Our executive director and founder, Carole Richards, is highly passionate about education — especially reading. Carole taught in the Cleveland Metropolitan Schools for 10 years before starting North Coast Tutoring Services.
As a classroom teacher, Carole tailored her teaching to fit the individual goals of each of her students. Today, nothing has changed. We understand that no two students learn in the exact same manner; and so, we treat each student as an individual and adjust our approach to meet their needs.
In this article from February 2016, Carole shares her concerns about today’s children actually learning in the classroom, as opposed to just doing “stuff”.
Learning vs. “Stuff”
by Carole Richards
published February 1, 2016
As I consult with parents about children’s learning needs, I am baffled by how often the focus is on the number of problems or the number of worksheets a child completes. It concerns me because children should spend quality time on actual learning not on proving they can finish yet another worksheet.
For example, one parent wanted us to help their child complete homework. The eight-year-old was spending two hours a night on homework. This is after spending five and one-half hours in school. Many children soon burn out from this schedule, and both parent and child fight to complete the burden on a daily basis.
For homework, this child was to write his spelling words five times each and also write a sentence using each word. Do the spelling skills relate to actual understanding of the spelling process, or is the child merely memorizing a series of words that they study from Monday until their test on Friday and forget them by Monday?
Recently I visited a classroom. Two first grade girls in the classroom were working hard on listing all the “A” words in a story they were to read. Hopefully first graders know the letter “A” but I cannot imagine the purpose of copying words beginning with a letter. These words had both short and long “A” sounds so they weren’t really decoding or learning to spell the words.
In another classroom, children were stamping words with letter stamps. Finding the correct letters for the words they were creating was challenging for them. Yet the real purpose of the activity is difficult to figure out.
It is my sincere wish that children could focus on learning concepts not doing “stuff”. The word “learn” is defined as “acquire knowledge” or “absorb a skill”. Acquiring and absorbing how to learn is far more important than how many addition problems, how many spelling words, how many worksheets a child must complete in a day.
Think about your child or grandchild. What knowledge are they acquiring in school? Is it vital to their future? If it is not, be bold and question the purpose of an assignment.
What I am describing does not negate the importance of repeated practice. For example, mastering multiplication facts are very important to many math skills. You can’t do fractions or algebra efficiently without mastering this skill. Learning math facts makes learning math skills easier.
Often our schools find it important for a child with a reading disability to labor over reading a sixth grade text when they only read at a fourth grade level. Would it not be better to read the information to the child and then ask him to answer questions? Often children are required to complete assignments that require reading and they don’t comprehend the information at the level of the text. Then the parent or teacher celebrate that the child completed the “stuff”. Most children with reading difficulties are so frustrated that they begin to hate the idea of reading and writing. Separating the skill of learning to read from the understanding what you read until the child is proficient can make a difference in the child’s school success and motivation.
The most important skills to learn for our children are fairly simple. They include reading (the ability to actually read the printed word) and spelling (the ability to write the printed word). Of course they must then comprehend what they read and organize what they write as well. In math, understanding math concepts includes: place value, fractions, and whole number computation skills, etc. Children need to learn their facts and then their focus can be on solving the problems without the facts slowing them down. With the three “R’s” mastered, children are able to explore science, social studies and many other interests with great enthusiasm. Their ability to learn anything becomes exciting.
I watch my two and one-half year old granddaughter master concepts way beyond her age. She is determined and excited about learning and mastering skills. Yet, I worry that as she goes to school, despite her intelligence, she will be bogged down with completing endless “stuff” that won’t stimulate her fine brain.
Our schools keep raising the bar on standards. Yet most of the fun has been taken out of the child’s day. Children should be encouraged to love school, love learning and explore those interests with passion. As they master the basics, they are ready to learn.
Let’s tell our schools to help our children learn, not just do “stuff” to keep them busy. Then our children will be better prepared for college and the workforce.
Carole Richards is president of North Coast Tutoring Services, president/director of the Academic Fun & Fitness Camp at Lakeland Community College, author of Richards Learning Systems ®. She is a frequent guest on radio and TV. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


dominant in that shop. The layout in figure 5-1 maybe used as a guide in laying out a carpentry shop.
In planning the arrangement of equipment, consider such factors as sequence of operations, working space, clear shop entrance and exit, adequate workbenches, and safety. The positioning of equipment, layout tables, and so on, do NOT have to be the same in one shop as in another.
Try to place stationary machines so that the work will flow in an orderly and logical sequence. It is probably easier to do this in a specialized shop than it is in a general-purpose shop where the work differs considerably from one day to another.
In shops where there is a series of operations to be performed, the relative position of the various pieces of equipment has an important bearing on efficient operations. Not only should the equipment be accessible, but it should also be arranged to save wasted motion and to reduce walking distance.
This will enable your personnel to turn out more work when their equipment is close at hand. Clearance between adjacent machines should be such that the operators will NOT get in the way of one another. Electrical outlets should be readily available to the workbenches. Needless delays are caused by having to rig extension cords from poorly located outlets.
Your plans should include adequate means for storing tools and materials. When considerable amounts of materials must be kept on hand and space permits, a special storeroom maybe used for storage of materials. Where desirable, a portion of this storeroom may also be used for storage of tools and equipment. When a storeroom is available, however, it may still be advantageous to store certain material in the shop near the machines or equipment on which it is used. Refer to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards for the Construction Industry, Code of Federal Regulations (29 CFR PART 1910) for more information on storage of tools, material, and equipment.
The amounts and types of materials stored in your shop will depend largely upon the space available and the intended purpose of your shop. In most shops, you will probably need facilities for storing such items as bolts, nuts, nails, screws, and paint. Whatever the type of shop, you should make an effort to see that your storage facilities are arranged to give the greatest possible amount of free working space.
In today's industry, concrete is the most widely used flooring material and possibly the most unsatisfactory flooring material for shops. Even when painted or sealed to eliminate dust, the concrete floor is
Figure 5-1. - Typical layout of a carpentry shop.Continue Reading


About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the
universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event
all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What exsisted
prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation.
This occurrence was not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all
of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from
each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within
itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were fragments are thrown outward. The
galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe.
Helium and Deuterium, Oxygen and Hydrogen and traces of lithium and beryllium were some of the Gas particles formed. The amounts of these gas particles can be calculated given the volume and pressure at certain given constants. See sample problems below, related to different planets.
The notion that the expanding universe was extremely hot in the beginning provides a reasonable explanation for why helium and deuterium seem to have existed even before star formation. Both these species are created by nuclear fusion. Fusion of a proton and a neutron produces deuterium (also known as heavy hydrogen), while fusion of two deuterium nuclei produces helium. These reactions can occur only at very high temperatures, such as in the interiors of stars. In 1946, George Gamow, once a student of Friedmann, suggested that nuclear fusion must have taken place when the universe was so hot in the beginning. This process, called the “big bang nucleosynthesis”, would have created helium and deuterium (plus trace amounts of elements like lithium and beryllium) out of an initial sea of energetic protons and neutrons.
In the early 1960s, spectroscopic studies of local stars showed that the abundance of helium was about 20-30% by mass, the rest being mostly hydrogen. Stars and hydrogen bombs are the only things we know of that make helium in the present universe.
They both combine hydrogen nuclei (protons) into helium nuclei through nuclear fusion, releasing great amounts of energy. Astronomers calculate that the night sky should be much brighter if all the helium we now observe had come from stars burning (or bombs exploding). Some, if not most, of the helium must have existed before star formation.
Problem #11: The mean molar mass of the atmosphere at the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon is 28.6 g/mol. Titan’s surface temperature is 95 K and its pressure is 1.6 atm. Assuming ideal behavior, calculate the density of Titan’s atmosphere under these conditions.
1) Let us assume the presence of one mole of gas. Determine its volume under the conditions of Titan’s atmosphere:
PV = nRT
(1.6 atm) V = (1.00 mol) (0.08206 L atm / mol K) (95 K)
V = 4.8723125 L (I kept some guard digits)
2) Calculate the density:
28.6 g / 4.8723125 L = 5.87 g/L
Problem #12: The mean molar mass of the atmosphere at the surface of the Earth is 29.0 g/mol. Earth’s surface temperature is 298 K and its pressre is 1.00 atm. Assuming ideal behavior, calculate the density of Earth’s atmosphere under these conditions.
1) Let us assume the presence of one mole of gas. Determine its volume under the conditions of Earth’s atmosphere:
PV = nRT
(1.00 atm) V = (1.00 mol) (0.08206 L atm / mol K) (298 K)
V = 24.45388 L (I kept some guard digits)
2) Calculate the density:
29.0 g / 24.45388 L = 1.186 g/L
Comment: Titan’s atmosphere is five times more dense than Earth’s atmosphere.
Problem #13: A gas mixture composed of helium and argon has a density of 0.704 g/L at a 737 mmHg and 298 K. What is the percent composition of the mixture by (a) mass and by (b) volume.
Solution to a:
1) Calculate total moles of gases present:
Comment: assume that the volume of the gas mixture is 1.00 L
PV = nRT ⇒ n = PV / RT
n = (737 torr / 760 torr/atm) (1.00 L) / (0.08206 L atm/mole K) (298 K)
n = 0.039656 mol
2) Set up two simultaneous equations:
Comment: let x = mass He and y = mass Ar
Equation #1 ⇒ x + y = 0.704 g
Equation #2 ⇒ x/4.0026 g/mol + y/39.948 g/mol = 0.039656 mol
3) Substitute x = 0.704 – y into the second equation and solve for y:
Comment: I left off the units until the end.
(0.704 – y)/4.0026 + y/39.948 = 0.039656
(39.948) (0.704 – y) + (4.0026) (y) = (0.039656) (39.948) (4.0026)
More algebra results in:
y = 0.606 g Ar
x = 0.098 g He
4) Calculate mass percent of each gas:
Ar ⇒ (0.606 / 0.704) x 100 = 86.61%
He ⇒ 14.06%
Solution to b:
1) Let us determine the volume 0.606 g of Ar occupies at the stated T and P:
(737/760) (x) = (0.606/40) (0.08206) (298)
x = 0.382 L
2) Since combined volume was 1.00 L, the volume percents are:
Ar ⇒ 38.2%
He ⇒ 61.8%
Problem #14: A sample of gas (1.90 mol) is in a flask at 21.0 °C and 697.0 mm Hg. The flask is now opened and more gas is added to the flask. The new pressure is 795.0 mm Hg and the temperature is now 26.0 °C. How many moles of gas are now in the flask?
1) Use PV = nRT with the first set of data to get the volume of the container:
(697.0/760.0) (x) = (1.90 mol) (0.08206 L atm/mol K) (294.0 K)
x = 49.9819572 L
2) Use PV = nRT with the second set of data, using the volume just calculated. Solve for moles:
(795.0/760.0) (49.9819572 L) = (x) (0.08206 L atm/mol K) (299.0 K)
x = 2.13 mol
1) Set up two uses of PV = nRT:
a) (0.9171 atm) (V1) = (1.90 mol) (R) (294.0 K)
b) (1.046 atm) (V1) = (1.90 + x mol) (R) (299.0 K)
V1 represents the volume of the flask, which does not change.
2) Since V1 = V1 and R = R, divide (a) by (b):
(0.9171 atm / 1.046 atm) = [(1.90 mol) (294.0 K)] / [(1.90 + x mol) (299.0 K)]
(0.9171) (1.90 + x) (299.0) = (1.046 atm) (1.90) (294.0)
521.00451 + 274.2129x = 584.2956
x = 0.23 mol
This is the amount of moles of gas added, not the total moles.
3) Total moles of gas in the flask:
1.90 + 0.23 = 2.13 mol
Problem #15: In an experiment 350.00 mL of hydrogen gas was collected over water at 25.0 °C and 720.00 mmHg. Then, one-third of the gas leaked out of the container. What would the new volume be?
1) Remove vapor pressure of water:
720.00 mmHg – 23.76 mmHg = 696.24 mmHg
2) Calculate moles of gas:
PV = nRT
(696.24/760.00) (0.3500) = (n) (0.08206) (298)
n = 0.013111901 mol
3) Allow one-third to escape:
0.013111901 mol x (2/3) = 0.008741267 mol
4) Assume gas is still over water. Calculate new volume:
(720.00/760.00) (V) = (0.008741267) (0.08206) (298)
V = 0.22563 L = 225.63 mL
Notice that I did not reduce the vapor pressure value by one-third. All vapor pressures are independent of the actual volume above the liquid. They are dependent only on the temperature.
Problem #16: What volume of SO2 at 25.0 °C and 1.50 atm contains the same number of molecules as 2.00 L of chlorine gas measured at (Standard Temperature and Pressure) STP?
1) Calculate moles of Cl2:
PV = nRT
(1.00) (2.00) = (x) (0.08206) (273.0)
x = 0.089276229 mol (I kept some guard digits.)
Since moles is a direct measure of the number of molecules, we do not have to determine how many molecules this is.
2) Determine volume of SO2 that holds 0.089. . . moles:
(1.50) (x) = (0.089276229) (0.08206) (298.0)
x = 1.46 L
Problem #17: A mixture of CO2 and Kr weighs 35.0 g and exerts a pressure of 0.708 atm in its container. Since Kr is expensive, you wish to recover it from the mixture. After the CO2 is completely removed by absorption with NaOH(s) the pressure in the container is 0.250 atm. How many grams of CO2 and how many grams of Kr were initially present?
1) Calculate the mole fractions of CO2 and Kr:
CO2: 0.458 atm / 0.708 atm = 0.6469
2) Change these to “gram fractions:”
CO2: 0.6469 x 44.0 = 28.4636
Kr: 0.3531 x 83.8 = 29.59
CO2: 28.4636 /58.05 = 0.49
Please be aware that “gram fractions” is not a standard term.
3) Calculate grams in the mixture:
CO2: 35.0 x 0.49 = 17.15 g
Kr: 17.85 g
Comment: Based on this ratio (0.458/0.250) the CO2:Kr molar ratio is 1.83 to 1. Is the above gram ratio also a 1.83 to 1 molar ratio?
Yes. Convert 17.15 g and 17.85 g to their respective moles and divide moles of CO2 by moles of Kr.
Problem #18: Which of the following is constant for 1 mole of any ideal gas?
PV = nRT
PV/T = nR
Since the right-hand side is constant, the answer is B.
Problem #19: Our atmosphere is a mixture of gases (roughly 79% N2, 20% O2 and 1%Ar).
(a) What is the partial pressure (in atm) of each gas in the atmosphere?
(b) A mixture of He and O2 gases is used by deep sea divers. If the pressure of the gas a diver inhales is 8.0 atm what percent of the mixture should be O2, if the partial pressure of O2 is to be the same as what the divers would ordinarily breathe at sea level?
Solution to (a):
1) Determine the mole fraction of each gas. Assume 100 g of atmosphere:
N2: 79 g / 28.0 g mol¯1 = 2.82 mol
O2: 20 g / 32.0 g mol¯1 = 0.625 mol
Ar: 1 g / 40 g mol¯1 = 0.025 mol
2) Determine mole fraction of oxygen:
0.625 mol / 3.47 mol = 0.180
3) Determine partial pressure of oxygen:
1.00 atm x 0.180 = 0.180 atm
Solution to (b):
1) Calculate mole fraction of He/O2 mixture:
0.180 / 8 = 0.0225 mol of O2
7.820 / 8 = 0.9775 mol of He
2) Convert each to grams:
O2: 0.0225 mol x 32.0 g mol¯1 = 0.72 g
He: 0.9775 mol x 4.00 g mol¯1 = 3.91 g
3) Calculate percent of O2 in the mixture:
0.72 g / 4.63 g = 0.1555 = 15.55%
Problem #20: 600.0 mL of a mixture of O2 and O3 weighs 1.00 g at NTP. Calculate the volume that the ozone in mixture would occupy at NTP if it were alone.
Before the solution, a comment. I will take the N in NTP to mean ‘normal,’ with a synonym being ‘room,’ as in RTP. These values are taken to be 1.00 atm and 25.0 °C.
1) Use PV = nRT to calculate the number of moles of gas:
(1.00 atm) (0.6 L) = (x) (0.08206) (298 K)
x = 0.024536 mol
2) Determine grams of oxygen and ozone in the mixture:
x/32 + (1-x)/48 = 0.024536
multiply each term by 32 to get:
x + 2/3 – (2/3x) = 0.785152
1/3 x = 0.118485
x = 0.355 g of O2 (to three sig figs)
So, ozone = 0.645 g
3) Calculate moles, then volume of ozone at NTP:
0.645 g / 48.0 g/mol = 0.0134375 mol
(1.00 atm) (x) = (0.0134375 mol) (0.08206) (298 K)
x = 0.329 L = 329 mL
Problem #21: A mixture of Ar and N2 gases has a density of 1.419 g/L at STP. What is the mole fraction of each gas?
1) At STP, the following is true:
a) the volume of one mole of gas occupies 22.414 L
b) the mass of one mole of Ar is 39.948 g
c) the mass of one mole of N2 is 28.014 g
2) Determine the mass of 22.414 L of the gas mixture:
1.419 g/L times 22.414 L = 31.805466 g
3) The mass of the gas mixture is the weighted average of the molar masses (since the molar masses occupy 22.414 L):
31.805466 = (x) (39.948) + (1 – x) (28.014)
31.805466 = 39.948x + 28.014 – 28.014x
3.791466 = 11.934x
x = 0.3177
x is the mole fraction for Ar; the mole fraction for nitrogen is 0.6823.
Problem #22: You are given an envelope containing a piece of magnesium and a piece of zinc with a total mass of 0.0833 grams. The volume of gas collected (at 25.0 °C and Pressure atm = 755 torr) is 59.74 mL. Liquid column height is only 15 mm. Calculate the mass of each piece of metal in the envelope.
Comment: I’m going to assume the hydrogen gas produced was collected over mercury. Assuming the gas was collected over water makes it a bit more complicated.
1) Get the pressure in the gas collection tube:
755 torr minus 15 torr = 740 torr
2) Determine moles of gas produced:
PV = nRT
(740 torr / 760 torr/atm) (0.05974 L) = (n) (0.08206) (298 K)
n = 0.0023787 mol
3) Set up first equation (of two):
m + z = 0.0833
where m = mass of Mg and z = mass of Zn
4) Set up second equation:
(m / 24.305) + (z / 65.38) = 0.0023787
m / 24.305 = moles of magnesium
z / 65.38 = moles of zinc
The sum of the moles of Mg and Zn equals the total moles of gas collected because of the 1:1 stoichiometry of each reaction:
Zn (s) + H2SO4 (aq) —> H2 (g) + ZnSO4 (aq)
Mg (s) + H2SO4 (aq) —> H2 (g) + MgSO4 (aq)
5) Solve the two equations:
Here is the solution via a Cramer’s rule (the method of determinants) on-line calculator:
m = 0.04273415 g
z = 0.04056585 g
To three sig figs:
m = 0.0427 g
z = 0.0406 g
If you use the on-line app, make sure to use these values for the second equation:
m / 24.305 = 0.0411438m
z / 65.38 = 0.015295z
As an additional exercise, you may wish to solve the equation system by hand.
Problem #23: A mixture of oxygen and helium is 92.3% by mass oxygen. It is collected at atmospheric pressure (745 torr). What is the partial pressure of oxygen in this mixture?
Let’s assume a big, big volume such that this volume holds 100 g of the mixture at 745 torr and whatever the temperature is.
92.3 g of the 100 g is O2 and 7.7 g is He.
Compute moles of each because pressure is proportional to the number of particles:
O2 —> 92.3 g / 32.0 g/mol = 2.884375 mol
He —> 7.7 g / 4.0026 g/mol = 1.92375 mol
We now will calculate what we need to solve this equation: partial pressure = mole fraction x total pressure.
Get total moles:
2.884375 + 1.92375 = 4.808125 mol
Get mole fraction of O2:
2.884375 / 4.808125 = 0.599896 = 0.600
Get partial pressure of O2:
0.600 times 745 torr = 447 torr
Problem #24: If 20 percent of 100 mL sample of oxygen is converted into ozone, what would be its final volume?
Let us split the volume into two: one of 20 mL and one of 80 mL. Leave the 80 mL untouched and allow all the 20 mL to react.
3O2 —> 2O3
We will keep the pressure and temperature constant.
We will use Gay-Lussac’s Law of Combining Volumes:
three volumes of O2 will react to form two volumes of O3
3 is to 2 as 20 is to x
x = 13.3 mL
Combine the two volumes:
80 + 13.3 = 93.3 mL
Problem #25: Low-pressure gauges in research laboratories are occasionally calibrated in inches of water. The density of mercury at 15 °C is 13.5 g/cm3 and the density of water at that temperature is 1.00 g/cm3. What is the pressure (in torr) inside a gas cylinder that reads 1.40 in. H2O at 15 °C?
Mercury is 13.5 times denser than water, so it takes 13.5 times as much water to indicate the same pressure as compared to mercury.
Another way to express this is that the pressure times the density of the indicating liquid (water or mercury) is a constant.
(1.40 inch) (1.00 g/cm3) = (x) (13.5 g/cm3)
x = 0.1037 inch of mercury
The pressure unit torr is measured in millimeters of mercury.
0.1037 inch times 25.4 mm/inch = 2.63 torr (rounded to three sig figs)
Based on theories of the big bang nucleosynthesis, physicists in the mid-1960s calculated that roughly 1/4 of mass was converted into helium in the beginning, while the rest remained as hydrogen. This would be consistent with the earlier measurements of 20-30% helium abundance if most of the observed helium were present, from the big bang, even before stars began producing more. In the early 1970s, spectroscopic studies in other galaxies have confirmed that the majority of the observed helium did exist before any star formation. The figure shows the helium abundance of many galaxies having various oxygen abundances. Oxygen abundance indicates in general how much nucleosynthesis has taken place in stars because stars produce “heavy” elements (like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and helium) from hydrogen through nuclear fusion. If all observed helium was created in stars like all oxygen was, we would expect to find no helium in galaxies that have no oxygen because these galaxies must have formed before any stars created heavy elements. Yet, as the plot shows, the abundance of helium decreases very little as the abundance of oxygen approaches zero. The galaxies must have formed with an initial composition of about 24% helium. This observational result supports the theory that there must have been a big bang in the beginning which converted about 1/4 of mass into helium through nucleosynthesis.


of the Lost Ten Tribes
by Yair Davidiy
The Blessings of
the Lost Ten Tribes in Exile
Jacob was promised a healthy climate,
agricultural plenty and mineral riches
(Genesis 27:28). These blessing were repeated in the blessing to Joseph (Genesis 49:25).
GIVE THEE OF THE DEW OF HEAVEN, AND THE FATNESS OF THE EARTH, AND PLENTY
OF CORN AND WINE:"
Agricultural plenty and great
"EVEN BY THE
GOD OF THY FATHER, WHO SHALL HELP THEE; AND BY THE ALMIGHTY, WHO SHALL BLESS
THEE WITH BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN ABOVE, BLESSINGS OF THE DEEP THAT LIETH UNDER,
BLESSINGS OF THE BREASTS, AND OF THE WOMB:"
<<BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN
ABOVE>>: climate and agriculture. BLESSINGS OF THE DEEP: Water and mineral resources.
THE BREASTS, AND OF THE WOMB: Health
and fertility and bounty from the Almighty.
In the Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy
chapter 33) tells us that Joseph
will be blessed with agricultural plenty and mineral resources (33:15-16):
"AND OF JOSEPH
HE SAID, BLESSED OF THE LORD BE HIS LAND, FOR THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF HEAVEN,
FOR THE DEW, AND FOR THE DEEP THAT COUCHETH BENEATH,"
This says that Joseph was
blessed with agricultural prosperity, healthy lands, and mineral resources in plenty.
"AND FOR THE
PRECIOUS FRUITS BROUGHT FORTH BY THE SUN, AND FOR THE PRECIOUS THINGS PUT
FORTH BY THE MOON,"
Some plants need a set number
of hours of both daylight and darkness. Certain plants require moonlight.
"AND FOR THE
CHIEF THINGS OF THE ANCIENT MOUNTAINS, AND FOR THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF THE
Food products and Mineral resources.
"AND FOR THE
PRECIOUS THINGS OF THE EARTH AND FULNESS THEREOF, AND FOR THE GOOD WILL
OF HIM THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH: LET THE BLESSING COME UPON THE HEAD OF JOSEPH,
AND UPON THE TOP OF THE HEAD OF HIM THAT WAS SEPARATED FROM HIS BRETHREN."
<<PRECIOUS THINGS OF
THE EARTH>>: agricultural plenty. <<THAT WAS SEPARATED FROM HIS BRETHREN>>:
Joseph was apart from his brothers
and still dwells apart from them in physically separated areas.
Hoshea also says that the Lost Ten
Tribes un their place of exile, as well as being extremely numerous shall enjoy great
agricultural bounty and other material
WINE, AND OIL, AND MULTIPLIED HER SILVER AND GOLD."
Nations we identify as having the
Lost Tribes amongst them produce nearly all of the worlds agricultural surpluses: Beef,
sheep (mutton and wool), wheat,
maize, cotton, sugar, wine (France, USA, Australia, South Africa, Israel), fruits, vegetables, etc. Lands of Joseph
are especially prominent in this
regard and Joseph was bequeathed a double portion.


Each electronic sensory device is made to do carry out a specific operation: read a temperature, record the atmospheric pressure, sense an applied force, and so on. Other sensors (usually more complex) are better suited for human interfaces, calculations and/or data storage. But almost all sensors, sooner or later, need to communicate data to other devices.
A temperature logger for example needs to pass the daily logged data, rather than the current temperature, to a personal computer. Conversely, the personal computer might need to talk with that sensor in order to request the current temperature, or to specify how often the sensor has to collect the data.
Furthermore, the data collected to a single device may need to be aggregated along with data from other sensors, in order to obtain more complex information, process it with apropriate hardware and software that can make the right decisions, present it in a nice way and – why not? – share the obtained results in the web. Thus, the communication method which links sensors with other devices is thus one of the key features of any system.
Usually that communication is done through a cable, but in some cases this is not comfortable, practical or even possible. In many of these cases we could switch to a wireless solution. Wireless communication poses significant limitations when it comes to real-time data, but it is adequate and cheap for general not time-critical data exchange. In this article we introduce an example of Bluetooth wireless communication, showing the way it can be implemented with a basic example.
Let’s introduce a basic example on low-level side, showing a simple microcontroller configuration. In this example we will assume control of 2 LEDs in two different ways: one in an ON/OFF fashion, and the other with PWM, in order to control its brightness.
To carry out this task, we used the following components:
- a power source (in this case a USB power bank)
- a microcontroller (an old and cheap Arduino Duemillanove)
- A Bluetooth modem (a BlueSMIRF Gold)
- 2 LEDs, 2 resistors and some jumper wires
You can find the detailed schematics of the circuit here.
The microcontroller receives the desired status of the LEDs via the Bluetooth modem and controls them accordingly. This is the simple Arduino sketch that does what we want. The sketch essentially reads characters from the Bluetooth modem (Serial.read), if available, until it finds a delimiter. Then it parses the received string in order to extract the desired value and apply it to the correct LED.
A message similar to “$PWM,100” will set the PWM LED lightness to the corresponding value;
– The message “$LED,1” will switch on the ON/OFF led;
– The message “$LED,0” will switch off the ON/OFF led;
– The microcontroller will reply with the executed command;
Note: Remember to temporarily disconnect the RX and TX wires from the BlueSMIRF to the Arduino, when you program the Arduino from the computer via USB.
The Android Device
There are many characteristics that makes a smartphone an ideal high-level master device:
- It has great computational power
- It is suitable for human-machine interfaces
- It implements a lot of ways to communicate with other devices
- It can store and share a large amount of data
- It is relatively small and cheap
- A large amount of people has one of them and is able to use it
In this example we use an Android smartphone in order to set the microcontroller led values.
If you want to run the test application, you have to:
- Activate the Bluetooth on your phone
- Pair the Bluetooth remote device with your Android device
- Start a new empty project, then use the manifest and the BluetoothHelperExample.java file into it
- Find the line:
private String DEVICE_NAME = "RNBT-729D"
in BluetoothHelperExample.java and change the current value with the name of your paired device
- Compile and run the test app
The application automatically connects the Smartphone to the remote microcontroller and, when connected, it controls the 2 LEDs sending the appropriate command strings when the user clicks the LED button (switching the ON/OFF LED) or moves the slider (changing the lightness of the dimmable LED). In order to easily set up and manage the communication, we made a Java Helper class.
The BluetoothHelper Class
This Java Class implements an easy message-based Bluetooth wireless communication layer between an Android device (the client) and a microcontroller (the server). It is compatible with Android devices v. 4.0+.
The scope of this class is to make simple and direct the wireless communication between a low level device, that typically collects data and does simple stuff, and a higher level device that is able to present the collected data, store all the information in a file and offer the user a simple interface to send requests and control the behavior of the microcontroller.
Using this class you can Connect, Disconnect, Send String messages, Receive String messages via Listener (best way) or with explicit polling, by automatically reconnecting and checking the status of your Bluetooth connection in a simple and thread-safe way.
This class is a work in progress, some additional functions will be added in the future.The class is released under GNU GPL 3 license and freely downloadable here. Download the API documentation from here. All downloads are also available in the GitHub repository. The GitHub repository contains:
- Android/BluetoothHelper.class – The Helper Class for Android
The repository also includes the presented example, that shows how to use the helper class:
- Android/BluetoothHelperExample/ – Example app for Android
- Arduino/BluetoothHelperExample/ – The sketch for Arduino
- doc/ – The related documentation


KidWind Challenge - Teacher Workshop
Thursday, September 26, 2013 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Description: Did you know wind is the fastest growing energy source?! But how do you get energy from the wind? Wind turbines are your answer. A wind turbine is a device that produces electricity from the kinetic energy of the wind. Now your students can be engineers to design and construct their own wind turbine.
The KidWind Challenge encourages students to learn about renewable energies. It also stresses the importance of wind technologies and their role in helping to make the world less dependent on fossil fuels for the production of electricity!
The KidWind Challenge is opened to both middle school and high school students. Please note, pre-registration is required. The last day to register a KidWind team is one week before the event, Wednesday, September 23, 2013.


Mastitis in cats can be a very painful condition, although it is not considered an emergency situation most of the time.
It is almost always localized, but if it is severe, it can spread to other parts of your cat and can become septic which is a bacterial infection that attacks your cat’s blood.
Mastitis is a bacterial infection that affects the mammary glands.
These are any of the milk producing glands and consist of lobes of alveoli with a system of ducts that transport the milk in a female cat to an external nipple.
These glands will almost always occur in pairs and begin secreting milk after the birth of a litter.
This infection can occur in just one gland, or it can affect multiple glands and is generally caused by an infection that enters into your cat from an opening.
It can also be caused by a trauma from the litter such as biting, or it can be spread in the blood, especially if it is an older female.
If it is localized to just one gland, your cat may show no symptoms at all or any signs of an illness.
However, if it has spread and is in several glands, you cat can become very ill. For this reason, the mammary glands should be checked daily.
If these glands are warm, hard, or painful at all to your nursing cat, they are infected.
It is also a good idea to check the milk daily as well. If the milk is off colored or clumping, it has become infected with bacteria.
There are several symptoms with Mastitis in cats that you can watch for other than checking the volume of the glands or the milk.
When checking the glands to see if they are warm or hard, you can also check for swelling, as this symptom will surface before the gland actually becomes painful to your cat.
Redness will also start to occur in the teats before they become painful and are usually followed shortly after by the discoloration of the milk as well as a discharge from the glands themselves.
If there is a discharge, the next symptom you can watch for is an abscess.
This is an especially dangerous symptom as the abscess can easily break and cause the infection to spread to other parts of your cat’s body.
A sudden fever is also another symptom to watch for.
However, perhaps the two most obvious symptoms that your cat not only has this infection but the infection has become serious will be kittens that are chronically crying or sick.
These symptoms need to be treated very seriously as it could easily lead to the death of the newborn litter.
There will be several different forms of treatments for Mastitis in cats and the exact treatment will depend on the severity of the infection.
The first form of treatment for mastitis is antibiotics, and which kind will all depend of the pH tests of your cat’s milk which is extremely important in effectively treating this infection.
The pH level of your cat milk is the measurement of the acidity or alkalinity of the milk, and it is measured in ranges from 0 to 14.
The neutral number is usually considered to be at 7.0, but most cats’ pH levels rest between 6.6 and 6.9. If it is 7.0 or higher, it is a risk.
If your cat nurses at levels above 7.0, it may be toxic to the litter and the result is Mastitis in cats.
Once your veterinarian has determined this level, the antibiotics are usually given by the owner at home unless it is a severe infection, in which case they will be administered intravenously.
Until the pH level is brought down to a safe level, it may be recommended to feed the litter with a milk re-placer.
A warm water compress such as a hot water rubber bottle container will also be used to help with the draining of the infected fluid.
It is very important to make absolutely certain, however, that it is warm and not hot.
Until the fluid is properly drained, if you decide not to use a milk re-placer, manual milking may also be a form of treatment for Mastitis in cats.
In most all but the severest of cases, this warm compress therapy will accomplish two things.
First, it will help with the flow of the blood as well as helping the antibiotics to penetrate the infected tissues much more effectively.
If there has been an abscess develop, the treatment for this infection will be to surgically drain it as this will assist the effectiveness of the antibiotics.
This form of treatment will have to be monitored by your veterinarian to ensure that all of the infection has been removed.
If not, it may have to be drained again until it is totally removed.
If this infection has become severe and has killed several of your cat’s tissues, the only effective treatment may be a mastectomy, or the removal of the mammary gland.
However, this form of treatment is extremely rare.
If the infection is considered very severe and has become septic, meaning that it has spread, the form of treatment will be intravenous fluid therapy.
This can be very expensive and will take several days for your cat to fully recover.
However, in most all cases they will fully recover.
The final form of treatment for Mastitis in cats will be to weigh the litter every day.
If the treatments are effective, it will show in the kitten’s weight as they will be getting the proper nutrients back in their body.
Mastitis in cats can be very painful to the nursing mother and potentially life threatening to the litter. However, the treatments are usually very successful, depending on the severity of the infection.
Once completed, the mother and the litter should be free of the infection and live healthy and normal lives.


A new study suggests the long-term use of over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs can inhibit muscle growth in young athletes who lift weights.
“The results are extremely interesting since the use of anti-inflammatory drugs is so globally widespread, not least amongst elite athletes and recreationally active individuals,” said researcher Tommy Lundberg of the Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Laboratory Medicine in Sweden.
Healthy men and women, aged between 18 and 35 were assigned to two groups. One group took a high dosage of non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) and the other a low dose every day for a period of eight weeks. During the same period, participants engaged in supervised weight training regimen two to three times a week. Certain variables such as muscle growth, muscle strength and anti-inflammatory markers were measured by the researchers. After eight weeks the increase in muscle volume was twice as large in the low dose group as in the high dose group.
“Our results suggest that young people who do weight training to increase their muscle mass should avoid regular high doses of anti-inflammatory drugs,” Lundberg stated.
The results partly contradict studies performed in older individuals, which have indicated that anti-inflammatory drugs can protect against age-related muscle-mass loss. The researchers think, therefore, that the mechanism regulating muscle mass differs between the old and the young weight lifters.


The Parkes 21-cm Multibeam System: surveying the universe
Dr Lister Staveley-Smith and his team
Dr Warwick Wilson, Mr Malcolm Sinclair and Dr Trevor Bird
CSIRO's radio telescope at Parkes (NSW) has the world's first 21-cm multibeam receiving system, giving astronomers 13 simultaneous radio beams on the sky.
"Dr Lister Staveley-Smith and his team (Dr Warwick Wilson, Mr Malcolm Sinclair and Dr Trevor Bird) have combined leading edge engineering solutions with state-of-the-art astronomy," says Dr McIntosh.
"Since the Multibeam System became operational in March 1997, it has been discovering a new galaxy on almost a daily basis, including an unexpectedly large number of 'dwarf' galaxies. The Multibeam project is internationally recognised as one of the most significant radio-astronomical developments ever, and has ensured that Australia retains its acknowledged position as world leader in science and engineering for astronomy."
Congratulations to Lister Staveley-Smith, Mal Sinclair, Warwick Wilson (ATNF) and Trevor Bird (CTIP) who yesterday received one of this year's four CSIRO medals at a ceremony in Melbourne, for their part in the multibeam project for the Parkes telescope.
Copies of a video about the project will be available next week.
This page is maintained by Sebastian Juraszek


Opinion article* published in The Conversation written by Surinder Baines, Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at University of Newcastle.
Here’s an interesting stat to bring up at the dinner table: for each human cell in your body, you have roughly ten non-human cells living in your gut. In other words, there are around 100 trillion microorganisms living in your intestines.
So how does this mass of microorganisms affect our health and ageing?
Last month, researchers from China and the US showed in Nature that these trillions of gut microorganisms, also called microbiota, are affected by the food we eat – and, in turn, may play a role in longevity.
READ the full opinion article in The Conversation.
* Opinion pieces represent the author’s views.


What does "Iatrogenic" mean? Iatros means "physician" in Greek and -genic, means "induced by" - derived from the International Scientific Vocabulary. Thus, iatrogenic means "physician-induced". Medical definition: "induced by a physician's words or therapy (used especially of a complication resulting from treatment). Thus Iatrogenic death is death resulting directly or indirectly from a physician's words or therapy.
In 2000, a presidential task force labelled medical errors a "national problem of epidemic proportions." Members estimated that the "cost associated with these errors in lost income, disability, and health care costs is as much as $29 billion annually." In the same year the Journal of the American Medical Association carried a study by Dr. Barbara Starfield (John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health) that put Iatrogenic deaths in America at the astounding number of 225,000!
Dr. Starfield cautioned that as startling as this research was, it only represented hospitalized patients - it did not include deaths in nursing homes, emergency rooms, or in doctor’s offices. It did not include negative effects that are associated with disability or discomfort. And, these estimates of death due to error are lower than those in other published reports. Nevertheless, 225,000 iatrogenic deaths per year constitute the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from cancer and heart disease! The most significant number of these unnecessary deaths, 106,000, were due to the negative effects of properly prescribed drugs, making them the fourth leading cause of death in America.
On a strictly monetary basis, depending on which published study you use, this adds up to $58.5 to $100 billion in extra costs! Walter Cronkite, well-known news anchor, painted a dismal picture: “America’s healthcare system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” (1990)
No wonder some have also dubbed this 20th century disease Acquired Iatrogenic Death Syndrome (AIDS)
In 2003 a independent review of government-approved medicine (Death by Medicine - Authors: Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD) compared thousands of published, peer-reviewed scientific studies. The numbers generated were higher than those cited in the JAMA article, but the conclusion was the same: there is something dreadfully wrong with American medicine. Too often it does more harm than good. Compelling evidence from this study unveiled astounding statistics on the 783,936 iatrogenic deaths per year that have resulted from conventional medicine at the staggering cost of $282 billion. Depending on which of the above studies one finds more credible, it still adds up to between two and six jumbo jets falling out of the sky each and every day! This phenomena is not limited to the U.S. Similar percentages were seen in Britain, Canada, and Australia.
Annual Physical and Economic Cost of Medical Intervention
Worse drug offenders
The leading causes of adverse drug reactions are: antibiotics (17%), cardiovascular drugs (17%), chemotherapy (15%), and analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents (15%).
Dr. Richard Besser, of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2003, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was in the tens of millions. The CDC posts this public awareness on its website: “Are you aware that colds, flu, and most sore throats and bronchitis are caused by viruses? Did you know that antibiotics do not help fight viruses? It’s true. Plus, taking antibiotics when you have a virus may do more harm than good. Taking antibiotics when they are not needed increases your risk of getting an infection later that resists antibiotic treatment.”
(1) Lazarou J, Pomeranz B, Corey P. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. JAMA. 1998;279:1200-1205.
(2) Suh DC, Woodall BS, Shin SK, Hermes-De Santis ER. Clinical and economic impact of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. Ann Pharmacother. 2000 Dec;34(12):1373-9.
(3) Thomas et al., 2000; Thomas et al., 1999. Institute of Medicine.
(4) Xakellis, G.C., R. Frantz and A. Lewis, Cost of Pressure Ulcer Prevention in Long Term Care, JAGS, 43 - 5, May 1995.)
(5) Barczak, C.A., R.I. Barnett, E.J. Childs, L.M. Bosley, "Fourth National Pressure Ulcer Prevalence Survey", Advances in Wound Care, 10- 4, Jul/Aug 1997
(6) Weinstein RA. Nosocomial Infection Update. Special Issue. Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol 4 No. 3, July Sept 1998.
(7) Forth Decennial International Conference on Nosocomial and Healthcare-Associated Infections, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), February 25, 2000, Vol. 49, No. 7, p. 138.
(8) Greene Burger S, Kayser-Jones J, Prince Bell J. Malnutrition and Dehydration in Nursing Homes:Key Issues in Prevention and Treatment. National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform. June 2000. http://www.cmwf.org/programs/elders/burger_mal_386.asp
(9) Starfield B. Is US health really the best in the world? JAMA. 2000 Jul 26;284(4):483-5. Starfield B. Deficiencies in US medical care. JAMA. 2000 Nov 1;284(17):2184-5.
(10) Weingart SN, McL Wilson R, Gibberd RW, Harrison B. Epidemiology of medical error. West J Med. 2000 Jun;172(6):390-3.
(11) Calculations detailed in Unnecessary Surgery section, from two sources: (13) http://hcup.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.asp and (71) US Congressional House Subcommittee Oversight Investigation. Cost and Quality of Health Care: Unnecessary Surgery. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1976
(12) Zhan C, Miller M. Excess Length of Stay, Charges, and Mortality Attributable to Medical Injuries During Hospitalization. JAMA. 2003;290:1868-1874.


Intensive Care Medicine
With methodic persistence, hospitals and medical researchers explore ways in
which patient care can be improved. One area that has been studied rather
extensively is the intensive care unit or ICU. Patients in the ICU have the
most complex medical and surgical problems in the hospital, and these patients
are at the highest risk for complications.
At any given time, the ICU patient census will include people who have
suffered heart attacks or respiratory failure; people recovering from traumatic
injuries, neurosurgery, or other complex surgical procedures; and people with
life-threatening cases of pneumonia or other serious illness. ICU patients
often require ventilator assistance to support their breathing. They are on
heart monitors and they may be taking intravenous medication, fluid, and
nutrition. As a result, patients in the intensive care unit require a team of
multidisciplinary physician specialists, registered nurses with expertise in
critical care, and other health-care specialists to address the many different
aspects of their care.
Data from a number of studies have determined that patient outcomes are
likely to be better in intensive care units that are managed by intensivists. Intensivists are
internal medicine specialists, anesthesiologists, or surgeons who have also
chosen to subspecialize in critical care medicine.
They practice medicine only in the hospital critical-care setting, directly
managing or coordinating the care of critically ill and injured patients in the
ICU. This is a model of intensive care that is widely practiced in Europe and other countries where physicians typically
specialize in either inpatient or outpatient care.
A growing number of the nation's hospitals already have board-certified intensivists directing care in their intensive care units,
and Cayuga Medical Center
is part of this group.
The role of the hospital intensivist is to manage
the team of caregivers and to be on site in the ICU. Being located in the unit
allows the intensivist to monitor medication and
ventilation support closely, making adjustments on a frequent basis with better
results for the patients.
Intensivists are very accessible to families. When
a patient enters the ICU, this physician can bring together the patient's case manager,
clergy, and other members of the support team to share information with the
family or the patient's designated health-care proxy. In addition to family
meetings, the intensivist meets regularly with the
multidisciplinary care team including nurses, respiratory therapists,
pharmacists, and nutritionists to evaluate the entire ICU census. At these
meetings, the care plans for each patient are discussed from the perspective of
each team member. This model, which is followed at major medical centers, is in
place at Cayuga Medical Center.
Intensivists also work as consultants for other
physicians such as family practitioners, internists, and surgeons. By being in
the ICU, the intensivist can make an intervention
quickly if a patient takes a turn for the worse, while staying in close contact
with the admitting physician. This collaboration results in the best possible
care for the ICU patient at a time when his or her doctor may be seeing
patients in the office or operating room.
Intensivist medicine has been a recognized
specialty in this country for at least three decades and is part of the growing
distinction between inpatient and outpatient medicine. As outpatient physicians
become increasingly busy with their office practices, the need for hospital-based
physicians has grown. The result has been the emergence of intensivists
skilled in caring for the sickest patients in the hospital setting. Intensivist-staffed ICUs are now the standard of care.


In 2007, I began scouring the net, searching for information on colony collapse disorder, the ‘mysterious’ phenomenon killing honeybees worldwide.
On YouTube, I came upon an eerie and beautifully sad short animation hailing from Lithuania created by a young animator named Antanas Skucas. It was called Colony Collapse Disorder, An Unfinished Story.
In it, a boy is dreaming; he opens his mouth and an elongated bee buzzes out in search of nectar in a stark, steel world ruined by industrialization.
There is a devil’s silhouette, an abandoned swing moving in the wind, creaking; people are scrambling; it’s mayhem. And still the honeybee tries to spread sweetness and pollinate.
My co-director George Langworthy insisted a bug coming out of a human’s mouth would both disturb and disgust our audience.
I didn’t understand. The image had captivated me. It was symbolic. Was this a topsy-turvy dream where we as a society were waging war on our planet? The bee is seen as a messenger, an ancient creature that preceded humans on Earth by 10 to 20 million years and is now flying toward extinction.
The image reminded me that, according to one Egyptian myth, honeybees are the tears of the sun god Ra. When the tears fall onto the soil they are transformed into bees that build honeycombs and produce honey.
We showed a cut of our film, and indeed viewers perceived the image of an insect exiting a boy’s mouth as disgusting and disturbing. I still wanted to keep it in. Wasn’t art meant to provoke?
We did, however, include other clips from Skucas’ short Colony Collapse Disorder, An Unfinished Story. Here is the original piece in full. Tell us what you think. Leave a comment and earn BeeBucks.
Maryam Henein is an investigative journalist, professional researcher, and producer of the award-winning documentary Vanishing of the Bees.
Submit your story or essay to Buzzworthy Blogs.
- 13 Banned Foods Still Allowed In The U.S.
- A Scary Look Inside The McRib
- Dangerously High Pesticide Levels In Brand Name Tea
- ‘Natural Flavor’ Comes From A Beaver’s Butt
- 8 Foods People Think Are Healthy (But Aren’t)


We Aren’t Eating More; We are Exercising Less
~ September 1999 No.78 ~
It goes against what many experts have been telling us for a long time and it may be bad news for all of those “no fat” products, but nutritionist Dr. Alison Steven (University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Canada) says that her review of the literature shows that the average caloric intake of North Americans is slowly going down.
Dr. Steven has looked at diet surveys carried out over the last fifty years in which people were asked what they ate - usually in the past three days. Such diet recall studies are often criticized as being unreliable, because it is generally believed that people (intentionally or unconciously) under report what they have eaten. For people who have a hard time remembering what they had for lunch just a few hours ago, it is easy to understand how things could get left off the list. But, as Dr. Steven argues, there is no reason to believe that the under-reporting in the most recent studies should be any worse than in the earlier studies.
So how does she explain the rise in obesity ? It’s a simple matter of energy from the diet in and energy used during exercise and for metabolism out. To a nutritionist the weight gain problem is simple to explain if we are taking more calories in than we are burning up, the excess becomes body fat. If the amount of calories we eat is going down - as Dr. Steven believes - and we are still putting on fat, that can only mean that we are not burning up enough calories. So it is not illogical to say that North Americans are getting fatter while at the same time they are eating fewer calories.
It is perhaps too early to say whether the trend that Dr. Steven has seen in her analysis of the data is significant or not. But it is evident that just cutting down on high fat foods and replacing fatty foods by ones that are high in carbohydrates is not enough if you are going to reward yourself with an extra hour in front of the television. Yes calories count - the ones we eat and the ones we burn off when we exercise.
|1 bottle of beer:||145|
|100 g of french fries:||200|
|100 g vanilla ice cream:||201|
|data from USDA National Nutrient Database|
|1 hour of tennis:||508|
|1 hour of slow walking:||159|
|1 hour of aerobics:||381|
|1 hour of curling:||254|
|1 hour of golf (carrying clubs):||350|
|data from NutriStrategy - applicable to a body weight of 64 kg or 140 lb|


A balanced diet needs to contain foods from all the main food groups in the correct proportions to provide the body with optimum nutrition. Confused about what constitutes a healthy diet. The best way to understand the different types of food that make up a healthy balanced diet is to use the to plan your daily food choices. Your goal is to fill half your plate with vegetables and fruit at every me Choose recipes with plenty of vegetables.
Or, if your kids wanted to take up smoking, would you allow that too. The quest for protein is relentless, and the stakes are high: if a cricket stops moving, it becomes an easy source of protein for its companions, and it will be eaten. By: EatingWell:' Try to eat at least five portions of different kinds of fruit or veg every day to stay in top condition. Lower.


NATO today is without a doubt the most powerful military and political alliance in the world. This image is meant to convey that the organization is up-to-date with technology, even advanced in it , and socially modern. The “binoculars” represent one of the most important principles of NATO; to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members. By guarding all the member states of the alliance, NATO aims to prevent conflict inside and outside the organization. The alliance focus its aims in directions which will benefit interest of each member country. The “binoculars” are the challenge of identifying and agreeing the common interest of its member countries. Being a collective-security alliance, the military power comes predominantly from the United States, but NATO’s real power derives from the fact that it combines the United States’ military capabilities and economic power with Europe’s collective political and economic weight, that makes a combination globally significant. As we know the future is unpredictable. It brings known and unknown dangers, and NATO can serve as a “lighthouse in the deep sea of various dangers.” NATO can face the ever changing medium that pushes it towards growth, unity, and change.


The original patent was issued in 1834 to a parisian pharmacist joseph grard dublanc and pharmacy student franois achille barnab moths for the invention and manufacture of gelatin capsules 1 the basic idea of a capsule is to enclose the drug or active pharmaceutical ingredient api in an odorless tasteless elegant easy to . Softgel capsules are a drug delivery form that offers pharmaceutical manufacturers a tool to overcome the growing formulating challenges presented by poorly soluble drugs and highly potent apis advances in softgel technology are making it possible to use this drug delivery approach for a wider selection of apis including those that must be . The drugs and the pharmaceutical sciences series is designed to enable the pharmaceutical scientist to stay abreast of the changing trends advances and innovations associated with therapeutic drugs. Previously published as hard capsules this updated and expanded second edition covers all aspects of capsule technology including history standards methods and equipment used in manufacture filling printing weighing cleaning and inspecting of both hard and soft capsules pharmaceutical capsules is an essential resource for all those involved in the development manufacture and testing
How it works:
1. Register Trial Account.
2. Download The Books as you like ( Personal use )


No rational or reasonable person could argue that America is a less free nation today than it was ten years ago, 100 years ago, or at the time of our founding. Even our freedom to worship, our freedom of speech, and now our freedom of the press are all controlled by the government. How and why is this happening? To understand this we must understand who we were at the time of our founding and who we are today. Only then can we determine why and determine what we must do if we again want to be free.
The most important characteristic of America is freedom. The early Americans and Founders of our nation believed that their freedom came not from their position in society—most were commoners—or from any man, ruler, or government. Rather, it came from a Creator who endows all human beings, by virtue of their humanity, with natural rights including life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. No man can take away these rights. These rights are irremovable or unalienable because they originate from God. Armed with this belief that their freedom was a gift from God—not a privilege that could be granted or taken away by a man—the early American patriots sought national independence over subjection to England. They committed their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to this cause. In this sense, America historically has been a God-loving nation. Though citizens are free to believe in or not believe in God, the American philosophy is based on the idea that God is the source of man’s rights and freedoms.
Today the people of America have been indoctrinated and inundated with propaganda to believe just the opposite of what our Founders believed. Our schools, our government, and even our churches are telling Americans that government is the source of freedom, it is government that endows people with life, liberty, property, and protects the pursuit of happiness. This is the same as removing faith in God and placing our faith in government or men. This is a demand by Marxism that all of man’s faith be in the state which is, under communism, the communist party. This is what the Democrat party in the United States is requiring of each American.
So long as Americans choose to follow the current path of placing their faith in government or man, we will continue to lose more and more freedom and become slaves to a state that demands total conformity to its dictates. If we are to once again become a free people we must understand, as did early Americans and the Founders of our nation, that our rights and liberties are endowed upon us by God and neither man nor government can take them from us.
The question as to whether a people is free or not is answered when we learn where they place their faith. That principle not only applies to our lives under a government but to each of our individual lives. It is faith in God that allows us to be free from the evils imposed on man by governments.
Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.


05/02/2013 12:01 pm
Forest biomass in Estonia in 2010. Accurately estimated forest biomass and its distribution is a key parameter for forest inventories, vegetation modelling and understanding the global carbon cycle. It is also required by the UN and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to provide a comprehensive analysis on estimates of terrestrial carbon fluxes for climate change reports.
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You may have noticed some small moths flying about the kitchen at dusk or at night – not something that would normally bother you. However, you then find some strange webbing material in some open biscuit packets and a bag of flour. You look closer and find a small pale caterpillar. You investigate further and notice some webbing and a small brown case (the pupae) up on the ceiling. The penny drops – you have a pantry moth infestation!
The Summer months are the peak season for pantry moths. Although there are a few species of “Pantry moth”, the main species in Australia is the Indian Meal moth. Eggs are laid by the adult moths on or near a suitable food source. They will eat a wide range of food including cereals, biscuits, flour, nuts, dried fruit, spices and cocoa. It is the larvae that hatch that cause all the damage. The larvae are very adept and persistent in seeking out suitable food. The small larvae are capable or moving around the thread of a screw top container, even with the top on! Larger larvae are capable of chewing through plastic wrappers on unopened food packets.
Since the adults do not fly great distances, unless the adults moths have flown in from a neighbour’s house, the likelihood is that they will have come in on some of the food items you have bought. Once you have a pantry moth infestation, they can be difficult to eradicate unless you are thorough in your treatment. There are a number of key steps to eliminate the infestation;
1) Inspect all your food cupboards and each container individually. Don’t assume just because the container looks secure or unopened that it will not have been affected.
2) Throw out all affected food. Place into sealed bags and remove from house immediately.
3) Clean all food cupboards. Vacuum all shelves and corners, then wash with soap and water. This is to remove all eggs and pupae.
4) Spray all shelves with an insecticide. Spraying cupboards, particularly the edges and corners of shelves with provide lasting protection from the larvae. Make sure the product is labeled for this use and ensure no food comes into contact with the treatment. (see below)
5) Place all food in insect proof containers. This means hard plastic containers with sealed lids. (Remember they can crawl around the thread of screw tops!).
6) Spray any adult moths with a “fly spray”. This targets the adults before they can breed or lay (any more) eggs. Pantry moth sticky traps can be used as part of a treatment. However, they only target male moths as they use female pheromones as their attractant.
Once you have gained control, make sure you maintain a good cleaning and storage regime in the kitchen and don’t forget to inspect incoming good for unwanted hitch-hikers.
PestXpert products for pantry moths treatments
To target larvae
To target larvae
To target adults


THE TELLING TALE OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH AMENDMENT:
By JOHN W. DEAN
|Friday, Sep. 27, 2002|
On September 24, 1789, in the first-ever effort to amend the new Constitution, Congress submitted to the states twelve amendments designed to resolve problems that had arisen during the ratification debates. By 1791, ten of these, relating to individual rights and liberties - the "Bill of Rights" - had been adopted. But two, relating to the structure and operations of the legislative branch, were passed over.
The second, however, was awakened after a two-hundred-year snooze, and is now part of the Constitution. Now called the Twenty-seventh Amendment, it places limitations on Congress' increasing its members' compensation without an intervening election.
This Rip Van Winkle amendment's revival is a telling tale on many levels - yet one that is little known. It was a student, interestingly, who found the sleeping amendment, and pursued the work started two hundred years earlier by James Madison and the First Congress. I tracked him down and spoke to him about his successful one-man constitutional campaign.
The Two Sleeping Amendments: Congressional Apportionment and Pay
A bit of background, first. In 1787-88, Anti-Federalists, who opposed a new constitution, made a powerful and persuasive case for their position during the ratification debates. They contended that not only did the new constitution, unlike most state constitutions, fail to provide protections for individual rights with a Bill of Rights, but it also failed to address the size and compensation of the Congress. These failures, they said, gave unrestricted powers to the new government.
Article I of the Constitution, creating the legislative branch, only provided temporarily for the size of the House of Representatives. It allocated sixty-five House seats among the states, with no more that one Representative for every thirty thousand people (with each slave being counted as three-fifths of a person) and each state having at least one Representative. But it was silent on Congressional salaries.
Proponents of the new constitution were hammered by opponents on these issues. Size and pay were not esoteric questions of political theory; rather, they were easily understood by the public. For this reason, the First Congress proposed that the first amendment to the Constitution control the size of the House of Representatives, and the second amendment prohibit Congress from voting itself a pay raise without an intervening election of the House of Representatives.
In March 1789, when the First Congress convened, James Madison had already been studying a pamphlet published by Virginia printer Augustine Davis, who had gathered more than two hundred proposed amendments to the Constitution recommended by the ratifying conventions. Madison had initially thought amendments unnecessary. But after corresponding with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, he decided otherwise.
Accordingly, Madison sought to adopt amendments that would assure the public's trust in the new government, bring the states of North Carolina and Rhode Island back into the Union, honor the promises the Federalists made in campaigning for the Constitution, and remedy the defects that the ratification debates had made apparent.
Madison was anything but alone. Indeed, the House of Representatives ultimately would adopt seventeen amendments to send to the states. The Senate, however, cut the number back to twelve. The House then agreed upon the twelve, after some changes in language. (Senate debate on these amendments was not recorded, for at that time the Senate met behind closed doors, without an official recorder.)
Actually, Madison wanted to amend the text of the Articles of the Constitution, rather than tacking on a Bill of Rights and further amendments. But Congressman Roger Sherman disagreed.
Sherman felt to interweave amended text with the current text of the Constitution would destroy the fabric of the Constitution - which he believed was an act of the People, whereas amendments were acts of state governments. Sherman's approach was adopted, and set the precedent for all future amendments, which followed, rather than altering, the document's text.
Failure To Ratify The Congressional Compensation and Size Amendments
Article V of the Constitution requires that three-fourths of the states must ratify any amendment for it to be part of the law of the land. By December 15, 1791, eleven of the fourteen states of the Union - the necessary three-fourths - had approved ten of the twelve proposed amendments (proposed amendments three through twelve). They had not, however, approved the original first and second proposed amendments, relating to Congressional compensation and apportionment.
Between submission to the states in 1789 and December 1791, the first proposed amendment (relating to Congressional apportionment) was ratified by ten states and rejected by one. Meanwhile, the second proposed amendment (on Congressional pay) was adopted by six states and rejected by five states.
Accordingly, in 1791, the ten adopted amendments were renumbered, and made the first ten amendments to the Constitution - known as the Bill of Rights.
Because no time limit had been placed on ratification of these initial amendments by Congress, the two amendments which had not been ratified simply remain in a limbo-like state of existence somewhere between life and death. The subject of the two amendments that were not ratified was addressed by legislative action, when Congress wrote a law dealing with apportionment and salaries.
Time has shown that the proposed first amendment would have been less than a provident law for Congressional apportionment. In contrast, time only has exacerbated the issue of Congressional pay - and, in particular, the issue of Congress' giving itself a pay raise without voters' being able to express their views on the matter.
Congressional Apportionment: Why The Amendment Was Unwise
The first proposed amendment, however, looked to the future. It provided a formula to adjust the size of the House of Representatives to accommodate the nation's population growth.
Under the proposed amendment, there was to be one Representative for every thirty thousand persons, until the House had one hundred members; then there would be one Representative for every forty thousand, until the House had two hundred members. If and when one Representative would have fifty thousand constituents, Congress was to provide new ratios.
Had this amendment been adopted, the House of Representatives would have become massive. The United States population reached 250,000,000 in 1990. Under the first proposed amendment, the House would have grown to 5,000 members.
By legislation, however, Congress has locked the number of House members at 435, which has worked well. This first proposed amendment for Congressional apportionment is best left sleeping forever.
Congressional Salaries: A Long-Sleeping Amendment Is Revived
The second proposed amendment on Congressional salaries, however, went thorough an unusual two-hundred-and-three-year ratification process. Today, it is the Twenty-seventh Amendment, but notwithstanding its standing as the law of the land, it has yet to be enforced.
The First Congress experienced bitter and divisive debates over Congressional salaries. Sadly, the intervening two centuries have not much improved the debate.
Years, even decades, often pass without Congress addressing its compensation. There always have been, and probably always will be, people who believe members of the House and Senate are either paid too little or too much - and those of the latter belief are quite resistant, of course, to salary change.
For example, in 1817 Congress tried to increase its salaries, placing them on an annual rather than per diem basis. But the public outcry was so severe, Congress repealed the effort, and its members did not dare adjust their salaries for another forty years.
Under the 1975 law, members of Congress were still forced to vote for the COLAs - and thus to take flack for raising their own salaries. Later, this law was amended so that unless the Congress votes down a COLA, it automatically takes effect.
Reviving The Proposed Second Amendment: A Student's Campaign
Nowadays, many both inside and outside Congress are unhappy with the way Senators and Representatives take such good care of their compensation - salaries, health benefits, and countless perks.
In 1982, Gregory D. Watson, a twenty-year-old college sophomore majoring in economics at the University of Texas, Austin, was looking for a topic for a paper in his course on government. While browsing, Watson found the un-ratified 1789 Congressional compensation amendment.
After a bit more digging, Watson also found that six states had ratified it, and five had rejected it. But then he discovered that another state, years later, had ratified it, too.
In 1873, during the second term of the Grant administration, Congress increased its salary from $5,000 a year to $7,500 - retroactively, giving each member a $5,000 windfall. The great "Salary Grab" as it was known, produced public clamor, forcing the Congress to repeal their salary increase.
Also in 1873 - as Watson discovered - the Ohio General Assembly ratified the Congressional compensation amendment, eighty-four years after it had been submitted by Congress. The ratification was, in effect, a protest of the Salary Grab, for the 1789 amendment outlawed this very type of action the Salary Grab represented. The Amendment stated simply that: "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened."
Watson decided that since the 1789 amendment had no time limit on it, it was still viable, and could be adopted by other states. After all, the issue of Congress' voting itself pay raises remained a problem.
Watson wrote up his analysis, recommending that the 1789 amendment be adopted by the rest of the states. Watson's government professor was unimpressed and gave him only a "C" for his efforts. But he remained intrigued by what he had discovered.
Gregory Watson undertook his own campaign to get the 1789 Congressional compensation amendment to become part of the Constitution. Remarkably, he succeeded. I wanted to learn more, so I tracked him down.
When Watson started, he believed only seven states had ratified what is now the Twenty-Seventh Amendment: Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Vermont and Virginia - all of which had ratified between 1789 and 1791 - plus Ohio, which had ratified in 1873. But he needed thirty-eight states total - three-quarters of fifty - to make it the supreme law of the land.
Watson told me he thought his best chance was to start with states where both the House and Senate of the state's legislature were controlled by one party. So he started with Maine. Maine bought his arguments and ratified in 1983. Then in 1984, Colorado did the same.
After State Legislatures magazine reported the new ratifications, another state, Wyoming, reporting that it had ratified the 1789 amendment too - back in 1977. Much like Ohio in 1873, Wyoming had done so to protest a Congressional pay raise.
Watson's one-man bandwagon soon attracted a few big name players, who wanted to join him. Paul Gann, the California tax gadfly who with Howard Jarvis had authored California's Proposition 13 (limiting state property taxes), was one of them. Gann started a movement to get all states to adopt the 1879 compensation amendment.
Ralph Nader also joined the effort, urging that the amendment, be adopted. And much later a few members of Congress would make noise on behalf of the amendment, too. But as I see it, none of these "heavies" (my word, not Watson's) had any real impact. Rather they came and were gone. Yet Watson, like the Energizer bunny, kept at it.
Working on his IBM Selectric typewriter at home and on weekends, Watson, who had become a legislative assistant with the Texas State Legislature, kept papering state legislatures. His goal was to get the proposed amendment ratified by the two-hundredth anniversary of its passage by Congress - September 1989. He didn't make it, but he came close.
The Final Push That Made the Amendment Part of the Constitution
On March 29, 1989, The Washington Post picked up the story. Watson had twenty-seven of the thirty-eight needed states. Several members of Congress had taken notice, and were encouraging their states to adopt the amendment. But, as the Post reported, constitutional scholars were very dubious.
Dellinger was referring to the Supreme Court's holding in Coleman v. Miller. However, this case sets no time limit. Rather, the decision leaves it to Congress to decide if it reflects a "contemporary consensus." Greg Watson, not an attorney, believed he was gathering a contemporary consensus, so he kept going.
Seven states ratified in 1989, two more in 1990, and in 1991 one more. Watson was on the home stretch. By the spring of 1992 Michigan and New Jersey were racing to become the thirty-eighth state and make it law. Michigan won the race, but New Jersey became the thirty-ninth state, followed by Illinois and California - taking the total number of ratifying states to forty-one. On May 18, 1992 the Archivist of the United States, Don W. Wilson, ruled the Twenty-seventh Amendment ratified.
Congress did not know what had hit them. Speaker Tom Foley thought maybe the House should hold hearings, but then he decided that if the Archivist had certified it, that was good enough for him.
Senate President pro tempore Robert Byrd said it was for the Congress to determine when and whether the Constitution has been amended, and they had not yet done so. Congress, however, knew that if it challenged the Amendment, it would be playing a dangerous political game with a highly sensitive subject - members' compensation.
Accordingly, on May 20, 1992 the Senate voted 99 to 0 to approve the new Twenty-seventh Amendment, and the House voted its approval 414 to 3.
A Remarkable Effort By A Single Citizen
Remarkably, and singlehandedly, Greg Watson had amended the Constitution. Today, he is forty years of age, and a man who works three jobs, and seven days a week. In short, he is not a man of great means. Yet he spent his own money to mail countless papers to legislatures throughout the country, and to pay the long distance phone bill so he could give assistance. Watson says he also did all of his own research, running his campaign at nights and on weekends, using his own time.
Why? Based on my conversation with Watson, he strikes me as a concerned citizen - actually, a kind of super-citizen. He is modest and self-effacing - not someone seeking his fifteen minutes of fame. Rather, he is a person who sincerely believed this amendment, if ratified, would improve the Constitution in just the manner the First Congress had sought.
"The American people want a Congress that is honest, that has integrity. This Amendment is one vehicle by which some degree of decorum can be restored," Watson was quoted as saying in May 1992.
Had she ever said anything about the lousy grade she gave him? He laughed, and said that a reporter had tracked her down, and told her Watson had gotten the Constitution amended. She was quite embarrassed, and called to apologize for giving him only a "C."
How Long Can Congress Ignore The Twenty-Seventh Amendment?
After my conversation with Watson, I thought: There's only one problem with Gregory Watson's efforts - so far they have been for naught. Congress has totally ignored the Twenty-seventh Amendment, proceeding as if it did not exist. In addition, there has been a lively scholarly debate as to whether the Twenty-seventh Amendment is, in fact, the supreme law of the land.
Since 1997, Congress has taken four COLAs - and remained silent. Congress takes the position that they these pay raises are based on a law that existed before the Twenty-seventh Amendment.
Thus, they claim they have not passed a law in violation of the Amendment's prohibition; rather, they are just following a pre-existing law. The problem with this argument, though, is that the Amendment effectively repeals contrary prior Congressional enactments - or at least renders them unable to be enforced now, after it has been passed.
So far no one has been able to get standing in a federal court to force the Congress to comply with the Constitution, or to test the validity of this amendment. For that reason, I'm sending this column to the best plaintiff's constitutional lawyer I know -- Alan Morrison of Public Citizen in Washington, DC.
If anyone can find a way to resolve these not unimportant questions, I'm confident it is Public Citizen. And I have no doubt that Gregory Watson is himself a public citizen - one with the country's best interests in mind, and one who would like to see his efforts enforced, as well as recognized as valid constitutional law.
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Why study Drama?
GCSE Drama is not just about acting. It is the study of theatre, performance and creation.
Drama is amongst the oldest art forms, used to speak to vast audiences, deliver tales of comedy and tragedy and allow the audience to experience catharsis. Drama develops performance and collaboration skills, self confidence, and provides students with an opportunity to develop across many areas including acting, directing and designing.
GCSE Drama is a lively and creative course designed to balance the practical and academic study of Drama. Students work together to understand and experience for themselves the roles and responsibilities of a theatre company. Working as part of a creative team of actors, directors, designers and technicians, students build confidence and develop skills in communication, cooperation and performance.
The course enables students to work imaginatively and develop their understanding of how to create thought-provoking and well-made theatre. In addition to acting and directing, students will be encouraged to consider a range of design and technical skills including stage lighting, sound design, set design, stage management, make-up, costume and puppet design.
What does the course involve?
The course is divided into three components, which includes the study of a set text, audience experience of live theatre, devising original work and scripted performance.
Component 1: Understanding Drama (Written exam)
This component culminates in a written exam in which students are assessed on their knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed, including in connection to a set play and on their ability to analyse and evaluate the live theatre work of others.
Component 2: Devising Drama (Practical non-examamined assessment)
This is a practical component in which students are assessed on their ability to create and develop ideas to communicate meaning for theatrical performance, apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance and analyse and evaluate their own work.
Component 3: Texts in Practice (Practical exam)
This is also a practical component in which students are assessed on their ability to apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance. Students must perform two extracts from two sections of a published and previously professionally produced play. This is attended and assessed by an external examiner.
How will the skills that I develop help me in my future career?
The course is an excellent preparation for A Level and provides a perfect foundation in creative, practical performance and production skills. With the focus on working imaginatively, collaborating creatively and communicating effectively, GCSE Drama provides a solid base for further studies in Drama and Theatre with a skills set that opens up many vocational opportunities. The course inevitably covers all sorts of transferable skills that will be useful throughout life: communication, presentation/public speaking, group and leadership skills, problem solving, time management, initiative and the ability to work to a deadline and get it right first time (there are no re-runs!). Drama is also a subject to take if you want a job in the entertainment industry, in front of an audience or behind the scenes. It is also relevant and interesting to people who are interested in culture or social issues.
How will I be assessed?
The Understanding Drama element is assessed through a written exam lasting 1 hour 45 minutes. It is worth 40% of the final grade. Devising Drama is worth 40% and is an NEA (Non-Examined Assessments) unit, while Texts in Practice is worth 20% of the final GCSE grade and is an externally assessed practical exam.
Who do I need to contact?
For more information, contact Mr Martindale - email@example.com


A cat's tongue is truly an amazing organ. In fact, it's like a feline Swiss army knife that can be used for multiple purposes. If you've never taken time to contemplate your cat's tongue before, you have to find out what you've been missing.
Amazing Features of the Feline Tongue
The Tongue Is Covered in Barbs
If you've ever been licked by a cat, you can't help noticing the sandpaper-like texture. The reason the tongue is so rough is that it's covered in tiny barbs called filiform papillae which are made from keratin, the same material fingernails are made from. These barbs face toward the cat's throat and help push food in that direction for swallowing. Cats also use these barbs to scrape meat from bones when they eat.
It's the Perfect Grooming Tool
The tongue's rough texture is perfect for grooming. As the cat licks, loose hairs and other debris are caught on the barbs and removed from the coat. However, this can also lead to the formation of hairballs if you don't brush your pet often enough. Since the loose hairs are gathered by the barbs and directed toward the throat, the cat winds up swallowing the hairs. They collect in the stomach and form undigestible masses that can lead to blockages if the cat doesn't cough them back up.
Cat Tongues Have Limited Tastebud Sensitivity
A cat's tongue isn't very good at discerning flavors because it doesn't have many tastebuds. In fact, it's largely insensitive to salt and sugar. Instead, cats seem to be attracted to the texture of particular foods on their tongues.
The Tongue Tests Food Temperature
Cats aren't fond of extremes, especially when it comes to their food. Overall, they tend to prefer foods at room temperature, and they use their tongues to test whether food is too hot, too cold, or just right.
Bathing Produces Evaporative Cooling
Cats actually use their tongues to cool off by grooming themselves. As they lick, the moisture left on the fur produces an evaporative cooling effect similar to sweating in humans.
Cat Tongues Lap Water in a Unique Way
One of the most amazing facts of all is how cats use their tongues to drink. Unlike dogs that tend to slop water all over when they drink, cats are dainty drinkers because of the way they use their tongues.
A cat simply touches the tip of her tongue to the surface of the water and then quickly pulls it back up. This creates a column of water that the cat quickly closes her mouth around to trap the water inside just before it would naturally succumb to gravity and fall back into the dish. Since a cat laps about four times per second, this works out to a rate somewhere between four and five teaspoons of liquid consumed per second.
The Best Thing About Cat Tongues
Of all the things cats use their tongues for, showing affection is the one that has the most positive effect on their owners. Kittens learn about licking from their mamas who lick them as they care for them. When your cat licks you, she's showing you she cares for you, and this is a generous expression since many felines tend to be somewhat aloof. Remember that and realize how lucky you are the next time you feel that rough tongue bathing the back of your hand.


Almost all children love to sing. Singing helps to feel the joy of life. Did you know that singing is not only interesting, but also useful? Every parent wants their child to grow and develop actively. An important role is played by creative development, because it is so important for a child to feel capable and talented, to show their imagination, to apply logical and spatial thinking. One of the creative directions is the musical development of the child. All parents love to hear their children sing.
Research scientists have repeatedly proven that music has a positive effect on mental development. Children involved in music learn to read faster and express their thoughts logically clearly. Musicality can be developed by teaching a child to play instruments, through dance or vocal lessons. Our article details the benefits of vocal development.
Conscious voice production, control of one’s own performance, work on sound extraction is possible from the age of five. Reaching this age, children sing, understanding what is required of them, they begin to meaningfully work on diction, articulation and sound production techniques. But this does not mean at all that it is too early to learn singing before the age of five. On the contrary, the earlier the baby begins to sing, the faster his musical abilities develop: hearing, musical memory, sense of rhythm, responsiveness to music. Therefore, if you notice how children sing, along with everything that sounds, it’s time to contact a vocal studio, where, under the guidance of a teacher, their further musical development will take place.


Now a new report released last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that sleep deprivation can be tied to coronary calcification. In the study calcification rates were as high as 27% of the study population who slept less than 5 hours per night. It dropped significantly with added sleep and according to the article one hour of added sleep was considered equal to lowering systolic blood pressure 17 mm Hg (the systolic number occurs at the beginning of the cardiac cycle and is the first number in a blood pressure reading - an average blood pressure is somewhere around 115/75).
Sleep hygiene is certainly an important part of our health. Avoiding caffeine later in the day; going to bed at approximately the same time every night; creating a sleep routine that signals your body that it is time to get ready for sleep; having a dark, comfortable room to sleep. These are all good practices to ensure that we are getting not only enough sleep but restful sleep.
Nutritionally there are a few things that you can do to help you sleep as well. As mentioned above, avoiding caffeine later in the day is important. Many people claim to not be affected by caffeine but reports from the National Sleep Foundation show that most people are not aware of how much of a sleep debt they are carrying and how it affects them. Try switching to decaffeinated or herbal drinks in the afternoon and evening. Carbohydrate cravings are another problem that can affect sleep and sleep quality. For many people the mid-afternoon carbohydrate cravings are because they are producing too much melatonin at the wrong time of day, this leads to a suppression of seratonin in the brain. This in turn leads to cravings for carbohydrates. Getting back onto a good sleep cycle with adequate sleep can help re-regulate your brain clock.
Many people have problems staying asleep, they wake up around 2 or 3 am. The general suggestion here is to take calcium and magnesium before bedtime. Calcium has a calming effect and the magnesium balances the calcium and relaxes the muscles. Eating nuts (especially almonds), nut butters, cheese, or yogurt are good sources of these nutrients. Bananas, dates, figs, tuna or turkey are also good choices as they are high in tryptophan which helps to promote sleep. Remember, this is a small snack, not a meal, so don't overdo the amount that you eat.
If you take over-the-counter products to sleep please be aware that your body can become over conditioned to them and then require them to sleep. Melatonin and chamomile should not be taken on a long-term basis and if you are allergic to ragweed you should avoid chamomile altogether.
Take care of yourself, sleep well, be well.
photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drabbad_nr_2.JPG