If the Great War of 1914-18 had any single root cause it surely was the desire of the French Army and Nation to avenge the humiliations of the Franco-Prussian or Franco-German War of 1870-71. Aware that France would never acquiesce to the unification of Germany under a Prussian King (or the appalling prospect of a German prince on the vacant Spanish throne), the ‘Iron Chancellor’ , Otto von Bismarck, manoeuvred the inscrutable (but weak and vacillating) French Emperor, Napoleon III, into declaring war (19 July 1870).
Contrary to all expectations the Imperial armies of France quickly proved inadequately prepared, equipped and led. Neither Austria nor the supposedly anti-Prussian states of South Germany showed the least inclination to form an anti-Prussian alliance. The German campaign was masterminded by Moltke. The Germans crossed the frontier on 4 August 1870 and won a series of victories over Marshal Bazaine’s optimistically named ‘Army of the Rhine’, culminating in his encirclement with 173,000 men at Metz. Napoleon III and Marshal MacMahon attempted to raise the siege but were surrounded at Sedan on 1 September 1870 and obliged to surrender with 83,000 officers and men. The Empress Eugenie fled from Paris to begin half a century in exile and the Third Republic was founded. A Prussia-dominated German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles 18 January 1871.
When Paris was shortly afterwards besieged, fiery Republican minister of the interior, Leon Gambetta escaped by hydrogen balloon to organize a levee en masse in the still unoccupied provinces. The garrison and National Guard of Paris, faced heavy odds after the ignominious surrender of Metz (27 October 1870). General Trochu continued to defend the capital and even counterattacked until January when near-starvation and heavy bombardment made further resistance impossible. The armistice was succeeded by the draconian ‘Peace of Frankfurt’.
Terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt 10 May 1871
- 1. Cession of provinces of Lorraine & Alsace (less Belfort)
- 2. German army of occupation to be stationed in 43 depts
- 3. Reparations of 5 billion francs (£200 million) to be paid by instalments
- 4. Trade: Germany to enjoy ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status vis-a-vis France
The last German garrison (at Verdun) quitted France in September 1873.
Less than two months after the fall of Paris, a provisional government of Socialist and far-left Republicans was elected by the ‘Commune’ of Paris in response to an attempt by the right-wing National Assembly to disarm the Paris National Guard. Civil war broke out. In ‘Bloody Week’ (May 1871), MacMahon stormed the capital and at least 20,000 Communards and innocent citizens were massacred: ‘The last stage of the Commune was not a battle but a massacre… The victors were embittered by the shame of having to fight a fresh war against their own countrymen under the disdainful eyes of the Prussians … Despite … orders. from MacMahon that the lives of prisoners should be spared, the victors killed without mercy’ (The Development of Modern France by Sir Denis Brogan, London 1967).
The trauma of these catastrophic events was so severe that in 1889 a shallow opportunist general and Minister of War (Boulanger) was nearly able to provoke a war with his anti-German speeches. Seven years later, an accusation that Captain Alfred Dreyfus, born of a Jewish family at Mulhouse (Alsace), had betrayed the specification of France’s revolutionary soixante-quinze (75mm) quick-firing field-gun to Germany, sparked off a protracted series of crises. These more than once threatened to tear French society apart. Although the entirely innocent Dreyfus was brought back from the living hell of Devil’s Island (near the modern Kourou space centre), declared innocent on appeal and reinstated in his military rank (1906); the venom spewed out during the Affaire should have been a warning that if, and when, the opportunity ever arose for a renewed Franco-German trial of strength it could easily escalate into a bestial struggle for national survival.Moreover, this anticipated conflict would be made even more terrible and widespread by a whole series of so-called ‘defensive’ pacts and alliances concluded between 1878 and 1907. Germany – now an empire under William I – had allied herself with Austria. They were joined by Italy in 1882. This ‘Triple Alliance’ could also count on a large measure of support from the German-born rulers of Rumania, Bulgaria and Greece. In reply, France concluded military and political pacts with Russia (1892-4). Between 1902 and 1907 Britain concluded the so-called ‘Triple Entente’ with France and Russia and formed an alliance with Japan. Thanks in some degree to the influence of a Francophile English king, Edward VII, the Entente Cordiale was negotiated in 1904. A similar understanding between Britain and Imperial Russia was reached in 1907. The Kaiser’s ministers and generals responded by forging a close understanding with the ‘Young Turks’, the largely German-trained radical officers who seized power at Constantinople in 1908. A Turco-German treaty of alliance was signed in early August 1914.
Both Russia and Austria were eager to dominate the Balkans, where the once-omnipotent Ottoman armies of occupation had been pushed back almost to the gates of Constantinople in 1912-13. Germany, too, aimed at securing a trans-Balkan corridor as a key element of a grandiose Berlin-Baghdad rail link for which she had received a concession in 1899.All the European Powers (except moribund Russia) had colonial ambitions. They had partitioned Africa from the 1880s and exercised an almost complete stranglehold over the trade and economic life of China, whose ancient, but defunct, empire had collapsed in 1911. Japan, too, would soon demand a rich slice of the ‘Chinese cake’ as a reward for her continued adherence of the Allied cause, alter the occupation of Germany’s Asiatic and Pacific possessions by Japanese/British Empire forces in August-November 1914.
Imperial Germany nursed the conviction that she had been cheated of a fair share of the spoils in the 19th-century ‘Scramble for Africa’ proper. Between 1884 and 1890 she had established protectorates over Togoland, the Cameroons, South-West Africa and Tanganyika. But compared with France’s richly endowed and populous territories, stretching from Morocco to the lower Congo and east to the ‘Great Red Island’ of Madagascar, German Africa was of little account. Even so, Berlin felt impelled to initiate Tirpitz’s naval expansion programme from 1897, to safe ‘guard her developing overseas trade routes. This soon escalated into a deadly ‘Naval Race’ with Britain.
From 1904 to 1914 a series of crises increasingly threatened the long-established European balance of power - Algeciras (1906); Bosnia-Herzegovina (1908); Agadir (1911); Italo-Turkish War (1911-12); First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-13); Sarajevo (1914). On 28 June 1914 the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the venerable Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, was assassinated by Serb-armed nationalists during an official visit to the town of Sarajevo. Austria declared war on Serbia, 28 July 1914, with the aim of achieving a rapid, local conquest of a perceived South Slav nuisance. When Russia mobilized in that Balkan kingdom’s support, Germany declared war on Russia and France and invaded neutral Belgium, a country whose ‘perpetual neutrality had been guaranteed by all the Great Powers since the 1839 Treaty of London. Britain declared war on Germany (4 August) and Austria (12 August 1914).
Although not legally bound to do so, the self-governing former British dominions, Canada, Australia and New Zealand joined forces with the Motherland in the hour of supreme trial. So did the Princes of the vast Indian Empire. Only South Africa hesitated. However, a pro-German Boer rebellion war was suppressed by Smuts and Botha and South Africa entered the war. Italy, invariably treated with condescending patronage by Germany and Austria (and not consulted by the latter after Sarajevo), saw no good reason to rush to the support of her Triple Alliance partners. Accordingly, she remained neutral until May 1915.The Great War was the apocalyptic climax of the Age of European (and American) Imperialism. But what had begun as a relatively straightforward struggle for territorial and economic gain, and (in the cases of Austria and France) for revenge on perennial neighbouring foes, inexorably developed into what the German strategist Ludendorff called ‘Der Totale Krieg’ (‘Total War’). In other words, not merely a contest between the armies, navies and embryonic air forces, but a life-or-death struggle between Peoples in which all the human, material and moral resources of the nation were utilized to the utmost.
Three dynastic mighty empires – Germany, Austria and Russia – were swept into the dustbin of history. And a far flung but decrepit oriental despotism – Ottoman Turkey – also fell to be transformed into a compact westernized secular republic; her outer provinces ultimately becoming the new Middle East states of Arabia, Iraq (Mesopotamia), Syria and Jewish-settled Palestine.
Out of the European melting-pot there soon emerged Communist Russia, a restored independent Poland, the new states of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and later Fascist Italy followed by Nazi Germany.


Tikal is a magnificent Maya site. It holds remnants of the Maya culture, one of the many Ancient Civilizations that I saw during my travels.
From the Tikal entry in Wikipedia:
Tikal is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tikal was the capital of a conquest state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BCE, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, c. 200 CE to 900 CE. During this time, the city dominated much of the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica such as the great metropolis of Teotihuacán in the distant Valley of México. There is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacán in the 4th century CE. Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site's abandonment by the end of the 10th century.
Tikal is the best understood of any of the large lowland Maya cities, with a long dynastic ruler list, the discovery of the tombs of many of the rulers on this list and the investigation of their monuments, temples and palaces.
|Name (or nickname)||Ruled||Dynastic|
|Yax Ehb' Xook||c. 90||1||Yax Moch Xok, Yax Chakte'l Xok, First Scaffold Shark|
|Foliated Jaguar||c. 292||?||–|
|Animal Headdress||?||10?||Kinich Ehb'?|
|Sihyaj Chan K'awiil I||c. 307||11||–|
|Unen Bahlam||c. 317||12?||–|
|K'inich Muwaan Jol I||? –359||13||Mahk'ina Bird Skull, Feather Skull|
|Chak Tok Ich'aak I||360–378||14||Jaguar Paw, Great Paw, Great Jaguar Paw|
|Yax Nuun Ayiin I||379 –404?||15||Curl Snout, Curl Nose|
|Sihyaj Chan K'awiil II||411–456||16||Stormy Sky, Manikin Cleft Sky|
|K'an Chitam||458–c. 486||17||Kan Boar, K'an Ak|
|Chak Tok Ich'aak II||c. 486–508||18||Jaguar Paw II, Jaguar Paw Skull|
|Lady of Tikal||Kaloomte' B'alam||c. 511–527+||19||Curl Head|
|Bird Claw||?||20?||Animal Skull I|
|Wak Chan K'awiil||537?–562||21||Double Bird|
|Animal Skull||c. 593–628||22||–|
|K'inich Muwaan Jol II||c. 628–650||23 or 24||–|
|Nuun Ujol Chaak||c. 650–679||25||Shield Skull, Nun Bak Chak|
|Jasaw Chan K'awiil I||682–734||26||Ruler A, Ah Cacao|
|Yik'in Chan K'awiil||734–c. 766||27||Ruler B, Yaxkin Caan Chac, Sun Sky Rain|
|Ruler 28||c. 766–768||28||–|
|Yax Nuun Ayiin II||768–c. 794||29||–|
|Nuun Ujol K'inich||c. 800?||30?||–|
|Jasaw Chan K'awiil II||–869+||?||–|
Site map by Burchell, Simon. 'Tikal Map.' Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Last modified October 05, 2014. https://www.ancient.eu/image/3101/ (31k)
The Tikal National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
All pictures are © Dr. Günther Eichhorn, unless otherwise noted.
This page contains 38 pictures
Main page for Guatemala
Page last updated on Fri May 21 15:21:49 2021 (Mountain Standard Time)
Tikal on www.guenther-eichhorn.com


Examples include NavAid installations, making minor facility renovations, and reconstruction of perimeter or security fencing. A CatEx is based on the FAA’s experience with a particular kind of action and its environmental effects. The FAA has studied the action in previous EAs, found no significant impact on the environment based on the analyses, and validated the lack of significant impacts after the implementation.
When a proposed action is included in the FAA’s CatEx list, the airport must demonstrate and the FAA must check to make sure that no extraordinary circumstances exist that may cause the proposed action to have a significant effect in a particular situation. Examples of extraordinary circumstances include effects to endangered species, protected cultural sites, and wetlands.
If there are no extraordinary circumstances indicating that the proposed action effects may be significant, then FAA can approve the CatEx and allow the airport to proceed with implementation of the proposed action. Because of the FAA CatEx list and the experience FAA has within those categories, the CatEx is a simple and direct document that provides an airport the ability to satisfy NEPA requirements without enduring a lengthy process.
The EA is a more intense examination of the same NEPA criteria as a CatEx, and is intended to determine the significance of the environmental effects and to look at alternative means to achieve the FAA’s objectives. The public, other federal agencies, and outside parties may provide input into an EA — and then comment on the draft EA when it is published. According to FAA, an EA is intended to be a concise document that provides sufficient evidence and analysis for determining whether to prepare an EIS.
If the EA demonstrates there is no significant impact to the environment, FAA will issue a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The FONSI (which still can’t escape a wry smile when repeated to unknowing participants) is a document that presents the reasons why FAA has concluded that there are no significant environmental impacts projected to occur upon implementation of the proposed action. The FONSI may address measures that FAA will take to reduce or mitigate potentially significant impacts.
Environmental impact statement
When the EA determines that the environmental consequences of a proposed action may be significant, an EIS is prepared. An EIS is the most detailed evaluation of the proposed action and alternatives. The public, other federal agencies, and outside parties may provide input into the preparation of an EIS and then comment on the draft EIS when it is completed.
If FAA anticipates that a proposed action may significantly affect the environment, or if it is environmentally controversial, FAA may choose to prepare an EIS without having to first prepare an EA. After a final EIS is prepared and at the time of its decision, the FAA will prepare a public record of its decision, addressing how the EIS findings — including consideration of alternatives — were incorporated into FAA’s decisionmaking process.
A Record of Decision (ROD) is the final step in the EIS process. The ROD is a document that:
- states what the decision is;
- identifies the alternatives considered, including the environmentally preferred alternative; and
- discusses mitigation plans, including any enforcement and monitoring commitments.
In the record of decision, FAA discusses all the factors — including any considerations of national policy that were contemplated when it reached its decision — on whether to and how to proceed with the proposed action.
The terms CatEx, EA, FONSI and ROD are common framework elements that form the basis of NEPA documentation for federal actions. The terms and actions are not complex when understood from the perspective of NEPA’s basic interdisciplinary intent. From the CatEx to the ROD, each of these elements shares common characteristics and terminology that build on one another.
Understanding NEPA as a multi-level framework serves to simplify an airport’s explanations when it engages the community and staff.
Drilling for natural gas on land at Pittsburgh International Airport won't have a significant impact on the environment, Federal Aviation Administration officials
MWAA’s proposal includes constructing an additional north-south and east-west runway, parallel and connector taxiways, Tier 3 concourse development, and navigational aids.


New Jersey Theatre Alliance - American Sign Language Interpretation For The Theatre
Based upon the last US Census and stats from the Center for Disease Control, there are approximately 800,000 citizens who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in New Jersey.
Theatrical sign language interpretation translates from spoken language to American Sign Language (ASL) utilizing specific techniques for signing plays, and musicals.
This video provides you with some basic steps on what is involved in producing a theatrical interpreted performance. For assistance in preparing for a theatrical interpreted performance, please contact the New Jersey Theatre Alliance at firstname.lastname@example.org or call 973-731-6582, ext. 15.


At steady state, in the governing equation of one-stage thermoelectric cooler, the heat resulting from Fourier conduction is balanced by heat generation due to the Joule and Thomson effects inside semiconductors. Since the heat flux observed at the junction of a semiconductor, r pair includes the Peltier effect and the Fourier heat flux caused by both the aforementioned contributions, the Thomson effect is easily masked by the Joule heat, which makes it elusive. With the aim of highlighting the contribution of the Thomson effect, measurements were carried out in the temperature range from 363 K to 213 K on different Peltier modules. The temperature dependence of the Seebeck and Thomson coefficients was evaluated as well as the electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity of the Peltier modules examined. The results obtained show that the temperature dependence of the thermoelectric properties can reduce the cooling capacity of the Peltier module compared to what is declared in the technical datasheets of the commercial devices. The analyses allow us to conclude that an increase in the Thomson effect could have a positive effect on the performance of the Peltier only if it were possible to reduce the Joule contribution simultaneously.
The elusive thomson effect in thermoelectric devices. Experimental investigation from 363 k to 213 k on various peltier modules / Giaretto, V.; Campagnoli, E.. - In: METALS. - ISSN 2075-4701. - 10:2(2020), p. 291.
|Titolo:||The elusive thomson effect in thermoelectric devices. Experimental investigation from 363 k to 213 k on various peltier modules|
|Data di pubblicazione:||2020|
|Digital Object Identifier (DOI):||http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/met10020291|
|Appare nelle tipologie:||1.1 Articolo in rivista|


The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has begun working with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to evaluate the results from trials using contactless fingerprint verification technology.
The proof-of-concept tests involve assessing the effectiveness of touch-free scanners, developed by Advanced Optical Systems, which allow a traveler’s fingerprints to serve as their boarding pass and identity document.
Use of the technology is currently limited to TSA Pre members, who provide their fingerprints when they enroll in the program. Once the scanner matches fingerprints to those in the TSA Pre system, it obtains the traveler’s boarding pass information and allows them to continue to their gate.
Arun Vemury, program manager, S&T Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, said, “A biometric process can actually be faster than scanning tickets and can identify travelers automatically with few errors. However, performance depends dramatically on the choice of technology and process.
“Failure to acquire biometrics can be a major source of error for biometric systems, especially those serving hurried travelers who may not understand how to present their biometrics properly,” he added.
The proof-of-concept assessment is based on the results of trials taking place at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Georgia, USA, and Denver International Airport in Colorado.
While contact-based fingerprint technology has existed for some time, non-contact fingerprinting is still relatively new, so rigorous evaluation is needed to determine its effectiveness and impact on how passengers move through security.
Speaking about the trials, one of the evaluators said, “Based on prior data collected at the Maryland Test Facility, we developed specific classes of use errors associated with fingerprint biometrics. Two of these include incorrect hand positioning and improper hand movement and speed. Our field observations with actual travelers were very similar to our simulated scenario tests in the lab.”


An increasing number of developers are using Python scripts daily. Without a proper organizational tool, too many scripts can result in a mess of different folders, CLI commands, and individual files. Airplane can help with this!
We'll cover the following:
- Prerequisites for this tutorial
- Get set up in Airplane
- Create Airplane Tasks using the CLI
- Leverage Airplane Resources in Python tasks
By the end of this post, you should be able to organize your Python scripts into Airplane Tasks quickly and efficiently.
We'll look at two straightforward scripts running on Linux.
In this tutorial, you’ll need:
- A free Airplane account
- Access to a machine running Linux
- Git, Curl, and Python 3 installed (most Linux distributions have them installed by default)
- Familiarity with basic Unix commands like
- SSH public/private keys set up (check out the instructions below on how to do so)
Set up SSH authentication for Python scripts
Additionally, copy the public RSA key to the remote server. If you want to use a server other than
localhost, you can use ssh-copy-id to distribute your public key.
Obtain the code
You can get a copy of the repository with the following code:
Now, install the dependencies using a virtual environment:
What do the scripts do?
The first script collects the SHA256 checksums of the files on a remote directory into your local machine. This is helpful for keeping track of unauthorized changes on sensitive files by saving their SHA256 checksums to a safe location.
Let's run it using the following:
The output of running the script will be like the following, depending on the files on the remote server:
The second script
sha256_to_table.py creates a table from the report generated by the
remote_sha256.py script used earlier. Run it using this code:
This is the resulting table report of the original SHA256 checksum:
This simple two-script scenario already presents a few challenges:
- The packaging of external dependencies is documented in the
requirements.txtfile, but installation likely requires creating a virtual environment and installing the dependencies with a tool like setuptools
- Orchestrating the scripts’ proper execution is tedious. First, you need to call the SHA256 calculator/collector, then the table generation script. You may even need to write a third bash or a shell script to call them in the proper order
Imagine doing this for all your scripts! You might be able to invest significant time automating their deployment using a solution like setuptools, but that can still be exceedingly difficult — especially for loosely coupled scripts.
Fortunately, using Airplane can help solve these issues. Let’s go over what you need to prepare in order to create Airplane Tasks using Python scripts.
Get set up in Airplane
Let's start by ensuring that the Airplane environment is properly set up. We'll walk through installing the Airplane CLI on Linux.
Consider enabling the auto-completion shell feature. This way when you start typing a command and press the Tab key, Airplane will predict and fill in the rest of the command. The following code will enable this feature:
The next step is to authenticate with Airplane using
airplane auth login, which provides you with the URL needed:
Then visit the provided URL in your browser and copy the API token as shown below:
In the terminal, type
airplane auth login and then paste in the API code:
Finally, confirm that you can communicate with the server using the command
airplane tasks list.
In this example, you’ll see the test tasks created on the Airplane website. Your output will show something similar to the output below after typing
airplane tasks list:
Now you’re ready to start using the Airplane CLI.
Create Airplane Tasks using the CLI
To create a new task for the
remote_sha256.py script, enter
airplane init and then answer the questions when prompted. The output is shown below:
You now have a task file called
remote_sha256.task.yaml. Time to check its contents using the following:
The task definition needs a few parameters so you can execute the script:
--server— this tells you which machine contains the files
--remotepath— this is the directory you want to inspect
~/sha256-localhost-httpd-files— this is the name of the final report with the SHA256 checksums
Include the above parameters in the following code:
Airplane scripts called from Python need a special function called
main to use as an entry point.
main function obtains the dictionary that’s used to receive parameters that you will specify when you call the script as an Airplane Task:
The refactored code is similar. For this, encapsulate the
write_report method inside the
main method using the following code:
The next step is to replace the original
remote_sha256.task.yaml contents with the arguments needed to pass to the
remote_sha256 script using the following:
You can now test the task by executing it locally using the following:
You may receive the following error message:
You can fix this by installing the Airplane SDK with pip. This isn’t necessary during testing, but it’s helpful to see how the output will look when it’s run from inside Airplane.
Now, set up the virtual environment to install the Airplane SDK using the commands below:
Then, call Airplane on the developer mode, also passing the arguments on the command line instead of letting Airplane ask for it on an interactive mode:
Type the following to run your script in developer mode:
And then you will get an output like this:
Now that it is working, let’s deploy the scripts by typing
airplane deploy remote_sha256.task.yaml:
And you have now successfully defined an Airplane Task.
But what if you want to connect external systems to essential tasks in Airplane? Airplane Resources are a great way to do just that.
Leverage Airplane Resources in Python tasks
Airplane Resources allow you to quickly connect to external systems, such as databases and APIs, and use them in your tasks. Examples of resources that Airplane supports include REST API, Snowflake, Slack, and more.
To attach resources to tasks using the UI, go to the Build your task page. Find the Resources section and select Attach resource:
After selecting the above, use the dropdown menu under Search resources to select the desired resource to attach:
Once done, hit Update task.
Let's say the resource you'd like to attach isn't in your Airplane Resources repository yet. To create a resource using the UI, navigate back to the Build your task page and select the plus icon next to the Search resources dropdown:
This will open a window where you can select which resource you'd like to connect and attach to your existing task:
Using this process, you can connect external systems to your Airplane Tasks quickly and efficiently.
Using Airplane to turn useful Python scripts into tasks will help improve your productivity by organizing your scripts and eliminating repetitive tasks such as setting up virtual environments. It also allows you to control how to execute code in a production environment and define relationships between scripts.
Now you’re ready to explore some more possibilities with Airplane. With Airplane, you can create SQL-based tasks, schedule API requests, and more. If you'd like to test out Airplane's extensive features, you can sign up for a free account or say hello at [email protected].


The process for selecting Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) is as important (or perhaps more important) than the SDI themselves. If people have faith in the selection process, they will believe in the SDI. Fair and open selection with wide participation will produce a comprehensive set of SDI relevant to a broad range of views and philosophies. Only a well documented process will assure the broad participation necessary to select useful SDI. To this end, this defines the process, procedures, and rules used by the SDI Group to select SDI for the United States.
The SDI Group's annual selection process chooses a small number of indicators most relevant to sustainable development. The process repeats every year to assure that the selected indicators evolve over time as our knowledge and experience on sustainable development increases. Anyone can participate in the selection process. The SDI Group will provide participants with appropriate procedures and instructions.
Step 1, Define Goals and Objectives: The SDI Group will develop the goals and objectives of sustainable development indicator selection process. As the primary goal, the SDI Group will select the 1997 SDI by the end of the 1996 calendar year. The SDI Group will also construct an SDI Framework and develop a suitable selection process.
Step 2, Define SDI Framework: The SDI Group will create an SDI Framework SDI Framework based on the concept of endowments, their output, and the processes that act upon them. The SDI Framework should be all-inclusive, use existing classification systems (when possible), and relate to other frameworks.
Step 3, Develop Candidate SDI List: The SDI Group will develop a list of Candidate SDI. A Candidate SDI is an indicator identified as related to or relevant to sustainable development. Each Candidate SDI must relate to the SDI Framework and to issues of concern as well as meet form and format requirements.
Step 4, Review Candidate SDI and Select Proposed SDI: The SDI Group will select a set of 10-20 Proposed SDI from the Candidate SDI List. A Proposed SDI is a Candidate SDI that most directly measures at least one aspect of sustainable development in the United States. Selection criteria ensure that Proposed SDI represent those multi-generation, large-scale, high-cost (or high gain) phenomena most related to sustainable development.
Step 5, Review Proposed SDI: The SDI Group will present the Proposed SDI List for internal and external review. Review criteria ensure consistancy and balance.
Step 6, Get Data: The SDI Group will select the most appropriate data available for each Proposed SDI. Schedule and budget constraints limit the selection to "off-the-shelf" data sets already routinely published by the Federal government. Selection criteria will assure that the SDI Group will choose the best data available that most closely represents the Proposed SDI.
Step 7, Write Final Report: The SDI Group will write a report summarizing the results of the 1996 selection cycle.


Techniques to compensate for the effects of parasitic inductances and capacitances have been developed as part of an effort to improve the performances of low-pass filters in electronic power circuits. As used here, "parasitic" refers to departure from an ideal inductive or capacitive characteristic. No inductor, capacitor, or other electronic component is ideal: wherever a current loop exists, there is inductance, and wherever two conductors are near each other, there is a capacitance between them. Parasitic capacitances in inductors and parasitic inductances in capacitors degrade the performances of low-pass filters, especially at high frequencies.
Heretofore, the usual approach to improving the high-frequency performance of a low-pass power filter has involved adding filter stages and components, thereby adding significantly to cost and weight. The present compensation techniques make it possible to achieve order-of-magnitude reductions in effects of parasitic inductances and capacitances with smaller increases in cost and weight.
The compensation techniques, denoted inductance cancellation and capacitance cancellation, are useful for improving the high-frequency performance of a filter capacitor or a filter inductor, respectively. The details of implementation of these techniques are complex and highly susceptible to application- specific variation. Notwithstanding this complexity, the underlying principles can be stated simply:
- Inductance Cancellation — The effect of parasitic inductance in a capacitor can be shifted from a circuit branch where it is undesirable to other circuit branches where it is desirable or at least acceptable. In inductance cancellation, this shift is accomplished by use of magnetically coupled windings. From the perspective of traditional lumped-element circuit analysis, the net effect is to place a negative inductance in series with the parasitic inductance while placing larger positive inductances in the other circuit branches. Although the total inductance is increased, the effective decrease in the parasitic inductance improves the high-frequency performance of the affected capacitor.
- Capacitance Cancellation — The undesirable effect of parasitic capacitance in a filter inductor is to couple highfrequency current from a noisy input port to an output port that is desired to be quiet. In capacitance cancellation, one introduces additional passive components to inject a high-frequency current approximately equal in magnitude and opposite in sign to the current flowing through the parasitic capacitance so that the net high-frequency current arriving at the output port is greatly reduced. In the example illustrated in the figure, capacitance cancellation of a toroidal filter inductor is effected by adding a compensating winding in series with a compensating capacitor. To a first approximation, cancellation could be achieved by choosing m(1-m)Ccomp = Cp, where m is the ratio between the number of turns in the compensating winding and the main winding, Ccomp is the compensating capacitance, and Cp is the parasitic capacitance of the main winding.
This work was done by Timothy C. Neugebauer, Brandon J. Pierquet, and David J. Perreault of Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Naval Research Laboratory. For further information, download the free white paper at www.defensetechbriefs.com under the Electronics/Computers category. NRL-0003
This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).
Compensating for Parasitic Effects in Low-Pass Filters
(reference NRL-0003) is currently available for download from the TSP library.
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Maps | Excavation Images
|1. What is the site?
|The Fort Des Moines
site (officially called the Fort Des Moines No. 2 site, 13PK61)
was a U. S. military post from 1843-1846. This fort was the core
from which modern Des Moines grew. Over the years, the site has
been covered by flood deposits from the Des Moines River and historic
landfill, which is why the site is now located under the current
ground surface. The area being excavated was the center of the fort,
the officers’ quarters extended to the north along Water Street,
and the enlisted men’s quarters extended to the west along
Elm Street. In the excavation area several fort buildings once stood.
View west on south side of Elm showing
current levee to be removed
2. Why is the site being excavated?
The Fort Des Moines site will be impacted
by a new road and bridge that will connect Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway
with the east side of Des Moines. Archaeologists are excavating the
site to investigate the impacts and save information about the people
who once lived here.
|3. Who are the archaeologists?
|The University of
Iowa’s Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) was selected
by the City of Des Moines to conduct the archaeological investigation
of the Fort Des Moines Site. The supervisors and crew members are
highly qualified archaeologists with extensive previous experience
throughout the U.S., especially in Iowa and the Midwest.
View east from west side of SW 2nd
St. showing the 13PK61 mitigation area
|4. How was the site
View east showing current levee
to be removed and historic cabin to be preserved in place
|Fort Des Moines has
always been known to exist in this general area, but the exact location
was not discovered until archaeological excavations encountered
fort foundations. Other portions of the fort were excavated by the
firm Brice, Petrides and Associates in 1985 and by Louis Berger
Associates in 2001 during other city projects.
5. What happened at Fort Des Moines?
Founded in 1843 by the First U.S. Dragoons
led by Captain James Allen, the fort was established to oversee the
westward expansion of Euroamerican settlement. The fort was comparatively
small and was never stockaded, consisting of five officers’ quarters
along the west side of modern First Street and an undetermined number
of soldiers’ barracks to the west, which was called Raccoon Row.
Other features of the fort were guard houses, stables, pastures, a hospital,
and a well. The fort was abandoned by the Army in 1846, when the area
was fully settled by Euroamericans and the Indians removed. The fort
buildings were immediately taken over by settlers.
|6. What are the archaeologists
|They are trying to
find remains of foundations, cellars, fireplaces, refuse pits, tools,
and food debris left by the fort’s occupants and the residents
of the early town of Fort Des Moines, as well as earlier Indian
people that may have lived in the area.
Project Archaeologist Bill Whittaker
with ground-penetrating radar at 13PK61 prior to archaeological
|7. Why is this site
Crew Chief Carrie Christman with
ground-penetrating radar at 13PK61 prior to archaeological investigation
|The Fort Des Moines site was occupied
during a period of great change in the American frontier. The system
of long-distance trade and exchange established by Indians and traders
was rapidly disappearing, as was the traditional Indian life of
farming and hunting. Indians were being pushed out of the Midwest,
to make way for Euroamerican settlers. Soldiers brought new technologies,
goods, and ways of living, but their presence was short-lived, and
is poorly understood. The modern city of Des Moines emerged from
this fort, but we know very little about these early days.
8. Are there any human remains?
No human remains were found during previous
investigations of the Fort Des Moines site, and none are anticipated
during these excavations. The City of Des Moines the OSA, and Iowa’s
Indian community have procedures in place in the unlikely event that
any human remains are found. Iowa's burial site protection and reburial
program has been a national model for more than 25 years.
9. What happens to the excavated objects?Click here to see more images of the Fort Des Moines Site excavation.
All artifacts collected will be cleaned
and studied at the University of Iowa. These materials will be retained
in secure and climate controlled storage for future research. A public
exhibit of some of the more interesting artifacts is being planned for
Des Moines. Archaeologists will complete reports on the site in compliance
with State and Federal laws and provide updates to the community. The
knowledge gained from the archaeological work being conducted at this
site will help increase the understanding and appreciation of the lives
of Des Moines’ early inhabitants.
|For more information
City of Des Moines
John F. Doershuk, Ph.D.
Office of the State Archaeologist
University of Iowa
here for larger and more detailed maps of the site.
here to view a printable pdf file of information on
the Fort Des Moines Archaeology Site Excavations.
Maps | Excavation Images
Updated by Tricia R. Bender, Web Designer
Mary De La Garza, Web Master
Click here to go back
to the OSA homepage.
Click here to go to
The University of Iowa website.


(Click on any image below for a larger version)
Chinstrap Penguins are widely distributed in Antarctica. We saw them on Elephant Island, Deception Island and Livingstone Island.
Chinstrap Penguins leap out of the water like a school of dolphins.
Chinstrap Penguins are easily distinguished by the narrow black stripe under the white face.
The Chinstrap Penguin rookery is thickly coated in pink penguin guano. The constant dampness supports a thick, old fish market kind of odor.
Dirty Chinstrap Penguins are constantly waddling into the water as clean penguins haul themselves onto land along the spit.
The air is filled with the constant display cries of male penguins looking for mates.
Hear the Chinstrap Penguins.
"I don't know. Where do you want to go for dinner?"
Chinstrap Penguin chicks sit waiting patiently for their parents to return with food.
Chick feeding is a constant operation in the rookery. The gray chicks tickle the beaks of the adults to trigger a regurgitation of the krill stored in their crops. It is possible to see the pink, shrimp-like crustaceans come up into the mouths of the adults before the chicks reach in to grab them. Krill grow to be nearly two inches long, and large krill wouldn't look out of place on a cocktail shrimp platter.
The downy chicks accumulate a crust of guano on the lower parts of their bodies.
The Chinstrap Penguin chicks rest their heads behind their wings as they napped.
The penguins pay scant attention to the Zodiacs cruising through the strait.
The flat areas near the rocky outcrop are covered in penguins. Other penguins have to climb to higher ground to find a place to raise their chicks.
Some of them climb several hundred feet up the slope to find their chicks.
It must take hours for some of them to climb up to their chicks on the mountainside above the cape.
Sheathbills perch on a high point, keeping an eye out for an opportunity to get some food.
A lone Chinstrap Penguin standing on the shore of Whaler's Bay on Deception Island. The rookeries are all on the perimeter of the island. Penguins don't rook inside Port Foster because they need direct access to the open ocean.
Both Gentoo Penguins and Chinstrap Penguins rook at Hannah Point on Livingstone Island. Their colonies are right next to each other, but they do not mix with each other very much.
The Chinstrap Penguin rookery is much messier than the Gentoo Penguin rookery.
Chinstrap Penguins advertise their availability for mating by flapping their wings and singing at the sky.
Hear the Chinstrap Penguins.
Adult Chinstrap Penguin.
The Chinstrap Penguin Chicks accumulate a coating of guano as they sit around the rookery waiting for their parents to return from feeding at sea.
There are occasional disagreements over territory between the adult penguins.
The pairs of chicks beg the adult penguins to cough up some lunch.
A Chinstrap Penguin and a Gentoo Penguin encounter each other at the boundary between the rookeries.
Background information about the Chinstrap Penguin.
You can buy a 2016 Calendar featuring my photographs of penguins taken in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
A dozen pictures of penguins taken in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands. Penguin species pictured include:
Locations where the photographs were taken in the Falkland Islands include:
Antarctic locations include:
Cape Lookout on Elephant Island. Put a copy of the Penguins 2016 Calendar in your Lulu.com shopping cart for $14.95.
Send a message to Brian.


Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 129,293 pages of information and 204,290 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
John Fowler and Co, agricultural engineers of the Steam Plough Works, Leeds.
See sub-sections on -
1850 John Fowler, Junior started work on application of steam-power to agricultural uses, in the first instance for drainage.
1861 July. Leed's trial of steam ploughing. Fowlers steam cultivator of 12 hp ploughed and scarified four acres in four hours. It is made by Kitson and Hewitson  Fowler's apparatus which he manufactures in his own factory at Leeds in connection with Kitson and Hewitson
1862 January. Mention of the Steam Plough Works
1862 The works were expanded. Around 100 employed.
1862 May. Refers to a locomotive at the Airedale works of Kitson, Hewitson and Fowler
1862 June. Refers to the steam plough business at Kitson, Hewitson and Fowler
1862 August. Refers to the cultivator of Fowler powered by a 14 hp engine of Kitson and Hewitson.
1862 November. Refers to Kitson and Hewitson's steam plough works
1863 Established John Fowler and Co.
1863 August. Steam Ploughing trials at Linton-on-Ouse mentions Fowler's plough and a 14 hp engine by Kiton and Hewitson.
1864 400 employees
1864 John Fowler was killed in a hunting accident aged 38 years. His brother Robert Fowler became a partner in the company.
1865 The Steam Plough Works enters the locomotive building trade
1867 Patent by D. Greig of the Steam Plough Works, Leeds for improvements in railways and railway engines
1870 November. 800 men employed
1871 Making agricultural machinery for Germany, locomotives for Brazil and winding engines for Cleveland
1871 Employing 950 hands and Robert W. Eddison is in charge
1872 Beam engine. Exhibit at Anson Engine Museum. (See photo).
1876 Exhibitor at the Royal Agricultural Show at Birmingham with engines of 6, 8 and 14 hp in a new very dark green colour.
1876 Members of the Iron and Steel Institute visited their works.
1881 Employing 1,100 hands and Robert W. Eddison is in charge
1881 December. The works are badly damaged by fire. 1,500 men affected. David Greig is a partner in the company. Premises are on a nine acre site and border those of Kitson and Co and close to Shepherd and Hill
1882 Patent to David Greig and Max Eyth for improvements in governors.
1886 The name John Fowler and Co (Leeds) Ltd was registered and listed as a manufacturer of steam traction engines. The company, John Fowler and Co (Leeds) Ltd was registered on 13 August, to acquire the business of engineers of the firm of the same name.
1887 Started manufacturing lead-covered electric cables under the patents of Eddison and Tatham.
1888 Robert Fowler died
1888 Building locomotives for an American railway company
1889 Showed a compound horizontal engine at the RASE at Windsor.
1891 Supplied horizontal twin-cylinder, Cornish and drop valve winding engine for Abercynon Colliery. Works number 6029.
1891 David Greig J.P. of the Steam Plough Works dies at Headingley Hill age 63.
1894 Burton-on-Trent Electric light Works. Article and illustration in 'The Engineer'.
1894 Eight-furrow turnover steam plough. Article in 'The Engineer'.
1894 June. Royal Agricultural Society's Show. Turnwrest Plough for Steam Cultivation.
1900 Article and illustration on armoured train made.
1900 June. Royal Agricultural Show at York. Showed 'Several fine engines'.
1908 June 24th. Made a Private company
1910 Produced agricultural tractors and machinery.
1911 Smithfield Club Show. Exhibited steam cultivating tackle, road locomotives etc.
1913 'The manufacture of Road Locomotives, Traction Engines, Tractors, Steam Ploughing Engines, and Road Rollers was commenced at the Steam Plough Works about the year 1850, and our modern engines are the outcome of accumulated experience gained since then. Our works cover an area of over fourteen acres and about 2,800 to 3,000 men and boys are now employed almost exclusively in the manufacture of various types of Steam and Oil Engine and Implements, an obvious proof of the constantly increasing demand for our engines.'
1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of Steam Motor Wagons, Tractors and Ploughs etc. see the 1917 Red Book including the Tiger range.
1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of Petrol Motor Commercial Vehicles see the 1917 Red Book
1920 Royal Agricultural Show at Darlington. 8-Furrow Turning Plough.
1920 October. New steam ploughing engine rated at 70 hp and 6,000lb on the rope.
1924 Built steam powered lorries until 1935 and built 117 in this period.
In 1927 the Gyrotiller was produced, having been designed to work on sugar cane plantations. Its rotary tines could penetrate the soil to a depth of 500 mm. It was successful not only at the sugar estates but also gained interest from contractors. The last Gyrotiller was produced in 1937.
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history
1931 Produced the Marathon 6, their first diesel powered lorry for 6/7ton payloads.
1935 Ceased production of lorries and railway locomotives. It is estimated that they made between 150-300 of the latter.
1937 The last steam engine, a road roller, was produced.
WWII Made Churchill tanks; invented the gyro tiller.
1944 Producing the 2DY diesel marine engine.
1945 June 9th. Made a public company
1947 June 24th. The petrol and diesel industrial engine part of the business was sold to Associated British Engineering
1948 November. Share prospectus
1949 As part of the Marshalls group, Fowlers were making tractors at Leeds coordinated with the production at Gainsborough; continued to make diesel-engined rail locomotives up to 300hp
1961 Manufacturers of diesel crawler tractors and diesel locomotives. 1,100 employees.
1964 & 1966 Chairman is Arnold Carr
1974 Company ceased trading.


Last week, The Associated Press reported  that in California, Latinos have reached population parity with whites. Both groups represent 39 percent of the population of the nation's largest state.
This demographic landmark was followed by the prediction that the parity would be short-lived. The state Department of Finance that released these figures further noted that by early next year, Latinos would be the largest ethnic population, exceeding whites. The increase in the Latino population, moreover, will continue to rise so that in 2030, it will account for 44 percent and in 2060, for close to 50 percent.
The report did not explain the reasons for the Latino increase, but most demographers say it is a combination of higher birth rates among Latinos -- since they represent a younger population than whites, blacks and Asians -- and immigration, though scholars also note that even if immigration were to be cut off, this increase would still occur because of high birth rates.
Latinos in California are already the largest so-called minority group, but now they are the largest group, period. Many of the same Latino demographics are also occurring in other states, such as Texas. But in the case of California, the future is already here. Demographically, Latinos will be dominant in California, which sets the trend in many ways for the rest of the country.
One trend is political. Latinos are now the backbone of the Democratic Party. No candidate for statewide office, whether Democrat or Republican, can win without the Latino vote. While Latinos have voted Democratic since the New Deal days of the 1930s, the surge in Latino support for the Democrats came in the wake of Proposition 187 in 1994, in which voters passed a resolution that would deny all state benefits to undocumented immigrants and to their undocumented children, excluding them from public schools.
Latinos, whether immigrants or not, were outraged, particularly at Republicans for leading the charge that implied that all Latinos were undocumented and welfare cheaters. Proposition 187 was not just about immigrants; it was perceived by most Latinos as an anti-Latino movement. Not only did even more Latino citizens vote for the Democrats in a backlash against the Republicans, but many unnaturalized Latino residents moved to become U.S. citizens to vote overwhelmingly Democrat. This Latino voter surge has made California into a secure blue state and impressed politicians, though not all Republicans, with Latino political power. The demographic increase of Latinos has only furthered this process. Demography has political implications.
This is the reality now spreading throughout the country as Latinos grow in numbers in many key electoral states. This is the reality that the national Republican Party has to face and that increases the political stakes on the passage of comprehensive immigration reform. Some Republicans are finally waking up to what has happened in California and what is happening and will happen in many other states over the next decades. The Latino vote already was perhaps the most determining factor in the 2012 presidential elections, pushing swing states such as Florida, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada into President Barack Obama's column. Unfortunately, many other Republicans still don't get it, especially the House Republicans who appear to be prepared to vote against comprehensive immigration reform that in particular provides legalization to the millions of undocumented in the country. But they do so at the political peril of the future of their party in national elections. What has happened in California will happen nationally, and the Republicans will be the biggest losers.