Lessons from Olympia, Washington
By Reiko Callner and Anna Schlecht, coordinators of Olympia, Washington’s Unity in the Community
When hate group activity occurs in a community, it is incumbent upon local residents who value diversity to take action.
Since the early 1980s, Olympia, WA, the state’s politically progressive capital city, has dealt with the threat of neo-Nazi hate groups organizing in the area. As a diverse and involved community, our response has been to enlist our community’s full breadth. Our tools of engagement have been energetic and broad-based, including festivals, speakers, grass-roots fundraisers, panels and films. We contribute much of our success to 1) focusing on building trust among all members of our coalition, 2) being vigilant in gathering information on the specific hate groups, and 3) working with local law enforcement agencies, as well as the area’s faith communities.
Hate groups advocate extreme prejudice, vandalism or violence as a way to instill fear and terror among people on the basis of race, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. These groups, seeking to tap a vein of underlying bigotry in U.S. society, use hate language, threats, symbols and actual incidents of violence to send a message of intolerance. To counter these bias incidents, many communities have created groups and developed protocols to mobilize a broad and positive show of support for diversity. Here is the protocol we developed in Olympia, WA.
GET THE FACTS. Once notified of a hateful incident, follow up on the original source of information, whether it’s the local newspaper or other media, a police report, eyewitness account or crime victim’s story. Get the most accurate account of what did occur or what’s being announced as forthcoming. In cases involving acts of graffiti, determine exactly who or what was targeted and the nature of the graffiti (i.e. swastikas or slurs.) In the case of a physical assault, determine who was injured, the exact nature of the injuries, when and where it occurred, and the number and description of assailants. If an event such as a hate rally has been announced, note what precisely was stated, including the involvement of specific organizations and their planned action. If it’s an action by the National Socialist Movement (NSM), for example, you can conduct a web search to learn about their activities and efforts in other communities. You can also find valuable information about hate groups on the websites of the Anti-Defamation League’s and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Be aware that the fear generated by hate incidents can lead to exaggeration. Maintaining accuracy will be key to building your coalition and maintaining your public credibility.
SUPPORT TARGETS OF HATE. Prioritize advocacy and support to people directly targeted by hate incidents. One or more individuals who are ideally trained as crime victim advocates or are naturally sensitive and considerate should make contact with the affected people, acknowledge the damage done, express support and sympathy, and see if there’s something tangible your group can do for them. Let them know immediately that they are not alone and people are concerned and sympathetic.
MAP OUT YOUR ALLIES. Seek out the folks that share your concerns about hate group activity and work up a plan to expand your base of support. Do an inventory of the people and organizations, which may include the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, human rights organizations, ethnic and cultural associations, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender rights organizations, faith community leaders, inter-faith associations, local business people, elected officials, law enforcement, high school, college or university student organizations, faculty and other staff. If you are responding to hate crimes, include people and organizations with trained experience as advocates, such women’s shelter advocates and crime victim advocates. Research your state and local hate bias crime laws and find out which local law enforcement jurisdictions have experience and training to respond. Learn from the experience of other communities. Think big. Think broad-based. If your coalition all gets along then you don’t have a diverse enough coalition. A broad-based coalition will merit and gain positive coverage by the local and possibly wider-reaching media.
HOST A COMMUNITY MEETING. Engage your list of allied individuals and groups to come together. If your community has a natural focal group (for example, a strong human relations commission or an interfaith alliance) to convene such a meeting, work with them to host the meeting. It may, however, be more inviting to create a new coalition. By creating a temporary alliance of distinct parties, persons, or states for joint action, you will create a more neutral environment in which diverse parts of your community can feel welcome to participate. In choosing the facilitator(s) to host and facilitate the meeting, deliberately seek out two or more people who themselves represent the diversity that you seek to build among your coalition. Recognize that diversity means differences. Not everyone will agree on what to do. Some folks may want to directly confront and drive out hate groups. Some folks will want to change the focus entirely to celebrating diversity. Encourage your facilitators to model how people with very different strategies (confrontation vs. celebration, radical vs. mainstream, secular vs. faith community) and divergent backgrounds (racial, faith, sexual orientation, age, or gender) can find ways to bridge the gaps and work together.
Develop an agenda that allows time for introductions, a clear and accurate accounting of incidents, discussion of options for community responses and a development of an initial plan of response, and brainstorming of action committees and future tasks. Develop and maintain a coalition structure that keeps everyone informed, allows for meaningful participation by all members, and then get busy.
DEVELOP AN INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE. Based on the agreed plan of response, facilitate the coalition’s work toward unifying the community in an appropriate response to hate activity. The range of community responses include rallies, speakers series, school engagement, marketing materials and newspaper ads, and counter celebrations.
- Rallies: Host a pro-diversity rally featuring speakers from divergent parts of the community in a local gathering spot that showcases precisely the unity in the community that the hate incidents seek to undermine
- Speakers Series: Assemble a list of culturally diverse community members to give talks for local civic organizations about your efforts
- School Engagement: Involve schools and seek out sympathetic K-12 school teachers and staff to host speakers in classes or develop student forums on the subject of diversity.
- Developing a Marketing Campaign: Develop a poster with a positive message and recognizable logo to create a visual show of support throughout the community. Stickers of a logo are also a fantastic way to spread visible signs of community solidarity.
- Newspaper Ads: Raise money to run an ad in the local newspaper(s) featuring your pro-diversity message, your logo and the names of your supporters by asking donors to give at least $5 to list their name. Ask your local newspaper to waive the fees, following the example of The Olympian of Washington and the Billings Gazette of Montana. This sends a strong message of support for diversity.
- Counter-Celebrations: Consider hosting a celebratory event that affirms the positive, diverse nature of your community, rather than simply reacting to and possibly mirroring negativity of the hate group. In this day of near-universal computer access, web sites and email lists can be quick and effective ways to organize participants. Phone trees also work well. You should urge prudence in who has access to this list depending on the nature of the hate group. You do not want it infiltrated and used to intimidate your membership.
SAFETY PLANNING. Take hate groups seriously. Encourage the visible leaders of your effort to exercise some prudence without bringing their actions to a halt. Express your reasonable concerns to law enforcement and set up a buddy system for late night meetings. If needed, consider hiring off-duty police for security. These steps provide security, are good talking points for why your community needs to coalesce, and reinforce for law enforcement the importance of serving and protecting local “good guys” like your group.
FOLLOW UP. If there are victims of hate crime, work with local crime victim advocacy organizations and tap local businesses to provide material support, from medical care and counseling, to legal advocacy and painting or repair work for graffiti or vandalism. If your activities included a focal event, such as a rally, host a subsequent de-briefing session to talk about what worked, what didn’t, what to do differently next time and to resolve any conflicts that arose between coalition members.


The rise of Facebook, Google, and Amazon to become the most valuable and well-known companies in the world, while inspiring, is also a story that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets, said US senator and presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren in a statement.
She wrote: In the 1990s, Microsoft — the tech giant of its time — was trying to parlay its dominance in computer operating systems into dominance in the new area of web browsing. The federal government sued Microsoft for violating anti-monopoly laws and eventually reached a settlement. The government’s antitrust case against Microsoft helped clear a path for internet companies like Google and Facebook to emerge.
Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation, Warren wrote, adding that her administration will make big, structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition — including breaking up Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
Warren said her administration would take two major steps:
1. Passing legislation that requires large tech platforms to be designated as “Platform Utilities” and broken apart from any participant on that platform; companies with an annual global revenue of $25 billion or more and that offer to the public an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties would be designated as “platform utilities.”
These companies would be prohibited from owning both the platform utility and any participants on that platform. Platform utilities would be required to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users. Platform utilities would not be allowed to transfer or share data with third parties.
For smaller companies (those with annual global revenue of between $90 million and $25 billion), their platform utilities would be required to meet the same standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users, but would not be required to structurally separate from any participant on the platform.
Amazon Marketplace, Google’s ad exchange, and Google Search would be platform utilities under this law. Therefore, Amazon Marketplace and Basics, and Google’s ad exchange and businesses on the exchange would be split apart. Google Search would have to be spun off as well.
2. Appoint regulators committed to reversing illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers. These regulators would be people who are committed to using existing tools to unwind anti-competitive mergers, including:
- Amazon: Whole Foods; Zappos
- Facebook: WhatsApp; Instagram
- Google: Waze; Nest; DoubleClick
Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market — which will put pressure on bigtech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy, Warren said.
These changes would result in an internet in which “small businesses would have a fair shot to sell their products on Amazon without the fear of Amazon pushing them out of business. Google couldn’t smother competitors by demoting their products on Google Search. Facebook would face real pressure from Instagram and WhatsApp to improve the user experience and protect our privacy. Tech entrepreneurs would have a fighting chance to compete against the tech giants.”
In addition, Warren discussed data ownership and distribution issues: “we must give people more control over how their personal information is collected, shared, and sold — and do it in a way that doesn’t lock in massive competitive advantages for the companies that already have a ton of our data. We must help America’s content creators — from local newspapers and national magazines to comedians and musicians — keep more of the value their content generates, rather than seeing it scooped up by companies like Google and Facebook. And we must ensure that Russia — or any other foreign power — can’t use Facebook or any other form of social media to influence our elections.


This is the age when so called “multitasking” is a goal, a thing to aspire to and maybe even train for. Doing several things at the same time seems the only way to get everything done in a day. Who wouldn’t strive to be a multitasker? It’s like having a super power. Being able to do multiple things all at once certainly is a skill worth having. Right?
The truth is . . . . . you can’t do it! The brain cannot do more than one job at a time. What your brain is actually doing when you “multitask” is switch from one task to another. The problem is you lose time as you switch back and forth. While “multitasking” may seem efficient, tasks may actually take more time in the end. Studies show an average of two hours is lost every work day to job-switching and recovering from distractions.
Texting while driving is the most dangerous distraction says the U.S. Department of Transportation. Research shows that sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph that’s like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed! Researchers have also found that trying to learn something new while “multitasking” is nearly impossible. Besides that, multitasking has been found to temporarily lower IQs by 10 points – that is the same effect as missing a night’s sleep!
Mealtime is an especially bad time to try to “multitask”. Not only does it set a poor example to be texting and phoning while eating, but it makes everyone else feel neglected and ignored. In one study, subjects who ate meals while watching TVs or computer screens were unable to recall how much they ate. The plugged-in eaters also snacked twice as much as those who focused on their food during mealtimes.
There is a big price to pay for those who use several types of media all at once. A Stanford University study compared two groups: those who regularly do a lot of media “multitasking” and those who don’t. The “multitaskers” scored lower on ignoring unimportant information, remembering important information and switching from one task to another. In other words: the minds of the “multitaskers” were not working as well as they should.
– Stay rested and get enough sleep.
– Keep healthy food and water within reach.
– Keep a manageable to-do list. Enough to keep you busy but not overwhelmed.
– Check emails a designated times only and then for the rest of the day put it to rest.
– Stay on task. One thing at a time.
– Take time outs during the day. Listen to a song, take a walk, take deep breaths.
– Make phones and TV a no-no at the dinner table.
– Log off all electronics one hour before bedtime.
– No texting while driving.


An 8 Card Game Set
These games play like classic Go Fish. There are two decks of 50 cards in each game – one for grades K-2 and the other for grades 3-5. The games differ from classic Go Fish in that players must answer a question before they can accept a requested card. Instead of the usual number and picture cards, the cards have fun pictures of fish and fish names. Each game also comes with a rules sheet and facilitator guidelines.
Time required: About 20 minutes. 2-5 players.
Learning Objectives – Players will:
|Audience:||Elementary (K-5), Middle (6-8)|
|Publisher:||The Guidance Group|
|Topic:||Anger, Anxiety, Bullying, Character, Classroom Guidance, Divorce, General Counseling, Grief & Depression, Group Counseling, Learning Disabilities, Safety Issues, Social & Life Skills, Testing & Study Skills|


Color Meaning Your Complete Season Analysis
Color Meaning Your Complete Season Analysis covers in depth, information on: warm and cool skin tone, hair color, eye color, color charts and guides, color seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter color palettes.
On Color Meaning
The Impact Of Color
You may have heard of color analysis and you probably do experience it, perhaps not really understand the meaning behind it. If a glimpse of your reflection in a mirror shows you looking tired, washed out, and faded lack of sleep may not be the culprit, rather something as simple as wearing colors that do not flatter you are belong in your color palette.
A wrong color selection can effect your appearance in many ways.:
- Skin tone appearing drained and tired
- False impressions of under-eye circles caused by shadowing
- False impressions of double chins caused by shadowing
- Even your teeth can appear with a slight yellow hue
This means it is time you gave yourself a color analysis. Understanding the meaning of color is a guide to your correct color.
A correct color selection can result in your having this look:
- Skin tone appearing radiant and glowing
- Eyes appearing brighter and alert
- Hair reflecting highlights
- Where you hear compliments, such as "You look great in that outfit"
- That flatters your apparent size and body shape
- Reflecting your personality and sense of fashion
Understanding Color Terminology
Learn how to use color to your benefit as you understand the meaning of: hue, value, and intensity. Learn how to combine those colors in pleasing harmonies for your season palette.
To become familiar with the dimensions of color, let us review a few terms, Color Hue refers to the color name. Primary hues are red, yellow, and blue. These hues cannot be produced by combining other colors, but are the basis for making all other colors. On the color wheel, the primary colors form a major triangle (Color Chart1). Secondary hues are formed by combining two primary hues.
The three secondary hues are orange, green, and violet. Tertiary or intermediate hues are formed when a primary and neighboring secondary hues are combined. These include yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange, and yellow-orange.
The Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary hues are the basic twelve colors, but numerous color variations can be produced from them. Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue, ranging from white to black on the value scale. Add white to a hue and it becomes a tint; add black and it becomes a shade.
For example, red can vary from pink to wine on the value scale. Intensity (chroma) is the brightness or dullness of a color. We refer to the strength or weakness of a color, depending on the saturation of color. Full saturation refers to the pure hue. When a pure hue is mixed with another color, it becomes grayed.
Colors can be combined in various ways, but the three most common color harmonies are: monochromatic colors, analogous colors, complementary colors (Color Chart 2). By knowing the various color schemes, you can select the colors that are harmonious to each other and to your personal coloring.
Monochromatic harmony is developed around one color. This could mean variations in value or intensity of one hue, such as light, medium and dark blue. Monochromatic color schemes are easy and restful, but can become monotonous. Analogous harmony refers to neighboring colors on the color wheel. An example is yellow, yellow-green and green.
This produces a restful effect and is less dramatic than the complementary color scheme. Complementary harmonies are colors that are directly opposite of each other on the color wheel. They tend to be dramatic, such as the red and green Christmas color scheme. Complementary colors intensify each other and tend to be bold and attention-getting. However, if these colors are grayed they become more wearable. Now, aren't you smart!
Color The Powerful Design Element
Color is a powerful design element in our environment and our wardrobes. Although colors are only only one facet of design, color is usually first to attract us to clothing. As you become more aware of color, it will become your key for selecting harmonious colors and more appropriate clothing choices, which will save both shopping time and money.
You will save time in dressing, and feel confident with your new color-related appearance. Up to date with your best colors, you control impulse shopping. Your personal coloring, skin tone, hair color, and eye color will create your color palette.
Each season, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter has it's own unique color palette. Unfortunately, when it comes to clothing, we often purchase whatever is in fashion and only our hangers are the ones to wear that new blouse that would look great — on somebody else. Is your closet full of fad colors that do not flatter you?
We know you got them at a great price. We know your girlfriend said they looked good. Now you can replace those accidents knowing your color palette and create a balance and harmony within your closet. Pieces will just seem to go together without frantic planning.
The Art of Wearing Colors that are Right for You
Every woman should know what colors are becoming to her, and know her own seasonal palette. Color Meaning Your Complete Season Analysis can then be the used as the guide when:
- Purchasing clothes
- Choosing make-up to enhance your skin tone
- Choosing a new hair color or highlights
We seem instinctively drawn to colors that complement our own natural coloring. Often selecting even large ticket items such as furniture, decorating accessories, and cars that are within in our color palette.
Then we seem to lock at our own image. The key for unlocking is simply understanding what color means and the direct effect it has on you. It is as important to your overall appearance as is your Facial Shape when choosing a hairstyle. The basic premise of color in both fashion and decorating transcends all ethnic, racial, and economic bounds.
Most of the Universal systems used places us into "seasonal" categories. For the sake of simplicity, that will be our system of choice here, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. You identify your season based on the colors of your skin tone, hair color, and eye color.
Using Color To Express Feelings
Play with color to reflect a mood or to create one. The evening can be yours in a little black dress. Be noticed. Go unnoticed, um, No.
Look both professional and polished for an interview, establishing your credibility as soon as you enter the room. When you are planning active sports or an active day, leave those cool, reserved, flat colors for serious occasions and business. Wear sunshine, if a rainy day is bringing you down, hot pink or yellow will lift spirits and keep you bright in the gray of the day.
Color can create a woman in the time it takes to dress!
- Planning romance? Pursue in dark red
- Planning to be pursued? Wear baby pink or ivory
- Planning for fun? Bring out the fun with oranges and bright blues
Color And Your Moods
Innocent, pure, young, Bridal, safe, simple, clean, feminine, innocence
Soft, feminine, girly, delicate, sweet, gentle, delicate, softly sexy, subtle
Strong, fun, sporty, outgoing, sexy, flirty
Exciting, fun, sunny disposition, energetic, joyful, alert
Warm, caring, nurturing, outdoors, natural, earthy
Victorian, romantic, classic, chic
Sky Pale Blue
Dreamy, calm, serene, soft, uncomplicated, simplicity
Strong, sexy, romantic, passionate, wild, fun, sensual, directed, flashy, daring
Adventurous, fun, sporty, outgoing, confident, upbeat, high energy, young
Business like, educated, polished, organized, professional
Violets, romantic, sweet, femme fatal, innocent
Renew, fresh, adventurous, confident
Dark Royal Blue
Navy Blue business like, classic, polished, directed, successful, refined, royal
Classic, mysterious, sophisticated, good taste, good fashion sense, polished
Color And Skin Tone
Many consider the skin tone as most important for choosing color. The skin tone contains three pigments:
- Hemoglobin (red)
- Carotene (yellow-orange)
- Melanin (brown) The suntan and freckle pigmentation
All races have the same three pigments, but in different concentrations. Black people have more melanin in their skin tones than Caucasians; Orientals have greater amounts of carotene than other groups. People of the same race differ from each other in value (lightness and darkness) due to the melanin content of their skin.
A scientific study of personal coloring, classifies skin tones as pink, peach, and golden. We have used the category "Seasons" and may also hear them referred to as "Warm" or "Cool" for skin tone, eye color, and hair color. Of course, not everyone falls into those precise groups. There are those people with skin tones between pink and peach or between peach and golden.
Matching colors to your eyes, hair, skin and related reds become the basis for finding your color palette Related reds are inspired by the red in your skin tone. When a person blushes, you see the basis for related reds in the skin tone. They are used in lipstick colors for women and in tie colors for men. This red can be varied as long as it is related to the red in skin color.
More Season Color Analysis
Color Meaning Your Complete Season Analysis
Author: Tanna Mayer
Updated: March 18, 2015
Beauty And The Bath


Women Working Night Shifts at Increased Risk of Breast Cancer, Study
Women who work night shifts are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer, researchers say. The risk is higher for those women who are morning people or "larks" rather than "owls" who are comfortable with night shifts.
Mail Online reports that this study is backed by the Danish Cancer Society. The study involved some 18,500 women who worked for the Danish Army between 1964 and 1969.
The research team were able to track down around 200 breast cancer survivors from the study group and matched lifestyle data obtained by them with data collected from around 800 women who hadn't suffered from cancer.
The results showed that night shift work for 3 days a week for a period of 6 years or more increased the likelihood of developing cancer by 40 percent. Women who were early risers had high risk of developing cancer.
"Although this study found a higher risk for women working the greatest number of hours of night shifts altogether, they didn't see a solid association if they analysed the data in other ways, for example when they looked at how many years of night shifts women had worked. The evidence so far seems to point to a probable link, but we still need more research to understand how big the risk could be and how many years it would take to appear," Sarah Williams, Cancer Research UK's health information officer, The Guardian reports.
"The observation that women with night work and morning preference (who may be less tolerant of night shift work) tend to have a higher risk for breast cancer than similar women with evening preference warrants further exploration in larger studies," Dr Johnni Hansen, of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and lead author of the study, reports The Telegraph.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, that according to 2004 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 15 million Americans work full time on evening shifts, night shifts, or other employer arranged irregular schedules.
Experts are still divided over the probability of circadian rhythm affecting a person's risk of developing cancers. However, they agree that the risk of breast cancer in women can be reduced through weight management, exercise and reducing alcohol intake.
"For the moment, there is strong evidence that women can reduce the risk of breast cancer by keeping to a healthy weight, drinking less alcohol and being physically active," Sarah Williams said, ( The Guardian)
"Night shift working and breast cancer risk is a hugely complex area and two of the biggest risk factors – diet and physical activity outside of working hours – weren't considered in this study. So, whilst it contributes to the debate, further research is needed to fully understand the link between night shift working, the lifestyle factors and breast cancer," said Lisa Wilde, director of research at Breast Cancer Campaign, reports The Guardian.


These women were transferred from one concentration camp to another so that many of the guards had worked at most of the concentration camps.
When the English and American troops liberated the concentration camps, the deaths didn’t stop because so many of the prisoners were too advanced in their malnourishment and disease that all the allies could do was to make them as comfortable as possible during their final hours.
Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen
One camp, Bergen-Belsen, had over 13,000 prisoners die after being liberated due to the inhumane and horrific conditions of the camp. Even hardcore soldiers found it impossible to witness what went on in these death camps.
It was discovered during the many criminal trials that followed the days of liberation that the women guards were responsible for the majority of the atrocities that went on in the women’s camp on a daily basis.
When Bergen–Belsen was liberated by the British on April 15, 1945, the Commandant Josef Kramer was arrested and indicted along with 44 other Nazis who worked in the camp.
Of the 44 Nazis, three female guards in Nazi concentration camps were sentenced to death:
–> Irma Grese
–> Elizabeth Volkenrath
–> Joanna Bormann
All three women had worked together at Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
21-year-old Irma Grese had been a dairy worker, 26-year-old Volkenrath had been a hairdresser and the chief of SS women, Juana Bormann, 53, had been a “religious fanatic who gave up mission work to join the SS”. (1)
Irma Grese, Beast of Belsen, Convicted and Sentenced to Death by Hanging
Irma Grese, aka Beast of Belsen, was convicted of crimes she committed while at Auschwitz and Bergen–Belsen. Irma’s story was typical, she wanted to be a nurse, but was rejected. Instead, she was trained to be a guard and sent to Auschwitz.
Within a year she was the second highest ranking female guard in the Nazi concentration camps and oversaw 30,000 female Jewish prisoners. In 1945, she was sent to Bergen-Belsen.
Grese was known for her cruelty and brutality. A former lover of the sadistic SS doctor Josef Mengele (Angel of Death) who conducted horrible experiments on children, she began an affair with the Bergen–Belsen commandant, Josef Kramer soon after her transfer.
Grese was known for her sexual prowess. She had sex with female prisoners and, when tired of them, sent them to the gas chambers. She also had sexual relations with other SS personnel and male prisoners.
She was convicted of murdering prisoners by shooting them in cold blood, sadistic cruelty in beating prisoners and turning her half-starved dog on prisoners. She was also responsible for selecting prisoners for the gas chambers.
Ilona Stein testified that in 1944 she witnessed Irma Grese riding a bicycle past one of the prisoners standing at the wire that divided the camp. The woman had gone there to see her daughter.
Upon seeing the woman, Grese jumped off her bike and, “took off her leather belt and beat the woman with it”. Grese beat the woman until the prisoner fell to the ground and then Grese “trampled on her”. The woman was so severely beaten that she was hospitalized for three weeks. (1)
Stein further testified that:
“Whilst at Birkenau I have seen Grese making selections with Dr Mengele of people to be sent to the gas chamber. On these parades Grese herself chose the people to be killed in this way.
In one selection about August 1944, there were between 2,000 and 3,000 selected. At this selection Grese and Mengele were responsible for selecting those for the gas chamber.
People chosen would sometimes sneak away from the line and hide themselves under their beds. Grese would go and find them, beat them until they collapsed and then drag them back into line again.”
Grese carried a whip she’d made by braiding cellophane strips together and used it on prisoners at Auschwitz. Grese testified that, “after eight days Kommandant Kramer prohibited whips, but we nevertheless went on using them…” (1)
Juana Bormann Sentenced to Death by Hanging
Juana Bormann was assigned to the first women’s concentration camp in Lichtenburg in 1938, then transferred in 1939 to the new concentration camp in Ravensbrück. She was promoted from kitchen help to overseer.
In 1942, she was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp and later that same year to Birkenau. Like other guards, she was transferred to various camps and in 1945 ended up in Bergen-Belsen. Bormann was 53 years old when she was hanged for war crimes, although often reported as being 42. (1)
–> Anni Jonas testified that Bormann would point out weak prisoners to Dr. Mengele to be taken to the gas chambers.
–> Dora Szafran testified that at Auschwitz Juana made selections for the gas chambers along with Dr. Klein.
–> Szafran witnessed Bormann set her dog on a female prisoner lagging behind because her leg was injured. The dog attack was so severe, the woman was carried away on a stretcher.
–> Hanka Rozenwayg testified the Bormann beat her and other women prisoners for having a fire in their hut.
–> Prisoner Peter Makar testified that Bormann beat several women for stealing vegetables from the pigsties.
Inmate after inmate testified of beatings, cruelties, dog attacks and other sadistic acts. (1)
Elizabeth Volkenrath Sentenced to Death by Hanging
In 1941, Vokenrath arrived at Ravensbruck concentration camp. She quickly learned the cruelties of her profession and rose in position. She was later transferred to Auschwitz as a supervisor.
Like her fellow female guards, she was transferred about various concentration camps. In 1944, she was promoted to Senior Supervisor. In this position, she oversaw three hangings.
Mandel later promoted her to Birkenau commandant of the women’s camp at Auschwitz. Inmates testified against her and she was convicted of numerous murders and gas chamber selections. (2)
The former hairdresser turned sadistic Nazi guard was 26 years old when she was hanged for war crimes. (3)
Maria Mandel, “The Beast” Sentenced to Death by Hanging
Maria Mandel was arrested by the US armed forces in 1945 after she tried to escape home to Austria. She was held prisoner and interrogated for nearly a year and half.
In 1946, she was turned over to the Polish government and stood trial in Krakow. At the age of 36, Mandel was sentenced to death by hanging.
She was one of the last of the worst female guards to be hanged. She had taken Irma Grese under her wing at Auschwitz and promoted her to “head of the Hungarian women’s camp at Birkenau”.
Of all the Nazi female guards, Mandel was the most notorious and accused of being personally responsible for more than 500,000 women and children being murdered.
Mandel was known for her cruelty and abuse of prisoners and quickly rose to power. In 1942, she was made the SS female commandant and reported directly to Hoess (SS Commandant of the camp).
She was head of all the female camps and subcamps. She was so corrupt that if any inmate looked at her the wrong way, she had the prisoner taken away, it is assumed to the gas chamber or worse.
Dubbed, “the Beast”, Mandel’s cruelty was unsurpassed. She delighted in choosing which Jewish children would be sent to the gas chambers.
She also had pet Jews, but quickly tired of them and condemned them to the gas chambers. She loved playing god and her sadism drove her to create the Auschwitz orchestra.
It was a cruel irony that pleased her as she forced the Jewish orchestra to play for selection parades, executions and other camp activities that tortured and tormented the Jewish prisoners. (1)
Guards Forced to Remove the Dead
As part of the punishment for those guards not executed, the women were forced to carry the dead from the camp huts.
There were over 17,000 dead in the camp at the time the British liberated it. In the ensuing weeks, another 13,000 corpses had to be removed. (1)
In various accounts, the women guards complained that the bodies were so badly decomposed that arms and legs would pull off as they labored to carry them to the mass burial pits. One guard interviewed nearly 60 years later complained that the British had refused to let them wear gloves while performing the removals.
The sheer number of people murdered by the Nazi regime is beyond staggering. The brutality of the crimes committed against the Jews, Gypsies and political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps is recorded in the war crime trials documents.
One thing that may be recorded but not tallied is the number of female Nazi guards who were recruited from the League of German Girls. It is stated in the transcripts concerning career progression that many of the female guards were League of German Girls party members.
The League was the girl’s division of the Nazi youth movement, also known as the Hitler Youth. At Irma Grese’s trial, her sister testified that all the girls wanted to join the League, but their father forbade them.
Irma was determined to join and ran away from home at the age of 14. Later, when she visited her family and revealed that she’d joined the SS, her father beat her.
Still, her father’s disapproval and subsequent beating didn’t dissuade Irma. She eagerly returned to fulfill her duty with the SS.
While these girls were at a very impressionable age, it’s absolutely no excuse for the horrific cruelty they committed their time as female guards in nazi concentration camps. It does, however, give a glimpse into the world they lived in.
It was a world of absolute power over other people’s lives. The influence of superiors and peers further corrupted that world where not only was cruelty approved but constantly encouraged. Acts of violence were a way of life and it molded these young women into some of history’s most barbarous and sadistic murderers.


6 Of The Oldest Cat Breeds Still In Existence January 07 2020, 6 Comments
From being revered as symbols of Ancient Egyptian gods, to being linked with witches in the Middle Ages, to completely dominating the Internet today, cats have long been a part of human history. It's estimated that cats were domesticated as far back as 12,000 years ago! With all the joy that cats bring us today, is it any wonder why they have persisted this long?
Let's take a look back at some of these ancient breeds that are still around today!
1. Egyptian Mau
Perhaps the most ancient cat breed of them all, it is believed that Egyptian Mau ancestors have been found mummified alongside Pharaohs in their tombs. It is debated if Egyptian Maus are actually the oldest domesticated breed of cat, but it is one of the few naturally spotted breeds of cat. And papyri and frescoes dating back as far as 1550 B.C. depict spotted cats, similar to our modern day Egyptian Maus.
2. Norwegian Forest Cat
Norwegian Forest Cats, affectionately called "Wegies" by cat connoisseurs, these fluffy giants are thought to be descended from cats that crossed the seas on Viking ships. Yes, Viking cats! The Norwegian Forest Cats' ancestors may include black and white shorthair cats brought to Norway from Great Britain sometime after 1000 AD by the Vikings, and longhaired cats brought to Norway by Crusaders.
As with most things feline, the true origin of the Siamese cat breed is shrouded in mystery. No one is exactly certain where Siamese cats were originally bred and domesticated. Some people believe they were bred by royalty, others say Buddhist monks. But a Thai manuscript dating back to the 14th century, the Tamra Maew, or 'The Cat Book Poems,', makes mention of dark-pointed cats and suggests that the Siamese is a very old breed.
4. Turkish Angora
The Turkish Angora breed finds its origins in mountainous regions of Turkey, where it developed its soft, medium-length fur coat for protection against the harsh climates. This traditionally white-coated breed is documented as far back as France in the 1600s! There is some speculation that this unusually soft-furred feline may be descended from the Manul cat, a small cat domesticated by the Tartars.
5. Maine Coon Cats
Maine Coons, known as gentle giants and the "dogs of the cat world" are one of the most popular cat breeds today. But they're also one of the oldest! Likely descended from cats brought over to the Americas by Vikings, or later European sailors who docked at ports in 1700s New England. Genetic testing has indicated that Maine Coon cats are actually descendants of Norwegian Forest Cats and a mysterious, now-extinct domestic cat.
Another surprisingly old breed, the Chartreux were thought to have originated in France as far back as 1558, where it was mentioned in a poem by Joachim du Bellay, called Vers Français sur la mort d'un petit chat (French verse on a small kitten's death). The poem reads:
"Here lies Belaud, my little gray cat,
Belaud, that was the most handsome perhaps
That nature ever made in cat's clothing.
This was Belaud, death to rats.
Belaud, to be sure his beauty was such
That he deserves to be immortal."
The most enduring explanation is that the Chartreux's ancestors, like the Turkish Angoras, were feral mountain cats from the Middle East. During the 13th century, it's thought that merchants or Crusaders brought the cats to France. Once in France, the breed was continued by Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse Monastery in southeastern France.


Clinical Patient Group Presentation Present a summary of your clinical patient to your clinical group. This will be a 15-minute presentation.
Teach your classmates something you learned while providing care to this patient! Share your expertise! The presentation should include a brief history of the patient including the health history that led to the priority needs, nursing diagnosis, outcomes and interventions you identified in the plan of care. Include a summary of one evidence-based article that supports your plan of care. This article must be a nursing journal, written within the last 5 years. Submit a copy of the journal article to your instructor.
You must use a minimum of two teaching methods in your presentation. This can be a PowerPoint, a poster, a YouTube video, a game, a quiz question, etc.
Presentation should be conducted in a professional manner and should be organized, clear, concise and timely. Your presentation should engage the interest and participation of the audience.


The Abbasids from 750 until 1517 AD, with all its forms from the first period, and the Turkish, Seljuk and Mamluk Guards were eras that do not represent the history and the message of Muhammad, nor any of the numerous divine national messages. Rather, they were regimes and periods of injustice, corruption, fraud and colonization of Turkic Mongolian gangs from East Asia.
Those 8 centuries produced a great deal of shady heritage and fake scholars and researchers misleading and corrupt sciences who aided all their branches of the Turkic colonialists gangs including Turks, Persians, Romans, Jews, Sabaeans and Bedouins. They attacked Africa, Europe, Asia and the Religion
Among the most important symbols of Abbasid rule was the so-called Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406 AD), whose writings are considered scientific references and is considered the source and founder of modern sociology and one of the leading scholars of history and economics. This is, in fact, an infringement on the sound and honest scientific method, on history, peoples and the Religion
The 8 centuries of Abbasids were the beginning of the time of the various Turkic gangs taking over the entire Mediterranean coasts and turning Yebus/Jebus or Aelia to Jerusalem; and reinforcing the lie that early Jews were children of Israel; and that the children of Israel were in Egypt; and all the stories of the Tanakh that the Turkic groups invented in Babylon in 580 BC. These lies were incorporated into the interpretations of the Holy Qur’an, jurisprudence, hadiths, and the Prophet’s biography, and institutions claiming to be religious were set up by them.
As for the Ottoman period (1299 – 1923 AD) that followed Abbasid, it went too far, because it was the summit of criminality, corruption, forgery, colonialism and collusion with the Jews and various Turkic Mongolians. The great leap for Turkic Mongolian gangs was to establish colonies of the Americas after their gangs were expelled as Spain and Portugal were liberated in 1492 AD (Andalusia). The Crusades were nothing but a continuation of the Roman Turkic aggression against Europeans and the peoples of the region
Why Spain and Portugal went bankrupt immediately after the colonization of the Americas since 1492 AD, the same year of the end to 780 years of colonization of Iberia; meanwhile Italy, Catholic Church and the Ottomans prospered greatly? Why in all history books it is called “European colonization of the Americas” while Europeans were just employed by Jewish settlers and ships’ owners.
The verses of jihad in the Holy Qur’an and the message of Mohammad, which are meant to command the Arabs to liberate themselves, struggle and fight the occupiers and colonialists. Jihad and the command to fight were not intended to attack foreign nations, or to spread the Mohammad’s message by force at all.
But power in the Arab communities was in the hands of a few ignorant and hypocritical Arabs who were bound by interests with those who commanded the Holy Qur’an and Muhammad’s message to fight them and be free from their colonization. The masters of the Arabs agreed with the Bedouins and their Turkic allies, the Jews, the Sabeans, the Persians, and the Romans to abort Muhammad’s message.
East Asian Turkic Mongolian gangs used the same Quranic verses of jihad in the Roman Church, contrary to their aims to wage the Crusades, just as the Arabs and their allies used them before to establish the Abbasid colonies.
We must question very seriously why scholars and clerics did not discover for 1400 years the difference between messages and the Religion? And between Muhammad’s message and Islam? Why they do not know or state the difference between the early Jews and the children of Israel? And why they do not clearly define the difference between Arabs and Bedouins? Why they do claim and insist that Aelia or Yebus is the Holy City of King Solomon’s Temple? And why did they insist that the first Kingdom of Israel during the time of King Solomon was in lands of western of Assyria?
And why did they not know that the gangs of East Asia were the ones who formed the Akkadians, the Hyksos, the Hebrews, the Arameans, the Sabaeans, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Turks, the Romans, and the Jews? And why do they promote naive Bedouin myths that are not based on any logic, science, or evidence claiming that more than 7 billion living inhabitants of the globe descended from one pair only? And why do they say that tribes and peoples migrate like birds or fish?
And why do they say that God Almighty, the One and only One, sent several religions, while the Holy Qur’an explicitly says that the Religion is one? Why today clerics misinterpret the verses of jihad and fighting, and the infidel aggressors and use them to attack nations, promote terrorism and colonialism, and destroy the tolerance and justice of the disappeared Muhammad’s message?
The only answer to all these questions, and more than them, is because scholars and clerics are not scholars or clerics, but rather they are a fifth column who represents the interests of Bedouins and their partners, the East Asian gangs, the Turks, the Romans, Persians, Jews and Sabaeans. The methodology of science, religion and history is truly corrupt altogether
All the nations and governments of Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas and the entire world must reformulate the methods of science, religion and history; and defend their national and human interests from attacks by corrupt Turkic science, religion and history


We all want to know how many harmful substances there are in our food, what substances a drug contains and whether our furniture has too much formaldehyde. The methods developed by metrologists at Saarland University ensure that transportable gas chromatographs can detect the tiniest traces of harmful substances, as the team led by Professor Schütze specializes in making artificial sensory organs ever more sensitive and accurate. Mobile devices in particular are set to benefit from optimizing detectors for gas chromatographs. The engineers from Saarland University are thus keen to make useful contacts with gas chromatograph manufacturers at HANNOVER MESSE.
Whether in medicine, food chemistry, biology, environmental analysis or forensics, the new analysis technology reveals what mixtures contain and how much. "Our technology makes it possible to detect short gas pulses with a high level of precision and selectively analyze tiny quantities of gas for the substances they contain," explains Tilman Sauerwald from the Department of Measuring Technology. This technology will even enable diagnosis of lung cancer from exhaled air. “Our sensors are highly sensitive. We're developing them to such an advanced level that we can selectively measure ever lower concentrations. At the moment, we can already detect 100 femtograms, which is less than one trillionth of a gram," says Sauerwald, who is coordinating the group’s work in this area.


Open water swimming
On 3 May 1810, Lord Byron swam the Hellespont, emulating the legendary Greek Leander. He swam 6.4 km (4 miles) in one hour ten minutes. He also swam in the length of the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy and across the Tagus River in Portugal.
Lord Byron is the namesake for the Lord Byron's Bicentennial Swim Crossing of the Hellespont and the Lord Byron's Swim Festival, ranked among the Top 50 Open Water Swims In Asia.
Lord Byron wrote prolifically. In 1832 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 14 duodecimo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore. Subsequent editions were released in 17 volumes, first published a year later, in 1833.
Byron's Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England. The masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, has roots deep in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, equally involves itself with its own contemporary world at all levels — social, political, literary and ideological.


ONR PISTON Field Campaign
PISTON stands for the Propagation of Intra-Seasonal Tropical OscillatioNs. While numerous tropical intra-seasonal oscillations exist, PISTON will primarily target the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation (BSISO). The BSISO defines the northward and eastward movement of the Asian monsoon during northern-hemispheric (boreal) summertime. This oscillation has been observed to impact weather across the Maritime Continent and into the southeastern portions of continental Asia, and even weather within the United States. The BSISO is rather complex, and PISTON is therefore an extensive field campaign, involving both intensive numerical modeling and observational activities. Namely, the PISTON campaign emphasizes two scientific questions:
- How do localized features such as island orography and individual thunderstorms influence tropical intraseasonal oscillations?
- How does variability in large-scale atmospheric circulations over the South China Sea influence the diurnal cycle, synoptic systems, and interactions between the atmosphere and ocean within the Maritime Continent?


Posted October 9th, 2013 in Education
This past summer’s B-WET workshop offered a lot of lesson and activity ideas for all of the teachers who attended, including Marea Spentzos-Inghram, middle school teacher at Catherine Cook School in Chicago.
Beyond just taking a few curriculum ideas back to her lesson prep, though, Ms. Spentzos-Inghram decided to turn her class into student scientists by becoming official precipitation observers for CoCoRaHS – the “Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network” – which is a volunteer network of weather watchers throughout the country. The project was even featured in the school newsletter (photo below).
“The B-WET workshop presented teachers with so much information it would be impossible to not get inspired!” said Ms. Spentzos-Inghram. “They had a lineup of AMAZING presenters from a variety of organizations to promote their efforts, which made it a one-stop shop for information about bringing Great Lakes science into the classroom.”
“Being an urban school, I felt limited in outdoor environmental opportunities but CoCoRaHs was do-able. Since I have rooftop access to my building it was easy to participate! And the students get REALLY excited when it rains because they want to see how much rain fell at our school. I can’t imagine what it will be like for snow (or other precipitation).”
Ms. Spentzos-Inghram has expanded on this experience and introduced an outreach component, with a group of students working on a PSA right now featuring a cartoon rain gauge being interviewed.
As for the benefits of the workshop, “what they had to share seemed easy (teachers like easy) yet practical, useful, and educational. And the students have really taken to it and gotten involved, which is the best part of coming back with new ideas for the classroom.”
Similar workshops are held regularly, and you can contact IISG’s Robin Goettel and Terri Hallesy for more details. You can find additional information about Great Lakes science resources and training at our education page and at the Center for Great Lakes Literacy.


System for Shear Flow Profiling
Inventor: Erik Anderson
Publication No. US 7054768 B2
Overview: A computerized method of profiling a shear flow using particle velocimetry near a surface interface known as the boundary layer.
Technology: This computerized image analysis method determines potential particle motion vectors based on the received images and dynamically ranks the likelihood that the potential tracks are correct based on track density. Two successive images of a plurality of particles in the shear flow near the interface are analyzed. The method is also applicable to moving and deforming interfaces.


A STUDY OF ACRYLIC DISPERSIONS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF PAINTINGS
Michael C. Duffy
MATERIALS USED IN CONSERVATION should be stable over an extended period of time. This does not seem to be the case for the polymer dispersions tested. Discoloration (the formation of conjugated double bonds) occurred in measurable amounts in all samples after a relatively short exposure to aging conditions. Changes in peel strengths related to the aging of films indicate increased difficulty of reversibility in the Rhoplexes and 498 HV. While the precise peel strength desirable would depend on a number of factors not examined here extreme highs and lows were judged to be undesirable. The extremely high peel strength value for HV 360 makes its reversibility a harsh undertaking for a fragile art object. Conversely, reactivated samples with low peel strengths do not have the adhesive strength to keep a fabric securely adhered to another and so threaten delamination. Changes in technique of reactivating the adhesive may be required if it is to be used in the lining procedure.
Of the five adhesives tested, the Plextol B500 appears to be the most resistant to peel strength changes over time. Unfortunately, it also sustained the most discoloration of any of the adhesives. Since the adhesive would be hidden from light in a lining, yellowing may not be a factor under consideration. Accepting a material's negative properties to gain the advantage of its positive properties is a compromise frequently made in conservation. Certainly the discoloration of any of these materials is inevitable and must be considered vis-ll
l3mbined adhesives could be tested to determine if a mixture of two adhesives would yield more favorable properties than either one used alone. Comparison of peel strength vs. sheer strength values would further enhance understanding of these materials. There are many avenues for further study of the use of these materials in the conservation field.


The Evolution of Point Venus, Tahiti
In 1768, James Cook left England on the Endeavour bound for Tahiti. The first of his three famous voyages, one of Cook’s tasks was to observe the transit of Venus. The transit is one of few easily observable and predictable astronomical events and occurs in eight-year pairs, separated by first 101.5, then 121.5 years (Espenak). During the transit, Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun and is visible to the naked eye as a black dot approximately 1/32 the size of the Sun. The most recent transit occurred in 2012 and was the eight-year mate of the 2004 transit. With the next transit not set to occur until 2117, those who viewed both witnessed a rare and special event (Phillips, “Transit”). The transits of 1769 and 2012 provide a comparison in the evolution of science and of landscape. The scientific tools at the disposal of James Cook seem modest compared to modern solar instruments, and the landscape of Point Venus, where Cook observed the transit, has changed dramatically as well.
Captain James Cook lived in a time of scientific revolution called the Age of Enlightenment. An intelligent, self-made expert in mathematics, astronomy and hydrographic survey, he was selected by the Royal Society of England to make the voyage to Tahiti because of his ability to contribute to this surge in scientific discovery (Herdendorf, 40). The 1769 transit of Venus had an added significance in the scientific community because it was the key to understanding the size of the solar system (Orchiston, 67-71).
Scientists in the 18th century had an inaccurate understanding of the distance between the Earth and other planets. The relative spacing of the planets was understood, however no numbers were associated with these distances (Phillips, “Cook”). When Cook left England for Tahiti, Edmund Halley understood that accurate observations of the transit of Venus could be used to determine the size of the solar system. Halley found that by having two people view the transit at the same time on the same line of longitude but different lines of latitude, the calculations could be made to find the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In essence, the solar parallax, which is the angle formed by lines “drawn from the centre of the Earth and from the observer’s location on the circumference of the Earth,” can be converted into the astronomical unit, which is the actual distance between the Earth and the Sun, using the value of the radius of the Earth and simple trigonometry (Herdendorf, 41). Finally, using Johannes Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion, the value of the astronomical unit can be extrapolated in order to understand the size of the solar system (Orchiston, 67-71).
The transit of 1769 was additionally important considering that the previous transit was a scientific failure. Bad weather and poor communication between nations resulted in a lack of data to calculate the solar parallax in 1761. The next transit would not occur until the 19th century, making 1769 the last chance any scientist alive had to make the calculation. Armed with this information, James Cook sailed for Tahiti, recently visited by Captain Samuel Wallis and deemed the perfect place to observe the transit because it was one of few locations where the entire event would be visible (Salmond, 124). According to his journal, Cook and his crew arrived in Tahiti in April of 1769 and began to build an observatory on the 18th. Known as Fort Venus (Figure 1), the structure served as a solid platform on which to make the necessary observations, and provided protection for the astronomical equipment from the Tahitians who, according to the log, had a penchant for stealing the instruments (Hawkesworth, Chap. IX). The fort was built on Matavai Bay on the north side of Tahiti, was fortified with weapons from the Endeavour and was spacious enough to fit over forty of Cook’s men (Salmond, 147). The instruments housed in the fort had improved significantly since 1761 and represented the best that was available for the time (Herdendorf, 43).
Cook was equipped for his journey by the Royal Society and the Royal Observatory of England with the most sophisticated instruments of the time (Orchiston, 56-57). At his disposal were two Gregorian reflecting telescopes with wooden stands, one astronomical quadrant, an alarum clock, a brass Hadley’s Sextant, a barometer, two thermometers and a dipping needle (Kaye, 8). Using these instruments, Cook needed to record the times of the four vital moments of the transit, known as contacts. These are the points at which (1) Venus just touches the edge of the Sun, (2) the planet’s opposite edge is at contact 1, (3) Venus has traversed the Sun and first touches its opposite edge, and finally (4) the last moment that Venus is in contact with the Sun (Espenak). Cook was unable to obtain precise measurements of the contacts due to the limitations of his instruments. He appeared frustrated and following the transit he recorded in his journal: “We all saw an atmosphere or dusky cloud round the body of the planet, which very much disturbed the times of contact…and we differed from each other in our accounts of the times of the contacts much more than might have been expected.” Cook refers to Charles Green and Dr. Solander, who were also members of the voyage of the Endeavour and observed the transit from another location on Tahiti and the neighboring island of Moorea (Hawkesworth, Chap. XIII). The “dusky cloud round the body of the planet” refers to the black drop effect, which is a phenomenon created by Venus’ atmosphere that causes the edge of the planet to appear in contact with the edge of the Sun longer than it actually is. This effect caused the data recorded by Cook, Green and Solander to differ by several seconds (Phillips, “Cook”).
Despite Cook’s difficulties in obtaining accurate values of the four contacts, mathematicians used his observations to find a value for the solar parallax and thus the astronomical unit. The presently accepted value for the distance between the Earth and the Sun is 149,597,870 kilometers, defined as one astronomical unit (“Glossary”). Cook’s observations were accurate to within 5% of this value, which is impressive considering the difficulties overcome to make this observation (Orchiston, 67-71).
Following the 1769 transit, technology improved the accuracy of the astronomical unit. During the 1874 and 1882 transits, photography allowed scientists to eliminate human error and the black drop effect (Orchiston, 67-71). The invention of radar in the 1960s allowed for the most precise measurement and the calculation of the presently accepted value of the astronomical unit (Phillips, “Cook”). Solar telescopes used for the 2004 transit produced stunning images (Figure 3) that are quite a contrast to the drawings of Cook and Green. The most recent transits were therefore not observed for the purpose of determining the size of the solar system, but were nevertheless scientifically important.
The 2012 transit featured high-tech observatories around the world ready to watch the tiny black dot of Venus traverse the Sun. The solar telescopes of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory are notable in the Hubble-quality images they produced (Phillips, “Cook”). The National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the associated NSO Integrated Synoptic Program (NISP) were other notable contributors, and projects associated with this group analyzed the atmosphere of Venus (“Success!”). By studying Venus’ atmosphere, scientists hoped to develop techniques to measure the atmospheres around planets outside of our solar system (Klotz). The Venus Twilight Experiment also studied the 2012 transit with goals to understand the atmosphere of Venus and to use this information to determine the habitability of extrasolar planets. The Venus Twilight Experiment used an instrument called a Cytherograph, which uses at least eight lenses and filters in order to analyze the actual atmospheric composition of Venus (Tanga). In comparison, James Cook’s reflecting telescopes offered views of Venus using two concave mirrors, which provided only 140 times magnification (Herdendorf, 46). This difference highlights the dramatic advances in technology that have changed the way scientists study the transit of Venus.
As an event that requires observations around the globe, the transit of Venus creates an international sense of community. The 1769 transit was the first major international scientific effort, and the observations of the 2012 transit crossed borders as well (Herdendorf, 43). Live feeds of the event were posted on the Internet and any amateur sky-watcher could report their observations to a database run by NASA (Espenak). Those adventurous enough to travel to Tahiti had a front row seat to the entire transit, just as Cook did over 200 years ago (Veillet).
Just as the instruments have changed, the location from which Cook observed the transit has changed as well. Today Point Venus looks much different than when James Cook visited almost 250 years ago, with surfers, swimmers, sunbathers and fishermen lining the location where Fort Venus once stood. As shown in the modern day image of Point Venus (Figure 2), no evidence remains of Cook’s observatory. There is, however, one small white monument with a bronze plaque that welcomes visitors and includes information about Captain Cook. Although no physical evidence of Cook’s visit remains, visitors are now able to learn about his purpose in travelling to Tahiti, and his efforts in observing the transit of Venus.
Hannah Aichelman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Espenak, Fred. "The 2012 Transit of Venus." NASA Eclipse Web Site. NASA, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
"Glossary: Astronomical Unit (AU)." Near Earth Observation Program. NASA, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013.
Hawkesworth, John. An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773. Print.
Herdendorf, Charles E. “Captain James Cook and the Transits of Mercury and Venus.” The Journal of Pacific History. Vol. 21, No. 1 (1986): pp 39-55. Web.
Kaye, I. “Captain James Cook and the Royal Society.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. Vol. 24, No. 1 (1969): pp 7-18. Web.
Klotz, Irene. "Venus Transit Offers Opportunity to Study Planet's Atmosphere (+video)." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 06 June 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
Orchiston, Wayne. From the South Seas to the Sun, The Astronomy of Cook’s Voyages. Essay in Science and Exploration in the Pacific. Ed. Margarette Lincoln. St Edmunds, Suffolk: St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, 1998. Print.
Phillips, Tony. "The 2012 Transit of Venus." Science@NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
Phillips, Tony. "James Cook and the Transit of Venus." Science@NASA. NASA, 2 June 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
Salmond, Anne. Aphrodite’s Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti. New Zealand: Penguin Group (NZ), 2009. Print.
Tanga, Paolo. "The Venus Twilight Experiment." The Venus Twilight Experiment, 10 July 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2013. <https://venustex.oca.eu/foswiki>.
"Transit of Venus 2012 a Success!" Venus Transit of 2012. National Solar Observatory (NSO), 17 May 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
Veillet, Christian. "Marquesas Islands 2012 Venus Transit Expedition." Astronomy Outreach in the South Pacific. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013.
Figure 1. A drawing of Fort Venus by Samuel Parkinson, an artist who travelled on Cook’s first voyage. The inscription reads: “Venus Fort, Erected by the Endeavour’s People, to secure themselves during the Observation of the Transit of Venus, at Otaheiti.” (Wikimedia Commons)
Figure 2. A photo of Point Venus taken on a beautiful day in January 2011. Courtesy of Mary Malloy.
Figure 3. Venus beginning its transit across the face of the Sun during the 2012 transit. This image was taken by a solar telescope that is part of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (Wikimedia Commons).
How to cite this page:
Hannah Aichelman. “The Evolution of Point Venus, Tahiti,” Atlas for Sustainability in Polynesian Island Cultures and Ecosystems, Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA. 2013. Web. [Date accessed] <html>


News broke yesterday that the UK government has new guidelines for securing smart cars. As vehicles continue to become smarter and increasingly common on British roads, the UK government says it is crucial that manufacturers take the correct steps to make them cyber secure. IT security experts commented below.
Raj Samani, Chief Scientist and Fellow at McAfee:
“With the county’s strong manufacturing heritage, it’s unsurprising that the government has high hopes for the UK to be a global leader in driverless car technology.
The new cybersecurity guidelines will be a key step in achieving this goal, with the security of the car’s network paramount to the safety of the driver and those in the car’s vicinity.
Driverless vehicles must be secure by design, and the government’s new guidelines will undoubtedly play a key role in ensuring that UK car manufacturers make that happen.”
Leigh-Anne Galloway, Cyber Security Resilience Lead at Positive Technologies:
“The proposed key principles sound reasonable, but we doubt it’s enough to provide security when it goes to real tech.
“The most doubtful principle is the last one, saying the system should “respond appropriately when its defence or sensors fail”. If the sensors have not failed but are compromised, they can provide wrong data and endanger human lives. The possible solution is to use more sources of data, not just from this car but from other cars, from the road infrastructure including traffic cameras and interactive maps. Smart vehicles security cannot be considered in isolation, it’s part of a bigger, more complex system of the whole city.
“Another principle that would be hard to put in practice is the one saying “all organisations, including sub-contractors, suppliers and potential third parties, work together to enhance the security of the system”. Although we agree with this guideline, some of the recent IoT incidents prove this concept to be hardly possible. Telecom providers don’t know about the vulnerabilities in their routers made somewhere in China. Security guards don’t know about the back doors in the surveillance cameras they use. If you want to get the whole coordination of all the supply chains and controls of a smart car production you need something like NASA mission control center.”


You are your child’s first and most important teacher.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
~ William Butler Yeats
Inspire learning with our preschool learning kits
Does your child want to read the same story over and over again?
Keep on reading! Numerous studies have found that during a child’s formative years, repeated information builds children’s brains by strengthening the neural pathways where information is stored. This leads to:
- Stronger vocabulary development
- Higher-level thinking skills
- Sets the foundation for kindergarten readiness
Reading the same book repeatedly doesn’t have to be boring! Our storybook-based preschool learning kits help bring concepts and characters from stories to life with engaging preschool learning activities!
Preschool Learning Kits
Spend less time prepping, and more time engaging with our ready-to-use hands-on preschool learning kits ideal for learners ages 2-4*.
Take advantage of classic storybooks children can read over and over again. Your kit includes multiple activities across six core subjects with all materials provided!
* age range may vary because every child is on their own individual journey!
Skill Building Learning Mats
Traveling and eating out with kids doesn’t have to be stressful. Our preschool learning mats are designed to be hands-on, portable, and reusable.
Have fun practicing foundational preschool skills with our learning mats while you’re on the go!


Assessment is a way of finding out if learning has taken place, but it is also necessary to assess your learners’ entry behaviors/understanding and to check whether the objectives have been met. In this article, based on an assignment created as part of my PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) course, I will look at different types of assessment and also the need for good record keeping. Records are kept to show how learners are progressing and are essential for a learner to complete a course and earn the qualification for which they studied.
Assessment can be formative (ongoing) or summative (at the end) and can be formal or informal. It is about gathering information, making judgments based on the interpretation of that information, and then deciding on the appropriate course of action to achieve course objectives. Formal assessments include written, oral and practical tests or recorded observations (e.g. via video, Dictaphone or witness testimony) and their grades contribute to the respective qualification. These are objective, graded, and mark a point where a student may be making progress or need further instruction on a particular topic.
While formal assessments are usually time-bound (by which I mean timed tests as well as the fact that they are scheduled at specific points in a course), informal assessment is, in a sense, always happening – the teacher is constantly watching learners, listening to the answers and judge their attitudes and progress: These are mostly subjective and are not officially recorded. The learners can assess themselves and each other in pairs and groups. The assessment can also be carried out by another person within the teaching organization (internal) or from outside, for example by the examination board or a funding organisation/authority (external).
For my livestock department, many of the assessments can be hands-on – something that particularly suits the type of student attractive to this degree (ie less academically gifted), although other testing methods can be used depending on skill level. A BTEC course requires written proof of achievement, eg in the form of homework; On the other hand, an evening class for small farmers will not do this and the assessment will be largely informal.
As mentioned above, the initial assessment is crucial. Again, this can be informal (assessment of previous learning/knowledge level through introductory tasks) or formal (e.g. the need for an entrance exam/test). An example is the free writing practice required at the start of a PTLLS course – this was used by the tutor to assess levels of understanding, experience and expectation, as well as an opportunity to check literacy and communication skills . From an initial assessment, the teacher knows where to start, how and at what level to deliver the course content and, to a lesser extent, what type of learners to expect – a well-designed initial assessment can even tell a little about the learning styles of betray the group. A very valuable planning aid!
A word of course assessment – often a written document completed by learners – that gives a good indication of a person’s progress and understanding and helps to design/redesign future courses. This type of evaluation tells both the tutor and the course leader how well a course is “working” and how effective a teacher is.
You must keep records of learners’ progress. The most important would be an attendance record (to show that students have completed the required hours of formal study); a grading grid (to record all tests and assignments completed and the grades achieved); some form of profile document (recording, for example, key information about individuals’ achievements and challenges, any tutorial notes on recruitment, past achievements and progress reports); and evaluation forms discussed above (if these are completed during the course, the teacher and his managers can ‘tweak’ the course accordingly).
Without proper written records, the course cannot be formally completed and awards cannot be given – the types described in the previous paragraph represent a collection of evidence that a specific goal has been achieved. The record must be accurate as assessment information is some of the most sensitive information a teacher handles. It should also only be accessible to those who need to have access to it – ie those who are directly involved in the course aligned with the learning objective at hand.
Thanks to Andrew Carter | #Assessment #methods #records #education


A pacemaker is a small electronic device that helps your heart beat more regularly. It does this with a small electric stimulation that helps control your heartbeat. Your physician puts the pacemaker under the skin on your chest, just under your collarbone. It's hooked up to your heart with tiny wires. People may need a pacemaker for a variety of reasons - mostly due to one of a group of conditions called arrhythmias, in which the heart's rhythm is abnormal.
You may need a pacemaker to keep your heart contracting and pumping blood adequately. In this way your body gets the blood, oxygen and food that it needs. Some people just need a pacemaker for a short time, (like after a heart attack), and may use a kind that's outside the skin. The battery unit for this type of pacemaker is worn on a belt.
To understand why your physician may have told you that you need a pacemaker, you need to know about your heart's electrical system. This electrical system helps it beat at a regular speed or pace. Problems with this electrical system can make your heart's pace slow or uneven, possibly leaving you feeling fun-down or even faint. A pacemaker is a small electronic device that helps your electrical system keep your heart beating at the right pace.
Symptoms of a slow heartbeat may include:
- Shortness of breath
- Fainting Spells
These symptoms are usually most noticeable when you're trying to do something active, such as walking or climbing stairs.
Having a pacemaker implanted is a fairly simple surgical procedure, but it does require a lifelong commitment. Keep in mind that pacemakers have been around for more than 30 years. With proper care, a pacemaker can help keep you feeling good for many years to come. The pacemaker keeps track of your heartbeat and, when necessary, generates electrical signals similar to the heart's natural signals. These signals keep your heart beating at the right pace.
A pacemaker helps keep your heart from beating too slowly, but it doesn't stop your heart from beating on its own. The pacemaker "listens" to your heart. When the heart's own electrical system sends a signal and the heart beats, the pacemaker waits and does nothing. When the heart's system misses a signal, the pacemaker sends a signal to replace it.
When you're active, your heart beats at a faster pace or rate. Electrical system problems can sometimes keep your heart's rate from speeding up when you're active. Because of this, some pacemakers are also rate-adaptive. This means they can help change the rate of your heartbeat depending upon your activity level. So when you're dancing or doing similar activity, a rate-adaptive pacemaker helps your heart beat faster. And when you sit down to rest, the pacemaker lets your heart return to a slower rate.
Inserting the pacemaker into your body is called implantation. Pacemaker implantation is not open heart surgery; it's a minor procedure that's done in an operating room or cardiac catheterization lab. Your physician's office will provide instructions on how to prepare for the procedure. Pacemakers can be inserted near the right or left shoulder. If you prefer to have it implanted on a particular side, discuss your preference with your physician.
You will probably be admitted to the hospital on the day of the procedure. Before the procedure begins, you may be given some medication to help you relax.
The most common method used to insert a pacemaker is called endocardial ("inside the heart") implantation. This procedure may take 2 to 3 hours and you will be awake during the surgery. Your physician may be ask you some questions or ask you to take some deep breaths.
A local anesthetic is given by injection to numb the area where the pacemaker will be inserted to keep you from feeling pain during the procedure. An incision is made in your skin below your collarbone to create a small "pocket". The lead for the pacemaker is threaded through the incision into a vein in your upper chest. The lead is then guided into your heart's chambers using x-ray monitors. Electrical measurements are taken to determine a good position for the lead in the heart. If there is a second lead, this process is repeated.
The pacemaker generator is attached to the lead or leads. Then, the generator is placed in the pocket under your skin. The pacemaker's settings are programmed to help your heart beat at a rate that's right for you. The incision is then closed and covered with a sterile dressing.
Your physician may elect to use an alternative method, called epicardial ("outside the heart") implantation. Epicardial implantation takes longer than endocardial implantation and requires more recovery time. An opening is made in the lower chest, and the lead is threaded up to the outside of the heart. The generator is attached to the leads and placed underneath the skin in the abdomen.
After your pacemaker is implanted, you'll probably stay in the hospital for a day or two to be sure that there are no problems. When you go home, you may be given instruction on how to take care of the incision site as it heals. Your physician may also schedule some follow-up visits.
To be sure your pacemaker is working correctly, you'll probably need to visit your physician or pacemaker clinic several times a year. During these visits, the pacemaker's battery level and functions are checked and the pacemaker's settings can be adjusted. Your pacemaker can also be checked from your home.
Once your pacemaker is implanted, it should last five to 10 years, which is the average battery life. When a pacemaker's battery wears out, the entire pacemaker's pulse generator is replaced, and you'll need another procedure to fix your device. The leads of your pacemaker can be left in place, and the procedure to change your pacemaker's battery is often quicker and requires less recovery time than the procedure to first implant your pacemaker.
Living with a pacemaker requires some lifestyle adjustments, but It isn't difficult. You can usually do almost everything you did before you got your pacemaker. And, since you will probably feel better, you may be able to do even more, including regular exercise. See your physician regularly to help ensure that you remain healthy and feeling good.
When you first get your pacemaker, you'll be given an ID card to carry. This ID card contains important information about your pacemaker. Show it to any physician, dentist, or other medical professional you visit. Also, because pacemakers tend to set off security devices like those found in airports and libraries, you may need to show your card to security personnel.
Modern pacemakers are well protected from outside signals, so there are very few things that can interfere with your pacemaker. But if you ever feel symptoms that make you think a device is disrupting your pacemaker's signals, turn the device off or move away from it. Your symptoms should stop and your pacemaker shouldn't be damaged. To be safe, check with your physician.
Appliances which should be safe to use include:
- Microwave ovens and other appliances in good repair
- Hair Dryers
- Power Tools
- TV's and Radios
- Electric Blankets and Heating Pads
- Vacuum Cleaners
There are a few things to avoid that might interfere with your pacemaker. These include very strong magnets (like those used for an MRI), radio transmitting tours, ham radios, certain surgical instruments and cellular phones. When using a cellular phone, hold it on the ear farthest away from your pacemaker. Don't carry it in your breast pocket, even when it's turned off. Also, a running car engine generates an electrical field, so avoid leaning directly over the open hood of a running car.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call your physician. It's very important for you to keep your appointments with your physician or pacemaker clinic. Follow your physician's recommendations about caring for your pacemaker, taking medications or doing other things to care for your heart.


Cuddling small and premature babies in a style known as “kangaroo mother care” helps them in life decades later, researchers reported Monday.
They found that babies held upright and close to bare skin and breastfed, instead of being left in incubators, grew up with fewer social problems. They were far less likely to die young.
It’s a reassuring finding for parents who may worry that tiny and premature babies are safer in an incubator than in their arms, the team wrote in their report, published in the journal Pediatrics.
Kangaroo mother care was first described in Colombia, and the team of experts there who first showed it was safe did a 20-year follow-up to see how the babies fared as they grew up. They tracked down 494 of the original 716 children who were born prematurely from 1993 to 1996 and randomly assigned to get either kangaroo mother care or standard handling.
“The effects of kangaroo mother care at one year on IQ and home environment were still present 20 years later in the most fragile individuals, and kangaroo mother care parents were more protective and nurturing,” Dr. Nathalie Charpak and colleagues at the Kangaroo Foundation in Bogota, Colombia, wrote in their report.
“At 20 years, the young ex-kangaroo mother care participants, especially in the poorest families, had less aggressive drive and were less impulsive and hyperactive. They exhibited less antisocial behavior, which might be associated with separation from the mother at birth,” they added.
“Kangaroo mother care may change the behavior of less well-educated mothers by increasing their sensitivity to the needs of their children, thus making them equivalent to mothers in more favorable environments.”
Twenty million babies are born at a low birth weight every year around the globe, the World Health Organization reports. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of pre-term and low-weight births — about one in 12 births, according to the March of Dimes.
It defines low birthweight as being when a baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces.
Most of these small babies are premature and they are at high risk of dying, of developing cerebral palsy, or having learning disabilities, and they can grow up more prone to a range of diseases.
High-tech care can help, but WHO promotes the simpler, low-tech approach alongside modern medical care — or instead of it in some poor settings.
“Kangaroo mother care is care of preterm infants carried skin-to-skin with the mother. It is a powerful, easy-to-use method to promote the health and well-being of infants born preterm as well as full-term. Its key features are: early, continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the mother and the baby; exclusive breastfeeding (ideally); it is initiated in hospital and can be continued at home; small babies can be discharged early; mothers at home require adequate support and follow-up,” WHO said.
“It is a gentle, effective method that avoids the agitation routinely experienced in a busy ward with preterm infants.”
And it’s safe, WHO added. “Almost two decades of implementation and research have made it clear that kangaroo mother care is more than an alternative to incubator care.”
Charpak’s team found the babies randomly assigned to get this treatment were 39 percent more likely to live into adulthood. They had stayed in school longer and earned more as adults.
It didn’t work miracles. Children with cerebral palsy were equally likely to have symptoms whether they had the kangaroo care or not, and more than half the people in the entire group needed glasses. The children given standard care had higher math and language scores in school, while IQ levels were about the same in both groups.
But overall, the findings support the benefits of kangaroo mother care, the team concluded.
“Our long-term findings should support the decision to introduce kangaroo mother care to reduce medical and psychological disorders attributable to prematurity and low birth weight,” they wrote.
“We suggest that both biology and environment together might modulate a powerful developmental path for these children, impacting until adult age,” they added.
“We firmly believe that this is a powerful, efficient, scientifically based health intervention that can be used in all settings.”View External Link


Astronomers are excited over mysterious multiple radio signals emanating from outside of the Milky Way, which are already being heralded as the world’s first verified alien signals from space.
The “fast radio bursts”, including a “double signal”, have left astronomers baffled as to their origins as they analyse the data from the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia.
One of the researchers who discovered the unique signals says that she believes the origin could be more amazing than anything recorded previously.
Emily Petroff from Swinburne University tweeted: “We have no idea what’s going on, but we know it’s definitely something cool.”
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) were first discovered from records in 2007, and we finally saw one in real-time last year.
However, there has never, until now, been a double blast.
They are quick-fire bursts of radio energy, originating from great distances away, and, as a result, must have contained a huge amount of energy.
The source remains a total mystery.
Seemingly similar readings which excited astronomers earlier this year called perytons at the time were later found to be coming from microwave ovens on Earth being prematurely opened in the canteens of observatories where observations were being taken.
The announcement in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society of the five new signals has left the research community on tenet hooks.
The team said the double burst FRB (called 121002) had a “clear two-component profile”.
They say each component is similar to the known population of single component FRBs and are separated by 2.4 milliseconds.
They added: “Many of the proposed models to explain FRBs use a single high energy eventinvolving compact objects (such as neutron star mergers) and therefore cannot easily explain a two-component FRB.”
The news comes just days after a research paper claimed FRBs were the result of mergers between black holes and neutron stars.
FRB 121002 has the largest delay yet recorded of any frequency picked up, suggesting it has an origin of an immense distance away – probably several billion light-years beyond our own galaxy the Milky way.
More conventional theories for the bursts include them being created by evaporating black holes, supergiant pulsar pulses or the collapse of epically large stars.
But the team said it was difficult to match any of these with the double bast, suggesting that intelligent origin was a serious possibility.
Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, said: “Every unusual signal from outer space encourages us to wonder if it is from an alien civilisation.
“It would be fantastic if this is an alien signal as the knowledge that we are not alone in this vast universe would have a dramatic impact on our perception of our place in the scheme of things.
“It would certainly give the opportunity for UFO spotters to say we told you aliens exist and take an interest in our activities, and you didn’t believe us.”


Closing the science gender gap: we need to increase the public presence of women in STEM by Dr. Megan Sebben, CDM Smith
Closing the science gender gap: we need to increase the public presence of women in STEM
by Dr. Megan Sebben, CDM Smith
I wasn’t one of those kids who knew what they wanted to do when they grew up. In fact, at 28, I’m still not exactly sure what I want to do. I’ve always had a passion for solving problems; particularly small ones like saving the planet (it’s a work in progress). Fast track a couple of decades and I’ve somehow completed a PhD in Hydrogeology and am working as a hydrogeologist/ groundwater modeller at the water and environmental services firm, CDM Smith. Like many women working in the science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, I’ve become used to working in a male-dominated environment. I would be lying if I said this didn’t have its challenges. That’s why I’m so encouraged by the work of groups such as Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering who support women to be successful in these fields. But how do we encourage our next generation of young women to pursue a career in STEM?
Speaking from my own experience, I never even contemplated a career as a scientist, despite being so interested in the world around me. Is this because young women generally aren’t interested in STEM? Well, no. Because there is plenty of evidence to suggest that young women are both interested and highly capable in STEM subjects. The STEM fields appear to be in crisis. The cause being, a lack of female role models in the public space and our own cultural and implicit biases. Add to that a lack of self-confidence amongst young women and we have a major problem.
There are some incredible science communicators out there who do an extraordinary job of bringing science to the public (Brian Cox, David Attenborough, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Karl Kruszelnicki and Adam Spencer to name a few). But how does an eight-year-old school girl with an interest in creepy crawlies, or a 16-year-old with an interest in astrophysics, look at these roles models and imagine herself in that position? Why aren’t presenters like the amazing Professor Emma Johnston gaining the same traction? And more importantly, have we stopped to think about the consequences of this? The growth of jobs requiring STEM skills far outweighs the growth in other areas. So, can we really afford to push this issue aside and accept that in the future, male students will have more job opportunities available to them than their female counterparts? If the answer to that question is no, then what can we do about it? Increasing the public presence of women in STEM is part of that solution, but a broad-scale change in culture is required. Perhaps these young women have never encountered a female scientist or engineer in their personal lives? This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider that in Australia, only 17% of professors are women (despite having a much higher percentage of junior female academics). Systemic failures, including a lack of work flexibility and clear gender pay gaps, deter and prevent the longevity of women’s scientific careers. They are of course a cause for concern, but that’s a whole other blog topic.
Studies have demonstrated that between the ages of nine and 11, two thirds of primary school students will draw a man if they are asked to draw a scientist. So, while school-based efforts to address gender bias and stereotyping are critical (the Curious Minds program and CSIRO’s Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools are fantastic examples), we need to step even further back, because by the time children are ready to attend primary school we are already losing the battle. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that implicit and cultural biases in STEM are already firmly cemented when we consider the way that children’s products, such as toys and clothes, are marketed differently for boys and girls. I remember distinctly now, and somewhat disturbingly, my beloved talking Barbie doll who happily uttered the words, “math class is hard,” and “let’s go shopping!”
The empowerment of our future women in STEM must start at home and in the community. Our language, actions and expectations of our daughters (and sons) are capable of long-term impacts that will change society for the better. For the women reading this blog, I strongly encourage you to consider your role as a mentor, whether that’s to your graduate students or as a parent volunteer in your child’s school. For many young women in primary or high school, the self-critical voice speaks so loudly and clearly, that it leaves them doubting their abilities to be successful in STEM related subjects. What could be more empowering for a student than engaging with a mentor or role model who tells them, ‘of course you can.’
We need to create space in the public domain to recognise the incredible contributions of women in STEM. I am extremely proud to have been involved in the ‘Illuminating the face of STEM’ event co-ordinated by STEM: Women Branching Out at Flinders University. The group ran a week-long event, which profiled some of Australia’s women in STEM in celebration of National Science Week. Most members of the public we encountered during this event admitted that they were unable to think of a single female scientist until witnessing the display. Rather than be disheartened by this, I am encouraged to see that change is occurring, albeit slowly. Collectively, we are moving in the right direction but this isn’t the time to become complacent.
Dr Megan Sebben
Megan is Melbourne-based hydrogeologist and groundwater modeller at the water and environmental services firm, CDM Smith. She obtained a PhD in Groundwater Hydrology from Flinders University, where she used numerical models to examine contaminant transport in complex geologic environments, focussing primarily on the phenomenon of seawater intrusion. Her international experience includes a research stay at Leibniz University in Germany, and presentations at conferences in Europe and the United States.
Megan is a passionate science communicator, mentor, and advocate for gender equity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Megan enjoys anything adventurous, dance, and spending time with her friends and family.
Find out more about Megan’s research here.
View images from ‘Illuminating the face of STEM’
Follow Megan on Twitter.Posted on: 04/05/2017, by : Shari Gallop