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Bhutan profile - Timeline
- Published
A chronology of key events:
1907 - Ugyen Wangchuck is chosen as hereditary ruler.
1910 - Treaty signed with British giving them control over Bhutan's foreign relations.
1949 - Treaty signed with newly-independent India guaranteeing non-interference in Bhutan's internal affairs, but allowing Delhi influence over foreign relations.
1952 - Reformist monarch Jigme Dorji Wangchuck succeeds to throne.
1952 - National assembly established.
1958 - Slavery abolished. Other social reforms follow in subsequent years.
1959 - Several thousand refugees given asylum after Chinese annex Tibet.
1964, 1965 - Prime minister killed in dispute among competing political factions. Unsuccessful attempt to assassinate monarch.
1968 - First cabinet established.
1971 - Bhutan joins United Nations.
1972 - King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck dies and is succeeded by his son, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who continues policy of cautious modernisation.
1974 - First foreign tourists allowed in.
Ethnic tension
1986 - New law granting citizenship on basis of length of residence in Bhutan.
1988 - Census leads to branding of many ethnic Nepalis as illegal immigrants. New measures adopted to enforce citizenship law. Government also introduces other measures to stress Tibetan-based Bhutanese culture, antagonising minority ethnic Nepali community.
1989 - Nepali ceases to be a language of instruction in schools.
1990 - Violent ethnic unrest and anti-government protests in southern Bhutan pressing for greater democracy and respect for Nepali rights. Bhutan People's Party begins campaign of violence. Thousands of ethnic Nepalis flee to Nepal.
Democracy and human rights
1992 - Leader of illegal Bhutan People's Party sentenced to life imprisonment.
1993 - Bhutan and Nepal try to resolve refugee problem.
1996 - Nepal demands all 80,000 or so refugees should be accepted back by Bhutan.
1997 - Amnesty International raises serious concerns over human rights situation in southern Bhutan.
1998 - King cedes some powers to national assembly, giving up role as head of government; cabinet now elected by assembly; famous "Tiger's Lair" Buddhist monastery damaged by fire.
1999 - Limited television and internet services allowed; several dozen political prisoners released.
2000 - First internet cafe opens in Thimphu; Bhutan hit by landslides following severe flooding in region, causing at least 200 deaths.
Refugee issue
2001 August - Bhutanese, Nepalese ministers meet to discuss the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal. Some 100,000 ethnic Nepalese say they were forced out of Bhutan in the 1980s and 1990s, alleging ethnic and political repression.
2002 January - Indian state of Assam says two rebel groups still have camps in Bhutan, despite Bhutan's deadline for them to leave the country by the end of 2001.
2003 December - Bhutanese soldiers fight Indian separatist rebels in an attempt to drive them from their bases in the south of the country.
2005 March - Proposed constitution is unveiled. It envisages a parliamentary democracy and will be adopted or rejected in a referendum.
2005 December - King Jigme Singye Wangchuck says he will abdicate in 2008, when democratic parliamentary elections are held. The crown prince will take over as monarch.
2006 June-August - Bhutanese refugees in Nepal demonstrate over several weeks to press for third-country resettlement.
2006 September - Preparations start in earnest for first ever elections in 2008. Officials begin training for the polls which will appoint a government to take over from the absolute monarchy.
2006 December - King Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicates; Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the crown prince, assumes the throne. The former monarch had been expected to stay in power until 2008.
2007 February - Bhutan signs a landmark agreement with India which revises ties with its neighbour, giving Bhutan more say over its foreign and defence policies.
2007 April - Mock elections are staged to familiarise voters with the concept of parliamentary democracy ahead of planned polls in 2008.
2007 July - Prime Minister Khandu Wangchuck resigns so he can compete in elections planned for February and March 2008.
2008 January and February - A string of bomb blasts hits the country ahead of elections set for March 24. The attacks are blamed on groups fighting for the rights of ethnic Nepalis exiled in 1991.
2008 March - Pro-monarchy Bhutan Harmony Party wins 44 out of the 47 seats in the country's first parliamentary elections. Another pro-monarchy party wins the remaining seats.
2008 November - Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is crowned king.
India alleges links between Assamese separatists and Bhutan dissident Druk National Congress.
2009 April - Huanglongbing virus wipes out much of orange crop. Oranges are an important export for Bhutan.
2011 October - King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck marries 21-year-old student Jetsun Pema.
2013 July - Parliamentary elections: opposition People's Democratic Party wins 32 seats in the lower house, against the incumbent Druk Phuensum Tshogpa party's 15 seats.
2013 August - Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay says Bhutan's much lauded concept of Gross National Happiness is overused and masks the real problems facing the country like increasing debt, chronic unemployment, poverty and corruption.
2015 January - John Kerry becomes the first-ever US secretary of state to hold a cabinet-level meeting with a Bhutanese official when he meets Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in India.
2016 February - King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and his wife, Queen Jetsun Pema announce the birth of Crown Prince Jigme Namgyal Wangchuck.
2017 June - Bhutan protests to China over its building of a road in disputed territory.


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This week I am in Boston, giving this year's Simons lectures at MIT together with David Donoho. (These lectures, incidentally, are endowed by Jim Simons, who was mentioned in some earlier discussion here.) While preparing these lectures, it occurred to me that I may as well post my lecture notes on this blog, since this medium is essentially just an asynchronous version of a traditional lecture series, and the hypertext capability is in some ways more convenient and informal than, say, slides.
I am giving three lectures, each expounding on some aspects of the theme "the dichotomy between structure and randomness", which I also spoke about (and wrote about) for the ICM last August. This theme seems to pervade many of the areas of mathematics that I work in, and my lectures aim to explore how this theme manifests itself in several of these. In this, the first lecture, I describe the dichotomy as it appears in Fourier analysis and in number theory. (In the second, I discuss the dichotomy in ergodic theory and graph theory, while in the third, I discuss PDE.)
The "dichotomy between structure and randomness" seems to apply in circumstances in which one is considering a "high-dimensional" class of objects (e.g. sets of integers, functions on a space, dynamical systems, graphs, solutions to PDE, etc.). For sake of concreteness, let us focus today on sets of integers (later lectures will focus on other classes of objects). There are many different types of objects in these classes, however one can broadly classify them into three categories:
- Structured objects – objects with a high degree of predictability and algebraic structure. A typical example are the odd integers A = {…,-3,-1,1,3,5,…}. Note that if some large number n is known to lie in A, this reveals a lot of information about whether n+1, n+2, etc. will also lie in A. Structured objects are best studied using the tools of algebra and geometry.
- Pseudorandom objects – the opposite of structured; these are highly unpredictable and totally lack any algebraic structure. A good example is a randomly chosen set B of integers, in which each element n lies in B with an independent probability of 1/2. (One can imagine flipping a coin for each integer n, and defining B to be the set of n for which the coin flip resulted in heads.) Note that if some integer n is known to lie in B, this conveys no information whatsoever about the relationship of n+1, n+2, etc. with respect to B. Pseudorandom objects are best studied using the tools of analysis and probability.
- Hybrid sets – sets which exhibit some features of structure and some features of pseudorandomness. A good example is the primes P = {2,3,5,7,…}. The primes have some obvious structure in them: for instance, the prime numbers are all positive, they are all odd (with one exception), they are all adjacent to a multiple of six (with two exceptions), and their last digit is always 1, 3, 7, or 9 (with two exceptions). On the other hand, there is evidence that the primes, despite being a deterministic set, behave in a very "pseudorandom" or "uniformly distributed" manner. For instance, from the Siegel-Walfisz theorem we know that the last digit of large prime numbers is uniformly distributed in the set {1,3,7,9}; thus, if N is a large integer, the number of primes less than N ending in (say) 3, divided by the total number of primes less than N, is known to converge to 1/4 in the limit as N goes to infinity. In order to study hybrid objects, one needs a large variety of tools: one needs tools such as algebra and geometry to understand the structured component, one needs tools such as analysis and probability to understand the pseudorandom component, and one needs tools such as decompositions, algorithms, and evolution equations to separate the structure from the pseudorandomness. (More on this in later talks.)
A recurring question in many areas of analysis is the following: given a specific object (such as the prime numbers), can one determine precisely what the structured components are within the object, and how pseudorandom the remaining components of the object are? One reason for asking this question is that it often helps one compute various statistics (averages, sums, integrals, correlations, norms, etc.) of the object being studied. For instance, one can ask for how many twin pairs {n, n+2}, with n between 1 and N, one can find within a given set. In the structured set A given above, the answer is roughly N/2. For the random set B given above, the answer is roughly N/4; thus one sees that while A and B have exactly the same density (namely, 1/2), their statistics are rather different due to the fact that one is structured and one is random. As for the prime numbers, nobody knows what the answer is (though it is conjectured to be roughly ), because we do not know enough yet about the pseudorandomness of the primes. On the other hand, the parity structure of the prime numbers is enough to show that the number of adjacent pairs {n, n+1} in the primes is exactly one: {2,3}.
The problem of determining exactly what the structured and pseudorandom components are of any given object is still largely intractable. However, what we have learnt in many cases is that we can at least show that an arbitrary object can be decomposed into some structured component and some pseudorandom component. Also there is often an orthogonality property (or dichotomy): if an object is orthogonal (or has small correlation with) all structured objects, then it is necessarily pseudorandom, and vice versa. Finally, we are sometimes lucky enough to be able to classify all the structured objects which are relevant for any given problem (e.g. computing a particular statistic). In such cases, one merely needs (in principle) to compute how the given object correlates with each member in one's list of structured objects in order to determine what the desired statistic is. This is often simpler (though still non-trivial) than computing the statistic directly.
To illustrate these general principles, let us focus now on a specific area in analytic number theory, namely that of finding additive patterns in the prime numbers {2, 3, 5, 7, …}. Despite centuries of progress on these problems, many questions are still unsolved, for instance:
- Twin prime conjecture: There are infinitely many positive integers n such that n, n+2 are both prime.
- Sophie Germain prime conjecture: There are infinitely many positive integers n such that n, 2n+1 are both prime.
- Even Goldbach conjecture: For every even number , there is a natural number n such that n, N-n are both prime.
On the other hand, we do have some positive results:
- Vinogradov's theorem: For every sufficiently large odd number N, there are positive integers n, n' such that n, n', N-n-n' are all prime. (The best explicit bound currently known for "sufficiently large" is ; the result has also been verified for .)
- van der Corput's theorem: There are infinitely many positive integers n, n' such that n, n+n', n+2n' are all prime.
- Green-Tao theorem: For any positive integer k, there are infinitely many positive integers n, n' such that n, n+n', …, n+(k-1)n' are all prime.
- A polynomial generalisation: For any integer-valued polynomials with , there are infinitely many positive integers n, n' such that are all prime.
As a general rule, it appears that it is feasible (after non-trivial effort) to find patterns in the primes involving two or more degrees of freedom (as described by the parameters n, n' in above examples), but we still do not have the proper technology for finding patterns in the primes involving only one degree of freedom n. (This is of course an oversimplification; for instance, the pattern n, n+2, n', n'+2 has two degrees of freedom, but finding infinitely many of these patterns in the primes is equivalent to the twin prime conjecture. If however one makes a non-degeneracy assumption, one can make the above claim more precise.)
One useful tool for establishing some (but not all) of the above positive results is Fourier analysis (which in this context is also known as the Hardy-Littlewood circle method). Rather than give the textbook presentation of that method here, let us try to motivate why Fourier analysis is an essential feature of many of these problems from the perspective of the dichotomy between structure and randomness, and in particular viewing structure as an obstruction to computing statistics which needs to be understood before the statistic can be accurately computed.
To treat many of the above questions concerning the primes in a unified manner, let us consider the following general setting. We consider k affine-linear forms on r integer unknowns, and ask
- Question: does there there exist infinitely many r-tuples of positive integers such that are simulatenously prime?
For instance, the twin prime conjecture is the case when k=2, r=1, , and ; van der Corput's theorem is the case when k=3, r=2, and for j=0,1,2; and so forth.
Because of the "obvious" structures in the primes, the answer to the above question can be "no". For instance, since all but one of the primes are odd, we know that there are not infinitely many patterns of the form n, n+1 in the primes, because it is not possible for n, n+1 to both be odd. More generally, given any prime q, we know that all but one of the primes is coprime to q. Hence, if it is not possible for to all be coprime to q, the answer to the above question is basically no (modulo some technicalities which I wish to gloss over) and we say that there is an obstruction at q. For instance, the pattern n, n+1 has an obstruction at 2. The pattern n, n+2, n+4 has no obstruction at 2, but has an obstruction at 3, because it is not possible for n, n+2, n+4 to all be coprime to 3. And so forth.
Another obstruction comes from the trivial observation that the primes are all positive. Hence, if it is not possible for to all be positive for infinitely many values of , then we say that there is an obstruction at infinity, and the answer to the question is again "no" in this case. For instance, for any fixed N, the pattern n, N-n can only occur finitely often in the primes, because there are only finitely many n for which n, N-n are both positive.
It is conjectured that these "local" obstructions are the only obstructions to solvability of the above question. More precisely, we have
- Dickson's conjecture: If there are no obstructions at any prime q, and there are no obstructions at infinity, then the answer to the above question is "yes".
This conjecture would imply the twin prime and Sophie Germain conjectures, as well as the Green-Tao theorem; it also implies the Hardy-Littlewood prime tuples conjecture as a special case. There is a quantitative version of this conjecture which predicts a more precise count as to how many solutions there are in a given range, and which would then also imply Vinogradov's theorem, as well as Goldbach's conjecture (for sufficiently large N); see this paper for further discussion. As one can imagine, this conjecture is still largely unsolved, however there are many important special cases that have now been established – several of which via the Hardy-Littlewood circle method.
One can view Dickson's conjecture as an impossibility statement: that it is impossible to find any other obstructions to solvability for linear patterns in the primes than the obvious local obstructions at primes q and at infinity. (It is also a good example of a local-to-global principle, that local solvability implies global solvability.) Impossibility statements have always been very difficult to prove – one has to locate all possible obstructions to solvability, and eliminate each one of them in turn. In particular, one has to exclude various exotic "conspiracies" between the primes to behave in an unusually structured manner that somehow manages to always avoid all the patterns that one is seeking within the primes. How can one disprove a conspiracy?
To give an example of what such a "conspiracy" might look like, consider the twin prime conjecture, that of finding infinitely many pairs n, n+2 which are both prime. This pattern encounters no obstructions at primes q or at infinity and so Dickson's conjecture predicts that there should be infinitely many such patterns. In particular, there are no obstructions at 3 because prime numbers can equal 1 or 2 mod 3, and it is possible to find pairs n, n+2 which also have this property. But suppose that it transpired that all but finitely many of the primes ended up being 2 mod 3. From looking at tables of primes this seems to be unlikely, but it is not immediately obvious how to disprove it; it could well be that once one reaches, say, , there are no more primes equal to 1 mod 3. If this unlikely "conspiracy" in the primes was true, then there would be only finitely many twin primes. Fortunately, we have Dirichlet's theorem, which guarantees infinitely many primes equal to a mod q whenever a, q are coprime, and so we can rule out this particular type of conspiracy. (This does strongly suggest, though, that knowledge of Dirichlet's theorem is a necessary but not sufficient condition in order to solve the twin prime conjecture.) But perhaps there are other conspiracies that one needs to rule out also?
To look for other conspiracies that one needs to eliminate, let us rewrite the conspiracy "all but finitely many of the primes are 2 mod 3" in the more convoluted format
for all but finitely many primes p
where {x} is the fractional part of x. This type of conspiracy can now be generalised, for instance consider the statement
for all but finitely many primes p. (*)
Again, such a conspiracy seems very unlikely – one would expect these fractional parts to be uniformly distributed between 0 and 1, rather than concentrate all in the interval [0, 0.01] – but it is hard to rule this conspiracy out a priori. And if this conspiracy (*) was in fact true, then the twin prime conjecture would be false, as can be quickly seen by considering the identity
which forbids the two fractional parts on the left-hand side to simultaneously fall in the interval [0, 0.01]. Thus, in order to solve the twin prime conjecture, one must rule out (*). Fortunately, it has been known since the work of Vinogradov that is in fact uniformly distributed in the interval [0,1], and more generally that is uniformly distributed in [0,1] whenever is irrational. Indeed, by Weyl's criterion, this is equivalent to the exponential sum estimate
and we now see the appearance of Fourier analysis in this subject.
One can rather easily concoct an endless stream of further conspiracies, each of which could contradict the twin prime conjecture; this is one of the reasons why this conjecture is considered so difficult. Let us thus leave this conjecture for now and consider some two-parameter problems. Consider for instance the problem of finding infinitely many patterns of the form n, n+n', n+2n'+2 (i.e. arithmetic progressions of length 3, but with the last element shifted by 2). Once again, the conspiracy (*), if true, would obstruct solvability for this pattern, due to the easily verified identity
which is related to the fact that the function has a vanishing second derivative. (Note however that the same conspiracy does not obstruct solvability of an unmodified arithmetic progression n, n+n', n+2n'. This highlights a special property of arithmetic progressions, which most other patterns do not have: namely that arithmetic progressions tend to exist both in structured objects and in pseudorandom objects, or in hybrids of the two. This is why results about arithmetic progressions have tended to be easier to establish than those about more general patterns, as one does not need to know as much about the structured and random components of the set in which one is looking for progressions.)
More generally, we can see that if the primes correlate in some unusual way with a linear character , then this is likely to bias or distort the number of patterns {n, n+n', n+2n'+2} in a significant manner. However, thanks to Fourier analysis, we can show that these "Fourier conspiracies" are in fact the only obstructions to counting this type of pattern. Very roughly, one can sketch the reason for this as follows. Firstly, it is helpful to create a counting function for the primes, namely the von Mangoldt function , defined as whenever n is a power of a prime p, and 0 otherwise. This rather strange-looking function is actually rather natural, because of the identity
for all positive integers n; this identity is a restatement of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and in fact defines the von Mangoldt function uniquely. The problem of counting patterns {n, n+n', n+2n'+2} is then roughly equivalent to the task of computing sums such as
where we shall be intentionally vague as to what range the variables n, n' will be summed over. We have the Fourier inversion formula
is a sum very similar in nature to the sums mentioned earlier. Substituting this formula into (**), we essentially get an expression of the form
Thus, if one gets good enough control on the Fourier coefficients , which can be viewed as a measure of how much the primes "conspire" with a linear phase oscillation with frequency , then one can (in principle, at least) count the solutions to the pattern {n, n+n', n+2n'+2} in the primes. This is the Hardy-Littlewood circle method in a nutshell, and this is for instance how van der Corput's theorem and Vinogradov theorem were first proven.
I have glossed over the question of how one actually computes the Fourier coefficients . It turns out that there are two cases. In the "major arc" case when is rational, or close to rational (with a reasonably small denominator), then the problem turns out to be essentially equivalent to counting primes in arithmetic progressions, and so one uses tools related to Dirichlet's theorem (L-functions, the Siegel-Walfisz theorem, etc.). In the "minor arc" case when is far from rational, one instead uses identities such as
where is the Möbius function, to split the Fourier coefficient as
and then one uses the irrationality of to exhibit some significant oscillation in the phase , which cannot be fully canceled out by the oscillation in the factor. (In practice, the above strategy does not work directly, and one has to work with various truncated or smoothed out versions of the above identities; this is technical and will not be discussed here.)
Now suppose we look at progressions of length 4: n, n+n', n+2n', n+3n'. As with progressions of length 3, "linear" or "Fourier" conspiracies such as (*) will bias or distort the total count of such progressions in the primes less than a given number N. But, in contrast to the length 3 case where these are the only conspiracies that actually influence things, for length 4 progressions there are now "quadratic" conspiracies which can cause trouble. Consider for instance the conspiracy
for all but finitely many primes p (***).
This conspiracy, which can exist even when all linear conspiracies are eliminated, will significantly bias the number of progressions of length 4, due to the identity
which is related to the fact that the function has a vanishing third derivative. In this case, the conspiracy works in one's favour, increasing the total number of progressions of length 4 beyond what one would have naively expected; as mentioned before, this is related to a remarkable "indestructability" property of progressions, which can be used to establish things like the Green-Tao theorem without having to deal directly with these obstructions. Thus, in order to count progressions of length 4 in the primes accurately (and not just to establish the qualitative result that there are infinitely many of them), one needs to eliminate conspiracies such as (***), which necessitates understanding exponential sums such as for various rational or irrational numbers . What's worse, there are several further "generalised quadratic" conspiracies which can also bias this count, for instance the conspiracy
for all but finitely many primes p,
where [] is the greatest integer function. The point here is that the function has a third divided difference which does not entirely vanish (as with the genuine quadratic ), but does vanish a significant portion of the time (because the greatest integer function obeys the linearity property [x+y] = [x] + [y] a significant fraction of the time), which does lead ultimately to a non-trivial bias effect. Because of this, one is also faced with estimating exponential sums such as . It turns out that the correct way to phrase all of these obstructions is via the machinery of 2-step nilsequences: details can be found in these three papers of Ben Green and myself. As a consequence, we can in fact give a precise count as to how many arithmetic progressions of primes of length 4 with all primes less than N; it turns out to be
The method also works for other linear patterns of comparable "complexity" to progressions of length 4. We are currently working on the problem of longer progressions, in which cubic and higher order obstructions appear (which should be modeled by 3-step and higher nilsequences); some work related to this should appear here shortly.

subset: commoncrawl


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text: Tom Brady by Mark Schultz - November 30, 2015December 4, 2015 0 .TweetPocketEmailMorePrint (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Mark Schultz Mark Schultz is a high school football official, freelance writer and journalist. He first became interested in officiating when he was six years old, was watching a NFL game with his father and asked the fateful question, "Dad, what are those guys in the striped shirts doing?" Similar Articles Divisional playoff photo gallery, 2021 January 24, 2022January 24, 20220 Week 4 officiating field report September 29, 20191 Post a comment using Wordpress.com, Twitter, Facebook, or Google account: Cancel reply This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


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Fort Pierce mother wants justice for son killed last New Year's Eve
Police see decline in number of homicides
A Fort Pierce mother whose son was shot to death last New Year's Eve is using prayer to get through this New Year's Eve.
Charles Jones, 36, was found shot to death in the 600 block of 19th Court on Dec. 31, 2011.
His mother, Linda Jones, is still trying to cope.
"That was the worst day, and it was a year ago between 9 and 10 o'clock this morning," she told WPBF 25 News. "You know, it's hard -- very hard."
Linda Jones contacts the lead detective in the case every Thursday. So far, no arrests have been made, but she hasn't given up hope.
"Whoever felt they needed to shoot my son four times to kill him, how could you live with yourself for a whole year and not take responsibility for what you did," Jones asked.
In the meantime, police said they have also noticed a decrease in the number of homicides this year.
Sgt. Dennis McWilliams said there were three homicides this year and 11 last year.
McWilliams credits several things, including an aggressive youth outreach program and new trauma center.
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Sales of Inheritance in Iran
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Scottish Export Ale or 80 Shilling (sometimes abbreviated 80/-) is a stronger version of Scottish Heavy Ale. The higher hop levels and alcohol needed to survive longer travel are balanced by sweet malt additions, leaving a strong but sweet ale with a somewhat heavy mouthfeel.
Brewing Scottish Heavy Ale
This section is a stub.
Competition Styles
Both the BJCP and the GABF recognize Scottish Export Ale.
BJCP Style Guidelines
Scottish Export 80/-
GABF Style Listings
Scottish Style Export Ale
|The overriding character of Scottish export ale is sweet, caramel-like, and malty. Its bitterness is perceived as low to medium. Hop flavor or aroma should not be perceived. It has medium body. Fruity ester character may be apparent. Yeast characters such as diacetyl (butterscotch) and sulfuriness are acceptable at very low levels. The color will range from golden amber to deep brown. Bottled versions of this traditional draft beer may contain higher amounts of carbon dioxide than is typical for mildly carbonated draft versions. Chill haze is acceptable at low temperatures. Though there is little evidence suggesting that traditionally made Scottish-style export ales exhibited peat smoke character, the current marketplace offers Scottish-style export ales with peat or smoke character present at low to medium levels. Thus for the purpose of this competition a peaty/smoky character may be evident at low levels (ales with medium or higher smoke character would be considered a smoke flavored beer and considered in another category).


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Cano's dad sees son remaining in pinstripes
Expressing confidence in Yanks, second baseman's father expects deal
NEW YORK -- Robinson Cano's father said on Tuesday that he believes that the Yankees second baseman will continue wearing pinstripes beyond this season.
Jose Cano held court with a group of reporters in the American League clubhouse at Citi Field prior to the All-Star Game, and he said that he expects that Cano and the Yankees will be able to come to terms on a new contract agreement.
"I am confident that the Yankees are going to come up with something good in the end," Jose Cano said. "I hope that he can stay here."
Cano is starting at second base for the American League on Tuesday. He is batting .302 with 21 home runs and 65 RBIs in 95 games, his final season under contract with the Yankees.
The 31-year-old Cano has enlisted the partnership between Jay-Z's Roc Nation group and CAA's veteran baseball agent Brodie Van Wagenen to handle his negotiations with the club.
As he has consistently done since Spring Training, Cano said on Tuesday that he had no interest in discussing his negotiations with the Yankees.
"Next question," Cano said. "I won't say anything about contracts."
Cano's father is in New York to watch the Midsummer Classic one day after tossing to his son in the Chevrolet Home Run Derby, the third straight year that Jose Cano -- a former big leaguer who pitched in six games with the 1989 Astros -- has attended.
It has been suggested that Cano's new contract could span six to eight years at approximately $25 million per season.
The Yankees obviously have a captain in shortstop Derek Jeter, but Jose Cano said that he sees leadership qualities in his son's demeanor and that he could succeed Jeter in that role.
"He can be the leader, like a captain," Jose Cano said. "Robinson's very smart, but quiet. He's not going to talk too much. He talks when he needs to talk. That's a good thing for being on a kind of team like the Yankees. He's doing everything straight. Robinson, I think, he could be a captain.
"Wherever he goes, it's going to be the same thing. He has to do what he's doing right now, continue doing it. And if it's for another team, he'll have to do what he has to do; play ball the way he's playing right now, and help the team, wherever he goes."
Jose Cano said that his preference would be for Cano to sign a new deal with the Yankees, but added that the decision will be Cano's to make.
"He always asks the family whatever we think," Cano said. "He's the one who's going to make a decision in the end. We can say yes, we can say no, we can say we don't know, but he's the one who's going to make the decision in the end."


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This post was written for inclusion in the carnival hosted by The Artful Mama and Natural Parents Network. During this carnival our participants have focused on the many different forms and shapes Natural Parenting can take in our community.
To me, the essence of natural parenting is trusting and following my instincts, being mindful of biological norms, and making intentional, informed decisions about the way I choose to parent.
I'm a natural parent, and my 20-month-old son has been using a pacifier since he was exactly two weeks old.
|Sometimes one just isn't enough!
Before Daniel was born, I knew about the importance of solidly establishing breastfeeding (especially milk supply and proper latch) before introducing artificial nipples. I talked with my midwife about when we could introduce a pacifier, and she recommended no earlier than two weeks old. On the day Daniel turned two weeks old, I was feeling confident about our breastfeeding relationship (with respect to latch and also my abundant milk supply), and I was feeling very touched-out, so I sent Jaymz to the store for a pacifier. Daniel has been happily using one ever since. It was a particularly useful tool while riding in the car during those early months, when the only other options would have been to not travel by car, to pull over quite frequently, or for me to nurse him (unrestrained) in the back seat the whole time.
I didn't use the pacifier as a substitute for comfort nursing. Daniel rarely nursed to sleep, but when he wanted to (even in the last few months of nursing him), that's what we did. Daniel was usually quite down-to-business when it came to nursing; he didn't prefer to linger at the breast after finishing his meal. Was this because of our introducing the pacifier at two weeks? Perhaps it was, and I'm alright with that.
I sometimes find myself feeling embarrassed that Daniel uses a pacifier, especially as he gets older. In those moments I remind myself that we made a conscious decision to use this tool to help Daniel soothe himself.
I also have to remind myself that we are dealing with some special circumstances with respect to Daniel. Because of Daniel's sensory processing difficulties, sucking and chewing are very important (heavy work) activities which help provide him with calming proprioceptive input from his mouth and jaw. Having access to a pacifier at all times (as well as crunchy foods and rubbery things to chew on) allows him to have more control over his soothing and emotional regulation, which is something he has a lot of difficulty with. Using a pacifier helps him get through difficult situations while I support him in coping with those situations in other ways.
Several months ago, Jaymz and I started (jokingly) calling the pacifier Daniel's "life coping device," since sometimes it was the only thing that could help him through stressful situations. It really is quite an accurate description, though: if Daniel has his pacifier available, there's already a baseline level of comfort and self-soothing, and Jaymz and I are able to build on that with our other calming and regulating strategies.
I'm a natural parent, and I own and use a fancy stroller.
|Out for a walk on a hard day.
As we continued to take Daniel to OT, I became more aware of the role that Jaymz and I played in soothing Daniel's nervous system: we were his primary regulators. If Jaymz and I weren't able to stay calm and feel regulated ourselves, we wouldn't be able to help prevent Daniel from becoming dysregulated. I realized how important it was for me to be able to recognize and remedy the early signs of fatigue in myself so that I would be able to continue to help Daniel.
One of the things I noticed during that time was how much Daniel's crying was affecting me, both emotionally and physically. I was wearing him almost all day every day, and having the constant loud sound of his screaming so close to my face (and up against my body) was really taking it's toll on me. I loved babywearing, but there were times when (for my own emotional regulation) I needed to be able to put Daniel down, to not have him always be on my body.
I reached out to some family members who graciously offered to help us buy a stroller. While we had hoped to get a more budget-friendly one, we had two specific requirements if we were going to add this tool to our parenting toolbox:
- The stroller needed to be ergonomically comfortable for both Jaymz (at 6'5") and me (at 5'5") to use—not an easy thing to accommodate!
- I wanted it to have a toward-facing seat (a seat which faces the caregiver) unlike most strollers on the market.
I believe that having the toward-facing seat was extremely important for him to continue to feel safe and secure while riding in the stroller. I've read many articles (after buying our stroller) about how outward-facing strollers aren't ideal for babies' language development or stress levels. Wanting to maintain eye contact with Daniel (while I talked to him) on our walks was of utmost importance to me. I knew that for my kid, the studies would hold true: if Daniel couldn't see me, he would feel lost and scared, and the walks wouldn't be nearly as helpful for either of us.
I wanted to make sure that he knew he was safe even when he wasn't snuggled up close to my (or Jaymz's) body, so we kept the stroller inward facing for a long time, until we knew he had solidly established object permanence, and he'd had other fun (outward-facing) riding experiences, like on my bike.
I consider myself an attachment parent (and a natural parent), and I don't believe that you have to follow a certain set of rules or make all the same decisions as other similarly-minded parents in order to "qualify" for those titles. For instance, parents who choose not to breastfeed can still make that decision consciously and with intention. I believe there are ways to bottle feed which more closely align with biological norms, provide bonding and attachment, and allow the child to have control over their intake.
I think that's really the key: when choosing to use outside tools (bottles, strollers, pacifiers, etc.), to make the intentional decision to use them as additions to—not as substitutions for—attachment-focused parenting practices.
This carnival was created by The Artful Mama and Natural Parents Network. We recognize that "natural parenting" means different things to different families, and we are dedicated to providing a safe place for all families, regardless of where they are in their parenting journeys.
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be live and updated by afternoon February 26 with all the carnival links.)
- My kid is a technophile — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction hasn't turned in her natural parenting card yet, even though her son prefers electronic toys.
- I'm a Natural Parent, but...I use medicine! — Adrienne at Mommying My Way admits that while she hesitates to do so, sometimes she does give her son some medicine when his symptoms get really bad.
- I'm Only Half Planning a Natural Birth — Shannon at The Artful Mama discloses how she is planning her semi-natural hospital birth and still dares to call herself a Natural Parent.
- Why we aren't rear facing — Shannon at Pineapples & Artichokes talks about her decision to turn her one-year-old daughter's carseat around, and how the argument always given for extended rear facing makes her feel.
- Musings of an Almost Crunchy Momma — Valerie at Momma in Progress re-examines her list of natural parenting litmus tests.
- Natural Parenting Does Not Equal Perfect Parenting — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama admits to several not-so-natural parenting and lifestyle practices.
- 10 Reasons to Revoke My Natural Parent Card — Laura at WaldenMommy: Life Behind the Red Front Door discusses why some of her less-than-crunchy practices are better for her family.
- I'm a Natural Parent - BUT... MacNCheese is Awesome. — Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy reveals her penchant for some far from healthy eating, cheap food recipes.
- Crunchy on the Inside — Wolfmother at Fabulous Mama Chronicles muses about how the stereotype of a natural parent does not do justice to the very dynamic group that this parenting philosophy attracts.
- My Reality — Megan from The Other Baby Book confesses a few things about her parenting.
- I'm Crunchy But... — Christy at Mommy Outnumbered shares confessions on all of her "non" crunchy ways.
- I'm A Natural Parent, But...it took me awhile — It took Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling awhile before fully understanding and appreciating Natural Parenting.
- I Am Not a Perfect Natural Parent — Momma Jorje shares her dirty little secrets as a mostly natural parent.
- Crunchy, But Not Crunchier Than Thou — Instead of comparing yourself to others, Dionna at Code Name: Mama encourages you to give yourself permission to be as crunchy as you can for right now.
- I'm a natural parent but…I love bedtimes — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle would never let her children cry-it-out, but she has a selection of other methods to encourage early bedtimes.
- I'm a Natural Parent - BUT... — Lani at Boobie Time Blog believes that following the principles of Natural Parenting doesn't mean you fit a stereotypical mold of societal view.
- Confessions of a Low Supply Mom — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children confesses her insecurities about being a low supply mom.
- I'm a natural parent, but. . . — Not eating her placenta is just one of the ways Ashley at Mama Raw falls short at being a natural parent.
- I'm a Natural Parent But...I have a Few Confessions — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment strives to be a Natural Mama, but wait, she has a few confessions!
- I'm a Natural Parent BUT — Carrie at LoveNotesMama confesses her gratitude for disposable diapers.
- Intestinal Dissection — Melissa from White Noise talks about how imperfection can be beautiful when it is buffered with love.
- How much sugar is too much? — Tat at Mum in Search shares how her no-sugar policy evolved into a balancing act, with the balance point not where she'd like to see it.
- I'm a Natural Parent, but. . . — Amyables at Toddler In Tow talks about three of her parenting habits that are not super "natural."
- Minus Ten Crunchy Points — Joella at Fine and Fair discusses how some of her parenting choices seen as "too crunchy" by those she knows in real life could get her kicked out of the crunchy mom clubs online.
- The Natural Parent "Model" — Kym at Our Crazy Corner of the World talks about her love for not-so-natural cosmetics and beauty products.
- Nice to meet you. — Eileen at Love & Greens talks about how being a natural mama means something different to her every day.
- I'm a natural parent…BUT… — Ashley at Daisy Pedals touches on several natural parenting topics; from cloth diapers to cleaning with natural cleaners.
- I'm a natural parent, but you'd be surprised — Lauren at Hobo Mama confesses to liking diet soda and TV and having lost all her reusable shopping bags.
- I'm a Natural Parent, but…. I don't shop local — Luschka at Diary of a First Child confesses one of her greatest 'natural' failures - she doesn't shop local and support her community, despite wishing she could.
- Who You Callin' Natural? (a Carnival of Natural Parenting Contribution) — A bit of premise exposition, some tongue-in-cheek filler, and a photographic list of all the ways Embrita Blogging cheats at being natural.
- Dirty Secrets of a Green & Natural Mama (and Why I'm Not Afraid to Share Them!) — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares her definition of what it means to be a perfect mama as well as a few of her dirty little secrets.
- Green Mommy Guilt — Jen at Jen and Joey Green talks about how being a perfect Green Mom is overrated.
- Life Coping Devices — Amy at Anktangle discusses two ("non-AP") coping strategies her family has used for getting through difficult times with her son: the pacifier and the stroller.
- We use disposable diapers. There. I said it. — The mama at Our Muddy Boots shares a bed, nurses her 4 year old, is vegetarian, and is committed to homeschooling; but Pampers adorn her child's bottom. Ugh!
- Committed to Cloth, but... — Sheila at A Living Family affirms her love of cloth diapering, despite the draw of disposables.
- Natural Parenting as a Doorway to Deep Truths — Amy from Peace for Parents guest posts at Natural Parents Network and shares how for her "natural parenting" is much less about a definition and much more an avenue to explore truths of life.
- Chicken No-nos — Jessica at Pace Family Place strives to live naturally but feeds her oldest son some not-so natural things


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My dear friend Eric Ping pointed out I only had a few days left before I'd break my year and half record of posting at least every month. I was wondering what to write about, and last night I figured out what to write.
Yesterday after going to dinner with Joanna, my wife, we went to our guilty pleasure store: Barnes & Noble. Since I already have the entire Wheel of Time series to re-read for the upcoming books, I walked over to the technical section of books. I looked over the majority of titles, most of them for beginners learning a new type of language. It got me thinking. Over the last five years I have spent most of my time and energy working on becoming a great web developer. I've been working hard on my design skills, searching the web for examples and resources. I've been trying to make my PHP code more maintainable, efficient and clean. These last years I've been asking myself over and over "how can I do this better?" "How can I be a better developer?"
I can honestly feel that this hard work has paid off. I feel my skills as a web developer have grown greatly, I have an awesome job as a web developer that challenges me every day, and I really enjoy doing what I do. However, there is one caveat: I don't want to be a web developer for my entire career.
Don't get me wrong, I love doing web development. However, in twenty years, I don't want to always be the guy doing the web development. I've always wanted be the guy in charge of the developers, talking with clients and developers to direct and guide the process.
So after looking at the programming books, I decided to check out another section. I started browsing the small business section and selected a book called "The E-Myth Revisited." Between last night and today, I've read about half of it and have really enjoyed it. It has its flaws, but overall a lot of the ideas are really good, and many of the pitfalls I've seen in a lot of small businesses are addressed.
I've decided over these next few years to study up on running a business and project management. I think with my current employment there is a lot potential for expanding my career. I feel if I start studying and learning about being more than just a web developer, when opportunities present themselves I'll be ready to seize the moment. I'm still going to keep on learning more and more about web development, but I feel broadening my learning will be a great benefit.


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radioactive waste
radioactive waste, material containing the unusable radioactive byproducts of the scientific, military, and industrial applications of nuclear energy. Since its radioactivity presents a serious health hazard (see radiation sickness), disposing of such material is a great problem. Methods of disposal include dumping concrete-encased containers filled with radioactive waste in the ocean and burying the waste underground in old salt mines. In 1996 the United States opened a waste processing plant in Aiken, S.C. at the Savannah River nuclear-weapons complex. The waste will be converted into cylinders of radioactive glass, which will then be encased in steel containers that will be stored in an underground concrete vault. While the glass will still be radioactive, it will no longer be possible for the waste to leak into the soil, and there will be no possibility of a chemical explosion such as the one that occurred in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. The United States has also agreed to accept about 20 tons of waste from research reactors in 41 countries. The spent nuclear fuel, supplied by the United States for medical and research purposes, includes about 5 tons of highly enriched uranium that could be extracted and used to produce nuclear weapons.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Environmental Studies


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Add the perfect finishing touch to your look this season with the Temperley London range of luxury accessories. Choose from embroidered scarves and luxury shawls for a romantic addition to your wardrobe, or go for a leather cinch waist belt to pull your favourite outfit together.


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USA Cycling unveils ambitious mountain bike series
The sport of mountain biking was born and raised in the United States, which makes it all the more frustrating to American riders that they've been lapped by their European counterparts.
USA Cycling is hoping to change that with a new domestic series that will offer the richest cross-country purse in the world and should attract most of the top riders.
The U.S. Cup Pro Series presented by Sho-Air Cycling Group came together late last year, but the details were announced this week. The four-race series begins next month and includes an $81,000 purse that will be split evenly between the men's and women's fields.
By next year, all of the events will carry the highest UCI rating outside of World Cup events. That means more world-class racing and better competition, something that's been lacking in domestic mountain biking since the boom days of the 1980s and early '90s.
"More competition makes the racing tighter and more exciting and pushes all riders to get faster," Olympic bronze medalist Georgia Gould told The Associated Press. "Racing in competitive and professionally run domestic races is the best preparation for success at the World Cup."
The opening round is March 1-2 in Dripping Springs, Texas. The following two races will be held in California later in March, and the finale is June 28-29 in Colorado Springs. All of them will be streamed live online through the We Media Project and USA Cycling.
Along with prizes for winning each round, riders will accrue points toward the series championship, ensuring competitive fields for each race.
"Racing against the best racers in the world will also help Olympic hopefuls elevate their skills, fitness and strategy ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro," said Scott Tedro, owner of the Sho-Air Cycling Group, which is organizing the series. "It will bring the Olympic cross-country mountain bike movement back into focus in the U.S."
Things weren't always so difficult for Americans on the world stage.
While most European riders focused on the road, folks such as Ned Overend and Juli Furtado were choosing the beaten path. They experimented with fatter tires, took meandering rides in the thin air of high peaks and then hurtled themselves down ski runs at breakneck speed.
This was when mountain biking was still done in the mountains.
Overend and Furtado gave the U.S. a sweep of the podium at the first world championships in 1990, and helped usher the discipline into the Olympics. It debuted at the Atlanta Games, but in a dramatically altered version: It had been taken out of the high mountains and relegated to man-made courses in parkland settings that were more spectator-friendly.
As European riders began embracing the sport, they began to dominate American riders, who were slow to adapt to what became known as cross-country mountain biking.
Gould's bronze at the London Games was just the second Olympic medal won by a rider wearing the stars-and-stripes. Susan DeMattei also won bronze in 1996.
"I think it will help push the U.S. back to the top of the mountain bike world by bringing the racing back to us," said former U.S. champion Sam Shultz, who is recovering from an injury but plans to compete in the U.S. Cup Pro Series.
"We have always had a tough time traveling to enough races to get the UCI points necessary to achieve good call-ups as well as the maximum number of Olympic start spots," he said. "This will go a long ways toward giving us the home-turf advantage. Being able to compete against the best and forcing our competitors to take the marathon overseas flights instead of us is great."
Todd Wells, who also competed at the London Games, hopes the new domestic series will close the considerable financial gap between mountain biking and road racing. Many elite riders give up mountain biking because it's easier to land sponsors and make a living on the road.
"We have amazing young roader racers," Wells said, "and most started out mountain biking."
Wells also thinks the high-profile nature of the races will help the U.S. qualify more riders for World Cup races and lead to increased business support for mountain biking.
"I don't see any downsides to this series," said Wells, who is planning to race in each of the events. "The U.S. Cup should help to build mountain bike racing back up in the U.S."


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Court tosses death penalty in Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state's execution law today, calling it unconstitutional.
In a split decision, the high court sided with 10 death row inmates who argued that, under Arkansas' constitution, only the legislature can set execution policy. Legislators in 2009 voted to give that authority to the Department of Correction.
"It is evident to this court that the legislature has abdicated its responsibility and passed to the executive branch, in this case the (Arkansas Department of Correction), the unfettered discretion to determine all protocol and procedures, most notably the chemicals to be used, for a state execution," Justice Jim Gunter wrote in the majority opinion.
Two justices of the seven-member court dissented, arguing that the Correction Department's discretion is not "unfettered" because it is bound by the federal and state constitutions that guard against cruel and unusual punishment.
"In addition, Arkansas is left no method of carrying out the death penalty in cases where it has been lawfully imposed," Justice Karen Baker wrote in the dissent.
The 2009 law said a death sentence is to be carried out by lethal injection of one or more chemicals that the director of the Department of Correction chooses. The law also says that in the event that the lethal injection law is found to be unconstitutional, death sentences will be carried out by electrocution.
It wasn't immediately clear what the court's ruling will mean for the 40 men on death row in Arkansas. There aren't any pending executions, and the state hasn't put anyone to death since 2005, in part because of legal challenges.
Death row inmate Jack Harold Jones Jr. sued the head of the Corrections Department in 2010. Nine other inmates later joined the suit, asking that the law be struck down. The state, meanwhile, asked the court to free up several executions it had halted because of this lawsuit.
Josh Lee, an attorney for the death row inmates who challenged the law, declined to comment today.
During oral arguments last week, Lee said the state would have two options if the court found the law unconstitutional.
"The legislature could either choose to stick with the 1983 statute, which everybody concedes is constitutional, or the legislature could decide we want to amend it." Lee said last week.
A spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The state adopted lethal injection as its method of capital punishment in 1983. There have been legal challenges to the way the state kills its condemned prisoners since then. In 2009, in the midst of a legal battle over lethal injection, the state legislature passed the law that the court struck down today.


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