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This extension contains images of our dearest family members – the dogs. Actually, the dog was the first animal to be domesticated, due to their behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Their long friendly relationship with humans has led dogs to get used to human behavior. New research shows that dogs have mutations to equivalent genetic regions in humans where changes are known to trigger high sociability and somewhat reduced intelligence. Dogs can be found in lots of different shapes, sizes, and colors. People choose dogs for a variety of activities, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and, aiding handicapped individuals and therapeutic roles. Dogs are considered as a very smart and intelligent species. Some researches have shown that dogs know the labels of over 200 different items. Dogs have advanced memory skills. Other study shows that the dogs can learn the names and could associate by verbal command over 1,000 words. Dogs are able to read and react to human body language such as gesturing and pointing and to understand human voice commands. We hope you enjoy your browsing experience with this amazing theme. Feel free to share this theme with friends and family and download.

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$57. 00 donated in past month Free Internet Book: All on Board: Making Inclusive Growth Happen, 202pp An inclusive, democratic society is a vision of a future of generalized security, community centers, free Internet books, exchanging roles, qualitative growth and soft power. Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people. You can make fish soup out of an aquarium but can't make an aquarium out of fish soup (Polish proverb). Without a vision, people become bones for Coca Cola. OECD Initiative on Inclusive Growth, 2014 202 pp. 3. 3 MB: Inequality – now at its highest level in decades in many countries – undermines economic growth and well-being, says this new OECD report. But policies to tackle the widening gap between rich and poor will only succeed if they also look beyond income and address better access to high-quality education, health care and public infrastructure, it adds. One clear-cut lesson from the report is that investing in the education and skills of people at the bottom of the distribution will pay long-term dividends for the economy and enhance individual well-being. Some presumptions about what "growth" is supposed to be that should be questioned, but the inclusive part is right on and true to the current model. Maxing the productive capacity of a national economy does come with the lowest unemployment rate. That employed population also should be doing its most creative value added work and not just drones on the elite's plantations. This is not a model for the few making as much money as they can. It is a model for an interactive, democratic society where everyone shares in the prosperity. The only problem is finitude. Thinking about restructuring work and loosening the ties between work and income are necessities along with the guaranteed annual income. Labor saving technology has made the old labor model obsolete. We need to think "post-industrial" to get real inclusion and re-thinking.

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Severe weather refers to any dangerous meteorological phenomena with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. High winds, hail, excessive precipitation, and wildfires are forms and effects of severe weather, as are thunderstorms, downbursts, lightning, and tornadoes. Regional and seasonal severe weather phenomena include blizzards, snowstorms, and ice storms. Tornadoes & Severe Weather Severe Thunderstorm Watch or Warning Severe Thunderstorm Watch Severe thunderstorms are possible, continue normal activities and monitor the situation. Severe Thunderstorm Warning Severe thunderstorms are occurring. - Keep people indoors and away from windows until the severe storm passes. - If you are outside, seek shelter immediately. - Report injuries and damage on campus to the IU Police Department at 911(9-911 will also work from an on-campus phone). Notify your departmental administrative office. Tornado Watch or Warning Tornados and severe thunderstorms are possible — continue normal activities but monitor the situation. An actual tornado has been identified in the area by spotters and/or radar. - If in the warning area, seek shelter immediately. Stay away from windows and exterior doors. Basements, interior hallways on the lower floors and small interior rooms on the lower floors offer the best shelter. - Know the location of your nearest shelter in advance. - Do not open windows; this can increase damage to the building. - Report injuries and damage on campus to the IU Police Department at 911 (9-911 will also work from an on-campus phone). Also, notify your local Campus Facilities Services or Physical Plant Offices of damage and your departmental administrative office. - If in a vehicle, get out and seek shelter in a sturdy building. If a building is not available, lying flat in a depression such as a ditch or ravine offers some protection. Thunder and lightning and weather sirens Thunder and lightning If you hear thunder less than 30 seconds after seeing a flash of lightning, seek safe shelter immediately. Weather SirensIUPUI / Indianapolis Marion County operates tornado sirens which are tested every Friday at 11:00 AM. Upon hearing the siren for a weather emergency, follow the steps above for a tornado warning. See Marion County's criteria for sounding the sirens IUB / Bloomington Monroe County outdoor warning sirens are tested the first Friday of the month at 12:00 noon, unless weather conditions are such that there may be a need for an actual warning. See Monroe County's criteria for sounding the sirens The more prepared you are to take care of yourself during an emergency, the more time emergency responders have to take care of other people. John Summerlot, Emergency Management Coordinator Emergency campus contact information - IU Bloomington IUPD from a non-campus phone: 812-855-4111 IUPD from a campus phone: 9-1-1 IUPD address: 1469 E. 17th Street IUPD from a non-campus phone: 317-274-7911 IUPD from a campus phone: 9-1-1 IUPD non-emergency number: 317-274-2058 IUPD address: Ball Annex, 1232 Michigan Street, Indianapolis Columbus Police from a non-campus phone: 9-1-1 or 812-379-1689 Columbus Police non-emergency number: 812-348-7388 Columbus Police from a campus phone: 9-911 - IU East IUPD from a non-campus phone: 765-973-8429 IUPD from a campus phone: 8429 IUPD non-emergency number: 765-973-8357 IUPD address: Whitewater Hall Room 131, 2325 Chester Blvd, Richmond - IU Kokomo IUPD from a non-campus phone (M-F, 8am-10:30pm): 765-455-9363 IUPD non-emergency number: 765-455-9432 IUPD address: Kelly Center, Room 240 Kokomo Police from a non-campus phone: 9-1-1 or 765-459-5101 Kokomo Police from a campus phone: 9-911 - IU Northwest IUPD from a non-campus phone: 219-980-6501 IUPD from a campus phone: 6501 IUPD non-emergency number: 219-980-6501 IUPD address: 3400 Broadway, Gary Gary Police non-emergency number: 219-881-1214 Gary Police emergency number: 911 - IU South Bend IUPD from a non-campus phone: 574-520-4239 IUPD from a campus phone: 4239 IUPD non-emergency number: 574-520-4239 IUPD address: 2002 Mishawaka Avenue, South Bend South Bend City Police non-emergency number: 574-235-9201 - IU Southeast IUPD from a non-campus phone: 812-941-2400 IUPD from a campus phone: 2400 IUPD non-emergency number: 812-941-2400 IUPD address: 4201 Grant Line Rd., New Albany New Albany Police non-emergency number: 812-948-5300 New Albany Police emergency number: 911

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Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon hit a record last month, the government reported Friday with figures that belie President Jair Bolsonaro’s pledge to crack down on such destruction. The area of the rainforest that was destroyed — 580 square kilometers (225 square miles) — marked a new high for the month of April and a 42. 5 per cent on-year rise, according to satellite monitoring by the Brazilian space agency INPE. Its data goes back to 2015. Also read | Deforestation in world’s largest rainforest Amazon rose 17% in ‘dire’ 2020 The level for March was also higher than 12 months earlier, and followed two months of decline in the rainy season when logging activity decreases. From January through April 29, however, the cutting of trees to provide lumber and clear land for agriculture was down 3. 9 percent compared to the same period in 2020, INPE said. Also read | Tropical forest destruction accelerated in 2020 The dry season, which peaks in July and August, is when most deforestation happens. Records have been set in the past three dry seasons, INPE said. The Amazon, the world’s biggest rainforest, is considered vital to curbing climate change because of the carbon dioxide it absorbs from the atmosphere. About 60 per cent of the rainforest is in Brazil. “Right now it is not possible to say what will happen but in 2021 there could be a fourth straight deforestation record,” said the Climate Observatory, a group of 63 NGOs and social organisations. Bolsonaro, a far-right climate change skeptic, came to power in 2019 encouraging commercial exploitation of the rainforest and calling conservation groups “cancer. ” However, last month he pledged to “eliminate illegal deforestation in Brazil by 2030,” 10 years earlier than initially planned. Environmental NGOs have expressed doubt that Brazil under Bolsonaro will live up to this pledge. “In 2021 there is no federal effort to control deforestation,” the Climate Observatory said. The government agency that carries out inspections in the Amazon “is doing nothing” and the process of punishing violators has been halted, it added. A study published last week by the journal Nature Climate Change said the Brazilian Amazon released nearly 20 percent more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the last decade than it absorbed. This report shows humanity can no longer depend on the world’s largest tropical forest to help absorb man-made carbon pollution. Originally Appeared On: https://www.wionews.com/science/deforestation-of-brazilian-amazon-hits-record-in-april-383654

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Prozac Lawsuit Information Prozac (fluoxetine) is a well-known antidepressant drug produced by Eli Lilly and Company. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1987, Prozac was the first in a wave of antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that reached the marketplace in the 1990s. Promising a relatively straightforward way to treat depression, antidepressants like Prozac have since become the third most prescribed medication in the U.S. Researchers estimate that more than one in ten Americans takes antidepressant medication. Pharmaceutical companies annually earned billions of dollars a year in antidepressant sales before generic versions of the drugs became available. The commercial success of Prozac has revealed some medical problems associated with the medication. Many patients have reported suffering from side effects that have led to significant injuries. Some patients have responded by filing product liability lawsuits against Ely Lilly. Problems with Prozac Patients taking Prozac have reported a number of side effects. The most common side effects include headaches, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea, sinus infections, indigestion, dry mouth, dizziness, drowsiness, excessive sweating, rashes, and anxiousness. Some patients have reported experiencing sleep problems and sexual problems. More serious problems have led to patient injuries, government action, and lawsuits. Health care professionals have expressed concerns over antidepressant use during pregnancy. Some medical studies have found an association between the use of SSRIs during pregnancy and serious birth defects in children. In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to doctors and patients about the risks of taking antidepressants during pregnancy. However, the FDA has since changed its position, stating that the link between antidepressants and birth defects is currently unclear. While this link is disputed, some women who took Prozac while pregnant have sued Eli Lilly. Risk of Suicide Prozac carries an FDA black box warning cautioning patients about an increased risk of suicide among young people. The FDA first issued this warning for children and adolescents in 2005. The warning was expanded to cover young adults ranging in age from 18 through 24 in May 2007. Some patients in these age groups who took Prozac have reported experiencing suicidal thoughts and behavior. There have been some reports of suicide among Prozac patients as well. Patients who take Prozac are also at risk of developing serotonin syndrome. SSRI antidepressants are designed to boost a patient's mood by blocking the absorption of a chemical called serotonin in the brain. When patients develop excessive serotonin levels, they can experience symptoms such as agitation or restlessness, confusion, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, dilated pupils, muscle twitches, and headaches. These effects are similar to the symptoms of people under the influence of methamphetamine. Many patients injured after taking Prozac have sued the manufacturer Eli Lilly. This includes women who took Prozac during pregnancy and subsequently gave birth to children with birth defects. Other cases involve the families of patients who took Prozac and later committed suicide or developed suicidal behavior. Some patients who developed serotonin syndrome after taking Prozac have also sued. These product liability lawsuits accuse Eli Lilly of failing to warn doctors and patients about the risks associated with Prozac. They claim that better warnings could have prevented patient injuries and informed doctors and patients about the risks of taking the drug. Many lawsuits also claim that Eli Lilly failed to properly test Prozac before the drug became available in the marketplace. Product liability lawsuits often put forth multiple arguments for why a manufacturer should be liable for patient injuries. This is a common and accepted practice. Benefits of Filing a Lawsuit Product liability lawsuits can achieve two things. First, successful product liability lawsuits can help patients recover compensation for their injuries or injuries sustained by their children. This compensation can cover the patient's hospital bills, treatment costs, lost wages from time off work, pain and suffering, and the cost of caring for a child with birth defects. If you're interested in pursuing remedies for injuries suffered by you or your child, you should first set up a free claim evaluation with an experienced attorney.

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Separation Anxiety Disorder is characterized by a developmentally inappropriate and excessive fear of becoming separated from a primary attachment figure. The term "attachment figure" simply refers to a person to whom we have a very strong emotional attachment. Separation Anxiety Disorder may affect both children and adults. However, it is more commonly diagnosed in children. Diagnosis requires a developmental and cultural context in order to differentiate what is normal and age-appropriate versus what is disordered. For instance, it is developmentally normal for one year olds to express a high degree of distress when separated from caregivers. It is also normal for children who are just beginning daycare, preschool, or kindergarten to experience significant distress when first separated from their caregivers. Such anxiety reactions normally diminish or go away entirely within a short period of time as children adjust to these new experiences. It is not typical for children's anxiety reactions to persist after they have been at school for a week or two. For more information on the normal process of child development and the milestones typically encountered at particular ages, please visit our child development topic centers. Children and adolescents affected by Separation Anxiety Disorder can become extremely distressed at the mere thought of becoming separated from their primary caregivers or other attachment figures. Actual separation leads to pronounced distress and agitation. This distress is persistent and frequent. This distress interferes with children's ability to engage in normal age-appropriate activities that require temporary separation from caregivers (e. g., attending school and community-based activities). Older children, adolescents, and adults may express persistent and excessive worry that some harm will come to their primary attachment figure such as illness, injury, accident, or death. In a similar manner, they may experience persistent and excessive worry that some event may prevent them from reuniting with their attachment figure. For instance, they may refuse to leave home because they are afraid they will get lost and will be unable to return home to their primary attachment figure. Both children and adults may express considerable reluctance or refusal to be apart from their primary attachment figure. Children may follow their caregiver or other attachment figure from room-to-room, staying close, or "clinging" to them. They may be unwilling to go to school, summer camp, or to visit friends. They will often have trouble at bedtime. Falling asleep means separation. They may insist someone stay with them until they fall asleep and may come to their parent's or sibling's beds at night. Adults may require frequent and constant contact with their primary attachment figure throughout the day. They may be unwilling to travel independently. They have difficulty holding a job because of their need to remain in constant contact with their primary attachment figure. Nightmares may occur. These often involve themes of separation (fire, accident). When separation is anticipated or occurs, physical symptoms may be reported such as headaches, stomachache, and nausea. For children and adolescents, the fear, anxiety and/or avoidance is persistent and lasts at least 4 weeks. For adults, it lasts at least 6 months. Treatment for Separation Anxiety Disorder is discussed in another section.

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Whites Line was the second road established in the Hutt Valley and the first road to slice across the Valley. It’s now a major thoroughfare. Some suggest it was called ‘Whites Line’ because it was an ‘aukati’ or ‘line which no (white) man could cross’, a frontier line between Maori and the white settlers. (Adkin, ‘Great Harbour of Tara’). The opposite is also claimed, that it was a union of Maori and pakeha that enabled the road to be built. In fact the origin of the name White’s Line lies with George White, a member of the English landed gentry class who was only fleetingly a resident in the Hutt Valley. George White and William Deans (one of the Canterbury founders) were cabin passengers on the Aurora and among the first immigrants to Port Nicholson, arriving in January 1840. The NZ Company let the contracts for the road, to be no more than 6 ft (1. 8 metres) wide. A contractor and ‘gentleman farmer’ George White followed an 1841 survey line to create the road. His workmen would have done the manual labour and settlers reportedly needed to use slashers to cut their way through the first tracks of the road. White’s Line was completed in the early 1840s but first appeared on a map in 1852. His line marked the southern edge of the bush and the area that became the Lower Hutt City. View the changes in the area of Whites Line; Historic aerial maps, Hutt City Council The section of White’s Line West from Hutt Road to the river was renamed Wakefield Street in 1909. George White, Esq., a ‘farmer, Hutt River’ on the 1842 electoral roll, was also a Wellington Justice of the Peace and he was elected Wellington Town Clerk in October 1842 after promoting himself in newspaper adverts. He was appointed in 1843 “to act as Police Magistrate at Nelson until further orders” (Nelson Examiner, August 5 1843) after the Wairau massacre. He was dismissed from this position soon after for having ‘Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary’ on his bookshelf, extraordinarily. But he stayed on in Nelson for the rest of his life, leaving ‘White’s Line’ as his legacy to the Hutt. In 1953 there was a proposal Whites Line East be renamed as ‘Te Whiti’ but this was rejected. George Powney White was born on the family estate in the grand Newington House in Oxfordshire, England, in 1787. His grandfather, also George White, bought Newington House in the 1770s. He was a principal clerk in the House of Commons. In the family tradition his son George White and grandson (NZ) George White also both became clerks in the House of Commons. (NZ) George White’s brother, Thomas White, lived in Newington House from the 1830s until he died in 1878 and the House was sold out of the White family. George White attended Eton School and married Harriet Coast in Westminister, London, in 1814, daughter of Kent gentleman William Stacey Coast, Esq. George was the Clerk of Committees in the House of Commons from 1810-1839. Why George White decided to emigrate to the colonies in 1840 is unknown, but he arrived alone. Possibly his wife had died in England, but this is not proven. His peers may also have been members of the NZ Company. George White was a prolific letter writer to the newspaper, gave many philosphical lectures and had a public presence in Nelson. He died at his Russell St, Nelson home in December 1867 and having no children he left his estate to Nelson magistrate John Poynter who had a family. George White’s Will on FamilySearch. org There is no image of George White to share, but this personal advert describing his lost ‘blue ponchou cloak’ gives some sense of him. His nickname in Nelson was ‘Old Daddy White’. He is buried in Wakapuaka Cemetery in Nelson and the Provincial Council of Nelson erected a headstone for him “in token of their respect and esteem” … “Sacred to the memory of George White Esq. for 15 years clerk to the Provincial Council of Nelson to whom he rendered valuable and faithful services…” ‘The Great Harbour of Tara’ by G Leslie Adkin, p. 105 George Kaye in the Hutt News, 27 Oct 1987, p. 8 George Kaye in the Hutt News, 15 Sept 1987, p. 18 Nelson Provincial Museum hold images of George White, photos c1860, with the nickname ‘Old Daddy White’.

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Central sleep apnea may be caused by: - Neurodegenerative illnesses - Complications of cervical spine surgery - Certain medications - Sleep at high altitudes - Patients with congestive heart failure While less than 5% of sleep apnea cases are central sleep apnea, it is critical to be diagnosed and treated immediately. Treatment for central sleep apnea may involve drug treatment to stimulate breathing, supplementary oxygen or a relatively new PAP, adaptive servo ventilation.

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Reading medieval literature, it’s hard not to be impressed with how much the characters get done—as when we read about King Harold doing battle in one of the Sagas of the Icelanders, written in about 1230. The first sentence bristles with purposeful action: “King Harold proclaimed a general levy, and gathered a fleet, summoning his forces far and wide through the land. ” By the end of the third paragraph, the king has launched his fleet against a rebel army, fought numerous battles involving “much slaughter in either host,” bound up the wounds of his men, dispensed rewards to the loyal, and “was supreme over all Norway.” What the saga doesn’t tell us is how Harold felt about any of this, whether his drive to conquer was fueled by a tyrannical father’s barely concealed contempt, or whether his legacy ultimately surpassed or fell short of his deepest hopes. Jump ahead about 770 years in time, to the fiction of David Foster Wallace. In his short story “Forever Overhead,” the 13-year-old protagonist takes 12 pages to walk across the deck of a public swimming pool, wait in line at the high diving board, climb the ladder, and prepare to jump. But over these 12 pages, we are taken into the burgeoning, buzzing mind of a boy just erupting into puberty—our attention is riveted to his newly focused attention on female bodies in swimsuits, we register his awareness that others are watching him as he hesitates on the diving board, we follow his undulating thoughts about whether it’s best to do something scary without thinking about it or whether it’s foolishly dangerous not to think about it. These examples illustrate Western literature’s gradual progression from narratives that relate actions and events to stories that portray minds in all their meandering, many-layered, self-contradictory complexities. I’d often wondered, when reading older texts: Weren’t people back then interested in what characters thought and felt? Perhaps people living in medieval societies were less preoccupied with the intricacies of other minds, simply because they didn’t have to be. When people’s choices were constrained and their actions could be predicted based on their social roles, there was less reason to be attuned to the mental states of others (or one’s own, for that matter). The emergence of mind-focused literature may reflect the growing relevance of such attunement, as societies increasingly shed the rigid rules and roles that had imposed order on social interactions. But current psychological research hints at deeper implications. Literature certainly reflects the preoccupations of its time, but there is evidence that it may also reshape the minds of readers in unexpected ways. Stories that vault readers outside of their own lives and into characters’ inner experiences may sharpen readers’ general abilities to imagine the minds of others. If that’s the case, the historical shift in literature from just-the-facts narration to the tracing of mental peregrinations may have had an unintended side effect: helping to train precisely the skills that people needed to function in societies that were becoming more socially complex and ambiguous. We humans owe our intensely social natures to biological evolution. We’re genetically endowed with a social intelligence that extends far beyond the reach of our nearest primate relatives. Even toddlers understand that people’s perspectives can differ from their own or that external actions are propelled by internal goals, and they are resistant to learning from adults whose knowledge appears dubious. But genes are only part of the story. We may come pre-equipped with a standard set of skills (a “start-up kit,” in the words of researchers Cecilia Heyes and Chris Frith), but the ability to accurately grasp the thoughts and emotions of others, or mentalizing ability, varies quite a bit from person to person—and there’s growing evidence that complex mentalizing skills are culturally transmitted through a slow learning process, much like reading or playing chess. For example, while babes-in-arms are sensitive to basic emotions such as happiness or sadness, the ability to recognize socially intricate emotions like embarrassment or guilt only emerges at age 7 or later, and continues to be polished up well into adulthood. The extent to which parents talk to their children about what others are thinking has been found to have profound effects on children’s ability to discern the contents of other minds. A study by Rosie Ensor and her colleagues showed that the frequency with which mothers used words such as think, forget, wonder, learn, or pretend when their children were just 2 years old predicted their mentalizing skills at ages 3, 6, and even 10. 1 Heavy readers of fiction showed the highest level of brain activity. It’s unlikely that these results arise from underlying genetic differences shared by parents and children—that is, that parents talk more about mental states because they themselves have better mentalizing abilities, which their children in turn are likely to inherit. Evidence for a direct role of language comes from psychologists Jennie Pyers and Ann Senghas, who studied deaf adults exposed to Nicaraguan Sign Language, a language that recently emerged when the Nicaraguan government began educating deaf children together in one national school. 2 What began as a simple gesturing system has flowered into an elaborate and complex language, allowing researchers to study the birth and development of an entirely new language and its community. Pyers and Senghas compared some of the earliest signers, who had learned the language in its more rudimentary form, with a group of younger signers who had learned the language at a later, more complex stage. They found that the early signers used fewer verbs describing mental states than those who had learned the later version of the language; they also performed worse on a test that probed for their ability to discern others’ beliefs. But when the researchers returned two years later, they found that the younger signers had graduated from school and begun to interact with the older signers, using the more complex version of Nicaraguan Sign Language. As a result, the older signers now used as many mental state verbs as their younger peers and performed just as well on the mentalizing test. Language had done for them what 25 years of less wordy social interaction had not. Nicaraguan Sign Language presents an elegant analogy: Just as it has incorporated, over several decades, new vocabulary for talking about mental states, Western literature has evolved, over several centuries, new literary techniques for expressing the mental states of characters. As noted by literary scholar Monika Fludernik, medieval authors represented characters’ mental states mainly through their direct speech and gestures, which were used to convey intense emotions in a stereotypical way—lots of hand-wringing and tearing of hair, but few subtle gestures such as raised eyebrows or faint smiles flickering over lips. The direct reporting of emotion was fairly common, but mostly kept short and simple (“He was afraid”). Moreover, emotions were usually predictable reactions to external actions or events, revealing little about a character that was complex or surprising. Elizabeth Hart, a specialist in early literature, writes that in medieval or classical texts, “people are constantly planning, remembering, loving, fearing, but they somehow manage to do this without the author drawing attention to these mental states. ” This changed dramatically between 1500 and 1700, when it became common for characters to pause in the middle of the action, launching into monologues as they struggled with conflicting desires, contemplated the motives of others, or lost themselves in fantasy—as is familiar to anyone who’s studied the psychologically rich soliloquies of Shakespeare’s plays. Hart suggests that these innovations were spurred by the advent of print, and with it, an explosion in literacy across classes and genders. People could now read in private and at their own pace, re-reading and thinking about reading, deepening a new set of cognitive skills and an appetite for more complex and ambiguous texts. The emergence of the novel in the 18th and 19th centuries introduced omniscient narrators who could penetrate their characters’ psyches, at times probing motives that were opaque to the characters themselves. And by the 20th century, many authors labored not just to describe, but to simulate the psychological experience of characters. In her literary manifesto “Modern Fiction,” Virginia Woolf wrote, “Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall, however disconnected and incoherent in appearance, which each sight or incident scores upon the consciousness. ” This clarion call was taken up by Dorothy Parker, as in the following passage of “Sentiment,” where she shapes sentences into obsessive, rhythmic loops of thought: “But I knew. I knew. I knew because he had been far away from me long before he went. He’s gone away and he won’t come back. He’s gone away and he won’t come back, he’s gone away and he’ll never come back. Listen to the wheels saying it, on and on and on. ” For Parker and many writers since, all facets of language—from sound to imagery to syntax—are tools for conveying mental states. If mentalizing skills can be burnished by language that draws attention to mental states, has literature’s increasing use of such language improved readers’ social intelligence over the centuries? Psychologists can’t go back to the 1200s to administer batteries of tests to medieval denizens, but they can test and compare present-day humans whose reading habits differ. Such research shows a clear link between people’s mentalizing skills and the books on their nightstands. In a study led by Raymond Mar, voracious readers of fiction were better than lighter consumers of fiction at making nuanced social judgments based on limited information—for example, deciphering complex emotions by looking at photographs of people’s eyes, and using subtle cues in videos of social interactions (such as guessing who was the child of the two adults in the video based on body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal information). 3 Heavy readers of expository nonfiction showed the opposite pattern, performing worse than lighter readers of nonfiction. Other research, using similar tests, has found a specific advantage for reading literary fiction4 compared with popular genre fiction, or for romance fiction5 over science fiction. These studies don’t prove that a particular literary diet nourishes social intelligence; it’s hard to rule out the possibility that people who are more attuned to other minds are simply more interested in reading about them in the first place, in which case, reading habits would be one result of social intelligence. The ideal experiment would randomly assign people to different reading regimens over a sustained period and then compare the effects. A story that was strong enough to shift the needle of my moral compass was “93990” by George Saunders. A slightly more practical (and modest) attempt to demonstrate causality was undertaken by David Kidd and Emanuele Castano; in their experiments, volunteers were randomly assigned to read a single text of either literary fiction, popular genre fiction, or nonfiction before taking a test of their ability to identify complex emotions based on photos that were tightly cropped around a subject’s eyes. 6 The results showed that those who had read the literary fiction text had higher scores than the others, suggesting that certain kinds of reading can stimulate mental processes that are relevant to identifying the emotions of others. Unlike formulaic popular fiction, which tends to rely on stereotypical characters and transparent motives, characters in literary fiction act in surprising and ambiguous ways that spill beyond the confines of familiar scripts. In a typical thriller (or medieval saga, for that matter) a character might respond to the murder of a wife with homicidal vengeance, a reaction that requires little analysis; but if he were to send the killer letters impersonating the dead wife—a literary novel just waiting to be written! —this would trigger deeper speculation about his motives and mental state. Kidd and Castano’s study is controversial, in part because of its lack of clear criteria for determining the categories of “literary fiction” versus “popular fiction,” and in part because several recent studies have failed to replicate7 its results (though similar findings8 have been reported for watching an award-winning TV drama versus a documentary). Nonetheless, additional research using brain imaging supports their general claims, showing that at least some of the time, reading can stimulate the same mental processes that are involved in deciphering other minds. Diana Tamir and her colleagues found that different patterns of brain activity were elicited by passages of text that were rich in social content compared with passages loaded with vivid spatial details. 9 In reading the social passages, people fired up the same brain network that is active in performing various tests of mentalizing skills. Moreover, consistent with the hypothesis that such texts can train social intelligence, heavy readers of fiction showed the highest level of brain activity in the mentalizing network during reading. Another study, conducted in the Netherlands, also found heightened activity in the mentalizing network in response to literary passages that described characters’ thoughts, desires, or beliefs. 10 In contrast, action-focused passages provoked activity in a very different network involving the visual and motor cortices. Although this study didn’t delve into the literary habits of the volunteers, individual brains differed in striking ways: Subjects seemed to divide up into those whose brains were most responsive to action sequences, versus those whose brains resonated to thinking about characters. Overall, there is mounting evidence for literature’s potential to reshape the mind. But we still know little about which qualities of a text, or which literary techniques, best arouse the mentalizing network. And, as the brain imaging evidence suggests, the neural activity provoked by any given text may depend largely on the reader—not just on what is being read, but what has been read in the past, and how the reader is now approaching the text. Aside from psychological experiments with present-day subjects, we can also look closely at literature itself for clues about the mentalizing powers of readers throughout history. All authors make choices about how much to state explicitly and how much to leave implicit. These choices reveal authors’ tacit assumptions about how large a gap between language and intention their readers will be able to leap over, how well their readers will be able to elaborate thoughts that are underspecified by language itself. Contemporary literature is full of broad gaps. The author Margaret Atwood notes that her own writing was influenced by Beatrix Potter, whom she describes as a master of oblique discourse. 11 In The Tale of Mr. Tod, Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit are in pursuit of Tommy Brock, a badger who has captured Benjamin’s children in a bag and is headed home, where he will likely eat them. On the way, the two rabbits pass the house of Cottontail Bunny, and ask if her husband, a black rabbit, is home, presumably to ask for his help in confronting Tommy Brock. In response, Cottontail says nothing about her husband, but simply states, “Tommy Brock had rested twice while she watched him. ” As the two rabbits continue their pursuit, Peter says, “He was at home; I saw his black ears peeping out of the hole. ” Benjamin replies, “They live too near the rocks to quarrel with their neighbours …” Atwood writes, “At the age of four, I quickly grasped that Cottontail had lied, but the ‘rocks’ remark took some thought. Finally, I got it: Tommy Brock has a shovel, and those that live in burrows too near the rocks are easy to catch by digging. Long-term craft lesson: no need to spell everything out because the reader is the co-creator of the story and can be depended on to pick up the dropped clues. ” Research shows a clear link between people’s mentalizing skills and the books on their nightstands. Atwood was undoubtedly a precocious 4-year-old, but there is evidence that average children can pick up such dropped clues, and that this process not only activates mentalizing networks in the brain, but that it hones these skills even more than the explicit labeling of mental states. In one study, kindergarten children heard stories such as Rosie’s Walk, in which a hen walks through a barnyard, appearing to be blithely unaware that she is being followed by a fox. 12 A second group of children heard the same stories, but with mental states clearly identified. “Rosie heard the loud BUMP but did she figure out that the hungry fox was behind her? No, she didn’t turn around. She doesn’t know that he’s behind her. ” The first group, forced to read between the lines, later performed better than the second group on a test that required them to infer the beliefs of others. When an author expresses deep confidence in a reader and creates a space in which the reader can, from the depths of her own social imagination, lower her consciousness into the body and experiences of another, the effect can be transformational. I’ve read many pieces over the years that have addressed the ethical implications of experimentation with animals. But the only one that provoked an empathic response strong enough to shift the needle of my moral compass was a story by George Saunders titled “93990. ” Which is striking, because this story is written in the dispassionate form of a lab report documenting the effects of a toxic substance administered to a group of 20 monkeys. There are virtually no mental state verbs; no subjective interpretations or introspections; no incursions into anyone’s consciousness. The story borrows the robes of academic language to describe, with utter detachment, the growing distress and eventual deaths of the test subjects. Of course, it’s precisely because the sterile language of the story refuses to acknowledge the inner experiences of either the test subjects or the experimenters that the story had such an effect on me. Rather than drawing attention to the mental states of his characters, Saunders was inviting me to reflect on them by creating a chasm between the horrors of what the experimenter was observing, and the language in which it was being observed. The effect is deeply moving. And intimate: It is as if Saunders himself has beckoned me over and silently parted a curtain, inviting me to stand next to him and watch the events unfolding behind it. With no one’s thoughts ever overtly expressed or described, I find myself thinking of the physical and mental agony of the animals and the conditioned indifference of the scientists, and thinking about the mind of Saunders thinking about the minds of the animals and the minds of the scientists we are watching together. Julie Sedivy has taught linguistics and psychology at Brown University and the University of Calgary, and is the author of Language in Mind: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. She is currently writing a book about losing and reclaiming a native tongue. 1. Ensor, R., Devine, R.T., Marks, A., & Hughes, C. Mothers’ cognitive references to 2-year-olds predict theory of mind at ages 6 and 10. Child Development 85, 1222-1235 (2014). 2. Pyers, J.E. & Shenghas, A. Language promotes false-belief understanding: Evidence from learners of a new sign language. Psychological Science 20, 805-812 (2009). 3. Mar, R.A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J., & Peterson, J.B. Bookworms versus nerds: Exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and eh simulation of fictional social worlds. Journal of Research in Personality 40, 694-712 (2006). 4. Kidd, D. & Castano, E. Different stories: How levels of familiarity with literacy and genre fiction relate to mentalizing. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (2016). Retrieved from DOI: 10. 1037/aca0000069 5. Fong, K., Mullin, J.B., & Mar, R.A. What you read matters: The role of fiction genre in predicting interpersonal sensitivity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 7, 370-376 (2013). 6. Kidd, D.C. & Castano, E. Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342, 377-380 (2013). 7. Panero, M.E., et al. Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 111, e46-e54 (2016). 8. Black, J. & Barnes, J.L. Fiction and social cognition: The effect of viewing award-winning television dramas on theory of mind. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 9, 423-429 (2015). 9. Tamir, D.I., Bricker, A.B., Dodell-Feder, D., & Mitchell, J.P. Reading fiction and reading minds: The role of simulation in the default network. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 11, 215-224 (2016). 10. Nijhof, A.D. & Willems, R.M. Simulating fiction: Individual differences in literature comprehension revealed with fMRI. PLOS One (2015). Retrieved from DOI:10. 1371/journal. pone. 0116492 11. The Stories That Changed Margaret Atwood’s Life www. cbc. ca (2013). 12. Peskin, J. & Astington, J.W. The effects of adding metacognitive language to story texts. Cognitive Development 19, 253-273 (2004). Lead photo collage credits: Fernando Cortes / gilotyna4 / Shutterstock

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A quiet revolution is sweeping Eastern Europe. From the Czech Republic to Albania and from Slovakia to Romania, people are taking to the streets to demand greater transparency from their governments. So far, the results have been modest, but it's a trend that will play an important role in the region for years to come, as well as one that will influence future government decisions and election outcomes. At a time when the European Union is harboring growing worries about the state of democracy and rule of law in its eastern members and candidate countries, voters are sending the message that they want their governments to become more transparent — something that might ultimately help mend the growing rift between the Continent's western and eastern halves. After the collapse of communist regimes in Europe between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, several countries in Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union; many more in the Western Balkans, meanwhile, aspire to do so one day. In recent years, the bloc has expressed concern about the health of democracy in some of its central and eastern members, as well as in some of its candidate countries. Recent demonstrations across the region show that large sectors of society in these countries share these concerns. Protests Inside and Outside the EU Throughout the first half of 2019, protests roiled countries across Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In the Czech Republic, people hit the streets several times to demand Prime Minister Andrej Babis' resignation over alleged fraud involving EU funds. The protests peaked in late June, when, according to organizers, around 250,000 people protested in Prague in the largest demonstration since the end of communist rule in 1989. In neighboring Slovakia, thousands have also turned out in recent weeks to protest the government and demand that authorities solve the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who was gunned down alongside his fiancee while looking into alleged political corruption linked to organized crime. As with the Czech Republic, the Slovak protests were also the biggest since the fall of communism three decades ago. Further to the southeast, several Romanian cities have witnessed intermittent protests since 2017 in response to government reforms that have increased control of the judiciary and softened the penalties for corruption-related crimes. According to activists, some of the protests gathered more than 500,000 people. People are expressing anger against their governments outside of the European Union, too. In Albania, opposition parties have demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama for months, accusing him of electoral fraud. Some of the demonstrations have led to violence, with police responding with tear gas and water cannon when some demonstrators tried to storm the country's parliament in April. In neighboring Serbia, people have also staged protests against the government since last November, when unknown assailants beat an opposition politician. The protesters are demanding greater freedom of the press and other political liberties, along with increased government transparency. Some protesters have also called for President Aleksandar Vucic's resignation. Opaque Governments Run Up Against a Vocal Society The origin of all these protests varies: In cases like Albania, opposition parties have led the rallies, while in others like Romania, the political opposition has backed demonstrations that were originally launched by civil society organizations or groups created on social media. Whatever their origin, these protests share common themes, including demands for greater government transparency, a more robust fight against corruption and deeper freedom of the press. The protests have also been contagious: For example, some of the organizers of the Czech protests admitted taking inspiration from the events in neighboring Slovakia. This is a notable trend for a region in which democracy arrived relatively recently. Over the past three decades, these countries (especially those that have joined the European Union) have become democracies, but there are signs that the process has slowed down or even begun to reverse in recent years. The European Union has expressed concern about weakening democracy and the rule of law in Poland, Hungary and Romania and threatened to take punitive measures against them. Brussels is worried that governments in the region are acquiring too much control over the judiciary, pressuring critical media outlets and being too lax on graft. The European Commission has also warned countries like Serbia and Albania, which aspire to join the European Union one day, to become more transparent. According to Transparency International, most countries in the area rank below the EU average on corruption. In its most recent Corruption Perception Index report, the body warned that "democratic institutions and values are at risk" in the region. This reveals one of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans' main social and political contradictions, which pits increasingly opaque governments against civil society groups that are demanding more transparency from their leaders. Enjoying Modest Successes Civil society organizations and political parties pushing for more transparent governments in the region face significant challenges. The first is to retain momentum. More often than not, mass protests fade after a few weeks as governments make cosmetic concessions that do not significantly alter the status quo. For example, large protests in Serbia have failed to move Belgrade to make any concessions. In addition, many of the governments in question enjoy widespread popularity despite the internal and external EU pressure against them. In many such cases, the opposition also remains divided despite its common antipathy toward the government. This is the case in Hungary and Poland, where the governing parties won elections for the European Parliament by a wide margin in May, despite EU concerns about the rule of law in both nations. The protests suggest that, three decades after the introduction of democracy, large segments of Eastern European societies do not want to slide back toward authoritarianism. In some cases, however, local and international anger has forced governments to change course. In the wake of a poor performance in EU parliamentary elections and a loss in a nonbinding referendum on government policies, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced last month that Bucharest would abandon some of its most controversial judicial reforms, as well as some recent decisions to soften penalties for corruption-related crimes. In Slovakia, anti-government protests also forced the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico in early 2018 and helped propel activist and political outsider Zuzana Caputova to the presidency in March. Then, in May's European Parliament election, Fico's Smer party lost for the first time in over a decade to a coalition of relatively new, pro-EU political forces. What It Means for Europe In the coming years, the emergence of a civil society that is willing to protest government measures that weaken democracy and the rule of law will have several impacts in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. To begin with, it will counterbalance government moves in the opposite direction. The protests will not always succeed, while governments will not become more transparent overnight. Nevertheless, the protests suggest that, three decades after the introduction of democracy, large segments of Eastern European societies do not want to slide back toward authoritarianism. Anti-government sentiment will also open the door to anti-establishment political forces across the region. In some cases, it could lead to genuinely democratic forces taking over and implementing reforms to strengthen the rule of law and the separation of powers in their countries. In others, it could lead to the emergence of nationalist and populist forces — a trend that is already manifesting itself across the European Union. In either case, a more volatile political environment will contribute to the social and political fragmentation that is occurring across Europe, which is leading to higher political risk, greater political uncertainty and more unpredictable elections. For the European Union, the situation represents a strategic dilemma. The bloc's main institutions and largest member states, Germany and France, will welcome pressure by civil society groups to make their governments more transparent. But there is a fine line between supporting these movements and being seen as a meddler. Euroskeptic forces across the region will likely portray EU support for anti-government protests and threats to punish governments as an example of EU interference in domestic affairs. Nationalist forces could also use EU actions to exacerbate anti-EU sentiment in a region that already has mixed feelings about Brussels. Over the past three decades, the desire to join Western international alliances such as the European Union and NATO made former authoritarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans introduce political and economic reforms to transform themselves into market democracies. The process was largely successful, as all the countries that joined the bloc in the 2000s and early 2010s are, for the most part, democratic nations, while most of the candidate countries have introduced democratic reforms under EU sponsorship. Germany and France will welcome pressure by civil society groups to make eastern governments more transparent. But there is a fine line between supporting these movements and being seen as a meddler. But recent events have raised concerns in Brussels and other Western European capitals about the health of democratic values and the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Countries like France have gone as far as to say that countries that do not respect EU values should no longer receive money from the bloc. But the European Union's own internal political disputes also contribute to the widening gap between the Continent's east and west, as many eastern member states have become more skeptical of the benefits of EU integration and, therefore, less willing to follow Brussels' guidelines. At the same time, some candidate countries may become less willing to follow EU guidance if they believe they will not join the bloc for the foreseeable future. The recent decision to give control of the bloc's main political institutions to nationals from "core" countries like France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy instead of states in the east represented, in part, a reaction by western EU member states to eastern governments' behavior. More than that, it was also a sign of a growing disconnection between the bloc's east and west — a process that could end up splitting Europe irrevocably. Recent demonstrations in many eastern countries, however, show that a sizable section of civil society is willing to make its presence felt to demand greater government transparency, less corruption, more freedom of the media and stronger rule of law, all as part of an effort to prevent that gap from widening. Such pro-democracy protests are not necessarily pro-EU, but demands for greater transparency could certainly help bridge the split between the bloc's east and west.

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Texas A & M College of Nursing Can you imagine a world without music? Music is more than playing skillfully on an instrument. It can be the song of birds, the music of the ocean rushing to the shore or the babbling of a baby. Research has shown that music has a profound effect on the body and mind, says Brenda Austin, M.S.N., RN, assistant professor in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Nursing in Round Rock. Music therapy is being used to help treat cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and autism. It also has been shown to benefit those suffering from depression, as an adjunct to pain management, and to reduce anxiety. “Music therapy can help lower blood pressure, boost immunity, ease muscle tension and even help with stress management,” Austin says. “Depending upon the type of music you listen to, you can sharpen your concentration and become more alert. If you opt to listen to a softer piece, it can enhance relaxation and promote better sleep. ” In addition, music can lift our spirits, especially when we ourselves sing. “How many times have you been emotionally and spiritually moved through music? ” Austin says. “It could be a favorite hymn, a ‘golden oldie’ or ‘The Star- Spangled Banner.’ Even the Bible has examples of how music can soothe. ”

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Heel pain is most often caused by plantar fasciitis, a condition that is sometimes also called heel spur syndrome when a spur is present. Heel pain may also be due to other causes, such as a stress fracture, tendonitis, arthritis, nerve irritation, or, rarely, a cyst. Because there are several potential causes, it is important to have heel pain properly diagnosed. A foot and ankle surgeon is able to distinguish between all the possibilities and determine the underlying source of your heel pain. What Is Plantar Fasciitis? Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the band of tissue (the plantar fascia) that extends from the heel to the toes. In this condition, the fascia first becomes irritated and then inflamed, resulting in heel pain. Plantar fasciitis can come from a number of underlying causes. Finding the precise reason for the heel pain is sometimes difficult. As you can imagine, when the foot is on the ground a tremendous amount of force (the full weight of the body) is concentrated on the plantar fascia. This force stretches the plantar fascia as the arch of the foot tries to flatten from the weight of your body. This is just how the string on a bow is stretched by the force of the bow trying to straighten. This leads to stress on the plantar fascia where it attaches to the heel bone. Small tears of the fascia can result. These tears are normally repaired by the body. As this process of injury and repair repeats itself over and over again, a bone spur (a pointed outgrowth of the bone) sometimes forms as the body's response to try to firmly attach the fascia to the heelbone. This appears on an X-ray of the foot as a heel spur. Bone spurs occur along with plantar fasciitis but they are not the cause of the problem. As we age, the very important fat pad that makes up the fleshy portion of the heel becomes thinner and degenerates (starts to break down). This can lead to inadequate padding on the heel. With less of a protective pad on the heel, there is a reduced amount of shock absorption. These are additional factors that might lead to plantar fasciitis. Some physicians feel that the small nerves that travel under the plantar fascia on their way to the forefoot become irritated and may contribute to the pain. But some studies have been able to show that pain from compression of the nerve is different from plantar fasciitis pain. In many cases, the actual source of the painful heel may not be defined clearly. Other factors that may contribute to the development of plantar fasciitis include obesity, trauma, weak plantar flexor muscles, excessive foot pronation (flat foot) or other alignment problems in the foot and or ankle, and poor footwear. See your doctor immediately if you have Severe pain and swelling near your heel. Inability to bend your foot downward, rise on your toes or walk normally. Heel pain with fever, numbness or tingling in your heel. Severe heel pain immediately after an injury. Schedule an office visit if you have. Heel pain that continues when you're not walking or standing. Heel pain that lasts more than a few weeks, even after you've tried rest, ice and other home treatments. To arrive at a diagnosis, the foot and ankle surgeon will obtain your medical history and examine your foot. Throughout this process the surgeon rules out all the possible causes for your heel pain other than plantar fasciitis. In addition, diagnostic imaging studies such as x-rays or other imaging modalities may be used to distinguish the different types of heel pain. Sometimes heel spurs are found in patients with plantar fasciitis, but these are rarely a source of pain. When they are present, the condition may be diagnosed as plantar fasciitis/heel spur syndrome. Non Surgical Treatment Treatment options for plantar fasciitis include custom prescription foot orthoses (orthotics), weight loss when indicated, steroid injections and physical therapy to decrease the inflammation, night-splints and/or cast boots to splint and limit the stress on the plantar fascia. Orthotripsy (high frequency ultra-sonic shock waves) is also a new treatment option that has been shown to decrease the pain significantly in 50 to 85 percent of patients in published studies. Surgery, which can be done endoscopically, is usually not needed for over 90 percent of the cases of plantar fasciitis. (However, when surgery is needed, it is about 85 percent successful. ) Patients who are overweight do not seem to benefit as much from surgery. Generally, plantar fasciitis is a condition people learn to control. There are a few conditions similar to plantar fascia in which patients should be aware. The most common is a rupture of the plantar fascia: the patient continues to exercise despite the symptoms and experiences a sudden sharp pain on the bottom of the heel and cannot stand on his or her toes, resulting in bruising in the arch. Ruptures are treated very successfully by immobilization in a cast boot for two to six weeks, a period of active rest and physical therapy. Another problem with prolonged and neglected plantar fasciitis is development of a stress fracture from the constant traction of this ligament on the heel bone. This appears more common in osteoporotic women, and is also treated with cast boot immobilization. The nerves that run along the heel occasionally become inflamed by the subsequent thickening and inflammation of the adjacent plantar fascia. These symptoms often feel like numbness and burning and usually resolve with physical therapy and injections. Patients should also be aware that heel numbness can be the first sign of a back problem. Surgery is a last resort in the treatment of heel pain. Physicians have developed many procedures in the last 100 years to try to cure heel pain. Most procedures that are commonly used today focus on several areas, remove the bone spur (if one is present), release the plantar fascia (plantar fasciotomy), release pressure on the small nerves in the area. Usually the procedure is done through a small incision on the inside edge of the foot, although some surgeons now perform this type of surgery using an endoscope. An endoscope is a tiny TV camera that can be inserted into a joint or under the skin to allow the surgeon to see the structures involved in the surgery. By using the endoscope, a surgeon can complete the surgery with a smaller incision and presumably less damage to normal tissues. It is unclear whether an endoscopic procedure for this condition is better than the traditional small incision. Surgery usually involves identifying the area where the plantar fascia attaches to the heel and releasing the fascia partially from the bone. If a small spur is present this is removed. The small nerves that travel under the plantar fascia are identified and released from anything that seems to be causing pressure on the nerves. This surgery can usually be done on an outpatient basis. This means you can leave the hospital the same day. heel pain treatment You can reduce the risk of heel pain in many ways, including. Wear shoes that fit you properly with a firm fastening, such as laces. Choose shoes with shock-absorbent soles and supportive heels. Repair or throw out any shoes that have worn heels. Always warm up and cool down when exercising or playing sport, include plenty of slow, sustained stretches. If necessary, your podiatrist will show you how to tape or strap your feet to help support the muscles and ligaments. Shoe inserts (orthoses) professionally fitted by your podiatrist can help support your feet in the long term.

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The study of Mussar began in tenth-century Babylonia when Sa’adia Ga’on published his Book of Beliefs and Opinions and launched an inquiry into human nature that has been going on in the Jewish world ever since. Before the nineteenth century, Mussar was an introspective, solitary practice. However, in the mid-1800s Rabbi Yisrael Salanter called on the Jewish people to learn and practice Mussar as a means to strengthen their hearts. His disciple, Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, later founded a yeshiva in Lithuania which became the seat of the Kelm stream of Mussar. Two other disciples, Rabbi Noson Tzvi Finkel of Slabodka and Rabbi Yoseph Yozel Hurwitz of Novarodok also founded yeshivas and articulated their own versions of Mussar teaching. Contemporary Mussar teachers draw on all three schools to inform their teaching. In the 20th Century, Rabbi Elyah Lopian, Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, and Rabbi Schlomo Wolbe continued to write and teach, keeping the vault of spiritual wisdom accessible. Many of the Jews involved in the Musar movement were killed in the Holocaust, and scholars, like Hillel Goldberg, wrote that it was only before World War II that Musar was “still a living community. ” Following the war, some students of the Musar movement settled in Israel and established Mussar yeshivas there. Those who settled in the United States established few institutions dedicated to Mussar but some yeshivas continue to give time to Mussar study each week. At the start of the 21st century, a significant revival of interest in the Musar movement has occurred in North America in various sectors of the Jewish world. Within the Orthodox community, the AishDas Society, founded by Rabbi Micha Berger, and the Salant Foundation, founded by Rabbi Zvi Miller, began to organize Musar groups, classes, and other teaching events. Avi Fertig. now the Director of Mussar at The Mussar Institute, an Orthodox rabbi published books to teach Mussar from an Orthodox perspective. In 2004, The Mussar Institute, was founded by Alan Morinis to spread the practice of Musar in a non-Orthodox framework. Morinis’ book, Everyday Holiness (2007) and Ira Stone’s book A Responsible Life (2007) have been among the popular books which sparked contemporary interest in the Musar movement. Musar has been described as “an emerging and growing phenomenon” within Reform Judaism, and leaders of Conservative Judaism have debated whether Musar should stand at the center of its approach. Sources: Everyday Holiness by Alan Morinis; Wikipedia

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- For other places with the same name, see Bethlehem (disambiguation). The Church of the Nativity Bethlehem (Arabic: بيت لحم, Beit Lahm Hebrew: בית לחם Beit Lechem) is a small city located some 10 km (6 miles) south of the Old City of Jerusalem within the West Bank, in an "Area A" zone administered by the Palestinian Authority. The "little town" of Bethlehem, mentioned in any number of Christmas carols, attracts pilgrims worldwide on account of its description in the New Testament (and particularly the Gospels) as the birthplace of Jesus, whom Christians believe to be Messiah and Son of God. The Church of the Nativity, one of the oldest churches in the world, is the focus of Christian veneration within the city. Bethlehem is revered by Jews as the birthplace and home town of David, King of Israel, as well as the traditional site of Rachel's Tomb (on the outskirts of the town). Although also home to many Muslims, Bethlehem remains home to one of the largest Arab Christian communities in the Middle East and one of the chief cultural and tourism draw cards for the community. The Bethlehem agglomeration also includes the small towns of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, the latter also having biblical significance. Building up to the Millennium in the year 2000, Bethlehem underwent a massive largely foreign-funded project called Bethlehem 2000 in hopes of turning Bethlehem into a major tourist destination comparable to destinations such as Jerusalem or Tel Aviv in tourism infrastructure. Unfortunately a year later, the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occurred and the ensuing violence scuttled these tourism efforts. With the Palestinian uprising and violent clashes between both sides now have been over and done with for quite a few years, violence is now a thing of the past and many in Bethlehem hope to continue on where Bethlehem 2000 started them off. A long snake of town, the main thoroughfare of Bethlehem is Manger Street which stretches from Rachel's Tomb (and the road to Jerusalem) all the way to Manger Square, the focal point of the city. Manger Square is flanked by the Church of the Nativity on one side and the Mosque of Omar on the other. The Old Town and the souq (market), which are best navigated on foot, stretch up the hill from Manger Square. The name means "The House of Bread" in Hebrew, and "The House of Meat" in Arabic. However, it seems likely that both meanings have been retrofitted onto what was originally the House of Lachma, the Mesopotamian god of fertility. The area has been settled since 5,000 BC and there is some evidence that the town is mentioned in the Egyptian Amarna letters (1400 BC). The Old Testament Book of Ruth (c. 1150 BC) has the first certain reference to Bethlehem; it tells the story of Naomi, who left Bethlehem during a famine, and later returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth. Still, Bethlehem remained a small town in the shadow of mighty Jerusalem, and according to most estimates it had some 300 to 1000 inhabitants at the time of the event that gave Bethlehem its fame, namely the birth of Jesus. Somewhat surprisingly, aside from noting that the Nativity indeed took place there, the New Testament virtually ignores Bethlehem. And things didn't change immediately afterwards: wrecked during the Bar-Kochba revolt (132-135 AD), the Romans set up a shrine to Adonis on the site of the Nativity. Only in 326 was the first Christian church constructed, when Helen, the mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine, visited Bethlehem. Afterwards it grew slowly but steadily, achieving its pinnacle as a strong fortified city during the Crusader era, but the Ottomans razed the fortifications and reduced Bethlehem back into the village it was 2000 years earlier. The setback proved only temporary, and despite the turbulence of the 20th century the town has (as of 2000) grown to an estimated 184,000 inhabitants. On December 21, 1995, Bethlehem became one of the areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. In the city itself, 41% of the population is Christian, while 59% is Muslim. Christians used to be a large majority but their numbers have declined throughout the 20th century. Although Arabic is the language of Bethlehem's inhabitants, English, French and other languages are widely spoken and understood by many people in Bethlehem. It should be noted as well that although Bethlehem is a Palestinian town, it is also a tourist-orientated town. Because of Bethlehem's immense potential as a tourism magnet, the Palestinian Authority maintains a constant tourist police presence in the city. For example, if escalations in violence are occurring in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip, this does not mean that trips to other Palestinian cities such as Bethlehem should be seen as unsafe Bethlehem is a safe place to visit for tourists to visit and tourist numbers are increasing to this hidden gem of the Holy Land. Artwork displayed in the Church of the Nativity Nearly all travellers arrive via Jerusalem. Since Bethlehem is administered by the Palestinian Authority, an Israeli military checkpoint stands on the road connecting the two locations. If entering from Jerusalem on a direct route, one will pass through the "Rachel's Crossing" Israeli checkpoint into Bethlehem. If the bus stops at the checkpoint on the way into Palestine (often it does not), one simply flashes one's passport to an Israeli soldier, places one's bags into an X-ray machine, and then walks through a metal detector, much like airport security, to get into/exit Bethlehem. As with all areas under Palestinian Authority control, Israeli law forbids Israeli citizens to enter unless they receive approval from the Israeli Civil Administration. Tourists are free to enter and exit the checkpoint to Bethlehem and back to Jerusalem as many times as they would like without any restrictions. Make sure you bring your passport with your Israeli-issued tourist visa to enter and exit the Palestinian areas. You can easily hire a taxi in Jerusalem to take you to Bethlehem. The taxi must have a yellow license plate and the driver should be able to go to Area A in Bethlehem. Any Arab taxi driver who has a yellow license plate can take you to Bethlehem and back to Jerusalem. If you need assistance finding a driver ask your hotel or go to Damascus Gate in the Old City where many West Bank taxis and buses operate from. Be careful if using a hire-car from West Jerusalem, as rental companies in Israel might make it clear that the car has to be used, and remain, on Israeli soil. This is not the case if you rent the car in East Jerusalem. There are three Arab/Palestinian bus stations nearby the Damascus Gate ("Bab el-'Amoud") that host buses going to various West Bank Palestinian cities - the one to Bethlehem is on your left when you leave the Old City via Damascus Gate (if you have trouble finding the bus station, ask a local). Note that Arab/Palestinian buses continue to operate during the day and early evening during Shabat and other Jewish holidays when Israeli public transport does not run. Arab bus 21 or 231 (sometimes also marked 234) runs via Beit Jala to Bethlehem. These buses do not always display their numbers, the number is inaccurate, or it changes, so it is best to ask the driver. The average trip length is 30 minutes and costs ₪6. 80 (March 2018). This route takes you straight into Bethlehem via the checkpoint between Beit Jala and Gilo on Highway 60 (31°42'20. 1"N 35°10'08. 2"E) typically without needing to stop. Some soldiers might come to check your passport on the bus, particularly when heading back into Jerusalem, but it's quite painless. Note that tourists are supposed to remain on the bus while Palestinians must usually exit the bus and line up outside (especially if they do not have blue East Jerusalem ID cards or Israeli passports). After you pass through the checkpoint, tell the driver where you're headed and he'll let you know what the best stop is to get off. The bus terminates here at Bab Iz Qaq (Gate of the arches), a busy intersection at the center of Bethlehem. From there you can either cab to the main area (Manger Square, Church of Nativity, ₪10 is the fixed price for a journey in Bethlehem as of June 2016), or just walk 15 minutes or so up the hill at the intersection when you get off the bus (the road is listed as Children St on Google Maps). Note that cab drivers are fairly persistent (though not aggressive), so the best way to avoid them is to simply decline politely ("Laa, shukran") and walk on. A general rule is that the cab drivers that hang around waiting for customers (particularly tourists) are more likely to rip you off, though if you are keen to see some Banksy murals you may be able to haggle to get a good deal here; just make sure to agree on a price before getting into any taxi. To return to Jerusalem at Bab Iz Qaq, wait for the bus at the same side of the road that you were dropped off. Shared taxis (sherut/servees) leave from the Arab bus station nearby Damascus Gate and manage the trip in 20 minutes. If you want to go to/from Rachel's Tomb, then there is minibus 234 (was 24 before) that also leaves from the same bus station in Jerusalem, it costs ₪5 and runs directly to the Bethlehem Checkpoint and back. But if you do not want to go to Rachel's Tomb then bus 231 is better. There are also Israeli Egged buses going to Rachel's checkpoint. Make sure to bring a passport and Israeli visa slip. It may also be the case that you are waved through without any inspection. From the checkpoint, you can either walk half an hour or take a taxi to the center of Bethlehem (25shekels), which is about 3 km away. Devoted pilgrims often prefer to walk (and in happier times there has been a large procession at Christmas), at a brisk pace the trip is doable in 2 hours but there are plenty of ups and downs along the way and the summer heat is fearsome. For first time visitors who may be surprised at how busy Bethlehem is, it may be best to travel by taxi (although a taxi is good if someone feels lost if a 2km walk is a problem - there are traffic jams on some streets so one may walk as fast as taxi drives). Bethlehem is a small city so taxi rides can be quite cheap, depending on your haggling skills. From the checkpoint to the Church of the Nativity (and anywhere within Bethlehem city) it should cost no more than ₪20. To travel from Bethlehem to its neighboring suburbs of Beit Sahour or Beit Jala, it should be no more than ₪25-30. To travel to any of the destinations located outside of these areas (such as Herodium, any of the surrounding Monasteries or Solomon's Pools) it's advisable to negotiate a price with a taxi driver at the Bethlehem bus station. Many taxi drivers are willing to take you to a site, wait there while you tour a site and then take you back to Bethlehem for a negotiated price. Whenever negotiating a taxi price, always say the lowest price you think would be reasonable for the trip, and bargain with the driver from there. The driver will start as high as he thinks he can charge and bargain down for you. Make sure to agree on a price before going into a taxi. Warning: Some Bethlehem taxi drivers can be extremely welcoming, but also extremely manipulative. Be absolutely firm with them about where you want to go, or they may unilaterally appoint themselves your tour guide and take you everywhere they want you to go - including attractions you didn't ask to see and stores from which they receive a commission. Some may even invite you to have coffee at their home or even spend the night, but in return expect to be your tour guide for the duration of your time in Palestine. You can bargain them down to reasonable prices if you're tough, so if you don't want the hassle of trying to make your own way around, this can be a lovely way to see Palestine and spend time with a Palestinian family. However, if you like to explore independently and dislike being pressured into making decisions, it's best not to hire a single driver for the whole day. Alternatively, if you do not wish to see the city through cab window you can first get to Manger square (around 20 min on foot from the bus stop you arrive from Jerusalem); a decent map of Bethlehem's streets is probably a good idea (as of 23/4/15 Google Maps was missing a fair few streets and had several misnamed, I found OpenStreetMap to be pretty flawless). There you can find a tourist information office and get a free map and a lot of valuable information about transportation there. They will eagerly provide you with sherut destinations and fair prices which allows you to save considerably as well as to feel the real taste of the Arab culture. For example, to visit Herodium by taxi will cost you about ₪200 (return) while you can get there by sherut for ₪5 (one way) + 30 min walk. The Catholic site of the Shepherd's Fields in Bethlehem's Beit Sahour suburb - the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square - undoubtedly the top attraction in Bethlehem, a veritable citadel built fortress-like on top of the cave where Jesus was born to Mary. It is one of the oldest churches in the world. The first incarnation of the building was erected on the orders of the Roman Emperor Constantine I (the Great) in 330 CE. While the layout largely corresponds to Emperor Justinian's plans from 540 CE (the first building having been destroyed in a 536 riot), the church was first heavily fortified by the Crusaders and then degraded (mostly through neglect) under Mamluk rule. An earthquake in 1834 and a fire in 1869 didn't help. Today, the structure is mostly sound but somewhat dark and gloomy in appearance, only the adjoining Franciscan Church of St Catherine (dated 1881 and the site of the yearly December 24 midnight mass broadcast around the world) being in excellent shape. The actual alleged site of Jesus' birth, is located in an cave in the church (the original Manger where Jesus was born was a cave, not a shed, as popularly depicted). There is a star marking the exact location of Jesus' birth in the cave. The original Manger with the star marking Jesus' birth site is called the Grotto of the Nativity, and is accessible from inside the church. (The tomb of famed theologian and Bethlehem resident St. Jerome, who spent his life translating the Bible, is also in the cave with the Grotto.) Entrance to the entire complex is free, but in the high season be prepared for massive crowds and hour-long waits for entry into the Grotto. There are usually accredited tour-guides waiting at the entrance of the church who offer to give tours to groups/individuals. Make sure to agree on a price before taking the tour. - Rachel's Tomb, the burial place of the matriarch Rachel, wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin is the second most important historical site for Christians in Bethlehem. (Genesis 35:19-20). It is a holy site in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. As a result of the security situation, the Tomb's original structure has been surrounded by an Israeli fortress, barricading it off from Bethlehem. While the original tomb can still be seen in its entirety from within the fortress, access to the tomb is now restricted to those travelling by Egged bus from Jerusalem. - the Shepherds' Fields - "While shepherds watched their flocks by night. . . " - rival locations in the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Sahour claim to be the site of the angel's visitation to the shepherds mentioned in the Gospels: - the Orthodox Shepherds' Fields Here you will also find open excavations of an old Byzantine church. - the Catholic (Latin) Shepherds' Fields - Minor sights include the Milk Grotto Chapel, where Mary supposedly spilled a few drops of breast milk while feeding Jesus as she hid before the Holy Family's escape to Egypt, turning the cavern milky white. It is open all day. The white powder scrapped from the cave is also sold as a fertility medicine inside the chapel. - the Mosque of Omar A mosque in active use. Rather plain and uninteresting on the inside but somewhat pretty on the outside. - Solomon's Pools Three huge Herodian-era stone carved reservoirs capable of holding 160,000 cubic meters of water. They are located in a pine tree forest about 3km from Bethlehem in a beautiful hiking area called the Artas Valley. In Artas, there is also the very beautiful Italian Order of the Sisters of Mary of the Garden built the Hortus Conclusus Convent and as well a Palestinian Folklore museum. Artas village also boasts an annual lettuce festival. - King David's Wells King David's Wells (Biyar Daoud) in King David street, off Manger Square, are three Great Cisterns excavated in the rock in Ras Eftais, an eastern sector of Bethlehem, marking the site where David's army broke through a Philistine garrison to bring him water; "Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem" (2 Sam. 23:15). It is believed by some that under the adjacent Church of St. David is where the King is buried (as opposed to the traditional tomb in Jerusalem). The cisterns were discovered in 1895. The church rested on a vast Necropolis composed of 18 Arcosolia with two to six tombs each. The cemetery was Christian as proved by the inscription. The Catholic Action Club lies on the site of one of the cisterns. - the Old City is also good for a stroll and shopping if you haven't seen an Arab city before. - The graffiti by famed yet mysterious artist Banksy, drawn on the barrier wall dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem, has drawn worldwide media attention and is definitely worth a look. There are, I think, many other artists' work as well, including a Palestinian version of Guernica. To see this, it is probably best to hire a taxi. - Herodium, (Ask a taxi driver at Bethlehem's bus station to take you there). A must see! The site of King Herod's man made mountain and his recently discovered tomb. It is located near Bethlehem. Once at Bethlehem's bus station (called the mujamma), negotiate a price with a taxi driver who will take you to the site, wait for you there, and drop you back off at the Bethlehem bus station. ₪150-200 should be reasonable, better to go with a group of people and split the cab cost. Another option is to take the sherut which will drop you off nearby for only 5 NIS but you will have to walk 30 min. edit - The Monastery of St. George/ Al Khader, (Al Khader village). Visit the village of Al Khader beside Bethlehem to see the Monastery of St George (a very important Christian Saint for Orthodox Christians, also called "Mar Jeriess" in Arabic). The monastery is said to hold relics from the saint that posess healing powers-especially for mental illness. The monastery was used in the 19th century as a psychiatric facility to treat mental illness by using St George's relics. The site is also venerated in Muslim tradition as the setting for the Muslim prophet Al Khider's teachings. In mid-April or early May (it goes by the Julian calendar), the town (both Muslims and Christians) holds a festival for St.George that is worth seeing edit - St Elias Monastery. Visit the St Elias Monastery, an ancient Orthodox Christian monastery built over the ruins of a Byzantine church is located on the outer edge of Bethlehem. It is surrounded by beautiful surroundings that remind one of what Bethlehem's scenery may have looked like in Biblical times. edit - Monastery of Mar Saba, (15 km from Bethlehem), ☎ 277 3135. 8am-5pm. The monastery of Mar Saba is located only 6km from St. Theodosius and 15 km from Bethlehem. Few of the Byzantine desert monasteries can match the serenity and beauty this monastery. Clinging to the cliff face of the Kidron Valley, this immense and spectacular Greek Orthodox Monastery evokes a thrilling shock when its first comes into view in the midst of a desert landscape. The Monastery is named after Saint Saba (439-532 CE) who settled in a cave opposite the actual site in complete seclusion that lasted some 5 years. Built into the rock, Mar Saba represents a way of life unchanged since the time of Constantine. The body of Saint Saba can be seen in the principle church while his tomb is paved in the courtyard outside. The first church founded by Saint Saba is marked by the Chapel of St Nicholas. Although Mar Saba is reputed for its hospitality to strangers, women have never been allowed to enter. Hence women can enjoy a glimpse of the chapel and building from a nearby two story tower known as the Women’s Tower. edit - Monastery of St. Theodosius, ☎ 050 282 447. The Monastery of St. Theodosius (also known in Arabic as Deir Dosi) is located about 12 Km east of Bethlehem. Founded by St. Theodosius in the late 5th to early 6th century stands on the site where the three wise men rested on their way back from visiting the Infant Jesus in Bethlehem. The original monastery was destroyed during the Persian invasion. St. Theodosius died in 529 CE and at that time there was said to be some 400 monks living in the Monastery who were massacred by the Persians during the invasion of 614 CE. The Monastery was restored in 1893 by the Greek Orthodox Church and it encompasses the remains of an old Crusader building. Today the Monastery is inhabited by a dozen Greek Orthodox monks. A white-walled cave marks the place where the founder, St. Theodosius is buried. 8am-3pm. edit The scenery around Bethlehem-perfect for hiking! - Visit Solomon's Pools, and hike in the Artas Valley, believed to be the site of hortus conclusus, Solomon’s erotic Canticle or Song of Songs: “Thou art like a garden enclosed, my sister, my spouse, like a sealed fountain. Thy plantations are a paradise of delights. " Artas is just a short Taxi ride outside of the city. - Dance at Cosmos nightclub, located in Beit Jala at the top of the hill, or at Cheers or Roots Lounge in Beit Sahour. - Hike outside of Mar Elias, an ancient Orthodox Christian monastery, located to the East of Bethlehem and accessible via taxi. - Participate in homestays and volunteer opportunities organized by the Holy Land Trust, such as the Palestine Summer Encounter in which one stays with with a host family for 1-3 months, studies Arabic, volunteers in Bethlehem, visits different Palestinian and Israeli cities, and meets with both Israeli and Palestinian peace makers. - Celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem: spend Christmas in the town where it all began! Bethlehem is decked out in Christmas decorations for the Holiday season. Make sure to attend Midnight Mass led by the various leaders of the Holy Land's Christian denominations on Christmas Eve with the thousands of both foreign and local worshipers who gather in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity. Christmas is just magical in Bethlehem, there is nothing like it! The Christmas season is definitely the most exciting time to be in Bethlehem, much Christmas spirit is present in the town. The All Nations Cafe organizes summer caravans where internationals can learn about the social, political and cultural fabrics of life in and around Bethlehem. The Holy Land Trust organizes tours of many cities in Palestine for both politically inclined tourists and religious tourists. They are also able to organize homestays with local families and or short term/long term volunteer opportunities in the Bethlehem area for willing participants. The Bethlehem Bible College offers Bible study courses in English, Arabic, and other languages The Arabic School for Overseas Students & Diplomats at Bethlehem University offers month-long intensive courses (January, July, and August) in Spoken and Media Arabic, catering to all levels of proficiency. A spice shop in Bethlehem's souq While Bethlehem's souq is a lot smaller than Jerusalem's, it is much less touristy and the sellers are less aggressive and very friendly, many even offer potential customers coffee and tea. The Palestinian Authority doesn't charge a sales tax, so Bethlehem's shopkeepers charge much less for souvenirs. Bethlehem is a perfect place to practice those bargaining skills that you were hoping to try out! If buying gold jewelry in Bethlehem or Jerusalem old market, avoid buying gold as most of the items are gold plated silver. Planned tours going with guides from tourist information center in Jerusalem old city will also stop at some shops in Bethlehem for you to buy the fake items. In peaceful times, Bethlehem's traders do a roaring trade in souvenirs for pilgrims to the town. In the current situation, the tour operators prefer to quickly hustle their guided groups in and out of the Nativity Church without allowing them time to look around Manger Square. Often, at the end of the tour, they will take their groups to a pre-selected souvenir shop and charge the owner of the shop a big commission for the sales made to the tour group. That means most smaller souvenir shops here are blessedly free from pilgrims, and also that the smaller shops are in desperate need of business. They remain, however, substantially less aggressive than Jerusalem's sellers. Souvenir shops in Bethlehem are much, much cheaper than in Jerusalem- with all the same selection (surprisingly, many Bethlehem souvenir shops even have Jewish themed souvenirs). One must venture out of Manger square to the souvenir shops on Manger Street and also in the market place beside Manger Square past the Mosque of Omar. The smaller looking souvenir shops offer the best deals and very friendly service. Bethlehem is an awesome place to get all your Holy Land souvenirs for much, much cheaper than you would get them in Israel. If a price is listed in USD, it's a hiked price for tourists, so don't hesitate to bargain for a much lower price (you will almost always get a lower price if you ask for it). You must visit the Milk Grotto Church which is two minutes away from the Nativity Church. On your way up there, look for an Olive Wood factory located on the Milk Grotto Street, with the name Christmas House Olive Wood Factory . The guys there can provide you with an amazing tour of their workshop and you can see how they hand carve things from the olive trees, a must see. Very friendly Christian family, and they also have a gift shop, where you can find really unique gifts. Also they have another gift shop right in the manger square next to the peace center building. Just off Manger Square on Milk Grotto Street there are a number of souvenir shops selling various religious gifts and Bethlehem's famous olive wood carvings. I found the Tabash Nativity Store friendly, not pushy, and willing to give discounts. They will also offer you a free Turkish coffee. Visit one of Bethlehem's four refugee camps for traditional Palestinian handicrafts, handmade olive oil soap, and beautiful embroidery. - Bethlehem Souvenir (Christian Gifts shop/e-store), Jerusalem - Hebron Rd (By Rachel's Tomb), ☎ +970-2-2745129, . Welcome to Bethlehem Souvenir - christian gifts - Offers christian gifts such as Olive wood, cross, silver, gold, Ceramic from Palestine edit - Christian Gifts Shop (Christian Gifts), By Rachel's Tomb (Hebron Road), ☎ +972-2-2745129, . Sells Christian souvenirs, piece of Bethlehem to share with your family and friends. Many items in store with world wide delivery option. edit - Jewelry stores in the market places, (across the Manger Square past the Mosque of Omar). The Middle East is known for its top quality, beautiful gold and jewelry. Bethlehem has some really nice jewelry stores that sell higher carat gold jewelry for really, really cheap. This is an excellent opportunity to get high carat gold (up to 22 carats) for a fraction of what you'd pay back home! ! edit - Holy Star Gifts (across from Caritas Children's Hospital, on the opposite side of the Separation Wall from Rachel's tomb; ask a taxi to take you to the Anastas family shop or follow the directions on the website), ☎ 972 2 2747438, . Christian souvenir shop surrounded on three sides by the Wall. Visit to do some shopping and hear the story of the Anastas family's struggles living next to the Wall. The family also operates a bed & breakfast and gives tours and talks about Palestinian life to groups. edit Taybeh beer-a Palestinian beer brand from the village of Taybeh nearby Ramallah - The Peace Centre, Manger Square - excellent value and good food and local 'Canaan' wine. Clean and airy with inside and outside seating. - Shepherds Valley Village - The Tent Restaurant, Beit Sahour. Nearby the Shepherd's Field. Tel +972 2 2773875 . Good local cuisine in an outdoor setting or tent in winter. Good views across the valley. - Mundo Restaurant, Manger Street (on the Main Road, not far from Nativity Square), ☎ (+972) 02 274 2299, . 11:00am - 11:00pm. Mundo Restaurant makes the best pizza in Bethlehem, if not all of Palestine. Prices are excellent, especially considering the high-quality ingredients that are used for the pizza and all the meals. The restaurant provides a family-friendly atmosphere (and an excellent view) that is popular for tourists and locals alike. edit - The Citadel - The Citadel Restaurant, Beith Sahour. Local cuisine and Taybeh beer in an old Bethlehem building with a friendly staff. - Random felafel stand opposite the Nativity Church. Facing the Peace Center with Nativity Church to your right, there is a felafel stand at the corner, with a basement restaurant attached. ₪8 for felafel sandwich and Fanta soda. ₪5 for pita falafel alone. Also has shwarma etc. Very fair prices, completely satisfactory. - Bonjour Restaurant & Cafe, John Paul II Street. 9am-1130pm. Located right next to Bethlehem University (in the heart of Bethlehem), "Bonjour" offers international cuisine (with a Arabic flair) in a stylish, relaxing space. Owned by two young Palestinian entrepreneurs, Bonjour has free Wi-fi, great coffee, and an attractive menu. Arabic, English, and Hebrew spoken. edit - Stars and Bucks Cafe, (down hill from the Church of the Nativity). This knock-off of Starbucks offers Starbucks styled beverages as well as Arabic snacks. The also serve very good homemade ice-cream! edit - Afteem Restaurant, (on the outer, downhill edge of Manger Square). If you love falafel, fresh homemade hummus, and other tasty Arabic food. . . . you MUST visit this restaurant! It Probably one of the best falafel shops in Palestine or Israel. The falafel is so good, shops come from as far away as Haifa to buy the raw mix. edit - Abu Shanab, (Ring road), ☎ 02-274 2895. The best grills in town, served by two brothers with impressive mustaches. Fresh ingredients and the meat are chopped and prepared in front of you using traditional methods. The restaurant issues certificates stating that you have eaten there. edit - Dar Jdoudnah, (off Manger Square), ☎ 02-274 3212. A fine bar with excellent snacks, particularly the Sambusek (wild thyme-and-cheese pastries). The name means "Our Grandfather’s House", and the walls are filled with evocative photographs of old Bethlehem edit - Bon Jour Café, (adjacent to Bethlehem University). A brand new western style café adjacent to Bethlehem University. With its stylish look and relaxed atmosphere Bon Jour has quickly become a popular hangout. The Café is best known for its wide selection of coffees and its early morning breakfast. edit - Beit Jala Pork Butcher Shop, (downtown Beit Jala). Craving some fresh pork in the Holy Land? Beit Jala's pork butchery is a rarity in a land where Muslims and Jews both don't eat pork. edit - The Wall Lounge, (nearby the entrance to Bethlehem). This very innovate restaurant takes a symbol of despair, the massive Israeli barrier separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and turns it into an asset for his business. The restaurant's menu is posted on a huge sign onto the barrier and as well, at night soccer games are projected onto a huge projector screen put on the wall for people to view on outdoor tables. This place is a lot of fun to eat, drink, and watch some sports on a big "movie-theater" style projector screen! edit - Toast R Us, (the Main street of Bethlehem). This restaurant serves "frozen yoga" (frozen yogurt), ice-cream (both the Arabic ice-cream and regular gelato), crêpes, sandwiches, milkshakes, and more. edit The Cremisan Monestery/Winery in Bethlehem's suburb-Beit Jala Enjoy the atmosphere and hang out with friends for dinner or a a few drinks at Bistro lounge bar in Beit Jala. - al-khema (The Tent), Beit Sahour (beside the Shepherd's Field). This restaurant, is enclosed in a huge tent. It serves good food, excellent drink menu (especially the Palestinian beer brand "Taybeh"), and also offers a great selection for hookah (flavored tobacco). edit Visit the famous Cremisan Cellars Winery located in the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala. This Winery, also the site of the ancient Cremisan Monestery, is on a hilltop and offers a spectacular view of the valley below it and as well of the surrounding Jerusalem and Bethlehem area. A must visit for any wine enthusiast! Cremisan Cellars, . edit - Layal Night club, (Beit Jala). This nightclub plays mostly Arabic pop music. There is usually a younger crowd here. Make sure to have a female when going to the nightclub because often when there are too many male patrons, they only let males in if they have girls with them. edit - Numerous Liquor shops. Bethlehem, being a Christian Palestinian city, is abundant with liquor stores selling various alcoholic beverages for very, very cheap prices. The local specialty is a Arabic liquor called "Arak". It tastes like licorice and is often mixed in lemonade or in ice-water. edit - Taboo Bar, Beit Jala Main st Normandi area (Beit Jala), ☎ 0599205158. This bar is popular with young Palestinians, good drinks and great food served! ! edit - Coffee Break, After the check point. edit The problem of finding somewhere to stay as encountered by Mary and Joseph are long gone in Bethlehem. There are many options to choose from. Because Jerusalem is often the place where tourist stay rather than Bethlehem, Bethlehem's hotels offer much cheaper rates than Israeli hotels in order to entice tourists to stay in Bethlehem rather than just do a day tour of the historic sites and then quickly leave back to Israel. Bargaining for a cheaper hotel price usually works in Bethlehem. Feel free to email/phone numerous Bethlehem hotels for quotes and compare the prices, it definitely saves you money rather than staying in an overpriced Jerusalem hotel. Note, for phone numbers in the Palestinian territories, there are two area codes: +972 and +970. If one of the area codes don't work for a contact number, try the phone number again using the other area code. - Abdaa center, P.O. Box 793, Bethlehem, ☎ Tel: 972-(0)-276-7997, . Abdaa center is a cutural center in the Dheisheh refugee camps, they offer cheap accommodation for foreigners and camp volunteers. Nice rooms, clean and around 15 min from Bethlehem. You also can tour the camp with a great guide. As of May 2013 the phone number may not be in service; use the contact form on the website and give them a few days to respond. Room around ₪50 per night. edit - Abu Jubran Lutheran Guest House, (Beside Christmas Lutheran Church and inside Dar Annadwa, Paul VI St.), ☎ 972 02 277 0047. The Abu Jubran Guest House is an elegant accommodation solution for conferences hosted at our Ad-Dar Cultural and Conference Center. 13 twin/double rooms with en suite bathrooms, Heat and air conditioning, and TV and broadband Internet [email protected] edit - The Alternative Tourist Group, ☎ 02-277 2151, . Arranges Bed & Breakfast with local families, a perfect introduction to Palestinian hospitality. Privacy is guaranteed with a separate entry and bathroom for guests. Contact email: [email protected] edit - Beit Al Liqa, ☎ 972 02 2745229. This is a Christian Community centre located in Beit Jala. It offers accommodation to tourists in its guesthouse [email protected] edit - Bethlehem Hotel, near Manger St roundabout at the top of the hill near the border checkpoint, ☎ 00972-2-2770702 ([email protected], fax: 00972-2-2770706), . Comfortable with AC, great views in some rooms and big buffet breakfast. ₪200 single room. edit - Bethlehem Star Hotel, ☎ 972 02 227 0285, . The Star Hotel enjoys a unique Location in Bethlehem apart from being the highest point in Bethlehem, yet it is in the centre near to the shopping Area offering an ideal choice for pilgrims and Tourists alike. The Church of Nativity is six minutes walk through the old bazaars [email protected] $40/night. edit - Bunksurfing Hostel, Bethlehem- AlDawha alhurreya Str., ☎ +972569050649, . checkin: Flexible; checkout: Flexible. A small Palestinian run hostel in Bethlehem. Very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly owner. Wifi. Low prices and good location. Kitchen available with included tea and coffee all day, a refrigerator & small stove. Free maps of nearby cities and travel books available. A free walking tour is operated by the hostel owner (his English is very good). He is also able to set up an excellent walking tour in a nearby city with a professional guide. Owner can explain local shared taxi routes, which is very helpful. He responds very quickly to email reservation requests. Email: [email protected] 40 NIS in a dorm. edit - Dar Sitti Aziza, Anatra Street (Beth Lehem), ☎ 972 2 274 4848, . First Heritage Hotel in Palestine. Its unique structure and convenient location, near the Nativity Church, in the heart of Bethlehem, allows for an extraordinarily relaxing and historic experience. darsittiaziza. com edit - Everest Hotel, (Beit Jala), ☎ 972 02 274 2604. The hotel is located on the top of the mountain of Beit Jala, overlooking the city of Bethlehem with its holy sites and with an excellent view over surrounding hills. [email protected] edit - Grand Hotel, (If you take local bus 21 (and maybe 124), the bus will drop you off on a hill. If you hike up and keep going straight, the hotel will be on your left. It's got what's probably an upscale Mexican restaurant on top, called Mariachi, but is also situated above a falafel stand), . ₪190 for a single, but if you look like a budget traveler, they might give it to you for ₪150. edit - The Holy Land Trust, 529 Manger Street (Beside Reem al Bawadi restaurant), ☎ 970-2-2765930 ([email protected]), . ₪120. editOffers cheap homestays, both short term and long term, with Palestinian families. </sleep> - House Of Peace, (next to Malhamet inyaz, near manger square), ☎ 972 02 2764739, . Direction: Email: [email protected] Price starting from around ₪49. 99 a night for mixed dorms and 70 shekels for a private. edit - Grand Hotel Bethlehem, ☎ 972 02 274 1602, . Grand Hotel Bethlehem is situated in the heart of Bethlehem, which is synonymous with tradition, style and good taste. It is only a few minutes stroll to the Nativity Church and the shopping area. [email protected] edit - Jacir Palace (InterContinental), Jerusalem-Hebron Road, ☎ +972 02 276 6777, . This hotel is the only 5-star hotel in Bethlehem. It is considered the most elite hotels in Bethlehem. Foreign diplomats often stay at this hotel because of its prestigious image. [email protected] edit - Mount David Hotel, ☎ 972-2-2766511, . Bethlehem's newest hotel! We are located in the "Heart of the City" within walking distance to the Nativity Church and many of the major attractions, such as the Old City of Bethlehem, King David's wells, just to name a few. Take in the sites of the city, have dinner at one of the numerous Middle Eastern restaurants, anything from fast food to fine dining. Try a Shawerma or a Falafel sandwich and take a taste of the Middle East. [email protected] edit - Nativity Hotel, ☎ 972 02 277 0650, . Located in a very quiet area on the edge of the Holy City of Bethlehem, 10 minutes drive from the Church of Nativity and within a walking distance to the business center of Bethlehem. [email protected] single: $40/night double: $70/night. edit - Olive Tree Tourist Village, Beit Jala, Bethlehem, ☎ 00972 2 2764660, . The Olive Tree Hotel was built in 2009 and consists of 26 en-suite rooms, including double rooms, triple rooms and suites. All rooms are fully equipped with flat screen televisions, air conditioning and fridges. The resort also offers a nice garden area, a swimming pool with a water park, a disco and a large car park. edit - Paradise Hotel, (beside the Bethlehem Checkpoint), ☎ 972 02 274 4542, . Located at the entrance of Bethlehem, one km from the Church of Nativity and only a few kms form the heart of the holy Old City of Jerusalem. [email protected] edit - Saint Elias Guesthouse, (Beit Sahour), ☎ 02-277 3614. Great traditional food, and beautiful views! $20 per person. edit - Shepherd Hotel, ☎ 972 02 274 0656, . On one of the west hills of Bethlehem, very near to the main road of Jerusalem-Hebron, surrounded by a multiple of Christian churches, historical convents and educational institutions. [email protected] edit Stands to reason it's probably not a good idea to let on about any pro-Israeli views you might have, since a large number of residents are from families made refugees from 1948. During the Second Intifada there was also a siege centered on the Church of the Nativity, so there are fresh memories here. Having said that, the economy depends heavily on tourists so the authorities have spent a lot of effort on keeping tourists safe and incidents are very rare. The taxi drivers are rather insistent but not aggressive, if you're not used to it, the sight of them shouting at each other over who gets to hassle you can be alarming, but stay polite and just walk on (unless you want a taxi of course). Note that some maps (looking at you Google) of the streets are pretty bad, and even if they're accurate a lot of street names aren't consistent (seems to be common in Arab countries who tend to navigate by landmarks instead). Most locals (and even taxi drivers) will happily give you directions without expecting anything in return. OpenStreetMap had some good detail as well, and can usually be downloaded offline as Israeli telephone networks can be patchy in the Palestinian Territories. Herodium mountain-about 6km from Bethlehem Bethlehem is a good base for visits to nearby Herodion (or Herodium), a fortress built by Herod the Great and located some 6 km to the south-east of the town. Herodion can be reached by taxi from Bethlehem costing about ₪150-200 for a round trip. The Herodion is administered by the Israel Nature & National Parks Protection Authority . To get back to Jerusalem, take Bus 21 or 231 from the same place it drops you off on the way in (Hebron Rd., north of the Children Street intersection, west side of the street). You will need your passport to get back into Israel. Your bus may be boarded by armed Israeli guards at the checkpoint, who will check your passport. They may pull the Palestinian passengers off for more thorough questioning. Bethlehem's bus station is also a great starting point to get to other cities in the Palestinian territories. Located at the bottom floor of the bus station are numerous "Serveeces" (Palestinian Sheruts) that drive to cities such as Hebron , Ramallah and Jericho. |This is a usable article. It has information for getting in as well as some complete entries for restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow!

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Patterns Of Ancient Croplands Give Insight Into Early Hawaiian Society, Research Shows COLUMBUS, Ohio – A pattern of earthen berms, spread across a northern peninsula of the big island of Hawaii, is providing archeologists with clues to exactly how residents farmed in paradise long before Europeans arrived at the islands. The findings suggest that simple, practical decisions made by individual households were eventually adopted by the ruling class as a means to improve agricultural productivity. “Archeologically, this kind of research is really hard to do in most places since there is rarely a ‘signature’ for the agricultural activity, or a strong connection between the remains of a house and a plot of farmland,” explained, Julie Field, an assistant professor of anthropology at Ohio State University. Field, along with colleagues from California and New Zealand, has spent three field seasons unearthing the remnants of an agricultural gridwork that dates back nearly 600 years. The pattern was formed by a series of earthen walls, or berms, which served as windbreaks, protecting the crops. “In this part of Hawaii, the trade winds blow all the time, so the berms are there to protect the crops from the winds,” she said. “The main crop was sweet potato which likes dry loose soil. The berms protect the soil from being blown away. ” The researchers are familiar with the challenges the winds posed. Field said that while they were excavating sites, the wind would “blow so hard, the skin would come off our ears if they weren’t covered. It just sandblasts your ears and you have to wear goggles to see. ” “It is an intense place to work,” she said. Previous work by other researchers has radiocarbon dated organic material found in the berms, establishing a timeline for when the agricultural system was first built. Over time, more walls were built, subdividing the original agricultural plots into smaller and smaller parcels. At the same time, other researchers were able to date materials from household sites of the early Hawaiians, and link those dates to the building of specific agricultural plots. “Our study is unique in that we can trace the activities of very, very small groups of people and, from that, try to glean the larger processes of society. We want to look at parts of Hawaii and treat them as a model for the evolution of Hawaiian society. ” This showed that individual households that farmed the land expanded over time and then separated into new households as the population grew. “Within a 300-year period, 1,400 AD to 1,700 AD, the data suggests that the population at least quadrupled, as did the number of houses,” Field said. The researchers believe the data also provides insight into the structure of Hawaiian society at the time. “We know that there was a single chief for each district and a series of lesser chiefs below that,” she said. Similar to the feudal system of Europe, a portion of the crop surplus was always designated for the chiefs. “This suggests to us that the field system was originally put in place probably by individual households that produced crops for their own consumption. “It was then appropriated by the chiefs and turned into more of a surplus production system, where they demanded that the land be put into production and more people would produce more surplus food,” she said. “Our study is unique in that we can trace the activities of very, very small groups of people and, from that, try to glean the larger processes of society,” Field said. “We want to look at parts of Hawaii and treat them as a model for the evolution of Hawaiian society. ” The researchers said that the next question is whether the field system was used seasonally, whether they modified it over the year and used different parts of it depending on the season. “That’s what it looks like happened, but we need more dating of different features at the sites to be able to figure that out,” Field said. The National Science Foundation provided support for the project. Along with Field, Patrick Kirch of the University of California, Berkeley, Thegn Ladefoged of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Shripad Tuljapurkar and Peter Vitousek of Stanford University, and Oliver Chadwick of the University of California, Santa Barbara, worked on the project. Contact: Julie Field, (614) 292-6233; email@example. com Written by Earle Holland, (614) 292-8384: Holland.firstname. lastname@example. org

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I had the chance to attend a few weeks ago a lecture on C-K design theory. It was delivered by brilliant professors Pascal Le Masson and Benoît Weill, two among the three referents in C-K methodology, the third being the lead professor Armand Hatchuel, Professor of Management Sciences and Design Engineering, Ecole des Mines, Paris. Let me try to guide you to this formal innovative design approach. Why do we need a new innovative design approach? According to Pascal Le Masson, “objects are shifting their identity“. Recent innovations illustrate this point of disruption: Velib, an hybrid of personal bike and public transportation, iPhone, not only a phone, a “smart” phone, Metronisar, combining metro load capacity with low cost bus, hybrid car, GPS, Linux, low-cost car Logan, Dyson, … All industries are concerned by this identity shift, innovation is deeply impacted as innovators have to create something unknown. New concept is disruptive, unprovable but it doesn’t mean it is impossible: it is undecidable with the existing knowledge, because there is some unknown. How do we work on unknown, undecidable objects? To achieve this shift “from the unknown to the known” during the creation process, we need to define a new design approach, an innovative design approach called C-K. What is C-K methodology, and what are his roots? Professor Hatchuel defines C-K Theory or Concept-Knowledge Theory as a theory of reasoning in design. Design reasoning is a logic of expansion processes, i. e. a logic that organizes the generation of unknown objects. What is creativity? “Creativity is resisting to some fixation effect, a set of rules that we have difficulty to change or make evolve. ” How can we achieve this ? “Expanding our ideas, give a different meaning to an object or create a new object with design properties. ” How can we make this expansion systematic? This is were C-K finds its roots in in creative power of modern math, leveraging on mathematician Paul Cohen work and his general method for designing infinite sets, “forcing” sets to have the design properties. “Creative things are not the deduction from existing knowledge: we have to force the process. Because the creative innovation is undecidable at the beginning, we have to design it first. ” What does C-K add to this? C-K extends forcing in the real world: “it brings the innovation from the imaginary space, the C-space or conceptual space where new things are appearing, to the K-space or Knowledge space, and provide it with attributes. The new attributes for designed things extend our knowledge that will feed back the conceptual space”. C-K adresses two exploration spaces C and K, in continuously iterative loop: - it starts with expanding partitions in C, adding attributes, refining, choosing, structuring, formulating and expanding Concepts based on personal Knowledge; - the concept is further tested, optimized, modelled, generating new Knowledge; - This Knowledge in return can be added to the Concept: this iteration goes on until the new object become feasible. Innovative design is not about going to a desert (unknown), it’s about revealing progressively known territories. A C-K case study: designing a chair that is not a chair! Let’s take a pragamatic example and see step by step how C-K approach unfolds: - Creative challenge is designing an unknown object that is cheaper and lighter than a chair but will have similar function, “a chair that is not a chair”; lighter brings us into “undecidable space” because you can always buid a lighter chair… - The concept starts fom knowledge on camping chair where small and light are usual properties; applying expansive partitioning, we branch out the concept according to leg attribute: a chair can have 1 leg, 2 legs, … or no leg ! - Back in K, what does a chair with no leg mean? I need to prototype it, which gives some learnings on sitting equilibrium on the floor! - Back in C: going down the tree structure brings us to assess equilibrium concept: equilibrium can be achieved by man, entity or man + entity. Man performing equilibrium is like Yoga. - I select the combination of man+entity to perform equilibrium and go back to K: it brings me to the knowledge of setting in a swing. The concept becomes feasible, and it actually exists: the chair that is not a chair was designed by Vitra. As this example shows clearly, C-K is about structured creativity: it creates continuous innovation process, and generates new ideas in a systematic way … even if you don’t complete the full process! One step further “Designing the unknown” – A Presentation Film of the C-K Theory

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This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables. To the Editor:— On Oct. 7, 1939, Harvey Cushing whose work and personality were among the glories of American medicine, died. Cushing was the incarnation of the highest ideals in research and medical practice. When, in 1935, his "Intracranial Tumors" was published in Berlin I remember the admiration aroused by reading, in his own fascinating, modest words, the extraordinary fact that on Aug. 15, 1931, he had successfully performed his 2,000th brain operation. The man and his work were enthusiastically described by Prof. Fedor Krause, a great predecessor of Cushing in the field of surgery of the central nervous system, through whom I received some of Cushing's papers on war injuries to the brain. From December, 1916, to April, 1918, I was military assistant at the surgical clinic of the University of Greifswald where we had to operate on many patients with brain abscesses caused by shell injuries. Cushing was Frankel WK. HARVEY CUSHING. JAMA. 1959;171(13):1866. doi:10. 1001/jama. 1959. 03010310098023 Coronavirus Resource Center Customize your JAMA Network experience by selecting one or more topics from the list below. Create a personal account or sign in to:

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By Sarfaraz A. Khan. Research Asst. Iffat Zehra Since 1970s, the U.S. oil companies have been mostly prohibited from exporting locally produced crude oil. The ban was aimed at safeguarding the U.S.'s national interest as a reaction to the Arab oil embargo in that period which undermined crude supplies in the U.S., given the embargo came at a time when U.S. was already struggling with deteriorating oil production. However, in the last few years, the U.S has witnessed a boom in shale oil production on the back of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. Following years of annual declines in the U.S. field crude oil production from 8. 97 million barrels a day in 1985 to 5 million barrels a day by 2008, the output gradually climbed to 7. 4 million barrels a day by 2013, as per data from EIA. This also led to an increase in the condensate output, a refined form of ultra-light crude oil which represents around 8% of the total U.S. production. With growing production from the U.S. as well as other nations and soft oil demand from key consumers, the crude oil markets have moved into surplus. To exacerbate, output from Russia in 2014 has touched post-Soviet era highs while exports from Iraq have increased to their highest levels in over three decades. The growing concerns related to increasing supplies led to another drop in WTI prices on Tuesday to less than $50 a barrel.

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Legio XV Primigenia: one of the Roman legions. The surname Primigenia is one of the titles of the goddess Fortuna. This legion was founded by the emperor Caligula in 39, who needed extra forces for his campaign in Germany. It was called after the favorite goddess of the emperor ("Primigenia" is a title of Fortuna), but the title was almost never used. It is absent from the inscriptions and is only rarely used by authors like Tacitus and Plutarch of Chaeronea. The number seems to have been suggested by the fact that it was supposed to share a base with XIV Gemina. In the Autumn of 39, the Fifteenth legion and its twin XXII Primigenia marched across the Alps to the Middle Rhine, where they saw their first action in the neighborhood of Wiesbaden. According to our sources, Caligula's campaigns on the east bank of the Rhine were not really important, but archaeological finds suggest that this is not true. For example, one of the recruits, Lucius Varius Sacco of Milan, died in Mainz after only one year of service, which almost certainly means that he was killed in action. He was twenty-five. Later, XV Primigenia was stationed with the Fourteenth at Mainz in Germania Superior. Perhaps this had been supposed to be its base all along, because the number XV may have been chosen to fit XIV. The tombstone of a mounted legionary suggests that one cavalry subunit was at least temporarily based at Worms. In 43, the emperor Claudius, who had succeeded Caligula in 41, invaded Britain and took some legions with him. This left vacancies, and XV Primigenia moved to Xanten in the northern province of Germania Inferior, which had been evacuated by XXI Rapax. At Xanten, the Fifteenth shared its legionary base with the Fifth Legion Alaudae. Archaeological finds enable us to establish that the fifteenth legion occupied the eastern, left-hand side of the fort and the Fifth the western, right-hand half. There were also cavalry men living at Xanten; one of them was Pliny the Elder, who was to become famous as the author of a well-known encyclopaedia, the Natural History. XV Primigenia and V Alaudae must have been part of the expeditionary force that was led against the Frisians and Chauci by the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo in 47. The operation was successful, but the emperor Claudius ordered the Romans to keep the Rhine as the empire's frontier. The soldiers were ordered to build fortifications along the Rhine and dig a canal from Matilo (Leiden) to the capital of the Cananefates, Voorburg. This canal still exists. In 67, the position of the emperor Nero became untenable. Many senators were discontent and several governors discussed his removal. Among these were Lucius Clodius Macer of Africa (who recruited the I Macriana Liberatrix) and Gaius Julius Vindex of one of the provinces in Gaul, who supported the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba, when he declared that he wanted to dethrone Nero. This was treason, and the army of Germania Inferior (I Germanica, V Alaudae, XV Primigenia and XVI Gallica) knew what it had to do: it marched to the south and defeated Vindex. The soldiers expected to be rewarded, but were disappointed: Galba and a newly recruited Seventh Legion marched on Rome, the Senate recognized him, and Nero committed suicide (June 68). What had been examplary behavior, was now explained as an attempt to obstruct the accession of the new emperor. Therefore, the army of Germania Inferior proclaimed their own commander, Vitellius, emperor and started to march on Rome (January 69). During the winter, they crossed the Alps. Immediately, there was panic in the capital, a senator named Otho was proclamed ruler of the empire, and Galba was lynched. A soldier of the Fifteenth who happened to be present, one Camurius, gave the final blow. Now the civil war was between Vitellius and Otho, and soldiers of the Fifteenth were present when the Vitellians defeated the Othonians in April in northern Italy. Now Vitellius started his reign. However, in the east, general Vespasian had also decided to make a bid for power. The two armies clashed near Cremona in northern Italy, and the Rhine army was defeated by the soldiers of Vespasian. Meanwhile, in Germania Inferior, a disaster was in the making. The Batavians felt offeneded because Galba had dismissed his Batavian bodyguard, and revolted. A Roman expeditionary force, consisting of the remains of V Alaudae and XV Primigenia, was defeated near Nijmegen, and in the Autumn of 69, these two legions found themselves besieged at Xanten. Although I Germanica, XVI Gallica and a legion from Germania Superior, XXII Primigenia, tried to rescue them, the two legions at Xanten were forced to surrender in March 70. The rebels struck coins to commemorate their victory. Not much later, I Germanica and XVI Gallica surrendered as well. It took several months before the new emperor Vespasian could send a strong Roman army to recover the Rhineland, commanded by his relative Quintus Petillius Cerialis. The legions XVI Gallica and IIII Macedonica, which had guarded Mainz, were renamed (XVI Flavia Firma and IIII Flavia Felix); the remains of I Germanica were added with Galba's Seventh legion and became known as VII Gemina ("the twin legion"). V Alaudae and XV Primigenia, however, were never reconstituted. - Y. Le Bohec, "Legio XV Primigenia", in: Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 69

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This collection focuses on integrated care. Research has shown the shortened life spans of individuals with behavioral health disorders and the many challenges of reducing that mortality and improving overall quality of life. These papers examine the application of integrated care models to target health disparities in community mental health settings, particularly among people with serious mental illness. Druss et al. ’s “Psychiatry’s Role in Improving the Physical Health of Patients With Serious Mental Illness: A Report From the American Psychiatric Association” serves as a primer on psychiatry’s role in addressing these health disparities. The collection describes various models of integrated care, including within collaborative care, assertive community treatment, and behavioral health homes. The articles explore ways that integrated care has been implemented within systems of care, including the New York State Office of Mental Health and Los Angeles County, and through teleconsultation with Project Echo. Critical considerations explored within these articles include addressing racial and ethnic health disparities, utilization of peer support specialists, and the financial impact of implementing integrated care models. With effective integration of behavioral health and general health care, we can provide the high-quality care that our patients deserve Our paper was featured! Enhanced Child Psychiatry Access and Engagement via Integrated Care: A Collaborative Practice Model With Pediatrics was featured! Read more here!

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French painter. Producing religious and historical works, he developed a classical style that foreshadowed that of Nicolas Poussin. He lived in Italy 1613–27, where he won the patronage of Pope Urban VIII, and on his return he became principal painter to Louis XIII. Presentation in the Temple (Louvre, Paris) is typical. Vouet was born in Paris, and was a pupil of his father, Laurent Vouet. Precocious in talent, he is said to have painted portraits in England at the age of 14. He accompanied the French ambassador to Constantinople 1611 and stayed in Italy 1612–27, becoming president of the Academy of St Luke 1624. Eclectic in style, he was influenced by Caravaggio, Guido Reni, and Paolo Veronese, but shaped and refined these elements successfully into a form of classicism that had a profound influence on 17th-century French art.

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Jump to section As noted above, a bite from these blood-sucking parasites can carry diseases like Rocky Mountain spotted fever, additional forms of tick typhus, anaplasmosis and Lyme Disease to numerous species of mammals, including horses, dogs and humans. In these species of mammals, these diseases can have devastating effects and even cause the death of the host. Tick allergy in horses is defined as the reaction which results from the bite of a blood-sucking parasitic insect commonly known as a tick. The tick bites are capable of carrying serious illnesses to its victims. There are various types of ticks which are known to attack horses in different areas of the country. All types are blood-sucking organisms and are able to transmit some pretty serious diseases to their victims. Here are some of the outward symptoms you may see: There are basically four categories of types of ticks, though within each category exists many other species of tick. The four basic categories are: Ticks can be found across the United States in general, with some being partial to particular areas of the country. Here is a list of types of ticks which are most commonly found and the diseases/conditions they are known to carry or cause: American Dog Tick - Carries Piroplasmosis (Babesiosis), Spotted Fever, Tularemia Deer (or Blacklegged) Tick - Carries Lyme Disease, Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, Piroplasmosis Lone Star Tick - Carries Lyme Disease, Spotted Fever, Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis Rocky Mountain Wood Tick - Carries Rickettsia, Colorado Tick Fever, Tularemia, Tick Paralysis Tropical Horse Tick - Carries Piroplasmosis Winter (Moose) Tick - Responsible for emaciation and anemia Ticks are basically large blood-sucking mites and, as such, have the dubious honor of being able to transmit an incredible number of infectious organisms to their victims. In fact, in this particular arena, the tick is second only to the mosquitos in terms of infectious potential for public health risk as well as animal health risks. Some of the organisms transmitted can infect humans without causing any problems with animals while others will wreak havoc on animals without potential harm to humans and still others which will be problematic to both. Ticks infect their victims in this way: Of all of the above listed diseases known to be carried and transmitted by ticks, Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis is the most serious and the most commonly found in horses, with Lyme Disease coming in second. When you note any of the above symptoms, be sure to get your veterinary professional involved as soon as possible. Also, when feeding and grooming your equine, if you suspect ticks, remove them in an appropriate manner and seek medical attention as soon as possible. When your vet sees your horse, he will need your complete history which should include pasturing habits and frequency, feeding regimen, symptoms noted and the duration of those symptoms as well as the presence of ticks found on your horse. He will do a physical examination and will likely need some blood work and perhaps tissue samples for lab evaluation. He will be looking at the CBC panel to show blood values reflective of any possible bacterial infection or other evidence of immune system involvement. Often, a response to treatment (medications) is the best way to confirm diagnosis. Once the vet has the blood work results which he has ordered, an appropriate treatment plan will be developed and initiated. Treatment for tick bites usually will begin with treatment of the symptoms and clinical signs found in the vet’s examination. He will need to address things like fever, pain, and swelling with appropriate medical techniques. Generally, the antibacterial medication of choice is oxytetracycline intravenously if possible, but the oral route is also an option (using doxycycline instead of oxytetracycline) though it is a little less effective. The treatment regimen of antibiotic medications will likely require administration of the chosen drug for 1 to 2 weeks, depending on the horse’s condition and the medication/route opted. The symptoms and clinical signs for both Lyme Disease, the less often diagnosed tick-borne disease, and Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, the more often diagnosed tick-borne disease, are similar to each other as well as many other maladies known to afflict horses, a definitive diagnosis may not be certain unless certain antibodies are found in the blood work. Regardless, many vets will treat with tetracycline or doxycycline if a bacterial infection is apparent (regardless of the source of the bacterial infection) and improvement will generally be noted in the afflicted animal. Once the animal is treated for the bacterial infection, recommendations will likely be given for application of preparations which will reduce the opportunity for ticks to attach themselves to their victims, thereby providing another level of control and prevention. Not all ticks carry these diseases and not all horses will respond allergically to their bites. That being said, an important thing to know is that, many times, the untreated horse who contracts these diseases from tick bites do resolve and get better in about 2 to 4 weeks and suffer no long term effects. This is, by no means, a reason not to carefully examine your equine herd regularly for ticks and to appropriately remove them immediately when discovered. Some horses are simply more sensitive to the toxins in the bites of ticks than others, with the Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis being the the disease to more often afflict horses. It is also important to remember that, while many of the diseases normally carried by ticks may not be problematic for the equine species, this is not necessarily the case for humans and other animal species also known to suffer from these diseases. Ticks are a problem pretty much everywhere for everyone, man and beast, and we all need to be more aware of their presence and be proactive in prevention and protection measures for our animals and those humans we love. *Wag! may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. Items are sold by the retailer, not Wag! . Maddison’s county ( maddie ) 0 found helpful Hi My horse as had a tick in its lower flank. we’ve removed the tick and she now has a hard swelling and is lame. Could you tell me what to do as I am unsure and worried about her. Please get in touch ASAP. May 14, 2018 Maddison’s county ( maddie )'s Owner There may be an allergic reaction to the saliva from the tick or depending on your location it may be the start of a tick borne disease; you could try using an antihistamine, you should call your Veterinarian as they may be able to prescribe something instead of using over the counter medications if you have an existing patient doctor relationship. Regards Dr Callum Turner DVM May 15, 2018 Does anyone have any info on hair loss after a tick bite please? Many thanks July 4, 2018 Was this experience helpful? 1 found helpful Does swelling indicate infection/disease? Or is it simply an allergic reaction to the tick bite? My gelding had a tick on the underside of his neck and I didn't realize until I'd already gone over it a few times with my curry. I noticed something that felt lodged, and lifted up the hair to find legs. It was very small and white; I doubt it had been there long. I removed the tick and disinfected the area with iodine. He now had mottled-looking swelling around the area of the bite, but it is not much. Just enough to make me question it. He shows no other symptoms, other than being itchy, but je is always itchy under his neck along his throat, so thisbis not unusual. He rode beautifully, and has no outward symptoms other than the minor swelling. The swellings themselves are hard, and almost like when you scratch yourself and it swells up a bit. Oct. 22, 2017 Swelling may be just due to an inflammatory response to the tick bite; however, I would call your Veterinarian to ask about tick borne diseases in your area as in some geographical locations tick may be the vector for some diseases which may infect horses so it is always best to be proactive as some of these diseases will have an incubation time before clinical symptoms present. Regards Dr Callum Turner DVM Oct. 22, 2017 Anyone gave any info on hair loss after a tick bite? Many thanks July 4, 2018 My horse suffers from allergic reaction to tick bites every spring. Less reactive as the season progresses. He gets extremely itchy, hard, raised bumps that ooze a clear sticky liquid. He frequently gets bit between his back legs and on inner thighs. Occasionally right on his sheath which then fills with fluid, hot to the touch. I hose him down twice a day which seems to help, give him Benedryl twice daily and apply a topical to the bites (contains clay, zinc, charcoal and shea butter) which offers temporary relief. My aim is to keep the ticks from biting in the first place. Any suggestions? Feb. 21, 2018 Was this experience helpful? 0 found helpful My 20 year old horse has a severe tick allergy. She gets a large lump and if you pick at it- it appears like a puncture wound would. My vet has examined her and said that due to her living in MN where we have ticks- there’s not much we can do. Anyone else have a horse with a sever tick allergy and something I can do to help her? She does not seem bothered by the bites or sore- they just look terrible to me! © 2020 Wag Labs, Inc. All rights reserved. Download the Wag! app Download the Wag! app

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I wrote here on the basic theory of what inflammation is. Briefly: in initial stages, inflammation is part of non-specific immunity. It just means something hurts and your immune system calls all hands on deck to deal with it. In later stages, inflammation becomes specific: this means your immune system is carefully targeting a specific invader, and trying to avoid collateral damage. This article goes into the details of the specific immune system more deeply. Inflammatory markers are also called acute phase reactants, meaning they tend to go up when your body is in the acute stage of an illness. But if you’re measuring inflammation on a lab test, it’s usually not when you’re acutely ill—in those cases, you know there’s inflammation. No need to test for it. Instead, they tend to be used as markers of chronic immune overactivity. CRP, ESR, and hsCRP are indirect ways to measure the activity of cytokines, or chemical signals sent by the immune system’s T-helper cells to coordinate activity of the rest of the immune system. (It is possible to test cytokines directly, but they’re harder to detect on lab work, so most commercial labs generally test their surrogates instead. ) Inflammatory Marker: CRP (and hsCRP) CRP (C-Reactive Protein) is released from the liver in response to the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 (interleukin-6), which is released by Th2 cells. (For more on Th2 versus Th1, check out this article). The reference ranges from 10 to 1000 mg/L. High sensitivity CRP (hsCRP), as you might expect from the name, is just a more sensitive measurement of inflammation. Its reference range is more narrow, from 0. 5 to 10 mg/L (so CRP picks up where hsCRP leaves off). This is most useful for detecting cardiovascular inflammation, though it may be elevated due to lower level inflammation in other systems as well. Inflammatory Marker: ESR (and Fibrinogen) Much like CRP and hsCRP, ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate) is released from the liver, and also in response to the Th2 cytokine IL-6 as well as the Th1 cytokine TNF-a (Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha). Fibrinogen is a protein in the bloodstream that gets activated and turned into fibrin in the presence of injury, and forms the foundation of a blood clot. ESR is determined by the amount of fibrinogen present in the bloodstream, plus some other proteins. In the presence of injury (and inflammation), fibrinogen goes up, and therefore ESR goes up. How to Lower Inflammatory Markers: If you have chronically elevated CRP, hsCRP, fibrinogen, and/or ESR, the real treatment of course is to identify the cause. If there is an underlying obstacle to cure, you’ll need to find and correct it. However, it’s possible that your issue is functional, meaning that the inflammatory markers are simply an early warning system that you’re not giving your body the building blocks it needs to heal. Here’s a quick check-list of interventions that can help, in this case: - Exercise. Mild to moderate exercise is one of the best ways to lower elevated CRP and hsCRP (and their corresponding cytokines), according to this study. - Eat real food. This study also shows that a Mediterranean diet (plenty of veggies and good oils) lowers CRP and hsCRP. This study also establishes that sugar increases hsCRP, while adequate vitamin and mineral status decreases it. - Take your fish oil. This study is one of many that shows that supplementation of essential fatty acids (fish oil, flax oil — high in the Mediterranean diet, incidentally) also lowers CRP. - Get enough sleep. This study shows that sleep deprivation increases CRP; therefore, getting enough sleep should lower it as well. - Try taking curcumin. One effective way to lower fibrinogen (and thereby ESR) is with curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric. (Side note: not all curcumin is created equal. My favorites are curcumin in a phospholipid delivery system—usually called Meriva—but curcumin is also better absorbed when combined with black pepper if you can’t find this. ) SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER Subscribe to my wellness newsletter & get a FREE eBook: "10 Supplements Everyone Should Have." Plus, get 15% OFF your first order from my new online store! You may unsubscribe at any time.

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To celebrate the transit of Venus 2012 on 6 June 2012, Universe Awareness (UNAWE) is developing an educational project in Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor) in South-East Asia, which is one of the few countries where the transit event will be visible in its entirety. This project will be the largest scientific event ever organised in Timor-Leste and this will be the first time astronomy comes to the country since they declared their independence 10 years ago. UNAWE will be running several educational activities in Timor-Leste, from 1 June to 8 June 2012. The programme will include educational play activities for children, teacher training sessions, public talks, university lectures, an exhibition about astronomy and a large-scale public observing event. It is expected that these activities will reach over 5,000 people in the capital city of Díli, and a further 800 schoolchildren in the city of Gleno. “An event like the Transit of Venus creates an outstanding opportunity to bring astronomy and science to the Timorese population,” says Pedro Russo, UNAWE International Project Manager. “We hope that our efforts will open new horizons for the young children of Timor-Leste and encourage them to pursue scientific and technological careers. ” Programme in Díli, Timor-Leste 1 June: Children’s Day 8:00 - 12:00: Educational Activities - Portuguese School in Díli 12:00 - 15:00: Educational Activities - Palácio do Governo in collaboration with Guarda Nacional Republicana (Díli) 9:00 - 17:30: Teacher Training Workshop Portuguese School in Díli 4 June 09:00: Astronomy Exhibition Opening with talk about Astronomy for Development 14:00: Public Talk about Astronomy Auditório Liceu, Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e 10:00 Astronomy talk for Highschool students 11:00 Astronomy talk for University students and University Alumni Auditório Liceu, Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e Visit to Gledo School 7:00 - 13:00: Public Observation of Transit of Venus Palácio do Governo On 6 June 2012, the planet Venus will travel across the Sun, as viewed from Earth. This is called a transit of Venus. It is among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and this alignment will not present itself again until the year 2117. While transits of Venus are not as spectacular to observe as solar eclipses, they are historically important for determining the distance to Venus, and hence the size of the Solar System. The UNAWE Transit of Venus 2012 in Timor-Leste is co-organised by Leiden University, the Ministry of Education of Timor-Leste and the Portuguese School in Díli in collaboration with Portuguese Embassy in Timor-Leste, Fundação Oriente, Alola Foundation, Guarda Nacional Republicana - Díli, HE Space Children’s Foundation, Portuguese Astronomical Society, AstroBook Drive/ Boston University, ASTRON, Baader Planetarium, Berkeley Science Education Centre, Camões Institute, Ministério do Turismo de Timor-Leste, EurAstro, European Southern Observatory, Bosscha Observatory, Bandung Institute of Technology, Departamento de Física da Universidade Nacional em Timor-Leste, Foundation Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds, IAU Office of Astronomy for Development, NASA Sun-Earth Connections, PCs4kids, Art Sorrisus-Dental Implant Institute, Sália Pharmacy. Universe Awareness was initiated by IAU Vice President George Miley in 2005 with support from the Royal Netherlands Academy and the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It was selected as a Cornerstone project of the successful UN-ratified IAU/UNESCO International Year of Astronomy in 2009 (IYA2009). During IYA2009, thousands of UNAWE activities were organised in more than 40 countries reaching hundreds of thousands of children. UNAWE is an important component of the IAU Strategic Plan 2010 – 2020 “Astronomy for the Developing World” in which astronomy is used as a tool for global capacity building at all levels of society - primary, secondary and university education, research and public outreach. The plan builds from the successful UN-endorsed International Year of Astronomy 2009. UNAWE International Project Manager / Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands Leiden, the Netherlands UNAWE/Timor Leste Project Officer / Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands Leiden, the Netherlands Escola Portuguesa Ruy Cinatti

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Life Extension Magazine September 2012 National Institutes Of Health Discovers Protective Effects Of Coffee By Kirk Stokel An exciting new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that coffee drinking may add years to your life span. 1 Evidence is rapidly accumulating about the ability of coffee to reduce vascular disease, slash cancer risk, preserve cognition, and mitigate diabetes/obesity. 2 Rich in polyphenols, coffee contains over 1,000 different natural compounds3 that favorably interact within cells. 4 Coffee has the proven ability to turn on genes that promote youthful cellular functions. 4,5 One coffee compound in particular, chlorogenic acid provides a multitude of these benefits, including impeding after-meal glucose surges that can contribute to obesity and diabetes. 6-11 Researchers have found a way to naturally "super charge" coffee and dramatically increase its healthy polyphenol content. 12 This means people can obtain more of coffee's unique beneficial compounds while drinking less coffee. For those who can't drink coffee, standardized chlorogenic acid capsules are becoming enormously popular. Before describing the longevity finding published in the New England Journal of Medicine, we first want to conjecture why coffee drinking still has negative health connotations. One factor may be early memories of people drinking coffee who simultaneously smoked cigarettes. Smokers are often ravenous coffee drinkers. Other unhealthy images are those suffering hangovers who use coffee to restore functionality, those suffering sleep deprivation who drink coffee to stay awake, and the hefty "cream and sugar" so many people add to their coffee. These images are hard to delete from our memory banks. A more current negative health picture is the high-calorie coffee "milkshakes" that contribute to today's obesity epidemic. Certain religions admonish against tobacco, alcohol, and coffee, which implies that coffee drinkers are in the same poor-health category as nicotine addicts and alcoholics. Those who are able to abstain from alcohol addiction often switch to coffee. Finally, some people are sensitive to caffeine and are unable to drink coffee, or suffer heartburn in response to coffee consumption. If one can dispel these negative images, then coffee drinking may rise to the conscious level of a healthy choice, analogous to green tea drinking. Coffee Consumption Associated with Lower Risk of Death Researchers at the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with AARP (American Association of Retired People), explored coffee drinking habits and their impact on mortality. 1 They enrolled 229,119 men and 173,141 women, beginning in 1995 and 1996, when the subjects were 50-71 years old. The subjects completed a thorough questionnaire probing their diet and lifestyle. Anyone with cancer, heart disease, or stroke at the time of enrollment was excluded, leaving basically healthy adults in late middle age. 1 The researchers noted each participant's coffee consumption at the beginning of the study. Then they followed them for a total of 13 years, gathering data on a total of 5,148,760 person-years. 1 This comprehensive study had massive statistical power. During the study period, 33,731 men, and 18,784 women died of various causes. 1 According to the raw data, the risk of death seemed elevated among coffee drinkers. But coffee drinkers were more likely to smoke cigarettes, markedly affecting the data. After the researchers adjusted for smoking and other factors, they found a remarkably strong association between coffee drinking and survival. 1 In other words, the more coffee the subjects drank; the less likely they were to die. You can see just how powerful this association was by looking at table 1. That risk reduction applied to what epidemiologists call "all-cause mortality," that is, coffee drinking was associated with a markedly lower risk of dying for any reason at all. A closer look at the data revealed another fascinating fact, one that previous studies had already hinted at. 13-15 The survival association with coffee drinking and death applied to the risk of dying from specific diseases, including heart and lung disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections. It even applied to the risk of dying from injuries and accidents. 1 The protective effect of coffee drinking was evident whether subjects drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. 14 Caffeine, then, was not the protective component of coffee. Let's look at what else coffee contains that might explain its life-saving effects. Coffee Polyphenols Have Multi-targeted Impact In addition to caffeine, natural coffee beans contain more than 1,000 different compounds that could affect health and the risk of dying. 3 Of those, the polyphenols are the best candidates, for several reasons. Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants, with all the health benefits that implies. But polyphenols have other, more complex actions, including the surprising ability to modulate gene expression, regulating how much and how often a particular gene is "switched on. "16-18 That means that polyphenols regulate many of a cell's most fundamental processes, including signaling that tells cells when to die, when to replicate, when to release or respond to other chemical signals, and so on. 17,19 The net effects of this impact on cellular signaling include improvements in tissue repair, immunity, and the body's ability to maintain itself in a steady state, called homeostasis. 17,19 Impaired cellular signaling has been implicated in causing cancer, type 2 diabetes, and the risks for heart disease and stroke. 20 One polyphenol in particular, chlorogenic acid, is especially abundant in coffee, and is credited with providing many of its beneficial effects. Green coffee beans may possess up to 10% of dry weight chlorogenic acids making coffee the major source of chlorogenic acid in the diet. 21 Along with other polyphenols, chlorogenic acid helps drive down the chronic inflammation that's associated with common diseases of aging, such as diabetes and atherosclerosis. 6 Chlorogenic acid derivatives in roasted coffee protect cells with high fat content, like brain cells, helping to explain observations that coffee sustains cognition. 7 Studies show that other coffee polyphenols beneficially influence the function of liver and fat cells, helping to reduce the impact of obesity and diabetes. 8 A reduction in damage to DNA is the likely mechanism by which coffee consumption may lower your risk for cancer. 9-11Coffee is the single largest source of those beneficial polyphenols and other antioxidants in our diets. 21 On average, Americans who drink coffee consume 3. 1 cups of coffee per day. 22 But studies of benefits from coffee drinking consistently show that larger amounts, ranging from 4 to as many as 12 cups a day, provide the most protective benefits, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, liver disease, and Alzheimer's disease. 2,23-35 It's obviously hard to drink that much coffee, and many people develop unpleasant, though not dangerous, side effects, such as heart palpitations and upset stomachs, if they try to consume that much. You will read about a new technique for retaining polyphenol content in both decaffeinated and regular coffee. Let's now look at the many ways in which high coffee consumption is being linked to reduced risk of specific diseases. Coffee Benefits Your Brain "Coffee consumption has been associated with benefits involving cognitive function in aging. For example, in one study of 676 individuals with an average age of about 75 years, coffee consumption was associated with significantly less cognitive decline over a 10-year time period. Furthermore, the least cognitive decline was observed with 3 cups of coffee per day, which was associated with a remarkable 4. 3-times smaller level of decline in cognitive function compared with non-consumers of coffee (P<0. 001). "36 (See figure 1) Enriching coffee with polyphenols, especially chlorogenic acid, produces still greater benefits. Such innovative coffees are more neuroprotective even than green coffee, according to laboratory studies. One study showed green coffee increased brain cell survival by an impressive 78% in the face of severe oxidant stress, but a roasted coffee rich in chlorogenic acid derivatives produced a 203% increase in survival. 7 A chlorogenic acid-enriched decaffeinated coffee improved mood and attention in a pilot study of 39 healthy older people, compared with standard decaf coffee. A non-decaffeinated roast of similar formulation showed even more powerful effects. 37 These benefits are likely to be of special importance in the face of the growing epidemic of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. More than 40% of people over 84 will be stricken by Alzheimer's disease, according to recent estimates. 38 Moderate levels of daily coffee consumption, 3-5 cups per day, are tied to reduced rates of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in older adults. 35, 39, 40 Of special interest, animal studies now provide evidence that caffeinated coffee consumption (greater than about 5 cups per day in a human), not only protect against brain damage in Alzheimer's disease, but can even reverse some of that damage—in as little as 5 weeks. 34 Some insight into how coffee attains its protection against Alzheimer's comes from studies of the "Alzheimer's protein" called Abeta. Caffeine, at levels comparable to 5 cups of coffee daily, reduces levels of the proteins that go into manufacture of Abeta, and lowers levels of Abeta itself in blood and brain tissue. 34,41 There is a well-established relationship between high coffee intake and protection from Parkinson's disease as well. People who drink one to four cups of coffee daily experience 47% lower risk of the disease than those who drink none, and those who drink five or more cups have a 60% risk reduction. 42

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What is it in our bodies that keep re-triggering pain again and again? When is pain no longer beneficial, and crosses over into the realm of inappropriate, excessive and long-term pain? These are the questions that can plague us all. Protective withdrawal mechanisms are essential for self-preservation. These mechanisms help us avoid injury. Quickly pulling your fingers off a hotplate, averting the sun with your eyes, covering your ears from loud sounds, spitting out a bitter tasting food; these are examples of daily situations where we instinctively react to avoid harm. Occasionally, our bodies can be traumatized severely enough that our protective abilities are overwhelmed. This can occur in sudden and acute situations (such as in a car accident) or built up over time (cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, repetitive physical movements). We can even be emotionally traumatized as well. Typically, our bodies are able to acclimate and adapt to most of the multitudinous stressors we face daily. Sometimes the shock of the stressor is more than we can handle, and we subsequently become injured in some fashion. Yet, our bodies then immediately begin the healing process, and eventually we get better. Now and then, we don’t. During a shocking, or traumatizing moment, our bodies quickly react (with a whole host of cascading metabolic mechanisms) to that stressor. This is called the fright-flight-fight response. This happens in conjunction with the protective withdrawal reflexes previously mentioned. Our internal organs work to support the injury avoidance reaction. Our pupils dilate, our heart rate and respiratory rates increase, the bloodstream is flooded with glucose as fuel for our muscles, and our digestive system turns down to conserve energy. Our nervous system literally gets “wired” up, and our mental focus places full attention onto the situation at hand. We begin to sweat to keep the whole system cooled. Our entire body/mind construct is thus fully incorporated into a means of protection and preservation. After the situation is over, our bodies should retreat back to a normal functioning balance (homeostasis). If, as is occasionally necessary, health care is required to reestablish homeostasis, the attention of the practitioner is placed upon the diminished or suppressed activity of the organ, nerve, muscle, or biochemical flux. Recently, health care has begun placing more and more awareness on the flip side of the coin; a hyperactive overreaction to the potential injury. (see Part II, next issue) (Dr. Richard Hanson, chiropractor in Jamestown, New York, can be reached at (716)-664-0445. Most major insurances are now being accepted. )

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The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but they make Internet access difficult -- that’s the long and short of our research on Colorado. While community networks are making some headway in providing much needed connectivity, much of the state still may only have access to fixed wireless or Satellite service. Internet Service by Technology We investigated Internet access in Colorado using the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Form 477 data. Many of the most rural areas of the state do not have any form of Internet access other than satellite or fixed wireless services. For our analysis, we exclusively looked into wireline Internet service because it is less weather-dependent than satellite or fixed wireless. We added county subdivisions onto our map to help readers differentiate between more urban and predominantly rural areas. That map, however, shows only Internet service availability across the state; it does not show broadband service. The FCC redefined broadband as 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload in 2015. Earlier definitions of broadband included speeds as low as 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. DSL service, while widely available, often cannot support this latest definition of broadband. It relies on copper telephone lines, and the actual speeds customers experience are often not as fast as advertised, "up to" speeds. Cable can provide broadband speed, but its actual speed can vary in times of peak traffic, such as the early evening. Fiber is the most reliable form of Internet service. In some communities, fiber networks are providing speeds of 10 Gbps (400 times the speed of broadband). Colorado is one of the many states that erect barriers to community networks. The state law, colloquially known as SB 152, requires public entities to hold a referendum on whether they can even study the possibility of building a community network. About 100 public entities in Colorado have passed referenda and reclaimed local control of their telecommunications future. Not all have moved forward with projects. Three electric cooperatives have also stepped up to provide a community-owned alternative to big telecom. Meeker -- Rio Blanco County operates an open access network in this city. This enables small private providers to offer service without having to pay a huge capital cost in building a network from scratch. Rangley -- Another city within Rio Blanco County’s project. The project will be a mix of Fiber-to-the-Home in urban areas and fixed wireless in rural areas. Fiber in Some Areas Centennial -- The city has a dark fiber network and is partnering with the ISP Ting Internet to bring Fiber-to-the-Home to residents. Listen to the whole story in Community Broadband Bits Episode 222. DMEA - Delta-Montrose Electric Association's Elevate Fiber network SECOM - Southeast Communications by the Southeast Colorado Power Association San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative -- Ciello Networks Explore these cities on our interactive Community Networks map. It lays out every small town and city that has a publicly owned or cooperative network in the U.S. Note About the Data The Form 477 underlies most Internet availability maps, as it is a national publicly available dataset on Internet service. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use the form to self-report information on what kinds of services they offer and where they provide service. The FCC then releases this data every six months. The Form 477 is not perfect and is a best-case scenario for Internet service. We based our map on the most recent update at the time, December 2016 version 1. The Form 477 is imprecise because it reports information on the census block level. Census blocks are the smallest unit of measurement for the U.S. Census, and there are more than 11 million census blocks in the nation. These census blocks are not all uniform in size or population. Rural census blocks are often noticeably larger in land area than urban census blocks. An ISP may mark an entire census block as served as long it can reasonably offer service to at least one residence in that census block. This leads to an overstatement of Internet availability. Check out a similar analysis and map based on Form 477 data from the state of Georgia.

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Are you a young old person, or an old young person? That is a real question, according to a new study, which shows some young adults are aging nearly three times faster than their peers. The study – conducted by a team of researchers from Israel, New Zealand, the UK and the US – shows that a person’s biological age may be very different from their actual age, which appears on their birth certificate. Get our weekly highlights directly in your inbox! Sign up Some people age faster than others The scientists identified factors that can tell why some individuals age faster than others, by determining their biological age according to their current health. Biological markers such as kidney and lung function, immune system strength, good cholesterol, cardio respiratory fitness, lung function and dental health, were used to determine the biological age of some 1,000 participants, between the ages of 26 and 28. SEE ALSO: Why Do Our Brains Age? By working with younger subjects, researchers were able to spot health decline even before the onset of age-related diseases such as diabetes and heart problems, according to study co-author Dr. Salomon Israel of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “The vast majority of research on aging begins around age 50 or 60 and many people at this age already experienced the process of aging,” Salomon tells NoCamels. “By working with young adults, you can ask questions about what happens earlier and quantify that information. ” For example, among the 38 year olds studied, the participants’ biological age was found to range from under 30 to nearly 60 years old. That means that some participants’ biological age was more than 20 years older than their chronological age. The long-term study, recently published in the American scientific journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has tracked participants from birth, using health measures such as blood pressure, liver function, along with personal interviews. The results show that most participants aged according to their actual age at a rate of approximately one year per year of age, while others aged nearly three years for every chronological year. There was also a cluster of those who aged at a rate of zero years per year, thus, staying younger than their chronological age. Results showed that participants who had a greater biological age at age 38 appear to be aging at a faster pace. Those who received a higher biological age also scored worse on exams involving coordination and balance, and they experienced more physical difficulties, such as climbing a set of stairs. Your lifestyle affects your aging process There are multiple variables that should be taken into account when determining why some age faster than others. “It could be lifestyle factors: How much you smoke, your diet, how sanitary your lifestyle is, personality factors, what kind of social support you have. It could be things like education, or stressors you encountered,” Salomon says. The research team also assessed the age of participants based on their appearance at age 38. The individuals who appeared older also happened to have a greater biological age. Assessing one’s true age could prevent diseases By determining age-related decline during a person’s younger years, researchers can intervene early on in the aging process in hopes of reducing disease rates, and if necessary, implement prevention methods at early stages. “The advantage is that you have a lot more time for prevention,” Salomon explains. “The other aspect is tracking the aging process itself. If you slow down some of the aging, you can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and so on. ” A follow-up on this study is expected to take place in the next few years once participants turn 45 years old, providing scientists with another data point. The researchers hope that the new information will help determine what anti-aging factors affect the aging process.

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Alaska Department of Fish and Game - About Us - Join Us - News & Events - Management & Research - Licenses & Permits - Maps & GIS - Contact Us - Licenses & Permits - Personal Use - Aquatic Farming - General Information - Licenses & Permits - File Hunt Reports - Game Species - Shooting Ranges - Hunter Education - Subsistence Division Overview - Subsistence Use Information - Regulations & Permits - Harvest Data & Reports - Regulatory Announcements - Where to Go - What to See - When to Go - Virtual Viewing - Tips & Safety - Guides & Checklists - Citizen Science - For Educators - For Hunters - For Anglers - Camps & Skills Clinics - Citizen Science - Calendar of Events - Pets & Livestock - Special Status - Living with Wildlife - Parasites & Diseases - Wildlife Action Plan Lands & Waters - Access & Planning - Conservation Areas - Habitat Permits - Maps & GIS - Restoration & Enhancement Alaska Fish & Wildlife News Schoolyard Habitats Inspire Outdoor Learning The photos in Sharon Danks’ book about schoolyard habitat projects are so awe-inspiring they make me wish I were back in elementary school. Danks’ book, "Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation," chronicles a growing international movement to remake schoolyards and playgrounds to better connect our children with nature. The “before” photos document drab institutional-looking schools with expanses of gray concrete, basic playground equipment and little greenery. The “after” photos depict lush green spaces, inviting outdoor classrooms, creative play spaces with ponds, boulder piles and hills, edible gardens and in a few cases, farm animals such as chickens. Looking at some of the school transformations side-by-side, it’s hard to believe the photos are of the same school. This inspiring work is taking place internationally, even here in Alaska. In Alaska, the key leaders in these schoolyard habitat efforts are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with its nationwide Schoolyard Habitat initiative, and Soil and Water Conservation Districts, with their local connections and emphasis on habitat restoration. Other schools are working independently of these agencies to remake their school grounds. Some projects focus on kids’ gardening plots that show students how to grow their own food while others key in on wildlife habitat for outdoor learning or artistic natural play areas that inspire imaginative games. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game also has an important role to play, primarily because of the Department’s efforts to foster connections between people and nature and to encourage and support outdoor learning. For over two decades, the Department’s Project WILD and Alaska Wildlife Curriculum lessons have encouraged teachers to take students outside for place-based learning that fosters a deeper understanding of Alaska’s natural resources. Ultimately, the goal is to empower students with the appropriate knowledge and complex problem-solving skills so they will be capable as adults of wisely managing our state’s abundant natural resources. ADF&G’s teacher workshops have always been popular. But now, with an increased focus on schoolyard habitats around the state, a growing number of teachers will be able to more easily incorporate these lessons right outside their classroom doors. Increasingly, too, ADF&G educators are being called upon to advise teachers on how best to use these schoolyard habitats. “In the past year, several schools have asked us to visit their grounds to advise teachers and staff on how to use their school grounds for outdoor learning, or to weigh in at the planning stage,” said Brenda Duty, ADF&G’s Project WILD and youth education coordinator. “We expect such requests to increase as more schools remake their school grounds. We are also tailoring some of our teacher workshops specifically with schoolyard habitat projects in mind. ” At least a dozen projects are already underway throughout the state to “green” school grounds at elementary schools and early childhood centers. They are taking place in Anchorage, Palmer, Wasilla, Fairbanks, North Pole, Nome, Barrow, and Interior villages. At Knik Elementary in Wasilla, for example, students, teachers, parents and staff planted dozens of new trees and plants and built a trail through an existing forest on school grounds. Catherine Inman, program manager with the Wasilla Soil and Water Conservation District, advised and helped lead the project. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided funding and technical input. The students did the planting and built the trail last spring. At the end of the school year, the older children were then trained by Inman to lead “naturalist” tours for younger students. The tours taught students about the plants and wildlife found in the forest along the trail, and encouraged them to engage their observational skills and all of their senses as they explored the trail, Inman said. At Birchtree Charter School in Palmer, the school community, with the assistance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wasilla Soil and Water Conservation District, is creating a “living amphitheater” large enough to accommodate the entire school. Research shows that the outdoor learning made possible through schoolyard habitat projects benefits children. According to literature produced by AKELP (the Alaska Environmental Literacy Plan) and the Get Outdoors Alaska coalition, children are happier, healthier and smarter when connected to nature. They also do better in school, have fewer behavioral problems and are engaged and excited about learning. While schoolyard habitats may seem important for urban areas but not as critical in Alaska where wild ecosystems are within close reach of most schools, Duty said barriers do exist for Alaskan students to connect with nature even when parks, trails and natural areas are nearby. The growing number of schoolyard habitats in the state should help make nature more accessible to both students and teachers. “Money for field trips: That’s the number one barrier I hear from teachers when we ask them, ‘What keeps you from teaching outdoors? ’” Duty said. “That closely followed by students’ lack of outdoor gear. With a schoolyard habitat, teachers are bringing the field trip into the school yard boundaries. And with regular use, we can also see the growth in physical confidence and outdoor skills. Our hope is that these ‘safe’ outdoor places will empower students to venture out with their parents and partake in other outdoor opportunities throughout the state. ” Another barrier involves generational trends. Studies show that children today don’t spend nearly as much time outside as their parents and grandparents did when they were children. Added to that is increased media use by children; studies have reported that children between 8 and 18 years now spend an average of nearly 6. 5 hours a day using electronic media. For many kids whose families don’t spend much time outside, the best place to reach them is at school, said Jeff Heys, a habitat restoration biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who coordinates the agency’s schoolyard habitat program in Anchorage. “Field trips are important but don’t happen often enough to inspire a sense of connection,” Heys said. “A schoolyard is a natural place for kids to experience the outdoors, and a schoolyard habitat broadens that experience to include learning about wildlife and stewardship of our natural resources. ” “Alaska has unparalleled outdoor learning opportunities that we need to engage in every way possible. Not to do so would be a tremendous lost opportunity for our children,” Duty added. •To learn more about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Schoolyard Habitat initiative and to find a local contact for the program, visit http://alaska.fws.gov/fisheries/restoration/schoolyard_habitat.htm. •To learn more about ADF&G’s wildlife education curricula and teacher workshops, visit http://www.adfg.alaska.govand follow the links to the education pages. Or contact Brenda Duty at email@example. com, (907) 267-2216. •To learn more about the Alaska Environmental Literacy Plan, visit http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/AKELP/home.html. For information on the Get Outdoors Alaska coalition, visit www. getoutdoorsalaska. org. •For detailed information on research on the benefits of nature to children visit the Children and Nature Network, www. childrenandnature. org. Elizabeth Manning is an outdoor writer and an outdoor educator with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, based in Anchorage. Subscribe to Fish and Wildlife News to receive a monthly notice about the new issue and the articles. P.O. Box 115526 1255 W. 8th Street Juneau, AK 99811-5526

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|Stock Availability||In stock| |Brand Name||Look chem| Sodium hypophosphite is an inorganic salt with the chemical formula NaH2PO2, monoclinic crystal or pearly crystal or white crystalline powder. It is easily soluble in water, ethanol, glycerin, slightly soluble in ammonia, ammonia water, and insoluble in ether. Sodium Hypophosphite is neutral in aqueous solution and has strong reducing properties. Sodium Hypophosphite is relatively stable when stored in a dry state, and rapidly decomposes when heated above 200°C, releasing toxic phosphine that can ignite spontaneously. It will explode when exposed to strong heat, and will explode when mixed with potassium chlorate or other oxidants. Sodium hypophosphite is a strong reducing agent, which can reduce the salts of gold, silver, mercury, nickel, chromium, diamond, etc. to a metallic state. Used as an electroless plating agent Used as antiseptic and fresh-keeping agent For sodium hypophosphite reduction electroless copper plating and other electroless copper plating processes, they have the same chemical principle. Its essence is also an electroless copper plating method to reduce the free copper ions in the copper plating solution to solid copper crystals and plate them on the surface of the substrate with the help of a suitable reducing agent. Nowadays, the electroless copper plating process for sodium hypophosphite reduction is very similar to the electroless copper plating process for formaldehyde reduction, but the reaction mechanism is much more complicated. This is because pure metallic copper has no catalytic activity for the oxidation reaction of sodium hypophosphite. When using it as a reducing agent for electroless copper plating, it cannot achieve an autocatalytic electroless plating reaction through the copper particles and silver particles produced in the activation and sensitization stages like the formaldehyde system. To make the electroless copper plating reaction of the sodium hypophosphite system continue, it is necessary to add a substance with catalytic activity for the electroless plating reaction. The current way to solve this technical problem is to learn from the process principle of electroless nickel plating. Nickel ions are added to the plating solution, and a copper plating layer containing a small amount of nickel is obtained through the co-deposition of metallic nickel and copper. The deposited nickel particles can catalyze the reaction of sodium hypophosphite reducing Cu2+, so as to ensure the continuous progress of the electroless copper plating reaction, and finally obtain a high-quality copper coating. * Timely reply and 24 hours online, the professional team will provide you with the most favorable prices and high-quality products. * The sample supports testing and inspection. * Each batch of products will be tested to ensure that its quality meets user needs. *Packaging can also be made according to customer requirements. *Any inquiries will be answered by our relevant personnel within 24 hours. *We will provide you with commercial invoice, packing list, packing list, COA, health certificate and certificate of origin if you need it. If your market has other special requirements, please let us know. *We will monitor the logistics information in real time and will share the information with you. * You can consult us at any time if you have any questions about the product, and we will answer you in time. *If you have any questions about the product, you can report it to us, we will deal with it in time for you, and the product can be returned.

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Human Resources: A Global Perspective Human Resources (HR) is a critical function within organizations, responsible for managing the most valuable asset: people. In today’s interconnected world, HR professionals must navigate the complexities of globalization, considering cultural, legal, and economic factors. This article provides a comprehensive understanding of HR from a global perspective, exploring key challenges and strategies for success. Importance of Global HR - Strategic alignment: Global HR ensures that an organization’s HR policies and practices are aligned with its overall business strategy, supporting international growth and expansion. - Talent acquisition and retention: HR professionals must attract, select, and retain diverse talents across borders, building a global workforce that enhances innovation and competitiveness. - Cultural diversity management: Global HR promotes inclusivity and helps create a culturally sensitive work environment, fostering collaboration and synergy between employees from different backgrounds. - Compliance with international laws and regulations: HR professionals must navigate the complexities of labor laws, employment regulations, and visa requirements in various countries to ensure legal compliance. - Global mobility and expatriate management: HR plays a crucial role in managing international assignments, addressing logistical challenges, ensuring expatriate support, and facilitating knowledge transfer across borders. Adapting HR Practices to Local Contexts - Localization of policies: HR policies and practices should be tailored to the local context, considering cultural norms, legal requirements, and market conditions of each country where the organization operates. - Language and communication: HR professionals must overcome language barriers by ensuring effective communication and language support for employees in non-native English-speaking regions. - Talent development: Global HR should invest in localized training and development programs, providing employees with the necessary skills and knowledge for their specific roles and ensuring career growth opportunities. - Performance management: HR professionals should implement performance evaluation systems that account for cultural differences, ensuring fairness and consistency while acknowledging local performance expectations. - Local labor market expertise: Understanding local labor markets, HR can develop competitive compensation and benefits packages that attract and retain top talent in each location. Building Cross-Cultural Competence - Cultural awareness: HR professionals should acquire knowledge about different cultures, customs, and traditions, fostering cultural sensitivity and avoiding misunderstandings that can impact employee morale and satisfaction. - Intercultural training: Providing employees with intercultural training helps develop cross-cultural competence, enabling them to work effectively in multicultural teams and adapt to diverse work environments. - Effective cross-cultural communication: HR should promote effective communication strategies that bridge cultural differences, such as promoting active listening, clarification techniques, and understanding non-verbal cues. - Multicultural team building: HR can facilitate team-building activities that encourage collaboration, trust, and mutual respect among employees from different cultural backgrounds. - Conflict resolution: HR professionals should be equipped with conflict resolution skills that consider cultural nuances, finding solutions that respect diverse perspectives and mitigate tensions. Technology and HR in the Global Context - Virtual collaboration: HR should leverage technology to enable virtual collaboration and communication, ensuring seamless interaction among globally dispersed teams. - Global HR information systems: Implementing global HRIS ensures accurate and centralized employee data management, facilitating cross-border reporting, analytics, and compliance. - Remote work: HR professionals must establish remote work policies that account for cultural and legal differences, ensuring employee productivity, engagement, and work-life balance. - E-recruitment: Utilizing online platforms, HR can streamline the recruitment process, reaching a wider pool of candidates, and selecting the best-fit talent regardless of geographical barriers. - Data privacy and security: HR professionals need to stay updated on international data privacy regulations, safeguarding employee information and ensuring compliance with local data protection requirements. Diversity and Inclusion in Global HR - Diversity recruitment strategies: HR must implement diverse recruitment strategies to attract talents from different ethnic, cultural, and gender backgrounds, ensuring a diverse and inclusive workforce. - Inclusive policies and practices: HR professionals should advocate for inclusive policies and practices that accommodate individuals with different abilities, preferences, and perspectives, fostering a sense of belonging. - Employee resource groups: Establishing employee resource groups promotes inclusivity, providing platforms for underrepresented employees to connect, share experiences, and contribute to a diverse organizational culture. - Training on unconscious bias: HR should provide training programs that raise awareness of unconscious biases, helping employees recognize and mitigate biases that can hinder diversity and inclusion efforts. - Regular diversity audits: Conducting diversity audits allows HR professionals to track progress, identify gaps, and implement necessary interventions for continuous improvement in diversity and inclusion practices. Measuring HR’s Global Impact - Key performance indicators (KPIs): Establishing and monitoring HR-related KPIs allows organizations to track and evaluate the effectiveness of global HR strategies, such as employee satisfaction, retention rates, or diversity metrics. - Employee feedback surveys: Regular employee surveys provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of HR practices from a global perspective, enabling improvements based on employees’ perspectives. - Talent analytics: Leveraging HR analytics, organizations can gain insights into talent acquisition, retention, and development on a global scale, identifying trends and making data-driven decisions. - Succession planning: HR professionals should develop global succession plans, ensuring leadership continuity across borders, and identifying high-potential employees who can drive organizational growth. - Cost-benefit analysis: Conducting cost-benefit analyses helps assess the return on investment (ROI) of HR initiatives, providing valuable data to support decision-making and resource allocation. Human Resources: A Global Perspective demonstrates the importance of adopting a global mindset in HR practices. By understanding and adapting to local contexts, building cross-cultural competence, harnessing technology, promoting diversity and inclusion, and measuring impact, HR professionals can effectively navigate the challenges of managing a global workforce. Through strategic and inclusive approaches, organizations can create a harmonious and productive work environment, driving sustainable success in the global marketplace.

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Brandywine Falls is Among the Most Popular Attractions in Cuyahoga Valley National Park Geological and Natural History Carved by Brandywine Creek, the 65-foot falls demonstrates classic geological features of waterfalls. A layer of hard rock caps the waterfall, protecting softer layers of rock below. In this case, the top layer is Berea Sandstone. The softer layers include Bedford and Cleveland shales, soft rocks formed from mud found on the sea floor that covered this area 350-400 million years ago. Shale is thinly chunked, giving water a bridal veil appearance as it cascades down the falls. A combination of boardwalk and steps brings you into the waterfall's gorge and lets you view the waterfall head-on (a boardwalk option without stairs is also available). The boardwalk also provides a close look at Berea Sandstone. Careful inspection will reveal the individual grains of sand that accumulated in a sea 320 million years ago. Berea Sandstone is high quality sandstone found commonly throughout this area, both in nature and as a construction material used in buildings and canal locks. The moistness of the gorge is evident as you walk along boardwalk. The moisture invites moss to grow on the sandstone and eastern hemlocks, an evergreen tree, to grow along the gorge. The hemlocks contrast with the abundant red maple trees in the area, which flame with color in the fall. Early settlers in the valley saw the falls not just as an object of beauty, but as something to be used for its water power. In 1814, George Wallace built a saw mill at the top of the falls. Grist and woolen mills followed. The Village of Brandywine grew around the mills and became one of the earliest communities to emerge in the Cuyahoga Valley. Much of the village is now mostly gone, lost to the construction of nearby Interstate 271. However, the James Wallace house, built by George's son, remains and is a bed & breakfast, the Inn at Brandywine Falls. Hiking the Trail The 1. 5-mile Brandywine Gorge Trail lets you explore beyond the waterfall. It starts near the bed & breakfast and follows the edge of the gorge, eventually taking you down to creek level. The trail is worth revisiting in the spring to view vernal pools that temporarily fill with water, attracting breeding salamanders. The views of the creek and the layers of rock it has exposed are also worth the walk.

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WHITTIER — Within a circle of Minneapolis Institute of Arts curators, it is affectionately referred to as “our Mona Lisa.” The work in question is a drawing, not a painting, made in 1910 by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele. It’s just one of the many surprises to be found in “Marks of Genius,” an astonishing sampling of more than 100 rarely seen drawings from the museum’s collection. Done in crayon, chalk and tempera paint on a sheet of plain brown wrapping paper, “Standing Girl” depicts a beautiful young woman, her elongated form only half-covered by a plaid blanket. With her head turned from the viewer, she seems innocent, almost bashful, an impression contradicted by the way Schiele draws her hands; the skeletal fingers gripping the blanket are clenched and claw-like. The exhibition’s organizer, Rachel McGarry, an associate curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings, said it turned heads when it was wheeled into the gallery. “Everybody stops in their tracks to look at this drawing,” McGarry said. It isn’t just the girl — possibly the artist's teenage sister — or even the weird psychology of the piece. It’s the way Schiele traces along her neck, over the bump of her collarbone and down her arm in one sinuous line, a naked display of artistic virtuosity. “In a drawing like this, there’s nowhere to hide,” McGarry said. “If you don’t know how to draw the human form, you can’t draw like this. ” As she writes in the exhibition catalogue, drawing is both the simplest and the most difficult art. Everyone draws, and because of that we classroom and cubicle doodlers marvel at real drawing. And what a lot there is to see here: works on paper from Edgar Degas, Jean-Francois Millet, Amedeo Modigliani, Georgie O'Keeffe and Philip Guston, to name just a few. The selections span nearly 600 years of art history, reaching as far back as two 15th-century choir book pages illuminated with paint and gold foil. The most recent piece is an unorthodox 2008 self-portrait by the Baltimore artist Mequitta Ahuja. Ahuja's serene face floats like a crescent moon at the top of the sheet, trailing thick coils of dreadlocks drawn in black crayon. “This is the cream of our collection,” said McGarry, who described the exhibition as “the most significant group of drawings we’ve shown in the galleries. ” The collection has expanded by 20 percent since the arrival of current museum Director and President Kaywin Feldman in 2008, and now numbers more than 2,600 drawings. But we rarely see them. Works on paper are especially delicate and can fade or discolor when exposed to light, so drawings are only occasionally — and briefly — put on public view. Then it's back into dark storage (although not, in this case, until after a three-city tour). These drawings were, in many cases, not intended as finished works of art, but as studies for paintings or sculpture. Fundamental to the visual arts, drawing has always been a way for visual thinkers to test out ideas and form an understanding of the world around them. When we see the Italian painter Pietro Fancelli fussing with his circa 1800 version of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth — adjusting the angle of Eurydice's head and redrawing Orpheus in the margin — we get a glimpse into the artistic process. Fancelli was planning a painting, and after working out the composition in pen and ink he turned the paper over and used the backside for a separate study. Then there’s Eugene Delacroix’s chalk study of a prone and watchful tiger, an image that shows up in later lithographs and paintings. Otto Dix may have sketched a Pablo Picasso bronze sculpture to better understand the Spanish artist’s version of Cubism, a movement that influenced Dix’s paintings and illustrations. Adolphe Appian’s 1868 charcoal sketch of the Valromey Valley near his home in Lyon, France, is a knockout, eclipsing a print he later made of the same scene that’s reproduced in the show’s catalogue. Appian gets an incredible range of gradations out of the charcoal, from the hazy sky surrounding the autumn sun to the inky shadows on the valley floor. The later examples in the show are less often a means to an artistic end. The abstract seascape in Lee Bontecou’s untitled pastel-on-canvas piece is drawing for drawing’s sake, and the powdery texture of the medium seems perfectly suited to describing the mist rising off a churning ocean. If you’re feeling inspired (and not intimidated) after all of that, stop in the drawing studio at the end of the exhibition to sketch from plaster models. And if that studio feels familiar, it’s because the Walker Art Center set up a similar space for its recent exhibition of Edward Hopper drawings. More déjà vu: the looping videos of artists in the act of drawing, also a feature of the institute’s spring Matisse exhibition. This time, we see Picasso conjure up a few flowers with a black marker, then turn them into a tropical fish and, finally, transmogrify the fish into a rooster. We see how the trick works, but the drawing is no less magical. Marks of Genius: 100 Extraordinary Drawings WHEN: Through Sept. 21 WHERE: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 3rd Ave. S. INFO: artsmia. org, 870-3000 "Standing Girl," by Egon Schiele. Submitted image

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Fourth World Day of the Poor 15th November 2020 “Stretch forth your hand to the poor” (Sir 7:32) 4th World Day of the Poor Message (Pope Francis / pdf) Pope Francis has lunch with the poor in the Paul VI Hall (Vatican Media)Pope Francis releases his message for the Fourth World Day of the Poor, observed on 15 November. The Pope calls on people to keep their gaze fixed on the poor, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, and warns against succumbing to a “whirlwind of indifference”. By Lydia O’Kane The theme for the 4th World Day of the Poor is “Stretch forth your hand to the poor”, taken from the book of Sirach. The Message was released on Saturday, while the actual World Day is observed on 15 November 2020. Drawing from this text, Pope Francis observes that “its author presents his advice concerning many concrete situations in life, one of which is poverty. He insists that even amid hardship we must continue to trust in God.” The Pope points out that from these pages we see, “prayer to God and solidarity with the poor and suffering are inseparable. ” He also notes that “time devoted to prayer can never become an alibi for neglecting our neighbour in need. ” The gift of Generosity “Generosity that supports the weak, consoles the afflicted, relieves suffering and restores dignity to those stripped of it, is a condition for a fully human life,” Pope Francis says. “The power of God’s grace cannot be restrained by the selfish tendency to put ourselves always first. ” In his message, the Pope acknowledges that “keeping our gaze fixed on the poor is difficult”, but, he underlines, it is “more necessary than ever if we are to give proper direction to our personal life and the life of society. ” Whirlwind of indifference “We cannot feel ‘alright’ when any member of the human family is left behind and in the shadows,” he says. The Pope laments a frenetic pace of life that leads people into a “whirlwind of indifference”. He adds that it is only when something happens that upsets the course of our lives do our eyes become capable of seeing the goodness of the saints “next door”. As an aid and development agency, Caritas Australia works to reach the poorest and most vulnerable people in our world. How these communities are identified can be a logistical, financial and cultural challenge. Priority must be considered within a broader context of the geography, local government networks, other non-government organisations, and even climate. Communities are identified through a comprehensive process in collaboration with on-the-ground partners, church and local networks. When schools decide to partner directly with communities, applying the preference for the poor means it is important to consider what selection criteria has been applied. How will you determine which community to work with? How will it be determined if that community is the most need in that area? What other funding channels are available to the communities? Film clip – Fundraising with the preferential option for the poor Watch the following clip and discuss: We fund children who often haven’t had the opportunity to go to school

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In 1747, eight years before the publication of his pioneering dictionary, Samuel Johnson wrote that his “chief intent” in compiling his great work was “to preserve the purity and ascertain the meaning of the English idiom,” which he characterized as “the exact and pure idea of a grammatical dictionary. ” But he also recognized that “in lexicography, as in other arts, naked science is too delicate for the purposes of life. ” And it followed from this, “The value of a work must be estimated by its use. ” Dictionaries had to present the language as it was, not merely as it should be: “It is not enough that a dictionary delights the critic, unless at the same time it instructs the learner. ” James Murray (1837-1915), the self-taught Scot who became the founding editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, would reaffirm that principle, concurring with the Philological Society that “the literary merit or demerit of any particular writer, like the comparative elegance or inelegance of any given word, is a subject on which the Lexicographer is bound to be almost indifferent. ” At the same time, he devoted himself for over 30 years to capturing the dynamic richness of the language. In 1879, he equipped his famous Scriptorium in North Oxford with over a thousand pigeonholes to store the alphabetical slips of readers and assistants from which he compiled the dictionary’s definitions and quotations. And although he did not live to see the completion of the 10-volume New English Dictionary in 1928 (which would become the 12-volume OED in 1933), Murray’s vision has always animated the evolving character of this most authoritative, protean dictionary. The new online OED enables readers to access the evolution and use of more than 600,000 words over 1,000 years through three million quotations at the click of a keyboard. It has also woven the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary into its digital design, which serves as an indispensable map of the OED. In bringing the OED into the 21st century the new chief editor, John Simpson, has exhibited something of Murray’s zest and good judgment. He has also shown how well-suited Murray’s method is to digitalization: As he told the Times, “the way that [Murray] structured the dictionary with its series of branches, nested senses, meanings and the way that the quotations are arranged converts very easily on to computer. ” In her wonderful biography of her brilliant grandfather, Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary (1977), Elisabeth Murray recalled how His life was all of a piece, and varied as were his interests, they can all be traced back to his childhood and youth. . . . He never lost his enthusiasm. . . . Only this continual feeling of wonder, adventure and delight could have sustained him through the tedious advance, year after year, among the words of the English language. That the Historical Thesaurus has been added to the online festivities makes browsing all the more amusing. For the adjective vast, for example, readers can now access this dazzling catalogue: huge (1275), infinite (1385), unmeasurable (1386), giant (1480), immense (1490), unportable (1536), enormous (1544), monstrous (1553), gargantuan (1596), Polyphemian (1601), prodigious (1601), gigantical (1604), leviathan (1625), elephantine (1631), Titanical (1642), colossal (1664), Brobdignagian (1728), Patagonian (1786), mammoth (1801), dimensionless (1813), Titan (1851), behemothian (1910), supercolossal (1934), mega (1968), and Apropos English synonyms, C. T. Onions, Murray’s great successor, once wrote, “It has been held by some that a language is at a disadvantage that has such a plethora of epithets as hateful, odious, loathsome, repulsive, offensive, together with disgusting, distasteful, nauseating, sickening, noisome; but the discerning will know what is the right place for all of these”—a truth which the OED’s well-chosen quotations exemplify.

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Washington, D.C. — DC Water’s newly opened Anacostia River Tunnel System was pressed into service in mid-April as heavy rains battered the District of Columbia. About two inches of rain fell over a three-hour period, far more than the city’s combined sewer system can handle. During the storm, the new tunnel prevented approximately 170 million gallons of combined sewage and stormwater from being discharged to the Anacostia River. DC Water placed into operation the first section of the Anacostia River Tunnel System, from RFK Stadium to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, in late March. This portion of the system comprises about seven miles of 23-foot inside diameter tunnel that can store more than 100 million gallons, while continuously processing another 225 million gallons per day at the new Wet Weather Treatment Facility at Blue Plains. Durng the storm the new tunnel filled to capacity. Based upon preliminary data analysis, the flow exceeded the tunnel capacity by between 10 and 20 million gallons, which overflowed to the Anacostia River. The next portion of the Anacostia River Tunnel system, the Northeast Boundary Tunnel now under construction, will add approximately 90 million gallons of storage when it is placed into service in 2023. As in many older cities, about one-third of the District has a combined sewer system. A combined sewer overflow (or CSO) occurs during heavy rain when the mixture of sewage and stormwater cannot fit in the sewer pipes and overflows to the nearest water body. CSOs contain bacteria and trash that can be harmful to the environment, but the system was designed as a preferable alternative to the combined sewage backing up in homes and businesses and on the streets. Since the early 1900s, only sewer systems with separate pipes for sewage and stormwater have been installed in the District. CSO tunnels similar to DC Water’s already exist in Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and other cities. Once the Anacostia Tunnel System is completed, overflows may still occur in rare, intense rainstorms, but the tunnels will capture 98 percent of the CSOs in an average year. For more information on the Clean Rivers Project, visit https://dcwater.com/clean-rivers-project.

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New Delhi, Aug. 18: Children who spend time outdoors during daylight hours appear to be protected from myopia, or nearsightedness, according to medical studies that eye doctors believe are strong enough for a take-home message. Two new studies in Denmark and Taiwan have shown that daylight may prevent or curb the risk of myopia, a condition correctable by glasses, but whose severe forms may raise the risk of glaucoma or retinal detachment in adulthood. “The evidence for this protective effect of daylight is mounting,” said Quresh Maskati, an eye doctor in Mumbai, who is also the president-elect of the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS). “India is blessed with sunlight and we should amalgamate this advisory into our practice,” Maskati, who was not associated with either study, told The Telegraph. But Maskati and others in the AIOS have cautioned that the suggestions by some doctors that smartphones may cause eyesight problems in children are yet to be substantiated with hard evidence. David Allamby, a leading laser eye surgeon in the UK has claimed that since the launch of smartphones in 1997, there has been a 35 per cent increase in patients with advancing myopia. Research has shown that smartphone users hold their handsets only 18cm to 30cm away from their faces, compared with newspapers and books, which are held about 40cm away. Martin Banks, a professor of vision science at the University of California, Berkeley, had in a study published in the Journal of Vision two years ago suggested that the demand on the eyes to focus on the screen while at the same time adjust to the distance of the content may account for visual discomfort linked to mobile devices. “We’ve known for decades that prolonged near work may lead to small changes in power, but this cannot lead to any large change,” said Lalit Verma, a senior consultant with the Centre for Sight, New Delhi, and secretary of the AIOS. “And this effect resulting from the prolonged near work can come from books, newspapers, or anything, not only smartphones,” he added. Maskati said a scientific meeting of the American Association for Paediatric Ophthamology held in Singapore last month had discussed the protective effect of daylight against myopia, but not the risk of smartphones. The studies on daylight from Denmark and Taiwan were published in May this year in the journal Ophthalmology. In Taiwan, researchers observed that the new onset of myopia was “significantly lower” among children who spent their school recess time outdoors than among children who spent it indoors. An independent study in Denmark has shown that progression of myopia appears to decrease in periods with longer days and increase in periods with shorter days. “Children should be encouraged to spend more time outside during the daytime,” the researchers from Denmark and China wrote in their study. “Parents should encourage children to spend time outdoors daily. When that is impractical because of weather or other factors, the use of daylight-spectrum indoor lights should be considered a way to minimise (the risk of) myopia,” said Dongmei Cui, a Chinese researcher who led the study.

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Researchers at UCLA have opened a path to cheaper and cleaner biofuels by using genetic engineering to fundamentally change how certain organisms process sugar. Conventional biofuels are either too expensive to compete with fossil fuels or they release so much carbon dioxide that they’re hardly worth making—or both. The UCLA advance, which increases the amount of biofuel that can be made from sugar by 50 percent, could make it cheaper to produce biofuels from a variety of sources, especially biomass such as wood chips and grass. The U.S. biofuels industry is in desperate need of such advances—even though Congress has mandated that a certain amount of biofuel from biomass be blended with gasoline, high costs and other factors have limited production, leading the EPA to repeatedly waive the requirement. The UCLA work is a “promising advance in biofuels technology,” says Wade Robey, chief technology officer at the ethanol producer POET. He says it shows the potential of advanced genetic engineering “to drastically reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of corn or biomass used to produce a gallon of biofuel. ” In conventional biofuels production, sugar derived from sources such as corn and biomass is fed to yeast, which ferments it to produce ethanol. But the fermentation process wastes a third of the carbon atoms that make up sugar; rather than being used to make ethanol, the carbon is released in the form of carbon dioxide. The UCLA researchers cobbled together genes from a variety of organisms to create an alternate way to process sugar that doesn’t emit any carbon dioxide, and uses all of the carbon in sugar to make biofuel. They created genetically modified E. coli bacteria to demonstrate the process, but they say the same genetic pathway could be incorporated into other organisms, including yeast. “Anytime you use fermentation, you lose one-third of the carbon to carbon dioxide. We can retain that carbon, reduce the carbon footprint of ethanol production, and make more money,” says James Liao, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UCLA. In order to use all of the carbon in sugar, it’s necessary to add hydrogen to the process. The source of that hydrogen and its cost relative to the cost of sugar determine both the total carbon emissions and the cost savings. Using hydrogen from natural gas is the cheapest option. But getting hydrogen from natural gas also releases carbon dioxide, offsetting some of the carbon dioxide savings of the new process. In this case, emissions from the production of ethanol would be reduced by about 50 percent. Using hydrogen made by splitting water with solar power would eliminate all of the carbon dioxide emitted during fermentation, but the cost would likely be too high for the process to be economical. Since the new approach produces more ethanol from sugar, less land would be needed to produce corn or biomass. And that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions involved in farming (such as from clearing land and using diesel to power farm equipment). The biggest cost savings will be for cellulosic ethanol derived from biomass. Sugar from cellulosic sources is much more expensive than sugar from corn or sugarcane, so there are greater benefits to getting more biofuel out of that sugar. Researchers still need to demonstrate that it’s possible to grow organisms with the genetic changes at a large enough scale to produce commercial biofuels.

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Madhura Geetham – Sloka Series “Athichoodi” is a type of poetic work (in Tamil) that comprises of a collection of one-line philosophical verses. HH Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji has composed a “Vedanta Athichoodi”, a poetic work that speaks of life’s most important principles. We had published the entire Vedanta Athichoodi and its overall meaning as part of our Madhura Geetham Sloka Series, earlier this year. Read that article here. Each of the lines of this Athichoodi are extremely deep and contain a wealth of meaning. In our sloka series over the next few months, we will look at the meaning of each line of this work. Ennam thavir! meaning Shun the ‘thought’! Jnanis like Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi say that mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts. As one thought subsides, another emerges and as that one subsides, a subsequent one emerges and so on. This everflowing stream of thoughts makes up the mind. The five senses that are constantly engaged with the outside world provide the stimulus to the mind. What they see, hear, smell, feel and taste influence the thoughts that arise in our mind. For example, when we hear a soulful song, the mind is calm and serene whereas even just merely witnessing an argument or a fight leaves us feeling agitated and on the edge. Our internal state of mind changes according to the external environment. Furthermore, though the thoughts that arise due to the various external circumstances seem temporal, in reality, they get recorded in the mind for eternity. These thoughts become our ‘vasanas’ or latent tendencies. These accumulated “vasanas” affect our actions which in turn strengthens the “vasanas” further. For example, let us say, we like ice-cream. Suddenly, one day, we have a craving for an ice-cream. This craving was triggered by our memory of the taste of the ice-cream. And, when we buy the icecream and eat it, the “vasana” becomes stronger because that memory is now renewed by relishing the icecream again. Such accumulated vasanas get carried over from one birth to another and are the reason for our current existence. And, this goes on and on and the only way to break free of this vicious cycle, is to find a way to be rid of all thoughts and attain oneness with ‘Self’. How can one get rid of thoughts? One cannot simply instruct the mind to stay quiet and not think of anything. Because, ironically, that instruction to the mind is itself a thought that arises in the mind! That is why, in Upadesa Undiyar, a work by Sri Ramana Maharishi that expounds the path of self-inquiry, Sri Ramana Maharishi says, “vaLiyuL adakka valaipadum putpol uLLAmum oDunguram undipara oDukka upAyamidu undipara” “By controlling the breath, the mind will also calm down like a bird caught in a net. Know that this is the solution (to control the mind). ” Mind can be controlled by controlling the breath. When a bird gets caught in a net, it flutters its wings for a while and eventually, calms down. Similarly, when an aspirant starts to control the breath, the mind at first is agitated. It will try to remind all important and pending tasks that need to be accomplished. But, if the aspirant ignores the chatter in the mind and continues to control the breath, the mind finding no escape, will eventually calm down. This is possible because, Sri Ramana Maharishi says, the mind and the breath are related. They are actually two branches stemming from the same source. “uLamum uyirum unarvum seyalum ulavAm kiLaiyiraNdu undipara ondravattrin mulam undipara” Mind and breath have knowing and doing as their attributes and are actually two branches (of a tree) that have the same root (source). So, if one controls the breath, one can automatically control the mind. And, when one controls the mind, thoughts cease to exist and the mind dies. When the mind dies, one attains the state of liberation! That is why, in this verse of Vedanta Athichoodi, Sri Swamiji instructs the spiritual seekers to “shun” the thought (“ennam thavir”). We saw that mind is a collection of thoughts, then why does Sri Swamiji refer to “thought” in singular and not as “thoughts”? It is because there is one thought that is the foremost among all thoughts and the sole cause for our existence. If that one thought dies, all the thoughts and therefore, the mind will cease to exist. That one thought is nothing but the thought of “I”. “Ennangale manam yavinum nan enum eNNAme mUlamAm undipara yanAm manam enal undipara” (Thoughts make up the mind yet the thought “I” is the foremost and source of the mind. Therefore, the thought “I” is the mind) says the 18th verse in Upadesa Undiyar. Therefore, It is this thought of “I” Sri Swamiji wants us to shun! If this one thought dies, then all other thoughts will die as a result and one can attain the highest state. Sowmya Balasubramanian, Dallas TX

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Parental involvement in education is something most vital and beneficial that contributes to high-quality education and better student performance in Parental involvement in education is something most vital and beneficial that contributes to high-quality education and better student performance in school. When parents show their child that education is important for them to live a standard life as well as for a better career, they believe it and can provide their 100 % in school to secure good grades at the end of the semester. According to research, students who are encouraged and supported by parents at home, they gain self-confidence and are more likely to get good grades in final exams. Importance of Parental Involvement in Education is undeniable and if you really want to make your child a brilliant student, you should find out effective ways to make that involvement happen. Benefits of parental involvement in education for kids More than 70 % teachers and instructors believe that parental involvement in education enables students to perform better in school. When parents are involved in educational activities of students, they are more motivated and are able to get good marks in final exams or annual tests. When parents given their kids attention and also praise their educational achievements, they are motivated to perform better in school or class to get better marks than before. Kids also recognize that their education is worthy of parents’ interest. In this way, parents can help children understand that their education is not just for them but parents and teachers are also part of the competition that can make them proud after getting good marks and grades. Parents can help their kids to create flexible study schedules not only to chase academic goals and to meet deadlines but to keep them healthy physically and mentally. Regular interaction of students with their parents can also help them understand various complex concepts that are hard to understand after attending the lecture or lesson. Enhanced social interaction is one of the vital benefits of parental involvement in education that can also help students advance their social skills to learn more effectively than ever. When parents are involved in education of their kids, students usually show more positive attitudes and behavior in the class to make the learning environment distraction free. When parents are involved in education, students are more likely to learn the education-related things more effectively as they can discuss the problematic issues and concepts with their parents to make things clear effectually. Benefits of parental involvement in education for parents When parents are walking alongside with their kids in the journey of learning and education, parents are more likely to understand the emotions, habits and social needs etc. In results, they can build a suitable learning environment for kids to improve their learning process for better grades in the class. Parental involvement in education also enables the parents to understand their kids deeply to boost parenting experience as well as to make wise decisions when there is a critical situation in the education journey of kids. When kids are motivated to share the school or class incidents with parents, they usually share all the school experiences with their parents that can help parents to keep kids away from bullying in the classroom as well as to prevent the bad company of fellow students. Parental involvement in education also enables the parents to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their kids to help them accordingly when students are struggling with tough situations in chasing academic goals and objectives. Parental involvement in education could be a great step to hearten students for completing their tasks and meeting the deadlines on time by effectively managing the time for different curricular and extracurricular activities. When parents are involved in educational activities of the students, they have quick access to their children’s overall academic progress. In results, they can never miss any single opportunity to congratulate kids on their academic accomplishments and achievements. In case of poor or displeased performance in the school, they will be able to encourage their children accordingly to help them improve to hunt good grades.

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We can not neglect the scenario of plastic pollution that primarily harms the environment directly and indirectly. The endless debate over sustainable development and management often fails as well. From the past many decades, plastic pollution is one of the significant issues that adversely affect the environment. Every day, millions of tones of plastic waste; generated on the global count, and that inevitable waste leads the ecosystem in danger. However, many non-government organizations have raised their hands in favour of reducing plastic waste. As a fact, making the planet plastic-free is a somewhat impossible task, yet the reduction of use and recycling is another advanced step. Even the invention of biodegradable plastic recently lowers the risk of plastic pollution to some extent. Plastic waste is affecting the environment, including flora and fauna, even intoxicating land, water, and air. On the degradable count, plastic takes hundreds of years for a complete breakdown, and that break down process generates many toxic substances and gases. So whether it goes for degradable mechanism or recycling treatment, it damages the environment ultimately. Let’s get over the question of how does plastic harm environment, with its types, causes, and preventive outlook. What Causes Plastic Pollution? The exploitation of natural resources and overuse of plastic has made earth nothing less than a dumping ground. As plastic is cheap and commonly used in every item, but that availability of plastic has lead to giant plastic islands and dumping grounds. However, if not appropriately treated, plastic is nothing less than the pollution that causes toxins into air, land, water. Each day, the plastic packing of food items, bottles, tiny sacks, and more are produced by humans and critically affects the entire ecosystem. Apart from such disposable plastic products, waste from technological devices and batteries is another pollutant for the environment. Disposable medical wastes, also play a crucial role in world plastic pollution, that adversely upset the environment with germs, bacterias, and infectious diseases. All such plastic wastes when dumping openly, or burned influence groundwater table and wildlife as well. In fact, it also lowers the fertility level of soil and leads to deforestation. Use of giant fishing nets for the commercial fishing purpose also create intoxication into oceans. It risks the marine ecosystem of aquatic wildlife, corals, and flora. The Havoc Overview: How Does Plastic Harm The Environment? Indeed, it is clear that plastic is dangerous for the entire environment, but now the question arises, how? Plastic was invented to make our life easy yet today, effecting more negatively than positively. Below are some listed plastic harms that critically influence the environment. Disturbs The Food Chain The use of plastic packing in prepared and raw food adds toxic elements, even if it is of food-grade quality. However, the ingestion of plastic by marine species, and other animals, also influence food web wholly. In fact, many researches found that everyday use of plastic is now the part of fishes, crabs, aquatic birds, cows, sheep, and more animals. The over-use of plastic critically harms and disturbs the food chain, that also the lead cause for the death of faunas. The scarcity of water on one hand and conservation, on the other hand, is an alarming aspect. With the rise of population and pollution, the level of groundwater is already fallen. Still, the left underwater level when getting intoxicated with tiny plastics, and leaking waste increases the risk of groundwater pollution. This unhealthy water, when consumed and used by humans and even animals, lead to more negative consequences. Plastic Pollution On Land Open dumping of plastic waste on land causes pollution. However, that generated plastic waste interacts with land water, contaminates the surface water with toxic chemicals. The wind is also a promoter of carrying plastic bags and waste from one place to another. Even stucking of plastic bin on electric poles, traffic signals, farm fences, bushes, towers, and trees can cause accidents and injuries. Air Is Intoxicated Due To Plastic Treating plastic in re-cycling plants for reuse management, toxicate the air. In fact, the burning of plastic waste on landfills influence air quality and promote the risk of air pollution. Such intoxicated air with harmful gases is unhealthy for animals, trees, and humans. Recently the issues of lungs and respiratory systems have been increased due to air pollution. When it comes to the scenario of the world’s ecosystem as significant, plastic pollution plays a considerable part in animal deaths. Many environmental surveys on wildlife have shown plastic waste hazards on natural habitats. Today the internet is filled with photographs showing ducks, goose, swans encircled with plastic rings, wires. Even the images of carbs, tortoise, etc. on sea shore trapped in plastic waste and packings. The plastic islands in oceans poisoned the entire water and thus affecting marine life. However, there are endless pictures to prove the dark side of plastic that is harming animals widely. Deadly For Human Health The overuse of plastic is promoting the unhealthy being for humans as well. The consumption of 2nd grade or low-grade plastic in daily life, especially in food items, is a cause for many health issues. Furthermore, dumping and burning of plastic waste in landfills also influence air, water, and land. Apart from this, the germination of germs and viruses leads to untreatable health hazards. Impacting The Economy On Global Level As plastic is part of life, yet we know it is harmful. Thus minimum use is crucial. Still, the open exposures of plastic wastes cause excessive pollution that somehow affects the nation’s economy for cleaning, treating, and managing. The role of plastic pollution also influences tourism that impacts the travel economy and business of local people at travel sites. How To Reduce The Devastating Effects Of Plastic Pollution? To stop plastic use is not possible yet challenging as well; however, reduction in consumption is more good. The reality is the need for more optimum solutions and preventive measures to make the earth a plastic-free planet. Carry Cloth Bags While Shopping The best is shop friendly while buying things in the supermarket. The use of biodegradable plastic bags or reusable bags is more eco-friendly and efficient. Even can use bags made of paper or cloth while shopping for groceries, etc. Check the best reusable produce bag you can find in the UK Avoid Using Packed Water Bottle Plastic packed mineral water counts a lot in everyday plastic pollution. To keep the planet safe from plastic waste and body hydrated, carry reusable bottles. As plastic bottles are just meant for single-use and need to trash, promoting plastic garbage. However, now reusable and biodegradable plastic bottles are also used. Carrying metal, glass, and even terracotta are getting popular these days. Stop Using Plastic Packing Of Food Whether food is packed in food-grade plastic, you can still avoid it. Generally, junks like chips, chocolates, candies. Excellent is the use of paper cuts and plates instead of plastic packing for food items and snacks. However, biodegradable plastic containers, spoons, lids, etc. lowers the risk of plastic pollution every day. Wrapping in tissues, and foil is also more significant. Get Involved, Make Involve Social awareness of plastic pollution is crucial today for the more reliable solution over making the planet more healthy. Speak to people with open suggestions and measures in local businesses such as hotels, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets. Moreover, awareness classes and sessions in schools and educational institutions also help in making people aware of harms by plastic. Plastic pollution is an alarming crisis affecting the entire planet with devastating effects. The everlasting degradable quality of plastic is a significant drawback that is influencing the ecosystem. Adopting eco-friendly trends and bio-degradable plastic is precisely more relevant ideal for managing such toxic waste on the planet. Small every day initials while using plastics can cause pollution for millions of years. Thus, more sustainable and manageable solutions will help the earth to be a plastic-free zone forever.

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LONDON – The tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti, and Hurricane Katrina are among the world’s most notorious recent natural disasters. Their fierce devastation claimed thousands of lives, destroyed vital infrastructure, and crippled economies. The communities affected could not be more different from one another, and yet the similarities in the responses are striking. The worldwide outpouring of support demonstrated what humanity is capable of at its best. While international support in a time of crisis demonstrates a seemingly innate moral response to the suffering of others, it also highlights with disquieting clarity that the same level of empathy is more difficult to evoke when a crisis is chronic instead of sudden, unexpected, and dramatic. One of the most devastating global health challenges on the planet is malaria, which claims more than 800,000 lives annually, primarily among young African children. According to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, 2,000 children die of the disease each day. Yet, unlike the aftermath of a natural disaster, there are no photographs to capture the scope of this tragedy. The loss of life is every bit as devastating, but without the onslaught of grisly images, it is much easier to become indifferent to malaria’s victims. Malaria deaths represent nothing less than a moral issue. This is why the United Nations, World Bank, Global Fund, Tony Blair Faith Foundation, African heads of state, and many other governments, organizations, and individuals have felt compelled to act. In 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared the goal of ensuring universal access to malaria-control interventions by the end of 2010 for all those at risk of the disease, with the ultimate goal of reaching near-zero malaria deaths by 2015. Since those goals were set, major progress has been made. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved, and the international community now is redoubling its efforts to reach the 2015 milestone. Three years ago, when more than $3 billion in new money was committed to the malaria effort, mosquito nets and indoor spraying protected less than 20% of Africa’s at-risk population. Today, the proportion is more than 90%. These gains occurred only because of the commitment of leaders, agencies, and individuals who realized that lessening the malaria burden is not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility. No organization better embodies the moral imperative of ending malaria deaths than the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA). Formed during the UN General Assembly in September 2009 under the leadership of President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, and supported by the African Union, the group has added government advocacy and accountability to the combined efforts being made to halt and reverse the spread of malaria on the continent. Recognizing that the death of a child from a mosquito bite is unacceptable in the twenty-first century, ALMA leaders understand that the most effective way to ensure that recent gains are sustained is to assume leadership and ownership of the challenge. They are taking concrete actions, such as ensuring that essential malaria-control interventions are exempted from taxes and tariffs that add unnecessary costs to life-saving items, and that supplies are purchased in bulk to reduce costs. Most powerful of all, perhaps, is an innovative “scorecard,” which is being prepared to track progress in the struggle to end malaria deaths, and to “flag” problems that arise before they reach a critical stage. The scorecard will be open and accessible to all. While African political leaders have ultimate responsibility for protecting their citizens, faith communities share deeply in this commitment. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is conducting a global campaign, Faiths Act, which calls for greater engagement by faith communities in preventing malaria deaths. Supporters of every religion in 106 countries have answered the call. Though accurate statistics are hard to come by, the World Health Organization estimates that faith communities provide, on average, 40% of total health-care services in sub-Saharan Africa. What faith communities have working in their favor are networks, infrastructure, and influential leaders to deliver health messages. In many instances, they can reach deep into inaccessible rural areas to deliver services. When well resourced, faith leaders can adopt holistic approaches to major killer diseases and use their networks effectively for immunization and combating pandemics. In Nigeria, which accounts for one-quarter of the continent’s malaria deaths, the Nigerian Inter-Faith Action Association has been particularly effective in training religious leaders for health messaging against malaria and in the correct use of bed nets. This initiative has received the backing of the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, the country’s leading Muslim, and the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Oneiyekan. There is a full-time, centrally organized office and team to co-ordinate this program. If it succeeds, the impact will be dramatic – and not just in Nigeria. For example, Sierra Leone, with its small population, excellent Muslim-Christian relations, and uphill struggle to improve its health-care system after the depredations of civil war, has a longstanding relationship with the United Kingdom. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has been in consultation with the country’s religious leaders and inter-faith association to develop a national program with the Ministry of Health that would promote the government’s key public-health messages, participate in education for bed-net use, and use available health assets and faith community networks. Now is no time for indifference. Much significant progress has already been made; now we must consolidate our gains. As foreign aid stands to suffer from cutbacks around the world, we must remember that malaria is a “natural disaster” that is devastating communities every second of every day. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes can never be stopped. Malaria can be.

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Dyer County School System is committed to ensure all students have the opportunity to receive educational support and instruction. ESL students who require assistance and support receive such support through ESL teacher(s) within the district. ESL educators are state-licensed teachers who receive their ESL credentials through the state department of education. An ESL teacher must be certified or have an endorsement and he/she must be fluent in all four domains of English (i. e., reading, writing, speaking, and listening). The scores on the Praxis test will be used as an evaluation tool. An applicant’s reading fluency is evaluated during the interview process, as well as a writing sample to assess writing fluency. The listening and speaking fluency of an applicant is evaluated and documented during the interview process. Special attention will be given to listening mistakes, the ease of conversation, grammar and syntax errors during the interview. Reading will be evaluated by assessing comprehension as part of the application process and college transcripts. Although the duties of ESL teachers vary depending on the age of the students, and the type of students being taught, the goals are always the same: to ensure that ELLs are able to reach a proficient achievement level on state tests, succeed in English-led classrooms, and fully participate in society. ESL teachers are recruited through local educational institutions, as well as through Dyer County School System website, as needed. The ratio is thirty-five ESL students to one ESL teacher. As the ESL population increases in Dyer County School System, qualified teachers will be increased to meet student needs, as well as increase in students being served.

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to: Table of Contents (A Shorter Workweek in the 1980s) OBJECTION #2: WORKERS HAVE CHOSEN TO INCREASE THEIR INCOMES RATHER THAN TO HAVE MORE TIME OFF FROM WORK The average full-time worker in the United States has had little, if any, increase in leisure time since the end of World War II. In fact, considering the increased proportion of American families in which both the husband and wife are employed or of those headed by a single parent, the average free time of adults per family is substantially less than it was a generation ago. If leisure may be regarded as a part of living standards, this unenviable record cast doubt upon the myth of our ever-increasing prosperity. Economists can hardly deny such trends. They have developed, however, a peculiar explanation for the lack of improvement in this area. Workers, they say, have “chosen” to increase their incomes rather than to have more time off from work. This “trade off” theory - leisure vs. income - has become the conventional view of our times. Those who repeat it in one form or another include businessmen, government officials, economists, even labor leaders. False though the doctrine is, it has the support of Nobel Prize winning economists and other celebrities of the profession. “There is no doubt that a drastic shortening of hours would imply lower real earnings than a full-employment economy is capable of providing at a longer workweek,” wrote Professor Paul Samuelson in his best-selling textbook. Professor Walter Heller has likewise predicted “an absolute reduction in material living standards” if the workweek were reduced to a level such as 26 hours per week. THROWING COLD WATER ON THIS IDEA A blunt-speaking labor leader gave the shorter-workweek cause an untimely rebuff. Addressing the United Mine workers’ annual convention in 1956, John L. Lewis declared: “The question of the 6-hour day is one of costs . . . I think if a convention wants to dedicate itself to a 6-hour day they can get a 6-hour day in the next contract by paying for it, by taking 6 hours’ wages for 6 hours of work. To reduce the shift from 8 to 6 hours would require as a minimum a 25 per cent increase in the cost of production of a ton of coal, and in practical operation it would cost more than that . . . These are the facts of life you should take into consideration. Any time the organization as a whole wants to stop eating so much and loaf a little more, we can get a 6-hour day for you. ” Spokesmen for the business community have carried the trade-off theme a step further, dressing it up in libertarian language. In their eyes, the responsibility for having “chosen” to work longer rests with working people themselves. Advocates of the shorter workweek who would decide this issue through legislation are therefore enemies of our economic freedoms. An NAM pamphlet stated: “In a free society, the choice between leisure and productive work is one to be made by the people. Industry has neither the power nor the desire to make that choice for them. ” More outspoken still on this point was A.L. Humphrey, president of the Westinghouse Brake Company in the 1920s. Commenting on Henry Ford’s 40-hour week, Mr. Humphrey declared: “I am convinced that the average working man does not want anybody, Mr. Ford or anyone else, to coerce him into curtailing his hours by arbitrary compulsion. ” Officially, the business community has taken a neutral position on the question whether or not the American economy should place greater emphasis upon increasing leisure time. In practice, it has consistently condemned proposals to reduce work time painting a stark picture of their cost. A typical business view was that of George Hagedorn, the NAM’s research director, who testified before the House Committee on Education and Labor in November 1963: “The desire for more leisure and the desire for a higher material standard of living are both legitimate aspirations . . . We should remember, however, that there is just so much in the way of productivity gain to be divided. Whatever part of our productivity gain is taken in the form of reduced working time is not available for increasing the flow of goods and services which make up our standard of living - and vice versa. The important thing is that everyone - employers, employees, legislators, and the public - understand that it is a choice. Altruism is no substitute for production, and whenever we reduce our working time we give up some part of the goods and services we might have produced. From the point of view of the individual concerned the trade may be a good one - that is for him to decide - but he cannot have it both ways. “ In academic circles, the discussion has taken the form of analyzing demographic trends. Professors Sar A. Levitan and Richard S. Belous have suggested, for instance, that the factors in society which have helped to keep the workweek long since the 1940s may be eroding, which would make the prospects for shorter hours more favorable. Professor Levitan mentioned some of these to a Congressional subcommittee: a high birth rate and pent-up consumer demand following World War II; the postwar emphasis upon education and health care; “keeping up with, and ahead of, the Joneses”; coping with inflation. Just to remain in place on the treadmill, many American families have had to trade leisure for income,” he testified. But lately: “Evidence indicates that younger workers and females tend to prefer shorter hours to additional income. Since 1975, employment in the United States increased by more than 10 million; the increase included over 5. 3 million women and nearly 700,000 teenagers. Coupled with reduced pressure exerted by forces which drive people for more income over leisure, the composition of the work force is shifting in the direction of those who give added weight to leisure. ” The academics are divided as to whether, with a rise in income, workers would choose to seek leisure and forego income or to seek additional income and forego leisure. One school of opinion argues that an “income effect” would take place: Workers would “use the additional money to purchase more leisure time, along with other goods and services. ” Another school emphasizes the “substitution effect”: Higher hourly incomes would make leisure time more expensive, and therefore workers would decide to spend more hours on the job. It has been suggested that the “income effect” is dominant among male workers as evidenced by their higher rates of labor-force withdrawal while the “substitution effect” prevails among working women. Whatever the case, both schools are in agreement regarding the “trade off” theory. The experts in academia and nearly everywhere else agree that for workers to seek more free time means to choose a lower income. It is that granitic consensus which needs now to be challenged. THE ALLEGED TRADE OFF BETWEEN INCOME AND LEISURE There are at least three reasons why the “trade off” theory of income and leisure does not describe the economic facts: (1) Regardless of their individual preferences, working people are powerless to choose their hours of work. The employment conditions are offered to them on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis. In no way can the postwar trend in hours or lack of it be attributed to workers’ individual decisions to seek income. (2) From an economic standpoint, reduced working hours do not necessitate reduced incomes. Indeed, it is possible for workers to have both benefits at the same time. That has been the historical pattern in industrial economies. (3) Conversely, the decision to throttle shorter hours for the sake of additional production capabilities will not necessarily result in higher living standards for working people. Regarding the first point, a consultant to the United Automobile Workers, Howard Young, has observed: “As a practical matter, employment hours are rarely subject to bilateral determinations of the employer and employee or even employer and union. Instead, employers generally set the hours . . . Even when an employee has the nominally voluntary right to decide about overtime work, there are frequently pressures . . . to conform to the employer’s desires - e. g., the impact on future promotion possibilities. Furthermore, while employees may have the right to refuse overtime, they rarely have the right to request or generate overtime; the myth of individuals choosing longer or shorter hours is far from reality. ” This evaluation of the decision-making process which governs hours worked in an automobile factory squares with my own experiences working in an office. Do employed people truly decide the number of hours which they will sell each day, or week, or year, to their employer? Voluntary part-time workers might but the average worker who works full time has very limited control over this aspect of the job. Is that not so? Each person who is employed should ask himself or herself: Am I really free to request a different work schedule if that was what I wanted? Theoretically, each of us in America is free to make such a request. In practice, the chances that an employer would make a special arrangement with a particular employee which puts him or her on a different work schedule would not be great unless the employee had a respectable reason for asking the favor. (One’s personal desire for more free time is not respectable; it has to be something like illness, child-care responsibilities, or school attendance. ) A moment’s reflection would bring to mind several compelling reasons not to raise the issue with one’s employer: To ask for shorter hours would be a tip-off to the employer that employment at his firm may not be your life’s top priority. You are not hungry for pay increases and promotions and may therefore be less than fully motivated. Indeed, you may not be “serious” about working at all but have another career possibility in mind. In this period of intense job competition, exhibited attitudes can make a big difference between who rises to the top and who remains buried in the pack or is slated for the next layoff. In opinion surveys, American workers have expressed dissatisfaction with the conditions of work. Hours have been a particular target of their resentment. One of the better-known surveys on the subject is the “Quality of Employment” study conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. The latest survey, which was conducted in 1977, covered 2,200 workers employed throughout the United States. It attempted to measure job satisfaction in general and in six specific areas: comfort, challenge, financial rewards, relations with coworkers, resource adequacy, and promotions. Similar surveys were conducted in 1969 and 1973. The 1977 survey found that “over the 8-year period for 1969 to 1977, particularly between 1973 and 1977, the specific satisfactions index exhibited a marked and significant decline whereas the general dissatisfaction index declined slightly but significantly. ” With respect to hours, 71. 5% of those surveyed in 1977 reported that it was “difficult to get work hours changed”,”the employer determines overtime and the worker cannot refuse”, 39. 6% cited “inconvenient or excessive hours”, 15. 9% said that “the employer determines overtime and the worker cannot refuse”, 39. 6% had a feeling that “time drags at work”, 55. 2% found that they had “inadequate time for leisure activities”, and 14. 5% reported “problems with work schedules caused by child care arrangements. ” In 1977, 16% of the survey participants mentioned inadequate control of overtime as a problem compared with 4% in 1969. Only 19% in 1977 reported that they had “complete say” or “a lot of say” about “days and hours of work”, compared with 30% who reported such control over “wages and salaries”, and 41% over “how work is done. ” Data from this survey were analyzed for a report on the conflicts between work and family life prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor. The results were reported in the March 1980 issue of Monthly Labor Review. The article disclosed that “a substantial minority of workers living in families experienced conflict between work and family life. These conflicts most often concerned excessive work time, schedules and fatigue and irritability caused by work. ” Overall, 10% of the survey participants reported “a lot” of conflict between work and family life, and another 24% reported moderate conflict. The article stated: “Workers who reported ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’ of interference between their work and family life were asked how these roles interfered with each other. The three most common responses were ‘excessive work time’ ,’schedule conflicts’, and ‘fatigue and irritability’ . . . Half the sample with moderate or severe interference reported excessive time spent at work as a specific problem, and slightly more than a quarter reported incompatibility between their work and family schedules. ” The study sought to identify job characteristics which contributed to conflict with family life. Here again it was reported that ‘the characteristics most strongly and significantly associated with all work-family conflict were (the) number of hours worked; frequent overtime; the work schedule, particularly the afternoon shift; and physically or psychologically demanding work. Having to work with an irregular starting time, having low control over whether one works overtime, and having little flexibility to change one’s work schedule or take time off from work for personal or family matters were also significantly associated with work-family conflict though to a lesser degree . . . Interestingly, being self-employed, holding a second job, and time spent on problems experienced in commuting to work were unrelated to conflict. ” The conclusions reached in the Labor department study have been confirmed in a Gallup poll commissioned for the 1980 White House Conference on Families. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 3, 1980: “Many Americans think family life is deteriorating and want changes in work place policies to help remedy the situation, a new Gallup poll indicates. The survey found that while 61% of the people questioned consider family the most important element of their lives, nearly half said family life has gotten worse in the past 15 years . . . More than half of all those surveyed favored more flexible working hours to cope with conflicts between work and family. Others favored sick leave if a family member is ill, four-day workweeks and child-care facilities at the work site. The results indicate ‘there’s clearly a desire for a change in the working place,’ said George Gallup, Jr. . . . Yet, despite the desire for changes in personnel policies, 73% called business and industry favorable forces in their family lives. Drug and alcohol abuse were most frequently called the factors most harmful to family life. ” Of course, these surveys do not reveal specifically whether Americans would be willing to trade extra income for leisure if such a choice were required. For an answer to that question, we may refer to another survey which was conducted by Fred Best in 1977. Dr. Best’s survey covered 791 employees of Alameda County, California, whose demographic characteristics closely matched those of the total labor force. Suggesting several “equally costly alternatives” in the leisure-income tradeoff, the survey asked participants “whether they would prefer to work more time at their present pay rate and earn proportionately more, work the same amount of time and earn the same, or work less time and earn less. ” Best reported that “62. 7 percent of the respondents in this study preferred to work the same and earn the same, 16. 2 percent wanted to work more and earn more, and 21. 1 percent wanted to work less and earn less. ” The question asked in this survey, he noted, was “almost identical” to one in a study administered to a national random sample in 1966 which found that 56 percent preferred to work and earn the same, 34 percent wanted to work more and earn more, and 10 percent wanted less work and pay. ” In other words, in the space of ten years there has been a significant shift of opinion in which the number of people who wanted more work and more pay declined and the number who would accept lower pay for shorter hours increased, even though inflation in 1977 was far worse than in 1967. Still another indication that American workers want leisure is found in the growing percentage who are employed part time voluntarily. Here are people who have “voted with their feet” on this particular question. In 1979, the voluntary part-time workers comprised 13. 5% of the civilian work force compared with 10. 1% in 1963. This increase has occurred despite the fact that part-time workers earn significantly less per hour than full-time workers and are denied many fringe benefits. In exchange for their lower pay and benefits, voluntary part-time workers have greater personal freedom and more time to participate in family or personal activities. This is an important exception to the statement made earlier, that individual workers lack the power to choose working hours. Part-time workers, who typically are students or married women, are more likely to have another means of support and are therefore freer to accept or reject the conditions of work that employers offer. They cannot pick their hours any more than full-time workers can; however they do have an influence. Employers, to attract labor, must offer hours and conditions which are broadly appealing. That is why the concentration of part-time workers and full-time workers on shortened schedules in the emerging, “growth” industries testifies eloquently to the fact that Americans do place a value upon their free time and, if need be, are willing to pay for this by accepting a lower hourly wage. On the other hand, in industries where employment is shrinking, workers must accept whatever conditions the employer sets. Hours, accordingly, tend to be longer. The second point which was made against the “trade off” theory is that, in fact, such patterns are uncommon. Certainly, individual workers may experience a trade-off between income and leisure. If I quit my job, I would have less income and more leisure. If I took a second job, I would have less leisure and more income. Critics of the shorter workweek are arguing, however, that such a trade-off takes place on a macroeconomic scale. If we as an economy pursued shorter hours, there might be less production and so workers would suffer a loss of real income. If this theory were correct, one ought to find evidence linking shorter hours with reduced incomes or longer hours with increased incomes. Such evidence might be found in comparisons of pay scales in industries which have longer or shorter hours, or of the gains in real wages in periods of lengthening or decreasing workweeks, or of the wages prevailing in national economies which have differing work schedules. Does this evidence exist? Economists who have bothered to investigate have usually come to a different conclusion. Their studies cover a wide range of times and places and sectors of industry. Wladimir Woytinsky’s article on working hours in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences described European industry prior to World War I: “In Germany, organized labor was fairly successful in the struggle for shorter hours so that before the World War a working day of from 9 to 9 1/2 hours was widespread. But since the working day was regulated mainly by local collective agreements it varied in different districts and occupations according to the strength of labor organizations These agreements reveal a striking connection between the length of the working day and wages: In districts where the shorter day prevailed the workers earned not only more per hour but more per day than elsewhere. Thus, according to statistics for 1905-06, building workers working 11 hours received a daily wage of 3. 52 marks and those working 9 hours 5. 80 marks; pottery workers working 11 hours received 3. 63 marks and those working 9 hours 4. 90 marks; metal workers working 10 hours received 3. 95 marks and those working 9 hours 4. 85 marks. These statistics illustrate the well known connection between lower hours and higher wages; this relation holds not only for the same occupations within one country but also for different occupations and different countries. ” In the United States, a BLS survey of wages and hours in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and other industries, taken in May 1964 and May 1965, revealed much the same pattern. Peter Henle reported in Monthly Labor Review: “For both wholesale and retail trade, and for almost all individual industries for which information is available, the longer hours employees are more heavily concentrated at the lower end of the earnings scale. This same relationship holds for each major section of the country as well as for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas . . . For each section of the country and for each individual industry for which data are available, the proportion of employees receiving less than $1. 00 or $1. 25 an hour is higher among employees working 48 and more hours a week than it is for those working only 40 hours. Similarly, a much higher proportion of low-wage than high wage workers work 48 hours or more . . . Further evidence on this question is given by a study of employees of motor carriers who are generally not covered by hours provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Wage data for November 1964 show a close correspondence between longer hours and lower pay for a number of specific occupations. ” PAUL DOUGLAS’ STUDY OF WAGES AND HOURS Perhaps the definitive study of this question as it relates to the U.S. economy was that done by Professor Paul Douglas. His findings were published in the book, Real Wages in the United States: 1890-1926. Professor Douglas, later a U.S. Senator from Illinois, was updating the work of a 19th Century French economist, F.S. Simiand, who found, contrary to expectations, “a negative relationship between wages per hour and the number of hours worked” in the French coal-mining industry. Douglas wanted to learn whether that effect still held true. In three different years - 1890, 1914, and 1926 - Douglas measured the relationship between the hours of work and hourly wages in seventeen different industries. He described the procedure: “The average hourly earnings in cents were taken for each of the industries for the three years . . . and were correlated with the average number of hours constituting a full-time week’s work in the respective industries in each of these three years. The coefficients of correlation between the average money earnings per hour in the various industries in each of these years and the length of the standard working week are as follows: year of data r It is thus apparent that within a a group of industries at any one time there is a high negative correlation between hourly earnings and hours of work. The industries with relatively high hourly earnings tend to be those with a relatively shorter week than the average, while the industries characterized by a relatively low hourly wage scale tend to be those with a longer than average working week. There seems also to have been a slight tendency for the strength of this negative relationship to increase with time, since r rose from -. 78 in 1890 to -. 80 in 1914 and -. 84 in 1926. ” The coefficients of correlation which Douglas designated by r expresses the change in one variable - weekly hours - for each unit of change in the other variable - hourly earnings. For instance, -. 84 means that in a given year for each 1% that hourly wages were higher in one industry than in another its average workweek would likely be 0. 84% lower. For instance, if wages in the steel industry in 1926 were 10% higher than in the textile industry in that year - say, $2. 20 per hour compared with $2. 00 per hour - then the workweek in the steel industry should be 8. 4% lower than in textiles - 45. 8 hours per week compared with 50. 0 hours per week. However, such comparisons pertain only to the ratio between hours and earnings of different industries in a particular year. In order to determine the trend of wages an hours within a particular industry, it is necessary to analyze data gathered over a period of years. “We can then see whether in those cases where the gain in hourly wages was greater than the average there was a tendency for the hours per week to increase more than the average and, if so, how strong it was,” Douglas explained. Employing this second kind of analysis, he found the coefficients of correlation to be: -. 72 for 1914 relative to 1890, and -67 for 1926 relative to 1890. “This indicates a relatively high negative correlation between changes in hourly wages and standard hours of work. When the gain in hourly wages was less than the average, there was a tendency for the hours to fall by less than the average, and when the gain in wages was greater than the average the tendency was for the fall in hours to be greater,” Douglas noted. Professor Douglas employed several other kinds of analysis to measure “the elasticity of working hours” with respect to wages. The results consistently showed an inverse relationship between working hours and the level of wages paid. Although the coefficients varied, Douglas estimated that overall they averaged between -. 1 and -. 2 which means that “an increase of 1 per cent in hourly earning would tend (other things being equal) to cause a decrease of from one-tenth to two-tenths of one per cent in the hours normally worked. ” Douglas’ work was updated and his conclusions were confirmed in an unpublished Ph.D. thesis written by T.A. Finegan, a graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1960. In addition, Professor Harold Wilensky of the University of Michigan mentions “time studies for various societies and industries which show that increased productivity is negatively correlated with hours of work; and cross-sectional studies by economists of earnings and hours, which again show a strong negative correlation . . . The negative correlation between hours and earnings stands up well (-69) in a multivariate analysis for occupations and industries characterized by large hours variance but not so well elsewhere - e. g., in manufacturing. ” THE POVERTY SYNDROME The simplistic “trade off” theory of hours and wages - the longer the hours, the higher the pay - is not confirmed by any of these studies yet respectable economists continue to teach it with authority and conviction. This shows the intellectual bankruptcy of much of our current economic thinking. It is clear that economies with shorter working hours generally have higher, not lower, standards of living than those with longer hours. Long-hours economies prosper less, not more, for the trade off they think they are making. “No towns were so poor,” said Henry Ford, “as those of England where the people, from children up, worked 15 and 16 hours a day. They were poor because these overworked people soon wore out - they became less and less valuable as workers. Therefore, they earned less and less and could buy less and less. ” We see this pattern today in backward nations such as Egypt which suffer from deep-rooted poverty. A U.N. survey in 1975 found that roughly 20% of the Egyptian work force consists of children who work at menial jobs to supplement their family’s income even though by law the are required to attend school. Such laws are widely ignored because of the parents’ pressing need for this income. The working children are thus captive to a system which enslaves them by legal as well as economic pressures. A newspaper article told of an 8-year-old girl named Nadia and her 7-year-old brother, Fathy, who emptied out garbage cans in Cairo for a living. “Because of the illegality involved (being absent from school), they earn very little. Fathy and Nadia put in more than 10 hours of work a day. They never take a day off and at the end of the month their boss gives them the equivalent of $7. 50. ” Working excessively long hours belongs to a poverty syndrome which may be due to lack of economic development, overpopulation, unenlightened labor policies, or other factors. There is not much that the victims themselves can do about it. In most modern industrial nations, the level of prosperity is equated with per-capita GNP. Lately, this formulation has come under attack as failing adequately to reflect the quality of life. A former president of the European common market has said: “Gross national product in all our member states and also in the US and Japan has been thought of as something sacred. But GNP is diabolical. We must think, instead of our people’s happiness. ” If wealth alone were the measure of a nation’s achievement, the people of Iran might not have ousted the Shah whose economic accomplishments were considerable. Instead, they mourned the decline of their religion and brought to power the Ayatollah Khomeini. While economists will not go so far as to include “things of the spirit” in their definition of living standards, some have suggested that the category of economic well-being be broadened to include besides GNP factors such as the absence of environmental pollution, equality of incomes, and quantity of leisure. A book by Wilfred Beckerman of Oxford University entitled “Measures of Leisure, Equality, and Welfare”, summarized several of the studies which have been done along those lines. Beckerman’s book includes a study by Professor William Nordhaus and James Tobin of Yale University which seeks to combine leisure with per-capita GNP in a category they call “Measurable Economic Welfare”. In measuring a nation’s progress by this yardstick, the professors first converted the hourly gains in leisure to a monetary standard by applying the average real wage per hour to the number of leisure hours gained. Between two points in time, Measurable Economic Welfare, which was GNP plus its equivalent in leisure, would show a gain which was greater or less than the percentage gain in GNP alone. For our purposes, it is useful to compare the per-capita gains in GNP and in leisure for the various national economies. Figure 6-1 presents the professors’ figures (as updated by Beckerman) for 13 nations including the United States for the period between 1950-52 and 1971-73. The table shows that the national economies which achieved the greatest percentage gains in GNP also had the greatest improvements in leisure while the nations with the least improvement in leisure showed the least improvement in GNP as well. The Japanese led the list in both categories by a wide margin. West Germany placed third in both. Denmark was the second-place finisher in the area of leisure while Austria occupied a similar position with respect to GNP. The United States, on the other hand, ranked solidly in last place both in improving per-capita GNP and expanding leisure. Canada placed second from the bottom in the leisure category and third from the bottom with respect to GNP. Great Britain had the second-worst record in increasing per-capita GNP and the fourth-worst record in improving leisure Even conceding the dubious claim that per-capita GNP represents a nation’s standard of living, we may be sure that the “trade off” theory of leisure and living standards does not describe the facts. Americans are in fact, sacrificing their leisure for nothing. figure 6-1 Comparison of Growth Rates of "Measurable Economic Welfare" by Nordhaus-Tobin Method, 1950-52 to 1970-73 (annual compound growth rates) measurable gain in leisure gain in GNP economic welfare Country per capita per capita per capita Austria 3. 98 4. 88 4. 25 Belgium 5. 00 3. 55 4. 39 Canada 3. 26 2. 43 2. 95 Denmark 5. 72 3. 51 4. 50 Finland 3. 33 4. 29 3. 66 France 3. 45 4. 27 3. 85 West Germany 5. 66 4. 63 5. 23 Italy 4. 66 4. 57 4. 61 Japan 7. 15 8. 76 7. 67 Norway 4. 06 3. 32 3. 77 Sweden 4. 99 3. 18 4. 36 U.K. 3. 36 2. 35 2. 95 U.S.A. 1. 75 2. 16 1. 95 average 4. 34 4. 00 4. 17 Our third point regarding the “trade off” theory is that to deny workers leisure does not guarantee that the nation’s material standard of living will rise. We have discussed this topic at some length in Chapter 2. Although it is not the purpose here to repeat that discussion, the American people have been treated to such a fumbling show of economic management, handled by experts, that the record of their sorry performance deserves close attention. MISLED BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS To what end and purpose did this nation’s economic policymakers (not its workers) decide to deny a shorter workweek in the 1960s? We poured billions of dollars into the Vietnam war to fight an enemy whose soldiers used rubber from discarded tires for shoes. We created a welfare system on an unparalleled scale. We bankrolled a bureaucracy looking for new ways to manage our lives but which cannot manage even the simplest tasks which it is assigned to do. Many have written of these problems. Politicians have been elected on the promise to do something about them. A government bureaucracy geared to welfare, war, and personal monument building leaves us with a sense of outrage or it leaves us numb. Outrage is the healthier response so let’s vent our displeasure for just a moment. Better than I could do to conjure up this particular emotion is a column written by Joan Beck of the Chicago Tribune which appeared in my local newspaper on May 20, 1980. She wrote: “Somehow it’s easier to get angry and concerned about 79-cent heads of lettuce and $1. 79 pounds of hamburger and $69 pairs of shoes and tiny, tinny $7,000 cars than about that $613. 1 billion federal budget for fiscal 1981. But we don’t dare lose our sense of outrage about federal spending. We are being stung, taken, bamboozled, boondoggled, flim-flammed, hoodwinked, misled, exploited, suckered, and robbed by an army of bureaucrats that has swollen out of control. We are being forced to buy more government than most of us can afford (it’ll cost $2,786 for every man, woman, and child of us next year for the federal government alone, or $11,144 for that basic family of four) and more than most of us want. Object to the size of the budget and the first thing the feds always threaten to do is to take away the Saturday mail delivery - a cheap shot aimed to hit every one of us where we live. Yet, there’s billions and billions of dollars of ugly fat in the budget that could be cut without hitting a single vital vein, curtailing defense, or hurting the poor. We now work, on the average, four months and 11 days every year just to earn enough to pay our taxes. ” Ms. Beck then mentions types of government waste which were exposed in a book, Fat City. These include: the $43 billion spent for “printing, processing, and storing federal forms”, the 175 Washington officials who have personal chauffeurs each paid $25,000 a year, the 1,000 persons employed by federal agencies to lobby members of Congress, the $8 billion a year for travel by government officials with or without their wives, the $2 billion for consultants to write largely unread reports, the $10 billion estimated for fraudulent or mistaken payments in programs administered by HEW (recently renamed) and more. Someone must keep this show on the road - that’s our function. We the people are “demanding” all these government services. The same organization which conducts disastrous military engagements, runs cynical welfare programs, stymies commerce and industry, causes inflation, turns a deaf ear to the problems of unemployed people, taxes away all our income through Mother’s Day, administers a deceitful Social Security program, subdues American Indians, but is subdued by any well-organized and well-financed pressure group, has experts on the payroll who tell us solemnly that a shorter workweek might lower our standard of living. In truth, it might lower theirs. For selfish institutional reasons, the federal government might oppose any move which would produce more equal incomes and so reduce its revenues under the progressive income-tax schedule. Work sharing has the reputation of spreading the available income among more workers. If that were true, as government strategists believe it is, then a shorter workweek might throw the federal budget farther out of balance. Figure 6-2 shows how Washington stands to lose tax revenues by sharing a fixed amount of income among more workers. (In reality, the shared income would not be fixed but would expand as more people became fully integrated into the economy. ) Also, the U.S. Treasury might not take too kindly to proposals which might reduce its windfall revenues from inflation or encourage the desire for a benefit, leisure, which it could not tax, or give new impetus to the barter or underground economy. figure 6-2 An illustration of how the U.S. Government stands to lose tax revenues if incomes were shared among a wider group of people federal number total tax taxes per of paid by worker workers group 4 workers each earn $10,000 $2,408 4 $9,632 5 workers each earn $8,000 $1,773 5 $8,865 U.S. Government stands to lose $767 4 workers each earn $20,000 $6,281 4 $25,124 5 workers each earn $16,000 $4,575 5 $22,875 U.S. Government stands to lose $2,249 7 workers each earn $8,000 $1,773 7 $12,410 8 workers each earn $7,000 $1,459 8 $11,672 U.S. Government stands to lose $738 7 workers each earn $24,000 $8,504 7 $59,528 8 workers each earn $21,000 $7,091 8 $56,728 U.S. Government stands to lose $2,800 So deeply in hock is this government to the Social Security and other programs that, like an embezzler who covers a permanent shortage of cash with renewed theft of each day’s receipts, its financial operatives must take care to maintain an uninterrupted flow of funds and allow no tampering with the system. Therefore, the people cannot be allowed to choose between income and leisure. They must continue to choose income. Our national security depends on it. Individually, the President, members of Congress, federal judges, and even some economists, are among the finest people you would ever meet. Collectively, they run a system which is heading out of control. The free-enterprise system as it operates today is not much better. Reflecting perhaps its inadequate provision of free time, this economy specializes in dispensing instant conveniences or pick-me-ups to meet each moment’s needs. Those images that flicker by on the television screen tell us which products and brand names to buy. Walking down the aisles of a department store, we can use our credit cards to purchase whatever goods catch the eye. If we have lost our usual pep, a cup of coffee or a soft drink may put the bounce back into our lives. If a headache strikes, pull out a bottle of your favorite nonprescription drug to relieve this temporary symptom of stress. Why waste time when enjoyment may be had? Light up a cigarette! Eat a candy bar! Turn up the radio! Go see a doctor or a shrink if you lose control! Let yourself go in a dramatic religious conversion! Submit to love with a passing stranger! Become a full-fledged drug addict! Take up art! Race cars! Do all this in your own way; but don’t neglect to show up on time for work, obey the laws, and pay your taxes. Without adequate free time, the consumer economy is reduced to feverish nonsense. A contemporary American philosopher, Eric Hofer, has written: ”The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things out; it needs leisure to mature. People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility. ” Some preach that the American tradition of hard work provides an ethical bulwark against decadence and corruption. To promote their self-interested views, they will resort to considerable fabrication of the record. Our American forbearers who built this country were rather more sensible about work than one might suppose. Thoreau commented: “It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily buy a blank book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents. ” Abraham Lincoln confessed: “My father taught me to work but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh - anything but work. ” WHY THE “TRADE OFF” THEORY FAILS The “trade off” theory of income and leisure assumes that the extra hours of work will become translated into extra units of useful production. Somehow this will filter backdown to workers in the form of higher real wages and living standards. This theory has several questionable assumptions. Among its problems are the following: (1) Longer hours do not translate proportionately into higher production. A part of it is lost through lower productivity and increased unemployment. (2) Not all the additional production is useful. (3) Workers may not receive their proportionate share back. Unearned income such as interest, dividends, and pensions, has been rising faster than wages. (4) Even if all of the additional production were returned to workers in the form of higher wages, there would have to be a fairly even distribution of incomes to speak of “higher average living standards” as generally understood. The term “higher average living standards” implies that the lot of the average man or woman in society has been improved. More goods and services are being distributed to working people. Suppose, however, that the bulk of those additional goods and services went to the wealthier workers and that the lower-income workers received little benefit from such gains. In that case, dollar for dollar those goods and services would have less marginal utility than if the poorer workers received their full share. Society’s aggregate satisfaction would be less. Indeed, as the U.S. economy has developed during the past ten or fifteen years, there has not been a broad-based rise in real incomes. A Wall Street Journal editorial which appeared on July 3, 1979 pointed out the lamentable fact that average spendable weekly earnings were $6 less than at their peak in 1973 - and that was before the latest recession. The average job, it noted, was generating less purchasing power than in 1969. The U.S. economy was at the 1964 level in terms of real wages, and the current trend was down. Furthermore, those gains which the American economy has managed to achieve have gone mainly to the higher-income workers while a significant part of the population lives in poverty. Yes, there are still some elderly Americans who have no pension and no Social Security. There are more than a few working women trying to raise a family on a woman’s wage. There are young men and women who may belong to a racial and ethnic minority and are thought unqualified for a job. There are plenty of others, too, who have fallen through the economic cracks and never were discussed on television. The U.S. economy may be gushing with prosperity; yet, if persons such as these comprise any significant part of the population, can “average living standards” be said to be rising? The record shows that the salaries and wages of male workers in the United States grew progressively less equal in the period between 1958 and 1977. The earnings of female workers were less equal still than for the men although the trend was static. A n article by Peter Henle and Paul Ryscavage in Monthly Labor Review entitled “The Distribution of Earned Income among Men and Women: 1958-77”, documents this phenomenon. The evidence of the unequal incomes was presented in the form of a “Gini index” for various kinds of workers. The Gini index, developed by statistician Corrado Gini, measures the extent of deviation of distributed income from a line representing perfect equality. The higher the index number, the less equal the distribution A lower number indicates more equal incomes. figure 6-3 Gini Index of Earnings Distribution for U.S. Male and Female Workers, 1958 to 1977 year males, all workers females, all workers 1958 . 399 . 466 1959 . 398 . 470 1960 . 411 . 465 1961 . 419 . 480 1962 . 410 . 470 1963 . 406 . 468 1964 . 406 . 468 1965 n/a n/a 1966 . 406 . 462 1967 . 409 . 463 1968 . 410 . 460 1969 . 417 . 476 1970 . 423 . 483 1971 . 428 . 475 1972 . 431 . 475 1973 . 427 . 478 1974 . 433 . 470 1975 . 434 . 467 1976 . 438 . 469 1977 . 439 . 466 median income, 1977 $11,037 $4,674 In figure 6-3, the Gini index is presented each year for all male worker and all female workers in the United States for the period between 1958 and 1977. Those who find this index incomprehensible may be enlightened by the fact that between 1958 and 1977 the income of male workers in the 20th percentile of earnings distribution increased by 130. 6% (from $1,422 per year to $3,279 per year) while the income of male workers in the 80th percentile increased by 206. 7% (from $6,141 per year to $18,832 per year). Incomes grew especially less equal among blue-collar worker such as craftsmen and operatives but not so much among farm managers and laborers and in the clerical occupations. Interestingly the article disclosed that “the 1968-73 period appears to show the greatest shift towards inequality. ” This, of course, was the time when the effects of President Johnson’s “War on Poverty” were being felt. We need another theory to encompass the facts. The theory which inspires welfare programs is inadequate and so is the theory that free-enterprise capitalism will consistently bring higher living standards and more equal incomes. Those hard-working Americans who thought they were trading leisure for higher incomes have been grandly disappointed. Living standards did not rise so much. Something else happened which was less desirable. That, like it or not, is called “labor displacement”. Really, it is not so hard to explain what has happened: As productivity rises, the same number of workers is able to produce a greater volume of output; or, alternatively, a smaller number of workers can produce the same output. The result is that the proportion of employed workers to the volume of production steadily shrinks. That is the trouble with the idea that stimulating the economy is the way to solve unemployment. The economy may be stimulated and expanded as much as anyone would want and yet it may fail to create enough jobs. Although output expands, increased productivity may cover the extra work so that employers would not have to hire any more workers. From a distribution standpoint, all the additional wealth generated from this production would become concentrated in the hands of proportionately fewer workers who have retained their jobs They would receive their regular pay increases to the extent that their employer could afford it, And likely he could afford it. On the other hand, the people who have not found a job already would be frozen out. Long waiting lists would develop for those few “real” jobs which open up. A growing number of persons would become superfluous to the economy - not through lack of initiative or job-related ability but simply because they did not happen to be in the right place at the right time. Click for a translation into: French - Spanish - German - Portuguese - Italian to: Table of Contents COPYRIGHT 2016 Thistlerose Publications - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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The five paragraph essay follows a defined format. The first paragraph introduces us to the thesis of the essay and directs us to the three main supporting subtopics. The second through fourth paragraphs are all similar in format. They individually restate the subtopics, and are developed by giving supporting information. The fifth and last paragraph restates the main thesis idea and reminds the reader of the three main supporting ideas that were developed. All of these paragraphs are important. The introductory paragraph is the place in which the writer introduces the reader to the topic. It is important to make this a clear and limited statement. This is where the writer grabs the reader's attention. Because of its purpose, it is often the first sentence of the paragraph. It is followed by three subtopics that develop the thesis. Between this paragraph and all paragraphs of the essay, there needs to be some kind of a transition word, phrase, or sentence. Next, the body of the essay contains paragraphs two through four. They are all similarly constructed. Their topic sentences are restatements, often in original form, of the three supporting ideas presented in the first paragraph. The subtopic of each of the body paragraphs is again supported by three or more supporting sentences. These cement, in the reader's mind, the relevancy and relationship of each of the subtopics to the thesis statement. Finally, the fifth paragraph is the summary paragraph. It is important to restate the thesis and three supporting ideas in an original and powerful manner as this is the last chance the writer has to convince the reader of the validity of the information presented. Because the purposes of the first and fifth paragraph are so similar that some writers construct them at the same time. They will edit them, as necessary, as they do with each and every part of the essay. It is important to reiterate that each of the paragraphs is joined together by a transition word, phrase or sentence. Transitions help the reader to follow the flow of the logic and sequencing. All of the essay types follow this basic transition format. However, there is more latitude with the narrative essay because of its nature. To put it more visually, the structure model has been color coded and looks like this: General Topic Sentence First Supporting Paragraph Restate Subtopic One Second Supporting Paragraph Restate Subtopic Two Third Supporting Paragraph Restate Subtopic Three Closing or Summary Paragraph Synthesis of main topic Home Page / Structure / Getting Started How to Write the Essay / Editing, Revising, and Evaluating Expository and Prompts / Narrative and Prompts Persuasive and Prompts / Varied Prompts Tips and Techniques /

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According to a new study, pregnant women should avoid or limit their intake of canned foods due to chemical content. BPA is a controversial chemical used in the manufacturing of liners for cans used for canned foods and some plastics as well. A recent study, conducted by the National Work Group for safe markets, sought to determine how much bisphenol A (or “BPA”) the average consumer is exposed to. Analysis of the cans showed that 92% of the canned food samples contained BPA. BPA was grandfathered in along with 62,000 other chemicals by the FDA in 1963 under the category GRAS, meaning “Generally Regarded as Safe.” At the time, the FDA assumed that exposure to BPA in small doses wouldn’t cause any harm. Subsequent research has suggested otherwise, however. Small doses of BPA have been shown to have potentially harmful effects, especially during stages of critical development. In animal studies, BPA has been linked to miscarriage, placental cell death, changes in brain development and developmental and reproductive harm. Based on these animal studies, many experts have expressed concern that BPA exposure could have similar effects in human, and might be especially dangerous for pregnant women, babies and children. The study, appropriately coined “No Silver Lining,” selected 20 people from 19 different states and collected canned goods from their homes and grocery store shelves. The investigation examined a variety of products: fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, soups, tomato products, sodas, and milk. The highest levels of BPA were found in a can of Del Monte French Style Green Beans, followed by WalMart-brand sweet peas, then Healthy Choice Old Fashioned Chicken Soup. The lowest levels were found in Starkist tuna fish. In light of the emergent scientific research and in response to growing public concern, some manufacturers are trying to cut down on the use of BPA in their products. There are numerous ways to preserve food without using BPA in can liners. Eden Foods has already gone BPA-free, and Muir Glen plans to convert to BPA-free cans for their tomatoes this year. From a public policy standpoint, removing BPA from the food supply would require more stringent regulations within the Safe Chemicals Act and widespread development of more non-toxic packaging options. Not all public health officials are responding with a sense of urgency, however. Some are dismissing the concern over BPA as an overreaction, despite a growing body of evidence that suggests the chemical may indeed be harmful. The bottom line: To be on the safe side, pregnant women should minimize their exposure to BPA by limiting their use of canned foods when possible. Consumption of minimally processed, whole foods is recommended. Fresh fruits and vegetables may be more expensive, but it’s a small price to pay when there’s a baby on the way.

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Situated on rolling hills overlooking Washington, DC, Arlington National Cemetery is America’s most prestigious burial grounds. It was established during the Civil War on an estate confiscated from the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. To ensure that Lee could never return to his house, Union soldiers were buried in his wife’s rose garden, and the estate was designated a military cemetery. Since then, Arlington National Cemetery has become the nation’s premier military burial ground, and the final resting of over 300,000 American veterans, from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan and Iraq, their family members, as well as civilians whose service to the country in non military fields rendered them eligible for burial in its hallowed grounds. Following are ten people who found their final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery. Pierre Charles L’Enfant In 1790, Congress authorized a federal district on the Potomac River to house the national government. Charles Pierre L’Enfant, a Frenchman who had sailed to the New World to fight for the rebels during the American Revolution, and who became an accomplished architect after the war, was entrusted by George Washington to plan the new nation’s capital. L’Enfant created Washington, DC, from scratch, imposing his vision for a grand capital on unappealing tracts of land. Surveying a swath of swamps and forests and hills, L’Enfant envisioned inspiring buildings, grand avenues, and public squares. America’s capital, as it exists to this day, is based on L’Enfant’s design. Adapting European city models to American ideals, the design was based on concepts of equality of citizens, such as The Mall that was open to all – an idea unheard of in most of Europe – and wide avenues affording extended views, with a series of public parks and squares evenly dispersed at intersections. L’Enfant’s plan also departed from the traditional idea that the grandest spot in a capital should be reserved for the ruler’s palace. Instead, the highest point in the city, with the most commanding view, was reserved for Congress, whose building would be the grandest and most imposing in the new capital, while the President would be housed in a relatively modest mansion shunted off to the side. Capitol Hill, and not the White House, is the center of the city from which broad diagonal avenues radiate, cutting a grid street system. L’Enfant’s vision came to be, but he himself did not get to see it or get the credit. While a gifted and visionary architect, he lacked political tact and skill, and so he frequently clashed with officials. His unwillingness to compromise with the city commissioners who would do the actual work of implementing his plans, or the legislators who would pay for it all, would cost him in the end. Eventually, the exasperated officials got a surveyor who copied L’Enfant’s plan, with minor modifications to incorporate the changes sought by the politicians, without giving L’Enfant any credit. Furious, and egged on by Thomas Jefferson, he resigned. Pierre Charles L’Enfant died penniless in 1825, never having been paid for his work in designing Washington, DC. He was originally buried in Maryland, until 1909, when he finally got some posthumous recognition. His remains were exhumed, placed in a casket, and after lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, L’Enfant was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery, in a monument positioned on an elevated spot overlooking the capital city he had designed. His grave is located in Section 2, Lot S-3, Grid S-34.

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Background: Women's health is the field of medicine that addresses the special health care needs of women. It includes conditions more common, different, or unique to women. The primary means of knowledge assessment for family medicine residents is the Family Medicine In-training Examination (FMITE). This study describes the degree to which the FMITE tests residents for knowledge of women's health. Methods: This was a content validity study using item analysis to identify FMITE women's health questions. The curriculum standard was the 2004 American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Women's Health Curriculum Guidelines. Two independent reviewers verified the method of identifying women's health questions. The test sample included 3,460 questions (1996-2005 FMITEs). Results: Women's health questions made up 23% of the sample. Content areas and topics from the AAFP curriculum were sampled unevenly. The exam emphasized reproductive health and failed to assess knowledge of older women's health. Discussion: The FMITE does test resident knowledge of the traditional subjects of obstetrics and gynecology but does not provide an adequate assessment of the breadth of knowledge of women's health. |Original language||English (US)| |Number of pages||6| |State||Published - Sep 1 2007| ASJC Scopus subject areas - Family Practice

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CANNABIS CULTURE – Up until recent times, many Egyptologists, failed to acknowledge much of a role for cannabis in ancient Egypt beyond that of a source of fiber for ropes, but recent research identifying a plant in the Egyptian texts with fibrous and medicinal properties, as well as edible seeds, under the name shemshemet, or sm-sm-t, are now generally regarded as identifying cannabis. Excerpted from Cannabis and the Soma Solution. In ancient Egypt the healing herb shemshemet was believed to have been a creation of the Sun God Ra. Besides this linguistic source, pollen analysis of ancient soil layers and deep tissue samples from Egyptian mummies, have indicated that in Egypt, like much of the rest of the ancient world, cannabis held an important role. In fact from about around 3000 BC onward there is evidence of cannabis pollen in Egypt. According to the Codex of Ancient Egyptian Plant Remains, (1997) pollen has been identified at Egyptian sites dating from the Predynastic period (c. 3500-3100 BCE); the 12th Dynasty (c. 1991-1786 BCE) includes not only pollen, but also a hemp “fibre (ball)”; from the 19th Dynasty (c. 1293-1185 BCE) found on the Mummy of Ramses II; and the Ptolemaic period (323-30 BCE) (Vartavan & Asensi, 1997). There is general agreement with the view of Dawson (1934a) that shemshemet means cannabis, and the identification was strongly supported by the use of hempen rope making. As a drug, it has remained in active use since pharaonic times. It… was administered by mouth, rectum, vagina, bandaged the skin, applied to the eyes, and by fumigation. However, these applications provide no clear evidence of awareness of the effects of cannabis on the central nervous system. (Nunn, 2002) Although most modern Egyptologists acknowledge a role for cannabis as a source of fiber and as a medicine, few see a role for hemp as a ritual intoxicant, and many researchers claim that the Egyptians were unaware of these properties. As noted in The Mummy Congress: Under the reign of the pharaohs, Egyptian traders had bartered avidly for seeds of Cannabis sativa. Their Asian neighbors prized the plant for its hempen fibers, and the Egyptians seem to have taken a similar interest. They retted the stems and twisted the fibers into sturdy ropes and ground the plant to make a soothing eyewash, a treatment they recorded in the medical papyri. But the Egyptians made little mention of the other parts of C. sativa—the flowering tops and leaves that yielded marijuana or the dark resin that produces hashish. (Pringle, 2001) Prof. Jan Kabelik noted of shemsemet; “From the Egyptian medical papyruses, information has been gained about a plant from which cordage could be made, and it was probably cannabis which was referred to”: But no records could be found on its narcotic action. The preparations made from it (in all probability from the cannabis shoots) were applied externally-namely, exclusively as antiseptics – and then perhaps even as analgetics, in the same way as in Hellenic medicine. Cannabis extracts have been employed for irrigation in diseases of the anus, and in form of compresses the drug has been applied to sore toenails. In Rhamses’ papyrus, washing sore eyes with extracts from cannabis and also from some other plant is recommended. The papyrus of Berlin recommends fumigation with cannabis in some undefined disease. (Kabelik, 1955) Indeed, one would be hard pressed to identify narcotic use of hemp under the name shemshemet, but then as we shall see, with the Egyptians, as with other cultures, ritual knowledge was secret knowledge, and thus evidence of such use likely lays in veiled references. Realistically, even medical applications were imbued with magical and religious connotations. “…[M]ost physicians in Egypt were priests… elements of religion and magic were closely intertwined with drug use, incantations routinely being uttered prior to administration in order to confer the healing property upon it” (Spencer, 2000). Like the temple gardens of the Assyrians, where the ‘tree of life’ was reputed to grow, the Egyptians also likely cultivated shemshemet and other sacred plants: Considering the Egyptians’ highly developed pharmacopeia they must have had ‘physics gardens’, most likely in connection with a temple, for it was among the priests that knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants was concentrated. (Manniche, 1989) Egyptian medical texts that include references to cannabis include The Ramesseum III Papyrus (1700 BC), Eber’s Papyrus (1600 BC), The Berlin Papyrus (1300 BC), The Chester Beatty VI Papyrus (1300 BC). Possibly due to the sticky and adhesive quality of honey a number of Egyptian topical medical preparations required it as an admixture to cannabis based medicines. According to the ancient papyri such topical cannabis preparations were used to treat inflammations of the vagina, and to treat ingrown toe and finger nails (Ghalioungui 1963). Egyptian medical applications of cannabis show an astute knowledge of the efficacy of herbal remedies, and virtually all of their remedies containing it utilize it in a way in which cannabis has been known to be medically effective (Russo, 2006/2007). Ìf the hieroglyph ‘smsm. t’ in the ancient medical papyri of Egypt indicates cannabis, it was used as an incense, as an oral medication for ‘mothers and children’, (in childbirth? ), in enemas, in eye medications, and as an ointment in bandages. This may be its first mention in world literature as an eye medication. (Mathre, 1997) The reference to eye medicine identified by Mathre, occurs in the Ramesseum III Papyrus (1700 BC), and is thought to occur in a prescription for the treatment of glaucoma, and has been translated as „Ein Heilmittel für die Augen:“A treatment for the eyes: celery; shemshemet [cannabis]is ground and left in the dew overnight. Both eyes of the patient are to be washed with it in the morning. ” Although the existing copy of the Eber’s Papyrus is dated at about 1600 BC, making it the oldest known complete medical textbook, many scholars believe that it is copied from an even older text dating approximately 3100 BC. The Eber’s Papyrus refers to “A cure for the uterus to cool: Hanf wird in Honig zerstoßen und in die Vagina gefüllt. Hemp [shemshemet]is crushed in honey and stuffed into the vagina. Dies verursacht eine Kontraktion des Uterus.“This causes a contraction of the uterus. ” The Ebers Papyrus also refers to a topical application of cannabis for ingrown toe or finger nails and mixed with carob for use in an enema or combined with other remedies and used as a poultice. The Berlin Papyrus (1300 BC) records a topical treatment for swelling: “A remedy to treat inflammation: “Blätter (oder Blüten? ) des Hanfs und reines Öl. Leaves of hemp and pure oil. Gebrauch es als Salbe.” Use it as an ointment. ” In the second millennium BC hemp fiber was used for ropes, but the term shemshemet occurs as early as in the Pyramid Texts, written down a thousand years prior to that, again in connection with rope making. “Pieces of hemp have been identified at the tomb of Amenhopis IV (Ahkenaten) at el-Armana” (Manniche, 1989). As with the ritual use of fibers associated with Haoma/Soma and the Assyrian Tree of Life, it is interesting to note that here in Egypt, shemshemet was considered a sacred fiber and was referred to in the context as a means of bridging the gap between heaven and earth. A Rope Ladder to the Heavens In the pyramid text of Unas, which seems to concern the king’s ascension into the heavens through the northern passageway of his pyramid, hemp ropes seem to be the means for climbing into the starry sky. In the ancient inscription, the devotee is commanded to say the following words in praise of Unas a celestial Bull, who is the guide of the dead to the heavens: This Unas is the bull of double brilliance in the midst of his Eye. Safe is the mouth of Unas through the fiery breath, the head of Unas through the horns of the lord of the South. Unas leads the god… Unas has twisted the SmSm.t-plant into ropes. Unas has united (zmA) the heavens… Or as Budge translates it: “He raises up the cords (fibres? ) of the shemshemet plant, he unites the heavens” (Budge, 1911). A similar indication regarding hemp ropes may be found in the mythology of the Goddess Seshat, who appears to be holding a rope and a stalk in the below depiction. More interesting is the image that appears above the head of the ancient Goddess. A number of different researchers have noted the similarity between a cannabis leaf and the symbol attached to the head of the Goddess Seshat in Egyptian images. Seshat was the Egyptian Goddess of temple architecture and mistress of scribes, presiding over the “House of Life,” also known as the “House of Books.” This temple was a sort of library and school of knowledge, and served as a store place of texts regarding tradition and rituals. Since very early Egyptian times, Seshat’s main function was to assist the king in “stretching the cord” for the layout of temples and royal buildings. Author and researcher H. Peter Aleff has put forth an intriguing theory that this symbol is associated with the use of hemp cords. “It was… consistent with the ancient Egyptian visual canon that the artists who portrayed Seshat the rope-stretching goddess of measuring and geometry would have labeled her with pictures of her principal tools, or with easily recognizable symbols for these. Indeed, they combined evocations of these tools ingeniously in her emblem”: Many Egyptologists have long speculated about the emblem which Seshat wore as her head dress. Sir Alan Gardiner described it in his still category-leading “Egyptian Grammar” as a “conventionalized flower (? ) surmounted by horns. ” His question mark after “flower” reflects the fact that there is no likely flower which resembles this design. Others have called it a “star surmounted by a bow,” but stars in the ancient Egyptian convention had five points, not seven like the one in Seshat’s emblem. This number was so important that it caused king Tuthmosis III (1479 to 1425 BCE) to give her the name Sefkhet-Abwy, or “She of the seven points. ” There is no need for such groping speculations because the various elements in Seshat’s emblem simply depict the tools of her geometer’s trade in the hieroglyphic manner. Her seven-pointed “flower” or “star” is an accurate image of a hemp leaf. This leaf is made up of seven pointed leaf parts that are arranged in the same pattern as the most prominent sign in Seshat’s emblem. Hemp is, and has long been, an excellent material for making ropes with the low-stretch quality required for measuring cords, particularly when these are greased to reduce variations in their moisture content which would influence elongation. The characteristic leaf of the plant used in making these ropes was thus a logical choice for the emblem designer who wanted an easily recognized reference to Seshat’s job. This leaf is so unique that its picture allows no confusion with other items…. the hemp leaf in Seshat’s emblem is unmistakable evidence that the ancient Egyptian rope- stretchers used hemp for their measuring cords, and that Seshat cannot deny her now illegal patronage and ownership of this psycho-active plant. Add to this flagrant evidence that in Coffin Texts Spell 10, “Seshat opens the door of heaven for you” (7), and the case against her is solid enough to get her busted if she still plied her trade today. (Aleff, 1982/2008). Both the references in the account of Unas the Bull, and that of Seshat may symbolically indicate hemp as a means of reaching the heavens. In relation it is interesting to note that Catherine Graindorge mentions cannabis in a funerary offering: “some Theban tombs mention an offering of… plants to the deceased… [including]smsmt [shemsemet, cannabis]… According to the tomb of Neferhotep… the smsmt-plant was created by Re” (Graindorge, 1992). Unfortunately it is unclear as to what the nature of this offering was (fiber? , food? , incense? , Beverage? ), but apparently it occurred during “certain activities concerned with private funerary worship”, where “the priests of the ka, or the family of the Theban deceased, make libations and fumigations in the chapel of the tombs” (Graindorge, 1992). A situation which certainly brings to mind the Scythian Funerary rites and fumigations with burning hemp referred to earlier. Evidence of Entheogenic Use of Hemp in Ancient Egypt? Not all Egyptologists agree with the view that the ancient Egyptians were unaware of hemp’s potentially potent narcotic effects, a property of the plant highly esteemed by many of the cultures with whom the Egyptians traded. As Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology, for the Manchester Museum, has noted, the Egyptians are known to have used a variety of psychoactive substances: The lotus was a very powerful narcotic which was used in ancient Egypt and presumably, was widespread in this use, because we see many scenes of individuals holding a cup and dropping a lotus flower into the cup which contained wine, and this would be a way of releasing the narcotic. The ancient Egyptians certainly used drugs. As well as lotus they had mandrake and cannabis, and there is a strong suggestion the also used opium…. [these]elements were certainly in use. (David, 1996) Considering that the Egyptians traded with cultures that used cannabis for its intoxicating properties, it is hard to accept that these considerably advanced herbalists, who had clear knowledge of cannabis’ medical effects, somehow failed to recognize the provocative state which could be produced from burning or ingesting the plant, a quality highly prized by their trading partners. In this author’s view there are a number of indications of the use of cannabis for entheogenic use that can be inferred from the accumulated knowledge of ancient Egyptian lore. Possible sources for this sort of use of cannabis include the Kyphi incense and perfume, the drink Nepenthe, the ‘Sacred Shrub’ and the Maat Plant. I have discussed the mythical infused wine for grief, Nepenthe, at length in another article, and as noted there, a cannabis infusion has been largely suggested from the evidence and description presented. Kyphi, the Scent ‘Welcome to the Gods’ Some sources have suggested that cannabis was an ingredient in the ancient incense and perfume of the Pharaohs, known as kyphi. Kyphi was used as an offering to the Gods. As the sun set, Egyptian worshippers would burn this fragrant mind altering preparation to the Sun God RA (who created cannabis) praying for his return the following morning. Indicating the medical qualities of it’s ingredients, Kyphi was applied on the skin to heal wounds. It was also considered to be a potent relaxant and an aphrodisiac. Unlike the ointments of the Assyrians, the Kyphi was a rather solid and wax like concoction. A cone of kyphi was placed on the top of the head, and as the hot Egyptian Sun and body temperature of the devotee warmed it, the potent ingredients of the preparation would slowly melt and drip down off the head and onto the body. Researchers have suggested more than 50 natural ingredients for making the Kyphi, the most popular probably being: Aloeswood, Benzoin, Cannabis Resin, Cardamom Seeds, Cassia, Cedar, Cinnamon, Copal, Frankincense, Galangal Root, Ginger, Honey, Juniper, Lemongrass, Mastic, Mint, Myrrh, Orris, Pistachio, Raisins, Red Wine, Rose Petals, Saffron, Sandalwood, Storax Balsam. Archeologist Joel Zias, who has found evidence of the use of psychoactive substances at sites of ancient Near Eastern cultures, notes that “the Egyptians wrote a lot about medicine however the formula is always a bit of this a bit of that etc. , therefore one can never know the exact method of replicating it. Hash was very common as was opium” (Zias, 2005). Writing in 1920, the Occultist Oliver Bland, after naming many of the suggested ingredients of the Kyphi and demonstrating some knowledge of its preparation, put forth the following unverified, but interesting, etymological suggestion: The clue to the secret of the ancient incense lies not in what we have been able to recover from the papayri, but in the word itself. Kyphi is recognizable to-day in “keef,” the popular name for the smokeable variety of the herb Cannabis Indica or Indian Hemp. Cannabis Indica is none other than our friend hashish…. It is not after all, a far cry from the mysteries of Osiris, in Egypt…. Osiris… “died” annually, and mimicry of the symbolic event was the basis of all ritual. In the mysteries the initiate “died,” too: but the death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state of stupor or deep trance brought about by the fumes of keef. (Bland, 1920) This was a view shared by the occultist Aleister Crowley, who lamented that his magick powers may have been lessened by lack of hashish, using the name Kyfi in this context. More recently, a European news story reported on the efforts of a well known perfume company to recreate the Ancient Kyphi: Ananova, Monday, 7th October, 2002, ‘Scientists recreate the perfume of the pharaohs. ’ Scientists in France say they have recreated the perfume of the pharaohs which they believe was used by the ancient Egyptians to boost their love-lives. But as the ingredients of Kyphi perfume, said to be an aphrodisiac which helps wearers relax, include cannabis it cannot be commercially produced. Experts from L’Oreal and C2RMF, the Centre for Research and Restoration of French Museums, succeeded in recreating the legendary Kyphi perfume. French researcher Sandrine Videault, who for years had attempted to recreate the aroma, was finally able to do so with the help of Greek historiographer Plutarch. The Greek writer had written that Kyphi had the power “to send someone to sleep, to help them have sweet dreams, to relax them, to drive away the worries of the day and to bring peace. ” The numerous ingredients include pistachios, mint, cinnamon, incense, juniper and myrrh. Videault says all previous attempts to use traces of the perfume found in Egyptian museums had failed because not enough was provided for analysis. The expert says the recreation of the aroma is a long process because there are many different recipes for it: “In some samples only ten ingredients are used, in others up to 50,” she said. According to written documents, the perfume, which came in block form and unlike modern-day scents was not alcohol based, was worn by ancient Egyptians in their hair and in intimate places to boost their sex lives. But Videault said: “Kyphi will never be sold because some of the ingredients are illegal substances. In any case the smell is probably much too pungent for the modern world. ” The Maat Plant Another possible source of Egyptian use of cannabis may be indicated in inscriptions regarding the Maat Plant, depicted in the lower parts of the following stele being tended by devotees and eyed by a waiting harvester with the traditional Scythian hemp harvesting tool the Scythe in hand. Generally this stele has been interpreted as identifying the activities of the dead in the after-world, but often such myths were acted out by devotees on the material plane, so indications of some sort of sacred rite involving earthly offerings of the Maat Plant cannot be easily dismissed. The Egyptians associated the Maat plant with Osiris, as we see here from the scenes and texts which are here reproduced from the alabaster coffin of Seti I… In the middle register we see the wicked tied to the jackal headed standards… In the register below we see figures of men engaged in tending a plant… and one figure has a scythe, which indicates he was the reaper of the plant. In the register above we some men carrying on their heads a loaf, and others a feather, symbolic of Maat, the goddess of Truth. The former group of beings (Second Register) are the blessed whose ‘Kau (i. e. dispositions) have been washed clean,’ and who have been chosen by Osiris to live with him in the house of ‘holy souls’. The latter group of beings (Third Register) are the ‘labourers in the wheat field of the Tuat’ (i. e. Other World), and the plants they tended and reaped are said to be ‘the members of Osiris’. The plant was Osiris, and Osiris was the plant, and the blessed in eating ‘the bread of everlastingness’ which was made from the grain of the plant ate Osiris. But Osiris was Maat, i. e. Truth, therefore in eating the bread they ate Truth. In eating his body they became one with him and therefore eternal… (Budge, 1925) Curiously, Budge interpreted the plant image in the lower part of the Egyptian stele as a “colossal ear of wheat. ” More likely it represents some other plant, one that was harvested with the Scythian tool the Scythe, one which held divine properties and an association with immortality as well as rites for the dead. In relation to this depiction and the suggestion that the Maat plant was prepared into some sort of sacramental loaf, the body of the lord Osiris, it is important to note that in Persia cannabis was also known by the name Sahdanag – Royal Grain; or King’s Grain, and was prepared in a number of confections (Low, 1926). In the account of the Maat Plant and its association with the dead, one is again reminded of the role of cannabis in Scythian funerary rites, as does the Eucharistic elements involving it invoke the mythology of the Soma and Haoma, the original Eucharistic sacrament. It should also be noted that Maat’s symbol was a green feather, and this symbolism has also been used to identify the Soma. “In RV X.89. 5 the Soma is called simivat. In the context it should be translated as feathered, literally it means ‘like simi or sami’… The pinnate leaves of the sami… look like a feather…The feather in relation to the Soma-Plant is mentioned in RV IV. 27. 4” (Richter-Ushanas, 1997). That the spears of a cannabis leaf look like a feather could also be said. As Homer Smith noted in Man and his Gods: Those who lived by the laws of Maat took a sacramental drink, comparable to the Hindus’ Soma or its Persian counterpart Haoma, which conferred ritual purity… Egyptian scribes writing in the third millenium B.C. wrote: “My inward parts have been washed in the liquor of Maat.” (Smith, 1952) Interestingly in the 4th century AD the alchemist Zosimos would write about the use of cannabis, darnel and other plants as infusions in Egyptian beers and wines. However it is unclear how long this practice was in place. However recently Archeologists have uncovered a 5,000 year old brewery in Egypt, and perhaps analysis of the remnants will reveal what sorts of ingredients were in use then. Recently researcher Brian Muraresku has been raising some interesting discussion about potentially entheogenic beers in the ancient world with his best selling tome The Immortality Key. According to myth the God Osiris taught humanity the art of brewing. Interestingly there is an unidentified ancient entheogen named after this god ‘Osiritis’. Osiritis was also known as ‘cynocephalia’ and 3rd century AD Egyptian Gnostic texts describe it being put into the mouths of participants in a magic ritual. Pliny mentions this same plant for divination. Pliny claims to have heard from Apion the Grammarian, notorious resident of Egypt, “that the plant cynocephalia, known in Egypt as “osiritis,” is useful for divination, and is a preservative against all the malpractices of magic, but that if a person takes it out of the ground entire, he will die upon the spot. He asserts, also, that he himself had raised the spirits of the dead”. The reference to death if you pull the plant whole out of the ground, is reminiscent of the mythology of mandrake, which is also psychoactive and has been used in magic rituals. Drug Testing Mummies Indicating that Egypt was a depot of the ancient Silk Road, is the “recent discovery of a strand of silk in the hair of an Egyptian mummy, which a combination of infrared and chemical analysis strongly suggests came from China. If correct this means that Chinese silk reached the eastern Mediterranean around 1000 B.C., centuries before the traditional date” (Allsen, 1997). Recent archeology has confirmed that cannabis, opium and other drugs travelled these same trade routes. Other research has opened up the possibility that ancient trade routes were not only older, but considerably wider than has been traditionally thought. The results from tests on hairs of Egyptian mummies dating back as far as 1000 B.C. showed positive results for not only copious use of cannabis, but, opening up a hot bed of controversy, evidence interpreted as indicating the use of New World Plants Coca and Tobacco as well! Research by German scientist, Dr Svetla Balabanova in the early 1990’s has continued to baffle Egyptologists, and call into question whole areas of science, archeology, chemistry and botany, as well as current drug testing techniques. In 1992 researchers in Munich, who were using the latest scientific techniques on mummified remains in order to understand more about the lives of ancient Egyptians, decided to test for evidence of ancient drug use. In this quest they turned to respected toxicologist Dr Svelta Balabanova, who had developed groundbreaking methods for the detection of drugs in hair and sweat. In order to make sure that the tests on the mummies were beyond reproach, Balabanova used the supposedly reliable and standard hair shaft test. Drugs and other substances consumed by humans make their way into the hair protein, where they stay for months, even after death. To ensure there is no contamination hair samples are washed in alcohol and the washing solution itself is then tested. If the testing solution is clear, but the hair tests positive, then the drug must be inside the hair shaft, which means the person consumed the substance during their lifetime. The hair shaft test is considered proof positive against contamination before or after death. As British toxicologist Dr. John Henry has noted: “The hair shaft test is accepted. If you know that you’ve taken your hair sample from this individual and the hair shaft is known to contain a drug, then it is proof positive that the person has taken that drug. So it is accepted in law. It’s put people into prison” (Henry, 1996). As a toxicologist and endocrinologist at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, in Ulm Germany, Balabanova, who also worked closely with the German Police, was more than familiar with postmortem techniques. Samples from the mummies were taken by Balabanova, pulverized and dissolved into a solution. As with the still standard drug testing technique, she used antibodies to detect the presence of drugs and other properties. As a backup the samples were also put through the GCMS machine which can accurately identify substances by determining their molecular weight. The unexpected results of both tests, which Balabanova in disbelief ordered to be redone a number of times, have embroiled the German researcher in a hot bed of controversy for over a decade. Although Balabanova was not particularly surprised at the evidence of THC, the active chemical of the Old World plant cannabis, results indicating new world plants such as Coca, and Tobacco sent the researcher reeling. “The first positive results, of course, were a shock for me. I had not expected to find nicotine and cocaine but that’s what happened. I was absolutely sure it must be a mistake” (Balabanova, 1996). After repeating the tests and later publishing the results, Balabanova found herself in a hotbed of controversy that has followed her career ever since. This is the first study which shows the presence of cocaine, hashish and nicotine in Egyptian mummies, dating back to about 1000 BC. This means that these three organic substances are capable of surviving in hair, soft tissue and bones for ca. 3000 years under favorable conditions. However, it cannot be determined at present whether the concentrations measured represent the original amount of these drugs during life or immediately after death, or what kind of decomposition might have taken place in the past 3000 years. (Balabanova et al. 1992) Not surprisingly academic criticisms poured in from all quarters. As Balabanova described, “I got a pile of letters that were almost threatening, insulting letters saying it was nonsense, that I was fantasizing, that it was impossible, because it was proven that before Columbus these plants were not found anywhere in the world outside of the Americas” (Balabanova, 1996). The presence of cannabinoids in the tissues of Egyptian mummies brings up the possibility that Cannabis was used recreationally/religiously or medicinally by the early Egyptians. However, most of the controversy centers around the reports of cocaine and nicotine contents in these Egyptian mummies predating Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World. The plant genera Erythroxylum (the sole source of cocaine) and Nicotiana (the sole source of nicotine) are both considered to have only a New World distribution prior to European contact during the 15th century, much later than the dates (ca. 3000 BP) of the mummies analyzed by Balabanova et al. (1992). These results are so unusual that they cast some doubt over the cannabinoid findings as well. (Clarke & Fleming, 1998) Representing the view of the vast majority of Historians, Prof. John Bains an Egyptologist with Oxford University, commented on the speculations that were growing around the findings of Balabanova. “The idea that the Egyptians were travelling to America is, overall, absurd. I don’t know of anyone who is professionally employed as an Egyptologist, anthropologist or archeaologist who seriously believes in any of these possibilities, and I also don’t know anyone who spends time doing research into these areas because they’re perceived to be areas without any real meaning for the subjects” (Bains, 1996). Although, like the taboo subject of drugs in the ancient world, a minority of researchers such as Prof. Alice Kehoe, of Marquette University seem more open to the possibility of pre-Columbian transatlantic trade. “I think there is good evidence that there was both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific travel before Columbus. When we try to talk about trans-oceanic contact, people that are standard archeologists get very… skittish, and they want to change the subject… They seem to feel that it’s some kind of contagious disease they don’t want to touch, or it will bring disaster to them” (Kehoe, 1996). It should be noted that prior to the discovery of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland in 1965, the theories about Viking voyages to America were likewise dismissed as fantastical nonsense. As the makers of the sensational TVF documentary The Cocaine Mummies commented “If the cocaine found in mummies could not be explained by contamination or fake mummies or by Egyptian plants containing it, there appeared to be only one remaining possibility… An international drug trade whose links extended all the way to the Americas.” At the center of an unexpected controversy that threatened her professional reputation, Balabanova combed the historical record to see if any other researchers had ever recorded similar results. She was encouraged to find potential corroboration in a story about a scientific team trying to salvage the badly deteriorating body of Ramses II in 1976. The bandages with which Ramses II was wrapped with needed replacing and botanists were given pieces of the fabric to analyze what they were made from in order to replace them. One researcher, Dr. Michelle Scott found some plant fragments in her piece, and on closer analysis she detected the tiny crystals and filaments which were the unmistakable indications of a plant that should clearly not have been there. I prepared the slides, put them under the microscope and what did I see? Tobacco. I said to myself, that’s just not possible – I must be dreaming. The Egyptians didn’t have tobacco. It was brought from South America at the time of Christopher Columbus. I looked again, and I tried to get a better view and I thought, well, it’s only a first analysis. I worked feverishly and I forgot to have lunch that day. But I kept getting the same result. (Scott, 1996) Placing herself in a storm of controversy identical to that in which Balabanova would find herself in, Dr. Michelle Scott found little support for her findings. Most researchers saw the tobacco find as a clear case of contamination. Indeed, the explanation of Prof. Nasri Iskander, Chief Currator of the Cairo Museum seems more than plausible: “According to my knowledge and experience, most of the archeologists and scientists, who worked on these fields, smoked pipes. And I myself have been smoking pipes for more than 25 years. Then maybe a piece of the tobacco dropped by haphazard or just anyway and to tell this is right or wrong we have to be more careful” (Iskander, 1996). As the controversy around Balabanova’s results continued to brew, the original researchers who requested that she test the mummies distanced themselves from her. As Dr Alfred Grimm, Curator, The Egyptian Museum, Munich, from where the mummies came commented “It’s not absolutely proven and I think it’s not absolutely scientifically correct” (Grimm, 1996). After trying to gain access to the mummies, the makers of The Cocaine Mummies concluded that “it seemed that the museum wanted nothing more to do with the research they politely pointed out was far from respectable. ” As a result of the controversy, even researchers from other Museums were barred from further examination of the mummies, such as Rosalie David, the Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum. David, who was completely skeptical of the results turned in by Balabanova, unable to acquire test material from the same subject matter as Balabanova, due to the reluctance of her Munich colleagues, decided to test different mummies and was herself astounded when the test material came in: “We’ve received results back from the tests on our mummy tissue samples and two of the samples and the one hair sample both have evidence of nicotine in them. I’m really very surprised at this” (David, 1996). Results that were more than welcome by Balabanova “The results of the tests on the Manchester mummies have made me very happy after all these years of being accused of false results and contaminated results, so I was delighted to hear nicotine had been found in these mummies, and very, very happy to have this enormous confirmation of my work” (Balabanva, 1996). In the 1994 paper, Presence of drugs in different tissues of an Egyptian mummy, Franz Parsche and Andreas Nerlich came to almost identical biochemical conclusions as Balabanova through deep tissue, bone and internal examination of a mummy that was dated at approximately 950 B.C.. Using the techniques of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, these researchers reported that “significant amounts of various drugs were detected in internal organs (lung, liver, stomach, intestines) as well as in hair, bone, skin/muscle and tendon. These analyses revealed a significant deposition of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), nicotine (and its metabolite cotinine) and cocaine in the tissue from the mummy…. ” (Parsche and Nerlich, 1994). The major finding was that the drugs (and some of their metabolites) could clearly be identified in the tissue samples analyzed, indicating that these substances are stable over an unexpectedly long period of time… we observed that significant amounts of various drugs were present in several different tissues. Although the absolute values of the drug concentrations may show considerable interbatch variation in particular when tested by the immunoassay system, the intrabatch analysis, as in this study, reflects correct relative proportions. Thus, our analysis of the concentrations of various drugs in different mummy tissues sheds some light on historic therapeutic measures… the evidence for the nicotine metabolite cotinine, which was… found in the present material, argues in favour of an intravital consumption of nicotine (with subsequent metabolization) rather than simply a contamination by nicotine post mortem. Furthermore, these findings are well in accordance with previous observations on bone samples from other Egyptian mummies… The observation of significant concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol which represents the psychoactive substance of drugs as in hashish in the lungs with values above those of the other internal organs, argue for a preferential incorporation of this substance by inhalation. This is in accordance with the reports by medical papyri indicating smoking ceremonies, e. g. with hashish. The accumulation of THC in skin/muscle tissue may be due to contamination during the postmortal embalming procedure. The way of cocaine and nicotine consumption which has remained unclear until now may have been uncovered by the analysis of this “case”: Since these drug concentrations were found to be highest in the stomach and the intestine, this observation points to an oral ingestion of these substances. (Parsche and Nerlich, 1994) Parsche and Nerlich findings of strong concentrations of THC in the lungs of the Mummy fit well with the view that the popular Egyptian perfume and incense, kyphi, contained cannabis. Likewise, the “accumulation of THC in skin/muscle tissue” which the authors suspect was “due to contamination during the postmortal embalming procedure,” ties in with the idea that cannabis was used in Egyptian funerary rites, as discussed earlier. In relation to the finds of nicotine Parsche and Nerlich pointed ou that contemporary “analyses on the nicotine content of various vegetables yielded significant amounts of nicotine in some plants other than the tobacco plant, like aubergines, tomatoes and others” Furthermore, it has recently been shown that in Southern Africa a nicotine containing plant (Nicotiana Africana) occurs, which may have been accessible to ancient Egyptians. Thus, the use of these substances as therapeutic drugs may have had a firm place in the old Egyptian medicals’ repertoire. (Parsche and Nerlich, 1994) Sandy Knapp, of the herbarium at the Natural History Museum feels that the test results only identify the family from which tobacco comes, and not the specific plant, pointing to other members of the tobacco family, which existed in ancient Egypt, such as henbane, mandrake or belladonna. “I think that they [Balabanova, Parsche, etc. ] had a certain amount of evidence, and they took the evidence one step farther than the evidence really allowed them. Sometimes you can only go so far down the road towards telling what something is, and then you come against a wall and you can’t go any farther, otherwise you start to make something up” (Knapp, 1996). I think it is very unlikely that tobacco has an alternative history, because, I think we would’ve heard about it. There’d be some use of it present in either literature, temple carvings, somewhere there would’ve been evidence to point and say ‘Ah, that’s tobacco’, but there’s nothing. (Knapp, 1996) Balabanova herself entertained the idea of a lost species of tobacco, possibly even some extinct species of plant. The suggestion that a plant could have been harvested into extinction is more than plausible, and we have the contemporary example of the Egyptian Blue Lotus, prized by the ancient Egyptians for its narcotic properties, which was nearly harvested into extinction due to it’s popularity. As has been noted “many medical plants have become extinct through overuse. For example, the demand for silphium, a plant prized for its medicinal and contraceptive properties, was so great in ancient Greece that it was extinct by the third or fourth century AD” (Peters, et al. , 2005). But even with the suggestion of an alternative source of nicotine, Balabanova was still puzzled by the high concentrations of the substance found in Egyptian mummies, as much as 35 times that of the typical smoker of today. Such levels would have been potentially lethal, had tobacco been consumed in such quantities in life. Balabanova felt these high doses of nicotine in Egyptian bodies could be explained if the nicotine containing substance as well as being consumed in life, had also been used in the mummification process. High levels of nicotine in tobacco can kill bacteria, and it is more than conceivable that some lost plant, or even other members of the tobacco family such as those suggested by Dr. Knapp and others could well have been part of the secrets of embalming that Egyptian priests kept so closely guarded for over 3000 years of practice. As well, in regards to the evidence of nicotine, the possibility of contamination from early pipe smoking archeologists can still not be ruled out completely. The authors of The Biomarkers Guide refer to tests conducted by exposing a nicotine free femur from the Bronze-age to environmental exposure to tobacco smoke for a period of six weeks, analyzing the bones before and after washing. “Surprisingly, the unwashed sample contained 11. 6 ng nicotine per gram of bone, while the washed sample contained 35. 5 ng/g… [The researchers] attributed this increase to tobacco smoke deposits being rinsed from the surface into the bone’s interior during the washing step, thus concentrating the nicotine” (Peters, et al. , 2005). It would be nice if one could end with just the open question of a nicotine containing plant, but as Dr. Svelta Balobanova, still holding her results as accurate lamented: “The cocaine of course remains an open question. It’s a mystery – it’s completely unclear how cocaine could get into Africa. On the other hand, we know there were trade relationships long before Columbus, and it’s conceivable that the coca plant had been imported into Egypt even then” (Balabanova, 1996). A situation even this broad minded student of ancient history would have a hard time accepting. A much more likely suggestion for the evidence of cocaine was noted by the authors of The Biomarkers Guide, “Tropane alkaloids that are structurally related to cocaine are present in henbane, mandrake, and nightshade and may have been altered during the mummification process into a cocaine like compound” (Peters, et al. , 2005). As Heather Pringle notes in The Mummy Congress: …[I]n the absence of any other compelling explanation, it now seems likely that Balobanova’s findings were thrown off by conditions that few other hair testers have to contend with. When Egyptian embalmers smoothed handfuls of spices, oils and plant resins on the flesh of the dead, they anointed the body and its tresses with a complex chemical cocktail that mummy experts have yet to describe, much less fully understand. Conventional hair tests were never designed to deal with such concoctions, nor were they intended to deal with an immense, almost unfathomable span of time. Over centuries and millennia of entombment, compounds in these concoctions could have easily broken down, yielding substances that could easily pass for cocaine today. (Pringle, 2001) But unfortunately confounding the situation even further and reasonably calling into question all previous results, research from Balabanova and Parsche, published elsewhere, identified these same three substances, THC, cocaine, and nicotine in pre-Columbian mummies which dated from about 115 A.D. to 1500 A.D. (Balabanova, Parsche, Pirsig, 1992: 1993). In this case, evidence of traditionally South American plants such as tobacco and coca was to be expected, but THC, indicating the traditionally Old World plant source of cannabis, opens up the whole can of worms, that the just discussed evidence of Coca and Tobacco in ancient Egypt did. Having researched the subject extensively, I can say there is nothing reliable in the way of archaeological or historical evidence I have seen that supports the position that cannabis was available in ancient Peru. Possibly these tests turned up evidence of endocannabinoids naturally produced in the human body and these were mistaken for plant cannabinoids due to the deteorization process. With such controversial findings through supposedly state-of-the-art methods, it is hard not to share the view of Egyptologist John Baines, “it struck me that these days there must be a lot of drug convictions of people for possessing substances they had not in fact had. ” Indeed, it would be surprising if some savvy lawyer did not at some point raise these very issues in a court of law. Despite these mixed results, from the accounts of shemshemet recorded in the ancient papyri, we can be sure that the Egyptians used cannabis both medicinally and as a fibre. Accounts of Kyphi, Nepenthe and the Maat plant indicate that as with their ancient world neighbours, the Egyptians also likely used cannabis as a ritual intoxicant, along with other plants. Hopefully with continued archaeology and scientific investigations in the area the ultimate role of cannabis and other entheogens in ancient Egypt will one day be more fully uncovered from the desert sands.

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A National Research Foundation (NRF) – Foundational Biodiversity Information Programme (FBIP) biodiversity inventory project to fill knowledge gaps in South Africa’s freshwater systems. Funded by the DSI. Managed by the NRF-SAIAB in collaboration with SANBI. The project is led by SAIAB’s Chief Scientist, Dr Albert Chakona and SANBI’s Red List scientist, Ms Dewidine van der Colff. More than 40 co-investigators and collaborators are contributing to the project running up to 2024 as part of the Foundational Biodiversity Information Programme (FBIP). Under the spotlight is a select group of South African aquatic species which includes freshwater fishes, mollusca, large branchiopoda, freshwater crabs, freshwater fish parasites, amphibians and odonata species. This information is urgently needed to establish baselines data, assessing change patterns, river and wetland condition and to inform strategic freshwater management and decision-making. Read more about the project

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1. How does Anna Vasilevna change by the end of the story from what she is like at the beginning? Explain the part Savushkin plays in these changes and how the language of the story helps us to understand them. In ‘The Winter Oak’, Anna Vasilevna changes in many ways and Savushkin is the key to these changes. In the opening few paragraphs of ‘The Winter Oak’ the reader learns a great deal about Anna Vasilevna’s initial personality. For example, when Nagibin writes, “The piercing bell that announced the beginning of the school had hardly died down when Anna Vasilevna came into the class-room,” we learn that Anna Vasilevna is obviously a very punctual person. She is presented in a fairly stereotypical way by Nagibin. This stereotype is continued when Nagibin writes of Anna Vasilevna “pushing a hair pin back into her heavy knot of hair,” because a bun is viewed as a conventional hairstyle for strict teachers. A key theme in the story is learning and this is the focus of Anna’s change. The beginning of the story is set in a classroom, where Anna Vasilevna is teaching. As Anna Vasilevna announces to the class that, “Today we are going to continue learning about parts of speech” we see Anna’s intention to teach the class, however it is ironic as the English lesson is not the only lesson that Anna will be a part of that day. When Savushkin enters the classroom, we are able to see how important he is to Anna’s change. Savushkin is rebelling against the conformities of school by being late to his lesson and this goes against Anna Vasilevna’s legalist ideology of conformity. Anna Vasilevna is annoyed by Savushkin’s refusal to conform. She is part of the restrictive school system and she abides by the rules, so why shouldn’t he? Later on in the lesson, when the class are asked to call out examples of nouns, Savushkin contributes, “winter oak,” he says which the reader knows must be significant as it is the title of the story. When Nagibin describes the manner with which Savushkin announces his noun, we begin to see how important Savushkin is to the story. Savushkin speaks “Just as if he had woken up out of a dream,” which suggests to the reader that even though Savushkin has arrived at school physically, his mind is still in his ‘dream world. ’ We also learn about how sure of himself and confident Savushkin is. He contributes his noun by shouting it, and we are told that “The children began to laugh,” they are ridiculing him for his effort but Savushkin notices neither the laughter of the children nor the admonishment of Anna Vasilevna. However Anna Vasilevna is willing to give Savushkin a chance, this is perhaps the start of Anna Vasilevna’s change as she is able to see that this rule breaking late little boy may have something to contribute that would not come to the other children for a number of years. We learn more of Savushkin as Nagibin goes on to write “The words were torn out of his soul” suggesting that Savushkin’s “joyful secret” is very much a part of him. Savushkin says “winter oak” as a “confession” this tells us of his sinful guilt about being consistently delayed by the tree which shows that however individual and independent Savushkin may be, he still has some regard, however little for rules. As the part of the story set in the classroom comes to an end we see that although Anna Vasilevna does not yet understand Savushkin’s “strange excitement” she is on her way to sharing it with him as they enter the forest together later in the story. Also, at this early point in the story, when Anna Vasilevna says, “Oak is a noun” we know that at present it means nothing more to her than grammar however it soon will mean much more to her as the story progresses. The part of the story set in the staff room of the school shows the beginning of both characters changes. As Savushkin talks, he spreads his hands in a “grown-up way,” this tells the reader that the role reversal between pupil and teacher has begun. Anna Vasilevna clearly still has her mind on the grammar lesson of that morning as she corrects Savushkin in his explanation of his route to school; “Not straighting, straight,” this shows the reader that even though she has begun to change, she still maintains some of her adult qualities. As the pair enter the forest we can see Anna Vasilevna’s changes much more clearly. Where Nagibin writes; “The path along which Savushkin led Anna Vasilevna began just behind the school building,” there is symbolism in many ways. The word education comes from the Latin “to lead out” as Savushkin is leading Anna Vasilevna the reader observes the role reversal where Savushkin has now become Anna’s teacher and leader. Additionally, the path on which Savushkin walks to school is symbolic of the path of life. It is said to start just behind the school building, which is the symbol of conformity and legalism, the path leads to Savushkin’s world of individuality so the path is helping Savushkin to lead Anna out into a different world. This point is reinforced as the pair are “transported into another world. ” The pathetic fallacy contained in “joyful glades” helps Nagibin’s description of Anna Vasilevna’s change. In the forest, Savushkin becomes more of a teacher than anywhere else as the role reversal in the story gets into full flow. Savushkin reassures Anna Vasilevna when she is worried by saying “But don’t be afraid. ” Also, Anna Vasilevna becomes more of a child by getting excited about fairly simple things, such as deer. Her childishness is also emphasised by her innocent pleasure of the act of “kicking snow into the water with the toe of her boot. ” Savushkin’s importance in Anna Vasilevna’s changes is emphasised when Nagibin writes that “Savushkin had gone on, and was waiting for her. ” Savushkin has clearly had more experience of life in the forest than Anna Vasilevna however even thought he is able to complete his journey of individuality faster than her, he is willing to wait and to teach. When Savushkin and Anna Vasilevna actually see the oak, it is described with much religious vocabulary. Words such as “majestic,” “magnanimous,” and describing the winter oak as a “cathedral” lead the reader to believe that it provides holy sanctuary to the life in the forest. When Savushkin treats the oak as an “old acquaintance,” we think of Savushkin as a friend of the forest. However much Savushkin has developed from his time spent in the forest, he has not lost his innocence of being unable to recognise his wrongdoings. As he exclaims that they will be too late to see his mother he appears unaware of his dawdling. Anna Vasilevna has broken the habit of a lifetime, normally very punctual, she is late, this is a signal of her change. Anna Vasilevna felt as if “She had walked into a trap,” and because of this she feels that it would be acceptable to be cunning herself. Before this act of slyness, she asks the winter oak if it is all right. This is treating the oak as some kind of god, which adds to the previous religious references. As Anna Vasilevna tries one last time to impose her rules and authority on Savushkin by telling him to go by the road, we know that she had changed because she has become less obsessed by rules. We know this because later, she relents and grants Savushkin permission to go the forest. Anna Vasilevna realises at the very end of the story that she is not the only teacher in the story, she also realises that she must take the journey of life along the road leading to individuality. Another main lesson learnt by Anna Vasilevna in the story is that sometimes to advance in adult life, you must recede to the ideas and viewpoint of a child. I the final paragraph, Nagibin writes that Savushkin was “guarding his teacher from afar,” this is the final element of the role reversal, Anna Vasilevna was portrayed as the authoritative figure in school at the beginning of the story, and Savushkin has now taken over that position. Anna Vasilevna has broken free of Savushkin leading her to independence and individuality and goes on to complete her own journey. 2. “Education does not take place only in the classroom. ” To what extent do you think this statement is true? I agree entirely with the statement “Education does not take place only in the classroom. ” Although a small proportion of our academic learning occurs in the classroom, every human being has many life lessons to be learnt that simply cannot be taught in a classroom at school. These are things such as people skills, how to act in an emergency situation, household chores such as ironing and even things such as flirting! However, some of these lessons need to be learnt by the individual’s own experience and there is not a specific way to teach them these lessons. For the life lessons that can be learnt but out side of the classroom there are a number of possibilities. I have spent 10 years in the various branches of the Guide Association and now work as a Young Leader in a local Rainbow unit and I believe that the Guide Association and the Scout Movement play a big part in the learning of children as they grow up. Things such as basic survival skills learnt during Scouts have proved to be important lessons for many people I know and at Brownies, the number of lessons my friends and I have taken through secondary school have been incredible. A recent survey carried out on a number of young people suggests that up to 1/6 of learning occurs through watching the television. I found this fact incredible as my years of watching far too much television have always been viewed as a terrible thing by my parents. However, the combination of audio and visual has proved to be one of the most effective learning techniques over a number of centuries so this finding seems a little more reasonable than first thought. I also believe that organisations and institutions are not always necessary for learning, you can learn a great deal from individuals for example an idol or person you admire, an author, a teacher or parent. Teachers do not always have to be more academically developed than the pupil to learn, often peers can be great sources of learning, I for one have been inspired by my friends to take ideas to new levels and see the world in a different way. Sometimes even lesser educationally developed people can help us to advance in our own personal learning journey, as the saying goes; “To go forward you must go back. ” We can apply this to the situation by saying that the view of the world through the eyes of a child is always much less complicated than that through the eyes of an adult and the answer to a question that troubles an adult is glaringly obvious to a child. The word “education itself comes from the Latin, “to lead” and this is accurate in point out that education is like a journey. We are led along the road of life and learning by our teachers, whoever they may be. In conclusion, I agree with the statement “Education does not take place only in the classroom. ” 3. Like Savushkin, everyone has a secret world, write about yours. My secret world is the beach near to where I live. Although its location is not very secret my thoughts and opinions when I am there, are. I can go to the beach alone by day, and sit and watch the world go by. I can think about anything that is on my mind and sort things out in my head. At night I can walk along the beach, listening to the waves. I can sit and watch the waves break gently on the shore. I love to go to the beach on my own because it gives me an opportunity to come to terms with life and I can relax without any pressure from others. I can go to the beach with my family, to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. I can socialise with friends and relatives that I rarely see. We can make memories together. The smell of the barbecued food, the sounds of laughter as we remember the memories of last time we met together, the sight of so many faces that I have grown up with are all part of the reason that I love the beach as my special place. I can go to the beach with my friends during the day. We can put the world to rights as we lie and sunbathe for hours on end; we can joke and laugh as we tan our skin. The sun beating down on our backs, the chatter and laughter of my friends and the sight of so many smiling faces surrounding me are part of the reason I love the beach. I can go to the beach in the evenings with my friends to watch the fireworks. We can sit and watch the glowing explosions flare across the sky as we think to ourselves or share a joke with a friend. The ability to be an individual at the beach or as part of a group is what draws me here most, I enjoy being able to think, and my thoughts make the beach my secret place.

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Conflict in places like Syria and Afghanistan raised the total number of refugees and internally displaced people worldwide to a record 65. 3 million The number of people displaced worldwide has hit a new record, with 65. 3 million people forced from their home in 2015 – the highest number since the Second World War. In its annual report to mark World Refugee Day, the UN said it was the first time the number of refugees worldwide had passed the 60 million mark. The previous year, 2014, had already seen the highest number of refugees worldwide since World War II, with 60 million displaced people. But last year — when Europe staggered under the arrival of large numbers of migrants — topped that record by nearly 10 percent, the UNHCR said Monday in unveiling its annual Global Trends Report. The issue of migrants has dominated European news in 2015, but the report shows “that the majority of refugees worldwide is elsewhere”, in countries close to the conflict zones. U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has urged world leaders to do more to end the wars that are fanning the exodus of people from their homelands. “I hope that the message carried by those forcibly displaced reaches the leaderships: We need action, political action, to stop conflicts,” said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “The message that they have carried is: ‘If you don’t solve problems, problems will come to you. ” Grandi decried the actions of some European countries for installing physical barriers like border fences and passing legislative restrictions which limited refugee access to richer, more peaceful European nations. But such policies in Europe were “spreading a negative example around the world”, he said. “There is no plan B for Europe in the long run,” Grandi said. “Europe will continue to receive people seeking asylum. Their numbers may vary … but it is inevitable. ” “Everybody has to share responsibility now,” he urged. A human being out of 113 is a refugee According to the annual statistical report of the UNHCR, this is the first time since the creation of the UNHCR in 1950, the threshold of 60 million refugees and displaced persons in the world has been exceeded. That’s more than the population of the UK. This number is much higher than the figure for 2014 (59. 5 million). 24 people displaced every minute worldwide: UNHCR The rate of displacement was provided in stark detail. The UN said that 24 people worldwide were displaced from their homes every minute of every day in 2015, or around 34,000 people per day. In 2005, it was six people per minute. With 24 people being displaced every minute and the threshold of 60 million crossed for the first time, the number of forcibly displaced people across the world is now greater than the entire population of the UK. “If these 65. 3 million persons were a nation, they would make up the 21st largest in the world,” the U.N. report said. That’s a 55 percent rise in just four years, largely driven by the conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan.

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Design and Technology At Earls Colne Primary School and Nursery, we believe that all children have a natural desire to create and make things and we encourage this through the teaching of Design and Technology. In our D.T. lessons, all children learn how to evaluate existing products before designing and making their own versions using a range of different materials. It is important that they are able to identify and solve problems using the knowledge and skills that they acquire. Our children have the opportunity to: build structures; build a range of moving toys; create items with a range of textiles; and cook healthy food. We aim to provide children with the practical skills that allow them to follow their ideas through and create items that they are proud of.

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Why Little Leaf? St. Ives enters recorded history with the arrival of St. Ia or Hya, the Irish princess who introduced Christianity to this area in the 5th Century. The legend tells how St. Ia, a Virgin Saint of noble birth went to the seashore to depart for Cornwall from her native Ireland along with other Saints. Finding that they had gone without her, fearing that she was too young for such a hazardous journey, she was grief stricken and began to pray. As she prayed she noticed a little leaf floating on the water and touched it with a rod to see if it would sink. Lo, as she looked it grew bigger and bigger. She saw that God sent it to her and, trusting to Him, she embarked upon the leaf and was straightaway wafted across the Channel, reaching her destination before the others. The legend goes on to say that she founded an oratory in a clearing of a wood on the site of the existing Parish Church that is dedicated to her. This 15th Century church has the rare distinction of having three church wardens, said to have originated as: one for the vicar, one for the seafarers and one for the miners and land workers.

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A Defense of the Ontological Value of the Primary Notions and Principles of Reason 1. an objective (ontological) value, 2. and, a transcendental value A direct proof of an intuitive truth is not possible. When the connection between subject and predicate is immediate there is no place for a middle term. Everyone has an intuitive perception that the Law of Non-Contradiction is not only a logical law of reason, but an ontological law of reality. It is likewise immediately evident that an absurdity, such as a square circle, not only cannot be conceived of, but is also not possible. Equally immediate is the evidence of the truth that a contingent universe postulates a necessary cause. But if the direct proof of the ontological value of primary notions and principles of reason is not possible, a direct defense based on the explanation of the terms enables the mind to see the evidential character of the intuition. A. Direct Defense Major: Primary ideas and principles of reason which do not express objects per se sensible, but objects sensible per accidens and intelligible per se, and resolvable into intelligible being have a value not only phenomenal, but ontological. Minor: The primary notions of being, essence, existence, unity, truth, goodness, substance causality, finality, and correlative principles do not express objects per se sensible, like color, sound and other phenomena, but objects sensible per accidens and intelligible per se resolvable into intelligible being. Conclusion: Therefore, primary notions and their correlative principles have a value not only phenomenal, but ontological. Explanation of the Major: When the eye sees an orange, the color of the orange is the direct object of the faculty of sight; the eye perceives the sensible quality per se directly. But the intellect directly perceives under the sensible qualities the essence of the orange, and the essence, abstracted from sensible qualities, is the direct object of the intellect. Hence, the object of the intellect (i. e. essence) is intellibile per se, and sensible per accidens. If I see a man speaking I apprehend by the intellect of his life, and I can say that I see that he is alive, although life is not sensible per se like color and other phenomena. Thus notions which express sensible qualities per accidens and intelligible essence per se have a value which is not merely phenomenal, but ontological, because they apprehend the essence, substance, or being which underlies the phenomena. Explanation of the Minor: The primary notions and their correlative principles intelligible per se and sensible only per accidens are resolvable into being. Unity is individual being, truth is being conformable to the intelligence on which it depends, goodness is desirable being, substance is a form of being, causality is the realization of being, finality is the ultimate purpose of being, etc. The intellect does not apprehend or judge anything unless in relation to being. In every judgment the essential relation is indicated by the word "is", which imports "being". Hence a judgment is not an association merely of names, but an association of things. Should someone object that the idea of being is a subjective form of the understanding, the difference may be pointed out between the idea of being and ideas which express purely subjective notions (conceived but not capable of realization) such as notions of universality, specificity, whiteness, etc. Or the objection may be met by contrasting the ontological form of the Law of Non-Contradiction: "it is impossible that the same thing should exist and not exist", with the logical form of the same principle being, "it is impossible to affirm and deny the same predicate of the same subject in the same relation". The second form expresses only the inconceivable character of the absurd, the first form expresses its real impossibility. To reduce the notion of being to a subjective form of the mind, and the Law of Non-Contradiction to a logical law and not an ontological law is to identify two notions manifestly distinct- the impossible and the inconceivable. If the Law of Non-Contradiction is only a logical law, then a square circle is inconceivable, but may exist in rerum natura.

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For courses in 20th Century World History. This text offers a narrative, chronological, and regionally organized approach to twentieth century world history. Throughout the presentation, three themes emphasize the importance of ideology, conflict, and technology to the century's events. Its broad and inclusive focus also pays attention to necessary detail and specifics, and incorporates relevant material into the body of the text to offer students an uninterrupted historical narrative. Publisher: Pearson Education (US) Number of pages: 560 Weight: 1066 g Dimensions: 235 x 178 x 23 mm You may also be interested in. . . Please sign in to write a review

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The term “Yellow Peril” is often attributed to the German Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1895 although this is disputed by arguments that the Hungarian General Turr used the expression earlier that year in reference to Japan: “The ‘yellow peril’ is more threatening than ever. Japan has made in a few years as much progress as other nations have made in centuries. ” The Kaiser, though, was certainly virulently ill-disposed towards East Asians and in fact commissioned a painting which was intended to encourage Europeans to cooperate against the Eastern menace. The painting, which was made into a widely used poster, showed a distant Buddha-like figure sitting in an approaching firestorm while an Ayran messenger warns the womenfolk of various European countries of their impending doom. Even as early as 1803 however, none other than Napoleon is said to have pointed to China on a map and remarked “Here lies a sleeping giant (or lion or dragon, depending on the source), let him sleep, for when he wakes up, he will shock the world“. In Britain, according to Dr. Jeffrey Richards in a recent lecture at a China In Britain seminar, “the colonial mind-set was governed by a paradoxical mix of supreme confidence and fear. Confidence in the rightness of British presence in far-off places and at the same time fear that British rule would be violently overthrown. ” Dr. Richards goes on to remark that there was ample justification for this fear. British rule in Africa had only been established after several revolts and the Indian mutiny in 1857, as well as the one in Jamaica around the same time, had traumatised British society, leaving “indelible fingerprints on the British psyche” With regards China, the two Opium Wars in 1839 and 1856 (which you’ll be hard-pressed to find on any British school history syllabus today), so named because they were literally fought over the British Empire’s determination to sell opium to the Chinese populace, may well have left something of a guilty conscience. The two conflicts in fact are barely deserving of the name as the decadent and crumbling Qing Dynasty’s unprepared and ill-equipped army proved embarrassingly ill-matched with state-of-the-art British gunboats, the result being ignominious defeat for the Chinese on both occasions, the ceding of Hong Kong to British rule (whence it remained until 1997) being but the most obvious of a whole series of humiliating penalties exacted by the victors. The wars were controversial in Britain at the time and at least one general election was fought over the issue, yet the prevailing thinking seems to have been that China was an obstinate, backward and untrustworthy nation that needed to be kept in line and therefore receptive to the virtues of free trade and the Christian religion. None other than opium trader William Jardine (often “credited” as one of the architects of the first Opium War) opined that the Chinese “are a people characterised by a marvellous degree of imbecility, avarice, conceit, and obstinacy…It has been the policy of this extraordinary people to shroud themselves and all belonging to them in mystery impenetrable…. (to) exhibit a spirit of exclusiveness on a grand scale”. Second Opium War British consul, Harry Parkes, extrapolated this down to the far simpler “I have taken their measure and know precisely how and where to plant the blow when blows are needed…The only way to gain respect in China is to command”. Even the renowned humanist Charles Dickens seemed to regard the Chinese with a fair measure of contempt, remarking on “the extraordinary littleness of the Chinese…Consider the materials employed at the great Teacup Works of Kiang-tiht-Chin(or Tight-Chin)…the laboriously carved ivory balls of the flowery empire, ball within ball and circle within circle, which have made no advance and been of no earthly use for thousands of years…” It is often argued that China (unlike Africa and India) was never colonised by Britain. Yet none other than Sun Yat Sen (founder of the Chinese republic) maintained that “China has suffered at the hands of the Great Powers for decades…has become a colony of the Great Powers…(actually worse), a hyper-colony …not the slaves of one country but of all…” In fact, Western powers occupied China to such a degree that in 1897 the Boxer Rebellion, led by the Righteous Harmony Society, actively sought to expel foreign imperialists and Christian missionaries until it was eventually defeated by the Eight Nation Alliance of Western powers in 1901, spelling the final end of the Qing Dynasty in the process. This, along with the outpouring of Chinese workers (seen as cheaper and harder working) across the globe causing enormous panic amongst white workers, led to the Chinese, in the late nineteenth and first part of the twentieth century, being easily the most vilified racial group in the Western world, a fact almost completely forgotten today. According to the great Chinese writer, Lao She (who lived in London between 1924 and 1929) “Foreigners picture Chinese as short, pig-tailed and pancake-faced, with hardly any nose, and eyes that are only two-inch cracks; their puckered lips are always crowned with a thin fluttering moustache, and they writhe when they walk with their little stubby Pekinese dog legs. Moreover, foreigners entertain a host of notions which go beyond mere appearances and which succeed in evoking even more chilling terror. The treachery endemic to Chinamen takes on a number of different sinister forms: in tucking venomous snakes up their sleeves, hiding arsenic in the cavity of their ears’, breathing smoke, or having the power to smite people dead with a twinkle of the eye. ” Indeed not even celebrated British authors were free of Sinophobia (fear and loathing of everything Chinese). Rudyard Kipling (so long rationalised as merely “of his time”) declared that “I could quite understand…why the lower caste Anglo-Saxon hates the Celestial. I hated the Chinaman before; I hated him doubly as I choked for breath in his seething streets. I hate Chinamen.” Kipling went on to maintain that “It is justifiable to kill him (the “Chinaman”)”. Even a Girls Own Annual of the period warned that the “the readiness of the Chinese to settle in the midst of other nations, and the evils which may follow in its train…constitutes the Yellow Peril”. In America this morbid fear of all things Eastern led to the Chinese Exclusion Act (which still stands today though all of its constituent sections have long been repealed) and in Australia there were organised campaigns to oust Chinese workers from the goldfields leading to various White Australia policies which directly favoured immigration from Caucasian settlers as opposed to Chinese. Along with policies and campaigns, the Chinese were vilified in the British press, the tabloids being full of lurid tales of opium dens and white girls being drugged and seduced by sinister Chinaman. The Strand Magazine (to name but one) reported on a visit to an opium den by describing the occupants as having “parchment coloured features…small and cunning eyes…twisting and turning so horribly” and that even the staircase in the opium den was “the most villainously treacherous…which it has ever been my lot to ascend”. Nowhere more profoundly was this Yellow Peril manifested than in literature. M.P. Shiel (actually of West Indian descent) began the trend with the invasion novel The Yellow Danger in 1898 which features a half Chinese half Japanese villain, Dr. Yen How, who forms an “Oriental army” with China and Japan which sweeps through all of Europe. The book ends with the Chinese/Japanese army being wiped out by germ warfare. In the book Shiel describes the principle points of the Chinese character as “an immeasurable greed, absolute contempt for the world outside China and a fiendish love of cruelty”. So acceptable was this sort of portrayal at the time that The Academy Supplement ended their review of The Yellow Danger by describing it as “an exciting and persuasive romance, well worth packing up with one’s holiday outfit. ” This was followed in 1905 by French writer Capitaine Danrit’s The Yellow Invasion which centres around a world-spanning Sino-Japanese secret society named the Devouring Dragon attempting to destroy Western civilization. Then in 1913 Sax Rohmer himself entered the fray with the most enduring Yellow Peril icon of them all: Dr. Fu Manchu. One year later Jack London’s The Unparalleled Invasion portrayed a China with an ever-increasing population taking over and colonising its neighbours, with the intention of eventually taking over the entire Earth. In 1916 J. Alan Dunn’s novel, The Peril of the Pacific, described an attempted invasion of the western United States by Japan. The very first Buck Rogers novella Armageddon 2419 A.D. depicted a future America which had been occupied and colonized by cruel invaders from China. Robert A. Heinlein‘s Sixth Column depicts American resistance to an invasion by a blatantly racist and genocidally cruel “PanAsian” empire whilst many of H.P.Lovecraft’s stories revealed a constant fear of Asiatic culture engulfing the world. Naturally much of this made it to the stage (during the 1920’s Chinese students in London complained to Parliament about no less than five plays which they believed portrayed the Chinese in derogatory fashion) and screen with Fu Manchu himself being the subject of numerous films and TV serials though the characters were nearly always portrayed by Caucasian actors, highlighting the extreme reluctance of Western producers to show East Asian actors (particularly men) in strong dominant roles, a reluctance that many would argue still persists to this day, as do some of the more dubious aspects of late 19th/early 20th Century portrayal of East Asians. Perhaps the final word on the subject should go to Sax Rohmer himself who remarked that at the beginning of the twentieth century “Conditions for launching a Chinese villain on the market were ideal”. A recent (2010) episode of the popular British TV series Spooks featured a plotline involving the Chinese Secret Service (in essence the Chinese government) planting a bomb in central London. China’s rise as a super –power has filled many in the West with dread. Perhaps 100 years on from Fu Manchu conditions for “launching a Chinese villain on the market” are still ideal? Next, we’ll be examining that most pernicious legacy of colonialism and the Yellow Peril, the practice of “yellowface”. Do stay tuned and book your tickets to see The Fu Manchu Complex http://www.ovalhouse.com/whatson/detail/the-fu-manchu-complex

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You have decided to hire a tutor. You have researched the want ads, online tutoring sites, and community or school bulletin boards. You have asked teachers and friends for recommendations. And having chosen a potential tutor who you think would meet your needs, you have contacted them, asked some basic questions, and now you are going to meet with them for an actual consultation interview; or perhaps, alternatively, you are going to attend an initial lesson (for yourself, or for your child), and after the lesson, you are going to have an indepth discussion with the tutor to decide if you want to continue this tutoring relationship. (Note: if you have not yet had an initial conversation with the tutor, please read “Initial conversation with a potential tutor” first. ) Following is a description of a typical consultation interview. The tutor of course will have questions for you, but you should also be prepared to ask questions. After all, you probably know your own or your child’s needs better than others do, and bringing that knowledge to the conversation can lead to developing the best possible tutoring experience for the student. If you wish, you may also ask to have the student’s teacher involved in the consultation. - Review of phone conversation: The tutor, after greeting you, will review the initial phone (or email) discussion you have already had. Listen carefully, and be sure to correct or further explain any misunderstandings. - Further questions: The tutor will then ask you further questions (see the following post) in order to be able to plan the best tutoring plan for the student. He or she will no doubt take notes, and you are free to take your own notes. You may also wish to ask the tutor to summarize what they have learned from you. It is best to be clear and in agreement right from the start. The tutor may feel that some of your expectations are beyond his or her ability to fulfill; and will tell you that, along with alternative suggestions. - Assessment: If the student is involved in this meeting, the tutor may give him or her an assessment test of some kind, depending on the needs you have expressed. The tutor will also take a look at materials you have brought, such as report cards and samples of the child’s work. - Creating a plan: The tutor will recommend a general program/plan. If you have questions about any aspect of the tutor’s plan, ask. The tutor won’t have every detail of every lesson at this point (unless the tutor exactly follows a specific program) but should be able to give you a proposed overview and some examples of details. You may also supply other information that would be helpful, such as the student’s most successful learning styles up to now, if the tutor has not asked. - Your observations: If the consultation meeting follows a sample lesson, ask any questions you have about the teaching methods, the interaction you noticed between the tutor and student, and so on. If you are uncomfortable with what you have seen, it is best to bring that forward now, and figure out if it can be addressed, or if this particular tutor-student relationship might not be suitable. - Information packet/follow-up letter. The tutor may have an information packet which they will supply to you. This packet may include some or all of the following: a business card, pamphlet or flyer, a scheduling and fee sheet, parent questionnaire, materials checklist, resume and references, and an overview of the tutor’s approach, methods, etc. The tutor may also send you a follow-up email or letter describing the program plans you have just discussed. - Date and time schedule: Assuming that you and the tutor agree to continue the tutoring relationship, you will now decide on a time schedule. The tutor will try to accomodate your scheduling needs as much as possible, but you need to be aware that the tutor likely already has students, and will have to fit you into the remaining time slots. In our next post, we will discuss specific questions and information that you and the tutor may discuss at the consultation meeting. Penticton tutor: If you live in the Penticton area, and are looking for a tutor, be sure to check out my Penticton tutor information page!

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In today’s veterinary health spotlight, we’re going to take a look at heatstroke and dogs. There are few things that break the hearts of our staff than preventable animal crisis situations leading to the death of an animal. Unfortunately, heatstroke and dogs is one of the situations we dread every time the warmer months approach. We all know you should never leave your pet unattended in a car, but the message of pet safety on hot days is still being ignored. The fact of the matter is if you get any dog in 35 to 40 degree heat, they can start having problems with breathing, heart, circulation and get very ill very quickly. Add a naturally active dog or a thick fur coat, and things get seriously dangerous. Labradors, Retrievers, Bulldogs, Pugs and Pekinese breeds are particularly susceptible to heat stroke, but any dog is at risk. Heatstroke is something all dogs and dog owners need to worry about. That’s why we’re putting canine heatstroke in the veterinary health spotlight so you can help prevent it. Your dog can die from heatstroke. And as we always say, prevention is better than cure. You can minimise your dog’s chance of succumbing to heatstroke with the following: - Booking a professional de-shedding session at the beginning of spring and again around Christmas time to reduce the weight of your dog’s coat. - Always ensuring cool water is available for drinking and paddling water in a play pool or similar. - Preparing ice cubes of water as a cool treat on a hot day. Ice cubes are also great for teething puppies. No need for flavour, water is enough to entice most dogs and puppies. - Thinking before you leave your dog alone on a hot day. Places with poor ventilation, without shade, or made from heat retaining materials like asphalt and concrete can be particularly hazardous. - Change your exercise routines to cooler times or cooler activities. Swap the runs or the ball toss for swimming or walks, and use the early morning or twilight times for exercise to avoid peak temperatures. - Keep an eye on your pet, and don’t be afraid to use a damp towel or pop them under a cool hose or tap to help keep their body temperature at a reasonable level. - Never muzzle your dog to groom them when using a hair dryer as your dog cannot pant and therefore, can’t get cool. - Avoid hair dryers and heaters of all descriptions with your dog on hot days. - Pay close attention to dogs that have existing problems with their heart or lungs, or puppies and senior dogs as they are more likely to face problems with the heat. - Always ensure the pavement and roads have cooled sufficiently before walking your dog as these surfaces can retain heat and cause serious burns to your dog’s paws. AND if you see any signs of lethargy, laboured breathing, body floppiness, rolling eyes or too much panting and lolling tongue and/or reddening mouths, get your dog IMMEDIATELY to the animal hospital. Riding in cars with dogs Your dog may adore a fun trip in the car, but always ensure it is safe. This includes not only making sure they are appropriately secured with an approved dog seat belt or travelling harness, but also make sure they have appropriate ventilation. Cars are famous for creating heat stroke in dogs. And with good reason- hot cars can and will kill your dog in a matter of minutes. Make sure your dog can be reached with cool air from the air-conditioning or from an open window. Your pet should NEVER ride in the enclosed boot of a car, and you should always check to ensure a coupe or station wagon has sufficient airflow to cater to your pet. And you should NEVER leave a dog or a cat unattended in a car. Not for the milk, not to pick up the kids, and definitely not because you feel lucky and are driving past a casino. Not only is it extremely stressful for the animal to be left in this manner, but the temperature inside a hot car can kill your pet within minutes. We won’t sugar coat this for you- there isn’t a staff member at this animal hospital who would think twice about smashing a car window in order to get to an unattended dog in a car. It hurts us as animal lovers and animal healthcare professionals to literally fight against the clock and a pet’s own failing body to save their life. We’ve endured the pleading eyes of a heat stroke affected pets and it’s truly heartbreaking, especially when the majority of cases are entirely preventable. It’s a horrible way to get sick and it’s a horrendous way to die. Heatstroke and dogs: Know the symptoms Making sure you get your dog to treatment on the onset of heat stroke symptoms is the only way to ensure your dog survives. You can shine your own veterinary health spotlight on heatstroke symptoms by looking out for the following: - Heavy panting and laboured breathing - Bright red tongue, gums and/or mucus membranes - Dry gums, tongue and mouth - A rise in temperature to touch - Lethargy and unstable movement - Thick saliva - Diarrhoea, especially if there is blood in it - Vomiting and dry retching - A very unsteady, dazed looking dog These symptoms are extremely serious and should never be ignored. They may appear all together or as a combination of some of them. Regardless, never ignore these symptoms as heat stroke and dogs are far too serious. Get your dog to us straight away! The final stages before your dog could die of heatstroke will include: - A greying of the lips and mucus membranes - The inability to move, walk or hold their head up - Collapse and seizures Never, ever, ever let it get this far before you call on us please! The ramifications of heatstroke for a dog A dog with heatstroke will need constant monitoring, care and gradual cooling to ensure their body temperature is returned to normal with minimal risk to blood vessels and organs. During heatstroke, blood vessels can rupture, leading to internal bleeding. So dogs with heatstroke cases will usually require around the clock monitoring at the animal hospital, until the temperature can be lowered and stabilised at a safe level. We will need to check their temperature every ten minutes. As heatstroke affects your dog’s breathing, laryngeal edema can result, and may even require an emergency tracheotomy. This is where we bypass the mouth and create an air flow via piercing your dog’s throat and placing a breathing tube to ensure oxygen supply to the brain. If your dog’s heatstroke is this bad, it’s either this, or your dog will suffer brain damage or die from a lack of oxygen. Kidney failure, internal bleeding through broken or burst blood vessels, irregularities with the heart and seizures also put your dog in serious risk. Any one of these situations can threaten your pet’s life, and while we will do everything we possibly can to save your dog’s life, conditions of these kinds can beat even the most dedicated animal hospital team. The bottom line on heatstroke and dogs Please make sure you do not place your dog at risk of heat stroke this season. With hot high winds and soaring temperatures, we need to be especially careful and protective of our animal friends. Always make sure you prevent the opportunity of exposing your dog to heat stroke through a combination of planning and thinking ahead. And never ignore the warning signs of heatstroke in your dog.

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Original Prussian / German Iron Cross II. Class - WW1, IN VERY NICE CONDITION, THREE PIECE CONSTRUCTION, MAGNETIC CORE - GOOD EXAMPLE, NICE FINISH ON THE CORE, MAKER MARKED ON THE RING: "WS" (Wagner & Sohn - Berlin), ON GENUINE COMBATANT RIBBON, A VERY NICE PIECE, SIZE: 43. 2 mm HISTORY OF THE AWARD: Iron Cross (German: Eisernes Kreuz) was a military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of Germany, which was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau. In addition to during the Napoleonic Wars, the Iron Cross was awarded during the Franco-German War, the First World War, and the Second World War. The Iron Cross was normally a military decoration only, though there were instances of it being awarded to civilians for performing military functions. Two examples, the civilian pilot Hanna Reitsch was awarded the Iron Cross First Class for her bravery as a test pilot during the Second World War and Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (also a German female test pilot) was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class. The Iron Cross was also used as the symbol of the German Army from 1871 to 1915, when it was replaced by a simpler Greek cross. In 1956, the Iron Cross became the symbol of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces. The traditional design is black and this design is used on armored vehicles and aircraft. A newer design in blue and silver is used as the emblem in other contexts. The Iron Cross is a black four-pointed cross with white trim, with the arms widening towards the ends, similar to a cross pattée. It was designed by the neoclassical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and reflects the cross borne by the Teutonic Knights in the 14th century. The ribbon for the 1813, 1870 and 1914 Iron Cross (2nd Class) was black with two thin white bands, the colours of Prussia. The noncombatant version of this award had the same medal, but the black and white colours on the ribbon were reversed. Initially the Iron Cross was worn with the blank side out. This did not change until 1838 when the sprig facing could be presented. Since the Iron Cross was issued over several different periods of German history, it was annotated with the year indicating the era in which it was issued. For example, an Iron Cross from the First World War bears the year "1914", while the same decoration from the Second World War is annotated "1939". The reverse of the 1870, 1914 and 1939 series of Iron Crosses have the year "1813" appearing on the lower arm, symbolizing the year the award was created. The 1813 decoration also has the initials "FW" for King Frederick William III, while the next two have a "W" for the respective kaisers, Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II. The final version shows a swastika. It was also possible for a holder of the 1914 Iron Cross to be awarded a second or higher grade of the 1939 Iron Cross. In such cases, a "1939 Clasp" (Spange) would be worn on the original 1914 Iron Cross. (A similar award was made in 1914 but was quite rare, since there were few in service who held the 1870 Iron Cross.) For the First Class award the Spange appears as an eagle with the date "1939" that was pinned above the Cross. Although two separate awards, in some cases the holders soldered them together. A cross was the symbol of the Teutonic Knights (a heraldic cross pattée), and the cross design (but not the specific decoration) has been the symbol of Germany's armed forces (now the Bundeswehr) since 1871. The Iron Cross was founded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau and awarded to soldiers during the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon. It was first awarded to Karl August Ferdinand von Borcke on 21 April 1813. King Wilhelm I of Prussia authorized further awards on 19 July 1870, during the Franco-German War. Recipients of the 1870 Iron Cross who were still in service in 1895 were authorized to purchase a 25-year clasp consisting of the numerals "25" on three oak leaves. The Iron Cross was reauthorized by Emperor Wilhelm II on 5 August 1914, at the start of the First World War. During these three periods, the Iron Cross was an award of the Kingdom of Prussia, although given Prussia's pre-eminent place in the German Empire formed in 1871, it tended to be treated as a generic German decoration. The 1813, 1870, and 1914 Iron Crosses had three grades: Iron Cross 2nd Class (German: Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse), Iron Cross 1st Class (German: Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse), Grand Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Großkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, often simply Großkreuz). Although the medals of each class were identical, the manner in which each was worn differed. Employing a pin or screw posts on the back of the medal, the Iron Cross First Class was worn on the left side of the recipient's uniform. The Grand Cross and the Iron Cross Second Class were suspended from different ribbons. The Grand Cross was intended for senior generals of the German Army. An even higher decoration, the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, was awarded only twice, to Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher in 1813 and to Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg in 1918. A third award was planned for the most successful German general during the Second World War, but was not made after the defeat of Germany in 1945. The Iron Cross 1st Class and the Iron Cross 2nd Class were awarded without regard to rank. One had to already possess the 2nd Class in order to receive the 1st Class (though in some cases both could be awarded simultaneously). The egalitarian nature of this award contrasted with those of most other German states (and indeed many other European monarchies), where military decorations were awarded based on the rank of the recipient. For example, Bavarian officers received various grades of that Kingdom's Military Merit Order (Militär-Verdienstorden), while enlisted men received various grades of the Military Merit Cross (Militär-Verdienstkreuz). Prussia did have other orders and medals which were awarded on the basis of rank, and even though the Iron Cross was intended to be awarded without regard to rank, officers and NCOs were more likely to receive it than junior enlisted soldiers. In the First World War, approximately four million Iron Crosses of the lower grade (2nd Class) were issued, as well as around 145,000 of the higher grade (1st Class). Exact numbers of awards are not known, since the Prussian archives were destroyed during the Second World War. The multitude of awards reduced the status and reputation of the decoration. Among the holders of the 1914 Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class was Adolf Hitler, who held the rank of Gefreiter. Hitler can be seen wearing the award on his left breast, as was standard, in many photographs. The straight-armed Balkenkreuz, the emblem of the Wehrmacht, first used in a narrower form on Luftstreitkräfte aircraft in mid-April 1918, and as shown here, as it appeared on German planes, tanks, and other vehicles during the Second World War. Adolf Hitler restored the Iron Cross in 1939 as a German decoration (rather than Prussian as in earlier versions), continuing the tradition of issuing it in various grades. Legally it is based on the enactment (Reichsgesetzblatt I S. 1573) of 1 September 1939 Verordnung über die Erneuerung des Eisernen Kreuzes (Regulation for the Re-introduction of the Iron Cross). The Iron Cross of the Second World War was divided into three main series of decorations with an intermediate category, the Knight's Cross, instituted between the lowest, the Iron Cross, and the highest, the Grand Cross. The Knight's Cross replaced the Prussian Pour le Mérite or "Blue Max". Hitler did not care for the Pour le Mérite, as it was a Prussian order that could be awarded only to officers. The ribbon of the medal (2nd class and Knight's Cross) was different from the earlier Iron Crosses in that the color red was used in addition to the traditional black and white (black and white were the colours of Prussia, while black, white, and red were the colors of Germany). Hitler also created the War Merit Cross as a replacement for the non-combatant version of the Iron Cross. It also appeared on certain Nazi flags in the upper left corner. The edges were curved, like most original iron crosses. The standard 1939 Iron Cross was issued in the following two grades: Iron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse), Iron Cross 1st Class (Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse) (abbreviated as EKI or E.K.I.). The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery in battle as well as other military contributions in a battlefield environment. The Iron Cross 2nd Class came with a ribbon and was worn in one of two different methods: when in formal dress, the entire cross was worn mounted alone or as part of a medal bar, for everyday wear, only the ribbon was worn from the second hole in the tunic button. The Iron Cross First Class was a pin-on medal with no ribbon and was worn centered on a uniform breast pocket, either on dress uniforms or everyday outfit. It was a progressive award, with the second class having to be earned before the first class and so on for the higher degrees. It is estimated that some four and a half million Second Class Iron Crosses were awarded in the Second World War, and 300,000 of the First Class.

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Halloween is generally a fun time for children, but for parents the holiday can be a little tricky. To help everyone have a safe and enjoyable Halloween, the Indiana State Police offers the following safety tips. - Keep costumes short to prevent trips and falls. - Try make-up instead of a mask. Masks often obstruct a child's vision, which makes tasks like crossing the street and going up and down stairs dangerous. - Make sure children wear light colors or put reflective tape on their costumes. Trick or Treating - Make sure older children trick-or-treat with friends. Together, map out a safe route so parents know where they will be. - Instruct children to stop only at familiar homes where the outside lights are on. - Encourage children to trick-or-treat while it's still light out. If children are out after dark, make sure they have flashlights and travel on well lighted streets. - Remind children not to enter the homes or cars of strangers. - Follow your communities trick-or-treating hours. - Remind children not to eat any of their treats until they get home. - Check out all treats at home in a well-lighted place. - Only eat unopened candies and other treats that are in original wrappers. Remember to inspect fruits for anything suspicious. Additionally, many communities, schools and churches offer children safe alternatives to trick-or-treating designed to keep children safely within parents' view. Some hospitals and schools allow children to trick-or-treat by going from room to room virtually eliminating the dangers associated with being out walking on the street after dark.

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1. To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate. To quit you of this fear, you have already looked death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it? (wake) 3. To discharge, as an obligation or duty; to meet and satisfy, as a claim or debt; to make payment for or of; to requite; to repay. The blissful martyr quyte you your meed. (Chaucer) Enkindle all the sparks of nature To quit this horrid act. (Shak) Before that judge that quits each soul his hire. (Fairfax) 4. To meet the claims upon, or expectations entertained of; to conduct; to acquit; used reflexively. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men. (I sam. Iv. 9) Samson hath guit himself Like samson. (milton) 6. To have done with; to cease from; to stop; hence, to depart from; to leave; to forsake; as, to quit work; to quit the place; to quit jesting. Such a superficial way of examining is to quit truth for appearance. (locke) To quit cost, to pay; to reimburse. To quit scores, to make even; to clear mutually from demands. Does not the earth quit scores with all the elements in the noble fruits that issue from it? (south) Origin: OE. Quiten, OF. Quiter, quitier, cuitier, F. Quitter, to acquit, quit, LL. Quietare, fr. L. Quietare to calm, to quiet, fr. Quietus quiet. See Quiet, and cf. Quit, Quite, Acquit, Requite.

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The Latin word ligare meant to bind. Ligare gave birth to many modern words. Ligament initially meant a bandage or tie. It came straight from Latin. Oblige came to English about 1300, meaning to bind by oath. It came from ligare through French. Delegate also came through French, starting in Latin as delagare to send as a representative, formed by adding the prefix de- (meaning from) to legare. It arrived in English in the 1500s, meaning representative. League appeared in English in the 1100s, meaning confederacy. It came from the Middle French word ligue, which came from the Italian word lega, which came from the Latin word ligare. Ligare also made its way through French to give us the word liaison which arrived in English in the 1640s. When the prefix ad- (meaning to) attached itself to ligare, the Latin word was alligare, which in Old French became aloiier, which arrived in English about 1400 as the word alloy. Rely also came through French, though from a form of ligare that included the prefix re-, not meaning to do again, as re-sometimes means, but meaning very or a lot. The Latin word religare meant to bind fast. In time Old French adopted a form which became the word relier, meaning to assemble, fasten, or attach. When rely made its way to English in the 1300s, its original meaning was to gather or assemble. It wasn’t until the 1570s that rely picked up the additional meaning depend or trust. All these from the Latin word meaning to bind. If any of them surprised you, please leave a note in the comments section. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Wordnik, Etymonline, Merriam Webster, & the OED. I write for teens, narrate audio books, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast. To receive weekly reminders of new Wordmonger posts, click on "Contact" & send me your email address.

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Stratifying PISA scores by poverty rates suggests imitating Finland is not necessarily the way to go for US schools23 Aug 2013 For the past several years a steady stream of news articles and opinion pieces have been praising the virtues of Finish schools and exalting the US to imitate this system. One data point supporting this view comes from the most recent PISA scores (2009) in which Finland outscored the US 536 to 500. Several people have pointed out that this is an apples (huge and diverse) to oranges (small and homogeneous) comparison. One of the many differences that makes the comparison complicated is that Finland has less students living in poverty ( 3%) than the US (20%). This post defending US public school teachers makes this point with data. Here I show these data in graphical form. The plot on the left shows PISA scores versus the percent of students living in poverty for several countries. There is a pattern suggesting that higher poverty rates are associated with lower PISA scores. In the plot on the right, US schools are stratified by % poverty (orange points). The regression line is the same. Some countries are added (purple) for comparative purposes (the post does not provide their poverty rates). Note that US school with poverty rates comparable to Finland’s (below 10%) outperform Finland and schools in the 10-24% range aren’t far behind. So why should these schools change what they are doing? Schools with poverty rates above 25% are another story. Clearly the US has lots of work to do in trying to improve performance in these schools, but is it safe to assume that Finland’s system would work for these student populations? Note that I scraped data from this post and not the original source.

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Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer by means of drugs. Unlike irradiation, chemotherapy treats your entire body. It is given to kill abnormal cells, or to retard or prevent their growth. Multiple remedies are used which kill cancer cells in different ways. More than one remedy is sometimes given in combination, so that different ways are used to combat tumour cells. Chemotherapy makes cancer cells more sensitive to the effect of irradiation and therefore the two methods are often combined to obtain the best treatment for a specific cancer. The chemotherapeutic remedies in the blood reach all the cells in the blood. The cells are destroyed. Cancer cells divide very quickly and absorb most of the chemotherapy, which then prevents them from dividing or growing any further. The abnormal cells die while the normal cells recover. The damaging of the cells may result in side-effects which are of a passing nature. The effect of chemotherapy differs from person to person, the type of cancer which is treated and the drugs used. HOW IS CHEMOTHERAPY ADMINISTERED Different CTs are administered differently: Intramuscular, as an injection in a muscle Orally, as tablets Intravenous, direct injections or as a drip In almost all cases , chemotherapy treatment can be administered as an out patient, thereby preventing hospitalisation. Chemotherapy injections are not more painful than any other injection or blood test. If continuous venous access is required, or your veins are not accessible, you may be required to have a portocath inserted. GENERAL INFORMATION RE:CHEMO Special Examinations / Blood Counts The blood count reflects the state of the bone marrow. Bone marrow forms new blood cells in the bones of the body and releases them in the blood stream where they can circulate and be examined. These cells play a very important role: White blood cells fight infection Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body parts Blood platelets help with clotting of the blood As the bone marrow cells grow quickly, they also absorb some of the chemotherapy and therefore it is necessary that your "blood count" is tested before every treatment. This examination must be conducted as close as possible to oyour appointment. The laboratory also needs a certain time to process the test results and we recommend that you have the examination done two to three days before your visit. It may happen that your treatment is postponed or the dosage is decreased due to your blood count being low. This is only an indication that the body is not yet ready to receive the next dose of chemotherapy, and this does not affect the result of the treatment of the illness. Except in cases of leukaemia, the blood count is not an indication of the status of the cancer. The blood count, however, is not the only factor that determines whether you can have treatment or not. Examination of the side-effects on other organs and the status of your cancer are also extremely important. It is, therefore, impossible to determine telephonically whether you should receive treatment or not, according to your blood count. If the white blood cells are low you will be open to infection. You should avoid, as far as possible, persons with colds or other infections. Other blood tests and x-rays Other blood tests, x-rays and CAT scans are conducted to evaluate the status of the cancer. It takes the laboratory longer to make these results available so you must have these examinations done a few days before your visit. These include blood tests such as liver function tests and tumour markers. Whenever the follow-up x-rays are done, it is always very important that the new x-rays are compared with the old x-rays. Direct comparison is the only way to determine if the cancer is improving, the status quo is maintained or the cancer is worsening. The radiologist taking the x-rays or doing scans is the best qualified person to make this comparison. It is completely unnecessary to endure pain. Painkillers must be taken regularly to obtain the best results. Take them as prescribed and not only when needed. If your own home medication does not bring enough relief, you can be admitted to hospital to bring the pain under control. After a couple of days you can continue at home with your own regime of pain control. POSSIBLE SIDE-EFFECTS OF CHEMOTHERAPY NAUSEA AND VOMITING Some of the drugs can cause nausea and vomiting. The intensity thereof differs from person to person. An anti-nausea injection is always given in conjunction with the chemotherapy. There is also a variety of tablets, injections and suppositories that may be used to counteract nausea. Diet can also play a role: Eat lighter meals Eat smaller meals more frequently Avoid rich foods Drink plenty of liquids, even if you don't feel like eating. You should take tablets often while receiving treatment, as well as for a few days afterwards. DIARRHOEA AND CONSTIPATION Many drugs can cause diarrhoea. If this occurs you must contact your Oncologist or GP so that medication such as Imodium or Interflora can be prescribed. Sometimes certain remedies cause constipation and it is important that you ensure that you regularly pass stools. Any laxatives of your choice can be taken for constipation. It is also advisable to pay attention to your diet. If diarrhoea develops, you should eat less fatty foods (e. g. bacon or margarine on bread), drink more liquids, and eat calcium rich foods such as potatoes and bananas. For constipation: you should drink more liquids, eat stewed or dried fruit, and add bran to diet. UNPLEASANT TASTE SENSATIONS Chemotherapy can cause unpleasant taste sensations. A healthy, balanced diet will help you cope with the treatment and the sickness. Good nutrition is a must, because patients who lose less than 10% of their weight during treatment have the best chance for recovery. If you experience a bad taste in your mouth, oyou can try the following: Mint flavoured coffee and milkshakes A zinc supplement Soft peppermints or sugar-free gum Snacks such as pickled onions and olives Good nutrition tips: Cancer patients need extra proteins and kilojoules; therefore you should include extra meat, fish, cheese, milk and eggs in your normal eating plan. You should also include nutritious snacks, such as yoghurt, muesli-bars, soft fruit sweets, bananas and soft fresh fruit. Patients on chemotherapy must try to drink 3 litres of liquids per day. Drinking nutritious drinks such as Complan, Nutren, milkshakes and fruit juices helps. You should avoid rich and strongly spiced food such as curry It is acceptable for you to take vitamins and dietary supplements throughout your treatment. CYSTITIS (BLADDER INFECTION) You must report any irritation of the bladder to your doctor, so that you can receive treatment if there is an infection. Fluid intake must be increased. Why does it happen: Chemotherapy circulates in the blood stream to reach the cancer cells in order to kill them. The scalp has a very rich blood supply and this means that a lot of chemotherapy remedy circulates there. The roots of the hair are therefore exposed to a large amount of the treatment. Chemotherapy affects cells that grow more quickly than cells that grow slowly. Cells such as blood cells, mucous membrane cells of the mouth and intestines and cancer cells grow quickly and are more affected than other cells in the body. Hair also grows quickly and is therefore also greatly affected and can fall out in some cases. Who loses hair? It is not possible to predict who is going to lose hair and who is not. It depends on many factors and differs in every person. Factors playing a role are: how strong and thick the hair is to start with, how quickly the hair normally grows and how healthy the roots of the hair are. It does not only depend on the medicine used but also the dosage, schedule of administration, route of administration, speed of administration and different combinations of drugs. Many of these factors are determined by the patient's reaction to treatment and cannot be predicted. When is the hair lost? This is also not predictable and differs from person to person. Hair loss can start one to two weeks after a single dosage of chemotherapy and reaches its maximum within two months in most treatment schemes. It is important to know that hair loss from chemotherapy is always only of a temporary nature. Hair often begins growing back while the treatment is still in progress. At the latest, regeneration takes place starting one to two months after treatment is completed. There may be a slight difference in colour and texture of the hair which grows back. Hair may be slightly lighter or darker and is often more curly than before. Handling: Hair loss is not always total. Often the hair thins out but the loss is not enough to be noticed cosmetically. Through good hair care and the use of a special shampoo, hair loss can often be kept to a minimum. If hair loss is temporarily bad, you may have to wear a wig. Our chemotherapy sisters can advise you on this. SORES IN THE MOUTH OR THROAT You should immediately report any sores in the mouth or throat - prescription medication may be necessary from your physician. (e. g. Mycostatin or Dakarin). Tips to help if there are sores in the mouth or throat: Wash out the mouth with 1 tsp baking soda in a cup of warm water four times per day Avoid foods with lots of spices or that are highly acidic

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|Title of host publication||1914-1918-online. | |Subtitle of host publication||International Encyclopedia of the First World War| |Publication status||Published - 2014| Portugal financed the extraordinary expenditures of the First World War in the same way as many other countries, i. e. running budgetary deficits, issuing debt, and printing money. By the end of the war, all nations were facing the same dilemma - they could either adopt a deflationary monetary policy or embark on a fairly aggressive policy of currency devaluation. Due to political weakness, successive Portuguese governments accepted the latter. This inflationary policy penalized mostly private savings and the share of the population relying on fixed incomes, but it also slowed down the contraction of the economy. - World War I - Economic History

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GREEN HOUSE/NURSERY EDITION Foes in High Tunnels Watch for these pests and diseases Greenhouse photo by Deyan Georgiev/shutterstock. com Insects and diseases that attack field crops can become an even greater problem within the confined and humid conditions of high tunnels and greenhouses. Be especially on the lookout for Botrytis cinerea, leaf mold and powdery mildew, all diseases that favor tomatoes in indoor growing spaces. "While it's not truly new, powdery mildew was more prevalent last year in the Northeast than I have ever seen before," says Becky Sideman, Ph.D., associate professor and extension specialist in sustainable horticulture at the University of New Hampshire. Also keep an eye out for pests such as the yellow-striped armyworm. A scourge of indoor tomato crops, B. cinerea, also known as gray mold, can infect almost all aboveground parts, including stem, leaf, petiole, peduncle and fruit. Botrytis infection often starts at a point of damage or on any decaying tissue, such as leaves in contact with infected soil, leaves wounded by handling, within leaf scars from de-leafing or on flowers. Often seen on dying tissues, gray mold appears on young plants as dry, gray-brown, velvety spores covering stems or leaves. When gray mold spores become airborne, they can be dispersed by wind, overhead irrigation or sprays, tools (especially pruning shears and knives), other machinery and workers. Low light, plant stress or a shift in fruit load can trigger spore germination. Spores germinate and penetrate the plant surface within five to eight hours on moist plant surfaces at the optimum temperature of 59 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Within a few days, a new infection can produce visible symptoms and masses of spores, and multiple infections can be expected within the growing season. Airborne spores that infect soft tissues, pruning wounds and blossoms can produce an epidemic situation when moisture is present. Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) on grapes. Photo by Joseph Smilanick, courtesy of USDA -ARS . The best defense is a good offense Because Botrytis survives in plant debris and in the soil, the most important step in preventing and managing it is to remove dead or dying tissue from plants and from the soil surface. Refuse must then be taken far away from the high tunnel or greenhouse and preferably burned. Do not add gray mold-infected matter to composting material. Good sanitation practices and a thorough year-end cleanup, including disinfection of machinery and tools, are essential to preventing gray mold. Since high humidity (greater than 80 percent) is conducive to the development of Botrytis, leave adequate spacing between plants and consider increasing air circulation by removing lower leaves from overly shaded areas. Especially on nights when a significant temperature drop is expected, maintain adequate heat and ventilation. Good ventilation, both day and night, is critical to preventing and controlling gray mold. Botrytis cinerea sporulation on a ripe strawberry. Photo by Sc ott Bauer, courtesy of USDA -ARS. To minimize the prolonged wetness on plant surfaces that is favorable to development of Botrytis, avoid overhead irrigation or spraying in late afternoon or on cloudy days. Spray or irrigate in the morning. Try to keep water from puddling on surfaces, including the ground or floor. Fungicides or biological control agents should be rotated to prevent development of resistant populations. Leaf mold lurks Sometimes also a problem on field-grown tomatoes, leaf mold caused by Fulvia fulva is primarily a disease of indoor-grown tomatoes and is most serious in plastic high tunnels where relative humidity is high. Leaves are usually the only structure affected. Beginning as pale green or yellowish spots on the upper leaf surface, leaf mold lesions eventually coalesce, and an olive green mold develops on the lower leaf surface. Infected foliage curls, withers and may drop from the plant. On the fruit itself, a dark leathery rot develops at the stem ends. As with Botrytis, leaf mold survives in plant debris and in the soil. Contaminated seed may also be the initial source of F. fulva. Leaf mold can be spread by rain, wind, tools and workers' clothing, as well as by insects. It is dependent on high relative humidity and high temperatures and generally does not occur where relative humidity is less than 85 percent. Uncinula necator (or Erysiphe necator) causes powdery mildew in grapes. By Macc heek at English Wikipedia (CC BY -SA 3. 0), via Wikimedia Commons. Again, good sanitation practices and a thorough year-end cleanup, including disinfection of all surfaces, machinery and tools, are essential. Remove and destroy all plant debris. Do not compost it. Begin the new growing season with certified disease-free or hot-water-treated seed. The foliage of growing plants should be kept dry; use fans to circulate air. Removing bottom leaves and staking plants helps increase circulation and reduce the spread of leaf mold. Nighttime temperatures should be higher inside than outside. Rotate fungicides to avoid disease resistance. Emerging as a significant disease of indoor tomato crops, powdery mildew is caused by several species of fungi and occurs in a large number of plant families, including Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae. First appearing as light green to bright yellow lesions on the upper surface of leaves, powdery mildew spots then enlarge. On the undersides of leaves, a light powdery coating may appear. Then a dense white layer of growth may form on both leaf surfaces and entire leaves will wither and die, still attached to the stem. On tomatoes, the infection does not produce symptoms on fruit or stems. Powdery mildew on a tomato plant. Photo by Gerald Holmes, Valent USA Corp., Bugwood.org. Unlike other fungal plant pathogens, powdery mildew does not need water to appear. It happily overwinters in greenhouses or high tunnels on weeds or plant debris, but cannot survive outdoors during winter in northern climates. To prevent or control powdery mildew, control host weeds both inside and outside the greenhouse. Water carefully from below and use fans to improve air circulation. Pruning and staking help improve ventilation and light penetration. Several resistant varieties of tomatoes are now available, as are a number of organic and conventional fungicides. Yellow-striped armyworm larva on a peanut plant. Photo by Steve L. Brown, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org. In December 2012, researchers at Pennsylvania State University reported that a new insect pest, yellow-striped armyworm (Spodoptera ornithogalli), had shown up on tomatoes in Pennsylvania the previous growing season. In New Hampshire, Sideman reports that the pest was found in several tomato tunnels that same season. Both yellow-striped armyworm and its relative, fall armyworm, a corn pest, have traditionally overwintered in southern areas and migrated northward each spring. While commonly present in Pennsylvania, the number of yellow-striped armyworms had not previously reached pest status. Researchers postulate that the relatively warm winter of 2011-2012 enabled the pest to extend its winter range northward and that this is likely to continue as the climate changes due to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Yellow-striped armyworm larvae are distinct from other armyworms. They have a yellow stripe running the length of their body. Adults look like fall armyworms and are more difficult to distinguish. Although yellow-striped armyworm is primarily a foliage feeder that can seriously injure young plants early in the growing season, it can also cause problems later in the season when it feeds on both foliage and the surface of the fruit. Since more mature stages of the pest have become tolerant of some insecticides, it is easier to control small larvae. For early detection and control, regularly monitor transplants and young plants. Within greenhouses and high tunnels, biological controls may be effective if used early. Conventional insecticides labeled for use in managing beet armyworm or fall armyworm should work against yellow-striped armyworm. Once established, the problems mentioned are all difficult to manage. Fungicides as well as cultural tactics may be necessary to fight the diseases. Pests may require the use of an insecticide for control. Most important, however, is to "start clean, rotate and scout," says Cheryl Smith, Ph.D., extension professor and plant health specialist with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. Kathleen Hatt is a freelance writer and editor and a frequent contributor to Growing. She lives in Henniker, N.H.

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How You Can Prepare for Your COVID Vaccine and Help Reduce Potential Side Effects With more people becoming eligible for the COVID vaccine each day, many are wondering what to expect. The majority of people who’ve received the vaccine have reported minor side effects, but it’s best to be prepared. Let’s take a look at how to get ready for the vaccine, what to expect the day of, and how to handle any unpleasant symptoms that might pop up after it’s been administered. Before Your Appointment Because appointment times are still sparse in many areas, you may need to book what you can get rather than hunting for a time that aligns perfectly with your schedule. Many vaccine sites are booking out weeks (and even months) in advance, so if you find an appointment time you can work with, it’s best to book it — even if it’s farther from home than you’d prefer. Should You Take Medication Before Your Shot? Like any vaccine, there will be minor pain when the COVID shot is administered. In clinical trials, recipients also reported sore arms and headaches following their vaccinations. However, it’s not recommended for individuals to take pain relievers before receiving their doses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises against doing so because the possible drug interactions remain unknown at this time. If you do take a daily medication, consult with your primary care physician before receiving your vaccination to address any questions you may have regarding usage. Will a Sick Day Be Necessary? Maybe, but don’t plan one in advance. More than 80% of the clinical trials’ recipients reported some side effects — most commonly, headache, fever, and fatigue. That said, it could be a day or two before these symptoms begin, and they’re more likely to occur after your second dose; so, you may also feel perfectly fine after receiving your vaccine. If you can find an appointment before your planned day off, go ahead and book it, but it’s probably not necessary to plan on being out in advance. Does Water Really Reduce Side Effects? Keeping hydrated is always a good idea, but despite rumors, medical experts say it likely won’t be a make or break aspect in how your body reacts to your vaccination. Being dehydrated, however, can certainly make you feel more rundown and increase your likelihood of fainting immediately after receiving the vaccine. So go ahead and drink your water, but there’s no need to overindulge. After Your Vaccination You may experience side effects in the days following your vaccine, particularly if you’re receiving your second dose of a two-part series, like Moderna or Pfizer. The most commonly reported side effects from the COVID vaccine include: - Arm pain The Bottom Line Side effects are normal as your body develops antibodies to fight the virus. You can manage your discomfort with over-the-counter pain medication as needed. Contact your physician if the pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site becomes worse after 24 hours or if your symptoms persist for more than a few days. Have you received your COVID shot? If so, did you experience any side effects from the vaccine? We want to hear about your experiences!

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Cruises from Mozambique Island The Island of Mozambique lies on the coast of Mozambique, near Africa’s closest point to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The Island is joined to the African mainland of Mozambique by a 3. 4 km bridge. It is a thin crescent of an island, only 3 km long, with an interesting history as an Arab port well before Vasco da Gama visited in 1498. Until 1898 it was the capital of Portuguese East Africa. Read more Spend time inside its historic buildings to see how Portuguese colonial life was lived over four centuries. Artefacts reflect the trade that passed through this port between India and Europe before the Suez Canal opened.

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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages. 6 End-of-Life Disposal At some point in the future, the ISS will have to be decommissioned, deorbited, and returned to Earth. The return of the ISS will require stringent safety standards to minimize third-party damage and avoid casualties. NASA has performed, and must be commended for, its detailed analyses of the requirements for and methods of end-of-life disposal of the ISS in a manner consistent with NASA's stated safety requirements (i. e., less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of a casualty from reentry operations). NASA has performed a number of analyses related to ISS end-of-life disposal, including an analysis performed for the International Space Station Alpha (ISSA), a space station configuration that preceded the current ISS design (NASA, 1995~. The analysis consisted of a risk assessment, a con- trolled deorbit analysis, a debris dispersion analysis, and a disposal area assessment. Additional analyses were also performed based on the use of a U.S. propulsion module (Thorn, 1999~. The disposal risk assessments concluded that the risk to human life from an uncontrolled ISS reentry would be unac- ceptable, ranging from a 0. 024 to a 0. 077 chance of a single casualty (i. e., 2 in 100 to 8 in 100~. On the assumption that a failed deorbit mission would result in an uncontrolled reentry, with about a 0. 05 chance of a casualty, then even a 1-percent chance of a failure exceeds NASA's stated safety objective. According to NASA's safety guidelines, the casualty risk must be limited to a 0. 0001 chance of a single casualty (i. e., 1 in 10,000~. The risk assessment, therefore, included other alternatives, such as: boosting the ISS to a much higher orbit to prolong its on-orbit lifetime; disassem- bling and returning ISS components to Earth via the Space Shuttle; and controlling and targeting reentry to a safe loca- tion in the oceans. In one analysis conducted for the ISSA, an end-of-life deorbit maneuver could begin from a circular orbit after the two Soyuz vehicles had been separated from the station. After separation of the Soyuz vehicles, the Progress vehicles) and the service module, both fully loaded with 28 propellant at the beginning of the maneuver, would be used for the deorbit burn (Thorn, 1999~. A more recent study was done with end-of-life disposal performed by a U.S. propulsion module. This study estab- lished deorbiting criteria based on the U.S. propulsion module directing the reentry to a remote ocean area to ensure that the dispersed surviving debris "footprint" would not fall within 370 km (200 nmi) of any land mass. The ISS deorbit trajectory would be designed so that natural orbit decay would lower the orbit to the point where excessive attitude control propellant would begin to be needed (i. e., about 241 to 185 km [130 to 100 timid. Solar arrays would be posi- tioned to minimize aerodynamic torque. At 222 km (120 nmi) altitude, the U.S. propulsion module would lower perigee (the lowest point in the orbit) to an altitude of ap- proximately 140 km (75 nmi) with orbit adjustments made over several orbits because of the long burn times needed to achieve the required change in orbital velocity (/\v). A final deorbit burn would then lower perigee from 140 km to 83 km (75 to 45 nmi) altitude reaching at least a 16. 8 m/s (55 fps) /\v in a period of 35 minutes. Solar arrays would collapse at about 130 km (70 nmi) altitude as the ISS begins its atmospheric reentry profile. As a result of the reentry and subsequent breakup of the ISS, surviving debris would be scattered over the surface of the Earth. About 80-percent of the debris would vaporize in the atmosphere. The debris impact footprint is affected by many factors, including deorbit maneuver accuracy, range of debris ballistic coefficients, breakup altitude, breakup /\v, atmospheric density, winds, and debris aerodynamic lift. Assuming a successful reentry mission, NASA analyses have concluded that the ISS dispersed debris footprint could be as large as an ellipse measuring 300 km by 5,370 km (162 nmi by 2,900 nmi). Therefore, ocean disposal will be necessary. The largest disposal region, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, would allow the initiation of deorbit maneuvers on either of two consecutive orbital passes over the area. NASA has concluded that the U.S. propulsion module, as END-OF-LIFE DISPOSAL presently designed, will not be able to meet the performance requirements of the ISS end-of-life deorbiting mission (Thorn, 1998~. To achieve the deorbiting mission require- ments, the U.S. propulsion module would have to burn more than 142 kg (5,000 lbs) of propellant, developing 3,556 New- tons (800 lbs) of thrust for a duration of 35 minutes to com- plete the final deorbiting burn. NASA concluded that boosting the ISS to a higher orbit is not an option because of insufficient propellant and because the orbit would gradually decay to a lower orbit, and the ISS would ultimately deorbit in an uncontrolled reentry. Another alternative, disassembly of the ISS, was considered too expensive (the ISS is not designed for disassembly). The committee concurs with NASA's conclusion that the only viable solution for ISS end-of-life disposal is controlled deorbiting of the ISS. Based on these assessments, a controlled ISS reentry to a remote ocean area would be the safest disposal option. Therefore, ISS end-of-life disposal requirements will have to be incorporated into the U.S. propulsion module design requirements. NASA believes that a deorbiting mission must have at least a 99-percent reliability. The committee believes that even this reliability level would not meet NASA' s safety goal of a less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of a casualty. Recommendation. End-of-life disposal should be accom- plished by a controlled deorbiting of the International Space Station. Sufficient onboard propulsion must be provided for this operation. The National Aeronautics and Space Admin- istration should consider upgrading the U.S. propulsion module to provide the required deorbiting capability. Recommendation. Because of the potential hazards asso- ciated with the reentry of relatively large objects, the safety requirement for International Space Station reentry should be more stringent than the requirement for other National Aeronautics and Space Administration operations (i. e., the chance of casualties should be much less than 1 in 10,000~. NASA's calculations of the probability of success of the 29 final deorbit burn do not make enough allowances for the fact that these operations will take place in the very stressful environment of reentry, which will include the heating, vibration, and collapse of subsystems. Therefore, NASA cannot ensure that the U.S. propulsion module will have a greater than 99-percent probability of success. In fact, the committee believes that the reliability of the U.S. propulsion module will have to exceed 99-percent to achieve NASA's stated safety objectives. Recommendation. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration should undertake a thorough analysis of International Space Station reentry operations, including ranges of uncertainty associated with the multiple variables of reentry operations. The analysis could take the form of a Monte Carlo simulation of reentry operations and projected impact areas to characterize the hypothetical potential for property damage or casualties. The analysis should include the sequence of operations, possible failures, and conse- quences of failures, from the initiation of reentry operations to final impact. Uncertainty variables should include, but should not be limited to, reliability characteristics, duration of burn, atmospheric density, ballistic coefficients of frag- ments, population densities, and the characterization of acceptable impact areas. REFERENCES NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). 1995. End-of- Life Disposal Assessment International Space Station Alpha. May 8, 1995. Engineering Directorate, Houston, Texas, NASA Johnson Space Center, Aerospace and Flight Mechanics Division. Thorn, V. 1998. ISS End-of-Life Disposal. Presentation by V. Thorn, Mis- sion Integration Office, International Space Station, to the Committee on the Engineering Challenges to the Long-Term Operation of the Inter- national Space Station, National Aeronautics and Space Administra- tion, Washington, D.C., September 18, 1998. Thorn, V. 1999. Personal communication from V. Thorn, Mission Integra- tion Office, International Space Station, to J. Greenberg, member of the Committee on the Engineering Challenges to the Long-Term Operation of the International Space Station, March 24, 1999. failures. The SR&M program would benefit from more trend analyses of ad data that coma have a bearing on the long-term failure rate, maintenance capabilities, and spare Parr; requirements of the ISS. The Hubble Space Telescope (MST) program, for example, now considers "trending" as its primary SR&M analysis methocI. Trend analysis for the ISS could include the foBow~ng elements: . · · ~ 1ncommg inspection reports · in-process test reports failure reports from on-orbit segments ~ maintenance records for ground and on-orbit operations Recommendation. Analyses of the incoming inspection and in-process testing data should be used to establish a s~x-sigma environment In which failures wiD be extremely rare. Analyses of failure reports and maintenance records should be used to improve on-orbit procedures and Me quality of replacement items. SPARE PATS PHILOSOPHY NASA provided the committee with information on plans to provide spare parts and logistics for the ISS (NASA, 199Sb). The committee also reviewed the same information for the HST, He onIv other On-duration U.S. sDace Rehire that hat Involved crew servicing. _ ~s ~_ T Tic ~ a ~ ~ J ~ O ~ ~ ~ - Id___ ~ ___ ~~ new The opportunities for component replacement on the ISS and the Em amer tour or five visits per year for the ISS and three or four years between v3 sits for the EAT. In terms of manufacturing lead-time for producing spare parts, however, the biggest difference is that significant lead-time is available between repair visits to the HST to secure replacement parts. ~. For the HST, solar panels, mechanical relays, and rotating devices (e. g., wheels, _ _ e -_1_ 1~ 11 ~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ gyrOS, ~D~, ma servos) were stocKpHea, DUt ~ b~1 S me yews on orbit, He electromechanical devices and the purely electronic devices have had only moderate failure rates (Styczynski, I999~. Experience win the HST project revealed that NASA could not afford to stock and maintain the extensive depot facilities and the large numbers or spare pares required Tor tne net oasea on tne ~~o~- measure of statistical mean time between failures of the hardware (KeDey, I999~. Another method of providing spare parts would be to introduce upgrades during the operational life of the ISS to reduce failure rates and thereby reduce maintenance requirements (~is 1_ ~ ~& _ ~a ~T To . ~ ~. ~ or 30

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Let’s start our journey with one of the most basic and misunderstood functions in our body, digestion. We need to eat clean, healthy food that is not loaded with chemicals. The food should be chewed well. This helps mix the food with saliva to begin the digestion process. When this bolus of well chewed food enters the stomach, it gets mixed with hydrochloric acid and some more enzymes that starts the breakdown of the food we eat. Just eating healthy food is not enough. We need to digest it, extract the nutrients, get them into the blood stream, and excrete the waste material. If we are stressed, constipated, do not have enough acid in the stomach, or have inflammation in the gut, digestion does not occur the way nature intended, and health is compromised. When the food is well mixed with acid and enzymes in the stomach, the stomach moves the food into the small intestines. I like to think of the intestines as a disassembly plant. The acidic bolus of food needs to be broken down (digested) and the nutrients extracted and absorbed into the bloodstream. This is a very organized process, and occurs in a planned and timely manor. At specific locations in the intestinal tract, more enzymes are added and the breakdown of the food and the absorption of nutrients occur. The end result is that we absorb the nutrients (fuel) from the food and then eliminate what is left. This then allows the next bolus of food from our next meal to enter the “disassembly plant” and be able to move down the digestive tract in a timely manor to continue the feeding of our body. Sounds basic and simple, but our life style has disrupted this essential process. May times we eat when we are stressed, we ingest nutrient deficient foods that cause us to use a lot of energy to process this low quality food and in return this poor quality food provides us with very little nutrition. Our food supply contains many chemicals that we were not designed to eat, and many times the fruits and veggies we eat are not fresh picked. As soon as the fruits or veggies are picked, the enzymes and nutrients contained in them start to break down. So if we are not eating very fresh foods, we are at a nutrient disadvantage before we even start to digest them. On top of this, the overuse of acid lowering medication such as antacids, proton pump inhibitors, and H2 blockers lower the acid level in the stomach and inhibit proper digestion. In the next blog post I will talk about proper bowel function. I will also discuss the results of the poll on bowel movements.

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The emigration of people from England, the English, has been since 1600 one of Europe’s most significant population movements. Yet in contrast to the Jewish, Scottish, Irish, Italian and African diasporas comparatively little scholarship has examined what we might tentatively term the English diaspora. Last weekend, scholars involved in the English Diaspora project at the University of Northumbria convened a conference concerning the related questions of whether there was (or is? ) an English diaspora and if so, why there has been so little scholarly analysis of the same. Including panels and keynotes ranging from the 1500s to the 1990s and covering the English in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the conference began to lay the groundwork of understanding the question of the English diaspora. The opening keynote by Professor Robert J.C. Young of New York University, who recently published The Idea of English Ethnicity, most closely addressed the question of why the English abroad did not create so strong a diasporic or ethnic identity as say, the Scots or the Irish. Young proposed several possible hypotheses, examining various elements of English identity. English individualism, Young suggested, may have worked against a more unified group identity. Additionally, Young examined three common markers of ethnic identity: food, religion and language. The English abroad were not united by religion, Young argued, because many of those who emigrated were not members of the official church, the Church of England. The English language was not necessarily a marker of English identity because it was so widely adopted by those who were not from England, especially in the United States. Food, Young argued, did not became a marker of identity, because the English abroad did not miss English food. This was probably the most disputed of Young’s contentions by later speakers, several of whom addressed the issue of food and drink as markers of English identity and one who defended English cuisine, citing sticky toffee pudding. Another reason for the lack of an English diasporic identity was the relative position of privilege of English migrants who travelled both to the British Empire and also the United States, where the majority of English migrants went before twentieth century. Though, as several papers highlighted, the English did not always receive the warm reception they expected and many struggled to make the transition, English migrants did not face the same kind of discrimination as many other migrant groups and were often actively recruited as desirable immigrants, especially in settler colonies of the British Empire such as Australia and Canada. Professor Young’s talk also picked up this point, suggesting that because Englishness was an imperial identity, this may have subsumed Englishness as an ethnic identity. This summary only begins to scratch the surface of even the content of Professor’s Young’s talk which also included the class dimensions of English identity, and the English approach to nationalism, suggesting that this will be a fertile area of scholarship.

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A deciduous shrub with downy, slightly-ribbed branches. At Kew, where it is almost invariably cut back to the ground each winter, it sends up a dense thicket of erect, scarcely branched shoots 2 to 4 ft high, clothed from top to bottom with leaves. Where the climate is milder the shoots survive, and it then becomes a much-branched shrub, perhaps 6 or 8 ft high. On a wall at Kew it has reached a height of 10 ft. Leaves pinnate, 2 to 4 in. long, composed of thirteen to twenty-one leaflets; leaflets 3⁄8 to 5⁄8 in. long, obovate or oval, clothed with grey appressed hairs on both sides, the apex notched or rounded and having a short bristle-like tip. Racemes produced from the leaf-axils in succession from below upwards, on the terminal part of the shoot. They are 3 to 5 in. long, bearing short-stalked, pea-shaped flowers 1⁄2 in. long, rosy purple, two dozen or more on each raceme. Calyx downy, with lance-shaped lobes. Pods deflexed when ripe, 11⁄2 to 2 in. long, 1⁄8 in. wide, cylindric, six- to ten-seeded. Native of the north-western Himalaya. Commencing to blossom about the end of June, and continuing until the end of September, having also foliage of great beauty and luxuriance, this is one of the most ornamental of late-flowering shrubs. It has the disadvantage of starting late into growth, and it is not until June that the stools become well furnished. For this reason it is not suitable for planting alone in masses. It likes abundant sunshine, and does not flower so freely in dull seasons. This species is better known as I. gerardiana. This name, and I. heterantha, appear without description in Wallich’s Catalogue, and it was the latter that was first validated.

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Austral Entomology (2016) 55, 32-42 you are invited to contribute to the discussion section (above tab) Planting window requirements for Bt cotton in Australia: do they limit the exposure of Helicoverpa spp. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to Bt toxins? Austral Entomology 55 (1), 32-42 Abstract: The threat of Bt resistance in Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner 1808) and H. punctigera (Wallengren 1860) (Heliothinae) is a major impediment to the sustainability of transgenic (Bt) cotton crops in Australia. A resistance management plan has, therefore, been instigated that in part requires farmers to sow their Bt cotton within specified dates to limit the number of generations of Helicoverpa spp. that are exposed to Bt toxins during the growing season. This study evaluated this strategy by utilising industry-wide databases of planting dates and other cropping/pest management events throughout 11 growing seasons. The analysis included model predictions of when Helicoverpa is likely to enter winter (pupal) diapause and emerge as moths in spring, and the long-term pheromone trapping records of moths. In New South Wales and southern Queensland (Qld), most first-generation moths were caught at the same time, or before, cotton was planted (mostly in October). This generation was, therefore, unlikely to have been exposed significantly to Bt toxins as feeding larvae in spring, but some individuals (especially H. armigera) may have been exposed to Bt prior to pupating in the previous autumn. Three subsequent generations, which could have been exposed to Bt during summer–autumn, were recognisable in trap catches before moths became very rare in early April. By then, the majority of Helicoverpa had entered winter diapause as pupae and cotton harvest was well underway. We conclude that the current planting window (pre-mid-November in these regions) achieves little in limiting the exposure of Helicoverpa to Bt. However, insufficient is known of the population dynamics of Helicoverpa in central Qld to be as definitive about the need for planting windows there. Importantly, Helicoverpa are active all year round in central Qld and cotton can be grown over a longer period, thus increasing the risks of greater exposure to Bt. (The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher. ) Link to article at publishers website Database assignments for author(s): Geoff H. Baker Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds: biocontrol - natural enemies Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists: resistance/tolerance/defence of host

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There are no products in your shopping cart. Challenging a prevailing attitude, this account disputes the idea that racism is no longer a factor in American life. Based on cultural and literary evidence—including Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn—it argues that, in some ways, the United States very much resembles the country of the 1850s. Not only are the representations of blacks in popular culture throwbacks to the days of minstrelsy, but politicians are also raising stereotypes reminiscent of those which fugitive slaves found it necessary to combat: that African Americans are lazy, dependent, and in need of management. Bold and direct, this book brings an important debate to the surface. If you’re interested send us a request.

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Hello everyone, thanks for taking some time to read my first lesson on Scales and Chord Progressions . I am writing this to help guitarists understand the basics of progressions so that they will be able to write better music. I was inspired to write this after forming a band in high school, but we had great trouble writing music because we had no knowledge of chords or how to write progressions. Now that I am a music student, I have learned a great deal about progressions, and wish to share what I have learned with everyone, I hope you enjoy the lesson and take away quite a bit from it. Many people know about the "scale " do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. Scales can be found in many different keys and modes, and across cultures scales can be very drastically different. But we will concentrate mostly inside Western music, which is based on a 7 tone scale (we get 8 notes to a scale because we double the first note). For each note in the scale, it is assigned a "degree, " for example; first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and octave. These degrees can also be written down with just the numbers of 1 through 8. Here is a list of all major scales in a diatonic key (scales starting on a "white" key) (# = sharp, b = flat) C Maj = C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C D Maj = D-E-F#-G-A-B-C# E Maj = E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E F Maj = F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F G Maj = G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G A Maj = A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A B Maj = B-C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A#-B An "interval" is any distance between 2 notes. Because this is another huge can of worms, I have decided to provide a link to a page on Wikipedia about intervals. This thoroughly explains intervals which I talk about later. Ok, now that you have a general idea of what the actual scale is, let me define it a bit more in depth. The scale degrees I spoke about earlier each have their own individual names per degree. For example, the first note of any scale is called the tonic. This is a very important note in the scale, because to give a musical piece a feeling of completion, you should always end on this note. Another important name you should know is the dominant, which is built off the 5th scale degree. In western music, the dominant almost always precedes tonic in a chord progression. Below is a list of the names of the scale degrees (it is best to remember the names for the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th scale degree, as they are used the most often in chord progressions). 1 - Tonic 2 - Supertonic (super = Latin for "above") 3 - Mediant 4 - Predominant (pre = Latin for "before") 5 - Dominant 6 - Submediant 7 - Leading Tone 8 - Octave or Tonic Alright, now that you know a few critical basic things about the scale, let's move on to what types of chords are based off each scale degree. What exactly is a chord? Generally, a chord is a group of three notes called a triad, consisting of the tonic, Mediant, and dominant of any scale (the first, third, and 5th scale degrees). Often, musicians and composers add the leading tone of a scale on to a chord, making it consist of the 1-3-5-7 scale degrees. For now, let's just look at triads in the scale in the key of C. (o = diminished) I = C - E - G - Major (Perfect) ii = D - F - A - Minor iii = E - G - B - Minor IV = F - A - C - Major (Perfect) V = G - B - D - Major (Perfect) vi = A - C - E - Minor viio = B - D - F - Diminished Notice how some chords are major, and some are minor. For the major chords: I, IV, and V, are referred to as perfect chords. In any major scale, the I, IV, and V chords will always be referred to as Perfect chords. Why am I referring to these with roman numerals? That is how it has been done for hundreds of years. Notice that an Uppercase Roman Numeral ( I ) means major, and a lowercase roman numeral ( i ) means minor, BE very careful which one you write, as each offer drastically different sounds. Musicians refer to the first note of the chord as the "root. " A triad is built off the root by adding a 3rd above the root, and then a 5th. A major triad is adding a major 3rd above the root, and a perfect fifth. The root can be any note of the scale, and it can also be "inverted," meaning that the third, or fifth of the scale can be the lowest note in a chord (ex, C-E-G inverted is either E-G-C, or G-C-E, I will talk about inversions in a later lesson). A minor triad is a triad in which a root has a minor 3rd, and a Perfect 5th above it. A minor third is simply a major third lowered one half step (ex E - Eb, C#-C, F-E, C-B). So in any minor chord, it is simply the major chord, but lower the 3rd by a half step. Notice in both major and minor chords, the Fifth is always perfect. That is why the third is the MOST critical note in a chord. If you had just a Root, Fifth, and the octave, the chord is ambiguous as to whether it is major or minor (however, these are not completely useless, e. g. power chords). You can also add the 7th to the chord, making it V7, which is used frequently in chord progressions. Notice in the viio triad of the major scale, it is diminished, meaning that both the 3rd and 5th above the root have been lowered 1 half-step. This chord is a very dark sounding chord, and requires special rules to resolve back to tonic. 3. Chord Progressions Whew, finally, time to talk chord progressions! First, we take a look at the absolute most basic "phrase" The Basic Phrase = I - V7 - I. That is the basic phrase, the tonic chord, moving to the dominant chord, moving back to the tonic chord. For each chord, we can label each "area" that the chord is in. For the I chord, musicians refer to it as the "tonic area," which is an area that contains notes of the tonic chord. For the V chord, musicians refer to it as the "Dominant" area, which contains notes of the five chord. When arriving back on tonic, that is referred to as the "tonic closure. " Let's take the key of C, and examine its basic phrase. Cmaj - Gmaj7 - Cmaj In order to build this cadence, you look at the C Major Scale, figure out what chords are built off the 1st and 5th Scale Degrees, and then write them out like above. We have just built our basic phrase. A "cadence" is a way of ending the phrase. In the basic phrase, a V7 - I, is referred to as an "Authentic Cadence." It is called this because in an Authentic Cadence, it implies closure of the music, and a feeling that the phrase is concluded. Other types of cadences include the "Half-Cadence," which is written as (any-chord) - V, then starting your basic phrase over again. This is neat because it allows you to prolong your music from ending, or even can transition from part to part. 4. Expanding The Basic Phrase In most music, while a I - V7 - I progression is very common, using just three chords can get very boring, in which the topic of "expansion" is then introduced, in which you "expand" or add more chords to each area of the phrase. The purpose of these expansions is to prolong reaching the tonic closure. 4a. The Predominant Area First, we are going to add a completely new area to our basic phrase called the "Predominant" area (abbr. "PD"). The PD area typically contains the Perfect IV chord, which is built off the fourth scale degree of the major scale. As the name suggests, the PD chord "precedes" the Dominant chord, so our progression will now look like this: I - IV - V7 - I In the Key of C Major: Cmaj - Fmaj - Gmaj7 - Cmaj Basic Phrase Substitutes: In some cases, a composer may not want to use certain chords at the different areas, and it is possible to substitute a different chord instead of using a IV, or V7. In the predominant area, instead of writing IV in our progression, we could put in a ii, or ii7, making our progression: I - ii (or ii7) - V7 - I In the dominant area, instead of writing V7, it is common to write viio, or viio7, making our progression I - IV - viio7 - I Exercise: Write out some sample progressions using these substitutes, and play them on your guitar, piano, etc. 5. Specific Area Expansions First, we will talk about methods of expanding of only the Tonic Area, note: these expansions for the Tonic area apply only to the first tonic area, not the tonic closure; you will almost always close on the I chord. Here is a listing of different ways you can expand the Tonic Area by adding more chords into the Tonic Area: I - viio7 - I I - V7 - I I - IV - I I - vi I - iii* (Note: you can only sub. a iii chord if you are moving to IV) I - IV - V - I I - ii - V - I Using any of these expansions, this is how our phrase now looks: (any above expansions) - IV - V7 - I ii6 - IV6 IV - ii7 Then insert these chords into the predominant area, similar to how it was done in the tonic area. V7 - viio7* V7 - viio* *note: when you use a vii chord, you should move to the Tonic chord For this area, it is not really "expandable," rather it only has 1 substitute, the minor vi chord. This introduces a new type of cadence, the "Deceptive" Cadence, which is pretty much (any chord) - vi . It is called a deceptive cadence because it "deceives" the listener into thinking that the phrase has ended. Now, using the above expansions, I will write a series of progressions utilizing my expansions: I - IV - V - I - IV7 - ii7 - V7 - vi tonic----------- Predom.---- Dom- Ton. I - viio7 - I - ii7 - V7 ton. ----------- PD-- Dom.-- I - iii - IV - ii7 - V7 - I ton------ Predom.-- Dom.- Ton. Although this is just the beginning, with just this basic knowledge of chords and progressions, you can make a ton of music with what you have just learned. I hope that you take away a great deal of musical knowledge from this lesson, and that you will be able to apply what you have learned to your music.

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Most birds get all the lift they need to fly with the downward stroke of their wings—meaning there’s no upward force being produced as they raise them back up. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, produce lift with both their upward and downward wing strokes, creating air vortices that the tiny birds use to fly with incredible manoeuvrability. For a recent article delving into the science of what makes hummingbirds so agile, National Geographic collected a series of incredible high-speed videos of the birds in flight. Watching a hummingbird expertly navigate the tumultuous currents of what looks like a major hurricane is no less impressive when it’s revealed that the bird is actually flying in a small, controlled wind tunnel. [National Geographic via designboom] More Watch This Posts: Crystal Ma creates colourful masterpieces that are as much about the creative process as they are about the finished product. But that's just the waaaay the news goes. Some might say "SAD", but we disagree. You don't want to get in a water fight with this guy.

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I was going through some code in C++ and I came across an unexpected behavior. using namespace std; const int ArSize = 20; cout << "Enter the name: "; cin >> name; cout << "Enter the dessert: "; cout << endl << endl; cout << name << dessert; The above code gives the following output Enter the name: Himansh Enter the dessert: As you can see, the above code doesn't even gives us a chance to input the name of dessert. As per my knowledge, when we type "Himansh" and press enter, the above cin puts a newline character in input buffer, and when the program comes across cin. getline(), it passes newline character to it, and cin. getline() replaces this newline character to null character and discards the newline character. Now, try replacing Now, this code works perfectly. Now according to my knowledge , this process should go like this. User types "Himansh" , press enter, the cin puts newline character in input buffer. Now when cin comes across this newline character, AFAIK, the cin should terminate once it encounters newline. So why is it still accepting user input? ? ? Thanks for reading this long description of my doubt. Waiting for your reply. . . . . . . . .

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- Liatris squarrosa L. - Composite family Blazing star root Scaly blazing star Parts Usually Used Description of Plant(s) and Scaly blazing star is a native North American perennial plant; it resembles the marsh blazing star but much smaller, has a tuberous root that produces the stem growing only as high as 2 feet and the leaves to 6 inches long. The alternate linear leaves are dotted, the lower of which are longer. The flower spike is also smaller, made up of blue-purple florets, appears from June to September. Other varieties: Rough blazing-star (L. aspera); Marsh blazing star (L. spicata); Tall blazing star (L. scariosa); also called Rattlesnake master, Eryngo (Eryngium aquaticum L.); A tiny plant called Blazing star (Mentzelia albicaulis) is also known to the Paiutes as the Gravy Plant, (called Ku-Ha). Found in dry, open woods, clearings, and fields from Ontario to Pennsylvania and Florida, and westward to South Dakota, Nebraska, and Texas. Legends, Myths and Stories Star grass (Aletris farinosa) is sometimes called blazing star. Used for gargle of sore throat. Remedy for gonorrhea, snakebite, wounds, insect bites. Formulas or Dosages Decoction: boil 1 heaping tsp. root in 1 cup water. Take 2 oz. 3-4 times a day. If for snakebite, substitute milk for the water in the formula. Tincture: a dose is 1/2 to 1 tsp.

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Contributed by Dr. Mary Jayne Rogers Taking a look at the data over the past 50 years we can see that the percentage of overweight or obese children used to be less than 5 percent. Through the years, that percentage has continued to climb to the alarming rate of over 33 percent in 2010. Health and wellness professionals have been warning us about this trend for decades. Yet we still see school districts limiting physical education and allowing children access to sugary, low/no nutrient foods at school. Because eating and exercise habits are often established in childhood, overweight children will typically become overweight/obese adults. What are the consequences? Disease. Every kind of disease — arthritis, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, respiratory disorders and stroke. As parents, I believe we can agree that this is not the kind of future we want for our children. We all want our kids to grow up to be healthy, well-balanced adults. As part of that desire, we want to make the best choices for our kids. However, too often the information we see or hear is confusing at best and often misleading to say the least. Busy parents need simple, basic, no-frills guidelines that will put our children on the right path to health, happiness and well-being. Below I have listed five basic guidelines to help set a framework for making positive choices for your child’s health and wellness. We all need to move more. Kids really need to move. Movement sends oxygen and nutrients to the brain. Unfortunately, movement has been teased out of our daily lives. Most schools do not have daily physical education. Many have even reduced recess. Because many households in America require two working parents, children may not have access to after-school play or sports. The days of “pick up baseball” in the sand lot are long gone. What can you do? Generally, if it is sweet use it in moderation — or not at all. This is true whether the sweetness comes from sugar, juices, fruit, honey or artificial sweeteners. As a basic guideline — if it is sweet — be suspicious. We are learning there is an addictive quality to sweet-tasting foods. The affect these foods have on the brain leads us to want or even crave more food. Unfortunately, as parents we have to be super sleuths. Sugar and various forms of sweet have been snuck into everything from spaghetti sauce to peanut butter. Read labels. Teach your kids to read labels. Help your kids learn that food can taste good without added sweetness. Often we are drawn in by marketing claims that certain foods are “healthy” or “natural”. Beware! Many, many foods are natural — meaning they occur in nature. Sugar is natural. High fructose corn syrup is natural. Arsenic is natural for that matter, but we don’t want it in our food. We have also been led to believe that certain types of foods or products are better than others. Yogurt for example conjures up images of healthy kids with health conscious families and happy cows. Most yogurts however are full of sweeteners and additives, particularly when offered by fast food chains and restaurants. Don’t assume that purchasing foods from “high-end stores” such as Whole Foods or Starbucks makes for a better choice for your family than the chain grocery store or McDonalds. Nutritional garbage foods with empty calories and misleading serving sizes are abundant everywhere. While it is true that 100 calories of fresh vegetables and lean protein is better for your child than 100 calories of starchy or sugary foods, calories still count. Too many calories — even from healthy food — can lead to weight gain. Childhood is the best time to learn about appropriate serving sizes. This is also an ideal time to talk with your kids about hunger. Are they really hungry? Maybe they are thirsty instead. Avoid the “eat everything on your plate” concept and teach your kids to identify when they are full and satisfied with their meal. As parents we are constantly faced with making challenging decisions about what is best for our kids. When it comes to health and well-being, we have a tremendous and often overwhelming responsibility. However, we can reduce this to a two-pronged approach. About the author Dr. Mary Jayne Rogers is an exercise physiologist specializing in whole-person wellness and fitness education and instruction. As an educator, Mary Jayne brings multi-dimensional wellness and fitness experiences along with a welcoming and genuine teaching style to inspire students and wellness enthusiasts of all ages. Dr. Rogers is the owner of Profound Wellness LLC. www. doctormaryjayne. com. And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed . SheKnows is making some changes!

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The Yocto Project is an open platform that provides templates, tools and methods to help in making custom Linux based systems for embedded products. It combines BitBake and OpenEmbedded to create specialized Linux distributions. Using the Yocto tools, the process of setting up a Board Support Package (BSP) gets tidier and more modular than attempting to keep track of the large amounts of third party source code manually. This process used to be different for each hardware platform, while Yocto aims to be a generic, supplier independent solution. A modular approach Yocto splits large software modules into layers, such as distro, BSP and software layers. Hardware manufacturers typically provide a BSP layer for their products, complete with drivers and kernel configuration. The embedded specialist then adds a custom layer that inherits the hardware layer, adding and removing components to fit the end product. User level software is kept in one or several separate layers. If the developers do a good job separating the layers, they behave like building blocks, and can be switched on and off depending on hardware, customer requirements and version varieties. Due to this modularization, the Linux kernel and software can be kept up to date through the product life-cycle without depending on the hardware manufacturer. Yocto can fetch, build, configure and install all software used on an embedded product, such as the kernel, bootloader, root file system, driver modules and device trees. It uses recipes to describe how these steps are performed. Recipes can be inherited from other layers and appended. A layer can contain configurations for several different hardware platforms, separated into “machines”. Machine configurations are part of a BSP layer that are board-specific. Typically, bootloader, Linux kernel configuration, device trees and boot parameters must be customized to fit the targeted board. Machine configurations can set build variables and select non-default recipes to be used for building e. g. the Linux kernel, to customize the resulting product. Which machine to build for is chosen before the build process is initiated. Living with licenses When using open source software, developers are often faced with the trouble of keeping track of licenses. Accidental use of the wrong license can lead to costly trials and trouble. Each Yocto recipe has to specify which license the software shall use, and the build process fails should the recipe apply open source code within a closed software module. Yocto keeps track of all licenses, not only during development, but throughout the products life-cycle. Fetching and branching Being developed simultaneously by several different parties, the different flavors of Yocto and subsequent layers have to be split into branches in Git. Most BSP layers will only work with OpenEmbedded-Core of the same branch. Xilinx, for instance, uses the Dora or Daisy branches, while other suppliers have their own branches. Fetching the correct branch for all components and keeping track of which branches will work together is a part of the Yocto based development process. Yocto Linux and the Xilinx Zynq platform Xilinx is one of many vendor companies that provide a Yocto layer targeting their products. The meta-xilinx layer adds on top poky and open-embedded meta layers to provide Yocto support for Xilinx’ Zynq and Microblaze architectures, along with machine configurations for some of their development boards. Once you have made Bitbake aware of your layers you can target different Xilinx boards by simply setting a variable in your local configuration file which tells Yocto which machine configuration to use. Device trees are used to provide the Linux kernel with information on the hardware it is running on. It is a convenient way to use the same kernel on slightly different hardware configurations. For the Zynq platform the standard kernel is compiled with drivers for all of th PS/SoC peripherals, common board components and some drivers for Xilinx FPGA IPs. The device tree will make the kernel aware of which components are present and how they are configured so that drivers are loaded and initialized correctly. Also board components can be described. Be describing the topology of i2c buses, including switches and node addresses, Linux will be able to reach and configure each node in the i2c network (provided the drivers are compiled in the kernel). When the time comes to deviate from the standard configurations and recipes provided by a vendor you create your own Yocto layer on top of your vendors’. You then inherit all of their functionality but you are free to add your own customizations. In this layer you typically maintain your custom device trees, kernel configurations, patches, drivers, machine configurations etc. This approach makes it easy to maintain your BSP layer and transition from a vendors’ evaluation board to your custom built board. Yocto and Data Respons Data Respons has seen that their early adoption of Yocto is bearing fruits, as an increasing number of hardware manufacturers drop their own tools for the Yocto Project. Having a deeper understanding of the many parameters and branches of the platform has proven essential to keep up with the rising demands for high product to market speeds. Specialists at Data Respons are currently also working to set up a full configuration management system, version tracking each component from top to toe in Linux based embedded systems. Getting a full overview of all the parameters and possibilities in Yocto is a daunting task, but once it is done, it can be applied to a large number of other hardware platforms.

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Mums grow well in any well-drained soil capable of producing a good crop of vegetables or turf. They grow in poorer soils if ample nutrients and organic matter are incorporated. Depressions that might collect water should be leveled, or plant in raised beds. Winter kill can occur if unadapted varieties are grown or if plants desiccate (dry out) during the winter. Mums develop best where they receive full sun most or all day. Plants in shade or semishade tend to grow taller (be leggy), have weaker stems and smaller flowers, and bloom later in fall. Try to avoid planting where there will be in competition with trees for light and water. Before planting mums, till the soil to a depth of 8 to 12 inches. Adding compost or peat moss improves the soil structure and the water-holding capacity of the soil. It may be necessary to use fertilizers. Nitrogen is the element most likely to be deficient in Georgia soils. In some occasions, soils may need additional phosphorus and potassium. Plants can be fertilized four weeks after planting and again periodically during the growing season, but excessive fertilizing causes elongated, leggy growth and fewer flowers. During the summer, it is best to pinch back growth to keep the plants growing in a more compact manner. Newly set mums should be kept moist, not wet, during establishment. One good watering or rain per week is adequate in most soils, but in sandy soils, they may need it every four to five days. Try to keep weeds from growing around the plants (mulch helps). You can do a light cultivation to keep weeds down, but avoid deep cultivation that can damage roots and rhizomes. Fall is the best time of the year to plant shrubs. Here are five common mistakes to avoid: 1. Planting too many plants for the site. The temptation is to get a full look right away. In a few years, plants are overcrowded and need to be constantly pruned, or removed. 2. Planting shrubs that will get too tall for the site. A one-gallon Burford holly or ligustrum will soon cover the windows and require severe pruning to keep it in check. 3. Planting shrubs that prefer dry soil in wet areas, plants that prefer sun in shade, and vice versa. Plants that are not adapted to the conditions that exist will never be as healthy or look as good as they might. 4. Planting shrubs too close to the house. I see this all the time. I even inherited this situation at my house. I have Indica azaleas (the ones that get really large) that were planted 6-8 inches from the house. Shrubs should be planted one half their mature diameter plus one foot away. That is, a plant that will be 6 feet wide at maturity should be planted four feet from the foundation. Planting too close to the house makes it extremely hard to get to parts of the house you may need to paint, clean or work on. 5. Planting trees and shrubs at random in the yard. Plants should be grouped to enhance the landscape and be in mulched beds to facilitate their maintenance. Have a plan on paper before you start. Reach Sid Mullis, the director of the University of Georgia Extension Service Office for Richmond County, at (706) 821-2349 or email@example. com.

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Methane is thought about the easiest natural particle. It’s present in other locations in our planetary system that might host life, like Saturn and Jupiter’s moons Enceladus, Europa and Titan. And if life does exist in other places, it might be extremely various or perhaps type in a different way from how we comprehend life in the world. The brand-new findings are likewise detailed in 2 research studies released Thursday in the journal Science . Juntos, the scientists think these findings to be “advancements in astrobiology. “We have actually considerably broadened our search for natural substances, which is essential in the search for life,” stated Paul Mahaffy, research study author and director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight. o 2 research studies construct on and advance smaller sized detections of climatic methane and ancient natural substances on Mars. Those detections either triggered argument or did not have the context for understanding, the scientists stated. But Curiosity’s information are offering a clearer and more definitive photo of the conditions and procedures on Mars– and exactly what it might have resembled on the Red Planet billions of years earlier, when conditions were better for life. “With these brand-new findings, Mars is informing us to persevere and keep looking for proof of life,” stated Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “I’m positive that our scheduled and continuous objectives will open much more awesome discoveries on the Red Planet.” Decades later on, Viking assisted influence the instruments on today’s Martian rovers. And Curiosity dug a little much deeper underneath the surface area, which is blasted with radiation, to see exactly what stories the soil needed to inform. Curiosity tested websites by drilling 5 centimeters listed below the surface area in the Gale crater, which is where the rover landed in 2012. The 96-mile crater, called for Australian astronomer Walter F. Gale, was more than likely formed by meteor effect in between 3. 5 para 3. 8 billion years back. It likely held a lake, and now consists of a mountain. The rover had the ability to warm the samples to in between 932 e 1508 degrees Fahrenheit and study the natural particles launched through gas analysis. The natural particles and volatiles, similar to samples of sedimentary rock abundant in organics in the world, consisted of thiopene, methylthiophenes methanethiol and dimethylsulfide. They do not precisely roll off the tongue, however scientists think that these are pieces of bigger particles that existed on Mars billions of years back. And the high quantity of sulfur in the samples is more than likely how they’ve lasted so long, the scientists stated. Drilling below the surface area, instead of tasting exactly what was on top like Viking did, likewise assisted. Potential impurities were evaluated and accounted for, so the outcomes are the most definitive. “The Martian surface area is exposed to radiation from area,” stated Jen Eigenbrode, a research study author and research study researcher at the Goddard Space Flight. “Both radiation and extreme chemicals break down raw material. Discovering ancient natural particles in the leading 5 centimeters of rock that was transferred when Mars might have been habitable bodes well for us to find out the story of natural particles on Mars with future objectives that will drill much deeper. ” Methane in the air Over 5 anos, Curiosity has actually utilized its Tunable Laser Spectrometer to determine methane in the environment at the Gale crater. Prior to, scientists could not comprehend why the bit of methane spotted in the Martian environment differed. Com 5 years of information from a single place, they now have responses. There is a seasonal variation to the methane that duplicates, which implies the methane is being launched from the Martian surface area or from tanks underneath the surface area. The methane might even be caught in water-based crystals below the surface area. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, and it might have supported an environment that sustained lakes on Mars. That might even be taking place underneath the surface area now, the scientists stated. The release of methane is an active procedure on Mars, which might recommend brand-new features of exactly what’s unfolding on the Red Planet. Detecting this natural particle in the environment, integrated with the finding of natural substances in the soil, has strong ramifications about possible life on Mars in its past. The Gale Crater was most likely habitable 3. 5 billion years back, based upon exactly what Curiosity has actually revealed us. The conditions would have been equivalent to Earth. When life was developing on our own world, this is likewise. Knowing that these substances and particles existed, then, offers brand-new strength to the concept that life existed or stemmed on Mars which more work by the Martian rovers can reveal the past. NASA’s InSight Lander , introduced on May 5, will arrive at Mars on November 26. Its two-year objective will check out Mars to see if it’s ,” or active listed below the surface area . Researchers desire to understand if it has ” And the Mars 2020 rover , which is anticipated to release July 2020, might have the ability to help with one day obtaining soil samples from Mars “Are there indications of life on Mars? ” asked Michael Meyer, lead researcher for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters. “We do not know, however these outcomes inform us we are on the ideal track. ” Fonte do artigo: http://edition.cnn.com/

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Published on July 16, 2018 Yvonne Clark, Martha Augoustinos, Merridy Malin Lateral violence describes how members of oppressed groups direct their dissatisfaction toward each other. This inward deflection has been associated with Indigenous communities around the world and has shown to be destructive. The focus of this research concerns Aboriginal Strait Islander people in Adelaide, South Australia, as part of an evaluation of the preventing lateral violence workshops. The overall evaluation comprised both quantitative and qualitative components. This article reports on qualitative data, from interviews with seven Aboriginal participants, post workshop. These interviews, examined their ways of dealing with and strategizing to prevent lateral violence in various contexts as well as suggestions for improvements to the workshops. There were several interpretive themes that emerged from these interviews. This paper reports on the three main themes: improvements to workshops; participant support needs and their strategies to prevent lateral violence in their contexts. The information complemented and provided a deeper understanding of the phase one evaluation. It is hoped that such evaluation provides robust evidence for workshops to improve and be maintained as a useful resource for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to prevent lateral violence. (click on PDF to read more) We have two copies of Maea te Toi Ora: Māori Health Transformations and one copy of Sleeps Standing Moetū (both reviewed in Volume 3, Issue 1) to give away. Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

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The over-prescribing of medicines in Europe is becoming "chronic," especially among elderly patients, a leading health policy expert has claimed. A study by Salzburg Medical University has found that prescriptions issued to patients with an average age of 82 were unnecessary in 36% of cases, while for 30% the drugs they were being given were inappropriate, according to Guenther Leiner, president of leading health policy conference the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). Unnecessary medical treatments are a Europe-wide issue which needs to be confronted head-on, said Professor Leiner, speaking ahead of the annual EHFG conference, to be held in Bad Hofgastein, Austria, on October 5-8. It "bordered on the absurd" that, against the current debates everywhere in Europe on the limits of affordable health services, there is also "blatant and increasing over-treatment in hospitals," said Prof Leiner. The growing number of unnecessary operations is "especially alarming" and these have "an obvious economic basis," he added, suggesting that it was hard to imagine that the enormous differences across Europe in the number of hip and knee replacements, for example, could be explained "on purely clinical grounds. " "This trend leads to a number of problems, including a difficult ethical situation for many doctors,” he added. This year's EHGF will examine strategies for relieving pressure on health budgets and unnecessary prescribing and surgery, including innovation, personalised medicine, e-health and health technology assessment (HTA), said Prof Leiner. The European Commission, which is a key partner of the Forum, will focus on Europe's potential for social innovation in health, patients' access to their personal health data and the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. "Many health problems go beyond the borders of individual countries and need to be solved through international co-operation and collaboration," said Paola Testori-Goggi, director general for health and consumers at the European Commission. "We therefore wish to see how innovation can help people maximise their chances of ageing in good health," she added. October's EHFG will be looking at why three out of four Europeans still die of preventable, lifestyle-related diseases, despite the massive advances in medical science. Cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer account for 77% of the illnesses burdening the 53 countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Region Europe, and are the cause of 86% of all deaths. Following the conclusions of the United Nations (UN) High-Level Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which takes place September 19-20 in New York, developments in NCDs will feature prominently on the October Forum's agenda, say the organisers.

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Martha Graham's Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy Between 1955 and 1989, legendary choreographer-dancer Martha Graham and her company made a series of international tours under the aegis of various government agencies and government-supported foundations and organizations. She and her choreography were presented as uniquely American as well as a sign of America’s embrace of an apolitical modernism that reflected the country’s cultural freedom and aspirations, the art of the New World. Graham was feted by presidents from Roosevelt to George H. W. Bush and forged close friendships with a number of first ladies from Eleanor Roosevelt to Barbara Bush. First Lady Betty Ford had briefly been one of Graham’s students. While Russia sent the Bolshoi Ballet on tour with examples of Russian classical style, Graham exported modern dance using the abstract sculptural sets of Japanese-American Isamu Noguchi and set to the music of American composers including William Schuman, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland, whose score for Graham’s Appalachian Spring became one of the most beloved American classics. Appalachian Spring was the most famous example of Graham’s works celebrating Americana. Her repertoire also featured more mythic works centering on female protagonists including Medea (Cave of the Heart), and Jocasta (Night Journey), from classical literature and the mythic-historical Joan of Arc (Seraphic Dialogue). Graham claimed to be a devotee of abstract modern art, particularly the work of Kandinsky, but her work also showed the influence of Freud. Her pelvic-centered technique emphasized sexuality. While she was famous for her long dresses, her men were often scantily clad. Graham was influenced by Isadora Duncan and Ted Shawn, pioneers of American modern dance, but she also claimed Asian influences, which was useful on her government-sponsored tours of Asia. Graham was a shrewd diplomat. She could claim that her art was distinctly American but with international influence. Above all she could claim that her art was apolitical, thus a rebuke to the Stalinist edict that art must serve the state. Her modernism was a stark contrast to Russian balletic classicism. From the beginning, her company was racially and ethnically diverse. On tour, she insisted that her dancers appear in public dressed like proper ladies and gentlemen. Graham was adept at charming powerful ladies at tea parties and promoting her company with powerful men. She was politically astute, as when in the late 1980s she presented Soviet defector ballet stars Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov in a gala performance of “Appalachian Spring.” Martha Graham’s Cold War is an exhaustive study of Graham’s government-sponsored international tours. Using Graham’s papers housed in the Library of Congress, government documents, and interviews with dancers (the author was once a Graham dancer), Victoria Phillips chronicles the political, technical and artistic aspects of each tour in light of the political climate in every country at the time Graham visited and well as critical and audience reaction to the performances. Graham’s tours offered audiences abroad a sample of her work. They were also propaganda, a demonstration of a distinctly American art that could only be nurtured in the “land of the free. ” Her first tour of Asia and the Middle East in 1955 took place when a number of Asian countries were considering breaking away from American influence. Graham was sent to countries where our government feared Soviet influence might prevail. In her introductory chapter, Phillips presents a detailed account of how Graham’s work in the 1940s offered a distinctly American approach to the performing arts. Her work was uneven but at its best, as in Appalachian Spring, the work showed that American artists could create high-cultural works that would be recognized internationally. It was no surprise that shapers of American foreign policy like George Kennan could see propaganda value in sending Graham and her company abroad. The following nine chapters offer highly detailed accounts of each of Graham’s tours. By the 1980s, Graham’s age and her problems with alcohol caused problems for the dancers and tour planners. The critical reception of her works was often mixed. However, the tours were necessary for the image and financial stability of the company. Moreover, by the 1980s, some critics saw Graham’s work as relics of a past era. There were other more exciting contemporary American choreographers and troupes. Graham died in 1991: her usefulness to American diplomacy ended two years earlier with the fall of the Berlin wall. Unless you are a dance historian, an ardent devotee of Martha Graham, or are particularly interested in Cold War history, you might find that Phillips gives you much more detailed information about Graham’s tours than you need. The 296 pages of text are accompanied by 130 pages of scholarly apparatus. There are also 24 pages of photographs.

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Over the last decade virtual reality has become increasingly popular. Virtual reality is mostly used in the modern age for visual graphics and video game design companies and they are constantly enhancing it to give people a much richer experience. It is a tool that allows people to be immersed in a world that is not the one they live in. To make VR possible there are some specific tools needed which include visual and audio designs, this is developed the same way animation or video games are created. This is processed through a headset which act like a thick pair of goggles, there are some replacements for this like the PC itself, or mobile applications. The only downside to that is the lack of “in world” living you get from the headset. The headphones which process the audio are also vital. The finally piece of the VR puzzle is the handset controllers, this is an optional piece as well, and may vary based on how the virtual reality is being used. VR uses state of the art 360 degree projections and visual aids to create a digital world for the user. Art companies such as Acute art are using VR to create virtual museums which is what their company is based on. Other established museums such as The Tate Modern and Frick are using it to show off their exhibits to patrons unable to visit the museum and to make the work currently on display and archived pieces accessible to everyone. The tool is also always being enhanced by tech developers in fact Acute Art themselves are modifying the way we use VR making it more detailed and intricate. Theaters and musicians have been also been using Virtual reality to enhance and change the structure of the performing arts. The prime example of this is The Royal Shakespeare Company using VR as characters in their most recent production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest last year. This technology has changed the arts and a lot of organizations are moving towards using VR to make their content more accessible and fun for audiences. It takes a lot of money and time to commit to such an idea but the ones who do have had great success with it. At this point, most organizations are using VR in their mobile apps but as the technology grows and more interest is taken with the public we may see more companies like Acute Art that are solely based in virtual reality.

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Black Bears Back in Missouri Get Breaking News First CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) __ The Missouri Department of Conservation has started research on black bears in southeast Missouri. The department says the study will provide information about such things as the bears’ movement patterns, population, habitat preferences and overall numbers. Conservation officials began a similar study last year in southwestern Missouri with the University of Missouri-Columbia and Mississippi State University. The department said Wednesday the research will involve trapping and tranquilizing the bears to allow biologists to take measurements and samples. The bears will also be radio-collared with GPS monitors so biologists can track their movements. Landowners in southeastern Missouri and the Ozarks who have seen bears on their property are being encouraged to contact the Conservation Department for possible participation in the study. Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press Guide to hiking and camping around black bears: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear

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Dis[man]tling the Blazon: The Relationship of Women and the Poetic Convention Originally used to signify a shield or a coat of arms, the term ‘blazon’ transformed it meaning through the description of virtues or positive attributes, usually of a woman, in late sixteenth century poetry. ‘Blazon’ can either denote a noun, signifying the actual list of virtues, or a verb, signifying the process of praising, adorning, describing, or boasting of. Through poetry, the word transfigures its meaning depending on its relevance to the subject and its intended purpose. A blazon is frequently performed in relevance to the female form in an erotic admiration. However, through texts such as William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, his Sonnet 130, and Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, the convention if the blazon is blurred and nuanced in relation to its performer and its recipient, creating the argument that perhaps the blazon is more than just a poetic tradition. Before it can be determined what exactly a blazon does, it would be poignant to consider what a traditional blazon would entail. Literary and cultural studies scholar Nancy Vickers looks at the original sonneteer, Francesco Petrarch, through a lens that is hypercritical of the execution of his blazons. Petrarch’s oft-portrayed, absent, yet passionately loved Laura, is the object of his sonnets, admired and blazoned within the Petrarchan verse. Vickers claims that Petrarch always described his beloved as “a part of parts of a woman,” as “a collection of extremely beautiful disassociated objects”. This brings forth the question of the necessity for the blazon, and the discovery of why and how it came about. While the traditional blazon embellishes and celebrates in admiration and in awe, it almost literally dismembers a woman to mere parts or “objects. ” The purpose for this is almost entirely unclear: why pick apart each bit of a woman to celebrate her? Why is she parts and not a whole? This could be a technique of divide and conquer, through which the beholder divides the beheld into parts easily mapped and easily understood through both looking or through verse, and by doing so masters each of the fragmented territories. The blazon could more innocently be a distribution of attention and reverence across the body rather than focusing on a single part (commonly sexual), leading the blazon to become a more celebratory style of beauty instead of a conquest of man. Nonetheless, the blazon exists in different forms between poetry and drama. As Petrarch’s blazon first solidified, the lover became an absent character, one who was unattainable and frequently ignorant or unaware of the love. The poetic blazon is lyrical, imaginary, and entirely up to the reader to illustrate within his mind’s eye. Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti is a typical example of a poetic blazon: “If sapphire, lo, her eyes be sapphires plain; If rubies, lo, her hips be rubies sound; If pearls, her teeth be pearls, both pure and round; If ivory her forehead ivory ween; If gold, her locks are finest hold on ground; If silver, her fair hands are silver sheen…” Spenser inventories his love’s attributes, drawing her into an amalgam of precious jewels, reminiscent of Vicker’s criticism of Petrarch’s blazon of Laura. Spenser also compares her to a rose: Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a briar Sweet is the juniper, but sharp his bough…” Spenser here acknowledges the dangerousness of her beauty and compares her to a beautiful but guarded thing, a thorned rose, acknowledging her unattainability and the unrequited nature of his love. In Astrophel and Stella, a sonnet sequence, author Sir Philip Sidney acknowledges the Petrarchan model and rhyme scheme along with the traditional atmosphere of admiration and desire. Sidney’s ninth sonnet exemplifies the blazon by including the adage of the typical Petrarchan love poem. Sidney’s blazon of Stella, however, does not go past her face, an anomaly as the blazon is commonly erotic. There is her golden “covering” (hair), alabaster “front” (forehead), her “door” (lips), “lock” (teeth), and “porches” (cheek). Although this is a typical, albeit miniature, blazon style, there is a certain unconventionality in the tone that Sidney takes. Stella’s mouth only “sometimes” allows grace, and her eyes are dark, reminiscent of a “touch” – a glossy black stone, an image that complicates the typical blazon theory of admiration. This compliment-not compliment style calls to mind Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, commonly called the “anti-blazon. ” From “my mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun,” to “my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground” (as opposed to in the heavens with the goddesses), Shakespeare uses negatives to oddly insult the focus of his sonnet. But both Sidney and Shakespeare still utilize the blazon, not to insult, but to define their beloveds as more realistic than any other women “belied with false compare”. Sidney and Shakespeare decide that earthly beauty, of a “heavenly guest” and a woman who “treads on ground” rather than a goddess in the sky, is just as passion-inducing. Sidney concludes that nothing as far as Stella’s eyes can see is more beautiful than she is, whereas Shakespeare swears that his love is “as rare” than any others who lie to their beloveds or compare them falsely. While he does compare his love to unfavorable things there is no question that his love is both strong and passionate still. In the poetic tradition, readers are forced to imagine a golden-locked, blue-eyed woman. The visual aspect of poetry is necessary in validating the beloved’s beauty. However, in drama, there is an impossibility of the absence of the beloved, as the actors are presented in physical bodies for the performances of the blazons. There is a difference in the actual demonstration of the blazon; whereas Petrarch writes for his unrequited lover, actors either speak to their lovers or about their lovers in front of an audience of spectators. The immediacy of the physical presence introduces a third party: those to whom the beloved is displayed. The form of the blazon idealizes a figure that an audience member does not have to imagine, and the physical existence presents a straightforward interaction between the loved and the lover. Whereas in poetry the reader is the middleman, the audience directly witnesses an emblazoning of a character by another in drama. Nevertheless, the theater has taken the question of blazon in stride and manipulated it in many ways. Olivia of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night appropriates the blazon in a freewheeling complication of gender roles and mastery versus submission. However, while the traditional blazon is to or for a certain person, Olivia blazons herself in a strategy of mockery. “I will give out divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried and every particle and utensil labeled to my will: as, item, two lips, indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth” (1. 5.230-235). Olivia sorts through her facial features in an “inventory,”, both taking ownership of her own features whilst labeling them in a marketing fashion. Her reference to her will could have a double, or a triple, meaning: will as in her own free will; will as in the legal document written prior to death; or will from the subtitle of the play Twelfth Night: Or What You Will. She recognizes sovereignty at this moment, which unbeknownst to her, is a short-lived segment of bodily autonomy, as her own body will be put on display in the following act. Olivia satirizes the significance of worth based on her attributes, in a way mocking the blazon itself, but then employs the same pattern when speaking of Cesario. “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit Do give thee fivefold blazon” (1. 5.279-280). Besides the irony of Viola cross-dressing as a fake Cesario, making a female still the recipient of the blazon, Olivia harks back to the original meaning of the word. The blazon she refers to, juxtaposed with a dramatic blazon, is the shield mentioned in the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary. Not only is Olivia listing Cesario’s physical attributes, but she is referencing the significance of physical attributes. His appearance is a blazon, a trumpet, of his status and birth. The use of the blazon as a signifier of his place in society acknowledges the coat of arms featured on the original blazons, indicating a person’s family and heritage. This moment between Cesario and Olivia also brings about a certain sense of clarity in the sense that the gender questions that have been posed and deepened throughout the play are suspended. There is little confusion of, or perhaps little care for, who belongs to which gender affiliation. Olivia is simply admiring a person, performing a blazon on “him,” – creating an exchange between the beholder and the beheld in an appreciation of beauty. Is this not exactly what the blazon is meant for? Furthermore, Cesario embodies the idea of the remote, absent lover, as Cesario is not actually a real person. A disguise of Viola, Cesario is fictional, making Viola a vehicle by which Olivia expresses a love that is most certainly unrequited simply by the fact that Cesario does not exist. In the second act, Maria introduces audiences to a different interpretation of the blazon – one used to her advantage over unsuspecting and vulnerably smitten Malvolio. “I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love, wherein by the color of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly personated” (2. 3.145-147). In this passage, Maria outlines the exact desire of Malvolio to be admired by Olivia, and performs an unintentional blazon of his attributes after having just called him something quite different: “The devil a puritan that he ism or anything constantly but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass that cons state without book and utters it by great swaths; the best persuaded of himself, so crammed as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him” (2. 3.136-140). In a strange juxtaposition of Malvolio’s flaws and his values, Maria both mocks and celebrates the blazon, regardless of her intentions. Because Malvolio’s fantasy of Olivia’s love is so great, it is easy for Maria to manipulate him, and he falls vulnerable to the device of the feigned blazon. The letter, perfected with Olivia’s seal, begins with “to the unknown beloved” (2. 5.86), harking back to the clandestine emotions the lover has for his beloved, like Petrarch to his unknown beloved, Laura. Olivia is a Petrarchan lover in many ways, though her reconfiguration and reapplication of the blazon complicates the traditional relationship between the lover and the beloved. The female characters in Twelfth Night perform the blazons on male characters: Cesario sincerely and Malvolio facetiously. This begs the question of power. Who has the upper hand, the lover or the beloved? To return to the theory of divide and conquer, he who performs the blazon separates his lover into easily comprehensible parts. The blazon, therefore, is not only a poetic convention about desire, but also about romantic and social advantage over another. If the traditional forms of blazon are penned by men, and the entirety of Twelfth Night is a complexity of gender intricacies and nuances, this intensely complicates the definition of the blazon. The play serves primarily as a satire on the popularized ideas of love and romance according to Petrarch. This, coupled with the notion of gender fluidity, enlightens the true meaning of a satire: comedy with undeniable truth. The blazons remind audiences of the social convention they hold, ironically, as homosexual relationships are unwittingly pursued – another reminder of social conventions. Though the blazon is poised to make fun of the Petrarchan conventions on a backdrop of forbidden relationships, it has serious undertones worth recognition and consideration. Though Olivia truly does love Cesario, as we can tell from her blazon of admiration, she easily confuses him with Sebastian. The play apparently involves love, yet superficially. In juxtaposing traditional blazons with the “anti-blazons” of Shakespeare and Spenser, as readers we are forced to recognize the actuality of what it means to love publicly, either through drama or literature, and the implications involved with admiration versus actuality. The blazon is not only a poetic convention, but also a tradition of gender roles, power, and the social structure of love. Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2005. Print. Vickers, Nancy. Dianna Described: Scattered Woman and Scattered Rhyme. Print. Oxford English Dictionary Vickers, Nancy. Dianna Described: Scattered Woman and Scattered Rhyme, 94 The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, 1086-1087. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, 1184 The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, 1202 The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, 1202 The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, 1210 The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, 1210 Petrarch and de la Vega’s All-Encompassing Passion “Love found me altogether disarmed,” declares Francis Petrarch in one of his highly acclaimed sonnets, referring of course to his dearly beloved yet unattainable Laura (Petrarch 2068). This is perhaps a bit of an understatement. Both Francis Petrarch and Garcilaso de la Vega found themselves so utterly consumed by their respective infatuations that they wrote of little else, thus revealing much to their readers about their ideas concerning the trials and tribulations of love. The two poets share a similarly pessimistic view of love. Petrarch, in his third sonnet, uses war-like metaphors to recount his experience, stating that he was not “on guard” and “did not defend [him]self against it” and that he was consequently struck “with an arrow” (Petrarch 2068). By clearly asserting that one must protect himself from love, Petrarch alludes to its less than desirable effects. He also directly states that the day he initially encountered Laura was the day his “misfortunes began” (Petrarch 2068). In his 189th sonnet, Petrarch describes the “changeless wind of sighs,” “rain of weeping,” and “mist of disdain” that he encounters while sailing through the figurative “harsh sea” of love (Petrarch 2071). Through his comparison of the hardships of seafaring to the plights of passion, he further emphasises the numerous difficulties that love brings about. Even the title of his sonnet collection, Rime Sparse, which translates to “scattered rhymes,” alludes to his troubles: love has left him broken and scattered. Likewise, many of de la Vega’s poems appear to focus on the darker side of love. In his first sonnet, he laments that he “gave [his] heart to one who could destroy and ruin [him] if she should wish” (de la Vega 2072). Here, rather than appreciating the immense joy and happiness that love can bring to those who fall under its spell, de la Vega chooses instead to fret over the devastation he would face should his relationship end. Somewhat hyperbolically, he attests that his lover’s ill will “will kill [him] if it can” (de la Vega 2072). By attributing such a final and undesirable ramification to love, de la Vega succeeds in highlighting the negative aspects of this intense emotion. This sense of repercussion is also evidenced in his 10th sonnet, when he notes that “the joys doled out a little at a time” by his lover were taken from him in only “one hour,” with nothing but “sorrow left behind” (de la Vega 2073). Additionally, the gloomy diction de la Vega utilizes throughout these two sonnets, such as “bitter,” “lost,” “ruin,” “death,” “sorrow,” “alone,” “grief,” and “bleak,” adds to the overall sense that love is more depressing than it is joyous (de la Vega 2072-2073. ) Another parallel between Petrarch and de la Vega’s conceptions of love is their highly romanticized and seemingly shallow views toward their objects of their affection. When portraying his lover, each poet primarily focuses on her immensely beauteous outward appearance, making no mention of her intelligence or personal beliefs. In Petrarch’s 126th sonnet, Laura is said to possess a “lovely body,” “angelic breasts,” “lovely eyes,” and “blond locks,” among several other becoming physical qualities, but little other information about her is provided (Petrarch 2070). Similarly, de la Vega’s love has a “fair face,” hair that “shimmers” and is made “of the purest gold,” and is “so beautiful, so slender, and so white” (de la Vega 2073). An obvious reason for this exclusion is the time period: in the 1300s and 1500s, women were still viewed as intellectually and morally inferior to men, so non-physical traits may have been deemed unimportant by Petrarch and de la Vega. A final resemblance that can be found when analyzing Petrarch and de la Vega’s perceptions of love is the fact that each poet is so devout in his worship of this emotion that it seems to take precedence over everything else in his life. Petrarch, in his 333rd sonnet, mourns the death of his precious Laura, proclaiming that without her he is “sick of living” and that “praise of her is all my purpose here/ And all my business; that of her alone” (Petrarch 2071). This notion that he is both worthless and duty-less without Laura’s presence shows how deep and consuming his love for her truly is. De la Vega, too, shares this sentiment, disclosing that the lover who once brought him such “joy” eventually causes him to “die of memories filled with grief” (de la Vega 2073). His representation of love as a life or death situation exposes the extreme significance he associates with it. The reader begins to assume that each of the poets would sooner die than experience the loss or rejection of a lover. Overall, these two poets provide an image of love as an arduous yet unavoidable facet of life. Petrarch and de la Vega’s sonnets would come to influence countless poets of the Renaissance and beyond, both in style and form. The Petrarchan sonnet became widely popular among other poets who wished to express their feelings of love and devotion; notably, William Shakespeare parodied the style in his well-known Sonnet 130. Even in more contemporary times, love songs tend to express similarly intense thoughts and actions, as in Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” and U2’s “One.” Certainly Petrarch and de la Vega would agree that “love is a temple, love’s the higher law. ” “Antithesis Is Essential in Petrarchan Rhetoric”: Analysis of Sonnets from the Golden Age of Spanish Poetry The introduction of the Italianate sonnet form into Spanish poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries brought with it both the versification and elements of one of the most influential collections of poetry of all time – Francisco de Petrarca’s II Canzoniere. In sonnets of the Golden Age, we find the typical linguistic juxtaposition of the lover suffering from dilectoso male (‘beautiful agony’) in his poetic idealization of a single lady, an antithesis carried over from the influence of Petrarch. Antithesis can also be found however in the sonnets’ contrast between sensual and spiritual love, which are presented as irreconcilable opposites: we find poetic voices in turmoil, as sexual desire and spiritual worship are incompatible with one another according to Plato’s philosophy of love. Even the use of conceits which seek to reverse the Petrarchan idea of noble suffering and resignation to a fate of dissatisfaction in Quevedo’s sonnets arguably provides an essential antithetical contribution to the development of Petrarchan rhetoric as a whole. With its Baroque and Neo-Stoical influences, the literary environment of the 16th and 17th centuries provided opportunity for the expansion of what began as a literary technique into a theme in itself. In the original sonnets of Petrarch, we find many examples of antithesis used as a literary technique which give expression to the speaker’s suffering balanced against his willingness to endure it for the sake of the ennobling power of love. In Sonnet 132, the accumulating questions of the octave amount to a typical portrayal of the dilectoso male: ‘Se bona, onde l’effecto aspro mortale? Se ria, onde sí dolce ogni tormento? ’ Similarly in Sonnet 134, the accumulation of ‘et’ (‘and’) and caesuras structurally support the speaker’s claim he cannot speak and yet still cries out. From these examples and numerous others, we can see that antithesis is the central literary technique Petrarch uses to express the inner torment of the speaker, and that this is supported by the sonnet form which allows for a condensed paradox within stanzas of a limited length. Quevedo’s Es hielo abrasador (It is burning ice) exemplifies this very well with its anaphora and antithesis of nouns which are sometimes even reversed in adjectival form, e. g. ‘Es hielo abrasador, es fuego helado’ (‘It is burning ice, it is icy fire’). The sonnet has a clear progression from the contradictory images of love in the octave to the removed voice of the speaker reflecting that love is contradictory in itself. Thus, Quevedo recognizes and employs the Petrarchan antithesis to create a commentary on love rather than a lament with himself as the central speaker. In terms of antithesis defined as the parallel arrangement of words, it is not always the case that poets of the Golden Age employ the technique as such: rather, the juxtapositioning of ideas is achieved in a different manner, such as one idea supplanting another at the volta at the start of the sestet, even if the content is still largely Petrarchan in nature. The forty-five sonnet contribution of Luis de Góngora to the Petrarchan legacy transforms typical antithesis onto a different level. While still love sonnets, the carpe diem attitude of Mientras por competir con tu cabello (While musing on your locks) and Illvstre i hermossissima Maria (Illustrious and most beautiful Maria) merges the Neo-Stoical idea that love and beauty are both perishable with the Petrarchan-style lament. Both are heavily influenced by Garcilaso’s sonnet En tanto que de rosa y azucena (Just as roses and lillies). Mientras por competir’s linear succession of hair, forehead, lips and neck becomes through repetition a cycle in the poem which then become a vertical axis, as the features are gradually transformed into metaphorical material equivalents and, finally, into the remnants of the woman’s life on earth: ‘tierra, humo, polvo, sombra, nada’ (‘earth, smoke, dust, shadow, nothing’). While the octave begins in a deceptively tame style with the speaker contemplating the embellished beauty of the lady addressed, the carpe diem conclusion hits the reader with force in the final tercet. The repetition of ‘en’ (here ‘into’) emphasizes the stark destiny of all the qualities aforementioned, and this creates a new kind of textual antithesis together with the previous emphasis on the lady’s beauty being superior to that of nature. Whether the mortality of the lady’s beauty is comforting to the speaker or not, we are not told, but Góngora’s seeming refusal to suffer in silence for love is clear. Conversely, the difficulty of bridging the gulf between body and spirit forms a conceivable thematic antithesis in the sonnets of Quevedo and Francisco de Aldana. In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates acts as a mouthpiece for the notion that the mind was drawn upwards by beauty, and therefore loving a woman provided a spiritual stepping stone towards the achievement of knowledge and love of Absolute Beauty – God. This ideal posed a metaphysical problem for the poets of the Golden Age, evident in Aldana’s sonnet Junto a su Venus (Beside his Venus). Here, sensuous love is treated as the supreme value in life instead of that which can be gained from it: antithesis is created between the brutality of masculine love in Mars, God of War, and feminine tenderness in Venus. In a sense, the ‘fiero’ (‘fiery’) nature of Mars doused by Venus’ ‘blando’ tenderness mirrors the Petrarchan antithesis of fire and ice: these two expressions of love and the ‘fuerza extraña’ (‘strange force’) upon which they are based are united in how they govern the universe with their pacifying nature. Similarly, in Sonnet XX Aldana makes an attempt to conceive of sexuality as a good of the soul despite its inability to penetrate it or raise it up. The ‘bien’ and ‘mal’ or good and bad can be read to symbolize not necessarily good and evil, but instead the appeal of sensual pleasure derived from love and its disadvantage of being incompatible with the Petrarchan idea of idolized worship without hope of fulfilment. This use of theme as antithesis takes Petrarch’s linguistic equivalent as its predecessor, while still incorporating strong appeals to the senses and depictions of love as an overwhelming force. Quevedo’s sonnet Mándome, ay Fabio (Instruct me, dear Fabio) also exemplifies this dilemma through a number of conceits which contrast the original Petrarchan idea of antithesis. The opposition between the spirit and the senses is played out through the continuous repetition of the verbs ‘amar’ and ‘querer’, similar in their meaning of ‘to love’, yet distinct enough for one to imply divine adoration of the lady, and the other a more physical desire for her. The joy of the mind and distress of the human feeling in lines 4 and 5 are juxtaposed both through their division due to the comma and start of a new line, and through the o-a assonance of ‘llora’ (‘cries’) and ‘goza’ (‘enjoys’). The double connotation of ‘amartelado’ in line 6 as both ‘in love with’ and ‘tortured/lovesick’ enhances this contrast further, as does the echo of ‘encarcelado’ (‘imprisoned’). The lover in the sonnet appears to be relaying this order given to him by his lady to a companion, but similar to the likes of Garcilaso and Petrarch he resigns himself to this fate; but not before pointing out the inner counterforces which through the lack of possessive pronouns in lines 4-12 are more an observation of the human condition than a lament. The original Petrarchan antithesis of ‘hielo abrasador’ (‘burning ice’) can then still be seen in this sonnet of Quevedo, but concerns instead an element of Petrarchan love not previously explored: the battle between the senses and the spiritual. This passive resignation transforms into a rejection of noble suffering for love in A fugitivas sombras (Into fugitive shadows), as the speaker’s attempts ‘con nueva fuerza’ (‘with fresh energy’) to obtain his lady’s affection ends in ‘con amor me hacen pedazos’ (‘with love, they reduce me to pieces’). The Courtly Love tradition of love as suffering is present in the ‘llanto’ (‘weeping’), but here the pursuit of fulfilment in love does not lead to spiritual serenity and pleasure but instead to obsession and anguish. The use of the present and imperfect tense suggests the continuation of the lover’s suffering, and the anguished tone of the final tercet demonstrates a reversal of the Petrarchan commonplace: fidelity is no longer something the poetic persona takes pride in; instead, it has become something of which he is ashamed. This development of the struggle between sensual and spiritual love then expands typical Petrarchan antithesis by adapting it for the preoccupations of 16th and 17th century Spain. It would seem that antithesis plays a key role in Petrarchan imitation in Golden Age Spanish poetry and can therefore be considered essential in Petrarchan rhetoric. Evolving with the context of the time, the development of other paradoxical literary techniques such as the juxtaposition of the two halves of a sonnet or the insertion of a hard-hitting final line as in Góngora’s Mientras por competir con tu cabello broadened the effect of the typical Petrarchan antithesis of dilectoso male. This also contributed to the transformation of Petrarchan commonplaces, such as oro (‘gold’) denoting a lady’s hair, into almost synonyms of their comparisons: thus forming the inspiration for the conceits and wordplay of the Baroque. Overall, direct verbal antithesis is arguably not absolutely necessary for a sonnet to be considered as having a Petrarchan theme, but the turmoil created by love is always implied, even if otherwise presented. ‘Beautiful agony – Sonnet 132, Francisco de Petrarca ‘If good, why this effect: bitter, mortal? / If bad, then why is every suffering sweet? ’ – Sonnet 132, Francisco de Petrarca Soneto amoroso difiniendo el Amor, Francisco de Quevedo Soneto amoroso difiniendo el Amor, line 1, Francisco de Quevedo Sonnet 151, Luis de Góngora Sonnet 152, Luis de Góngora Sonnet XXIII, Garcilaso de la Vega Orphans of Petrarch, UC Press E-Books Collection, p195 Sonnet 151, line 14, Luis de Góngora Sonnet 2, Francisco de Aldana The Philosophy of Love in Spanish Literature, A.A. Parker, p65 The Philosophy of Love in Spanish Literature, A.A. Parker, p165 The Philosophy of Love in Spanish Literature, A.A. Parker, p167

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R-L categories correct, but text here does not match final assessment. Updated version will be published in IUCN´s Red List June or Nov 2019. According to present knowledge, Cuphophyllus lacmus is a rare species reported in 17 European countries and Greenland. Around 400 occurrences of this species in Europe are listed in GBIF (2019) database with the largest populations recorded in the United Kingdom (212 occurrences), Norway (80), Denmark (46), and Sweden (32). The species is reported from North America and Japan (Boertmann 2010, GBIF 2019) also, but preliminary genetic analyses of North American material (Lodge & al. 2013) suggest that these collections belong to another (cryptic) species. For now, it is treated as distributed in Europe only. C. lacmus occurs in semi-natural grasslands that are traditionally extensively managed by grazing (by cattle, horses, sheep, deer) and/or regular hand mowing (at least once a year) followed by sward removal. Its available habitats are heavily declining in Europe due to land abandonment and changes in modern agricultural practices including increased fertilization, use of pesticides, plowing, etc. Total estimated population of C. lacmus is at maximum of 10. 000 individuals. Its habitats, semi-natural grasslands, have also been threatened and are rapidly declining in area and quality throughout the whole of Europe (EEA Report 3/2016). Based on a decline of habitat quality and area, the projected population decline (past, ongoing and future) is at least 20% in 2 generations (30 years) or 30% in 3 generations (50 years). This meets the threshold for IUCN category Vulnerable (VU) A2c+3c+4c and C1. According to Lodge & al. (2013) H. lacmus belongs to the genus Cuphophyllus and the correct name for this taxon is Cuphophyllus lacmus (Schumach.) Bon. Another taxon, C. subviolaceus (Peck) P.D. Orton et Watling described in North America, is often regarded as a synonym of C. lacmus. Preliminary genetic analyses of North American material (Lodge & al. 2013) suggest that these two taxa are not conspecific. Therefore, North American and other extra-European specimens identified as C. lacmus or C. subviolaceus should be compared with original European material by molecular and morphological methods. Until then, C. lacmus is treated as distributed in Europe only. Camarophyllus lacmus (Schumach.) J. E. Lange Hygrocybe lacmus (Schumach.) P.D. Orton et Watling The species is reported in 17 European countries and Greenland. The species is an indicator of old, extensively managed semi-natural grasslands in Europe. Non-European occurrences are excluded (see comment in Names and taxonomy section). It is currently reported in 17 countries. GBIF database (GBIF 2019) contains around 400 occurrences of this species in Europe with the largest populations recorded in the United Kingdom (212 occurrences), Norway (80), Denmark (46), and Sweden (32). The number of localities (including possible undiscovered localities) is estimated at a maximum of 1000. It is inferred that each population consists of 10 mycelia present on one locality (Dahlberg & Mueller 2011). The total inferred population in Europe is at most comprised of 10. 000 individuals. More than 90% of semi-natural grasslands have been lost in Europe in the last century (EEA Report 3/2016). In recent times, these habitats have also been rapidly decreasing in area due to management intensification or abandonment throughout the whole of Europe (EEA Report 3/2016). Based on a decline of habitat quality and area, the projected population decline (past, ongoing and future) is at least 20% in 2 generations (ca. 30 years) or 30% in 3 generations (ca. 50 years). The species is listed in many national fungal Red Lists in Europe (e. g. Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland). Population Trend: Decreasing Cuphophyllus lacmus occurs in unimproved, semi-natural grasslands, both on acidic and basic soils (Boertmann 2010), from lowlands up to 2300 m alt. in the Alps. Only rarely it is found in open woodlands. Suitable grassland habitats are those traditionally managed by grazing (by cattle, horses, sheep, deer) and/or regular hand mowing. These management practices maintain the low levels of available nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil needed for the existence of many rare and endangered fungal species associated with semi-natural grasslands. Grassland fungal communities with high conservation value are characterized by a great number of species from genera Camarophyllopsis s. l. , Hygrocybe s. l. , Entoloma, and Dermoloma, and families Clavariaceae and Geoglossaceae. Hygrocybe species were mostly regarded as saprotrophic in the past. Recently, Halbwachs et al. (2018) made an analysis of stable isotopes in their fruitbodies and suggested that Hygrocybe s. l. species are either endophytes or possibly form mycorrhizal relationships with plants. Cuphophyllus lacmus is threatened by fragmentation, degradation and loss of semi-natural grasslands in Europe. The main agriculture-related pressures/threats to European grassland habitats are abandonment of traditional management systems, lack of grazing and mowing, fertilisation, modification of cultivation practices, and agricultural intensification (EEA 2015). Fungal indicator species of valuable semi-natural grasslands are increasingly threatened by these practices and their populations have been decreasing throughout the whole of Europe. In contrast to traditional extensive management methods (grazing and/or hand mowing), the more recent intensification of farming has resulted in a dramatic decline of grassland biodiversity in other groups of organisms as well. A strong decline of grassland birds and a 45% decline in the butterfly population is reported in Western Europe in recent decades (Rounsevell et al. 2018). The most important actions for conservation of Cuphophyllus lacmus are the protection of valuable semi-natural grasslands and their active preservation by traditional management methods. Criteria used for selection of high conservation value semi-natural grasslands should be richness and species composition of their CHEGD fungi (species of genera Hygrocybe, Entoloma, Dermoloma, and of families Geoglossaceae and Clavariaceae). Some semi-natural grasslands are already integrated within protected areas but management of these habitats is not always well suited to conservation of mycobiota. Protected grasslands should be actively managed by extensive grazing (by cattle, horses, sheep, etc. ) or regular hand mowing followed by sward removal (at least once or twice a year). Besides Europe, Cuphophyllus lacmus is reported in North America and Japan (Boertmann 2010, GBIF 2019). Preliminary analyses of North American material (Lodge & al. 2013) designated as C. subviolaceus suggest that it is not conspecific with C. lacmus (in the original European sense). Morphological and molecular characters of available specimens from Japan and North America should be studied thoroughly and comparison with European material is needed. Boertmann D (2010). The genus Hygrocybe. Fungi of Northern Europe 1. 2nd revised edition. Danish Mycological Society, Copenhagen. Dahlberg A., Mueller G. M. (2011) Applying IUCN red-listing criteria for assessing and reporting on the conservation status of fungal species. Fungal Ecology 4: 147–162. EC (2012) Rural development in the European Union — Statistical and economic information — 2012 (http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/statistics/ruraldevelopment/2012/) EEA (2016) Mapping and assessing the condition of Europe’s ecosystems: progress and challenges. EEA Report 3/2016. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen. European Environment Agency (2015). State of nature in the EU. Technical report No 2/2015. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen. GBIF (2019) Hygrocybe lacmus (Schumach.) P.D.Orton & Watling. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF. org on 2019-03-10. Griffith GW, Gamarra JGP, Holden EM, Mitchel D, Graham A, Evans DA, Evans SE, Aron C, Noordeloos ME, Kirk PM, Smith SLN, Woods RG, Hale AD, Easton GL, Ratkowsky DA, Stevens DP, Halbwachs H (2013) The international conservation importance of Welsh „waxcap‟ grasslands. Mycosphere 4(5): 969–984. https://doi.org/10.5943/mycosphere/4/5/10 Halbwachs H, Easton GL, Bol R, Hobbie EA, Garnett MH, Peršoh D, Dixon L, Ostle N, Karasch P, Griffith GW (2018). Isotopic evidence of biotrophy and unusual nitrogen nutrition in soil-dwelling Hygrophoraceae. Environmental Microbiology 20(10):3573-3588. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14327 Halbwachs H, Karasch P, Griffith GW (2013) The diverse habitats of Hygrocybe – peeking into an enigmatic lifestyle. Mycosphere 4(4): 773–792. https://doi.org/10.5943/mycosphere/4/4/14 Janssen J.A.M., Rodwell J.S., García Criado M., Gubbay S., Haynes T., Nieto A., Sanders N., Landucci F., Loidi J., Ssymank A., Tahvanainen T., Valderrabano M., Acosta A., Aronsson M., Arts G., Attorre F., Bergmeier E., Bijlsma R.-J., Bioret F., Biţă-Nicolae C., Biurrun I., Calix M., Capelo J., Čarni A., Chytrý M., Dengler J., Dimopoulos P., Essl F., Gardfjell H., Gigante D., Giusso del Galdo G., Hájek M., Jansen F., Jansen J., Kapfer J., Mickolajczak A., Molina J.A., Molnár Z., Paternoster D., Piernik A., Poulin B., Renaux B., Schaminée J.H.J., Šumberová K., Toivonen H., Tonteri T., Tsiripidis I., Tzonev R., Valachovič M. (2016). European Red List of habitats. Part 2. Terrestrial and freshwater habitats. European Union, Luxembourg. Kovalenko AE (1989) Definitorium fungorum URSS. Ordo Hygrophorales. Nauka 37, Leningrad. Lodge DJ, Padamsee M, Matheny PB, Aime MC, Cantrell SA, Boertmann D, Kovalenko A, Vizzini A, Dentinger BTM, Kirk PM, Ainsworth AM, Moncalvo J-M, Vilgalys R, Larsson E, Lücking R, Griffith GW, Smith ME, Norvell LL, Desjardin DE, Redhead SA, Ovrebo CL, Lickey EB, Ercole E, Hughes KW, Courtecuisse R, Young A, Binder M, Minnis AM, Lindner DL, Ortiz-Santana B, Haight J, Læssøe T, Baroni TJ, Geml J, Hattori T (2013). Molecular phylogeny, morphology, pigment chemistry and ecology in Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales). Fungal Diversity 64:1-99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-013-0259-0 Ridding L. E., Redhead J. W., Pywell R. F. (2015) Fate of semi-natural grassland in England between 1960 and 2013: A test of national conservation policy. Global Ecology and Conservation 4: 516–525. Rounsevell M., Fischer M., Torre-Marin Rando A, Mader A. (eds. ) (2018). The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Europe and Central Asia. Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany. 892 pp.

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Advanced Data Tidying The steps described in Basic Workflow For Checking and Cleaning a Project and Constructing Variables to Make Analysis Easy will be sufficient for most in terms of preparing your data. However, where the data is to be used by groups that are relatively inexperienced in data analysis, or, those under extreme time pressure, it can be useful to tidy your data further. - 1 Which questions go where - 2 Tidying questions - 3 Removing irrelevant SUM and NET categories - 4 Creating a report "shell" - 5 Sharing data and results - 6 See also Which questions go where Where the users are very familiar with the questionnaire and its structure, it is usually best to have the data file reflect the order of the questionnaire. In other situations, the following structures can be better: - Ordering data according to how often it will be used, with the most regularly used data at the top (e. g., demographics and segments). - General-to-specific. For instance, category questions could be listed first, then brand questions. And, in the case of trackers, you may choose to have questions that are current and consistently asked at the top and historic or ad-hoc questions at the bottom. - WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY. - SITUATION (when, who with and other aspects of context), BEHAVIOR (i. e., action), and PERSON (personality, values, demographics, etc. ). - INFORMATION SEARCH, AWARENESS, CONSIDERATION, TRIAL, USAGE FREQUENCY and SATISFACTION. - DEMOGRAPHICS, MEDIA, ATTITUDES, CATEGORY BEHAVIOUR, BRAND BEHAVIOUR. Standard analysis variables Any standard analysis variables should be included in the data file or created. These will typically vary by client and industry. For example: - In packaged goods and financial services studies "family lifestage" is usually relevant. - In media studies Age-by-Gender is often valuable. - Medical studies typically create variables on patient attributes. Hiding uninteresting data Creating sections headings in the data Although Q does not allow you to create folders of variables, you can get a similar effect by inserting variables as section headings. Sections can be created in Q by inserting a new Binary Variable and giving it a distinctive design to separate blocks of questions in your data. For instance, you may make it indented and in capitals such as NEEDS AND WANTS and show the proportion of people to complete the section, with the label showing a description of the sample. Names and labels Often the names shown in the Question and Label fields of the Variables and Questions tab are messy, containing strange programming characters and truncated question wordings. It is generally a good idea to: - Tidy them. - Abbreviate them, so that when they appear in menus and exports they are easy-to-read. - If the questionnaire has been ordered by question number, include the question number in the name of the question (e. g., Q1. Age). Note that you can include the full wording of the question in the footer (see below). The following can be useful ways of quickly tidying up names and labels: - Ensuring that they are created in a neat and organized way in the original data file (e. g., see SPSS Data File Specifications). - Modifications can be made to label using Find/Replace, which supports wildcards (see Find Replace). - Copying and pasting the Label column into Excel, modifying in Excel, and pasting back into Q again (by right-clicking the first variable and selecting Paste Labels). - Preliminary Project Setup - Search for Improved Question Names in Data Labels - Preliminary Project Setup - Remove Truncated Text from Variable Labels Sorting categories within a question Sorting can either be done manually, by dragging-and-dropping, but there are also several options for automatic sorting. These can be found by typing the word sorting into the Search features and data box in the top right of the Q window. The options are: - Select Sorting and Reordering - Sort from Highest to Lowest (Does Not Update When Data Changes) to sort all questions in the project once according to the data in their SUMMARY tables. - Select Sorting and Reordering - Sort Rows (Automatically Updates when Data Changes) to apply a table Rule to any selected tables which sorts them according to the results currently shown in the table. Merging together small categories Merge together categories with small counts (e. g., collapsing age categories and brands with less than 2% market share). This is often best done by: - Select Automate > Browse Online Library Preliminary Project Setup > Create Tables for Data Checking. This creates tables containing data with small counts. - Merging together categories by dragging-and-dropping. Removing irrelevant SUM and NET categories Creating a report "shell" It is sometimes useful when setting up a project to create the "shell" of a report, which can be be modified as per requirements by users. The Report tree in Q is a useful way of setting out the most important findings in the data, or for providing an overview against key groups such as segments, countries or targets. Depending on the user, this will either be: - A set of summary tables or charts, that can provide a starting point for the user to use in exploring the project. - A set of crosstabs with all the tables crossed by a few standard questions Although there are lots of tools within Q for quickly creating a number of overview tables, the most straightforward approach may be to use one of the following scripts: - Select Automate > Browse Online Library. - Select and run whichever seems most appropriate of: Where a question has only been asked to a subset of the sample, it can be useful to create a a relevant footer and apply it to the appropriate tables. Footers can be customized. In most cases, this is best done using Table Options. However, if adding footnotes containing question wordings, this is best done using Automate > Browse Online Library > Modifying Footers > Description of Selected Data (e. g., Question name, skips, filtering). Changing the Appearance of Charts and Tables Sample size warnings and automated data hiding - Type the words sample size into the Search features and data box in the top right of the Q window - Select the desired option from the QScripts and Rules section of the results. For example: Statistics can be placed on multiple tables at one time by either: - Multi-selecting lots of tables and using whichever is appropriate of Statistics - Cells, Statistics - Right and Statistics - Below. - Rules (e. g., Modifying The Whole Table or Plot - Always Show Sample Size). With tables involving Pick One - Multi and Pick One questions, it is often a good idea to use Statistics - Right and Statistics - Below when setting up the project, as many users will not discover these on their own. Customizing the names of statistics Statistics can be renamed (e. g., changing Average to Mean or Net Promoter Score), by either: - Edit > Project Options > Customize > Output Text which will rename the statistics for the entire project. - Edit > Table Options > Output Text which will rename the statistics for the selected tables. - Using Rules (e. g., Modifying Headers - Automatically Rename Row Labels). However, in general, it is often a bad a idea to rename statistics, as it can make it hard for users to understand how Q works, as it will cause the version they are using to appear different to the version that appears in all of Q's documentation. Sharing data and results - Setting Up Your Data in Q for an overview of how to set up data in Q - File Formats Supported by Q - Manipulating data files - Basic Workflow For Checking and Cleaning a Project - Constructing Variables to Make Analysis Easy - Setting Statistical Assumptions When Setting Up Projects - Exporting, Copying and Printing - Updating Projects with New or Revised Data - Converting Other Files Types into SPSS or CSV Data Files) Further reading: NPS Analysis Tool

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Africa Human Development Report 2016Gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa on average $US95 billion a year, peaking at US$105 billion in 2014– or six percent of the region’s GDP – jeopardising the continent’s efforts for inclusive human development and economic growth, according to the Africa Human Development Report 2016. The report analyses the political, economic and social drivers that hamper African women’s advancement and proposes policies and concrete actions to close the gender gap. These include addressing the contradiction between legal provisions and practice in gender laws; breaking down harmful social norms and transforming discriminatory institutional settings; and securing women’s economic, social and political participation. Deeply-rooted structural obstacles such as unequal distribution of resources, power and wealth, combined with social institutions and norms that sustain inequality are holding African women, and the rest of the continent, back. The report estimates that a 1 percent increase in gender inequality reduces a country’s human development index by 0. 75 percent.

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What is Nurses Notes Templates : Nurses notes templates are the best tool that can be used by nurses in order to record their notes as well as organize them. These notes are of immense importance in the course of their medical practice because they allow them to clearly and concisely express their opinions on various situations that arise throughout the course of their medical career. They can easily create a list of things that need their immediate attention and write a brief summary about these issues. Furthermore, this will enable the nurse to effectively communicate his/her thoughts and feelings about these issues with the other members of the medical team. There are numerous types of nurses notes templates which are widely available in the market today and the kind of template that you choose should depend upon the nature of your needs. Nurses notes templates can be classified into two categories: traditional and non-traditional templates. On the other hand, non-traditional templates are considered to be the most suitable templates because they offer many advantages over traditional templates. Below is a brief explanation of the main differences between traditional and non-traditional templates. Standard Format of a Nursing Note : Standard format writing of a nurses notes like this example : |Temperature:||Universal Precautions Followed:| |Respiration:||Hand washing, gloves worn, sharps disposal, alcohol, gel/hand cleanser, other:| |Apical Pulse:||Homebound Status:| |Radial Pulse:||Coordination of care: RN, LVN, therapist:| |Next is Physical Assessment:||HHA, MSW Discussion:| |Respiratory:||Physician contact: N/A, Yes, Discussion:| |Gastro Intestinal:||Discharge Planning:| |Neurological information:||5 Day Discharge notice given to patient/physician:| |Musculoskeletal:||Patient/caregiver satisfied with care:| |Circulatory:||Change in ADL needs assessment:| |Skin Conditions:||Care provided according to assignment:| |Gu Status:||Employee courteous, respectful:| |Under that is the Pain Assessment Notes:||Continue Frequency at:| |Pain or No Pain:||Supervisory visit onsite:| |Location, Duration:||Employee Name:| |Intensity on a scale of 1-10:||LVN, HHA:| |Under that goes current pain medications:||Instructed in:| |Results: FSBS, RBS||Wound Care:| |Under that is Skilled Nursing Care Performed:||Signs/symptoms of infection:| |Additional clinical findings:||Teachings of wound care:| |Progress Toward Goals on POC:||Dressing Change:| |New identified problems/goals:||Additional Comments:| Non-Traditional templates are generally less expensive compared to traditional ones. This is mainly because, they do not have to be purchased new from hospitals or medical practices. The templates are also free for use by other nurses and doctors. This means that nurses and doctors do not have to spend money on purchasing different versions of templates in order to record their notes. Traditional nurses notes templates, on the other hand, require buying of new templates. This is because the old versions may contain errors which can be very harmful to the accuracy level of the note that you have created. You may even encounter some mistakes and inconsistencies in the content of the note. This is why these templates require a lot of money, which can be expensive to some extent. Non-traditional templates are not subject to the approval process by the state nursing board. They do not have to be approved or cleared by a panel of experts before they can be used in hospitals. These templates are also considered to be free for use and can be downloaded from the internet anytime. Traditional templates do not require any customization process when you want to create a note of your own. This means that you can simply copy the text of any existing note and modify it as per your requirement. Psychiatric Nurses Notes Templates Psychiatric nurses notes templates are a way to communicate the unique needs of psychiatric nursing care to your patients. As a registered nurse, you have many responsibilities to help them and they deserve to receive quality healthcare. You can be a part of a team that has the ability to help the patient to regain their self esteem and function at a high level. The use of notes in the mental health care industry has made the life of the patient a lot easier. Many people feel as though their care is not personalized and this can lead to frustration on their part. You are their voice and you should be giving them something meaningful to read every time you write out a psychiatric nurses notes. This will make their time with you so much more enjoyable and more productive as well. You have to remember to keep the content relevant to the patient’s situation. Remember that these notes are just a tool for communication. You should always look for new ways to improve your techniques to better serve your patients. A good note template will make this easier and more effective. If you want to learn more about this kind of note template then check out my website below. I will teach you how to use these note templates effectively. Note templates are one of the most important tools which are required by nurses in the course of their professional life. However, it is also considered to be a very cumbersome task. For this reason, nurses should make use both traditional and non-traditional templates in order to accomplish their job tasks. This will make the task of writing medical notes much easier for them. The Narrative nursing note (also referred to as a Medical Note or Nursing Report), is a document that contains information about a patient written by a licensed nurse who has worked in a medical setting. It is typically written for the purposes of providing a personal perspective of the patient to the patient, as well as to the healthcare provider who will be dealing with the patient in the future. The primary purpose of these notes is to provide a more personal level of care and information than would be available to an outside source. These notes are also often used as a tool when reviewing a patient’s medical history and/or evaluating their current situation, which is done during a physical exam. Because of the nature of the information contained in these documents, it is often requested by physicians or other healthcare providers who are reviewing patients’ files. There are many benefits to using a Narrative Nursing Note Template. For example, the information contained in these notes can be very informative, particularly if the data is presented in a more personal and more detailed manner. Additionally, these notes are often reviewed more frequently, especially if they contain more detailed information and data. Another benefit of using a nursing note template is that they are less expensive to produce. While a traditional note may take weeks or months to complete, a note from a nursing note template can be completed in less than a day, or even in one or two hours. Also, these notes do not require the same amount of research and paperwork that a typical note would need to undergo. By producing a note from a nursing template, the process of writing the note itself is made simple and quick. The main disadvantage of using a Narrative Note template is that it is more likely to be utilized as a means to provide more information to the healthcare provider than an actual written medical note. This is because the data in a nursing note template will only include data that was obtained through a physical examination. This data may not be accurate. However, this should be expected because most nurses are not qualified to assess a patient’s medical history or the type of care that a patient is receiving. Some doctors consider note templates to be unnecessary since they do not use them at all. They prefer to write their own notes because they are more comfortable and they get the feeling of independence when they create their own notes. However, note templates are not only used by doctors. They are also often used by nurses, who need to create notes for official purposes. This is because they are considered to be one of the best resources that are available for nurses in the course of their professional career. Using the Nursing Progress Notes template is a simple way to add value to your nursing degree by making your educational documentation more appealing. The template is easy to use and allows you to customize it to your specific needs, as well as the needs of your employers. The role of nurses notes templates is essential in a medical profession as they serve as the best tools that nurses can use in their work. They can use them in order to record medical histories, patient’s prescriptions, notes about surgeries, hospitalizations, and much more. A well-designed note will help the nurse in creating an easy-to-read document. Free Skilled Nursing However, note templates should always be written clearly and should be written in such a way that they are not difficult for other people to understand. This is so because nurses cannot afford any kind of misunderstanding.

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Blueberry extract and strawberry extract may protect the brain from aging and from radiation Extracts from blueberries and strawberries could protect against the free radical damage to the brain seen with aging. They may even protect astronauts from the extreme radiation they encounter in space according to the results of this NASA (partially) funded study. Scientists at both Tufts University and the University of Maryland divided rats into three equal groups and supplemented two of the groups with either a 2% blueberry or a 2% strawberry extract for two months. At this point half the rats from each group were exposed to a radioactive metal isotope to inflict the type of free radical damage that causes cognitive decline and decreases mobility with aging. This type of radioactive exposure causes deterioration in the brain that affects cognitive function, motor performance (movement, balance, and coordination), learning and memory according to research and it is used in brain aging research. The rats not supplemented with either the blueberry or the strawberry extract had a significant reduction in learning and dopamine release in the brain was impaired. The rats on the blueberry extract had an improvement of reversal learning; learning if something is good or bad for them and then learning the opposite. This reversal learning is dependent on a healthy striatal region of the brain; an area involved with balance, walking, movement, and executive function (planning, abstract thinking and problem solving, appropriate behavior, inhibiting inappropriate behavior, filtering out irrelevant sensory input, etc). The striatum is dependent on the neurotransmitter dopamine. The strawberry extract supplemented rats had seemed to have protection in the hippocampal area of the brain. This region of the brain is important for memory and learning. The research has implications for treating diseases associated with cognitive decline including Parkinson? s disease and Alzheimer? s disease. The researchers claim that the radioactive isotope used in the rat brains resembles that encountered in space and that the fruit extracts may be used in the future to protect astronauts from radiation encountered in space. The research is published in the early, on-line, ahead of print version of the journal Neurobiology of Aging. Commentary by Jerry Hickey, R.Ph. Studies show it is not the caffeine which helps decrease the risk of developing diabetes but probably the polyphenols.

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Introduction to Leviticus (Leviticus 1) Moses evidently wrote much of Leviticus sometime in the first month [Abib or Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to March-April] of the second year of the wandering of Israel (compare Exodus 40:17; Numbers 1:1; 10:11)perhaps putting it in its final form shortly before his death nearly 40 years later. The book's Hebrew name, Wayyiqva, meaning "And He Called," is taken from the first words of the book. The Greek title, from the Septuagint, is LeuitikonLatinized in the Vulgate as Leviticuswhich means "pertaining to Levites." However, this title is somewhat misleading as the book does not deal with the Levites as a whole but more with the priests, the family of Aaron, a segment of the Levites. (The Levites as a whole are not sanctified until the book of Numbers.) Perhaps more appropriate titles for the book would be those found for it in the Jewish Talmud"The Law of the Priests" and "The Law of the Offerings." The Aaronic priesthood was divinely ordained by God as a mediator between Him and the nation of Israel. As this book directed, the priests were to officiate over an elaborate system of sacrifices and rituals. The book of Hebrews tells us that "all this is symbolic, pointing to the present time [of Christ's redemption]. The offerings and sacrifices there prescribed cannot give the worshipper inward perfection. It is only a matter of food and drink and various rites of cleansingoutward ordinances in force until the time of reformation" (9:9-10, New English Bible)that is, the time of Christ's death and resurrection followed by the giving of the Holy Spirit to the New Testament Church. Nevertheless, the sacrificial system was from Godand served a valuable purpose in that it was part of what was ultimately intended to lead people to Christ (see Galatians 3:24-25). Indeed, there will again be sacrifices after Christ returns (see Ezekiel 46:1-15). Jesus has, of course, become the true sacrifice for all mankind. Thus, there is no need for the sacrifice of animals at this time: "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He [Jesus] came into the world, He said: 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, "Behold, I have comein the volume of the book it is written of Meto do Your will, O God."' Previously saying, 'Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them' (which are offered according to the law), then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:4-12). It should also be noted that the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus Christ has now taken over from the Aaronic priesthood. Jesus is now the Mediator between God and man (see Hebrews 7-10). And, in fact, Christians are now priests serving under Him (1 Peter 2:5, 9). Indeed, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ was not the only thing typified in the various sacrifices of the Old Testament. They also represented our following Christ's example today, presenting ourselves as offerings: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). Realizing this amazing fact, as The Nelson Study Bible's introductory notes on this book explains, "modern Christians can learn much from Leviticus. The holiness of God, the necessity of holy living, the great cost of atonement and forgiveness, the privilege and responsibility of presenting only our best to God, the generosity of God that enables His people to be generousthese are only some of the lessons. Leviticus reveals the holiness of God and His love for His people in ways found nowhere else in the Bible. Ultimately, Leviticus calls God's people of all ages to the great adventure of patterning life after God's holy purposes. " Before looking at each of the five main offerings detailed in the first seven chapters of Leviticus, it is recommended that those wishing to study them in much greater depth read a 19th-century book by author Andrew Jukes titled The Law of the Offerings. It is available to order through the Internet or you can probably find it at your local library or Christian bookstore, as it is considered the standard work on this topic. While we would not agree with Jukes' book in a number of particulars, it is biblically sound in many important respects and offers some incredible insights into the subject. Be warned, however, that because of its older and somewhat elevated style, it does not always make for easy reading. Burnt Offerings (Leviticus 1) We often think of Old Testament sacrifices as simply typical of Christ's death. But there is far more to it than that. As Andrew Jukes explains, offerings were "divided into two great and distinctive classesfirst, the sweet savour offerings, which were all. . . oblations for acceptance; and secondly, those offerings which were not of a sweet savour, and which were required as an expiation for sin. The first class, comprising the Burnt-offering, the [Grain]-offering, and the Peace-offeringwere offered on the [bronze] altar which stood in the Court of the Tabernacle. The second classthe Sin and Trespass-offeringswere not consumed on the altar: some of them were burnt on the earth without the camp; others the priest ate, having first sprinkled the blood for atonement. In the first class, sin is not seen or thought of: it is the faithful Israelite giving a sweet offering to [the Eternal]. In the Sin-offerings it is just the reverse: it is an offering charged with the sin of the offerer. Thus, in the first classthat is, the Burnt-offering, the [Grain]-offering, and the Peace-offeringthe offerer came for acceptance as a worshipper. In the second class, in the Sin and Trespass-offerings, he came as a sinner to pay the penalty of sin and trespass. In either case the offering was without blemish. . . . But in the [sweet aroma offering], the offerer appears as man in perfectness, and in his offering stands the trial of firethat is, God's searching holiness; and accepted as a fragrant savour, all ascends a sweet offering to [the Eternal]. In the other, the offerer appears as a sinner, and in his offering bears the penalty due to his offences" (pp. 55-56). In the case of the burnt offering, we are not "to consider Christ as the Sin-bearer, but as man in perfectness meeting God in holiness. The thought here is not, 'God hath made Him to be sin for us' [2 Corinthians 5:21], but rather, 'He loved us, and gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savour' [Ephesians 5:2]. Jesus.. . both in the Burnt-offering and Sin-offering, stood as our representative. . . . We have here what we may in vain search for elsewhereman giving to God what truly satisfies Him" (pp. 56-57). But it is not only the way that Christ lived His life on earth 2,000 years ago that is pictured here. Rather, Christ lives in us today as the same burnt offering. Thus, we are enabled to present ourselves as "living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1)offering a "sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God" (Philippians 4:18) by giving ourselves wholly to Him (compare 2 Corinthians 8:5). Indeed, the burnt offering was wholly consumed, symbolizing "that the worshiper must hold nothing in reserve when coming to God; everything is consumed in the relationship between God and the sincere worshiper" (Nelson Study Bible, note on Leviticus 1:3). Jesus, of course, set the perfect example in this. Jukes explains: "Man's duty to God is not the giving up of one faculty, but the entire surrender of all. . . . I cannot doubt that the type refers to this in speaking so particularly of the parts of the Burnt-offering; for 'the head,' 'the fat,' 'the legs,' 'the inwards,' are all distinctly enumerated. 'The head' is the well-known emblem of the thoughts; 'the legs' the emblem of the walk; and 'the inwards' the constant and familiar symbol of the feelings and affections of the heart. The meaning of 'the fat' may not be quite so obvious, though here also Scripture helps us to the solution [Psalm 17:10; 92:14; 119:70; Deuteronomy 32:15]. It represents the energy not of one limb or faculty, but the general health and vigour of the whole. In Jesus these were all surrendered, and all without spot or blemish. Had there been but one affection in the heart of Jesus which was not yielded to His Father's will. . . then He could not have offered Himself or been accepted as 'a whole burnt-offering to [the Eternal]. ' But Jesus gave up all: He reserved nothing. All was burnt, all consumed upon the altar" (pp. 63-64). This is the same end to which we strivethrough Christ living His life in us today.

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URBANA, Ill. - A new University of Illinois study finds that obese children are slower than healthy-weight children to recognize when they have made an error and correct it. The research is the first to show that weight status not only affects how quickly children react to stimuli but also impacts the level of activity that occurs in the cerebral cortex during action monitoring. "I like to explain action monitoring this way: when you're typing, you don't have to be looking at your keyboard or your screen to realize that you've made a keystroke error. That's because action monitoring is occurring in your brain's prefrontal cortex," said Charles Hillman, a U of I professor of kinesiology and faculty member in the U of I's Division of Nutritional Sciences. As an executive control task that requires organizing, planning, and inhibiting, action monitoring requires people to be computational and conscious at all times as they process their behavior. Because these higher-order cognitive processes are needed for success in mathematics and reading, they are linked with success in school and positive life outcomes, he said. "Imagine a child in a math class constantly checking to make sure she's carrying the digit over when she's adding. That's an example," he added. In the study, the scientists measured the behavioral and neuroelectric responses of 74 preadolescent children, half of them obese, half at a healthy weight. Children were fitted with caps that recorded electroencephalographic activity and asked to participate in a task that presented left- or right-facing fish, predictably facing in either the same or the opposite direction. Children were asked to press a button based on the direction of the middle (that is, target) fish. The flanking fish either pointed in the same direction (facilitating) or in the opposite direction (hindering) their ability to respond successfully. "We found that obese children were considerably slower to respond to stimuli when they were involved in this activity," Hillman said. The researchers also found that healthy-weight children were better at evaluating their need to change their behavior in order to avoid future errors. "The healthy-weight kids were more accurate following an error than the obese children were, and when the task required greater amounts of executive control, the difference was even greater," he reported. A second evaluation measured electrical activity in the brain "that occurs at the intersection of thought and action," Hillman said. "We can measure what we call error-related negativity (ERN) in the electrical pattern that the brain generates following errors. When children made an error, we could see a larger negative response. And we found that healthy-weight children are better able to upregulate the neuroelectric processes that underlie error evaluation. " Scientists in the Hillman lab and elsewhere have seen a connection between healthy weight and academic achievement, "but a study like this helps us understand what's happening. There are certainly physiological differences in the brain activity of obese and healthy-weight children. It's exciting to be able to use functional brain imaging to see the way children's weight affects the aspects of cognition that influence and underlie achievement," said postdoctoral researcher and co-author Naiman Khan. "The Negative Association of Childhood Obesity to Cognitive Control of Action Monitoring" is available pre-publication online in Cerebral Cortex at http://cercor.

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The September war that was I A REHMAN The September 1965 war days were, to borrow from Dickens, the best of times (for the people of Pakistan) and the worst of times. For 17 days in September 1965, the Pakistani nation achieved a unity of action and purpose it had not demonstrated before and has not displayed since. The people of Lahore woke up on the morning of Sept 6, 1965, to realise that what they had been told could not happen had come to pass. Contrary to the authorities' belief that India could not attack Pakistan across the international border, its troops had actually crossed Wagah and then driven up to Jallo and withdrawn a little, frightened by the lack of resistance. Within no time the undefended city found defenders who wrote with their blood tales of matchless valour and commitment to protect the motherland. Names of Sarwar Shaheed, Aziz Bhatti Shaheed and Shafqat Baloch rose to the top in the people's pantheon of heroes. The list soon grew with the addition of more heroes - Sarfaraz Rafiqui Shaheed, Cecil Chaudhry, M M Alam - who shot down many planes in the air and on the ground. The Lahore front was soon stabilised and quick victory was won in the Khem Karan sector. The Lahorites could not decide what they liked better - the spectacle of aerial dogfight in daytime or the roar of Rani (a heavy gun) at night. Soon afterwards the tank battle at Chawinda in the Sialkot sector caught the people's imagination. The battle was grim but the spirits were high. Poets offered soul-lifting lyrics and Noor Jahan led a galaxy of singers to inspire soldiers and citizens alike. It was wonderful to be buoyed up by belief in the justness of the national cause and confidence in the state's capacity to meet the challenge. But the heady feeling of victory faded quickly and many in Pakistan realised they had gone through a poor patch in their history. The story of those days has been told so often. How the victory in the Rann of Kutch was exaggerated, how the situation in Kashmir after Sheikh Abdullah's arrest was misread, how the plan of sending guerrillas there did not work out, how the thrust towards Akhnoor was thwarted, and how Ayub Khan lost his nerve when his tanks sank in the marshes. Eventually, the international intervention and ceasefire came as a relief. The question as to who won the war has been answered many times over. But soon afterwards questions began being asked; why was intelligence about India's troop movement ignored? Why was the theory of inviolability of international borders accepted? Why were soldiers provided with old maps? Why was faith pinned on 'guerrillas'? And why was US support expected when it had consistently declared that its arms could not be used against India? The aftermath of the September war was far from pleasant. The objectives of Operations Gibraltar and Grand Slam were not realised and Pakistan's case on Kashmir suffered a setback. The number of Kashmiris who backed Pakistan declined and so did Islamabad's ability to invoke the UN resolutions. For reasons still largely obscure, Pakistan did not derive full advantage of the Tashkent Declaration, whose denunciation started a new phase of Moscow's disenchantment with Pakistan and ultimately persuaded it to sign the Friendship Agreement with India, without which the East Pakistan war of 1971 might not have ended the way it did. In 1965, Pakistan received wholesome support from China and a number of Muslim countries - Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and even Afghanistan. Malaysia fell out of line and Islamabad had to break off relations with it. Factors as yet unknown caused these countries' support to Pakistan to wane considerably by the time Islamabad landed itself in the fatal crisis of 1970-71 The 1965 war did the Indian Muslim some good in the sense that many of them stopped looking at Pakistan for succour and accepted, as Mohammad Ali Jinnah had advised them in 1947, their responsibilities as citizens of India. The battle of Chawinda, which filled most Pakistani hearts with pride while tanks wrestled with one another, failed to impress the experts later on. They said the ritual of daily clash of metal, with neither side showing skill and capacity to clinch the issue, did not merit mention along with the tank battles in Africa during the Second World War. On Sept 6, President Ayub appealed to the people to fight in the name of religion. His campaign for keeping faith out of politics came to an end. It was left to the editor of a Dhaka daily, Zahoor Husain Chaudhry, to remind him," the more you swear by religion the smaller will your state become". One consequence of the war was a belated inquiry as to who had pushed Pakistan over the precipice. The story that Ayub was led up the garden path by his advisers is belied by his statements on the days preceding Sept 6. However, he dropped Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto from the cabinet, and Kalabagh forced a battle on him. The result: Pakistan was never the same again. Meanwhile, throughout the 17 days of the conflict the East Bengal people were isolated from Pakistan and they were feeling defenceless and abandoned. The theory that East Bengal's defence lay in West Pakistan was finally buried in 1971. The war directly led to the emergence of the Six Points. Ibn Abdur Rehman is a Pakistani peace and human-rights advocate and a veteran communist. The article first appeared in Dawn

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About Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral is an imposing medieval structure with a history dating back to Norman times. First consecrated in 1092, around 20 years after Lincoln was designated a seat of a bishopric, Lincoln Cathedral was then the home of medieval Britain’s first Norman Bishop, Remigius. Since that time, Lincoln Cathedral has been renovated and rebuilt several times, mostly following damage caused to it by disasters. These included a fire in around 1141 and an earthquake in 1185, after each of which Lincoln Cathedral had to be at least partially rebuilt. In the 1230’s the cathedral’s central tower collapsed, replaced in 1255 and raised to its current height in 1311. The result is that Lincoln Cathedral boasts a wealth of architectural influences. Guided tours of the cathedral are available (see website for times).

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (May 1, 2017) - The tip of our optic nerve is typically the first place injured by glaucoma. Now researchers want to know if the powerful pain medicine (+)-pentazocine can help avoid the damage. Their focus is star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes that normally nourish and protect the neurons in the eye, called retinal ganglion cells, at the juncture where the optic nerve sends visual information to the brain so we can see. Glaucoma appears to change the relationship between these two brain cell types so that astrocytes move from supportive to destructive mode. "The theory is that in glaucoma, through some complicated set of mechanisms that may be dependent on intraocular pressure, the astrocytes may change so that they become toxic to neurons," said Dr. Kathryn Bollinger, ophthalmologist, glaucoma specialist and retinal cell biologist at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. Bollinger, this year's only recipient of a mid-career physician scientist grant from the American Glaucoma Society, wants to prevent the conversion and potentially make the astrocytes even more supportive in this high-pressure scenario. "Our thought for how we can better treat glaucoma is to protect the neurons directly," Bollinger said. "That is what we are trying to do," she said of therapies that may one day be used alongside existing strategies that work to either increase the amount of fluid drained from or produced by the eye. Her target in the astrocytes is sigma-1 receptor, or S1R, a protein found throughout the body that is believed to have the innate role of protecting neurons. In fact, S1R's demise is associated with neurodegenerative disease, like Alzheimer's. In some complex central nervous system disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke, using small molecules to activate S1R appears to help protect against the classic neuron damage and death that occurs in these diseases, and that Bollinger would like to prevent in glaucoma. Also, research animals with S1R deleted have slow progressing, age-associated death of neurons in the eye that is similar to what can occur in glaucoma as well as death of motor neurons that produce ALS-like symptoms. The problem in glaucoma appears to be that astrocytes become too reactive and more S1R may be part of the solution. Astrocytes need to be activated following an injury to help neurons recover but when they become reactive they go from being nurturing to noxious, increasing in number but forming disruptive scar tissue. They also begin to release substances like the gas nitric oxide, which is toxic at these higher levels but protective at lower ones, and tumor necrosis factor alpha, a signaling protein that activates inflammation and is implicated in a wide range of diseases. Bollinger notes that there is no evidence that S1R activity is decreased by glaucoma, rather it's more likely that the increased pressure increases the amount of SIR needed to be protective. "We do know that if we increase its activity, it appears to be protective," she said. "The question is how. " Her research model includes co-culturing astrocytes and retinal ganglion cells from the optic nerve of research animals to learn more about how they interact in a healthy scenario. Her research team also will be taking astrocytes from mice missing S1R and putting them with normal retinal ganglion cells to see how that changes the equation. They'll then add the pain reliever (+)-pentazocine, which activates S1R, and further examine its impact. They have shown that exposing astrocytes to proinflammatory signals called cytokines, which are elevated in glaucoma, makes astrocytes very reactive. The brain cells experience changes to their shape, start moving around more and GFAP levels go up. Glial fibrillary acidic protein, or GFAP, is expressed by astrocytes and other cells in the central nervous system and thought to help astrocytes maintain their shape and strength under duress, such as increased pressure. However high levels of GFAP, also associated with traumatic brain injury and stroke, appear to put the brain at risk. So, they will add another cytokine, transforming growth factor beta 1, to get the astrocytes to react and see how the presence and absence of (+)-pentazocine affects reactivity. The MCG vision research team has evidence that treatment with (+) - pentazocine calms the astrocytes, instead prompting them to release brain-derived neurotrophic factor, known to promote healthy survival of neurons. A primary purpose of the project is to see whether stimulating S1R levels in the astrocytes is sufficient to enable them to protect the retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma. Both astrocytes and retinal ganglion cells have S1R, but her lab hypothesizes that activation in the astrocytes alone will work. While it's not clear what, if anything, glaucoma pressure does to S1R itself, it does not appear to eliminate it, which is good, Bollinger notes. Others, including former MCG chair and professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology, Dr. Vadivel Ganapathy have shown that directly activating S1R in retinal ganglion cells only, reduces cell stress and activates natural pro-survival pathways. But it's not known whether stimulating it in astrocytes will aid or impair neuroprotection. Learning more about how astrocytes and retinal ganglion cells interact and how S1R agonists affect that interplay will provide more insight on the agonists' potential use as a glaucoma therapy as well as for other purposes, where it might be given systemically, Bollinger said. Last summer, Dr. Sylvia Smith, chair of the MCG Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, reported that (+)-pentazocine helps preserve vision in a model of severe retinal degeneration, like macular degeneration. The study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that in an animal model of severe, inherited retinal degeneration, (+)-pentazocine enables the survival of cone cells, a type of photoreceptor cell that gives us detailed, color vision. Potentially blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration result in the loss of these photoreceptor cells in the retina that enable us to convert light into images. Retinal ganglion cells receive visual information from the photoreceptors cells and send it on to the brain via the optic nerve. It's the optic nerve head, where the retina connects with the optic nerve. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness and while the risk increases with age, even babies can develop it and blacks are more susceptible at a young age, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation. A strong family history also is a risk along with diabetes and severe nearsightedness. Like generalized high blood pressure, glaucoma is often asymptomatic until early loss of primarily peripheral vision. An estimated 3 million Americans have it but only about half know it, the Glaucoma Research Foundation says. Both in human glaucoma and research models, the rate of degeneration of the axons, or arms of retinal ganglion cells that reach out other cells, parallels increased reactivity of astrocytes. S1R agonists are in clinical trials for conditions like depression and stroke, and drugs, like the antipsychotic haloperidol that target the sigma receptor, already are taken by patients.

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Ken Wilson is the author of Smart Choice and in all has written more than 30 ELT titles. We asked teachers from around the world who have been using Smart Choice what one question they would like to ask Ken. He will answer three of these questions in a series of video blogs this month. For both teachers and students, a very large class can be difficult in terms of motivation and in terms of multi-level instruction. In this video blog Ken will answer two questions to overcome these challenges: “How can I motivate unmotivated students? ” and “how can we adapt Smart Choice for different class sizes and classes with students of varying levels? ” Ken suggests techniques to increase student curiosity in class in order to engage learners with simple tasks, such as reading a text. He explains how teachers can devolve student responsibility to empower higher-level students to help other students. Wilson, Ken (2012). Motivating the unmotivated. Oxford University Press (2016). Smart Choice Third Edition.

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