% rate the coverage as good or excellent. The Republican candidates as a group are about as visible as GOP candidates at comparable points during the 2000 and 1996 election cycles. Currently, 59% can name any Republican candidate. In September 1999, 63% of Americans could name a Republican candidate and four years earlier, 56% were able to do so. However, Giuliani is not as well known as George Bush was at this stage in 2000 and Bob Dole was in 1996; 45% currently are able to name Giuliani, compared with 54% who named Bush in September 1999, and 51% who named Dole in August 1995. Notably, substantially more Republicans named Clinton as a Democratic candidate than named Giuliani, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, as a Republican candidate. Fully 79% of Republicans mentioned Clinton when asked to name a Democratic candidate, while only 57% named Giuliani when asked for a Republican. Obama matched Giuliani in familiarity among Republicans (60%). Other Republican candidates are far less familiar to Republicans than Giuliani. Fred Thompson was named as a candidate by 40% of Republicans, while Mitt Romney was named by 37%. Roughly a quarter of Republicans (27%) could not name a single GOP candidate. Among Democrats, Clinton is almost universally recognized; 86% of Democrats named Clinton as a Democratic candidate. About two-thirds (68%) named Obama, while 31% named Edwards. Just 10% of Democrats could not name any Democratic presidential candidate. Independents are much more familiar with the Democratic field than with the Republican candidates. Fully 73% of independents named Clinton and 60% named Obama. While 45% of independents named Giuliani, the other leading GOP candidates were known by a third or less of this group. About four-in-ten independents (39%) could not name a GOP candidate. By contrast, 24% could not name a Democratic candidate. Campaign Interest Flat If anything, public interest in news about the presidential campaign has been a bit lower in the past few weeks than it was earlier this year. In Pew’s most recent weekly News Interest Index, conducted Oct. 12-15, just 13% said they were following the campaign very closely, while 31% said they were following it fairly closely. The combined very/fairly measure, at 43%, was among the lowest interest levels of the year. Notably, the campaign received more press coverage than any other story of the week, according to The Project for Excellence in Journalism‘s News Coverage Index. If previous patterns of campaign interest hold, public attentiveness is likely to increase once primaries are conducted. In 2004, for example, the proportion following the election very or fairly closely rose from 42% in December 2003 to 69% by March 2004. In other recent elections, there also has been a sharp rise in public interest during the primary season. Democrats have consistently expressed more interest in news about the campaign than have either Republicans or independents. In October weekly news interest surveys, 59% of Democrats said they were following the campaign, compared with 49% of Republicans and 48% of independents. In addition, Democratic interest in the campaign currently is significantly higher than in past campaigns. In surveys from September-December 2003, about half of Democrats (51%) on average paid very or fairly close attention to the campaign, and the same number of Democrats followed campaign news very or fairly closely during the fall of 1999 (51%, on average, from September to December). In the current campaign, 62% of Democrats said they tracked news about the campaign at least fairly closely in September and October. Other measures of political engagement have shown a similar pattern. Overall, the percentage of Americans who say they have given “a lot” of thought to the candidates has remained fairly stable since the beginning of the year. In September, 27% said they were giving a lot of thought to the candidates, which was nearly identical to the level in April (26%). In September, somewhat more Democrats (35%) than Republicans (30%) or independents (20%) said they were giving a lot of thought to the candidates. A Long, Dull Campaign The public’s overall impression of the presidential campaign is that it is too long and not very interesting. Overall, 66% say the campaign is too long, while 55% describe it as dull. Just 37% say they think the campaign is interesting. As the campaign has progressed through the summer and into the fall, it has not become more interesting to the public. In April, 34% said the campaign was interesting, nearly identical to the proportion who say that six months later. The percentage saying the campaign is too long has increased somewhat since April (from 59% in April to 66% now). Solid majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents say this campaign is too long. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to find the campaign interesting (49% vs. 36%), though even among Democrats, nearly half (48%) say the campaign has been dull so far. Independents have the most negative views of the campaign in this regard — 63% describe it as dull. Public evaluations of the amount of campaign information available are more positive. Half say they like having a lot of information about the campaign, while 41% say they feel “overloaded” by the amount of campaign information. Republicans and independents are far more likely than Democrats to say they feel overloaded (47% of Republicans, 44% of independents vs. 34% of Democrats). These findings are consistent with a July News Interest survey in which a plurality (43%) said that the press devotes the right amount of coverage to news about the presidential candidates; about a third (32%) said there is too much coverage devoted to campaign news; just 18% said there is too little coverage of the campaign. In the July survey, twice as many Republicans as Democrats said that the press devotes too much coverage to news about the campaign (40% vs. 19%). Beyond partisanship, age has an impact on views of the campaign. Older Americans overwhelmingly feel the current campaign is too long — 75% of those over age 50 share this view. Among those under age 30, only 49% say the campaign is too long. Older voters are also much more likely to feel overloaded by campaign news. Nearly half of those over age 50 (49%) feel overloaded, compared with only a quarter of those under age 30. Fully two-thirds of young people (65%) say they like having so much campaign information. Rating Coverage of the Campaign In rating the job the press has done in covering the 2008 presidential campaign, the balance of opinion is largely negative at this point in the race. More than half of Americans (53%) rate the coverage as only fair or poor, while 41% say the coverage is excellent or good. Democrats are decidedly more positive in their assessments than either Republicans or Independents. About six-in-ten Democrats (57%) say that the coverage is excellent or good compared with just 40% of Republicans and less than a third of independents (32%). Independents are the most critical of campaign coverage; fully 61% of this group gives the press only a fair or poor rating. Those who are closely following the presidential campaign are evenly divided over whether the press is doing an excellent or good job (48%) or only a fair or poor job (50%) of reporting on the campaign. Those who were following this story very or fairly closely back in February were somewhat more positive in their assessments of campaign coverage (56% excellent or good vs. 43% fair or poor). Public Wants More Issues Coverage A substantial number of Americans (77%) continue to say that they would like to see more coverage of the candidates’ positions on issues. That opinion is virtually unchanged since May (76%). There is less agreement in public views about other aspects of campaign coverage. Majorities say they want more coverage of the candidates’ debates (57%), their sources of campaign money (55%), their personal backgrounds (55%), and the candidates who are not frontrunners (55%). However, a third or more says that they would like to see less coverage of each of these aspects of the presidential campaign. The public is decidedly unenthusiastic about one area of campaign coverage: just 42% say they would like to see more coverage of which candidate is leading in the polls, while 45% wants to see less coverage. That result, like others relating to campaign coverage, has changed very little since May. Eight-in-ten Democrats (82%) and Republicans (79%) and three-quarters of independents (74%) say that they would like more news coverage of the candidates’ positions on the issues. Half or more of each group also wants more coverage devoted to the debates, the sources of campaign fundraising, and the candidates’ backgrounds. Independents (60%) are somewhat more likely than Republicans (52%) or Democrats (49%) to want more coverage of the candidates who are not the frontrunners. The only area where there is a clear partisan difference is on coverage of who is leading in the polls. Democrats (56%) are much more likely than Republicans (40%) or independents (35%) to say they would like to see more coverage of which candidate is ahead in the polls.

Cuts in U.S. spending on global intelligence gathering operations concern security experts, who warn the reductions may prove detrimental to U.S. defense interests. Warnings of the potential effects of smaller budgets on defense and security operations worldwide came as the industry weighed consequences for business in an already difficult economic climate. Global U.S. expenditure on intelligence gathering operations isn't small and far outstrips figures that other countries are either known to spend or admit to having set aside. But, given the U.S. spy agencies' international remit, the cuts are significant, published data indicated. Total spending in 2012 will represent the second year of a steady decline that follows a decade of historically high expenditure on intelligence gathering operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Data released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence indicated total spending in fiscal 2012 dropped to $53.9 billion from $54.6 billion in 2011. The U.S. government fiscal year ends Sept. 30 and the Office of the Director National Intelligence overseas all other spying entities, including the CIA. Military intelligence budgets under the Pentagon's separate Military Intelligence Program also dropped to $21.5 billion from about $24 billion in fiscal 2011, data showed. Both the government and Congress sources have said the figures are purposefully selective and no further data should be expected. A Pentagon statement said, "The department determined that releasing this top line figure does not jeopardize any classified activities within the MIP," adding, "No other MIP budget figures or program details will be released, as they remain classified for national security reasons." Industry analysts say the cuts are understandable with the military drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, they warn, the cuts do leave the industry with greater challenges on their balance sheets and build pressures on the businesses to diversify and find alternative sources of revenue. Both industry and defense analysts say the cuts highlight risks that prioritizing to manage with available funding will create blind spots. "We're going to have less capability in 10 years than we have today," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned in a November 2011 interview with Bloomberg News and other organizations. The 16 departments, agencies and offices that comprise the U.S. intelligence community spend a combined $80 billion a year. The planned cuts translate into $25 billion less spending on intelligence related operations over the next 10 years -- a potential major blow to industries that supply goods and services for the sector's activities. Clapper said in a speech that 2013 would signal the end of the boom time for the intelligence industry. "We've experienced 10 years of growth -- actually a fairly easy proposition, when you think about it, for the intelligence community, because every year all they had to do was hand out more money and more people," he said. New challenges for the government include a more judicious use of funds to secure best possible results. That need extends to secure storage of data as well as cloud computing is embraced by increasing numbers of government agencies. Declassified documents posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists also showed increased appropriations and emphasis on the work of technical intelligence agencies, including the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and operates spy satellites, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes intelligence imagery. Analysts say the reduction in spending means less money will be available for research and development of new space-based intelligence gathering equipment and other technological capabilities, hiring specialists to analyze new data, and being able to afford more human spies in some of the less covered regions, or in an emergency.

The Insulin Response to Carbohydrates Have you ever wondered why you often get hungry a few hours after what seemed to be a large meal? Maybe you get a cookie craving 3 hours after a large pasta dinner? Well there's a very good reason for that. It has to do with how the body processes carbohydrates and it's related to one of the body's most important hormones - Insulin. When we eat a carbohydrate rich meal, blood sugar levels increase as the carbohydrates are broken down into their base molecules - sugar. As blood sugar levels increase, insulin is released in response. Insulin is a hormone which moves glucose (sugar) from the blood into the muscles and fat cells for storage. In order to visualize this relationship better, take a look at the graph below. |In this graph we can see how insulin reacts to an increase in blood glucose levels. After the ingestion of a carbohydrate rich meal, blood glucose levels increase rapidly. Once the body detects these elevated blood glucose levels it releases insulin. You can see that blood glucose levels peak and then fall off and insulin does the same, however insulin levels peak later than blood glucose. Once blood glucose levels reach normal again, you can see that it takes insulin a little bit longer to reach normal again. It is this lag time in normalization of insulin levels which gives us those sugar cravings after carbohydrate rich meals. This is because blood sugar levels are normal but we still have insulin present in the blood and that insulin needs something to do - without sugar to store it gets bored! So it has the effect of asking the body for more sugar. That's why we get hungry even though we just ate a few So what can we do to eliminate or at least reduce these hunger cravings? We have to learn how to control the insulin response to some degree. If we can decrease the amount of sugar we dump into our blood, thereby decreasing the size of the peak in blood glucose levels, the insulin response will decrease accordingly. By leveling off the peaks and valleys in insulin during the day you'll be able to exit that 'hunger rollercoaster' that plagues millions. There are a couple of ways we can do this, some of which are detailed in other sections of this website so I'll just touch briefly on them. The first way is to choose your carbohydrates wisely - see Good Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins. Another good plan is to try to include carbohydrates, fats and protein in every meal and snack throughout the day. Fat and protein will slow down the release of insulin. Also, carbohydrates that have a higher fibre content do not cause as large an insulin response as those which contain less fibre.

Sexuality education includes human growth and development; personal skills; relationships; disease control and prevention; sexual health and behavior; family life; and societal and cultural issues. Sexuality is complex and it encompasses emotional, physical and social changes and factors. It includes gender, gender identity, body image, and sexual orientation. Sexuality and family life is one of seven content areas presented in the Rhode Island Comprehensive Health Instructional Outcomes. Comprehensive Sexuality Programs Comprehensive sexuality programs should be based on theoretical approaches that have been demonstrated to be effective in influencing health-related risk behaviors. There should be a theoretical background for sexuality education programs in order to affect social norms, behavior and to build personal skills. Many adolescents are at risk because they need information, skills, health services and support they need to make well-informed, responsible decisions. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth Adolescence is a time for exploring one’s sexuality. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth may not feel comfortable or safe exploring their sexuality due to social norms, school climate and community influences. Therefore, LGBTQ youth may need additional support and information in order to make well-informed and responsible decisions. Teen pregnancy is linked to critical social issues — poverty and income, overall child well-being, out-of-wedlock births, responsible fatherhood, health issues, education, child welfare, and risky health behaviors. Pregnancy and parenting have a significant impact on a girls' ability to stay in school. Approximately 30% of teens drop out of school following a pregnancy. Data suggest that reducing unplanned pregnancy will increase the proportion of children born into circumstances that better support their growth and development.

The History of Memorial Day is an interesting history lesson about the day that the United States honors those who died serving the United States services. From its origins in 1868, the infographic takes us through the timeline of how Memorial Day came to be. As well, it also takes a look at the traditions of Memorial Day such as the motorcyclists who ride in Washington, D.C. to honor the fallen soliders. The infographic also takes a look at Arlington National Cemetery and how it is the first area to host the official Memorial Day. The History of Memorial Day also discusses how the holiday was originally called "Decoration Day" as well as how Memorial Day was actually original was honored every May 5th (versus the last Monday of May).

|Anthropogenic and naturally-occurring organobromine compounds in fish oil dietary supplements| |Covaci, A.; Voorspoels, S.; Vetter, W.; Gelbin, A.; Jorens, P.G.; Blust, R.; Neels, H. (2007). Anthropogenic and naturally-occurring organobromine compounds in fish oil dietary supplements Environ. Sci. Technol. 41(15): 5237–5244. dx.doi.org/10.1021/es070239g| |In: Environmental Science and Technology. American Chemical Society: Washington. ISSN 0013-936X, meer| Fish oils; Gebromeerde koolwaterstoffen; Marien Fish oil dietary supplements (FODS) are recommended to increase the intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), renowned for their beneficial effects on human health. However, FODS also contain anthropogenic contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Sixty-nine (n = 69) PUFA-enriched FODS from 37 producers were collected in 2006 and then analyzed for their levels of organobrominated compounds. Levels of the sum of tri- to hepta-BDEs (BDEs 28, 47, 49, 66, 85, 99, 100, 153, 154, and 183) were typically below 5 ng/g oil, while only a few had higher values of up to 44 ng/g oil. Several peaks in the chromatograms were identified as methoxylated PBDEs (MeO-PBDEs) and polybrominated hexahydroxanthene derivatives (PBHDs). These two groups of compounds have been suggested to be produced by marine organisms (e.g., algae and sponges) and have also been reported in marine samples, such as fish and marine mammals. Median concentrations of MeO-PBDEs and PBHDs (6.2 and 5.3 ng/g oil, respectively) were higher than median concentrations of PBDEs (0.6 ng/g oil), and their maximum values were 1670 and 200 ng/g oil, respectively. FODS are intended to be consumed on a daily basis, and the median daily intakes of MeO-PBDEs and PBHDs from FODS were 3 and 6 times higher than the median intake of PBDEs (3 ng/day). Consumption of FODS does not appear to substantially increase the total dietary intake of PBDEs since the median daily intake from FODS was 8 and 16 times lower than the intake from either fish consumption alone or from total diet. These findings indicate that FODS might be a suitable alternative to fish consumption for certain segments of the population for which fish consumption advices have been issued. The present study also strongly supports the need for not only the inclusion of new anthropogenic contaminants (e.g., PBDEs) but also of naturally occurring compounds in monitoring schemes of marine products destined for human consumption.

A brief introduction The most affected area by water scarcity and drought consequences in Hungary is the Danube-Tisza Interstice. This area covers a major part of the activity field of the Directorate for Environmental Protection and Water Management of Lower Tisza District. In this area the Directorate has the responsibility for sustainable development of surface water. The Directorate plays a role in the development of regional water policies as an expert of water management on behalf of Ministry of Water. Experts from the Directorate developed a methodology of water balance's continouos evaluation. During the frame of the WATER CoRe project the Directorate will improve the regional development processes, and will execute those operational measures which result from the interregional exchange and transfer activities. Experts from the Diretorate will make efforts to exchange and disseminate their experiencies in connection water balance monitoring and mitigation of drought consequencies.

Meanings and Symbolism of the Fish Realm To fully appreciate the symbolic meanings of fish, we must first consider their watery domain. Water holds ancient symbolic meanings dealing with the subconscious and depth of knowledge. Water contains all the mysteriousness of the unknown. Consider the murky depths of the ocean - we never know quite what to expect there. Even seasoned oceanic explorers are still awed by their findings from the deep. Water holds endless mystery to us - it represents that which is certainly there, but cannot be seen. Water has also been known to be a womb symbol and as such, an emblem of birth, fertility and woman-ness. This association comes from many ancient flood myths, and the "from water springs life" concept. Given the wonder that its domain holds, the fish too has similar symbolic meaning. There are numerous species of fish, but the creature in general holds some prime symbolic meanings: The fish was sacred to the Greco-Roman mythology, where it held symbolic meaning of change and transformation. We see this in the myth of Aphrodite and Heros when they turned themselves into fish in order to escape from the ferocious Typhon. In Christianity, the fish is a symbol of abundance and faith as observed in the Biblical story of fishes and loaves. There are also several Biblical references as Christ and his disciples being "fishers of men." Here, man is represented as the transformational fish and the ocean is a symbol of the abyss of sin in which man finds himself. Pagan traditions recognized the fish as a feminine symbol of fertility and an attribute of the Goddess. Water is a natural emblem of the flow of the Divine Mother principal, and as such, all creatures of the water (including fish) are aspects of the fertility and power of the female deity. As an ancient Celtic symbol, the symbolic meaning of fish (salmon, specifically) dealt with knowledge, wisdom, inspiration and prophecy. Ancient Celts believed the salmon derived its wisdom from consuming the sacred hazel nuts from the well of knowledge (Segais). Further, they believed to eat the salmon would mean gaining the wisdom of the well too. In ancient Eastern Indian mythology, the fish is a symbol of transformation and creation. This is observed in the ancient flood myth in which Vishnu transformed himself into a fish (Matsya) to save the world from a great flood. In this form, he guided king Manu's boat (which contained the select few survivors & seeds of life to re-create the world after the flood subsided) to safety. Ancient African creation myths tell of Mangala, the creator, planting seeds in the cosmic womb. From these seeds two fish erupted, and were set forth into the cosmos upon the waters of creation. We see from this myth the symbolic meaning of fish yet again deals with fertility and creativity by embodying a new phase of initial life. ( click here for other twin symbols). In China, the fish is symbolic of unity and fidelity as it is noted that fish (particularly koi) often swim together in pairs. With this in mind, fish are often given as wedding gifts in the form of charms or figurines to present the newly-wed couple with an auspicious sign of fidelity and perfect union. They also represent fertility and abundance due to their ability to reproduce in speed and volume. Furthermore, in Buddhism, the fish symbolizes happiness and freedom. Also the fish makes an appearance as one of the eight sacred symbols of the Buddha: 1) Conch, 2) Lotus, 3) Parasol, 4) Wheel, 5) Knot, 6) Pair of Golden Fish, 7) Banner of Victory, 8) Vase. Lastly, in Norse and ancient European cultures, the fish had symbolic meanings of adaptability, determination, and the flow of life. It was observed by these cultures that fish often display enormous attributes of adaptability in the wild, and they adopted these characteristics for themselves. Salmon were commonly revered for their determination in their annual pilgrimage to their spawning grounds - the entire journey swum against the current.

One area of eCommerce that many don’t ever think about when it comes to selling goods online are all of the little details on your website that will “play on the customers mind”. These items will play on the mind whether you like it or not and most of the time it goes unnoticed. This is why it is called Psychological eCommerce; we are dealing with particular aesthetics that “could”, depending upon what market you are in make you or completely destroy you. 1) Typography (FONT COLOR vs BACKGROUND COLOR) Make no mistake, choosing the correct font as well as color is majorly important to your customers whether they know it or not. For example if you choose a very bright font on a very DARK background it will inevitably hurt the eyes. In fact, that person is more likely to leave your website because it becomes unsettling. This doesn’t go for all combinations of bright font on dark background…just some, for example check out the image below: Also, your font color could be too DARK on the background making it impossible to see. This causes the users’ eyes to squint….making it painful to even read. This will also lose your business: The next example is an example of font color that actually is okay….and easy on the eyes: Now let’s discuss the topic of colors in general. Did you know that certain colors evoke certain emotions? Red is a very strong color. It is a noticeable color that is often used on caution and warning signs. It is often associated with stop or “beware”. It’s a hot color that evokes a powerful emotion of passion, lust, sex, energy, blood and war. Red is a good color to use for accents that need to take notice over other colors. Red is often used in flags for nations, as it is a symbol of pride and strength. It is also a sporty color that many car manufactures choose to showcase their signature vehicles. Orange is a combination of Red and Yellow. It is also a bright and warm color. It represents fire, the sun, fun, warmth and tropical images. It is considered a fun light color that has appetizing qualities to it. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Any design relating to the tropics, something fun, easy going and youthful should incorporate some type of orange into the design. A darker, richer shade of orange can be associated with autumn. Yellow is the brightest color to the human eye. It represents youth, fun, happiness, sunshine and other light playful feelings. It is a cheerful energetic color. Yellow is often used for children’s toys and clothes. Yellow is often hard to read when placed on a white background so designers must be careful when using yellow, that it isn’t too difficult to read or notice. Though yellow is a bright cheerful color, as it starts to darken it, however, quickly becomes a dirty and unpleasant color. Yellow can also be associated with being scared and, cowards. The term “yellow belly” is proof of that. Green is the color of nature and health. It represents growth, nature, money, fertility and safety. Green is a relaxing color that is easy on the eye and has a healing power to it. It is often used to represent anything having to do with health. Many pharmaceutical and nutritional companies use green in their logos and material to advertise safe natural products. Dark green is commonly associated with the military, money, finance, and banking. However it can also be associated with being new or inexperienced as being green or a “green horn”. Green is becoming a very popular color in design for web sites. Blue is a cool calming color that shows creativity and intelligence. It is a popular color among large corporations, hospitals and airlines. It is a color of loyalty, strength, wisdom and trust. Blue has a calming effect on the psyche. Blue is the color of the sky and the sea and is often used to represent those images. Blue is a color that generally looks good in almost any shade and is a popular color among males. Blue is not a good color when used for food as there are few blue foods found in nature and it suppresses the appetite. Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Throughout history purple has been associated with royalty, nobility and prestige. It symbolizes mystery, magic, power and luxury. Purple is often used to portray rich powerful kings, leaders, wizards and magicians. Purple combined with gold can be flashy and portray wealth and extravagance. Light purple and pink is good for a feminine design and is a popular color among teenage girls. Bright purple along with yellow is commonly used in promoting children’s products. It gives the appearance of something that is fun and easy to do. Black is often a color used to portray something evil, depressing, scary or even death in western civilization. It has negative imagery with it at times such as “black mail” “black list” “black hole” etc. Black is also a very powerful color that also portrays one of class elegance and wealth. Classy clothing is designed in black from the “power suit” to the “sexy black dress” to formal “black-tie attire”. Black combined with other colors can have a very strong statement. Black is a color that can fit into almost every design to add contrast, type, and make the other colors stand out more. White is often associated with being pure, clean, fresh and good. The color of a fresh snowstorm brings up images of a peaceful and pure winter scene. White is a common background for Webster’s as it is easy to read black or dark text on it. When used with a design using lots of negative space it gives a very clean look to it. White is also used lots for charities and non-profit organizations to denote something good and positive. Hollywood often portrays their characters in white as being good; the white horse, the cowboy with the white hat, the white wizard etc. White usually is associated with being pure and almost heavenly, it is associated with hospitals, doctors, and heaven.

Vincent Bevins – Los Angeles Times, 04/25/2013 Shortly before Venezuela’spresidential election, former Brazilian PresidentLuiz Inacio Lula da Silva recorded a video supporting Nicolas Maduro, saying he had “stood out brilliantly in the struggle” for a more democratic Latin America. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was endorsed by Lula in 2010, kept silent on the ultimately victorious candidacy of Maduro, the hand-chosen heir of the late leftist Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. The difference in demeanor between the two Brazilian presidents was not surprising to Rousseff watchers. Since assuming office at the start of 2011, she has taken a much more muted approach to foreign policy than Lula, avoiding the type of activism that often annoyed the United States. February 25, 2013 Gabriel Elizondo – Al Jazeera, 02/25/2013 There’s a case to be made that no country has lived through as much radical and fundamental positive change in the past 10 years as Brazil. There has also been an evolution – of sorts – in what Brazilians want and need out of their president. A decade ago Brazil was a country looking for a charismatic, larger-than-life figure who would lift millions from poverty, take the country to new economic heights, and rattle the cages of the world to take notice of the South American giant. January 3, 2013 The Economist, 12/13/2012 The administration of President Dilma Rousseff and the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) have been put on the defensive following a new corruption scandal as well as recent fall-out from the largest corruption trial in Brazilian history, known as the mensalão (“big monthly stipend”), in which several PT officials have been sentenced to prison by the Supreme Court. Moreover, Brazil’s economy is struggling to recover from a slowdown that began in 2011, despite the government’s stimulus measures. Even though unemployment is at historically low levels, these developments threaten to erode Ms Rousseff’s popularity and complicate the political scene in 2013. Political rivals from allied parties and the opposition also have begun to stir. In addition, the president faces a mobilisation of political forces in Congress which are opposed to her recent veto of parts of a controversial oil royalties bill. All this points to a more fluid political environment than previously expected in 2013, when Ms Rousseff will be preparing the ground for a re-election bid at the October 2014 elections. In the latest corruption case, a federal police investigation code-named Porto Seguro has led to arrests and the indictment of several government officials, including the head of the president’s office in the state of São Paulo, Rosemary Nóvoa de Noronha; the deputy attorney-general, José Weber Holanda; and brothers Paulo Vieira and Rubens Vieira , who were political appointees at Brazil’s water and aviation regulatory agencies, respectively. December 21, 2012 The Economist, 12/22/2012 SO RARELY has political corruption led to punishment in Brazil that there is an expression for the way scandals peter out. They “end in pizza”, with roughly the same convivial implication as settling differences over a drink. But a particularly brazen scandal has just drawn to a surprisingly disagreeable close for some prominent wrongdoers. The supreme-court trial of the mensalão (big monthly stipend), a scheme for buying votes in Brazil’s Congress that came to light in 2005, ended on December 17th. Of the 38 defendants, 25 were found guilty of charges including corruption, money-laundering and misuse of public funds. Many received stiff sentences and large fines. The supreme court must still write its report on the trial, and hear appeals—though it is unlikely to change its mind. So in 2013 Brazilians should be treated to an unprecedented sight: well-connected politicos behind bars. José Dirceu, who served as chief of staff to the former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was sentenced to almost 11 years; Delúbio Soares, former treasurer of the ruling Workers’ Party (PT), got almost nine. Under the penal code, at least part of such long sentences must be served in jail. The justices also decided that the three federal deputies found guilty will automatically lose their seats if and when those verdicts are confirmed. Lula was not charged, and has always insisted he knew nothing of the scheme. But Marcos Valério, a former advertising man sentenced to 40 years, claims to have evidence that Lula knew what was going on, and that some of the dirty money paid his personal expenses. These allegations may be merely a desperate attempt by a condemned man to bargain down his jail term. The attorney-general characterised Mr Valério as a “player”, and said his claims should be treated with caution. But if he has significant new evidence the mensalão may yet rumble on. The latest revelations have put the governing Workers Party on the defensive yet again, as investigators expose a bribery scheme across several high echelons of government. The scheme largely involved selling falsified public documents needed for transportation projects, and it extended into the attorney general’s office, the Education Ministry and the regulatory agencies for civil aviation and ports, according to the federal police, which carried out raids of government offices here in São Paulo and in the capital, Brasília, in recent days. The New York Times/AP, 11/26/2012 Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced the last 3 of 25 defendants convicted on charges involving a congressional cash-for-votes scheme, bringing to an end a high-profile corruption trial that has riveted Latin America’s largest country for nearly four months. The court on Wednesday sentenced a former congressman, the former leader of the governing Workers Party and a former treasurer of the Brazilian Labor Party on charges of money laundering, passive corruption and embezzlement. The corruption dates to the government of the previous president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, though he has not been charged. October 5, 2012 Anthony Boadle, Alonso Soto – Reuters, 10/5/2012 President Dilma Rousseff wants to regulate strikes by public workers after a series of walkouts by civil servants in recent months paralyzed public services across Brazil. But the plans, in proposals that could soon be presented to Congress, are drawing fire from unions and labor activists – a constituency that helped put Rousseff into office and that long has formed the bedrock of the ruling Workers’ Party. The strikes that started in May by civil servants, ranging from university professors to customs and health inspectors to Brazil’s federal police force, so crippled public services that Rousseff wants to better define who can strike and when, and establish collective-bargaining mechanisms to head off future stoppages. September 28, 2012 Joe Leahy – Financial Times, 09/27/2012 In the magical realist world of the Rio de Janeiro carnival, the last character one might expect to see portrayed in the festivities would be from the arcane sphere of Brazil’s supreme court. But craftsmen in the city have begun churning out masks ahead of next February’s carnival in the likeness of Joaquim Barbosa. This is in homage to the important role that the court’s only black judge is playing in the country’s biggest corruption case. Justice Barbosa is in charge of the so-called mensalão trial of alleged vote-buying in congress, whose suspects include senior members of the government of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. August 9, 2012 Andres Oppenheimer – The Miami Herald, 08/08/2012 You have to give credit to Brazil for what it’s doing to combat corruption and solve the worst political scandal in the country’s recent history. It’s not unusual for Latin American countries to prosecute politicians for real or imagined corrupt practices: in fact, most new governments go after their political rivals from preceding governments as soon as they can. But Brazil is doing something much more noteworthy: it is prosecuting prominent leaders of the ruling party. Thirty-eight top officials and allies of President Dilma Rousseff and former President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party, including former Lula da Silva all-powerful chief of staff Jose Dirceu, are being tried before Brazil’s Supreme Court for diverting public funds to buy votes in Congress between 2002 and 2005. February 8, 2012 Maria Luiza Rabello, Carl Simoes – Bloomberg Businessweek, 02/08/2012 Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, whose Workers’ Party rose to power because of ties to the labor movement, is being tested by public employees threatening to strike for higher pay. Civil servants won eight years of wage increases above inflation under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. They now believe Rousseff has become a “hostage” of the global financial crisis during her first year in office, denying raises to keep spending down, said Pedro Armengol, public sector coordinator of CUT, Brazil’s biggest labor confederation.

Education: Living Shoreline Design - A class for marine contractors As populations along shorelines grow, shoreline stabilization activity also grows. Currently, shoreline stabilization permits in Virginia result in impacts to approximately 10 acres of tidal wetland annually, which impedes achievement of the 2010 Chesapeake Bay restoration goals. The advancing understanding of science, ecology and ecosystem interactions has resulted in the development of shoreline project designs that mimic nature, called “living shorelines”. These types of designs have less impact on natural ecosystem function than traditional bulkhead and riprap revetment structures. In “living shoreline” type designs, the shoreline is re-shaped with natural materials to reduce erosion. Examples of living shoreline components are: beach nourishment, gapped sill systems, bank grading, and marsh planting. Many property owners have expressed interest in the “living shoreline” approach, but the installation and maintenance of many projects are too complex and labor intensive to install without professional help. The systems must be properly built to mimic a natural ecosystem or they are not beneficial to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The Center for Coastal Resources Management, with funding from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, has developed curriculum for a course to educate shoreline project designers and contractors about the use of “Living shoreline” designs. The course stresses the reasoning behind the recommended design criteria and the interactions between upland riparian zones, wetlands and the aquatic system – three areas that are functionally integrated and tend to be impacted by shoreline projects. There are three main objectives of the course; each objective is addressed in one of the three modules below. The modules together form a complete class and should be viewed in order. Click on the module name to access the presentation. Advance slides using the control bar at the bottom of the screen. Module 1 -- Ecosystem Services Goal: Explain how a living shoreline project can enhance ecosystem function in the Chesapeake Bay, and contrast this with impacts associated with traditional shoreline projects. Module 2 -- Site suitability Goal: Determine which types of shoreline projects are suitable for different shoreline types (e.g., sandy vs. marshy shorelines and low- vs. high-energy shorelines). Module 3 -- Design Criteria Goal: Learn the design criteria necessary to construct a successful living shoreline project.

What do the Converts Want? By Terry Mattingly It doesn't take a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies to tell the difference between a Southern Baptist church and an Orthodox church. You can get some pretty good clues just by walking in the door and looking around. But there are some similarities between the two that might be a little trickier to spot. For instance, let me tell you about what life is like on Sunday nights in a Southern Baptist congregation. Baptists worship at several different times during the week -- at least they did in the old days when I was growing up as a Southern Baptist pastor's son. One of those times is on Sunday nights. Back in the early 1980s, I was active in a church in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in which the typical Sunday morning crowd would be about 200 to 300 people, which is rather small for a Baptist church, but fairly normal for an Orthodox parish. Then the crowd on Sunday night would be from 40 to 45 people. Now, that ratio should sound familiar to many priests who lead Vespers services. But the similarities don’t stop there. Before the age of 30, I became a deacon and the finance chairman of that church -- which, in the Southern Baptist way of doing things, meant that I was the only person, not excluding the pastor, who saw the annual pledge cards. I was the only person in the congregation who knew who was giving what. If there is an experience in life that will teach you the meaning of original sin, finance chairman is that role. What I discovered through that experience is that there is no connection whatsoever between how much a family gives to the church and how much money that family makes. Instead, I found that the key connection is faithfulness in worship. If you attend the Sunday night service at a typical Baptist church and look around at the 40 people there in comparison to the 200 or 300 in attendance on Sunday morning, you will find that about 80 percent of the church's giving is accounted for in that group. The bottom line: The Sunday night experience in a Baptist church is very similar to that in Saturday evening Vespers services in an Orthodox church. As Bishop Antoun told me once, if you look at who attends Great Vespers and comes to confession, you are looking at about 80 percent of the service, the giving, and the energy in most parishes. Who comes to Vespers? Who comes to confession? Who comes to the feasts, and why do they come? That’s where I would like to start as we consider this question: What do the converts want? Where They’re Coming From On one level, many Orthodox converts are fleeing megachurch Christianity. They are coming because they want something on Sunday morning besides a rock band and a giant plasma TV screen. Converts are also fleeing from mainline Protestantism, which is in the midst of a three-decade statistical nosedive and demographic suicide. At the same time, I believe that most of these converts are coming out of that core 20 percent of their former churches. They are active, highly motivated people. They read, they think, they sing, and they serve. That hunger for more, that hunger for sound doctrine, is sending them to Orthodoxy. These Orthodox converts are seeking mystery. They want a non-fundamentalist approach to the faith, but they are not fleeing the faith of the ages. They are trying to get back to the trunk of the tree. All around them are churches that are either modern, postmodern, post-postmodern or post-post-postmodern. If they stopped and thought about it, most Orthodox converts would call themselves premodern, since the modern world has not served up a wide array of dependable answers. They are looking for beauty. They are looking for a life that can give them some degree of stability and peace, while helping them face the realities of the world around them. They want Orthodoxy. And it is crucial to know that the converts want more Orthodoxy, not less. In the words of Frederica Mathewes-Green in Facing East, "In Orthodoxy less is never more. More is more." That’s the approach of the converts. They are not looking for "Orthodoxy Lite." They want more. Now when we ask this question, "What do the converts want?" we may as well admit that many Orthodox will hear that question as, "What do the Americans want?" A few years ago, the wife of an Orthodox pastor told my family, "You already have your churches; why would you want to join ours?" When we were seeking Orthodoxy in the hills of Tennessee, we tried to attend the local Greek Orthodox parish -- the only parish within a one- or two-hour drive. When we called, they would -- literally -- not give us the times of the services. We came to Orthodoxy in spite of them, not because of them. We ended up starting a mission. Looking for Worship The American converts are not looking for some kind of post-Vatican II, carved-down liturgical experience. They have that all around them. They are not trying to cut the service down another 15 to 20 minutes so that more young people will hang around -- as if that would work. Speaking as a journalist, I can tell you that the lively, growing Roman parishes are not the ones that have cut the Mass down to 45 minutes. You see, the people who want to worship, want to worship. One of the trends in American journalism is to try to create newspapers for people who don’t read. This seems to me to be somewhat contradictory. Similarly, there are many churches that are creating worship services for people who do not want to go to worship services. The Orthodox converts are not interested in those churches. Also, the converts want their children to be Orthodox. They are looking for churches that will offer their children a winsome, living faith that they will want to follow. My wife is a librarian. With a librarian and journalism professor in the house, we care a lot about reading. Researchers tell us that if parents want their children to read, the children must see the parents reading. The parent reads to the child: this is the only way to hand down the love of reading. The same is true with worship and faith. Now that may seem like a cruel thing to say. In many Orthodox churches across America, the average age of the parishioners is about the same as the average age of the people in mainline Protestant churches. Many Orthodox churches are having trouble retaining their young people, so they are seeking ways to stop the bleeding. But there's the rub. If you are not creating new faith, you will not retain the children of those who had the faith in the first place. As the old saying goes, God has no grandchildren. You have to give the faith away. The converts also want good preaching, since many come out of church traditions that place an incredible emphasis on preaching. This does not mean pounding on pulpits, because no one is doing that anymore -- not even the true fundamentalists. However, the converts do not believe that preaching is the only sacrament, which is the rule in most of evangelicalism. They want to worship with all of their senses. They want to worship with their whole bodies. I remember something that happened when my family was part of an ethnic parish that had installed pews in the sanctuary. During Great Lent, the number of people who came to church on Wednesday nights -- for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts -- was small, so we could stand in the front of the church. Freed from the pews, all sorts of Orthodox things started happening again. Prostrations returned. People were bowing, people were worshiping with their whole bodies. It was a very moving experience. Emotions are OK. Movement is OK. Beauty is OK. Humility before God is OK. And more than anything else, participation in worship is more than OK -- it is essential. Let me be blunt. Americans who visit an Orthodox church will judge the vitality of that congregation based on how many people sing and take part in their worship. That is really unfair to many Orthodox who were raised to stand in quiet holiness, but it’s the truth. Americans will want to take part in the service. If they have mustered up the courage to walk through the door of an Orthodox church in the first place, they're not going to want to just sit or stand once they’re in there. They will feel left out, if there is no way for them to sing, if there is no way for them to take part in the service. The church will have just sent them back out the door. Let me repeat: Americans will judge the spiritual vitality of an Orthodox parish on whether or not the congregation is reverently and enthusiastically singing, praying, and participating in worship. Converts, Assimilation, and Unity Truth is, I believe there is a link between this issue and that of Orthodox unity. To make my point, I need to use a dangerous word -- "assimilation." America is all about assimilation. But I need to stress that Orthodox believers face two different forms of assimilation. One asks them to assimilate into America at the level of culture and language. The other tempts them to assimilate on the level of doctrine and practice. I believe that Orthodox Christians have divided into two different camps, whether this choice is conscious or unconscious. In many parishes, we see people who are struggling to assimilate into American culture but don’t know what parts to accept. They are struggling to retain their language and to some extent their art. But on the level of faith and practice, they have already assimilated and their children have as well. You walk into their homes and you see little or no iconography. Yet when you walk into their church, they are not speaking English. It’s an interesting mix of what they've given up and what they've chosen to cling to. As an Orthodox priest of an ethnic parish once told me: "Most of the members of my congregation have never been to confession in their lives. They have no idea that this even exists as a part of our church. They see no connection between confession and the life of our parish and the sacramental reality of our parish." As threatening as it sounds, our goal -- if there is to be a united Orthodoxy -- is to be united in worship and sacramental practice. This unity will blend gifts from across our great ethnic traditions. However, it will be a vital, growing Orthodoxy that at the congregational level can welcome Americans with open arms. It will make them feel strange, but it will be a place they can become a part of and even help change over time. This Orthodoxy will assimilate on the level of culture and language, but it will not assimilate to America at the level of practice, sacrament, and doctrine. It will not compromise on the essentials. It will not compromise on what unites Orthodoxy around the world and through the millennia. It will create a worthy expression of Orthodoxy that will, over time, be unique to this culture. This will be painful. It will be hard, but it will also be joyful and miraculous. It must happen. This is, quite frankly, what the converts want. The Convert-Friendly Church Let me return to the issue of children. In my experience of Orthodoxy, I have found nothing more poignant or more painful than talking to ethnic parents and grandparents whose children have left the faith. They can't understand. They thought America was going to be a wonderful place. They thought America was going to be a place that would make them feel at home. They thought they were offering their children a better life. Now, in some sense, America has taken away their children. Here is that hard truth again. If their children are to practice Orthodoxy, they will have to believe it, they will have to want to practice it. The faith will have to be their own. Let me stress that there is no such thing as a "convert church," but there are convert-friendly Orthodox churches. Even a church that is largely made up of converts must, in the end, be a church that welcomes all Orthodox people. Meanwhile, there are ethnic parishes that are full of people who, as Fr. Joseph Huneycutt on the Orthodixie weblog likes to call them, are "reverts." There are cradle Orthodox priests who are as on fire as any convert will be in their lifetimes. You see, this is not about ethnicity. We are not talking about the "convert era," but a "convert-friendly era." The worship in these churches will be in English, and the people -- all the people -- will be singing. You will see lots of children, and chrismation rites and adult baptisms will not be strange, mysterious events. The list of their children who are headed off to church camp will be long. Some of these churches will have tight budgets, but they will be tight because they are struggling to cope with growth, not decline. You will find people being called to the priesthood, the diaconate, and other forms of service. In conclusion, let me offer this parable. I have a friend who wants to be Orthodox -- more than anything. He has for a number of years been visiting a nearby Orthodox church. But there's a problem. You see, this friend also has business that takes him to Chicago, and when he is there he worships at All Saints Orthodox Church, a vital, convert-friendly parish. He sees the Orthodox life there and he wants it like life itself. His problem is that he cannot find it where he lives. For five years, he has been struggling. One year at Pascha, he witnessed this painful, sad scene. This service, of course, is the high point of the Christian year. Yet, at the high point of that service, as a small choir entered the sanctuary singing, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death," the members of the congregation stood in silence -- watching. My friend saw this and, trust me, this was not what he was looking for. He wanted Orthodoxy, for himself and for his family. He wanted more, not less. He still does. If there is to be unity in Orthodoxy in America, that unity will emerge out of the sacramental life of the Church. We will sing unity into existence. We will pray unity into existence. We will confess unity into existence. It can happen no other way. We must live the faith and then give it away.

When I ask the question, “What’s your RPO?” I typically get an answer like “We’ve got an RPO of 5 minutes.” If I ask “How much data are you willing to lose?” I’ll hear a similar answer. But if I ask someone, “How much data is in your storage system?” they don’t answer me in minutes. The data created by the mission-critical applications that support businesses don’t get updated in an even, regulated way. The update rates are almost always highly variable, full of transaction peaks and valleys. The peaks can happen during predictable times, like a holiday shopping season, and during unexpected times, like when there is panic buying before a hurricane. That’s the not-so-funny disconnect between data and disaster recovery. We don’t measure data in minutes. We measure it in GBs. Wouldn’t it be better to set our snapshots and our recovery points based upon how much data has changed, instead of how much time has passed? I have to credit our CTO, Dr. Alex Winokur, for helping me think this through. But, I’ve decided that, unless your RPO is zero, RPO doesn’t matter. Instead, we need to make sure we’ve protected the data to the very last byte. Amazon has built a fantastic reputation as a provider of cloud services. With multiple data centers, service availability levels at 99.9% and integrated data backup services, Amazon’s EC2 makes perfect sense for new companies that want to build software applications and deliver them as a service. By delivering applications as a service, emerging companies can be a disruptive force competing against established packaged-application vendors. And Amazon EC2 enables these Application-as-a-Service suppliers to avoid the up-front capital costs associated with building multiple, redundant data centers. It doesn’t mean, however, that Amazon EC2 is perfect and without risk. A look at the Amazon Web Services Service Health Dashboard today showed a number of service interruptions and performance issues in Amazon’s Northern Virginia facility on April 21 – 24. Henry Blodget of Business Insider reported that Amazon had a cloud crash and the “cloud crash destroyed many customers’ data.” It would take a lot of digging to get to the bottom of why data was lost. The Business Insider article refers to a letter from Amazon to a customer that discusses “an inconsistent data snapshot” and Amazon’s inability to recover the data. Unfortunately, corrupted data which has been carefully copied to another location is still corrupted. That’s why it is important to keep a series of application-consistent snapshots together with transaction journals, so that application-data can be restored to its last known good state and updates can be applied to bring the data back to RPO=0. This is precisely what is done with the EMC RecoverPoint/Axxana Phoenix System RP solution. RecoverPoint maintains application-consistent snapshots, and Axxana stores the changed data, protected from fire, smoke, flood, shock, earthquakes, and building collapse. As the cloud services become increasingly adopted for mission critical applications, perhaps it is time to consider a zero-data-loss solution. About thirty years ago, IBM announced the IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device. It had a capacity of 2.52GB and a price that began at $81,000 without the controller. At the time, successful storage solution providers like IBM made their storage systems out of high-quality, high-cost components and charged a premium. The design goal was to prevent failures, because there weren’t a lot of ways to survive failures. Given the volume of data now created, today’s storage systems are by necessity very different. They are designed with the expectation that components will fail and fail frequently, but that the data will survive. In order to achieve acceptable levels of data availability and data protection, storage system suppliers overcome the component failures through software, through redundant components, and through redundant copies. I spent some time this weekend looking at what others are saying about disaster recovery and found this article by Rajen Sheth: “Disaster Recovery by Google.” Rajen is a Senior Product Manager at Google. His article makes some very good points, such as stressing the importance of synchronous mirroring and having a disaster recovery facility located outside of the disaster zone. Of course, he also talks about the cost and complexity of managing multiple data centers. I’ve continued to look at the data that was in Symantec 2010 Disaster Recovery Study. There’s a lot of very useful information in the study. Here’s some of what I found interesting: • Only 20% of virtual environments are protected by replication or failover technologies • 60% of virtualized environments are not covered in DR plans • Actual downtime from outages is more than twice what companies expect • 40% of DR tests fail to meet the RTO/RPO that have been set for the applications That last one is very interesting. It’s hard to imagine anyone putting up with a 40% failure rate for long. I suspect some things will have to change, and soon. But given the tight budget times, it doesn’t mean that companies are going to spend more. In fact, 43% of companies said their disaster recovery budget would decline in the next 12 months. At Axxana, our sole reason to exist is to provide disaster recovery capabilities to organizations, so you might think that declining budgets for DR are bad news, but they’re not. No, in the world of disaster recovery, when budgets get tight and service levels aren’t being met, something needs to change. And that’s when organizations look for new, more-innovative ways to provide data protection and disaster recovery. That’s what we offer. We have a new class of data protection, Enterprise Data Recording (EDR), that actually enables companies to meet RTO/RPO service levels, while lowering the cost of data protection. Maybe all data should have RPO=0. I was thinking today about a conversation I had a few years ago with the storage administrator of a major financial services company. I wanted to understand his perspective on when zero data loss was important and when it wasn’t. He told me that his team spent a lot of time with the application developers and the business unit executives discussing the various recovery point objective (RPO) requirements and the cost of the various approaches. We’ve all been told that RPO should be tied to the business value of the application, and that we shouldn’t over-insure or under-insure our data. Over-insure and you waste money. Under-insure and you increase risk. But then he told me the challenge wasn’t in determining the RPO requirements when an application was developed. The challenge was determining RPO requirements of applications that are part of a business process that is constantly changing. “I’m fine with the RPO requirements until some developer takes an application that used to be non-critical and puts it into the critical path,” he said.

The History of Daytona Beach Daytona Beach was founded in 1870 and officially became a city when it was incorporated in 1876. Founder Matthias D. Day purchased 3,200 acres in the fall of 1870 for the sum of $1,200. In 1926, the three separate towns of Daytona, Daytona Beach and Seabreeze merged as "Daytona Beach." Made famous for its wide beach and smooth sands, Daytona Beach became widely known in the early 1900s for high-speed automobile testing and racing. This made the beach a mecca for racing enthusiasts. By the 1920s, it was dubbed the "World's Most Famous Beach." Later, NASCAR founder William "Bill" France bought a tract of land and developed the famous racetrack known as the Daytona International Speedway. Since 1959, the speedway has been host to the Daytona 500 and attracts thousands of tourists and race enthusiasts from all over the world in search of thrills. Today the beautiful Daytona area attracts millions of tourists annually. Daytona Beach boasts one of only a few beaches where driving and parking is allowed. It's also perfect for building sand castles, bike riding, jogging, fishing, swimming, surfing or just relaxing in the warm sunshine. The city is also attractive to college students searching for their perfect education. There are five institutions of higher learning in the city -- Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona State College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Keiser College and a University of Central Florida satellite campus. Although the city is largely known for the speedway and its beach, today it offers a wide variety of famous landmarks and cultural centers. Such landmarks include Jackie Robinson Ballpark, Halifax Harbor Marina, Tarragona Arch, Municipal Stadium, Ocean Center, Peabody Auditorium, the Clock Tower, Bandshell, Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Daytona Beach Pier.

Gasoline Pushes Inflation Up In January Hidden costs of second jobsMay 4, 2012 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gasoline prices jumped in January, leading overall consumer prices higher and offering a reminder of the risks energy costs pose to the economic recovery. Despite the warning signal, overall consumer prices rose just 0.2 percent, the Labor Department said on Friday, which is unlikely to ring alarm bells at the Federal Reserve. Strong jobs and factory data have eased worries U.S. economic growth could slow sharply, but tensions between Western nations and Iran still threaten to hand the economy a repeat of 2011 when a spike in energy prices hit the recovery hard. "The greatest concern is that geopolitical strains in the Middle East will spill over into the oil market, pushing prices higher in a replay of last year's oil price spike," economists at Bank of America said in a note to clients. For the Fed, an energy prices spike would represent a quandary: it could hurt the economy even as it boosts inflation. Gasoline prices increased 0.9 percent in January and they have continued to move higher this month. "Consumers are going to feel a gasoline pinch in the first half of this year," said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight. The report also showed so-called core prices, which strip out food and energy costs, rose 0.2 percent. That pushed the increase over the last 12 months up to 2.3 percent, the fastest pace since September 2008. While the year-on-year reading on overall prices has been easing, the steady pick-up in core suggests inflation pressures are not subsiding as quickly as expected, and it could lead to some wariness at the Fed about launching another round of bond purchases to drive borrowing costs lower. "At the margin it does lean against the case for more (bond purchases)," said JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli. U.S. stocks hovered near recent highs, with investors wary of making big bets heading into a holiday weekend when hopes are set for Greece's bailout plan to be approved. Treasury debt prices fell and the dollar was flat against a basket of currencies. A separate report by the private Conference Board showed a gauge of future U.S. economic activity rose to a 3-1/2 year high in January on solid gains in manufacturing. Last month, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke left the door open to further Fed bond buying to boost growth, but a steady stream of upbeat data in recent weeks has led analysts to dial down their expectations for a further easing of monetary policy. In January, used car and truck prices fell 1.0 percent and new vehicle prices were flat, moderating the overall gain in core prices. Policymakers watch core prices closely because they see them as a better guide to inflation trends. Food also played a role in the overall increase in prices. Food costs rose 0.2 percent in January and were up 4.4 percent year-on-year. Worldwide, food prices rose in January for the first time in six months and HJ Heinz Co and Campbell Soup Co said on Friday that higher commodity costs have hurt sales volume. Despite the spike in U.S. gasoline prices last month, overall energy prices rose just 0.2 percent because electricity prices were flat and costs to consumers for piped natural gas services fell 2.9 percent. Even so, gasoline prices remain a threat to the economy, with oil hovering near $120 a barrel on Friday. Iran, which Western nations accuse of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, is facing sanctions that could cripple its oil exports. After rising throughout January, the national price for regular unleaded gasoline in the United States rose to $3.58 a gallon in the week through Monday, according to the Energy Information Administration. It had started the year around $3.32 a gallon.

Child care available for evening exams If you have an evening exam and require child care contact the centres directly for further information: Deakin and Community Child Care Centre Cooperative Ph: 9888 0202 Deakin and Community Child Care Centre Incorporated Ph: 5243 6933 Book now to secure your place!! > Get exam ready now - download your comprehensive Exam success (93 KB) booklet or call in and collect a print copy: > Check the exam preparation workshops on your campus - Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus – available from the Library and Student Life - Geelong Waterfront Campus – available from the Library and Student Life - Melbourne Burwood Campus – available from The Learning Space, building H - Warrnambool Campus – available from Student Life Like sport, exams require knowledge, skills, practice and a positive attitude. Having the right attitude towards your study is very important; your goal is to perform at your peak on exam day. Being well prepared boosts confidence. Preparing well means starting early in the trimester, having clear goals and organising your time. All this will help you to develop a positive attitude and to perform at your best. Part of having the right attitude also means coming to terms with the fear of not doing so well. Negative self-talk, such as, 'My life will be ruined if I fail' will not help you. Instead, try to imagine that you are in the exam situation and feeling confident and terrific. Success! To clarify your long-term goals ask yourself why you are doing this course and what you want to achieve. This then leads to more medium and short-term goals. For example, if you decide that you are doing a management course because you want to set up your own business (a long-term goal), your medium term goal might be successful completion of a particular unit or assessment task. Your short-term goal might be to summarise a topic in preparation for an exam. Being organised and managing your time is crucial, and having a timetable is particularly important as exams approach. Although revision should start early in the trimester, it is never too late to start. Use a trimester planner (71 KB) to map out what tasks have to be completed. You need to be sure of the important dates when assignments are due and when your exams will be held. You could also include major personal events in your life that will impact on your studies, such as weddings, holidays and so on. Next, consider what your commitments might be in an average week. Your weekly planner (49 KB) should include work, sleep and family commitments. Don't forget to allow for hobbies and recreational activities. Over the trimester, you should allow an average of ten hours a week for each subject you are studying. You need to consider what tasks are most appropriate for each of the times you have available. For example, reading a difficult text might best be done when you are mentally alert. Leave simpler tasks to study periods when you work less effectively. For each study session, ask yourself what you want to achieve. There are principles of effective learning that apply to revision. You need to commit information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. In order to do this you must revisit your material many times. You also need to be actively engaged with your material in committing it to memory - just reading or highlighting material is too passive for effective recall. We remember best the things that are meaningful for us. So, always place what you are studying within the overall context of the subject. Become familiar with the unit outline early in the trimester. Try to develop an overview of the subject from your study guide and identify the patterns and structures in the subject. If you regularly review throughout the trimester, by exam time much of the memory work will have been done. Clearly, getting information into your long-term memory will take time, so start early. Leaving all your revision to the end of the trimester means that you will cram. Information will only go only into short-term memory and will be forgotten. Psychologists have studied how people remember (and forget!) things; some of their findings can be of use to us. Research has shown that we can recall only about 20% of new information within 24 hours of learning it but this goes up to 60-80% if we review the information within 24 hours. Download copies of old exam papers, if available for your unit, from the Deakin Library website or DSO. This will give you an idea of the types of questions usually asked. Practise answering exam questions under realistic time constraints so you become familiar with how you will have to perform on the day. Have a good breakfast; exams do not have coffee breaks. Wear comfortable clothes. The weather is changeable and the exam room may not be heated or cooled. Check that you have several pens and everything else you are allowed to bring with you into the exam. Re-read your summaries, but don't try to cram new information. Leave home in plenty of time so that you will arrive early and avoid last minute panic. Expect to feel a little nervous; nobody is immune from exam anxiety. Some adrenalin can be useful if it can be channelled into a drive to get you through an event. Plan the amount of time you will spend on each question. The time should be proportional to the allocated marks. For example, if a question is worth 30% of the marks, you should allocate 30% of your time. Decide on the order in which you will answer questions, making sure that you do not leave compulsory questions until the end. Answer easier questions first as these will boost your confidence and may even allow you to pick up some extra time that you can spend on more difficult questions. Lecturers comment that when students do not do well in essay exams it is because they do not answer the question, and their answers are not well structured. When answering essay questions you are usually expected to provide more than just the facts. You may also have to give an opinion, develop an idea, or discuss a position. You need to explain your ideas clearly and produce specific examples. Before writing, make a quick plan, as you would for an assignment essay. It is important to: In multiple-choice exams the chance of getting an answer correct by guessing is not very high. Your best strategy is to know your material well. Open book exams can be a trap because they can lull you into a false sense of security. You need to be thoroughly prepared. You do not have time to read your textbook in the exam nor to find new information. Texts can be a handicap unless you know your way around them very well. Be very familiar with the texts and know where to find sections that you will need to refer to. Coloured post-it stickers are very useful for this purpose. After the exam, take some time to reflect. It is important to build on your strengths and learn from mistakes.

Irene (Īrēˈnē) [key], c.750–803, Byzantine empress (797–802). She served (780–90) as regent for her son, Constantine VI, and later was made (792) joint ruler. Devoted to the Orthodox Church, she bent most of her efforts to suppressing iconoclasm. In 797 Irene had her son deposed and blinded, and she ascended the throne. Her accession served as pretext for Charlemagne to be crowned emperor in 800. Irene was deposed in 802 and died in exile.

The Kansas State University Graduate School and the Department of Statistics provide financial assistance to graduate students through teaching assistantships, research assistantships, graduate fellowships and scholarships. Statistics graduate assistants are encouraged to enroll in 8 credit hours per semester and are required to enroll in at least 6 credit hours per semester. Information about current rates for tuition and fees can be found at . You will also find essential information about applying to Kansas State. Department of Statistics Teaching Assistantships, GTA The most common form of support in the Department is a graduate teaching assistantship (GTA). These are awarded on a competitive basis. Teaching assistants with little initial teaching experience gain basic teaching skills in our Studio Classroom under supervision of an experienced teacher. With qualified teaching experience, our teaching assistants have complete responsibility for an introductory class, which is a far greater responsibility than simply grading or leading a recitation session. This is because we do not use large lecture classes with discussion sections run by graduate assistants, as do many other departments. Obtaining and maintaining teaching excellence is a priority for the Department of Statistics. The GTAs are teachers in this system and also students. Our department provides extensive training and support for GTAs through our GTA training Program. Training begins during orientation, the week before classes, where GTAs learn the basic ideas of general education, how to teach statistics using this approach, and obtain feedback through practice teaching sessions. During the semester, weekly teaching meetings are held, where teaching ideas are presented and discussed, as well as other issues in statistics education. The department has found that this training program provides a cooperative teaching environment that encourages GTAs to work together, thus benefitting from the combined knowledge, experience, and ideas of the group. The goal of the training program is to help our GTAs become excellent communicators and teachers. The skills gained during this training should greatly enhance one’s marketability and future success as a professional statistician. First semester teaching assistants are appointed for five-tenths time (16 hours/week) with a minimum stipend of $14,140 for nine months (i.e., the academic year) to teach one course section. After their first semester of teaching, and if they are considered to be successful teachers, GTA’s may teach two sections of a course with stipends ranging from $15,000 - $19,000, depending on the course sections. Teaching assistants receive a full tuition waiver. Students whose native language is not English are required to pass the revised TSE exam with a score of 50 or more, or the speaking portion of the IBT (Internet-Based TOEFL) with a minimum score of 22, to be considered for a teaching assistantship. This is a University requirement which cannot be waived. Department of Statistics Research Assistantships, GRA These assistantships are generally funded through research grants or contracts awarded to the University or by funds provided by the Kansas State Research and Extension (RES), and the College of Arts and Sciences. The number varies from semester to semester. A student who is appointed to a research assistantship will be involved in one or more major consulting or research projects. These positions are frequently held by our more senior and experienced graduate students. Demonstrated ability and willingness to work hard are the two most important criteria for selecting research assistants. Research assistants are appointed for five-tenths time (16 hours/week) with a minimum stipend of $14,140 on a nine month basis. However, some GRAs are employed on a 12 month basis with stipends in the range of $15,000 to $20,000. Students involved in the department’s consulting program receive a one-tenth GRA stipend allocation in addition to their regular (GTA or GRA) stipend. Graduate research assistants do not receive a tuition waiver, however tuition is assessed at the resident rate. University Graduate Fellowships Program University-wide graduate fellowships are available for exceptionally talented US citizens or permanent residents planning to pursue a doctoral degree at Kansas State University. These fellowships include a base stipend up to $15,000, plus a tuition scholarship. Stipends may be supplemented by departments. The fellowships are nominally for one year; departments provide support for additional years. Nominees may not be enrolled at Kansas State when they apply. Nominations for fellowships are made by the department to the dean of the Graduate School. The Department of Statistics has been successful in securing these fellowships for their outstanding applicants. The department must make their nominations by February 1st, therefore to be considered for a graduate fellowship you must have your application materials to the Department of Statistics as early as possible. The Holly and Beth Fryer Scholarship This scholarship is available to any regularly enrolled student at KSU who is majoring in statistics. Scholastic performance is the criterion used in selecting a recipient. Winners will be expected to enroll for a statistics curriculum during the current academic year. The scholarships will be paid out in two sums, half being provided upon enrollment for each of the two semesters of the academic year. The Ronald and Rae Iman Scholarship This scholarship is open only to students are properly enrolled in the Department of Statistics and who have graduated from an accredited high school in one of the following states: Kansas, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, or Texas. Preference will be given to strong students who meet criteria in the following order: - Undergraduates who graduated from an accredited high school in rural Kansas. - Undergraduates who graduated from an accredited high school in Kansas. - Undergraduates who graduated from an accredited high school in one of the states listed above. - Graduate students who graduated from an accredited high school in one of the states listed above and did undergraduate work in Engineering. Arthur D. and Lavonia B. Dayton Scholarship This scholarship is available to any undergraduate or graduate student properly enrolled in the Department of Statistics at Kansas State University. Dr. Lynn Ying-Shiang Lin Statistics Graduate Research Scholarship The recipient of this scholarship will be a graduate research assistant in good academic standing (as determined by the Department of Statistics Scholarship Committee) who is properly enrolled in the Department of Statistics at Kansas State University. Preference will be given to a student with financial need. Howard Siepman Memorial Scholarship This scholarship is available to any PhD graduate student properly enrolled in the Department of Statistics at Kansas State University. The Statistics Scholarship This scholarship is available to any student enrolled in the Department of Statistics. Department of Statistics Summer Support The assistantships within the department are nominally for the academic year. The department tries to make summer support available to those who have served as teaching assistants or research assistants during the academic year. While summer support cannot be guaranteed, it is typically provided. Some summer appointments require classroom teaching and others require assisting faculty members with their teaching, research and/or consulting. The department strongly encourages graduate students to consider summer internships with various industries and federal statistical agencies. An internship is valuable experience that enhances a student’s statistical skills and marketability. The Department of Statistics has been able to arrange an increasing number of such internships for interested students each year.

Two new revolutionary technologies are being developed that could change our planet. Are they related to each other fundamentally or do they utilize different phenomena? Today we are facing an energy crisis that threatens the future of our species. Cheap energy from fossil fuels has allowed civilization to grow and expand. In the past hundred years the human population has went from millions to billions. As access to cheap fossil fuels becomes more difficult, all of this progress is threatened. Currently, there are at least two companies that claim to have technologies that could provide a solution to the energy crisis. One of these companies is Randall Mills' BlackLight Power (BLP) and the other is Andrea Rossi's Leonardo Corp. BLP and Cold Fusion in a Nutshell BlackLight Power claims to have a technology based on producing shrunken hydrogen atoms called "hydrinos." Basically, their claim is that when atomic hydrogen comes into contact with one of several catalysts (there are at least a dozen) the orbit of the electron around the hydrogen nucleus is reduced below the "ground state" and energy is released. The energy is claimed to be in the form of extreme ultra violet light, X-Ray radiation, and "third body radiation." This energy is claimed to be hundreds of times as much energy as would be obtained by burning the hydrogen chemically. In fact, it is claimed to be an energy between that of chemical and nuclear. Andrea Rossi claims he has produced a cold fusion technology that utilizes nano-nickel powder (with special preparations and processes), hydrogen gas, and special undisclosed catalysts. The reaction between these components produce a nuclear reaction which results in a release of energy in the form of radiation. This radiation heats the material of the cell which warms water. The reaction is controlled by manipulating the pressure inside the cell and the temperature of the cell. If this is a true nuclear reaction then millions of times the energy of chemically burning the hydrogen could be produced. BLP's Similarities to Cold Fusion These two technologies seem to have some similarities. They both use atomic hydrogen as a fuel. Also, they both use special catalysts. However, the main difference is that BlackLight Power does not claim to use nickel as a fuel to fuse with hydrogen. BlackLight Power denies any sort of nuclear reaction is taking place and claims the only source of energy production in their cells is the production of hydrinos. In fact, it seems BlackLight Power has made a special effort to distance themselves from claims of cold fusion. This is despite the fact that some of their early experiments seem similar to cold fusion experiments that have been performed. The following is a document that details one of the tests Thermacore did to confirm BlackLight Power's claims. Notice how the use of potassium, hydrogen, and nickel is similar to other cold fusion experiments. Here is another document that details an early experiment. The cell has a platinum anode and nickel cathode in a solution of water and potassium carbonate. BlackLight Power claims this setup also produces hydrinos. There has been some speculation on the internet about the possibility that Rossi's device and other cold fusion devices are also producing hydrinos. This could be since the BlackLight Power effect seems to produce hydrinos utilizing so many different catalysts. On page 104 and 105 of the following document there is a list of the catalysts BlackLight Power has publicly disclosed. Could Rossi be using one of these catalysts? We do not know, because for proprietary reasons he does not disclose the catalysts he is using. However, if he is using one of them, how could the production of hydrinos allow his device to produce fusion? One hypothesis is that somehow the shrunken hydrogen atom is able to more easily break the coulomb barrier and allow it's nucleus to interact with the nickel nucleus. A paper was published on Rossi's blog (The Journal of Nuclear Physics) that explores the possibility of hydrino like atoms being formed and allowing nuclear fusion to take place. Even though Rossi denies his technology has anything to do with BlackLight Power's the fact this was published makes me wonder if he is accepting the possibility of a new form of hydrogen being created in his device. (Ref.) However, please note that the atom proposed in the above document has some fundamental differences from a hydrino. They are clarified by the author of the paper here. Byproducts and Transmutations There is another interesting difference between BlackLight Power's technology and Rossi's Cold Fusion technology. Rossi claims that his device produces transmutation of elements due to nuclear reactions. One of these is copper and another is zinc. BLP claims that hydrinos can interact with other elements to form, "hydrino hydride compounds." These compounds are claimed to have special properties which allow for many applications. (Ref.) If BLP can indeed produce new compounds, that would confirm the hydrino hypothesis. If Rossi can produce transmutations of elements, that confirms cold fusion. However, I wonder if Rossi has found any "hydrino hydrides" in his cells and if BLP has found any transmuted elements? One more issue that needs to be addressed is the similar types of radiation being produced by BlackLight Power's (Randall Mills) and Leonardo Corp's (Andrea Rossi) devices. It would be interesting to determine if any gamma or neutron radiation is ever emitted from BLP's device which might be a sign of nuclear transmutation. It would also be interesting to find out if Leonardo Corp's device emits any EUV or X-Ray radiation which could possibly indicate hydrinos are being formed. Rossi claims that testing for X-Rays has taken place, but he has not yet received the results. (Ref.) The lead shielding around the device indicates X-ray protection. Are these two technologies related? On one hand we have BLP, that uses openly discussed catalysts and hydrogen along with sometimes nickel components to produce "hydrinos" and energy. On the other hand we have a cold fusion technology that utilizes nickel, hydrogen, and undisclosed catalysts to produce transmuted elements and energy. They seem very similar in some ways. However, what we need is more information. Unfortunately, I doubt BLP will reveal any time soon any testing they have performed that might indicate fusion reactions, gamma rays, or transmutations. Also, we do not know when Rossi might reveal the catalysts he is using and the results of the testing for X-Rays. If these two technologies are related it means that if either one of them ever hits the mainstream we might have both cold fusion and a hydrino technology on the market!

Why Unions Matter "What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures." Learn more about unions and labor issues: Unions have a long and proud history of standing up for working families in Pennsylvania. From coal miners, steelworkers and garment factory employees to teachers, education support professionals, health care workers and others, unions have championed the rights of workers. Unions make sure workers are compensated fairly and their rights respected. They make sure workplaces are safe. They advocate for social justice. The Pennsylvania State Education Association represents more than191,000 teachers, education support professionals, retired educators, health care employees, higher education professionals, students studying to become teachers, school counselors, school nurses, dental hygienists, social workers, and school psychologists. The NEA, PSEA, and the hundreds of local associations across Pennsylvania have a clear strength - the collective voice of many is stronger than the voice of one. We come together as an organization to support the rights of our members to be paid fairly for their hard work. PSEA members are the individuals who spend every working day making sure Pennsylvania’s children receive the best education possible. PSEA members work in higher education and health care facilities. We work together to make our schools and classrooms great places to work and innovative, effective learning environments. We work together to advocate for the resources schools need to give every student a quality education. We are a community of workers, students and retirees from many fields who are dedicated to a cause. The collective action of our members at the local, state, and national levels has achieved great things. PSEA members stood in front of the state capitol in 1968, telling public officials with a strong voice that teachers deserve the right to collectively bargain for better salaries. In 1968, our voices were heard. Not so long ago, female teachers in Pennsylvania could be dismissed for having children. PSEA members told school districts and public officials with a strong voice that this practice was unfair and unacceptable. Our voices were heard. For nearly a century, American workers have united to advocate for the compensation, fair treatment and resources to do their jobs effectively. America's labor unions have led the fight for working families, winning protections such as the 8-hour day and the 40-hour week, overtime rights, and access to health care and retirement security. Today, the fight continues both to retain these rights, to advocate for a living wage, and a safe and healthy workplace.

International and Global Studies BS - International Experience Anti-WTO banner by Indonesian Migrants Workers Union. All students majoring in international studies need to fulfill the requirement of an international experience. This requirement can be satisfied in three ways: through a study abroad, an internship or a co-op. You need to plan ahead! Typically the applications for various programs must be processed close to a year in advance. This means that you have to begin to think about your preferences and options for an international experience as soon as you enter the degree program at RIT. There are several possibilities. You can choose a program through the RIT Study Abroad office. This has advantages for the continuation of financial aid and credit transfers. But you can also decide to enroll in a program outside of RIT. There are several academic programs that offer study in places and countries not available through RIT. Please keep in mind that whatever program you choose, you need to go to a country or city where you can enhance your foreign language skills and cultural expertise. Please note that most international studies majors who study abroad are typically able to transfer credits for two and sometimes three courses from their study-abroad programs. A study abroad experience not only looks good on your resume, but also makes you more competitive on the job market after you graduate. Below are some of the important links: You may decide to enroll in an internship program offered by an international organization or a non-profit organization (for example, a global human rights or environmental advocacy group), by a government agency, or by an international organization like the U.N. in New York . Internships are typically unpaid and voluntary commitments. Some programs, while not paying salaries, provide room and board. Since such programs also offer training and experience in specific areas, an internship may lead to job prospects later on. Here are some useful links: CIEE (volunteer, internships) CCS (volunteer, internships) Intern abroad (search for country, city, program) Internships (list of programs and web sites) U.S. Department of State —Internships United Nations – Internships You can also decide to apply for a cooperative educational experience in a foreign or U.S.-based international organization or private corporation. These positions are typically salaried and applicants are chosen on a competitive basis. For further information, please contact the RIT Office of Cooperative Education & Career Services. Several of the programs listed above also offer salaried opportunities for teaching or working abroad. Check it out.

The Tuesday Portrait: Carlos Tevez by Brian Phillips · September 9, 2008 The causes of landslides are complex and correlative, and their effects range dramatically, from the sudden release of a wave of mud down the side of a sheer cliff face to the massive structural collapse that causes a hillside to buckle and give way beneath a sea of falling trees. Typically, the landslide requires both “internal preparation” and a “triggering event,” both a slow, invisible transformation of the inner structure of the slope, for instance as a result of erosion at the toe of the slope or a catastrophic saturation of the upper slope by snowmelt, and the single precipitating incident, the twig brushed aside or the blade of grass set vibrating by the hovering of a nearby dragonfly, that upsets the precarious balance of forces created by this transformation and serves as the crisis that precipitates the gargantuan movement of earth. Many events that technically qualify as “landslides” are in fact quite minor in terms of the amount of soil they displace and of their effect on their surrounding environments. It is perhaps best, however, to think of these as mere “geological incidents,” and to reserve the term “landslide” for what is in any case its role in popular usage: as an indicator of the overwhelming, cataclysmic, relentless and terrible subsidings before which the human brain pauses and the term “geological incident” appears futile and laughably frail. For anyone who has seen the Grand Canyon in the southwestern American state of Arizona, for instance, it is easy to imagine its entire edifice giving way in a sudden unstoppable avalanche of crashing rock and soil: red clouds of dust accumulating around the bases of the tremendous rock walls, thin rivers and rivulets of debris streaming down the sheer surfaces like water down a windshield in the rain; then the walls themselves coming down, huge chunks of rock softly breaking away and falling as if softly, breaking up and buried as they fall; finally, the whole acreage lying dismantled and silent, as if crushed from above by God. An event of this magnitude, with its tenacity and power, would warrant the application of the term “landslide” in a way that the mere casual deposition of a hundred-ton stone outcropping on some vulnerable highway bridge can hardly expect to match. Because the forces it marshals are such that by their towering scale they cannot help but reveal the insignificance of human life in the universe, and because it applies these forces with a merciless indifference to human works or “culture,” the landslide has a capacity for violence that is as astonishing as it is inevitable. However, given the landslide’s supreme neutrality and the utter subsumption of its capacity for destruction in its own indifferent nature, to describe the landslide as “violent”—with the suggestion of malice that lingers in that term—is to mischaracterize it gravely. What the landslide is, instead, is thorough: it does what it undertakes to do, comprehensively and without regard for any other consideration. It undertakes to disrupt mass, break trees, bury towns, erase roads, engulf homes, reduce mountains, and crush everything in its path. Considering the single-mindedness with which it accomplishes those goals and the unimaginable amount of weight it moves in order to do so, perhaps the best adjective with which to describe the landslide would simply be—hard-working.

A month ago, I changed web browsers from Firefox to Chrome (which recently became the most popular browser). Firefox crashed too often (about once per day). Chrome crashes much less often (once per week?) presumably because it confines trouble caused by a bad tab to that tab. ”Separate processes for each tab is EXACTLY what makes Chrome superior” to Firefox, says a user. This localization was part of Chrome’s original design (2008). After a few weeks, I saw that crash rate was the only difference between the two browsers that mattered. After a crash, it takes a few minutes to recover. With both browsers, the “waiting time” distribution — the distribution of the time between when I try to reach a page (e.g., click on a link) and when I see it — is very long-tailed (very high kurtosis). Almost all pages load quickly (< 2 seconds). A few load slowly (2-10 seconds). A tiny fraction (0.1%?) cause a crash (minutes). The Firefox and Chrome waiting-time distributions are essentially the same except that the Chrome distribution has a thinner tail. As Nassim Taleb says about situations that produce Black Swans, very rare events (in this case, the very long waiting times caused by crashes) matter more (in this case, contribute more to total annoyance) than all other events combined. Curious about Chrome/Firefox differences, I read a recent review (“Chrome 24 versus Firefox 18 — head to head”). Both browsers were updated shortly before the review. The comparison began like this: Which browser got the biggest upgrade? Who’s the fastest? The safest? The easiest to use? We took a look at Chrome 24 and Firefox 18 to try and find out. Not quite. The review compared the press releases about the upgrades. It said nothing about crash rate. Was the review superficial because the reviewer wasn’t paid enough? If so, Walt Mossberg, the best-paid tech reviewer in the world, might do a good review. The latest browser review by Mossberg I could find (2011) says this about “speed”: I found the new Firefox to be snappy. . . . The new browser didn’t noticeably slow down for me, even when many tabs were opened. But, in my comparative speed tests, which involve opening groups of tabs simultaneously, or opening single, popular sites, like Facebook, Firefox was often beaten by Chrome and Safari, and even, in some cases, by the new version 9 of IE . . . These tests, which I conducted on a Hewlett-Packard desktop PC running Windows 7, generally showed very slight differences among the browsers. No mention of crash rate, the main determinant of how long things take. Mossberg ignores it — the one difference between Chrome and Firefox that really matters. He’s not the only one. As far as I can tell, all tech reviewers have failed to measure browser crash rate. For example, this review of the latest Firefox. ”I’m still a big Firefox fan,” says the reviewer. Browser reviews are a small example of a big rule: People with jobs handle long-tailed distributions poorly. In the case of browser reviews, the people with jobs are the reviewers; the long-tailed distribution is the distribution of waiting times/annoyance. Reviewers handle this distribution badly in the sense that they ignore tail differences, which matter enormously. Another browser-related example of the rule is the failure of the Mozilla Foundation (people with jobs) to solve Firefox’s crashing problem. My version of Firefox (18.0.1) crashed daily. Year after year, upgrade after upgrade, people at Mozilla failed to add localization. Their design is “crashy”. They fail to fix it. Users notice, change browsers. Firefox may become irrelevant for this one reason. This isn’t Clayton Christensen’s “innovator’s dilemma”, where industry-leading companies become complacent and lose their lead. People at Mozilla have had no reason to be complacent. Examples of the rule are all around us. Some are easy to see: 1. Taleb’s (negative) Black Swans. Tail events in long-tailed distributions often have huge consequences (making them Black Swans) because their possibility has been ignored or their probability underestimated. The system is not designed to handle them. All of Taleb’s Black Swans involve man-made systems. The financial system, hedge funds, New Orleans’s levees, and so on. These systems were built by people with jobs and react poorly to rare events (e.g., Long Term Capital Management). Taleb’s anti-fragility is what others have called hormesis. Hormesis protects against bad rare events. It increases your tolerance, the dose (e.g., the amount of poison) needed to kill you. As Taleb and others have said, many complex systems (e.g., cells) have hormesis. All of these systems were fashioned by nature, none by people with jobs. No word means anti-fragile, as Taleb has said, because there exist no products or services with such a property. (Almost all adjectives and nouns were originally created to describe products and services, I believe. They helped people trade.) No one wanted to say buy this, it’s anti-fragile. Designers didn’t (and still don’t) know how to add hormesis. They may even be unaware the possibility exists. Products are designed by people with jobs. Taleb doesn’t have a job. Grasping the possibility of anti-fragility — which includes recognizing that tail events are underestimated — does not threaten his job or make it more difficult. If a designer tells her boss about hormesis her boss might ask her to include it. 2. The Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) has had battery problems. The danger inherent in use of a lithium battery has a long-tailed distribution: Almost all uses are safe, a very tiny fraction are dangerous. In spite of enormous amounts of money at stake, Boeing engineers (people with jobs) failed to devise adequate battery testing and management. The FAA (people with jobs) also missed the problem. 3. The designers of the Fukushima nuclear power plant (people with jobs) were perfectly aware of the possibility of a tsunami. They responded badly (did little or nothing) when their assumptions about tsunami likelihood were criticized. The power of the rule is suggested by the fact that this happened in Japan, where most things are well-made. 4. Drug companies (people with jobs) routinely hide or ignore rare side effects, judging by the steady stream of examples that come to light. An example is the tendency of SSRIs to produce violence, including suicide. The whole drug regulatory system (people with jobs) seems to do a poor job with rare side effects. Why is the rule true? Because jobs require steady output. Tech reviewers want to write a steady stream of reviews. The Mozilla Foundation wants a steady stream of updates. Companies that build nuclear power plants want to build them at a steady rate. Boeing wants to introduce new planes at a steady rate. Harvard professors (criticized by Taleb) want to publish regularly. At Berkeley, when professors come up for promotion, they are judged by how many papers they’ve written. Long-tailed distributions interfere with steady output. To seriously deal with them you have to measure the tails. That’s hard. Adding hormesis (Nature’s protection against tail events) to your product is even harder. Testing a new feature to learn its effect on tail events is hard. This makes it enormously tempting to ignore tail events. Pretend they don’t exist, or that your tests actually deal with them. At Standard & Poor’s, which rated all sorts of financial instruments, people in charge grasped that they were doing a bad job modelling long-tailed distributions and introduced new testing software that did a better job. S & P employees rebelled: We’ll lose business. Too many products failed the new tests. So S & P bosses watered down the test: “If the transaction failed E3.0, then use E3Low [which assumes less variance].” Which test (E3.0 or E3Low) was more realistic? The employees didn’t care. They just wanted more business. It’s easy to rationalize ignoring tail events. Everyone ignores them. Next tsunami, I’ll be dead. The real reason they are ignored is that if your audience is other people with jobs (e.g., a regulatory agency, reviewers for a scholarly journal, doctors), it will be easy to get away with ignoring them or making unrealistic assumptions about them. Tail events from long-tailed distributions make a regulator’s job much harder. They make a doctor’s job much harder. If doctors stopped ignoring the long tails, they would have to tell patients That drug I just prescribed — I don’t know how safe it is. The hot potato (unrealistic risk assumptions) is handed from one person to another within a job-to-job system (e.g., drug companies market new drugs to the FDA and to doctors) but eventually the hot potato (or ticking time bomb) must be handed outside the job-to-job system to an ordinary Person X (e.g., a doctor prescribes a drug to a patient). It is just one of many things that Person X buys. He doesn’t have the time or expertise to figure out if what he was told about risk (the probability of very bad very rare events) is accurate. Eventually, however, inaccurate assumptions about tail events may be exposed when people without jobs related to the risk (e.g., parents whose son killed himself after taking Prozac, everyone in Japan, airplane passengers who will die in a plane crash) are harmed. Such people, unlike people with related jobs, are perfectly free to complain and willful ignorance may come to light. In other words, doctors cannot easily complain about poor treatment of rare side effects (and don’t), but patients and their parents can (and do). There are positive Black Swans too. In some situations, the distribution of benefit has a very long-tailed distribution. Almost all events in Category X produce little or no benefit, a tiny fraction produce great benefit. One example is scientific observations. Almost all of them have little or no benefit, a very tiny fraction are called discoveries (moderate benefit), and a very very tiny fraction are called great discoveries (great benefit). Another example is meeting people. Almost everyone you meet — little or no benefit. A tiny fraction of people you meet — great benefit. A third example is reading something. In my life, almost everything I’ve read has had little or no benefit. A very tiny fraction of what I’ve read has had great benefits. I came to believe that people with jobs handle long-tailed distributions badly because I noticed that jobs and science are a poor mix. My self-experimentation was science, but it was absurdly successful compared to my professional science (animal learning research). I figured out several reasons for this but in a sense they all came down to one reason: my self-experimentation was a hobby, my professional science was a job. My self-experimentation gave me total freedom, infinite time, and commitment to finding the truth and nothing else. My job, like any job, did not. And, as I said, I saw that scientific progress per observation had a power-law-like distribution: Almost all observations produce almost no progress, a tiny fraction produce great progress. It is easy enough for scientists to recognize the shape of the distribution of progress per observation but, if you don’t actually study the distribution, you’re not going to have much of an understanding. Professional scientists ignore it. Thinking about it would not help them get grants and churn out papers. (Grants are given by people with jobs, who also ignore the distribution.) Because they don’t think about it, they have no idea how to change the “slope” of the power-law distribution (such distributions are linear on log-log coordinates). In other words, they have no idea how to make rare events more likely. Because it is almost impossible to notice the absence of very rare events (the great discoveries that don’t get made), no one notices. I seem to be the only one who points out that year after year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine indicates lack of progress on major diseases. When I was a young scientist, I wanted to learn how to make discoveries. I was surprised to find that everything written on the topic — which seemed pretty important — was awful. Now I know why. Everything on the topic was written by a person with a job. With long-tailed distributions of benefit, there is nothing like hormesis. If any organism has evolved something to improve long-tailed distributions of benefit, I don’t know what it is. Our scientific system handles the long-tailed distribution of progress poorly in two ways: 1. The people inside it, such as professional scientists, do a poor job of increasing the rate of progress, i.e., making the tails thicker. I think you can make the tails thicker via subject-matter knowledge (Pasteur’s “chance favors the prepared mind”), methodological knowledge (better measurements, better experiments, better data analysis), and novelty. Professional scientists understand the value of the first two factors, but they ignore the third. They like to do the same thing over and over because it is safer. Great for their careers, terrible for the rest of us. 2. When an unlikely observation comes along, the system is not set up to develop it. An example is Galvani’s discovery of galvanism, which led to batteries, which led to widespread electricity. This one discovery, from one observation, arguably produced more progress than all scientific observations in the last 100 years. Galvani’s job (surgery research) left him unable to go further with his discovery. (“Galvani had certain commitments. His main one was to present at least one research paper every year at the Academy.”) His research job left him unable to develop one of the greatest discoveries of all time. In contrast, Darwin (no job) was able to develop the observations that led to his theory of evolution. It took him 18 years to write one book, longer than any job would have allowed. He wouldn’t have gotten tenure at Berkeley. After a discovery has been made, the shape of the benefit distribution changes. It becomes more Gaussian, less long-tailed. As our understanding increases, science becomes engineering, which becomes design, which becomes manufacturing. Engineering and design and making things fit well with having a job. Take my chair. Every time I use it, I get a modest benefit, always about the same size. Every time I use my pencil, I get a modest benefit, always about the same size. No long-tailed distribution. Modern science works well as a way of developing discoveries, not making them. An older system was better for encouraging discovery. Professors mainly taught. Their output was classes taught. They did a little research on the side. If they found something, fine, they had enough expertise to publish it, but nothing depended on their rate of publication. Mendel was expert enough to write up his discoveries but his job in no way required him to do so. Just as Taleb recommends most of your investments should be low-risk, with a small fraction high-risk, this is a “job portfolio” where most of the job is low benefit with high certainty and a small fraction of the job is high benefit with low certainty. In the debate over climate change (is the case that humans are dangerously warming the planet as strong as we’re told?) it is striking that everyone with any power on the mainstream side of the debate (scientists, journalists, professional activists) has a job involving the subject. Everyone on the other side with any power (Stephen McIntyre, Bishop Hill, etc.) does not. People without jobs are much more free to speak the truth as they see it. We need personal science (using science to help yourself) to better handle long-tailed distributions, but not just for that reason. Jobs disable people in other ways, too. Personal science matters, I’ve come to believe, for three reasons. 1. Personal scientists can make discoveries that professional scientists cannot. The Shangri-La Diet is one example. Tara Grant’s discovery of the effect of changing the time of day she took Vitamin D is another. For all the reasons I’ve said. 2. Personal scientists can develop discoveries that professional scientists cannot. Will there be a clinical trial of the Shangri-La Diet (by a professional weight-control researcher) in my lifetime? Who knows. It is so different from what they now believe. (When I applied to the UC Berkeley Animal Care and Use Committee for permission to do animal tests of SLD, I was turned down. It couldn’t possibly be true, said the committee.) Long before that, the rest of us can try it for ourselves and tell others what happened. 3. By collecting data, personal scientists can help tailor any discovery, even a well-developed one, to their own situation. For example, they can make sure a drug or a diet works. (That’s how my personal science started — testing an acne medicine.) They can test home remedies. By tracking their health with sensitive tests, they can make sure a prescribed drug has no bad side effects. Individualizing treatments takes time, which gets in the way of steady output. You have all the time in the world to gather data that will help you be healthy. Your doctor doesn’t. People who have less contact with you than your doctor, such as drug companies, insurance companies, medical school professors and regulatory agencies, are even less interested in your special case.

Surrogacy… April 10, 2012Posted by WorldbyStorm in Bioethics, Social Policy. Breda O’Brien had an article in the Irish Times a while back about surrogate mothers. This can seem a particularly attractive option, where the couple’s own genetic material is being used. The child will grow up and be part of a biologically related network of relatives. We see in media reports delighted parents talking in emotional terms about the precious gift of life which a generous woman has given them. Then there are the heart-rending stories of “stateless” children, whose genetic parents have no rights. For what it’s worth, I would be in favour of regularising the situation of these children as swiftly as possible. They are as precious as any other children and deserve their basic rights to an identity, a family and a nationality. However, I would then ban surrogacy, as they have done in other European states such as Austria, Germany and France. The European Court of Human Rights recently upheld the Austrian ban on surrogacy. The Austrian argument is that “splitting” motherhood between a biological and gestational mother is a very bad idea for children, and even worse when another party or two is involved, as in the case of donor eggs and sperm. It’s interesting to read some of her reasoning as to why she’d ban it. Rebecca Haimowitz and Vaishali Sinha made a documentary called Made in India about two middle-class Americans contracting a woman, Aasyia, in Mumbai, to carry their biological child. Aasyia is shown wearing a hijab in her one-room home that she shares with her husband and three beautiful children. The hijab is not for religious reasons, but to prevent her being identified by her neighbours. When she first heard about surrogacy, she laughed, because she did not know pregnancy was possible without “a relationship with a man”. Then, this quick-witted, resourceful woman, who admits she cannot read or write, says while her sons can fend for themselves, the $2,000 she could earn through surrogacy will help her provide for her daughter. But it is worth asking: can an illiterate woman who didn’t even know surrogacy was possible and is desperate to help her children truly give informed consent? These are good questions. But interestingly, it’s not the exploitation issue that trumps it for O’Brien. She writes… What if the woman is not exploited, but properly remunerated? After all, $2,000 for 24 hours a day for nine months, and then birth, followed by empty arms, amounts to slave labour rates. I’m not sure how you remunerate a woman for having a child grow under her heart for nine months, all the time refusing to allow herself to get attached to her or him. But if you make a payment like €25,000, at least you are closer to the truth of acknowledging this is a commercial transaction. I’d be very dubious about surrogacy in potentially or actually exploitative contexts (and more here from Feminist Ire on the issue ). But that’s not the entirety of it – whatever about the ‘grow under her heart’ line Because it’s not simply about being a commercial transaction, not simply about ‘exploitation’ potential or actual. There’s a fascinating anecdote in Liza Mundy’s Everything Conceivable, one of the most interesting books I read in the last year, about a woman named Ann Nelson in Michigan who was a graduate of Michigan State where she ‘took classes in bioethics and wrote a thesis on reproduction that covered everything from abortion to breast-feeding. Her research included surrogacy…she was intrigued rather than appalled. “I decided then that I wanted to do it. Because I could. That’s not something most surrogates will telly. most surrogates will tell you they wanted to help somebody. I wanted to do it because I knew I could do it.” And Mundy continues: For Ann Nelson, who is also an environmental activist and a counsellor of pregnant teens, surrogacy was part of what she calls “a grassroots thing. I thought, ‘I could help these poor people”. She eventually became surrogate on a number of occasions for various gay couples. The book considers in detail her surrogacy for a gay couple, Doug and Eric, which raises the central point: ‘Even now Doug and Eric cannot grasp surrogacy and why women do it. It’s easy, they think, to understand why somebody, anybody, would want children. What is harder to get one’s mind around is why someone would want to have children for someone else. “It’s really hard to fully appreciate,” says Doug. “We are so incredibly grateful. And yet we really don’t understand it.” Nelson argues that ‘the reproductive rights umbrella should include gay men, and her own reproductive rights should include the right to help gay men [and presumably all others as well - wbs] build the families they long for. Perhaps that example, having a gay couple involved in the process, is a bit outré for O’Brien. So what then of the far from infrequent examples where siblings or other relatives have been surrogates? In that instance the charge of exploitation begins to seem very thin indeed. The problem with the O’Brien approach is that rather than coming out and saying clearly that she is against surrogacy, period and explaining why, instead she brings in all manner of extraneous issues. Few would stand over any exploitative practices, such as arguably those we see in India and other states. But the point is that it is entirely possible to design programmes that are not exploitative, or where there is a minimum of such exploitation. And to point to the worst excesses is to ignore more central aspects of the issue. There may indeed be good reasons why surrogacy is far from optimal and there may not, although it may also be moot given the fact that in the United States it is now far from unusual, but these are not they and as part of an addition to a general discourse on such matters they evade rather than focus upon what it means now and implies as regards the approaches towards such matters in this state. There’s more though. In 2005 the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction issued a report. The Commission was an attempt to find a way through the thicket of issues surrounding AHR. And as the foreword to the Report notes: The Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction was set up to report on possible approaches to the regulation of all aspects of assisted human reproduction and the social, ethical and legal factors to be taken into account in determining public policy, in this area. The phrase assisted human reproduction was understood by the Commission to refer to any procedure that involves the handling of gametes or embryos. Where feasible the Commission has avoided the excessive use of medical and scientific language in the report. The arguments considered during the Commission’s discussions include the following: ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF SURROGACY • Given the shortage of children available for adoption, surrogacy might be the only option for some people to have a family, especially in cases of non-traditional families where adoption poses particular • The right to procreate should extend to surrogacy arrangements made by fully autonomous adults, once no harm to children is expected as a result. • Surrogacy may be understood as an expression of altruism. • The use of the human body for surrogacy is ethically indistinguishable from other accepted practices that separate genetic, gestational and social parenting, such as donor insemination, adoption and wet nursing. It is also indistinguishable from other practices whereby the human body may be seen as being utilised for profit, such as professional athletics and modelling. 29The Commission recommends that in general, donors should not be permitted to attach conditions to donation, except in situations of intra-familial donation or the use of donated gametes/embryos for research. • Although some people may find the practice of surrogacy inherently objectionable, the State should not enforce one set of values against those who do not share those values and, in the absence of demonstrable harm to children or others involved in surrogacy, should remain neutral. • Although much research needs to be done on the follow-up of children born through surrogacy, the most recent research carried out (on very young children) indicates that commissioning parents are more attentive than average to children and the well-being indicators for the children are very positive at this stage. ARGUMENTS AGAINST SURROGACY • Surrogacy represents the incursion of market values into gestation and traditional values of • Commercial surrogacy involves the use of contractual models whereby those who agree to become surrogate mothers are vulnerable to exploitation. Respect and consideration for women demands that this potential for exploitation be prohibited by the prevention of surrogacy contracts. • The commercialisation of gestation places a monetary value on children which conflicts with their fundamental rights to be loved unconditionally as individuals and not as commodities. • Surrogacy is unnatural because it separates the genetic, gestational and social roles of motherhood. Society should not interfere with the laws of nature by adjusting the natural or standard physiology of • Respect for human beings demands that no person should ever be used as a means to an end. The involvement of a third party as gestator for the child treats her as an object by which the achievement of the birth of a child can be attained. The commissioning party hires her in order to satisfy their own desires, rather than to give life to a child. • A woman cannot possibly know before becoming pregnant and carrying the child for the duration of the pregnancy how she will feel on having to relinquish that child at birth. Her perceptions about attachment to the child may be very different at the time of her agreement to become a surrogate mother from when she gives birth and it is unreasonable to expect her to contract out of her right to retain custody of the child. The Commission considered how best to address the ethical and legal concerns in relation to surrogacy and whether it was preferable to regulate or prohibit surrogacy. The majority of members were in favour of regulating surrogacy, and all members were strongly of the view that commercialisation of the practice should not be permitted by the regulatory authority. One member was strongly opposed to regulation and took the view that surrogacy ought to be prohibited. Such opposition was based on the opinion that surrogacy inherently entails risks of exploitation of women and commodification of children. On this view, public policy dictates taking a strong stance against such arrangements and should prohibit commercial agencies from seeking to make a profit from surrogacy. It was also argued that the recognition by the State of the legitimacy of surrogacy, even in tightly regulated circumstances, would give rise to a growth of such arrangements on a commercialised basis. It would have been useful for O’Brien to reference the Commission, which is – of course – even though it has not been acted upon in subsequent years, is the closest we have come to a democratically legitimised effort to engage with this area. It might have been particularly useful for her to note that the outcome of the deliberations of the Commission was that surrogacy should be legal in the Republic, albeit it should not be commodified. There was only one dissenting member. But to not do so suggests she is unwilling to engage with the issue in a manner which does it full justice. There’s no one, I imagine, who thinks that these issues are closed to discussion. Even if the processes are much more straightforward than is often pretended (surrogacy after all being merely an extension of already tried and tested IVF techniques) for those caught up in them they present genuine challenges. But pointing to extremes as if they represent the totality is untenable.

Highlights of a conversation with Frank H.T. Rhodes Cornell President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes has just published "Earth: A Tenant's Manual" (Cornell University Press), a 384-page exploration of planet Earth, from its place in the universe to the evolution of life on its land and in its seas. Looking at Earth's past, present and future, Rhodes asks whether humanity's continued existence on this planet is sustainable – and what changes will need to be made if we want to extend our lease on Earth. "We're tenants here, not owners," Rhodes states in this frank book that reflects the scientist's sober gaze and his own innate optimism. Rhodes chatted recently about the book with Joe Wilensky, managing editor of Ezra. Read the Q&A on the story page; audio clips from the interview are below. On the origins of "Earth: A Tenant's Manual" and planetary resources On Cornell's potential role in finding solutions On his involvement with the Lower Swansea Valley reclamation project in South Wales On his belief in humans' capacity to adapt and to do good On how humans are short-term tenants, not owners, of the planet On human nature and the difference between knowledge and wisdom

There is one kind of energy discharger that we may call the hyperkinetic, controlled practical type. This group is characterized by great and constant activity, well controlled by purpose, with eagerness and enthusiasm manifested in each act but not excessively. 1. A. is one of these people. In school he specialized in athletics and was a fine all-round player in almost every sport. When he left high school to go to work he at once entered business. His employers soon found him to be a tireless worker, steady and purposeful in everything. In addition to carrying on his duties by day, A. studied nights, carefully choosing his subjects so that they related directly to his business. Despite the fact that his work was hard and his studies exacting, A. had energy enough left to join social organizations and to take a leading part in their affairs. He became quickly known as one of those busy people who always are ready to take on more work. Naturally this led to his becoming a leader, first in his social relations and second in his business. Always practical in his judgments and actions, A. fell in love with the daughter of a rich family and married her, with the full approval of her relatives, who were keen enough to see that his energy, power and control were destined for success. The leading traits that A. manifests hinge around his high energy and control. He is honest and conventional, devoted to the ideals of his group and admires learning, but he is not in any sense a scholar. He is a poor speaker, in the ordinary sense of that term, but curiously effective, nevertheless, because his earnest energy and sturdy common sense win approval as "not a theorist." But mainly he wins because he is tireless in energy and enthusiasm and yet has yoked these qualities to ordinary purposes. The average man he meets understands him thoroughly, sympathizes with him completely and accepts him as a leader after his own heart. So A. has become rich and respected. As times goes on, as he is brought more and more into contact with large affairs outside of business; as a trustee of hospitals and a director of charitable organizations, he broadens out but not into an "unsafe" attitude. He pities the unfortunate but is not truly sympathetic, in that it rarely occurs to him that success and failure are relative, that an accident might have shipwrecked his fortunes and that his good qualities are as innate as his complexion. For this man prides himself on his strong will and courage, whereas he merely has within him a fine engine in whose construction he had no part. 2. The hyperkinetic, controlled, impractical person. B. is, in the fundamentals of energy and control, singularly like A., but because of the nature of his interests and purposes their lives have completely diverged so that no one would ordinarily recognize the kinship in type. B. is and always has been a worker, enthusiastic and enduring, and he has stuck to his last with a fidelity that is remarkable. He is very likable in the ordinary sense,--pleasant to look at, cheerful, ready to joke, laugh or to help the other fellow. Nevertheless, he has only a few friends and is a distinctly disappointed man at heart, because his interests are in the ordinary sense, impractical. B. early became interested in physiology. From the very start he found in the workings of the human body a fascination that concentrated his efforts. Poor, he worked hard enough to obtain scholarships and fellowships in one university after another until finally he became a Ph. D. Here was a great error from the practical standpoint; for had he become an M. D., he would have had a profession that offered an independent financial future. But, in his zeal, he did not wish to take on the extended program of the physician, and he saw clearly that he might become a better scientist as a Ph. D. He became a teacher in one school after another, did a good deal of research work, but has not been fortunate enough to make any epoch-making discoveries. He is one of those splendid, painstaking, energetic men found in every university who turn out good pieces of work of which only a few know anything, and from which in the course of time some genius or lucky scientist culls a few facts upon which to build up a great theory or a new doctrine. He married one of his own students, a fine woman but unluckily not very strong, and so there fell on him many a domestic duty that a thousand extra dollars a year would have turned over to a maid. Thus B. is an obscure but respected member of the faculty of a small university. He teaches well, though he dislikes it, and he is happy at the times when he works hard at some physiological problem. He loves his family and has vowed that his son will be a business man. He feels inferior as he contemplates his obscure existence, with its precarious financial state, its drudgery and most of all the gradual disappearance of his ideals. He is frank to himself alone, wishes he had made money, but is apt to sneer at the world of the "fat and successful" as less than his intellectual equal. He compares his own rewards with that of the successful man knowing less and with a narrower Thus, through success, A. is broadening and becoming something of an idealist. B. is narrowing and through failure is losing his ideals. This is not an uncommon effect of success and failure. Where success leads to arrogance and conceit it narrows, but where the character withstands this result the increased experience and opportunity is of great value to character. Failure may embitter and thus narrow through envy and lost energy, but also it may strip away conceit and overestimation and thus lead to a richer insight into 3. The hyperkinetic, uncontrolled or shallow. This type, although quick and apparently energetic, is deficient in a fundamental of the personality, in the organizing energy. This deficiency may extend into all phases of the mental life or in only a few phases. Thus we see people whose thinking is rapid, energetic, but they cannot "stick" to one line of thought long enough to reach a goal. Others are similarly situated in regard to purposes; they are enthusiastic, easily stirred into activity, but rarely do their purposes remain fixed long enough for success. As a rule this class is inconstant in affections, though warm and sympathetic. They gush but never organize their philanthropic efforts, so that they rarely do any real good. Often the most lovable of people, they are at the same time the despair of those who know them best. M. is a woman who makes a fine first impression, is very pretty, with nice manners and a quick, flattering interest in every one she meets. She is usually classed as intelligent because she is vivacious, that is, her mind follows the trend of things quickly, and she marshals whatever she knows very readily. As one who knows her well says, "She shows all her goods the first time. You really do not know how slender her stock in trade is until you see the same goods and tricks every time you meet her." Needless to say her critic is a woman. M. is interested in something new each week. The "new" usually fascinates her, and she becomes so extraordinarily busy that she hardly has time to eat or sleep. She is always put on committees if the organization heads do not know her, but if they do, she is carefully slated for something of no importance. After a short time her interest has shifted to something else. Thus she passes from work in behalf of blind babies to raising funds for a home for indigent actors; from energy spent in philanthropy to energy spent in learning the latest dances. Her enthusiasm never cools off, though its goal always Fortunately she is married to a rich man who views her with affection and a shrug of his shoulders. Her children know her; now and then, she becomes extraordinarily interested in their welfare, much to their disgust and rebellion, for they have long since sized her She has often been on the verge of a love affair with some man who is professionally interested in something into which she has leaped for a short time. She raves about him, follows him, flatters and adores him, and then, before the poor fellow knows where he is at, she is out of love and off somewhere else. This mutability of affection has undoubtedly saved her from disaster. Were she not rich, M. would be one of the social problems that the social workers cannot understand or handle, e. g., there is a type who never sticks to anything, not because he is bored quickly, or is inefficient, but because he is at the mercy of the new and irrelevant. Without sufficient means he throws up his job and tries to get the new work he longs to do. Sometimes he fails to get it, and then he becomes an unemployed This type of uncontrolled energy reaches its height in the manical or manic phase of the disease already described as manic depressive insanity. The "manic personality," which need not become insane, is characterized by high energy, vivacious emotions, rapid flow of thought and irrelevant associations. 4. The mesokinetic--medium or average in their energy (feeling and power)--run the range of the vast groups we call the average. This type is spurred on by necessity, custom and habit to steady work and steady living. Possessed of practical wisdom, their world is narrow, their affections only called out for their kindred and immediate friends. Their interests are largely away from their work and as a rule do not include the past or future of the race. Usually conservative, they accept the moral standards as absolute and are quick to resent changes in custom. They follow leaders cheerfully, are capable of intense loyalty to that cause which they believe to stand for their interests. Yet each individual of the mass of men, though he never rises above mediocrity, presents to his intimates a grouping of qualities and peculiarities that gives him a distinct personality. C. is one of those individuals whose mediocre energy has stood between him and so-called success. At present he is forty and occupies about the same position that he did at twenty. As a boy he was fond of play but never excelled in any sport and never occupied a place of leadership. He had the usual pugnacious code of boys, but because he was friendly and good-natured rarely got into a fight. He liked to read and was rather above the average in intelligence, but he never tackled the difficult reading, confining himself to the "interesting" novel and easy information. He left high school when he was sixteen and immediately on leaving he dropped all study. He entered an office as errand boy and was recognized as faithful and industrious, but he showed no especial initiative or energy. In the course of time he was promoted from one position to another until he became a shipper at the age of twenty. Since this time he has remained at this post without change, except that when he got married and on a few occasions afterward, when the cost of living rose, his salary was raised. C. is married, and his wife often "nags" him because he does not get ahead. She tells him that he has no energy and fight in him, that if he would he could do better. Sometimes he takes refuge in the statement that he has no pull, that those who have been promoted over his head are favorites for some reason or another, and he rarely recognizes the superiority of his immediate superiors, though he is loyal enough to the boss. He lives in that "quiet despair" that Thoreau so aptly describes as the life of the average man, and he seeks escape from it in smoking, in belonging to a variety of fraternal organizations, in the movies and the detective story. He is a "good" father and husband, which means that he turns over all his earnings, is faithful and kind. Except that he admonishes and punishes his children when they are "bad," he takes no constructive share in their training and leaves that to the mother, the church and the school. He and his wife are attached to one another through habit and mutual need, but they have some time since outlived passion and intense affection. She has sized him up as a failure and knows herself doomed to struggle against poverty, and he knows that she understands him. This mutual "understanding" keeps them at arm's length except in the face of danger or disaster, when they cling to each other for comfort and support. This is the history of many a marriage that on its surface is quiet and peaceful. The hypokinetic types. We cannot separate energy display from enthusiasm, courage, intelligence, persistent purpose, etc. If I have made myself clear in the preceding pages of this book, you will realize that no character of man works alone, but all feeling, thought and action is a resultant of forces. Nevertheless, there are those in whom the fire of life burns high and others in whom it burns low, and either group may be of totally different qualities otherwise. There are people of low energy discharge, and these it seems to me are of two main kinds,--the one where nothing seems to arouse or create powerful motives and purposes, and the other in whom the main defect is a rapidly arising exhaustion. The first I call the simple hypokinetic group and the other the irritable hypokinetic group. The simple hypokinetic person may be one of any grade of intelligence but more commonly is of low intelligence. In any school for the feeble-minded one finds the apathetic imbecile, who can be kept at work by goading and stimulation of one kind or another, who does not tire especially, but who never works beyond a low level of speed and enthusiasm. 5. A more interesting type is T. He may be called the intelligent hypokinetic, the high-grade failure. As a baby he learned to walk late, though he talked early and well. He played in a leisurely sort of way, running only when he had to and content as a rule to be in the house. He was not seclusive, seeming to enjoy the company of other children, but rarely made any efforts to seek them out. He was quick to learn but showed only a moderate curiosity, and he rarely made any investigations on his own account. It was noticed that he seldom asked "why" in the usual manner of intelligent children. He did fairly well in school; he had a wonderful memory and seemed to see very quickly into intricate problems. It was always a great surprise of his teachers that he was so bright, as one said, in comparison to his standing. Once or twice a zealous teacher sought to stimulate him into more effort and study, but though he responded for a short time, gradually he slipped back into his own easy pace. He went through high school, and on the basis of a splendid memory and a keen intelligence, which by this time were easily recognized, he was sent to college. He took no part in athletics and little part in the communal college activities. He had so good a command of facts and with this so cynical a point of view that he became quite a college character and was pointed out as a fellow who could lead his class if he would. As a matter of fact, nothing could spur him to real We may pass briefly over his life. After he left college, he drifted from one position to another. Usually in some hack literary line. Were it not for a small income he would have starved. After a few years he become very fat and gross looking, and then came a kindly pneumonia which carried him off. We must not mistake the stolid for the hypokinetic. There was a classmate of mine in the medical school, a large, quiet fellow, D. M., who got by everything, as the boys said, by the skin of his teeth. He worked without enthusiasm or zeal, studied infrequently and managed to pass along to his second year, at about the bottom of the class. In that year we took up bacteriology, the "bug-bear" as one punster put it, of the school. Just what it was about the subject that aroused D. M. I never knew, but a remarkable transformation took place. The man changed over, studied hard, read outside literature and actually asked for the privilege of working in the laboratory Sundays and holidays so that he might learn more. When this was known to the rest of the class, there were bets placed that he would not "last," but quite to the surprise of everybody D. M. gained in momentum as he went along. As a matter of fact, his interest on the subject grew, and he is now a bacteriologist of good standing. In fact, his lack of interest in other matters has helped him, since he has no distracting tastes or pleasures. Thus there are persons of specialized interest and energy, and it may well be that there is for most of the hypokinetic a line of work that would act to energize them. The problem, therefore, in each case is to find the latent ability and interest and to regard no case as really hopeless. I say this despite the fact that I believe some cases are hopeless. The pessimistic attitude on the part of parent or teacher kills effort; the optimistic attitude fosters energetic effort. 6. The irritable hypokinetic. Irritability of a pathological type as a phase of lowered energy is well known to every physiologist and in the practical everyday world is seen in the tired and sick. There are people who from the very start of life show lowered endurance, who respond to certain stimuli in an excessive manner and are easily exhausted. This type the neurologist calls the congenital neurasthenic, and it may be we are dealing here with some defect in the elimination of fatigue products. This, however, is only a guess, and the disease factor, if there is any, is entirely unknown. I do not pretend that the person I am to describe is entirely representative of this group. Indeed, no dozen cases would show all the symptoms and peculiarities of the irritable hypokinetic group. One must take care not to mistake the irritability which is the characteristic of all living tissue for the irritability here considered. E. is a man at present thirty years of age. In person he is of average height, rather slender, with delicate features, somewhat bald, quick in action and speech. He flushes easily and thus often has high color, especially when fatigued or excited. This "vasomotor irritability," as the physicians call it, is quite common in this group of people, and in fact in all neurasthenia, whether acquired or congenital. Though I have described E. as belonging to the slender type of person, it is necessary to say that stout, rugged-looking people are often irritable and hypokinetic. As a child E. "never could stand excitement or strain," as his mother says. What is meant is this: that he became overexcited under almost any circumstances and became profoundly fatigued afterwards. As we have seen, the intense diffusion of excitement throughout the whole body is a sign of the childish and inferior organism; as maturity approaches and throughout childhood excitability decreases and is better localized. When a noise is heard an infant jumps, and so do people like E., but the better controlled merely turn their head and eyes to see what the source of the noise may be. This lack of control of excitement extended in E.'s case to play, entertainment, novelty of any kind, crowds and especially to the disagreeable excitement of quarrels, fights, terrifying experiences, etc. Under anger he trembled, grew pale, and his shouts and screams were beyond control; under fear he became actually sick, vomited and showed a liability to syncope of an alarming kind. E. was not the selfish type of the neurasthenic; he was gentle and kind and ready to share with everybody, a lovable boy of an intensely sociable nature. Nevertheless, his high excitability and his quick fatigue made it necessary to shelter him, for any effort at toughening merely brought about a Here we must reemphasize the fundamental importance of the fatigue reactions. The normal fatigue reaction is to feel weary, to desire rest and to be able to rest and sleep. The abnormal reaction, one directly opposed to the well-being of the individual, is to feel exhausted, to become restless and to find it difficult to sleep. There are children who thrive on excitement and exertion; they sleep sounder for it, they recuperate readily and gain in strength and endurance with every ordinary burden put upon them. There are others to whom anything but the least excitement and exertion acts as a poison, making them restless and exhausted. Not all children who show this perverse fatigue reaction grow up with it. It may be only a temporary phase of their lives, but while it lasts it is very In E.'s case the overexcitable hypokinetic stage lasted until about the ninth year, and then there was a great improvement, though he still was of the same general type. He became a fairly good runner for a short distance, learned to swim, though he stood the cold water poorly, was clever and graceful as a dancer and was quite popular. At sixteen he left school to enter business, because of the straitened means of his family. He entered into adolescent period later and suffered greatly from his sixteenth to nineteenth year from, fatigue, hypochondriacal fears, and had to have a good deal of medical attention at this time. Sex questions perplexed him, for he became quite passionate and at the same time had much moral repugnance to illicit relations. His sexual curiosity was intense, and he read all manner of books on the subject, went to the burlesque shows on the sly and almost became obsessed on sex matters. At this stage he made only a mediocre showing in his business career, though his evident honesty secured him promotion to a clerk's position. After his nineteenth year he seemed to gain again in energy and endurance and was fairly well until his twenty-eighth year, though he had to nurse his endurance at all times, developed very regular habits of sleep, diet, etc., and in this manner got along. Once he had an opportunity to join an organization which would have paid him a better salary, but the hours were irregular, and it would have demanded much exertion and excitement, so he passed it by. In 1917 he joined the army, partly because of patriotic motives, partly because he was convinced that army life might develop his endurance and energy. He was sent to an army post in the South and within two months of his entrance had "broken down." He was sleepless, restless, was irritable and "jumpy," had lost appetite and the feeling of endurance. Life seemed intolerable, though he had no desire to do away with himself, for he had no quarrel with life itself but was disgusted with his inferiority. He was hospitalized, but this did little good and he was afterwards discharged as medically This, of course, hurt his pride, but essentially he was greatly relieved. He made but slow improvement until through the munificence of Uncle Sam he was given a new start in life through the Vocational Reeducation Board. Like many other city men, he has dreamed of the "chicken farm" as the ideal occupation free from too much work and yet lucrative. This, of course, is a mistaken notion, but while learning the work he is happy and is slowly regaining his energy. What time will bring forth no one can tell, but this is certain: throughout his life he will have to rely on good habits, carefully adjusted to his energy, in order to protect himself from the bankruptcy that so easily comes on him. A philosophy of life which will help to control his irritability is necessary, and the intelligent of the hypokinetic irritable acquire the habits and the philosophy necessary for their welfare. Any neurologist could cite any number of such cases with varying traits of character, high intelligence or feeble-minded, controlled in morals or uncontrolled, happily or unhappily situated, whose central difficulty is an irritable and easily exhausted store of energy. They are easily excited and excitement burns them out; that is the long and short of their situation. Sex, love, hatred, anger, strain, fear in all its forms, illness,--all these and many other emotions and happenings may break them down. Such people, and those who care for them, must not make the mistake of thinking that rough handling, strenuosity, will cure what is apparently a fixed character. There is an irritable, high-energy type--irritable hyperkinetic--that is well contrasted with the foregoing. This explosive personality works by fits and starts but does not wear out, merely, as it were, settles down to his ordinary pace when he rests up. He is like a six-day bicycle racer who plugs along but every now and then sprints like mad for a few laps and then comes back to a pace that would kill the average rider. I shall not trouble to cite such a case, but I can think of at least one man of good attainments who is of this explosive hyperkinetic type. He responds to every demand with a burst of energy, and his quota of ordinary activities is simply appalling. Neglecting the further types of energy display for the simple reason that this quality shades off into every conceivable type and is also a part of every nature, we turn to the types of emotional mood display. With these it is necessary to consider excitability as well, and the most interesting beings are here our objects of study. I wish first to emphasize my belief that where there is a great natural variation in excitability and emotionality in individuals, there is not nearly so much in races as we think, and that social heredity is tradition and cultural level plays the more important role in this. My friend and colleague, Dr. A. Warren Stearns, has made a study which shows that while the immigrant Italian is excitable and quick to anger and of revengeful reactions, his American-born descendent has so far controlled and changed this type of reaction that he does not especially figure in police records, in murders or assaults. My own studies of the second and especially the third generation Jew show there is an almost complete approach to the "American" type in emotional display, in what is known as poise. This third generation Jewish-American has dropped all the mannerisms of excitability in gesture and voice, and his adherence to good form includes that attitude of nonchalant humor so characteristic of the American. 1. The generally excitable, overemotional type. This type is more common in the Latin, Hebrew and Celtic races. In some respects it corresponds to the hypokinetic irritable, but it is not necessarily hypokinetic. The artistic type of person, so called, is of this group, but is, of course, talented as well. Talent need not be present, and there are persons of no artistic ability whatever who show a generalized, excitable-emotional temperament. All young children show the main traits of this type, and there is something essentially simple about all these folk, no matter how civilized or sophisticated they get A. L., a woman of fifty, belongs to this group. She is a Jewess and now a widow. All of her life her character and temperament have been the same, and though her experiences have been varied she has not in any essential altered. This last is rather characteristic of the group, for experience has but little effect on their emotional reactions. A. L. cries very easily and readily, but her tears are easily dried and her joy is grotesquely childlike. She is readily frightened, worries without restraint and finds a melancholy satisfaction in the worst. At the same time, her fears do not persist and are easily dissipated by encouragement or good fortune. She is readily angered and "raises a row" with great facility and without restraint. For this reason her relatives and friends become panic-stricken when she becomes angry, for they know that she does not hesitate to make an embarrassing scene. In the efforts to conciliate her they are apt to give her her own way, as a result of which she is the proverbial spoiled child, capitalizing her weakness. Our Jewess uses her emotions for effect, which means that she has become theatrical. Though there is reality in her emotional display, time and the advantages she has gained have brought enough finish and restraint to her manifestations to gain the designation artistic. True, it is a crude artistry, for intelligence does not sufficiently guide it, and her art is used sometimes indiscriminately and inopportunely. As she grows older the value of her tears is less, and she is becoming that prime nuisance, the elderly scold. Among the emotional types well recognized by the neurologist is that known as the cyclothymic. In the individuals of this group there is a periodicity to mood (rather than to emotions). There is a definitely pathological trend to the cyclothymic, and in its most marked form one sees the recurring depressions and excitement of Manic Depressive Aside from these pathological forms, there are persons who show curious periodic changes in mood. They become depressed for no especial reason, are "blue" for day after day and then quickly return to their normal. Sometimes these blue spells alternate with periods of exaltation and happiness, but in my experience this is far less common than periodic blue spells, a kind of recurrent anhedonia. L. D. is ordinarily what is known as a vivacious person. Bright, talkative, keen in her discriminations, she has all her life been at the mercy of strange alterations in mood, alterations which come and go without what seems to others adequate reason. As a child L. D. was sick a great deal. She showed an unusual susceptibility to infection, and it was not until she was nine years of age that she attended school regularly. Her illnesses made it impossible to discipline her, and so she has always been a bit "spoiled," though her kind and generous nature makes her a charming person. But more important than the fact that she could not be disciplined is the lowering of energy that these sicknesses produced, a lowering marked mainly by a liability to fatigue and depression. Let there come a sickness, and this woman's stock of hopeful mood goes and there results a loss of interest in life, a loss of zest and joyousness. A digression,--and a return to the theme of the first chapter of this book. The dependence of the mental life on bodily structure, equally true in the both sexes, is exquisitely demonstrated in woman. In many women there occurs an extraordinary increase of sex desire just before the menstrual period and in some to the point where it causes great internal conflict. Others show moderate depression and even confusion at this time, and to the majority of women some mood and thought change is taken for granted. At the menopause mental difficulties to the point of insanity are witnessed, and in some cases the change is permanent. Back of mood is the entire organic life of the organism, and back of the nature of our thoughts and deeds is mood. A peculiarity of fatigue is remarkably well shown by this person. When she is tired or convalescent a depressing thought sticks, becomes an obsession, a fixed idea, to the plague of her life. Thus when she was nursing her first baby the night feedings exhausted her. One night, half asleep and half awake, with the vigorous little animal pulling away at her breast, she watched the pulsing fontanelle on the top of the baby's head, and the thought came to her how dreadfully easy it would be to injure the brain beneath. Her heart pounced in fear, she almost fainted at the thought, and yet it "stuck" and came back to her with each random association. I need not detail how the idea recurred a dozen times a day and brought the fear that she was going insane. She stopped nursing the baby at night, got a good rest, and the idea disappeared. She was "able to shake off" when rested that which was a hideous obsession when fatigued. Indeed, one might speak of persons of this type as hypothymic as well as cyclothymic. The hypothymic are those whose stock of courage and hope is easily exhausted, who become easily discouraged. They are borrowers of energy and vigor, they need sturdier folk around them; often they are said to be sensitive, and while this is sometimes true, it is more often the case that they are more affected. That is, two persons may notice the same thing or suffer the same sickness, but the so-called sensitive has a reserve of courage and energy that disappears, whereas the other has enough left in stock so that he does not feel any change. The extraordinary complexity of human character is well illustrated by C. D. She is hypothymic or cyclothymic to the little affairs of life and to the minor illnesses. Yet when her family fortunes were greatly imperilled by a financial crisis, she stood up against the strain far better than did her husband, a man sturdy and buoyant in most of the affairs of life. His ego was more concerned with financial fortune than was hers, and against this ill she was the philosopher and not he.

Textbook of in vivo Imaging in Vertebrates About this Book About The Product This book describes the new imaging techniques being developed to monitor physiological, cellular and subcellular function within living animals. This exciting field of imaging science brings together physics, chemistry, engineering, biology and medicine to yield powerful and versatile imaging approaches. By combining advanced non-invasive imaging technologies with new mechanisms for visualizing biochemical events and protein and gene function, non-invasive vertebrate imaging enables the in vivo study of biology and offers rapid routes from basic discovery to drug development and clinical application. Combined with the availability of an increasing number of animal models of human disease, and the ability to perform longitudinal studies of disease evolution and of the long-term effects of therapeutic procedures, this new technology offers the next generation of tools for biomedical research. Well illustrated, largely in colour, the book reviews the most common and technologically advanced methods for vertebrate imaging, presented in a clear, comprehensive format. The basic principles are described, followed by several examples of the use of imaging in the study of living multicellular organisms, concentrating on small animal models of human diseases. The book illustrates: - The types of information that can be obtained with modern in vivo imaging; - The substitution of imaging methods for more destructive histological techniques; - The advantages conferred by in vivo imaging in building a more accurate picture of the response of tissues to stimuli over time while significantly reducing the number of animals required for such studies. Part 1 describes current techniques in in vivo imaging, providing specialists and laboratory scientists from all disciplines with clear and helpful information regarding the tools available for their specific research field. Part 2 looks in more detail at imaging organ development and function, covering the brain, heart, lung and others. Part 3 describes the use of imaging to monitor various new types of therapy, following the reaction in an individual organism over time, e.g. after gene or cell therapy.

The Effects of Music, Relaxation and Suggestion in the learning environment. The aim of this chapter is to investigate whether music, relaxation and suggestion, the three major elements present in most versions of Accelerative Learning, have indeed been shown to be effective in the learning process. For this purpose studies have been reviewed not only within the field of Accelerative Learning, but also outside it. One of the interests in Accelerative Learning research has been to isolate individual elements involved in the method in order to determine their effect on a number of dependent variables. This has been particularly true for the element of music. Some studies have investigated the effect of background music on vocabulary learning, both in laboratory settings (Schuster & Mouzon 1982, Stein et al 1982, Schuster 1985) and in the normal teaching environment (Schiffler 1986b). Other studies, some independent of Accelerative Learning, have looked at the effect of background music on reading performance (Mullikin & Henk 1985), on students' on-task behaviour (Davidson & Powell 1986) and on context-dependent memory (Smith 1985). While the majority of studies explored the effect of music on achievement, Lehmann (1982) investigated psycho-physiological responses to different types of music in order to determine which music may be most readily accepted by students in Accelerative Learning classes. His findings, together with those of Smith (1985), who included white noise as a background to learning, and those of Mullikin and Henk (1985), who investigated the effectiveness of easy-listening background music, are particularly interesting since they indicate that music selections other than those recommended by Lozanov (1978) and Lozanov and Gateva (1988) may be effective in the learning environment. Generally, the role of music in Accelerative Learning has been given more attention by researchers than either relaxation or suggestion. Since Lozanov himself no longer recommends specific relaxation exercises, the question arises whether this element ought to be retained in Accelerative Learning on the basis of the Western research. There have been a number of studies investigating the effect of various forms of relaxation training on achievement (Biggers & Stricherz 1976, Stricherz 1980, Johnson 1982, Baur 1982), on creativity (Gamble et al 1982), and on physiological and psychological variables (Matthews 1983, Setterlind 1983). The most extensive research on the effect of relaxation on achievement independent of Accelerative Learning has been carried out in the field of anxiety research. Since one of the principles of Accelerative Learning is that learning ought to be free from stress and tension, elements closely related to anxiety, the findings of this research were found to be relevant to this chapter and have therefore been included. The least researched of the three major elements in Accelerative Learning is suggestion. One reason for this may be that this element is particularly difficult to isolate in any teaching environment. Results of studies in which the effect of suggestion in Accelerative Learning was investigated (Bordon & Schuster 1976, Biggers & Stricherz 1976, Schuster & Martin 1980, Renigers 1981) are conflicting. Another reason for the lack of research on suggestion may be its close association with hypnosis. The possible relationship or distinction between Accelerative Learning and hypnosis will therefore also be explored in this chapter.

The superannuation industry, economists and actuaries have urged the federal government to increase the age at which superannuation can be accessed, to avoid a $1 trillion shortfall in retirement savings. The Institute of Actuaries, CAP Australia and the Financial Services Council say the gap between the superannuation “preservation age”, now 60, and the age pension age, now 65 should be narrowed. The Grattan Institute argues both ages should be increased to 70. The Financial Services Council says the collective shortfall in savings for the working population that will live beyond average life expectancy now totals some $1 trillion. The vast majority of workers have not saved enough money for the 20-plus years they may now spend in retirement, leaving successive federal governments open to an extreme financial burden, Financial Services Council chief executive John Brogden said. “Every Australian should be encouraged to the best of their ability to become a self-funded retiree and take pressure off the government,” he said. The FSC says the age at which retirees can access their super should be raised from 60 to 62, in line with the increase in the age pension eligibility age from 65 to 67 that is due to come into force in 2023. That would decrease the so-called “longevity savings gap” of $1 trillion by $400 billion, Mr Brogden argued. An important key to the build-up of government age pension liabilities is the current five-year gap between the age at which retirees can access their super and when they become eligible for an age pension, according to CPA policy adviser Paul Drum. “What we’re seeing is lots and lots of them are borrowing up to the hilt, taking a lump sum and paying off their debt, live now pay later, and then they go on the pension.” Mr Drum adds that retirees should be prohibited from taking their superannuation as one lump sum, and instead should be offered annuities. The Actuaries Institute urged a raft of “urgent” policy reforms including increasing the superannuation preservation age to three to five years less than the age pension age and linking changes to improvements in life expectancy. The Grattan Institute says both ages should be 70, lifting the rate of mature-age workforce participation by 1.3 per cent. But Seniors Council chief Michael O’Neill dismissed the claims that retirees would spend their superannuation within five years as financial industry “self-interest”. “The pension is regarded as a safety net only and the great majority of people aren’t going to rush to get on the pension. That’s a figment of financial interests’ imagination,” Mr O’Neill said. “It’s very easy to simplify but people who are on the pension use it as a safety net and they struggle on it. A little bit of less self-interest would be really helpful in this debate.”

US House takes on Big Oil It aims to cut $14 billion in federal oil and gas tax breaks and other benefits over the next 10 years and give them instead to renewable-energy programs. Such a change would represent a noticeable trim in government support for the oil and gas industry at a time when it is trying to boost domestic production. It would provide a huge boost to renewable energy industries as they try to replace fossil fuels with cleaner energy that's also domestically produced. Nevertheless, the proposed cuts go only so far. Even if the House's new clean-energy legislation becomes law, the oil and gas industry will remain by far the largest recipient of federal energy largesse, receiving by some estimates four times the money of the next largest recipient: the nuclear industry. That prospect has many renewable-energy advocates and budget hawks pushing for more cuts even as conventional-energy experts warn of the fallout from the current round of proposed rollbacks. "What the Democrats have cut is a big number," says Steve Ellis, a spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington watchdog group. But "if you look at the whole universe of federal oil and gas breaks, it's a much larger number than this legislation cuts." "If Congress imposes these additional costs on the companies, it just makes them more likely to look overseas," responds Mark Kibbe, senior tax-policy analyst for the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying arm of the oil industry in Washington. "If you make these changes, you decrease US production, US jobs, and increase US reliance on imported oil." Congress envisions slashing $14 billion – an average of $1.4 billion a year – over the next 10 years. This includes cutting $7.7 billion in tax incentives and toughening royalty-payment rules to bring in $6.3 billion that otherwise would flow to oil and gas companies. The proposed cuts, when adjusted for inflation, would total per year roughly a third of the $3.6 billion in tax incentives the oil and gas industry got in 2005, the Government Accountability Office reported in September. Left untouched would be one of the industry's most important federal tax breaks – the oil and gas percentage depletion allowance, created in 1916. Between 2006 and 2010 that break will cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion a year by allowing smaller, independent oil companies to deduct 15 percent of sales revenue to reflect the declining value of their investment, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which reports to Congress on the costs of federal tax legislation. Another surviving tax break permits big oil companies to immediately deduct 70 percent of their "intangible drilling costs," such as the cost of wages, supplies, and site preparation. Smaller companies are permitted to deduct all of those costs. That break will be worth a little over $1 billion a year through 2010, the JCT found. Industry officials deem such breaks as critical to US domestic oil production that they say would otherwise dwindle, since it costs far more to produce oil domestically than import it.

Brazil OverviewBrazil is the largest and most populous country in South America. Brazil is the fifth most populous country in the world. Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. Brazil was ruled by Portugal from 1500 to 1822. São Paulo is the largest city. Brazil consists of 26 states and the federal district of Brasília. The rain forests of the Amazon River basin occupy all the north and north central portions of Brazil. Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of Coffee. Brazil also has the second largest river of the world - the Amazon river. The soccer crazy nation is the only country to have won five World Cups. Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One world championship three times. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest racers ever. His death in 1994 is still mourned by Brazilians and he remains one of the most beloved Formula One personalities. Xuxa is a children's television show host. Xuxa was the first Brazilian to appear on Forbes Magazine's list of richest artists in 1991 in 37th place. Xuxa has dated soccer super-star Pelé and the late Ayrton Senna. Gustavo Kuerten is a former World number 1 tennis player, and a three time winner of French open. Ronaldo is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for Brazil and Real Madrid. Ronaldo was voted the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and 1997. Ronaldo claimed the Golden Boot by scoring eight goals during the tournament (and tied with Pelé for a Brazilian record 12 total World Cup goals), leading Brazil to win an unprecedented fifth World Championship. Rio de Janeiro has a majestic beauty, with built-up areas nestled between a magnificent bay, and dazzling beaches on one side and an abruptly rising mountain range, covered by a luxuriant tropical forest, on the other. Sao Paulo is the second largest city of the world in terms of population. The city's well-preserved historic sites include museums, churches, picture galleries, bridges, and squares. Amazon rain forest is the world's largest tropical rain forest, spanning more than half of Brazil. Within the 2.5 million square miles of the Amazon Basin resides a wealth of life richer than anyplace else on earth. The Amazon River is the life line of Amazon rain forest, carrying an astounding 16 percent of all the river water in the world over its 6,500 miles.

What is penis pain? Penis pain, or penile pain, involves any pain or discomfort, internal or external, of the penis. The penis is an external structure of the male reproductive system that is comprised of multiple parts. These include the root, which connects the penis to the abdominal wall, the body (shaft), the glans penis (head), and the urethra (the tube that transports semen and urine out of the body). Additionally, the penis contains muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and the penile suspensory ligament, which supports the penis when it is erect. Within the penis are three chambers made of spongy erectile tissue that fill with blood and expand during sexual arousal, resulting in an erection. Depending on the underlying cause, penis pain may begin suddenly and last briefly or develop gradually and persist. Penis pain can range from a dull ache to a sharp jolt, and can occur due to a variety of diseases and conditions, such as allergy, injury and infection, including certain sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Penis pain can be caused by conditions that prevent a man from having an erection and affect a man’s sexual health and fertility. Some causes of penis pain can also disrupt urination, which can damage related organs, such as the bladder and kidneys. Seek prompt medical care if you experience penis pain, which is often caused by a disease or condition that requires medical attention. Seek immediate medical care (call 911) if you, or someone you are with, have an erection that is painful or lasts more than four hours. In addition, call 911 if you experience penis or testicle trauma or injury, testicle pain, or if you hear a “pop” or cracking sound from the penis during an erection. What other symptoms might occur with penis pain? Penis pain may accompany other symptoms, which can vary depending on the underlying disease, disorder or condition. Pain may originate in the penis itself or may occur due to conditions in nearby areas, such as the abdomen, bladder, testicles or prostate gland.... Read more about penis pain symptoms Penis pain may be felt on the surface of the penis or within the cone-shaped glans penis (head), the body (shaft), or the root, which connects the penis to the abdominal wall. You can also feel pain within your urethra, which is the tube that transports semen and urine through and out of the penis.... Read more about penis pain causes

Preparing a resume that makes an impact doesn't have to be that hard. Here are 10 simple tips that apply to all resumes: Center Feature ... 10 Tips for an Effective Resume - If possible, use a computer to prepare your resume. There are computer programs that make it easy to produce a professional-looking resume. Your local school, library, Employment Service office or "quick print" shop can help. - Include all essential parts of a resume. - Center all headings and don't use abbreviations. - Be positive. Identify accomplishments. - Use action verbs (see below). - Be specific . Use concise sentences or phrases. Keep it short. One or two pages is best. - Make sure your resume looks good (neat and readable). - Do not include irrelevant personal information (age, weight, height, marital status, etc.,) or what your wages were in previous jobs. - Proofread the master copy carefully to make sure there are no mistakes. Have someone else proofread it carefully. - Inspect photocopies for clarity, smudges, and marks. Action verbs give your resume power and direction. Try to begin all statements about your experience and skills with an action verb. Here are some action verbs you may want to use: Management skills - administered, analyzed, coordinated, developed, directed, evaluated, improved, supervised Clerical skills - arranged, catalogued, compiled, generated, organized, processed, persuaded, systematized Creative skills - conceptualized, created, designed, established, fashioned, illustrated, invented, performed Helping skills - assessed, coached, counseled, diagnosed, facilitated, represented Technical skills - assembled, built, calculated, operated, overhauled, remodeled, repaired Communication skills - arranged, addressed, drafted, formulated Financial skills - administered, analyzed, budgeted, forecasted, marketed, planned, projected Research skills - clarified, evaluated, identified, inspected, organized

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR MILITARY DIVORCE Texas Law provides legal protections for service members, particularly during their absence or in the event of their injury during service. The United States Military puts duties on service members to prepare Family Care Plans in certain circumstances prior to deployment. Family Care Plans and the Texas Family Code compliment one another, in that both are designed to address medical, financial, child support and custody issues while a service member is deployed. In 2009 and 2011, the Texas Legislature enacted new laws concerning the consent to medical treatment and other types of care of a child by a person who is not the biological parent of a child. Under certain circumstances, the Texas Family Code authorizes the execution of an “Authorization Agreement,” which will let immediate relatives of the service member consent to the medical treatment and care for children. Texas law can give special consideration to military members with children. Possession of children can be particularly difficult when one parent lives in a town, state, or country that is any significant distance from the primary residence of the child. The child’s school schedule and activities all need to be taken into account when arranging for travel between the residences of both parents. This is particularly true when airline travel is involved, as arrangements have to be made for payment of travel and arrival and departure of the child in accordance with their school schedules. When one parent is deployed to a war zone, visitation will be impossible for all intents and purposes, at least during deployment. With the advent of email and Skype, the creative family lawyer can craft a court order that will give access to the child by the military parent on a regular basis. Court orders can include very specific provisions about when the child needs to be available to Skype with their parent and about what type of computer equipment the non-military parent is required to maintain. The Texas legislature has recently enacted some statutes that attempt to address possession when one parent is absent due to military deployment. If a parent is ordered to be deployed in such a manner (e.g. to a war zone) that they cannot exercise possession or other rights and duties, either parent may file a specialized suit under the Family Code. The court is given the authority to temporarily put orders in place while the parent is deployed, which may give a family member, such as a grandparent, the right to step into the shoes of the parent. During deployment, the court may award visitation to a person designated by the service member who primarily cares for the child, and the periods of possession of the designated person will be the same as the rights the non-military member previously had. As an example, if the mother of the child is in the military and primarily cares for the child, the court should give the rights and possession normally held by the mother to the father. Then, the court should order the possession normally held by the father to a person designated by the mother. The state in which a divorce or custody suit can take place often becomes an issue for military members and their spouses. A suit for divorce may not be maintained in Texas unless at the time the suit is filed either party has been: (1) a resident of Texas for the preceding six-month period; and (2) a resident of the county in which the suit is filed for the preceding 90-day period. The residency requirement will also be met when both the military member and their spouse reside in Texas due to the military service. The issue of jurisdiction becomes even more complicated if children are involved. Texas has interstate custody laws, more commonly known as the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). All but two states have enacted laws similar to Texas’ UCCJEA, and this law can be particularly relevant when one or both parents are members of the military. The UCCJEA is designed to prevent multiple suits in multiple states concerning the same child. It is also meant to make one state’s court order enforceable in another state when one or both parents move to a different jurisdiction. Back to Top Texas is a community property state, and, as such, all property in possession of either party on the date of divorce is presumed to be community property. All property acquired during the marriage (except gifts, inheritance, and some personal injury proceeds) is community property, and this can include retirement benefits. Military retirement is subject to characterization as either separate property of the military spouse or community property. In general, the portion of the retirement benefits acquired before marriage will be confirmed as separate property of the military spouse. The portion of the retirement benefits acquired during marriage will be community property. Therefore, retirement benefits earned from years of service during the marriage are community property and are subject to division by the court in Texas. In Texas, the Court has wide discretion to divide all property, including military benefits, in a manner it sees as just and right, taking into account all assets of the marriage and the needs of the children of the marriage. This can include awarding a portion of the military pension plan to the non-military spouse. This can also include hiring an expert to give a value to the military pension and offsetting the value of this pension by giving the non-military spouse other assets. The court may consider numerous factors in dividing property, including the spouses' capacities and abilities, benefits which the party not at fault would have derived from continuation of the marriage, business opportunities, education, relative physical conditions, relative financial condition and obligations, disparity of ages, size of separate estates, the nature of the property, and the disparity in earning capacities or of incomes is proper. Regardless of the division of property, military benefits acquired during the marriage need to be addressed by the Court.

No Marshmallows, Just Term Papers 1. What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantages? Apple Inc. was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976 with the mission to make products that were cutting edge, designed beautifully, and easy to use. They have been able to keep this competitive advantage not only by relying on its own proprietary designs but by refusing to license their hardware to third parties. They tend to be a leader in new technologies such as the first desktop solution, mp3 player, and touch screen cell phone. 2. Analyze the personal computer industry. Use the tools you learned in your strategy course. Consider the following factors: competition in the PC industry, barriers to entry, power of PC buyers, power of suppliers (Intel & Microsoft), threat of substitutes. Is the competitive environment favorable or problematic for Apple? (In other words, is this a hard industry to compete in?) The competitive environment was favorable at the inception of Apple. The only barrier at the time was the actual knowledge capable of developing the technology never seen before. They quickly became the industry leader when they came out with Apple II and were able to launch a successful IPO which would allow them to raise needed capital to develop more products. At the time the PC industry gained momentum quickly and Apple was responsible for sparking a “computing revolution” with annual sales reaching $1 billion in less than three years. Once IBM entered the PC market in the early 80’s the competitive environment changed drastically. Quickly their PC’s became the industry standard and they were able to spread their product by selling the rights to the system so other producers could easily replicate the product. At this point it was easy for producers to enter the market as long as they had the capital to purchase the rights to the system. This had a very negative impact on Apple and caused net income to fall 62% in just four years, after being...

Want to know what to watch out for? Read on... One important thing sports drinks should provide is energy (calories). Sugar is the most common ingredient sports drinks use for energy. It may be called sucrose, or lactose, or glucose, or fructose, or maltose, or maltodextrin, or dextrose, or amylopectin starches, or any one of a huge number of names. All are a great source of quick energy for your muscles. But be careful; sugars by themselves usually have very high "glycemic-index" (GI) values; this means that they cause a blood-sugar spike that will burn off pretty fast (leaving you tired later on), prevent your body from burning fat instead, and over time can even cause insulin resistance (as in diabetes!). Think you're immune to insulin problems just because you're a thin athlete? Think again. Don't get me wrong; high-GI foods have their place, and I definitely feel my workouts are better when I consume high-GI foods. They are also very important for post-ride recovery so you can be ready for your next workout (especially if, like me, you ride twice a day). Just don't overdo it. How do you know what's the right GI? Read on... Some examples of sugars, and their GI values: - Fructose (24 GI) - Lactose (46 GI) - Honey (55 GI) - Sucrose (61 GI) - Glucose (93 GI) - Maltose (105 GI) Not to "pick" on any specific brand of sports drink, but I have a big bucket of Cytomax Performance Drink right here that is mostly "amylopectin starches." Sounds fancy, but it's simply the major component of starch, e.g. wheat. It's also very high-GI. This is followed by maltodextrin, another very high-GI food (the same as maltose, actually). How about Hammer Heed? More maltodextrin. Gatorade Thirst Quencher? Glucose, sucrose and fructose. These are no higher-GI than other sports drinks, just typical. By the way, carbohydrates are the only foods that raise GI. Proteins and fats are all zero (0) GI. Meat, eggs, lard, butter, etc. are all zero-GI, or very close to it. What's also important to understand is the "glycemic load" (GL) of a given meal. This is the cumulative affect of the GI of each ingredient, and their quantities. For example, a high-GI food combined with a low-GI food will yield a moderate-GL meal. It's fun browsing a list of typical foods and their GLs. Kind of an eye-opener. Some examples of high-GL foods: |FOOD||Serving size (grams)||Glycemic load| |Lucozade®, original (sparkling glucose drink)||250||40| |Macaroni and Cheese (Kraft)||180||32| |Spaghetti, white, boiled 20 min, average||180||27| |Baked russet potato, average||150||26| |Bagel, white, frozen||70||25| |Vanilla cake made from packet mix with vanilla frosting (Betty Crocker)||111||24| |Cranberry juice cocktail (Ocean Spray®)||250||24| |Fanta®, orange soft drink||250||23| |White rice, average||150||23| |Quick cooking white basmati||150||23| |Cream of Wheat™, Instant (Nabisco)||250||22| |Pizza, plain baked dough, served with parmesan cheese and tomato sauce||100||22| |Coco Pops™, average||30||20| The traditional food of cyclists is things like pasta, bagels, bread, cookies... all high-GI (the GL is even higher, because we tend to eat huge mountains of the stuff!), and all able to induce insulin resistance and defeat your fat-control plans. You don't have to give any of these foods up, but try to eat them in moderate amounts, and combine them with low-GI foods, like proteins, as much as possible. See that Snickers Bar up there? Surprised it's lower-GL than rice or macaroni? Well, it has protein from the peanuts that keep the GL lower... uh, and tons of fat that is also low-GI; that may not be the best way to lower the GL of a meal!!! Contrast that with low-GL foods (meats etc. not included because they are all zero-GL): |FOOD||Serving size (grams)||Glycemic load| |Hummus (chickpea salad dip)||30||0| |Soy beans, average||150||1| |Milk, full fat||250||3| |Green peas, average||80||3| |Tomato juice, canned||250||4| My favorite post-ride food is dried dates, which are at the top of the GL list, but I usually eat them with nuts (zero-GI) and follow them with a protein shake for a moderate-GL recovery meal. See? It's easy to eat smart! Oh, back to sports drinks... My favorite is Accelerade Advanced Sports Drink. Why? Because it "combines carbohydrate and protein in a patented 4:1 ratio." That means it's lower-GL than other sports drinks. No, they don't pay me to say that... I wish they would though. On a personal note: I used to get the afternoon blahs all the time. You know; about 2:00 PM I'd be sitting at my desk, nodding off over my keyboard. Maybe that starchy sandwich I had for lunch was to blame? Or the starchy cereal I had for breakfast? When I started eating lower-GL meals that blah feeling went away and never came back. What a relief!

How to Use a Condom Lifebeat volunteer Grace Garland gives a tutorial on exactly how to slip on the goods. - Not every man is built the same, neither is every condom. - Too small, and the condom could be uncomfortable. Too large, and the condom could slip off. - Condoms that are too large is a bigger problem because condoms stretch. - Trying to find a condom you like? Experiment. Try visiting a sex toy store that lets you buy single condoms or condom assortments so that you have a range of options to play with. Oh, and don’t trust the package description. A condom brand’s “XL” condoms may be the same size as another brand’s regular ones. Help! My condom broke - If a condom breaks while you are having sex, stop and carefully pull out or have your partner pull out. - It’s important to talk to your partner about what’s happened. Discuss when and if you have been tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Should I use a lubricant with a condom? - Some condoms are already lubricated with dry silicone, jellies, or creams. If you buy condoms not already lubricated, it’s a good idea to apply some yourself. - Lubricants may help prevent condoms from breaking during use and may prevent irritation, which might increase the chance of infection. - If you use a separate lubricant, be sure to use one that’s water-based and made for this purpose. If you’re not sure which to choose, ask your pharmacist. - Never use a lubricant that contains oils, fats, or greases such as petroleum-based jelly (like Vaseline brand), baby oil or lotion, hand or body lotions, cooking shortenings, or oily cosmetics like cold cream. They can seriously weaken latex, causing a condom to tear easily.

APIA, Samoa -- Sometime in the early morning hours of Sept. 7, residents of this small Pacific island nation will stop their cars, take a deep breath, and do something most people would think is suicidal: Start driving on the other side of the road. Samoa is about to become what's believed to be the first nation since the 1970s to order its drivers to switch from one side of the road to the other. That's spawned an islandwide case of road rage. Opponents have organized two of the biggest protests in Samoan history, and a new activist group -- People Against Switching Sides, or PASS -- has geared up to fight the plan. The prime minister who hatched Samoa's scheme, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, refuses to do a U-turn. Road-switch opponents are just trying to rattle the government, he says. He has compared a prominent opponent of the switch to a local "avaava" fish -- a sea creature that swims in shallow waters and eats garbage, an insult in Samoan culture. The main reason for Samoa's switch is that two of its biggest neighbors, Australia and New Zealand, drive on the left-hand side, whereas Samoa currently drives on the right, as in the U.S. By aligning with Australia and New Zealand, the prime minister says, it will be easier for poor Samoans to get cheap hand-me-down cars from the 170,000 or so Samoans who live in those two countries. It could also help more people escape tsunamis, says Mr. Tuilaepa. It all "makes common sense," says Mr. Tuilaepa in an interview in his office overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the capital city of Apia. Mr. Tuilaepa, who sports a wave of fluffy whitening hair and wears flip-flops, has run the country for more than a decade. Opponents and some outside experts fear the switch will turn many of Samoa's already-dangerous roads into disaster zones. Roads wind through mountainous jungle terrain with sharp turns, few traffic lights and pedestrians and dogs sharing the lanes. Critics say the switch will add further confusion with drivers likely to forget which side they're supposed to be on. The move will also add costs -- like carving new doors into buses so passengers can get off on the opposite side of the road -- that critics say are unnecessary in a country heavily reliant on foreign aid. For car owners, the switch is also expected to drive the value of their vehicles off a cliff, since about 14,000 of the country's 18,000 vehicles are designed to drive on the right. Although such cars will be allowed after the changeover, they are likely to become less desirable. "To be really quite frank, we find [the change] ridiculous," says Sina Retzlaff-Lima, whose Apia Rentals rental-car company has 40 cars made for driving on the right side of the road. Globally, about 70% of the world's population drives on the right-hand side of the road. But other parts of the world -- including many countries that were once British colonies -- remain committed to the left. The root causes of the gap stem from preferences when countries developed their first road rules, says Peter Kincaid, an Australia-based author of "The Rule of the Road," which analyzes world traffic patterns. Mr. Kincaid says American drivers of horse-drawn carriages tended to ride their horses, or walk alongside them, on the left-hand side of their vehicles so they could wield whips with their right hands. That made it necessary to lead carriages down the right side of the road so drivers could be nearer the center of the street. A handful of countries have switched over the years, mainly to match up with neighbors that had different standards. Several former British colonies in Africa, including Nigeria, went from left to right in the decades after World War II. Sweden switched sides, from left to right, in 1967, while Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, did the same in 1970 for reasons that even today remain unclear. Since the 1970s, says Mr. Kincaid, international road rules have remained largely the same -- until Samoa. "In the beginning it will be hard, but we'll learn -- we're not stupid," says Leau Apisaloma, a 54-year-old village chief who collects entrance fees from visitors at a beach an hour from Apia. In Apia, though, opponents are determined to fight the change. Having just taken delivery of an expensive Toyota Tundra from America in late 2006, local lawyer Toleafoa Solomona Toailoa shifted the resistance into high gear. With allies, he formed PASS and helped lead two protest marches, including one featuring a petition with more than 30,000 signatures. The government refused to budge. Mr. Toleafoa launched his own political party, with plans to contest the next election in 2011. Supporters also took the plan to court, on the grounds that it breaches citizens' right to life by making Samoan roads too dangerous. The case is pending. With the deadline approaching, the government is speeding ahead. It has added road humps to slow traffic and erected signs that, when unveiled Sept. 7, will remind drivers to stay left. In a TV address about the road change last week, the prime minister warned that "the only thing to fear is fear itself." He listed a series of other steps, including declaring Sept. 7 and 8 national holidays. The government has also set up a "training area" near a sports stadium where drivers can practice the fine art of driving on the left side of the road. One recent Sunday morning, a bus was seen barreling down the right side of the road in the training area, the driver apparently oblivious to the fact that it was the wrong side. After nearly running head-on into a sport-utility vehicle, the bus driver swerved then returned to the wrong side of the road and chugged on.

The small overlap crash test is one of the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety’s (IIHS) newest tests, administered to simulate a type of collision that has a high occupant injury and fatality rate in real life. On this episode of The Downshift, we follow along to see the work required to prep a Volvo XC60 crossover for launch and the aftermath of the test at the IIHS’ Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Va. It takes several days to prep a vehicle and the crash test dummies prior to any IIHS testing. Sensors in the vinyl and metal dummies are calibrated to record the effects of external forces that correlate to injuries a person might sustain from a crash. Paint is applied to the face and knees of the dummy to see where it contacts the airbags and other areas of the vehicle. In addition, test vehicles are drained of fluids, while pre-crash photographs and measurements are taken to compare to the wreckage and determine how well the passenger safety cage held up. To document what happens to the Volvo XC60, which was recently refreshed, several cameras are set up to capture the test from multiple angles. After the test, representatives from the IIHS and Volvo discuss the results from the preliminary results based on the sensors as well as the XC60’s initial appearance, while the final results will be released later. Finally, the future of vehicle safety testing as well as accident prevention are discussed. Skip to 4:50 to watch the crash test and the most dramatic use of composer Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane you’ll see today.

“Now, suppose an earthquake takes place in Japan, it originates a series of vibrations through our globe. We must here distinguish between the rocks—I might almost say the comparatively pliant rocks—which form the earth’s crust, and those which form the intensely rigid core of the interior of our globe. The vibrations which carry the tidings of the earthquake spread through the rocks on the surface, from the centre of the disturbance, in gradually enlarging circles. We may liken the spread of these vibrations to the ripples in a pool of water which diverge from the spot where a raindrop has fallen. The vibrations transmitted by the rocks on the surface, or on the floor of the ocean, will carry the message all over the earth. As these rocks are flexible, at all events by comparison with the earth’s interior, the vibrations will be correspondingly large, and will travel with vigor over land and under sea. In due time they reach, say the Isle of Wight, where they set the pencil of the seismometer at work. But there are different ways round the earth from Japan to the Isle of Wight, the most direct route being across Asia and Europe; the other route across the Pacific, America, and the Atlantic. The vibrations will travel by both routes, and the former is the shorter of the two.” Some brief repetition may not here be amiss as to the products of volcanic action, of which so much has been said in the preceding pages, especially as many of the terms are to some extent technical in character. The most abundant of these substances is steam or water-gas, which, as we have seen, issues in prodigious quantities during every eruption. But with the steam a great number of other volatile materials frequently make their appearance. Though we have named a number of these at the beginning of this chapter, it will not be out of order to repeat them here. The chief among these are the acid gases known as hydrochloric acid, sulphurous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbonic acid, and boracic acid; and with these acid gases there issue hydrogen, nitrogen ammonia, the volatile metals arsenic, antimony, and mercury, and some other substances. These volatile substances react upon one another, and many new compounds are thus formed. By the action of sulphurous acid and sulphuretted hydrogen on each other, the sulphur so common in volcanic districts is separated and deposited. The hydrochloric acid acts very energetically on the rocks around the vents, uniting with the iron in them to form the yellow ferric-chloride, which often coats the rocks round the vent and is usually mistaken by casual observers for sulphur.

Die Nikestatue von Paionios und die Siegessäule von Berlin The Dorian Messenians who at one time received Naupaktos from the Athenians set up at Olympia an image of Nike on a column. This image is the work of Paionios of Mende, and was made from the spoils taken from the enemy, when they waged war against the people of Akarnania and Oiniadai; at least so it seems to me. The Messenians themselves say that the offering resulted from their exploit on the island of Sphakteria along with the Athenians but that they did not inscribe the name of their enemy through fear of the Lakedaimonians, whereas they had no fear at all of the people of Oiniadai and Akarnania, Pausanias about the Nike of Paionios Reconstruction of the Nike of Paionios (by Paionios (or Paeonius) of Mende from Chalkidike) dedicated by the people of Messene and Naupactos for their victory over the Spartans in Sphacteria (425 BC). Produced around 421 BC, approximately the body is 2.16 meter and around 3 meter including her wings. The statue was on an approximately 10 m high pedestal (its color probably blue like the sky so that the Nike almost looked as flying). Discovered by a German excavation group at Olympia in 1875. She carries her himation, while she wears a red chiton. Using a simple graphics program I produced a colored version of the Nike to give an idea about her original appearance (The original colors are not known). (Paeonius of Mende in Thrace) was an artist of secondary rank, if we may judge from the fact that his name occurs only in Pausanias; but in the brilliant period of Greek history even secondary artists were capable of work which less fortunate ages could not rival. Pausanias mentions a Victory by Paeonius at Olympia, a votive offering of the Messenians for successes gained in war. Portions of the pedestal of this statue with the dedicatory inscription and the artist's signature were found on December 20, 1875, at the beginning of the German excavations, and the mutilated statue itself on the following day. A restoration of the figure by a German sculptor may be trusted for nearly everything but the face. The goddess is represented in descending flight. Poised upon a triangular pedestal about thirty feet high, she seems all but independent of support. Her draperies, blown by the wind, form a background for her figure. An eagle at her feet suggests the element throughwhich she moves. Never was a more audacious design executed in marble. Yet it does not impress us chiefly as a tour de force. The beholder forgets the triumph over material difficulties in the sense of buoyancy, speed, and grace which the figure inspires. F. B. Tarbell History Of Greek Art The 2004 Athens Olympic medals present on one side the statue of Nike Paionios with ancient Olympia in the backdrop, while the other side features the eternal flame framed by the first verse of the eighth Olympic Hymn by Pindar along with the logo of the Athens Games. 1907 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle Inspired by the Nike of Paionios An idea probably adopted from the victory columm of the Nike Paionios is the Victory Column in Berlin, Germany:

Residents of many flood prone areas are eligible for special flood protection provided by the federal government under the National Flood Insurance Program. To find out if your property is eligible for this insurance, call your county government. Your agent can purchase this coverage for you if you are eligible or you may call 800-638-6620 (National Flood Insurance Program). Please note that regulatory authority over NFIP flood insurance policies rests with the Federal Emergency Management Association, not with the North Carolina Department of Insurance. Question: My home was damaged by the flood. Will my homeowner's policy pay for the damages? Answer: No. Most people who live in flood-hazard areas* know from experience that homeowners policies do not cover loss due to flood. Water damage due to flood is specifically excluded from coverage under the homeowner's policy. In insurance terms, flood is an "excluded peril" from the homeowners policy. Therefore, flood insurance, which is a separate policy, must be purchased through the federal government. *Keep in mind that flood insurance is not just for properties in a floodplain. Nearly 30 percent of all flood insurance claims are for properties outside the special flood-hazard areas. Question: Can you explain the federal flood insurance program? Answer: The federal government established the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968 to make flood insurance available to property owners in communities that adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances to reduce further flood losses. The program is administered by the Federal Insurance Administration (FIA) which is a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To be eligible the property must be within a local jurisdiction (i.e., city, township, county) that has agreed to participate in the NFIP by enforcing flood plain management standards. You do not need to be in a flood plain to be eligible to purchase flood insurance; you need only reside in a participating jurisdiction. Rates for insurance coverage vary. The NFIP writes this insurance directly through agents in the state and also contracts with insurance companies to write the National Flood Insurance policy on their paper. The latter is known as the Write Your Own program (WYO). The WYO policies are identical to the NFIP direct-written policies and are underwritten by the NFIP. The premium for a particular property is the same regardless of which agent or WYO company writes the policy. Question: How many people in North Carolina have federal flood insurance through NFIP? Answer: In North Carolina there are more than 81,000 flood insurance policies in effect representing more than $10 billion in coverage. Question: How do I file a claim if I have purchased federal flood insurance? Answer: Consumers who have purchased a flood insurance policy should first contact their insurance agent. Question: I don't have federal flood insurance, but I added a sewer backup endorsement to my homeowners policy. I had sewage backup into my basement. Am I covered? Answer: Homeowners Policy - The standard homeowners policy does not cover water damage due to the backup of sewer or sump pump. Many companies will sell additional coverage for this by a separate "endorsement" or addition to the basic policy. Commercial Property Policy - Most commercial property policies do not cover water damage due to the backup of sewer or sump pump. Coverage can be added, like a homeowners policy, by endorsement. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy provides coverage for sewer backup even if the flood water has not touched the house if there is a general condition of flooding in the area, the flood was the proximate cause of the sewer backup, damage occurs within 72 hours after the flood recedes, and the property is insured to 80 percent of its value. The policy is silent about sump pump coverage. Question: What coverage do I have if the flood water damages my home or building and its contents? Answer: Homeowner Policy - The standard homeowners policy does not cover water damage due to flood. Mobile Home Policy - Some mobile home policies do provide flood coverage; check with your agent or company. Commercial Property Policy - The standard commercial property policy does not cover water damage due to flood. However, some carriers have added limited coverage to their deluxe policies or added it to their other policies by "endorsement." National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy covers loss due to water damage resulting directly from flood. Question: What kind of coverage is available for water damage to my home or building and its contents as a direct result of seepage in the basement? Homeowner Policy - The standard homeowners policy does not cover water damage due to the seepage of water through the walls or floor of a basement. There is no endorsement available for this exposure. Commercial Property Policy - The standard commercial property policy does not cover water damage due to seepage. A few companies provide coverage by endorsement. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy provides coverage for seepage even if the flood water has not touched the house if there is a general condition of flooding in the area, the flood was the proximate cause of the seepage, damage occurs within 72 hours after the flood recedes, and the property is insured to 80 percent of its value. Question: I had to close my business because of the flood. Will insurance cover my lost income? Answer: Commercial Property Policy - Most commercial property policies will provide business income protection within the policy or by endorsement. The coverage only applies to a covered cause of loss. Therefore, if the policy provides flood coverage, the coverage also applies to business income. To learn if you are covered, check with your insurance agent or company. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy does not provide coverage for loss of use, loss of access, business interruption, additional expense or loss of profits. Question: I purchased "special coverage" for some of my personal property which was added to my homeowners policy (or tenants policy). Are these items covered for flood? Answer: Homeowner/Tenants Policy - The following types of personal property can be scheduled to be covered in a specific endorsement to the standard homeowner/tenants policy: jewelry, furs, computer, cameras, musical instruments, silverware, golf equipment, fine arts, postage stamps, rare and current coins. Check with your insurance agent of company. Question: Does my renters policy cover water damage caused by flood? Answer: No. The renters or tenants policy does not cover loss due to flood. Renters may purchase coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program or Write Your Own program. Question: I recently sustained fire damage on property that was flooded. Is there any coverage? Answer: Homeowner Policy - The standard homeowner policy excludes flood as a covered cause of loss; however, it specifically gives back coverage for fire, explosion, and theft in the event of flood. Commercial Property Policy - Most commercial property policies exclude flood as a covered cause of loss; however, it specifically gives back fire and explosion and in some cases theft or sprinkler leakage in the event of flood. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy does not provide coverage for fire or other named perils. Question: My vehicle was covered by the flood water. Will the damage be covered by my auto policy? Answer: The "comprehensive" section of the automobile policy provides coverage for damages due to flood. Question: I had to leave my home because of a mandatory flood evacuation. Are my additional living expenses covered? Answer: Homeowner Policy - The standard homeowner policy provides loss of use and additional living expenses, but only for any covered peril. Flood is not a covered peril; therefore, there is no coverage under the policy. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy does not provide coverage for loss of use or additional living expenses. Question: During the course of fighting the flood, someone drove their vehicle across my lawn causing damage. Is there any coverage? Answer: The standard homeowner policy provides an additional coverage for damage to the lawn caused by vehicles not owned or operated by a resident of the premises. The amount of coverage is generally five percent of the dwelling limits. Check with your insurance agent or company. Question: The power was shut off in my neighborhood and all the food in my refrigerator and freezer spoiled. Is there any coverage? Answer: Homeowner Policy - The standard homeowner policy does not cover food spoilage as a result of power failure off premises. Some comprehensive policies, however, have added a limited amount of coverage, i.e., $500, while other companies endorse the policy to cover food spoilage. Commercial Property Policy - Most commercial property policies do not cover food spoilage due to power failure. Most companies offer coverage through the use of an endorsement. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy does cover loss of refrigerated products but only if caused by flood and if the power and cooling equipment is situated on the premises. Question: When the flood waters receded, it left a large amount of debris on my property. Is their coverage for removal of this debris? Answer: Homeowner Policy - The standard homeowner policy provides a certain amount for debris removal, but only if covered peril causes the loss. Since flood is not a covered peril, there would be no coverage. Commercial Property - Most commercial property policies provide coverage for debris removal if a covered peril causes the loss. National Flood Policy - The National Flood Insurance policy covers insured debris removal anywhere and non-insured debris only if it is on the insured property. Uninsured debris on the insured's lawn would not be covered. Question: Are there any other types of losses and insurance coverages I should be aware of? Answer: Boats - Boats may be covered by a separate endorsement to a homeowners policy or by a separate boat owners policy. Livestock Losses - The farmowners policy may provide coverage for livestock on a blanket or schedule basis. Also, animal mortality policies provide coverage for drowning. Farm Equipment - Farm equipment is usually not covered, although some farmowners policies may provide some specific coverages. Question: Who can I call if I have more insurance coverage questions? Answer: You should first try to contact your local insurance agent or your insurance company for specifics about your policy. The North Carolina Department of Insurance is also available to help consumers with insurance related questions. You may call the Consumer Division at 800-546-5664 (toll free in N.C.) or locally at 919-807-6750. The National Flood Insurance Program will respond to questions about the federal flood insurance policy and claims. They can be reached by calling 800-427-4661. Question: If I have problems with my insurance company, agent, or adjuster, where can I turn? Answer: If you believe you are being treated unfairly, you may file a complaint with the North Carolina Department of Insurance. You may call the Department's Consumer Division at 800-546-5664 (toll free in N.C.) or locally at 919-807-6750 for assistance. Answer: Yes. Several public and private programs have been established to aid flood victims, both individuals and businesses. The best place to start is with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). You may call FEMA at 800-462-9029.

Grappling With the Inexact Science of Frequency-Based Retentions What rule do experienced risk managers use most often to select retention levels? Retain frequent losses. It is easy to see that the crux of this simple rule is what we define as "frequent," and how we do it. By observation of real-world decisions, we notice that the cutoff for frequent losses is usually based on an annual probability level of about one in 10, maybe down to one in 20 or so. In setting reasonable retentions, we attempt to "cut off" loss frequency based on a firm's loss characteristics only. Insuring losses that occur more frequently that this, we find we are using the fairly expensive mechanism of insurance, which must charge the long-run average cost of losses plus expenses to cover losses the firm could comfortably, and predictably, bear. Losses occurring less frequently, while still affordable, begin to impart a choppy variability to our overall cost of accidental loss. The management of a firm should be judged on operating results that are not subject to random variations due to accidents. Also, as losses get larger, insurer expenses may begin to seem like a reasonable cost for reducing variability. For example, at an annual probability of one in 50, for a loss of $100,000, the pure average, or expected value of loss, is $2,000. At an expense load of 30 percent of pure premium, our total premium is $2,600. The $600 starts to look attractive as a price to pay for added stability in earnings when we consider we have reduced the absolute variability of loss by 700 percent. Insuring a $7,000 loss with a probability of three in 10 results in roughly the same premium and load, but variability is reduced less than 200 percent. The word "frequent" also implies the rule of thumb is inexact. Due to the complexities of the situation, we can't specify any exact cutoff, based on any mathematical formulas or theories. In practice, we eyeball a reasonable retention level. The experienced risk manager formulates an intuition for this imprecise dividing line. As loss experience changes, so does the retention. There are also computer programs available that can help evaluate retentions based on the frequency concept. They are based on the concept of expert systems: computer programs that emulate the thought process of human experts in a field. It looks like our simple little rule really says a lot about the complex process of retention selection!

If we were to ask whether or not men and women are equal, the answer would be an unequivocal no. As much as feminism has made great strides towards ending inequality, there are still great gaps between the genders, which manifest themselves economically, socially and through violence. Because certain protections have been enshrined in law, there are those that believe that feminist organizing has reached the zenith of it achievement, however; what can be granted by law, can be taken by law. The issue with feminism is that by locating gender as the singular site of oppression in the lives of women, it ignores the ways in which class, sexuality, disability and race also form the basis of marginalization. In a piece written for the Sidney Herald, Georgina Ibister chose to state her defence of feminism: I'm not going to deny that the word feminism hasn't become problematic. But the reasons for this are predominantly superficial. (emphasis mine) The denial of feminist identification seems to be based not in resistance to feminism's goals of gender equality, but in the replication of outdated and exaggerated feminist stereotypes. Feminism today means working towards changing cultures of entrenched misogyny within universities and workplaces, pushing for maternity leave — which many women still cannot access — child-care availability and equal pay. Feminism is a tool that opens up avenues for gender liberation that allow us to move towards a fairer and more equal society. Equality in all realms of our lives is not just something that appears on the supermarket shelves as a commodity to buy. As a community we have a responsibility to strive for equal rights as well as ensure the continuation of the rights we have gained. Maintaining and building upon gender equality must be an ongoing process. (emphasis mine) Feminist concerns are at the heart of our everyday lives, in our relationships with partners, family, friends and colleagues. If we all managed to take into consideration the gender dynamics and possible inequalities present in our own lives and change them for the better, we would contribute to changing attitudes within society. Feminism offers all of us the opportunity to strive and hope for gender equality in all places, This is its core ideal, thus we must reclaim feminism. (emphasis mine) I suppose if you are white, able bodied, cisgender and straight, this little treatise would be inspiring, however; if even one of the above marginalizations marks your body as “other”, clearly Ibister’s vision of female solidarity is meant specifically to exclude your concerns. Feminism is not irrelevant because women have achieved equal rights, it is irrelevant because it routinely fails to consider and affirm that a monolithic woman does not exist. This is precisely the critique that WOC have routinely voiced regarding feminist organizing and feminist theory. Gender cannot be the only site of oppression because we all experience it differently. A White suburban mom and a disabled woman living alone are going to have very different issues. It is so readily evident and yet White able bodied, straight heterosexual women, continue to frame feminist organizing in a matter that best suits their needs and their desires. Feminism isn’t just about equality for these women; it is about gaining the ability to oppress in the same manner that White men have historically oppressed. The concerns of WOC, the differently abled, lesbians and trans women are not superficial. As marginalized women we face greater threats of violence, poverty, discrimination, etc., Only a person of extreme privilege could possibly trivialize these issues in this manner. When marginalized bodies enter feminist spaces our concerns are routinely ignored. Why does it have to always be about race, or I don’t like the word cisgender. In common everyday speech feminists who claim to care about women’s issues, will question why they have to stop using words like, lame, idiot, crazy or dumb as descriptors. It takes to much effort to be concerned about the needs of marginalized women, but let a man use the word bitch and the birkenstock brigade is armed and ready to do battle. How can marginalized women identify as feminists, when our concerns are ignored to preserve the privilege of a small group of women? Instead of diluting feminism to create a more inclusive space, we are called out for our betrayal. How can we not see the issues of gender disparity? Well, I got news for you lady, we live it ever damn day but we also know that our scars involve so much more than that. If these over privileged women want to hold onto their dear feminism, they need to expand the issues that feminism focuses on. Intersectionality cannot just be a tag word to get liberal credentials; it must make up the majority of feminist scholarship and organizing. Until we understand that the path to equality is multi-faceted, we are only normalizing certain bodies at the expense of others. I am not a feminist. I believe in the equal rights of women. I believe that we have a long journey ahead to fully dismantle the systemic role that patriarchy plays in the devaluation of women, however my identity involves more than my womanhood. I am Black and I am disabled. I will not privilege gender so that women who already exist with privilege can stand on my back as they break through a glass ceiling. Glass shards shall not cut my back like the sting of an overseer’s whip, so that I can become complicit in supporting this short sighted vagina solidarity.

Thai Cooking Courses Finding a cooking school Hotels And Resorts Where Cooking Classes Can Be Arranged Thai cooking as now enjoyed all over the world is a blend of Asian and European influences adopted through centuries of trade and diplomatic exchanges. Thais have traditionally lived close to the land and the waters, and original Thai cooking reflected that. Main ingredients were rice, fish, vegetable and herbs. Very little meat was used, and traditionally beef or buffalo meat was eschewed since the animals were the mainstays of farm life. Thais grilled, baked and stewed their food, until the Chinese introduced the techniques of cooking with hot oil. European merchants, diplomats and missionaries also contributed a lot to the cuisine, starting right after their arrivals in the 16th Century. And we all have the Portuguese to thank for introducing chilies to Thai kitchens. Curries and spices, on the other hand, were brought here by the Indians. Over the years Thai cooks have added their own ingenuity, substituting hard-to-find ingredients with what’s available locally and adapting the recipes to suit Thai palates. A Royal Treat Some cooking schools offer classes on this refined art, but if you don’t have the time or the inclination, you can opt for just a vegetable and fruit carving class. Most schools and restaurants offering cooking classes can arrange such a course, which can take anywhere from an afternoon to a whole week. After a few basic sessions and some practice at home, you should be able to wow your dinner guests with your new skills. A Thai Meal A Thai meal is traditionally a communal affair, with two or more people sharing several dishes, all served at the same time and eaten with steamed rice. The dishes are: Snacks and Hors d’oeuvres.These savory tidbits can be eaten alone or as side dishes. Traditional favorites include stuffed dumpling, satay, crisp-fried rice noodles topped with sweet-and-spicy sauce, and spring rolls. Creative presentation is a big part of Thai snack-making, and a professional cook worth his salt will strive to make them as much as feast for the eye as for the palate. Thai salads, called yam, are sour, sweet and salty. A simple dressing works equally well for meat, seafood, vegetable and fruit salads. This is made from fish sauce, lime juice and a dash of sugar. The heat comes from fiery little bird chilies, but just how hot a salad should be depends on the texture and flavor of the meat, vegetable or fruit used. Fresh herbs such as marsh mint, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and cilantro are usually used as garnish. Usually served with vegetables, meat or fish, chili dips are very versatile. A dip can be a main dish or side dish, added to a pan of fried rice to flavor it, or drizzled on chips to jazz them up. A cook can whip up a bowl of dip from chilies, garlic, onion and shrimp paste or whatever ingredient is available—dried or fermented fish, sour tamarind, dried shrimp, etc. Thai soups generally are very flavorful. Meat or vegetable is cooked in broth or coconut cream with a “soup base,” usually a blend of spices and herbs, which gives the soup its flavor. A soup is served not at first course but together with other dishes. This way you can wash down the fiery heat of the more spicy dishes with it. The heart of all Thai curries is the curry pastes, which, unlike Indian curry, are made from fresh herbs and spices. The paste is cooked in coconut cream before meat or vegetable is added. Main ingredients in most curries are chili, garlic, shallot, galangal, coriander root and krachai (a small brownish orange, indigenous root. Canned curry pastes are available at markets and grocery stores, but freshly-made pastes make more delicious curries. Fried rice or noodle dishes make quick, satisfying meals. You can improvise with different types of meat, vegetables and spices. When cooking the rice, use a little less water so it won’t become soggy when you fry it. Separate the noodles before adding it to the oil. Add the meat and sauce, then the rice or noodles, and stir frequently over high heat. Ideal for washing down the spices, Thai desserts are sweet but not intensely so. Banana or flour dumplings in sweetened coconut cream and season fruit in sugar syrup topped with crushed ice are some of the easy-to-make favorites. Thais also eat a lot of candied fruit-banana and breadfruit being two of the most popular--alone or topped with coconut cream. Setting Up a Thai Kitchen You need a few utensils to start. A wooden chopping block, a set of knives, a set of mortar and pestle (an electric blender will also do), a Chinese-style frying pan or wok, a soup pot and a brass pan for desserts should be enough for daily cooking and an occasional dinner party. Spoon and fork are the only cutlery you need. Thai cooks always have at hands dried chilies, garlic, shallot, shrimp paste, and a good bottle of fish sauce. Finding a cooking school There are a good number of cooking schools in Bangkok and the major provinces. Any hotel with a Thai restaurant can probably arrange a class for you. Some of the hotel-restaurant courses emphasize hands-on practice while others are “watch and eat” sessions. Some teach basic skills that will enable you to make your favorite dishes at home; others offer comprehensive training ideal for budding professional chefs. Usually the schools will let you choose the recipes, but a number have very specific curricula based on menus served at their restaurants. Cooking schools run by major hotels are on average more expensive, but meals are generally included. Some schools even offer sessions on how to select menu and order at restaurants. Schools in the provinces usually offer classes on regional specialties as well as national favorites, and there is no reason to limit yourself to just tom yam kung and phad Thai! We hope you will find one that suits your needs. Enjoy cooking! The Thai Cooking School at The Oriental Hotel Tel: (662) 437-6211, 437-2918 This legendary hotel on the bank of the Chao Phraya opened its own Thai cooking school on the other side of the river a few years back. The four-day cooking course, conducted in English, is mainly a “watch and learn” experience, with emphasis on demonstration by the chef-lecturers followed by some hands-on participation by students. Classes start off with some background on Thai cooking, followed by different cooking techniques and fruit and vegetable carving. Recipes are a blend of the traditional and the imaginative. Menu preparation and selection is included in the course, as well as how to order at Thai restaurants. Classes take place from 9 in the morning to noon, followed by lunch. Tuition is charged per class. Benjarong Cooking Class at the Dusit Thani At the corner of Silom and Rama IV Tel: (662) 236-6400, 236-7238 The Dusit Thani’s Benjarong Royal Thai Cuisine is one of the most sophisticated Thai restaurants in Bangkok. Its head chef runs the Benjarong Cooking Class every Saturday morning, from 9.30-12.30. Recipes are drawn from the restaurant’s menu and include snacks and appetizers, soup and salad, Meat Dishes and desserts. Benjarong Cooking Class offers a very hands-on experience, and the instruction emphasizes practicality and inventiveness. The complete course comprises 12 classes, and graduates will receive a certificate as well as recipe book in English. Nipa Restaurant at the Landmark Hotel Sukhumvit Road, between Sois 4&6 Tel: (662)254-0404 The restaurant offers a 7-day course designed to teach beginners all the basics of Thai cooking and enable them to prepare curries, soups, salads and other dishes that make up a Thai meal. The restaurant’s chefs lecture on ingredients and recipes, and then let students participate in the cooking and tasting. Nipa is famous for its authentic food, which has not been toned down to suit milder palates, and the course offers plenty of hands-on experience. Students will receive a recipe book in English or Japanese. Fruit and vegetable carving sessions can be arranged separately. UFM Baking & Cooking School Sukhumvit 33, Bangkok Tel: (662) 259-0620-3 UFM offers 10-day Thai cooking courses every other month. Classes take place from 8.30-noon daily, and recipes are a mix of the simple and the sophisticated, regional specialties and national favorites. Students will receive a companion book in English. Next course will start on May 10. Five-day vegetable carving courses are available on alternate months, the next one scheduled for April 19-23. Modern Women Institute Opposite Samsen train station, Bangkok Tel: (662) 279-2831, 279-2834 The Institute offers classes on Thai, Chinese and European cooking and bakery. The 9-day Thai cooking course, which is run on an ongoing basis, teaches all the basic techniques of a Thai kitchen. Fees are based on the number of recipes a student chooses. Vegetable and fruit carving lessons are available separately. Culinary Workshops at the Boathouse Patak Road, Kata Beach, Phuket Tel: (66-76) 330-015-7 Fax: (66-76) 330-561 Bangkok office: (662) 439-2312, 439-4740-4 The Boathouse’s Thai cooking classes, led by the resort’s executive chef, take place every Saturday and Sunday morning. Classes are very hands-on, with attendance limited to 10 persons to ensure participation by all. Recipes have been chosen for adaptability to Western kitchens. Classes are conducted in fluent English. Moon Muang Road, Chiang Mai Tel: (6653) 206-388 Fax: (66-53) 206-387 The school offers one- two- or three-day cooking classes in English. Recipes include Northern specialties, and students will get hands-on experience with kitchen tools. Classes include Northern-style lunch, where students will learn the etiquette of eating at the unique khantoke table. Hotels And Resorts Where Cooking Classes Can Be Arranged |Bangkok Center||Tel: (662) 238-4848 Fax: (662) 236-1862| |Best Western Jade Pavilion|| Tel: (662) 269-4676-89, 269-9270-9 | Fax: (662) 258-2328 |Central Plaza||Tel: (662) 541-1234 Fax: (662) 541-1087| |Century Park||Tel: (662) 246-7800-9 Fax: (662) 246-7197| |Classic Place||Tel: (662) 255-4444-9 Fax: (662) 255-4450| |Delta Grand Pacific||Tel: (662) 255-2440, 651-1000-99 Fax: 255-2441| |Embassy Suites Windsor Palace||Tel: (662) 258-0160-5 Fax: (662) 258-1522| |Felix Arnoma Swisshotel||Tel: (662) 255-3410 Fax: (662) 255-3456-8| |Grand Hyatt Erawan||Tel: (662) 254-1234 Fax: (662) 254-6308| |Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza||Tel: (66s) 238-4300 Fax: (662) 238-5289, 238-4950| |Imperial Impala||Tel: (662) 258-8612-6 Fax: (662) 258-8747| |Imperial Queen’s Park||Tel: (662) 261-9000 Fax: (662) 261-9530| |Indra Regent||Tel: (662) 208-0033 Fax: (662) 208-0388-9| |Mariott Royal Garden Riverside||Tel: (662) 476-0021-2 Fax: (662) 460-1805| |Mercure Bangkok||Tel: (662) 253-0510-41 Fax: (662) 253-0556| |Montien Riverside||Tel: (662) 292-2999, 292-2888 Fax: (662) 292-2962-4| |Prince Palace||Tel: (662) 628-1111 Fax: (662) 628-1000| |Rama Gardens||Tel: (662) 561-1022 Fax: (662) 561-1025| |Rembrandt||Tel: (662) 261-7100 Fax: (662) 261-7017| |Royal City||Tel: (662) 435-8888 Fax: (662) 434-3636| |Royal Princess||Tel: (662) 281-3088 Fax: (662) 280-1314| |Shangri-la Bangkok||Tel: (662) 236-7777 Fax: (662) 236-8579| |Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit||Tel: (662) 653-0033-8 Fax: (662) 653-0400| |Sol Twin Towers||Tel: (662) 216-9555 Fax: (662) 216-9544| Duaration: 09.30-16.00 hrs. |Chiangmai Mai Cookery|| Moonmuang Road(near Tha Pae gate), Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200. | Tel: (053) 206388 Duration:10.00-16.00 hrs., 09.30-14.30 hrs. |Chiang Mai Hills||Tel: (66-53) 210-030-4 Fax: (66-53) 210-035| |Chiang Mai Plaza||Tel: (66-53) 270-036-50| |The Empress Chiang Mai||Tel: (66-53) 272-467, 270-240-50 Fax: (66-53) 272-467| |Felix City Inn Hotel|| 154 Ratmanka Road, Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200. | Tel: (66-53) 270-710-6 Fax: (66-53) 270-709 |Holiday Inn Chiang Mai||Tel: (66-53) 220-100-19 Fax: (66-53) 221-602| |The Imperial Mae Ping||Tel: (66-53) 270-160-8| |Lotus Pang Suan Kaew||Tel: (66-53) 224-333, 224-444 Fax: (66-53) 224-493| |Novotel Chiang Mai||Tel: (66-53) 225-500-4 Fax: (66-53) 225-505| |Siam Thai Cookery School|| Soi 1 Loi Kroh Road, Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai, 50100. | Tel: (053) 271169 Duration: 09.30-22.00 hrs. |Sompet Thai Cookery School|| 4/5 Chaiyaphum Road, Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200. | Tel: (053) 280901, 408809 Duration: 09.30-15.00, 16.30-22.00, 09.30-17.00 hrs |Suriwong Zenith||Tel: (66-53) 270-051-7 Fax: (66-53) 270-063| |Thai Cookery School|| (Behind Montri Hotel) Soi 1 Ratchadumnern Road, | Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200. Tel: (053) 418970 Duration: 10.00-18.00, 14.00-18.00 hrs. |Imperial Golden Triangle Resort||Tel: (66-53) 777-001-4 Fax: (66-53) 777-005| |Le Meridien Baan Boran||Tel: (66-53) 784-084 Fax: (66-53) 784-090| |Wangcome||Tel: (66-53) 711-811 Fax: (66-53) 712-973| |A One the Royal Cruise||Tel: (66-38) 424-874-9 Fax: (66-38) 424-242| |Best Western Baiyoke||Tel: (66-38) 423-300-2 Fax: (662) 426-124| |Grand Jomtien Palace||Tel: (66-38) 231-405-8 Fax: (66-38) 231-404| |Pattaya Park Beach Resort||Tel: (66-38) 423-000-4 Fax: (66-38) 423-009| |Royal Cliff Beach Resort||Tel: (66-38) 250-421-40 Fax: (66-38) 250-511| |Royal Garden Resort||Tel: (66-38) 428-126-7 Fax: (66-38) 429-926| |Town in Town||Tel: (66-38) 420-281-90 Fax: (66-38) 426-351| |Weekender||Tel: (66-38) 428-720, 429-461 Fax (66-38) 429-461| |Welcome Jomtien Beach||Tel: (66-38) 232-701-15 Fax: (66-38) 232-716| |Woodlands Resort||Tel: (66-38) 421-707 Fax: (66-38) 425-663| |Baan Sukhothai||Tel: (66-76) 340-195 Fax: (66-76) 340-197| |Dusit Laguna||Tel: (66-76) 324-320-9 Fax: (66-76) 324-174| |Holiday Inn Resort||Tel: (66-76) 340-608-9 Fax: (66-76) 340-435| |Kamala Bay Terrace Resort||Tel: (66-76) 270-801 Fax: (66-76) 270-818| |Karon Villa||Tel: (66-76) 381-139-48| |Laguna Beach Club||Tel: (66-76) 324-352, 324-023-30 Fax: (66-76) 324-353| |Le Meridien Phuket||Tel: (66-76) 340-4380-5 Fax: (66-76) 340-479| |Pearl Village||Tel: (66-76) 311-379 Fax: (66-76) 327-338-9| |Phuket Island Resort||Tel: (66-76) 381-010-7 Fax: (66-76) 381-018| |Sheraton Grand Laguna||Tel: (66-76) 324-101-7 Fax: (66-76) 324-108| |Thavorn Beach Village||Tel: (66-76) 340-486 Fax: (66-76) 340-384| |Thavorn Palm Beach Resort||Tel: (66-76) 396-090-3, 396-552-4 Fax: (66-76) 396-555| Koh Samui, Surat Thani |Central Samui Beach Resort||Tel: (662) 230-5000 Fax: (66-77) 422-385| |Imperial Samui||Tel: (66-77) 422-020-36 Fax: (66-77) 422-396| |Poppies Samui||Tel: (66-77) 422-389 Fax: (66-77) 422-420| |Santiburi Dusit Resort||Tel: (66-77) 425-031-8 Fax: (66-77) 425-040| |Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts (SITCA)||Tel. (66-77) 413 - 172| |Phra Nang Inn||Tel/Fax: (66-75) 612-173-4|

As schools around the world begin another year of instruction, one school, near to completion in one of the most grief-stricken and resilient areas of occupied Palestine, has suffered a massive set-back because the Israeli military has carried away its infrastructure- the Vittorio Arrigone school, in the small village of Ras Al Auja Israeli soldiers confiscate and take away a donated caravan that was to serve as a classroom (Photo: Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign) in the Jordan Valley. The Arrigoni school, named after the Italian International Solidarity Movement activist killed in Gaza this April, began in February as a small tent school in the village of Ras Al Auja, and began evolving into a more permanent mud-brick and caravan structure in April. Built jointly by the Ras Al Auja community and the activist group Jordan Valley Solidarity, the school, once built, will educate young children up to the age of 13 in one of the areas of the West Bank hardest hit by the Israeli occupation. From the time that Israel seized control of the area in 1967 until the present, the resident Palestinian population has decreased from 320,000 residents to 56,000, as 36 primarily agricultural Israeli settlements, housing 6,400 settlers, have been constructed on 50% of the Jordan Valley’s land. Ras Al Auja is a Bedouin community seven km west of the larger community of Al Auja. Both serve as paradigmatic examples of the devastating impact of Israeli occupation on Bedouin in the Jordan Valley. Until Israel’s occupation, Al Auja was for millennia an oasis, famous for its ever-flowing spring. As it says on the website of Jordan Valley Solidarity, “people would come to Al Auja from all over to swim, fish and sit among the banana groves that once grew there.” In 1972, the Israeli water company Mekorot, which has monopolized the West Bank water, dug two deep water wells in Al Auja, cutting off the flow of water before it reached the village. “These wells lowered the water table, drying out the spring. Today the area is a desert, crossed with dried-up canals that see water one or two weeks every year during the rainy season.” As is commonplace for the larger West Bank Bedouin communities, families must use tractors and mobile water tanks to bring water to their homes and villages, at considerable personal expense. The estimated amount of water that one Palestinian in the Valley consumes per day, for drinking as well as all other activities, is some 70 litres. This is the amount of water it takes to flush a toilet. Jordan Valley settlers, on the other hand, enjoy free access to water and, from the comfort of their heavily subsidized, modern settlement homes, individually consume about 33 times as much water as their Palestinian neighbors in the Valley. To make matters worse, the families of Al Auja and Ras Al Auja, who settled there after expulsion from Beer Sheva during the 1948 Nakba, used to have “over 100 sheep or goats each, which they grazed on the mountains and watered at the spring”. Now, the settlements of Yitav, Niran and ‘Omer’s Farm’ have colonized the surrounding mountains, an army military checkpoint borders Ras Al Auja to the south, and two enormous settler-only water towers cast a grim shade over the dry Al Auja spring. ‘Omer’s Farm’, in particular, has stolen half the land of Ras Al Auja in the five years of its existence. It consists of a single family, on a hilltop, surrounded by stolen farmland, heavily guarded by the Israeli military. The men of Al Auja, according to Jordan Valley Solidarity, “are reduced to surviving by working in Israel’s illegal settlements, earning a pittance. The area feels like little more than a work camp, reminiscent of the townships of apartheid South Africa, with all the men away during the day in the settlements.” The Bedouin now work for settlers, to farm land that the latter stole from them. While they were previously self-sufficient farmers, the residents now wage-laborers making scarcely enough to get by. In March 2011, Jordan Valley Solidarity joined with community members to construct a school for children of the 130+ families of Ras Al Auja. Over the course of two weeks, volunteers sewed sack cloths together to construct a makeshift tent school, where women from the community began to teach 30 children, mostly aged between 5 and 8, a basic curriculum of math, English, Arabic, geography and history. It was vitally important to establish a school in Ras Al Auja, says Jordan Valley Solidarity coordinator, volunteer and driving force ‘Jane’, who has been involved with this project since its inception, because “if you don’t have education when you’re a small child, that means that when you go to school you’re behind already. Education is a basic human right. These people have a right to education in their community.” Before construction of this school, the children of Ras Al Auja were forced to walk 7 kilometres each morning to the school in al Auja. As the foot path trailed right next to two Israeli settlements, exposing children to regular physical and psychological settler harassment, many parents were wary of sending their young children to school. In addition, numerous fathers are off working in these very Israeli settlements, thus unavailable to assist their children in the mornings. Numerous children, therefore, were left without an education until later years. Today, because the new school in Ras Al Auja only educates children aged 7 to 13, those children over 13 lucky enough to continue their education still need to take this daily trek to the Al Auja Secondary School, where they can study for the Tawjihi (matriculation exams). Mossem Zubaidat, a volunteer with Jordan Valley Solidarity who also works with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, relates how “there is no transport to take them to the village, so they use their legs to go to school in summer and winter. It is hard for them to put the bag on their back and walk all the distance…We need to build the school because in Ras Al Auja the people live in boxes, not in houses, they live in tents! We are certain to build a school there, it is our land and we can build a school anywhere!” The Israeli army does not agree. The Area A, B and C zoning system was established for the West Bank after the 1993 Oslo Accords to designate areas of full Palestinian control, joint Palestinian civil and Israeli military control, and full Israeli control, respectively. Because 95% of the Jordan Valley, including al Auja and Ras al Auja, falls under Area C (50% because of Israeli settlements and 45% because of military training grounds and nature reserves), this means that almost nowhere in the Valley can the Bedouin build any permanent structure without requiring an Israeli permit, which is expensive to apply for and almost impossible to obtain. Between January 2000 and September 2007, Israel issued almost 5,000 demolition orders against Palestinian structures in the Jordan Valley. Of those, 1,663 demolitions were carried out – Israeli bulldozers tore down houses, schools, animal shelters and even entire villages. The stated purpose of Israel’s vise-like grip on ownership and control of the Valley is to hold a security buffer space between Israel and Jordan, necessary to defend the country; in reality, however, Israel covets the Valley because (1) the West Bank, which could serve as a future Palestinian state, is thereby surrounded on all sides by Israel; (2) the West Bank is thereby cut off from economic interaction and communication with Jordan, and the rest of the Middle East; and (3) in the words of the soon to be published Jordan Valley Solidarity factbook To Exist Is To Resist, the Jordan Valley’s “abundance of water resources, fertile soil and natural minerals offer competitive economic advantages in agriculture, industry and tourism. It also constitutes a geographical “reservoir” of land where the Palestinians could establish housing projects and public facilities.” Israel’s policy of constant settlement expansion, pervasive military checkpoints, destruction or closure of Palestinian roads (the last few years have seen 17 new roadblocks and 4 new checkpoints in the Jordan Valley), construction of Israeli-only bypass roads and physical intimidation, harassment, and outright demolition of Bedouin villages in Area C is evidence of a conscious attempt to gradually exterminate a Palestinian presence in the Jordan Valley, to cement Israeli control and solidify a long-term Israeli presence that remains illegal under international law. Jane explains the role of Jordan Valley Solidarity in resisting the Israeli occupation: “By supporting communities to construct infrastructure for basic services, we support them to stay in their communities, on their land- because the Israelis want them to leave the Jordan Valley, or to make them move into the 5% of the land which is in area A or B to create an Israeli state with Palestinian ghettoes.” The establishment of a school in Ras Al Auja, like countless other projects in the Valley, is not primarily a gesture of humanitarian aid, but rather a symbol of international solidarity. “The aim of lack of education is to drive people from their land. What that means is that the right to education for people is really important…as a basic human right, it’s not something that can be taken away from children…Therefore our motto is ‘to exist is to resist’, and the people in Ras Al Auja are existing and resisting just by being there, and being on their land is their resistance, so we support them in their resistance…together, [we are] using their own land that the people live on to create a fact on the ground to resist the Israeli occupation.” It was in this spirit of resistance that, in April, it was decided that a tent school, though an important first step, was too small and impermanent to meet the community’s needs. Accordingly, over 100 international volunteers and community members began constructing two permanent mud-brick classroom buildings. After the death of Italian International Solidarity Movement activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza that April, the Ras Al Auja community, which personally knows the vital role of international activism, requested to name the school Vittorio Arrigoni. From the Jordan Valley Solidarity website- “Vittorio was, and will remain, a great symbol of resistance. To give his name to one of our schools is an honour, and we will do our best to make this school another example of resistance against the occupation.” On 25 April 25t Luisa Morgantini, former Vice President of the European Parliament, Majed Al Fityani, Jericho Governor, 50 Italian volunteers, members of the local community, and Jordan Valley Solidarity volunteers laid the first brick of the Vittorio Solidarity school while singing ‘Bella Ciao’ and the Socialist International anthem. It is this spirit of resistance that the Israeli army is acting to suppress. During the month of Ramadan, the Ras Al Auja school joyously received a donation of two large caravans, which would serve as classrooms. Yet at 10.30 a.m. on 7 September, in Jane’s words, “the Israeli occupation force arrived and removed the caravans on lorries, leaving paperwork…they made all the village stay back and declared it was a closed military zone while they removed the caravans”. Jericho Governor Majed Al Fityani, who laid the first brick of the Vittorio Arrigoni school in April, said Wednesday afternoon that “we were surprised by the Israeli actions this morning, we were not expecting this from the Israelis. We are going to request an official answer from the Israelis for why they took the caravans…it is the duty of the government to provide education for the people. it is a question of providing services and facilities for the students, free of charge. It is very difficult to provide services because the school is in Area C, so it is impossible for us to build structures there.” The start of classes will be postponed until further accommodations are arranged for the students. In addition, a celebration and official announcement ceremony for the school, planned for September 15, will now be postponed. Nonetheless, the community of Ras Al Auja, along with Jordan Valley Solidarity, remains resilient in the face of this new obstacle. Explains Mossem Zubaidat, “its not the first school we built with Jordan Valley Solidarity. The first school was in Jiftlik, it started in tents, now it’s a building. The second school is in Fasayil. We built it from mud and soil and tents, and now it has become a building. So we have experience with the Israelis about these situations. We are sure that we are going to build that school again, and we must build that school for these people. We are going to talk to the media, we are going to talk to the Jericho Governorate, and we are going to talk to the community, to do something about it. The army says it is illegal, but we say it is legal, because it is Palestinian land!…We have to build the school because we need to stand with these people in their land, not to leave their land to the Israelis. We are going to fight to build that school again, we are not going to surrender!”

In the section "Mayfield's Ecosystem" it is unclear from where the numbers 12 and 150 come. Do you have more background on it, or a reference? Or indicate that these numbers come from Mayfield. o Yup. I should put them in. I don't know where 12 comes from, but 150 comes from "The Tipping Point" -- JoiIto o Yes. I agree. I should rewrite this the way you say. Hmm... Maybe I will do it when I finished doing some more study on direct democracy and include it in the paper at that time. These two paragraphs ARE a bit redundant... -- JoiIto The section "Trust" reminded me of the fact that nowhere do you say anything about the motivation for weblogging. You don't even say that you don't know why people do it. This could be important, because you need to explain why people weblog instead of joining political parties (or exhibit any other kind of organzied behaviour). Something about leveraging the tendency of people to chat, to gossip, the need to build a positive reputation, to gain trust (!), etc. -- AlexSchroeder o Good point. I personally find that blogging addictive, increases my social network and produces output of (questionable) value. There are MANY reasons that draw me into blogging which is why it is so addictive. The instant feedback of IM, the human networking and friendship/trust building, learning, having my ideas disseminate wide, getting feedback on my ideas, deal-flow... I guess one of the problems with this "paper" is that it is fairly flat and not written in first person so I do not have anywhere were I can be passionately personal about how I feel. Stylisticly, how do you recommend I insert this in the paper? Advice would be appreciated... -- JoiIto The connection between linking and trust is not clear either. I can certainly think of more motivations to link than trust, and I seriously doubt people link as a sign of support in most cases. Rather, I think it's more to do with interest, and interest isn't bound to trust. If anything, linking demonstrates popularity. While you had quietly argued that popularity equates to trustworthiness earlier in the essay when you argue for populism, that point is weak enough to demand a clearer path between linking and trust. -- SunirShah I agree Sunir. This is something we're trying to figure out right now... I think we can add attributes to links which is interesting, but is a bit clunky. Also, there is differentiating blogroll links from article links. I think there are a variety of types of trust being managed here. Trust that a link will be worth reading, trust that someone will be helpful, trust that someone is who they say they are, trust that a fact is true, etc. I think that creating a rich medium capable of allowing many types of trust to be develop is what we are looking for. Trust, to me is a kind glue that allows the network to create a context... -- JoiIto In regards to the linking/trust issue Sunir, I believe that in the SocialText wiki, there is an interesting discussion of creating the ability to give a negative value to a link, with the standard being a positive link. -- MarkDilley After thinking about it, a lot of linking has to do with negative criticism. Those can't be "trust" or "support" links. I think it's a mistake to ascribe emotional value to links. Links are just links; just structure. -- SunirShah 2.3 Blogs Reprivitization of Legislature? Now, I don't know if you are seriously advocating reprivitizing the legislature. I think what you are mainly getting at is the reorganization of the media, from one set of private hands to another set of private hands. This, I can hardly say is a bad thing, and I can definitely agree with you that weblogs have been frankly amazing in their abilities. However, as you know, large moneyed corporations are starting to pay attention, not to mention small moneyed corporations that have controlled the game from the beginning (e.g. DaveWiner). The question deserves to be asked, what can be done to ensure a diversity of ideas? And does this really mean we should reconsider EmergentDemocracy? -- SunirShah Good point. As you may know, I am a venture capitalist and have just made an investment in Six Across which produces Movable Type. I'm going to think about this point a bit more before I post more... -- JoiIto I think results from this study may challenge conventional wisdom on how trust and cooperation evolve within a culture. One of the main results being that levels of trust co-evolove with institutions and the complexity of economies. This suggests that trust and cooperation could be learned and that the feedback loop between economic behavior and quality of life is the driver. What did Marx say about the 'dialectic' ? To quote her directly "Even more counterintuitive to con-ventional economic theorizing, says Ensminger, is that the more involved a society is in a market economy—that is, working for wages, or raising something (crops or cattle) and selling it in order to live—the fairer people tend to be. Across 16 societies studied around the world, the United States is the most fair-minded reported to date, while hunter-gatherers are the least." Caltech page -- EduardoSciammarella Which came first? Do market economies encourage trust, for instance by the presence of a neutral regulator to promote fairness? Or do market economies require trust in order to emerge? Or, as suggested in the previous paragraph, do market economies and trust co-evolve under the influence of more complex supply chains and legal systems? -- KatherineDerbyshire I was just thinking about one way in which a more emergent democracy might really help. Campaign finance. The less people get their information from a few massive sources which can easily be manipulated with huge amounts of money, the less money will distort our political system. Unfortunately, there may possibly be another problem which has to be solved even more urgently, and I'm not sure how emergent democracy can do it. I wrote about it at [WWW]. I'll make that link more specific when blogger lets me. -- DavidWeisman I don't know to which article you are referring. Could you provide a date? Thanks -- BayleShanks I still feel that a much better way to curb the influence of money is to alot all parties a (small) budget to use for campaigns, plus the appropriate transparency requirements, and the option of sueing for competitors when fraud is suspected. The reason blogging and wiki are good sources of news at the moment is because the content cannot easily be manipulated by money. Other facts such as many people, feedback, independent publishing, etc., are just incidental. Already it is getting harder to even *find* interesting and trustworthy news communities. -- AlexSchroeder

The Columbia Business School-professor, makes the arguments in an updated edition of his book on the credit crunch, Freefall. In the new material, exclusively extracted in the Sunday Telegraph, he reveals his fears. “The different needs of countries with high trade surpluses, particularly Germany, and those running deficits such as Ireland, Portugal and Greece, meant that the single currency was under intense pressure and may not survive. He suggests that one way to save the euro would be for Germany to leave the eurozone, so allowing the currency to devalue and help struggling countries with exports. “Countries that share a currency have a fixed exchange rate with each other and thereby give up an important tool of adjustment,as long as there were no shocks, the euro would do fine. The test would come when one or more of the countries faced a downturn.” “In Asia, sales jumped 21% to $111.5 million and would have been up 17% excluding currency translations, with the growth led by China, Hong Kong, Macau and Korea. Comparable-store sales rose 7%. The company added its fourth store in Singapore and 12th in China during the quarter.” The latest Big Mac Idex from The Economist – Norway on top again – Go to article: Burgeronomics: When The Chips Are Down “What I’ve learned is that if you have a vision about where the world is going, and you manage to get into the trade at a good level, at the right size, and with the stop-loss in the right place, as long as the market continues to behave as I expected it to behave, then we keep the trade on.” Are currency traders shameless speculators or essential to the gears of capitalism? Read the story.

On Monday, I, just like many of you, was surprised to hear of a new rule being imposed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). March 11th marked the first day that the Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) rule was to take effect. Although the rule has been in the works for well over a year at the federal level, the notification and implementation of the rule was mainly left to the individual state departments of agriculture. Needless to say, notification from the Missouri Department of Agriculture was practically nonexistent. The final rule requires that livestock moved interstate must be officially identified and accompanied by an interstate certificate of veterinary inspection or other documentation, such as owner-shipper statements or brand certificates. Specifically, official identification is required for the following cattle and bison: all sexually intact cattle and bison 18 months of age or over; all female dairy cattle of any age and all fairy males born after March 11, 2013; cattle and bison of any age used for rodeo or recreational events; cattle and bison of any age used for shows or exhibitions. Currently, Missouri requirements for beef and dairy cattle moving into the state from other states and beef cattle moving within the state already meet or exceed the new Federal requirements and thus require no changes. However, dairy cattle moving within the state are currently not tagged in a manner that meets the new Federal requirements. After finding out about the new rules, myself along with several other State Representatives and Senators contacted the Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture to try and find out why notification of the changes had been so poorly handled. Over the past two months I have personally been to the Department of Agriculture for meetings and the ADT was never mentioned. The inquiry led to a whirlwind of meetings and discussion throughout Monday and Tuesday. Although the meetings produced few answers about the lack of communication, it did lead to gains in the area of implementation. The Director agreed to establish the Animal Disease Traceability Education Committee to help find the simplest and common sense manner to help cattle farmers and sale barn owners meet the demands of the new act while not hindering the livelihood of an industry that is vital to the economy of our state. Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) Education Committee: John Bryan – Missouri Poultry Federation Lyle Caselman – Buffalo Livestock Market, LLC Dave Drennan – Missouri Dairy Association Tom Kissee – Springfield Livestock Market Jimmie Long – Missouri Livestock Order Buyer Rose Massengill – U.S. Department of Agriculture Jim McCann – Missouri Cattlemen’s Association Don Nikodim – Missouri Pork Association Kristen Parman – Livestock Marketing Association David Patton – South Central Regional Stockyards Craig Payne, DVM – University of Missouri Extension It is important to ensure that our food supply is safe to consume. However, bureaucrats with good intentions in Washington, far separated from the farmlands of America, often impede on the ability of America’s farmers to do what they do best; farm. Hopefully, the committee members can help provide for a smooth transition as we determine the best path forward. Moreover, I hope that in the future the line of communication between the Department of Ag and Missouri’s farmers will be a little more open then it was this time around.

Aid Projects, Energy Systems — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 15, 2012 Lighting in much of the ‘developing’ world is provided via expensive and polluting kerosene. Kerosene lamps are dangerous, require constant replenishment, and come with significant negative health impacts. So, for the potential benefit of millions of people, London based designers, Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, have spent four years working on an inexpensive, safe and health-neutral alternative — a gravity powered LED light! It’s clever, and well intentioned. Nice! Martin and Jim initially looked at creating a light that would be powered by solar, as would most of us. But the idea of utilising gravity took hold of them — where the end user can do away with the need for expensive solar panels and batteries, which use a lot of resources in their manufacture — and the gravity light was born. The gravity light will work whether it’s day or night, sunny or cloudy. Energy Systems, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Tim Barker November 23, 2012 by Tim Barker The basic unit, minus the rocket stove and piping In my last post, I showed a picture of a wood powered water heater, so now we’ll roll up our sleeves and get into how this was designed. But first a warning! Boiling water is easy to do, but boiling water in a closed container and not blowing yourself up is much trickier — in fact I’ve heard it said that there is the equivalent of a stick of dynamite in 500 grams of boiling water! So if you blow yourself up, be it on your own head. Having said that, I have spent a fair bit of time creating a design that is simple to build, safe and efficient.Comments (16) So where does the ‘appropriate’ in ‘Appropriate Technology’ come from? To me, it is technology that ‘fits’ well into a place or setting. You’re not further enlightened? Okay, I’ll make some generalizations and go from there. For the ‘technology’ part, I like W. Brian Arthur’s definition, whereby technology is the capture or use of a phenomena for a specific purpose. So this could be everything from construction of a compost pile (consciously promoting the action of bacteria to break down organic matter for whatever reason) to a system of community governance. The ‘appropriate’ comes in when you recognise that some ways of developing local communities resonate better with human behavior than others — say, community land trusts as opposed to landlord/tenant arrangements. The appropriate part is generally covered by the following: - it is human centered and human scaled - it is easily replicable and understandable - it focuses on locally available resources - it tends to be labour intensive but energy efficient. Energy Systems — by Earth Policy Institute November 9, 2012 by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute In the race to transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy and avoid runaway climate change, wind has opened a wide lead on both solar and geothermal energy. Solar panels, with a capacity totaling 70,000 megawatts, and geothermal power plants, with a capacity of some 11,000 megawatts, are generating electricity around the world. The total capacity for the world’s wind farms, now generating power in about 80 countries, is near 240,000 megawatts. China and the United States are in the lead. Over the past decade, world wind electric generating capacity grew at nearly 30 percent per year, its increase driven by its many attractive features and by public policies supporting its expansion. Wind is abundant, carbon-free and nondepletable. It uses no water, no fuel, and little land. Wind is also locally available, scales up easily, and can be brought online quickly. No other energy source can match this combination of features.Comments (2) by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about pollution and climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced with an economy powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The Earth’s renewable energy resources are vast and available to be tapped through visionary initiatives. Our civilization needs to embrace renewable energy on a scale and at a pace we’ve never seen before. We inherited our current fossil fuel based world energy economy from another era. The 19th century was the century of coal, and oil took the lead during the 20th century. Today, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the principal climate-altering greenhouse gas—come largely from burning coal, oil, and natural gas. Coal, mainly used for electricity generation, accounts for 44 percent of global fossil-fuel CO2 emissions. Oil, used primarily for transportation, accounts for 36 percent. Natural gas, used for electricity and heating, accounts for the remaining 20 percent. It is time to design a carbon- and pollution-free energy economy for the 21st century.Comments (0) The first post on the rocket oven left many with more questions than they started with so this is a follow up to cover some aspects in more detail. It would probably help to re read the first article and my replies to comments as I’m just going to forge ahead with more detail on the design. On my first design I was prepared, even expecting, to have to modify things to get it to work properly. One fundamental question I had was how small the rocket oven cross section could be and still do the job. I consciously made the decision to start with the smallest cross section I thought would work which just happened to coincide with some square section of steel I had lying around. This was 90 mm square (3.5 inches). The plan was then to work my way up in size as needed. It’s a good idea and simplifies construction if you keep the cross section constant all the way through the rocket stove part of the design (feed tube, burn tunnel, heat riser) — this reduces turbulence and restrictions where you don’t want them.Comments (9) The "MEGGA-watt" Project (Micro-Energy Generating Garage Assembly) is a demonstration / prototype to turn everyday detached garages from simple storage units (aka ‘car-holes’) into food-growing and energy-generating systems using permaculture design. The basic concept is to partner a garage with an attached greenhouse and renewable energy to create sustainable 4-season growing systems with minimal fossil fuel input that serves both practical and recreational purposes. Owners of a MEGGA can then customize how they want the system to function — what they want to grow and how they want to grow it.Comments (1) Energy Systems, Processing & Food Preservation — by Samuel Alexander October 24, 2012 by Dr Samuel Alexander, co-director of the Simplicity Institute and a lecturer with the Office for Environmental Programs, University of Melbourne. I was at the salvage yard the other day and saw some cheap mirrors, so I bought them. Not so that I could look at myself. From my typical appearance it is clear that I do not do that nearly as often as I should. Rather, I thought I could use them to make a good solar oven, and it turned out I could. As you will see from the pictures, a solar oven works by concentrating the sun’s rays toward a central tub which heats up and thus functions as an oven. My solar oven consists of four mirrors, two cardboard sheets which I covered with tin foil, a black tub (a good colour for heat absorption), and the glass from a picture frame. Within the tub I placed a closed cooking pot with a glass lid. Total cost of these salvaged materials: $38.Comments (4) Energy Systems — by Kim Hayes October 18, 2012 13-year old Aidan Dwyer designed a more efficient model for solar power by studying Fibonacci sequences. Today, he divides his time between junior high and collaborations with research organizations like the University of Madison’s Resilience Research Center. – YouTube Energy Systems — by Tim Barker October 16, 2012 We’re using this awesome rocket stove powered wall oven for all the catering here at Koanga — it gets daily use and we’re loving it! The amount of wood required is minimal, a tiny fraction of what a regular wood fired stove would use. by Tim Barker During our last workshop at the Koanga Institute, we built a rocket stove. Our design brief was very specific in that the stove had to be practical, easy to use and long lasting, whereas what is being built by most backyard experimenters like myself, while being fun to make and muck around with, are more along the lines of ‘camp stoves’ built from tin cans that quickly disintegrate with use. Another consideration which I felt was important was that most rocket stoves are just that – stoves, as in place a pot on top and boil something. What I envisaged was not a rocket stove but a rocket oven. This is a concept I had originally developed nearly three years ago when living in a small two room shack. It had a camping gas burner but no oven. Missing those things that only an oven can provide is a great motivator. Of course, due to my previous work making rocket stove powered water heaters (a subject we’ll get to at a later date), it was always going to be rocket powered. The hard part, or so I thought, was making an oven chamber that was insulated, had racks and a fitting door. Plus, it had to look good. It was then that I realised I had described an electric or gas oven. From there, the rest was easy. A quick trip to the local scrap merchant secured an old bench top unit where the hot plates are beside the oven. Cost: $20.Comments (8) Olive trees stand the test of time in Palestine All images © Christopher List Photography It was a brisk, rather harried morning when my husband, photographer Christopher List, and I set off on a trip to delve deeper into the relatively unheard of phenomenon of permaculture. It felt like only yesterday when we’d announced to friends and family that were were going to Palestine, to study a 14-day intensive permaculture course. After discovering some of the principles of permaculture on a recent trip to SA, I knew we were in for a gruelling, yet worthwhile experience.Comments (4) Energy Systems — by Earth Policy Institute August 22, 2012 J. Matthew Roney, Earth Policy Institute Wind power is the world’s leading source of renewable electricity, excluding hydropower, with 238,000 megawatts of capacity installed at the start of 2012. Thus far, almost all of this wind power has been tapped on land; worldwide just 4,600 megawatts of offshore wind farms were operating as of mid-2012. Offshore wind capacity is growing quickly, however, expanding nearly six-fold since 2006. Twelve countries now have wind turbines spinning offshore, and more will be joining them to take advantage of the powerful winds blowing over the oceans. Report on Implementation Activities in Konso Secondary and Jarso Primary Schools in July 2012 (Ethiopia) Aid Projects, Community Projects, Compost, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Food Forests, Irrigation, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, Rehabilitation, Retrofitting, Seeds, Swales, Trees, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by Alex McCausland August 17, 2012 In May 2012 we ran a PDC at Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge on which we trained four local teachers, along with other participants, two from each of two local schools in Konso, South Ethiopia, where we are based. The selected teachers from the two schools, Konso Secondary and Jarso Primary, are science teachers responsible for the schools’ environmental clubs. During the training they produced permaculture designs for their school compounds, which they have gone on to begin implementing with their school communities.Comments (2) Building, Energy Systems, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Keveen Gabet August 10, 2012 StrawJet has developed a unique process in response to agricultural waste around the world.

If surveys of Occupy Wall Street supporters conducted in the fall still hold true, the crowds of protesters expected to turn out Tuesday for May Day events across the country will likely skew male, young, white, college-educated, underpaid and thoroughly disgusted with the U.S. political system. But the crowds may also be notably heavy on another demographic cohort: notebook-wielding social scientists hoping to get a more precise understanding of the nebulously organized individuals marching under the banner “We are the 99 percent.” Academics across the country have embraced the movement since it emerged in September, organizing classes, publishing reams of commentary and issuing calls to “occupy” not just Wall Street but also sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy or the entire “academic vampire squid” itself, as a poster for a session at the recent annual meeting of the International Studies Association put it. A smaller number have also been turning to a more difficult task: turning a sprawling movement into hard — and publishable — data. “This thing just erupted so quickly,” said Alex S. Vitale, a sociologist at Brooklyn College who studies the policing of demonstrations. “It’s almost overwhelming to deal with all the information that’s out there.” Vitale is finishing a 10-city study of interactions between protesters and the police since fall, which he said showed a lack of overall “militarization” in police response in major cities. (New York is an exception, said Vitale, who organized a demonstration against police tactics in Zuccotti Park in the fall but said he did not consider himself part of the Occupy movement.) Other researchers are doing ethnographic studies, crunching survey data, recording oral histories and analyzing media by and about the movement, all at lightning speed compared with the usual pace of scholarship. “Academics are used to taking forever, but we don’t have to,” said Theda Skocpol, a sociologist at Harvard and author, with Vanessa Williamson, of “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism,” a study of Occupy’s right-wing counterpart published in January. That book, which combines in-depth interviews with quantitative analysis of the Tea Party movement, is a model for the kind of ambitious work that could emerge in studies of the Occupy movement, some social scientists say. But getting a handle on Occupy, with its amorphous structure and aims, could be more challenging, Skocpol said. “The Tea Party from the beginning saw themselves as leveraging and changing the Republican Party, while the Occupy people are much more ambivalent,” she said. “That makes them harder to pin down.” Some researchers also say that the sympathy many academics feel for the movement risks undermining objective research. Edward Maguire, a criminologist at American University who is leading a study of attitudes toward the police and the law among Occupy protesters in six cities, cited an incident in which one research assistant at a demonstration in Washington in March “handed in her ID, turned in her clipboard and within minutes got arrested.” “Part of where our research is heading is making recommendations to police departments,” he said. “When they look at our research, I want them to trust it. Having people involved in the movement wouldn’t work for us.” Yet scholars in disciplines with a long tradition of participant-observer research say that direct involvement can offer a better understanding of a movement’s internal dynamics. “Everybody I know doing this is an activist of some sort,” said Jeffrey Juris, an associate professor of anthropology at Northeastern University who is organizing strategy workshops for Occupy Boston while also studying it. “But Occupy is so open and broad-based, it doesn’t take much to consider yourself an activist.” Juris and other activist scholars started an online clearinghouse called Occupy Research in the fall to share research methods, tools and data sets. So far the network has hosted two “hackathons” using data gathered on the site as well as facilitated collaborative research like an accounting of Occupy encampments worldwide and analyses of Occupy-related Twitter posts. But that kind of research, however valuable, is “low-hanging fruit,” said Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology and communications at Columbia and the author of “Occupy Nation,” a sympathetic account of the movement published this week as an e-book. The most pressing unanswered question, he said, doesn’t concern Occupy’s activist core but the nature of what he called “the outer movement,” those people who may have showed up for big marches but don’t attend general assemblies or other meetings. “They are the political means by which the movement grows,” Gitlin said. “And there are a lot more of them.” In the fall, the organizers in New York asked Hector Cordero-Guzman, a sociologist at Baruch College, to devise an online survey, which was then posted at occupywallst.org. The first wave of results, published in October, is widely credited with cementing the picture of the movement as representing what Cordero-Guzman, in an interview, called “a decent cross-section of the population.” “This wasn’t just young single people with nothing to do at age 22,” he said. “These were people who had done all the right things and things weren’t working out for them so well.” Many scholars, however, question the value of Internet surveys, which can skew toward respondents who are more committed and more comfortable with technology. “I think it’s terrific that he did it, and did it so quickly,” said Ruth Milkman, a sociologist at the Graduate Center of the City University of New Yorkwho is planning a randomized survey of Occupy participants. “But it’s not representative. No one quite knows who is excluded.”

The White House to Kremlin “Hotline” On August 30, 1963, The Kennedy White House announced the creation of a teletype “Hotline” between the Kremlin and the White House. The Hotline was established in the aftermath to the Cuban Missile Crisis - to be used only in an emergency to ensure clear communication between the President and the Soviet Premier. The White House Hotline teletype machine was used for the first time for communication between President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexsei Kosygin during the Six Day War in the Middle East. These days, the Hotline machine is on exhibit at the LBJ Library & Museum.

Minerva Family History Minerva Surname History This Minerva history and genealogy page contains the accumulated history of the Minerva surname made up of user-contributed content from users like you. The Minerva family is an old family line that has spread all across the world for many generations, and as the name Minerva has spread, it has evolved making its origin challenging to uncover. Minerva family history has a rich and complex origin whose details are beginning to be understood by Minerva family researchers. The evolution of Minerva starts with the origins of thefamily name. Even in the early generations of a name there have been changes in that name simply because surnames were infrequently written down at that stage in history. It was common for a family name to change as it enters a new country or language. Minerva family members have travelled around different countries all throughout history. As these families emigrated between countries and languages, the Minerva name may have changed with them. Minerva country of origin No content has been submitted about the Minerva country of origin. The following is speculative information about Minerva. You can submit your information by clicking Edit. The nationality of Minerva may be complicated to determine in cases which countries change over time, making the original nationality a mystery. The original ethnicity of Minerva may be difficult to determine as result of whether the family name originated naturally and independently in multiple locales; for example, in the case of surnames that are based on professions, which can crop up in multiple places independently (such as the family name "Miller" which referred to the profession of working in a mill). Meaning of the last name Minerva No content has been submitted about the meaning of Minerva. The following is speculative information about Minerva. You can submit your information by clicking Edit. The meaning of Minerva come may come from a craft, such as the name "Fisher" which was given to fishermen. Some of these trade-based family names can be a profession in a different language. This is why it is essential to know the country of origin of a name, and the languages used by its family members. Many names like Minerva originate from religious texts such as the Bhagavadgītā, the Bible, the Quran, and so on. Often these family names relate to a religious phrase such as "Grace of God". - Eunetia Minerva Eno 1824 - 1915 - Mary Minerva Young 1846 - 1851 - Helen Minerva Wardner Evarts 1820 - 1903 - Susanna Minerva Murdock 1827 - ? - Sarah Minerva Ellis 1841 - ? - Stacy Minerva Douthit 1805 - 1885 - Lydia Minerva Hanchett 1811 - ? - Sarah Minerva Shaw 1847 - 1924 - Nancy Minerva Ellsworth 1846 - 1938 - Sarah Minerva Duke 1829 - 1913 - Frances Minerva Deuel 1882 - 1956 - Winnie Minerva Johnson 1887 - ? - Sarah Minerva Sagers 1809 - 1851 - Lydia Minerva Sperry 1823 - ? - Elizabeth Minerva Lindley - Elizabeth Minerva Johnston 1816 - 1894 - Amanda Minerva West - Cora Minerva Tomb-Morton - Caroline Minerva Gillette 1866 - ? - Mary Minerva Von bunte 1876 - 1918 Minerva Family Tree Famous people named Minerva No famous people named Minerva have been submitted. You can submit your information by clicking Edit. Nationality and Ethnicity of Minerva No content has been submitted about the ethnicity of Minerva. The following is speculative information about Minerva. You can submit your information by clicking Edit. We do not have a record of the primary ethnicity of the name Minerva. Many surnames travel around the world throughout the ages, making their original nationality and ethnicity difficult to trace.

Western Flower Thrip Over the past 30 years, western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, has become one of the most important agricultural pests worldwide. It is arguably the most studied thrips in the world today. The increasing importance of western flower thrips is clearly reflected by the increasing number of publications on this species relative to the proportion of publications on all Thysanoptera. There are over 5,000 species of thrips, yet western flower thrips alone has accounted for one third of the publications on all Thysanoptera in the past 30 odd years. This increasing interest in western flower thrips is a result of its significance as an agricultural pest, which raises the question of what has enabled it to become such a pest. Its pest status can be attributed to several factors, including its reproductive potential, invasiveness, range of host crops, ability to transmit plant viruses, and insecticide resistance. All of these factors are interrelated, and all are related to the basic life cycle and life history strategy of the species. This review addresses the biological and ecological attributes of western flower thrips that have enabled it to become a significant, difficult to manage pest. Many other species of Thripidae share these attributes of western flower thrips and therefore could emerge as significant pests. Biology of Western Flower Thrips The general life cycle of western flower thrips is similar to that of other species in the family Thripidae, consisting of an egg, 2 active feeding larval instars, and the adult. Adults and larvae aggregate in flowers or other concealed areas on plants, such as developing fruits, foliage, and floral buds. This preference for residing in tightly enclosed and concealed spaces of plants is termed thigmotactic behavior. Females have a saw-like ovipositor, which they use to deposit eggs into leaves, petioles, flower bracts and petals, and developing fruit. Sex determination in the western flower thrips is through haplodiploidy. The haploid males are produced from unfertilized eggs, whereas the diploid females are produced from fertilized eggs (arrhenotoky). Although sex ratios of adults from field samples are often biased towards 1 sex or the other, mated females do not appear to allocate the sex of their progeny. Therefore, biases found in those adult sex ratios are likely a function of differences between the sexes in their dispersal, distribution in response to host quality, and longevity. Development is temperature and host dependent but can be quite rapid, allowing multiple generations to occur in a single cropping season. Western flower thrips does not have an obligatory developmental or reproductive diapause. Therefore, development occurs whenever temperatures exceed a minimum threshold of 8-10°C. At the most favorable temperatures of 25-30°C, egg to adult development time can be as brief as 9-13 days. The duration of the egg stage is relatively long, with hatching in 2-4 days at optimal temperatures. The first stadium is typically about half the length of the second, after which feeding stops and pupation begins. Thrips often drop to the soil to pupate, but significant numbers can remain on host plants, especially if hosts have complex floral architecture. The first pupal instar is termed the propupa, a non-feeding stage that is followed by the pupa, another non-feeding pupal stage. Winged adults then emerge from the pupal stage in 1-3 days. Under laboratory conditions, adult lifespan is relatively long compared with immature development time. For example, at 28°C, median egg to adult development time is 12 days, whereas median longevity for females is 26 days, with some females living up to 5 weeks. The relevance of these data to actual longevity in the field is unclear, but overlapping, continuous generations are likely to occur in the field. Although determining longevity in the field is problematic with such small vagile insects, mark-recapture studies indicate that adults can survive for over 5 days following release in pepper and tomato plantings. Western flower thrips feed by piercing plant cells with their mouthparts and sucking out the contents. Adults and larvae feed in a similar manner, so both stages contribute to plant damage. Individuals tend to feed in localized areas,.Western flower thrips also feeds on pollen which can stimulate oviposition, reduce larval development time, and increase female fecundity. Although primarily phytophagous, adults and larvae will prey on spider mite eggs. Western flower thrips fits the classic definition of an r-selected species. All studies of reproduction in western flower thrips have reported high fecundity for females. After an initial preoviposition period, a female can oviposit throughout her lifetime. With optimal temperatures and diets, females can produce up to 7 progeny per day and have average total lifetime fecundities exceeding 200 per female. This high level of fecundity leads to high intrinsic rates of population increase, so uncontrolled populations can multiply rapidly. One of the most important aspects of western flower thrips biology is its polyphagy. This species is known to feed on over 250 different crop plants from more than 60 plant families. In addition, it occurs on many uncultivated plants. However, it is critical to distinguish between plant species that support successful reproduction and those on which adults feed but do not support successful breeding populations. found that the range of adult feeding hosts emphasizing the need to look beyond static records of plant associations to understand the ecology and population dynamics of western flower thrips. To avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations, it is clear that the “host plant” must be applied in the proper context. Because of its polyphagous feeding and breeding behavior, western flower thrips is exposed to a broad diversity of plant allelochemicals. Therefore, it must be able to metabolizea broad range of allelochemicals, as well as produce inducible enzymes in response to specific compounds. Unfortunately, there is little basic ecophysiology information on the response of western flower thrips to host plant chemistry. Based on pesticide resistance studies, western flower thrips has various metabolic detoxification enzyme systems that could help it to overcome secondary plant defenses. Chief among these systems are cytochrome P-450 monooxygenases, esterases, and glutathione S-transferases. Apparently, this generalist herbivore has many allelochemical- metabolizing genes to enable it to cope with the diversity of allelochemicals that it is likely to encounter. Western Flower Thrips as a Pest Beginning in the late 1970s, western flower thrips began to spread widely from its native range in western North America. The exact cause for its spread is uncertain but increased global trade in floricultural and horticultural products has been implicated. A highly insecticide resistant strain originated in California as a result of intensive insecticide use greenhouse crops in the 1970s and 1980s. Western flower thrips is now established throughout North America, and many countries of Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia. Whereas human assisted movement is undoubtedly responsible for many of the introductions of western flower thrips to new geographic areas, this species is also able to spread by other means within new areas. Thrips can move long distances on wind currents. Spread is further enhanced by polyphagy and the ability of small founder populations to succeed. Several biological factors make western flower thrips an ideal invasive species to be spread by human activity. The small size and thigmotactic behavior of larvae and adults make detection difficult. In addition, because eggs are deposited within plant tissue, they are even less readily detected, and are less susceptible to fumigation than are other life stages. The polyphagous nature of western flower thrips increases the number of crops on which it may be exported from a country, and then enhances the probability of introduced individuals finding suitable hosts in new areas. The high fecundity of females makes it possible for small founder populations to become established and grow rapidly. Further, the haplodiploid sex determination leads to strong selection against deleterious alleles in the haploid males. Consequently, some small founder populations may readily adapt to new environments and be relatively resistant to the detrimental effects of inbreeding. Also, because of their potentially long adult lifespan, rapid immature development rate, and haplodiploid sex determination, unmated founder females could produce male progeny initially and survive long enough to mate with those males, thus making introduced populations as small as one potentially viable. The sheer number of crops that western flower thrips attacks is awesome. It is a significant pest of virtually all crops, including fruiting vegetables, leafy vegetables, ornamentals, tree fruits, small fruits, and cotton. The range of crops damaged by western flower thrips is simply a reflection of its inherent polyphagy. Direct crop damage results from both feeding and oviposition. In addition, high fecundity and reproduction on a broad range of hosts enables large numbers to disperse into crop fields from many sources. Consequently, attempting to manage the sources of thrips is virtually impossible. In many floral and horticultural crops, western flower thrips populations are virtually guaranteed to exceed the low to non-existent damage thresholds. Adult and larval feeding causes considerable aesthetic damage to ornamental and fruiting crops. Because of their thigmotactic behavior, feeding damage is often inflicted on developing tissue, which then goes undetected until flowers or fruit mature. Not all crops damaged by western flower thrips are reproductive hosts for the species. Those that only serve as adult feeding hosts, for example tomato, can still be adversely affected by adult feeding. Further complicating management, western flower thrips feeding damage can be confused with damage caused by other pests or disease. Such incorrect diagnoses may result from the small size and cryptichabits of western flower thrips and the fact that damage is not immediately apparent and associated with the causal organism.Female oviposition causes another type of damage to developing fruits. Females insert eggs under plant epidermis with their saw-like ovipositor. This wounding elicits a physiological wound response in some plants that produces spotting on fruits. Perhaps the most important problem with insecticideuse is the ability of western flower thrips to develop resistance to insecticides. The first reported insecticide failure against western flower thrips was in 1961 and, since then, there have been numerous documented cases of resistance to most classes of insecticides around the world. The extensive resistance found in a California greenhouse populations has been implicated as a contributing factor in the worldwide spread of western flower thrips. The polyphagous nature of western flower thrips plays a key role in its ability to develop resistance to insecticides. Because it is a pest of many crops, populations are often under constant insecticide pressure, which increases selection for resistance. Enclosed greenhouse environments also place populations under intense selection for resistance because they provide constant exposure to insecticides and limit immigration of susceptible individuals. The haplodiploid sex determination system in western flower thrips greatly accelerates the evolution of insecticide resistance. In haplodiploid species, resistance genes are exposed to selection from the outset in haploid males, regardless of whether resistance alleles are dominant or recessive. Thus, resistance alleles can become fixed much more rapidly than if western flower thrips were diploid. Not only can western flower thrips evolve resistance rapidly, resistance can persist over many generations in the absence of selection . Even more troubling for resistance management programs is recent evidence that resistance to certain insecticides does not come with a fitness cost to western flower thrips. Consequently, resistance could evolve faster and be maintained in populations longer, which would greatly affect the development and viability of insecticide rotation schemes and resistance management programs. As a polyphagous herbivore, western flower thrips has evolved numerous metabolic detoxification pathways to contend with diverse plant allelochemicals that it encounters. These versatile enzymatic systems predispose it to be able to metabolize many insecticides and often confer crossresistance to other insecticides Western flower thrips is clearly a formidable pest because of the range of crops it attacks throughout the world, the ever increasing amount of damage caused by its feeding, oviposition and virus transmission, and the propensity with which it develops insecticide resistance. While much has been learned about this species and how to manage it, there is a clear need to continue development of more economically and environmentally sustainable management strategies for this devastating pest. To better manage this species, a greater understanding is needed of its biological and ecological attributes especially its biology, ecology and population dynamics outside of cropping systems. As formidable a problem as the western flower thrips has become, other thrips with similar biological andecological attributes exist and could, likewise, rapidly emerge as serious global pests. Thus, increased knowledge about western flower thrips will help to avoid or mitigate damage due to other pest thrips.

Protest as swordfish closes in on eco-label October 18 2011 Lewis Smith Hector the blue shark protests at MSC's London office Up to five sharks are killed or injured for every swordfish taken off Canada’s coast, campaigners estimate, yet the fishery is on the verge of being declared sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Environmentalists have staged a protest at the MSC offices in London and demanded to know how the organisation could seriously consider awarding the fishery its prestigious eco-label. The application for the Canadian longline swordfish fishery was recommended for eco-label certification by an independent assessor following MSC rules. The award was put on hold after an official objection was lodged by conservation groups. The fishery catches 20,000 swordfish annually, 90 per cent of which are sold in the US, but also snares as bycatch up to 100,000 sharks and 1,400 turtles. Campaigners estimate 35,000 of the sharks are discarded dead or dying each year and many others suffer injuries, including blue, shortfin mako and porbeagle sharks. “This is one of the worst fisheries in Canada,” said Shannon Arnold, of the Ecology Action Centre (EAC). “If this fishery gets certification there’s obviously something wrong with the system and will undermine the work groups have been doing on sustainable sea food.” She and other conservationists are deeply concerned about the application not just because of the levels of bycatch within the Canadian fishery but because they believe the fishing industry is using a loophole in the rules to win MSC status for the whole Atlantic. Because the MSC only considers individual fisheries it fails to address the overall impact of bycatch across the whole of the Atlantic. The cumulative effect on sharks, turtles and other creature that travel long distances goes unchecked because each fishery is responsible for only a small proportion of the total. “The whole Atlantic fishery is getting carved into little bits and getting certified. Bit by bit they are going to be certifying the whole Atlantic,” she said, pointing out that both the Canadian and Florida longline swordfish fisheries are on the verge of being certified. The MSC was set up in the 1990s out of a desire to bring about better management of fisheries but Ms Arnold said it now risks simply “rubber stamping the status quo” unless it reconsiders its rules. The objection to the Canadian fishery’s certification was led by the EAC, Oceana, the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Sea Turtle Conservancy. In a statement the EAC, based in Halifax, Canada, said: “For the MSC to stay credible it must make sure that its standard isn’t so loose that a fishery like this can pass. It is the MSC’s responsibility to make sure that its standard is rigorous – and to fix it when fisheries try to slip through the cracks.” However, the swordfish industry strongly disputes the level of shark mortality in the fishery. Troy Atkinson, president of the Nova Scotia Swordfishermen's Association, said only one study has pointed to blue sharks suffering a 35 per cent mortality rate. Figures based on monitoring, he said, suggested the figure was much closer to 15 per cent, and that that more than 70 per cent of sharks are released alive and uninjured. He said the claim that up to five sharks are killed or injured for every swordfish caught is misleading. He maintained that about 400 to 500 tonnes of blue sharks are killed by the fishery annually while across the Atlantic the total catch, intentional or not, is 60,000 tonnes, only 15 per cent of what is considered to be the maximum sustainable figure. Mr Atkinson added that the industry has taken voluntary measures to improve its sustainability, including the use of circle hooks since the mid 1990s. These will become compulsory in Canadian long line fisheries in December and are designed to prevent turtles and fish from injesting hooks - they get snagged in the corner of the mouth instead, reducing the level of injury and increasing the chances of the animal being released alive. Senior MSC executives met with the EAC after the protest in London to listen to the organisation's concerns but that that as the objection process is still underway they could not comment publicly on the fishery. In a statement, however, the MSC said: “We have confidence that our third-party certification process is highly transparent and capable of yielding a scientifically rigorous determination on every fishery’s sustainability; that process is still underway in the case of the Canadian swordfish fishery and we won’t undermine the objectivity of that process by commenting, at this point, on the specific findings of the report or the objecting organisations’ views.” The EAC's estimates of shark bycatch are based on observations by monitors who accompany from five to 20 per cent of fishing expeditions. Blue sharks, which have suffered a 60 per cent population decline since the 1960s, are the most commonly caught. Porbeagles, which are classified as vulnerable, are also caught.

When lenders evaluate character, they look at stability – for example, how long you’ve lived at your current address, how long you’ve been in your current job, and whether you have a good record of paying your bills on time and in full. Your other debts and expenses could impact your ability to repay the loan. Creditors therefore evaluate your debt-to-income ratio, that is, how much you owe compared to how much you earn. The lower your ratio, the more confident creditors will be in your capacity to repay the money you borrow. Capital refers to your net worth – the value of your assets minus your liabilities. In simple terms, how much you own (for example, car, real estate, cash, and investments) minus how much you owe. Collateral refers to any asset of a borrower (for example, a home) that a lender has a right to take ownership of and use to pay the debt if the borrower is unable to make the loan payments as agreed. Some lenders may require a guarantee in addition to collateral. A guarantee means that another person signs a document promising to repay the loan if you can’t. Lenders might consider a number of outside circumstances that may affect the borrower’s financial situation and ability to repay, for example what’s happening in the local economy.

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery allows a surgeon to remove cancerous tissue through a very small incision. Advantages include reduced scarring and quicker recovery time. Laparoscopic surgery was the first available form of "minimally invasive" surgery and is still frequently performed today. When it first came on the scene in the 1980s, laparoscopic surgery was sometimes referred to as "keyhole" surgery. Small half-inch incisions are made and access ports are placed in the body. A camera is inserted in one port to look inside the body. The camera is connected to a monitor that displays the body's interior to the surgeon and the surgical team. Surgical tools on long thin instruments are placed inside the body through the ports and surgery is performed. Laparoscopy requires smaller incisions and results in less blood loss, lower risk of transfusion, a shorter hospital stay, less need for pain medication, and a quicker recovery.

Q: What is a brownfield? A: Indiana defines a brownfield site as a parcel of real estate that is abandoned or inactive or may not be operated at its appropriate use and on which expansion or redevelopment is complicated because of the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, a contaminant, petroleum, or a petroleum product that poses a risk to human health or the environment. Many brownfields are obvious eyesores, while some are open fields that look pristine but may have formerly been occupied by a commercial or industrial operation that caused contamination. When fear of known or suspected contamination is hindering transfer, reuse or redevelopment of a property, the site may be considered a brownfield. Q: Does the State of Indiana have an inventory list of the brownfields located in Indiana? A: No, the State of Indiana does not maintain an inventory list of brownfields. The State does maintain a list of sites that have entered the Indiana Brownfields Program for financial, technical or legal of assistance. The State does not maintain a “Brownfields Inventory” because such a list of properties could be deemed to unfairly stigmatize a property by somehow negatively affecting its market value. However, if a community organization or local unit of government is interested in addressing brownfields in its community, an important first step is to identify such properties and develop such a list. This can be done by considering the definition of a brownfield and simply driving through the community, asking local neighborhood organizations for input and enlisting the help of other local governmental entities, such as the health department. The next step is to prioritize the identified brownfield sites, taking into consideration local needs and desires (e.g., as identified in a community’s comprehensive plan) and a property’s redevelopment viability. Throughout the process it is important to keep in mind that educating local citizens about brownfields and involving them in long-term planning decisions is vital. Q: What's the difference between a Brownfields Comfort Letter and a Brownfields Site Status Letter? A: Brownfields Comfort Letters and Brownfields Site Status Letters are valuable tools offered by the Indiana Brownfields Program that can be used to address liability issues preventing brownfields transactions and redevelopment. A Brownfields Comfort Letter is not a release from liability, but explains a specific liability exemption established by statute or IDEM policy and applies the exemption to the site and letter recipient(s). In this way, a Brownfields Comfort Letter may eliminate unnecessary liability concerns for a site with no liability for current or future users. In a Brownfields Site Status Letter, site conditions are compared to objective, risk-based cleanup standards. While a Brownfields Site Status Letter is also not a release from liability, it may serve to minimize and qualify the exposure to risk for remaining liability at a site. Q: Can delinquent property taxes on a brownfield site be reduced or waived in order to facilitate redevelopment by a new property owner? A: The Department of Local Government Finance may cancel any property taxes assessed against real property owned by a county, township, city, town or the state in a petition requesting that the department cancel the taxes is submitted by the auditor, assessor and treasurer of the county in which the real property is located (IC 6-1.1-36.7). This provision applies to any property, regardless of whether it is a brownfield site. However, there is a specific statutory provision dealing with the waiver or reduction of delinquent taxes on a brownfield property that applies to property owners as well. See IC 6-1.1-45.5. The brownfield tax reduction or waiver statute outlines a similar process for a person that owns or desires to own a brownfield to file a petition with the county auditor seeking a reduction or waiver of the delinquent tax liability. As a part of the petition that is filed, the petitioner must seek a statement from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) that the property is a brownfield. Submittal of the form found at http://www.in.gov/ifa/files/taxreductionwaiverinfoformMay07.doc to the Indiana Brownfields Program will enable IDEM to make such a determination. In order to be eligible for reduction or waiver of taxes, the petitioner may not have contributed, or had an ownership interest in any entity that contributed, to the contamination of the property. For additional information about the state brownfield tax reduction waiver, please visit: . Q: Who is responsible for a leaking Underground Storage Tank (UST) on my property? A: The answer depends on whether the UST was used for petroleum or other substances, when the tank was in operation, and who the current owner is. Typically, the current owner and operator is/are responsible for the remediation of a leaking UST. However, if the UST used for petroleum has not been used since November 8, 1984, the person who owned the tank immediately before the discontinuation of the use of the tank is liable under leaking UST laws. One exception is for persons who hold title to the UST to protect a security interest, such as lenders. Other liability may exist for leaking USTs, such as liability for hazardous substances if the tank was not used solely for petroleum, and liability for common law nuisance, trespass, and worker exposure. A: On the federal level, originally signed into law in 1997 and recently extended through December 31, 2009, the Brownfields Tax Incentive encouraged the cleanup and reuse of brownfields by providing the following advantages to taxpaying stakeholders conducting environmental cleanup at brownfield sites: For more details or information about this incentive, visit . Q: How can my community take advantage of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfields grant funding? A: Through the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, the U.S. EPA offers brownfields assessment, revolving loan fund, and cleanup grants to eligible entities to address brownfield sites with hazardous and/or petroleum contamination. The application process is nationally competitive and typically begins annually in late fall. For more information about eligibility requirements, the application process, and other U.S. EPA funding, please visit www.epa.gov/brownfields. For information on the State’s involvement, contact Michele Oertel of the Indiana Brownfields Program at (317) 234-0235 or email@example.com. Q: Who are my potential partners in a brownfields project? The Town of Ligonier is in the process of recycling materials from demolition of buildings on the four-acre former Essex Wire brownfield site, which is planned for redevelopment as a river park and possibly the future home of a fire station.

In this activity, you can: How to make your celery rock Blackpool rock, made from celery? Well, not quite, but you can customise your own celery with stripes of colour running along its length just like the lettering in a stick of rock. It's best to use a short piece of celery with the leaves still on and place it in a few centimetres of food colouring in water. Leave it for a day or so then carefully cut into the celery to see where the colour has reached. Have a look at the one we prepared earlier, using red food colouring: You could split the celery lengthways along the lower half and place each side in a different colour to make your own multi-coloured celery stick! Here's one we did with red and green food colouring: The science bit how plants transport water One of the reasons that even wet summers can still end in drought is the efficiency of plants at moving water from the ground to their upper reaches where it evaporates from the surface of the foliage. The process is called transpiration and it's essential for moving water to all parts of plants, even to the tops of the tallest trees. The experiment with a stick of celery reveals that this happens through special tubes, called xylems, which take up the food colouring. The process is accelerated by evaporation from the celery leaves and you can make it go even faster by using a hairdryer on the leaves. Compare the rate at which the colour is taken up between three celery sticks: one with no leaves, one with leaves, and one with leaves applying a hairdryer. Using the hairdryer simulates a warm, windy summer's day when water in the ground from a recent downpour can soon find itself being transpired back into the atmosphere. You can imagine with the tallest trees that each water-carrying xylem contains a continuous, thin column of water over a hundred feet in length and reaching from the roots to the uppermost leaves. The effect of evaporation at the top of the tree literally pulls this column of water up the tree. The ability of these thin columns of water to be pulled in this way without breaking is attributed to the special forces between the water molecules in the liquid; this is called capillary action.

Protection for Aging Eyes August 31, 2006—Good news for seniors interested in protecting their eye health: the omega-3 fatty acids in fish and certain plant foods may protect aging eyes against macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness for people 65 and older. Two new studies, published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, confirm that a diet high in the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), or alpha-linolenic acid protects against both early and late forms of age-related macular degeneration, also known as age-related maculopathy (ARM). Age-related macular degeneration is a deterioration of the retina, the layer of the eye that contains cells that send visual images through the optic nerve to the brain. The central portion of the retina, known as the macula, is responsible for the detailed central vision that allows people to read, drive, and recognize faces. Degeneration of the macula causes objects in the central field of vision to appear blurred. “We currently lack effective treatments for early ARM and a high proportion of late ARM cases,” said Paul Mitchell, MBBS, MD, PhD, director of the Centre for Vision Research at the University of Sydney and author of the Blue Mountains Eye Study. In older Australians, those with the lowest intake of omega-3 fatty acids (in particular alpha-linolenic acid) had about a 70% increased likelihood of early macular degeneration compared with most of the population reporting a moderate intake. A total of 3,654 people 49 years or older participated in the Blue Mountains Eye Study from 1992 to 1994; after five years, 2,335 (75% of survivors) were re-examined. At the beginning of the study, 2,895 people (79%) filled out a questionnaire about their dietary habits. Age-related macular degeneration was determined using retinal photographs. A 40% reduction in the incidence of early age-related macular degeneration was associated with eating fish at least once a week; eating fish at least three times per week even reduced the incidence of late-stage age-related macular degeneration. Similar results were reported in a large study of male twins conducted at Harvard Medical School. The study population came from the National Academy of Sciences–National Research Council World War II Veteran Twin Registry. The study included 681 twins: 222 twins with intermediate or late stages of age-related macular degeneration (grade 3, 4, or 5) and 459 twins with either no macular abnormalities or with early signs of macular abnormalities (grade 1 or 2). Those who ate the highest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids had about half the risk of age-related macular degeneration as those who consumed the least. As in the Australian study, these findings were especially pronounced among those people who ate the least amounts of alpha-linolenic acid, an essential fatty acid found in flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. Smoking raises risk The Harvard study also confirmed a well-known fact about age-related macular degeneration: cigarette smoking increases the risk. “In our study of twins, we found that current and past cigarette smoking increases risk for AMD,” said Johanna M. Seddon, MD, ScM, of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and lead author of the study. “Current smokers had almost a 2-fold increased risk of AMD and past smokers had a 1.7-fold increase in risk in comparison with those who never smoked.” Forty-six million Americans continue to smoke each year, and 28.5% of these current smokers are individuals between the ages of 18 and 24, leaving future generations at risk for diseases such as cardiovascular disease and age-related macular degeneration. Smoking increases inflammatory responses and oxidative stress, both of which contribute to age-related macular degeneration development.

Meet Green New Year’s Resolutions With These Sites from Wildlife Promise I know some of you out there have not only made New Year’s resolutions, but have even drawn up action plans to carry them out. The rest of us might need a little help though! We all want to do better, both for ourselves and the world around us. Lucky for us, no matter what your goal is, there are tons of online resources out there to make your resolution a reality. Here’s a few: - Be Healthier: For those of us vowing to go to the gym more often, how about a way to get more exercise while also spending more time with your family and connecting with nature? Skip the gym and get healthier by visiting the many parks and green spaces all over the country. Not sure where to go? Check out NatureFind – just type in your city or zip code to get a list of parks and trails near you. While you’re there, be sure to check out NWF’s Green Hour too for more nature activities, especially with kids. - “Eat Local” was a big mantra in 2008 – with good reason. Eating food grown closer to home means supporting your area farmers instead of buying apples and oranges trucked over thousands of miles. Not only that, but since food grown by local, small-scale farmers is often organic, you’ll be healthier too. Local Harvest is an amazing tool that lets you find farmer’s markets, groceries, and even restaurants near you that sell and use locally grown food. - Shrink That Footprint: Already set on a Green New Year’s resolution? There’s lots of carbon footprint calculators out there to see how far you’ll need to go, but Berkeley’s gets my vote for being both thorough and easy to use.

TOKYO — The Japanese government is set to loosen its grip on Japan Tobacco, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, by selling a third of its stake in a sale that will net the country about $10 billion. Under laws passed in 2011 after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, proceeds of the sale of Japan Tobacco shares will go toward rebuilding the country’s battered northeast coast. The reconstruction costs have threatened to weigh on Japan’s public finances at a time when public debt is twice the size of its economy. The nation’s Finance Ministry, which owns just over 50 percent of the former state monopoly, will sell 333 million of its shares in the cigarette manufacturer, according to a company statement issued on Monday. The deal will be priced next month, from March 11 to 13, the statement said. Before the sale, Japan Tobacco will buy back up to 250 billion yen ($2.7 billion) of its shares. Japan’s stock market has rallied since mid-November, and Japan Tobacco’s shares have tracked the market’s ascent, climbing 20 percent in the last three months, making the move an opportune time for the Japanese government to sell. Shares in Japan Tobacco closed 1.43 percent higher on Monday, at 2,901 yen ($31), before the planned sale was announced. At that price, the government’s share sale would be valued at roughly 967 billion yen. Japan has already been reducing its stake and involvement in the cigarette maker, which traces its origins to a Finance Ministry bureau set up in 1898 to create a national tobacco monopoly that lasted until 1985. Even after the company went public, the Finance Ministry held two-thirds of its shares until 2004, when it reduced its stake to 50.1 percent, or roughly one billion shares. Other investors in Japan Tobacco include Mizuho Trust & Banking, Goldman Sachs and the Children’s Investment Fund Management. The nation’s investment in Japan Tobacco has put the government in a controversial position. The government has squeezed more funds from its smokers, raising the price of a pack of cigarettes about 40 percent in 2010, its single largest increase in tobacco taxes. Still, cigarettes remain relatively cheap in Japan, at about $4.30 a pack. But antismoking advocates have blamed the Japanese government’s continued ownership of Japan Tobacco — whose brands include Camel, Winston and Mild Seven — for the country’s delay in passing laws to protect nonsmokers from cigarette smoke, for example, and more stringently regulating of tobacco-related marketing. In a 2012 report, the Washington-based Global Business Group on Health said Japan’s ownership of Japan Tobacco shares “leads to a national conflict of interest, in which the government treats smoking as a behavioral issue rather than a health concern.” Though smoking rates have started to decline in recent years, the Japanese remain heavy smokers, consuming about 1,841 cigarettes a person, according to data compiled last year by the World Lung Foundation and American Cancer Society. That compared with about 1,000 cigarettes a person in the United States. To make up for declining cigarette consumption at home, Japan Tobacco has aggressively expanded overseas, acquiring Britain’s Gallaher Group in 2007 for $15 billion, and adding the Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges brands to its portfolio. The company has also made a push into packaged foods and soft drinks, as well as pharmaceuticals. The government’s sale of Japan Tobacco shares is part of a wider effort to raise money to finance reconstruction from the country’s natural and nuclear disasters in 2011. The government also plans to sell shares of Japan Post Holdings, which runs the country’s postal system and also acts as its biggest bank. Google may have pushed the boundaries of the law in its Waze deal, but the question is whether the government pushes back. A program in Seattle maps a way to make expensive retrofits pay off for all involved — building owners, investors and utilities. A new generation of entrepreneurs is finding innovative ways of using information technology to make everyday life more efficient. Supporters of the idea acknowledge the tremendous difficulties of trying to translate slippery estimates into a single mathematical factor that perhaps help explain why there is little hope of consensus now on climate policy. A dating Web site is teaming up with board game companies to sponsor game nights where singles can meet and get to know each other. Tom Wheeler, President Obama’s choice to lead the agency, said its support of competition was especially important because of Americans’ dependence on communications networks. Motorola says it has reached a settlement with digital video recording pioneer TiVo ahead of a patent trial that was to start in a Texas court next week. Citing heavy losses in its electronics business, analysts say Sony should concentrate its efforts where they pay: selling life, auto and health insurance. People contacted in connection with the case said that regulators were asking questions about Google’s bundling of advertising services. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has filed fraud charges against a former UBS trader in its Libor inquiry. | New York State’s top financial regulator is preparing to crack down on bank consulting firms. | A British recruiter for the wealthy has turned on his former clients. | A former F.T.C. chairman has joined Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Courtesy JenX67, here are a couple of really great advice/informational article for teachers re: GenX parents. The first one is by a GenX mom who fully admits to stealth-parenting, which is so much cooler a label (I mean if you have to have one) than helicopter parenting, which was/is a Boomer thing. Here’s a taste (i.e. quote from the article): “They’ll go over your head if they don’t get the results they want from you,” says Anita Thomas, who taught science in a public school in Beaufort, South Carolina. That makes sense, says Lisa Chamberlain, author of Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction. “Anything that smacks of bureaucratic red tape or protocol is an irritant,” she explains. “We had to fend for ourselves, which is great if you’re an entrepreneur, but not when you’re a parent.” The second is by generational guru Neil Howe: Many Gen-X parents acquire a surprising degree of (self-taught) expertise about teaching methods and will bring stacks of Web printouts into meetings with teachers. A quip often used by former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings (herself a late-wave Boomer, born in 1957) speaks to many Gen-X parents: “In God we trust. All others bring data.” This local, pragmatic, bottom-line perspective certainly contrasts with the more global, idealistic and aspirational perspective of Boomers. It has driven the rapid growth of parent-teacher organizations that opt out of any affiliation to the National Parent Teacher Association. According to many younger parents, the PTA is simply too large, too inflexible, too politically correct and too deferential to the educational establishment.

Rodier, Caroline J. (2008) A Review of the International Modeling Literature: Transit, Land Use, and Auto Pricing Strategies to Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-08-34 As the media document very real evidence of global climate change and the debate over humans' role precipitating this change has ended, California led the nation by passing the first global warming legislation in the U.S. California is tasked with reducing green house gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The California Air Resources Board estimates that significant GHG reductions from passenger vehicles can be achieved through improvements in vehicle technology and the low carbon fuel standard; however, these reductions will not be enough to achieve 1990 levels if current trends in vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) continue. Currently, most operational regional models in California have limited ability to represent the effects of transit, land use, and auto pricing strategies; efforts are now underway to develop more advanced modeling tools, including activity-based travel and land use models. In the interim, this paper reviews the international modeling literature on land use, transit, and auto pricing policies to suggest a range of VKT and GHG reduction that regions might achieve if such policies were implemented. The synthesis of the literature categorizes studies, by geographic area, policy strength, and model type, to provide insight into order of magnitude estimates for 10-, 20-, 30-, and 40-years time horizons. The analysis also highlights the effects of modeling tools of differing quality, policy implementation timeframes, and variations in urban form on the relative effectiveness of policy scenarios.

DARWIN, John Anthony (1998). Complexity theory and fuzzy logic in strategic management : searching the pattern that connects. Post-Doctoral, Sheffield Hallam University. The thesis begins by discussing the Modern Paradigm, which, it is argued, forms the underpinning to much contemporary management thinking. This in turn is seen as having its own foundation, the Cartesian-Newtonian Synthesis. It is argued that this does not form an adequate basis for strategic management, and the thesis then draws upon four main streams of thinking: complexity theory, fuzzy logic, the debate on power in organizations, and critical theory. The material developed from these four streams is integrated, thereby developing a number of principles for strategic management. The context within which most of the case studies are set is also outlined, by reviewing the recent history and present situation in local government. We then turn to the practical implications. When teaching strategic management and change, a frequent response from managers is that they are comfortable with the rational planning approach, which they find straightforward in approach, and its tools and techniques readily usable. But when we get on to all this other stuff ... what does it mean, and how is it used? This relates also to my own experience as a manager, particularly in local government. The practical implications are important, and this whole thesis can be seen as an action research programme, with practical interventions enriching the theoretical perspective, which in turn has fed back into practice. This discussion begins by considering methodology, and identifies three interlinked methods - action research, action learning and whole systems intervention. These are related to critical theory, and it is argued that these approaches provide a practice based upon the theoretical themes developed earlier. This is followed by a discussion of action research, exploring one case study in some depth, chosen because it helps to illustrate both the strengths and the potential limitations of a critical approach to action research. The work is assessed, and its implication for contemporary management are considered, drawing also upon a current action research project concerned with the roles of trade unions in the regions of Europe. The thesis then turns to what can best be seen as an extended action research project concerned specifically with whole systems intervention. It examines the extent to which this can be developed and undertaken on the basis of the principles developed in the thesis. Five case studies are presented in which Search Conferences and/or ColourFlow Dialogue have been used. Reflecting the original remit of the thesis, these case studies have a common link in local government. Two involve local authorities directly; one concerns local government politicians and their political party, and one involves an area of local authority activity being moved into independent Trust status. The fifth has a more tenuous link with local government: it is a voluntary body which receives significant funding from Councils, but is otherwise independent; it is included because it was the first such exercise undertaken, and brought with it significant personal learning. Finally, the thesis reviews the findings, considers their implications, and draws conclusions. Thus the purpose of this thesis is both to present an approach to strategic management and organizational development which is richer than those premised on the Modern Paradigm, and to argue that this is more than a set of interesting or provocative ideas - it is an approach which can be put into practice.

Policy Report Value Added: America's Manufacturing Future by Michael Lind and Joshua Freedman by Michael Lind and Joshua Freedman American policymakers are beginning to catch on: domestic manufacturing is in the midst of a new wave of innovation, and as a result has the potential to revitalize the economy. A new report from the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation, entitled Value Added: America's Manufacturing Future, explains why retaining domestic manufacturing is centrally important to the health of the economy, how technology continues to transform manufacturing, and what policy options leaders in Washington can pursue to capture the benefits. The authors of the report, Michael Lind and Joshua Freedman, argue that the next generation of manufacturing will continue to be crucial to the economy, but it increasingly will not resemble the typical mass-production assembly lines that many Americans associate with manufacturing. Instead, advanced manufacturing, aided by information technology, and servitization, or the integration of services and manufacturing, will define the future of American manufacturing. The report offers recommendations to bolster and support manufacturing, ranging from public purpose financing for manufacturers to improved tax, energy, and regulatory policies. Smart public policy can ensure that the economy benefits from gains in advanced manufacturing gains for years to come.

For the chickens the course of the day is fairly fixed. One of the most important things in the life of a chicken is eating. Unfortunately the majority of the food does not consist of natural food but of the grains people feed. Before pecking up a grain the chicken lifts its head so that it can see the grain with both eyes. Now it fixes the position of the grain and after aiming at it is able to hit it. If it fails pecking up the grain it has to lift the head again and to aim at it once more. The chickens senses of smelling and tasting are not very much developed. Much more important is their sense of touch. After swallowing the food it gets into the crop, a natural container for food. The chickens decision to peck up a grain depends on its size. Thats because the chicken has a natural sense of how large grains should be. Only experience, curiosity, hunger, or the example of another chicken can make one chicken eat a bigger grain. With this new experience they even prefer eating bigger grains first, probably to feel full earlier. The pineal body regulates the chickens body temperature and the sentiment of temperature in the environment. Their body temperature is between 39.8 °C and 43.6 °C. At 4 o clock p.m. the temperature is on its highest level, at midnight on its lowest. Chickens tolerate sharp coldness better than temperatures over 28 °C, because chickens have no perspiratory gland. So they open their beak all the time and lift their wings a bit to feel fresher. When the weather is hot they dive their beak into cold, fresh water to cool the blood in the carotid artery. For drinking they dive their beak deep into the water, then they quickly lift their head so that the water can run down the throat. Chickens usually prefer to do this together and with the same rhythm. The eye of a wild living chicken is focused for a view of five meters to see grains and other small things and for a view of 50 meters to see larger things. That's why chickens do not like to go away from their hen house farther than 50 meters. To watch an object the chicken always has to use the left and the right eye alternately. That is why the typical walk of chickens developed which makes it possible for them to keep their balance. In bright light chickens can see different colors very well, but in darkness they are almost blind. Chickens avoid open meadows and prefer the undergrowth where they are safer. In dangerous situations it is amazing how chickens are suddenly able to fly. Bantams even fly over 30 meters high houses. For the night chickens look for a higher place to sleep, usually the perch in their hen house. One peculiarity of poultry is that they have organs for perceiving vibrations. These are located predominantly on the legs, but also on the skin. They feel vibrations of the ground and in the atmosphere, which help them to recognize enemies very quickly. You can notice it if you quietly approach your hen house in the darkness. Immediately you can hear the warning voice of the rooster. Since chickens are able to express over 30 different sounds, they also have a very good sense of hearing. This can be observed already with the communication between hen and chick, about 24 hours before hatching out. The chick chirps with long, high sounds and the hen answers with a deep, soft voice. Hen and chick can still understand each other at a distance of 20 meters, and the chicken chirps when it gets lost. At this distance chicks are able to recognize their mothers voice out of a lot of other sounds. When there is food for the chicks or they are allowed to slip under their mothers feathers, they chirp quite softly because they feel good. The chicks also communicate with each other. But they don't react if any of their brothers and sisters gets lost. The mother lures her chicks to the food with special sounds. When the chicks are about 3 4 months old the young roosters start to imitate the adults and the young hens try to cackle like hens after having laid an egg. Young roosters without a mother start to crow much later than roosters with a mother, because they are more frightened of the older chickens. Adult roosters basically crow at 9 o clock a.m. to demonstrate their power. Light breeds usually have a high voice; heavy breeds a very deep one. Besides crowing, roosters have a lot of other sounds. There are for example different warning sounds for an enemy from the air like a big bird and from the ground like a dog. Just like a hen lures her chicks a rooster lures his hens for the food. Throughout the whole day he also makes other sounds which mean for the hens to follow him. The hens cackle excitedly when they have laid an egg. Perhaps they cackle to keep contact to the other chickens, because a rooster immediately comes into the hen house as soon as a hen starts to cackle there. Sometimes he even flies onto the nest and shows her the way down. Then he takes her back to the other hens. But cackling after laying an egg can also make another sense, namely that hens are proud of the thing they produced and that they want to show it to the other hens. Weaker hens usually cackle less than stronger ones, because they don't want to get trouble with the other, stronger hens. Sometimes the rooster shows the nest to the hen, by luring her. But sometimes there seem to be difficulties in understanding if a rooster excitedly tries to show a nest while no hen is around. The reason for this might simply be that he wants to boast. The same often happens when I bring food to my chickens. All the hens are already eating and my rooster is the last to arrive. At once he starts to show the hens the food. As if they would not see it... If hens feel good they utter soft, singing sounds. It is interesting that our domestic chickens have more sounds available than do the wild living chickens. Besides all those amazing pastimes I wrote about, chickens also find a time to retire a bit. After a highly active period in the morning a time of comfort follows. The chickens sit under a bush and clean their feathers. Therefore it must be absolute peace and quietness and they grease their feathers against wetness with grease secreted from the rump. In the afternoon chickens enjoy relaxing in the sun and cleaning their feathers in the dust. Roosters usually avoid cleaning their feathers in the dust because they are too proud and they also have to take care for their flocks. A second rush-time begins at 5 o clock p.m. The chickens are getting pretty hungry and prefer especially filling food like corn. Sexual activity of the rooster is on its highest level of the day, too. Chickens only fall asleep in their familiar group. In strange or precarious places they cannot fall asleep. They sit together on their perch at short distances, and the pecking order doesn't mean a thing. Only if there are different perches or if one part of a perch is more comfortable, the rooster with the strongest hens decides to sit there. Weaker hens often go into the hen house earlier to reserve a better place on the perch, but when the stronger ones arrive they usually bite them, and the weaker ones have to leave. Only in absolute darkness they put their heads under the feathers and fall asleep with their eyes closed. But this is hard to see, because they wake up from sleep with every sound you make. However, they calm down pretty quickly again because of the darkness, and soon they fall asleep again. There is a special, important pecking order in the chicken herd. It determines which chicken may eat first, where which chicken is allowed to sit on the perch and other things. You can often see that one chicken pecks another one without any obvious reason, just to show that it is stronger. The most pecking takes place on the perch, but only if there are rank differences, as mentioned. The other ones peck especially strange or young chickens and so it can take 15 minutes until everybody has found a place. Usually the rooster is the strongest member of the herd and has the highest rank in the pecking order. The pecking order changes very seldom because weaker chickens are usually so afraid of stronger ones that they never have the courage to attack them. This applies also to young roosters: Physically they would be much stronger than older hens; however, they do not dare to attack older hens because of their youth experiences. Pretty late a young rooster has the courage to rape a hen and she accepts his new position. Usually chickens dont care about the race of other chickens. But on my own hen yard observed something different: I had 6 brown Leghorns and a little rooster and two hens which were of mixed racial origin. The two smaller hens of the same origin always were the favorites of the rooster and all the day he walked together with them, although the Leghorns werent to tall for him. He just didnt like the Leghorns. After 5 months, when his two daughters were grown up, he immediately preferred them and spent most of the time closely together with them in the garden. So he recognized his own kindred and preferred to have contact with them rather than with other races. So there even is racism among chickens.

Ospreys, locally known as fish hawks or fish eagles, are the only living representatives of the family Pandionidae and the genus Pandion. They are medium-sized birds (females being larger than males), measuring 53-61 cm (21-24 in) length with a 140-180 cm (55-70 in) wingspan. The osprey's back is brownish black, the breast is white with buff or brown speckles, and the tail is gray with dark bars. A dark stripe extends along the side of the face, through the bird's eye. The wings have characteristic dark "wrist" marks when viewed from below and are "bent" like those of a seagull. Juveniles are similar in appearance to adults, but the upper parts are more streaked and the long wing feathers are brownish-yellow. The adult plumage is gradually acquired through a series of molts and is usually complete when the bird is 18 months old. Ospreys are specialized for living near water, where fish constitute almost their entire diet. The legs are long and equipped with long, curved talons (claws), and the undersurface of the toes is covered with short spines, or spicules, that allow the bird to hold on to slippery prey. The plumage is dense and oily and enables the osprey to dive into the water, a unique behavior among birds of prey. Other fish eaters, such as the bald eagle, snatch fish from the surface without entering the water. Habitat and Biology The osprey's breeding range extends from Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to Arizona and New Mexico. It also breeds along the Atlantic coast to southern Florida and the Gulf coast. Wintering grounds are north to California and South Carolina and south to Mexico and Chile. Because osprey feed on fish, they must nest in the vicinity of water. The majority of ospreys in the United States are found in marine environments, but inland nesting along rivers, lakes, and reservoirs is also important. Ospreys select habitat that has suitable perching structures and easy access to fish. Ospreys hover before landing, so they need nesting sites where they can easily land. They have been known to nest on both man-made and natural objects such as cranes, buildings, bridges, nest platforms, telephone poles, or partially rotten trees with no tops. All of these objects allow comfortable landing. Osprey build huge nests which eventually reach "eagle size." They are abundant in the ACE Basin as a result of the expansive saltmarsh and estuarine areas. Most ospreys found in the United States are migratory birds, with an exception of those in southern Florida. Fall migration occurs from late August to November, peaking in September. They return to breeding grounds from late March to mid-April and begin nest construction or repair (often using the same nest as in the previous year) shortly thereafter. Historically, osprey nests were found on the tops of large dead, and sometimes live trees. Due to the reduced availability of nesting sites in some areas, especially along the mid-Atlantic coast, ospreys now regularly nest on man-made structures such as channel markers. Two to four eggs, pink or buff colored and blotched with brown, are laid in April. Incubation of the eggs, performed mainly by the female, last approximately 38 days. Young fledge at 44 -59 days and may continue to rely on parental care for another 6 weeks. Ospreys reach sexual maturity at 3 years of age. Their diet consists almost exclusively of live fish, although dead ones may be taken occasionally. The osprey is not listed as threatened or endangered; however it is listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a species of "Special Emphasis." Populations of ospreys, along with those of other birds of prey, declined severely in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s due to pesticide poisoning that caused thinning of eggshells. This species is considered a biological indicator of environmental contamination, mainly of organochlorine pesticides. Ospreys are currently protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and are now abundant in many areas where they had previously disappeared.

On the next few Fridays (and perhaps beyond), Breast Cancer Fund Science Advisor Janet Gray, Ph.D., of Vassar College, will lend her scientific expertise in environmental health to answering burning questions around the link between breast cancer and environmental exposures. Question from Ariane, California: I recently noticed that some of our office supplies promise antimicrobial protection. With H1N1 and the start of the flu season, it seems that everyone is crazy for antimicrobial products, but I have heard some concerns about what’s in these products. Do we have anything to be worried about? Antimicrobials are currently present in a wide array of consumer products, from household cleaners to mouse pads, and scientists have expressed growing concern over the presence of the chemical triclosan, which is prevalent in many of these disinfectants—especially liquid soaps. Studies have linked the chemical to a range of health and environmental issues, including skin irritation and thyroid disorders (a risk factor for breast cancer). The Environmental Protection Agency recently reapproved triclosan, but only for another five years. The agency’s concerns about the chemical convinced them to move the next review date to 2013, 10 years ahead of schedule. Another concern with popular hand sanitizers is synthetic fragrance, found in most personal care products. Fragrance is considered a trade secret, which allows companies to avoid disclosing what it contains, but it’s often made up of dozens or even hundreds of synthetic chemicals. Some of the hazards of synthetic fragrance include allergens, phthalates, sensitizers, neurotoxins and synthetic musks. Don’t despair! Thanks in large part to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (the Breast Cancer Fund is a founding member and leading partner), an increasing number of responsible companies are signing the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and setting a high bar in the marketplace by agreeing not to use toxic chemicals in their products. Several companies are producing hand soaps and sanitizers free of fragrance and triclosan. Two of these with known efficacy are CleanWell, whose effective ingredient is based upon thyme oil, and EO Products, whose germ-killing ingredient is 62% alcohol. But really, the best thing to do on a regular basis is to wash your hands thoroughly with warm water and mild, non-toxic soap. It’s the safest and most effective route for staying clean and healthy. But when you feel you need to use disinfectants to get you through the winter season, look for safer choices—ones without triclosan or synthetic fragrance.

... 1960, in New York, via Resolution 1514 (XV), the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. It affirmed peoples' right to self-determination, and further stated: The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation. The history of this instrument -- including the choice of a declaration rather than a treaty, and a General Assembly rather than a Security Council resolution, and judicial citations to the declaration -- may be found here.

“Tammy told us we have to be careful,” my 12-year-old announced at dinner last night. “There have been two attempted kidnappings around here. Of middle school girls.” I felt cold dread wash over my scalp. Kidnappings? In Oregon? Of middle school girls? One reason we live in a small town in southern Oregon is because it feels safe. My husband and I tend not to helicopter parent, letting our children bike themselves to where they need to go, allowing them to walk downtown, agreeing to give them as much freedom and responsibility as they feel they can handle. As soon as the plates were cleared, James whipped out the computer. Hesperus’s information was a bit muddled. There have actually been FOUR ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPINGS OF FIVE TEEN GIRLS IN SOUTHERN OREGON IN THE PAST TWO MONTHS. IN ALL FOUR CASES THE GIRLS GOT AWAY. Here is the information we’ve gathered from on-line reports: 1) Last week, a man pulled up alongside a middle school girl in Phoenix, Oregon who was waiting for the bus to go to school. “They’re not running,” he lied. “I’ll give you a ride.” The girl had received safety training and she walked away from the man as quickly as she could. A police officer witnessed the exchange and chased the driver but he got away. 2) On Saturday, May 19, 2012, two teens in Williams, Oregon reported being wrestled into a pick-up truck by a man. They jumped out of the truck while it was moving and got away. The suspect is still at large. 3) Two days ago, on Wednesday, May 23, according to this report, a girl from White Mountain Middle School in White City, Oregon was approached by a white man in his 40s who tried to get her attention. She ran away. 4) On April 20, 2012 it was reported that a 15-year-old jogger from O’Brien, Oregon, just north of the California border, was grabbed by a man in a black ski mask who had a van with California plates parked nearby. She fought him and got away. I’ve attended many self-defense classes with my girls. One thing the police officers who teach them always say is that children often have more to fear from people they know than from strangers. The chances that your child will be abducted by a stranger are very slim. But it does happen. And it’s terrifying. When I was in high school I was sexually assaulted by a stranger in broad daylight on a busy street. I was walking home from work with my shoes in my hand (because it was raining and I felt happy and carefree and wanted to walk barefoot). A man crouched down in front of me about eight feet away. I remember noticing that he was not tying his shoes, though he was pretending to. I remember dismissing my instinctive fear and telling myself, “It’s a free country, he can do what he wants.” What he was doing was waiting for me to approach. As I came into reach he stood up, grabbed me, and grabbed my breasts. I went ballistic, screaming, shouting, and thrashing. The pervert let me go. “YOU DISGUSTING CREEP!” I screamed at him. Though I was screaming and sobbing and a man was running away from me and at least a dozen cars whizzed by NOT A SINGLE CAR STOPPED. I ran home, terrified, and collapsed in a sobbing heap. I didn’t know how to tell my father what happened. I was embarrassed and upset. We called the police. The detectives told me and my father there had been several other incidents of sexual assault on young teens that summer in Newton, Massachusetts, the “safe,” affluent suburb outside of Boston where I lived. But none of the assaults had been reported with more than a sentence in the newspapers. When my husband was in elementary school a man in a car drove up alongside him and suggested he get in. Another time, a demented older man beat him up, screaming, “You cheap Greek,” while whacking him on the back. Middle school children are particularly vulnerable. We teach our children to be respectful to adults. In school children get extra praise when they are compliant and polite. It’s one of the worst truths of parenting that bad things might happen to our children no matter how hard we try to stop them. It’s awful. We can’t control everything. But we can teach our children to have street smarts. If I listened to my intuition when that stranger was stalking me instead of second guessing myself, I may have avoided being attacked. A lot of parents don’t want to talk about these kinds of scary incidents because they don’t want to upset their kids. But we need to give our children the tools to cope in difficult situations. We need to talk about how to avoid being kidnapped or harmed with our children, with our friends, and with everyone in the community so that we can all come together to keep our children safe. It’s important to keep in mind that even though these kinds of incidents make the headlines, attacks by strangers are less likely than sexual or physical abuse by someone your child knows. I know what you want to do is never let your child out of your sight, never allow them to walk to school again, and accompany them even when they go to the bathroom. But hovering around them 24/7 is not only impractical, it may be counterproductive. Here is the best advice I’ve gleaned from my reading, self-defense classes, and personal experience (with being both sexually assaulted and robbed by strangers) about keeping children (and adults) safe: 1. There is safety in numbers: In Japan children walk to school by themselves when they are six years old. But they usually walk with other children and they are taught to keep track of each other and be aware of their surroundings. There is safety in numbers. If your child wants to walk downtown to go shopping, saying no is not the answer. But insisting that she bring a friend will help to keep her safe. 2. Walk with confidence, awareness, and with nothing in your hands: One of the reasons I was a target that day was because I was walking with my shoes in my hands. I was also loaded down with books from my job. Teach your children to stride confidently, be aware of anything unusual, and always have their hands free when they are walking. 3. Take a self-defense workshop with your kids: This is an excellent way for you both to gain street smarts and confidence. 4. Role-play different scenarios so your kids can practice: At self-defense workshops (see #3) you usually do a lot of role-playing. You can do this with your family too. I role-play with my kids in two ways. One is that we talk about a scenario and brainstorm solutions. “What do you do if a nice-looking woman drives up and says she’s a friend of your mom’s and has some kittens in her car and asks you if you’d like to see them?” or “How do you think you should respond if you suspect someone is following you?” or “What do you say if a man orders you to GET IN THE CAR RIGHT NOW?” One of our best conversations started like this: “I read an article about a 10-year-old who went to the store to buy bread for her mom. A man in the store said hello to her and noticed she had a bruise on her leg. When she was walking home, he pulled his car alongside her and told her to get in. She was a well brought up, quiet girl and the man shouted at her. She knew she should do what grown-ups tell her to so she got in the car… What would you have done?” [that's a true story, by the way, with a happy ending. It turns out that man was a convicted sex offender on probation. A brave woman saw the girl get into the car and the scared look on her face and she rolled down her window and said, 'Do you know that man?' When the girl shook her head, she wedged her car in so the man couldn't pull away from the curb and rescued her!]. The other way we do this–and I started playing these games with my girls when they were 3 and 4 years old–is to actually act out a scene. I play the bad guy (they love this) and I try to herd them somewhere. They take turns shouting: “NO! GO AWAY!” and running off (TOWARDS SAFETY NOT AWAY FROM DANGER.) They think this is a lot of fun and we keep doing it until my soft-spoken daughter shouts at the top of her lungs. At the beginning of this game she forgets she doesn’t need to be polite, saying quietly, “No, thank you. I would not like to do that. Goodbye now.” 5. Teach children that there are times when they can and should be rude to adults: We spend so much time teaching our children to be kind, polite, and compassionate but they need to know, our daughters especially, that there are times that it is okay to be rude. We need to give our children license to SHOUT, SAY NO, RUN AWAY, and SEEK SAFETY if an adult asks them to do something inappropriate, a stranger approaches, or anybody acts in a menacing way towards them. 6. Teach children to resist: Not everyone will agree with me, but I believe that even if a stranger has a gun or other weapon, children must learn to fight back. You kick them in the privates, bite their hand, wiggle away, and then run to safety as fast as you can. If a man is going to threaten a child with a gun in broad daylight, the most important thing is to get away and get away fast. Most criminals want to do unspeakable things. They are not trying to kill the child but kidnap them to kill them later. 7. Don’t wait to have these conversations: There is no magic age. It is not too early to empower your children to be strong. There are picture books about this for younger children. Two of our favorites are: The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers and Once Upon a Dragon: Stranger Safety for Kids (and Dragons). 8. It doesn’t matter what they look like: We all have a misperception that someone who would want to harm us or harm our children will look scary. But that’s not true. The most effective scam artists are the ones who look clean-cut and nice. It’s a hard lesson to learn but it’s important children know it may very well be a well-dressed person who tries to harm them. 9. Safety is a community affair: If just one driver had stopped when the man who had assaulted me was rushing away, he could have been arrested. It’s our responsibility as adults, community members, and good neighbors to look out for each other. James called the police last year when some teenage girls on the bike path ran towards him and our kids giggling in a strange way. He asked them what happened. They told him a naked man was in the bushes. The police later called to thank him: they’d been trying to get that guy for weeks and this time they nabbed him. We all need to notice our surroundings and help each other so that disaster prevention becomes a community affair.

Entering the New World Brave New World, here we come. A Worcester, Mass., biotech company reported this week that it had created a human embryo directly from human cells. A cell implanted with adult DNA split into six cells, then died, stopping far short of the 150-plus needed to create viable stem cells, critical for gene therapy. Though the experiment by Advanced Cell Technology was considered a failure, it was immediately regarded as a breakthrough, for good or ill. Governments may stamp their feet, refusing to fund the cloning experiments. But a free science won't put its laboratories behind bars. Maintaining free science is up to us. President Bush, responding to what The New York Times called a "storm of protest" and a Congressional call for cloning to be outlawed, promptly called cloning immoral. "We should not as a society grow life to destroy it," he said. "And that's exactly what's taking place." Not to me. Exactly what I think is taking place is the grand possibility that life can be preserved and health enhanced through human ingenuity. I hope you see it that way too. Didn't Aldous Huxley have it wrong? Don't you know someone whose family was enhanced by fertility drugs, let alone test-tube babies? Would you really close science down now, at the very portal to the healing world? We must say no to the pessimists, the religious and political negativists who would use anything -- the Bible, Frankenstein and fables of the Golem -- to keep humankind in the grip of pain and fear. Science can be for the good. The human spirit of creativity is something to praise, not fear. A clone does not an evil Golem make. What's taking place, to me, is that scientists are continuing appropriate scientific inquiry into the beginnings of life. As Jews, we understand that humanity is permitted to learn from nature, and encouraged to use our knowledge to save lives. We're getting there fast, but scientists as of this week have developed only a few cells equivalent to the first day or two of fertilization. Bush would close down the lab even before it creates a blastocyst large enough to be implanted in a uterus. But Bush is wrong: The goal here is not to destroy life, but to save it. Though cloning may be controversial, the basic science upon which it is based is not new. Similar experiments into the origins of human life, and the capacity of embryos, were conducted in the preliminary stages of in vitro fertilization. Many failed embryos were created on the way to what is now routine: test-tube conception. Half a million test-tube babies have been raised in loving families -- a testimony to how science aids the human heart. I spoke on Monday with Laurie Zoloth, director of the Jewish Studies Program at San Francisco State University and an associate professor of social ethics and Jewish philosophy. Sounding quite astounded by the news of the newly cloned embryo, she said, "It gives one pause how fast we are crossing into the new era." Many observers speak of cloning as a "slippery slope." Zoloth, however, believes it is possible -- and necessary -- to draw a boundary between "reproductive" cloning and "therapeutic" cloning to save lives. "I don't believe we should ever implant these early embryos into a human," she said. "I don't believe we should try to duplicate human life." At the heart of the matter is what we think religion -- and life -- is for: a tool to liberate the spirit, or a way of controlling the future. In December, Zoloth will convene a panel of leading American and Israeli Jewish scientists and ethicists, including Los Angeles' own Rabbi Elliot Dorff, to study problems of human genetics.

48 hours in Tallinn TALLINN, Jan 5 — You could easily lose yourself while exploring the Estonian capital’s well-preserved medieval Old Town or become absorbed in Tallinn’s gritty Soviet and spy-laden past. Whatever your interests, local correspondents show you how to make the most of 48 hours in Tallinn. 5pm — Arrival and check in. There are many good hotels in the Old Town or near by, including the spa Hotel Telegraaf (), where European central bankers stay, or boutique hotels The Three Sisters (www.threesistershotel.com) and Schlossle (www.schloesslehotel.com). If you like a good view, try the Raddisson Blu, Swissotel or the Soviet-built, now modernised, Sokos Viru. 6pm — Plunge straight into the heart of the Old Town by heading for Town Hall Square. Tallinn is a Hanseatic architecture-lover’s dream and is protected by Unesco. The small city of half a million people bills itself as the most intact medieval city in Europe. It still has the original street system (from 13th to 15th century) and most of the 14th- and 15th-century houses in their original size and form. In addition to the numerous houses, barns and warehouses of the general population and traders, all of the main representative/governmental buildings and churches are still intact. The town hall is the last surviving Gothic town hall in northern Europe. (veeb.tallinn.ee/raekoda). Tours are possible in winter if booked in advance. Tallinn has a distinctly Germanic feel. It was established by Danes more than 800 years ago and has been ruled by Germans and Russians. In the Soviet period it was under Moscow’s direct control. Estonia was independent between 1918 and the start of Soviet rule in 1940 and became a sovereign nation again in 1991. 7pm — If you are keen to try traditional Estonian food head from Town Hall Square up Dunkri street to Kuldse Notsu korts (the Golden Piglet Inn). Don’t forget to try some of Estonia’s dark and heavy porter, which seems to suit snowy winters. If you want to try the kind of food Europeans ate before they discovered the potato and you enjoy pulses and grains, then look for the medieval-style restaurants, such as Olde Hansa, or the Pepper Sack. Another option is to head to Vana Viru street, towards the old Viru city inner gates and hit the largest cocktail lounge in the country, the Butterfly Lounge () 9pm — Head for an evening of Jazz at Clazz (www.clazz.ee), just a couple of hundred metres away at Vana turg, or try any of the clubs and lounges in the Old Town. 9am — If Tallinn’s history takes your fancy, then head up the hill to the look-out spots on Toompea (), the upper part of the Old Town. That involves a walk up a street called Luhike jalg (short leg) and through the gate in the wall between the upper and lower halves of the town. The gates were locked in the old days, especially when the upper town’s rulers and lower town’s traders were at war with each other. There are several fine lookouts spaced around the walls of the upper town giving a panoramic view of the city, with its mix of medieval, baroque and modern architecture. Interesting buildings in the upper town include the 19th-century Russian Orthodox cathedral, a pink building which houses the country’s parliament, as well as the cathedral, for which Toompea is named. A taste of the Soviet past can be found in the lower half of the city, just outside the Old Town gates at the Sokos Viru Hotel (). This Finnish-built hotel from the 1980s has a museum devoted to the work of the KGB secret police and on Soviet life and a tour can be booked. The hotel had several rooms which served as a communication relay station for radio traffic between Helsinki and Moscow. Some of the rooms were also bugged by the KGB. The hotel also has a hard currency bar, which recreates the experience of bars which existed where only people with dollars or other hard currencies, mainly foreigners, could visit. Its nostalgic atmosphere is complemented by Soviet-style drinks and music from the 1970s and 1980s — maybe some retired KGB officers are listening in. The Soviet trail can be followed back up to the Old Town and the former KGB headquarters at 49 Lai street. This building was said to have the best view in Tallinn — all the way to Siberia. For a complete picture of life under the Soviets, and when Estonia was occupied by Nazi German forces during World War Two, walk down from Toompea to the Occupation Museum (www.okupatsioon.ee/en). 12pm — Elsewhere outside the Old Town you can visit the old fortress-prison called the Patarei (). On the way out of the Old Town you will pass one of the maritime museums at Paks Margereta (Fat Margaret) tower (www.meremuuseum.ee). You can also head underground via the old Swedish-made defensive tunnels at Kiek in de Kok tower (linnamuuseum.ee/kok/en/) close to Toompea, or tour many of the defensive towers. The tunnels were built by the Swedish rulers during the Great Northern War to defend the city from the Russians. Afterwards, head down Viru Gate for a walk along the Old Town wall at the Hellemann Tower, on Muurivahe street. The tower dates from the 14th century and the wall walk covers 200 metres. 1pm — Lunch. If you ended up near the Patarei on the western side of the old town down by the harbour it is worth trying the cafes Moon () and Klause Kohvik in the Estonian design building () near Kalasadam. This is where the locals also hang out on the weekend. Another option is to head over to the cafe at the Seaplane Harbour (www.lennusadam.eu). Its hangars are the world’s first reinforced concrete shell structures designed and built by a Danish firm, Christiani & Nielsen, in 1916 (think of the Sydney opera house). The building has been transformed into a stylish modern museum covering both war and peace time and houses the world’s only surviving British-made mine-laying submarine of its series from the 1930s, the Lembit. 3pm — If coffee and chocolates take your fancy, try Chocolats de Pierre () in the master’s passage off Vene street, which makes its own chocolates. Or you can visit the Marzipan Museum (Pikk tn 16) and Marzipan Room, downstairs is one of the oldest operating cafes in the city. 5pm — Don’t forget to check out what might be on offer for culture vultures at the Estonia concert hall, or the opera house. There may well be concerts and performances in many of the churches and halls about the old town and they often start around 7pm. For a list (www.visitestonia.com/en/articles/81) 7pm — For dinner, try the Neh on Lootsi 4 down by the harbour (www.neh.ee), a seasonal kitchen that moves between a manor house on Muhu island in the west of the country and Tallinn and specialises in the food of the Nordic Islands. Neh’s chefs have won Estonia’s best restaurant title for the last three years running. If you are still in the Old Town you might try Leib Resto ja Aed (www.leibresto.ee) on Uus street. 9am — Today you could continue to explore the Old Town and its galleries. A must-see is the craft alley at Kateriina Kaik off Vene street with its collection of craftswomen from hat makers to glass blowers and everything in between. (www.katariinagild.eu) Another option is to head out to Kadriorg Park and the national art gallery (). You can take a taxi or the Kadriorg tram from the stop just north of the Viru Hotel. Kadriorg Park is lined with baroque palaces, one of which is the president’s official residence. A little further up the road is the newest national art gallery in the Nordic and Baltic region, Kumu (kumu.ee/en). 11am — If art is not your thing, walk over to Peter the Great’s summer cottage (linnamuuseum.ee/peetrimaja/en) and consider the life of one of the, quite literally, big men of Russian history. 1pm — At the edge of Kadriorg are several cafes and restaurants, including the Park Cafe (www.park-cafe.ee). Another option is to take a taxi down to the Pirita district, perhaps to the Pirita Hotel, and then walk back to the centre along the bayside, where you get great views of the Old Town from a different perspective and can also see the many ferry boats sailing between Tallinn and Finnish capital Helsinki. — Reuters

Never assume the obvious is true – A creed for an uncommon life written by Kent Healy ⇒05 Aug 2011 Uncommon: As humans we desire closure. We long to know not only what has happened but why it has happened. Whether it’s gossip, a natural disaster, a freak incident, or a success story – we want the 411. We want to know how ‘it’ can be repeated or avoided. … so we endeavor to explain it. This seems simple enough. But that is the problem. It appears so simple to analyze the WHAT that we feel we can accurately explain the WHY – the reasons something has occurred. This is more dangerous than one might think. By assuming we have ‘the’ answer or more accurately, a definitive explanation, we often do several things that change the course of future actions and future outcomes. We… - Curb our curiosity - Stop investigating - Act in accordance to the story we’ve developed surrounding the outcome In our heads, it’s a matter of “case closed – nothing to see here.” We move on without realizing that this new information has tweaked and reshaped our world view as well as our definition of what’s realistic and/or possible. In retrospect, we can see countless examples of how the obvious proved to be false. For instance, man has attempted to soar through the air in a flying contraption for centuries. The outcome of many failed attempts told the masses that flying was impossible. Science once told us the earth marked the center of the universe. Powerful and intelligent leaders told us the world was flat and at the edge were perilous cascading waterfalls that fell to oblivion. Although silly now, these conclusions greatly influenced people’s lives and the pace of innovation. But fortunately, there have always been a notable few who have questioned the restricting, but “obvious” facts of the day to pursue the uncommon. The curse of the obvious: The ‘obvious’ becomes so because it is often information that appears to explain what has already happened and why. But we must be careful because WHAT does not always equal WHY. When we know a certain outcome (the what) has taken place we tend to disregard the probability of an alternative. In actuality, the outcome that we attempt to explain might indeed be an anomaly with more variables than initially expected. But we still fool ourselves into thinking a logical descriptor can explain both the what and the why. As Duncan Watts would say, “Everything is obvious… once you know the answer.” But knowing an outcome is hardly descriptive. In fact, it’s mostly misleading. Outcomes often confirm assumptions and extinguish curiosity. When an author describes personality traits of a successful individual, for example, it’s easy to associate her observations with the outcome (the cause of success). However, the assumed “outcome” may disregard instances where the same traits and circumstances led another astray (other possible alternatives). In other words, correlation is not necessarily causation. The world of literature (newspapers, books, academia, etc.), is also rife with similar delusive conclusions that often result from the rather presumptuous method of deductive reasoning. These analytic methods serve important purposes, but they do not always lead to accurate conclusions. Don’t believe everything you think: It’s human nature to believe what we see, trust age-old advice, and seek conclusions from ‘experts.’ We cling to the obvious for many reasons: It’s justifiable. It’s popular. It’s familiar. It’s comfortable. And it’s often the path of least resistance. But, it’s not a path to an uncommon life. Not surprisingly, the ‘obvious’ is the first thing everyone notices and the one thing that determines how most people respond. This, of course, is why it’s a path to the prevalent and ordinary. The obvious encourages us to oversimplify what we see and think and then justify our initial assumptions. We soon arrive at bold conclusions with the same baseless confidence that blinds us to the unimagined and the undiscovered. Maverick thinkers, however, remain curious. They maintain a healthy level of skepticism amid circumstances that appear to offer an ‘obvious’ explanation. This is why they continue testing, questioning, poking, and prodding at the facts to reveal new alternatives.

Moon Light World Map The map below shows where the Moon is visible from the Earth, depending on weather conditions and moon phases. The white dot symbolizes the position of the Moon, and the yellow sun symbolizes the position of the sun. - The bright part of the map shows where the moon is over the horizon on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 03:34:00 UTC. - The Sun's position is marked with this symbol: . At this location, the Sun will be at its zenith (directly overhead) in relation to an observer. - The Moon's position is marked with this symbol: . At this location, the Moon will be at its zenith in relation to an observer. Note that the symbol is not showing the current phase of the Moon. Fraction of moon illuminated: 14% Position of the Moon On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 03:34:00 UTC the Moon is at its zenith at these coordinates: |Latitude: ||3° 24' ||South| |Longitude: ||170° 51' ||East| The ground speed of the movement is currently 447.85 meters/second, 1612.3 km/hour, 1001.8 miles/hour or 870.6 knots.The table below shows the Moon position compared to the time and date above: |Time||Longitude difference||Latitude difference||Total| |1 minute||0° 14' 30.4"||16.70 mi||west||0° 00' 12.0"||0.23 mi||north||16.70 mi| |1 hour||14° 30' 27.7"||1001.81 mi||west||0° 11' 59.7"||13.74 mi||north||1002.01 mi| |24 hours||348° 25' 21.9"||799.46 mi||west||4° 45' 35.6"||327.07 mi||north||864.75 mi| Locations with the moon near zenith The following table shows 10 locations with moon near zenith position in the sky. |Yaren||Tue 3:34 PM||541 km||336 miles||292 nm|| NW| |Tarawa||Tue 3:34 PM||584 km||363 miles||315 nm|| NNE| |Funafuti||Tue 3:34 PM||1084 km||674 miles||585 nm|| ESE| |Majuro||Tue 3:34 PM||1168 km||726 miles||630 nm|| N| |Honiara||Tue 2:34 PM||1378 km||856 miles||744 nm|| WSW| |Baker Island||Mon 3:34 PM||1464 km||910 miles||791 nm|| ENE| |Port Vila||Tue 2:34 PM||1609 km||1000 miles||869 nm|| S| |Palikir||Tue 2:34 PM||1814 km||1127 miles||980 nm|| NW| |Suva *||Tue 4:34 PM||1827 km||1135 miles||986 nm|| SSE| |Fakaofo||Tue 4:34 PM||2087 km||1297 miles||1127 nm|| ESE|

In terms of data integration, the notion of data virtualization lets us think about collections of data or services as abstract entities. Thus the abstractions can be represented in a form that is most useful to the integration server or the data integration architect. It’s this notion of abstraction that provides for the grouping of related pieces of information. These groups are independent of their physical location and structure, and allow us to define and understand what meaningful operations can be performed on the data or services. We leverage data virtualization for a few core reasons: - First, data virtualization allows us to move forward with existing physical databases and structures, without driving expensive and risky changes. - Second, data virtualization has the ability to bind behavior to access data through the use of data services. This means we can place integrity and access logic decoupled from the core database. - Finally, data virtualization provides us with the ability to place volatility into a domain. For instance, we’re able to deal with changes to the physical database without necessarily changing the exposed structure which is bound to the service. Data virtualization, in its use with data integration, allows us to redefine the look, feel, and behavior of certain data sets and application services that are local to source or target systems. This means we can represent the data set or application service in a manner that best fits the needs of the data integration problem you are attempting to solve. This also means enforcement of certain restrictions on the use of the data or service, based upon the needs of the data integration scenario, as well as streamlining the task of reasoning about the data or service. We’ve employed this concept with great success for years in the world of object-oriented technology, and then moved to the use of distributed object, and now services. The new generation of data virtualization combines the notion of abstraction and services with the ability to access data that is most flexible to those who need to access the data in specific ways, including customized structures and logic, defined for the specific needs of the consumer of those services. So, we need to separate the implementation from the data virtualization itself. This allows us to change the internal representation and/or implementation without changing the abstract behavior, and lets people use the data virtualization in terms of data integration without needing to understand the internal implementation. While this seems complex, the use of this technology actually makes things simpler and easier to understand. It certainly makes data integration a much easier and less invasive technology to implement within the enterprise.