2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history
- This article is about the phrase "Dark Age(s)" as a characterization of the (Early) Middle Ages in Western Europe.
In European historiography, the term Dark Age or Dark Ages refers to the Early Middle Ages, the period encompassing (roughly) 476 to 1000 AD.
This concept of a Dark Age was created by the Italian scholar Petrarch ( Francesco Petrarca) in the 1330s and was originally intended as a sweeping criticism of the character of Late Latin literature. Later historians expanded the term to refer to the transitional period between Classical Roman Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, including not only the lack of Latin literature, but also a lack of contemporary written history, general demographic decline, limited building activity and material cultural achievements in general. Popular culture has further expanded on the term as a vehicle to depict the Middle Ages as a time of backwardness, extending its pejorative use and expanding its scope.
The rise of archaeology and other specialties in the 20th century has shed much light on the period and offered a more nuanced understanding of its positive developments. Other terms of periodization have come to the fore: Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, and the Great Migrations, depending on which aspects of culture are being emphasized.
When modern scholarly study of the Middle Ages arose in the 19th century, the term "Dark Ages" was at first kept, with all its critical overtones. When the term "Dark Ages" is used by historians today, it is intended to be neutral, namely, to express the idea that the events of the period often seem "dark" to us only because of the paucity of artistic and cultural output, including historical records, when compared with later times.
It is generally accepted that the concept was created by Petrarch in the 1330s. Writing of those who had come before him, he said, "Amidst the errors there shone forth men of genius, no less keen were their eyes, although they were surrounded by darkness and dense gloom. Christian writers had traditional metaphors of "light versus darkness" to describe "good versus evil". Petrarch was the first to co-opt the metaphor and give it secular meaning by reversing its application. Classical Antiquity, so long considered the "dark" age for its lack of Christianity, was now seen by Petrarch as the age of "light" because of its cultural achievements, while Petrarch's time, lacking such cultural achievements, was seen as the age of darkness.
As an Italian, Petrarch saw the Roman Empire and the classical period as expressions of Italian greatness. He spent much of his time traveling through Europe rediscovering and republishing the classic Latin and Greek texts. He wanted to restore the classical Latin language to its former purity. Humanists saw the preceding 900-year period as a time of stagnation. They saw history unfolding, not along the religious outline of St. Augustine's Six Ages of the World, but in cultural (or secular) terms through the progressive developments of classical ideals, literature, and art.
Petrarch wrote that history had had two periods: the classic period of the Greeks and Romans, followed by a time of darkness, in which he saw himself as still living. Humanists believed one day the Roman Empire would rise again and restore classic cultural purity, and so by the late 14th and early 15th century, humanists such as Leonardo Bruni believed they had attained this new age, and that a third, Modern Age had begun. The age before their own, which Petrarch had labeled dark, thus became a "middle" age between the classic and the modern. The first use of the term "Middle Age" appeared with Flavio Biondo around 1439.
After the Renaissance
Historians prior to the 20th century wrote about the Middle Ages from a mix of perspectives. Most of them expressed negative sentiments.
During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestants wrote of the Middle Ages as a period of Catholic corruption. Just as Petrarch's writing was not an attack on Christianity per se—in addition to his humanism, he was deeply occupied with the search for God—neither was this an attack on Christianity, but the opposite: it was a drive to restore what Protestants saw as a "purer" Christianity. In response to these attacks, Roman Catholic reformers developed a counter image, depicting the age as a period of social and religious harmony, and not "dark" at all.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, in the Age of Enlightenment, religion was seen as antithetical to reason. Because the Middle Ages were seen as the "Age of Faith", it was seen as a period contrary to reason, and thus contrary to the Age of Reason. Immanuel Kant and Voltaire were two Enlightenment writers who were vocal in attacking the religiously dominated Middle Ages as a period of social decline. Many modern negative conceptions of the age come from Enlightenment authors. Yet just as Petrarch, seeing himself on the threshold of a "new age", was criticizing the centuries up until his own time, so too were the Enlightenment writers criticizing the centuries up until their own. These extended well after Petrarch's time, since religious domination and conflict were still common into the 17th century and beyond, albeit diminished in scope.
Consequently, an evolution had occurred in at least three ways. Petrarch's original metaphor of light versus dark had been expanded in time, implicitly, at least. Even if the early humanists after him no longer saw themselves living in a dark age, their times were still not light enough for 18th-century writers who saw themselves as living in the real Age of Enlightenment, while the period covered by their own condemnation had been extended and was focused also on what we now call Early Modern times. Additionally, Petrarch's metaphor of darkness, which he used mainly to deplore what he saw as a lack of secular achievements, was sharpened to take on a more explicitly antireligious meaning in light of the draconian tactics of the Catholic clergy.
In spite of this, the term "Middle Ages", used by Biondo and other early humanists after Petrarch, was the name in general use before the 18th century to denote the period up until the Renaissance. The earliest recorded use of the English word "medieval" was in 1827. The term "Dark Ages" was also in use, but by the 18th century, it tended to be confined to the earlier part of this medieval period. Starting and ending dates varied: the Dark Ages were considered by some to start in 410, by others in 476 when there was no longer an emperor in Rome, and to end about 800, at the time of the Carolingian Renaissance under Charlemagne, or to extend through the rest of the first millennium up until about the year 1000.
In the early 19th century, the Romantics reversed the negative assessment of Enlightenment critics. The word " Gothic" had been a term of opprobrium akin to " Vandal" until a few self-confident mid-18th-century English "goths" like Horace Walpole initiated the Gothic Revival in the arts—which for the following Romantic generation began to take on an idyllic image of the Age of Faith. This image, in reaction to a world dominated by Enlightenment rationalism in which reason trumped emotion, expressed a romantic view of a Golden Age of chivalry. The Middle Ages were seen with romantic nostalgia as a period of social and environmental harmony and spiritual inspiration, in contrast to the excesses of the French Revolution and, most of all, to the environmental and social upheavals and sterile utilitarianism of the emerging industrial revolution. The Romantics' view of these earlier centuries can still be seen in modern-day fairs and festivals celebrating the period with costumes and events.
Just as Petrarch had turned the meaning of light versus darkness, so had the Romantics turned the judgment of Enlightenment critics. However, the period idealized by the Romantics focused largely on what is now known as the High Middle Ages, extending into Early Modern times. In one respect, this was a reversal of the religious aspect of Petrarch's judgment, since these later centuries were those when the universal power and prestige of the Church was at its height. To many users of the term, the scope of the Dark Ages was becoming divorced from this period, denoting mainly the earlier centuries after the fall of Rome.
Modern academic use
When modern scholarly study of the Middle Ages arose in the 19th century, the term "Dark Ages" was at first kept, with all its critical overtones. Although it was never the more formal term (universities named their departments "medieval history" not "Dark Age history"), it was widely used, including in such classics as Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, where it expressed the author's contempt for priest-ridden, superstitious, dark times. However, the early 20th century saw a radical reevaluation of the Middle Ages, and with it a calling into question of the terminology of darkness. A.T. Hatto, translator of many medieval works, exemplified this when he spoke ironically of "the lively centuries which we call dark". It became clear that serious scholars would either have to redefine the term or abandon it.
When the term "Dark Ages" is used by historians today, it is intended to be neutral, namely, to express the idea that the events of the period often seem "dark" to us only because of the paucity of historical records compared with later times. The darkness is ours, not theirs. However, since there is no shortage of information on the High and Late Middle Ages, this required a narrowing of the reference to the Early Middle Ages. Late 5th- and 6th-century Britain, for instance, at the height of the Saxon invasions, might well be numbered among "the darkest of the Dark Ages", with the equivalent of a near-total news blackout in terms of historical records, compared with either the Roman era before or the centuries that followed. Further east, the same was true in the formerly Roman province of Dacia, where history after the Roman withdrawal went unrecorded for centuries, as Slavs, Avars, Bulgars, and others struggled for supremacy in the Danube basin, and events there are still disputed. However, at this time the Byzantine Empire and especially the Arab Empire experienced Golden Ages rather than Dark Ages; consequently, this usage of the term must also differentiate geographically. While Petrarch's concept of a Dark Age corresponded to a mostly Christian period following pre-Christian Rome, the neutral use of the term today applies mainly to those cultures least Christianized and thus most sparsely covered by the Catholic Church's historians.
However, from the mid-20th century onwards, other scholars began to critique even this nonjudgmental use of the term. There are two main criticisms. First, it is questionable whether it is possible to use the term "Dark Ages" effectively in a neutral way; scholars may intend this, but it does not mean that ordinary readers will so understand it. Second, the explosion of new knowledge and insight into the history and culture of the Early Middle Ages, which 20th-century scholarship has achieved, means that these centuries are no longer dark even in the sense of "unknown to us". Consequently, many academic writers prefer not to use the expression at all.
Modern popular use
Films and novels often use the term "Dark Age" with its implied meaning of a time of backwardness. The movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail humorously portrays knights and chivalry, following the tradition begun with Don Quixote. A 2007 television show on The History Channel called the Dark Ages "600 years of degenerate, godless, inhuman behaviour."
The public idea of the Middle Ages as a supposed "Dark Age" is also reflected in misconceptions regarding the study of nature during this period. The contemporary historians of science David C. Lindberg and Ronald Numbers discuss the widespread popular belief that the Middle Ages was a "time of ignorance and superstition", the blame for which is to be laid on the Christian Church for allegedly "placing the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity", and emphasize that this view is essentially a caricature. For instance, a claim that was first propagated in the 19th century and is still very common in popular culture is the supposition that the people from the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. According to Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, this claim was mistaken, as "there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference." Ronald Numbers states that misconceptions such as "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", "the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", and "the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of natural philosophy", are examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, even though he says that they are not supported by current historical research.
- "What else, then, is all history, but the praise of Rome?"—Petrarch
- "Each famous author of antiquity whom I recover places a new offence and another cause of dishonour to the charge of earlier generations, who, not satisfied with their own disgraceful barrenness, permitted the fruit of other minds, and the writings that their ancestors had produced by toil and application, to perish through insufferable neglect. Although they had nothing of their own to hand down to those who were to come after, they robbed posterity of its ancestral heritage."—Petrarch
- "My fate is to live among varied and confusing storms. But for you perhaps, if as I hope and wish you will live long after me, there will follow a better age. When the darkness has been dispersed, our descendants can come again in the former pure radiance."—Petrarch
- "Between the far away past history of the world, and that which lies near to us; in the time when the wisdom of the ancient times was dead and had passed away, and our own days of light had not yet come, there lay a great black gulf in human history, a gulf of ignorance, of superstition, of cruelty, and of wickedness. That time we call the dark or Middle Ages. Few records remain to us of that dreadful period in our world's history, and we only know of it through broken and disjointed fragments that have been handed down to us through the generations."— Howard Pyle, Otto of the Silver Hand (1888)
- "The Middle Ages is an unfortunate term. It was not invented until the age was long past. The dwellers in the Middle Ages would not have recognized it. They did not know that they were living in the middle; they thought, quite rightly, that they were time's latest achievement."— Morris Bishop, The Middle Ages (1968)
- "If it was dark, it was the darkness of the womb." — Lynn White


The Khufu boat is known as a papyriform vessel, because the high ends resemble those of papyrus boats. Papyrus is a tall sedge that the Egyptians relied on to make boats as well as cordage, sandals, mats, and other products. Papyriform boats, commonly seen in paintings and carvings of the dynastic period, were ceremonial: They were used for journeys to sacred sites and by the gods. As can just be made out here, in the ship's prow stood a second, wood-framed canopy. Again, its intended use is unknown.


This examination and certification meets or exceeds the criteria of FEMA 508-8 Typed Resource Definitions Search and Rescue Resources 11/14/2005. The Canine Team may choose Wilderness OR Urban.
Wilderness: Trail and locate a single stationary subject in a wilderness environment, who has traveled between 1 and 1 miles in length, within2 hours, including breaks. Track will be aged between 8-12 hours.
Urban: Trail and locate a single stationary subject in an urban environment, which has traveled between 1 and 1 miles in length, within2 hours, including breaks. Track will be aged between 8-12 hours.
Testing Criteria for the Canine SARTECH III, II and I Wilderness/Urban Trailing Search Dog:
Is the handler adequately attired and equipped?
Did the handler develop the appropriate strategy based on information acquired?
Did the handler articulate the dogs alerts/indications prior to entering the field?
Did the handler interpret the dogs alerts/indications while out in the field?
Did the handler articulate the dogs final response?
Was the handler alert to visual clues?
Does the handler demonstrate good land navigation field skills?
Was the handler able to justify their search tactics?
Did the handler document the routes traveled?
Did the handler accurately debrief the task with an estimated P.O.D?
Was the handler able to articulate the relevant meteorology?
Is the handler in tune with their dogs needs?
Did the handler properly evaluate terrain and track clues?
Did the dog indicate the initial direction of travel?
Did the dog stay focused on the search?
Is the dog easily refocused after being distracted?
Does the dog scent discriminate?
Does the dog search effectively (within 100 meters of track, on all legs)?
Did the dog make a self-directed find on the subject?
Did the dog demonstrated its final response and direct the handler to the subject?
Did the dog identify the correct subject and only the correct subject?
Did the dog and handler make an effective team?
Did the dog demonstrate obedience through its reactions to handler commands?
Is the team able to work through contamination?
Is the team able to work through varying surface environments?
Was the search completed within the time limit for the evaluation?


Visions for Museums explores the ways in which digital technologies may develop and enhance visitor engagement with museums of art, culture, history and science.
Museum research has not traditionally been oriented towards aspects of communication and visitor-orientation, two important starting points for employing and developing digital media in public environments. It is becoming increasingly clear that the need for interdisciplinary research within this field is important.
The Interactive Institute, through Visions for Museums, can establish a new area for research and practice: digital museum communication.
The aim is to become a center for interdisciplinary research and practice, regarding visitor-oriented new media in museum communication.
- Access in Mind
- Storytelling animals II
- China before China
- A touch of Kandinsky
Access in Mind
Access in Mind is an audiovisual installation for the art galleries helping visitors to respond to works of contemporary art, rather than to explain their cultural importance, style or historical context.
The prototype has been developed 2002 at Visions for museums/ Interactive Institute in collaboration with The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs. Access in Mind aims to stimulate and encourage young people to explore contemporary art using a multimodal approach – light/dramatized audio.
The design consists of a “ball-chair” equipped with speakers and 3D sound. The sound system also produces vibrations in the chair through a basic unit in the seat. Light is projected through a number of Plexiglas plates combined with diodes which randomly project different colours. The chair is covered with foamed polythene plastic, and is placed on a wooden podium.Sitting in Access in Mind, the visitor hears three different voices with different approaches, reflecting on contemporary art. The voices represent three fictitious characters, which are engaged in a kind of ongoing discussion based on their respective views. The first voice alludes to that of a learned or authoritarian speaker; in this case the artist or art connoisseur – the expert’s voice. The second voice is of a fictitious young man reflecting on love, loneliness, insecurity, suicide and everyday life. The third and last voice belongs to a young woman, a kind of conscience that appears behind the visitor’s neck and encourages the visitor to feel free to grasp without restraint; not to be afraid and to believe in their experience and judgement.
Storytelling animals II
Interaction and collaboration with Senheiser – Development of guides for Universeum, Gothenburg
The audio guides present four different animals: wolf, beaver, adder and salmon – animals that follow The Water’s Way through Sweden and which all have increasingly smaller habitats because of influences of mankind. In the audio guides, the child listens to one of the animals narrate about conditions governing its life in the Swedish landscape. Every audio guide consists of a headset and a bracelet decorated so as to associate to one of the animals.
The four audio guides have separate scripts read out by different actors and they stop at different stations in The Water’s Way area. The wolf’s audio guide is the longest in time and the most multimodal of the four and stops at most stations . It encourages the child to actively interact with the exhibit’s environment and has environmental sounds, sound effects and dramatized music. The beaver’s audio guide has no interaction but has environmental sounds that enhance the feeling of being out in nature. The salmon and adder are both without interaction and sound effects – they consist only of an actor’s storytelling voice. These disparities allowed us to study how increased levels of interaction and auditory dramatization affect children’s experience of the environment and stories of the animals.
The chosen technical solution is called Guideport and has been developed by Sennheiser. The headband of each animal contained a receiver and a set of headphones. 11 small identifiers located throughout the venue at The Water’s Way, triggered the receivers to play the appropriate files when the child wearing the receiver entered a certain predefined area. The next audio track came on as soon as the child leaved the area and entered a different zone. This meant that the child could do things in her own pace.
China before China
This permanent exhibition at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm tells the story about the conditions in China before it was China, how people lived and what they made in Eastern Asia for thousands of years before no one even had thought of a Middle Kingdom. The heart of the exhibition is a collection of world-renowned painted pottery from the period before China. A fundamental idea behind the exhibition is to mediate an experience of the life at that time and to make the people who created the pottery come alive to the audience.
This is realized using a computer controlled interaction and media system using three types of media, sound, light and video.
Eighth video projectors are projected a seamless image on a whole wall, animating a yellow river. The light system in the main display case can be animated and make the visitor focus on certain pots and group of pots. The sounds are environmental sounds that creates atmosphere and narrative voices in form of two children.
The exhibition is completely automated and the audience can interact with the exhibition by different means. Motion detectors are used to start and stop the exhibition depending on the activity of any audience. The drawers in the red cabinet are sensitive so when a visitor is pulling a drawer he/she starts a sound that is associated with some of the object in the cabinet, for instance the recorded sound of one of the rattler. The night is a small room within the exhibition room. Enter the room and you will take part of longer stories told by the children. The room is equipped with a 3D-sound system to create a spatial experience based on sound.
The installation is a computer-controlled interaction and a media system consisting of 22 sensors; three touch screens, eleven magnetic reeds and eight motion detectors of the same kind used for burglary alarms. The system (except video-wall) is running on a single computer with the software (developed by the Interactive Institute) based on the MIEL interaction language. In MIEL the interaction author can set up rules describing a particular situation when a media event should be triggered, and it’s performing the event by it self or by delegating it to some external device. MIEL can handle the animation of the light and can communicate with external devices such as media players. The computer get all information from the 22 sensors, based on this information it creates a reaction. All audio comes from a computer-based audio-player, developed by The Interactive Institute. The audio-player handles all 32 loudspeakers in the installation, each loudspeaker can be controlled separate and any audio clip can be played on any loudspeaker. This is a very cheap and yet reliable method for distributing sound in installations. Other comparable technologies for sound distribution will cost several times more that this solution.
The video-wall is based on the commercials system Watchout by Dataton and is running on 9 computers and 8 video projectors.
A touch of Kandinsky
A touch of Kandinsky is an installation in the form of an interactive carpet, aiming to increase the understanding of abstract art, primarily intended for small children visiting art museums or galleries. It is inspired by the artist Wassily Kandinsky’s writings on the concept of synaesthesia and is based on his painting “group”, from 1937.
The carpet is an experiment in communication, exploring the personal dimensions of the artist’s theory through interactive discovery.
The carpet is designed with different motifs, each sensitive for pressure that activates various sounds when the user touches, walks, presses or rolls over the carpet creating an interactive field. Depending on the pressure and the length of time, the sound twirls and changes subtly. The sounds are especially composed and are inspired by Kandinsky´s work. The multimodal interface supports individual modes of interaction and offers the users to interact with the installation in playful ways.
The sensors are of own production and consist of two layers of aluminum-foiled paper with perforated plastic foam in between. When pressure added the foiled surfaces gets connected and with that working as a switch. The sensors are connected to the MIDI sampler transforming it to MIDI-data, sending the sounds to the speakers.


ADVANCED MANUFACTURING AND ENERGY
"Electricity is an integral part of everyday life. Almost every new technological device needs some type of electrical supply. For this and many other reasons, Electricians are and will remain in great demand."
Salary Range Potential:
Community College or Technical Degree
Communication, Problem-solving, Mathematics
Types of Employers:
Commercial And Residential Construction, Self-Employed, Manufacturing
From simply wiring a residence to being able to program the controllers for a major manufacturing plant, today's electrical technician will require a strong background of technical knowledge. Well trained electrical workers are in great demand by today's advancing technology and by the growing residential, commercial, industrial construction industries, petroleum production and petroleum refineries.
Cashier - $20,8800%
Waitress/Waiter - $20,7700%
Fast Food Workers - $20,7700%
Security Guard - $26,1700%
Private Sector - $41,6000%
"Without electricity, the world would be dark due to little or no lighting and be difficult to survive in due to climate control. The world would also be without most forms of long-distance transportation and communication. To keep the world running on electricity the world requires electrical workers more specifically known as ELECTRICANS! Electricians not only install and maintain power lines, but they help to set up the entire electrical system starting with the power plants where electricity is generated and ending with the machines that use the electricity. Electricians keep electrical systems working properly and keep the deadly current safely insulated from human contact. Electricians can be employed by industries both large and small, by electrical power companies, and in the construction industry. Electrical workers have very strenuous and sometimes stressful jobs. The work requires standing for long periods of time and performing manual labor. They often work in dirty and confined environments, which may also be hot, cold, wet, or subjected to any number of adverse conditions. Electrical systems are often outside of climate controls because they are outside of the areas of normally occupied by people. Electrical workers also rick serious injury and even death due to electrocution."
Length of Program:2 years
Summary of Program Requirements:
Skills NeededCritical Thinking, Active Learning , Quality Control Analysis, Equipment Maintenance, Judgment and Decision Making
The program prepares individuals to install, operate, maintain, and repair electrical systems such as residential, commercial, and industrial electrical wiring, conduit systems, commercial lighting, DC motors, AC motors, motor controls, programmable logic control, and electrical distribution panels.
Pre-requisites required:Applicants must meet Pearl River Community College admission requirements.
Length of Program:1-2 years
Summary of Program Requirements:Applicants must meet Pearl River Community College admission requirements.
Skills NeededCommunication, Problem-solving, Mathematics


is to raise public awareness of the lionfish invasion in Bermuda and to coordinate and support all activities to control lionfish population growth, thus reducing any negative impacts of the lionfish on our coral reefs, for the benefit of all Bermudians.
The Bermuda Lionfish Task Force is a mechanism to coordinate and focus the efforts of stakeholders and concerned citizens upon the implementation of all components within the Bermuda Lionfish Control Plan. Our two biggest priorities in our fight against the lionfish are research and education. Within these pages, you can learn all about lionfish including our concerns regarding their invasion, its impact upon the marine ecosystem, and what we are doing to control them locally. You can also read about the multiple ways you can get involved.
The Task Force represents all stakeholders including fishermen, SCUBA and Free divers, government entities, research institutions, tourist and entertainment destinations, and the general public. We provide an opportunity for people from all walks of life to contribute to the control and management of the invasive lionfish in Bermuda and welcome everyone’s participation.
To join our growing team of lionfish hunters, please check out our permit program
Please report every lionfish you see or capture to the Ocean Support Foundation.
Want to see where lionfish have been found around Bermuda? See Bermuda Lionfish map
Have you seen the lionfish exhibit on display at BAMZ?
The Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute and partner organizations have just announced the publication of research on the invasion of Indo-Pacific lionfish into the Western Atlantic in a special, open access Theme Section in the Marine Ecology Progress Series, a scientific journal dedicated to publishing the best peer-reviewed articles on marine science. A total of nine peer-reviewed scientific papers were published on a variety of topics including factors that enhance the success of the lionfish in the invaded region, the effects of lionfish on native species, their genetic diversity, and the interactions between lionfish and native predators in the region. The papers represent seminal research from many parts of the lionfish’s invaded range including Bermuda, the Gulf of Mexico, Belize, The Bahamas, and Puerto Rico. To read full publication, please click here.


The California roll is a classic example of “American sushi,” early fusion cuisine incorporating new ingredients into traditional Asian recipes.
Food historians generally credit Ichiro Manashita, of the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant in Los Angeles, with “inventing” the California roll.
The date is fuzzy, though most agree this item was available in the early 1970s.
California roll….A form of sushi made with avocados, crabmeat, cucumbers and other ingredients wrapped in vinegared rice. It was supposedly created at a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles named Tokyo Kaikan about 1973 for the American palate but has also gained popularity in Japan, where it is called kashu-maki, a literal translation of “California roll.”
—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 53)


Public health experts are calling for “fat letters” – in which teachers write home to parents to tell them their child is overweight – to be scrapped or reformed.
The Royal Society for Public Health said parents did not find the information useful and only half knew why their children were being weighed.
It said that if such notes were judged essential, parents of obese children should be “contacted by telephone prior to receipt of the letter”.
And it called for other forms of support, such as healthy food vouchers or better access to after-school activity clubs.
The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) measures the height and weight of children in reception class and Year 6 to assess overweight and obesity levels in English primary schools.
More than 1.1 million children were measured in 2013/14 and had their body mass calculated.
Over a fifth (23 per cent) of children in reception were either overweight or obese, while 10 per cent were obese.
In Year 6, 34 per cent of children were either overweight or obese, while 19 per cent were obese.
The Royal Society for Public Health polled 678 parents of children aged 18 or under and found only 49 per cent were aware of the NCMP.
Half (51 per cent) understood its purpose, while 20 per cent had received information as a result of the programme that had been useful in helping their child lose weight.
The society said that the programme needs better integration with other initiatives such as Change4Life and, if the letter is kept, for guides on diet and exercise to be included with the information sent to parents.
Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said: “Parents also need to be provided with support, and our calls to reform the ‘fat letter’ are intended to make better use of this.
“Our research finds that only one-fifth of parents find the ‘fat letter’ useful and we believe that the letter should be seen as the beginning of a dialogue with parents, not simply flagging whether their child is obese.”


Up to 60 percent of women will experience at least one urinary tract infection (UTI) in their lifetime, and if you’ve ever had one, you’ll know how unbearable it can be.
For years now, some doctors have been recommending cranberry juice and tablets to patients as a way to either prevent recurring UTIs or treat the symptoms, but a new study has found no difference between people treated with cranberries or placebos.
In fact, if you look back at all the scientific literature on the subject, you’ll find that either the recommended amount of cranberry juice is far beyond what’s realistic for an actual human being, or that there’s no solid evidence that any amount is having a positive effect.
"[C]linicians should not be promoting cranberry use by suggesting that there is proven, or even possible, benefit," Lindsay E. Nicolle, an expert on UTIs from the University of Manitoba, wrote in an editorial accompanying the new study.
"It is time to move on from cranberries."
The study, led by infectious disease specialist Manisha Juthani-Mehta from the Yale School of Medicine, investigated the effects of high-dose cranberry capsules - the equivalent of 591 ml (20 ounces) of juice every day - on 185 women in a nursing home.
Elderly women were chosen as the sample because among nursing home residents, UTIs are the most commonly diagnosed infection.
Up to half of all women living in nursing homes test positive for bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine), and 90 percent of those will test positive for pyuria (the presence of bacteria and white blood cells in the urine). Those two symptoms combined are good sign that a UTI is present.
The participants were split into two groups, and randomly assigned either two cranberry capsules a day - each containing 36 milligrams of the active ingredient proanthocyanidin - or a placebo.
Before the study had begun, 31 percent of the participants had tested positive for bacteriuria plus pyuria in their urine.
After 360 days of taking either the placebo or the cranberry capsules, the participants had their levels of bacteriuria and pyuria measured.
The researchers found no difference in the presence of bacteriuria plus pyuria between the cranberry group and the placebo group, and they found no differences in the number of UTI episodes either. (Thirty-eight participants ended up dropping out the study because the daily capsules were too much of a hassle, or had died for unrelated reasons, so the results are based on the remaining 147 participants.)
"The continuing promotion of cranberry use to prevent recurrent UTI in the popular press or online advice seems inconsistent with the reality of repeated negative studies or positive studies compromised by methodological shortcomings," says Nicolle.
"Any continued promotion of the use of cranberry products seems to go beyond available scientific evidence and rational reasoning."
For anyone following the UTI-cranberry juice saga closely, these results will not be a surprise - a lack of evidence for cranberry juice or capsules as being an effective preventative measure or treatment has been a recurring theme in the scientific literature for years.
In fact, as Susan Scutti reports for CNN, a 2012 review of 24 studies totalling 4,473 participants found little evidence of positive effects, and concluded that cranberry juice "cannot be recommended for the prevention of UTIs".
Given that Ocean Spray’s cranberry juice cocktail is only 27 percent juice, it makes sense that something so watered down would be so ineffective, but based on the results of this recent study, even if you ramp things up by switching to highly concentrated capsules, you still don't see a discernible effect.
So why has this myth persisted for so long? There's a couple of reasons - firstly, the active ingredient in cranberries, A-type proanthocyanidins (PACs), have been shown to block the adhesion of bacteria to the wall of the bladder.
So a reasonable hypothesis is that if bacteria are causing UTIs, something that blocks them from accumulating in the bladder could be a potential treatment or preventative measure.
"For a UTI to occur, bacteria must adhere to and invade the lining of the bladder," Timothy Boone from the Texas A&M College of Medicine, who wasn't involved in the study, told Newswise. "PACs interfere with the bacteria’s ability to bind to the wall of the bladder and create an infection."
But there's one problem. "It takes an extremely large concentration of cranberry to prevent bacterial adhesion," says Boone. "This amount of concentration is not found in the juices we drink. There’s a possibility it was stronger back in our grandparents' day, but definitely not in modern times."
And now we have evidence that the concentration of PACs in capsules is also not strong enough to prevent bacteria from accumulating in the bladder.
The second reason the myth is so persistent is it's such a tempting myth to believe. If you experience recurring UTIs and want to prevent them, or you want to feel empowered while you're waiting for the antibiotics to kick in, drinking cranberry juice or taking capsules is a pretty easy way to feel like you're helping.
At best, though, you're paying a lot of money for something that's only really doing the same job as a glass of water.
"It can offer more hydration and possibly wash bacteria from your body more effectively, but the active ingredient in cranberry is long-gone by the time it reaches your bladder," says Boone.
So save your cash and ditch the cranberry juice. It's full of sugar anyway.


By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News
Until recently there was nothing that marked out Galadima primary school as anything out of the ordinary.
The government-run school, flanked by a red dust road on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, taught about 300 pupils who congregated from the surrounding rural area.
But in March this year, the scruffy primary became part of a remarkable experiment. It was the first in Africa to get its hands on the so-called $100 laptop, a rugged device aimed at helping children in the developing world get the most from their education.
The tough machines, conceived by the US-based One Laptop per Child (OLPC) group, were designed to replace dog-eared text books and traditional teaching.
The school was given around 300 of the low-cost laptops along with a satellite internet link known as VSAT, a power generator and solar panels. The idea was to see if the machines would survive the ultimate test: children.
"We wanted to bring the laptops to an environment where the kids would drop it, put it in water and do everything you wouldn't want to do to a normal laptop," explained Ayo Kusamotu, a lawyer and volunteer with OLPC Nigeria, an independent group set-up to support OLPC in Nigeria.
The hardware trial ran for five months.
"We've actually learned a lot from that trial - really simple things that are almost mundane but important," explained Walter Bender of OLPC.
"For example, some of the desks in Galadima are at an angle and we learned that you've got to put rubber feet on the laptop otherwise it will slide off. So now production laptops have rubber feet."
Although, the trial has now ended OLPC Nigeria has continued to fund and support the school's use of the computers. It remains one of just a handful of places in the world where the OLPC vision can be seen "in the wild" and visiting it is an uplifting experience.
The children - most of whom had never seen a computer before March - have clearly embraced the green and white machines.
Even before entering the school grounds, visitors are accosted by hordes of animated children waving their laptops, eager to show what they can do with them.
Children stream from doorways and alleys wanting to take a "snap" with the laptop's onboard camera whilst others shoot video files and then excitedly show each other the results.
The more studious show off the graphs and pictures they have drawn and the notes they have typed in class.
There is a clear sense of enjoyment and pride in both ownership and use of the machines.
One girl was even wearing the power cord as a necklace.
And that pride continues through to the packed classrooms - where up to 90 or 100 pupils are squeezed into one room - and is evident in both children and teacher.
"It is one of the happiest things that has happened to the school," Miss Manzo, one of the teachers at the school confided.
"Before, we felt that we were not very important but now we have the laptop we feel that we have moved ahead."
Not only has it raised the status of the school, she said, but it has also improved learning at school and the surrounding community.
"The laptop has brought a great impact to our children," she said. "It is easier to give notes and assignments and they [the children] learn faster."
She added: "But it is not only in the school they make use of the laptop. They use it at home and even help to teach their parents."
Miss Manzo said that both the children and the teachers had easily learnt how to use the XO laptops, as they are known.
At the moment the laptops are used to augment the text books and black boards rather than replace them.
"One of the biggest uses of the laptop is for note-taking in class," said Mr Kusamotu.
In addition, he said, teachers use the preloaded encyclopaedia to teach classes.
During our visit we saw a lesson on the mammalian eye based on the preloaded content along with maths lessons that used the calculator.
Although there are no numbers that show what effect, if any, the laptops have had, the teachers remain convinced of their worth.
"I pray that the government will try and help every child in Nigeria get access to this," said the headmistress of Galadima, Mrs Juliana Okowkno.
However, aspects of digital life at Galadima are not perfect. What are small problems at one school could become serious issues if, and when, millions of the laptops are rolled out across the country.
The children are allowed to take the laptops home with them
For example, more than 40 of the prototype machines have either been lost, stolen or broken since March. This has knock-on consequences, meaning that that not every child has a laptop on which to follow lessons.
In addition, the laptops can be a distraction - often pupils play games on their computer rather than follow the class.
It is also apparent from visiting Galadima the level of support a large-scale roll out of the programme would require.
Teachers would need to be trained, technicians would need to be on hand to troubleshoot problems and the laptops and its peripherals would also need maintenance.
Some of the children have learnt how to fix broken keyboards and remove the screens and batteries. They act as engineers for the whole of the school - fixing friends laptops as and when needs arise. But software and infrastructure problems may be more tricky.
For example, the solar chargers strapped to the roof of Galadima school had been not set up correctly - we were told they were "misaligned" - and are useless.
However, perhaps the greatest difficulty that will face schools that follow Galadima is the internet.
Earlier this year, some of the pupils were found to be accessing pornography through the laptops.
The internet connection is powered by a diesel generator
Although filters can be added relatively easily, there is a bigger problem and one that is typical of many developing economies: cost.
"VSAT is still very expensive," said Mr Olanrewaju Oke of internet service provider Accelon.
"For a 1.2m dish and a one watt radio it comes in at about $2,500."
In addition, a 128Kbps connection - around a quarter of the speed of a typical broadband connection - is around $350 per month, or $4,200 per year. That is on top of the cost of the laptops - currently $188 apiece.
During the trial, Accelon provided the connection for free but now the school is on its own and as a result, the link has been cut - although OLPC Nigeria had asked for the internet to be restored during our visit.
Mr Oke believes that cost will come down in the same way as it did in the mobile phone sector. He has put forward a long term plan in the event the Nigeria government buys into OLPC that would see schools sharing a connection.
"We're looking for a situation where we can provide good clean access to these schools for anything from $100 to $150 a month," he said.
"It's a starting point and eventually we would like to get close to where Europe is at 50, 60 or 70 dollars a month."
Without government intervention it is difficult to see how many schools in Nigeria - and elsewhere - could afford to get online.
But Mr Kusamotu does not believe it is a problem.
"It is not a stumbling block," he said. "Having the XO, even without the internet, is an extension of the classroom."


The tradition of the Orthodox Church holds that St. Luke the Evangelist was the first iconographer. Shortly after Pentecost, he painted 3 icons of the Mother of God, painted directly from life. As Christians were being actively persecuted, these particular treasures were kept hidden and secret, perhaps only mentioned in a handed-down oral tradition to trusted members of the early church at this point.
A Byzantine historian named Theodore, in the first half of the 6th century, refers in writing to such an icon having been sent a hundred years earlier to Constantinople by the Empress to her sister. This is the oldest historical evidence of the existence of these icons.
In the early 700s, both St. Andrew of Crete and St. Germanus of Constantinople speak of an icon attributed to St. Luke, which was sent to Rome to Theophilus (the same person mentioned in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles). Once Christianity became an official, legal religion, it became safe to move the sacred images from hiding places in private homes into public churches where all could see them.
Some background history: None of these images, nor any others, (with the exception of a very few in the distant monastery of St. Catherine of the Sinai) survived the early church’s period of iconoclasm in the 700s, which divided Christians into bitterly opposing groups. One faction honored and venerated images, and the other wanted them destroyed as idolatry. The second group, the iconoclasts, gained power initially, and systematically destroyed nearly every existing icon. Feelings ran high. People were actually killed just for owning or painting images, and even for simply expressing their opinions on this matter. Eventually the tide turned, and the icon became the official liturgical art. Images were not again removed from churches until the Protestant Reformation.
So, any original icons actually made through the hand of St. Luke himself would have been destroyed during this 8th century Iconoclast Period. What did survive was the tradition, both in oral instruction and within written prayers and liturgical texts, describing the prototypes which the Evangelist established. As the Church recovered from the controversy and rapidly expanded, icons were once again needed. Iconographers made sacred liturgical images according to carefully handed down instructions and later reproductions of St. Luke’s originals, approved by bishops. Thus were icons kept consistent and doctrinally correct, as handed down through the Church. They spread throughout the Christian world.
These are examples of the types of three images of the Theotokos (Mother of God) said to be made by the hand of St. Luke (in no particular order) . One type is called Elousa/Our Lady of Tenderness. The most famous example of this prototype is the miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, beloved in Russia.
The second type is called Hodegritria/She Who Shows the Way. An example of this type is Our Lady of Czestochowa, the most beloved icon of Poland. An earlier example is the Smolensk Mother of God.
The third prototype attributed to St. Luke is one of Our Lady standing alone, without her Child, hands upraised in prayer, the Virgin Orant.
All of these types of icons are called “St. Luke Icons” not because he painted them personally but because he established the prototype. Each one is a new translation of the work of St. Luke the Evangelist. Handed down by the apostles and evangelists through the centuries, they are greatly venerated and loved by the faithful all over the world.


If you were a fish and your retina was damaged, it could repair itself and your vision would be back in a few weeks. Unfortunately, humans don’t have the same ability.
But, new research into retinal regeneration in zebrafish has identified a signal that appears to trigger the self-repair process. And, if confirmed by follow-up studies, the discovery raises the possibility that human retinas can also be induced to regenerate, naturally repairing damage caused by degenerative retinal diseases and injury, including age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.
“The prevailing belief has been that the regeneration process in fish retinas is triggered by secreted growth factors, but our results indicate that the neurotransmitter GABA might initiate the process instead,” says James Patton, professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, who directed the study. “All the regeneration models assume that a retina must be seriously damaged before regeneration takes place, but our studies indicate that GABA can induce this process even in undamaged retinas.”
“This work opens new ideas for therapies for blinding diseases and has implications for the broader field of regenerative medicine,” says Tom Greenwell, program officer for retinal neuroscience at the National Eye Institute, which funded the study.
Thin but nervy
It turns out that the structure of the retinas of fish and mammals are basically the same. Although the retina is very thin—less than 0.5 millimeters thick—it contains three layers of nerve cells: photoreceptors that detect the light, horizontal cells that integrate the signals from the photoreceptors and ganglion cells that receive the visual information and route it to the brain.
In addition, the retina contains a special type of adult stem cell, called Müller glia, that span all three layers and provide mechanical support and electrical insulation. In fish retinas, they also play a key role in regeneration. When regeneration is triggered, the Müller glia dedifferentiate (regress from a specialized state to a simpler state), begin proliferating, and then differentiate into replacements for the damaged nerve cells. Müller glia are also present in mammalian retinas, but don’t regenerate.
Graduate student Mahesh Rao got the idea that GABA—normally a fast-acting neurotransmitter best known for its role of calming nervous activity by inhibiting nerve transmission in the brain—might be the trigger for retinal regeneration. He was inspired by the results of a study in the mouse hippocampus which found that GABA was controlling stem cell activity.
So, working with Patton and research assistant professor Dominic Didiano, Rao designed a series of experiments with zebrafish which determined that high concentrations of GABA in the retina keep the Müller glia quiescent and that they begin dedifferentiating and proliferating when GABA concentrations drop.
“Last month a paper was published in the journal Cell that reports GABA levels play a central role in the regeneration of pancreas cells,” Patton says. “We now have three instances where GABA is involved in regeneration—the hippocampus, the pancreas and the retina—so this could be an important, previously unknown role for the neurotransmitter.”
They tested their hypothesis in two ways: By blinding zebrafish and injecting them with drugs that stimulate GABA production and by injecting normal zebrafish with an enzyme that lowers the GABA levels in their eyes.
Zebrafish are easily blinded. If they are in total darkness for several days and then exposed to very bright light, all the photoreceptors in their retinas are destroyed. Due to their robust regenerative ability, however, their eyes recover in just 28 days. When the biologists injected drugs that kept GABA concentrations in the retinas of newly blinded fish at a high level, they found that it suppressed the regeneration process.
On the other hand, when they injected an enzyme that lowers GABA levels in the eyes of normal fish, they found that the Müller glia began dedifferentiating and proliferating, the first stage in the regeneration process.
“Our theory is that a drop in GABA concentration is the trigger for regeneration. It initiates a cascade of events that includes the activation of the Müller glia and the production of various growth factors that stimulate cell growth and proliferation,” Patton says. “If we are correct, then it might be possible to stimulate human retinas to repair themselves by treating them with a GABA inhibitor.”
The researchers’ next step is to determine if GABA not only stimulates Müller glia dedifferentiation and proliferation, but also causes the differentiation that produces new photoreceptors and the other specialized neurons in the retina. They are pursuing this in both zebrafish and mice with a grant from the National Eye Institute’s Audacious Goals Initiative.
The National Eye Institute supported the work, which appears in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
Source: Vanderbilt University


The deep sea is one of the most mysterious and little-explored regions of Earth. We know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the wonders hidden beneath the waves of our planet's seas. The deepest parts of our oceans teem with life forms so strange-looking they could be from the realm of science fiction. These fantastic creatures inhabit a realm of underwater volcanoes, engulfed mountain ranges, and vast trenches cut into the crust of the planet.
Into the Deep is a breathtaking journey of sea exploration originally created by Ogrefish FilmProductions, adapted and renarrated by Loch Ness Productions. It combines marine biology and underwater geology with a history of deep-sea exploration.
The show shares glimpses of rarely seen marine organisms: bioluminescent frogfish, jellyfish, vampire squid, viperfish, pelican eels, and the mysterious fangtooth — all perfectly adapted to the extreme pressures and temperatures of their alien environment.
In addition to teaching about marine biology and ocean exploration, Into the Deep documents submersible exploration, and describes the basic physical principles that allow humans to venture safely into these otherworldly landscapes. Audiences will experience the dive of Trieste to the Challenger Deep, the lowest point of the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific. This region is regarded as one of the most challenging for divers on Earth.
The show presents the evolution of deep-sea diving vessels used to explore the ocean environment. The 1930 mission by William Beebe and Otis Barton marked humanity's first true exploration of the depths. Recent dives are recounted, from Robert Ballard's journey to the RMS Titanic (which sank in 1912) to filmmaker James Cameron's recent solo dive into the Mariana Trench — all are expanding our understanding of the deep-sea environment.
Into the Deep is a exciting, engaging and engrossing exploration of Earth's oceans, using the immersive power of the dome theater to transport audiences to the spectacular hidden depths of our home planet.
Running time: 31:30
Age level: General public
Information about: Marine biology, oceans, astronomy, exploration, environment, nature
Year of production: 2012
Shows created by Loch Ness Productions come with English language soundtracks standard. Translated soundtracks are provided as additional items, not substitutes for the English ones. If your show's movies contain multiplexed audio, you'll receive separate movie files for each language.
Don't see the language you want? Let's work together to create it. Read more here!
The educational focus of this show is to present the exploration of the deep sea, including its geology, marine biology, and overall marine environment. This is done via a set of multidisciplinary themes woven throughout the program. These ideas help relate the information presented in the show to the lives of students and their families. The language level is appropriate for students at the middle-school level and above, as well as the general public.
Show content is relevant in the following subject areas:Earth Science:


What is the "wet feet, dry feet" policy and what country does it pertain to?
Cuba - Cubans who get to the US have a chance to stay, while those caught before the cost are sent back
What is the definition of a Refugee?
Person who has fled their country of origin out of fear or persecution
What is the most appropriate way to refer to people who are in a country without proper
What are push and pull factors? And what are some examples of each?
things that cause people to immigrate or emigrate to other countries. War, persecution, bad economy, jobs, opportunities
What amount of money does the minority of Guatemala's population live on per day?
Less than a dollar
Are Guatemala's social development indicators, such as infant mortality and illiteracy among
the Best or Worst in the World?
Worst in the world
Why is Chile a deeply divided nation?
Violence. Pinochet dictatorship, severe oppression, exiles, mysterious disappearances
Colombia's conflict, according to the International Institute for Peace, is among the most bloody
in the world. True or False?
Have Evangelical Christians in some cities in Columbia multiplied by twenty times in the last 10
What has been destroyed with the discovery of oil in Ecuador?
Amazon rain forest. The economy: rich get richer, and poor get poorer
Uruguayans share a Spanish linguistic and cultural background, even though about one-quarter
of the population is of what origin?
What did República Oriental del Uruguay recognize at the national level In November 2007?
Same-sex civil unions
Up to what percent of the population of República Bolivariana de Venezuela are involved (to
some extent), with spiritist practice?
Why was the gang MS-13 originally established?
Refugees from El Salvador in L.A. for protection from other gangs
What is the definition of the Brazilian word "favelas"?
Shantytown or shack - epicenter for gang violence and drug trade
What are the possible causes of gang activity in Mexico?
Overcrowding, social acceptance, lack of opportunity for higher education, unemployment, and money made through drug trade
What/Who is "Santa Muerte"?
"Saint Death", blend of Catholic and pagan beliefs, popular in Mexico among gang members
According to UCA (Central American University) Honduras is the most violent country in
Central Americas. True or False?
What is the definition of the term "mano dura"?
"Firm hand" zero tolerance of gang activity in Honduras and El Salvador
Analyses of gangs in Latin America tend to characterize them as a product of the prolonged
political violence and civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s. True or False?
Poverty is most prevalent among women, children, and certain ethnic groups such as
indigenous peoples and people of African descent. True or False?
Do the statistics show that Latin American young people can rise significantly above the
educational level of their parents?
No, the % is very low
What illegal action is a large part of Bolivian Economy?
Exports of coca. Industry and production of cocaine
Do Bolivians think there is a drug problem in their country?
No, they blame Americans for the drug problems
Which country is the poorest in Central America? In South America? In the Caribbean?
Nicaragua, Bolivia, Haiti
Why has Cuba succeeded in providing health care and education for the poor?
They have no military and all of their money goes to these efforts
What are the top three most lucrative businesses in the world?
Human trafficking, arms trade, and narcotics


This fascinating nonfiction picture book about animal construction projects will captivate young scientists and naturalists—and have them looking for more in their own backyards!
Did you know the natural world is a construction zone? All over Earth, on land and at sea, animals are building the most amazing things. From tricky trapdoors to undersea cities to palaces of pebbles and more, come see the incredible creations of animal architects.
Hardcover | 56 pages | Ages 3-8/Grades P-3
A portion of this purchase price supports the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s work to inspire people to discover and embrace an architecture for better living through meaningful connections to nature, the arts, and each other. Your purchase also supports the preservation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings for future generations to enjoy.


The first episode of The Sound and the Fury looks at the shift in the language and sound of music from the beautiful melodies and harmonies of the giants of classical music such as Mozart, Haydn and Brahms into the fragmented, abstract, discordant sound of the most radical composers of the new century—Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky and beyond.
It examines how this new music, which can perplex and upset even the most contemporary of audiences, was a response to the huge upheaval in the world at the start of the 20th century—with its developments in technology, science, modern art and the tumult of the First World War.
Featuring specially-shot performances of some of the key works of the period, performed by the London Sinfonietta, members of the Aurora Orchestra and the American composer and pianist Timothy Andres, the story of this radical episode in music history is brought to life through the contributions of some of the biggest names in modern classical music, among them Steve Reich, John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin and Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker.
From the atonal experiments of Vienna to the jazz-infused sounds coming from New York in the 1920s, the film travels the world to place this music in context and to uncover the incredible personalities and lives of the composers whose single-minded visions changed the course of classical music for ever.
Watch The Sound and the Fury
You can watch this episode of The Sound and the Fury on Friday 27 September at 19:30 on BBC Four.
See The Sound and Fury pages on the BBC website for information on repeat transmissions and iPlayer coverage.


⊕ Click main image below to view enlargements and captions.
Transportation, Railroad Train, Device Railway Mechanical Lever Frame Model, Antique, c. 1900
Model of a Railway Mechanical Lever Frame
American: c. 1900
Wood and brass
9 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches, overall
Provenance: Railroad Collection of Francis H. Schwartz
Scale model of an interlocking mechanical lever frame, used in railway signaling. The brass levers on this model move and lock in different positions within a wooden frame. Actual mechanical levers are a few feet long and typically housed on the floor of a small building called an interlocking tower or signal box, next to the train tracks. Each lever operates a different point and signal, and the signalman walks between them to operate the signals for each approaching train. While there are places in the world where mechanical frames are still in use, from about 1929 on they have given way to power frames with miniature levers, which control the signals electrically, and to other electronic systems.
This model is from a collection of railroad memorabilia and model trains. It is most likely a demonstration model, but conceivably could be a salesman’s sample or patent model. It might also have been used as part of a model train set, but has no contact points to make it function with other pieces.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light wear, shrinkage to wood, oxidation to brass. Lever mechanisms in working condition. Paper label on base, presumably some sort of identification, oxidized, chipped, and illegible.
“Lever frames.” Wikipedia. 3 December 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_frame#Power_frames (5 April 2012).


Top 10 Possible Reasons for the High HIV Infection Rate in the Southern U.S.
According to the Southern States Manifesto, more than 36,000 people have died of AIDS in the South as estimated by the CDC and in 2005 the South was burdened with half of all deaths from AIDS in the United States. The Southern US is clearly burdened with HIV to a degree unwarranted by its population size. This is a concern expressed by many and, to some degree, remains a mystery.
Recently, I was on a panel discussion as part of the Week of Prayer in Durham, NC. The last questioner of the evening asked, "Why is HIV so prevalent in the South?" We didn't come up with a scientific list of reasons, and I don't know if there really is such a list, but here's what we came up with (in no particular order) ...
- Stigma. Stigma refers to attitudes about how people are different for something they're not responsible for such as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, or HIV status. Stigma is a leading issue in the struggle against the HIV epidemic in the Southern US and elsewhere and until stigma is addressed effectively, it will continue to affect how people deal with the epidemic. I've written more on this topic before for TheBody.com.
- Conservative religious and moral values. The Southern US is sometimes referred to as the Bible Belt, meaning the vast majority of people are actively religious, primarily Southern Baptist. As a result, to a large degree, churches influence what people think about and talk about. There are a lot of churches that talk openly about HIV, sex, and substance abuse. Unfortunately, however, many keep to the straight and narrow and don't talk about controversial topics, including HIV, substance abuse, or mental health. I'm grateful for churches like First Calvary Baptist Church in Durham that actively deals with HIV by supporting HIV-positive congregants, providing education about HIV, and having an AIDS Care Team. If churches, with their key role in influencing behaviors and moral beliefs, took an active role in addressing HIV, I think it more likely that congregants and parishioners would work towards eliminating HIV as well.
- Intolerance for others. Intolerance can include people who are perceived as different (see discussion on stigma, above) including anyone from outside of one's immediate social circle. If a community is so insular that other behaviors and people are not tolerated, it will be very difficult to address any behaviors that are considered outside of the realm of 'normal'. The result being that it is once again difficult to address issues that lead to HIV infection such as substance abuse and high-risk sexual activities.
- Economic and class oppression. Economic issues underlie a host of behaviors that impact risk for HIV infection and the likelihood that those already infected will seek treatment. We often talk about HIV, substance abuse, mental health, and incarceration as co-morbidities, or conditions that are closely connected. Each of these conditions is impacted by economics. There is much to say about this, but perhaps one example will serve to illustrate the point. One in 100, a report from the Pew Charitable Trust, states that 1 of every 100 adults in the US is incarcerated in a jail or prison (1 in 9 for Black men between the ages of 20 and 34). Those who are incarcerated are often from poorer economic backgrounds and their incarceration results in adverse economic impact on their families and communities. Chances are, if someone has substantial financial assets, they're not in prison and, if they are, they're in for a shorter length of time. Incarceration has a detrimental effect on one's ability to seek employment upon release thereby impacting their economic status and therefore impacting their likelihood of having health insurance, access to HIV medications, mental health or substance abuse services, and other health resources.
- Racism. There is so much to say about racism. Does racism affect the HIV epidemic? As clearly as racism underlies so many oppressions -- I often think of racism as the glue that holds all the other oppressions in place -- it affects our ability to deal effectively with HIV. Is racism different in the Southern US? Racism continues to persist everywhere. As a result of historic issues largely stemming from the Civil War, the South is often blamed for racism. However, as has been clearly dealt with in the work of many, including Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, the South has been treated as a colony of the North, exploited for economic gain, and has in effect taken much of the blame for racism although racism, including slavery, has been a part of the economic system in place throughout the United States for years leading up to the Civil War. Regardless of where blame lies, racism plays a significant role in placing people in situations that put them at risk for HIV infection and for challenges related to their ability to effectively seek treatment once infected. It is debatable as to how this plays out differently in the Southern US as compared to anywhere else.
- Lack of jobs. As discussed above, economic oppression places people at risk for a host of conditions that do not support HIV prevention and treatment efforts, including access to health care, and both substance abuse and mental health services. A recent list using data from the Bureau of Labor Standards shows that 6 of the 15 states with the highest rates of unemployment are in the South. These statistics may be limited in showing the real struggles of unemployment. However, there are real challenges posed by the cycle of no work, no income, and no hope that are likely to lead to behaviors that stifle HIV prevention and treatment efforts.
- Lack of health care resources, including substance abuse and mental health. As an example, the substance abuse and mental health system in North Carolina was gutted over the past few years in an effort to streamline services and save costs. The resulting lack of public resources clearly stresses the limits of those without the ability to cope with life's challenges. In addition to substance abuse and mental health, many states in the South have fewer health care and medical providers, placing additional stress on health care and social support systems that struggle to support those with limited resources.
- Rural. Though not as rural as many western states, the Southern US is rural in comparison to much of the country. Rural areas generally have fewer resources, including health care and social service providers. Distances to access existing resources may also pose transportation issues. And finally, isolation from others could pose challenges in getting needed supports -- physical, emotional, and social.
- Transportation and other services. As said several times, lack of resources such as transportation are often listed as barriers to getting effective care and treatment, and place additional burdens on already challenged and over-taxed health and human service providers. Transportation poses an additional expense in terms of both time and money. In North Carolina, lack of adequate transportation has been continually cited as a problem.
- Hot weather. Someone thought that long, hot summer days (and nights) would result in greater sexual activity and, we supposed, more unprotected sex, and ultimately, more HIV infections. We didn't agree, but thought it would be an interesting addition to this list. What do you think?
This is, of course, a quick summary of a number of very complex issues, each of which could be dealt with much more extensively. One excellent organization that works to address this issue is the Southern AIDS Coalition, whose mission is to promote accessible and high quality systems of HIV and STD prevention, care, treatment, and housing throughout the South through a unique partnership of government, community, people living with HIV disease, and business entities. The Southern States Manifesto, updated in 2008, discusses HIV in the South and proposes action steps and plans for addressing the situation.
Thanks again for reading.
Send Marc an e-mail.


Young sports, Moosehead Lake, ca. 1880
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Purchase a reproduction of this item on VintageMaineImages.com.
This photograph shows two young children lying on the ground, apparently peering over a stone slab into the water of East Cove on Moosehead Lake some time around 1880. The steamer Gov. Coburn is in the background docked at the Lake House.
The Gov. Coburn, a side-wheeler with walking beam, was built by Major Benjamin Bigney in 1869 and continued service for about 25 years.Her first captain was Thomas Robinson.
In her day the Gov. Coburn was a palatial craft of the double-decker type and with her passing went one of the most picturesque of the old order of lake boats. In addition to transporting, freight, passengers and the mail the Gov. Coburn was used to tow booms of logs.
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African-Americans have long embraced the tradition of honoring Thanksgiving. Even during #slavery time, Africans took time to be thankful for what they had, which of course was not much. In 1777, when the Continental Congress delivered a decree for the 13 colonies to give thanks for reaching a victory over the British at Saratoga, the Africans also took part in the celebration throughout the region. And, the tradition continued as a custom of rejoicing for rain to break droughts and plenty of harvest.
So, what did the slaves eat on this day they were allowed to celebrate? The slaves who worked in the fields would often go out and catch wild game for their family and close slave friends. The women would prepare cornmeal cakes, or pone cakes to go along with the game. The house slaves had it better than the field slaves; house slaves feasted on the leftovers from the “main house” after the slave-owners finished their meals.
A forgotten fact, Thanksgiving started off as a church oriented celebration for the #black community. #African American pastors often gave sermons that could be heard loud and clear through the small black churches. The sermons would be about struggles, hopes, fears, and triumphs. The sermons usually grieved the institution of slavery; the suffering of the black people; and often pleaded for that an awakening of a slave-free America would some day come soon.
African Methodist Episcopalian cleric, Reverend Benjamin Arnett stirred a predominantly black congregation on November 30, 1876 with Biblically inspired words:
…we call on all American citizens to love their country, and look not on the sins of the past, but arming ourselves for the conflict of the future, girding ourselves in the habiliments of Righteousness, march forth with the courage of a Numidian lion and with the confidence of a Roman Gladiator, and meet the demands of the age, and satisfy the duties of the hour…”
Then let the grand Centennial Thanksgiving song be heard and sung in every house of God; and in every home may thanksgiving sounds be heard, for our race has been emancipated, enfranchised and are now educating, and have the gospel preached to them.
In 1863, Lincoln signed the proclamation of a national Thanksgiving Day, unifying the various regional practices that had already been taking place throughout the nation.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Some slaves saw the holidays as an opportunity to escape. They took advantage of relaxed work schedules and the holiday travels of slaveholders, who were too far away to stop them. While some slaveholders treated the holiday as any other workday, there have been numerous recordings of a variety of holiday traditions, including the suspension of work for celebration and family visits. Because many slaves had spouses, children, and family who were owned by different masters, and who lived on other properties. Slaves often requested passes to travel and visit family during this time. Some slaves used the passes to explain their presence on the road and delay the discovery of their escape, though their masters’ expectation was they would soon return from their “family visit.”
Today, many African-Americans still spend time traveling and visiting family and friends during the holiday. But, many have moved away from spending Thanksgiving Day in church; that practice has long been forgotten by many. Thanksgiving today is not recognized for the same reasons as it was years ago. Today it is a day that spent with family and friends being thankful for one’s many blessings.


Preparing houseplants is one of the crucial steps for their utmost care and safety throughout the moving journey. They need your attention, like your small kids, as they are sensitive and delicate. They also need time to adjust themselves to a new environment. Some can even die or shed leaves due to a sudden shock.
Sudden changes in light and temperature can damage them in no time. Plus, large potted plants are difficult to lift and load and prone to damage.
With some careful planning and preparation, you can safely transport your pot plants to a new home and help bloom them in a new environment.
It is good to find a reliable company that can offer you safe removals Sunshine Coast by transiting your houseplants without causing any harm to them.
However, you need to take care of different aspects and prepare your pot plants for a healthy move with the help of these tips:
You should never move your plants in the summer season because of the hot temperature and dry air. These two can damage the roots of your plants.
If you have no other option, take extra precautions and keep your pot plants hydrated to sustain the moisture in the roots.
If you have flexibility, you can easily relocate in any of the other seasons, as it will help you relocate green and blooming friends more comfortably.
This is one of the crucial steps that can save energy during the relocation process. Plus, trimming keeps them healthy and maintained.
So, trim all extra and dead branches and leaves so that your plant won’t waste any energy on dead parts. Trimming your plants one to two weeks before your move is good.
Do not forget to check all potted plants to ensure there are no pests and parasites on them. Overlooking this step can risk all your plants. If you are left with fertilisers and pesticides after treating your plants, dispose of them because Removalists Sunshine Coast never moves hazardous items.
Tip: Contact the Biodiversity Queensland if you see any unusual pest on plants.
Ceramic pots are heavy and can damage your other furniture when transported in a truck. So, you can re-pot your large and heavy potted plants into plastic or shock-proof containers that won’t slip off easily from your hands. Such containers are sturdy and can save your plants from sudden shocks.
Tip: Use good quality plastic and re-pot a few weeks before your removals Sunshine Coast. You can also follow other methods to cut your moving costs if you are low on moving budget.
Showering adequate water at least 2-3 days before the final move can prevent the soil from getting extra wet. If you water your plants on a moving day, they will start leaking, or roots may get damaged or develop mould in hot weather.
If you are moving plants o your own, arrange a temperature-controlled moving vehicle to keep your plants alive throughout the journey. Make sure a van is spacious enough to carry all types and sizes of pot plants.
You can move small plants in your car as well, while large potted ones need a rental van. You can follow more tips if moving from a city to the country and keep your other belongings safe.
Pack the ceramic pots after re-potting plants into plastic containers. Since ceramics are prone to damage, use high-quality packing materials. You can secure the pots using packing paper and bubble wrap. Place them in a sturdy moving box for extra protection.
Tips to pack potted plants like a pro:
Always remember this rule when relocating your pot plants. Pack them before your moving day to ensure they get the proper air and sunlight.
Toss the poisonous plants and mushrooms as this can lead to various health hazards. If you see some unwanted plants, get rid of them immediately.
Never keep your houseplants in the moving vehicle for too long when they reach the final destination. Unpack them first and let them breathe and adjust to the new environment. You can renovate your home, add your beautiful and glowing plants to keep the indoor environment green and clean.
Moving pot plants can be challenging, especially when doing it for the first time. You can trim dead leaves, remove pests and water them before packing using quality supplies for safe transportation. These tips will keep your plants secure throughout the journey and let you enjoy the process.


The silk processing industry in the United States was firmly established in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Women insisted on silk stockings as the ultimate luxury for fashionable leg coverings. Silk dresses and scarves were the standard for outerwear. Scarves are still in great demand today as accessories even though nylon hosiery has displaced silk as the preferred leg fashion.
The Klots Throwing Company built a silk throwing mill in the town of Lonaconing, Maryland. The company closed in 1957 and the owners walked away, leaving a completely preserved mill, The Lonaconing Silk Mill
This is an unbelievably well-preserved mill lovingly cared for by Mr. Herbert Crawford for over thirty years. Wayne Firth photographed the mill in 2004. However, all things must be maintained and now the mill has been identified as an “endangered species.” The local newspaper, the Cumberland Times-News carried a story with color photos.
Below, the Klots advertisement which gives mention to the Lonaconing Mill, circa 1915 and coming from the Textile World Journal., from memory it appeared both in 1915 & 16 and although the throwing company was massive in the amount of mills they owned very little advertising appeared in any of the journals. They owned upwards of 14 mills with an annual turnover of $50 Million at the height of their business. Much too large for a website to cover but a very interesting company to at least cover via a timeline.
Courtesy: Peter Metzke
American Raw Silk Inc. NY 1916


by Judith Curry
Klotzbach and Gray ask whether the active Atlantic hurricane era has ended, owing to the negative values of the AMO.
For background on the AMO index, see the Wikipedia, including the different methods for calculating the AMO. Previous CE posts on the AMO:
- Critique of Mann’s new paper characterizing the AMO
- Climate model simulations of the AMO
- Two contrasting views of multidecadal climate variability in the 20th century
The AMO also plays a dominant role in the stadium wave.
Klotzbach and Gray
Some excerpts from the paper below, focused on the AMO (see WUWT for additional excerpts related to hurricanes):
The Atlantic hurricane seasons in 2013 and 2014 were quieter than average, and there are indications that hurricane activity in 2015 will also be below normal. Here we investigate whether the active Atlantic hurricane era that began in 1995 may have ended. To this end, we assess hurricane variability in the Atlantic since 1878, along with a proxy for the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO), whose positive phases have been noted to be closely linked to active periods for Atlantic hurricanes. We find that the AMO proxy values are currently at their lowest values since the early 1990s, when Atlantic hurricane activity was well below average.
The AMO, an indicator of sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the North Atlantic, has been argued to arise from natural climate variations in the thermohaline circulation. Alternatively, it could be primarily driven by alterations in levels of sulfate aerosols. We argue that the weight of the evidence points towards natural oceanic variability being the principal driver of the AMO. The AMO phase was classified as being positive from 1878–1899, 1926–1969 and 1995–2012, and negative from 1900–1925 and 1970–19942. Positive AMO phases are characterized by above-average far North and tropical Atlantic SSTs, below-average tropical Atlantic sea level pressures (SLPs), and reduced levels of tropical Atlantic vertical wind shear. All three of these conditions are known to create a more favourable environment for Atlantic hurricane formation and intensification.
Atlantic SSTs from 50–60° N, 50–10° W and SLPs from 0–50° N, 70–10° W has been utilized to monitor the strength of the AMO in real time. When the AMO is positive, SSTs in the far North Atlantic tend to be warmer, while SLPs throughout the tropics and subtropics tend to be lower. This index has decreased since 2012: SST anomalies in the tropical and far North Atlantic have become cooler and SLP anomalies throughout most of the Atlantic have increased. The decrease in far North Atlantic SSTs in the past three years has been associated with a weaker thermohaline circulation. Annual mean SSTs in the North Atlantic have cooled in 2013 and 2014 compared with values averaged from 1995 to 2012.
A large variety of other climatic factors have also been shown to be linked to phase changes of the AMO including frequency and intensity of El Niño and likelihood of Sahelian drought. Consequently, the impacts of a potential phase change of the AMO extend well beyond its impacts on Atlantic basin hurricane activity.
McCarthy et al.
Ocean impact on decadal Atlantic climate variability revealed by sea-level observations
Gerard McCarthy, Ivan Haigh, Joel Hirschi, Jeremy Grist, David Smeed
Abstract. Decadal variability is a notable feature of the Atlantic Ocean and the climate of the regions it influences. Prominently, this is manifested in the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in sea surface temperatures. Positive (negative) phases of the AMO coincide with warmer (colder) North Atlantic sea surface temperatures. The AMO is linked with decadal climate fluctuations, such as Indian and Sahel rainfall1, European summer precipitation, Atlantic hurricanes3 and variations in global temperatures. It is widely believed that ocean circulation drives the phase changes of the AMO by controlling ocean heat content. However, there are no direct observations of ocean circulation of sufficient length to support this, leading to questions about whether the AMO is controlled from another source. Here we provide observational evidence of the widely hypothesized link between ocean circulation and the AMO. We take a new approach, using sea level along the east coast of the United States to estimate ocean circulation on decadal timescales. We show that ocean circulation responds to the first mode of Atlantic atmospheric forcing, the North Atlantic Oscillation, through circulation changes between the subtropical and subpolar gyres—the intergyre region. These circulation changes affect the decadal evolution of North Atlantic heat content and, consequently, the phases of the AMO. The Atlantic overturning circulation is declining and the AMO is moving to a negative phase. This may offer a brief respite from the persistent rise of global temperatures, but in the coupled system we describe, there are compensating effects. In this case, the negative AMO is associated with a continued acceleration of sea-level rise along the northeast coast of the United States.
Published in Nature.
The paper is discussed in good overview article in the Conversation: The Atlantic is entering a cool phase that will change the world’s weather. Excerpts:
Scientists have widely hypothesised that ocean circulation, and in particular the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation which sends warm surface water northward (the Gulf Stream) and deeper cold water southward, drives the phases of the AMO by moving heat around. However, we do not have direct observations of ocean circulation of sufficient duration to support this theory, which has lead some to question whether the AMO is actually controlled by the ocean.
We have measurements of the strength of the Gulf Stream flow in the Straits of Florida since 1982 and the flow across the Greenland-Scotland ridge since the mid-1990s. Since 2004, we also have continuous, full-depth, basin-wide measurements of the Atlantic overturning circulation with the RAPID monitoring project at 26ºN. However, none of these records are long enough to directly link ocean circulation with the decadal climate variations such as the AMO.
Sea-level measurements from tide gauges on the other hand extend back more than 100 years in places. Many studies, dating back to 1938, have used this data to study variations in ocean circulation.
In our latest research we were able to show that differences in sea level along the US east coast provide a measure of the strength of ocean circulation.
Sea-level fluctuations from Florida to Boston can be divided by Cape Hatteras, where the Gulf Stream leaves the coast to flow eastward. The difference (south minus north) is representative of ocean circulation, and more circulation means more heat is transported.
By comparing our sea-level index against the AMO index we were able to provide, for the first time, observational evidence of the widely hypothesised link between ocean circulation and the AMO.
Our results show that ocean circulation responds to the first mode of Atlantic atmospheric forcing, the North Atlantic Oscillation, through circulation changes between the subtropical and subpolar gyres – the intergyre region. This a major influence on the wind patterns and the heat transferred between the atmosphere and ocean.
The observations that we do have of the Atlantic overturning circulation over the past ten years show that it is declining. As a result, we expect the AMO is moving to a negative (colder surfer waters) phase. This is consistent with observations of temperature in the North Atlantic.
Paul Dorian of Vencore has an interesting article The Atlantic Ocean is showing signs of a possible significant long-term shift from warm-to-cold. Worth reading, this paragraph about Arctic sea ice in particular caught my eye:
If the Atlantic Ocean is indeed slipping back into a colder-than-normal phase (i.e., negative AMO) then this would quite likely have a significant impact on Northern Hemisphere (NH) sea ice areal extent. The NH sea ice areal extent was generally at above-normal levels before the middle 1990’s (arrow in plot below) which is when the Atlantic Ocean temperature phase change took place from cold-to-warm. Once the warm phase of the Atlantic Ocean became established in the late 1990’s, the NH sea ice areal extent trended sharply downward from positive levels into well below-normal territory. In recent years, there has been a jagged, but generally sideways trend in NH sea ice areal extent at those well below normal levels. However, if these recent signs of a possible long-term Atlantic Ocean temperature phase change from warm-to-cold are “real and sustained” (and sometimes there are false starts), then the NH sea ice areal extent will very likely return to above-normal levels in the not too distant future – just as it was during the last cold phase pre-mid 1990’s.
Here is the most up to date (conventional) AMO plot I can find, by van Oldenborgh:
Hmmm . . . not looking too negative in recent years. If you look at the ‘official’ NOAA AMO monthly index data page [link], you don’t see too much in the way of negative monthly AMO values (4 of the months in 2014 had slightly negative values). Reading the fine print, I see that they use the Kaplan SST v2 to make the calculations – I do not regard the Kaplan SST as one of the better SST data sets (I prefer the HADSST, or OISST).
Klotzbach and Gray have developed a new method for calculating the AMO (referred to as ‘AMO proxy values’), that relates better to the Atlantic hurricanes:
A proxy using a combination of North Atlantic SSTs from 50–60° N, 50–10° W and SLPs from 0–50° N, 70–10° W has been utilized to monitor the strength of the AMO in real time
So, not only does the method of determining the AMO matter, but presumably also the underlying SST data set used in the calculation.
Whither the AMO?
So, does the Klotzbach/Gray version of the AMO combined with low Atlantic hurricane activity, along with a slow down in the AMOC, portend a flip to the cold phase of the AMO?
Here is the way that I have been looking at this, which is encapsulated by the stadium wave wheel. According to the stadium wave wheel, we passed peak AMO circa ~2010, so we are arguably in a declining phase, heading to a time in the ~mid 2020’s when the index switches to the cool phase (I’ve seen other estimates of the switch around 2030).
The stadium wave says nothing about short term fluctuations, such as was seen in the mid 1940’s. Perhaps we are encountering an analogous cool blip, to return in a few years to warm values.
Or perhaps we are headed for a surprise. If the AMO is truly an unforced internal oscillation, the oscillation can cease, change frequency or amplitude at any time. If external forcing (e.g. solar) plays an important role, then such a dramatic change is less likely. Since we are still trying to figure out the AMO, we really don’t know.
With regards to sea ice, and I have been predicting this for several years, I see a recovery occurring in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic.
With regards to hurricanes, I took a look at the number of Atlantic hurricanes during the period in the mid 1940’s with cool AMO [link], and I don’t see a dip. Klotzbach and Gray have their work cut out in terms of trying to figure out why we have had 3 dud Atlantic hurricane seasons in a row. The El Nino’s obviously played a role, but new complexities seem to be emerging.
JC forecast: The AMO seems to be headed for the cool phase, I think we need to start watching for a cool flip around 2020 (I think it is early yet to see a flip). But I am prepared to be surprised.


- 28th Annual Archaeological Report 1916
- 29th Annual Archaeological Report 1917 – The Nipissings: Coming of the White Man
- Chief Semo Commanda 1828-1938
- Chief Alexander Dokis 1916 (Letter)
- Jesuit Journals
- Nipissing 1927
- Nipissing Legends of the Nipissing Tribal Indians
- Personal Recollections of Residential School
Visit the Culture & Heritage section of our website for recent publications.
What our community can do to ensure the restoration of language, culture and heritage:
Understand the importance of language restoration. The values, world view and understanding of the land is embedded in our language.
- Understand the importance of culture restoration and of traditional ceremonies and culture to our original values. These values create a strong foundation and empower Anishinaabe identity for families.
- Share old family photos and documents of people, places and community events with the Library or Culture Centre to fully show the culture of Nbisiing.
- Donate fabric, ribbon, thread, beads, trimmings, etc. to the Culture Centre. These materials go to help volunteers make basic regalia for children.
- Become a volunteer at the annual pow wow. The best way to see your vision in the restoration of culture and language is to become actively involved.