In this chapter, we explore some of the affinities that can be developed between new information and communication technologies and what has become known as aboriginal ways of knowing. This work documents some of these affinities via the collaborative development of an online project entitled “Nitsitapiisini—Stories and Spaces: Exploring Kainai Plants and Culture,” conducted with teachers, students, and elders of the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta. The pedagogy of this collaboration is then linked to rethinking the disciplines ofknowledge entrusted to teachers and students in schools as living disciplines that make demands on the possibilities inherent in new technologies. This particular orientation tubs against instructionist practices found in many classrooms yet, once awakened, spawns curiosity and creativity.
Friesen, S., Jardine, D., & Gladstone, B. (2011). The First Thunderclap of Spring: an Invitation into Aboriginal Ways of Knowing and the Creative Possibilities of Digital Technologies. in Craig, C.J., & Deretchin, L.F. (ED.) Cultivating Curious and Creative Minds: The Role of Teachers and Teacher Educators: Part II Teacher Education Yearbook XIX. Lanham, Maryland: Rowan & Littlefield Education. Available Online http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2011.10519481


From CCRMA Wiki
Homework #2: Sound Peeking
Due date: 2015.10.13 11:59:59pm, Tuesday.
In this assignment, you are to visualize sound in real-time, using OpenGL for the graphics programming.
Specification (part 0 of 3): Reading
- please read this: Principles of Visual Design for Computer Music
- the original OpenGL (1.1) reference: "The Red Book"
- download and play with sndpeek
Specification (part 1 of 3): Naming + Compilation
- choose a name for your program
- get a framework compiling on your system (keep in mind the final deliverable must be compilable/runnable on the CCRMA machines)
- might wish to start from the VisualSine example from lecture (time domain waveform rendering)
- use the chuck_fft.* files found here NOTE: this library ONLY works with single-precision floating point numbers (e.g., float)
Specification (part 2 of 3): Visualizing the spectrum
- implement short time fourier transform, and visualize the spectrum over time
- windowing (rectangular, hann, hamming)
- window size
- FFT size
- hop size (for now, hop size can equal window size)
- implement either a waterfall plot (like sndpeek) or a real-time scrolling spectrogram
Specification (part 3 of 3): Visualize something about the sound
- implement and visualize your choice of one of the following:
- vowel vs. consonant
- pitch tracking
- an audio feature
- use the sound to control some type of animation
- (or something of your choosing)
- have fun with it!!!
- PRINT OUT USAGE/KEYS TO CONTROLLING YOUR VISUALIZATION ON THE CONSOLE EVERY TIME YOUR VISUALIZER STARTS! (see sndpeek)
- comment your code!
- choose your own coding conventions - but be consistent
- you are welcome to work together, but you must do/turn in your own work (you'll likely get more out of it this way)
turn in all files via coursework, with concise online documentation + readme
- 0) source code to the project (*.h, *.cpp, *.c makefile, etc.)
- 1) screenshots of your visualizer!
- 2) online page for your project (should be viewable at http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~YOURID/256a/hw2/). It should include:
- links to your files of various kinds
- instructions on building the project (for example, anyone in the class should be able to download
- a short README text section that:
- conveys your ideas/comments in constructing each program
- describes any difficulties you encountered in the process
- lists any collaborators
- 3) upload to coursework, under a new folder hw2


Helpful Directions For Completing Science Holiday Homework
Science is one of the broadest areas when it comes to the various disciplines that have been incorporated in our school curriculum. You have to master how to do your science assignment because it is one area you cannot run away from. However, the following methods can make your work quite easier. Review them and try to implement in your work.
- Join a discussion group
- Try to hire professional writers
- Watch science based videos
- Get help from the internet
On holiday, there is no doubt that you will get in contact with other students both from your institution and those from other various colleges. This should give you an opportunity to request them to allow you form a discussion group in which you can discuss all your assignments. This is ideal because they will be in a position to aid you respond to questions that might be difficult for you. Simply keep in mind that you have to join only members who have the capacity to make a positive contribution to the group.
A professional writer can refer to either an individual skilled writer or simply a writing company which has several of these writers. It is important to try them first and be convinced about their skills before giving the m your science questions to do for you. They should be able to apply scientific terms instead of using casual language. Hiring of a reliable professional writer is the basis of presenting top notch answers that will greatly improve your grade.
Although some of these videos might not give you direct responses to your set of questions, they can bring the hints and important ideas on board. Therefore, it makes no sense to ignore them. There are others which have specific answers to your set of questions. You can therefore try these videos for both educative and homework based needs.
Here, everything is easy. You will get availed to a lot of information that is pertinent to the questions you have been asked. There are various sites that major in science and therefore, you only need to single out the answers from the information that pops up. You can choose to rephrase the answers so that there is no aspect of plagiarism in your work. If you do it right, you will be lucky as your lecturer will be impressed at our work. Avoid sites such as Wikipedia because they are not very reliable.


Make the changes in the indicate programs below. In each case, give the code changes and the function or part of the program in which the changes occur. Indicate how the resulting display looks.
Change the code to use a heat ramp if a constant RAMP is defined.
Change the code to have cold applied only initially but heat applied continuously.
Change the code to have one hot area composed of 2 grid points and one cold area of 2 grid points at opposite ends of the bar.
Have each molecule be blue, unless it hits the wall. Upon hitting the wall, turn the molecule red for that instant. During execution, observe what happens as you make the box smaller.
Instead of turning the molecule red for an instant, keep a molecule red after it hits and notice how long it takes for all the molecules to turn red.
Design different bodies of water and describe how disease spreads.
Code for a quarantine. What happens?
How do you make a smaller recovery rate? What happens?


Is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) real?
Did you know that there is not one mental illness that can be determined by a blood test?
When the school psychologist tells you your child has ADHD and prescription pills such as Ritalin will help, do you believe him or her?
If you do, you are crazier than they are.
There's no denying that hyperactivity exists. But maybe, just maybe it is not a mental illness. If it were, why did it not exist 100 years ago? Here's a theory. Children back then were given much more physical and creative activity in a school day. And when they weren't in school, they were outside biking or playing.
Boys, especially, need lots of physical activity. Budget cuts during the last couple of decades took care of most PE and artistic programs.
Some recent studies are revealing that many hyperactive children were actually very creative children who had their creative side suppressed with drugs. Many of these children grow up, stop taking their drugs and discover their creative side. No surprise here.
Now let's compound the lack of activity and lack of creativity with increased sugar and stimulant consumption. Then throw in some artificial dyes which cause hyperactivity in many children. Let's not forget some neurotoxins in the form of pesticides and herbicides in all food not labeled organic. Then let's add in some non-organic hormone-filled milk (compliments of Monsanto in the 1990s). Hormones in dairy can mess with the body's natural hormones and cause a host of problems for children including early puberty. Imagine going through puberty at 8 or 9 years old as many children are today. Do you think any of this has to do with the "attention deficit" and "hyperactivity" problems of today's youth?
Let's recap. We force children to sit for hours a day doing activities they mostly don't enjoy, give them sugar, caffeine, chemicals, food dyes, artificial hormones, pesticides and herbicides and expect them to behave? They are not the ones with the mental illness. We are for allowing the public school systems to bore our children and food manufacturers to poison our children.
What can you do? Instead of allowing your children to sit again when they get home watching the idiot box or playing video games, make them move for an hour either by doing chores or exercise. Biking, walking, and yard work are all acceptable ways to move.
Secondly, reduce or eliminate hyperactivity in children by doing the following:
1. Eliminate caffeine and processed foods with dyes and preservatives.
2. Reduce sugar to a minimum (30 grams per day). Don't forget fruit juices are high in sugar. Best to eliminate them or dilute them with water but buy 100% juice.
3. Buy mostly organic produce. Eliminate the 12 most contaminated if you cannot afford all organic.
4. Only buy organic soy and corn or not at all. More than 70% of these crops are genetically modified. There has been no safety test performed on humans. May be another culprit in behavioral problems.
5. If you child has acne, aches and pains, irritability, digestive problems, or has already been labeled hyperactive, then also eliminate wheat. Modern wheat is not easily digestible and can cause a host of physical and emotional problems even in those without Celiac disease.
6. Reduce gut inflammation which has been linked to ADHD by giving them foods with probiotics or feeding them organic plain yogurt (with fresh or frozen fruit and honey for sweetener) every day.
7. Eliminate trans fats and partially hydrogenated fats from their diets and add omega 3s which have been shown to nourish and calm the brain.
Thirdly, see the links below for more information on how the mental health industry "develops" mental disorders, reasons on psychiatrists will profit from the implementation of Obamacare, and more about ADHD.
Psychiatry Goes Insane (Natural News)
The Rise of the Psychiatric State Under Obamacare by Ron Rapporport
The Surprising Causes of ADHD.... (Mercola.com)


Many oral conditions adversely affect a resident’s nutrition and general health status, and the mouth, in turn, reflects many systemic problems. Advanced periodontitis—fairly common in the elderly—-reduces the ability to chew, exacerbates problems in the control of types 1 and 2 diabetes, and has been found to be a risk factor in pneumonia, cardiovascular disorders, and stroke. Loss and nonreplacement or inadequate replacement of missing teeth causes major nutritional difficulties. Smoking has been identified as a major risk factor for periodontitis, in addition to increasing susceptibility to oral cancer. Oral signs of AIDS are frequently misdiagnosed because many health practitioners are unaware of its presence in the elderly population. The multiple medications taken by many long-term care patients are often the cause of xerostomia (dry mouth), and some cause gingival enlargement. Many of the effects of oral disease may be prevented or treated by appropriate measures when a long-term care facility provides the resources and staff training. (Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging 2000;8[12}:41-46)
The oral health of a resident in a long-term care facility affects many aspects of the individual’s daily life, health, and sense of well-being. The mouth is involved in a wide range of activities, including eating, smiling, speaking, singing, smoking, and kissing. Any changes in oral health are likely to have multiple effects. This is further complicated by the functional and cognitive impairment and diminished cooperation of some residents in the performance of oral hygiene, by the reduced availability of dental care in many nursing homes compared with independent living, and by the lack of financial resources to pay for dental care. This article has three objectives:
1. Describe the oral and dental health changes that may affect the rest of the body and how these effects occur.
2. Describe the various ways that existing systemic conditions and diseases may affect the mouth.
3. Suggest practical ways to improve the oral health of long-term care residents. Oral health changes that may cause local problems and affect the rest of the body include periodontitis and other gingival conditions, dental caries, tooth loss and nonreplacement, inadequate replacement of missing teeth, salivary changes, mucocutaneous conditions, and oropharyngeal neoplasms. Some of these cause continuous or intermittent discomfort; some affect the patient’s nutritional status by making chewing difficult or impossible; others are responsible for self-consciousness and loss of self-esteem; and still others are significant risk factors for serious systemic problems.
Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gingiva and supporting tissues. If untreated, it results in the progressive loss of bone support around the teeth, the opening of a separation (“pocket”) between gum and tooth, and increasing tooth mobility.1 Bacteria in dental plaque are considered to be the principal causative agents. Pain is not a prominent feature of early disease, and patients are often unaware of the condition until it is pointed out by a dentist or hygienist, teeth become noticeably loose, or abscesses develop. Most adults have some form of the disease, and about 10-20% of the population has moderate or advanced periodontitis. Since residents in long-term care facilities are often in their 70s and beyond, periodontal disease in those who still have their teeth has generally existed for many years and is often advanced.2 Treatment usually slows or stops the progression of the disease (Figures 1A and 1B).
Effects of Periodontitis
One obvious effect of advanced periodontal disease is on nutrition. Patients with many loose teeth or missing teeth are often unable to chew any but the softest foods. They have a tendency to swallow mouthfuls unchewed rather than endure uncomfortable chewing. Such inadequate mastication may result in choking and sometimes in digestive problems. The problem may be worse in residents who have existing swallowing difficulties, such as following a stroke. Chewing difficulties may persist even after loose teeth are removed if they are not replaced with a dental prosthesis or are inadequately replaced.3,4
Another long-recognized effect of periodontitis is its role in the presence of diabetes. Glucose levels in patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes with active, advanced periodontal disease are more difficult to manage than in patients without periodontal disease. Conversely, when the diabetic state is uncontrolled, the patient is more susceptible to periodontal abscesses and rapid periodontal breakdown.5
In the past decade, other effects of periodontitis have become apparent. Evidence is accumulating that the presence of periodontal infections increases susceptibility to pneumonia and other lung conditions,6 cardiovascular disease,7 and stroke. (In a younger population, women of childbearing age with severe periodontitis appear to be at higher risk for preterm birth and low-birth-weight babies.) The mechanism of these effects is still uncertain. It is apparent, however, that the treatment of periodontal disease is advisable at every age level to prevent such complications.
At least three different types of medication produce gingival overgrowth that can interfere with chewing.8 These are the anticonvulsant phenytoin, the immunosuppressant cyclosporine, and calcium channel blockers, such as nifedipine and diltiazem. The mechanism of the overgrowth is still unclear. The enlargement may be minimal and barely noticeable, or it may be so advanced that the tissue covers the teeth. The effect is cumulative: a patient on cyclosporine who is also given nifedipine often presents with greater gingival overgrowth than with either drug alone (Figure 2). In addition to having difficulty chewing, the patient may be self-conscious and withdrawn because of the unpleasant appearance of the mouth.
Caries is generally thought of as a disease of young people because the highest incidence of new-enamel decay occurs during the first three decades of life in the enamel on the chewing surfaces and the proximal surfaces (the surface at which each tooth contacts its neighbor). However, older adults are susceptible to root caries, a condition in which decay invades the exposed roots of teeth and may result in pain, tooth fracture, abscess formation, and pulp death, requiring root canal treatment or extraction.9
Tooth Loss and Nonreplacement
The nonreplacement of missing teeth is one of the principal causes of inability to chew. Many older people, especially those with low incomes, fail to have lost teeth replaced for financial reasons. They rarely have dental insurance once they are no longer employed. If many teeth are missing, chewing becomes more and more difficult, and malnutrition is likely to result. A related problem is the continued use of dentures that no longer fit properly. The patient either leaves the dentures out of the mouth or uses them only intermittently. Even when a partial denture fits well, the patient is at higher risk for root caries unless the denture is removed daily, and both the denture and teeth are cleaned thoroughly.10,11
There has been a longstanding consensus in the health care community that patients in the over-65 age group have a diminished salivary flow. This has recently been questioned, and it now appears that much of the “dry mouth” problem is related to multiple medications taken by the people in this age group.12 More than 500 drugs in 42 drug categories produce xerostomia. They include antihypertensives, psychotropics, antihistamines, antiarrhymics, and many others. Dry mouth is also caused by Sjögren’s syndrome (an autoimmune condition seen primarily in women that involves dryness of mouth, eyes, and most other mucous membranes), as well as by radiation therapy for cancer of the head and neck. The reduced level of salivary flow increases susceptibility to root caries. Dry mouth tends to make eating less enjoyable and makes swallowing of relatively dry foods difficult. Again, nutritional problems may result.
There are a number of ulcerative, desquamative conditions that cause the oral tissues to be painful and make eating a highly unpleasant experience. They include candidiasis (thrush), erosive lichen planus, herpes zoster (shingles), and mucous membrane ulcerations resulting from chemotherapy.13
Approximately one-half of the 30,000 cases of oral cancer reported each year are found in patients over 65 years of age.14 Many deaths from this disease could be averted by early detection during routine screenings.
Systemic Conditions That Affect the Mouth
HIV is a condition not usually associated with older age groups, yet approximately 11% of patients with AIDS are 50 years of age and older, and one-fourth of these are over 60. Changes in the mouth are among the more frequently found signs of HIV and AIDS. These include Kaposi’s sarcoma, candidiasis, necrotic periodontitis, and hairy leukoplakia of the tongue. Many health care practitioners are only vaguely aware or are unaware of the possibility of HIV in an older patient, and the disease often is undiagnosed until it is far advanced.15
Smoking is now recognized as a major risk factor for periodontal disease,16 in addition to its role in heart disease, lung cancer, and other disorders. It is still uncertain whether the damage to the periodontal tissues produced by smoking is due to a topical effect of the smoke on the gingiva and/or to systemic effects, such as changes in blood flow. Smoking is also implicated in the high incidence of oral and pharyngeal cancers that are found in elderly men who are both tobacco users and alcohol abusers. All forms of smoking—cigarettes, cigars, pipes—greatly increase the risk of oral and pharyngeal cancers, compared with nonsmokers. Many patients in long-term care have neurologic conditions such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease that make oral hygiene measures difficult or impossible for them to perform. Similarly, patients with severe arthritis are unable to wield a toothbrush or floss their teeth. The result is plaque accumulation and increased gingival inflammation. Sensory deficits, especially deteriorating eyesight, make oral hygiene more difficult, while both impaired vision and hearing loss make it more difficult for oral health care instructions to be understood by the patient. Medications have multiple effects, some of which (xerostomia and gingival enlargement) have been described above. In addition, taste changes caused by some drugs make food taste unpleasant,17 whereas others, such as antipsychotics, can produce movement disorders (tardive dyskinesia), which may interfere with the patient’s ability to manage food utensils or oral hygiene implements. Some patients have systemic conditions that, while they do not affect the mouth directly, complicate the management of oral health problems. An example is the patient with rheumatic heart disease or other conditions that require antibiotic premedication prior to dental treatment sessions. Behavioral challenges also complicate oral health care. Residents with dementia or other psychiatric conditions may be too frightened, uncomprehending, or combative to permit dental treatment or oral hygiene procedures. Management of the Oral Health of Patients in Long-Term Care Oral health has a low priority in many nursing homes. A survey in 1995 of more than 16,000 nursing homes in the United States revealed that 1700 offered no dental services at all; 60% had no regular dental services available, except on call or offsite; and more than 1000 did not provide any oral hygiene assistance to residents.18 All incoming residents should have an oral health examination (with dental radiographs) that includes cancer screening. It should involve a visual examination and palpation of the oral tissues for changes in color, size, form, firmness, and/or surface texture; a periodontal examination; recording of missing and carious teeth, and evaluation of existing prostheses. Functionally dependent adults should be assessed for their ability to perform oral hygiene procedures. This assessment need not be an all-or-nothing evaluation. Some residents’ difficulties may be due to partial physical and/or cognitive impairment. Thus, an individual who is unable to brush his or her teeth independently may be able to do so if someone is present to direct the procedure with such instructions as “open your toothpaste, pick up your brush, put on the toothpaste,” and so on. Patients with severe arthritis or motion disorders find toothbrushing easier if the brush has a thick handle. These are available from suppliers of implements for the disabled or may be made from a standard soft-bristled toothbrush by taping sponge rubber to the handle. Checkup examinations should be done at intervals of no more than 12 months. The management of oral health problems will depend on the patient’s sensory and motor abilities, understanding and cooperation; the training, skills, sensitivity, and motivation of the staff; and the availability of funds to pay for the care needed. Ideally, oral hygiene procedures should be taught, missing teeth replaced, carious teeth restored, and periodontal treatment performed to ensure that the patient will be able to eat comfortably. Various techniques are available to stabilize loose teeth even in the presence of severe periodontal disease. Patients with extensive root caries should be given a fluoride rinse to reduce the likelihood of further decay. For patients with severely dry mouths, artificial saliva is available. Patients whose impairments prevent their performance of oral hygiene should have it performed by an aide. It should involve the use of a soft toothbrush with or without toothpaste to clean all of the teeth, particularly at the gum line on both the inner and outer surfaces of the teeth. A Swedish study published in 1997 found that nursing personnel considered oral care assistance more disagreeable than most other nursing activities.19 Such an attitude reduces the likelihood of careful oral hygiene by aides. A search on the World Wide Web under oral hygiene or oral hygiene video will provide sources of patient education brochures and tapes that may be helpful, but a dentist or hygienist is the best person to provide the necessary training.20,21 Finding the funds for oral health care in a long-term care environment is another major challenge. Medicare generally pays for dental needs only if they are the result of an accident, whereas Medicaid reimbursement varies from state to state and is usually minimal. An inquiry to the state Medicaid office or the state dental society might suggest ways to obtain some of the needed funds. The oral health of residents in long-term care facilities frequently suffers for a variety of reasons: functional and/or cognitive impairments that limit the ability of residents to care for themselves; a large variety of prescribed medications; and reduced access to oral health care. As the over-65 population continues to grow, institutions will house more people who are retaining more of their teeth and who will have even greater dental care needs. Now is the time to plan for the management of this population and to seek increased financial reimbursement.
Michele Karel, PhD, a geriatric clinical psychologist, offered valuable comments and suggestions during the preparation of this article.
1. Albandar JM, Brunelle JA, Kingman A. Destructive periodontal disease in adults 30 years of age and older in the United States, 1988-1994 [published erratum appears in J Periodontol 1999;70(3):351]. J Periodontol 1999;70(1):13-29.
2. Fox CH, Jette AM, McGuire SM, et al. Periodontal disease among New England elders. J Periodontol 1994;65(7):676-684.
3. Mojon P, Budtz-Jorgensen E, Rapin CH. Relationship between oral health and nutrition in very old people. Age Ageing 1999;28(5):463-468.
4. Saunders MJ. Nutrition and oral health in the elderly. Dent Clin North Am 1997;41(4):681-698.
5. Grant-Theule DA. Periodontal disease, diabetes, and immune response: A review of current concepts. Journal of the Western Society of Periodontology – Periodontal Abstracts 1996;44(3):69-77.
6. Scannapieco FA. Role of oral bacteria in respiratory infection. J Periodontol 1999;70(7):793-802.
7. Beck JD, Offenbacher S. Oral health and systemic disease: Periodontitis and cardiovascular disease. J Dent Educ 1998;62(10):859-870.
8. Desai P, Silver JG. Drug-induced gingival enlargements. J Can Dent Assoc 1998;64(4):263-268.
9. Shay K. Root caries in the older patient: Significance, prevention, and treatment. Dent Clin North Am 1997;41(4):763-793.
10. MacEntee MI, Glick N, Stolar E. Age, gender, dentures and oral mucosal disorders. Oral Diseases 1998;4(1):32-36.
11. Slavkin HC. Maturity and oral health: Live longer and better. J Am Dent Assoc 2000;131:805-808.
12. Fox PC. Acquired salivary dysfunction: Drugs and radiation. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1998;842:132-137.


The Mackenzie River is a major river in northern Canada. It is named after famous explorer, Alexander Mackenzie. The river's watershed drains parts of Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon. It flows north, for 1,738 kilometres (1,080 mi), from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. There are only a few small towns on the river, including Fort Providence and Norman Wells. The river is used as a boat transport route during the ice-free summer.
|Length||1,738 km (1,080 mi)|


Winter sowing is the technique of growing plants from seeds sown in winter to give them a head start in spring. As any gardener who has ever struggled with a self-seeding plant knows, some seeds do very well when left outdoors in the cold all winter. The seeds that does well in this technique are the ones that need to experience cold, damp conditions either because they have hard shells that are softened by the freezing and thawing or because they are triggered by the change in temperature to sprout. This is called stratification.
So, how is “winter sowing” different than “self sowing? Winter sowing essentially provides a mini greenhouse environment to control the germination of seeds within the boundaries of the container it is sowed in. A quick internet search told me that the phrase “winter sowing” is attributed to Trudi Davidoff, a resourceful gardener who had more seeds than indoor space. Ms. Davidoff sows seeds in covered containers (she uses take-out containers with foil bottoms and plastic tops) and then moves the containers outdoors. The containers act as mini greenhouses, allowing the seeds to experience the chill of winter in a controlled environment. When the temperature warms enough, the seeds germinate and start to grow. I learnt about this technique in the last few months and wanted to give it a try. I sowed Tiger Paw Asters, Monarda (Bee Balm), and Lupine seeds. I am eagerly waiting to see if I am successful in this process. I won’t write about the step by step process I followed, instead I am linking the video here:
I will provide an update on this experiment in spring. So make sure to follow me here or in my social media accounts.


While DietsInReview’s primary focus is weight loss, disease prevention and overall health and wellness, we are also concerned about the health impact of poverty and malnutrition. Obesity may be a major problem in the United States and most of the developed world, but many developing nations struggle with nutritional deficiencies as a result of an insufficient food supply and poverty. Nutrition, health and health care, social justice, disease, and so many other concerns are wrapped up with poverty. It can be an overwhelming and cyclical problem.
The Girl Effect aims to improve poverty, disease, war, social inequality, and the world’s economy by educating girls in the developing world. It may sound idealistic, but there is much research behind the hypothesis that when girls are given any additional education, they are less likely to marry early, have children early, die from childbirth, contract HIV, and live in poverty. The Girl Effect also recognizes the different impact that women have on children and families versus men. According to The Girl Effect Fact Sheet women reinvest 90 percent of their income into their families, while men only reinvest 30 to 40 percent. That means that educating a young girl and giving her the opportunity to earn an income is at least 50 percent more likely to reduce poverty in her family than if a young boy was given additional educational opportunities. Women can make powerful changes when given the opportunity.
The Girl Effect, created by the Nike Foundation with support from the NoVo Foundation and Nike, Inc., who brought us the “If You Let Me Play” campaign 15 years ago, encourages advocating for educating girls in developing nations, which they believe can have a snowball effect on those girls, their families and children, their towns and villages, and eventually the entire world. The Girl Effect advocates for social movement and wide-spread change based on research and a singular focus – education. The videos are powerful. The research is staggering. I encourage you to check out The Girl Effect and see how you can help.


What to do as a parent
Many essentially well-informed parents are still unsure how to protect their children from a possible sexual assault or what they should do to protect another child that they suspect to be a victim of sexual abuse in its environment.
Talk to your children
The most important thing that parents can do is talk to their children and teach them some basic principles from an early age:
- I have the right to say NO to any action that makes me feel scared or uncomfortable.
- My body belongs to me. Everyone must respect that. I can even say NO to someone I know or love.
- Nobody is allowed to touch me in my private parts. If it is necessary for a doctor or nurse to do so, they will have to tell me the reason and ask me first.
- I distinguish “bad” from “good” secrets. A bad secret is what makes me feel scared, awkward, uncomfortable or bad. A good secret is a surprise-party or an unexpected gift. I speak directly to my parents or an adult that I trust about what is happening to me or is worrying me.
It is the parents’ responsibility to be aware of what is going on and protect their children. We watch out for unjustified marks, scrapes or scratches on our child’s body. We are on guard for unreasonable changes in the child’s behavior.
Being alert to the behavior of all other adults involved in the care and instruction of our children is necessary. The rules of protection are valid for all.
Privacy and respect towards our child are non-negotiable.
Read here all the informative brochures of ELIZA.
What to do if we suspect that a child is a victim of sexual abuse
Children are often afraid to talk about what is happening to them. If you suspect that there is a possibility of a child being sexually abused, you should do the following:
- Stay in contact with the child and give it the chance to talk about what’s happening.
- Take notes of dates and incidents in order to detect any changes in the child’s behavior.
- Talk to the teacher or pediatrician of the child about your concerns.
- Call the 115 25 Helpline of the Together for Children Association – with which ELIZA is cooperating – and report the incident.
Sexual abuse, particularly when it involves our close environment is an unpleasant issue that people often refuse to believe. Their initial reaction is that it would be better not to get involved because it may all be in their imagination. This is a mistake.
Do not hesitate to report an incident of suspected child sexual abuse. Do not wait until you are absolutely sure. Trust your instinct and break the silence.
Children depend on us, adults, to protect them and it is our responsibility to do so.


Home automation gives you access to control devices in your home from a mobile device anywhere in the world. The term may be used for isolated programmable devices, like thermostats and sprinkler systems, but home automation more accurately describes homes in which nearly everything — lights, appliances, electrical outlets, heating and cooling systems — are hooked up to a remotely controllable network. From a home security perspective, this also includes your alarm system, and all of the doors, windows, locks, smoke detectors, surveillance cameras and any other sensors that are linked to it.
A lot of inventions these days, Experts are introducing latest inventions and inventing new technology real quickly. I would also like to mention form to phone software which is also a great invention in history of internet marketing. Where home automation becomes truly “smart” is in the Internet-enabled devices that attach to this network and control it. The classic control unit is the home computer, for which many of the earlier home automation systems were designed. Today’s home automation systems are more likely to distribute programming and monitoring control between a dedicated device in the home, like the control panel of a security system, and a user-friendly app interface that can be accessed via an Internet-enabled PC, smartphone or tablet.
One clear advantage of home automation is the unmatched potential for energy savings, and therefore cost savings. At the most basic level, home automation extends that scheduled programmability to lighting, so that you can suit your energy usage to your usual daily schedule. With more flexible home automation systems, electrical outlets or even individual devices can also be automatically powered down during hours of the day when they’re not needed. As with isolated devices like thermostats and sprinkler systems, the scheduling can be further broken down to distinguish between weekends and even seasons of the year, in some cases.
Set schedules are helpful, but many of us keep different hours from day to day. Energy costs can be even further reduced by programming “macros” into the system and controlling it remotely whenever needed. In other words, you could set up a “coming home” event that turns on lights and heating as you’re driving home after work, for example, and activate it all with one tap on your smartphone. An opposite “leaving home” event could save you from wasting energy on forgotten lights and appliances once you’ve left for the day.


The duty of doing nothing
August is approaching, the month of holidays par excellence in the Mediterranean cradle, and with it the long hours of warm days occupied with... nothing. Or not. Allowing oneself to disconnect is a luxury that very few can afford in a society that idealises productivity and stigmatises free time even during the longed-for holidays.
However, letting the mind wander uncontrollably is the perfect recipe for boosting creativity and productivity. A walk in the woods, a nap on the beach, contemplating the landscape from a bench on the sidewalk... distraction is an experience that all human beings share and has been the subject of study for centuries, along with the ability to focus thought, in the search for the perfect balance.
We live surrounded by stimuli, to the point of considering overstimulation as a positive element in our lives. It is not by chance that the excess of activities and the lack of time stand out as the main cause of stress.
However, the brain is not prepared to manage all that information and can only pay attention to a limited number of things at a time. According to Daniel Levitine, author of the book "The Organized Mind" and professor of psychology at McGill University (Canada) with data overload, the ability to focus attention is diminished by constantly jumping from one topic to another, resulting in mental fatigue that no night's sleep can solve.
When, on the other hand, people let the mind wander, it engages in one of the most interesting processes of intelligence: creation. One of the key activities for personal and social development.
As seems to be the case with everything, virtue lies between the two systems of attention that the human mind is capable of alternating: the first, positive attention, consists of focusing the mind on a task and avoiding all kinds of distractions; while the second, negative attention, is what appears when the mind is wandering. These two systems work in reverse: when one is on, the other is off.
During moments of wandering, the mind, contrary to what one might think, continues to work in the subconscious. It is during these moments when what has been learned is understood, newly acquired data is consolidated and the most important information is memorized; or when the solution to a problem that we may have been dragging around for days is "magically" solved.
It is also during these moments that the mind rests and resets. When self-identity is affirmed, human behavior is understood and ethical codes are generated. Because as the popular saying goes, "time heals all things and changes all things".
Therefore, during this month we do what we preach and we go to rest, to recharge our batteries and to do nothing! to return full of ideas and news to share with you.


- The Earth Observer Newsletter
You will be directed to the NASA Visible Earth webpage when you select Images by Mission below, or click on the images at right that are randomly generated to represent four out of all possible topics.
You are here
Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner (MOMS)
Mission Category: Historical Missions
Launch Date: June 18, 1983
The Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner (MOMS) was a camera mounted on the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS-01), which launched as a free-flyer platform (the image above shows the SPAS platform that MOMS was mounted on). The scanning system had airborne and, predominantly spaceborne, geoscientific remote sensing applications . The first version, MOMS-01, was developed by order of the German Minister for Research and Technology under contract from the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR).
The most important characteristic of MOMS was the modular arrangement of the CCD-sensor, electronics, optical lens system, and filters. This arrangement allowed the instrument to be adapted for completely different geoscientific tasks or missions. The multispectral mode of MOMS enabled geologic mapping, mineral resources exploration, hydrology, mapping and monitoring of renewable resources (agriculture, forestry, urban and regional planning), coastal zone monitoring, and topographic mapping.
The first two flights of MOMS-01 took place on board the Space Shuttle missions STS-7 and STS-11 in 1983 and 1984, respectively. Both flights yielded high-resolution images with a 20x20m ground size from about a 300 orbital altitude. Data takes occurred over Africa/Arabia, Australia, east and southeast Asia, India, South America, and the US.
Key Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner Facts
Relevant Science Focus Areas:
- Earth Surface and Interior
Relevant Science Questions:
- How is the global Earth system changing?


Technical barriers to trade
The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement aims to ensure that technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures are non-discriminatory and do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. At the same time, it recognises WTO members' right to implement measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human health and safety, or protection of the environment. The TBT Agreement strongly encourages members to base their measures on international standards as a means to facilitate trade. Through its transparency provisions, it also aims to create a predictable trading environment.
- TBT Information Management System – The TBT IMS offers a wide range of search criteria for notifications, specific trade concerns and other TBT information
- TBT Enquiry points
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- The full text of the TBT Agreement
- What are technical barriers to trade? A brief introduction
- WTO Agreement Series — Technical Barriers to Trade
An overview of the TBT Agreement, FAQs, the full legal text of the Agreement, and the decisions and recommendations adopted by the TBT Committee since 1 January 1995.
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TBT Committee work involves two broad areas:
- review of specific measures
WTO members/observers use the TBT Committee to discuss specific trade concerns (STCs) — specific laws, regulations or procedures that affect their trade, usually in response to notifications. Essentially, members raise STCs to find out more about the scope and implementation of each other's regulations in light of the core TBT obligations. The discussion is mostly about measures in the pipeline, but can also be about the implementation of existing measures. To date, more than 500 “STCs” have been raised which can be accessed through the TBT Information Management System TBT IMS — the database of WTO information on TBT notifications, specific trade concerns, enquiry points, etc.
- strengthening implementation of the TBT Agreement
Members exchange experiences on the implementation of the Agreement with a view to making implementation more effective and efficient. This discussion revolves around generic, cross-cutting themes, including transparency, standards, conformity assessment and good regulatory practice.
Over the years, the Committee has developed a series of decisions and recommendations intended to facilitate implementation of the TBT Agreement. The latest decisions and recommendations adopted by the Committee can be found here.
Meetings of the TBT Committee
The Committee usually holds three formal meetings per year. These are sometimes preceded by workshops or thematic sessions. Meetings are open to all WTO members and observer governments. International intergovernmental organizations — several of them standardizing bodies — also participate as observers in the Committee. See also rules of procedure for meetings of the Committee and guidelines for observer status.
The current chair of the TBT Committee is .
Search here for TBT official documents using various criteria
The Committee is mandated to conduct an annual review of activities relating to the implementation and operation of the TBT Agreement, including notifications, specific trade concerns, technical assistance activities, and TBT related disputes. The latest Annual Review report was circulated in April 2017.
The TBT Committee is mandated to review the operation and implementation of the TBT Agreement on a triennial basis. The Eighth Triennial Review is due for completion by the end of 2018.
Transparency is a cornerstone of the TBT Agreement and consists of three core elements:
- establishment of enquiry points
- publication requirements.
This toolkit contains information on the transparency obligations and procedures, and related work in the Committee, as well as other resources.
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Find jurisprudence concerning the TBT Agreement:
- Analytical Index — Guide to WTO Law and Practice
- WTO Appellate Body Repertory of Reports and Awards (5th edition: 1995–2013)
- WTO Dispute Settlement: One-Page Case Summaries (1995–2012)
- 19 March 2018
Side Event organized by Chile
- 13 June 2017
Thematic Session on Risk Assessment
- 28 March 2017
- Agreement series — TBT
An overview of the TBT Agreement
- Trade and Food Standards
- Technical Barriers to Trade: Reducing trade friction from standards and regulations
- World Trade Report 2012
A closer look at non-tariff measures
- World Trade Report 2011
Deeper integration (PTAs), including on regulatory matters
- World Trade Report 2005
A closer look at standards
- WTO Agreements and Public Health — A joint study by WHO and the WTO Secretariat
Staff working papers
- Interplay between Patents and Standards in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Sector and its Relevance to the Implementation of the WTO Agreements
- Trade, testing and toasters: Conformity assessment procedures and the TBT Committee
- TBT and Trade Facilitation Agreements: Leveraging linkages to reduce trade costs
- TBT provisions in Regional Trade Agreements: To what extent do they go beyond the WTO TBT Agreement?


- There is a large pocket of methane gas underground. Since methane gas is less dense than air, it rises through and out the ground. A previous earthquake may also have allowed a pathway to open up in the ground to allow methane gas to seep through the ground.
- Methane reacts with oxygen and other chemicals in the air to combust.
- It is a natural phenomenon
Located just past Hengchun’s east gate, Chuhuo’s local topography is made of mudstone. There are many cracks in these mudstone that allow natural gases to be emmited. If there is a fire source. These gases which include methane, can be ignited. It is a natural phenomenon where methane seeps up from the earth and ignites the area around it.


In all living cells, DNA makes RNA and RNA makes proteins. The molecular factory that translates the information from RNA to proteins is called the “ribosome” (shown in the accompanying movie). It is a large and sophisticated entity, itself made of RNA and proteins.
Using a novel approach, Matthieu Gagnon and other Yale researchers in the lab of Nobel laureate Thomas Steitz in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry have described the crystal structure of the ribosome bound to a new protein, called elongation factor 4 (shown in dark blue), that plays a crucial and heretofore unknown role in production of proteins, which are essential to all life.
The knowledge of the structure sheds new light on the intricate process of producing proteins and also paves the way to creation of more specifically designed drugs.
For more on the research, see the Aug. 8 issue of Science.


Amazon rainforest losing capacity to soak up CO2
Lung capacity The Amazon rainforest may be approaching the limit of how much excess carbon dioxide it can capture from the atmosphere.
This could have significant implications for global carbon dioxide levels, as the rainforest previously absorbed up to two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, converting it into biomass.
But the net uptake by the forest has halved, and is now for the first time being overtaken by fossil fuel emissions in Latin America.
The three-decade-long study involved teams of researchers from around the world measuring the growth and death of vegetation across a network of 321 plots of Amazonian rainforest, with an average size of 1.2 hectares.
Co-author Professor Bill Laurance says earlier research showed that the Amazon acts as a major 'carbon sink', as trees grow faster in response to increasing carbon dioxide levels; an effect known as CO2 fertilisation.
"What was happening was that the trees were getting bigger and they were accumulating more biomass, so in rough terms, it looked like each hectare of forest was gaining about half a tonne of carbon per year," says Laurance, director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies at James Cook University and ARC Laureate Fellow.
But faster growth isn't always a good thing, and the accelerated life cycle of the tree is also linked with size-related structural problems, less reproduction, and reduced photosynthesis.
This new study shows growth appears to be slowing as the forest becomes saturated.
"You can only pack so many trees and so many vines into a forest," Laurance says.
"There's only a finite amount of light and water and nutrients out there, so basically what happens is that competition intensifies, and as competition intensifies some things have to die so you get things dying faster," he says.
Researchers found increased tree death, but also increasing growth of vines, which are flourishing in the disturbed forest environment that occurs when trees die at a greater rate.
"The vines are the junk traders of the forest whereas the trees are the old money," Laurance says.
"They're the ones that have the long-term investment in wood and structure, and the vines are the fast-living junk bond traders that are parasites and not investing much into wood, but putting a lot of investment into leaves."
The shift in growth could be due to a number of factors in addition to the higher levels of carbon dioxide, including several unprecedented droughts that have struck the Amazon basin on top of the usual El Nino-related droughts.
However, the study shows that the decline in the rainforest's carbon-dioxide-absorbing capacity predates these extreme droughts.
Laurance says the longer-term implications for global carbon dioxide levels are still unclear.
"It doesn't suggest that [carbon] sink has gone away, but it suggests that it's tapering off or slowing down," Laurance says.


The reason John F. Kennedy kept a battered coconut shell on his desk in the Oval Office
During his presidency, John F. Kennedy decorated his desk with a number of items that carried personal meaning. These included model sailing ships, an ornamented whale tooth, and various naval memorabilia.
However, the most unusual and perhaps most significant item was a paperweight made out of an old, battered coconut shell. A faint handwritten inscription on the shell stated: “NAURO ISL… COMMANDER… NATIVE KNOWS POS’IT… HE CAN PILOT… 11 ALIVE…NEED SMALL BOAT …KENNEDY.”
The coconut shell stood on JFK’s desk as a reminder of his almost losing his life in the Pacific in World War II. In 1943, Kennedy was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy who probably didn’t ever dream about becoming the most powerful man in America. He was in command of PT-109, a small torpedo patrol boat with a crew of 14 men based at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The boat was tasked with patrolling the waters around the Solomon Islands and scouting the area for Japanese military vessels.
One night in August, PT-109 was intercepted by a 367-foot-long Japanese destroyer named Amagiri. Kennedy’s crew was getting ready to attack the ship, but the gargantuan destroyer was moving fast and was way more agile than they anticipated: It deliberately ran into PT-109 and literally cut the small boat in half. Two men were killed, and the rest of the crew found themselves in the water. Kennedy knew that the Japanese ship might turn around and try to finish off the survivors, so he ordered his men to swim to a nearby island. Although his back was badly damaged from an injury while playing football in college, he managed to tow a badly burned crew member for two hours until reaching the island.
o the misfortune of Kennedy and his crew, the barren island was uninhabited, with no food or water to be found. Kennedy persuaded his crew to swim to another island a couple of miles away that hopefully had some vegetation. The men reached the island after several hours of exhausting swimming; their ordeal was worsened by the constant fear of Japanese patrol ships. They also feared military outposts that could have been hidden on the island. When they arrived, they discovered that the island, then known as Plum Pudding Island and today known as Kennedy Island, was also uninhabited. But it had palm trees.
For the following six days, the crew survived only on coconuts that they found on the palm trees. On the seventh day, they encountered two men in a canoe: the men were natives from a nearby island and, fortunately for Kennedy and his men, they worked with the Coastwatchers, a secret network of agents that informed the Allies of the positions of Japanese military outposts.
They agreed to help the stranded men, so Kennedy etched a message on a coconut shell, and the two islanders brought it to the Allied forces stationed at Tulagi Island.
The two islanders managed to safely avoid a network of Japanese scouts and patrol ships in the waters around the Solomon Islands, and the message found its way to the Allies. After the crew of the ill-fated PT-109 were transported back to safety, Kennedy’s bravery and tactical thinking earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart.
The concept for the BEANO hand grenade was that a spherical grenade the size and weight of a common baseball would be effective in the hands of American troops. The designers believed that by emulating a baseball, any American young man should be able to properly throw the grenade with both accuracy and distance.
The final design for the T-13 hand grenade utilized a pressure trigger as well as an in-flight arming device. The grenade was designed to be thrown as a traditional baseball, and as such it was held with two fingers on a weighted and knurled "butterfly cap" and the arming pin was removed. Once thrown, the cap detached from the body of the grenade and a length of nylon string unwound until a secondary arming pin attached to the far end of the cord was pulled, arming the grenade to detonate upon impact with a hard surface. While the original design called for a 5.5 oz (160 g) total weight, it was later decided that this was too light and the weight was increased to 12 oz (340 g).
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How to Make the M1 Garand Even Better — Shorten It, Make It Lighte
The World War II M1 Carbine was never actually meant to be a front-line infantry weapon. Rather, the U.S. Army had envisaged soldiers in support roles using the gun strictly for last-ditch, personal defense.
In January 1944, the Infantry Board tested a shorter and lighter version of the Garand developed by the 93rd Infantry Division. The Board concluded that shortening the rifle did not impair its accuracy.
Col. Rene Studler, the chief of ordnance, directed Springfield Armory to develop a suitable carbine for widespread issue. John Garand, the M1's head designer, began work on an appropriate folding stock.
The prototype M1E5 featured a barrel that was just 18 inches long, down from the standard 24 inches — and also boasted an ingenious, folding, pantograph-style stock that attached via a rear metal cap.
The weapon’s overall length with the stock extended was 37.5 inches. It weighed 8.4 pounds. This was still longer and heavier than the 5.8-pound, 36-inch M1 Carbine was, but lighter and more compact than the 9.6-pound, 43.5-inch Garand was.
Revisions to the stock improved the weapon’s ergonomics and strength — especially when firing rifle grenades. However, the Springfield Armory suspended work on the Garand carbine shortly after finishing testing in late 1944. Springfield redirected its staff to focus on the select-fire T20 rifle then in development. The war ended before Springfield could revisit the carbine project.
Garand filed a patent protecting the stock design in June 1946, and the government granted it in February 1949. Springfield Armory only built one M1E5 prototype. It remains in the Armory’s collection.
GAZ AA SOVIET SHIELDED TRUCK
German soldiers resting after the hard fighting in the vicinity of Leningrad, 1941. Behind, a Soviet armored truck in flames model GAZ-AA.
The burning vehicle is a limited variant of the GAZ-AA truck, limited since this model is armored, hence the silhouette between the smoke is very straight, are the armor plates.
Place: near Leningrad.
The GAZ - MM was produced in the late 1930s and early 1940s by GAZ in the Soviet Union. It is a simplified version of the Soviet license version of Ford Model AA. At the beginning of World War II, more than 150,000 were used by the Red Army.
The GAZ-MM was only a designation of a 50 HP reinforced engine, introduced in 1938, in the factory documents these trucks were still designated as GAZ AA.
GAZ-65: prototype version. Produced in 1940.
4M GAZ-AAA: anti-aircraft truck equipped with a Maxim M1910 quad cannon.
72-K GAZ - MM: anti-aircraft truck equipped with an M1940 (72-K) automatic cannon of 25 mm air defense built during World War II.
- 72-K GAZ - MM anti-aircraft trucks equipped with an M1940 (72-K) automatic cannon of 25 mm anti-aircraft defense. The cannon was created in the early 1940s at Artillery Factory No. 8 in Kalinin, under the direction of chief designer Mikhail Loginov.
not fear the enemy that attacks you,
be afraid of the false friend that hugs you
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The Dagger alif or superscript alif (Arabic: ألف خنجرية alif khanjariyya) is written as a short vertical stroke on top of an Arabic letter. It indicates a long /aː/ sound where alif is normally not written, e.g. هٰذَا hādhā or رَحْمٰن raḥmān. The dagger alif occurs in only a few modern words, but these include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts, excepting the Qur'an. As Wright notes "[alif] was at first more rarely marked than the other long vowels, and hence it happens that, at a later period, after the invention of the vowel-points, it was indicated in some very common words merely by a fètḥa [i.e. the dagger alif.]" Most keyboards do not have dagger alif. The word ﷲ (Allāh) is usually produced automatically by entering "alif lām lām hāʾ". The word consists of alif + ligature of doubled lām with a shadda and a dagger alif above lām.
There are two possible ways of representing the dagger alif in modern editions of Quran. In the editions printed in the Middle East the dagger alif is written with fatḥah: الرَّحْمَٰنِ (a)r-raḥmān. In the editions printed in South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) the dagger alif is written without fatḥah: الرَّحْمٰنِ (a)r-raḥmāni.
- Alhawary, Mohammad T. (2011). Modern standard Arabic grammar: a learner's guide. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-1-4051-5501-4.
- Ryding, Karin C. (2005). A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge University Press. p. 28.
- Caspari, Carl Paul (1896). Wright, William; Smith, William Robertson; de Goeje, Michael Jan, eds. A Grammar of the Arabic Language. 1 (3rd ed.). pp. 9–10.
|This writing system-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|


Written by Max Muller:
Some imagine our memory merely as a tool to retrieve past events or thoughts. That it operates as a purely mechanistic, objective tool that passively stores information. As such, it enables us to learn things and allows people to function properly in their daily lives.
However, this conception of human memory is rather limited. Although it does perform the above-mentioned tasks, it is not confined to purely practical matters. A person’s memory is not merely concerned with what he or she does or can do – it also determines who and what the person is.
Human beings are necessarily finite, both in terms of space and in terms of time. We live within a particular time frame and grow up under some set of historical particularities. Thus, to a large extent, our circumstances and experiences determine who we are.
In order to understand ourselves, we look back upon past events. We aim to come to an understanding of our role within them. In doing so, we continuously re-visit our memories to re-interpret them, casting light on the way we are situated in the present.
By selectively choosing to focus on certain memories and at the same time discarding others, people actively and subjectively construct themselves by means of narratives. Human beings are therefore not mere processors of information, they invent and re-work it as stories. Memory comes alive in the act of narration, allowing individuals to form a coherent identity. Human life has, therefore, both biological and biographical origins.
In that sense, it is not surprising that psychologists sometimes encourage their patients to share their life story with them. It allows patients to understand themselves. Their confusion is healed when the re-visitation of their memories results in a more thorough understanding of the way they acted in (perceived) past events. This enables them to act with deeper understanding during the present. Concurrently, their sense of identity is emboldened throughout the process, allowing them to be more at ease with who they are.
Therapists are expensive. In addition, the whole therapeutic process is quite time-consuming, cumbersome and confrontational. Why not engage you, our readers, with my past?
At the risk of seeming exceedingly self-centered, I will take this opportunity to describe some memories of my own. During the writing process, I aim to gain a more thorough understanding of myself. In addition, I am curious as to what you think about my experiences. What do they tell you about me? Do you have any insights as to how I ought to interpret these events? Let us make sense of my life together.
One memory that sometimes resurfaces dates back from more than 17 years ago. At the time, my family and I would visit a place called Cap-d’Agde in the South of France every summer. We would stay in a resort filled with bungalows and spent our carefree days at the beach or near the pools.
Sometimes, however, something out of the ordinary would happen. The owners of the resort would invite a potter to teach kids (and, occasionally, adults too) how to make pots the traditional way. He put a wet blob of clay on a horizontally spinning wheel. With his hands, he would manipulate its shape in a clever way, slowly but steadily creating a pot.
To me, being an eight-year-old, the whole process must have seemed like magic. He barely moved his hands at all, yet sure enough, the spinning clot would always turn into a pot. His precisely applied, manual pressure ensured it.
Another day, the potter maker would take us to his home outside the resort. Upon arriving there, I realized that pottery making represented just a fraction of his artistic inclinations. He had made his whole home himself. Some walls were riddled with minutely illustrated paintings. Others were littered with spontaneously arranged tiles, forming splendid mosaics.
Nothing in the house had sharp hooks or rigid lines. It was a fluid arrangement with bows and curved lines. Looking back on it now, it seemed like an artistic, Mediterranean version of a hobbit home. His house was a Gaudi-esque constellation of furious creativity. The potter had shown a level of dedication that could only be matched by Ryan Gosling in The Notebook. It was a unique anachronism, both temporally as well as spatially.
Its uniqueness was punctuated by the banality of Cap-d’Agde in general. It was a beach town past its former glory, overflowed by foreign tourists who were bored of their mundane lives back home. They were in search of a red-tanned chest and hedonistic escape. The town’s most famous nightclub was aptly called Amnesia. The nudist beaches and swingers clubs were phenomena – famously described by Michel Houellebecq in his book Les Particules Elementaires – that embodied the town’s indulgence.
So what does this memory tell about me? What does the fact that it resurfaces every now and again mean? What insights can it give me with regards to my current phase in life?
One theme of the memory seems to be the contrast between sloth and sacrifice, between laziness and dedication. The potter had gone to great lengths to build a perfect house for himself. Viewed from this point of view, the memory perhaps tells me I have a choice: put in the effort and succeed, or be idle and fail.
By extension, the story reveals the importance of a goal worth fighting for. It is not possible to put in a lot of effort into something that’s not worthwhile. Whatever the potter’s motives were, they were important enough to him to put up a Herculean effort. Maybe it was indeed a romantic act, akin to Gosling’s efforts. Whatever the case may have been, it reminds me of seeking purpose in the things that I do.
The potter’s dedication had an almost ascetic quality. His efforts stood out amid the lazy tourists. Viewed from this perspective, his architectural work represented a kind of purity amid a degenerated desert. Maybe this represents my childhood innocence, which can be contrasted with adulthood.
Another aspect of importance is the dichotomy between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Although I liked spending time at the beach or playing games on my Gameboy Color, the experiences with the potter were something else entirely. They fueled my sense of wonder and stimulated my imagination.
I guess nowadays I look back upon these events with a sense of nostalgia, perhaps even melancholy. I’m not as easily impressed as I was back then. Even so, I currently probably miss having such experiences. Maybe my life has become as mundane as all of those other adults who aimed to escape their lives in the French coastal town.
Anyhow, I am an amateur psychologist at best, and a self-deluding charlatan at worst. You may have a much deeper understanding of this memory in particular. You possibly know how to put my experiences within a Freudian framework, or recall how the potter’s activities relate to Jung’s theory of psychosocial archetypes.
Please tell me! I’m eager to find out more about myself.
However, this isn’t just about me. You have just seen a glimpse of my past. Hopefully, it has inspired you to probe into the depths of your own mind, too. What are your most important memories? What do they signify to you? I invite you to take a step back and analyze your past. I suspect that — in the end — it could prove to be highly rewarding.


What is confidence and supply?
An agreement between political parties that is less formal than a full-blown coalition but one that allows a minority party to hold power. Under "C&S", as it is sometimes called, a smaller party, or parties, agree to support a larger party on its budget and any votes other parties propose to bring it down. If the Liberal Democrats agreed to such a deal with the Tories they would support (or possibly abstain on) a Queen's speech put forward by a minority Conservative government in the next few weeks. They would do the same with a Tory budget and a vote of no confidence (if one is tabled). But the Lib Dems would judge other proposals on merit and would reserve the right to vote against the Tories on them.
"Supply" refers to bills required for a minority government to receive money to allow it to enact its policies. It does not mean supplying policy concessions to smaller parties, although that is also involved.
This refers to the agreement of backing on votes of no confidence. It is not allusion to the trust, or otherwise, that signatories to the deal have in each other.
Would the Lib Dems hold cabinet posts under a confidence and supply agreement?
What's in it for the Tories?
It would allow a minority Conservative administration the chance to govern without conceding too much to the Lib Dems. For example such an agreement is highly unlikely to include a meaningful concession on electoral reform.
What's in it for the Lib Dems?
The Tories would agree to enact some elements of Lib Dems' manifesto (although probably not electoral reform). Politically they would avoid being tainted as a full coalition partner in a potentially unpopular Tory government determined to cut spending.
What are the disadvantages?
It would be a weak arrangement prone to early collapse. There are unlikely to be enough incentives in terms of legislative measures for the Lib Dems to support an agreement for a long period.
Where does the term come from?
In 1996 New Zealand introduced proportional representation for its parliamentary system. Since then confidence and supply agreements have played a key part in the negotiations to form new governments. The term has also been used in various deals to form governments in Scotland since the introduction of devolution.


The developmental role of rhymes and routines for congenitally blind children
UNSPECIFIED. (1998) The developmental role of rhymes and routines for congenitally blind children. CAHIERS DE PSYCHOLOGIE COGNITIVE-CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY OF COGNITION, 17 (2). pp. 451-477. ISSN 0249-9185Full text not available from this repository.
A number of blind children exhibit delays in cognitive functioning and language usage resulting in difficulties in sharing meaningful conversation by three years. One reason may be that blindness in infancy limits the availability of information about space, especially distal space and so these children have to rely on other information in making sense of their environment. Time-based information about actions and events is likely to be very important to blind infants. Rhymes and routines depend partially on time-based information and have been reported to be widely used by blind children and their sighted parents. The present study examines the relationship between cognitive and language functioning and the quality and nature of rhymes and routines in four blind children and their mothers. All children were able to initiate rhymes and routines as well as using increasingly sophisticated verbal strategies and language play. Differences emerged between dyads concerning the extent to which they were able to involve objects and space in rhymes and routines. The findings are discussed in relation to the potential role of rhymes and routines in the development of blind children.
|Item Type:||Journal Article|
|Subjects:||B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology|
|Journal or Publication Title:||CAHIERS DE PSYCHOLOGIE COGNITIVE-CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY OF COGNITION|
|Publisher:||ADRSC-ASSOC DIFFUSION RECHERCHES SCIENCES COGNITIVES|
|Official Date:||April 1998|
|Number of Pages:||27|
|Page Range:||pp. 451-477|
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Country of origin and import laws control the information on pottery imported to the United States. A stamp or marking with the country of origin usually indicates an item made after 1891, the date of enactment of the Mc Kinley Tariff Act in the United States.This act required that country of origin be marked on all imports. Changes enacted to the Tariff Act in 1914 required the words "made in," followed by the country of origin.East Germany used various marks, including GDR or German Democratic Republic until the 1990 unification.The unified country used "Made in Germany" after 1990.More recent pieces include numbers with a W, S, O or 2/ in front of them from 1939 onward.Marks on Copeland Spode are impressed, painted or transfer printed onto individual pieces.Some pieces also have a workman's mark in addition to the company's mark from the Spode factory that ran from 1780 to 1833.
Dating pottery and history intertwine as the pottery marks reflect changes in import and export laws established by the countries.
The lion was the heraldic animal of the Wittelsbach family, which ruled Bavaria for nearly 1,000 years.
Some marks show a crown, a common symbol of a royal license that might have a cross rising from its center or sitting atop a pair of intertwined Cs.
Once Europe discovered the secret of kaolin and fine porcelain-making, the powerful families who controlled the clay quarries opened china factories.
Bavaria had high-quality clay quarries; its first potteries were named, and sometimes marked, for historic or contemporary rulers.


A day in December of 1924 turned out to be a fateful one for the men on board the SS Watertown. Below deck, seaman James Courtney and Michael Meehan were cleaning a cargo area when they were inundated with noxious fumes. The gases being released into the room were unscented and went unnoticed.
It didn't take long for the other crewmen to notice what happened. The men had a funeral on board the next day and laid the men to rest. The very next day, other crew members began seeing the men's ghostly faces...
The foam of the ocean can take on a lot of shapes. The brain will usually make them up for you, but this wasn't just their imaginations...
Many crew members began seeing the ghostly faces of their perished shipmates in the seafoam. It happened so much that one crewmember actually snagged a photo of the phenomenon!
Once the film was developed, the captain and crew were able to positively identify the faces as the men who passed away. The photo was even sent to the Burns Detective Agency who confirmed that the photo was not doctored whatsoever.
After the crew changed up, the faces were no longer sighted by those who knew of the situation.
Many different people tried to debunk the photo as fake. In the 1930s, a man who read the account tried to contact some crewmembers to get their side of the story... But those crewmembers had passed away.
In the 1950s, another man went to speak to the ship's captain. During their talk, the captain said that this was indeed true and many people saw it happen multiple times. He even shared the other frames of the image, which proved that it wasn't just their imaginations.


Hip replacement has become necessary for your arthritic hip: this is one of the most effective operations known and should give you many years of freedom from pain.
Once you have arthritis that has not responded to conservative treatment, you may well be a candidate for a resurfacing procedure of the hip.
A standard hip replacement replaces the acetabulum (hip socket) and the places a femoral component inside the femur (thigh bone). Hip Resurfacing or bone conserving procedure replaces the acetabulum (hip socket) in the same way but resurfaces the femoral head. This means the femoral head has some or very little bone removed that is replaced with the metal component. This spares the femoral canal.
Resurfacing procedures may be indicated in the young patient (usually less than 55 years) who has osteoarthritis and wishes to maintain an active lifestyle. It is a more conservative and less traumatic alternative to Total Hip Replacement (THR).
Arthritis is a general term covering numerous conditions where the joint surface (cartilage) wears out. The joint surface is covered by a smooth articular surface that allows pain free movement in the joint. This surface can wear out for a number of reasons, often the definite cause is not known.
When the articular cartilage wears out, the bone ends rub on one another and cause pain. There are numerous conditions that can cause arthritis and often the exact cause is never known. In general, but not always, it affects people as they get older. This form of arthritis is referred to as Osteoarthritis.
Other causes include
- Childhood disorders e.g., dislocated hip, Perthe's disease, slipped epiphysis etc.
- Growth abnormalities of the hip (such as a shallow socket) may lead to premature arthritis
- Trauma (fracture)
- Increased stress e.g., overuse, overweight, etc.
- Avascular necrosis (loss of blood supply)
- Connective tissue disorders
- Inactive lifestyle- e.g., Obesity, as additional weight puts extra force through your joints which can lead to
arthritis over a period of time
- Inflammation e.g., Rheumatoid arthritis
In an Arthritic Hip
- The cartilage lining is thinner than normal or completely absent. The degree of cartilage damage and inflammation
varies with the type and stage of arthritis
- The capsule of the arthritic hip is swollen
- The joint space is narrowed and irregular in outline; this can be seen in an X-ray image
- Bone spurs or excessive bone can also build up around the edges of the joint
- The combinations of these factors make the arthritic hip stiff and limit activities due to pain or fatigue
The diagnosis of osteoarthritis is made on history, physical examination & X-rays. There is no blood test to diagnose
Osteoarthritis (wear & tear arthritis).
Indications & Advantages
Resurfacing procedures may be indicated in the young patient (Less than 55 years) who has osteoarthritis and wishes to
maintain an active lifestyle. It is a more conservative and less traumatic alternative to Total Hip Replacement (THR).
The main advantage is that it is bone sparing in that it does not violate the femoral canal. This allows a Total Hip
Replacement to be performed at a later date, if required, with little difficulty.
- Higher activity levels allowed
- Quicker recovery in hospital (2 to 5 days)
- Reduced bone damage and Osteolysis (erosion of bone) over time
- Reduced complications, especially reduced dislocation rate and reduced leg discrepancy
|Suitable for older patients
||Suitable for younger patients
|Femoral canal violation
||Femoral canal left intact.
|Metal on polyethylene, metal on metal or ceramic
on ceramic articulation
|Metal on metal articulation
|Can wear out rapidly.
||Longer lasting, with better wear characteristics.
|Risk of dislocation.
||Less risk of dislocation.
|Leg length discrepancy.
||Minimal or no leg discrepancy.
|Osteolysis (bone wearing out)
||Less risk of osteolysis.
||No thigh pain
|May require revision surgery
||Revision surgery less likely.
|Requires restriction of activities
||Able to be more active
Your surgeon will send you for routine blood tests and any other investigations
required prior to your surgery.
You will be asked to undertake a general medical check-up with a physician.
You should have any other medical, surgical or dental problems attended to prior to
Make arrangements for help around the house prior to surgery.
Cease aspirin or anti-inflammatory medications 10 days prior to surgery as they
can cause bleeding.
Cease any naturopathic or herbal medications 10 days before surgery.
Stop smoking as long as possible prior to surgery.
Day of Surgery
- You will be admitted to hospital usually on the day of your surgery
- Further tests may be required on admission
- You will meet the nurses and answer some questions for the hospital records
- You will meet your Anesthetist, who will ask you a few questions
- You will be given hospital clothes to change into and have a shower prior
- The operation site will be shaved and cleaned
- Approximately 30 minutes prior to surgery, you will be transferred to the
An incision is made over the hip to expose the hip joint.
The acetabulum (socket) is prepared using a special instrument called a reamer.
The acetabular component is then inserted into the socket. This is sometimes reinforced with
screws or occasionally cemented.
A liner which can be made of plastic, metal or ceramic material is then placed
inside the acetabular component
The femur (thigh bone) is then prepared. The femoral head which is arthritic is
cut off and the bone prepared using special instruments, to exactly fit the new
metal femoral component.
The femoral component is then inserted into the femur. This may be press fit
relying on bone to grow into it or cemented depending on a number of factors
such as bone quality and surgeon's preference.
A trial reduction (putting the hip back into place) is performed to make sure
everything fits well.
The real femoral head component is then placed on the femoral stem. This can be made
of metal or ceramic.
- The hip is then reduced again, for the last time
- The muscles and soft tissues are then closed carefully
You will wake up in the recovery room with a number of monitors to record
your vitals, (Blood pressure, Pulse, Oxygen saturation, temperature, etc.) You
will have a dressing on your hip and drains coming out of your wound.
Post-operative X-rays will be performed in recovery.
Once you are stable and awake you will be taken back to the ward.
You will have one or two IV's in your arm for fluid and pain relief. This will be explained
to you by your anesthetist.
On the day following surgery, your drains will usually be removed and you will be
allowed to sit out of bed or walk depending on your surgeon's preference.
Pain is normal but if you are in a lot of pain, inform your nurse.
You will be able to put all your weight on your hip and your
physical therapist will help
you with the post-op hip exercises.
You will be discharged home or to a rehabilitation hospital approximately
5-7 days depending on your pain and help at home.
Sutures are usually dissolvable but if not are removed at about 10 days.
A post-operative visit will be arranged prior
to your discharge.
You will be instructed to with crutches for two weeks following surgery and
to use a cane from then on until 6 weeks
Remember this is an artificial hip and must be treated with care.
Avoid the Combined Movement of Bending Your Hip and Turning
Your Foot In. This can cause Dislocation. Other precautions to avoid
- You should sleep with a pillow between your legs for 6 weeks. Avoid
crossing your legs and bending your hip past a right angle
- Avoid low chairs
- Avoid bending over to pick things up. Grabbers are helpful as are shoe
horns or slip on shoes
- Elevated toilet seats are helpful
- You can shower once the wound has healed
- You can apply Vitamin E or moisturizing cream into the wound once the
wound has healed
- If you have increasing redness or swelling in the wound or temperatures
over 100.5 degrees you should call your doctor
- If you are having any procedures such as dental work or any other
surgery you should take antibiotics before and after to prevent infection
in your new prosthesis. Consult your surgeon for details
- Your hip replacement may go off in a metal detector at the airport
As with any major surgery, there are potential risks involved. The decision to
proceed with the surgery is made because the advantages of surgery outweigh
the potential disadvantages.
It is important that you are informed of these risks before the surgery takes place.
Complications can be medical (general) or specific to the Hip
Medical complications include those of the
anesthetic and your general well
being. Almost any medical condition can occur so this list is not complete.
- Allergic reactions to medications
- Blood loss requiring transfusion with its low risk of disease transmission
Heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, pneumonia, bladder infections
- Complications from nerve blocks such as infection or nerve damage
- Serious medical problems can lead to ongoing health concerns, prolonged
hospitalization, or rarely death
Infection can occur with any operation. In the hip this can be superficial or deep.
Infection rates are approximately 1%. If infection occurs it can be treated with antibiotics
but may require further surgery. Very rarely your hip may need to be removed to
Blood Clots (Deep Venous Thrombosis)
These can form in the calf muscles and can travel to the lung (Pulmonary
embolism). These can occasionally be serious and even life threatening. If you
get calf pain or shortness of breath at any stage, you should notify your surgeon.
This means the hip comes out of its socket. Precautions need to be taken with
your new hip forever. If a dislocation occurs it needs to be put back into place
with an anesthetic. Rarely this becomes a recurrent problem needing further
Fractures (break) of the femur (thigh bone) or pelvis (hipbone)
This is also rare but can occur during or after surgery. This may prolong your recovery,
or require further surgery.
Damage to Nerves or Blood
Also rare but can lead to weakness and loss of sensation in part of the leg.
Damage to blood vessels may require further surgery if bleeding is ongoing.
Your scar can be sensitive or have a surrounding area of numbness. This
normally decreases over time and does not lead to any problems with your new
Leg length inequality
It is very difficult to make the leg exactly the same length as the other one. Occasionally
the leg is deliberately lengthened to make the hip stable during surgery. There are some
occasions when it is simply not possible to match the leg lengths. All leg length inequalities
can be treated by a simple shoe raise on the shorter side.
Leg length inequalities are less likely to occur with a resurfacing procedure.
All joints eventually wear out. The more active you are, the quicker this will occur.
In general 80-90% of hip replacements survive 15- 20 years.
Resurfacing procedures should last longer, but this has to be proven by long
term studies and with the latest designs.
Failure to relieve pain
Very rare but may occur especially if some pain is coming from other areas such
as the spine.
Unsightly or thickened scar
Pressure or bedsores
Limp due to muscle weakness
Discuss your concerns thoroughly with your
Orthopaedic Surgeon prior to surgery.
Surgery is not a pleasant prospect for anyone, but for some people with arthritis,
it could mean the difference between leading a normal life or putting up with a
debilitating condition. Surgery can be regarded as part of your treatment plan—it
may help to restore function to your damaged joints as well as relieve pain.


In a transmission line, air acts as a dielectric medium between the conductors. When the voltage is applied across the sending end of the transmission line, current starts flowing between the conductors (due to imperfections of the dielectric medium). This current is called the charging current in the transmission line.In other words, we can say, the current associated with the capacitance of a line is known as the charging current.The strength of the charging current depends on the voltage, frequency, and capacitance of the line. It is given by the equations shown below.
For a single-phase line, the charging current
Significance of charging current
- It reduces the load current, due to which line losses decreases, and hence the efficiency of the line is increased.
- It improves the power factor of the transmission line.
- Charging current improves the load capacity of the line.
- It improves the voltage regulation of the line because the voltage drop is quite small.


One of the first discoveries I ever made in web development was that CSS hex values that were all the same number would always give me some shade of grey. #444 was dark, almost black. #ccc was light, perfect for form borders. Not long after I discovered that Photoshop wouldn't accept these values and would make me type in all 6 characters - #444444, #cccccc.
Sometime after that I discovered how to tap into a shade somewhere between #eee and #fff, just a barely perceptible off-white with #f4f4f4. #f9f9f9 was lighter. #efefef was darker. The jobs at hand didn't really call for a deeper cognitive understanding. Just some off white colors.
It was only much more recently that somewhere in the corners of my mind I began to unravel the science, and just this morning walking down the stairs when it hit me in the way that I now have to write about.
parseInt(), and its job (in case it isn't clear) is to parse integers. There are two parameters - the first being the string/number you want to parse, but the second is often overlooked. The second is the "base number" in which you wish to parse, 10 (for decimal) is the default. I've read there is a bug whereby if you pass is a string beginning with the number 0, a base of 8 is assumed. This can lead to some weird bugs if that's not what you intend, so it's considered good style to always specify what you mean, usually 10.
If you want to play with this function, pass it some hexadecimal (base 16) and see what you get back. This will let you do something like this --
parseInt('ef', 16); // -> 239 parseInt('ff', 16); // -> 255 parseInt('44', 16); // -> 68 parseInt('45', 16); // -> 69
Hex and Rgb
Rgb color notation is pretty simple to get your head around. It means Red, Green, Blue. The same colors that your old tube TV used to put out in those tiny little dots if you got close enough. Mix those 3 colors together in the proper proportions anbd you can pull any shade of the rainbow out. Mix them together in equal portions and you get shades of grey, ie
rgb(239, 239, 239) is a lovely shade of off-white.
16 x 16 = 256; Duh.
rgb(68, 68, 68) === #444444;
I haven't really been required to think much in base 16, and the average developer probably isn't called on to think in those terms very often, but once that clicked for me, I can somewhat compute the shades of colors that I want in my head based off of thinking about basic color mixing theory and then doing some base 16 calculations in my head. Staving off Alzheimers, hopefully.


Words matter. Language is fluid and alive. It soothes, stings, and moves us; it can tap into every human emotion. It is a powerful tool that can be wielded like a sword or whispered like a hint to influence another.
When speaking recently to my friend and fellow Art21 Educator, Don Ball, I asked, “Where do you find happiness?” He responded by saying he prefers to use the word joy over the word happiness because he feels being joyful is more of a state of mind and less of an outside construct that relies on the attainment of things. We then embarked on a conversation about the meaning of these two words, joyfully contemplating the meaning of joy. Why? Words matter. And so does context.
Fred Wilson is a contemporary artist whose practice focuses on curating exhibitions that bring together disparate but related objects. His juxtaposition of art and artifacts of varied purposes and time periods redefines the meanings of the objects. In this context, Wilson unfolds new narratives. He does not rewrite history; he revisits history, specifically Black history, and offers viewers another lens to see it through.
Wilson’s recent exhibition, Afro Kismet at Pace Gallery in New York, was conceived for the fifteenth edition of the Istanbul Biennial. In it, he placed a powerful quote by James Baldwin above a grouping of antique etchings covered in transparent paper, which was strategically cut to reveal the sole Black persons among the Europeans and Turks.
“We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them—to try to understand what you have done, why you have done it. That way, you can begin to forgive yourself. That’s very important. If you don’t forgive yourself, you’ll never be able to forgive anyone else, and you’ll go on committing the same crimes forever.”
—James Baldwin, Another Country
Wilson’s placement of Baldwin’s text brings another layer into the narrative of Afro Kismet, one that spans time and continents. Written in 1961 and set in 1950s New York City, Baldwin’s novel, Another Country, focused on race and the early civil-rights movement in the United States. In order to complete his work, Baldwin fled to Istanbul to view the racial tensions in the US from afar. Wilson, aware of Baldwin’s relationship to the city, includes the author’s text in the exhibition’s narrative to unravel and re-stitch the threads of history to include a larger worldview that connects us all.
For an artist, text is a powerful medium, one that can allow meanings to be malleable, and Art21 has featured many artists who use language as a medium. As an educator, I found these artists to be gateways to the expression of my students, whether in conversation or in artwork.
One of my most successful units was a yearlong exploration of text that I implemented with my sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Students viewed the works of numerous artists who incorporate text, including Glenn Ligon, Barbara Kruger, and Jenny Holzer, as well as word art from popular culture, to consider how words can be used to inspire, incite, and inform.
Engaging the medium of text in different lessons, the students altered books; they illustrated found poems, puns, and figures of speech; they rewrote the news; and they designed protest T-shirts. For the final project, students considered their material and aesthetic preferences in using text to visually define a personal experience of bias or injustice.
In the yearlong curriculum for grades 6, 7, and 8, the unit included five lessons (PDF version):
Lesson 1, “Re-configuring the News”: Students used images and text from newspapers and created collages.
Lesson 2, “Tongue Twisted”: Students illustrated verbs and examples of word play, like puns and figures of speech.
Lesson 3, “Altered Words”: Students created altered books that were then made into sculptures inspired by the stories.
Lesson 4, “Shout, Shout, Let it All Out”: Students designed a
protest/statement t-shirt that focused on an issue they are passionate
Lesson 5, “In My Own Words”: Students created a personal text piece with materials of their choice, based on a time they felt wronged, isolated, or hurt by words.


Every family unit is a complex social network influenced by numerous inputs. In nature, social organizations at the family and small-group level can range from violent to peaceful, monogamous to polyandrous, segregated to sharing work. On Wednesday August 4, 2004, scientists will gather for the symposium, "Family Dynamics: the Evolution and Consequences of Family Organization." The session, to be held during the Ecological Society of America’s 89th Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, will examine the varied structures of social organization and the conditions, from genetics to habitat, that affect the evolution and development of these groups.
Michael Neubert (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) will begin the session with an overview of the theories for family organization and implications of family structure on populations in his talk, "Family Dynamics: An introduction to the symposium with an example from invasion dynamics."
Andrew Dobson (Princeton University) will follow Neubert, describing how the social organization of hosts can affect the transmission of diseases in, "The coevolution of host social organization and pathogen transmission." Examining data from primates and carnivores, along with theoretical models, Dobson will also discuss the possible role of pathogens in shaping populations.
Annie Drinkard | EurekAlert!
Global threat to primates concerns us all
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For the first time ever, a cloud of ultra-cold atoms has been successfully created in space on board of a sounding rocket. The MAIUS mission demonstrates that quantum optical sensors can be operated even in harsh environments like space – a prerequi-site for finding answers to the most challenging questions of fundamental physics and an important innovation driver for everyday applications.
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Researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Aarhus in Denmark, have synthesized a new superconducting material by growing a few layers of an antiferromagnetic transition-metal chalcogenide on a bismuth-based topological insulator, both being non-superconducting materials.
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Studying properties of fundamental particles in condensed matter systems is a promising approach to quantum field theory. Quasiparticles offer the opportunity...
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