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Why is this important? For two reasons: a) because effective teaching should include multi-media elements and b) building digital content that teachers can archive on their wikis or class websites is easier today than ever before. My class wikis are turning 4 years old this year and I've accumulated an impressive amount of digital content, both from my students' efforts and my own. Flipping classroom instruction is garnering much attention and despite some controversy from inconclusive research, many teachers are setting out to build elements of the 'flipped classroom' into their instructional design. That means videos or some multi-media presentation will become as important to teachers in the 21st century as paper was in the 20th! We need to learn how to make effective instructional videos. Correction; I need to improve my own videos. When I look back over my instructional multi-media designs since 2008, I run the gamut of emotions from embarrassment (OMG, how terrible is that!) to indifference (ho, hum, boring) to satisfaction (hmm, not bad that one!). So, I have committed to trying out a new screencasting program on my Mac (the past ones were made on PC) and will report my progress on the blog. More importantly though, will be the implementation of multi-media design principles from studies done by Richard Mayer, an educational cognitive psychologist at the University of California (UCSB). Since the late 90s, he has been researching 'cognitive overload' and 'dual processing system'; information comes to the brain through both the eyes and the ears, hence the 'dual' system. Processing information and holding it in working memory long enough to make 'sense' of it is the brain's challenge. The teacher's challenge, or anyone designing instructional videos, is avoiding the deadly brain shut-down that happens when too much information is aimed at the students. Mayer proposes simple design principles that I will explore in the coming weeks and shamefully (or not) share my attempts at integrating these ideas in my videos. You can give me a thumbs up or down, or maybe just some honest feedback. I know my students will do the same!

| The poetry of reality| |We must know. | We will know. |A view from the| shoulders of giants. Scientific journals are a form of scientific publication and the primary means by which scientists circulate detailed research results intended for other professionals. Unlike popular science or professional magazines, most of the content is written by active scientists, not journalists. They report recent scientific findings and allow the data to be verified by others, and thus are an important part of the scientific method. Articles always include references (citations) to previous and related studies and at least a short review on them. Articles undergo peer review by 1-3 other scientists to ensure adherence to scientific standards. The main questions in peer review is whether the data and/or analysis support the conclusion, and if the conclusion itself is novel and important. Generally, scientists require that a claim has been made in at least one, preferably multiple scientific articles, before accepting it as a scientific fact. This however depends very much in the field: conference proceedings are considered acceptable sources in e.g. computer science, and single-author books in humanities. The scientific journal is a specific type of academic journal. Many professional organizations and sometimes even individual universities have their own journal, although many of the big journals are published by private publishers. Some examples of scientific journals are Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS, often pronounced 'penis'). Major publishers of these journals include Elsevier, Springer, and John Wiley & Sons. Journals are ranked by their citation counts, which is quantified by their impact factor, which is approximately the average number of citations per article. Publishers are very aware of this and market their product with their impact factor. The economics of learned journals are unique in the world of publishing. Their cover price does not provide enough revenue to produce them. They also carry no—or extremely little—advertising. In a bizarre reversal of magazine publishing convention, their authors are not paid. In the conventional closed-access model, the authors are unpaid and have to relinquish their copyright to the publisher, which then resells the content to university libraries via a journal subscriptions. In the open-access model, the article is freely available, but the authors (or in practice, the universities where they work) pay considerable fees for the privilege of being published. A hybrid journal is a closed-access journal that allows the authors to pay an open-access fee (also called article-processing charge) to make the article freely available. For example, the open access fee for Nature Communications was $5,200 in 2018. However, individual scientists benefit indirectly: funding decisions and personnel evaluations in scientific research are largely based on the number of publications, their citation count and journal impact factor. The reviewers are also unpaid and usually anynymous and uncredited. Pseudojournals and predatory open-access journals are non-scientific publications marketed as scientific journals. Pseudojournals have the trappings of a scientific journal, but not the standards: they publish pseudoscience and do not review their content according to scientific standards. Predatory open-access journals are in it just for the open access fee. They can be very difficult to distinguish from real journals, because legitimate content may be mixed in. - Biology 150: Science in the News, Collins Memorial Library

What is digital economy? Unicorns, transformation and the internet of things The world as we know it is continually changing, and one of the fundamental drivers is digital transformation. At its core, digital transformation isn’t about Internet “unicorns.” It’s about using the latest technology to do what you already do – but better. The global economy is undergoing a digital transformation as well, and it’s happening at breakneck speed. So, what is the digital economy? It′s the economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data, and processes. The backbone of the digital economy is hyperconnectivity which means growing interconnectedness of people, organisations, and machines that results from the Internet, mobile technology and the internet of things (IoT). The digital economy is taking shape and undermining conventional notions about how businesses are structured; how firms interact; and how consumers obtain services, information, and goods. Professor Walter Brenner of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland states: “The aggressive use of data is transforming business models, facilitating new products and services, creating new processes, generating greater utility, and ushering in a new culture of management.” Recently, TechCrunch, a digital economy news site, noted, “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate… Something interesting is happening.” What is it about these companies that allows them to re-imagine the traditional boundaries and value proposition of their industry? What can these young companies teach you about leading a digital transformation in your industry? How will you adapt to the emerging fluidity found in traditional roles? There are four fundamental areas of digital transformation central to business success in the digital economy. Future of work People regularly work from different offices, their home, or a local coffee shop. While where we work has changed, we all expect the same level of connectivity experienced in the physical office. The emergence of this flexible, global enterprise requires organisations to manage a dynamic ecosystem of talent and enable next-generation digital business processes that prove to be effective, even when distributed across various places and time zones. In the digital economy, all customers – business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer alike – want to interact with businesses when and where they want and in a fashion that is most convenient for them. Additionally, customers desire engagement with brands through experiences that are seamless, omnichannel, direct, contextual, and personalised. Digital supply networks While the global middle class is expected to expand threefold by 2030, there is increasing pressure on essential business resources, which are growing at a slower rate of 1.5 times. The answer to this mismatch lies in how enterprises securely share data in real time to enable next-generation commerce applications to thrive. The digitisation of everything is creating new intelligent digital networks of networks that fundamentally change the way commerce is managed, optimised, shared, and deployed. The Internet of Things (IoT) As sensor prices continue to drop, we are on the cusp of an era where everything can be connected – people, businesses, devices, and processes – to each other. The melding of the physical and digital world brings every asset into a digital domain where software dominates. When an organisation can understand its physical and digital asset inventory at any given moment, it can operate with precision previously unimaginable, paving the way for the ultimate lean enterprise. This will not be a nice-to-have differentiator, but an imperative for any digital business within the next two years.

Nowhere in the world is there more shipping and dredging than in the North Sea No sea in the world is as busy as the North Sea. Not only does the world's busiest shipping route, the English Channel, generate extra traffic, but the Scheldt estuary also plays an important role for the many container ships that sail from the port of Antwerp to other seaports around the world. Every day, the North Sea teems with container ships, fishing boats, pleasure craft, police patrols and naval frigates. To channel all this traffic, special routes have been mapped out. These guide ships around all sorts of obstacles, including the North Sea's many sandbanks. Keeping the water flowing With the deepest point of the Belgian North Sea barely 40 m below sea level, dredgers are constantly at work to keep the water flowing. It is no coincidence that Belgium is one of the world's leading dredging nations. With the Netherlands, it has the largest and most modern dredging fleet in the world, led by the Belgian companies Jan De Nul and Deme and the Dutch companies Royal Boskalis Westminster NV and Van Oord. All this dredging is also vital for the North Sea ports, as it ensures the smooth flow of ships. And there are a lot of them every day, both long- and short-haul. Short sea shipping Thanks to its central location on the Scheldt and the North Sea, the port of Antwerp-Bruges is an important player in short sea shipping. This refers to the transport of goods and passengers between ports in geographical Europe or between these ports and ports in non-European countries whose coastline follows the European inland seas. That includes maritime transport between the EU member states, Norway, Iceland and other countries bordering the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean Seas. The port of Antwerp-Bruges offers weekly fixed short sea and feeder sailings to and from 200 destinations in Europe, North Africa and the UK. This activity links the Belgian location with 569 ports. As much as 110.7 million tonnes, or 47.9 per cent of the port's total seaborne cargo handling, comes from or goes to a short sea destination. In addition, 4.7 million TEUs, or 38.8 per cent of container throughput, travels between the port and other short sea destinations. The volume of goods loaded and unloaded in Antwerp has more than doubled in the last 20 years to 231 million tonnes. This makes Antwerp by far the most important port in Belgium and the second largest in Europe. Its location 80 km inland makes Antwerp the fastest and most sustainable link to the European hinterland. Antwerp is ranked 14th in the world's top 20 container ports. As the world's population grows and coastal economic activity increases, the North Sea has become one of the busiest fishing and shipping areas in the world. This summer Belga explores the sea through transport, wind energy, water quality, biodiversity and archaeology. #FlandersNewsService | © PHOTO ARTERRA © VIDEO PORT OF ANTWERP-BRUGES

Zoo Heidelberg's young Asian Small-Clawed Otters are all play! Born last November, the two pups are healthy but not quite hardy enough to stay outside in the cold. After swimming, running and jumping, they snuggle up in their warm indoor enclosure. The newborns each weighed a miniscule 1.8 ounces (50 grams) at birth. Completely dependent on parental care, Asian Small-Clawed otter pups are born naked and are blind until they open their eyes at six weeks old. At seven weeks, they begin to play and explore. The young otters reach maturity at two years, but may stay with their parents to help raise the next litter. Breeding pairs form strong bonds and mate for life. Asian Small-Clawed Otters are the smallest of otters. They have a wide range, from southern India through the Philippines and southern China. Mostly a freshwater species, they spend more time on land than other otters do. Their feet have two unusual traits: their short claws do not extend past the pads of their feet, and they do not have webbing between their toes. These adaptations help them to forage underwater for snails, crabs and other invertebrates along the bottom. Small-Clawed Otters are often welcome in rice paddies because eat crop pests like crabs. See and learn more below the fold...

FLUORESCENT AMBER SPECIMEN 13 Fluorescent Amber Specimen 13 or fossil tree sap. A beautiful stone often cut and polished into a valuable gemstone. It is a fossil which can contain preserved insects and other animals or plants that are millions of years old. Inclusions seen in Amber increase its value. Three pics taken inside, outside and with UVC Light. A label comes with each specimen, professionally printed with a sticky back. 5.4cm x 2.6cm x 1.5cm, 7.6g. Ancient Tree Sap that hardened over millions of years becomes a fossil. The Jurassic Park movie made Amber famous. Real Amber’s hardness is usually greater and it is tougher than other imitation resins. Its low specific gravity (amber can float on salt water) and inclusions can distinguish it from plastics and glasses. Other tests include hot pin for smell and UVA Longwave Fluorescent Luminescence.

In February, the Universe Today followed the sad tale about a dead US satellite called US-193, lifelessly floating around in orbit, possibly threatening the world by dumping hazardous fuel onto a city somewhere. This was the perfect time for the US Navy to launch their Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) into space, smashing US-193 to tiny bits. It worked and it worked well. Although we’ve seen loads of pictures of the rocket being launched, and the pinpoint accuracy it accomplished by detonating in low Earth orbit, but what technology goes into the actual warhead that takes out the satellite? Well, in an article just published, images of an older generation “Kinetic Energy” anti-satellite weapon are on display. And to be honest, it doesn’t look that scary… There’s more than one way to kill a satellite. You can make it self destruct by firing its thrusters, sending it in a deadly descent through the atmosphere. But say if you don’t have communication with the craft? You could capture it in orbit using a robotic or manned spaceship. But this would be prohibitively expensive and dangerous. You could simply shoot it down… now this idea (although far from being “simple”) is the most popular and effective method to get rid of a satellite from orbit. The anti-satellite (ASAT) idea has been around since the Cold War, as far back as the 1960’s, but very little information is available. In fact, according to Dwayne Day’s article in The Space Review on the 31st March, since the Cold War nobody has been bothered to write much about American ASAT technology development, policy, and doctrine. It is unclear if this is down to the military being (understandably) secretive, or whether people simply lost interest in the “Star Wars” program proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1983. But there are some clues as to the US anti-satellite capabilities back in the 1990’s, namely a cool-looking mock-up of one of Lockheed’s proposals for a kinetic energy anti-satellite warhead (or KE-ASAT, pictured left), the author discovered at the Aerospace Legacy Foundation’s offices located at the former North American Aviation Downey factory. The owner, a Dr. Jim Busby showed off a low fidelity mock-up of a Lockheed KE-ASAT, which he acquired in the early 1990s, when a previous owner discarded it. It’s a strange-looking device, resembling a mini-spaceship capsule (although, from the images and description, it is unclear how big it is) that would have sat on top of a rocket booster to send it from the ground and into space to hit its satellite target. This type of anti-satellite does not explode on impact; it relies on huge velocities and a high mass to generate enough kinetic energy to destroy the target on impact. Some variations on this theme may have included a Kevlar “fly swatter” that would expand on impact, making it easier to hit the satellite and destroy it. It is obvious from the images that the mass of the warhead is packed in the red cone at the front of the weapon; the infrared heat-seeker targeting system would also be housed there. There is also a main thruster (that would fire to life once the rocket boosters had carried it into space), and attitude controls at the rear to guide the high velocity projectile to its target. A similar method was used by the February 20th US spy satellite intercept, so the proposed technology this KE-ASAT is built on is not far from the current method employed by the US Navy. Alas, the KE-ASAT never made it to the production line as Lockheed’s bid for use in an anti-satellite program was beaten by the Rockwell company in July 1990, the US Army opted for a far different-looking design, not dissimilar to the ASAT used today. Personally I think the Lockheed concept looked better, but would have been very scary, causing a huge mess… Source: The Space Review

The momentum of a particle is defined as the product of its mass times its velocity. It is a vector quantity. The momentum of a system is the vector sum of the momenta of the objects which make up the system. If the system is an isolated system, then the momentum of the system is a constant of the motion and subject to the principle of conservation of momentum. The most common symbol for momentum is p. The SI unit for momentum is kg m/s. You may insert numbers for any of the quantities. Then click on the text or symbol in the formula above for the quantity you wish to calculate.The numbers will not be forced to be consistent until you click on the desired quantity. Conservation of momentum

Even though the dunes can be seen from miles away, driving up to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in south central Colorado is still a surreal experience. Typically, when there is this much sand, there is an ocean nearby, but all there is here are the 14,000-foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the open San Luis Valley to the west. The tallest sand dunes in North America are found at Great Sand Dunes National Park, reaching heights of 750 feet. While that may not sound very high to a seasoned hiker, remember that this is sand, not solid dirt! While scientists aren’t completely sure, it’s generally accepted that the dunes started forming around 440,000 years ago when Lake Alamosa, which once covered most of the San Luis Valley, receded and drained through volcanic deposits to the Rio Grande River. Once the water was gone, the southwest winds blew the remaining sand into the natural curve of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. During storms, winds come from the east through the Mosca, Medano, and Music Passes, and these opposing wind forces continue to build the dunes higher and higher. There are also two streams in the area—Medano and Sand Creeks—that bring water and sand down from the mountains to the valley floor. When the creeks disperse or dry up, that sand is also blown into the dunes. Just because the dunes are in a windy, high altitude desert, don’t think there isn’t life here! The first few inches of the dunes are dry and experience extreme temperatures, but just below the surface, there is enough moisture for species such as Ord's kangaroo rat, Great Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle, scurfpea, and blowout grass to survive. Other animals visit the dunes, too, such as elk, pronghorn, bison, coyotes, bobcats, and raptors. The area was designated as Great Sand Dunes National Monument in 1932, and became a national park in 2004. The park has several ecosystems and habitats, ranging from grasslands and shrublands on three sides of the dunefield to high alpine tundra to forests and meadows to alpine tundra up in the mountains. Just about everyone comes to the park to explore the sand dunes. The dunefield is 30 square miles, and there are no set trails. There are five dunes over 700 feet, but the High Dune (at 699 feet) is the most popular one in the park. It looks the tallest from the parking lot, and will give visitors a wonderful scenic view of the dunes and the surrounding landscape. The average time to hike this dune is about two hours. From High Dune, look west to see Star Dune, the highest in North America. Traverse about a mile and a half up and down other dunes to get to the peak. Expect about five hours roundtrip to the top of Star Dune and back. Besides hiking, many visitors enjoy sandboarding or sledding down the dunes. Regular snowboards, sleds, or plastic trashcan lids won’t work (you’ll likely just get stuck in the sand), so head to one of the two places to rent a sandboard or sandsled—year round at Kristi Mountain Sports in Alamosa, or from April to October, at the Oasis Store outside the park entrance. But it’s not all about the sand dunes! With the Sangre de Cristo Mountains right there, it’s no surprise that there are some worthwhile alpine trails, too. The Mosca Pass trail is a great one on a hot day, as it winds up through aspen and evergreen to a pass in the mountains. The trail is seven miles roundtrip, and follows a route once traveled by Native Americans and early settlers to get in and out of the valley. For a real challenge, summit 13,297' Mount Herard for a breathtaking view of the mountains and the dunes. It’s about a 10-mile roundtrip and requires 4WD to get to the trailhead. Pick up a copy of The Essential Guide to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve at the Visitor Center bookstore for more information and directions to the trailheads in the area. After a long summer day on the dunes or the trails, head to Medano Creek (at the base of the dunes) for a fun float or just a little splash to cool off. The best water flow is in April and May, and visitors can also skimboard on the creek. Secrets of the Park If you have a 4WD vehicle, drive up to the Eastern Ridge and take a break at the Sand Pit or Castle Creek Picnic Areas. There is a tall, steep dune face at Castle Creek, and both spots are near Medano Creek. Colorado is well known for its vibrant fall colors, especially when the aspens burst into hues of gold and orange. One of the best places in the state to see fall foliage is through Medano Pass. The road requires a high-clearance 4WD vehicle and is only passable in warmer months, so not many people venture up there. There is camping along the 22-mile primitive road, many creek crossings, and some sand to get over. Check conditions before you go. Medano Creek is one of the only places in the world where visitors can experience the phenomenon known as “surge flow”, which only happens when there is just the right balance of water, sand, and slope. This usually occurs in the spring or early summer when the water flow is at its peak, and visitors will see waves rolling in about every 20 seconds. Sometimes, they can get up to foot high, making skimboarding or floating even more fun. Great Sand Dunes National Park is just over 30 minutes from the nearest town of Alamosa, so it’s easy to get a hotel room if you want to spend a weekend exploring the dunes. There are also some campgrounds at the park, but no matter where you stay, it’s definitely worth spending a couple days here—one day to explore the dunes, and another day to hit the trails in the mountains. How to Get the Most Out of Your Visit - The area is very windy. Bring eyewear (sunglasses should be fine) and a handkerchief or something to protect your face just in case the winds are really strong (winds can get up to 40 miles an hour). - You can visit the dunes year round, but if you come in the summer, the park is really busy, so weekdays are best. Also in the summer, the dunes get to 150 degrees, so go out in the early morning or later evening. Spring and fall are the best times to visit. - Medano Creek has the best flow in late May. In June, the mosquitos come out, so the creek can get quite buggy.

There are various methods by which to evaluate zipper strength.The basic strength can be determined based on the results of the following inspection methods, from which overall strength appropriate for respective uses can be judged.（Based on JIS-S3015 and ASTM D2061) (Tensile tester: Tensile velocity is 300mm/min. Clamp width is 25mm) Chain crosswise strength To determine ordinary zipper strength: a zipper chain is interlocked, pulled at a fixed speed at a right angle to the chain interlocked direction, and the resistance is measured. Top stop holding strength The lower part of an interlocked zipper is fixed and the slider is pulled up to the top stop. Holding strength is measured by pulling the slider tab firmly. Bottom stop holding strength The slider is pulled down to the bottom stop and single chains are opened to the right and left sides. Bottom stop holding strength and resistance of the elements inside the slider are measured. Separating unit crosswise strength The open part is fixed to the tensile tester (only the open part as shown in the figure) so that the end of the last element falls into line with the clamp edge and the tensile strength can be measured. Slider lock strength A slider is locked at the middle of a zipper chain and single chains are opened to the right and left sides. Locking strength and resistance of the elements inside the slider are measured. Slider tab pull off strength(90 degrees) For a completed slider, resistance of the slider is measured when the pull tab is fulled away from the lower part of the body. In addition to the 90 degree method of measuring shown in the figure at left, there is one for 45 degrees.

Can the Demand Curve Ever Be Upward Sloping? Most consumers prefer to pay lower prices for the goods and services they want. The so-called "law of demand" in economics recognizes this, holding that higher prices reduce demand for a good, and vice versa, other factors being equal. The demand curve visually depicts this on a graph. Because of the way the graph is set up, the curve typically slopes downward and to the right to illustrate a rise in demand as prices decline -- but the law of demand may have a loophole. In a few cases, higher prices may actually increase demand for some products and services, meaning that the demand curve would slope upward. Economists display demand curves on a two-dimensional grid. The vertical axis represents price, going from low price at the bottom upwards toward higher prices. The horizontal axis represents quantity of demand, going from zero or a low number at the left toward higher quantity at the right. A downward sloping demand curve illustrates the law of demand, showing that demand increases as prices decrease, and vice versa. In contrast, a demand curve that slopes upward and to the right indicates that demand for a product increases as the price rises. According to the Harper Collins Dictionary of Economics, economists have identified two reasons for an upward-sloping demand curve. These are conspicuous consumption, and products that economists refer to as "Giffen goods." Conspicuous consumption is a phenomenon in which consumers purchase luxury items because of the status associated with them. For example, some consumers may purchase luxury automobiles or high-end designer apparel because such items may identify them as persons of wealth or taste. These consumers may have higher demand for expensive items because of a belief that the high prices confer status on these goods. This idea has its roots in the work of 19th century economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term conspicuous consumption in his 1899 book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class." Economists use the term "inferior goods" to refer to products and services for which consumers reduce their consumption as their incomes rise. Examples may include tickets for public buses, according to Harvard economist Greg Mankiw. As incomes rise, consumers may substitute automobiles for rides on city buses. Some inferior goods may show higher demand as prices increase. Such products are called Giffen goods, after economist Robert Giffen. With Giffen goods, higher prices increase demand, usually because the goods in question represent such a large proportion of a consumer's budget. Economists disagree on whether actual Giffen goods have existed in economic history. Some economic historians suggest that potatoes were Giffen goods during the Irish potato famine in the 19th century, according to Mankiw. Potatoes were such a staple of the Irish diet that higher prices caused many people to cut back on other foods, such as meat, to buy more potatoes, thus raising demand for potatoes despite the higher prices resulting from the famine. - Harper Collins Dictionary of Economics; C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies, and S.J. Kronish; 1991 - Principles of Economics, 3rd ed.; Gregory Mankiw; 2004 - PhotoObjects.net/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images

A selection of articles related to sundisc. Original articles from our library related to the Sundisc. See Table of Contents for further available material (downloadable resources) on Sundisc. - The Sun disc itself, first as a heavenly body, later personified as Re. During the Amarna period exalted by Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) to be the only god in existence, something which had been unheard of in Egyptian religion. Aten was then depicted as a sundisc... Deities & Heros >> Egyptian - History of the Egyptian Religion, part II: The Old Kingdom - II - The Old Kingdom ca 2686-2181 BC During the Old Kingdom the Egyptian society moved from tribal communities to a fully developed theocratic system, where the power of the king was absolute. The great pyramids of Dynasty 4 was made possible by technological... Religions >> Egyptian Sundisc is described in multiple online sources, as addition to our editors' articles, see section below for printable documents, Sundisc books and related discussion. Suggested News Resources - Chennai wakes up to witness a rare celestial spectacle - Chennai: It was 5.45 am. The wind was slightly chilly at Elliot's Beach, Besant Nagar. - Watch a total solar eclipse tonight at 8:38PM ET - That's when the Sun's disc is completely covered and only the outer edges are visible. The total eclipse is only visible for people located on a narrow 100-mile wide path that runs across Earth's surface, according to NASA. - This Week's Night Sky: Solar Eclipse and Double Clusters - Observers lucky enough to be within that shadow cone will witness the disappearance of at least a portion of the sun's disk. For more, check out our full viewer's guide to the March 8 solar eclipse. - Public catch partial solar eclipse despite rain earlier - According to the National Space Agency (Angkasa) website, first contact is the moment the moon touches the sun's disk, which happened at around 7.24am in Kuching. Alcila, who was always interested in sky gazing and space, was excited about her ... Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site. Related searchestommy desimone epigram ancient roman dream analysis bomb richard bandler bibliography x-ray photographic plates

Survey of 1 Samuel Book Type: Book of History; the ninth book of the Old Testament; the ninth book of the Bible. Author: The book itself does not name its author. Tradition records Samuel as the primary author, but not the only one. It was likely completed by both Samuel and other godly leaders of Israel who served through the end of book's events. Audience: First and Second Samuel were originally completed as a single text, written to the Jewish people. The work serves both as a record of history and to emphasize the importance of faithfully following God. First Samuel records the transition of Israel's leadership from judges to kings, beginning with the transition of leadership from the prophet Samuel to King Saul and then King David. First Samuel illustrates the blessing of those who remain obedient to the Lord (like Samuel) and the judgment that comes upon those who live in disobedience to the Lord (like Saul). Date: Unknown. It was clearly written after the division of Israel and Judah in 931 BC, since these lands are often noted as separate kingdoms. Because its contents do not reflect the later events of the exile to Babylon, it was likely completed prior to this time, sometime between 931 and 722 BC. Overview: First Samuel consists of 31 chapters and includes three main sections. The first section develops the life of Samuel as both prophet and judge in Israel (1 Samuel 1—7). He had a special birth (1 Samuel 1), initiated by a fervent prayer from his mother Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1–10). Samuel heard from the Lord at a young age, worshiping God under the leadership of Eli. Chapters 4—7 chronicle Samuel's tenure as a judge over the land, including an important victory over the Philistines in chapter 7. The second section provides an account of Saul's rise as king over Israel (1 Samuel 8—15). After the people demand a king (1 Samuel 8), Samuel seeks the Lord who gives him directions for selecting Saul. Samuel then provides instruction to the people of Israel regarding submission to their king (1 Samuel 11:14—12:25). Though Saul begins well, his faithfulness does not last. Samuel rebukes him for sin (1 Samuel 13:8–15), the nation is dragged into multiple wars, and eventually Saul is rejected as king (1 Samuel 15). The third section begins the transition from King Saul to the future King David (1 Samuel 16—31). David comes from a humble background, yet has a passion for the Lord. Samuel anoints him, and David soon plays the harp before Saul. In chapter 17, David miraculously defeats the giant Goliath, making him a national hero. Saul is angry at David (1 Samuel 18), yet ends up giving his daughter Michal to David in marriage. Meanwhile, Saul's son Jonathan becomes David's best friend (1 Samuel 18:1–5; 19—20). Tensions then rise between Saul and David, leading to outright violence from Saul. David flees from Saul's pursuit, sparing Saul's life twice in the process (1 Samuel 21—26). During this time, Samuel dies (1 Samuel 25:1). David later comes to a low point and is forced to live among the Philistines (1 Samuel 27). In the final chapters of the book, Saul finally sinks to his lowest spiritual point (1 Samuel 28). David and his army are sent home by the Philistines and must defeat the Amalekites to rescue their families (1 Samuel 29—30). Finally, Saul and his sons die in battle (1 Samuel 31). The story is continued in 2 Samuel, and these were originally written as a single, continuous work. Key Verses (ESV): 1 Samuel 8:6–7: "But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, 'Give us a king to judge us.' And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.'" 1 Samuel 13:13–14: "And Samuel said to Saul, 'You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.'" 1 Samuel 15:22–23: "And Samuel said, 'Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.'"

A new, natural product—a lipid discovered by scientists at ARS' Eastern Regional Research Center in Philadelphia—may join the ranks of nonsteroidal drugs that fight inflammation. And this lipid could be indirectly produced from agricultural products. "A drug containing this new compound could offer several advantages over existing anti-inflammatory drugs, because it blocks only one biochemical pathway—that of lipoxin biosynthesis," says Robert A. Moreau. He is a chemist in the ERRC's Plant Science and Technology Research Unit. Moreau says that all of the currently used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs—including aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen—inhibit two pathways, leukotriene biosynthesis and lipoxin biosynthesis. Pharmaceutical companies have been searching for a drug that blocks only the lipoxin pathway. It is thought that a drug with this property would work especially well in treating the types of inflammatory conditions associated with asthma and atherosclerosis. The new lipid tested negative for fungicidal, herbicidal, and insecticidal properties in cooperative work performed with a chemical company under a formal Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. In addition, a collaborative project with the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, revealed that the compound was not toxic to several types of cancer cells or to HIV-infected cells. "We believe the fact that our compound didn't exhibit any type of toxicity in these systems enhances its value for pharmacological uses," Moreau says. "Compounds that are toxic to cancer cells can harm healthy cells as well." Because ERRC scientists are applying for a patent, the name and chemical structure of the compound are confidential. The scientists are looking for a partner company that is interested in collaborating on further research and development of this potentially valuable lipid. -- By Doris Stanley, ARS. Robert A. Moreau is in the USDA-ARS Crop Conversion Science and Engineering Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, 600 East Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor, Pa, 19038-8598; phone (215) 233-6428, fax (215) 233-6406. "New Anti-Inflammatory Drug From Ag Products" was published in the July 1995 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

Police Shooting Cases Change Use of Force Recent headlines could change the way police use force during arrests, according to the Chicago Tribune. Criticism of perceived racism and police brutality in the high-profile shootings in St. Paul, Minnesota and Baton Rouge, Louisiana has added tension to already strained police-community relations in Chicago. The video of the fatal shooting of Laquan Davis late last year led to protests and lingering anger against police. Some police officers believe the critical attitude toward police has lead to less “proactive” policing, such as traffic stops. Tension May Lead to Police Brutality However, today’s shooting of five police officers at a protest in Dallas, Texas underlines the danger facing on-duty police. In the past few days, several other attacks have occurred against police in Georgia, Tennessee, and Missouri, possibly in response to the accusations of police brutality in Louisiana and Minnesota, the Huffington Post reports. It’s possible for this perceived threat to lead to more use of force in arrests if police overestimate the danger of the situation. This could lead, ironically, to more incidents of police brutality. The Law on Deadly Force in Illinois Even if the social and political environment has changed, the law still lays down strict rules on the use of deadly force by police officers. In Tennessee v. Gardner, the Supreme Court held that police may only use deadly force when the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm to the officer or others. The Illinois Criminal Code repeats this rule on the use of force and elaborates on the type of situations that might pose a threat of serious physical harm. One specific situation is where the person the officer wishes to arrest has attempted or committed a violent felony that involved serious physical harm to someone, and where that person is attempting to escape. The statute specifically states that the use of a chokehold during an arrest should be considered deadly force. A chokehold is any contact with the neck or throat that is meant to reduce the intake of air. No Unreasonable Use of Deadly Force But when is a police officer justified in concluding that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm to the officer? In general, a court will evaluate whether the police officer’s decision was reasonable in the context of the facts as they appeared to him or her at the time of the use of force. For example, if a suspect reaches into their pocket, the police officer may only conclude that this justifies the use of lethal force if the circumstances at the time justify it, according to what a reasonable person would think. Since there is no hard and fast rule about what a reasonable person might perceive as a threat of physical injury, there’s no clear line between justified and unjustified use of force during an arrest. Get Legal Help Have you or someone you know been the victims of police brutality? If so, you’ll need expert legal guidance to help you get justice. Contact a police brutality lawyer at Barney & Hourihane in Chicago today to get the help you deserve. See Related Blog Posts

UNITED NATIONS The United Nations is planning to consider later this year the scientific validity of a claim by China that a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea are part of its territory, although Japan says the world body should not be involved. Tensions over the uninhabited islands - located near rich fishing grounds and potentially huge oil and gas reserves - flared after Japan's government purchased them from a private Japanese owner in September, sparking violent anti-Japanese protests across China and a military standoff. Taiwan also claims the islands, known as the Diaoyu islands in China, the Senkaku islands in Japan and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan. It was not immediately clear if the U.N. involvement would increase the likelihood the China-Japan dispute would be resolved peacefully. But launching an international legal process that should yield a neutral scientific opinion could reduce the temperature for now in Beijing's spat with Tokyo. In a submission to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, China says the continental shelf in the East China Sea is a natural prolongation of China's land territory and that it includes the disputed islands. Under the U.N. convention, a country can extend its 200-nautical-mile economic zone if it can prove that the continental shelf is a natural extension of its land mass. The U.N. commission assesses the scientific validity of claims, but any disputes have to be resolved between states, not by the commission. China said the "Diaoyu Dao upfold zone" - the islands - is located between the East China Sea shelf basin and the Okinawa Trough. "The Okinawa Trough is the natural termination of the continental shelf of (the East China Sea)," it said. China also told the commission that it was still negotiating with other states on the delimitation of the continental shelf. "Recommendations of the commission with regard to the submission will not prejudice future delimitation of the continental shelf between China and the states concerned," said the executive summary of China's submission published on the commission's website. The commission said consideration of China's claim would be included in the provisional agenda of a meeting of the body due to be held in New York from July 15 to August 30. In a letter to the commission, Japan's U.N. mission argued that China's submission should not be considered. "There is no doubt that the Senkaku Islands are an inherent part of the territory of Japan in light of historical facts and based upon international law. The Senkaku Islands are under the valid control of Japan," it said. The islands were put under Japan's control in 1895 and were part of the post-World War Two U.S. military occupation zone from 1945 to 1972. They were then returned to Tokyo by U.S. authorities in a decision China and Taiwan later contested. China responded to Japan's letter by calling Tokyo's claim to the islands "illegal and invalid." "Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands have been inherent territory of China since ancient times," its U.N. mission said in a letter. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China and Japan in September to let "cool heads" prevail in the dispute, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. After Japan's purchase of the islands, protests in China saw Japanese businesses looted, Japanese citizens attacked. Automakers and other Japanese manufacturers reported considerably lower sales in the country. More recently, Japanese military planes have been scrambled numerous times against Chinese planes approaching airspace over the islands. Chinese planes have also been launched to shadow Japanese planes elsewhere over the East China Sea. Patrol vessels from the two countries have also played a tense game of cat-and-mouse in the waters near the disputed islands. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Peter Cooney) Trending On Reuters A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early on Saturday killing at least 12 people, most in a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said. Full Article | Video - U.S. officials say North Korea may be nearing launch - Zika found in saliva, urine in Brazil; U.S. offers sex advice - As Myanmar powerbrokers talk, could Suu Kyi emerge as president? - Insight - Unpaid and angry, some Chinese workers ditch holidays to protest - Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, sixth man to walk on moon, dies at 85

This year marks two very special anniversaries for bat conservation. First, were celebrating the fifth anniversary of Bat Weeka week-long celebration of bats and the vitally important role they play in nature. Were also celebrating the protection of Bracken Cave Preserve, home to the largest bat colony in the world, with more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats. Back in 2015, BCI, working with The Nature Conservancy, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, and many regional donors, acquired 1,500 acres of land surrounding Bracken Cave that was imminently threatened by development. As a result of this victory, we have been able to welcome thousands of visitors each year to the Preserve, inspiring a whole new group of people who value and support bat conservation. Here at BCI, were working hard across the globe to rack up a string of impressive conservation victories just like the one at Bracken Cave. Were protecting the worlds most important cave habitats, restoring habitats that are degraded or in danger, and helping every day to ensure the survival of these incredible creatures. Our work here and around the world is not possible without your support. Together, we have the power to protect special places like Bracken Cave Preserve, and end bat extinctions worldwide. BCI Executive Director

Teaching fractions with food is a natural way to begin any fraction unit. Check out my five favorite foods, and get a free printable that will also help you introduce equivalent fractions with food It is finally time for one of my favorite math units!! Fractions!!! Last week we kicked off our unit with food. THere is one thing my boys excel at (actually there is more than one), but they are incredible eaters. They very active, and have appetites to match their movement level! So…..if we get to have a snack while we learn I’m a super mom…at least for a few minutes. There are many foods that are already divided into equal parts, and using these foods to introduce fractions allows children to begin making connections using their background knowledge. I created a simple task card printable as a guide for us as we “played” with our food, and we enjoyed working through it and exploring the concept of fractions. Toward the end of our week of introducing fractions with food, I did not use them. Surprisingly I had lots of complaints. I guess we have to follow the routine!!!! Want more ideas on introducing fractions visually? Check out this series Math Geek Mama and I did. Teaching Fractions with Food….what we did each day! Prep – Work Prep work for each lesson was very simple. Obviously, you need the food…we will get to that, but I also had the printable ready for my kiddos. - First, I printed the task cards off on card stock paper. - Next, I cut them out and laminated them. - You could punch a hole in them and place a small ring on them to keep them together. - Provide some dry erase marker and you are ready to go! Each day I would hand out the food, and we would identify the whole. Next, we simply worked on the task cards. The first card asks the student if the food can be divided up equally among two people. Kids know all about sharing, and they understand how important it is that each person gets a fair amount! As we were “sharing” our food I would consistently reinforce the concept that the denominator tells us how many equal groups there are to make a whole. And the importance that their groups were equal. With this food, you can see that it was easy to split the Kit Kat into two equal parts. We drew what each part looked like, and wrote that each person would get one out of the two parts….1/2. Next, we came up with equivalent fractions. For example, it is easy to see that there are two pieces of Kit Kat in each group. We discussed (and I showed them) that an equivalent fraction would be two fourths. We went through each task card, and if it was an easy way to share that food we would do that task card. The Kit Kat was perfect for sharing with four people, and we even managed to do it with eight people. With my kiddos being little, we didn’t do the factions that could not be easily divided up. It is difficult to divide a graham cracker into thirds, but not impossible. If I was working with fifth graders, I may attempt this with them. The thought process will provide helpful as they divide and multiply fractions later on. So what foods are perfect for fractions?? 1. Graham Crackers This snack is perfect for a large class and is a quick way to introduce 1/2 and its equivalent form 2/4. Obviously, 1/4 is also easily seen. 2. Hershey Bars This one is my favorite. Not only do they taste great because they are welllllll chocolate, but there is an awesome book that will lead the activity for you. I didn’t use the task cards this day. We just went through the book, and the concept of fractions and equivalent fractions is clearly explained. This was one of my student’s favorite lessons when I taught fourth grade, and it didn’t let me down when I did it with my boys. We were able to cover 1/2 and its equivalent 3/6. We also worked on 1/3, 1/4, and 1/6 and their equivalents. Need more equivalent fraction activities? Check out these 15 ideas. Now oranges are not the perfect fraction food, but they still work great and are healthy. If you decide to use oranges you will need to discuss that all the slices are not perfectly equal. They are pretty close, and when we found a slice that was very small we just left it with the larger piece. Also, you may find that the oranges have a different number of slices. Both of ours happened to have 9 slices and gave us the chance to use the fractions 1/3 and 3/9. Unfortunately, that was the only fraction we could make without some surgery taking place. 4. Kit Kats These are very similar to graham crackers but show students a different arrangement for making 1/2 and 1/4…you can even try 1/8 with an extra break. 5. Packs of Crackers I love these because it shows that sometimes a whole isn’t just one piece of food. A whole can be the total amount of any equal thing. It is also a great introduction to problems such as what is 1/2 of 12. Many times these problems throw children because they only think of fractions in relations to a circle or square cut into pieces. When we are teaching fractions we need to provide many different samples, and packs of food are great places to start. A small bag of skittles, M & M, or a pack of crackers are just a few great examples!! I like using the crackers because they all have the same amount in them, not a sweet food, and I knew we could hit the fractions 1/2, 1/3 and 1/6. They gave us a chance to explore equivalent fractions that the Kit Kats and graham crackers had left out!!! After we “played” with our food, we would choose one fraction and do our Fraction of the Day printable. It was another way to review what we had covered, but also give them a chance to see the fraction on a number line. This will play an important part as we start playing games to reinforce equivalent fractions and the different way you can illustrate them. Check in later this week and into next for some of the fun games we are playing. You’ve Got This You may also like our introduction to fraction craft with a free printable.

Part Ten in a Series One of the questions that comes up each time I speak on science and Genesis is this: Did rain fall upon the earth before the Flood? People wonder, too, whether or not the rainbow Noah saw was the very first rainbow. Apparently, many Christians have been taught that the earth's cycle of evaporation and precipitation was very different before the Flood from what it is today and that major atmospheric changes occurred at the time of the Flood. This teaching is, I believe, part of a larger hypothetical scenario called the canopy theory, the point of which is to account somehow for "importation" of the water required for a global flood (water that is missing from the earth's environs) and also to account for the drastic shortening of man's life span after the Flood. (Both issues were addressed in this column in the most recent issue of Facts & Faith, v. 5. n. 1, 1991, pp. 4-5.) According to the theory (more appropriately called a hypothesis), in the days before the Genesis Flood the earth supported a massive layer of water (either frozen or vaporous) high in the upper atmosphere. At the time of the Flood, the canopy is said to have melted or condensed at God's command, thereby dumping the cataclysmic deluge on the earth's surface. Unfortunately, this popular scenario finds insufficient support from scripture and no support whatsoever from science. Let's take a look at the Biblical passages first. Genesis 2:5 speaks of a time when God had not yet sent rain upon the earth. What is the time context of this verse? It refers clearly to a time when the continents were still devoid of life. That is to say, it describes a period prior to the third creation day and to the establishment of our stable water cycle. Genesis 2:6 comes after a punctuation break in the Hebrew and seems to refer to a later time when God caused "mist" (though a few translations say "streams") to water the ground. Apparently the ground at this point needed watering to support the flora and fauna. The Hebrew word used for "mist" in this verse is 'ed. Its normal translation is "mist" or "vapor," as in a fog. To translate it as "streams" is to stretch it toward a rare and, in this case, inappropriate usage. Technically, both mist and fog qualify as rain. Mist, fog, and rain all refer to drops of liquid water in the atmosphere. The distinction lies in the size of the drops, and that distinction is imprecise. Where I grew up in coastal British Columbia we called anything less than a downpour a mist. Neither does the later discussion of the rainbow as a covenant sign (Genesis 9) imply that rain and rainbows had never been seen before the time of Noah. When the Flood was over, God told Noah that He would never again destroy all mankind and his animals by the waters of a flood. Then God designated the rainbow as His signature, a reminder, of this covenant (contractual agreement between God and man, initiated by God) not to repeat a watery judgment against man's sin. It may be worth noting that the other eight covenants of scripture are signified with previously existing items or actions to which the covenant simply adds new meaning. As for scientific analysis of the canopy theory, I must begin by stating my belief that when God performs a miracle (and the operation of a canopy would have to be considered one, for it is outside the realm of naturally occurring phenomena), He does not deliberately cover up or distort the evidence to mislead us or to keep us from detecting it. What most Christians do not realize is that acceptance of the canopy theory requires acceptance of a massive cover-up by God. I cannot reconcile such action as consistent with the character of the God of the Bible. From science we learn that no mechanism exists for supporting such a quantity of water (frozen or vaporous) in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Neither is there a mechanism for protecting a canopy from destruction by meteorites and interplanetary and cosmic radiation. A further problem is that when ice melts it uses up 80 calories of heat per gram. When vapor condenses it releases 539 calories of heat per gram. In other words, the melting or condensing of a canopy would have caused such massive temperature shifts on Earth that Noah and his crew could not possibly have survived. Backing up a bit, if a canopy were vaporous, the greenhouse effect it would have engendered before the Flood would have trapped so much heat as to make life impossible on the surface of the earth. These are only a few of the scientific difficulties with the canopy scenario, mostly theoretical. Physical counterevidence is also available. Geologists point to splash depressions in well-dated sandstone deposits, depressions caused by falling drops of liquid water. These splash patterns show that raindrops of all the sizes we see today have fallen throughout the last several geologic eras, including eras before the Flood. The canopy theory represents yet another reminder to Christians that we need to submit our apologetics arguments to review by reputable non-Christian and Christian scholars in appropriate disciplines. If only scientists who are Christians attest to a particular physical phenomenon, especially one of such magnitude as the canopy, we have good reason to question its validity.

Sometimes I think about what America was like when my grandfather was young. In 1908, when he was 22, he started a business that, I’m happy to say, thrives to this day. He was the son of Swedish immigrants and started with nothing but some mechanical know-how and a good entrepreneurial idea. Stories like his were very common in the America of a century ago. Millions of ambitious immigrants flooded into the US because its governmental system and culture were conducive to productivity and innovation. The people overwhelmingly expected to succeed or fail on their own efforts. Almost nobody thought he had a right to live at the expense of others, or had any right to dictate how others must act or what they must believe. Moreover, the legal system protected Americans’ rights to life, liberty, and property. Theft was illegal. Acts of coercion were illegal. If someone wanted your money, he could only ask for it and had to take “no” for an answer. If someone wanted you to join a labor union, he could ask, but you were perfectly free to decline. In those days, there were no officious bureaucrats dictating what people could and couldn’t do in their businesses. Taxes were low. At all levels, government consumed less than ten percent of the GDP. Therefore, nearly all of America’s resources of labor and materials were under the direction of the market’s profit and loss system. Profits signaled where more investment would pay off; losses quickly put an end to ill-conceived ventures. And – crucially – government had almost no power to reward special interest groups. It did interfere with international trade to benefit domestic producers, but aside from that, government stuck closely to the precepts of laissez-faire. The result was tremendous output of goods and services, along with innovation that propelled economic expansion at an accelerating pace. America was all about work, a point that Alexis de Tocqueville commented on in his book Democracy in America. Compared with his native France, where guilds and regulations and the high cost of government acted as a brake on the economy, in America he saw boundless energy. Today’s America is a very different country than the one my grandfather knew. Governments absorb roughly half of the GDP. There are innumerable laws and regulations governing our lives – more than anyone could possibly read, much less understand. There are also legions of bureaucrats who are eager to fine and punish anyone who knowingly or unknowingly violates one of those laws or regulations. Governmental licenses are frequently required before an individual is allowed to go into business or a trade and official permission must often be sought before employing an innovation. Today, government has ample power to reward special interest groups with subsidies or other favors, which are avidly sought. Great numbers of people now hold jobs that entail no production of goods or services, but frequently obstruct such production by enforcing the laws and regulations that get in the way of efficiency and entrepreneurship. Those jobs often pay very well and are also avidly sought. And instead of looking to their own efforts to solve problems, Americans now want government to step in. Pleading for government to raise your income or provide you with medical care or help you through college is now the default mode for most of the people. They don’t mind at all that what they demand can only come at the expense of others because they’ve been taught that whatever is done democratically is all right. As a result of this great philosophical change, in America today we have a preponderance of Takers over Makers. The Takers consume the taxes paid by the Makers and many of them have jobs that give them power over others since they are paid to enforce the rapidly multiplying number of rules and regulations. Moreover, the Takers exhibit a sense of superiority over the Makers, based on their idea that it is more noble to work for “the public interest” than to work in the morally dubious world of profit-seeking enterprise. This dramatic change in the dominant ethos of America couldn’t have happened without the persistence of people who were frustrated by the America of the Founders, with its principles of limited government, individual liberty, and the rule of law. They disliked the “chaos” of capitalism, believing that a scientifically managed economy would be much better, shorn of unseemly competition for profits and huge inequalities between rich and poor. They called themselves “progressives” and told people that if they had control, they would transform the country for the better. The odd thing about “progressivism,” however, is that it is actually regressive. It takes us back to earlier social and economic arrangements that depended upon top-down control by elites who were sure they knew how to run things. Progressivism resembles feudalism, where a few nobles dictate to everyone else how to live and work, supposedly for the overall good of society. Freedom was allowed only insofar as it didn’t threaten to disturb the well-crafted order. And while I’m on the subject of the perversion of language, I think it’s important to note that while the people who insist on social and economic control are often called “liberals,” they are the very opposite of that. They are authoritarians. True liberals want to liberate people from top-down systems of domination — Adam Smith for example. Let’s not call the likes of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and other politicians who clamor for ever-expanding government “liberals.” A better term would be “statists.” The statists have been extraordinarily successful in changing America’s philosophy. Over the last century and especially from the New Deal on, they managed to turn much of the country away from the individualistic, Golden Rule philosophy that used to prevail, and inculcated a collectivist philosophy. Under the old philosophy, people thought that they were responsible for themselves; many wouldn’t accept government welfare during the Depression, thinking it wrong and shameful to live at the expense of others. Several generations later, a great many Americans see nothing wrong with seeking government money or other favors. Since the New Deal, government at all levels has expanded enormously and there’s a huge momentum behind it. Takers now outnumber Makers. The sphere of liberty has been steadily shrinking as government power has grown. More of our earnings are seized in taxes. Increasingly, we are only allowed to use our property as officials will allow. Countless regulations hem in anyone who attempts to engage in business. All of that has been building up for decades, but recently the Takers have launched new offensives against American traditions. They aren’t content merely to siphon off some of the wealth produced by the free market, but want to obliterate the market with a “Great Reset” that means full-fledged socialism. And they now see dissent from their visions as morally illegitimate and thus have declared war on freedom of speech. Looking at the opposing sides, the Takers currently have the White House, Congress, and the vast federal bureaucracy. They can spend any amount of money to buy support from voters. They control education from top to bottom. Starting in grade school, most students are fed a diet of statist ideas about society, the economy, the environment, American history, race, gender, and anything else that will shape their beliefs toward the beneficence of government and the frightfulness of liberty. The Takers also control most of the media. With but a few exceptions, the media covers everything with the goal of slanting the story to make government look good and freedom or its defenders look bad. Alleged market failures will be trumpeted while clear government failures will be ignored. And in philanthropy, foundations that support leftist ideas have about five times the resources of those that support free markets and voluntarism. It seems like an unfair fight, leading one to wonder about the future. If the trend towards ever-growing government can’t be stopped, what will the US be like in the future? The result of loss of freedom anywhere is the same: declining prosperity accompanied by increasing strife, as groups fight to have government give them a bigger slice of the shrinking pie. The US is heading toward that cliff at high speed. Is there a chance to avoid the Takers’ dream of omnipotent government? Can we regain the freedom we’ve lost? Those questions are at the heart of my novel The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale. Jon Sanders recently wrote a perceptive review of the book, calling it “subtly optimistic.” He’s right. I am subtly optimistic about the future. For all the heavyweight advantages the Takers have, the tide seems to have turned. For one thing, the grip the Takers have had on education is loosening. Many parents have realized during the COVID school closures that they can do much better for their children outside of the politicized system of government schools. Many others have learned about the appalling, divisive, manipulative curricula that “woke” teachers and administrators have smuggled in and are fighting back. Higher education is also starting to fade as Americans realize that the college degree, long touted as a sure-fire investment, is often a waste of time and money. Fewer students attending college means fewer students subjected to ideological hectoring. And as revenues fall, schools will have to cut the worst performing departments. Accounting stays, Gender Studies goes. Even more significant is the decline in trust in government. First the Takers managed to break down the Constitution’s limits on government power and then they managed to convince a high percentage of the people that such power was nothing to worry about. It was nothing to worry about, they said, because government officials are public servants, motivated to do what is in the public interest. Democracy ensures that government will do the right thing – or so the tale went. Generations of young Americans were taught to believe in government but to fear capitalism. Wonderfully, that trust has greatly eroded. More than anything else, what caused it to erode was the way government officials reacted to COVID. Rather than “following the science,” they followed their authoritarian instincts, demanding lockdowns, business closures (except for those they deemed “essential”), mask and vaccine mandates, school closures, and an end to social gatherings (unless they were for some leftist-approved purpose, like BLM protests). Instead of listening to critics, they smeared and tried to silence them. They refuse to admit making any errors, much less having wrought vast harm upon millions of the people they supposedly serve. Nothing has done more to damage the big government “brand” than COVID. The curtain has been pulled aside so the people can see how arrogant and hypocritical our public elites are. This gives those of us who favor a return to the liberal America of my grandfather’s time a tremendous opportunity. George Washington wisely wrote that “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force.” For the last two years, millions of people have learned how correct that statement is, as government officials have ruined their lives. With so many more Americans now looking upon government as a malefactor, the iron is hot. The intellectual support for the leftist worldview is a house of cards. It depends on people blindly accepting clichés such as that government spending stimulates the economy, that inflation is caused by the greed of businessmen, that there would be widespread illiteracy if it weren’t for government schools, that minimum wage laws don’t lead to unemployment, that government officials are solely motivated by a desire to serve the common good, that gun control laws reduce crime, and more. Those notions are at odds with reality and any brush with reality is apt to cause the house of cards to tumble. (That’s what happens to Jennifer Van Arsdale in my book.) It won’t be enough just to toss the Democrats out of office. That has happened before and the growth of our governmental leviathan was barely slowed. What we need to do is to restore the spirit of liberty that used to animate America. Doing so will mean persuading every open-minded person that a free society, one where people may do anything that’s peaceful, is best for everyone. The free, truly liberal society is the one that maximizes prosperity, innovation, and harmony. On the other hand, a controlled society ensures declining living standards, less innovation, and conflict as groups squabble for government favors. Millions of Americans know that government power made them worse off during COVID and this gives us the opening to persuade them that it isn’t just that the COVID tyranny was bad, but that the whole agenda of the Taking cabal is bad. The government is littered with people like Dr. Fauci. It’s not too late for a pro-liberty counterattack. The authoritarian position has always been weak intellectually and now it’s weak politically.

If one mentions the name Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the first thing that comes to mind is his philosophical/theological speculation on the evolution of Creation and mankind toward its ultimate Omega Point. During his lifetime (i.e. before the Second Vatican Council), such theories were quite controversial and he was not permitted to publish them. Even today, while many people embrace his writings, others continue to view them with skepticism. Regardless of one’s views regarding his theology or philosophy, one must also recognize that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was quite an accomplished scientist in the fields of paleontology and geology. He investigated early hominids, and took part in the discovery of Peking Man in China. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born on the first of May, 1881, into a large French family in the region of Auvergne. His father instilled in him an interest in geology, and his mother encouraged his prayer and spiritual development. He attended a Jesuit school and then entered the Jesuit order in 1899. He studied philosophy and earned a licentiate in literature in 1902. He did his Jesuit regency a the College of the Holy Family in Cairo, Egypt, where he taught chemistry and physics. He studied theology in Hastings, Sussex, England from 1908-1912, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1911. He took final vows in the Order on 26 May, 1918. In 1912, he began work on the paleontology of early mammals at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. This research was associated with academic studies in geology, botany, and zoology at the University of Paris. It was during his time in Paris that fragments of the infamous “Piltdown Man” were discovered in Sussex, England. Teilhard joined the team to explore the dig site, being taken in by the hoax. After that, colleagues at MNHN encouraged him to study human paleontology. This new direction would eventually take him to dig sites around the world. His work was interrupted from 1914-1918 due to World War I. He served as a stretcher bearer, and earned several honors for his service. In 1920, the became a lecturer in geology at the Catholic University of Paris. He earned his doctorate in 1922. In 1923 he joined Fr. Emile Licent S.J. on his first expedition to China, and would then spend the periods 1926-1935 and 1939-1945 in that country, studying the geology of the region. It was during the period 1926-1935 that he joined the excavation that discovered Peking Man. He returned to France in 1946, but later moved to the United States, hoping to find a more receptive audience for his ideas there. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died of a heart attack on April 10, 1955 in New York City. Beginning as early as the time of his theology studies in Sussex, he was captivated by the idea of developing theological and philosophical concepts around new information and theories about human evolution and mankind’s spiritual relationship with the created world as a product of evolution. This led to the concept of the noosphere and the Omega Point; ideas that he would pursue throughout his life. He wrote several books and essays on the subject, including The Phenomenon of Man and The Divine Milieu. He did not receive permission to publish during his lifetime, so these books were published posthumously. In the period preceding the Second Vatican Council, any innovative theology that incorporated any modernist ideas at all was considered suspect. It is worth noting that, during this period, the works of such theologians as Karl Rahner and Yves Congar were also sanctioned. Those two then served as periti during the Second Vatican Council, and their thought can be found throughout the Conciliar documents. One wonders if, had Teilhard lived to see the Council, he might also have played a role. Today, while some endorse his ideas and others still find it problematic, the taint of unorthodoxy has dissipated. Both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have made positive references to Teilhard’s writings. Peking Man: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was part of a team (along with Davidson Black, C. C. Young, and Pei Wenchung) excavating a cave site known as Choukoutien, in China’s Beijing province. In December of 1929, they uncovered a skull. This skull was later joined by four others. The specimens (known as “Peking Man”) belonged to the hominid Homo erectus pekinensis, and are now considered the closest relative to Java Man (Homo erectus erectus). Teilhard established the geological era of the inhabitation at about 750,000 years ago. With Henri Brueil, Teilhard determined that this hominid used fire and manipulated stone tools. This site remains one of the largest finds of Homo erectus. Teilhard de Chardin also visited numerous other excavation sites where other early hominids had been uncovered. Paleontology: Much of Teilhard de Chardin’s scientific study, particularly his early work in Paris, focused on the paleontology of early mammals. These were mammals of what was then considered the middle tertiary period (approx. 20-35 million years ago). Geology: Teilhard de Chardin extensively studied the geology of China on at least five geological expeditions throughout the country. He improved understanding of China’s sedimentary deposits and established approximate ages for various layers. He also produced a geological map of China. The primate genus Teilhardina is named for him.

Studying systems, which emit over several orders of magnitude in energy, necessitates the combination of ground based (radio/mm/optical/IR/VHE) and space based (optical-UV/IR/X-ray/VHE) instruments. - The discovery of parsec and kiloparsec jets emitting from optical to VHE Gamma rays from black hole binaries (BHBs) and AGN respectively - The discovery of correlated jet emission with X-ray inflow in BHBs invoking a causal connection - The discovery of the most powerful accretion epochs driven by tidal disruption events (TDEs) - The discovery of inflated radio/optical bubble nebulae around ultraluminous X-ray sources - The view of the AGN torus in the IR and its connection to the accretion disc (optical-X-ray) - The distribution, dynamics and temperatures of gas and dust in supernova remnants (IR-X-ray) - The study of X-ray emission associated with accretion onto YSOs and the optical emission from their cool dusty discs - Reverberation between the optical and X-ray bands to determine the geometry and constrain system parameters in binary systems - Rapid flaring from Sgr A* in multiple bandpasses (radio, IR and X-ray) - The rapid evolution of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and supernovae (SNe) Due to scheduling demands, observations in multiple bands are typically days-weeks apart; such coordinated, but non-simultaneous observations, of systems that change on shorter timescales are therefore prone to be misleading. Such rapidly variable systems include the jets and accretion flows from smaller compact objects such as stellar mass black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs which change on viscous timescales of minutes, dynamical changes (of the order of hours) in AGN, the jets from T-Tauri proto-stellar objects and accreting stars, and dense environments around luminous systems which are causally linked. In all cases, without a truly simultaneous MW picture of these systems, we are denied an understanding of the physical mechanisms that underpin them. At present there is no simple solution to the problem of simultaneous MW observing yet the relevance of the scientific questions makes it crucial for the community to find one. This may take the form of a new strategy for MW observing which could be adopted by a large number of observatories (both ground and spaced based) or may require a more extreme solution and a bespoke MW mission. Consideration of the latter is both important and timely; whilst a great deal of attention is focussed on next-generation single band-pass observatories, technology (e.g. mechanical cooling in place of cryogenic cooling) is now developed to the point where a dedicated MW satellite is not only possible but is the natural next step in observational astronomy. We propose to hold a focussed workshop at the Lorentz centre (@Oort) in mid-late 2015 to bring together leading senior scientists working in theory, observation and instrumentation. The aim of the meeting is to discuss and identify the community’s future requirements based on recent discoveries and progress in MW astronomy, and how these can best be served by a concerted effort to unify strategies or complemented by a new, next-generation MW satellite.

During metamorphosis of certain insects, the morphology of the larva is quite different from that of the adult. In the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), larvae possess disc-like bags of cells that will develop into complete adult structures. These structures, called imaginal discs, will grow into the eyes, antennae and legs of the adult. This photograph shows two pairs of connected discs that will form the eyes (blue, bottom) and antennae (yellow, top); together, they resemble tropical birds. Studying these imaginal discs can teach us about cell growth, differentiation and development of complex organs. |Print Size||Approximate Total Size With Mat or Mat/Frame|

We have passed the climax of human evolution. The “peak” of availability of all necessary resources for our existence was overreached and from now on, human beings, in less good health, will have to try to maintain their standard of living with less and less energy and raw materials and under the constraints of a more and more hostile environment, by means of less and less successful and stable infrastructures, due to the lack of means of maintenance. In spite of our hopes and our greatest talents, we do not succeed in modifying the course of our evolution. And time’s run out to cowardly get slack: even if we defend ourselves from it we remain all actors of the coming decline, whether we are powerful decision-makers or simple citizens. If we cannot claim obviously any more to exceed our condition, we therefore have to anticipate – at best we can – the future difficulties. In 1970 the Club of Rome, a think tank regrouping scientists, economists, national and international officials, ordered to the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) a report having for objective to estimate potentialities for the development of Humanity on Earth, by taking into account limiting factors (resources availability, demography, pollution, agricultural yields). Published in 1972, “Limits To Growth” also called “Meadows report”, announces the end of Humanity such as we know it in the course of the 21st century. The 1993 and 2004 revisions (based on comparisons between past predictions and current observations) came to confirm this forecast, and even to notice that the risk had been underestimated. Although the Meadows report, taking into account in particular the political and economic choices that nations could operate, proposed at first several scenarios for the future of Humanity, a “date” appeared as marking a transition: the accumulated factors of the end of easily removable resources, of pollution increase and damages operated on the environment would imply the stop of the human development before a decline inevitably goes on. Today (in March 2014), it is a new report, partially funded by the NASA, which comes to confirm these somber predictions (references at the bottom of page). Some people will retort that the worst is never sure or that evolution of complex systems is difficult to anticipate. But, on one hand, the unpredictability of phenomena does not mean at all that these are not strictly determined, potentially at our disadvantage, and besides there is a convergent beam of reliable models, analyses and measures (every day more precise) which gives evidence of this evolutionary determinism overtaking us and on which we have only the illusion to be able to exercise an influence: – The physical principles of the thermodynamics, which imply in a totally verifiable way that the human development cannot be eternal and that environmental protection is impossible for us: - First principle: anything appears out of nothing, all which is consumed in a finished system exhausts it. - Second principle: phenomena are irreversible, we cannot repair Nature and damages accumulate strictly. – The Meadows report evoked above and from now on other scientific studies completing and confirming the results of this report. – Observation: we already live a worldwide systematic crisis (economic, financial, social, and ecological) which nobody succeeds in solving. – Common sense: when the reserves are empty, the reserves are empty and strict accumulation of pollution in a closed environment (atmospheric, marine, but also farmlands pollutions) can only entail eventually the self-poisoning. To be able to still deny, but this time rationally, the decline to come, it will be necessary to contradict models and arguments evoked here and first of all the thermodynamic principles from which ensue naturally at the same time reality and truth. The date precision which will mark the beginning of the human decline doesn’t matter. It is necessary to retain that the process which will lead to this decline is already going on and that the outcome is sure: while some of us already begin to lose of their advantages (salaries, pensions, healthcare access), tomorrow even the richest won’t be able to maintain their level of comfort and safety and the whole humanity will enter in global decline for the first and maybe last time. Accepting that Humanity is not all powerful, but submitted to overtaking principles which will oblige, in spite of denial, a profound and certainly painful transformation, Adrastia doesn’t envisages to release grip and proposes to those who will wish it to anticipate at best the systematic degradation of our living environments. If common sense and science make us admit from now on that we cannot avoid this pitfall, some questionings remain unsettled we suggest thinking: - How exactly are we not going to succeed in avoiding our decline? - How are we going to approach not only our individual death, but probably a collective, large-scale death? - If the current, already questioned political systems, are not more relevant tomorrow, which ones will replace them? How to protect freedom and democracy when the range of possibilities, our choice of opportunities, is reduced for all? - How shall we avoid or manage the relocation conflicts when fear and hunger will make us eager for the goods of our neighbor, once a friend? - Who will still have means to mitigate the suffering inherent to his comfort loss, to his health degradation, to his security reduction? - In the longer term, if the decline of the human race does not come along with a whirlpool of ecological collapse entailing its total disappearance, who will be the ones who will succeed us? The asserted and assumed choice to consider decline as inevitable, offers the possibility to discuss composedly and reasonably these questions. For example, even if the recommendation will always be to have a minimal impact on the vital ecological balance, it will not be wished to discuss within the Association the problem of environmental protection, as we admit it incompatible with human existence. (Whatever is the considered human being, whatever is his behavior, its environmental impact is never neutral – even less positive – and the damages inherent to his existence have strictly cumulative global effects). As long as the possibilities for the human being to protect the environment or to succeed in an energy transition will not have been demonstrated, they will stay of the register of unfounded and imaginary hope, even belief, what Adrastia is anxious to abandon. Any responsibility discharge on others will be also avoided as far as possible. If every human being impacts negatively on the vital ecological balance, he cannot honestly off-load the weight of his noxious action on another human being arbitrarily appointed guiltier. Speech honesty will be a first objective. Finally, the possibility of a free will and the possibility for Humanity to influence its evolution beyond an overtaking determinism, which weren’t object of a scientific demonstration, will be rejected for the establishment of rational speeches and models. We have to understand and accept that our greatest talents, our greatest pleasures and our capacity to think the world are presents which have a price, which we shall have to pay for, whether we like it or not, whether we are ready for it or not. There is no contrition in the Adrastia initiative, no guilt making, and no moralizing. We can prepare together to what we don’t wish, and we can do it not only by minimizing the suffering, but also certainly by maintaining possible our quest for satisfaction and pleasure. If life makes us dread the outcome, there is no reason to not love it and to not love ourselves any more. There is no reason to not remain deserving and proud. There would be nothing worse in particular than our fears, our illusions and our other weaknesses to make us prepare, in spite of us, these ultimate conflicts that we have been afraid of for so long. Our world is dying of a not held promise, the one that we made to ourselves because we had the vanity to believe that we could take the place of our gods and of the evolution principles that govern our lives. As the worst events do not inevitably have to lead to the worst feelings, we can become reconciled with what made us and with ourselves, to calm our fears and live at best, for the best, as long as possible. - Selective bibliography - Qu’y a-t-il donc dans le “Rapport du Club de Rome” ? by Jean-Marc Jancovici - “Limits to Growth was right. New research shows we’re nearing collapse”, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute - “A Minimal Model for Human and Nature Interaction”, study co-financed by the NASA

TEXTILE & PAPER PULP AND PAPER Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibres from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Many kinds of paper are made from wood with nothing else mixed into them. This includes newspaper, magazines and even toilet paper. Pulp is one of the most abundant raw materials . Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. It is a versatile material with many uses, including writing, printing, packaging, cleaning, decorating, and a number of industrial and construction processes. To make pulp from wood, a chemical pulping process separates lignin from cellulose fibres. This is accomplished by dissolving lignin in a cooking liquor, so that it may be washed from the cellulose; this preserves the length of the cellulose fibres. Paper made from chemical pulps are also known as wood-free papers–not to be confused with tree-free paper; this is because they do not contain lignin, which deteriorates over time We are a chemicals distributor with global sourcing capabilities and we offer you solutions for your chemical needs locally by offering you Global Logistics Supply Chain and Trading and Sourcing Expertise. AKASHICHEM SDN BHD - HQ PMT 1159, Lorong Perindustrian Bukit Minyak 22, Penang Science Park, Taman Perindustrian Bukit Minyak, 14100 Simpang Ampat, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia (+604) 5057883, 5057885, 5057886

A drawing of Mulan from Gathering Gems of Beauty (畫麗珠萃秀) Hua Mulan (Chinese: 花木蘭) is a legendary warrior from China. The stories about her are set during various times in China's history. She was first written about in a ballad called the Ballad of Mulan (Chinese: 木蘭辭). In the ballad, Hua Mulan takes her father's place in the army. She practiced martial arts such as kung fu, and was skilled with a sword. She fought for twelve years and became famous, but she refused any reward. Hua Mulan is a real person and did save China. Related pages[change | change source] References[change | change source] Other websites[change | change source] - Media related to Hua Mulan at Wikimedia Commons - Works related to Ballad of Mulan at Wikisource - Kwa, Shiamin; Idema, Wilt L. (2010), Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend with Related Texts, Hackett Publishing, ISBN 1603848711

Technical change was afoot. During World War I, radio technology was greatly accelerated in part by military sponsorship. By the end of the war, the vacuum tube was commercially available for use in low-cost radios as well as radio transmitters and all sorts of other devices. It was not long before various inventors returned to the idea of using an electrical signal from a microphone to drive an electromagnetic disc recording device. With the addition of the vacuum tube, the microphone's weak signal could be stepped up to drive the cutter. While there were numerous proposals to do this, the technical problems were considerable. Edison (who was one of the first to experiment with electrical recording technology, lagged behind his competitors but eventually introduced this electrical recording system for studio use. The Western Electric Company (whose research activities were soon to be taken over by the Bell Telephone Laboratories) developed an electronically amplified, electromagnetic disc cutter of high quality in the early 1920s ,as well as a conventional-looking but improved acoustic phonograph on which to play the resulting records. The new device was marketed to phonograph and record manufacturers (and also became the basis of talking films and "transcription" recorders used in radio stations). In October, 1924, Columbia Phonograph Company experimented with this new "electrical" recording equipment developed by Western Electric. The new records sounded different than those recorded by the acoustic process, and consumers responded well to them. The trade-name "Orthophonic" was attached to both the recording process and the record player. Victor released its last phonograph discs made by the original acoustic process in 1925. Edison meanwhile had announced a long-playing, 12 inch disc capable of holding 20 minutes of music per side. While this format did not become a commercial success, the next year the company marketed its first electrically-recorded "diamond" discs. Struggling, Edison in 1927 offered a phonograph capable of reproducing either Edison vertical cut discs or his competitors' more popular lateral cut discs. Finally, in 1929 Edison ceased production of records and pulled out of the home phonograph business.

Geographical fun : being humourous outlines of various countries, with an introduction and descript ive lines / by "Aleph". In the introduction to the atlas, the author, William Harvey, writing under the pseudonym Aleph, described his intention in creating the atlas: It is believed that illustrations of Geography may be rendered educational, and prove of service to young Scholars who commonly think Globes and Maps but wearisome aids to knowledge. If these geographical puzzles excite the mirth of children, the amusement of the moment may lead to the profitable curiosity of youthful students and embue the mind with a healthful taste for foreign lands. The resulting fanciful caricatures include England in the form of Queen Victoria; Scotland as a gallant Piper struggling through the bogs; Wales in the form of Owen Glendowr; Ireland as a Peasant, happy in her babys smile; France as an Empress of cooks, fashions, and the dance; Spain and Portugal joined in lasting amity; Italy as a revolutionary figure complete with liberty cap; Prussia in the personages of Friedrich Wilhelm and Prime Minister Bismarck; Holland and Belgium as female figures who represent a land . . . and perfect art made grand; Denmark as a female figure with ice skates; and Russia as the classic bear. The atlas was acquired by the Library in 1979. Geographical Fun Atlas Geographical fun : being humourous outlines of various countries, with an introduction and descriptive lines / by "Aleph".

- Posted April 3, 2012 by Watertown, New York This iReport is part of an assignment: Does racism still exist, and where does it start? - Why Blame Trump or the GOP? Anti-Immigrant Hate Coming From Everyday Americans - Why Do Republicans, Who Don't Believe In Democracy; Run For Government? - Ben Carson Stands by Claim on Egypt's Pyramids - The Bible Says They Were Built to Store Grain? - Quentin Tarantino Isn't Apologizing. Nor Should He. Police Should Apologize First to Americans - Obama's "No Boots on the Ground" in Syria Becomes Another Image of Disappointment for Those Who Believed He Wanted Peace Hate is a Learned Behavior..So is Love "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." "Racism has historically been defined as the belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities, that a certain race is inherently superior or inferior to others, and/or that individuals should be treated differently according to their racial designation. People are not born being racist just as they are not born knowing right from wrong. Racism is said to be something that is learned, according to Murray from the American Psychological Association. Children are born ,at least that is what is told by social scientists, with purity, with no predetermined hate of others. Therefore, one can conclude that children learn hatred, racism, and stereotyping. But where does it start from in the first place? Another contributing factor to racism is social and economic status. People are often judged by where they live, how much money they make, what type of car they drive and so on. According to CNN, in 2004 the percentage of Americans living under the poverty level was 12.5%. In this same year the percentage of African Americans living under the poverty level was 24.4%, almost twice the national level. This tends to cause a feeling of superiority amongst some people over the African Americans. This also may cause people to generalize all African Americans as “poor” since the number is so high. In a study done at the University of Michigan it was found that all minorities are viewed negatively by whites in terms of potential for violence. In the essay “Black Men and Public Space,” the author finds that people feel threatened by him because he is black. They see him as a potential danger to their safety and often choose to keep their distance from him even though in reality he poses no threat and is in fact a young grad student. In the same study done at Michigan it was also found that 45% of whites think blacks are lazy; 29% think blacks are unintelligent; less than one in five think Blacks are hard working; and 56% of whites feel that blacks would rather live on welfare than work. The location and environment of this study could also contribute to the results, however they are unknown. According to the national consensus in 2004 the unemployment rate of African Americans was 10.9 % whereas the unemployment rate and whites was 4.9%, and the unemployment rate of Hispanic Americans was 8.2%. This also contributes to the idea that “whites think blacks are lazy” therefore causing a feeling of racial superiority. Not all people who are racist are taught from their parents or an older generation. Sometimes it is the lack of diversity in the area in which one lives. Generally when people are unaccustomed to something they judge it. For example in Wallowa county racism is common due to lack of minorities in the area. One resident of the area acknowledges this also by adding that many of the children who live in the area don’t have much interaction with children of other races because there simply aren’t any in their schools. This also creates an atmosphere of racism These are just some of the causes of racism. There are numerous other factors that contribute the feeling of racial superiority that some people have over others. However the real problem is not only what causes these feelings of animosity but rather the atrocious outcomes that are a result of it." Most hatred is based on fear, one way or another." "A new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged." NELSON MANDELA, Nobel lecture, 1993

Submitted to: Journal of Range Management Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: November 27, 2000 Publication Date: July 1, 2001 Citation: PFISTER, J.A., PANTER, K.E., GARDNER, D.R., STEGELMEIER, B.L., RALPHS, M.H., MOLYNEUX, R.J., LEE, S.T. ALKALOIDS AS ANTI-QUALITY FACTORS IN PLANTS ON WESTERN U.S. RANGELANDS. JOURNAL OF RANGE MANAGEMENT. 2001. Interpretive Summary: Alkaloids are a structurally-diverse group of chemical compounds with widely varying biological activities in animals and humans. Range plants that contain alkaloids poison more livestock worldwide than any other class of toxic compounds. Alkaloids usually have pronounced physiological reactions when ingested by livestock, and effects on animal health are often dose-dependent. Our objective in this review is to provide an overview of the effects of alkaloid-containing plants on livestock production on western rangelands and review management solutions. Losses to these plants can be reduced or eliminated by recognizing the toxic plant responsible on specific ranges, understanding when livestock graze the plant and how the toxin affects animals, altering management schemes or animal species to reduce the risk of losses, or using herbicidal control. Management of each toxic plant species is based on knowledge of the temporal and spatial dynamics of alkaloid concentration and consumption by livestock. Losses may be reduced by ensuring that livestock are not exposed or have reduced exposure either during periods of greatest risk (e.g., highest toxin concentrations), or when they are most likely to eat the plant in amounts sufficient to cause toxicity. Technical Abstract: Alkaloids constitute the largest class of plant secondary compounds, occurring in 20 to 30% of perennial herbaceous species in North America. We review 7 major categories of toxic alkaloids, including pyrrolizidine (e.g., Senecio), quinolizidine (e.g., Lupinus), indolizidine (e.g., Astragalus), diterpenoid (e.g., Delphinium), piperidine (e.g., Conium), pyridine (e.g., Nicotiana), and steroidal (Veratrum-type) alkaloids. Clinically, effects on animal production vary from minimal feed refusal to abortion, birth defects, wasting diseases, agalactia, and death. There are marked species differences in reactions to alkaloids. This has been attributed to rumen metabolism, alkaloid absorption, metabolism, excretion or directly related to their affinity to target tissues such as binding at receptor sites. In spite of alkaloids reputed bitter taste to livestock, some alkaloid-containing plant genera (e.g., Delphinium, Veratrum, Astragalus, Oxytropis, and Lupinus) are often readily ingested by livestock. Management schemes to prevent losses are usually based on recognizing the particular toxic plant, knowing the mechanism of toxicity, and understanding the temporal dynamics of plant alkaloid concentration and consumption by livestock. Once these aforementioned aspects are understood, losses may be reduced by maintaining optimal forage conditions, adjusting grazing pressure and timing of grazing, aversive conditioning, strategic supplementation, changing livestock species, and herbicidal control.

Two other studies found fish oil didn't work for an irregular heartbeat condition called atrial fibrillation, even though it is thought to help certain people with heart disease or high levels of fats called triglycerides in their blood. The bottom line: Dietary supplements have varied effects and whether one is right for you may depend on your personal health profile, diet and lifestyle. "Many people take vitamin supplements as a crutch," said study leader Dr. Howard Sesso of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "They're no substitute for a heart-healthy diet, exercising, not smoking, keeping your weight down," especially for lowering heart risks. The studies were presented Monday at an American Heart Association conference in Los Angeles and the vitamin research and one fish oil study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Multivitamins are America's favorite dietary supplement about one-third of adults take them. Yet no government agency recommends their routine use for preventing chronic diseases, and few studies have tested them to see if they can. A leading preventive medicine task force even recommends against beta-carotene supplements, alone or with other vitamins, to prevent cancer or heart disease because some studies have found them harmful. And vitamin K can affect bleeding and interfere with some commonly used heart drugs. Sesso's study involved nearly 15,000 healthy male doctors given monthly packets of Centrum Silver or fake multivitamins. After about 11 years, there were no differences between the groups in heart attacks, strokes, chest pain, heart failure or heart-related deaths. Side effects were fairly similar except for more rashes among vitamin users. The National Institutes of Health paid for most of the study. Pfizer Inc. supplied the pills and other companies supplied the packaging. The same study a few weeks ago found that multivitamins cut the chance of developing cancer by 8 percent a modest amount and less than what can be achieved from a good diet, exercise and not smoking. Multivitamins also may have different results in women or people less healthy than those in this study only 4 percent smoked, for example. The fish oil studies tested prescription-strength omega-3 capsules from several companies in two different groups of people for preventing atrial fibrillation, a fluttering, irregular heartbeat. One from South America aimed to prevent recurrent episodes in 600 participants who already had the condition. The other sought to prevent it from developing in 1,500 people from the U.S., Italy and Argentina having various types of heart surgery, such as valve replacement. About one third of heart surgery patients develop atrial fibrillation as a complication. Both studies found fish oil ineffective.

It’s hard to discipline children. You can’t hit them. Timeouts are not effective. Now, a study out of the University of Pittsburgh says yelling at teens and tweens — particularly when it involves cursing or insults — can be just as harmful as hitting. So what can you do? Remember that the word “discipline” originally meant to teach, so look for opportunities to coach your child, not just punish him for a misstep. “Discipline implies setting limits and boundaries,” said Vicki Hoefle, mother of six in Middlebury, Vt., and author of “Duct Tape Parenting.” “But the way we do it is, ‘I’m going to punish you when you do something I don’t like.’ It’s a completely wasted moment.” No one wants to yell at their kids, and we usually feel bad when it happens. But most of us didn’t know it could be as damaging as the spankings we got when we were growing up. The University of Pittsburgh study released in September looked at 967 middle school students over a two-year period. Those whose parents used “harsh verbal discipline” such as yelling, cursing and using insults were more likely to be depressed or have behavior problems. The study found it was also not effective in getting children to stop what they were doing, and that it was damaging even to children in homes that were generally warm and loving. “If you yell at your child, you either create somebody who yells back at you or somebody who is shamed and retreats,” said Meghan Leahy, a mother of three and a parenting coach in Washington. “You’re either growing aggression or growing shame. Those are not characteristics that any parents want in their kids.” There is a difference, of course, between being verbally abusive and using a sharply raised voice. Yelling alone is not always damaging, although the surprise of a sudden change in volume can cause a child to be fearful or anxious. It’s often what is said that is harmful, according to Deborah Sendek, program director for the Center for Effective Discipline (CED). “When people raise their voices, the message typically isn’t, ‘Wow, I love you, you’re a great child,’ ” Sendek said. “You’re usually saying something negative, and ripping down their self-esteem.” It’s nearly impossible to never yell at your child. It’s going to happen. Even if you’re not calling your child names or insulting him, though, there are more effective ways to deal with disciplinary problems than yelling, Leahy said. “Teens and tweens, especially, find our sensitive underbellies, and when they are outright defiant and what they do flies in the face of expectations, we do yell,” said Leahy, whose oldest daughter, Sophia, will be 10 in January. “But it’s definitely not in the toolbox of what’s effective discipline.” What can harried parents do to get through to that child who, despite being asked 10 times to brush his teeth, is still playing with the cat and about to be late for school? Here are suggestions from parenting experts on how to keep behavioral problems from turning you into a screaming lunatic, and how to recover from it on the (hopefully rare) occasions when you do yell. Take a break Sometimes you are better off pushing the pause button and revisiting the problem in 20 minutes or the next morning. When Hoefle’s children, now ages 19 to 24, were younger and she felt herself losing her temper, she would put a hard candy in her mouth or look at a sweet picture of her child. That was often enough to make her consider her response more carefully. She also took the unconventional approach of allowing her children to leave the room if she was yelling. Most parents might think seeing their child’s retreating back would escalate their anger, but Hoefle said it made her stop and think about what she was saying, and how it was making her child feel. It was enough of a pause, she said, for her to reconsider how she was handling her anger. “If you find what I’m saying disrespectful, you have permission to leave, because nobody should be subjected to that,” said Hoefle, whose book advises parents to resist the urge to nag and control their kids. “It set up a dynamic where people could get up and walk away and the person yelling would stop and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ My kids would say, ‘I know we didn’t do what you asked, we got distracted, we’re sorry.’ Just the respect goes a long way in re-establishing order.” Put a stop to recurring arguments Figure out when, and why, you’re most often losing your temper, Hoefle said. Do you yell at your son every morning because he’s dawdling in the shower when you are trying to get everyone out the door on time? Then talk to him about what you can do to make things go more smoothly. Come up with a strategy that attacks the root of the problem, whether it’s using a timer to remind him when he needs to get out of the shower, or taking one the night before. If you involve your child in creating the plan, Hoefle said, he is more likely to participate in executing it. “If you can anticipate that it’s going to happen, you can make a plan,” Hoefle said. “If it goes this way all the time, what are you going to do differently as the adult? You can say to your kids, ‘We have to create a morning routine that works for you. What can I do to be of assistance?’ “ Be clear and consistent with expectations Kids want and crave limits and structure, so it’s important to set boundaries and stick to them, the CED’s Sendek said. Don’t get into the habit of asking your child to do something multiple times. Instead, ask her to do something (say, brush her teeth), and tell her what will happen if she doesn’t. Be specific and follow through, even if she tries to bargain her way out of the consequence. Leahy said she calmly refuses to be swayed by her daughter’s attempts to negotiate, recalling a time recently when she told Sophia she wouldn’t drive her to a choir concert at school because Sophia had been disrespectful. “There was a lot of wailing, crying, deep breathing, and then she said, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Leahy said. “I said thanks, and she looked at me, and I said, ‘I’m still not taking you.’ We don’t want to make our kids feel bad, but at the same time I [held] my boundaries without yelling.” Give your child a say The best way to get your child to buy into consequences is to involve him in creating them, said Jennifer Powell-Lunder, creator of the Web forums It’s a Tween’s Life and Talking Teenage. If you have been struggling to get your child to finish his homework in the evenings, tell him that it has to be done and ready to be checked by 7 p.m. each day, Leahy said. Make it clear to him that if it’s not complete on time, there will be a consequence. Ask him what he thinks would be an appropriate punishment. You might think he won’t take it seriously, and will suggest something along the lines of no broccoli for a week. More often than not, though, children are harder on themselves than you would be, Powell-Lunder said. Work together to figure out the most appropriate consequences for different rule violations. Monitor your tone When you yell, Sendek said, your child will not remember what you said. He will only remember that you yelled, and how upsetting that was. “It’s a physiological response,” Sendek said. “When someone yells, your system goes on hyper-alert.” Instead of yelling, Sendek said, use a stern tone of voice to get your child’s attention and let him know that what you are saying is important. Get face to face with him and make eye contact. Stop arguing and reconnect Take time out from whatever is angering you and spend time reading or playing a game with your child to reconnect, Leahy said. Or if you are fighting about her choice in music, tell her why you dislike it, then ask her what she likes about it. You can always revisit the source of conflict later. “You’re modeling wonderful behavior to your teens, and teaching them that when you have a conflict there are other ways to resolve it and be successful,” Powell-Lunder said of taking the time to count to three and resisting the urge to yell. In Hoefle’s house they called this policy “Stop. Apologize. Eat ice cream.” “I would go into the freezer and get little tubs of sherbet, give everyone a spoon, and we would all take a bite and regroup,” Hoefle said. “Whatever is happening is not as important as the fact that we are family. When we come home tonight we can talk about the problem. But in that moment I want to clean up the mess. It resets the clock.” Let go of the small stuff We all want children with perfect table manners, impeccable hygiene and strong moral character. Sometimes, though, you need to pick what is most important to you, or to your child’s safety, and let some of the irritating, but less dire, behaviors slide, Sendek said. “Decide what are those things that are very critical to you: drugs, sex, alcohol,” she said. “Those should have dire consequences. With other things, say, ‘Okay, you didn’t pick up your shoes and that drives me crazy, but I can live with it.’ “ Model good behavior by apologizing for yelling Even the most patient parents yell occasionally. Kids are hard-wired to push our buttons, and we lose our tempers. If you do yell, the best thing to do is acknowledge the mistake, Leahy said. Leahy said that when she has lost her temper with Sophia, she will write her a note after her daughter has gone to bed. In the note she apologizes for yelling and suggests that they meet the next day to talk about what happened and why she yelled. “There’s nothing wrong with saying you’re sorry, ever,” Leahy said. “It doesn’t mean she’ll get what she wants, but it opens the door to communication, which is all I want to do.”

Is simpler work getting automated and outsourced? I think so. That leaves complex and creative work that continue to be in demand, and even increase. Work that has a high degree of task standardization is getting replaced by machines, and this trend will only accelerate. Andrew McAfee discusses technology’s impact on the labour force in a TEDx Boston presentation, particularly 1) language translation (already here & growing) and 2) automated vehicles (coming soon). If something as complex as translating an article or negotiating a vehicle in heavy traffic is already being automated, how many of today’s jobs will go that way? There will be less demand for standardized human labour, and the whole notion of a standard job will quietly go away. The end of Taylorism cannot come soon enough, in my opinion. McAfee says that networked computers are as revolutionary as was the steam engine, in how they change the way people do work. The steam engine overcame our physical limitations and computers will help us overcome our cognitive limitations. Here’s why, says McAfee: - economies run on ideas, which drive innovation - computers are making innovation more open and inclusive (especially for the bottom of the pyramid) - technology is freeing us to do better things and this trend will increase We are not just losing standardized work tasks but we are gaining the tools and the time to do greater task variety, and of our own choosing. Networked computers allow us to learn informally and share tacit knowledge, leaving the boring stuff to the droids. Probably our greatest limitation is our ability to cast away our old ideas about how we learn. We need to think for ourselves and take advantage of network technologies, wider social connections, improved peer interactions, and informal learning. Economies run on ideas, not assembly lines. Work is learning, and learning is the work.

Dogs have a range of different vaccines which we administer, based on their likelihood of exposure due to their lifestyle. What are these vaccines and why do we recommend protection? Vaccines work by stimulating the immune system to form antibodies, essentially soldiers whose job is to seek out viruses/bacteria and destroy them before they produce ill effects or to reduce disease severity and duration. Distemper Combination Vaccine (DA2PP) This vaccine has a combination of four different viruses: Distemper is virus which attacks many different areas of the body- often the respiratory tract is first, but vomiting/diarrhea, callouses on the nose and footpads, seizures, muscle rigidity, abnormal tooth enamel formation, death, etc. Thank goodness this vaccine is available. With such a severe disease, vaccination has drastically reduced the number of distemper cases present. Since both Adenovirus and Parainfluenza cause the same types of symptoms, I am going to lump them together for this discussion. Both these viruses cause upper respiratory infections initially, but can also lead to bronchitis if left untreated. Most people have heard of this virus, it is highly contagious via feces from dog to dog and can be fatal if left untreated. It can cause a bloody diarrhea, with the most susceptible patients being puppies, especially if they are not fully vaccinated when they are exposed. The vaccine drastically reduces the disease severity, each booster vaccine strengthens the immune system. Rabies is an easily transmitted virus mainly through bites since it is transmitted via saliva, but also can be obtained from drinking from a contaminated puddle (somewhat rare). With Rabies being a fatal virus which attacks the nervous system, this is a public health issue and thus is the only Provincially Mandated Vaccination. All dogs and cats should be kept up-to-date with their rabies vaccinations to keep them, and the people they contact, safe. Treating a dog with leptospirosis can be heartbreaking, they become ill so quickly after drinking from a contaminated puddle, or licking their paws after walking through a contaminated water source. Animals such as rats, squirrels and racoons can harbor the bacteria which is urinated into puddles. The bacteria makes the trip to the liver and/or kidneys, causing the organs to be unable to function. Dogs develop vomiting, dehydration, inappetance, lethargy, and will die without proper treatment. Often times, these dogs are hospitalized for a full week on IV fluids, antibiotics, and medication for their nausea to keep them eating. Even worse, this bacteria can be spread to people via contaminated urine. Ticks are a major issue in this area, especially during spring and fall. Not all ticks transmit Lyme disease, but the Ixodes ticks which can spread the disease are increasing in the area. Lyme disease causes issues such as joint stiffness and pain, kidney damage, lethargy, etc. The lyme vaccine helps to protect our dogs who have been bitten by a lyme infected tick by giving the dog antibodies to fight the lyme bacteria once it is in the body. This is an important vaccine for dogs going in lyme endemic areas such as the Provincial Parks, Ojibway, camping or travelling dogs, since these ticks are found near wildlife such as deer and mice, but also migrating birds! ‘Kennel Cough’ Vaccine (Bordetella, Parainfluenza, Adenovirus) The CIRDC complex- or ‘Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex’ – is a group of bacteria and viruses which cause similar signs of sneezing, coughing, and if the infection spreads to the lungs, a pneumonia. These are diseases easily acquired from breathing in bacteria or viruses which have been sneezed or coughed out by another dog. The locations our dogs are most likely to infect themselves include: a grooming salon, dog park, another dog on the other side of the fence, the vet clinic, etc., any other location where there will be an infect dog nearby. The great news about the vaccine is, while our dogs can still pick up the bacteria or virus, they are going to be better protected from actually becoming ill from these infectious agents. It may mean a few days of coughing in a vaccinated patient, versus a fatal pneumonia in an unvaccinated patient. Now, after learning all this information, think about your dog. What are they exposed to (other dogs, wildlife, ticks, puddles), and what should your dog be protected against?

Plants beautify your home and make it livelier. At the same time, your plants can also offer you something on a completely different level: You learn with them and develop further: You learn to be patient. Plants take a long time to grow. An orchid needs half a year to develop a completely new stem and then another three months for flowering. Germinating an avocado seed can take up to two months. It will take another six to ten years and a lot of warmth before you can harvest your own avocados. You become more alert. Over time, you'll get a sense of when your plant needs water and how much. You will learn how to take care of it and give it a perfect location in your home. Plus, after a while, you'll know what she doesn't like so much. A spider plant, for example, reacts very sensitively to unintentional stripping of the leaves and needs its own personal space to feel good! You take responsibility. Because the plant is dependent on you - its plant life is more or less in your hands. So, are you ready to evolve with her?

Seeds of MSA diet breadth19 Dec 2009 Julio Mercader reports in a short Science paper that the MSA stone artifacts from Ngalue cave, Mozambique, preserve thousands of grains of sorghum starch, along with a few other grasses and palm pith. The role of starchy plants in early hominin diets and when the culinary processing of starches began have been difficult to track archaeologically. Seed collecting is conventionally perceived to have been an irrelevant activity among the Pleistocene foragers of southern Africa, on the grounds of both technological difficulty in the processing of grains and the belief that roots, fruits, and nuts, not cereals, were the basis for subsistence for the past 100,000 years and further back in time. A large assemblage of starch granules has been retrieved from the surfaces of Middle Stone Age stone tools from Mozambique, showing that early Homo sapiens relied on grass seeds starting at least 105,000 years ago, including those of sorghum grasses. This is another of those very interesting technical developments in archaeology. The use of grass seeds may not be surprising in itself. Some think that australopithecines were eating grass seeds for a substantial amount of their diet; some (notably Clifford Jolly and Jonathan Kingdon) have suggested that grass seeds were one of the resources that prompted the evolution of bipedality. The dental reduction in early humans doesn’t argue strongly against seed consumption; they are an important part of the diet for many recent hunter-gatherers including Australians. But it’s nice to see a direct confirmation that humans were gathering seeds relatively intensively. How intensive? Well, there is a slight problem: It is not clear why the tools should be mostly coated with grass starches and not so much with other types of starch. It is possible that high-starchbearing grass refuse built up considerably in the caves main chamber at times of human occupation, thus coating both tools that were used in the processing of grass seeds and others that were not. Hmmm. On the one hand, that means pretty intensive grass collection. On the other, if such a substantial fraction of the actual sedimentary debris in the cave was composed of anthropogenic plant waste, it’s probably not possible to get an accurate picture of the importance of the seeds as a fraction of the diet. It’s a data point: these people, living around this cave, used a lot of Sorghum grasses and processed seeds in some way with stone tools. It makes me wonder about what non-stone implements they may have used. Winnowing baskets? Mercader J. 2009. Mozambican grass seed consumption during the Middle Stone Age. Science 326:1680-1683. doi:10.1126/science.1173966

When Polish composer Frederic Chopin died in 1849 he seemed to have suffered a classic Romantic death from tuberculosis. But doubts soon arose about the diagnosis, and a scientific examination of the heart earlier this year, while at first appearing to confirm the TB theory, left the mystery unresolved. It was the dead of night when a secret ceremony took place at a church in the Polish capital, Warsaw, in April this year. A crystal jar, encased in one of the church's pillars, was removed and its contents examined solemnly by genetic and forensic scientists. "The spirit of this night was very sublime," forensic scientist Tadeusz Dobosz told the Associated Press news agency. The jar contained a heart preserved in alcohol - most likely cognac - for more than 160 years. It belonged to arguably Poland's most famous son, the great composer and pianist Frederic Chopin. The scientists wanted to check that it was in good condition and to answer the question - what killed the man whose works are regarded by Poles as the musical embodiment of their country? Chopin died in an apartment in Place Vendome, in Paris, on 17 October 1849, at the age of 39. France's greatest authority on tuberculosis had diagnosed him with the disease months earlier, and duly noted it as the cause on the death certificate. But things then became less clear. The same doctor, Jean Cruveilhier, removed Chopin's heart and carried out an autopsy. Precisely what he recorded is not known - the notes he made were lost. However, reports suggest he referred to something other than TB, a "disease not previously encountered". What could that be? Then in September, the debate appeared to be over. The forensic and genetic scientists who had gathered months earlier at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw for that unprecedented examination revealed their conclusions at a news conference. Chopin's heart was well preserved and bore "TB nodules" they reported. It was also "much enlarged, suggesting respiratory problems, linked to a lung disease". It looked like TB, after all. End of story. But the examination was only visual. No tissue sample was taken for testing. The jar bearing Chopin's heart had not been opened, and had never left the church. Is a visual examination of a heart inside a jar enough to give conclusive proof of TB? Sebastian Lucas, Emeritus Professor of Pathology at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, says probably not. "If the heart was involved in the TB, it would in many cases be affected by pericarditis, an inflammation around the heart," he says. "TB pericarditis can be nodular or a diffuse process. Nodules sound good for TB as the diagnosis, but other diseases can mimic that appearance - cancer, and a fungus infection such as aspergillosis. You can't tell which one by the naked eye." The scientists who carried out the examination had wanted to open the jar and test its contents, but faced implacable opposition from "everybody, starting with the great great granddaughter of one of Chopin's sisters", Prof Dobosz said in September. Other opponents, he told Gazeta Wyborzca, included the previous director of Poland's Chopin Institute and the Archbishop of Warsaw, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz. To understand this opposition, it's worth considering what Chopin means to Poland. Frederic Chopin 1810-1849 - Child prodigy of a French father and Polish mother, whose playing was in demand among the aristocracy of Warsaw - Had a Polonaise published when he was aged only seven - Wrote Nocturnes and short pieces in dance forms, such as Mazurkas, Waltzes and Polonaises, throughout his career The composer left Warsaw aged 20, never to return. Throughout his life Poland did not exist. It had been swallowed by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795, and only re-materialised as an independent country 123 years later. Chopin's patriotism found expression in his music, and for Poles it came to symbolise Polish nationalism. His dying wish was for his heart to be removed before burial - in Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery - and his sister then smuggled it past Russian guards into Poland. Many years later, in September 1939 the pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman happened to be in the middle of a live broadcast of a Chopin nocturne when German bombs fell on the radio station and he was forced off air. On his return to Warsaw Radio in 1945, having survived the utter destruction of the city and the Holocaust, he began by playing the same nocturne - a story immortalised in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist. To meddle with the heart of a man so bound-up with the struggles for Poland would, for many Poles, be sacrilegious. "There would be a feeling of desecration," explains Rose Cholmondeley, president of the London-based Chopin Society. "It's like a holy relic, and there is something distasteful about DNA analysis." But Cholmondeley also thinks there could be another reason why a DNA test might make people uncomfortable. "It's not absolutely certain it's Chopin's heart," she says. The legend is that a German soldier removed the heart from its pillar in the church during the war, before both the church and the pillar were flattened. It is then said to have passed through a variety of hands before being returned to a Polish cardinal. In a bizarre twist, one of the men who supposedly looked after the heart and saved it from destruction is the same man who carried out that destruction - SS Gen Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, commander of the German forces that put down the Warsaw Uprising with great brutality in the summer of 1944. But as Rose Cholmondeley says, it's hard to know how much of this is true, and the possibility remains that the heart reinterred in the pillar of the church in October 1945, amid patriotic celebration in the ruins of a devastated city, is not Chopin's. Prof Dobosz disagrees. The April inspection, in his view, dispelled these doubts. "The condition, the appearance of the preservative, the type of thread used for stitching the heart following dissection in Paris, the type of jar - all, in our opinion, are of the era," he said during the scientists' news conference. The jar was resealed in the church pillar, with a recommendation that it be left undisturbed until 2064. What is TB? - Serious condition caused by bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis - Mainly affects the lungs, but can affect other parts of the body, including bones and nervous system - Was a major health problem in 18th and 19th Century Europe and North America, but was brought under control in 20th Century by improved hygiene and antibiotic treatment - Remains a fatal disease in countries where population is dense and hygiene is poor The diagnosis of TB could be regarded as inevitable in Chopin's case. He was a deeply Romantic figure. The stirring passion and emotion of his music led his German contemporary Robert Schumann to describe it as "cannons hidden among flowers". And Chopin's appearance - thin, small, very pale - corresponded to the stereotype of the Romantic consumptive. "Chopin coughs with infinite grace" wrote his lover, the novelist George Sand. Prof Clark Lawlor of Northumbria University has published a book on the depiction of consumption in literature. The first half of the 19th Century saw TB eulogised as the way for an artist to die, he says. If a fatal illness could ever be considered attractive, than it was TB. "It's a bit like heroin chic," says Lawlor, "A Romantic idea of consumption as the glamorous disease of the beautiful and the genius. How can any disease be fashionable, how can any disease be Romantic? But it reached this paradoxical position in the 19th Century." It's tempting to see a blurring of fact and fiction in Chopin's death. But even so, the original explanation of what killed him may still be the most credible one. "TB was the single most common cause of death in Europe and North America. It was an enormous killer. On a statistical basis, he died of TB rather than Cystic Fibrosis," says Prof Lucas. While he agrees that Chopin did exhibit some of the characteristics of a CF sufferer and someone affected by Alpha-1-AT, he says they could all apply just as well to someone with TB. He also doubts whether any testing of tissue now could prove conclusively what killed Chopin, and for that reason his heart - assuming it is his heart - should be left to rest in peace, he says. "Histopathology of the pericardium might indicate TB, but if it's normal no disease is proven or excluded. Genetic tests for CF would probably be inconclusive. So that's why I don't think they should do it." No-one may be able to say conclusively what killed Frederic Chopin. But the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw will continue to be a place of pilgrimage for Chopin devotees - convinced that the heart resting there is that of the greatest of all Polish patriots. "Hats off gentlemen, a genius!" - Robert Schumann "A really perfect virtuoso" - Felix Mendelssohn "A sickroom talent" - John Field "He shines lonely, peerless in the firmament of art" - Franz Liszt Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

The U.S. federal government has produced a new environmental assessment of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from western Canada to Nebraska, but it is not clear if the report will facilitate the project's approval. “The environmental analysis of Keystone XL released today once again supports the science that this pipeline would have minimal impact on the environment,” said Russ Girling, president and CEO of Calgary-based TransCanada. “The next step is making a decision on a Presidential Permit for Keystone XL. I believe that this project continues to be in the national interest of the United States for two main reasons: supporting U.S. energy security and the thousands of jobs our multi-billion dollar project will create.” The U.S. Department of State released the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on Jan. 31 in response to a new application by TransCanada in 2012 for a Presidential Permit to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline. A 30-day comment period for the project began on Feb. 5 and will close on Mar. 7, 2014. During this period, members of the public and other interested parties are encouraged to submit comments in the national interest. The analysis in the final SEIS builds on the draft statement released on Mar. 1, 2013 and other documents that were part of the previous pipeline application. The issue of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions is critical to determining whether this project will go forward. President Barack Obama said in his climate change speech last June that the pipeline should be approved only if it does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The total life cycle emissions associated with production, refining, and combustion of 830,000 barrels per day of oilsands crude oil transported through the proposed project is about 147 million to 168 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per year. This is equivalent to the GHG emissions from about 300,000 passenger vehicles operating for one year, or 71,928 homes using electricity over the same time. However, the Pembina Institute argues that the final SEIS is an improvement over the State Department’s March 2013 draft report. “The assessment now acknowledges that under some circumstances, constraints on new pipeline capacity could have ‘a substantial impact on oilsands production levels,’” said Clare Demerse, federal policy director at the Pembina Institute. “In other words, building the Keystone XL pipeline could help spur increased oilsands production and the carbon pollution that goes with it. President Obama said he will only approve Keystone XL if it does not significantly worsen carbon pollution. By that standard, Keystone XL is not in the U.S. national interest.” According to the final SEIS, Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) crudes are generally more GHG intensive than other heavy crudes they would replace or displace in U.S. refineries. As a result, WCSB crudes emit an estimated 17 per cent more GHGs on a lifecycle basis than the average barrel of crude oil refined in the U.S. in 2005. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion is a 3,200-kilometre, 36-inch crude oil pipeline stretching from Hardisty, Alberta to a delivery point near existing terminals in Nederland, Texas. The U.S. portion of the proposed project is estimated to cost about US$3.3 billion and provide the infrastructure to transport oil from the Canadian border and connect to an existing pipeline near Steele City Nebraska. Construction of the proposed project would include the pipeline itself plus various above ground ancillary facilities, such as access roads, pump stations, and construction camps. President Obama followed the recommendation of the U.S. Department of State in January 2012 to deny the permit for construction of the project. The National Interest Determination process focused on the unique characteristics in the Sand Hills and argued the pipeline’s route poses a significant threat to the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies drinking and irrigation water to eight states. This includes 30 per cent of the water used for irrigation in the U.S. TransCanada submitted alternative routing corridors and a preferred corridor to the Nebraska’s Department of Environmental Quality in April 2012. As a result, TransCanada split up the construction of pipeline by building the southern portion first, which prevented the review of the Presidential Permit from delaying the entire project. The US$2.3 billion Gulf Coast project from Cushing, Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas went into operation in January. The National Energy Board (NEB) approved an application from TransCanada to construct the Canadian section of the Keystone XL Pipeline in March 2010. The $1.7 billion Canadian portion of the project involves the construction of about 529 kilometres of new pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to the Canada/U.S. border at Monchy, Saskatchewan.

The human heart has a complex system that drives it to pump the blood from the whole body. There are four chambers of the heart which work in the form of one unit to keep the heart beat going and maintain the rhythm of their function. What is natural pacemaker of the heart? It is natural to think from where the command for this rhythm comes? The answer to this is very simple. Between the right atrium and right ventricle, at the floor of the right atrium, the heart is supplied by a Sinoatrial node abbreviated as SA node. It is the Sinoatrial node which is responsible for the rhythm and rate of the heart that we possess. SA node has its own ability to generate nerve impulses and send the command to AV node and to the muscles of the right and left ventricles through the Purkinje fibers and also through the right and left bundle branches. Artificial pacemaker of the heart The normal rate of the heart is because of the above mentioned conducting system of the heart. But, in some conditions, this normal conducting system is disturbed because the pacemaker of the heart aka Sino atrial node does not function properly. In such circumstances, scientists are able to formulate an artificial pacemaker which functions exactly like the natural one. Recent models of the artificial pacemaker are so convenient to use and user-friendly both for the patient and the doctor. Indications for artificial pacemaker of the heart There are certain relative and absolute indications for implantation of an artificial pacemaker. The most important and absolute indication is the third-degree heart block associated with one or two attacks of Stokes Adams syncope. Relative indication of implantation of an artificial pacemaker is the congenital heart block at any stage in life. Although it is not practiced usually studies have shown that implantation of artificial pacemaker has proved to be lifesaving and has improved the quality of life of such patients. Common forms of artificial pacemakers As discussed earlier, pacemakers have been devised in hundreds of forms. The most suitable device for the specific case and affordability of the patients is selected and implanted. Below, we are mentioning the most commonly used forms of artificial pacemakers. - Single chamber pacemaker In a single chamber pacemaker, a pacing lead is inserted into one chamber of the heart. It is either inserted in the right atrium or in the right ventricle. - Double chamber pacemaker As the name indicates, it is inserted into the two chambers of the heart. It is always implanted in the right heart and is by far the most used method if implantation of an artificial pacemaker. - Biventricular pacing A biventricular pacemaker uses the phenomenon of insertion of the pacemaker into the right and left ventricles both. Pacemaker wallet card A pacemaker wallet card is advised to be kept in the wallet of a patient with an artificial pacemaker implanted in him. It is for the identity as well as used in the case of an emergency. One such card has been designed and prepared by American Heart Association which one can use in case of need.

Since their emergence at the end of the nineteenth century, the ideology of Syrian Salafis has been transformed. The two most important centres where this process took place were Damascus and Aleppo. Initially, the Syrian Salafi movement was akin to reformist Salafis, who originated in Egypt through the teachings of Sheikh Muhammad Abdu. Its main icons were religious and intellectual people of stature, including Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi (1849–1902), Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (1914–1966), and Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865–1935). Their primary concern was politics. Shami (Levantine) Salafi thought is not different from the ideology of the Salafi reformist school in Egypt. A large number of the early and senior national politicians were influenced by the ideas of the leaders of this school, particularly those of Qasimi. He coordinated a forum attended by the likes of Lutfi al-Haffaar, Abdul Rahman al-Shahbandar, Faris Al-Khouri, Rafiq al-Azm, Mohammad Kurd Ali, Salim al-Jaza’iri, Abd al-Hamid al-Zahrawi, and others. Several organisations branched off from Levantine reformist Salafi thought, and rapidly began to play important roles in political life. The most important of these was al-Jam’iah al-Gharra (The Radiant Assembly), which was founded by Sheikh Abdul Ghani al-Daker in 1924. It tried to engage with social changes that had resulted through the importation of modern western life. Its activities had broad social impact, and it began to receive support from politicians and other people of power who hoped to use this support to attract votes. These included Shukri al-Qutali who, through the encouragement of the Assembly, succeeded in the 1943 parliamentary elections. Another supporter was the Assembly’s Secretary, Sheikh Abdul Hamid al-Tabbah. He was placed on the coalition’s candidates’ list, and was elected to the Syrian parliament in 1943. The Jam’iah al-Tamaddun al-Islami (Society of the Islamic Civilisation) was founded in 1930 by Ahmed Mazhar al-Azmah – who later became a minister, and Bahjat al-Baitar, a student who had been associated with Qasimi. In 1946 the society launched, with its name, a magazine that might be considered the most important record of the Levantine Salafi reformist movement and its activities. The Assembly was shut down after the 1982 Hama massacre. Despite the disbanding of political parties, and the abolition of democratic life in Syria for the sake of the unity with Egypt, the Levantine Salafi reformists remained loyal to their principles. After the 1963 coup by the Syrian Ba’ath party, and the subsequent dissolution of political parties and undermining of political pluralism, the reformist Salafi movement began to disintegrate. Its institutions transformed into mere charities, and its journals became cultural publications. Its followers engaged in controversies about dogma, with this trend reaching its peak at the end of the 1970s. That was followed by a shift to an academic Salafi movement, typified by a debate between Sheikh Said Ramadan Buti and Sheikh Nasser al-Din al-Albani. The seeds of jihadist Salafism The first seeds of the jihadist Salafism were planted during Hafez al-Asad’s rule, in a regional and international environment that witnessed several heated conflicts. These included the Second Gulf War, which was followed by a harmful economic blockade of Iraq; the coup against Islamists in Algeria after their victory in the elections; and the genocide in Bosnia against Muslims. Furthermore, the period witnessed the end of the Afghanistan war of liberation from Soviet occupation, the return of many Arab Afghans to their country, and revelations of the suffering of Syrian Islamists in prisons after hundreds of them were released from 1992. Over 17 000 prisoners had been subjected to mass executions. Videos, books, and articles that emphasised the massacres of Bosnia, as well as the Arab jihad in Afghanistan, were circulating internationally. As such, the international community had a limited opportunity to recognise the suffering of Muslim communities abroad. In the mid-1990s, ‘jihad’ was declared against the Russians in order to gain Chechen independence, as was obtained by other countries that had previously been part of the Soviet Union. These factors galvanised the younger Syrian generation towards a jihadist orientation. They formed unregulated small groups based on their common jihadist interest. This phenomenon certainly did not arise from the Islamic and Syrian political memory of the 1980s, or directly from the jihadist literature. Rather, they were influenced by some of the newly emerging Salafi symbols of the Afghan and the Caucasus jihads, and some of the new Salafi symbols of the Islamic awakening in Saudi Arabia. More specifically, they were influenced by the charisma of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, who had become a symbol of the Arab Afghan jihad after he had been killed in 1993 in Pakistan with two of his sons. Azzam represented the ideology of the pioneer fighters of a global jihad. The first Palestinian intifada, which broke out in 1987 and lasted until 1993, and the activities of the Palestinian Islamic resistance organisations – Hamas and Islamic Jihad, was significant and impressive. It inspired and encouraged younger generations. This response was similar to that associated with southern Lebanon and the Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah, which was launched in 1985, and achieved victories under revolutionary Islamic slogans. The ‘negative effects’ of sectarian differences in Syria did not prevent the acceptance of jihadist forces, which were significantly influenced by the Lebanese resistance. Hizbullah’s impact was on par with that of its neighbours in Palestine. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, which had long supported Asad’s regime, had collapsed, and the Marxist doctrine suffered its final defeat. This increased local and international interest in Islam. The regime created alliances with and supported some religious groups, particularly those that were hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood. It did so in order to control the ‘Islamic awakening’ which Syria and the region witnessed, and which could have posed a threat to the regime. The escalation of the Islamic awakening and the emergence of Islamic movements in neighbouring countries influenced Sheikh Muhammad Said Ramadan Al Buti. He was a senior religious scholar who was well respected among many Sunni Syrians. He was the most prominent opponent of Salafism and the closest religious personality to the Asad regime. He was also well-known for his opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood had begun in Egypt and its founder was Hasan al-Banna. The group advocated physical action and, if necessary, war to achieve Islamic ends. Buti, however, was a government supporter. Buti could therefore not confront the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood physically. However, the government used him to direct Sunni Muslims away from taking up arms against the state. This was done by funding his writing of government-approved books against the real principles of jihad, in order to confront the jihadist ideology in Islamic jurisprudential terms. This was exemplified in his book Jihad in the path of God: How do we understand it and how do we practise it? (1993), which justified the repression of the Syrian regime against the Islamists. The fast-moving developments, suppression of the media, and limited progress in communication led to the growth of a new sentiment. The younger generations who had experienced the suppression of the Islamist movement in the eighties became anti-American and opposed the Arab regimes. This mood generally led them to individually embrace Salafi jihadist ideas. Its ideas were spread through wide network of literature and video distribution. This methodology was based on the experience of the Arab Afghan mujahideen, but those who used it were still unable to act cohesively. The bloody tragedy during the repression in the 1980s had left deep scars. The resultant fear continues to penetrate into society, to the extent that, until recently, it was not even acceptable in Syrian society to support any organisation that adopted violence against the Syrian regime. With these factors hindering progress internally, the new jihadist Salafi forces automatically focused externally. The regime did not waste time in providing them with the necessary facilities, and invested in them. Accordingly, it began to tolerate Islamist organisations abroad such as Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood at unprecedented levels. This occurred simultaneously with its violent and intolerant suppression of any organised Islamic Syrian opposition. It threatened the Syrian community in several ways by reminding people of the suppression of the 1980s. These factors made it even more difficult for the Syrians to accept the Salafi jihadist ideology. The domestic Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Suri, one of the second-tier leaders from among the vanguard fighters, and one of the icons of al-Qa’ida, issued a statement on the death of President Hafez al-Asad, complaining about the reluctance of the Syrians for jihad, and bitterly noting that many Syrians had become ‘content with the life of this world’, and had ‘found tranquillity’ in it. He said that they would reject his words, and would take revenge against those who call for jihad. He blamed ‘many evil’ sheikhs and Sunnis for, from 1986 to 2000, ‘killing...the seeds of resistance’. The events of 11 September 2001, he said, had stimulated the Salafi jihadi everywhere. He believed the internet’s entry into Syria had made it easier for Syrians to communicate with the jihadist world. Scores of people were arrested when the Syrian authorities, cooperating with the American CIA, investigated groups with possible links to al-Qa’ida. Everyone suspected of being a Salafi, (including those who were not jihadists and not linked to any ‘terrorist’ organisation) was summoned and interrogated. Among those arrested was Shakir al-Absi, who later became the leader of a new jihadist organisation in Lebanon named Fath al-Islam. He had direct links with the Syrian intelligence services. While preparations were taking place for the American-led occupation of Iraq, the atmosphere in the media and within the population, hinted at the creation of a wave of new jihadists. Jihadists were growing on the basis of confronting the ‘infidel’ West’s violation of Muslim lands. The official Syrian clergy as well as those who were allied to the Syrian regime, had discussions, and politicians made official statements regarding this jihadist mobilisation. On 26 March 2003, the mufti of the republic, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, called Muslims in all parts of the world to jihad. In essence, the call was intended to ‘use all possible means to defeat the aggression, including martyrdom operations against the invading soldiers’. This call for an ‘obligatory jihad’ was repeated by Sheikh al-Buti in Friday sermons. He urged young Muslims to ‘proceed to great reward, which God Almighty and All Glorious has saved stored for the fighters.’ Many other clerics adopted the same approach. In conjunction with this mobilisation, the young Sheikh Mahmoud Qul Aghassi began to gain prestige in a very poor area in north Aleppo, where the Salafi jihadist discourse was publicly adopted. Under the nose of the regime, he coached his followers in the Alaa Bin Hadrami Mosque on combat operations. He also widely disseminated CDs which contained videos of these exercises in military uniform, and spirited jihadist speeches. He thus played an important role in mobilising youth and preparing them for jihad, which had just been launched in Iraq. In the autumn of 2003, however, fatwas (juridical decrees) were issued to jihadist groups in Iraq to assassinate him because he was a ‘security trap for hundreds of youngsters who believed his claim’. He subsequently disappeared, only to emerge two years later with a well-kept beard. He became a Salafi reformist imam at the Iman Mosque in a new upscale Aleppo area. He was assassinated on 28 September 2007, however, by a group calling itself ‘Tawhid and Jihad in the Levant’. It was subsequently discovered that this group did not exist except in the official media. Hundreds of young Syrians rushed to Iraq and committees in support of Iraq were formed. These facilitated the volunteering of youth, and their transfer to the battlefield. Most volunteers for jihad in Iraq did not go to the battle on the basis of a Salafi jihadist ideology, but, instead were led by mixed feelings of Arab and Islamic chivalry. Many were inspired by Hizbullah’s successful experience in southern Lebanon, and its defeat of Israel in 2006. Returning to Syria was not as easy as leaving, however, and many returnees were summoned for investigation. On 27 March 2004, the Syrian government alluded to an ‘Islamic threat’ facing the country, after pressure from the USA and the coalition forces. The government declared, via the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), that there had been a clash in Damascus between an armed terrorist group and security forces. Since the 1980s, such a situation was the first of its kind in Syria. Many questioned the credibility of the report, and western media dismissed it. There was a common belief that the story was ‘locally formulated’. Thereafter, the announcements of jihadist operations ended. During a meeting of the United Nations Commission against Terrorism in June 2005, the then Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan said there was ‘absolutely no activity of al-Qa’ida or the Taliban movement on Syrian territory’. Nevertheless, after only one month, on July 11, 2005, there was an announcement of an armed clash resulting in the arrest of members of ‘takfiri’ groups (groups that considered other Muslims to be disbelievers), and a group calling itself ‘Jund al-Sham li al-jihad wa al-Tawhid’ (Levantine army for jihad and monotheism) which had links to al-Qa’ida. This was followed by other, similar announcements. Several experts believed these operations had been fulfilled by small, isolated local groups, without international connections. There were also those who believed that the regime had employed these groups to generate internal and external propaganda. Human rights organisations, however, provided information (including details of indictment records and trials) that showed that the spread of the Salafi jihadist ideology was extremely limited. They proved that the associated groups were small and of varying size, and did not have a unified leadership. They were influenced by the ideas of international organisations such as Jund al-Sham li al-Da’wah wa al-Jihad (Levantine army for Calling and Jihad) and Takfir wa al-Hijra, or even Al-Qa’ida. The state media claimed that Al-Qaeda had existed in Syria. This was untrue. The state prepared a list of accusations against Sunni Islamists in advance, in order to justify repression. These accusations were based on unreliable evidence, as noted by human rights lawyer, Razan Zaytuna. The striking point is that the large number of detainees accused of being Salafis, Salafi jihadists, or of being affiliated to ‘terrorist’, radical religious organisations, were from the rural parts of Damascus and other areas. Those from the major Syrian cities were a fraction of the detainees. This strengthens the notion that in conjunction with local politics and regional circumstances, poverty and marginalisation play an important role in stimulating jihadist ideology. Accordingly, no strictly Salafi jihadist religious organisation existed. Studies suggest that there is a continued rise in the spread of the Salafi protest ideology, and a shift of many young Salafis from Salafi religious thought to Salafi jihadist ideology. For many, this shift occurred during their prison experience, especially since the vast majority of Salafi detainees did not belong to jihadist groups, and their jihadist ideas had not been clearly developed. At the time, there were no groups even within prison that believed in undertaking jihad operations within Syria. As such, the repressive security policy used by the regime against Salafis, and the exceptionally unfair trials that did not function according to the minimum standards of justice, led to the expansion of Salafi ideology. Provoking Shi’a proselytising From the beginning of 2005, the Asad regime adopted a new policy. The Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese Shi’as were allowed, under security cover and with unprecedented facilities, to proselytise their beliefs. It was subsequently noted that that missionary call also provided Iran an advanced popular base in Syria. The roots of this lie in the moment that Bashar al-Asad came to power as an inheritance from his father, and the strengthening of the Iranian-Syrian alliance. In fact, many factors strengthened the strategic relationship between Syria, Hizbullah and Iran. There were two defining events: the occupation of Iraq in 2003, and the assassination of Rafeek Hariri in Beirut in 2005. These events made it clear that the extreme pressure on the regime may lead to its collapse, and therefore the alliance had an important role in maintaining the regime. This relationship was invested in as a bargaining chip and a means by which to pressure Arab regimes and the international community. That was one of the main reasons for the repressive security policy towards Salafis, and, in particular, towards the Salafi jihadist groups, which formed a bitter sectarian rival to Shiism. As a result, most Sunni Muslims and even the Christian minorities began to experience a deep sense of discrimination and deception in government policies, especially in comparison to the privileges and subsidies enjoyed by the small Shi’a minority. It seemed as if most government measures were directed against specific sectarian and religious groups. In this way, during Asad’s reign, government policies played a role in the growing phenomenon of Salafism and Salafi jihadism, as it increasingly played on sectarian instincts. For the first time, jihadist forces were protesting against domestic policies. This would create fertile ground for the development of jihadist Salafis. Non-violent Salafi revolutionaries Within the Salafi educated section of the Circassian Caucasian minority, a trend emerged towards a new, non-violent Salafism. It did not materialise until the early 1980s, and was promoted on a limited basis, among only a few groups. It is possible that Islamic thought had not witnessed an Islamist movement, let alone Salafism, that considered any form of violence illegal, including violence in self-defence. The leader of this trend was Sheikh Jawdat Said (born 1931), from the Circassian minority. Since the early 1980s, he had begun to spread his Islamic philosophy of non-violence. He was well aware of the possibility and implications of political arrests, which he had experienced on several occasions. Said had been influenced by the ideologies of Pakistani reformist thinker Muhammad Iqbal, and Algerian reformist thinker Malik Bennabi. It appears that Said had launched his theory of non-violence as a reaction to the events of the 1980s. His intellectual reference points, however, and the lessons that he had delivered for many earlier in al-Murabit Mosque in Damascus, reflected an ideological trajectory that was different from that of Islamists of the period. In 1966, his book The doctrine of the first son of Adam: The problem of violence in the Islamic World was published as a response to the Muslim Brotherhood’s approach of using political violence. The importance of this book lies in the fact that it was the first attempt in modern history to formulate the concept of a non-violent Islamism, and was the first direct response to the writings of Sayyid Qutb (died in 1966), which had formed the intellectual foundation of Islamic resistance movements. Said was unable to form an organisation that believed in his ideas. This changed in the early 1990s, when major global events occurred, including the fall of the Soviet Union and the Second Gulf War, sparking the need for new thinking. Said was able to fill some of the symbolic void left by the 1980s, but the group he had formed began to disintegrate towards the end of the 1990s, influenced by events in Syria that drove people to extremism and militancy. Despite this, a select group of students continued to admire his views. They included Hanan al-Lahham, who had been his student, was an active preacher, and who led her own women’s group; his brother-in-law, Khalis Chalabi, an author and known Islamic thinker; and a group of activists who centred around the Salafi Sheikh, Abdul Akram al-Saka in the town of Darya. The principle of non-violence was not just an enlightened religious thought, but was, in essence, an idea of political reform. Although Said did not show any personal political aspirations, he did not hide his desire for a peaceful change of the political system. The arrest of members of the ‘Darya group’ in 2003 was an indication of the growth of the impact of Said’s ideology of non-violence. Nearly a hundred young people emerged in a silent demonstration on the morning of the fall of Baghdad to American forces. They raised anti-corruption slogans, called for a boycott of American goods, and cleaned the streets of the city. The authorities arrested twenty-four of the protesters on 3 May 2003. Despite their protest being non-violent, they were referred to field military courts because they were Salafis, albeit of a non-violent strand. The fall of Baghdad was a milestone for the leader of the non-violent Salafi group. Since then, in all forums and public intellectual meetings that he attended, Sheikh Said had begun to wear a white jacket upon which ‘European Union’ was written in his own handwriting. This was to encapsulate his political idea that a union based on interests is a solution rather than an opportunity for conflict and violence. This was his first public activity that clearly indicated his political stance. The group engaged with political thought, which they expressed mainly through religious Qur’anic vocabulary. Said became one of the most prominent signatories of the ‘Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change’ in October 2005. The declaration united political opposition groups and individuals. A number of Said’s students displayed public opposition to the regime. When the Syrian peaceful revolution was launched in mid-March 2011, the star of the Sheikh Said shone strongly. A significant number of youth found, in non-violent Salafism, a form of Islamic thought that they could relate to and depend on. The group’s icon, Sheikh Said, and his words became familiar symbols appearing on banners in the peaceful demonstrations. This brief period represented the height of the golden age of non-violent Salafism. It regressed after only a few months, as repression by the regime intensified. Peaceful protests turned into an armed revolution, and non-violent Salafi ideas no longer held the same attraction. Revolutionary armed Salafis Hafez al-Asad’s legacy and the Syrian memory of the events of the 1980s left deep wounds, which the regime was eager not to heal because that experience sustained a ‘disciplinary’ or ‘deterrence’ effect. In addition, government policies under Asad’s son, Bashar, indicated significant changes, and an important turning point in the manner in which the regime dealt with religious groups. The regime also changed from one that relied on politics, negotiations and internal social balance to one that relied, instead, on security-based control, based on intimidation and the regime’s foreign policy interests. This rapidly infuriated the Salafi groups, and significantly changed their political aspirations. Government actions reflected its high regard for security, with little regard for the social and political implications on Syrian society. This is especially true with regards to the regime’s attack on Islamic groups and its attempts to control all religious spaces and interfere in religious institutions. This interference included the dissolution of family charity associations and imposing on such associations councils mandated by the government; the removal of successful municipal election candidates because they were religious; and the abolition of the annual breakfast to which the clerics and scholars were invited. In addition, the government decided to deploy women teachers who wore headscarves to administrative positions that were unrelated to teaching. This all occurred in light of the revolution set off in Tunisia. Syria was thus the powder keg that required a mere spark to be set off. The revolution exploded, and it engaged various parties, organisations and the other civil society groups. None of them played a leadership role, however. In the first months of the revolution, the traditional and jihadist Salafis were outside the framework of the uprising. There was no party organisation or Salafi movement, and those Salafis who did involve themselves in the peaceful civilian ranks of the revolution were few and far between, and acted as individuals. Many of them were victims of the 1980s, and participated as a result of having this background. The peaceful revolution had continued for ten months, had spread across the country and had mobilised many Syrians against the regime. But the Baba Amr events in March 2011, during the siege of Homs, transformed public sentiment and persuaded the protesters that the regime was capable of responding with more than just guns to kill demonstrators. It was clear that the regime was capable of attacking them with tanks, planes, and missiles. This opened the door for the formation of military units aimed at protecting civilians and peaceful demonstrators from being murdered. Later, these units expanded their mandate to protection of neighbourhoods and cities, and their goal very soon became one focused on overthrowing the regime by force. The first free army brigades appeared in the middle of 2011, and the general shift in the Syrian opposition deciding to use armed action began at this time too. The emerging military brigades were initially formed from army defectors, but were joined by an increasing number of civilian volunteers. Asad initially pursued a strategy of keeping the urban centres under firm control, as his regime’s survival was linked to these centres. Rebels in rural areas were able to move more freely, allowing for the initiation of what became a revolution of the peripheries. When the militarisation of the opposition began, most of the brigades were formed in the countryside, and then began to slowly move onto the cities. Due to the poverty-stricken conditions, the lack of development and marginalisation characterising the rural areas, people there were more willing to accept radical Salafi ideology. This coincided with the violence perpetrated by the Syrian regime against the population, the emergence of sectarian features, people’s disappointment regarding the refusal of the international community to intervene to protect civilians, as well as Iran’s increasing interference. Salafi ideology was spreading among most armed brigades; a new map of Salafism in Syria was being drawn. Many people were attracted to simple, radical ideology that could be used to confront the violence with greater sacrifice and strength. This created an ideal environment for the Salafis. The Salafi map will be incomplete without mentioning the emergence of Jabhat al-Nusrah li ahl al-Sham (the Victory Front for the Levantine people) which began operating against the regular army and the Shabbiha regime militias in January 2012. The new Salafi map The attraction of non-violent Salafism decreased, while that of jihadist Salafism began to increase exponentially. It is extremely difficult to formulate a detailed map of this situation due to the spread of the various brigades. With increasing victories that were achieved on the ground, there was an influx of volunteers. As a result, many of these brigades transformed, developed, or decayed. In this context, the Salafi map defining the military brigades should not be based solely on brigades’ names as they do not necessarily reflect Salafi tendencies. Sometimes the labels are pragmatic and aim to attract donors from the Gulf. Alternatively, they reflect general religious discourses that are part of the popular religious imagination. People gradually began to differentiate between the Islamic jihadist brigades and the free army brigades. While the Islamic jihadist brigades seemed cohesive and organised, the free army brigades appeared disorganised, and, therefore, less effective. Al-Nusrah (The Victory) Front: The third generation of Salafi jihadists While the demonstrations reached their peak in the middle of 2011, the Syrian fighters in the al-Qa’ida-linked Islamic State of Iraq decided to explore options in the rural north and south. This resulted in the militarisation of the revolution. Small groups of brigades calling themselves the ‘Brigades of Victory for the People of the Levantine’ were formed. Among them were some foreign fighters who had gained military and financial support from the emir of the State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An announcement to this effect was made in January 2012. The leaders of the Nusrah Front benefited from their fighting experience and failures in Iraq. They attempted to attract all experienced fighters in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Lebanon with whom they shared close relations. Many fighters were in the Saidnaya military prison, where Salafi jihadists and others were detained. They decided to work together on the basis of winning over popular support that they had they lost through the ‘awakenings’. Jabhat al-Nusrah was unique in its military objectives. These included toppling the Asad regime, confronting the Shi’a and Alawis who were part of the regime, and confronting Iran. However, al-Nusrah did not have a clear vision for the post-Asad stage. The political and military opposition in Syria were unable to refuse the support of al-Nusrah, despite doubts about its relation to al-Qa’ida, and ignorance regarding its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Jabhat al-Nusrah experienced two important milestones. The first was when the United States announced on 5 December 2012 that the Front had been placed on the US terror list. The second milestone was when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced that al-Nusrah would be under his command and that it would merge with the Islamic State in Iraq to form the ‘Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant’. Many Syrians perceived this as dangerous because the USA and other western states would regard it as an indication that Syrians wanted to create an Islamic state along traditional Islamic lines, and would assume that the Syrian struggle was part of a global jihad. Al-Nusrah was certain that this would deny them international support. The front then made available videos of its operations that it had carefully filmed. Al-Nusrah invested much effort to strengthen public support for and credibility of the group. Thus, the US decision resulted in a backlash from Syrians and the political opposition found itself compelled to defend the front during the fourth Friends of Syria conference in Morocco. At the conference, Baghdadi attempted to append al-Nusrah to his organisation, prompting Nusrah’s leader to hurriedly issue a statement emphasising his allegiance to al-Qa’ida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. This resulted in a rift in Nusrah’s ranks and shook the popular support base it had cultivated. Two streams thus emerged: those wanting to support progressive civil action to establish an Islamic state, and another that seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Syria as a prelude to a global Islamic caliphate. The early Syrian leaders who were members of the organisation of the vanguard fighters and who joined the Afghan jihad – such as Abu Basir al-Tartusi – regard the declaration of allegiance to Zawahiri a mistake. They view it as a serious threat to jihad activity in Syria, and as a benefit to the regime. Al-Nusrah represents the third generation of al-Qa’ida’s global jihad. The mujahideen of Afghanistan represented the first generation, and the fighters in Iraq represent the second generation. In the third generation, there is a clear civilian tendency. The leaders of the front have shifted in their personal convictions, represented by Abu Mohammad al-Julani who shifted fromcivil to military action. Al-Nusrah’s are Syrians, mainly from urban centres. While some of them are even fanatically connected to these centres, their bases are mostly rural. A new organisation named the Mujahideen Shura Council emerged in Aleppo and eastern Syria in November 2012. It is similar to an organisation that appeared in Iraq in 2006 which represented global jihadist Salafi thought, as well as a similar organisation in Gaza in 2010. Unlike al-Nusrah, the Mujahideen Shura Council is not linked to al-Qa’ida, and does not reflect ideological developments similar to those observed in the front. It is an active, medium-sized organisation. Some organisations tried to imitate al-Nusrah, such as Jaish al-Sahabah fi Bilad al-Sham (Army of the Companions [of Muhammad] in the Levant) from around August 2012, and Jund al-Sham (Levantine army) from Aleppo from August 2012. These groups have not had much success, however, and some collapsed while others remained marginal. ‘Immigrants’, or foreign fighters, came to Syria for various reasons. The vanguard from Iraq came to support their colleagues in al-Nusrah, and the others came through private social networks for various political reasons. Libyans, for example, wanted revenge against the regime that had supported Qaddafi, and Chechens because they are fighting Russians in Syria. The number of these foreigners has been exaggerated for political purposes as a result of the Islamic-secular polarisation occurring in the ‘Arab Spring’ countries. In reality, the total does not exceed 2 000 fighters of various nationalities, in all parts of Syria. The immigrants represent a model of a hard al-Qa’ida ideology in its Jihadist form in the State of Iraq. News of their unique spirit of sacrifice, bravery and exceptional courage has spread across the country. Most Syrians, however, did not accept their ideological inclinations. The typical civilian Syrian, with their urban openness, cannot accept the strict al-Qa’ida code, so the jihadists secluded themselves in brigades known as ‘immigrants’ brigades’ in the rural parts of north-western Syria. They realise that their presence in Syria is temporary. The jihadists of the global deferred caliphate Although the Salafi jihadist movements all share the idea of a global Islamic caliphate, the groups in Syria differentiate themselves as a result of their experiences in Syria. Salafi jihadists believe in the notion of a state of Syria, but believe that it should be Islamic. They have (temporarily) delineated their activities to be confined within the borders of Syria, while maintaining the idea of a deferred global caliphate. One of the brigades was the Kataib Ahrar al-Sham (Brigades of the Free People of the Levant), which was formed in the countryside of north Idlib on 25 July 2012. In February 2013, it absorbed three other brigades to form Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyyah (Movement of the free people of the Islamic Levant). The other three groups were: the Brigades of Nur al-Din al-Zangi in the countryside of western Aleppo, which was formed in October or November 2012; Kataib al-Tali’ah al-Muqatila (Brigades of the Fighting Vanguard) which was formed in July or August 2012; and Harakat al-Fajr al-Islamiyah (Movement of the Islamic Dawn) in the eastern countryside of Idlib, formed in November 2012. With the exception of Kataib al-Tali’ah al-Muqatila, most of the other brigades include some foreign fighters or ‘immigrants’. Their counterparts are the local fighters called ‘ansar’ (helpers). Unofficial finance from Gulf countries plays an important role in strengthening these brigades, unlike funding from Gulf governments which fluctuates and is limited. Traditional Salafi jihadists A Salafi organisation was formed in the east Damascene countryside under the leadership of Sheikh Zahran Alwash, a graduate of the Islamic University in Madinah. It was named Liwa al-Islam, (Brigade of Islam), and was formed in March 2012. It is based primarily on the Salafi Wahhabi ideology that is associated with Hanbali jurisprudence, and its leaders generally follow classic Salafism. Their political ambitions are for an Islamic state within Syrian national borders, at least temporarily. The organisation is the largest militant group in the vicinity of Damascus. Its stronghold is Douma, which represents a stronghold of the revolution in the eastern countryside of Damascus, and is the only stronghold of the Hanbalis in Syria. It is believed that Liwa al-Islam was responsible for the 18 July 2012 bombing of the headquarters of the National Security in the Damascus neighbourhood of al-Rawdah. The blast killed the president’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat; the defence minister, Dawoud al-Rajiha; the commander of the regular army; his deputy; and a number of senior officers. Despite the Salafi preferences of its leadership, the group’s Salafism converges with traditional Islamic preferences that were hardened by the war. Most brigades are allied to Liwa al-Islam under the umbrella of Tajammu Ansar al-Islam fi Qalb al-Sham (Coalition of Islam’s helpers in theHeart of the Levant), which was formed in August 2012, as well as al-Sahaba Brigade, and Ahfad al-Rasul (Descendants of the Messenger) Brigade. The members of these groups are mostly traditional Muslim conservatives who have not previously been involved in Islamic political or civil society organisations. The al-Ansar Brigades, which was launched in January 2012, in the countryside of Homs represents traditional Salafi thought, and adopts a discourse that focuses on Salafi beliefs and behaviour. It displays missionary tendencies along with its mission of jihad. This is reflected in the relationships between the brigades, and the behavioural guidance provided to the combatants by other brigades. Several brigades have begun to express Salafi inclinations in order to receive funding. They occasionally reflect this in their names, and, sometimes, in official discourse. Despite this, many brigades fail to obtain the desired funding. This includes the most important brigade of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Liwa al-Tawhid, which was formed in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and is led by Abdel Qader al-Saleh and Abdel Aziz Salama, both of whom are sympathetic to Salafism. Another example is Kataib Suqour al-Sham (Levantine Hawks Brigade), which was launched on 25 November 2011. It is led by Ahmad al-Sheikh, who initially indicated that he was from the Free Syrian Army. He later stopped mentioning this. He displayed an increasing tendency towards Salafism. Democratic jihadist Salafism Most brigades are formed from Salafi-leaning civilian volunteers, and unite under the (FSA) umbrella. This is a symbolic umbrella, and does not represent a unified collective organisation. The Salafism of most of these people is therefore soft. Thus they do not constitute a coherent school of thought, but have scattered ideas and convictions. Under the circumstances of war and the battles in Syria, this seems to be understood as it developed from reactions during the fighting. Most of its members are democratic and eager to build a modern, democratic state, exemplified by the brigades formed by the children of teachers from. An example is the Abu Amara Brigades in Aleppo. There is also a crisis within Salafism; some brigades that have responded to violence, and have been affected by funding. It is, therefore, more of a pragmatic Salafism than a stable doctrinal Salafism. For example, Liwa al-Haq (Brigade of the Truth) was formed in Homs in August 2012, and is one of the brigades that operate in Homs city and the countryside. The same applies to Al-Farouk Brigades, which was formed in November 2011 by army defectors. Subsequently, through the way members and specifically leaders expressed themselves, it showed a gradual tendency towards Salafism. Ultimately, their Salafism is a kind of ‘official’ Salafism. The founders of Al-Farouk had defected from the regular army; and they were trained by the regime. Their composition is thus inconsistent with the hardline Salafi trend. Non-violent Salafism flourished in an atmosphere of civil mobilisation. It then transformed, but continued to be under civilian control. For its adherents, militarisation is regarded as necessary only in an emergency, and is viewed as a temporary activity. They retain their original position of desiring a return to democratic life and having a modern state. The result of this new Salafi thinking is a unique and attractive model for the effective establishment of brigades and local civic councils in a city such as Darya. Unlike in some ‘Arab Spring’ countries – particularly Egypt, traditional Salafis participated in the Syrian revolution from the outset. Their civil participation was not based on religious beliefs in an Islamic state however, but on the idea of a caliphate, linked to revenge against, and the fall of, the regime. Several of the Salafis have suffered monitoring, prosecution, and unfair trials. At the same time, there were systematic plans by the Syrian regime to protect and increase the proliferation of the ‘natural enemy’ of Salafism – Shiism – with Iranian support. For most Salafis, the ideal model of participation was as experienced in Douma and Harasta, in the Damascene countryside. When the uprising rapidly militarised, however, they began discussing a concept of the state as a ‘civil Islamic state’ that may be part of an Islamic caliphate. That position has shifted to now focus on the state, rather than a caliphate. The strongholds of the Salafi movement remain the outskirts of cities and the peripheries of urban centres. It has survived despite this peripheral location. The methodology for its field mobilisation was to crawl from the peripheries to the urban centres, and it has had limited influence on urban centres. Interaction with the urban centres created a soft Salafism that was prone to collapse as soon as the dispute over the building and the form of the post-regime state came to the fore. The civil war has assisted in the spread of Salafi thought. There has not been sufficient time for it to become a firmly rooted doctrine; its spread was, rather, an instrument of war. The new map of the spread of Salafi thought will thus be subjected to dramatic change after the war ends. It is worth noting however, that the new Salafi tendency was generally felt amongst revolutionary fighters within the brigades, and not among civilians. Nevertheless, its impact will definitely extend to a broader social space, especially in areas where Salafi fighters hail from. Most of the brigades’ senior commanders had combat experience in Iraq, including al-Nusrah leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani; some leaders of Liwa al-Islam; and leaders of Ahrar al-Sham. Others, such as leaders of the Fighting Vanguard, had experience in Afghanistan; and some in Lebanon, such as the commander of the al-Zangi brigade. Many second-tier leaders and some first-tier leaders were detained in Saidnaya military prison, accused of being adherents of Salafism or jihadist Salafism. The emerging Salafi brigades relied on a network of relationships formed inside and outside prison, which connected them to Saidnaya prison graduates. To date, no significant Salafi political movements have been established. This is despite the fact that since the beginning of the revolution and since the militarisation of the Salafi movement, there has been a unique political sentiment. Even before that, movements such as al-Mu’minun Yusharikun (The Believers Participate), launched in November 2011, and Hizb al-Islah wa al-‘adalah (Reform and Justice Party), launched in June 2011, were taking form. That no Salafi organisation has emerged as a promising political force is an indication that, from the Salafi perspective, the revolution far from being over. Furthermore, political activity without military action is viewed with a great deal of suspicion. The military organisations established civilian units to help prepare a social base for them in the post-Asad phase, and to help them implement their ideology. For example, al-Nusrah formed an alliance with Liwa al-Tawhid and a number of other ‘Shari’ah brigades’ in order to fill the organisational, judicial, service, and security-related vacuum in the areas under their control. The idea of implementing Shari’ah is widespread among Salafis, and is similar to that of various Afghan factions during the jihad against the Soviet Union. One of the leading brigades in the northern countryside of Aleppo formed a group to ‘invite to virtue and prevent vice’. This group, however, received a cold response from the population and was socially alienated, probably due to people’s understanding that it was linked to the Saudi or Taliban models. All Salafi movements will be faced with difficult questions after the fall of the regime, specifically regarding the form of a new regime and the plan for establishing it without internal fighting. It seems that the Islamists who support the idea of a democratic state have the best opportunity to dominate in this during the transitional phase. Adopting the idea of a democratic state is also a possible solution to the current environment of ideological polarisation, which is becoming increasingly more severe as the armed revolution continues against the Syrian regime. * Abdul Rahman Al-Haj is a researcher specialising in Islamic movements, and a professor at the University of Islamic Sciences in Malaysia

According to researchers at Columbia University, people with high levels of HDL cholesterol (the “good” form) are 60 percent less likely to develop AD. The researchers followed 1,130 seniors with no history of memory loss or dementia and measured their cholesterol levels every 18 months for four years. When the researchers compared the cholesterol levels of study participants with and without Alzheimer’s, they found that those with the highest HDL counts, greater than 55 mg/dL, had about a 60 percent reduced risk of developing the disease compared to those whose levels were less than 39 mg/dL. Their findings support the theory that high levels of HDL cholesterol are correlated with lower incidence of AD. The study was published earlier this week in the Archives of Neurology and sheds more light on the interactions between cholesterol and AD. Apolipoprotein E (apoE), as readers of this blog will recall, participates in the mobilization and distribution of cholesterol among various tissues of the body, including the brain. In humans, there are three common isoforms of apoE: apoE2, apoE3 and apoE4. ApoE4 differs from apoE3, the most common isoform of apoE. A single e4 allele is sufficient to increase the risk of developing atherosclerosis, and also Alzheimer’s disease. The e4 allele results in slightly elevated plasma LDL cholesterol levels and a small but significant decrease in plasma HDL levels. HDL is one of the major carriers of protein in and out of the brain, and also binds to beta-amyloid. This finding further advances the idea that the interplay between cholesterol, cholesterol-carrying proteins such as apoE and HDL, and beta-amyloid may be critical in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This study has important strengths. It is a prospective cohort study designed for the diagnosis of cognitive decline that has complete clinical and neuropsychological evaluation at each interval. Guidelines recommend that men raise HDL levels that are less than 40 mg/dL and that women increase HDL numbers less 50 mg/dL. An HDL of 60 mg/dL or higher is optimal. * Association of Higher Levels of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Elderly Individuals and Lower Risk of Late-Onset Alzheimer Disease. Christiane Reitz et al., Arch Neurol. 2010;67(12):1491-1497.

Published: Jan 1997 | ||Format||Pages||Price|| | |PDF (276K)||18||$25||  ADD TO CART| |Complete Source PDF (5.9M)||18||$76||  ADD TO CART| A new cut-test apparatus for standardization has been developed. The apparatus is based on a previously developed cut-test method that consists of sliding a blade on a material and determining the distance traveled by the blade to cut through the material when a constant force is applied. To build a machine for standardization, several requirements were considered. One of the most important requirements was that the force applied at the blade/material point of contact must be constant throughout the test. Other requirements were that the test apparatus be easy to use by an untrained person, that the applied force should be known, and that the results should be reproducible. The force is applied at the material/blade point of contact from bottom upwards through a ram-type arm. To satisfy the requirements, a mechanism based on a double Watt system was developed that allows a perfect vertical displacement of the sample and a constant applied force throughout the test with a maximum error of 2×10-2N. protective gloves, cut resistance, test method, cut-test apparatus, tomodynamometer Institut de recherche en santé et en sécurité du travail du Québec (IRSST), Montreal, Quebec Paper ID: STP19894S

| ||Format||Pages||Price|| | |8||$43.00||  ADD TO CART| |Hardcopy (shipping and handling)||8||$43.00||  ADD TO CART| |Standard + Redline PDF Bundle||16||$51.60||  ADD TO CART| Significance and Use For advanced ceramics, Vickers indenters are used to create indentations whose surface-projected diagonals are measured with optical microscopes. The Vickers indenter creates a square impression from which two surface-projected diagonal lengths are measured. Vickers hardness is calculated from the ratio of the applied load to the area of contact of the four faces of the undeformed indenter. (In contrast, Knoop indenters are also used to measure hardness, but Knoop hardness is calculated from the ratio of the applied load to the projected area on the specimen surface.) Vickers indentation hardness is one of many properties that is used to characterize advanced ceramics. Attempts have been made to relate Vickers indentation hardness to other hardness scales, but no generally accepted methods are available. Such conversions are limited in scope and should be used with caution, except for special cases where a reliable basis for the conversion has been obtained by comparison tests. Vickers indentation diagonal lengths are approximately 2.8 times shorter than the long diagonal of Knoop indentations, and the indentation depth is approximately 1.5 times deeper than Knoop indentations made at the same force. Vickers indentations are influenced less by specimen surface flatness, parallelism, and surface finish than Knoop indentations, but these parameters must be considered nonetheless. Vickers indentations are much more likely to cause cracks in advanced ceramics than Knoop indentations. The cracks may influence the measured hardness by fundamentally altering the deformation processes that contribute to the formation of an impression, and they may impair or preclude measurement of the diagonal lengths due to excessive damage at the indentation tips or sides. A full hardness characterization includes measurements over a broad range of indentation forces. Vickers hardness of ceramics usually decreases with increasing indentation size or indentation force. The trend is known as the indentation size effect (ISE). Hardness approaches a plateau constant hardness at sufficiently large indentation size or forces. The test forces or loads that are needed to achieve a constant hardness vary with the ceramic. The test force specified in this standard is intended to be sufficiently large that hardness is either close to or on the plateau, but not so large as to introduce excessive cracking. A comprehensive characterization of the ISE is recommended but is beyond the scope of this test method, which measures hardness at a single, designated force. 1.1 This test method covers the determination of the Vickers indentation hardness of advanced ceramics. 1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard. 1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. 2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard. E4 Practices for Force Verification of Testing Machines E177 Practice for Use of the Terms Precision and Bias in ASTM Test Methods E384 Test Method for Knoop and Vickers Hardness of Materials E691 Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study to Determine the Precision of a Test Method European StandardCENENV843-4 Advanced Technical Ceramics, Monolithic Ceramics, Mechanical Properties at Room Temperature, Part 4: Vickers, Knoop and Rockwell Superficial Hardness Available from European Committee for Standardization (CEN), 36 rue de Stassart, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium, http://www.cenorm.be. Japanese StandardJISR1610 Testing Method for Vickers Hardness of High Performance Ceramics Available from Japanese Standards Organization (JSA), 4-1-24 Akasaka Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 107-8440, Japan, http://www.jsa.or.jp. ICS Number Code 19.060 (Mechanical testing); 81.060.99 (Other standards related to ceramics) ASTM C1327-08, Standard Test Method for Vickers Indentation Hardness of Advanced Ceramics, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2008, www.astm.orgBack to Top

The first of 2 articles on the 3-stage lesson planning model that I propose has just been published in the IATEFL Teacher Education Newsletter. In the article I argue that CAP is more appropriate and more relevant for today’s teaching and teacher education courses than alternatives such as PPP, ESA, etc. It’s also the topic I’ll be talking on at IATEFL Glasgow 2017 (scroll down for details). I also provide a little initial data from trainee teachers who found it useful, offer example CAP lesson skeletons from my forthcoming book the Trinity CertTESOL Companion and also link it to text-based language teaching, an approach that is fairly well established in Australia, but still poorly known in the UK. What are the three phases of CAP? The three phases of CAP are simple, logical and easy to remember as follows: The context for learning is established through a text (listening, reading or video), a presented ‘situation’ (in the classroom or through audio-visual resources), or the involvement of learners. This may be accompanied by activities that raise background schemata, check comprehension, or engage learners meaningfully in the text. Language features are noticed and analysed explicitly for meaning, form, pronunciation and usage/use as appropriate. This may include grammatical, functional, lexical or textual aspects of the language. This is roughly equivalent to Harmer’s Study stage or Scrivener’s Clarification. Learners practise using the language. This may include controlled and freer speaking or writing practice of the language analysed, scaffolded and independent text construction or a communicative task. An optional 4th stage, turns ‘CAP’ to CAPE’: When practice involves text construction, self-, peer and teacher evaluation of the text are possible, such as in a gallery walk activity after a writing task or performance of role plays for the class. There are possibility for changing and adapting the model, depending on lesson type and context. As always in the article, I offer it as a scaffolding tool, not a rule or dogma. More on CAP A second article on CAP is due out later this year, where I explore changes in how coursebooks have provided context over the last 30 years, offer compelling evidence that they also support a C-A-P model, and explore ways the model can be adapted to suit different lesson shapes and theories of teaching and learning. CAP and ESA Several colleagues have asked me to clarify exactly how CAP is different from Harmer’s ESA (Engage, Study, Activate). Here are three fundamental differences: - In Harmer’s model, as described in ‘How to teach English’ from 1998, there is no reference to context or contextualisation in his description of the Engage lesson stage. While he mentions activities that could be used to contextualise new language, Harmer’s main interest here is in the affective involvement of the learner in the lesson, something that cannot be underestimated, especially at primary and secondary levels, when they may not yet have any intrinsic motivation to learn English. However, as one trainee teacher once said to me: ‘Shouldn’t all the lesson be engaging?’, highlighting a potential weakness in the model and perhaps revealing a confusion of affective and structural concerns. In CAP, the primary focus of the Context stage is obviously to provide a clear context for the new language. - In Harmer’s ESA, controlled practice activities fall under the Study stage, which is logical, given his choice of terms. However, in reality (and in the coursebooks I analysed during my research for this model) there is a continuum from more controlled to freer practice activities, making it sometimes difficult for trainee teachers and even their tutors to categorise an activity. Ultimately, how we categorise an activity can depend on how it’s done, the role we perceive it having in the lesson, and even our personal assumptions regarding theories of language learning. In CAP, all practice falls under the practice stage. The model reflects the fact that coursebooks (without exception in my research) always provide opportunities for practice of the language analysed, but that this isn’t necessarily either a combination of more and less controlled practice, simply some kind of practice. - ‘Activate’ is a beautiful word, but in reality it implies a particular type of free practice that carries connotations of interaction between learners, especially in spoken form. Despite the fact that Harmer makes it clear in his description of the model that it does include certain receptive skills and writing activities, trainees also often find it difficult to understand when a reading or listening activity is ‘activate’ and when it is ‘study’. They also tend to overlook writing, the importance of which – in the current IT-mediated era – cannot be denied. The word Practice in my model is intended to be descriptive and unambiguous – learners practise using the language in some way. Thus, it’s compatible with a range of approaches, cultural perceptions about learning and doesn’t implicitly prioritise spoken interaction, which cannot necessarily be said about ‘Activate’. When developing the CAP model, I was very careful to choose words that are as descriptive and unambiguous as possible, precisely due to problems that I and colleagues have had with misunderstandings of terms in other models. In selecting ‘context’, ‘analysis’ and ‘practice’ as the three core stages, I tried to ensure that the meanings of the words remain unchanged from typical dictionary definitions, so that they retain their everyday sense in their pedagogic usage, thereby enabling prior (linguistic) knowledge to inform and scaffold learning of how to structure a lesson.

January 7, 2010 Link Found Between Wild And Domestic Iberian Horses The earliest known domestic horses are around 4,600 years old. They were originated in the steppes between modern Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Using this evidence, two different hypotheses have been suggested: 1) domestic horses spread from this area over the rest of Eurasia; 2) horse domestication was a multiregional process, having occurred several times in different local places. "Previous analysis on mitochondrial DNA from modern Iberian horses pointed to the D1 haplogroup as the most likely group involved in an independent domestication event, maybe in Iberia or in North Africa" explains Anders Götherström from the Department of Evolutionary Biology at Uppsala University, who headed the project together with Juan Luis Arsuaga of the Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII from Madrid (Spain).The researchers have compared the ancient Iberian sequences from Iberian Neolithic, Bronze Age and Middle Ages obtained in this study with more than 1,000 modern horse sequences from different Iberian and non-Iberian breeds, as well as with ancient sequences from other studies. The researchers found the earliest occurrence of the D1 group in Iberia in a medieval horse. "We have not found sequences from the Neolithic or the Bronze Age period associated to the most important modern Iberian haplogroup, the D1 group. That means that D1 group can be a foreigner group, which entered in Iberia during historical times" says Jaime Lira, of the Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII from Madrid and the main author of this study. Furthermore, wild horses from Iberia contributed to the domestication process, and the Lusitano group C is a witness from this event. "The Lusitano C is a small group constituted only by modern horses from Iberian origin. We have found that maternal lineages from this group were already present in wild Iberian horses from the Early Neolithic, continuing through the Bronze Age until nowadays." explains Juan Luis Arsuaga. These results suggest the possibility of a completely independent domestication episode, or the use of Iberian maternal lineages in a restocking process from the wild. This article is published in Molecular Ecology, volume 19, issue 1, p 64-78 (doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04430.x). Collaborators on the research included scientists from Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigaci³n sobre Evoluci³n y Comportamiento Humanos in Spain, Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain, Stockholm University in Sweden, Universitat Jaume I in Spain, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Uppsala University in Sweden Image 1: This is a feral herd of modern Northern Iberian horses. Credit: Photo by Carlos Puga Image 2: Here, workers are digging at the Portal³n archaeological site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain). Credit: Photo by Jaime Lira, Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII On the Net:

Welcome to the University of Hawaii Windward Community College Radio Observatory. Operating as part of NASA's Radio Jove project the observatory receives radio noise bursts from the planet Jupiter and from the Sun. These signals are being made available in real-time over the Internet. You can also view and hear examples of solar and Jovian radio noise bursts and visit the NASA archive of past observations. If you have a high-speed Internet connection then you will want to listen to our Windows Media streaming audio signal. If you are using a slow modem then connect to our signal strength channel. Using this channel you will not hear the bursts, but you can produce a stripchart record. Jovian signals are most likely during predicted radio noise storms, while solar radio bursts can occur at any time and may be received as the Sun passes over Hawaii. Learn more about radio signals from Jupiter and the Sun. Meet our team and checkout our links. | Observatory | Real-Time Data | Jupiter | Sun | Links | Team | Contact |

What is complex event processing? Complex Event Processing (CEP) refers to resources that collect different types of data from different parts of an IT system or other sources in order to find meaningful results that can be reported to decision makers. In many cases, a complex event processing system is an organizational tool that helps gather a wide variety of information about a company to aid in high-level planning. IT providers like Oracle offer tools and resources for complex event processing. These types of systems can use conventions such as structured query language to facilitate data transfer. Developers can add specific processing languages to programming environments such as Java or .Net to set up systems that can process queries in real time, while proprietary algorithms provide specific processing functions that enable better business intelligence. A complex event processing tool is a resource that is of great relevance to the entire topic of knowledge management or business intelligence. The prevailing idea in most of the business world is that businesses can benefit from gathering more information and analyzing it to better serve customers, increase profit margins, and improve metrics such as productivity benchmarks. Different types of IT tools such as customer relationship management or CRM, Supply chain management and other types of planning software help achieve these goals. Complex event processing is part of that bigger picture, where companies try to study how large numbers of internal events happen to get a better picture of the patterns as they evolve. With that data in hand.

Waiting for answer This question has not been answered yet. You can hire a professional tutor to get the answer. A bromine-80 nucleus can decay by gamma emission, positron emission, or electron capture. What is the product nucleus in each case? Here's how the would look for type of decay. - Gamma emission A gamma particle is just a photon, which in turn is a particle that has no mass and no charge. As a result, the nuleus that emits the gamma particle will remain unchanged. In your case, the nuclear equation will look like this ##""_35^80"Br" -> ""_35^80"Br" + ""_0^0gamma## - Positron emission takes place when a proton inside the nucleus is converted into a neutron; at the same time, a positron and a neutrino are emitted. A positron is the antiparticle of an electron, i.e. same mass, but a positive charge. Since a proton is converted into a neutron, the will decrease by 1, but the will remain unchanged. ##""_35^80"Br" -> ""_34^80"Se" + ""_1^0e + ""_0^0nu## Notice that Br-80 decays into Se-80. takes place when an electron falls into the nucleus. As a result, a proton is converted into a neutron and a neutrino is emitted. Once again, the conversion of a proton into a neutron will decrease the by 1, but keep the unchanged. ##""_35^80"Br" + ""_text(-1)^0e -> ""_34^80"Se" + ""_0^0nu## Once again, Br-80 will decay into Se-80.

September 7, 2011 New Type Of Solar Cell Retains High Efficiency For Long Periods Scientists from the University of Picardie Jules Verne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are reporting development of a new genre of an electrolyte system for solar cells that breaks the double-digit barrier in the efficiency with which the devices convert sunlight into electricity. Their study appears in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Frederic Sauvage, Michael Graetzel and colleagues describe research that aimed to develop an improved version of a highly promising solar cell that is less expensive than conventional solar cells made from the semi-conductor material, silicon. These so-called dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), or Graetzel cells (named for the discoverer, Michael Graetzel), have other advantages. They can be manufactured in light-weight flexible sheets, for instance, that are more durable and suitable for roll-up applications such as window shades. Hindering commercial use of DSCs has been their lack of stability, with the electricity output tending to decline over time.The new study reports development and successful lab tests of a new electrolyte composition suitable for the DSC, constructed with different material that is both stable and has a relatively high efficiency of 10 percent. It has an improved electrolyte system, the substance that conducted electricity inside the solar cell. The new device retained at least 95 percent of that sun-converting ability for 1,000 hours of testing. On the Net:

Morocco: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries The Moroccan Jewish community during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the largest Jewish community in North Africa, though it always constituted a small minority among its Muslim neighbors (Tsur, 2001). In the absence of formal statistics, it has been estimated that approximately 120,000 to 130,000 Jews lived in Morocco at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Formal statistics calculated later revealed that 160,000 Jews lived there in 1936 (Hatal, 1964) and 240,000 in 1952 (Laskier, 1983). As a result of emigration to Israel and other countries, the number decreased to 160,000 by 1960 (Laskier), but it nevertheless remained the largest Jewish community in the region. The female gender roles and status of Moroccan Jewish women during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were influenced by a patriarchal order, by Jewish religious writings and their interpretations by local rabbis, and by the surrounding Muslim society, which was often hostile to the Jewish communities. Their roles and status were also affected by social changes brought about by economic development and urbanization, induced through contact with European countries, particularly during the colonial period of the French Protectorate that lasted from 1912 to 1956, the year of Moroccan unification and independence. Two of the major components of women’s gender roles were their family roles as wives and mothers, the primacy of which was based on religious writings. It was by fulfilling them that women fortified their status in the community. Child marriages were common during the nineteenth century. Girls tended to marry between twelve and fourteen years of age, usually with the onset of menses, and boys between fourteen and sixteen. This was true for all classes in Jewish communities. In rural areas some marriages took place between even younger children (Bashan, 2000). During the pre-colonial period, marriages were arranged by family members and, according to religious dictates, took place within the extended family, generally between cousins (Deshen). Since families usually shared business activities, this overlapping of marital and economic ties strengthened family networks and was conducive to the success of the marriage. Upon her marriage, the bride was given a dowry by her family, usually consisting of jewelry and clothing. Because the dowry was intended for her personal use, it did not have economic value and did not provide her with financial resources of her own. However, it did have symbolic value: its amount reflected the wealth and status of her family (Deshen). If the dowry did not represent wives’ independent financial resources, the ketubbah was intended to do so. The ketubbah was a religious document signed by the groom at the wedding in the presence of two witnesses. According to Bashan, it specified the spouses’ mutual obligations and the money to be paid by the husband or his heirs to the wife in case of divorce or his death. The amounts varied according to the norms of the local rabbinical court, the husband’s financial state and according to the marital status of the wife. Previously unmarried women (presumably virgins) were granted larger amounts than widows or divorcées, who were considered the least desirable (Bashan). Thus men (rabbis and husbands) created a hierarchy of status among women by means of the categories that they determined. According to the ketubbah, husbands were expected to be respectful to their wives, to love and support them, to be non-violent and to have sexual relations with them. Wives were expected to conform to religious commandments, to be respectful to their husbands, obedient, modest and fertile. A husband’s complaint to the rabbinical courts that his wife had violated these expectations could result in her being divorced and being denied the financial settlement noted in the ketubbah (Bashan). Thus, while the ketubbah was intended to provide some economic support for women in case of divorce or their husband’s death, it can also be understood as a powerful means of social control: it pressured wives to comply with men’s (rabbis’ and husbands’) demands or risk losing their source of financial security. Once married, the young couple lived with the husband’s father and his other married sons in an extended family living area. By the end of the nineteenth century, this close proximity, natural increase and the migration of Jews from the villages to the cities created extremely crowded living conditions within the Jewish ghetto (mellah) of the major cities. This proximity was often a source of inter-generational conflict and tension between spouses (Deshen). The norm of modesty, which derived from religious sources, was strictly enforced until approximately the end of the nineteenth century and led to the almost total seclusion of married women. Modesty obligated wives to cover their hair and married women in the Atlas Mountains region were expected to cover their faces as well, as was customary among Muslim women. However, the norm of modesty also dictated that wives remain at home, out of public view, segregated from men. Wives were not permitted to leave their homes, even to visit their relatives, without their husband’s consent. While this total seclusion was the norm for all the women in the Jewish community, evidence suggests that it was practiced to lesser degrees by poor women and older women (Shitreet, 2000; Mizrachi, 2003). Researchers have offered several possible explanations for this seclusion. Some have understood it as the enforcement of the religious demand for the modesty of women (Bashan). Berman (1976) maintained that this seclusion concretely defined the division of labor between genders in which women were expected to deal with domestic duties and husbands with non-domestic activities such as formal religious tasks, economic activities and communal affairs. Still others, such as Azmon (1995), have suggested that this seclusion created and preserved hierarchical power relationships between men and women. By relegating women to domestic duties and considering these as less important than non-domestic duties, men retained their dominant position in Jewish society (Azmon, 1995). Regardless of which explanation is adopted, one can conclude that seclusion led to exclusion and the perpetuation of patriarchy. The observance of niddah served as a means by which women fulfilled the religious component of their female gender role. Niddah refers to the religious laws relating to separation and reunion between spouses during and after menstruation. Because male contact with menstrual blood, considered impure, was forbidden, couples were not permitted to have sexual relations during the wife’s period and were only allowed to resume these relations seven days after the cessation of bleeding and the wife’s bathing in the mikveh (ritual bath). Since wives determined when the seven “clean” days had passed and, therefore, when they went to the ritual bath, they determined when the couple could resume sexual relations. Researchers (Wasserfel, 1992) have claimed that this control over sexual relations in marriage may have been one of the few sources of power over men possessed by women in this patriarchal society. According to the religious commandment to “be fruitful and multiply,” the purpose of marriage and sexual relations was to produce children. This explains why motherhood was the second main component of the female gender role and the ability to give birth to a large number of children, especially sons, was a major source of women’s status in the Jewish community. Bashan noted that one of the few instances in which rabbis permitted bigamy, or the taking of a second wife, was in cases in which the first wife did not give birth after ten years of marriage. Furthermore, infertility was grounds for divorce in rabbinical courts (Bashan). Thus, religious sanctions against women who did not bear children contributed to including motherhood as a major component of the female gender role. Women themselves considered motherhood as central to their femininity. As Bashan has pointed out, they took great precautions against the evil eye, which could prevent their giving birth, by wearing amulets and, in cases in which their fertility was in doubt, prostrating themselves on the graves of saints to plead for their intervention in becoming pregnant. Good mothers breast-fed their babies. Bashan explained that breast-feeding was considered healthy for babies and thought to help them survive the high infant mortality rate that was common until the early part of the twentieth century. Hence mothers believed that by breast-feeding they were contributing to the perpetuation of their religious and ethnic group. This bio-cultural definition of motherhood, which was time-consuming, served to keep women at home, occupied with their maternal duties and excluded from community life. Brown (1981) pointed out that good mothers were also expected to socialize their daughters to fulfill religious obligations to be wives and mothers according to religious scriptures, to do housework and to serve the male members of the family (Brown). While some women, usually the daughters of rabbis, did study the Bible, women were not obligated to study religious texts, as men were commanded to do. Women generally learned religious tradition from hearsay and prayers taught them by their mothers and grandmothers (Bashan). It has been pointed out that men’s monopoly of religious scriptures and their interpretations of them was a mechanism of men’s control over women (El-Or, 1992). But while women were considered ignorant of formal religious writings, they did not regard themselves as not participating in religious activities. Rather, women regarded religious duties as a gendered division of labor in which men expressed their religiosity by formal study and performing certain rituals, while women expressed theirs through interpersonal relations, such as charitable deeds for the poor, the ill and the unfortunate (Mizrachi). Perhaps the most significant and far-reaching influence on Jewish-Moroccan women’s gender roles and status was the spread of education through schooling that began in the 1860s. Education brought literacy to women in all socio-economic groups. If, in the past, only a few girls from privileged, usually rabbinical, families were taught to be literate (Bashan), schools also made it possible for women from poor families to acquire an education. They provided occupational and professional training to enable women to alleviate their poverty, to gain some economic independence and to acquire individual resources to accomplish upward social mobility. Education also exposed women to European cultural influences that changed society’s and their own perceptions of appropriate female gender roles. Eventually, it changed gender relations between men and women. The educational networks developed included the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) schools, those of the Anglo-Jewish Association, Em ha-Banim, Bet Rivkah, the Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training (ORT), the French Protectorate and those of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement. However, undoubtedly the dominant school system for Jewish children, including girls, was that established by the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) (Laskier). The purpose of the AIU schools was to promote an emancipation movement in Moroccan Jewish society similar to that which had occurred in Europe, which would introduce secular thought, values and practices, including those relating to women, into a society that was considered backward, uncivilized and “Oriental” (Brown; Laskier; Malino, 1988). The first girls’ school, which was a sex-segregated elementary school, was established in Tetuan in 1868 (Rodrigue, 1993). Because the Jewish communities in the major cities were more exposed to European culture and its influence than were the more traditional, conservative and religious cities in the interior and the south, girls in the major urban areas of the country received an elementary education earlier than did those on the periphery (Laskier). Likewise, girls in the new, prosperous, European quarters outside the mellah began school earlier than did those who lived inside the poorer, more conservative Jewish quarter (Donat, 1963). However, girls’ attendance at elementary school eventually rose throughout the country. Whereas only 310 girls attended school in 1872, 1,822 (a six-fold increase) were in school in 1912, the beginning of the colonial period. In 1912, twelve of the fifteen communities that had AIU schools had schools for girls (Laskier). The curriculum, which was almost identical for boys and girls, included arithmetic, European geography, written Arabic, Biblical history, Hebrew and French or another European language. Teaching European languages was considered as not merely imparting a skill; it was intended to instill European culture, as well (Laskier). Through the vocational training programs that became part of the school curriculum, the AIU schools provided women with a means of gaining economic independence. During the early stages of the vocational training initiative, girls were trained in needlework and sewing, stereotypical fields of women’s expertise. During the colonial period, the AIU widened its vocational training program by initiating courses in bookkeeping, commercial correspondence, typing and stenography. A joint AIU-ORT boarding school was opened for girls from the interior and southern parts of the country. From 1950 to 1956 the number of girls in these joint schools doubled from four hundred to eight hundred and seven. In the 1960s, these schools provided less traditional, more modern occupational training through courses in laboratory assistance, industrial chemistry, cosmetic chemistry, hairdressing, window dressing, secretarial stenography and executive secretarial skills (Laskier). The AIU established secondary schools in 1912. During the colonial period, the French also opened vocational secondary schools for girls which taught commercial correspondence, typing and stenography (Laskier). Girls’ opportunity for continuing their education and for professional training was expanded with the establishment in 1867 of an AIU normal school (Institut Bischoffsheim) in Paris which recruited its students from AIU graduates in Morocco and then hired them as teachers throughout the Middle East. Teacher training offered girls who participated in the program an opportunity to gain a profession and thus to achieve upward mobility. Eventually, the AIU also established teacher seminaries in Morocco (Malino, Laskier). During the early years of the AIU’s educational programs for girls there seem to have been class differences in their motivation for acquiring an education. Girls from poor families tended to seek a vocational and professional education more than did girls from wealthier families. Thus, the former attended school more regularly than the latter, who left school to marry (Laskier). One interpretation of this phenomenon may be that poor girls thought that education compensated for their lack of financial resources in the marriage market and they therefore wanted an education to improve their social status, while wealthier girls relied on the attractiveness of their financial resources in this market and forwent education for marriage. Another interpretation may be that education, rather than marriage, became perceived as a means of social mobility for girls, especially for those from less than affluent families. However, in time, all girls actively sought an education, although class differences were still a factor in girls’ motivation for schooling during these years. Girls in the mellah considered education an economic necessity and wanted to work to help their parents and to be economically independent. Girls of middle and upper classes sought professional training for self-fulfillment and to maintain a middle-class standard of living. The initial reaction to the education of girls was mixed. Many rabbis, though not all, opposed schooling for girls, fearing that it would interfere with, and distract women from, their major roles as wives and mothers (Laskier). Basically, rabbis who opposed girls’ education thought that it would threaten religious hegemony in defining feminine gender roles and would offer competing, secular roles. For example, Brown pointed out that during the early years of girls’ schooling in Sale, a strongly traditional and religious city, opposition was particularly vehement. Rabbinical objections were often supported by girls’ mothers who complained that education would take their daughters away from their household duties (Brown). To counter the claims that the AIU schools were undermining religion in favor of secularism, the schools taught both secular and Jewish-religious subjects. However, rabbis and parents who contended that the schools would challenge existing feminine gender roles proved correct. The AIU schools attacked one of the most prevalent customs pertaining to women: child marriages. Their strategy to combat this practice was twofold. They supported the traditional importance of motherhood for women by claiming that educated girls would make better mothers while at the same time they attempted to postpone early marriages by keeping girls in school as long as possible. The schools, and particularly the women teachers in the AIU schools, were quite successful in this goal. Together with the European influences that became prevalent during the colonial period, they were significant forces in raising the age of marriage for girls. In spite of some rabbinical and parental resistance, in 1934 the Chief Rabbinical Court raised the minimum age at which a girl could be married to twelve and in 1948 to fifteen (Laskier, Rodrigue). A different type of school for girls was established in Morocco by Stella Corcos during the pre-colonial period of English philanthropy. This school aimed at providing Moroccan- Jewish girls with an English-Victorian education (Schroeter, 1983). The network of schools for girls became more diversified in the mid-twentieth century with the establishment of the Em ha-Banim, the Bet Rivkah and the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement schools, all of which provided various combinations of religious, secular and vocational educations for girls (Laskier). These networks of schools indicate that education for girls was becoming accepted, even among the more conservative, religious segments of the Jewish population. During the 1940s and 1950s, school was accompanied by extra-curricular activities, such as Zionist youth movements and youth organizations like the Scouts. The Zionist movements were formed in order to strengthen young people’s ties to Israel at a time when the political status of Jews in Morocco was becoming increasingly precarious. These organizations were mainly a bourgeois phenomenon in that they attracted primarily middle-class girls and boys (Tsur and Hillel, 1995). The co-educational activities provided a framework in which boys and girls could spend time together. The expansion of the educational system to elementary, secondary and professional education; the variety of schools available; the increasing support for the education of girls by the community, parents and girls themselves; and the rising age of marriage meant that more girls were receiving an education and were staying in school longer. The Zionist youth movements and other leisure time pursuits added further fields of activity for girls. Thus a new feminine gender role was created that had not existed previously: girlhood. In the not too distant past, girls had become wives and mothers with the onset of menses and had gone directly from childhood to adult womanhood. By the mid-twentieth century, girls were taking part in a youth culture that gave them a moratorium in which they could become autonomous individuals who pursued their own interests before assuming their traditional roles of wives and mothers. However, girlhood was apparently defined differently for girls in the various social strata. Middle class girls were freer to explore new options in lifestyles, possibilities and gender definitions than poor girls in the mellah, who were expected to conform to their more traditional gender definitions and learn housekeeping skills by helping their mothers with housework and caring for younger siblings. Furthermore, the similar curriculum, which created a common base of knowledge, the growing tendency for schools to be co-educational (Laskier, Donat) and for girls to participate in non- sex-segregated, extra-curricular activities meant that the dichotomy in gender roles, interests and activities between boys and girls, which had been created and perpetuated in the past, was replaced by gender relations that were based on greater common interests and experiences. Jewish women of all ages, marital status and social class worked in order to help support their families. In order to maintain the norm of seclusion and to separate women from men, especially Muslim men, women preferred to work at home. However, in practice, the maintenance of this norm was related to women’s social class. In Marrakesh, the largest Jewish community in Morocco at the turn of the nineteenth century (1901–1902) six hundred women were self-employed in their homes as seamstresses, while others taught girls home economics. Some women worked as midwives. The more affluent women were money-lenders. Of the 5,049 women from the mellah of Marrakesh employed during these years, 1,935 poor women worked outside their homes doing sewing, weaving, embroidery, as laundresses and in drawing water. The poor women who worked in the open market among Muslim men belonged to the lowest socio- economic strata in the community (Shitreet, 2001, pp. 35–37). The expansion of education was accompanied by an increase in Moroccan women’s participation in the work force. Women who had limited educational-vocational skills, who usually came from the lower socio-economic strata, worked in the traditional sectors available to such women (mainly in the food and textile industries), though some acquired a professional education and became teachers. Women who had better educational qualifications, usually from middle and upper class families, sought employment in administrative, banking and commercial enterprises, rather than in vocational fields. As Laskier pointed out, during the early years of the French Protectorate over Morocco, the lack of Europeans and the low educational level of Muslim women gave Jewish women, who had an education and who had learned European languages in school, preferential access to intermediate-level clerical and secretarial positions in the banks, post offices and commercial enterprises that flourished with the influx of European businesses in the coastal cities. A small group of well-educated women, mostly from well-to-do families, entered the professions, such as dentistry and pharmacy. An examination of the distribution of women workers shows that while there were greater concentrations of women in the traditional, stereotypical female fields than in the less traditional fields (Laskier, 183, 290–291), women’s employment in the less typical areas created a more diversified definition of appropriate female roles. While employment created financial resources and social mobility opportunities for all women, the distribution of women among the various occupational fields created a social stratification between them that was reflected not only in their incomes, but also in their lifestyles. Some of these differences were superficial expressions of differences in social standing and served as status symbols, whereas others revealed more profound differences in values and norms. For example, as Donat (1962; 1963) and Laskier stated, many girls adopted French instead of Jewish-Biblical names, spoke French rather than Judeo-Arabic, wore revealing European dresses as a symbol of Europeanization and maintained a bourgeois lifestyle. These practices were more common among middle and upper class women than among the lower class women in the mellah, who were more traditional, religious and more home-bound. Jewish society in Morocco was highly stratified and status boundaries were carefully maintained so that there was little social contact between women from different social strata (Donat, Tsur and Hillel). Many women continued to work outside their homes after marriage and thus created a new role for women: the dual earner. While women had always fulfilled multiple roles by being wives and mothers and had often contributed to the economy of their households, working outside the home for a salary was a new phenomenon. Donat found that by the 1960s working wives were common. However, this phenomenon was more frequent among middle and upper class, better educated women who lived in the modern European quarters in the cities, than among lower class, less educated, more traditional women who lived in the mellah (Donat). Although female gender roles were broadened to include the dual earner role, the Jewish community, including the women, still gave priority to the spousal and maternal components of their roles. However, while the dominance of these roles remained, spousal relations and women’s roles as wives changed. According to Donat, one important change with respect to marriage referred to the religious norm regarding spouse selection. By the mid-sixties, individuals, rather than their parents, chose their own marriage partners, not necessarily from among extended family members. This new norm contributed to the weakening of parental authority, an increasing secularization and the growing individual autonomy of women. In an effort to relieve some of the inter-generational and spousal tensions that had arisen in the past from patrilocal residence after marriage, a rabbinical decree pronounced in 1952 permitted young couples to live away from their parents-in-law (Laskier). This change in custom further weakened patriarchal control over nuclear families and increased the independence of young wives. Research also suggests a decrease in the observance of niddah among urban women, though it continued to be maintained among women living in the mellah and in rural areas (Mizrachi, 2003). Since the former group of women tended to be less religious than the latter, these differences in the observance of niddah may be another indication of a growing secularization among certain groups of women. Wives working outside their homes altered their definition of their homemaking role. While they still considered themselves responsible for housework, many did not feel the need to perform these tasks themselves. Donat noted that working wives often hired domestic help. However, these wives preserved certain aspects of their traditional and ethnic roles, such as being a good hostess, maintaining an expertise in the preparation of customary ethnic foods, especially for Sabbath, holidays and festivals such as the Mimuna ( a festival that celebrates the end of the Passover holiday) and organizing the engagement party or Henna, which by tradition was organized by the mother of the bride (Mizrachi). Married women’s work outside the home not only changed definitions of acceptable female roles, but also affected gender relations between men and women. If girls’ education, especially co-educational schooling and joint extra-curricular activities, had weakened the norm of gender segregation and enabled greater contact between girls and boys, married women’s employment outside their homes brought them into daily contact with men and made the maintenance of their seclusion impossible. Thus, the definitions of gender-specific activities and interests for men and women became more flexible and the dichotomy between them continued to narrow. Both the community and women continued to regard motherhood as a major component of the feminine gender role. However, by the middle of the twentieth century the era of scientific motherhood had begun. Donat noted that while the birth rate was still high at this time, women had begun to use scientific methods of birth control that gave them the means with which to plan the births of their children (Donat). Thus, both the delayed age of marriage and birth control changed women’s reproductive patterns. However, because motherhood was still considered a central component of the female gender role—as Donat pointed out—childless women continued to resort to all measures, including superstition and visiting the graves of saints, in order to give birth. But the contents of the role had changed. Donat concluded that mothers were still the primary caretakers of their children, but by the middle of the twentieth century a good mother was no longer defined only in terms of providing for the physical needs of her children (through breast-feeding, for example), but also in terms of her ability to socialize her children towards scholastic achievement and to promote their intellectual development—aspects of child-rearing that women’s education enabled them to perform. Alongside women’s increasing education and their participation in the work force, women also became active in community organizations. While in the past women’s seclusion had limited their charitable activities, by the 1940s and 1950s they began to establish charitable organizations that dealt with issues of particular interest to them. For example, the women of Marrakesh established a fund for needy students and organizations such as La Societé de Secours des Dames Israelites de Marrakesh and L’Aide Maternelle, which was devoted to mothers and their infants (Shitreet, 2000). Such organizations reflected a growing solidarity between women. Women were also active in organizations with men (Shitreet, 2000), which attests to their interest in general communal activities and to a weakening of the segregation between the sexes. A large portion of the Moroccan community immigrated to Israel in 1948, the year of the establishment of Israel, and in 1956, the year of Moroccan independence (Tsur, 2001). Because of the low educational levels of most of the Moroccan women who came to the country, in comparison with the European immigrant women, their concentration in the lower segments of the labor market and the negative stereotypes of North-African Jewry that developed in Israeli society, the immigrant generation of Moroccan women were clustered in the low socio-economic strata of Israeli society. Subsequent generations of these women have demonstrated high educational and occupational mobility and many have entered into the middle class (Bernstein, 1991; Mizrachi, 2003). Attal, Robert. “Population Census in Morocco.” In the Diaspora (Hebrew). Spring 1964: 42–48; Azmon, Yael. “Introduction” (Hebrew). In A View into the Lives of Women in Jewish Societies (Hebrew). Jerusalem: 1995, 9–13; Bashan, Eliezer. The Jews of Morocco—Their Past and Culture (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 2000; Berman, Saul. “The Status of Woman in Halakhic Judaism.” In The Jewish Woman: New Perspectives, edited by Elizabeth Koltun, 114–128. New York: 1976; Bernstein, Deborah. “Oriental and Ashkenazi Jewish Women in the Labor Market.” In Calling the Equality Bluff, edited by Barbara Swirski and Marilyn Safir, 192–197. New York: 1991; Brown, Kenneth. “Mellah and Medina: A Moroccan City and Its Jewish Quarter (Sale ca.1880–1930).” In Studies in Judaism and Islam, edited by Shlomo Morag, Ben Ami Issachar, and Norman Stillman, 253–276. Jerusalem: 1981; Idem. “Mellah and Medina.” Pe’amim 4 (Hebrew) (1980): 39–60; Deshen, Shlomo. “Women in the Jewish Family in Pre-Colonial Morocco.” Anthropological Quarterly 56:3 (1983): 134–145; Donat, Doris. “Emancipation of the Jewish Woman in Morocco.” In the Dispersion (1963):127–137; Donat, Doris. L’Evolution de la femme israélite à Fes. Aix-en-Provence: 1962; El-Or, Tamar, Educated and Ignorant (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 1992; Laskier, Michael. The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco 1862–1962. Albany: 1983; Malino, Frances. “The Women Teachers of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, 1872–1940.” in Baskin, Judith, ed. Jewish Women in Historical Perspective. Detroit: 1988 (second edition), 248–270; Mizrachi, Beverly. “Gender Construction, Ethnic Construction and Social Mobility among Second Generation Moroccan Immigrant Women in Israel” (2003); Idem. “The Henna Maker: An Immigrant Woman Entrepreneur in an Ethnic Revival.” In Women from the East, Women in the East, edited by Tova Cohen (forthcoming); Rodrigue, Aron. Images of Sephardi and Eastern Jewries in Transition. Seattle: 1993; Schroeter, Daniel. “Anglo-Jewry and Essaouira (Mogodor): the Social Implications of Philanthropy.” Pe’amim 17 (Hebrew) (1983): 5–36; Shitreet, Elisheva. “Women’s Work in the Traditional Jewish Society of Marrakesh.” In The Work of Her Hands (Hebrew), edited by Tova Cohen. Tel Aviv: 2001; Idem. “The Movement towards the Emancipation of the Jewish Moroccan Woman” (Hebrew). Paper presented at a conference in Bar-Ilan University, 2000; Tsur, Yaron. A Torn Community: The Jews of Morocco and Nationalism 1943–1954 (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 2001; Tsur, Yaron, and Hagar Hillel. The Jews of Casablanca: Studies in the Modernization of the Political Elite in Colonial Community (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 1995; Wasserfall, Rachel. “Women and Identity: The Meaning of Niddah for Moroccan Women Immigrants to Israel.” In People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective, edited by Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, 309–327. Albany, NY: 1992. How to cite this page Mizrachi, Beverly. "Morocco: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 20 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on February 6, 2016) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/morocco-nineteenth-and-twentieth-centuries>.

The standardized field sobriety tests used by most police agencies around the country were developed by researchers for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as a way to give officers in the field a method for determining impairment at BACs of 0.1 or greater. Later "studies" were done to determine if the standardized battery of three tests were still reliable at BACs of .08. Individually, the three standardized tests that are used around the US are not very reliable. The Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test, used to check a DUI suspect's eyes, has a reliability of 77%. The Walk and Turn test (9 steps on a straight line, turn and come back) only provides an accurate result only 68% of the time, and the One Leg Stand test is only accurate 65% of the time. NHTSA has funded additional studies of the field sobriety tests since they were first developed. Three major studies all concluded that the combined results could achieve higher accuracy, one said as high as 95%, when "properly" administered. The trouble with these studies is that the techniques used for obtaining the data were not consistent with valid scientific and analytical methods. In short, the high reliability numbers established by these field sobriety testing studies are very misleading. Many factors can impact the results officers obtain when they administer the test battery. Some of those factors include: - Improper test administration by the officer - Bad instructions by the officer - A failure of the officer to properly demonstrate the tests - Physical injuries of the person being tested - Medical limitations of the person being tested - Poor environmental conditions at the time of testing (weather, traffic, lighting, etc) - Poor physical conditions of the area where the tests are conducted (sloped ground, uneven surface, etc) The officer is supposed to do what he can to minimize factors which could impact the reliability of the tests, but often they simply cannot do so for various reasons. In those circumstances, the officer should take the adverse conditions into account when he/she scores the results, but again, they most often do not do so. Field sobriety tests have limited usefulness, but until the government gives officers a better alternative for in-the-field evaluation of DUI suspects, we will be stuck with these tests. In West Virginia, and in many other states (check your local laws) a driver may decline to perform the field tests because they are deemed to be voluntary. If your state permits you to refuse to perform these tests, absolutely do refuse them. They are not going to help you avoid an arrest and will just give the officer more evidence to use against you. The reality is that they are abnormal tests of abnormal physical skills and you will more than likely do poorly on them regardless of alcohol consumption.

The Education Trust, a Washington-based organization, released a paper highlighting the role of school counselors in preparing high school students for postsecondary education and careers. According to the paper, school counselors play a vital role in setting up students for success; however, they are often overwhelmed and sidetracked by assigned tasks that distract from the goal of preparing college- and career-ready students. Despite this, many school counselors are taking extra steps – such as poring over data to spot struggling students, or identifying students who need additional services – to increase students’ performance and their postsecondary opportunities. The authors stated that all school counselors should be positioned to “assume leadership in the movement for college and career readiness,” and states, districts, and schools can take action by making these changes: 1) Rework school counselors’ job descriptions to focus more on tasks that will result in college and career readiness for all students. 2) Refocus counselor education programs so that school counselors are trained in educational equity and college and career readiness. 3) Add more school-specific training and coursework on data usage to university counseling programs. 4) Support current school counselors through additional professional development. 5) Align school counselors’ evaluations with student outcomes. Secondary students, including the many enrolled in Career Technical Education (CTE), would benefit from changes that allow school and career counselors to increase focus on college and career readiness for students. Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

April 4, 2011 The Art Of Making Stars It might look like an abstract painting, but this splash of colors is in fact a busy star-forming complex called Rho Ophiuchi. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE, captured the picturesque image of the region, which is one of the closest star-forming complexes to Earth. The amazing variety of colors seen in this image represents different wavelengths of infrared light. The bright white nebula in the center of the image is glowing due to heating from nearby stars, resulting in what is called an emission nebula. The same is true for most of the multi-hued gas prevalent throughout the entire image, including the bluish, bow-shaped feature near the bottom right. The bright red area in the bottom right is light from the star in the center "“ Sigma Scorpii "“ that is reflected off of the dust surrounding it, creating what is called a reflection nebula. And the much darker areas scattered throughout the image are pockets of cool, dense gas that block out the background light, resulting in absorption (or 'dark') nebulae. WISE's longer wavelength detectors can typically see through dark nebulae, but these are exceptionally opaque.JPL manages and operates the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Image Caption: A rich collection of colorful astronomical objects is revealed in this picturesque image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA On the Net: - More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It's a network protocol that allows network equipment to auto assign IP addresses to various devices within a given network. In other words, enabling DHCP on your router will make it easy to provide and distribute IP addresses across your network without the hassle of manual configuration. This is ideal for a couple of reasons. First, it saves time. Second, it ensures that no two devices are assigned the same IP address. Overall, DHCP makes the network easier to manage. In order to perform the following steps, you must be in possession of a Fortinet FortiGate 60D with an active subscriptions to Fortinet's signature database. Click on Network Click on Interfaces Double click on Internal to edit the interfaces Check the Enable box next to DHCP Server Change the Starting IP and End IP to the desired range Click OK to save your settings Pilot’s local support team is here for you.Contact Support

New Delhi: As a part of the Government’s focus on the development of programmes that aim to directly and positively impact people’s lives rapidly, the Ministry of Science and Technology has been at the forefront in many of these initiatives. Two Farmer-Centric initiatives of this Ministry are Biotech-KISAN and Cattle Genomics. The Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan shared details on these new initiatives with the Press in New Delhi on October 26, 2016. The two programs are intended to have major impact on rural livelihood through science. The Minister in his address stated that the Prime Minister’s emphasis on the importance to work on the problems faced by our farmers is a great motivation factor for the scientist community. Biotech- KISAN (Krishi Innovation Science Application Network) is a new programme that empowers farmers, especially women farmers. Cash crops and horticulture can be a major source of income but the vagaries of climate, disease and market often prevent this. Farmers are eager to use scientific tools that can mitigate these factors. The Department of Biotechnology is partnering to stimulate these exciting directions. The scheme is for farmers, developed by and with farmers, it empowers women, impacts locally, connects globally, is Pan-India, has a hub-and spoke model and stimulates entrepreneurship and innovation in farmers. - For Farmers: The Biotech-KISAN is a Farmer centric scheme launched by of the Department of Biotechnology, where scientists will work in sync with farmers to understand problems and find solutions. - By Farmers: Developed in consultation with the farmers. Soil, Water, Seed and Market are some key points that concern small and marginal farmers. Biotech-KISAN aims to link farmers, scientists and science institutions across the country in a network that identifies and helps solve their problems in a cooperative manner. - Empower women. The woman farmer is often neglected. It is important to empower the women farmer, help her meet her concerns for better seed, storage of seed and protection of the crops from disease and pest. The women farmer is also the prime caretaker of livestock and she is eager to combine traditional wisdom in handling the livestock and with current best practices, especially in the context of emerging livestock disease. The scheme includes the Mahila Biotech- KISAN fellowships, for training and education in farm practices, for women farmers. The Scheme also aims to support the women farmers/ entrepreneur in their small enterprises, making her a grass root innovator. - Connects Globally. Biotech-KISAN will connect farmers to best global practices; training workshops will be held in India and other countries. Farmers and Scientists will partner across the globe. - Impacts Locally. The scheme is targeted towards the least educated marginalised farmer; Scientists will spend time on farms and link communication tools to soil, water seed and market. The aim is to understand individual problems of the smallholding farmers and provide ready solutions. - Across India. Biotech KISAN will connect farmers with science in the 15 agro-climatic zones of the country in a manner, which constantly links problems with available solutions. - Hubs and Spoke. In each of these 15 regions, a Farmer organisation will be the hub connected to different science labs, Krishi Vigyan Kendra and State Agriculture Universities co-located in the region. The hub will reach out to the farmers in the region and connect them to scientists and institutions. - Farmers as Innovators. The hub will have tinkering lab, communication cell and will run year-long training, awareness, workshops and which will act as education demonstration units to encourage grass root innovation in the young as well as women farmers. - Communicating Best Practises There will be a communication set-up to make radio and TV programmes for local stations, as well as daily connectivity through social media. Cattle Genomics: Taking Indigenous Livestock to Pole Position Livestock contributes significantly to the livelihood of rural poor in our country and has enormous potential to reduce poverty. There is a predicted increase in demand for animal food products in India by 2020. In the wake of climate change challenges, quality breeding of indigenous livestock is essential. When breeding is selective, the native livestock can transform the lives of small farmers. Genomic selection will ensure high-yielding, disease-resistant, resilient livestock. Selecting hardy livestock that give high-yields. Better livestock can be genetically, selected which ultimately leads to enhancement of productivity in a sustainable, resilient manner. Traditional Breeding takes time. Genetic improvement of livestock through traditional selection for increasing livestock productivity has major limitations. To overcome these, genomic selection has played a crucial role in livestock industry globally. Global best methods for local livestock. Genomic selection will transform local livestock breeding. This uses information on variation in DNA sequences between animals to predict the breeding value of animals more accurately. Genome sequencing of indigenous cattle breeds from all registered cattle breeds of India by involving various stakeholders is to start soon. Development of high-density DNA chips. This will reduce the cost and time interval of breeding program in future and productivity of indigenous cattle will be enhanced.

Nuclear Waste; Exoplanets; BBC time and pips, Synthetic Biology Olympics Britain's legacy of nuclear waste dates back 60 plus years and a long term solution to deal with it hasn't yet been found. After this week's announcement that the UK will have a new nuclear power station, Hinkley C in Somerset, Dr Adam Rutherford asks Professor Sue Ion, former Director of Technology at British Nuclear Fuels and Chair of the European Commission's Science and Technology Committee, Euratom, how much extra waste this new plant will add to the radioactive stockpile. Eighteen years ago the first planet outside of our solar system was discovered, "51 Pegasi b". This week the tally of exoplanets passed one thousand, and as astronomer Dr Stuart Clark tells Adam, an earth twin isn't part of the planetary list.....yet. Show Us Your Instrument: Public Astronomer Dr Marek Kukula introduces the original Six Pip Masterclock at the Greenwich Observatory. This clock was used in the 1920s to send the time signals down a telephone line to the BBC, for transmission to the whole country over the radio. That's not the case now, and Adam goes down into the basement of Broadcasting House in London in search of the atomic clock that's now used to generate the Greenwich Time Signal and the famous BBC pips. iGEM is a global biology competition that allows students to build their own organisms. The UK has two teams going to the grand final next week. Adam goes to meet the team from Imperial College London, who have made a bacterium which produces plastic. Producer: Fiona Hill.

|Let's make shadows with Anim8or! Why? Because shadows are funny, enhance the realism of the scene and can be easily created with Anim8or. This tutorial explains how to do simple shadows like those below, casted by objects illuminated by unidirectional light, i.e. Anim8or's infinite light source. |We'll begin by doing some shadows, than I'll explain (if necessary) why we did what we did. Most of the task is made in Anim8or, but we need a paint program also. Any program is good for the job, like the default paint program that comes with your Operating System. What else do we need? An object that casts and a surface which receives the shadow (pretty obvious, isn't it?). Let's get to work! 1. Create an object to cast shadow (If you already have an object, go to step 2) Pick the Text tool and in Side view write down "Anim8or". Click Build > Extrude... , than OK to accept the defaults. The object has been created. 2. Create a plane to receive the shadow In the Front viewport create a Cube with X and Y dimensions large enough to contain the shadow that will be created, but not to exceed the margins of the viewport. For this tutorial double-click the cube and make X/Y/Z around 100/100/50 and let the default for divisions. Convert to mesh (Build > Convert to Mesh). Change to Top view and in Point Edit mode box-select the upper points. Cut. Now we have got a face of the original cube, visible in the Front viewport in Object Edit mode. Select the plane and do Edit > Rotate > Rotate Custom... and enter -90 for the X-axis. Position the plane with Edit > Locate > Stand 3. Position the object In the Top viewport the shadow will be created along the X-axis, with the light source at the left. Orient the extruded text accordingly (do it as you wish) and position it over the plane. I placed it on the plane (Edit > Locate > Stand on Ground), slightly rotated around Y-axis (see the image). 4. Make a shadow color In the Material Editor make a new material for the shadow. Real shadows are never black, so choose a dark grey with a violet or brown tint. The shadow has to be absolute matte, so enter zero for Diffuse and Specular. 5. Create the shadow (it's Select the text object and apply the shadow color. Right click the plane to add it to the selection and do Build > Group. Now we are going to rotate the group according to the direction of the light. Assuming that the light's direction makes an alpha angle with the plane, we have to rotate it around Z axis with (alpha-90) angle. For this tutorial let's admit the light falls under an angle of 30 degrees, so rotate the group (Edit > Rotate > Rotate custom...) around the Z axis with -60 degrees. Under Options > Debug deselect Show Grid. Click away to deselect the group. What you see now in the Top view is actually the shadow, only that it is compressed along the X-axis (see the picture). 6. Capture the shadow Capture the screen (hit Print Screen on the keyboard or use a capture application). Load the captured image in an image editor end select the exact boundaries of the shadow plane (see the picture). Copy, than save the selection as new image in a format accepted by Anim8or textures. At this point you may want to soften the edges of the shadow or add a penumbra, but for the tutorial is good as it is. 7. Apply the shadow on the Back to Anim8or, hit undo to undo the rotation, undo ones more to ungroup and hit undo for the third time to undo the shadow-coloring of the text. In the Material Editor create a new material by loading the shadow-image file saved at step 6. Select the plane and apply the new material. You may apply a color on the text and an amount of transparency to the shadow-plane if you want, and that's all! Change to Ortho view to admire your work (see the image). A few words about creating the shadow The shape of a shadow in infinite light is the isometric projection of the contour of the shadow-casting object (viewed in the direction of light) over the receiving surface. At step 5, when rotating the group with alpha-90 degrees, the Top view featured the object's largest cross-section viewed in the direction of the light (which actually obstructs the light) as a matte dark shape. That would be the shape of the shadow in orthogonal projection, i.e. if the receiving plane would be perpendicular on the direction of the light. Because our plane is inclined, that "orthogonal shadow" has to be scaled with a factor of 1/sin(alpha) along the X-axis. Anim8or does that for us! You have noticed that the receiving plane appeared compressed along the X-axis with the same scaling factor. At step 7, when mapping the image of the compressed shadow-plane on the actual shadow-plane, the image of the shadow is stretched with the exact amount to be mathematically correct. This simple method is applicable even if the shadow falls over a bumpy surface, provided that planar mapping is satisfactory (see the picture). To be visible the texture under the shadow, make the shadow-color transparent (at step 4), or make the shadow-plane transparent (at step 7) and place it over the textured surface. If your object has assigned different colors to different faces, after re-coloring it at step 5, the undo maneuver doesn't recover the colors. To avoid this problem, at step 5, just before applying the shadow color to the object, do Edit > Copy and your precious object is back-upped. Do the procedure as described above and at step 7, after the third undo when the object appears with missing colors, just cut it and do Edit > Paste. The initial object is pasted in the At step 6, if you process the shadow image in the paint program, be careful not to affect that part of the contour that will be overlapped by the object. A shadow may appear on the lightened The shadows created along the X-axis will never fit the Object Editor's default lights. Render from the Scene Editor, with properly oriented infinite light.

NCLB called on public schools to close achievement gaps, and that focus is one thing that’s not likely to change whenever Congress gets around to reauthorizing ESEA. However, a new study by ACT shows how long the odds are for low-achieving 4th and 8th graders to eventually graduate college-ready, which should make us think about how to go about gap closing. ACT has once again mined its considerable databases to track the progress of students as they moved from 4th to 12th grades in order to find out how many ended up “college ready.” ACT grouped students by three achievement levels: on track to college-readiness, off track, and far off track. Here’s what they found about 8th graders’ chances: This table means that only 10 percent of students who were far off track in 8th grade were college ready in reading by 12th grade. The analysts further found that African American and Hispanic 8th graders were twice as likely to be “far off track” than their white classmates. Similar patterns were evident among 4th graders, too. If there’s a silver lining in this news, it’s this: “Far off” students who attended the top 10 percent of schools were about three times as likely to become college-ready. In reading, for example, 28 percent of “far off” 8th graders in the top schools had become college-ready by the time they were seniors compared to the overall average of 10 percent. This shows us that there are things schools can do to reverse the downward trajectory of low achievement. At the same time, though, it underscores how hard it is to break these trends after 4th grade. As if we still needed another argument for starting early with high-quality pre-k, ACT has surely given us one. But they also provide evidence for never giving up on kids and their capacity to learn to high levels, even in high school. A note on methodology: ACT’s college-ready benchmark is the score at which students have a 75 percent chance of earning a C or better and a 50 percent chance of earning a B or better in the relevant college freshman course. Their database has data for students in a half dozen states who take the ACT series of aligned tests at 4th, 8th and end of high school. You can find their report “Catching up to college and career readiness” — and I encourage you to do so — at www.act.org.

Husky Stadium Has Long History Beyond Football Early September means college football. And down along Montlake Boulevard, the University of Washington Huskies are getting ready to play in their remodeled and expanded stadium. Though most of the structure is new, there’s been a stadium on this same spot since 1920. And in nearly a century, it’s played host to a lot more than football games. In 1923, President Warren G. Harding gave a speech at the stadium about the future of Alaska. The speech would barely be remembered, if at all, other than the fact it was to be Harding’s last public address. The President was seriously ill, and he died in San Francisco a few days later. Twenty years after that, FDR was president and the nation was at war. Civilians on the home front all over the US were pressed into service, to be ready for an enemy invasion. In Seattle, local civil defense authorities created a remarkably elaborate simulated attack, using the Husky gridiron as the stage. The public was invited to come and watch. Bombers flew overheard, mock buildings burst into flame, and make-believe chemical weapons rained down on pretend victims played by students. Medics and firefighters rushed to the aid of people and property, with fire trucks and ambulances, and an army of volunteers, pitching in to help. It would be decades before anything quite so dramatic would take place at Husky Stadium again. But one reliable source for edge-of-the-seat suspense has always been the annual match up with cross-state rivals the Washington State Cougars. In 1962, the game was officially renamed “The Apple Cup” and it was played that year in Spokane. A year later, the Apple Cup came to Seattle. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the game was set for Saturday. And then the news came: President Kennedy had been assassinated. In the wake of JFK’s death that Friday in Dallas, the 1963 Apple Cup was postponed. A week later, the Huskies beat the Cougs at Montlake, 16 – 0. Husky Football has been something of a rollercoaster throughout the history of the stadium—from the highs of Rose Bowl appearances and national championships, to the lows of losing streaks and off-field troubles for coaches and players. But Husky Stadium also created a little history of its own, though it was in the stands and not on the field. During a game against Stanford on Halloween 1981, many credit former Husky Yell King Robb Weller for invention of the loud and synchronized cheer known as “The Wave.” It wasn’t long before the Montlake-born Wave reached the shores and sports fans of every continent. And back home, Husky fans have kept cheering, even through the tough times, and kept coming back to Husky Stadium for football, soccer and track and field. In the mid 80s, the University of Washington decided to capitalize on the demand and add more seating capacity with a major addition on the north side of the field. The bigger capacity was a boon to ticket revenue, and also helped Seattle land the 1990 Goodwill Games. This Cold War-era Olympics-like event brought athletes from around the world and thousands of spectators to the Pacific Northwest. Husky Stadium hosted the opening ceremonies, and Ronald Reagan was the keynote speaker. And though the former President and actor got a lot of applause that day, the crowd did not break out into a spontaneous “Wave.”

The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird, Agelaius xanthomus, is a diurnal blackbird prevalent to the archipelago of Puerto Rico and one of the eleven species belonging to the Agelaius genus of the Icteridae family. As a result of forest loss due to sugar cane farming and housing development, this bird is now limited to only three areas of Puerto Rico: Mona Island and Monito Island, the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station area in eastern Puerto Rico, and the southern Puerto Rican dry forests and mangroves. The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird is a glossy black bird with a small yellow shoulder patch outlined by a white margin. Immature individuals possess a duller coloration and a brown abdomen. Although plumage coloration is identical between the sexes, sexual dimorphism is present in this species with males being larger than females. Adult individuals measure from 7.8 to 9 inches and weigh 1.2 to 1.44 ounces. Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds are omnivorous, but are considered to be arboreal insectivores since the majority of their diet consists of insects. Aside from natural material, the species also consumes processed food such as cattle ration, human food (cooked rice and sugar), dog food and monkey chow. Plant matter was acquired from processed foods while insects are gleaned from the canopy and sub-canopy layers of trees. The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird breeding season commonly spans from April to August but breeding activity has been observed from February to November. The species is believed to be monogamous with a single attempt at nesting per year and with nesting being performed in loose colonies. Nests contain from 1 to 4 eggs with an average of 3 eggs. Eggs are blue-green with brown spots and are incubated for 13 days by the female. Nestlings leave the nest 13 to 16 days after hatching and reach sexual maturity at 1 year of age. Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds engage in anting, a rare behavior only observed in the Puerto Rican Tanager among West Indian birds. Individuals were observed applying ants to its body and feathers for a short period of time. The species also engages in mobbing, a behavior in which a pack of birds, from one or more species, attack a known predator (usually to defend eggs or hatchlings).

A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers. Messier 3 (also known as M3 or NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier on May 3, 1764, and resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784. Since then, it has become one of the best-studied globular...

The insect vectors of interest are the whitefly: B. tabaci (Gennadius, Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and T. vaporariorum (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). Whiteflies are important agricultural pests with a global distribution (Anderson et al., 2004; Lapidot et al., 2014). Their agricultural importance is associated with damage caused during feeding on the plant phloem resulting in the production of honeydew (Colvin et al., 2006; Prijović et al., 2013; Eigenbrode, Bosque-Pérez & Davis, 2018). Honeydew serves both to reduce transpiration and as an inoculation point for saprophytic fungi, which grows over the leaf surface reducing photosynthesis (Colvin et al., 2006; Macfadyen et al., 2018). Secondly, they are associated with the transmission of over 600 viruses of which 100 are of significant agricultural importance (Jones 2003; Polston, De Barro, and Boykin, 2014; Lu et al., 2017). In SSA these viruses affect several important crops and in particular, cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and sweet potato (Ipomea batata (L.)). Within this two crops, several whitefly-transmitted viruses have been reported which include; Cassava mosaic virus (CMV) (Legg, 1999; Naseem and Winter, 2016; Tairo et al., 2017) Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) (Hillocks and Jennings, 2003; (Maruthi et al., 2005; Ndunguru et al., 2015; Alicai et al., 2016), Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV), Sweet potato chlorotic fleck virus (SPCFV) (Ateka, et al., 2004; Tugume, et al., 2016; Mulabisana et al., 2018).Agro-ecosystems within the highlands of Kenya The agro-ecosystem within smallholder farms within the highlands of Kenya, are highly heterogeneous under mixed cropping system. Within the highlands of Kenya, maize (Zea May) is main crop and is intercropped with legumes such as common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea L). Other crops found within this cropping system are, cassava, sweet potato and indigenous vegetables (Fig. 1). This form of cropping system is popular among smallholder farmers due to several advantages. Firstly, it reduces the risk of complete crop failure in cases of diseases or pest outbreaks. Secondly it maximizing the available land and manual labor (Mucheru-Muna et al., 2010).

Former Lieutenant Governor of Texas, university professor, and Chancellor of the University of Houston System. The following is from a presentation by former Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library on January 19, 2012. Let’s start with Sam Houston. Sam Houston is a pretty good place to start any talk about American history. Sam fought in the War of 1812 and his descendants span our history from then to my own lifetime. At the suggestion of his mentor Andrew Jackson, Houston, on his way to Washington for his first session as a Tennessee congressman in 1823, stopped at Monticello to meet Thomas Jefferson. So a veteran of the War of 1812 and an acquaintance of the third President of the United States, of the Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander de Tocqueville, was the father of a United States Senator from Texas who served when I was a child. LBJ and Sam Houston LBJ’s great-grandfather George Washington Baines baptized Sam Houston in Rocky Creek near Independence in 1854. When Brother Baines told Sam that the immersion would wash away all his sins, Sam said “I hope so, but if they were all washed away, the Lord help the fish down below.” Brother Baines was later President of Baylor University. Senator Andrew Jackson Houston, who knelt with his father at Andrew Jackson’s deathbed, briefly held the same seat his father had been the first to hold. When Senator A. J. Houston, 87, died on schedule after two months in office (4/21-6/26, 1941) LBJ made his first run for the Houston seat. LBJ lost to Governor W. Lee “Pass the Biscuits Pappy” O’Daniel. LBJ won on his second try (1949), becoming a successor to both the Senators Houston. My own family’s connection with the Johnson family began three generations ago when LBJ’s father Sam Ealy Johnson and my grandfather I. W. Culp served together in the Texas House in the 36th (1919-21) and 38th (1923-25) Legislatures. In the next generation LBJ and my parents were connected through the television business, as well as through government and politics. Mrs. Johnson owned several radio and TV stations. The first was KLBJ (nee KVET) in Austin. Jess Kellam managed her stations and Jack Harris managed ours. Tom Johnson, who later managed the Johnson stations, will tell you that Jack Harris was his mentor. In the current generation, Lynda and Luci and I more or less grew up together and the friendship continues today. The afternoon before President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas he and LBJ came to Houston to dedicate the Albert Thomas Convention Center. Jack Valenti, then a Houston Post columnist, and I greeted LBJ at the airport. LBJ shanghaied Jack into going on to Fort Worth and Dallas with him. After JFK was shot the Secret Service took LBJ to Air Force One at Love Field. While LBJ and Mrs. Kennedy, still in her blood-stained dress, waited for JFK’s body to arrive from Parkland Hospital LBJ told Jack to get Attorney General Robert Kennedy on the phone. RFK advised LBJ to take the oath immediately and put somebody on the phone to dictate the oath to Jack. LBJ then sent for Judge Sarah Hughes whom we see holding the Bible and administering the oath in this historic photo. Jack Valenti is farthest to the left. Congressman Albert Thomas is next to Jack. Congressman Jack Brooks is behind Mrs. Kennedy. LBJ’s Last Inauguration Dolph Briscoe and I were sworn in as Governor and Lieutenant Governor thirty-seven years ago last Monday. I called President Johnson the day before to tell him how much it would mean to my mother and Diana and me if he and Mrs. Johnson would come to the inauguration. “When is it?”, asked LBJ. “Tomorrow, Mr. President.” “I know it’s tomorrow. What time?” “Noon, Mr. President” “Noon? That’s when I take my nap. You’re just trying to kill a sick old man!”, LBJ barked. Nonetheless, the Johnsons came to the inauguration, where he was mobbed by well-wishers. It was his last public appearance. He died a week later. —————————–William “Bill” Hobby Former Lieutenant Governor of Texas, university professor, and Chancellor of the University of Houston System.

All of the Oligocene vertebrate fossils on this list are from the White River Formation (30-36 million years old) and have been collected from deeded lands in Converse County, Wyoming. Written collecting permits from the private landowner are available for inspection. All specimens with Douglas Fossils collection numbers (e.g. DF0100) have precise stratigraphic and locality data recorded in Douglas Fossil's files. Copies of the stratigraphic and locality data can be obtained by request. Paleontology and Geology of The White River Fm. Geology of the White River Formation The White River Formation contains numerous late Eocene and Oligocene vertebrate, invertebrate and plant fossils in the Douglas, Wyoming area. It is composed of terrestrial sedimentary rocks (300 meters thick), including mudstones, siltstones, sandstones, minor conglomerates, and volcanic tuffs.The paleoenvironment was an aggradational meandering river system (ancestoral North Platte River) with the conglomerates and sandstones reflecting the stream channels and mudstones and siltstones deposited during periodic overbank flooding by the river. It is a classic paleoenvironment for preserving a terrestrial fauna. The occurrence of more than 13 volcanic tuffs (airfall ash deposits) within the White River Formation interspersed with numerous excellent fossils and magnetically susceptible rocks provides a unique and scientifically exciting control to the geology of this area that is unparalleled. Only two of the tuffs has been isotopically dated (Tuff #5 age 33.9 Ma, Swisher and Prothero, 1990 and Prothero and Swisher, 1992)(Tuff #5 age 34 Ma, Tuff #7 age 31.2 Ma, J. Scott 2000), but many of the other tuffs can and should be dated. The stratigraphy and invertebrate (snail) paleontology of the area has recently been thoroughly studied by Evanoff (1993 and et.al 1992) with many measured sections and descriptions of the volcanic tuffs. A generalized measured section is presented here from Evanoff's PhD dissertation studies( Figure 2). This co-occurrence of fossils, magnetically stable beds, and datable volcanic tuffs will allow future research in this area to be correlated regionally (Nebraska, South Dakota, western U. S.) and worldwide. Vertebrate Paleontology of White River Formation The vertebrate fossils from the Douglas area include spectacular specimens of reptiles (snakes, lizards, tortoises and turtles) and mammals (ancestoral modern lineages: horses, dogs, cats, mustelids, camels, deer, rhinoceros, rodents, rabbits, insectivores, and marsupials and extinct lineages: brontotheres, entelodonts, oreodonts, hyaenodonts, and sabertooth cats). It is the world's best locality for many of the small, delicate, and rare mammals and reptiles of the mid-Tertiary period. The specimens of fossil snakes (Breithaupt, 1997), amphisbaenids (Dickson and Cunningham, 1997), marsupials, insectivores, and rodents are unique and exceptional. This is due to a combination of paleoecology (a burrowing community)(Sundell, K, 1997a and Sundell, C., 1998) and unique preservation conditions (secondary calcite cementation). Well articulated skeletons of many of the larger mammals are also found. Many include unborn fetuses (Figure 3), juveniles, and multiple death assemblages that are unknown scientifically (Sundell, K., 1997a,1997b, 1998). Several local vertebrate and one invertebrate paleontological studies have been done in this area that provide a general biostratigraphic framework (Kron, 1978, Prothero, 1983, and Evanoff, 1993, Evanoff, et. al. 1992). The White River Formation can usually be subdivided into three fossil land mammal ages based on the vertebrate fauna, including the Chadronian, Orellan, and Whitneyan North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs) from oldest to youngest, respectively. (Figure 4. White River Formation simplified chart). The Chadronian and Orellan faunas have been firmly delineated in the Douglas area, but the Whitneyan fossils are rare in the upper third of the White River Formation at this locality and elsewhere. The change from Chadronian to Orellan faunas occurs very near the one isotopically dated tuff bed. This single date and faunal change has been a key data point for revisions of the Chadronian North American land mammal age from the early Oligocene epoch to the late Eocene epoch (Swisher and Prothero, 1990, Prothero and Swisher, 1992). This important boundary change and the less studied Orellan to Whitneyan boundary can be studied in great detail in the Douglas area. A second key tuff bed has been located slightly above the probable Orellan/ Whitneyan NALMA boundary and tentatively dated at ~31 MA (Scott 2000) with more than 120 meters of Whitneyan fossiliferous rocks occurring above this tuff. The unique interrelations of prolific fossils, radiometric datable tuff beds, and paleomagnetic susceptible sediments from three NALMAs and 5 magnetic Chrons ((9-13) in one geographic location is the primary focus of future research at this locality. By studying the precise stratigraphic and geographic location of the more than 3,500 skulls and skeletons collected by Douglas Fossils a tremendous data set can be used to help interpret paleoecological changes both vertically (stratigraphic relations to ash beds and evolutionary change through time) and horizontally (geographic lateral changes in the Douglas area and correlations to other White River outcrops in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Colorado). Additionally the forensic analysis of some of the more spectacular specimens (multiple oreodonts, multiple camels, carnivore dens, carnivore killsites, bite marks, coprolites, and leftovers) allows us to better interpret how each of these unique organisms lived their lives and how they died. We have studied in detail and proven many new hypotheses, such as: 1)How Oreodonts lived in burrows much like modern prairie dogs rather than in large herds on the open plains. 2)Hyaenodons (last of the Creodonts) are the dominant predator of Oreodonts and are symbiotically tied to them. 3) Archaeotheriums are dominantly attack predators that bite their prey and battle each other by running alongside and biting the back of their adversary's skull and swallow them whole or in big gulping chunks similar to crocodiles. The recently discovered Swan Lake plant locality of Orellan age is the first good assemblage of plant material (leaves, trees, roots, grasses, pollen, and phytoliths) to be found in the upper (Oligocene) portion of the White River Formation. The lake deposits are lateral equivalents to the best mammal producing horizons a few miles away (up ancestral-North Platte drainage during Oligocene). Future detail studies of this plant data will proving the rate of climate change across the Eocene/Oligocene boundary in central North America. The phytoliths will eventually be used to show exactly which plants the various herbivores were eating. Dental plaque on ungulate teeth contain phytoliths identified in the plants of Swan Lake. Together the forensic science of "who is eating whom" and which herbivores are eating which plants will result in a true paleoecology of changes in the paleoenvironment from Eocene to the Oligocene within the White River Formation. Breithaupt, B, 1997; North America's most complete Oligocene snakes. Tate Museum Publication #2, 1997 field conference guidebook, pp. 75-82. Dickson, E D. III and Cunningham, C. R., 1997; Cranial Osteology of a new amphisbaenian from the Orellan of Wyoming. Tate Museum Publication #2, 1997 field conference guidebook, pp. 122-130. Evanoff, E, 1993, Stratigraphy of the White River Formation Converse County, Wyoming [Ph.D. Thesis]: Boulder, University of Colorado, 298 p. Evanoff, E., Prothero, D. R., and Lander, R. H., 1992, Eocene-Oligocene climatic change in North America: The White River Formation near Douglas, east-central Wyoming in Eocene-Oligocene climatic and biotic evolution, Princeton University Press, pp. 116-130. Kron, D. G., 1978, Oligocene vertebrate paleontology of the Dilts Ranch area, Converse County, Wyoming [M. S. Thesis]: Laramie, University of Wyoming, 185 p. Prothero, D. R., 1996, Magnetic stratigraphy of the White River Group in the High Plains, in The Terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene transition in North America, Prothero, D. R. and Emery, R. J. eds., Cambridge University Press, pp. 262-277. Prothero, D. R., 1983, Magnetostratigraphy of the White River Group and its implications for Oligocene geochronology: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 42, p. 151-166. Prothero, D. R. and Swisher, C. C., 1992, Magnetostratigraphy and geochronology of the terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene transition in North America in Eocene-Oligocene climatic and biotic evolution, Princeton University Press, pp. 46-73. Scott, J., 2000, High Precision U/Pb Geochronology of Oligocene Tuffs from the White River Formation, Douglas, Wyoming, SVP abstracts with programs, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, V.20 , No.3 , p.69A Sundell, C. A., 1998; Orellan vertebrate burrows from Douglas, Wyoming: Their structure, inhabitants, and paleoecological implications, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, V. 18, No. 3, p. 81A. Sundell, K. A., 1997a; Oreodonts: Extinct large burrowing mammals of the Oligocene. Tate Museum Publication #2, 1997 field conference guidebook, pp. 31-43. Sundell, K. A., 1997b; Population statistics and preliminary biostratigraphy of an extensive vertebrate fauna from the White River Formation in Wyoming. Tate Museum Publication #2, 1997 field conference guidebook (abstract) p. 138. Sundell, K. A., 1998; Hyaenodon: Nemesis of burrowing oreodonts, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, V. 18, No. 3, p. 81A. Sundell, K. A., 1999; Taphonomy of a Multiple Poebrotherium kill site - an Archaeotherium meat cache, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, V. 19, No. 3, p. 79A. Sundell, K. A., 2001; Preliminary Paleoecology of the Swan Lake Quarries: An Orellan plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate bearing lake deposit from the White River Formation, Converse County, Wyoming Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, V. 21, No. 3, p. 106A. Sundell, K, A, 2006, Burrowers of the Oligocene: Taphonomic Studies and Interpretation of the White River Underground in Tate 2006 Guidebook -Trackways and Trace Fossils, 12th annual symposium, pp. 73-77. Swisher, C. C. and Prothero, D. R., 1990, Single-crystal 40Ar/39Ar dating of the Eocene- Oligocene transition in North America: Science, V. 249, p. 760-762.

Only Connect is a BBC game show that also has an online site. There are sixteen squares with words on each one. The player needs to use the words to create four categories of four words each. It’s a great game that helps develop the higher-order thinking skill of categorization. The online game is too difficult for all but advanced English Language Learners, plus you only get three minutes to complete it. However, the idea is a wonderful one for the English Language Learner classroom (and even mainstream ones, too). Students can create their own, and then can exchange their creations with a classmate, who in turn can try to solve them. All students need is to make sixteen boxes on their paper.

1. The President of the United States provides guidance for developing, applying, and coordinating the instruments of national power to achieve objectives that contribute to national security in the _... ___. a. National Defense Strategy b. National Security Strategy c. Unified Command Plan d. National Military Strategy 2. ____ is a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant population(s). It favors indirect and asymmetric approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capacities, in order to erode an adversary's power, influence, and will. a. Asymmetric warfare b. Traditional war c. Joint warfare d. Irregular warfare 3. The ____, signed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provides guidance for distributing and applying military power to attain national strategic objectives. It describes the Armed Forces� plan to achieve military objectives in the near term and provides the vision for ensuring they remain decisive in the future. a. Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan b. National Security Strategy c. National Defense Strategy d. National Military Strategy 4. The ability of the United States to achieve its national strategic objectives is dependent on the effectiveness of the U.S. Government in employing the instruments of national power, which are ____. a. Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic b. Diplomacy, Defense, and Development c. Political, Military, Economic, Social, Informational, and Infrastructure d. Culture, Industry, Technology, and Geography Organization for national security 1. The statutory members of the National Security Council are ____. a. President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of Energy b. President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of State c. President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of Treasury d. President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of Homeland Security 2. The ____ is the President's principal forum for considering national security policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials. a. Secretary of Homeland Security b. Secretary of Defense c. National Security Council d. Joint Chiefs of Staff 3. The operational chain of command runs directly from the President to the Secretary of Defense and then to ____. a. the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff b. the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then to the Combatant Commanders c. the Combatant Commanders d. the Service Chiefs 4. The ____ outranks all other officers of the Armed Forces, but may not exercise military command over any of the Armed Forces. He is the principal military advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the SECDEF. a. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff b. Supreme Allied Commander c. Combatant Commander d. War Czar 5. The non-operational chain of command runs directly from the President to the Secretary of Defense and then to ____. a. the Service Chiefs via the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff b. the Secretaries of the Military Departments and then to the Combatant Commanders c. the Combatant Commanders via the Service Chiefs d. the Secretaries of the Military Departments and then to the Service Chiefs 1. The ____ is a joint force that is constituted and so designated by the SECDEF, a combatant commander, a subordinate unified commander, or an existing JTF commander to accomplish missions with specific, limited objectives and which do not require overall centralized control of logistics. It is dissolved when the purpose for which it was created has been achieved or when it is no longer required. a. Combatant Command b. Subordinate Unified Command c. Joint Task Force d. Service Component Command 2. The term joint force commander refers exclusively to the following three (3) types of commanders: a. combatant commander, subordinate unified commander, and joint task force commander b. combatant commander, Service component commander, and functional component commander c. joint task force commander, functional component commander, and subunified commander d. Service component commander, combatant commander, and joint task force commander 3. A unified or specified command with a broad continuing mission under a single commander established and so designated by the President, through the Secretary of Defense and with the advice and assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is called a ____. a. joint task force b. subordinate unified command c. combatant command d. component command 4. Joint force air component commander (JFACC), joint force land component commander (JFLCC), and joint force maritime component commander (JFMCC) are all examples of ____. a. joint task force commanders b. subunified commanders c. Service component commanders d. functional component commanders 5. These commands are established by combatant commanders when authorized by the SECDEF through the CJCS to conduct operations on a continuing basis in accordance with the criteria set forth for unified commands. They may be established on a geographic area basis such as United States Forces Japan or on a functional basis such as Special Operations Command, Pacific. a. combatant commands b. subordinate unified commands c. joint task forces d. functional component commands 1. Combatant Commanders exercise ____ (command authority) over assigned forces. This is the broadest command authority and may NOT be delegated or transferred. a. Administrative Control (ADCON) b. Operational Control (OPCON) c. Tactical Control (TACON) d. Combatant Command (COCOM) 2. The four categories of support are ____. a. general, tactical, operational, and strategic b. tactical, operational, direct, and common c. general, mutual, direct, and close d. reinforcing, mutual, complementary, and close 3. Command authority over assigned or attached forces or commands, or military capability or forces made available for tasking, that is limited to the detailed direction and control of movements or maneuvers within the operational area necessary to accomplish missions or tasks assigned is known as ____. a. Administrative Control (ADCON) b. Operational Control (OPCON) c. Tactical Control (TACON) d. Combatant Command (COCOM) 4. The command authority established by a superior commander between subordinate commanders when one organization should aid, protect, complement, or sustain another force is called ____. a. Combatant Command b. Administrative Control c. Operational Control d. Support 5. ____ is the authority to perform those functions of command over subordinate forces involving organizing and employing commands and forces, assigning tasks, designating objectives, and giving authoritative direction necessary to accomplish the mission. It includes authoritative direction over all aspects of military operations and joint training necessary to accomplish missions assigned to the command. a. Combatant Command b. Operational Control (OPCON) c. Tactical Control (TACON) d. Administrative Control (ADCON) 1. The _______ is the principal forum to advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to national security and for coordinating these policies among various government agencies. Homeland Security Council National Security Council Foreign Affairs Council National Economic Council 2. _______ are responsible for coordinating with U.S. ambassadors in their AOR across the range of military operations. JTF commanders Service component commanders Geographic combatant commanders Functional component commanders 3. One way to remember the instruments of national power is by using the acronym, ________. NSCS DIME ANSA NSPD 4. The _______ is the principal military advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense. National Security Advisor Combatant Commander Director of the Joint Staff Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 5. The National Security Council is comprised of the following three levels of formal interagency committees for coordinating and making decisions on national security issues. Principals, Deputies, and Interagency Policy Executive, Deputies, and Interagency Coordination Principals, Deputies, and Interagency Working Strategic, Operational, and Tactical 6. The ______ acts as the honest "broker" among the many USG agencies to broker disagreements and achieve consensus among agencies on national security issues. National Security Advisor Counsel to the President Vice President Chief of Staff to the President 7. Within the NSC, the purpose of the ______ is to maintain the day-to-day interagency cooperation; manage the development and implementation of national security policies by multiple agencies; provide policy analysis for consideration by senior committees; and, ensure timely responses to Presidential decisions. Interagency Working Groups Principals Committee Deputies Committee Interagency Policy Committees 8. Which of the following options represent the Statutory Advisors of the National Security Council? President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Homeland Security Chief of Staff to the President, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of National Intelligence Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of National Intelligence 1. Successful interagency coordination is a force multiplier that contributes to the achievement of a combatant commander's mission by _________________. Leading to integrated political-military planning to ensure all resources are brought to bear to resolve problems quickly. Forging the vital link between the military instrument of national power and the other instruments of national power. Achieving unity of effort and avoiding duplication of effort among USG agencies, IGOs, and NGOs. All of the responses. 2. The concept of ______ highlights the synergistic application of all the instruments of national power and includes the actions of non-military organizations as well as military forces. interagency cooperation unified action unity of command civil military operations 3. DOS assigns a ______ to combatant commanders and, increasingly, to JTF commanders, to provide foreign policy perspectives and to establish linkages with U.S. embassies in the AOR or JOA and with DOS. Political Advisor (POLAD) Liaison Officer (LNO) Joint Interagency Coordination Group (JIACG) Chief of Mission (COM) 4. U.S. military forces are authorized under certain conditions to provide assistance to U.S. civil authorities for disasters, catastrophes, infrastructure protection, and other emergencies, and this assistance is known as ______ within the defense community because the assistance will always be in support of a lead federal agency. consequence management civil defense civil support crisis management 5. The supported combatant commander is responsible for developing ______, which covers Interagency Coordination, for each Operation Plan (OPLAN). This enables interagency planners to more rigorously plan their efforts in concert with the military, to suggest other activities or partners that could contribute to the operation, and to better determine any support requirements they may have. Annex G Annex I Annex V Annex Y 6. It is imperative that the combatant commander or JTF commander coordinate closely with the ______ on military activities in a particular country because, while not authorized to command military forces, he or she can deny military actions. Ambassador National Security Advisor Secretary of State Foreign Policy Advisor 7. The ______ is an interagency staff group that establishes or enhances regular, timely, and collaborative working relationships between other government agencies (e.g., CIA, DOS, FBI) representatives and military operational planners at the combatant commands. POLAD CMOC JIACG HAST 8. The Country Team provides for rapid interagency consultation and action on recommendations from the field and DOD is normally represented on the Country Team by the ______ and the ______. Marine security detachment, security assistance organization political advisor, joint interagency coordination group defense attaché, foreign policy advisor defense attaché, security assistance organization 1. ______ are independent, diverse, flexible, grassroots-focused, primary relief providers that are frequently on the scene before the U.S. military and will most likely remain long after military forces have departed. IGOs OGAs NGOs FAOs 2. In most situations, IGOs and NGOs need the following military capabilities. threat assessment, force protection, and airlift logistics, communications, and security airlift, sealift, and intelligence security, transportation, and explosive ordnance disposal 3. The JTF commander facilitates unified action and gains a greater understanding of the roles of IGOs and NGOs and how they influence mission accomplishment by establishing a ______. Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Center (HACC) Joint Interagency Coordination Group (JIACG) Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC) 4. The JTF commander should carefully consider where to locate the CMOC. Which of the following are valid considerations in determining the location? security force protection easy access for agencies and organizations all of the responses are correct 5. The JTF commander cannot dictate cooperation among OGAs, IGOs, and NGOs. In the absence of a formal command structure, JTFs are required to build consensus to achieve ______. unity of effort unity of command command and control authority synchronization 6. The interagency support provided by a ______, composed of intelligence experts from DIA, CIA, NSA, NGA, and other intelligence agencies, affords the JTF access to national-level databases and to agency-unique information and analysis. Joint Interagency Coordination Group (JIACG) Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) National Intelligence Support Team (NIST) Joint Interagency Support Element (JISE) 7. By virtue of their familiarity in a foreign country or region, ______ are a valuable source of information for a JTF commander who may have neither access to nor current information about the affected country or region. multinational forces IGOs and NGOs liaison teams USG agencies "Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War, C. 500 BC 1. A particular type of operation is not doctrinally fixed and could shift within the range of military operations, for example a counterinsurgency operation escalating from a security cooperation activity into a major operation or campaign. True False 2. Combatant commanders and subordinate joint force commanders must work with U.S. ambassadors (or diplomatic missions), Department of State, and other agencies to best integrate the military actions with the diplomatic, economic, and informational instruments of national power to promote ________. unity of command joint operations economy of force unity of effort 3. The range of military operations includes these three categories of operations: (1) military engagement, security cooperation, and deterrence; (2) crisis response and limited contingency operations; and ________. major battles and engagements contingency and crisis operations major operations and campaigns traditional and irregular warfare 4. These operations are typically limited in scope and scale and conducted to achieve a very specific objective in an operational area. They include noncombatant evacuation operations, peace operations, foreign humanitarian assistance, recovery operations, consequence management, strikes, raids, homeland defense, and defense support of civil authorities. military engagement crisis response and limited contingency operations security cooperation and deterrence activities major combat operations and campaigns 5. Various joint operations such as a show of force or sanctions enforcement support ________ by demonstrating national resolve and willingness to use force when necessary. joint operation planning prepositioning assets deterrence interagency coordination 6. The purpose of specifying the ________ is to direct every military operation toward a clearly defined, decisive, and achievable goal. center of gravity critical vulnerability objective decisive point 7. The purpose of ________ is to concentrate the effects of combat power at the most advantageous place and time to produce decisive results. maneuver mass objective offensive 8. The purpose of ________ is to develop and maintain the will necessary to attain the national strategic end state. It is based on the legality, morality, and rightness of the actions undertaken. perseverance legitimacy restraint security 1. A military operation to temporarily seize an area, usually through forcible entry, in order to secure information, confuse an adversary, capture personnel or equipment, or destroy an objective or capability is called a ________. It ends with a planned withdrawal upon completion of the assigned mission. peace operation raid recovery operation noncombatant evacuation operation 2. Military operations that apply military force or threaten its use, normally pursuant to international authorization, to compel compliance with resolutions or sanctions designed to maintain or restore peace and order are known as ________ operations. peacekeeping peace enforcement peace building peace making 3. Pursuant to Executive Order 12656, the ________ is responsible for the protection and evacuation of American citizens abroad and for safeguarding their property. Department of Defense Department of Homeland Security Geographic Combatant Command Department of State 4. In foreign humanitarian assistance operations, commanders usually establish a ________ because it is critical to working with the participating intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). joint operations center (JOC) joint intelligence operations center (JIOC) civil-military operations center (CMOC) media operations center (MOC) 5. Operations conducted to search for, locate, identify, recover, and return isolated personnel, sensitive equipment, items critical to national security, or human remains are known as ________. noncombatant evacuation operations recovery operations foreign humanitarian assistance consequence management 6. An operation that employs coercive measures to interdict the movement of certain types of designated items into or out of a nation or specified area is known as ________. antiterrorism arms control enforcement of sanctions show of force 1. Joint force commanders strive to isolate enemies by denying them ________. The intent is to strip away as much enemy support or freedom of action as possible, while limiting the enemy's potential for horizontal or vertical escalation. movement and maneuver allies and sanctuary airfields and seaports command and control 2. Preplanned, deterrence-oriented actions carefully tailored to bring an issue to early resolution without armed conflict are known as ________. peacekeeping flexible deterrent options diplomatic efforts smart power 3. Joint force commanders must integrate and synchronize offensive, defensive, and stability operations that comprise major operations and campaigns. Planning for stability operations should begin ________. near the end of joint operation planning only after planning for offensive and defensive operations is complete at the start of Phase IV Stabilize when joint operation planning is initiated 4. Although ________ may be the stronger force posture, it is the ________ that is normally decisive in combat. Therefore, commanders will normally seek to transition to the decisive operations at the earliest opportunity. joint, single-Service offense, defense defense, offense attrition, maneuver 5. A joint military operation conducted either as a major operation or a part of a larger campaign to seize and hold a military lodgment in the face of armed opposition for the continuous landing of forces is called ________. These operations may include amphibious, airborne, and air assault operations, or any combination thereof. joint reception, staging, onward-movement, and integration forcible entry full-spectrum superiority force protection 6. The ultimate measure of success in peace building is ________. Therefore, joint force commanders seek a clear understanding of the national and coalition strategic end state and how military operations support that end state. political, not military adversary military culmination economic sufficiency security sector reform 7. Major operation and campaign plans must feature a(n) ________ offensive, defensive, and stability operations in all phases. equal proportion of similar degree of appropriate balance between effective sequencing of 8. The responsibility to plan and coordinate U.S. government efforts in stabilization and reconstruction has been assigned to ________. Department of State Department of Defense Geographic Combatant Command U.S. Agency for International Development "Si vis pacem, para bellum." If you want peace, prepare for war. 1. The two types of joint operation planning are ________. They differ primarily in the amount of available planning time and products. operational planning and tactical planning deliberate planning and crisis action planning conventional planning and time-sensitive planning strategic planning and operational planning 2. Planning in an adaptive planning environment using APEX supports the systematic, on-demand, creation and revision of executable plans, with up-to-date options, as circumstances require. A premium is placed on _______. speed efficiency feasibility flexibility 3. Planning activities associated with joint military operations by combatant commanders and their subordinate joint force commanders in response to contingencies and crises are known as ________. It includes planning for the mobilization, deployment, employment, sustainment, redeployment, and demobilization of joint forces. security cooperation planning force planning joint operation planning strategic planning 4. With respect to strategic planning documents, the SECDEF provides overarching guidance for planning in the ________ and supplementary Strategic Guidance Statements (SGS) for top priority plans. Guidance for Employment of the Force (GEF) Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan (JSCP) National Military Strategy (NMS) Global Force Management Implementation Guidance (GFMIG) 5. In Deliberate Planning, the strategic planning documents include all of the following except ________. Guidance for Employment of the Force (GEF) Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan (JSCP) Global Force Management Implementation Guidance (GFMIG) Guidance for Deployment of the Force (GDF) 6. Those headquarters, commands, and agencies involved in joint operation planning or committed to a joint operation are collectively termed the ________. Although not a standing or regularly meeting entity, it consists of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Staff, the Services and their major commands, the combatant commands and their subordinate commands, and the combat support agencies. Joint Planning Group (JPG) Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) Joint Planning and Execution Community (JPEC) National Security Council (NSC) 7. APEX activities span many organizational levels, but the focus is on the interaction between ________, which ultimately helps the President and SECDEF decide when, where, and how to commit U.S. military forces. SECDEF and CJCS SECDEF and CCDRs CCDRs and subordinate joint force commanders CJCS and CCDRs 1. Joint operation planning encompasses a number of elements, including three broad operational activities, four planning functions, and a number of related products. The operational activity of ________ does not apply to Deliberate Planning, but the other two do. Situational Awareness Planning Execution Strategic Guidance 2. This is a complete and detailed joint plan containing a full description of the CONOPS, all annexes applicable to the plan, and a TPFDD. It is written to level 4 planning detail and identifies the specific forces, functional support, and resources required to execute the plan and provide closure estimates for their flow into the theater. Commander´s Estimate Base Plan (BPLAN) Concept Plan (CONPLAN) Operation Plan (OPLAN) 3. The primary product of the Plan Development function is an approved ________. course of action concept of operations campaign or contingency plan commander's estimate 4. Deliberate Planning is normally initiated by a tasking in the ________. It is based on assigned planning guidance, derived assumptions, and apportioned forces. GEF or JSCP JPEC or JSCP GEF or GFMIG NSS or NMS 5. The seven steps of the ________ follow the sequence of the general problem solving process. It is used for both deliberate planning and crisis action planning. joint operation planning process adaptive planning and execution system campaign planning model mission analysis process 6. Deliberate Planning encompasses the preparation of plans for non-crisis situations. It is used to develop ________ for a broad range of activities based on requirements identified in the GEF, JSCP, or other planning directive. strategic estimates and theater strategies operation orders and security cooperation plans campaign plans and contingency plans strategic and military end states 7. Deliberate Planning features a series of periodic ________ that constitute a disciplined dialogue among strategic leaders, specifically the combatant commanders, the CJCS, and the SECDEF, to shape campaign and contingency plans as they are developed and maintained. staff updates force planning conferences strategic symposia in-progress reviews 8. Contingency plans are best understood as ________ to the overarching global or theater campaign plan. branches sequels supporting plans extensions 9. After a contingency plan is approved in deliberate planning, supporting combatant commanders, subordinate joint force commanders, component commanders, and combat support agencies prepare supporting plans. These supporting plans are normally reviewed and approved by the ________. President SECDEF Supported Combatant Commander Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1. The ________ is the task or set of tasks, together with the purpose, that clearly indicates the action to be taken and the reason for doing so. objective mission commander's intent military end state 2. The ________, JSCP, and related Strategic Guidance Statements (for top priority plans) serve as the primary guidance to begin Deliberate Planning. They specify the planning requirements, to include the level of planning detail for the various contingency plans. UCP TCP JOPP GEF 3. The ________ is an orderly, analytical planning process, which consists of a set of seven (7) logical steps to examine a mission; develop, analyze, and compare alternative courses of action (COAs); select the best COA; and produce a plan or order. Theater Campaign Plan (TCP) Global Force Management Implementation Guidance (GFMIG) Joint Operation Planning Process (JOPP) Crisis Action Planning (CAP) 4. Assumptions must be continually reviewed to ensure validity. A valid assumption has three characteristics: ________. logical, realistic, and essential for the planning to continue acceptable, feasible, and adequate to support further planning logical and flexible to address changes in the adversary or environment adaptable, creative, and necessary to continue the planning 5. The process of ________ provides a means for the commander and staff to analyze friendly COAs by comparing them against anticipated adversary COAs, especially against the most likely and most dangerous adversary COAs identified through the JIPOE process. This process attempts to visualize the flow of the operation using the action, reaction, and counteraction method of friendly and opposing force interaction. mission analysis COA development wargaming COA comparison 6. During COA Comparison, the staff may use any technique that facilitates reaching the best COA recommendation and the commander making the best decision. A common, proven technique is the ________, which uses evaluation criteria to assess the effectiveness of each COA. synchronization matrix decision matrix decision support template wargaming simulation 1. Operations conducted in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to achieve military, diplomatic, informational, and/or economic objectives employing military capabilities for which there is no broad conventional force requirement are known as ________. These operations often require covert, clandestine, or low visibility capabilities. They differ from conventional operations in degree of physical and political risk, operational techniques, mode of employment, independence from friendly support, and dependence on detailed operational intelligence and indigenous assets. irregular operations special operations conventional operations extreme operations 2. Elite, highly trained military units that conduct operations that typically exceed the capabilities of conventional forces are known as ________. These Active and Reserve Component forces of the military Services are designated by the Secretary of Defense and specifically organized, trained, and equipped to conduct and support such operations. general purpose forces conventional forces strategic objectives forces special operations forces 3. Special operations are a(n) ______ part of the geographic combatant commander´s theater campaign plan. The majority of special operations are designed and conducted to enhance the likelihood of success of the overall theater campaign plan. implied separate integral insignificant 4. Special operations must ________ – not compete with nor be a substitute for – conventional operations. Special operations differ from conventional operations in the degree of physical and political risk, operational techniques, mode of employment, independence from friendly support, and dependence on detailed operational intelligence and indigenous assets. outperform overshadow complement supplant 1. Special Operations involve the use of small units of specially trained personnel using specialized tactics and equipment to achieve ________ objectives. tactical strategic or operational insignificant intermediate 2. Short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets is called ________. It differs from conventional offensive actions in the level of physical and political risk, operational techniques, and the degree of discriminate and precise use of force to achieve specific objectives. special reconnaissance counterterrorism direct action unconventional warfare 3. Special operations forces are organized under the ________, a functional combatant command responsible for providing mission capable special operations forces to the geographic combatant commanders. United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) 4. Actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, employing military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces are called ________. These actions acquire information concerning the capabilities, intentions and activities of an enemy. strategic reporting foreign internal defense special reconnaissance unconventional warfare 5. After the attacks of 9/11, U.S. Special Operations Command assumed an operational role in leading the DOD effort in ________. support of the U.S. government response to pandemic influenza global operations against terrorist networks cyberspace operations combating weapons of mass destruction 6. Most special operations forces are ________ oriented. This allows them to maintain a cultural awareness and a language capability for their assigned areas. politically mission regionally special tactics 7. A broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source are known as ________. It is a core activity of special operations forces. unconventional warfare civil affairs operations special reconnaissance direct action 8. Military-political considerations frequently cast Special Operations into clandestine or covert environments; therefore, their activities normally involve oversight at the ________ level. tactical joint task force operational national 1. The foundation of Army Special Forces is the basic unit, the Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA), also known as the "A-Team." The A-Team is capable of conducting operations in remote and hostile areas for extended periods of time; however, it has minimal ________. Anti-armor or other heavy weapons communications assets regional language skills airborne qualified soldiers 2. The ________ is the premier light, airborne, infantry unit of the U.S. Army. 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment 82nd Airborne Division 75th Ranger Regiment 3. The unique unit that provides support to special operations forces personnel on a worldwide basis with specially equipped helicopters is the ________. 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade 106th Special Operations Helicopter Regiment 4. The units that support military commanders by working with civil authorities and civilian populations in the area of operations are known as ________. These forces help minimize civilian interference with military operations, locate civilian resources to support military operations, and support national assistance activities. foreign area officers political advisors civil affairs special forces 5. The units manned by Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen who operate and maintain state-of-the-art surface craft to conduct coastal patrol and interdiction and support special operations missions are known as ________. SEAL Platoons Special Boat Teams SEAL Delivery Teams Special Tactics Groups 6. The 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard provides the only ________ platform in the Department of Defense with the EC-130 Commando Solo. airborne early warning airborne psychological operations electronic warfare combat aviation advisor 7. The Air Force´s Battlefield Airmen or ________ Teams frequently operate with Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and Special Forces in direct action, airfield seizure, and personnel recovery missions in hostile territory. Air Commando Special Tactics Aero Scout Special Warfare 8. This MARSOC element trains, advises and assists friendly host nation forces - including naval and maritime military and paramilitary forces - to enable them to support their governments´ internal security and stability, to counter subversion, and to reduce the risk of violence from internal and external threats. It has the capability to form the nucleus of a Joint Special Operations Task Force. Marine Special Operations Regiment (MSOR) Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) Marine Special Operations Support Group (MSOSG) 1. Each geographic combatant command has a ________ to plan and control joint special operations forces in their areas of responsibility. It is a sub-unified command of the geographic combatant command and the source of expertise in all areas of special operations. Regional Special Warfare Command (RSWC) Theater Special Operations Command (TSOC) Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF) Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) 2. When required, the joint task force commander may establish a ______, which is a temporary joint special operations forces command formed to conduct special operations in a specific joint operations area. Theater Special Operations Command (TSOC) Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF) Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC) Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) 3. Which one of the following is NOT a limitation of special operations forces? Are a relatively small force Possess minimal organic anti-armor and other heavy weapons Cannot be regenerated rapidly in event of significant losses Have little to no language or regional expertise 4. Special Operations Forces are a valuable asset for the joint planner; however, they comprise only a small part of the total force - a little over ________ percent of the total force. 10 5 2 15 5. In joint SOF mission planning, a demanding full-up, real-time ________ can mitigate much of the inherent risks of many SOF missions. It is key to the success of complex joint SOF missions. battle rhythm rehearsal training exercise firing course 6. Which of the following is NOT one of the SOF Truths? Humans are more important than hardware. Quantity always beats quality. SOF cannot be mass produced. Competent SOF cannot be created after emergencies occur. 1. A traumatically induced structural injury and/or physiological disruption of brain function as a result of an external force defines a ________. Typical signs include headaches, memory gaps, confusion, attention problems, irritability, ringing in the ears, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, slowed reaction time, sleep difficulty, and performance difficulties. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Psychiatric Disorder Syndrome Psychological Trauma Dysfunction Traumatic Brain Injury 2. Receiving realistic training, understanding the types of situations encountered in war, eating well, getting enough rest, and having meaningful relationships and friendships are all helpful in building ________. teamwork tolerance resilience unity of effort 3. A state of well-being in which one is aware of personal abilities and limits, copes well with life stresses, works productively and effectively, and contributes positively to his or her communities is known as ________. It describes a healthy body, mind, and spirit which can be seen in a person´s ability to deal with typical stressors. physical fitness psychological health post-traumatic stress disorder personal awareness 4. Exposure to stressful situations, trauma, and combat will cause a response and resulting change. These responses and changes will all be negative. True False 5. Symptoms of ________ include depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other physical and mental health problems. It is also associated with difficulties in social or family life, including occupational instability, marital problems, family discord, and difficulties in parenting. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Psychiatric Disorder Syndrome Psychological Trauma Dysfunction Traumatic Brain Injury Question 1 One of the Navy's MOOTW roles is to enforce United Nations economic sanctions. True False Question 2 While its missions might include forcible entry operations and peace enforcement, humanitarian assistance is not within the Marine Corps' purview. True False Question 3 Marine Corps forces exploit the Total Force concept, employing combinations of active duty and reserve Marines to ensure that missions are effectively and efficiently executed. True False Question 4 Aerospace Forces produce synergistic effects that are designed not to exceed separately employed individual forces. True False Question 5 The US Army's adaptation to new technologies was a result of the federal government nurturing the arms industry after the Revolutionary War, spurred by Eli Whitney’s invention of interchangeable parts which made standardized gun design possible. True False Question 6 Established in 1798, the US Navy and Marine Corps was created to protect American interests overseas and support maritime free trade. True False Question 7 It was Lt. Col. Earl H. “Pete” Ellis's post-WWI Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia, 1921 document that gave birth to the Marine Corps’ amphibious doctrine. True False Question 8 By 1986, the MPS program had in place 13 ships: one squadron in the Eastern Atlantic, a second squadron at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and a third at Guam in the Western Pacific. True False Question 9 The comprehensive doctrine of air warfare supported the conclusion that high-altitude, daylight bombing of an enemy's war-supporting industries and transportation systems could win a war. True False Question 10 USCG has always served under the Secretary of the Treasury, reflecting its early historical mission. True False Question 11 The USCG's motto is Semper Paratus, meaning "always ready." True False Question 12 It is not customary during Dining-In to hear an address by a distinguished guest. True False Question 13 The offering of ceremonial toasts is a traditional Army custom at a formal Dining-In, which includes passing the wine "over the water," an historical reference to James I, who was exiled by Oliver Cromwell. True False Question 14 While it is appropriate and strongly recommended to greet a person by name and grade, if you are unsure of an enlisted Marine’s name or grade, "Marine” is as appropriate as “Good morning, Sir,” in the case of an officer. True False Question 15 The main difference between Dining-In and Mess Night for Marines is that spouses and other non-military guests may attend a Dining-In. True False Question 16 Promotions and Re-enlistments are ceremonies requiring formation in this order: (a) Personal awards presented first, (b) Promotions second, and (c) Re-enlistments third. True False Question 17 Dining-In and Dining-Out represent the most formal aspects of Air Force social life. True False Question 18 Historically, the practice of keeping pets onboard may have started when cats were brought onboard to combat the rat population. True False Question 19 Which document spells out the broad responsibilities or missions of the combatant commanders? a. Title 10 of the United States Code (USC) b. UCMJ c. Unified Command Plan Question 20 What is the Army’s primary role? a. To train and equip itself for the overwhelming and synchronized application of land combat power b. To train and equip itself for the overwhelming and synchronized application of both land and air combat power c. To support the other Services Question 21 The Army aids in shaping the international environment through an extensive forward presence in which of the following? a. Europe, Southwest Asia, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan b. Balkans, Middle East, Europe, Southwest Asia, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan c. Europe, Asia, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan Question 22 Which of the following documents reflects situational demands which may influence doctrine and the proper composition of forces in support of National Naval Strategy (NNS)? a. Universal Joint Task List (UJTL) b. Posture Statement c. Joint Concepts Development and Revision Plan (JCDRP) Question 23 What are the four fundamental roles of the United States Navy? a. Overwhelming presence, deterrence, sea and area control, and power projection b. Overwhelming presence, sea and area control, and power projection c. Forward presence, deterrence, sea and area control, and power projection Question 24 Which of the following capabilities reinforce the United States Navy's role in deterrence? a. Peacekeeping and Contingency Operations b. The capability of dominating a foe in the littoral battle space and delivering heavy equipment c. Contingency Operations and Non-combatant Evacuation Operations d. All of the above Question 25 MOOTW has taken on added emphasis in recent years and can impact the Navy in terms of which of the following requirements? a. Contingency Operations and Non-combatant Evacuation Operations b. Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) training for embargo or intercept operations c. Training, personnel, equipment and budget d. Training, personnel and equipment Question 26 Which of the following are examples of MOOTW? a. Contingency Operations and Non-combatant Evacuation Operations b. All of the above c. Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) training for embargo or intercept operations d. Peacekeeping and Contingency Operations Question 27 Which of the following are examples of how the Marine Corps has adapted and evolved as an expeditionary force? a. Amphibious operations, close air support, helicopter-borne vertical envelopment tactics b. Amphibious operations, MPFs and MAGTFs c. Both 1 and 2 Question 28 Which of the following Services is the force of choice in emerging crises? a. US Navy b. US Marine Corps c. Coast Guard Question 29 Which of the following are roles of the US Marine Corps according to Title 10 US Code? a. Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) training for embargo or intercept operations b. Develop tactics, techniques, and equipment-use phases of amphibious operations by landing forces c. Narcotics/Drug Interdiction and Illegal Alien Interdiction d. All of the above Question 30 Which of the following are primary functions of the US Marine Corps according to DOD Directive 5100? a. Conduct prompt and sustained combat operations at sea, including sea-based and land-based aviation. b. Provide detachments and organizations to serve on armed vessels of the Navy and provide security detachments for naval stations and bases. c. Organize, equip, and provide Marine Corps forces to conduct joint amphibious operations and train all forces assigned to joint amphibious operations. d. All of the above Question 31 Delegating execution authority to responsible and capable lower-level commanders is essential to which of the following roles of Air Force commander or command groups? a. Achieving effective span of control b. Fostering initiative, situational responsiveness, and tactical flexibility c. Both Question 32 Simultaneous and parallel operations are the most effective use of aerospace power in producing which of the following? a. Confusion, situational responsiveness, and paralysis within the adversary's system b. Shock, confusion, and paralysis within the adversary's system c. Initiative, situational responsiveness, and tactical flexibility Question 33 Which of the following are functions of air power? a. Counter air, Counter space, Counter land, Counter sea b. Strategic Attack, Counter information, Command and Control, Air Refueling, Space Lift c. Special Operations Employment, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, Combat Search and Rescue, Navigation and Positioning, Weather Operations d. All of the above Question 34 Which of the following describes the role of the Coast Guard in the US's maritime regions? a. The Coast Guard operates in inland, coastal, and Deepwater regions. b. The Coast Guard operates in Coastal and Deepwater regions. c. The Coast Guard operates in inland and coastal regions. Question 35 Which of the following tasks are among the Coast Guard's responsibilities in enforcing all applicable federal laws, regulations, and international agreements upon the high seas and in US waters? a. Narcotics/Drug Interdiction, Illegal Alien Interdiction, Boating Safety, and Fisheries b. Develop tactics, techniques, and equipment-use phases of amphibious operations by landing forces c. Conduct prompt and sustained combat operations at sea, including sea-based and land-based aviation d. All of the above Question 36 In wartime, which of the following tasks will the USCG provide within the 200 nautical mile limit? a. Protection of ports, waterways, and waterfront facilities b. Impoundment of all foreign vessels c. Protection of vessels, personnel, and property at home and abroad d. Both 1 and 2 e. Both 1 and 3 Question 37 Which program within the USCG Boating and Safety Mission targets commercial vessels, regulates commercial marine activities, and helps develop safety standards for commercial vessels and crews? a. Recreational Boating Safety (RBS) b. Search and Rescue (SAR) c. Commercial Vessel Safety (CVS) Question 38 Soldiers fighting the War of 1812 benefited from the improved quality and standardization of their equipment. By the Mexican War, American arms were technologically equivalent to those of Europe. Advances in which of the following areas made that possible? a. Mobility, flexibility, and potency of field artillery b. Training and standardization c. Standardization of the potency of field artillery Question 39 Which technological advancements directly impacted warfare during the American Civil War? a. Ranges and capabilities of artillery were radically increased. b. Railroads transported troops and supplies quickly over unprecedented distances. c. Telegraphs coordinated strategic movements in a fraction of the time required during earlier wars, and a massive industrial base was harnessed to the demands of war. d. All of the above. Question 40 Introduced in WWI and perfected in WWII, which of the following mechanized alternatives to trench warfare led to successful campaigns? a. Telegraph capability to communicate strategic movement b. Railroad transport in support of strategic movement c. The combination of the tank and time-on-target, as well as artillery and radio coordination d. Introduction of the airplane and helicopter Question 41 Which of the lessons learned during the Mexican War did the Union Navy use? a. Move forward from the sea and seize ports b. Embargo trade and blockade c. Extract without foundering and unload troops while maintaining stern to the surf d. Choice 2 and 3 e. Choice 1 and 2 Question 42 Through which of the following strategies has the Navy retained its traditional roles while expanding into expeditionary warfare? a. Containment Policy b. “From the Sea” and later “Forward from the Sea” c. Sea Power Concept Question 43 Which of the following advantage/advantages of boats were designed for the Marines by Andrew Higgins? a. Scooting into shallow water b. Unloading troops while maintaining its stern to the surf c. Extracting without foundering d. All of the above Question 44 Why was the participation of the Montford Point Marines in the amphibious assault at Saipan such a historic event? a. The marines were well-trained. b. No Higgins boats were available. c. It represented the final and full integration of the Armed Forces. Question 45 Devised to survive on a potentially atomic battlefield, vertical envelopment enabled Marines to achieve which of the following? a. Speed and dispersion b. Night vision c. Beachhead assaults Question 46 In the name of strategic mobility, the Marine Corps adopted pre-positioning for which of the following purposes? a. Speed and dispersion b. Provide materiel needed to sustain a brigade for 30 days in a potential combat zone c. Amphibious assault Question 47 Which of the following represent highlights of US Air Force history? a. Design of a doctrine of strategic bombing and one of organizational independence b. Development of the Strategic Air Command c. Expansion into space d. All of the above Question 48 What was the purpose of the Revenue Cutter Service? a. Building and maintaining lighthouses b. Protecting ports and harbors c. Collecting taxes and stopping smugglers Question 49 In 1848, why was the Bureau of Navigation established? a. To save lives b. To build, maintain and man all Lightships c. To patrol the Pacific Coastline Question 50 A group or person is honor-bound to do which of the following upon receiving a limerick at mess? a. Ignore it as any self-generated entertainment b. Return the embarrassment in kind c. Refute the remark prior to the close of the dinner hour Question 51 Which of the following are considerations when hosting a formal dinner? a. Begin planning months in advance with the proposed guest list b. Printing and mailing invitations four to six weeks in advance c. Planning the menu and walking through the upcoming evening’s sequence of events d. Identifying unique cultural considerations in a foreign country e. All of the above Question 52 Which core value does the following tenet represent: exhibit the highest degree of moral character, technical excellence, quality and competence in what we have been trained to do. a. Honor b. Commitment c. Courage Question 53 Which of the following examples embodies Navy traditions and core values of honor, courage, and commitment? a. “Don’t give up the ship!” b. “Surrender? I have not yet begun to fight!” c. “Can you go and do likewise?” d. All of the above Question 54 Who are the caretakers of naval customs, traditions, honors, and ceremonies? a. Chief Petty Officers b. Admirals c. Commanders Question 55 Which core value does the following tenet represent: abide by an uncompromising code of integrity, taking responsibility for your actions and keeping your word. a. Commitment b. Courage c. Honor Question 56 Which core value does the following tenet represent: make decisions in the best interest of the Navy and the nation, without regard to personal consequences. a. Commitment b. Honor c. Courage Question 57 Which of the following represent Marine core values? a. Competence b. Resolution c. Courage d. No wounded or dead Marine will ever be left on the field or unattended, regardless of the cost of bringing him in e. All of the above Question 58 Which of the following would be initiated into the "Top 3"? a. Col b. SgtMaj c. MSgt Question 59 Which of the following ceremonies affirms a "leader among leaders" in the USAF, using a symbol of truth, justice, and power rightly used? a. Grog Bowl b. Top 3 c. Order of the Sword Question 60 What is the primary purpose of Dining-In for the USAF? a. To enhance morale and esprit de corps b. To nurture rising NCOs c. To present new orders Question 61 What is the purpose of sending someone to the Grog Bowl? a. As punishment for violating the rules of the mess b. As a reward for attendance c. Recognition for a job well done Question 62 Gold and Silver Lifesaving Medals are a tradition of which Service? a. US Coast Guard b. US Marine Corps c. US Navy Question 63 Which of the following is the USCG motto? a. “Semper Fideles” b. "Semper Paratus" c. “Anchors Aweigh” Question 64 Who is eligible for the Ancient Albatross Award in the USCG? a. The Coast Guard aviator on active duty who has held that designation for the longest time. b. The oldest active duty enlisted person c. All new recruits Question 65 Ancient Mariner is a ceremonial title given to whom? a. The officer or enlisted person with the earliest date of qualification as a cutterman b. The enlisted person with the earliest date of qualification as a cutterman c. The officer with the earliest date of qualification as a cutterman Question 66 The "Salty Sea Dog" is a reference to which of the following? a. The cutter Campbell's mascot, Sinbad b. Cats that hunt the rats onboard c. The cutter Campbell's motto Question 67 From the early days of naval service, certain principles or core values have carried on to today. Match each quote with the corresponding Navy Core Value. "I will support and defend ..." Read Answer Items for Question 67 "I will bear true faith and allegiance ..." Read Answer Items for Question 67 "I will obey the orders ..." Read Answer Items for Question 67 Answer a. Courage b. Honor c. Commitment Question 68 To promote pride and respect among your juniors, how would you address each rank? Match each rank with its corresponding address. First Sergeant Read Answer Items for Question 68 Sarge or Trooper Read Answer Items for Question 68 By full rank and name Read Answer Items for Question 68 By name and grade Read Answer Items for Question 68 Answer a. Senior Enlisted Marine b. Junior Marine c. No One d. First Sergeant Question 69 In concert with the joint team and the forces of US allies, land power provides decisive capability for which of the following? a. Establishing legitimate authority to rebuild the conflict area b. Countering international threat and defending US interests c. Compliance with the terms of peace Question 70 The Army's training and support includes which of the following programs? a. Counter-drug operations in many Latin American nations b. Medical, intelligence, communications and civic assistance tasks in Indonesia c. Humanitarian de-mining operations in 22 countries d. African armies in peacekeeping and humanitarian activities Question 71 Which of the following best defines the benefit of flexibility in aerospace power? a. Flexibility allows air operations to shift quickly and decisively from one campaign objective to another. b. Flexibility allows aerospace forces to be employed at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels equally effectively. c. Flexibility allows aerospace forces to exploit mass and maneuver simultaneously to a far greater extent than surface forces can. Question 72 Which of the following best define the benefits of versatility in aerospace power? a. Versatility allows air operations to shift quickly and decisively from one campaign objective to another. b. Versatility allows aerospace forces to achieve objectives simultaneously at all three levels of war in parallel operations. c. Versatility allows aerospace forces to be employed at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels equally effectively. Question 73 Which two programs constitute USCG's environmental protection mission? a. Marine Environmental Response (MER) b. Commercial Vessel Safety (CVS) c. Port Safety and Security (PSS) d. Recreational Boating Safety (RBS) Question 74 Which of the following are among the Coast Guard's roles? a. Boat Safety and Ice Operations b. Law Enforcement c. Search and Rescue d. Environmental Protection e. Being transferred by Presidential order to the US Navy for operational purposes Question 75 The helicopter was hailed as revolutionary in the Korean War. In which of the following aspects did Vietnam War ground combatants achieve new levels of success? a. Tactical mobility b. Logistical sustainability c. Fire support d. Heliborne medical evacuation Question 76 Which of the following were among the United States Army's technical innovations in combat during Desert Storm? a. Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) b. Bradley infantry fighting vehicle c. Apache attack helicopter d. Patriot missile e. Abrams armored M1A1 tank Question 77 Which Naval technological advancements secured the Sea Power concept as the Navy’s strategy for the 20th century, impacted the ability to sell US goods globally, and buttressed the US position as a major power? a. Frigate, steam power, and breech-loading guns b. Submarine and airplane c. Battleship and cruiser d. Aircraft carriers and long-range submarines Question 78 Which technological advancements turned the tide on the U-boats? a. Long-range reconnaissance planes b. Escort carriers c. Direction-finding equipment d. Anti-submarine weapons e. Destroyers equipped with advanced sonars Question 79 Which of the following are examples of Naval implementation of the US Containment Policy? a. Imposing a quarantine during a crisis b. Long-term deployment around the globe c. Development of nuclear-powered submarines capable of lengthy deployments under the sea d. Nuclear-armed jet aircraft Question 80 During the 1930s, which two essential building blocks for an effective air force fell into place? a. Clear tactics, techniques, and organization for air-ground cooperation b. A comprehensive doctrine of air warfare c. A vision of a long-range, four-engine bomber that became reality with the first B-17 Question 81 When tactics, techniques, and organization for air-ground cooperation were worked out, on whose experiences were they based? a. Wright Brothers b. Royal Air Force c. Germany's Luftwaffe Question 82 Which of the following problems faced the newly created Air Force in 1947? a. Arranging for support services b. Frequent incoming ballistic missiles c. Establishing an organization adapted to air operations d. Transitioning from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft e. Modifying doctrine, strategy, and tactics to accommodate nuclear weapons Question 83 Which of the following were obstacles for the Berlin Airlift of 1948? a. Transporting a minimum of 4,500 tons of material daily b. Continuing the transport through the summer c. Carrying only small individual loads Question 84 What Services were established as precursors to the USCG? a. Lighthouse Service and Revenue Cutter Service b. Life Saving Service c. Steamboat Inspection Service d. Bureau of Navigation e. Transportation Security Administration Question 85 Known as the Revenue Marine or Treasury Fleet, which of the following tasks fell to the Steamboat Inspection Service? a. Protection of the marine environment b. Hazardous cargo handling c. Crew licensing and vessel documentation d. Port and harbor safety Question 86 What is the purpose of the custom of Dining-In, both historically and currently? a. Offers the opportunity to hand out assignments b. Offers the opportunity to recognize outstanding personnel c. Enhances camaraderie to support the effectiveness of the organization Question 87 In what ways do Dining-Out and the Army NCO graduation ball differ from Dining-In? a. Neither includes certain ceremonial aspects of Dining-In. b. They have guests or spouses in attendance and Dining-In does not. c. They are informal, while Dining-In is a formal affair. Question 88 Which of the following are among Marine Corps customs, courtesies and traditions? a. Dining In and Mess Night b. Marine Corps Birthday Ball c. Hail and Farewell d. Addressing Enlisted Marines Question 89 Which of the following are among US Air Force customs, courtesies and traditions designed to provide high morale? a. Hail and Farewell b. The Grog Bowl c. The Order of the Sword d. Dining-In, Dining-Out, and Combat Dining-In . 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This Article has two principal purposes. The first is to examine the logic and limits of a medieval debate over same-sex unions. The medieval lawyers who engaged in this debate were no friends of same-sex unions. The debate, rather, seemed to take the form of an academic exercise by which the lawyers involved defined more rigorously the boundaries of what counted as marriage and also imported into the jurisprudence of marriage a deeply-hostile homophobia. I do not assert that same-sex marriage was an actual social reality in the Middle Ages. The existence of this debate, however, is quite remarkable in its own right. The Article’s second major purpose, then, is to reconsider the origins of homophobia. By connecting the canon law of marriage with homophobic rhetoric, the medieval lawyers reinterpreted marriage as an institution that not only served certain ends in its own right but existed to defeat the perceived threat of same-sex relations. This linkage, first articulated in the thirteenth century, unfortunately remains a feature of the contemporary debate over same-sex unions. Monday, January 13, 2014 Reid on the Medieval Canon Lawyers and Same-Sex Unions Charles J. Reid, Jr., University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota), has posted "May a Man Marry a Man?" Medieval Canon Lawyers Analyze Same-Sex Unions. Here is the abstract:

was the Indo-European language that was spoken in Greece from approximately 800 BC to 100 BC. Greece at this time was not a unified nation, but a collection of independent powers connected by a common language and culture. The New Testament was written in Ancient Greek. Ancient Greek is the ancestor of modern Greek. See also Ancient Greek names.

Sukkot and Simchat Torah Social Justice Guide As a people with agricultural roots, Jews have found many ways to mark the seasonal and environmental changes that occur throughout the year. Sukkot has numerous other themes and areas of focus that encompass seasonal, historical, and theological perspectives. It is among the festivals that fall in the month of Tishrei, emphasizing not only the cycles of the earth, but also the cycles of Jewish life. (The other holidays in Tishrei are Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Simchat Torah.) Sukkot concludes with the celebration of Simchat Torah, when Jews mark the cycle of Torah readings by finishing the book of Deuteronomy and immediately beginning the book of Genesis. This practice reminds us of the constant need to study all that Torah has to offer, including teachings regarding social justice and righteousness. You can incorporate social action themes into your Sukkot and Simchat Torah celebrations in the following ways. Focus on Housing Issues The word sukkah sounds much like sichah, the Hebrew word for conversation. As such, Sukkot can provide an excellent opportunity to converse about housing issues and homelessness. On Sukkot, we are commanded to live in temporary booths for seven days, to remind us of the time when our wandering ancestors had to dwell in sukkot following the exodus from Egypt. This naturally draws to mind those who are homeless, or who must live in temporary housing all year round, unable to procure a permanent home of their own. We have the privilege of returning to our homes following the seven days, but there are many who have no homes to which they can return. Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity or another local housing initiative during the week of Sukkot to help build simple, decent, affordable housing for – and with – people in need. Make a Recycled Sukkah The seven days spent in the sukkah allow for closer interaction with the environment in a way that permanent homes do not. Eating and sleeping in sukkot creates a connection with the wind, outside air, sun, moon, and stars. Such an encounter with the natural world during this season can inspire us to pay closer attention to issues that affect the environment daily. Use as many recycled materials as possible in the building of a family or communal sukkah. This project can promote an appreciation of the importance of buying and using environmentally sustainable products. Honor Farmers and Farm Workers Sukkot is an excellent opportunity to honor those who provide us with produce and other healthy food throughout the year. Invite a local farmer or farm worker to a home or congregational sukkah, and allow him or her to speak about the challenges of growing healthy food in the local ecosystem. A farm worker might be asked to speak about the difficulties of working around pesticides and the dangers of poor working conditions. Other sukkot guests might be invited to receive honors for their justice work in the community. Host an Autumn Warm-Up Clothing Drive Sukkot often signals the end of summer and the beginning of the cooler seasons. A clothing drive held as the weather gets colder is a simple yet very important mitzvah. Help make the winter months warmer for someone in need by collecting new or gently used coats, gloves, hats, mittens, wool socks, etc. during the week of Sukkot. Contact local shelters to see where your donation will be most needed to Decorate and Donate While we are commanded to rejoice abundantly at this time of year, we also must assist others who are financially incapable of rejoicing. According to the Jewish scholar Maimonides, proper observance of Sukkot requires that we feed those around us who are in need. Hunger and poverty were facts of life in Maimonides’ time and unfortunately continue to be major concerns in our time. Hold a Sukkot potluck event to celebrate the holiday, help the hungry in your community, and even encourage awareness of the needs of local farmers. Encourage your attendees to support local farmers by using locally grown produce for their potluck dishes and to bring a bag of apples or some other locally grown produce to be collected and donated to those in need through a local organization. Engage in Interfaith Dialogue In Temple times in Jerusalem, Jews sacrificed 70 bulls during the week of Sukkot to atone for sins, committed not just by them, but also on behalf of the bible’s “70 nations” of the world. This tradition demonstrates the importance of praying and acting for the well-being of all nations, not just Israel. Sukkot is an excellent time to welcome representatives from the local Arab-American community to engage in dialogue, debate, and learning about the current situation in the Middle East. Words of peace and sharing between the two groups, particularly at a time of strife in the Middle East, can be most meaningful for all. Adopt a Park As Sukkot inspires us to appreciate the natural world around us, we become more aware of our responsibility to keep nature beautiful and clean. With friends, family, or fellow synagogue members, “adopt” a local park, street, beach, lake, river, etc., and be responsible for cleaning up that particular area. The project can be started during the week of Sukkot and extended throughout the year.

Carbon dioxide gets the fame and attention, out of the greenhouse gases. But there are others that are even more effective at trapping heat; they just exist in much smaller concentrations, so they don’t usually face the same level of scrutiny or regulation. The United States is finally taking aim at an important type of these lesser-known superpollutants: hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. The Environmental Protection Agency announced a rule on Monday, first reported by the New York Times’s Lisa Friedman, that it will phase out the coolant’s use by 85 percent over the next 15 years. The EPA estimates the rule would cut down on the equivalent of 4.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2022 to 2050 — about equal to three years of US power sector pollution. HFCs have only been used in appliances since the 1990s, as a replacement for ozone-depleting chemicals, but their use has grown at a terrifying rate. While HFCs still only comprise about 1 percent of total greenhouse emissions, they are thousands of times better at trapping heat than carbon over a 20-year period. Left unregulated, global HFCs would add another half-degree Celsius of warming by 2100, according to the EPA. That half-degree is crucial to avoid — it’s the difference between the world we have today and the one we will have soon at 1.5 degrees Celsius, and means crop failures, Arctic ice-free summers, and cities facing unmanageable flooding. And it’s especially important to start phasing out HFCs now, since the global stock of air conditioners is rising rapidly in a warming world: According to United Nations’ Climate and Clean Air Coalition, there will be 10 AC units sold every second for the next 30 years. The alternative chemicals all have some impact on global warming, but natural (meaning not human-made) options have a much smaller footprint, according to Project Drawdown. Ammonia, for example, has almost zero impact. That’s why the EPA’s new proposed regulation that sets the first cap for manufacturing and importing HFCs in the US is very good news. But after years of former President Donald Trump kneecapping US climate policy, another big task awaits for President Joe Biden to rein in HFCs: ratifying the 2016 Kigali Amendment, the global agreement to phase down these dangerous chemicals by 85 percent before 2050. It’s one of many amendments that has been added to the Montreal Protocol since 1987, a treaty that has been used to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals. Every one of these amendments was ratified and implemented successfully by the US —except Kigali, the one that came along just as Trump and Republicans took power and brought climate action to a standstill. Just before President Barack Obama left office, his administration helped negotiate the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase out HFCs and replace them with alternative chemicals. To date, more than 110 nations have ratified the Kigali Amendment, passing the threshold for it to enter into force. The United States still isn’t one of the countries that has ratified it because Trump never submitted the Kigali Amendment to the Senate for ratification. “It is important to move fast” on HFC pollutants, Natural Resources Defense Council climate and clean energy director David Doniger said, noting that progress on HFCs still continued despite Trump. Doniger thinks Congress can finally ratify the amendment on a bipartisan basis, which would provide a degree of permanence for Biden’s actions and assurance to the world ahead of the next global climate talks. While the Trump administration waffled on HFCs, 17 US states have passed bans or restrictions to begin their own phasedowns. Now there is finally momentum. Biden recently announced along with China that the US would support the Kigali Amendment targets, and Biden will finally submit the treaty to the Senate to ratify. Signing the treaty would likely have less of an impact than the US actually regulating these emissions. But the EPA couldn’t do that on its own because in 2017 a federal court struck down the Obama EPA’s first attempt to regulate HFCs, saying the agency didn’t have authority under the Clean Air Act. Since Congress has now given the EPA the needed authority, the next step will be accepting public comment and finalizing the rule later this year. There was bipartisan and industry support for updating the EPA’s mandates, but Congress didn’t act until late 2020, when it finally passed a measure in the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act directing the EPA to regulate HFCs. Though members of both parties were on board with the proposal, it was still an uphill climb to convince key Senate Republicans to attach the measure to the year-end omnibus. One of the last pieces falling into place is the federal government’s role in phasing out this superpollutant. It’s a lesson we keep having to learn again and again, on the role a proactive Congress plays in speeding up the adoption of climate solutions. HFCs are an important piece of the solution. “As we come up with policies [to limit warming to] 1.5 degree or 2 degrees Celsius, you can’t hope to get there if you are going to add a whole half-degree in HFCs, so it’s absolutely critical to meet these goals,” Doniger said.

How to Build a Sod House This is a letter to my son, Thomas Kerns, grade 5 (1966) for a school project. It was written by my father, Robert Orloff Dragoo, whose parents homesteaded in Perkins County, South Dakota in 1910, when he was 9 years old. I can’t qualify as an expert at building a sod house, but I can remember some experiences that have to do with building one, for my folks built one in 1910 and I built one in 1933. To begin with you must find the proper kind of sod, something that has a dense, continuous mat of roots. Many of the homesteaders chose a draw that had a growth of what we called "red top grass". You could get good sod for convenience in handling and building but the dirt in the roots would not stand up long under wind and rain. My dad, after the first couple loads followed some old timers’ advice and went down along the creek, beside a water hole and got what we called "alkali sod". Long course marsh grass, with a heavy root system grew there, and when it dried, it turned almost white with alkali and baked almost as hard as a brick. For years we hung coats on nails driven into the sod wall and for over sixty years the walls withstood rain and wind erosion with no protective coating. (Note: as of 1997, the house is still standing.) The sods were so wet that water almost ran down the furrow from which they were taken. The grass grew back and 23 years later I took a second crop of sod from the same place. The requirement was a plow and team of horses—tractors were unknown in 1910 and they would have mired down if they had been there. The steadier the team, the more uniform the furrow and the sod that was turned over. The plow was made different from the plows of later years, a "breaker moldboard". Today’s plows have a twist to the moldboard that breaks up the soil as it passes across the moldboard. The "breaker" plows were twisted just enough to lay the sod over in one long strip—ideally from one end of the field to the other. Those designed for heavy work had a heavy oak beam of about a "4 x 6" about 6 feet long. The one my dad had was a light plow—a "Blue Bird Rod-breaker" with a moldboard consisting of 4 rods each about 5/8" thick adjusted to different angles of turning. A gauge wheel on the beam kept the plow at the proper depth. If the horses walked straight enough it cut a sod of about 12" wide. The furrow is turned and hopefully in one long strip 12" wise, about 4" thick and as long as possible. A piece of board a little more than 2 feet long was used for measuring. A sharp spade cut the furrow into 2-foot long chunks plus a little for trimming and lost of plain back muscle loaded them on the wagon. I weighed two that went into my house in 1933. One weighed 104 pounds, the other 106 pounds. 110 loads of sod went into my Dad’s house. Dad used sand rocks (sandstone) for foundations—a mistake because they gave way and eroded. A cement footing is better. When the first layer of sod was down it was trimmed exactly 2 feet in length using a 2 x 4 to trim the sods, leaving a straight, clean-cut wall. Each sod, after the first layer, was placed over the joint made by the sods underneath; at the corners, one layer was laid in one direction in one layer and in the other direction in the layer above. These precautions were taken so that no two joints in the sod were directly above one another, helping to bind the walls together to prevent cracking as it dried and settled. Door frames and window frames, made of 2" by 12" material were placed at proper levels, each having a 2" x 2" nailed on the outside of the frame in the middle. The sod next to the frame had to be notched to fit this 2" x 2". This kept the frame from tipping in or out. About 6" above the frame 2" by 12" planks had to be laid across to the sods on each side to receive succeeding layers of sod. This was to allow for settling of the sods. Not much space would be left after the walls were dry. On the house my father, your great-grandfather built, the roof was a conventional type, with rafters, boards and roofing. On the house I built, I put heavy beams across to support the weight, the main one with a truss, put on rafters, boards on the rafters, tarpaper on the boards, then about three inches of the stickiest, gumbo-iest clay I could find. This gumbo-clay shed water and provided excellent insulation both summer and winter. The floor of our house was made of cement. It was in 1933 that I built our house and some people will remember that money was very scarce in those days. (By using materials in an old shack that had stood empty for ten years and by using odds and ends from other sources, the total cash outlay for a house with two rooms—one 16’ by 16’ and the other 10’ by 16’, was $72.00). Because money was so scarce, I plastered the house inside with a mixture of one part clay and 4 parts sand from a particular sank bank found high on the side of a butte. But we had to wait until the walls dried before we could plaster. During this time of drying, the grass started to grow from the sides; we let some grow just to see how long it would get before lack of moisture killed it. About two feet! Real decorations for a room at Christmas time! Well, that about tells the story, Tom. Except for this: the house my father built in 1910 is still standing after 56 years. (Note: It is still standing in 1997.) You saw it this summer I think. Your mother moved into our sod house when she was about seven months old. Your Aunt Alice and Betty were born in it. I rather suspect you wanted a letter you could read to your class. You have my permission to read this if you want to. Merry Christmas, Tom.....and to all the rest of the family. ©1997 Lily M. Kerns; Teachers may reproduce this material for their classes. All other rights are reserved.

As soon as the baby arrives, we start looking for signs of well being. Although mostly the baby’s cry indicates everything is normal, a quick assessment is done using the Apgar score which is sometimes also called the newborn scoring. Apgar is a quick test performed on a baby at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. The 1-minute score determines how well the baby tolerated the birthing process. The 5-minute score tells the doctor how well the baby is doing outside the mother’s womb. In rare cases, the test will be done 10 minutes after birth. Virginia Apgar, MD (1909-1974) introduced the Apgar score in 1952. How the Test is Performed The Apgar test is done by a doctor, midwife, or nurse. The health care provider examines the baby’s: - Breathing effort - Heart rate - Muscle tone - Skin color Each category is scored with 0, 1, or 2, depending on the observed condition. - If the infant is not breathing, the respiratory score is 0. - If the respirations are slow or irregular, the infant scores 1 for respiratory effort. - If the infant cries well, the respiratory score is 2. Heart rate is evaluated by stethoscope. This is the most important assessment: - If there is no heartbeat, the infant scores 0 for heart rate. - If heart rate is less than 100 beats per minute, the infant scores 1 for heart rate. - If heart rate is greater than 100 beats per minute, the infant scores 2 for heart rate. - If muscles are loose and floppy, the infant scores 0 for muscle tone. - If there is some muscle tone, the infant scores 1. - If there is active motion, the infant scores 2 for muscle tone. Grimace response or reflex irritability is a term describing response to stimulation, such as a mild pinch: - If there is no reaction, the infant scores 0 for reflex irritability. - If there is grimacing, the infant scores 1 for reflex irritability. - If there is grimacing and a cough, sneeze, or vigorous cry, the infant scores 2 for reflex irritability. - If the skin color is pale blue, the infant scores 0 for color. - If the body is pink and the extremities are blue, the infant scores 1 for color. - If the entire body is pink, the infant scores 2 for color. Why the Test is Performed This test is done to determine whether a newborn needs help breathing or is having heart trouble. The Apgar score is based on a total score of 1 to 10. The higher the score, the better the baby is doing after birth. A score of 7, 8, or 9 is normal and is a sign that the newborn is in good health. A score of 10 is very unusual, since almost all newborns lose 1 point for blue hands and feet, which is normal for after birth. What Abnormal Results Mean Any score lower than 7 is a sign that the baby needs medical attention. The lower the score, the more help the baby needs to adjust outside the mother’s womb. Most of the time a low Apgar score is caused by: - Difficult birth - Fluid in the baby’s airway A baby with a low Apgar score may need: - Oxygen and clearing out the airway to help with breathing - Physical stimulation to get the heart beating at a healthy rate Most of the time, a low score at 1 minute is near-normal by 5 minutes. A lower Apgar score does not mean a child will have serious or long-term health problems. The Apgar score is not designed to predict the future health of the child. Stay healthy with eKincare – your personal health manager!

This summer’s series of extreme wildfires, hurricanes, and tropical storms have made it more apparent than ever that the effects of climate change are here. Limiting the damage caused by future disasters will require a whole-of-government approach — one not limited to what the federal government can do. There’s a host of ideas that states and municipalities could implement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in some of the world’s biggest polluters: American cities. According to a 2021 study published in Frontiers, Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles have some of the highest per-capita emissions totals in the world. The study broke down cities’ emissions based on sector, using the most recently available data (from 2009 and 2010), and found a large portion of those emissions come from transportation. Data from the EPA shows that the transportation sector is actually the biggest source of pollution in the US, and that light-duty vehicles (or passenger cars) are responsible for 58 percent of those emissions. Overall, the EPA’s research — and the 2021 study — reinforce the fact that the transportation systems of American cities over-rely on cars in ways that are not sustainable should the US actually want to approach its stated greenhouse gas reduction goal of 50 percent by 2030, a number it has to reach in order to limit global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius or less. Reducing driving is difficult, however, because American cities, particularly those across the Southwest, are built for drivers. Biking and walking are often not options, and public transit, where it exists, does not typically serve trips that do not involve going from a city’s outskirts to its downtown or back. “There’s really only one rational way to get where you’re going, and it’s typically not direct,” said Jeff Speck, a city planner and the author of Walkable City. “It’s typically organized around the assumption of driving as the only viable transportation mode.” The greenhouse gases produced by this reality are not inevitable. They’re underwritten by federal, state, and local policy, from the initial construction of the interstate highway system to the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill, where the $39 billion in new funding for public transit is dwarfed by $110 billion for improving, expanding, and building new highways, bridges, and roads. Transforming American cities to be more walkable isn’t easy, but there are measures local authorities can take to create a safer, more democratized transportation ecosystem that can positively affect the climate crisis. I spoke with several urban planners, transportation scholars, and advocates to learn about the most important strategies for curbing car reliance in cities. From those conversations arose the following solutions — all of which are implementable on the municipal level. Make streets safer for bikes and pedestrians Many of the car trips that people take are within biking distance — say, to dinner, or an activity like a movie theater. But people may choose to drive because riding would be dangerous. They might have to cross a highway or bike down roads where there are no bike lanes. Places where bike ownership thrives — which can be as big as a city like Amsterdam, which has such a widespread bike network that cycling is favored over driving, or just a college campus — have prioritized bike and pedestrian safety over cars. Americans only love the college experience because it's the only time in their lives they live in walkable communities— ¡ ! (@Bro_Neill) January 10, 2021 In most American cities, particularly in the suburbs, that’s not the case. And when the efficient movement of cars is considered paramount over the safety of any other mode, accidents and fatalities occur. The car-centric transportation system is contributing to a consistent yearly uptick in pedestrian casualties; they rose 21 percent in 2020, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). “The problem is, the minute you leave the local [road], you probably enter an environment in which it’s not safe to bike because the bike lanes aren’t separate,” Speck said. By adding protected bike lines — separated from car lanes by a barrier for safety — biking becomes a safe, accessible alternative to shorter drives. Essentially, bike lanes have to be set apart by something other than “a scrap of paint,” said Ralph Buehler, the chair of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. This is something that became clear during the first year of the pandemic: the GHSA found that 2020’s uptick in pedestrian deaths came despite traffic decreasing by up to about 42 percent at the peak of the pandemic. Reducing traffic alone doesn’t make biking and walking safer; the streets themselves need to be redesigned with safety in mind. This sort of redesign also incentivizes walking and biking. Speck’s research has found converting 12- to 14-foot-wide driving lanes into 10-foot-wide lanes slows average car speeds from 40 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour and creates room to either add bike lanes or street-side parallel parking, which better protects the sidewalk from traffic. And relatively inexpensive changes like turning one-way streets into two-way streets or lowering the curb radius so that cars slow down more when they make right turns are also proven to reduce crashes and injuries, Speck said. Studies conducted in cities that have made such changes have found marked decreases in car use. Oslo has redesigned its roads in high pedestrian traffic areas, such that 91 percent have speed limits under 40 miles per hour, while expanding its system of bike lanes. It saw a 77 percent increase in bike traffic between 2014 and 2020. There are American examples too. In Philadelphia, an investment in miles of protected bike lanes led to a nearly 70 percent increase in the number of people who biked to work from 2010 to 2017, even as congestion and public transit use worsened. Buehler added that for such changes to be successful, there also needs to be connectivity across areas. If you’re taking a shorter trip to pick up takeout or grab a few groceries, much of it may be bike- or pedestrian-friendly — except for a critical highway juncture. To promote walking and biking, cities need to ensure that routes exist for human-powered transportation to every place the average person needs to go. When I lived in Madrid, I could walk or take transit practically everywhere without ever crossing a highway that had no pedestrian infrastructure. I would take 30-minute walks home in the middle of the night from clubs, when the Metro was not running. Even in the dark, there were no crossings where I was unprotected as a pedestrian. Examples of similar connectivity can also be found in the US, Buehler said, most commonly with respect to schools. “There’s a safe-route-to-school program that tries to design safe routes to school,” Buehler said. “You can also think about that to community centers. The main point is designing networks.” Safe routes to school are a start, but to really promote biking and walking, cities need to develop safe routes to other places, like drugstores and restaurants, as well. There’s a very large obstacle to doing this at the moment, however: zoning. End single-family zoning to encourage mixed-use development On its face, single-family zoning is a housing policy that creates quiet, uncrowded neighborhoods by restricting the development of apartments, townhouses, or any other dwelling that’s not a freestanding home. It’s incredibly prevalent in the US (75 percent of residential land is single-family zoned), and, as my colleague Jerusalem Demsas points out, it is incredibly harmful. It has had a racist impact, having been used to exclude people of color from certain neighborhoods, and it overall increases the cost of housing by limiting supply. Another problem with single-family zoning is that it encourages car usage: In areas zoned for single families, there can be little development; the idea is people live in one area and then access workplaces, leisure activities, and stores via car. “We zoned and created bento boxes,” said Brian Jencek, the director of planning at HOK, a planning and design firm. “Never let the gravy and rice touch. ... Now we want stew, but we have to undo over a century of American planning.” The best way to make that stew is to create mixed-use development, which facilitates what Jencek calls the 20-minute city, meaning you’re never more than a 20-minute walk from everything you might need, from jobs and schools to pharmacies and clinics to community centers and parks. In a mixed-use city, that’s possible. But in most American suburbs, single-family zoning does not allow for it. Going back to my Madrid example, mixed-use development meant that nearly everything was within walking distance. From my neighborhood, I could walk to school, stop at a bakery along the way, get any beauty services at a salon on the way home, and meet my friends for dinner at night. I walked or took public transit everywhere. Compare that to my grandparents’ house, in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Due to single-family zoning, the only activity we can walk to is to see my cousins who also live in the suburb. Any restaurant, appointment, or shopping has to be a car trip. Razing West Bloomfield and rebuilding it as a 20-minute city isn’t really feasible. But one change that could encourage the development of walkable cities over time, Speck said, is eliminating single-family zoning in areas that are within walking distance of transit stops. Doing so would encourage the development of commercial spaces, which would benefit residents in the area; and those not living near the new services would be able to access them via public transit, lessening the need for a car. Upzoning near transit also means that homeowners could add accessory dwelling units, or granny flats — a detached housing unit — on a lot, Speck said, helping to situate middle- and low-income people near transit, easing the housing crisis and putting more people in walkable and transit-accessible communities. While increased development is often associated with rising property values and gentrification, Jencek said mixed-use development, done with community input, can create the economic benefits of development without pricing people out. The end result of rezoning would look different in different neighborhoods but does not necessarily mean a complete overhaul of a community. It could just mean adding a one-acre community park to a neighborhood without recreation access or creating a network of safer, slower streets to invite restaurants to expand their outdoor seating. The idea is simple: Add a new land use to a neighborhood, creating an activity or business site that is accessible without a car. Make drivers pay the costs of driving The first two solutions focused on making driving less necessary. But people don’t always drive because they need to — they often do so because it is convenient and cheap. It’s true that the upfront cost of a car is high, and there is gas and insurance. But drivers’ other costs — road maintenance, traffic lights, and policing, for instance — are heavily subsidized. Speck said estimates place the subsidization of driving at $10 for every dollar a driver spends as opposed to $1.50 for public transit. Much of that subsidization comes in the form of taxes, which people pay whether they drive or not, but there are a lot of indirect costs as well: In higher-income households, people use highways but do not have to pay for the noise and emissions in the low-income neighborhoods that highways run through, for example. And the climate costs of mass driving affect everyone, regardless of car ownership. One solution to this is congestion pricing, where drivers must pay a fee to drive in high-traffic areas or during peak hours. Central London imposes congestion pricing, and New York City has plans to do so, though they may not materialize. Another idea is to increase the gas tax, so that actual drivers are paying the costs of car infrastructure rather than general taxation. Both of these price controls could disincentivize driving. But many experts believe making driving less convenient would do more to limit car usage, and one easy way to do this is to reduce the supply of parking. Every mode of transportation needs a terminal. Planes have airports and boats have seaports, both of which require travelers and companies to pay. But for cars, parking “is capitalized into the costs of the goods you buy,” Brian Taylor, the director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said. Think about your local grocery store — the parking lot is often larger than the actual commercial space, and it’s free. The grocery store is expected to pay for the parking lot through the revenue it generates from sales. “We treat that as sacrosanct,” Taylor said. “The default is that the storage of private vehicles tends to get priority if you look at how we’ve allocated curb space. And that creates all sorts of problems.” Delivery vehicles and rideshares that need to pull up on the curb have no space, so they halt traffic. Traffic is generated by people circling and looking for parking, knowing they can park on the street for free instead of paying for a garage. And because city governments mandate parking requirements for most types of development, commercial development — and therefore connectivity — is stunted by the need for parking. Most American cities require parking minimums, meaning new apartment buildings and developments have to cordon off a certain amount of space for people to leave their car, either for free or for a rate much lower than the market price, considering how valuable that space is. If cities removed their minimum parking requirements for developers, there would be far less incentive to provide free parking. A private developer would likely still build some off-street parking — but they would charge for it. In Los Angeles, for example, Taylor said the real cost of an underground parking space might be $60,000. So a condo that costs $520,000, and comes with two underground parking spaces, could instead be sold at $360,000, with owners offering parking at its real cost of $60,000 per space. In that scenario, a family might forgo a second car and get an electric bike instead. To disincentivize street parking, Taylor suggested municipalities raise the price at meters, manage curbs differently, or remove parking altogether in some areas and only allow loading, unloading, and scooter and bike traffic. These are all strategies that would need to be rolled out in tandem with expanding connectivity, particularly with public transit. It is easy to imagine a situation in which gas taxes and expensive meters begin to primarily hurt low-income communities with zero access to public transportation, for instance. But once other options are in place, imposing the costs of parking on drivers would make driving more like going to a restaurant for dinner, Taylor said: You don’t do it every night, but it’s enjoyable when you do. “If people were more responsible, in one way or another, for those costs, they’d be much more judicious of their use,” Taylor said. “Instead of being the default of every trip, it would be one among an array of choices that have advantages and disadvantages.” What’s in the way of reducing car usage? The free market did not create car supremacy by itself, though the government played a big role. The government has the power to change how city-dwelling Americans use their cars, but doing so on the scale needed to truly combat climate change isn’t easy. City planners contend with regulations that promote driving, and politicians who want to change those are often met with pushback from constituents. In overcoming this, it’s important to remember that not every change needs to be a grand one — yes, a gas tax hike might help but so will more popular measures like bike lanes. And incremental advances, like new zoning regulations rolled out a few neighborhoods at a time, for instance, could have a large impact in the long run. Also, a multimodal city does not mean cars will be obsolete. Some trips, like to a hardware store, will always necessitate vehicles, and there’s a role for ridesharing as well. But policies are needed to ensure other modes receive a fair shot. It’ll make us safer, maybe happier, and will give our planet a better chance of survival.

An auger filler machine is a device commonly used in the packaging industry to accurately dispense and fill powdered or granular products into containers such as bags, bottles, or boxes. It utilizes an auger, which is a spiral-shaped screw, to measure and dispense the desired quantity of the product. Here’s a general overview of how an auger filler machine works: - Product Hopper: The machine has a large hopper where the product is stored. The hopper volume type of most of the auger filling machines made in China is 15L, 20L, 50L, and 100L. The function of the hopper is a temporary storage of materials and feeds the product into the auger system. - Auger System: The auger consists of a long, metal screw housed inside a funnel tube. It extends from the bottom of the hopper to the filling area. The auger is connected to a filling motor that drives its rotation. - Filling Area: The filling area usually consists of a funnel or a nozzle where the containers to be filled are placed. The containers can be positioned manually or automatically, depending on the machine’s design. - Rotation and Measurement: As the auger rotates, it draws the product from the hopper and conveys it along its length. The spiral design of the auger pushes the product forward while also creating a void space behind it. - Product Dispensing: As the product moves along the auger, it reaches the end where it encounters a cutoff blade or a valve mechanism. This mechanism controls the product flow and determines the desired amount to be dispensed into the container. - Container Filling: When the cutoff blade or valve mechanism opens, the product is released from the end of the auger, allowing it to fall into the container. The auger’s rotation can be synchronized with the container’s movement, ensuring precise and consistent filling. - Repeat Process: The auger continues to rotate, drawing more product from the hopper and filling subsequent containers until the desired number of containers are filled. The auger filler machine’s accuracy in the filling is achieved by controlling various factors. Including but not limited to such as auger speed, auger size, product density, and the time the cutoff blade or valve mechanism remains open. These parameters are adjustable to accommodate different product types, container sizes, and fill quantities. It’s important to note that the specific design and operation of auger filler machines can vary depending on the manufacturer and the intended application. Therefore, it’s always advisable to refer to the machine’s manual or consult the manufacturer for detailed instructions and guidelines.

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, initially attracted attention due to its remarkable electronic properties. It has since been realized that this material also exhibits exceptional mechanical properties. For a start, graphene is one of the hardest materials known. There are many applications in which the mechanical properties of graphene could be exploited to achieve performance enhancements or even new functionalities, and many specific uses have been investigated. The application of graphene in a liquid environment, however, has so far received little attention. Fong Yew Leong from the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing has now shed some light on the effects of fluid dynamics on graphene in such applications through a combination of molecular dynamics simulations and scaling arguments1. Leong modeled a graphene sheet, consisting of 40 by 41 atoms, immersed in a bidirectional flow of liquid argon. “As the analysis is completely scaled with respect to the size of the sheet, the actual dimensions of the graphene did not matter,” he says. According to the molecular dynamics simulations, the parameters that clearly determine the response of the graphene sheet to the flow are the initial tilt angle between the plane and the direction of flow, and the shear rate. For example, at very low tilt angles, the graphene sheet is very stable. Above a threshold tilt angle, however, a finite shear rate is required in order to rotate the sheet, and with increasing tilt angle the necessary shear rate decreases. When both parameters are sufficiently high, the sheet can actually arch (pictured) or even flex. The results of the simulations can be explained with the help of some simple scaling arguments that consider an infinite plate subject to fluid stress. As the product of tilt angle and shear stress increases, the plate can rotate, then arch and eventually bend. Interestingly however, such simple scaling models do not predict any stability region for an infinitely thin plate. Such stability can be easily accounted for, however, by considering the solvation shell radius—the minimum distance between the sheet and solvent molecules. The results obtained are not only relevant to the physical characteristics of graphene itself, but also provide predictions as to how a graphene sheet would behave in a strongly sheared fluid environment. “Our results are applicable to sheets of almost any size and to various flow patterns, so it is of general relevance to nanodevices involving graphene sheets,” says Leong. The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the Institute of High Performance Computing

Each week, I receive an email from the National Park Service that provides the latest additions to the National Register of Historic Places. A few sites are relevant to Route 66, as you might imagine. On Friday, this item led the listings: ARIZONA, COCONINO COUNTY, 1956 Grand Canyon TWA–United Airlines Aviation Accident Site Grand Canyon National Park, NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK DESIGNATED/LISTED, 4/22/14 A plane crash site from more than 50 years ago? And it’s now on the National Register? The Atlantic apparently was one of the first media outlets to find out about this and explained why the crash site was deemed historically significant: At the time, it was the deadliest accident in commercial aviation history, and it prompted a huge push for aviation safety that culminated in the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash response eventually led to the development of nationwide radar, collision avoidance systems, flight-data recorders, and sophisticated navigation tools. In other words, much of the infrastructure of modern aviation security can be traced back to June 30, 1956, the day of the Grand Canyon mid-air collision. […] The designation is unusual. For one thing, it may be the first landmark to commemorate something that happened exclusively in the air. “And we’ve never done an actual crash site,” said Alexandra Lord, branch chief of the National Historic Landmarks Program in Washington, D.C. […] Technological crossroads are big, and frequently emerge as contributors to the kinds of broad patterns the Park Service looks for in deciding what to accept as a Landmark site. “We do a fair number that deal with major moments in the history of tech or history of engineering,” Lord told me. “It’s impossible to say how many.” On the morning of June 30, 1956, a United Airlines jet collided with a Trans World Airlines jet in midair over the Grand Canyon, causing both aircraft to crash and killing all 128 people aboard. It was believed the pilots were dodging thunderstorms in the area and strayed into each other’s paths. According to Wikipedia, It was the first commercial airline crash to result in over 100 deaths. A mass funeral was held on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, and some of the remains from the United flight were interred at Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery. Most of the remains from the TWA flight were buried in a mass grave at Citizens Cemetery in Flagstaff, Arizona. More about the crash also can be found in a well-researched post on the Around Arizona site. Don’t go looking for the crash site in your hiking boots or a pack mule after visiting Grand Canyon National Park. The location of the plane’s wreckage is being kept secret. According to the Atlantic, people are banned from going to the site: “It’s extremely remote, so it would take a very long time for someone to get there backpacking and it would be very difficult to reach,” Lord said. “But we know where it is and we’re going to work to preserve it.” The landmark spans 1.5 square miles and has been closed to hikers since the 1950s, though people have reported encountering the wreckage since then. […] Even after an additional clean-up area in the 1970s, much of the evidence of the crash remains where it landed more than half a century ago. One aircraft buff also agreed that reaching the site is extremely difficult: Hands down, this is the most difficult crash site I have been to. The hike was 18 miles in, and required two days just to get to the confluence of the rivers. Then one has to cross the Colorado River to visit the site. The TWA crash site was reached on the third day. After that, cross the river again and spend two more days hiking out. The trip consisted of 36 miles round-trip, of which a back-country permit is required. One fellow on Flickr apparently stumbled onto a piece of the wreckage last year. And the Deseret News in Utah published a story about the crash in 2006, including interviewing Trey Brandt, who visited one of the crash sites: Brandt, who describes himself as an aviation buff and “wreckchaser,” says it’s the old planes that interest him. But when the wreck is a fatal one there will also be other grim artifacts: coins, small glass containers that once held nail polish, silver brooches. “I can picture an aunt figure or a grandmother looking in the mirror that morning and pinning it on,” he says, and the thought makes him sad. Scattered among the rocks are sales receipts and advertisements and a lady’s wrist watch, the time stopped forever at 10:32. The site brings to mind the TWA Flight 260 crash in 1955 in the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque. Thirteen people died. Although the bodies were recovered, much of the wreckage remains on the mountain and is accessible to hikers.

The term Black Power was means black American people coming together to fight for their rights, but for some of them, fighting for their rights meant doing and treating others how they were treated. The Black Power movement flighted for Black Nationalism, this movement was so revolutionary that emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and the creation of political and cultural institutions. Marches occurred where people yield “we want Black Power”, “we want equality”, “we want justice”. This protest included man, women, and children’s walking the streets and protesting. African American women played an important and influential role in the black power movement. Also, the Black Panthers for self-defense was an important part of the Black Power movement. All of this real movement started by a person who believed that black and white people weren’t meant to be in the same place. White Americans will never accept them and treat them right. So, it was either fight for their rights or keep suffering like they had been, this person was Malcom X, who they called the father of Black power was an African American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. He believed that blacks were superior to whites and that African Americans should not be whit white Americans, they should be where they originated, which was African, because he believed that they would never be abundantly accepted in the American society. In my opinion Malcolm didn’t want just justice, he wanted the white Americans to suffer as much or more like African Americans had suffer through years thanks to them. He believed that their rights needed to be fight violently in order to get what it was necessary and just for them. Malcolm X was one of the people that thought that black people should control the political and economic resources of their communities without having to work with white people. And obviously it changes a lot of things.African Americans believed that there was no time to waisted and that it was time to show white people that they were equal, that they needed the same things they did. Good education for the black community, building them institutions and providing the right protection. For them to receive good medical assistance, good academic education for their kids, good treatment towards them. They had a mantra that said “Move on over or we’ll move on over you” which for me meant that they weren’t scared of anyone or anything that tried to stop them from fighting for their rights. After 1970s the Black Power movement had a down in motion, but it was not the end. It wasn’t the same, but it still had big impacts. Like in 1996 a group of them tried creating a black panther, making them march through the cities of the United states. And in 2008 they group ended due to an accusation that they were intimidation to the voters. Until today there are still group of people fighting for what they believe is the right thing. The Black Power wasn’t the first or last protest the African Americans had to defend their rights, there were many more in the history of the United States, or in general it wasn’t the first or last movement people had made to defend their rights. Yes, this movement played a big part in our history, because they learned how to defend what was right for them. It not only teaches the African Americans at that time, but to us right now that we are learning all about our history. We learned that until today we still have a lot of injustice, but now is not only for the African Americas, now a lot of people suffer discrimination. We still have fights to defend what we think is the right justice, and some people don’t stop to think If what they are defending is right or wrong, or if the person they are defending is doing something good or something bad. The Black Power for me will be one of the best impacts in the ideals of freedom in the United States, for the bravery they had and how they defended their rights without carrying what anyone else said or think about them. But that doesn’t mean at least for me that everything that happened during those years were exactly the right things to do. A lot of things had changed in the history of the United States, not only with the African Americans, but in general with the community, some good and some bad. We still fight between us and that’s a thing that will never stop. years will pass and new history books will be made, with not only what happened before us but now including us as the history of the new generations. That is something that really intrigues me, because we know that what happened before us wasn’t all justice and peace, and my question is what kind of history we are living to the new generations. Hope is a better and more justice and peaceful and make as many or more difference as our history did.

(Beyond Pesticides, January 15, 2008) Health officials have warned that a “widespread appearance” of mosquito-born diseases like dengue fever is a real possibility in the US. The disease is already beginning to make is presence felt with cases popping up in Texas, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Dengue, a flu-like illness that infects 50 million to 100 million people a year, has been growing more prevalent and severe as it moves from tropical regions into more temperate areas, where it’s now endemic, and along the U.S. border with Mexico. Many fear that as temperatures increase in temperate regions due to global warming, mosquitoes could extend their northern migration in North America. “It’s starting to creep up from South America to the Caribbean,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. “If it can occur right at the tip of Texas, a disease which maybe people never heard of could actually appear here.” Drs. David Morens and Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases brought attention to the issue in a paper entitled Dengue and Hemorrhagic Fever: A Potential Threat to Public Health in the United States, published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. More than 760,000 cases were reported in the Americas last year, of which some 20,000 involved the virulent form, known as dengue hemorrhagic fever. Hawaii had an outbreak in 2001. Puerto Rico had 10,000 cases last year, and in recent years there have been several cases on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border. The CDC estimates that 100 to 200 cases each year are introduced into the United States by travelers. “You might say that increased commerce and travel plus global warming are creating a perfect storm’ that allows these and other pathogens to move around the world more effectively,” said William K. Reisen, a research entomologist at the University of California Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases. Dr. Fauci explains that “[t]here is nothing definitive, but it’s very clear that as [temperatures] get warmer and warmer, the range of certain mosquitoes — and the duration time they are able to circulate – increases.” Even though many other scientists dispute the potential spread of the disease, all four types of dengue are currently found in the Americas, and the two types of mosquitoes that transmit it are present in the U.S.: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (also called the Asian tiger mosquito). Dr. Fauci pointed out that the Asian tiger was first seen in the U.S. in 1985 and can now be found in 36 states. There is no vaccine for dengue and people infected can have no symptoms or mild to high fevers, severe frontal headaches, severe joint pain and pain behind the eyes. Nausea, vomiting and rashes also can occur. More severe forms include bleeding from the skin, nose or gums and possible internal bleeding. If untreated, it can lead to circulatory-system failure, followed by shock and sometimes death. Responsible mosquito management can be an effective method of mosquito control. Beyond Pesticides believes the ideal mosquito management strategy emphasizes education, aggressive removal of standing water sources, larval control, monitoring and surveillance for both mosquito-borne illness and pesticide-related illness. TAKE ACTION: Find out about safer mosquito repellents, smart community mosquito management, and public service announcements you can request to be played on your local radio station at http://www.beyondpesticides.org/mosquito. Source: LA Times

6 Awesome Astronomy Destinations in the U.S. If the total eclipse got you hooked on the cosmos (or even if you’re already a devoted stargazer), there’s lots more where that came from. Across the U.S., major science institutions offer hands-on educational activities and plenty of fun. 1. Griffith Observatory Located more than 1,000 feet above sea level on Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, one of America’s most beautiful urban parks, Griffith Observatory is always free and hosts a wide range of activities for all ages, including nighttime telescope viewing (the Griffith Observatory’s 12-inch Zeiss telescope has been used by more than 7 million stargazers, making it the most popular telescope on earth), educational exhibits, live shows at the observatory’s planetarium, and pinch-me views of the city. 2. Hayden Planetarium New York City Part of the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space and led by world-famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Hayden Planetarium is a must-see for anyone visiting the Big Apple. Generations of NYC kids got their introduction to the stars here (including yours truly), and the Hayden has even been commemorated in a pop song, Fountains of Wayne’s “Laser Show.” Frontiers Lectures update audiences on the latest discoveries about our universe, Astronomy Live programs take visitors on a tour of the universe with a special focus on the night sky. 3. National Air and Space Museum One of the jewels in the Smithsonian Institution system of free national museums, the National Air and Space Museum immerses visitors in the history of flight, space exploration, and the science behind those endeavors. Best known for displaying iconic early airplanes and replicas that allow visitors to return to the days of the Wright Brothers and other pioneers and the spacecraft from the 1960s and ‘70s that first orbited earth and took people to the moon, the Air and Space Museum is also home to an IMAX theater and planetarium. 4. Kitt Peak National Observatory Sonoran Desert near Tucson, AZ At the top of a nearly 7,000-foot peak in the Sonoran Desert, the Kitt Peak National Observatory boasts the world’s largest collection of telescopes and one of the clearest skies and most beautiful locations anywhere in the U.S. for viewing the stars. Docent-led tours take daytime visitors to three large research telescopes, live views of the sun, and a variety of indoor and outdoor exhibits. Nighttime visitors are treated to incredible glimpses of our solar system and beyond. 5. Very Large Array Sure, stunning visuals like galaxies and nebulas grab a lot of the attention. But if humans ever detect signs of intelligent life attempting to contact us from the depths of space, the Very Large Array may the place where it happens. After all, that’s where Carl Sagan set the dramatic opening of his novel Contact, in which an alien species sends radio signals to our planet that are first picked up by the immense radio telescope facility at “Project Argus,” which, in the 1997 film adaptation was set here outside Socorro, NM. Visitors can take self-guided tours and once-per-month guided tours to learn more about what scientists have learned about the nature of the universe through the study of radio waves. 6. Mauna Kea Big Island, HI Sorry, other awesome astronomy destinations, but at more than 13,000 feet on a mountaintop overlooking the Pacific Ocean on Hawaii’s Big Island, Mauna Kea Observatory’s stargazing tours, telescopes, and visitor center are unparalleled and absolutely free each night of the year starting at 6pm. "Affordable" probably isn't the first word you'd use to describe dining at Disney World, but there are deals on dining to be had that don't fall into the "mega-splurge" category. Use our insider tips below for navigating the park's food scene without emptying your wallet, including how to choose the right restaurants, dine at the right times, and scoop up special offers that few park-goers know about. Make Your Character Meal a Morning Experience Every visitor, no matter the age, loves dining with their favorite Disney characters. Book your character experience for breakfast for an easy way to save. In fact, breakfast is the cheapest time of day to eat at Disney World Orlando. At destinations like Winnie the Pooh and Friends at Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom) and Donald Duck's Safari Breakfast (Animal Kingdom), you can have the same memory-making experience while saving 35 percent per person. Plus, the food at both of these buffets is considered top notch, so fill up! Bonus savings: You can eat light at lunchtime. Bring Your Own Snacks and Water The tasty Disney treats are going to tempt you (those Mickey-shaped ice cream bars in particular), but park munchies can add up quickly. Pack a few snacks like granola bars, fruit gummies, and crackers to keep you and the kids satisfied. Go ahead and splurge on a few Disney-themed snacks, such as the unique pineapple-flavored soft serve Dole Whip dessert (served only at Disney and the Dole processing plant in Hawaii), but buying multiple bites throughout your day gets pricey. Same goes for paying $3 per bottle of water. Bring a refillable water bottle instead. Collapsible bottles are easy to pack, saving you money and space. Reserve a Full-Service Restaurant for Lunch Full-service, sit-down restaurants are some of the best Disney World dining experiences, but they're not cheap. Instead of doing a Disney dinner, reserve your meal for lunch. Not only will you be able to save about 20 percent compared with the evening, the restaurant will be less crowded, too. Plus, it's easier to get a reservation for lunch, which allows for greater flexibility for your day at the park. Full-service favorites like Be Our Guest Restaurant, Storybook Character Dining at Askerhaus Royal Banquet Hall, and Cinderella's Royal Table are excellent lunch options. World Showcase restaurants at Epcot such as San Angel Inn Restaurante and Tutto Italia Ristorante also offer better deals at lunch. Eat at Downtown Disney Deal alert! Downtown Disney will grant you the biggest savings on food. Hop in your car or take one of the Disney World buses, and you'll arrive in less than 15 minutes. Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck Express are two top picks for delicious food at a reasonable prices. Relatively new to the scene are Downtown Disney food trucks, so keep them in mind too. Order Smart It's a little-known secret: Adults can order from the kids' menu at quick-service restaurants. Many times, the meals are virtually the same as regular options, so don't think you'll be stuck with chicken fingers and grilled cheese. Another favorite money-saving option is ordering a large platter to share. Tangierine Café (Epcot) and Flame Tree Barbecue (Animal Kingdom) are two cafés with shareable-sized meals. Most counter-service meals have side items included in the price. But if you don't want (or don't need) the extra cost and calories of those French fries, simply ask for the entrée-only price. At most places, they'll be able to accommodate your request. Fun Getaways for Mother's Day FAMILY FUN IN UPSTATE NEW YORK An easy day trip or overnight from the New York City metro area, New Paltz, NY, and nearby Lake Minnewaska State Park Preserve are one of my family’s favorite ways to celebrate Mother’s Day. The Shawangunk Mountains will remind travelers of the granite peaks out west, and the hiking trails beautiful but manageable for all ages. The village of New Paltz has a charming Main Street, a welcoming flower-power vibe, and great eateries like Main Street Bistro, which has been honored by the Best of the Hudson Valley awards for its massive breakfasts. BEST B&B BREAKFAST IN AMERICA If you associate Mother’s Day with breakfast in bed, consider the Best B&B Breakfast in America, according to BedandBreakfast.com - the Chestnut Street Inn in Sheffield, Illinois, a two-hour drive from Chicago. Order their incredible Elvis Toast with Candied Bacon: It’s French Toast with peanut butter and bananas, plus bacon dredged in cinnamon and sugar (they’ll happily whip up a version sans bacon for vegetarians, of course). Enjoy a hike in nearby Starved Rock State Park and the scenic Hennepin Canal. JAZZ IN NEW ORLEANS Taking Mom out for brunch is a cliche. But a jazz brunch? In New Orleans? You’ve just won Mother’s Day. The city is legendary for heaping portions of jambalaya, beignets, and other treats, and the music is peerless. Take Mom on a carriage tour, a tasting tour, and catch as much live music as you can in the city that taught America how to swing. Learn more at neworleansonline.com. 8 Best Family Vacation Websites (Plus: Indispensable Apps You Need Now) Trekaroo: Called the TripAdvisor for family travel, Trekaroo offers helpful reviews of family-oriented places in the U.S. and Canada, plus gear recommendations and tips for traveling with kids. Click on a state on the interactive map to instantly see a list of star-rated, family-approved activities and hotels. Use the price slider up top to find activities that are free or low-cost. Undercover Tourist: Yes, you CAN save money at Disney, and Undercover Tourist is legit. This authorized seller can net you savings of 30 percent on Disney World Resort hotels and nice discounts on tickets to Disney World, Universal Studios Orlando, and SeaWorld Orlando. Download the Orlando planning app for current wait times, best times to visit, show schedules, and line-length estimates for rides. (Los Angeles and San Diego options are coming later this year.) Western Spirit Cycling Adventures: If you’d love nothing more than to see the country on two wheels with the whole fam, Western Spirit organizes guided family bike trips in national parks and monuments, like temperate rides through the twists and turns of Black Hills National Forest. Western Spirit is offering a 30 percent discount for Budget Travel readers on the following family trips: Trail of the Ancients, in Utah (June 20–24); Black Hills of South Dakota (June 27–July 1); and Yellowstone and the Gravelly Range (August 1–5). Google Flights: One of our favorite ways to search for plane tickets, Google Flights uses its massive repository of data to show you alternate cities, times, and dates you can choose to save wads of cash, all neatly organized and easy to use. You’ll want to play with its cool money-saving maps all day. Tracks & Trails: Dreaming of a family RV adventure in a national park out west? Tracks & Trails will hook you up with a fully planned, highly personalized trip, from renting the RV to organizing activities like rock climbing. Better yet, they’ll steer you away from tourist traps. The site is offering Budget Travel readers a 20 percent discount on trip-planning fees for 2016 travel dates. Just mention BT when you book! To save even more cash, go off-season—in April, May, September, or October—for fewer crowds and sweet deals: You’ll save up to 25 percent on RV rentals compared with high season in July and August. The company’s nine-day, all-inclusive Rocky Mountains and Central Colorado trip is one of its most affordable excursions. Gogobot: Travel-planning site Gogobot, fueled by tips from travelers, is organized into 19 different “tribes.” Join the Family tribe to see reviews, ask questions in forums, and trade tips with fellow members. Handy guides include On the Go With Kids in NYC and Family Travel in Cancun and the Riviera Maya. Find Your Park: We love national parks for both their splendor and their low entrance fees. Find Your Park, a campaign from the National Park Service, which turns 100 years young this August, provides ideas for family-bonding trips and ample inspiration for your next park excursion. Check out Nps.gov for a list of free entrance days for all 400-plus parks. Family Vacation Critic: Looking for family vacation ideas? This website has plenty of 'em. Click through Family Vacation Critic’s ultra-specific articles, like 10 Best African Safari Lodges for Families. Or immerse yourself—in a good way!—in never-ending general links, such as Aruba Family Vacations, which yields a cascade of information about resorts, hotels, activities, and restaurants, and a mini guide that shares info about low season and the best ways to get around town. App Time! Everyone would love for the kids to (voluntarily) put away their mobile devices while traveling. But before you dole out out Draconian rules, read this: “There are some very useful apps that will actually help them get more out of a vacation and more engaged in where they are,” says Rainer Jenss, president and founder of the Family Travel Association. Picks for the best of the best are below: Best boredom-buster for long car rides: FindPlate Car Game Best tool for preparing for a trip: PackPoint Packing List Travel Companion Best navigation guide for families traveling with young children, especially in cities: Mom Maps Best national parks mobile app—it works without Wi-Fi or a data signal: Chimani If you'd still prefer to ban devices on your vacation, there's a fun fix: “While the cameras and photo apps on mobile phones are getting more and more sophisticated, I would still strongly suggest investing in an actual digital camera for the kids to play with while on vacation," Jenss says. "It gets them even more excited about snapping pictures while not getting distracted by all the phone's other functions, like texting and social media." Why I Took My Kids to Havana "You brought your kids to Cuba?” The question was repeatedly posed to us upon our return, a bit of incredulity mixed with a slight tinge of envy. Yes, between Christmas and New Years of last year, we took our well-traveled 5- and 7-year-old children to Havana for a five-day trip. Affordable, safe, filled with friendly people, live music spilling out onto nearly every street corner in old Havana, and stunning beaches a stone’s throw away, this city was surprisingly perfect for a family vacation. Since November 2016, it has been extremely easy to simply hop on a plane to Havana from the U.S. You can get your visas at your check-in counter. There are three direct flights a day from New York City, priced as low as $250 a ticket. As long as you go for one of the 12 approved types of travel, there are no other restrictions. We went under the auspices of a “people-to-people” trip, in which our goal was to meet Cuban people and have the kids learn some Spanish. That was not a challenge. Cubans are incredibly warm and friendly, and it’s easy to make new friends with a couple of smiling moppets in tow. A bit of pre-travel advice: Before leaving for Cuba, it’s extremely useful to exchange your U.S. dollars into either Canadian dollars or Euros. U.S. dollars are hit with an additional 10 percent exchange penalty that other currencies are not. There are actually two currencies in Cuba: Tourists use the CUC, or convertible peso; Cubans use the CUP, or Cuban peso, pegged roughly at 25 CUP to 1 CUC. In general, tourists do not have access to Cuban pesos, unless they get a local to swap some notes on the sly. And cash is king: U.S. credit cards and ATM cards are still not accepted in Cuba. Unless you have a foreign credit card or bank account, you need to bring a large amount of cash with you. Havana's splendors have been described by great writers over the years, but that doesn’t prepare you for the sensation of actually walking its streets. It's a full-frontal assault on all five senses. You’ll love feeling the tropical breeze caress your face while viewing grand 18th-century architecture and vintage 1950s American autos trapped in time, hearing the sounds of Son and Charanga emanate from the musicians and radios on seemingly every street corner, the smells of Havana's finest cigars wafting through the air, while sipping on the best mojito you've ever tasted. Back in the 1950s, Havana was Paris in the tropics, one of wealthiest cities in Latin America. Now it's the world’s greatest urban paradox, simultaneously modern and a trip back in time. The iconic old American cars cruise the street in equal numbers with new Toyotas and 1970s Soviet Ladas. While the Edsel may be found only in car shows and museums in America, it's a common sight on Havana's streets, as are Studebakers, '57 Chevys, and almost every other classic automobile. Our kids preferred to get around Havana in bright yellow, three-wheeled coconut shaped rickshaws, called “coco taxis.” Be prepared for a bumpy ride. Ernest Hemingway's ghost haunts every corner. He's so revered in Cuba, you'd think he was part of the Revolution. At least three bars claim to be his "favorite drinking place,” and considering Hemingway’s reputation, I suppose he could have spent enough time at each of the three bars to justify the claim. There are lines out the door at the Bodeguita del Medio on Empedrado, where Hemingway drank his mojitos. For a proper daiquiri, he would head up Calle Obispo to El Floridita. Both spots are must-visits for Hemingway fans and cocktail lovers. Finca Vigia, his residence on the outskirts of town, has been preserved as a museum exactly as he left it in 1960. STAY Most hotels in Havana are actually rather expensive, and usually booked months in advance by package tour groups. Thankfully, Havana has a well-established and government-sanctioned program of private homes and rooms to rent, called casa particulares. Since 2015, the vast majority of these can be booked on Airbnb. A room in old Havana can be had for about $40 a night. We splurged and rented a two-bedroom apartment in a high rise on the water for $90 a night in the heart of Vedado, in the newer part of town. Our apartment overlooked the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Platform, which prominently features a statue of Cuban hero Marti holding a young Elian Gonzales, with a reproving finger pointing at the U.S. Embassy across the plaza. EAT Well-stocked supermarkets don’t really exist in Havana. You’re at the mercy of what’s in stock, which is generally very little. While we was there, there were shelves full of Panettone and Gerber baby food, but very little in the way of eggs, fresh fruits, and vegetables. For an extremely satisfying breakfast, however, the Hotel Capri in Vedado has a vast and sumptuous buffet, open to the public. For just $12 per person ($6 for kids), a feast awaits that can fill a belly for half the day. Kids can have their fill of fruits, eggs, pancakes, cereal, and even donuts. Just as some Cubans have been allowed to rent their apartments for lodging as casa particulares, others have been allowed to operate restaurants out of their homes. These in-home restaurants, limited to 12 seats, are known as paladares and can be found throughout the city. In fact, paladares now outnumber official state restaurants. A tasty dinner including drinks can be had for $10 to $15 per person, and every cab driver will show you their favorite special “secret” paladar if you ask. SMOKE (IF THAT’S YOUR THING) Every souvenir hawker and tout in old Havana will offer to sell you “real” Cuban cigars, cheaply. While they may be indeed Cuban, and cigars, they are poorly made knockoffs of the stogies that made Havana famous. For the real deal, stop by one of the Casa de Habano stores found throughout Havana. They have every brand of Cuban cigar imaginable, and you can be assured that you’re not buying counterfeits. After teaching my kids since birth that smoking is disgusting and bad for them, I really had no explanation for why I was bringing home a box of Montecristos. I’m not sure if they bought my “a cigar is a sometimes thing” excuse. PLAY Hugging the waterfront in old Havana is a wonderful children's park and playground, replete with aging carousels, see-saws, and newer bouncy castles. It’s enough to keep the kids entertained for a few hours. Convertible pesos are not accepted for the admission fee, so if you want to visit, you need to find a local parent and trade them some CUCs for CUPs. It’s about $0.15 to enter the park, and admission to the enormous bouncy castles and slides are another $0.15. In the center of a leafy park in Vedado, an enormous mid-century modern UFO rises above the trees. Lines of locals stretch down the block on all four sides of the park. The UFO does not take trips to Miami, but houses the famed Copellia ice cream parlor. Established by Castro in the early 1960s, Copellia made ice cream accessible to the common folk. For about 20 cents and an hour’s wait, you can get an enormous bowl of Havana’s best Ice cream. For tourists who don’t want to wait and don’t mind paying a little more, there’s an opportunity to skip the line and go to a separate gringo section, where the same ice cream can be had for 10 times the price. A 20-minute cab right out of town brings you to the gorgeous beaches of Playas del Este, a great day trip. A few hotels dot a 15-mile stretch of white-sand beaches, but it’s largely free of development. For $25 (half-price for kids), you can buy a day pass at the Hotel Atlantico in Santa Maria del Mar, which includes a buffet lunch, and use of the hotel’s pool and facilities. It’s a rather aging, communist-style hotel, mainly filled with foreign package tourists and complete with the requisite overeager activities staff giving poolside salsa and rhumba lessons. The kids loved it. I should note that Cuban travel is not for everyone. Those accustomed to five-star accommodations and meals and streets lined with fancy boutiques may find themselves disappointed. Folks willing to forsake a few creature comforts for a unique experience a mere 45 minutes from Florida will find Cuba’s charms irresistible. My kids’ days of “people-to-people” experiences left them with beloved memories. As for their newfound knowledge of Spanish? The only word that seems to have lodged in their brains is helado. Ice cream, of course.

Case Studies of Environmental Impact Assessment: Air Quality Issues To provide practical guidance and document environmental impact assessment practice in the domain of air quality, AIR-EIA provides a collection of typical case studies in common, standardised framework for better comparability. EIA Case study: TPS Donaustadt: district heating Category: Thermal Power Station The impact assessment was developed for the new (planned) 350 MW gas fired plant (gas/steam turbine) which will supply up to 250 MW of district heat. With an efficiency of up to 86% (power and heating combined), it will be one of the most modern and efficient plants in operation: older power plants reach an efficiency of around 40%. The new block 3 of the Donaustadt TPS complements the existing blocks in Vienna's three major power stations, including Simmering (5 blocks with a total of 1050 MW electrical, and heat capacity of up to 630 MW) and the TPS Leopoldau with 155 MW electrical and 170 MW thermal. - BGBl. 1995/679 - Bundesgesetz über die Prüfung der Umweltverträglichkeit und die Bürgerbeteiligung (Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfungsgesetz - UVP-G) The technical planning data for the new, third block for Donaustadt (current capacity in blocks 1 and 2 is 304 MW electrical) are as follows: | Gas turbine || electrical output || heat output (without heat coupling) (with heat heat coupling) | 240 MW || 350/300 MW || 0/250 MW || 58 % || 86 % The building and emission data base covers more than 7,000 blocks, and includes data for SO2, NOx, CO2, CO, PM10, heavy metals (lead and cadmium), and HCH0 and PAH. Residential and commercial use, heating systems (individual or central) and fuel types (solid (coal), liquid (oil) and gas), all expressed as fractions of the total energy consumption, are recorded for each building. Very restricyed access to the available data and study results; since the assessment is closed, no more public access to the relevant docuemtnts is being granted. EIA study results: The main issues was to demonstrate the effects of The approach involves: - an additional stack and emissions from the new power plant block; - the reduced emissions from the building blocks now connected to the district heating scheme. - simulation of the status quo; - simulation of the new TPS design; - simulation of the reduced block emissions; - impact analysis or building of the deltas: 1 + 2 -3 To support the sudy, a special application of the AirWare air quality assessment and management information system was configured. It includes the following major modules and functions: A building heating data base that manages the energy and emission data for individual buildings or blocks of buildings. The data include basic information on the building or block of buildings, energy data, and heating system (fuel and type) specific emission rates for a group of substances. A scenario editor that supports the selection of The selection of buildings (that will or will not contribute to the emission scenario) can be based on their attributes, using a multi-criteria filtering and ranking approach, or manually, from the map display. Selecting a building represents its connection to the district heating system, and thus switching off its individual emissions. A special case it the automatic multi-criteria selection (up to the available heating capacity provided by an appropriate power plant or set of plants) of buildings, sorted by user defined selection criteria, including proximity to an existing or planned pipeline system. The basic simulation module; this involves the simulation of a base line scenario (no buildings connected), the selected scenario (some buildings connected to the power plant), and the simulation of the power plant itself. The emission and dispersion simulation is based on a Gaussian long-term model (ISC-3/AERMOD with complex topography corrections), and a long-term weather scenario (frequency distributions) for the default period of October 1 to March 31 (compatible with 96/62/EC and COM(97)500). An assessment module, that compares the two scenarios, with and without the district heating scheme, and calculates the resulting difference in terms of ambient air quality and All scenarios show a marked improvement of the overall air quality due to the substitution of local household emission (emitted at a low height) with the district heat supplied by the TPS. Depending on the weather situation, the improvement is largely local, that is at and around the areas connected to the district heating supply, but it is big enough to influence the overall immission situation (global average and maximum concentrations observed). The additional emission introduced by the TPS are negligible in comparison, due to both: - the much higher efficiency of the new plant; - the high stack and its location.

Food Safety at Home Food Safety at Home equips families with food safety knowledge and resources that will help improve food safety behaviors and practices at home. Those interested in learning more about food safety, including, but not limited to adults, college students, teens, and others who make food purchase and preparation decisions at home Participants will be able to: - Apply food safety techniques from the point of purchase locations to the home, - Recall the importance of using a thermometer and related important temperatures, - Identify the four key steps for food safety (clean, cook, separate and chill), and - Recall the importance of the temperature danger zone and shelf life of food products. Total Number of Modules or Sessions: At least 6 Total Number of Hours for Program Delivery: 6-8 - Educational Class - Group Discussion - eXtension Website - Websites other than eXtension Dr. Courtney Crist, email@example.com

Payments for Forest Environmental Services in Viet Nam (2014–2017) In recent years, there has been increased global recognition about the important socioeconomic contribution of ecosystem services for rural livelihoods and broader society. This has helped drive countries to make greater efforts to more sustainably manage their natural capital – forest, land, and water resources and related ecosystem services. One result has been the emergence of payments for environmental services (PES) schemes as a means to help reduce poverty and contribute to green growth by addressing market failures to properly value environmental services. PES schemes are based on environmental service ‘users’ rewarding or compensating ‘providers’ of those environmental services, for example hydropower companies paying local forest communities who protect watershed areas important to hydropower generation. In the GMS, where rapid economic growth continues to be underpinned by environmental services and where rural, poor populations – custodians of many of these services – are extensive and widespread, PES is a particularly important approach for poverty reduction and green growth. Since 2011, Viet Nam has been implementing a national payments for forest environmental services (PFES) scheme that has mobilized hundreds of thousands of households to protect and manage more than 5 million hectares of forest land. More than $230 million has been disbursed to participating households in 40 provinces so far and the socioeconomic and conservation benefits have been well-regarded. In 2014, the Core Environment Progam began support to the Government of Viet Nam to evolve and strengthen its maturing PFES system. With the Ministry of Agricultural Development and the Center for International Forestry Research, CEP supported a review of the country's PFES policy and three-years of implementation. One of the key outcomes of the review was the need for a systematic monitoring and evaluation approach for PFES. The following year, CEP commissioned a technical review of current PFES monitoring and evaluation which overviewed the key components, information needs, and roles and responsibilities for systematic M&E. In 2017, using the technical review as a basis, CEP contracted the World Wide Fund for Nature to develop and test a M&E framework in Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue provinces. The framework will focus on tracking socioeconomic and conservation outcomes as well as the operational performance of the PFES system.The results of the work will be a proposed national PFES M&E framework for the country. |Technical Review PFES Monitoring and Evaluation Viet Nam.pdf||633 KB||09-02-2017| |Inception Report-PFES Viet Nam - WWF.pdf||525 KB||17-02-2017| Publish Date: 6th November 2014 Last Updated: 3rd July 2017 Back to Online Library

T- or Y-shaped uterus It is the condition that the uterine cavity, which is normally triangular in shape, is in the form of a cylindrical tube and there is a bulging towards the uterine cavity on both side and upper walls. Since the uterine tissue is unable to thicken enough, this condition especially leads to implantation failures (attachment of the embryo to the uterus). It may lead to complications as given below: - Recurrent failures of implantation - Abortion in the early period of pregnancy - Recurrent pregnancy losses - Fetal developmental delay - Positional anomalies in the fetus - Premature birth - The upper and lateral walls of the uterus are expanded hysteroscopically. - Intrauterine device application for 1 month - Balloon application - Hormonal treatment

In Mike Judge’s brilliant 2006 satirical science-fiction comedy, “Idiocracy,” viewers are subjected to a terrifying dystopia: America, circa 2505, after the intelligent people have become extinct. In this post-apocalyptic society, our accidental time-traveler protagonist finds himself the smartest man in America and eventually delivers a frightening-yet-moving speech to the World Wrestling Federation-like U.S. Congress in which he laments that once upon a time, reading and writing were common. “People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared ... and I believe that time can come again!” Anyone who loved this movie because they fear it could be a prediction of our dark future had to cringe last week when the National Assessment of Educational Progress released its 2011 Nation’s Report Card on writing. Just 24 percent of students in the eighth and 12th grades performed at the proficient level in writing, meaning that they demonstrated a clear understanding of the writing task they’d been assigned, organized their thoughts effectively, and provided details and elaboration that supported and developed the main idea of their piece. On the bright side, I suppose, the majority of students tested fell into the basic category — 54 percent of eighth-graders and 52 percent of 12th-graders — which means they were able to persuade, explain or convey experience coherently and with substantial knowledge of the basic mechanics of writing, though with errors that don’t generally impede meaning. I don’t have enough space to bore you with a laundry list of the many ways society in general (rampant misspellings in product names and advertisements), families (who inadvertently provide children with language-poor environments) and schools (which let instructors teach writing in many different ways) keep students from learning to write effectively. But I think it comes down to much the same reason we have a nation of poor readers, and underperforming math, science and history students: These subjects are hard and no one likes hard work anymore. Though we pay lip service to working hard, most students are subtlety taught to avoid it. We drill kids with the idea learning should be fun and show them videos so they don’t have to trudge through texts to understand meanings of challenging concepts. We teach them the language of inability by assuring them if they are being challenged by a difficult reading passage, it must be because they are “visual learners,” or if they don’t like tackling tasks on their own they must be “social learners.” Teacher preparation programs spend more time showing future teachers how to nurture and accommodate than how to make students into high performers. But though I already fear for a country where the most important thing in the average person’s life is to interact with electronic gadgets that emphasize images and make it nearly impossible to type words — much less sentences — correctly, there is a sliver of hope. The 24 percent of eighth- and 12th-graders who can write proficiently — plus the 3 percent who are “advanced” — will be the rock stars of their generation. Their hard-earned mastery of the arduous written communication of English will be rewarded as they become as sought out and well-compensated as doctors, computer gurus and scientists are today. In this utopia, they’ll somehow inspire future generations to work hard to write well, too. ESTHER CEPEDA’s column is distributed by The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., NW, Washington, D.C., 20071.

Social media is penetrating and changing our world–and it’s happening fast. For me, it seems totally normal. Facebook became popular when I was in high school. Technically, you have to be thirteen to have a Facebook. After talking with students this week, I’d say about 70% of our students at Sylvester have Facebook accounts. They felt no guilt over sharing this with me. If you’re a parent or a teacher, you may find this link helpful. It is not ILLEGAL for a child under the age of thirteen to have a Facebook account, but it IS in violation of their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Facebook would rather be informed of this misconduct my the child’s parents, however. They suggest that parents show their kids how to disable their accounts. Onto a more positive note about social media. It can actually be quite helpful, when used appropriately. Book publishers and authors use Facebook to reach out to their readers; in turn, readers use it to keep up-to-date on their favorite books. Publishers and authors have the right idea, using Facebook to push boundaries and engage their audiences. Here’s an interesting quote from LMC (Library Media Connection) Magazine: “Reading requires the reader to be actively engaged in making meaning from the text. Technology with social media allows entirely new possibilities for creating and sharing these meanings.” Come to the library to read the full article. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that students (we hope they are middle or high school students) who use social media are actively engaged in text and multimedia. They are learned to process information on a whole new level! That’s why I’ve included a widget for Goodreads on the left hand side of this website. Goodreads is another form of social media–but for books. It’s a way to share what you are reading with you friends. You can create a profile, participate in a discussion, and rate the books you’ve read. I highly recommend this for students and teachers. It’s informative, but it’s also fun! On a parting note, another quote from LMC: “We can look at new technologies as competition for the time and attention of young people, or we can look for way to harness these technologies to put more ‘books’ in the hands of more readers.”

Moses's blessing has little in common with the rest of Deuteronomy and was probably composed independently of Deuteronomy. Its psalmodic style suggests that it originally had a litur-gical function and was perhaps recited at a festival at which all the tribes, or their representatives, gathered. Language and contents suggest that it was composed some time between Israel's settlement in the promised land ca. 1200 BCE and the exile of the northern tribes in 721 B.C.E. It must have been incorporated in Deuteronomy because it was attributed to Moses and, by looking back on a successful conquest of the promised land, foretells the conquest. As one of the last two chapters in the Torah, the blessing is read in the synagogue on Simhat Torah, the "Celebration of the Torah," the festival at which the annual cycle of reading the Torah is completed. Jeffrey H. Tigay Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures University of Pennsylvania U. Cassuto, Biblical and Oriental Studies (Jerusalem, 1973), 1:47-70; F.M. Cross and D.N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (Missoula, Montana, 1975), pp. 97-122; O. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament: An Introduction (New York, 1965), pp. 227-231; A. RofE, Mavo le-Sefer Devarim (Jerusalem, 1988), Chap. 20; T.H. Gaster, "An Ancient Eulogy on Israel: Deuteronomy 33:3-5, 26-29," JBL 66 (1947):53-62; I.L. Seeligmann, "A Psalm from Pre-regal Times," VT 14 (1964):75-92.

In Hawaiki, Houmaitawhiti and his sons Tamatekapua and Whakatūria became involved in a skirmish with the chief Uenuku, who was suffering from a boil. When Uenuku witnessed Houmaitawhiti’s pet dog Pōtaka Tawhiti eating his discarded bandage, he killed the dog and ate it. This was because according to traditional beliefs, the dog’s action was akin to eating Uenuku himself. In retaliation, Houmaitawhiti’s sons stole fruit from Uenuku’s tree. Warfare ensued. One son, Tamatekapua, looked to the sea’s horizon and decided it was time to leave. He built a canoe, chose a crew and sailed off, heading south of the setting sun. Houmaitawhiti, his father, stayed behind in Hawaiki. This carving is of Houmaitawhiti. Using this item Rotorua Museum of Art and History, Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa Photograph by Paul Tapsell Permission of Rotorua Museum of Art and History Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

There are a lot of misconceptions about this vitamin. Get the facts about B-12. What is it? Less commonly known as “cobalamin” this water-soluble vitamin is almost always found in multi-vitamins and B-complex supplements. Unlike most other water-soluble vitaminss, B-12 requires stomach acid for absorption. It’s also stored within the body for many years, unlike others like riboflavin and thiamin that are quickly passed in the urine. Why is it good for you? Your body needs B-12 to help form DNA, to build your nervous system and keep red blood cells healthy. Since the body likes to store B-12, large amounts of supplements are often not necessary – there’s just one catch. B-12 is mostly found in animal products, so folks that follow a long-term vegan diet might need to consider a daily supplement. Since you need stomach acid for absorption, your ability to break it down decreases with age. Folks who take a lots of antacids will also need to up their intake to make sure they’re getting enough. Where can you find it? The daily requirement for B-12 is 6 micrograms per day and it can be found in all kinds of foods including daily, meat, fish, eggs and fortified breakfast cereals. 3-ounces cooked clams = 84 micrograms (1400%) 3-ounces cooked salmon = 5 micrograms (83%) 1 cup fortified cereal (such as bran flakes ) = 1.5 milligrams (25%) 1 cup low fat (1%) milk = 1.2 micrograms (20%) 1 ounce Swiss cheese = 0.9 micrograms (15%) 1 large egg 0.6 micrograms (10%) 3-ounces cooked turkey breast = 0.3 micrograms (5%)

Birders in the U.K. have hatched an oddball scheme to make use of the insect remains that accumulate on cars in summer. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is conducting pilot tests on equipping windshields with "splatometers" to estimate declining insect numbers. The society's Mark Avery says the group has been puzzling over Britain's plummeting bird populations, and many of its million-plus members have suggested that the problem may be related to an apparent decline in the flies, aphids, moths, and other insects that birds feed on. So the society wants bird lovers to attach postcard-sized plastic patches to their windshields or license plates to collect representative samples of battered insects. After 80 kilometers or so, the driver would rip off the patch, cover it with plastic to form a bug sandwich, and send it in for analysis. Society workers are adapting scanners and computers to tally the results. The data would provide a bug-death baseline for the future, says Avery, and could reveal regional variations linked to urbanization and type of agriculture. Distinguishing squashed species will be practically impossible, notes entomologist Clare Hughes of the University of York. But splatometers could nonetheless help contribute to the bigger picture of insect declines. More about the experiment

Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days and was amazed at what she found. Her report is in following post, which appeared on the blog of Grant Wiggins, the co-author of “Understanding by Design” and the author of “Educative Assessment” and numerous articles on education. A high school teacher for 14 years, he is now the president of Authentic Education, in Hopewell, New Jersey, which provides professional development and other services to schools aimed at improving student learning. You can read more about him and his work at the AE site. Jules Darmanin 19/03/15 : "Dans un billet de son blog officiel, la société a annoncé à l'ensemble des développeurs une nouvelle fonctionnalité de son API, l'interface qui permet à Uber de dialoguer avec les autres applications. Comme vous pouvez demander à vos amis Facebook des vies depuis Candy Crush, vous pourrez commander un trajet Uber depuis une autre application... For years scientists searched fruitlessly for the causes of autism by looking for genes shared by families prone to the disorder. Now researchers taking a new approach have begun to unlock its secrets. Complex Operational Decision Making in Networked Systems of Humans and Machines: A Multidisciplinary Approach explores the possibilities for better decision making through collaboration between humans and computers. ... Two great trends are evident in the evolution of life on Earth: towards increasing diversification and towards increasing integration. Diversification has spread living processes across the planet, progressively increasing the range of environments and free energy sources exploited by life. Integration has proceeded through a stepwise process in which living entities at one level are integrated into cooperative groups that become larger-scale entities at the next level, and so on, producing cooperative organizations of increasing scale (for example, cooperative groups of simple cells gave rise to the more complex eukaryote cells, groups of these gave rise to multi-cellular organisms, and cooperative groups of these organisms produced animal societies). The trend towards increasing integration has continued during human evolution with the progressive increase in the scale of human groups and societies. The trends towards increasing diversification and integration are both driven by selection. An understanding of the trajectory and causal drivers of the trends suggests that they are likely to culminate in the emergence of a global entity. This entity would emerge from the integration of the living processes, matter, energy and technology of the planet into a global cooperative organization. Such an integration of the results of previous diversifications would enable the global entity to exploit the widest possible range of resources across the varied circumstances of the planet. This paper demonstrates that it's case for directionality meets the tests and criticisms that have proven fatal to previous claims for directionality in evolution. The direction of evolution: The rise of cooperative organization John E. Stewart Daily Mail ROBOT becomes world's first artificial intelligence company director Daily Mail In a world first, Japanese venture capital firm, Deep Knowledge, recently named an artificial intelligence (AI) to its board of directors. "In his introduction to this useful site, psychology professor Jon Mueller presents two arguments. First, he claims that our current educational system fails to teach the need for critical skills for success in the 21st century. Second, he posits that the reason for this is, at least partially, due to confusion about how to assess those skills. The website is an answer to that confusion. Here educators will find Mueller's program of Authentic Assessment. Readers may like to begin with the first three sections of the site, "What is it?," "Why do it?," and "How do you do it," before moving onto sections that explain such topics as Standards, Rubrics, and Tasks. Throughout the site, Mueller makes a genuine attempt to provide both a philosophical backdrop for his assessment techniques and the sorts of down-to-earth tools that educators can easily use in their classrooms." Olivier Ezrattty 08/02/15 : "En à peine deux décennies, le numérique a transformé tout un tas d’industries, parfois violemment. Il a entrainé de nombreuses migrations de valeur, souvent au profit de grandes sociétés américaines avec en tête les fameux GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon). La plupart de ces migrations de valeur sont liées à des mécanismes d’intermédiation et à Internet, comme avec Amazon dans le commerce, Google dans la publicité, Netflix dans la vidéo et plus récemment Uber face aux taxis. On utilise maintenant le barbarisme de l’Uberisation pour décrire une migration de valeur liée à l’intermédiation de services... Over the last two decades, computers have become omnipresent in daily life. Their increased power and accessibility have enabled the accumulation, organization, and analysis of massive amounts of data. These data, in turn, have been transformed into practical knowledge that can be applied to simple and complex decision making alike. In many of today's activities, decision making is no longer an exclusively human endeavor. In both virtual and real ways, technology has vastly extended people's range of movement, speed and access to massive amounts of data. Consequently, the scope of complex decisions that human beings are capable of making has greatly expanded. At the same time, some of these technologies have also complicated the decision making process. The potential for changes to complex decision making is particularly significant now, as advances in software, memory storage and access to large amounts of multimodal data have dramatically increased. Increasingly, our decision making process integrates input from human judgment, computing results and assistance, and networks. Human beings do not have the ability to analyze the vast quantities of computer-generated or -mediated data that are now available. How might humans and computers team up to turn data into reliable (and when necessary, speedy) decisions? Complex Operational Decision Making in Networked Systems of Humans and Machines explores the possibilities for better decision making through collaboration between humans and computers. This study is situated around the essence of decision making; the vast amounts of data that have become available as the basis for complex decision making; and the nature of collaboration that is possible between humans and machines in the process of making complex decisions. This report discusses the research goals and relevant milestones in several enabling subfields as they relate to enhanced human-machine collaboration for complex decision making; the relevant impediments and systems-integration challenges that are preventing technological breakthroughs in these subfields; and a sense of the research that is occurring in university, government and industrial labs outside of the United States, and the implications of this research for U.S. policy. The development of human-machine collaboration for complex decision making is still in its infancy relative to where cross-disciplinary research could take it over the next generation. Complex Operational Decision Making explores challenges to progress, impediments to achieving technological breakthroughs, opportunities, and key research goals. Luciano Lampi's insight: what decision making has in common with divinatory arts? While the concept of air launch seems compelling, such systems have failed to have much effect on the overall launch market. Jeff Foust reports on two different air launch ventures, one by DARPA and one funded by Paul Allen, attacking the air launch idea from two very different directions. Absolutely the best thing to read on the corporate hype and innuendos from the big computer companies pedalling the idea of ‘the smart city’. Adam Greenfield’s new book – that you can only get on Kindle and which was my first Kindle purchase that I read on my iPad (a success I must say) – is a wonderful and eloquent essay on the extreme hype surrounding the top down new town-like smart cities of Songdo (in South Korea), Masdar (in the UAE), PlanIT Valley (near Paredes in Portugal). He also comments on Singapore, Rio de Janeiro and some of the other established cities who are injecting automation into their urban services and other functions from the top down. His message is that most of the smart cities hype associated with IBM, Cisco, and Siemens amongst others which he recounts in detail is based on the most simplistic of notions as to what a city actually is. Adeline. Raynal : "Si, jusque là, le Bitcoin a largement été évoqué en tant que monnaie, il est en fait davantage un système de transaction certifié. C’est un peu comme si la confiance des acteurs économiques dans les institutions financière centrales était remplacée par une confiance en un protocole informatique. Dès lors, nombre d’autres applications peuvent être imaginées. Le système pourrait permettre de certifier les transactions non monétaires, pour tout système voulant se passer d’une autorité centrale… Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers. How to integrate my topics' content to my website? Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work. Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility. Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.

Space theorist posits unusual life on Mars / '2nd genesis' on Red Planet Published 4:00 am, Thursday, September 4, 2003 2003-09-04 04:00:00 PDT Monterey -- The planet Mars may well have been the scene of the solar system's "second genesis," where forms of life vastly different from Earth's emerged deep beneath the Martian surface billions of years ago, a leading space scientist proposed Wednesday. Christopher McKay, of NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, said that life on early Mars might have been based on DNA, genes and proteins unlike anything found on Earth. If true, it would signal that life should be possible throughout the solar system in forms hitherto inconceivable to Earth-bound scientists, McKay suggested. It would mark a true revolution in what has been largely an Earth- centered view of life's unique genes and forms, he said. McKay posed his second genesis concept at a meeting in Monterey of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, where international researchers are describing their latest findings from dozens of unmanned space probes that have visited virtually all the solar system's planets and their satellites. Encouraging McKay to elaborate on his theory, David Des Marais of Ames posed a serious question to the planetary scientists at the meeting: "Can life arise anywhere there's a 'nourishing' environment?" he asked. "Does our Earth's biosphere represent only a subset of all possible environments, so that life might exist in a full diversity of biospheres?" Des Marais and McKay are both members of NASA's Astrobiology Institute. McKay began his career as an astrophysicist, then moved into biology, while Des Marais combines the disciplines of geology, chemistry and biology. In what he described as his "mission to early Earth," Des Marais said research made it likely that water must have first rained down on the new- forming Earth from comets and meteors as much as 4.9 billion years ago and that more massive impacts later brought down organic chemicals within another billion years. "Proto-cells" then began to form on the warming Earth. And finally, by 3.7 billion years ago, in a warm and wet Earth, the first life appeared in the form of biological films and layers of microbial mats that have left their fossil forms to be discovered only in recent years, he said. But that all took place on an Earth that was growing warmer and wetter over the eons. In contrast, Mars might not have been like that at all, McKay acknowledged. "A very cold Mars is by no means an uninteresting place for life to begin," he said, adding that life would have had to have started in a fashion entirely different from life on Earth. Ever since the exploration of Mars by spacecraft began more than 40 years ago, most scientists have insisted that, in its early days, Mars must have been a "warm and wet" planet -- at one time, perhaps, similar to Earth -- if it was ever to support life. A consensus is now growing among planetary specialists, however, that except for brief early periods more than 4 billion years ago when gigantic meteors might have heated the Martian surface and melted subsurface waters, the Red Planet has always been a cold and icy object, according to Philip Christensen of Arizona State University. Christensen is the principal investigator of a mineral-detecting, infrared instrument called THEMIS aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft now orbiting the planet. It has shown no evidence that Mars ever had large oceans or long- standing open bodies of liquid water where minerals like hematite or carbonates would have formed, he said. But McKay pointed out that in Antarctica, liquid water -- the first prerequisite for life -- is abundant beneath seemingly solid lakes of ice and that living microbes have been found in these icy reservoirs. So Mars, despite its ice at the poles, must surely have retained quantities of liquid water deep beneath the surface, he insisted. "Ice on Mars, with the water beneath it, is a huge empty niche for life to form in totally new ways," McKay said. "What we need to do in future Mars missions is to drill beneath the permafrost, beneath the frozen sediments and find a totally different watery niche -- cold gazpacho instead of warm chicken soup. "Instead of hunting for fossils in the rocks of Mars, we should be looking for corpses in the cold water -- bodies that started out as entirely different forms of life. It would tell us immediately that genesis is easy everywhere."

How is it that so many people who didn’t go to “Ivy League” colleges manage to be very successful? And how do some “average” students manage to be more well-rounded and successful than overachievers? The answers can be found in the “soft skills.” In today’s dynamic world, the ability to interact well with others, to be flexible and adaptable, and to have common sense are more important than ever. To me, it doesn’t matter how “smart” you are if you can’t get along with people. And if you somehow manage to be successful without getting along with people, then you’re probably lonely or alone. My son has a photographic memory for spelling words, and does very well in school with minimal effort. Sadly, he has inherited my coordination (or lack thereof), so athletic endeavors are more of a challenge. He struggles to understand how people can dance without effort when he cannot. At an early age, he sees that being talented academically is not a panacea for “fitting in” or cruising through life. Over the years, I’ve interacted with adults and teens who didn’t “work” in our milieu setting at Teen Line. Their social skills or inability to work collaboratively conspired against them. Interpersonal skills are not just something you can study for and “ace:” for some, they come innately, for others, they require practice and effort. I recently read an article on how “C” students are more successful after graduation. One reason is that they know how to leverage other’s abilities. They are not afraid to admit they don’t have all the answers, and can surround themselves with those who do, freeing them to dream and create. Can you imagine the pressure so many of us would feel lifted if we didn’t have to “know everything?” I had a startling realization the other day that my children will never have to go through the awkwardness (at least for me) of calling a friend’s house and having to make small talk with their parents while waiting for the friend to come to the phone. Online food ordering (which I personally think is the greatest thing ever) unfortunately takes away the opportunity to learn patience and how to communicate clearly. Google (which I use multiple times a day) has reduced our need to problem solve and creatively look for answers. We need to promote and teach the “soft skills,” both at home and in school. Make sure our teens know how to have a conversation IRL. Promote teamwork and collaboration within your family, as well as role modeling compromise. Understand there are different types of intelligence, including emotional and creative, and we need these as much as the academic. And most importantly, let’s not just measure success by ACT scores and GPA. Let’s look at the bigger picture of who a teen is.Leave a Comment ›

Definition of Heart Failure Heart failure means your heart muscle does not pump as much blood as your body needs. Failure does not mean that your heart has stopped. It means that your heart is not pumping as well as it should. Because your heart cannot pump well, your body tries to make up for it. To do this: - Your body holds on to salt and water. This increases the amount of blood in your bloodstream. - Your heart beats faster. - Your heart becomes enlarged. Core Measures for Heart Failure Core Measures indicate how many patients at Southeast Georgia Health System receive treatments commonly regarded as effective in treating heart failure. We compare our scores to other facilities at the national and state level. Heart Failure Indicators |Number of records reviewed for these indicators during time period||---||---||NA||NA| |Evaluation of Left Ventricular Function (measure retired Dec 2014)||---||---||100.0%||99.0%| |ACE Inhibitor or ARB for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction (measure retired Dec 2014)||---||---||97.0%||97.0%| Evaluation of Left Ventricular Function-This score shows the percentage of patients who had the left side of their heart assessed during their hospital stay. The left side of the heart is where the main pumping chamber is located. By assessing it, doctors can tell how well it is pumping and what type of treatment is needed. ACE Inhibitor or ARB for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction-Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) are drugs that are especially helpful for people with damage on the left side of their heart (left ventricular systolic dysfunction). Both ACE inhibitors and ARBs can help reduce the risk of death after a heart attack by lowering blood pressure. This score shows the percentage of people with left ventricular systolic dysfunction who were prescribed ACE inhibitors or ARBs when they were discharged.

Step 1 is one of the hardest steps for those with anxiety. Step 1 is one someone realizes they have a problem and asks for help. And for those who walk alongside the lost, this is when you find out that your friend or sister or brother or parent or child or whoever is struggling with anxiety, or really any mental illness for that matter. Step 1 is hard for them, because it requires a lot of vulnerability, honesty, and trust. If they are talking to you, it means they have a lot of trust in you, and if you stop listening, it might just be the thing that crushes them. Step 1 is also hard for you, because it goes a lot better if you can relate, or at least understand. As a human, you have probably had at least one panic attack in your life. You might have frozen up during a test and couldn’t think. You might have gotten so nervous during a speech that you felt like the walls were closing in on you. But maybe you can’t remember one. And that is ok. You can still help. You have most likely been afraid of something several times in your life. Now imagine all the fear you have had throughout your life pushed into a 20-30 minute time period. Now imagine that those feelings continue 24/7 to a slightly lesser degree. That’s the basics of a panic attack, but it can be a bit more complex than that. It can involve other symptoms that vary from person to person. Listen so you know what your friend’s anxiety feels like to them. Here are some important things to remember: - Listen and just be there. This is the single most important thing to do, especially when you can’t relate and don’t really understand. Sit there and allow them to cry or talk or scream. Give them a hug or let them squeeze your hands or just sit there. At first, you have to let them lead, until you learn how to best help them. I’ll go into more detail with this in a later post. - Be patient. They may have even been unintentionally dishonest with themselves for years. Even if they were aware that they were suppressing things, they probably did not realize how much they were hiding. Even if they were honest with themselves, telling you might be their first step toward healing. - Fears that seem irrational to you seem completely logical to them, especially during a panic attack. A panic attack can be based off of seemingly the most ridiculous thing. Don’t laugh or tell them they are crazy. It’s serious to them. The best way to help anyone with anxiety is to listen and be there. Your actions speak louder than words, so sit, listen, and just be a faithful presence. Jesus knows them and their anxiety better than you ever will, because He created them. He will you the strength to help them and them the strength to continue their fight.

What's your limit? Calculate now → Decaffeinated Tea refers to black or green tea that has had most of its natural caffeine removed. It's important to note that decaffeinated does not mean "caffeine-free". There is still a small amount of caffeine in most decaffeinated teas unless the product is highly processed. Decaffeinated Black Tea can contain about 4-6 mg of caffeine per tea bag (2 grams) Decaffeinated Green Tea can contain about 2-4 mg of caffeine per tea bag (2 grams). Tea quality and steep time will also influence the amount of caffeine in decaffeinated tea. In 2007 The Journal of Food Science independently tested Stash Premium Decaffeinated Green Tea and found that it contained 7.6 mg of caffeine per 2 grams of tea leaves. However the USDA database lists 2.4 mg caffeine for an 8 fl oz cup of decaf black tea Ingredients in Tea (Decaf)Leaves From The Camellia Sinensis Plant Is Tea (Decaf) high in caffeine? Tea (Decaf) contains 4 mg of caffeine in a 8 fl oz cup. This equates to 0.50 mg of caffeine for every fl oz and 1.69 mg for every 100 ml.

This ink-on-paper sketch of Einstein (courtesy: Sigrid Freundorfer Fine Art LLC; click to view large) will go on public display for the first time tomorrow as part of an art show in New York City. It is the handiwork of Josef Scharl, a German artist who produced the work in 1950 while visiting his close friend Albert Einstein at Princeton University in the US. Born in Munich in 1896, Scharl gained recognition in his time after being part of the “New Munich Secession” artists in the 1920s. He won various awards including the Albrecht Dürer Award from the city of Nuremberg, and the Prix-de-Rome. But Scharl was a vocal critic of the Nazi Party and by 1935 he was considered a “degenerate artist” and banned from painting. Einstein, who by this time was already working at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, had met Scharl in 1927 in Berlin at the house of photographer Lotte Jacobi. Upon learning of the fate of his friend, Einstein offered to sponsor Scharl’s immigration to the US, which the artist accepted. Once in the States, Scharl used to visit Einstein regularly and when the artist passed away in 1954 Einstein wrote the eulogy that was read at the funeral. “Scharl was an outspoken man, not shy with his opinions, often rather witty. Einstein appreciated Scharl’s candor and views on this or that, and their conversations were lively and informative for both,” says Sigrid Freundorfer, the fine-art dealer based in New York who owns the drawing. “It must have been refreshing for Einstein to have had somebody like Scharl to talk to once in a while, in German at that.” Freundorfer bought the painting last year from someone in the field of manuscripts and rare books “Being an art dealer, I bought it first as a magnificent drawing by Josef Scharl, depicting this great man Einstein, signed by both men,” she said. The image will go on sale at the Master Drawings New York exhibition, which runs 26 January – 2 February and has a preview show on 25 January.

Indian monastery aids Tibetan monks facing crackdown The Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, an Indian hill town home to thousands of exiled Tibetans, has become a crisis center for the turmoil at its sister monastery under lockdown in Sichuan, China. But the serene image belies the crisis response management happening inside, where two monks work all hours to gather news from Tibetan monks they say are under government lockdown across the border in China. Buddhist monasteries are not normally crisis communications centers, but Kirti has assumed that role in an effort to aid the monks at its Tibetan sister monastery of the same name in southwest China. The ad hoc effort at the monastery in India shows how technology and savvy on the part of a few can circumvent China’s stringent communications clampdowns. Nevertheless, “uncensored communication links from Kirti are fragile, discrete, and under constant threat of surveillance and disruption by Chinese government authorities and security forces,” says Phelim Kine, senior Asia researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch. On March 16, just after the 52nd anniversary of Tibet’s failed uprising against China in 1959, a young monk from Kirti Monastery in Amdo Ngaba, a Tibetan district of Sichuan, set himself on fire as a form of protest. Shortly after the monk’s death, Chinese placed the Amdo Ngaba monastery and its approximately 2,500 monks on lockdown. Nearly four months later reports indicate that conditions remain tense. The repression in Amdo Ngaba is so severe that in April the Dalai Lama, who relinquished his political role that same month, said in a statement: “I am very concerned that this situation if allowed to go on may become explosive with catastrophic consequences for the Tibetans in Ngaba.” According to the monks in India, about 300 monks were taken away by Chinese authorities in April. Classes and prayers have stopped and remaining monks were forced to take “patriotic re-education” classes. Some 400 government officials are camped out at the monastery in China, said the International Campaign for Tibet, a US-based advocacy group. Cameras and recording devices are positioned throughout. Phone calls and e-mail from Kirti Monastery in China are monitored by Chinese authorities who can detain or arrest people they deem a threat to China's control over Tibet. Though China has not officially acknowledged the lockdown, Chinese police claim the self-immolation of the young monk who precipitated it “was a carefully planned and implemented criminal case, aimed at triggering disturbances,” according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency. To quash other potential disturbances, Chinese police arrested hundreds of monks although there were no displays of violence after the self-immolation. Local residents surrounded the monastery in Amdo Ngaba in an attempt to protect monks from being detained but were allegedly beaten by Chinese forces and attacked by police dogs. Two elderly Tibetans reportedly died in the clash. Enter the monastery in India Information about arrests, beatings, protests, surveillance, and police activity were conveyed along a circuitous network from Tibetan locals in China to Tibetans living in neighboring India, home to nearly 100,000 exiles. News was passed along among Tibetans via clandestine phone calls, e-mails, and digital photos until it reached the Dharamsala branch of Kirti Monastery. After the first piece of information made its way to them, Losang Yeshe and Kanyag Tsering, two monks at Kirti Monastery in India, became the de facto crisis communications team. They are in charge of the grim task of organizing detailed lists of arrested monks, trying to confirm names of Tibetan civilians beaten or detained while protecting monks, and liaising with human rights organizations and the media via regular e-mail updates and interviews. Mr. Yeshe and Mr. Tsering both say they would prefer to do their prayers, attend classes, and study religious teachings. But with Kirti Monastery in crisis, the Tibetans fear for the well-being of monks and locals there. “We have no choice but to disseminate this knowledge,” says Tsering through an English interpreter. In Tibet, monasteries are esteemed institutions of Buddhist knowledge and culture. The one under crackdown in Amdo Ngaba was established in 1870 and is one of the largest monasteries on the Tibetan plateau. Now, its future appears threatened by the lockdown. Major monasteries in Tibet once housed thousands of monks. But because of restrictions over the decades, numbers at some monasteries have dwindled to hundreds, whereas sister monasteries flourishing in India house thousands of monks today. Tibetans “fear that Chinese authorities are now seeking to weaken Kirti significantly through this systematic campaign,” according to a statement from the International Campaign for Tibet. Confirming the information the monks give them takes weeks, but Human Rights Watch says their reports are accurate. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied illegal detainment of monks and said that the monks at the monastery “enjoy a normal life and normal Buddhist activities.” However, foreign journalists and tourists are barred from traveling to the monastery in Amdo Ngaba and nearby areas. Human Rights Watch raised concerns about the crackdown, noting that it is part of a series of arrests and disappearances in recent months of dozens of China’s human rights advocates, lawyers, Internet activists, and those who assert Tibetan national identity openly. And in June the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances expressed “serious concern” about the wave of alleged enforced disappearances in China in the past few months, including of monks in the Tibet region. “Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law. Even short-term secret detentions can qualify as enforced disappearances,” the UN group said.

Nuts have been eaten and enjoyed for thousands of years. They are used in everything from spreads and snacks to desserts and entrees alike! While nuts are certainly very versatile, they also have hidden health benefits that can significantly impact your life! Fiber, healthy fats, protein, and other nutrients are packed into a wide variety of nuts, and we want to take some time to tell you about them. Who would have thought such a small package could hold so many good things? Weaver Nut Company has dealt in the business of wholesale nuts for over four decades. As a bulk nut supplier, we know a thing or two about nuts, and we want to share some information about the health benefits of your favorite nuts. Check out our list below, and then look through our entire inventory of nut products right here! 1. Brazil Nuts Brazil nuts are a great source of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, magnesium, and selenium. Selenium, in particular, acts as an antioxidant and is a nutrient that your body uses to help your thyroid produce hormones. Brazil nuts can also aid in regulating blood pressure and energy production. Hazelnuts have become more popular over time, and for good reason! But did you know that they can helpwith your cholesterol? Hazelnuts may help reduce bad cholesterol, which contributes to heart disease. Hazelnuts also have caffeic acid, epicatechin, quercetin, and gallic acid, which have anti-inflammatory effects! Pecans are used in everything from cakes and pies to salads. These versatile nuts can be used in savory or sweet dishes and snacks. And like other nuts, they’re good for you, too! Pecans are rich in healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals like zinc. Zinc has been shown to help with immune function, growth, development, and wound healing. On average, one ounce of walnuts contains four grams of protein and two grams of fiber. Walnuts can lower triglyceride levels and reduce your risk of heart disease. But perhaps the most impressive health benefit of walnuts is that they are loaded with copper. Your body uses copper to help with brain function and can even fend off dementia! Almonds are one of the most popular nuts on the market today. Like many nuts, they can be eaten raw or roasted. They are one of the most versatile nuts used to make nut butter, flour, and milk alternatives. Almonds are rich in vitamin E and fiber, and are often used to promote gut health! Of course, we had to end our list with the most ubiquitous and iconic item on our list. Peanuts! Peanuts are not actually nuts and technically belong in the legume family, but they’re often lumped in with nuts because they share so many similarities. Even though they’re not technically nuts, peanuts have various health benefits, too! They’re a great source of protein and fiber, as well as being rich in folate. Folate is a type of vitamin B that place a crucial role during pregnancy by aiding fetal and placental development. Did your favorite nut make the list? Whatever your favorite nut is, there are probably hidden health benefits you did not know about. We are sure to have your favorite nut in our inventory and can help you find some new favorites too! Weaver Nut Company is a bulk nut supplier that wants to fulfill all your needs when it comes to wholesale nuts. Contact us today and we are happy to be of assistance to you!

This dataset contains genomic sequence information from 16 wheat varieties of importance to Australia selected and prioritised by the major stakeholders of the Australian grains research community based on availability of mapping populations and genetic diversity. Wheat leaf and/or root tissue samples where sequenced to generate approximately 10x coverage of each variety's genome. Partner organisations include: - Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics - Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries - Murdoch University - University of Queensland - Grains Research and Development Corporation For more information please visit: http://www.bioplatforms.com/wheat-sequencing/ Acknowledging the consortium When using Wheat Defence Framework Initiative data, please acknowledge the Consortium and Bioplatforms Australia support using the following wording: "We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Australian Wheat Pathogens Consortium (https://data.bioplatforms.com/organization/edit/bpa-wheat-cultivars) in the generation of data used in this publication. The Initiative is supported by funding from Bioplatforms Australia through the Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)."

GOAL 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable SDG Progress and Industry Notes The 2017 Report of the Secretary-General on Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, notes that “[i]n recent decades, the world has experienced unprecedented urban growth. In 2015, close to 4 billion people — 54 per cent of the world’s population — lived in cities and that number is projected to increase to about 5 billion people by 2030. Rapid urbanization has brought enormous challenges, including growing numbers of slum dwellers, increased air pollution, inadequate basic services and infrastructure, and unplanned urban sprawl, which also make cities more vulnerable to disasters. Better urban planning and management are needed to make the world’s urban spaces more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. As of May 2017, 149 countries were developing national-level urban policies.” Goal 11 will be reviewed during the 2018 HLPF. Sustainable cities are important for sustainable development and for business operations but for market growth for the Apparel sector. The upside to investing in sustainable cities was summarized by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission: “Business opportunities in the implementation of the SDGs related to cities could be worth over $3.7 trillion annually for the private sector by 2030. Investment required to achieve these opportunities is approximately $2.5 trillion per year. -These 16 opportunities could also generate almost 170 million jobs by 2030, which represents around 5 percent of the forecasted labour force. -More than half of the value of the opportunities, and over 85 percent of the potential job creation, is located in developing countries. That includes roughly 49 million jobs in China, 32 million jobs in Africa and 22 million jobs in India.” “By 2030, two thirds of the world will live in cities. The world’s 12 largest city areas are each home to over 15 million people, and over the last 25 years, cities such as Delhi, Shanghai and Beijing have tripled in size. A vision for cities has never been more important than it is today. More than half of the world’s inhabitants live in cities and this migration trend is expected to continue. By 2050 more than two-thirds of the world will be urban dwellers. India alone is expected to double the number of city dwellers by adding 404 million new people to cities over the next 35 years…Therefore, it will be under the auspices of cities where we will succeed or fail in achieving our goals of poverty eradication, equality, climate change reduction, and ensuring healthy lives. It will be the cities that determine if we achieve inclusive economic growth or yield to greater inequality. It is in cities where people will seek opportunities for higher education and employment. And, it will be cities that determine if we will continue our steadily increasing usage of the world’s resources or if we can realize a more sustainable path.” UN Chronicle