For most people programming may be very daunting but in reality it is not very troublesome to discover ways to program. This means that you would be able to define auxiliary functions, inside a module, which would not be accessible to the surface world, to develop your software with the A+ programming language. With skilled programming expertise he doesn’t depend on tools but makes use of them to increase productiveness. There are many reasons to study a programming language and every particular person has their very own reasons that will rely on their aim and what they need to obtain. This is how I realized nearly all of what I learn about programming and writing programming languages. The C programming language is a well-liked and extensively used programming language for creating computer applications.
The A+ programming language additionally has an automatic synchronization of widgets and variables, and finally but not least, it also has an asynchronous execution of capabilities related to variable and events. While its a broad space to the touch upon, essentially the most primary factor which we will do to improve the situation, is inventive programming. He’s passed nicely beyond just the technical side of growing software and understanding good solution design. Download the hardware configuration to the PLC by clicking the obtain icon situated on the toolbar.
If you are the form of programmer, that code only for fun, then it is best to undoubtedly get you a copy of the A+ programming language, so that you could easily start to program. An distinctive kind of procedural programming, structured programming offers programmers with extra instruments to handle the problems created by larger packages. You should realize that learning a pc programming language takes time and commitment to be able to be successful at programming. Android App Development: Java programming language is used broadly for creating cellular apps for Android – the mobile platform with largest worldwide market share.
Or, you can dabble with programming every now and then, hoping to be a fantastic programmer with little effort, like the plant you water and prune very little, anticipating it to thrive when it the truth is finally ends up with lengthy woody stems and yellowing leaves.
The developer is an skilled programmer who understands there may be way more to creating software program than the lines of code it consists of. He possesses a a lot better understanding of software program design ideas and principles than the programmer and thinks about a problem in its entirety.


The growth of the Internet, combined with the shifting demographics of private forest landowners that indicate increasing Internet use, presents great opportunities for natural resource extension. The study described here created two natural resource Web sites. An online survey of Pennsylvania forest landowners, foresters, Extension agents, and natural resource teachers examined their demographics, evaluated Web site effectiveness, and determined what site features the audience preferred. The groups had varied learning interests and would use Web sites in different ways. The Internet is an important addition to the natural resource learning community and must be tailored to suit different users needs.
|Original language||English (US)|
|Journal||Journal of Extension|
|State||Published - Jun 1 2005|
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes


Capitol Riot: The 48 Hours that Echoed Generations of Southern ConflictBreaking News
tags: Southern history, Confederacy, Mississippi, Capitol Riot
Hours after Mississippi legislators took the final step of removing a Confederate emblem from their state banner, a violent white mob waved the Stars and Bars as it ransacked the U.S. Capitol.
The ratification of a new Magnolia flag followed a year in which white Southerners were forced to confront the legacy and symbols of the Lost Cause, an enduring, pernicious myth that the Confederacy had fought for a valiant purpose and a noble way of life had been brought to an end. The removal of the Confederate emblem and the historic elections in Georgia should have signaled a moment of celebration for the South, embracing its multicultural reality.
Instead, President Donald Trump offered his supporters a new Lost Cause, spreading lies that an election had been stolen from him. And their nation was on the verge of being taken from them. Like in the aftermath of the Civil War, he found a group of supporters willing to enforce that lie through violent ends; and he found a group of politicians committed to enabling it through official channels.
One hundred and fifty years after the end of the Civil War, 48 hours across Mississippi, Georgia and Washington D.C., demonstrated the promise of the South, the demons continuing to haunt the region, and new dangers looming on the horizon.
In Mississippi, Southerners removed a symbol of an old rebellion. In Washington, D.C., Southern politicians and insurgents began a new one. And in Georgia, Southerners found themselves at a familiar crossroads.
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Magnet therapy, or magnotherapy, is not inherently New Age, but it is a form of alternative medicine that is largely practiced by New Agers. Practitioners claim that the magnetostatic fields produced by permanent magnets can do everything from cure wounds to improving overall vigor. Typically, these permanent magnets are sold in the form of bracelets and other jewelry; magnetic straps for the wrists, ankles, knees and back; shoe insoles; mattresses; blankets; creams; supplements; and even magnetic water.
The type of magnetics described above does not work and is considered to be sham medicine. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits the marketing of any magnet therapy that makes medical claims because these claims are scientifically unfounded.
But if you’re wearing a device that is said to be able to cure headaches or get rid of your knee pain, it won’t be the first time a magnet salesman has made such claims. Mankind has been fascinated with magnets since the first lodestone was discovered. The ancients had such a tough time explaining why the stones (which are natural magnetic rocks) behaved as they did, they decided it was because the stones had souls.
Nothing much changed through the centuries. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), who came up with the concept of “animal magnetism” to explain why he thought magnets could heal, believed it was a unique force of nature that flowed through all living things. He used a combination of magnets, hypnosis, and the laying on of hands to produce “healings.”
Claims of magnetic healing continue to this day; but there are important distinctions to make about magnet therapy. What is marketed in bracelets and insoles consist of static or permanent magnets, the same kind that are used to attach your child’s report card to the refrigerator door, for instance.
“These static magnetic fields have no demonstrable effect on blood flow or living tissue, and their fields are so shallow they barely extend beyond the cloth in which they are encased, let alone to any significant tissue depth,” writes neurologist Steven Novello, M.D., on his NeuroLogic blog. “And the scientific evidence for efficacy is negative.”
Whatever help a person may believe they are receiving is purely placebo.
On the other hand, electromagnets, which utilize electricity to create a temporary magnetic field, are used in conventional medicine for things such as MRI’s (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Devices such as these employ powerful magnetic fields produced by electromagnets along with radio waves and computers to produce 3D images of the body. However, as anyone knows who has ever had an MRI, even this huge dose of super powerful electromagnetism does not heal the body. We’re as sick or injured after the scan as we were before it began.
Electromagnets can also be turned off and on in what is known as “pulsed electromagnetic fields” which have been found to aid healing in certain bone fractures and to reduce certain types of pain.
Unfortunately, some purveyors of magnetic trinkets like to “mix things up” by combining some of the good effects of conventional medicine’s electromagnetics with their otherwise useless permanent magnets with the hopes that an uninformed public will keep their sales figures in the black. Thus far, it appears to be working. The magnet bauble industry rakes in millions every year. Insoles go for $20, bracelets typically range from $14 to $69. Knee straps go for $50 and a mattress pad will set you back $200.
Even though there’s no scientific evidence to prove that magnets work, if you really believe they’re helping you, forget the costly trinkets and just strap on a refrigerator magnet because it’s the exact same thing.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com


John Holland’s “RIASEC” Career Test
What job or higher education to pursue in the future?
Which job/career is the most suitable for you?
Which developing skill can help you to prepare better for the career?
What is the “RIASEC” Career Test?
A RIASEC test is designed to help children discover which careers are most suitable for them according to their unique abilities, interests, skills, and traits.
The results of a RIASEC test can be used to help kids and teens develop a plan for courses to take in high school and college that is most conducive to achieving one of the careers they were determined to be a match for.
RIASEC stands for:
Realistic: You may do best in mechanical and athletic jobs.
Investigative: You like to observe, learn, analyze, and solve problems.
Artistic: You would like to work in unstructured situations where you can express your creativity.
Social: You prefer working with others.
Enterprising: Enjoy working with and persuading others.
Conventional: You are detail-oriented, organized, and like to work with data.
From the link below, you can take your RIASEC test, submit it and you will be given the top 3 scores in your RIASEC result
click me to take RIASEC test
E.g. Top 3 score is R, I, C
From the link below, you can see briefly which career is suitable for you by using the top 3 scores in your RIASEC result from step 1.
click me for a suitable job
R – Architect, Engineer;
I – Mathematician, Pharmacist;
C – Actuary, Finance etc.
From the link below, click on your top 3 scores in RIASEC result from step 1, and click the occupation that you are interested in to see more details.
click me for occupation details
(A more detailed description of your job, tasks, technology skills, knowledge, abilities, work activities, work context, RIASEC code preferring, related occupations, wages, etc.)
R-Manufacturing Engineer design, integrate, or improve manufacturing systems or related processes. May work with commercial or industrial designers to refine product designs to increase production and decrease costs.
Technology skills preferred: Computer-aided design CAD software, Computer-aided manufacturing CAM software, Development environment software, etc.
We hope that this article is useful for all of you. Good luck and all the best.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of https://www.aglowlife.com/
Get more information about scholarship interview experience and tips at https://www.aglowlife.com/scholarships/


Confucianism and Daoism Even though he died in 479 B. C, Confucianism became one of the most influential thought systems of Chinese history through a small handful of devoted followers because they continued his legacy. These followers had to derive their own interpretations of his system that formulated what is now known as the Analects. Both Confucianism and Daoism disfavored harsh government. Both also accepted the presence of a supernatural entity without providing a clear explanation on it. Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism) both focus on the goal of self improvement.
Taoism was more focused on improving the individual’s relationship with himself, creaing an inner harmony. On the other hand, Confucianism focused on the “social, earthly orientation” of everyday life. In the East, many people unite elements of each of these philosophies in their daily lives. They have a strong belief that together, the two philosophies can work together in harmony. Involved in Confucianism is also a superior man. This man is one who has trained himself to follow the societal expectations imposed upon him. The two philosophies/religions originated in the 5th/6th centuries in China.
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Taoism though, shows roots in some of China’s oldest belief systems where shamanism and pantheism were prevailing. While they both have elements of philosophy and religion, Confucianism and Taoism at first seem to be polar opposites of each other. They appear to represent different methods of thinking about the world around us and to impose separate codes of behavior. However, many people (especially in the East) incorporate elements of both philosophies in their daily lives and believe strongly that the two can and do work together in harmony.
One of the greatest areas where Confucianism and Taoism differ is in their primary focus. Confucianism focuses on the social, earthly orientation of everyday life. According to Confucius, humans are primarily social beings with a natural capability for goodness – which, if followed, leads to social harmony. In Confucianism a “superior man” is one who has trained himself to do what society expects of him. On the other hand, Taoism places much more focus on the relationship of the individual with himself, on achieving an inner harmony.
Taoism is much less earthly in nature and places importance on “coming into harmony” with the Tao – the ultimate reality that formed the universe and everything around us. To simplify, while they both dwell on the improvement of the individual, Confucianism looks outward to accomplish this, while Taoism looks inward. Another area where the two philosophies differ is in how they are passed on and taught. While both philosophies revolve around the wisdom of a single teacher or master, they are presented in very different ways.
Confucianism has a dialogic tradition – that is, lessons and teaching are presented as a dialog between the master (Confucius) and his student(s). In fact, most of the Confucian texts are simply that – recordings of question and answer sessions between master and student, each with a distinct lesson to impart. Taoism relies mostly on the direct writings of Lao Tzu, its founder. The “Tao Te Ching”, Taoism’s main text, is a series of monologues (in poem form) that are meant to be taken as a whole.
One thing that Confucianism and Taoism have in common is that both philosophies focus on the goal of self-improvement. In Confucianism, the individual improves himself through orderly adherence with codes of behavior and respect for elders, and the reward is achieved strictly in this life. In Taoism, the individual improves himself through contemplation of himself and universal energy, and the reward (while also in this life) is mainly in the next life (i. e. , through reincarnation). However, in both philosophies, the end result of this self-improvement is an improved social order that benefits all.
While no-one would deny that Confucianism and Taoism have strong contrasts, their similar goals have allowed them to co-exist successfully for thousands of years in many cultures of the world. In fact, many believe that without incorporating elements of both philosophies, an individual cannot be truly whole. Taoism is more accurately referred to as a philosophy than a religion, and is commonly grouped in with Buddhism and Zoroastrianism by books on world religion. Taoism’s origin shows roots in the oldest Chinese belief systems, back to a time when shamanism and pantheism prevailed. |


About This Episode
It has been said jokingly that the dinosaurs might still be around if they had a space program. Humanity has numerous space programs, from NASA to ESA to JAXA to ISRO and more, but are we doing enough to ensure that we would escape the fate of the dinosaurs if an asteroid the size of Apophis was heading straight for us? With limited detection efforts like the Sentinel Mission, would we even know it was coming? Find out when Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, co-founder of the B612 foundation, devoted to protecting Earth from asteroids. Explore deflection strategies and why geopolitics may be a more critical factor in their deployment than physics. Find out which is worse: an impact in the ocean, on the land, or an airburst like Tunguska or Chelyabinsk. You’ll learn what an impact is projected to cost, and why an actual deflection mission is such a bargain. In studio, Neil and co-host Eugene Mirman break down risk in terms of asteroid size and makeup: rocky vs. metal vs. a loose collection of rubble. Discover the “Deflection Dilemma” and whether any nation could use an asteroid to attack an enemy. Finally, you’ll hear what astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz’ revolutionary VASAMIR engine, the Association of Space Explorers, and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry have to do with the creation of the B612 Foundation in 2002 by Schweickart, astronaut Ed Lu and astrophysicist Piet Hut.
NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Protecting Earth from Asteroids.
In This Episode
HostNeil deGrasse Tyson
Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot; Chairman of the Board, B612 Foundation


Wednesday, December 05, 2012
This 35-year-old satellite is long-term PR for robotic space exploration. This mission is another successful example of machines going where man cannot yet reach. Both are ripostes to those who want the footsteps of humans everywhere in the solar system and someday beyond. Never mind that manned missions are more expensive and dangerous. Voyager and Curiosity are demonstrating that exploration is being done at the limits of human endurance and well before humans venture that far away from earth. Landing on the moon was a technological triumph but it also was a publicity stunt that cost billions. Only a government with the wealth of the US could afford to do it and it hasn't had the wherewithal since. There is a good chance that someday man will colonize the moon, but given what we know about it, the facilities are more likely to be like Antarctica than anywhere else on earth. The environment will be unrelentingly hostile and visitors will be scientists and workers to keep the bases open. Despite the science fiction fantasies of dreamers, Mars isn't likely to be much different. Machines have shown the way and more will follow. Isn't that enough?


Technology continues to advance to make car travel increasingly for safer for all those on the road. Airbag and collision technology can help protect car passengers from a variety of injuries in many accident situations. One type of accident that remains incredibly dangerous, however, is the underride crash. In these crashes, the front of a passenger car collides with the rear of a larger vehicle, such as a commercial truck. The car is pushed underneath the body and chassis of the truck, and severe injuries often result. Commercial trucks are required to have rear impact guards in an attempt to prevent this type of crash, but underride accidents still happen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has recently proposed a new rule to expand underride protection to decrease the instances of this type of dangerous crash.
Why Are Underride Crashes So Dangerous?
Underride crashes leave car passengers vulnerable to severe head and neck injuries. When a car is pushed under a large truck, the advanced safety features are bypassed. Airbags and seat belts cannot help in these situations, as the roof of the car is crushed. This leaves passengers vulnerable to serious, severe injuries and even death.
The new rule proposed by the NHTSA was prompted in part by a petition from the Truck Safety Coalition and Marianne Karth. Karth’s daughters AnnaLeah and Mary were killed in 2013 when the car they were traveling in was involved in a highway collision and pushed under a semi-truck.
Research Indicates Stronger Guards Could Save More Lives
Research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tests has supported the request that today’s rear impact guards be made stronger. The IIHS data indicates that weaker guards, even if they meet the current U.S. standard, would not hold up in a crash at 35 mph and would result in severe injuries to car passengers. Stronger guards, which are already required in Canada, held in place and more effectively prevented the passenger car from riding under the truck.
The NHTSA offered a notice of proposed rulemaking to make the rear guards more robust. The notice states that among “survivable” frontal crashes involving newer vehicle models in which occupants were wearing seatbelts, underrides into trucks was the second highest cause of fatalities.
If you or someone you love has suffered injuries in a truck accident, you may have a right to file a claim. Call the experienced truck accident team at Tapella and Eberspacher Law Firm for a free, no-obligation consultation today at (217) 394-5885.


A cluster of particularly destructive natural disasters in 2017 has pockmarked the nation with devastation. Numbers for Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria have yet to be finalized, and 2017 is already on track to reach the record for the most billion-dollar climate disasters in the nation’s history, according to an October report from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
To date, 2011 has netted the most billion-dollar natural disasters — a record-breaking 16. Now, a new wave of wildfires in Southern California, which by Friday had devoured about 132,000 acres, may also help push 2017 into the top spot.
From January to September of 2017 alone, the nation experienced two floods, a freeze, seven severe storms, three tropical cyclones, a drought and wildfire — all 15 of which cost the nation over a billion dollars in insured and uninsured damages each, according to NCEI. In just the first weeks of 2017, 79 confirmed tornadoes touched down in three days across the southern United States, totaling $1.1 billion in losses.
Not a month has gone by since without a major weather disaster wreaking havoc on some region of the nation.
The wildfires that burned through Sonoma Valley just two months ago resulted in $9.4 billion worth of insured damages, the California Department of Insurance announced Wednesday. In just a few days, the current blaze has already scorched a greater area.
The frequency of billion-dollar climate disasters has been rising steadily over the past few decades. From 1980 to 2016, the annual average was a mere 5.5 disasters. In the last five years, that average has nearly doubled.
Insurance companies and government agencies will foot the bill for a fraction of these losses. In 2016, insurers paid around $54 billion globally for natural disaster claims, per Aon Benfield’s annual climate and catastrophe report. This was close to double what they shelled out the previous year, yet it only accounted for 26 percent of total economic losses.
The remainder — mostly affecting the uninsured and business owners — largely remains lost. The uninsured cannot file a claim for property damage or livestock lost. Businesses forfeit whatever revenue they lose when forced to temporarily shut down.
The NCEI, a branch within the government-run National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), cites a rise in population, poorly-built infrastructure in vulnerable areas and climate change as the drivers behind this uptick in overall costs. However, climate experts point to climate change as the primary perpetrator.
“I don’t think there is any question. It is clear that climate change is causing more destructive extreme weather events,” said Michael Mann, a climatologist, geophysicist and current director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, in an email to NBC.
Mann noted that any vulnerabilities exposed by population increases and construction in vulnerable areas is offset by “better engineering, sturdier buildings, more resilient infrastructure and implicit adaption.”
“What’s most worrying is that the increase we’ve seen so far is likely just the tip of the iceberg,” warned Mann. “We will likely see far more damaging extreme weather events if we do not reduce carbon emissions decisively in the years ahead.”


Mrs. M. Cunningham
Special Educational Needs and Disability
At St. James’s we believe that all children have the right to be happy in school and access a broad and balanced curriculum. We enable a cooperative and productive partnership with pupils, parents, carers and teachers to enable this to happen.
Definition of SEN: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of practice, Department for Health and Education, January 2015
“A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her which is different from, or additional to, that normally available to pupils of the same age.”
Aims of SEND provision at St James’s Primary School
From September 2014, all schools are required to publish details of their SEN Information Report, detailing support for pupils with special educational needs and/or a disability.
In addition, schools must provide a link to services which Richmond Local Authority offer to children with special educational needs and/or a disability.
Local Offer is the term that the Department for Education (DfE) have chosen to describe the collection of information about the support that local authorities must make available to help children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families. The purpose of the local offer is to enable parents, carers, children and young people with SEND to see clearly, from a single and regularly updated source, the services available to local families and how to access them. The offer covers services from birth to 25, across education, health and social care. It describes state-funded, charitable and private services, and includes services outside the local area (e.g. schools) which are used by local families. Put simply, information on "Local" services and support on "Offer" is gathered together and made easy to find in a "Local Offer”.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Register
All local authorities must have a record or register of children with Special Educational Needs and / or Disabilities (SEND) in their area. If you live in either Kingston or Richmond, we encourage anyone whose family includes a child or young person whose has a special educational need* or disability** to register.
Everyone on the register will benefit from:
Richmond Parent Carer Forum
Richmond Parent Carer Forum (PCF) is an independent group run by parents for parents or carers of children/young people (aged 0 – 25 years) who have any form of special educational need or disability. Your child does not need an official diagnosis for you to become a member and we support families of children with any type of additional need including learning difficulties like dyslexia.
We receive funding from the Department for Education and our purpose is to ensure that the voices of parents, children and young people are heard in the planning and implementation of SEND services in Richmond. We can also help you to access services and provide valuable peer support, connecting you with other parents who understand the special joys and challenges of raising a family with additional needs.
SEND Information, Advice and Support (SENDIASS)
The Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) in Kingston and Richmond offers advice and support across a wide range of subjects. This may include help with personal budgets and how to use the Local Offer plus:
These services offer advice to children and young people as well as parents and carers.
Phone: 020 3793 9596


You don't understand.
Although a pound of fat contains something like 3500 calories, it doesn't work to calculate in reverse. The body burns more than just fat for energy.
Also, you aren't taking into account what your body burns at rest, which is called your resting metabolic rate. Most people burn an average of around 1500 or so calories a day just being alive--but it varies depending on your age and current weight, etc.
It's not so simple as you ate X and burned Y with exercise. Your calorie deficit is how much you ate, minus your resting metabolic rate, minus your calories burned with exercise.
But don't take those numbers too seriously. Calories burned is often just an estimate, rather than a precise or individual measurement.


For thousands of years before refrigerators and packaged food, people across the world needed to make food last through the winter. Starches present no problem; dried, grains like wheat and rice can last decades. Protein can also be made to last; beans can be similarly dried, meat can be salted, pickled and smoked, and of course animals can be slaughtered during the dark months. Vitamins, found in fresh plants and lasting only a short time in the body, present more of a challenge.
Luckily, there are several ways to get fresh vitamins all through the winter, first by fooling the vegetables, as it were, into thinking they’re not dead yet. This year, for example, we ripped our cabbage plants out of the earth whole, roots and all, keeping some soil attached. We removed the dark outer leaves and hung the cabbages upside down in our shed, and they kept for at least two months. A thin layer of leaves grew brown and mouldy on the surface, but once those were peeled off the cabbage was fine underneath.
We have also kept root vegetables in boxes of sand, which keeps the root alive and free from pests, and of course they will keep for a while without such measures. Many crops can simply be left in the earth until they are needed, and some are even better for it – we just pulled out our parsnips, as they are better when sweetened by frost.
After that, you can preserve fruits and vegetables in a medium in which fungus, insects and harmful bacteria don’t want to live. You can keep some fruit and vegetables in brine, away from oxygen -- salt pickles and sauerkraut. You can preserve others in an acid solution like vinegar, like sweet pickles, onions and chutneys. You can pour yeast into fruit or vegetable juice, and the yeast turns it into alcohol for us, preserving it indefinitely. You can preserve fruit or vegetables in a high-sugar solution, as syrup or – with pectin to firm up the consistency – jam.
All these methods preserve food that was grown in earlier months, but you can also continue to grow fresh food though the winter months. One method is to grow sprouts – not Brussels sprouts, but beans or seeds that have been soaked in water and begun to germinate into seedlings, as they would in soil.
Sprouting might be the only kind of kitchen gardening that almost anyone can do, almost anywhere. Growing your own food sounds great for rural and suburban landowners, but presents problems for urban flat (apartment) dwellers, renters, lodgers, squatters and prisoners – and more of us might find ourselves in one of those categories in the tumultuous decades ahead.
Sprouts, however, require no land, yard, garden, tools, infrastructure or practice. You can grow them for almost no money – a 500g bag costs me 1.60 euros, or about 40 cents per lunch. They grow in plastic bags, pottery, bowls or almost any other vessel. The vessels can be placed on a shelf, in a desk drawer, under the couch, in the boot of your car, in a closet, in a hole in the ground or any other cool dark place. The crops come to fruition in a few days rather than a few months, and can be eaten with no cutting, peeling, cooking or preparation. What I’m getting at here is, you have no excuse for not growing sprouts.
You can sprout the beans or seeds of most edible plants – I favour mung beans -- but avoid any plants whose leaves would be toxic, like tomatoes or potatoes. The details of how to sprout will vary depending on what kind of seeds and containers you have, but the basic idea remains the same – keep the seeds wet until they are a good size to eat. School-children are often told to let them lie on a wet paper towel, but I use plastic throwaway tubs from an Indian restaurant in a nearby town. The tubs have a sealable lid, and I poked two holes just below the lid on either end. The holes are high enough that I can submerge the beans in water, yet allow the soaked beans to breathe – plants need to breathe just as we do, and an airtight container risks creating dead and moulding sprouts.
In my case, I rinse the beans first, and then let them sit in a tub of water for about 12 hours or so – it can be as little as three hours or as much as 24, but 12 seems to work best for mung beans. Then drain the water and let the beans sit in the damp tub for the next few days, rinsing them at least once a day and preferably twice -- the beans need to be kept moist but not swimming in standing water. Every evening when I come home from work – and every morning when I have time before catching the bus – I fill the tubs with water, turn them on their sides, and let them drain. If you forget for a day or two the beans will probably recover, but tend to start growing roots, making them tougher and less tasty.
In addition to mung beans I recommend lentils, although they grow a day or two more slowly and I find them less tasty. I occasionally sprout the seeds of fenugreek, broccoli, alfalfa, or clover, but generally find them too expensive in this country for the small amount of sprouts they yield, and they run a higher risk of moulding before fully sprouting. I found larger beans a problem -- Adzuki beans were even slower and less tasty than lentils, and soybeans – the common sprout of Chinese stir-fry – has a tendency to decompose before there is enough living sprout to make it worth my while.
You can grow other indoor crops besides sprouts, however. Chicory, for example, makes a great winter salad, and can be grown in your closet. Start by planting chicory in your garden in spring, and letting its broad green leaves grow out all through the summer and autumn. These green summer leaves are edible, but left uneaten; you need them to slowly feed the root underneath.
Then, around November, decapitate the leaves off the plant, dig up the now-massive root, plant it in a bucket of soil and set it in the closet or other cool, dark place. Plant the top of the root even with the surface, and make sure the soil is damp but not soaking. Place another bucket upside-down over the first one to make sure it is kept dark inside.
The plant has spent all year storing energy in the root to grow more leaves in spring, and when placed in warm soil begins to sprout vitamin-rich leaves. The leaves will be white and with a milder flavour than green chicory, although still slightly bitter.
Ideally, you should get a full head of white leaves, like a small cabbage, in a few weeks. Our leaves weren’t so tidy – they came up at different speeds and looked more like an unkempt head of hair -- but tasted fine all the same. You should get a few crops of the chicory from each root, and if you grow many plants and stagger their crops you can have a continual supply of winter vitamins.
This crop is not as widely applicable as sprouts, for to get the roots you first must have a bit of land and patience to grow the leaves through the year untouched and then see if you can get results from the roots. Also, I just learned this week to check your chicory regularly and harvest the leaves regularly; leave them for a few days, as I did, they can go bad quickly.
Still, the leaves are excellent as a thinly-sliced salad mixed with cabbage and celery, in a white sauce of either mayonnaise mixed with lemon juice or – if you want a lower-fat option – home-made yoghurt. You can add a bit of cumin or vegetable stock to make it more savoury, or dill and mint for a cooler flavour, depending on your taste.
We in the modern West have grown up surrounded by mountains of food – grown, picked, processed, preserved, cooked and refrigerated for us, and in such quantities that a third of it is through away uneaten, and obesity presents a major health crisis. Fossil fuels made this brief state possible, and now that we see their end on the horizon we must reacquaint ourselves with the more basic methods of getting nutrition -- ideally allowing more of us, not just to survive, but to eat well.
Top photos: Our chicory shoots this winter. Middle photo: Our parsnips we fished out last week. Bottom photo: Bean sprouts.
About Brian Kaller
I am a journalist living in rural Ireland, and have written for the American Conservative, the Dallas Morning News, Front Porch Republic and other publications. I interview elderly Irish about traditional ways of life, and write a weekly column about the Long Emergency for my local newspaper.
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In England, at least as early as the 16th century – mid 19th century, a quantity of parchment, = 60 skins. Later sources, however, say 72.
Dictionarium Rusticum & Urbanicum: or, A Dictionary of all Sorts of Country Affairs, Handicraft, Trading, and Merchandizing…
London: J. Nicholson, 1704.
A Rowle of parchment is 5 dozen, or 60 skins; a dozen is 12 skins.
A Conservancy of Yeares: Containing a new, easie, and most exact computation of time…
[London]: Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1612.
Parchment the roll cont. 6 dozen [sheets]
“A Subsidy granted to the King of Tonnage and Poundage and other summes of Money payable upon Merchandize Exported and Imported.”
A statute from the 12th year of Charles II, 1660. The selection is from the Booke of Rates, which is not part of the statute proper but developed from it. Both are printed in:
Statutes of the Realm, Volume 5: 1628-80, John Raithby, editor.
London: 1819. Page 195.
In Great Britain, 20th century, a unit of mass used for butter, = 24 ounces.
Possibly a unit in 16th – 17th century England for a quantity of cloth = ½ piece, 600 ells long.
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Last revised: 11 May 2009.


(New edit from old DTM, originally posted on August 27, 2009.)
Lester Young was born 100 years ago today. He died just over 50 years ago in March 1959.
Young is the most important link in the chain between early jazz and modern jazz. While he learned how to play from the New Orleans-style musicians he grew up with, he could still sit in at Smalls tomorrow.
Serious Young collectors chase down every obscure bootleg because they know he played something brand new almost every night. Young had one of the most swinging beats in the history of the music. And though he could deliver a honking, stomping tenor, even his most frantic outbursts sound curiously relaxed. He never tried too hard. He just was: Cool.
In fact, he may have literally invented the word “cool” and given it to the English language. This kind of verbal jousting and pre-beatnik beatnik behavior gave him a iconic mystique inseparable from the sounds coming out of his horn.
The improvisation, the beat, and the mystique made Lester Young one of the most well-loved musicians of the 20th century.


Librarians and farmers might be less likely to divorce than people who are in other professions. This was one of the findings of researchers at Stockholm University who examined Danish data for the relationship between work and divorce. The professions that had the highest divorce rate were in the hotel and restaurant industry.
The study, which looked at people in opposite-sex marriages, also found that people who worked in professions that were dominated by people of the opposite sex were more likely to get a divorce. However, the divorce rate was lower for women in male-dominated professions than for men in female-dominated professions. Researchers controlled for risk factors such as whether the couple had children and how long the marriage had lasted but said further research was needed to determine why the rate for men was higher. For example, men working in female-dominated professions might make less money, and this could add a strain that contributed to divorce.
The study appeared in “Biology Letters” and was not the first to look at the connection between being in proximity to other potential partners and divorce. In 2015, “Royal Society Open Science” published a study that found that men had shorter relationships when they lived in places with more women.
Divorce may happen for any number of reasons ranging from infidelity to financial issues and more. The reason for the divorce could affect how negotiations over property division and child custody proceed and whether the couple is able to negotiate an agreement or whether they go to litigation. If a person is concerned that one person is hiding assets from the other, if there has been domestic abuse or if there are similar contentious issues, the couple may need to go to litigation. There, the judge will attempt to make a fair decision about property division and custody.


Charles Darwin, in the Descent of Man, wrote, “The sound uttered by birds offer in several respects the nearest analogy to language,” adding human language begun as singing “might have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions.”
Miyagawa is lead author of the February 2013 study “The emergence of hierarchical structure in human language.” He points out that human language is completely unique because it combines expressive qualities (analogous to birdsong) with interchangeable information-carrying parts (analogous to honeybee waggle dances and primate alarms). These two sorts of communication are never combined in animals. Therefore, Miyagawa concludes they both evolved in humans.
We account for the appearance of a novel function, language, within a conventional Darwinian framework, along with its apparently unique emergence in a single species.
“‘There were these two pre-existing systems,‘ Miyagawa says, ‘like apples and oranges that just happened to be put together.’” Coauthor Robert Berwick adds, “When something new evolves, it is often built out of old parts. We see this over and over again in evolution. Old structures can change just a little bit, and acquire radically new functions.” They write, “We account for the appearance of a novel function, language, within a conventional Darwinian framework, along with its apparently unique emergence in a single species.”1
Birdsong is similar to human language in several ways. Both are learned best while young. Humans and birds both learn by imitating others, often by repeatedly babbling to practice sequences of sounds in order to learn the necessary muscular motions. And both involve functions localized to one side of the brain. Yet even in birds that produce complex loops, repetitions, and branches using the same song elements, those “song elements are never combined to yield new ‘meanings.’”1
On the other hand, honeybee waggle dances consist of two interchangeable informative elements. The direction of the dance conveys the compass heading of a food source. The speed of the dance conveys information about distance.1 Likewise, monkeys and apes may interchange different calls to alert their neighbors to the kind of predator nearby (python versus leopard, for instance).1
Human speech has characteristics resembling both sorts of animal communication. The way birdsong rearranges chunks of sound is analogous to the way human language rearranges words and phrases to express completely original ideas. This originality and creativity goes beyond the simple informative combinations in bee dances. Miyagawa cites additional unique qualities of human language as evidence of evolutionary advances that became possible when these basic elements evolved in the same species.1
The researchers conclude that early human ancestors first learned to sing and then figured out how to rearrange sounds to convey actual information. Berwick says, “It's not a very long step to say that what got joined together was the ability to construct these complex patterns, like a song, but with words.”
So how do these researchers know that language evolved this way? Actually, of course, they don’t. They even write in their published study, “While speculation about evolution without direct data remains challenging, it may still be possible to provide an account broadly compatible with what we know about human language syntax, along with the apparently rapid emergence of language” (emphasis ours).1 In other words, it is not possible to scientifically verify their claims through any sort of observational science. Though they admit that figuring out how something evolved “without direct data remains challenging,” a more realistic statement would have admitted that to do so is impossible.
They also write, “Like many evolutionary innovations, we propose that language arose from the adventitious combination of two pre-existing, simpler systems evolved for other tasks.”1 In other words, even though there is no direct observational data to support their evolutionary model, they assume that—because language is a combination of simpler components that uniquely combine to allow a virtually infinite number of abstract meanings to be expressed—it must have evolved from such simpler components.
Thus, the authors have no scientific support for their conclusions. They assume their Darwinian evolutionary explanation is valid because they assume that language—like everything else—must have evolved in order to exist.
The Bible in its history provides the actual origin for language. God made Adam and Eve in His own image. God communicated with them, and Adam’s first responsibility involved naming animals. Clearly Adam and Eve were created with the ability to speak. All people spoke the same language (Genesis 11:1) until God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel in the years after the global Flood. To be able to express a virtually infinite number of original and abstract thoughts is indeed a quality unique to humans. The source of this ability is not explained by evolutionary surmises that primarily recognize the unique heights to which human speech can attain, but by the simple fact that we were created with this ability to use true language.
For More Information: Get Answers
Remember, if you see a news story that might merit some attention, let us know about it! (Note: if the story originates from the Associated Press, FOX News, MSNBC, the New York Times, or another major national media outlet, we will most likely have already heard about it.) And thanks to all of our readers who have submitted great news tips to us. If you didn’t catch all the latest News to Know, why not take a look to see what you’ve missed?


Let’s listen as former osu engineering career services staff member, rachel ligman, speaks with dr louise douce, psychologist and special assistant to the vice president of student life at osu, on a definition of conflict, its causes, and the differences between positive and negative conflict in the workplace. Speaker cable terminates at the end in leads, two separate wires to be connected to positive and negative terminals on the back of a speaker and its corresponding connection to a. Learn about the rules of positive and negative integers improve your math skills with tips for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The positive power of negative thinking [julie norem] on amazoncom free shipping on qualifying offers how often are we urged to look on the bright side. Adding positive and negative numbers once you understand the basics of positive and negative numbers, you can start to add them togethersometimes this seems tricky, because there are lots of rules to remember and follow. After watching this video lesson, you will be able to add all kinds of integers together this is a skill that will benefit you when playing games. The positive negative reaction is the sixteenth episode of the ninth season of the american sitcom the big bang theory the episode aired thursday, february 18, 2016.
When we discover negative numbers we naturally, without question even, assume they obey the same laws of arithmetic as the ordinary positive counting numbers. So what is the difference between a positive power struggle and a negative one positive power struggles power struggles in a relationship are normal. Okay so i was thinking about the whole chaos emerald thing i don't know if it's canon, but it goes something like this: in order to turn into super. In the simplest sense, positive means good — or the opposite of negative if you have a positive attitude about homework, for example, you're more likely to get positive feedback on your report card.
The people, places and things that surround you can have a negative impact on your life, and potentially worsen your adrenal fatigue and chronic stress. Synonyms for positive at thesauruscom with free online thesaurus, antonyms, and definitions find descriptive alternatives for positive.
About positive and negative numbers positive numbers are any numbers greater than zero, for example: 1, 29, 314159, 40000, and 00005 for each positive number, there is a negative number that is its opposite. Negative / ˈnɛɡətɪv / adj expressing or meaning a refusal or denial: a negative answer lacking positive or affirmative qualities, such as enthusiasm, interest, or optimism. Positive negative visual gallery, badung, bali, indonesia 2,482 likes 1 talking about this 456 were here a contemporary artspace in the heart of.
Let's examine how positive emotions in positive psychology relate to their opposites: negative emotions, traumatic events and death. First, decide whether positive or negative style inserts are going to be used a negative insert has an angle of 90° (0° clearance angle), while a positive insert has an angle of less than 90° (for example, 7° clearance angle.
Learn about positive and negative space and how it can be used to create successful composition in art.
A blood type (also called a blood group) rh d antibodies are uncommon, so generally neither d negative nor d positive blood contain anti-d antibodies. A negative control for pcr is one which should not give you amplicons, typically the negative control will contain no template or will have one or the other primer. About positive music by don robertson the positive and negative in music when a major triad chord is played and you are listening to it, your body, mind, and feelings resonate with the three notes, the chord. Wire markings, especially for electronic equipment, are typically color coded to designate the positive and negative polarity it is important to connect the wires so the.


Obviously we understand the significance of healthy eating and the effect it has on how we feel. Many people are able to do this, and if you have not then you should reconsider your choices. If you ever feel overwhelmed by all the information, then it is best to keep it simple. The best way to ease into change with diet and eating patterns is a little at a time. Refraining from immediate change in every aspect of your life is wise, that is too frustrating. Learning all you can about eating healthy and the way to begin is a good first move. This will be further extended as we give you a plan.
Researchers have long advocated that better results are found when you eat in moderation, include a variety of foods and strive for balance.
So for starters, make every effort to eat when you are supposed to according to your schedule. It is dangerous when you upset your normal meal times too often. consuming junk food in unhealthy quantities can stem from skipping meals. Snacks came about to fill that gap between meals with healthy alternatives.
One of the biggest reasons for dieting failure, or losing weight, is people try to do a total health makeover in one day. There are a number of reasons that is the worst possible course of action. Create a strong foundation of success by building upon smaller victories.
Don’t toss out your favorite junk food vice right at the start. It may be easier to minimize your intake of other foods that aren’t so tempting. Better eating habits are built over time through repetition day after day. Effectively implementing these techniques over time will yield greater success in managing your weight as time goes on.
It’s a basic principle of dieting that you have to watch how much you eat at any one meal. Feeling “full” isn’t really the best standard to use for knowing when to stop eating. If you want to learn to eat less, there are a few things you can do to make this easier. If you take more time to chew everything you eat, you’ll find that you don’t consume as much. Since we usually have limited time, the very act of slowing down will tend to make us eat less, though this isn’t the only reason chewing more slowly is beneficial. Since you’re giving each bite more time to digest, you will be filled up more quickly by chewing slowly.
Nowadays, it’s easy to find useful advice on health and nutrition online. If people don’t know anything about this subject, then, it’s probably because they’re deliberately avoiding it. Eating well and reaching your ideal weight takes some effort, but it’s not as hard as many people believe. Once you attain your ideal weight, then keeping it there will also become a lot easier.


A frond of Maidenhair fern.
image by Louise Wolff:commons.wikimedia.org
Ferns are a large family of perennial plants and one of the most ancient plant forms on earth. The maidenhair fern is one of the family's most delicate and ethereal varieties. Grown as an indoor ornamental plant or outdoors in protected shade and woodland garden settings, maidenhair ferns thrive in moist soil and high humidity. They are consistently hardy in USDA zones 7 through 11 but some maidenhair ferns can safely overwinter in cooler climes if they are planted in a protected area, kept moist and mulched over.
Locate maidenhair ferns in a setting with complete shade, dappled shade or bright indirect light if grown indoors. Maintain a nutrient-rich, well drained soil around the roots. When replanting use a potting soil with a significant amount of pet moss to aid in moisture retention. When you are growing maidenhair ferns in drier climates or less than ideal soil conditions, mulch the soil with an organic material such as shredded bark, compost or cocoa hulls to enrich the soil and prevent moisture evaporation.
Maintain a consistently moist soil for your maidenhair that is not soaking wet. In the winter you can cut back on watering, but do not let the soil dry out completely. Maidenhair ferns thrive in ambient humidity in both outdoor and indoor settings. Mist the plants once a day or every few days with clean tepid water or assemble a tray under your potted fern by lining a saucer or bowl with stones and water to boost humidity.
Groom your maidenhair fern regularly. Cut away yellowing leaves, dried leaves, and damaged or diseased fronds. A pair of small hair cutting scissors or cuticle scissors are ideal for reaching into the fern and making precise cuts of the fine foliage without damaging the other leaves and areas of the fronds. Shear down your maidenhair fern to about two inches over the base of the plant when it gets leggy or foliage becomes very sparse. New fronds will come up from the center of the plant within a few weeks.
Feed your fern each month with a general purpose water-soluble fertilizer mixed to half strength with water and applied over pre-moistened soil to prevent burn. Always apply diluted fertilizer solution around the roots of the plant instead of pouring it over the head of the plant. Cease supplemental feeding during the winter rest period and resume monthly feedings in the spring.


Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
Adrenarche refers to a stage of maturation of the cortex of the human adrenal glands. It typically occurs between ages 6 and 10 years and involves both structural and functional changes. Adrenarche is a process related to puberty but distinct from hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal maturation and function.
Structural and functional changes of adrenarcheEdit
Structural changes of adrenarche include increased size and mass of the adrenal cortex, and completion of differentiation into the three zones: zona glomerulosa, zona fasciculata, and zona reticularis.
One of the primary functional changes is further differentiation of sex steroid synthesis among the three zones, so that as in adults, the zona glomerlulosa primarily produces mineralocorticoids such as aldosterone, the zona fasciculata primarily produces glucocorticoids such as cortisol, and the zona reticularis primarily produces androgens such as dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and androstenedione.
The second important functional change is a steady increase over several years in the daily production of adrenal androgens. A characteristic aspect of early adrenarche is a diminished activity of 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, the enzyme which mediates the hydroxylation of 17-hydroxypregnenolone to 17-hydroxyprogesterone, and DHEA to androstenedione. Blood levels of DHEA, androstenedione, and especially DHEAS are useful measures of adrenal maturation.
Role of adrenarche as part of pubertyEdit
An initiator of adrenarche has not yet been identified. Researchers have unsuccessfully tried to identify a new pituitary peptide, to be called "adrenal androgen stimulating hormone". Others have proposed that adrenarchal maturation is a gradual process intrinsic to the adrenal glands that has no distinct trigger. A third avenue of research is pursuing a possible relationship with either fetal or childhood body mass and related signals such as insulin and leptin. Many children born small for gestational age (SGA) because of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) have an earlier onset of adrenarche, which raises the possibility that timing of adrenarche may be affected by physiological programming in infancy. Adrenarche also occurs prematurely in many children who are overweight, suggesting a possible relationship with body mass or adiposity signals.
The principal physical consequences of adrenarche are androgen effects, especially pubic hair and the change of sweat composition that produces adult body odor. Increased oiliness of the skin and hair and mild acne may occur. In most boys, these changes are indistinguishable from early testicular testosterone effects occurring at the beginning of gonadal puberty. In girls, the adrenal androgens of adrenarche produce most of the early androgenic changes of puberty: pubic hair, body odor, skin oiliness, and acne. In most girls the early androgen effects coincide with, or are a few months behind, the earliest estrogenic effects of gonadal puberty (breast development and growth acceleration). As female puberty progresses, the ovaries and peripheral tissues become more important sources of androgens.
Parents and many physicians often infer (incorrectly) the onset of puberty from the first appearance of pubic hair (termed pubarche). However, the independence of adrenarche and gonadal puberty is apparent in children with atypical or abnormal development, when one process may occur without the other. For instance, adrenarche does not occur in many girls with Addison's disease, who will continue to have minimal pubic hair as puberty progresses. Conversely, girls with Turner syndrome will have normal adrenarche and normal pubic hair development, but true gonadal puberty never occurs because their ovaries are defective.
Premature adrenarche is the most common cause of the early appearance of pubic hair ("premature pubarche") in childhood. In a large proportion of children it seems to be a variation of normal development requiring no treatment. However, there are three clinical issues related to premature adrenarche.
First, when pubic hair appears at an unusually early age in a child, premature adrenarche should be distinguished from true central precocious puberty, from congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and from androgen-producing tumors of the adrenals or gonads. Pediatric endocrinologists do this by demonstrating advanced levels of DHEAS and other adrenal androgens, with prepubertal levels of gonadotropins and gonadal sex steroids.
Second, there is some evidence that premature adrenarche may indicate that there was an abnormality of intrauterine energy environment and growth. As mentioned above, premature adrenarche occurs more often in children with intrauterine growth retardation and in overweight children. Some of these same studes have demonstrated that some girls who display premature adrenarche may continue to have excessive androgen levels in adolescence. This can result in hirsutism or menstrual irregularities due to anovulation referred to as polycystic ovary syndrome.
Third, at least one report found an increased incidence of behavior and school problems in a group of children with premature adrenarche compared with an otherwise similar control group. To date such a relationship has neither been confirmed nor explained and there are no obvious management implications.
Physiology, endocrinology, sex: Reproductive physiology and endocrinology
|Menstrual cycle/Estrous cycle|
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|


The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s available surface freshwater–enough to cover the continental United States with 10 feet of water if you turned them upside down. In many places along the lakes, you can stand on one side without seeing the shoreline on the other because they are so huge. It’s difficult to remember that you’re looking at an inland lake instead of an ocean. The vast lakes seem limitless, but are they?
Hi everyone, this is Dr.Philip Willink, Senior Research Biologist at Shedd Aquarium, where I help lead the aquarium’s Great Lakes research to advance understanding and conservation of local waters, wildlife and habitats. With record low Great Lakes water levels in the news, I wanted to share my thoughts on what these fluctuations mean for all of us–people and animals–who rely on the Great Lakes.
In December 2012 and January 2013, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, scientifically considered one lake pinched in the middle, set record after record for low water levels. Experts, including those of us at Shedd Aquarium, expect water levels to continue dropping for the next several months. Locals living across the Great Lakes basin are concerned about future impacts on the region’s economy and biodiversity.
Fortunately, we can get some context by referring to a century of standardized data on Great Lakes water levels. We can even approximate water levels for the past 15,000 years, back to when the region was covered by glaciers. After spending 20 years studying fish in the Great Lakes, I can tell you that the water level in Lakes Michigan and Huron are always going up and down from week to week, season to season, year to year, and decade to decade. It is not a stable system and never was.
The real recent concern is the lake level has been below average for several years and shows no signs of increasing. What is driving this unprecedented pattern?
The question is actively debated, but the primary factors influencing lake levels are rain and snowfall, evaporation, the Chicago and St. Clair rivers that flow out of the lake, dredging in the St. Clair River, and the rising and settling of the earth’s crust after the melting of the glaciers. The interaction of all these factors is complicated, but I believe there is one standout factor with the most impact over the last decade: evaporation rates.
If you aren’t in the field testing and evaluating the lakes on a regular basis as I am, it’s hard to appreciate the influence of evaporation because it is essentially invisible. However, massive amounts of water vapor are lost to the atmosphere. Each year, around 22 cubic miles of water evaporate off of Lakes Michigan and Huron. That’s enough to cover the city of Chicago with 500 feet of water, or Washington, DC, with 1,700 feet–three times the height of the Washington Monument!
What does evaporation have to do with lake levels? The lakes are getting warmer, which increases evaporation. While we welcome the milder, warm winters, the lakes don’t. There is less ice cover now, and ice serves an important purpose for the lakes, acting as a protective blanket that keeps water vapor from escaping into the air. Less ice means more water vapor is lost and lake levels decline. Models predict that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron could drop by two or more feet by the end of the century.
This is a lot of liquid for a region whose identity is so closely tied to water – most notably the boating and shipping community. Cities will have to dredge harbors; so boats can get in and out. Lower water means freighters can carry fewer items, necessitating additional trips between ports to move the same amount of goods. That increases operating expenses, and these increased costs are passed onto consumers. Lakefront communities, many of which depend on tourism, may no longer find themselves on the lake. Combined costs of dredging, shipping and tourism will reach hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a domino effect.
There are other local residents impacted: Great Lakes plants and animals. Shedd Aquarium’s research and conservation team is assessing potential effects of low lake levels on our native flora and fauna–and our findings will likely be mixed. Because Lake Michigan reaches 900-foot depths or more, a drop of a couple feet is unlikely to impact many fishes swimming around the lake. However, we are very concerned about coastal wetlands that thrive in just a few feet of water. The same lake level drop could easily dry up wetlands, which are critical habitats for migrating birds, spawning fishes, and sensitive plants. If the drop happens slowly enough, it is possible that species may have time to migrate to different habitats, but there are no guarantees that they will be successful.
There is always uncertainty when using models to predict the future. The only safe prediction is change. Lake levels will go up and down, as they have in the past. Rivers and streams will erode banks and meander through the countryside. Wind will create and destroy sand dunes. Nature is ever-changing. It is people that have trouble with change. We want stability and are perpetually fighting nature to keep it in its place.
The solution is to focus on incorporating future natural instability into our conservation efforts and civic planning. Restoring a wetland in such a way that it will continue to support migrating birds, spawning fishes, and sensitive plants if water levels rise a couple feet or drop a couple feet is preferable to restoring a wetland based on the assumption that current water levels will not change. Designing a harbor that will accommodate lake level fluctuations of several feet will save time and money in the future.
Instead of fighting nature, we need to figure out better ways to comfortably live alongside its changes.


More Information on Common Eye Problems
About 12 million individuals living in the US with 40 years and more have vision impairment. 1 million of these individuals are blind while 8 million have a non-rectified refractive error. Many persons have issues with their eyes but aren’t aware of this. In reality, three widespread eye problems make up a portion of this statistic. On this website are the three problems. Keep reading for more info.
First, we consider myopia/hyperopia condition. Among the most regular eye issues is known as short-sightedness. This makes objects at a distance seem blurry. This is among the eye isues that make people acquire contact lenses or glasses. Nevertheless, persons who qualify are given laser eye surgery to fix their vision. Many people can afford glasses and contact lenses compared to those who can afford laser surgery. Besides, they’re less invasive. Hyperopia is the next most common eye problem that refers to far-sightedness. This indicates that an individual sees the things that are at a distance and the ones that are close seem blurry. Medical treatment is not required for children with this issue but you can settle on this through an eye appointment. Adults can rectify this problem with glasses or contact lenses.
The next eye condition we’ll reflect on is astigmatism. Astigmatism does happen due to the retina not focusing on light uniformly owing to an imperfection in the curvature. In most cases, astigmatism is accompanied by hyperopia or myopia and it is another type of refractive error. Most astigmatism cases aren’t severe and can go without needing treatment unless a person is also having myopia or hyperopia. Those with a high level or moderate astigmatism can get solutions through contact lenses, laser surgery, and glasses. A number of people suffering astigmatism are just affected in particular light surroundings, for example, during the night. In case it is so for you, the amplest and the best solution is using glasses. .Prior to concluding on laser surgery, make sure you consult an eye professional so you can figure out if the procedure is your situation’s perfect match.
Glaucoma is the last thing we will learn more about. This is among several eye issues that could cause blindness. In reality, it’s one of the ranking causes of blindness in people 60 years and above. It is best to treat glaucoma in the early stages in that loss of vision cannot be recovered. The effects are probable to be gradual to the level where some people will not notice changes in vision. In the early phases, you can cure this condition with oral medications, surgeries, laser therapy, and eye drops. There’s a study of the way medicinal marijuana and glaucoma going on to know if they’re related.
Supporting reference: learn this here now


by Rob Ruck, University of Pittsburgh
During the half century that baseball was divided by a color line, black America created a sporting world of its own.
Black teams played on city sandlots and country fields, with the best barnstorming their way across the country and throughout the Caribbean.
A century ago, on Feb. 13, 1920, teams from eight cities formally created the Negro National League. Three decades of stellar play followed, as the league affirmed black competence and grace on the field, while forging a collective identity that brought together Northern-born blacks and their Southern brethren. And though Major League Baseball was segregated from the 1890s until 1947, these teams played countless interracial games in communities across the nation.
After World War II, Jackie Robinson hurdled baseball’s racial divide. But while integration – baseball’s great experiment – was a resounding success on the field, at the gates and in changing racial attitudes, Negro League teams soon lost all of their stars and struggled to retain fans. The teams hung on for a bit, before eventually folding.
Years ago, when I worked on a documentary about the Negro Leagues, I was struck by how many of the interviewees looked back longingly on the leagues’ heyday. While there was the understanding that integration needed to happen, there was also the recognition that something special was forever lost.
A league of their own
Given the injustices of the 1890s – sharecropping, lynchings, disenfranchisement and the Supreme Court’s sanctioning of segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson – exclusion from Major League Baseball was hardly the most grievous injury African Americans suffered. But it mattered. Their absence denied them the chance to participate in a very visible arena that helped European immigrants integrate into American culture.
While the sons of white immigrants – John McGraw, Honus Wagner, Joe DiMaggio – became major leaguers lionized by their nationalities, blacks didn’t have that opportunity. Most whites assumed that was because they weren’t good enough. Their absence reinforced prevailing beliefs that African Americans were inherently inferior – athletically and intellectually – with weak abdominal muscles, little endurance and prone to cracking under pressure.
The Negro Leagues gave black ballplayers their own platform to prove otherwise. On Feb. 13, 1920, Chicago American Giants owner Rube Foster convened a meeting at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City to organize the Negro National League. A Texas-born pitcher, Foster envisioned a black alternative to the major leagues.
Northern black communities were exploding in size, and Foster saw the league’s potential. Teams like the American Giants and the Kansas City Monarch regularly competed against white teams, drew large crowds and turned profits. Players enjoyed higher salaries than most black workers, while black newspapers trumpeted their exploits, as did some white papers.
Other leagues cropped up; the Negro National League was soon joined by the Negro American League and the Negro Southern League. Some years, the Negro National and Negro American Leagues played a Negro League World Series. The leagues also sent their best players to the East-West All-Star Classic, an annual exhibition game in Chicago.
But the Negro National League’s ascent was stunted after Foster was exposed to a gas leak, nearly died and suffered permanent brain damage. Absent his leadership and hammered by the Great Depression, the league disbanded in 1931.
Life in the Negro Leagues
A proving ground
Gus Greenlee, who ran the popular lottery known as the numbers game, revived the league in Pittsburgh in 1933 after a sandlot club called the Crawfords, which included the young slugger Josh Gibson, approached him for support. He agreed to pay them salaries and reinforced their roster with the addition of flamethrower Satchel Paige.
Greenlee went on to build the finest black-owned ballpark in the country, Greenlee Field, while headquartering the Negro National League on the floor above the Crawford Grill, his renowned jazz club in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.
Pittsburgh soon became the mecca of black baseball. Sitting along America’s East-West rail lines, the city was a requisite stop for black entertainers, leaders and ball clubs, which traveled from cities as far away as Kansas City. Its two teams, the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, won a dozen titles. Seven of the first 11 Negro Leaguers eventually inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame – stars like Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige – played for one or both squads.
The sport, meanwhile, became a major source of black pride.
“The very best,” Pittsburgh-born author John Wideman noted, “not only competed among themselves and put on a good show, but [also] would go out and compete against their white contemporaries and beat the stuffing out of them.”
Satchel Paige and the Crawfords famously defeated St. Louis Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean in an exhibition game in Cleveland – just two weeks after the Cardinals had won the 1934 World Series. Overall, Negro League teams won far more games against white squads than they lost.
“There was so much [negativity] living over [us] which we had no control [over],” Mal Goode, the first black national network correspondent, recalled. “So anything you could hold on to from the standpoint of pride, it was there and it showed.”
Sacrificed on integration’s altar
For Major League Baseball, no moment was more transformative than the arrival of Jackie Robinson, who, in 1947, paved the way for African Americans and darker-skinned Latinos to reshape the game.
But integration destroyed the Negro Leagues, plucking its young stars – Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roy Campanella and Ernie Banks – who brought their fans with them. The big leagues never considered folding in some of the best black teams, and its owners rejected the Negro National League owners’ proposal to become a high minor league.
Like many black papers, colleges and businesses, the Negro National League paid a price for integration: extinction. The league ceased play after the 1948 season. Black owners, general managers and managers soon disappeared, and it would be decades before a black manager would get a chance to steer a major league ballclub.
Major League Baseball benefited from talent cultivated in the Negro Leagues and on the sandlots that sustained the sport, especially in inner cities. But when those leagues crumbled, prospective black pros were relegated to minor league teams, often in inhospitable, southern cities. Many Negro League regulars simply hung up their cleats or played in the Caribbean.
The playwright August Wilson set his play, “Fences,” which tells the story of an ex-Negro Leaguer who becomes a garbageman in Pittsburgh.
“Baseball gave you a sense of belonging,” Wilson said in a 1991 interview. At those Negro League games, he added, “The umpire ain’t white. It’s a black umpire. The owner ain’t white. Nobody’s white. This is our thing … and we have our everything – until integration, and then we don’t have our nothing.”
The story of African Americans in baseball has long been portrayed as a tale of their shameful segregation and redemptive integration. Segregation was certainly shameful, especially for a sport invested in its own rhetoric of democracy.
But for African Americans, integration was also painful. Although long overdue and an important catalyst for social change, it cost them control over their sporting lives.
It changed the meaning of the sport – what it symbolized and what it meant for their communities – and not necessarily for the better.
Soul of the Game is a 1996 made-for-television movie about Negro league baseball.
Republished with permission under license from The Conversation.


Energy harvesting from the human body (approximately 100 W of consumption at rest) in various forms appears to be a near-perfect power source fit for implanted medical devices, but practical issues have impeded its adoption as a solution. Funded by a five-year NIH Director's Transformative Research Award, a research team at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College worked with UT Health San Antonio (part of the University of Texas) and developed a new way to build a piezo-based harvesting transducer for these medical devices.
Their approach uses a combination of thin-film energy-conversion materials with a minimally invasive mechanical design. The work and results are detailed in their paper “Flexible Porous Piezoelectric Cantilever on a Pacemaker Lead for Compact Energy Harvesting” published in Advanced Materials Technologies. Here’s a one-minute video that also demonstrates it:
Providing implanted power is a formidable challenge, noted Dartmouth engineering professor John X.J. Zhang, “How do you create an effective energy source so the device will do its job during the entire life span of the patient, without the need for surgery to replace the battery?” Research associate Lin Dong added, “Of equal importance is that the device not interfere with the body’s function. We knew it had to be biocompatible, lightweight, flexible, and low profile, which also makes it not only fit into the current pacemaker structure, but also scalable for future multifunctionality.”
To build the harvester transducer, the researchers used a combination of thin-film energy-conversion materials with a minimally invasive mechanical approach in a modified pacemaker design. They harnessed the kinetic energy of the lead wire that’s attached to a beating heart, and then converted it into electricity to continually charge the batteries (Fig. 1). The power-generating material, a specialized polymer piezoelectric film called polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE), is designed with porous structures and then built into either an array of small beams or a flexible cantilever.
1. Shown is the concept of piezoelectric thin-film energy harvester for an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and a flexible porous PVDF-TrFE dual-cantilever energy harvester on the AICD lead (A). Image from video analysis of a chronically implanted pacemaker lead from a dog (B). A dual-cantilever energy harvester within a soft tube on the pacemaker AICD lead (C). (Source: Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College)
The team created a dual-cantilever structure that wraps around the pacemaker’s lead, with the structure’s two free ends available for connection and subsequent energy collection (Fig. 2). The maximum output was 0.5 V at 43 nA at 1 Hz, a little over 20 nW. By adding a small proof mass of 31.6 mg on the tip of the dual-cantilever tip, the power output increased by a little over 80%—the added mass enabled a larger bending curvature, resulting in higher electrical output from the harvester.
2. Illustrated are a schematic of the porous piezoelectric-energy harvester (A); flexible porous PVDF-TrFE thin film (B); and scanning electron microscope image of the cross-section of the thin film (C). (Source: Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College)
For comparison, today’s ultra-low-power implantable biomedical devices require 0.3 μW for cardiac-activity sensing, 10 to 100 μW for pacemakers, 100 to 2000 μW for cochlear implants, and 1 to 10 mW for neural recording. An advantage of this design is that it’s scalable: two (or more) units can be connected in parallel for a corresponding increase in power output. Initial testing is done using a mechanical shaker, of course, to simulate the motion of the myocardium and the corresponding deformation of a pacemaker lead (Fig. 3).
3. This test setup is based on reported anatomical values of an average adult’s cardiovascular system; a 21-cm long soft tube was used to represent the superior vena cava (SVC) (A). The shaker-based test platform simulates the motion of myocardium (B). (Source: Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College)
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award is part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program supporting “individuals or teams proposing transformative projects that are inherently risky and untested but have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms and may require very large budgets.”


Eliminating Fires in Homes That Contain Medical Oxygen
A number of people across the country use medical oxygen in their home, but having such a medical device on hand also poses a number of risks that consumers must plan for. When medical oxygen is on hand, the threat of a fire is far more apparent, as the overabundance of oxygen could cause a serious fire hazard if an open flame is in the vicinity. Fire can feed off of oxygen and endanger anyone around.
A new report highlights some important tips from the National Fire Protection Association. First, anyone who uses oxygen should not smoke, nor should anyone else living in that residence. To further eliminate this danger, oxygen users should have signs installed inside and even outside the residence asking people not to smoke or create sparks or open flames in or near the home.
Cigarettes aren’t the only danger. Candles should not be used, nor should wood-burning stoves. Matches are inadvisable, as are certain toys that could produce a spark. Even certain hand and body lotions could contain materials that are more susceptible to ignition. Aerosol sprays are a bad idea if they contain flammable substances.
Finally, if you have oxygen on hand, make sure that smoke alarms are in working order and everyone in the residence knows what to do should a fire break out. This plan should be put practiced every six months or so.


Operation Navy Help Darwin
Operation Navy Help Darwin was a disaster relief operation initiated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) following the destruction of Darwin, Northern Territory by Cyclone Tracy during the night of 24–25 December 1974. 13 ships, 11 aircraft, and 3,000 personnel were sent to Darwin in the largest disaster relief operation undertaken by the RAN in its history. The RAN task force was present from 31 December 1974 to 31 January 1975.
Cyclone Tracy made landfall in the early hours of 25 December 1974. Darwin was destroyed: only 408 of the city's 10,000 structures remained undamaged. 49 people ashore were killed, along with 14 civilians on vessels in the harbour and nearby waters.
Of the RAN assets in Darwin, the Naval Headquarters was destroyed, as were large sections of the patrol boat base and the married quarters. The oil fuel supply installation and naval communications station at HMAS Coonawarra were also damaged. Four Attack class patrol boats were based in Darwin; Advance and Assail were able to weather the cyclone with minor damage, but Attack was forced aground, and Arrow sank after colliding with Stokes Hill Wharf, killing two personnel and bringing the death toll to 65.
As the scope of the disaster became known, the RAN began to assemble a task force under the command of Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral David Wells. All personnel on annual leave were recalled; the vast majority responding before their ship sailed, while ships' companies were filled out by volunteers from shore bases and the ships unable to sail. Hundreds of tons of relief stores were embarked for transport.
The first RAN units to arrive in Darwin were two HS 748 aircraft from 851 Squadron RAN on 26 December; one carrying Red Cross members and blood transfusion equipment, the other transporting Clearance Diving Team 1 (CDT1). That day, HMA Ships Balikpapan and Betano departed from Brisbane, Flinders sailed from Cairns, while Melbourne (with Rear Admiral Wells aboard), Brisbane, and Stuart left Sydney. On 27 December, Hobart, Stalwart, Supply, and Vendetta left Sydney, while Brunei and Tarakan sailed from Brisbane. The last ship, Wewak, left Brisbane on 2 January. Between the 13 ships, 3,000 personnel were deployed on the operation.
The survey ship Flinders and the destroyer Brisbane were the first ships to arrive in Darwin, on 31 December. Flinders was tasked with surveying the harbour to work out the position of wrecks and the safest areas for the other RAN ships to anchor, while Brisbane established contact with the Emergency Services Organisation Committee running relief efforts in Darwin. A further eight ships arrived between 1 and 4 January, and Brunei, Tarakan, and Wewak reached Darwin on 13 January.
Four S-2 Tracker aircraft were placed on standby to fly to Darwin, but were later stood down. It was also planned to send the British submarine HMS Odin, which was on loan to the RAN Submarine Squadron, for use as a power station, but there were no power adaption facilities in Darwin suitable for connecting Odin's two diesel generators to the electricity grid.
As the ships of the task force arrived, naval working parties were assigned to clear the suburbs of Nightcliff, Rapid Creek, and Casuarina. From 1 to 30 January, naval personnel spent 17,979-man days ashore, with up to 1,200 personnel ashore at any time. They cleared and restored 1,593 properties, along with schools and government buildings, disposed of spoiled food, installed generators, and repaired electrical networks. Other sailors were involved in more unusual jobs, some working parties were tasked with saving rare plants from the Darwin Botanic Gardens, while one sailor filled in at a radio station as a disk jockey.
CDT1 inspected vessels in the harbour for damage, searched for sunken ships, and cleared the waters around the wharves at Stokes Hill and Fort Hill wharves. After the main task force arrived, the divers focused on recovering the wrecked patrol boat Arrow.
Nine Westland Wessex helicopters embarked aboard Melbourne and Stalwart transported 7,832 passengers and 110,912 kilograms (244,519 lb) of supplies. The two HS 748s were used to shuttle supplies north and survivors south. During their 14 return flights to Darwin, they carried 485 passengers and 22,680 kilograms (50,000 lb) of freight. Some of the evacuees were temporarily housed in naval bases around Sydney and Brisbane.
The RAN ships began a staggered withdrawal from 7 January. Operation Navy Help Darwin was concluded on 30 January 1975, when command of the relief effort was handed over to the Commandant of the Australian Army's 7th Military District with Brisbane and Stalwart sailing for home the next day.
Navy Help Darwin was the largest disaster relief operation ever undertaken by the RAN.
- Jones, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 234
- Sea Power Centre, Disaster Relief
- Jones, Peter (2001). "Towards Self Reliance". In Stevens, David. The Royal Australian Navy. The Australian Centenary History of Defence (vol III). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-555542-2. OCLC 50418095.
- Journal articles
- "Disaster Relief – Cyclone Tracy and Tasman Bridge". Semaphore. Sea Power Centre. 2004 (14). December 2004. Archived from the original on 2009-02-13. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
- Johnston, Eric (1987). Operation Navy Help: Disaster operations by the Royal Australian Navy post-Cyclone Tracy (PDF). Occasional Papers. No. 5. Darwin, NT: Northern Territory Library Service. ISBN 0-7245-0469-9. ISSN 0817-2927. – A speech by Eric Johnston, who was the Naval Officer Commanding Northern Australia at the time of the cyclone, recounting the naval relief efforts.


The high cost of energy, along with isolated grids and an abundance of renewable energy resources have motivated island communities around the world to investigate alternatives to fossil fuels. Many have set ambitious objectives to reduce oil consumption—the primary fossil fuel consumed on most islands. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Virgin Islands has emerged as a leader in the effort to reduce oil imports and stabilize electricity costs.
This is to be accomplished by the deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technology. In 2010, a partnership among the Territory, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) was formed under the guidance of DOE’s Energy Development in Island Nations (EDIN) initiative. This partnership has been asked to develop and implement a plan to bring about a 60% reduction in business-as-usual (BAU) fossil fuel demand by 2025 (60×25).
The Technical Report, U.S. Virgin Islands Energy Road Map: Analysis, by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy sets out a "High Renewables Case" that says the potential for aggressive energy efficiency to achieve the U.S. Virgin Islands is definitely a reality. The report recognizes the challenge in such dramatic change in 25% to 50% of end-user electricity use, and suggests as an alternative to build more renewable energy generation.
This alternative energy strategy has higher costs for the initial installation than other scenarios, but still results in significant oil cost savings over business as usual. It may also be somewhat more of a technical challenge because of the increasing levels of variable output renewables, but at the same time, it may actually have an easier implementation because of the scale of the impact that large renewables deployment could bring.
The report explains that while an increased reliance on renewable generation will reduce the need for energy efficiency, improving the efficiency of the existing infrastructure supply is important, as existing assets will likely remain in use for some time. At the same time, there will likely be many end users for which these investments in efficiency would prove too costly. Nonetheless, these elements still contribute some of the overall 2025 energy mix in the high renewables case where the new renewable generation makes up almost half of the total 60×25 goal. These targets are aggressive, but the benefits in the reduction of fossil fuels will be dramatic in the years to come.
If you have questions about the Energy Development in Island Nations (EDIN) initiative and how it can benefit your business, or would like to talk to Managing Attorney Tom Bolt about the prospect of new, emerging technologies in the Territory, please contact BoltNagi PC. BoltNagi is one of the largest firms in the United States Virgin Islands and has experienced legal professionals to assist companies based in or seeking to relocate in the U.S. Virgin Islands. BoltNagi means business!


Causes of Road Accident
MAIN CAUSES OF ROAD ACCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTAL DEATHS
- Over-speeding or driving in excess of prescribed speed limits.
- Not wearing helmets or not using seat belts - more than 80% of road accident deaths are due to the head injuries.
- Drunken driving or driving under the influence of drugs.
- Over loading of vehicles.
- Use of mobile phones or ear phones while driving/crossing the road.
- Violation of road signs, signals, traffic lights and road safety rules or many a time due to their ignorance.
- Long hours of drive, tiredness and fatigue of the driver and lack of traffic education.
- Pedestrian negligence also contributes to road accidents and endangers their own lives.


CAS is very special at St Julian’s School. Engaging with our community and our local resources and making links to global goals and the academic curriculum are areas in which the students develop meaningful experiences and projects.
CAS comprises creativity, activity and service as the main themes that then consider and reflect upon 7 important learning outcomes;
1. Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
What it REALLY means: When you leave your comfort zone, you learn things about yourself.
2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
What it REALLY means: What have you done to push yourself? What was unfamiliar about it? What skills do you think you developed?
3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
What it REALLY means: This one’s easy! When you are organizing your CAS events or activities.
4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
What it REALLY means: Whatever happens, keep going! Take one step at a time and you will reach your end goal.
5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
What it REALLY means: Participate in team activities. Simple. One of the best and most fun parts of CAS Trips is the team work.
6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
What it REALLY means: There are so many global issues right now it’s hard to know which one to support most. Global warming, the refugee crisis, homelessness, cancer research?
7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
What it REALLY means: Your parents have been telling you this for as long as you can remember and your teachers joined in a little later: The things you do and the choices you make have consequences. Think about the CAS activities you are doing and how they affect others.
Having considered the learning outcomes and reflecting upon the recent CAS projects, here are two examples of CAS projects which show the essence of CAS and how special CAS is at our school.
Making links with the academic curriculum via the local community - Archive Alive
Stella Mendes, Miguel Fowke-Quintas and Miguel Almeida
Oral History is a vital aspect of our interaction with the past. Vital, in the literal sense that it provides a living link to those who have experienced events firsthand. Having all studied History before, many of our CAS Project Group had written our Y11 coursework essay on the significance of the 1974 Portuguese Revolution. We as students are privileged to study a historical period whose memory continues to be etched into the country we live in, through commemoration events, the names of bridges, the conversations we have with our relatives... "Archive Alive" has attempted to compile the extraordinary personal stories of everyday people who become lost in official documents, academic sources and History books. This is significant to the students in Y11 who are now writing their coursework, and to our society as a whole.
So far, we have interviewed a handful of individuals who experienced the Revolution at various stages in their lives. We were struck by the impact a couple of years can have on one's understanding and appreciation of events. For example, Dr. Luis Farinha, whom we interviewed in Lisbon, was politically active in university at the time, and saw fractures in the Estado Novo before they emerged to the public. Another interviewee, only thirteen at the time, was stunned by the news of a Golpe de Estado, convinced that the state was unchallenged and almost omnipotent. We look forward to interviewing more, and to passing on the legacy of our CAS Project to the next generation of IB students.
Collaboration, engaging with the school community and tackling issues of global significance - I Have A Dream
Lydia McIntosh, Anne Hornman, Jessica Homer and Alexandra Craveiro
In April this year, a group of four Year 12 students wrote and directed the musical ‘I Have a Dream’ as their CAS project. This was to fundraise for girls education in India, with a charity called Commit2Change. The cast consisted of many different year groups, and over 30 students were involved in the music, acting, lighting, props and stage. Both nights of the performance were sold out and the standard of the production was such that the Head of the Drama Faculty stated that this was the best student led performance that she had ever seen in her career. The word ‘best’ was not only in relation to the performance, but to the organisation, commitment, perseverance, collaboration and choices made throughout the process.
It is with great job satisfaction that I share with you CAS at St Julian’s School.